The Japanese Role-Playing Game is filled with some of the most renowned franchises around. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Pokemon, Tales....etc, etc. However, this generation JRPGs have kind of sucked. It may be because the genre is so old (the first DQ coming out way back in 1985 if I recall correctly) and that so little has changed in those 25 years. With games like Blue Dragon, The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery critically bombing what are the standards that a 2009 JRPG must comply to? These standards:
No more Random Encounters
Almost 30 years old, Random Encounters are amazingly still seen today. Even in high-budget 360 games like Lost Odyssey we see this horrible trend. Does anyone like peacefully walking along the street only to go to a load screen, or hear a random music change and then fight the same monsters you've been fighting for the past hour? And then when you finish you takeDespite being almost 14 years old, Chrono Trigger does encounters better than any other game I know of. another step and OH NO: another random encounter. What's incredibly stupid (and lazy) about it is that Random Encounters were in games because older consoles couldn't handle so many monsters being on the screen. What's even more ridiculous is that a 14 year old game like Chrono Trigger still does encounters better than any other game that I know of.
Full Voice Acting, Please
With a humongous script, Fallout 3 is fully VO'd with few repeats. Why aren't JRPGs doing that?I don't think there's been a single JRPG without a shred of unspoken dialogue. You could call me picky for counting town NPCs but, I'm really not. Look at games like Fable 2, Fallout 3 and Mass Effect. An even larger script than most JRPGs and completely, utterly voice acted. It all just comes down to laziness and with the 50gb-holding Blu-Ray disc there is absolutely no excuse.
Stop Hiring Bad Fan-Fic Writers to Make Your Story and Write Your Dialog
BEST TRANSLATION EVAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!!There are really three pillars to a JRPG. The music, the story and the gameplay. Great JRPGs are usually remembered for each of these, but games like Final Fantasy VI and VII get so famous because of their story and characters. Now, pretty much every story is a variation on the "Small-town boy goes off finding a herb to heal a loved one and then gets wrapped up in a huge adventure and eventually becomes the chosen one of some kind." Now, see, a great JRPG story has a great hook usually tied in with the setting. For Chrono Trigger it was time-travel, for Final Fantasy VI it was the utter sadness and sacrifice the main characters had went through, for Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 it was the constant mystery and inner-conflict. Alas, a good story is nothing without a good translation, which have been stellar in games like the World Ends With You. Throw in some great VOs and you have yourself a third of an awesome RPG.
Make Combat Enjoyable
Now, most JRPGs stick to the tried and true turn based combat. It ain't broke but it can still be fixed. And having a ring timing thing doesn't count. Final Fantasy almost always gets combat right (or at least different) by changing up the summon and spell acquirement, X was uber-tactical and was the pinnacle of turn-based combat, IV added in the Active Time Battles,
You don't need to overhaul the old turn-based system to still have a great JRPG. If you wanna do action though, do ACTION. Don't do what Final Fantasy XII did and make you sit back while your character automatically attacks for you, don't do what Infinite Undiscovery did and just make a shallow action game with some RPG elements: maybe rip-off Mass Effect or rip-off Mass Effect with a Ninja Gaiden-esque combat system. That'd be friggin awesome if it was done right. Too bad action JRPGs still mostly suck. Besides you: my precious TWEWY. Oh, and where's another GOOD Secret of Mana? I'm waiting Square....
Oh, so I get to walk up to an enemy and press a button...then I sit back and watch my characters fight an enemy? Fun....
Make Grinding Optional
Incredible game, I just hate grinding.I hate grinding. I'm at the final dungeon of Final Fantasy VI and my characters are 10 or so levels too weak to beat it. If I really hunkered down with the game I could beat it, I just don't find grinding fun. If the game had an easy mode or if they made enemies scale to my level, I'd beat the game in a heartbeat....I just hate grinding. And since an IGN editor apparently had to spend a whole entire day grinding to defeat a certain boss in The Last Remnant, it's a requirement that's still VERY apparent in RPGs.
There we go 5 things the JRPGs need to do in 2009. There are more, but I'm too lazy.
Instead of doing another top 10 like so many of the "cool cats" are doing nowadays, I'm just gonna write my year in review. Plus, there's no point in making a Top 10 because, dude, I haven't played every game I've wanted to this year. I haven't beaten Professor Layton, Braid, Bionic Commando and did I mention that I don't wanna be the billionth person to say "Lol, here's my top 10!" I'm just gonna reflect on the year in games.
2008 was a huge year for games. While I'm going to assume that 2007 grossed more money I still can't think of too many games that just flat-out amazed me. While some people were saying "THIS IS THE BEST YEAR OF GAMING EVAAAAAA!!!!" I said "No...no...no it wasn't." 2008, although definitely not the best year for games EVAAAAA it's still a pretty friggin' good one.
Here is a list of most of the awesome games this year:
Burnout Paradise (PS3/360)
Sins of a Solar Empire (PC)
Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS)
Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Wii)
No More Heroes (Wii)
PIxel Junk Monsters (PS3)
Space Invaders Extreme (PSP/DS)
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)
God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP)
Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3/360/PC)
Patapon (PSP)
Boom Blox (Wii)
The World Ends With You (DS)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)
Battlefield: Bad Company (PS3/360)
Braid (360)
Castle Crashers (360)
Geometry Wars 2 (360)
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise (360)
Crisis Warhead (PC)
Rock Band 2 (PS3/360/Wii/PS2)
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC)
Dead Space (PS3/360/PC)
Fable 2 (360)
Farcry 2 (PS3/360/PC)
Fallout 3 (PS3/360/PC)
LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
Resistance 2 (PS3)
Gears of War 2 (360)
World of Goo (PC/Wii)
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (360)
Castlevania: Order of Ecclestia (DS)
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC)
Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (PS2)
Left 4 Dead (360/PC)
Prince of Persia (PS3/360/PC)
Wow. That's 37 friggin' awesome games. That's kinda hard to believe.
PS3
Number of Friggin Awesome Games: 14
High Points: Metal Gear Solid 4, Hard Drive size increased, Trophies, In-Game XMB
Low Points: Poor Hardware and Software Sales, Haze, Home, Losing Final Fantasy XIII
The PS3 this year was most of what Sony promised. Was it the year of the PS3? Nope. 'Specially if we're going into sales. Resistance 2, LittleBigPlanet and MGS4 were awesome and we finally saw games looking as good (if not better) than 360 games. The fans got what they were asking for but is Sony better Microsoft with online? Nope. Home also bombed, proving to not be worth anything close to the hype it was getting. Sniffle. Good news is: I actually bought one.
PSP
Number of Friggin Awesome Games: 4
High Points: Playstation Store Availlable from PSP, Some good games announced.
Low Points: Poor Hardware and Software Sales, practically no games, PSP 3000 is pointless
The PSP had a great start this year, God of War, Patapon, Crisis Core were all awesome.....kinda sucks that nothing else happened for it. If PC gaming is dead, then the PSP has decomposed already.
Xbox 360
Number of Friggin Awesome Games: 16
High Points: Dashboard Redesign, Software Sales are high, great online and downloadable offerings, price drop
Low Points: Still getting pulverized by the Wii
The 360 had a great year. With all the great games that came out for it, the redesign, price drops, the summer of arcade and high software sales the only problem is that the Wii is still totally killing it in sales. Even with games over a year old....kinda sad.
Wii
Number of Friggin Awesome Games: 5
High Points: Incredible Sales. WiiWare released some great games.
Low Points: They backhanded the hardcore, really, really hard.
Nintendo had two things to choose from: the money filled casual or the hardcore. They chose the casual. That pisses off some people. Namely me....kinda why I sold my Wii....
DS
Number of Friggin Awesome Games: 4...really?
High Points: Great sales, great ports, announcement of DSi, I hear the world ends with someone. I forget who.
Low Points: Not too many games that aren't ports
First off, let me just clear this up: Nintendo had more than 4 great games this year. Too bad from this list I exclude ports and games that IGN just decides to give a 9.0. Anyways, it had a solid year besides that. Punch me for not putting in FF4, Chrono Trigger or Advance Wars, but, I still think that it had a solid year. Nothing else to say.
My Game of the Year
Yes. This is the right picture.
I'm pretty sure one of you two people reading this would be all like: "What? THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU????" So let me just say: this is flat-out my favorite JRPG. It takes a unique concept, a unique setting, a unique combat system, unique music, fantastic characters, depth, a multiplayer mode and the best translation I think a game has EVER had and then calls it a game. No, it isn't breaking boundaries because guess what? It's a DS game. But I've played MGS4. That game is incredible. The thing is The World Ends With You is fun. The combat system is great, the dialog can get from philosophical to hilarious and the music will be eternally stuck in my head. That is gaming.
Ahh, Christmas. I lied about the whole stealing thing. With the little money I had left after the holidays I decided to buy a new DS and Chrono Trigger. I get to the store, there's one DS left. I decided that DS should go to my sister in-law because she loves Mario. Deciding that I'll give my old DS to my big brother so we can all play Mario Kart together, I tell my mom "Hey, you're going out shopping tomorrow, if you see a DS could you pick it up? Preferably in red?" Open up some Christmas presents later and BAM! Chrono Trigger's there, the new DS is there....but it's the Guitar Hero: On Tour bundle.
I don't know how I feel about that flaming "Guitar Hero" label.
Now, after playing it for a while, I realized that despite IGN's appraisal of the game was very misplaced. Yes, the game does feel like playing guitar hero, but after two songs your hand gets cramped, it feels nothing like playing a guitar, while I played the game on an airplane the ambient noise activated star power at every opportunity, alt-strumming is practically impossible, you strum horizontally instead of downwards (like you do in a real guitar) but above all else: it's still the same old guitar hero design from 3 years ago.
Guitar Hero was a revolution in the rhythm genre-- the first since Parappa the Rappa and DDR and in 2005 it was an incredible game. It felt like playing guitar, it had an awesome soundtrack. Guitar Hero 2 came along and like Harmonix always does with their sequels: they took the original formula and perfected it. Then, the whole MTV, Activision and Neversoft wave came along and Guitar Hero III became a very high selling game, but it wasn't nearly as critically acclaimed as the first two but, it was still a great game in its own right.
The problem is: Harmonix. Rock Band came out last year and totally stormed the critics and, despite not selling as much, its new DLC every week made it a money making MACHINE for the devs. It totally changed everything, with great customizable characters, World Tour Mode and this year, Harmonix perfected it with Online World Tour, better instruments and band challenges. Guitar Hero, despite adding in new instruments, is still the same old guitar hero. The lack of a World Tour shortens the game's lifespan completely, the poor customization and the inability to make you feel like a rock star or that you're actually IN a band just makes it a dieing franchise.
Too bad the thing sells like hotcakes which, after having 4 high-selling Guitar Heroes in one year, shows that all Activision cares about is green. Hey, look at me! By stamping on a Guitar Hero label and giving you a crazy peripheral, I GET BILLIONS!
I'm sitting here at 7:00 a.m. I slept for about 7 hours last night so I'm not too tired. Now, I can't open presents for another hour and a half or so...so I decided to steal Christmas.
Oh well, I got a cool massage chair cover from a gift exchange.
Got off my plane....two days ago? I got my new laptop, can finally use iTunes again and I'm not too jet-lagged at all. My brothers have Left 4 Dead so I played that a little. My laptop runs it, it looks pretty bad because of my graphics card. It's fun, but I'll play it a lot over the week so I probably won't need to buy it--so I'm probably gonna spend my spare cash on a DS and Chrono Trigger. Besides it not being able to run new games too well (which I was expecting) my laptop is incredibly fast. I re-downloaded Half Life (which I believe killed my last computer; yes, a 10 year old game killed my last computer) and it downloaded 15 times faster. It opens internet pages uber-fast, it loads videos like a dream. It's just a fantastic laptop.
Now then, despite only actually buying a handful of games, I'll be doing my personal Game of the Year awards. This year I've really been more focused on playing older games: I checked out FF7...got bored of it, I checked out FF4...got bored of it...I checked out FF6 and I'm still playing it now (lousy final dungeon), I played DQVIII which is the most refined JRPG I think I've ever played, Shadow of the Colossus, Kingdom Hearts, Lumines...the list goes on.
Now, since I haven't played games like GTA IV and Fallout 3, my list won't be the Best Games of the Year, it'll be my Favorite Games of the Year. Look out for that sometime soon.
Hey my Giantbomb chocobros! Ya'know how I said a few weeks ago that I wouldn't be on as much and turned out to of been lying? Well, now I'll be off of a computer for a while: for serious. Yep, the Laptop I've been using belongs to my mom who is going off to the states tomorrow....with her laptop. I'll probably be able to occasionally use my dad's but he takes his to work so, probably not. I should be getting my laptop when I'm back in the states for Christmas, but might be getting it a little earlier.
Oh, and my family also decided to do a "gift exchange" instead of having to get gifts for everyone because all of us are poor....which means I'll probably be able to get another game. Lastly, I will be on Home for the next week (unless it turns out to SUCK) and I hooked up my crappy keyboard to my PS3: works like a charm.
Well, goodbye, should be my last update until after Christmas....or maybe a few days before. Now, I must end this HORRIBLY written blog before I get struck down by lightning.
So, in school today, my teacher showed me this video on youtube. If the facts are real....then wow. I mean, I'm not trying to get people to donate to a charity or anything but isn't this just amazing?
My computer died Saturday night. Maybe it was because I downloaded Half-Life and Steam, maybe it got too old, maybe it just did it out of spite for kicking it over one night after it crashed and lost a huge file I wrote. Whatever happened, my computer will now turn on and then go to a screen that says: "Your computer will restart in x seconds"
It's dead. I'll have a new computer in a month, but, that's month. Don't expect to see me on the forums as much and don't expect me to reach my goal of 1000 points by the end of the year....it royally sucks. It especially sucks because now I'm gonna have to go BACK to my PSP to listen to podcasts because I can just download them from an RSS feed without a computer. Oh well, just a month....and the end of Christmas Vacation (January 10th-ish) and I'll be back and at 'em.
Sorry guys.....sucks....a lot. I might be able to post the odd blog post update or browse the forums or stories but I won't be on too much. Although, since it is a month with no computer to distract me, I might be able to finish a game for once or at least grind some more achievement points on my new XBL account.
2 years ago everyone thought the Wii was promising, had tons of potential and really wanted to buy it. It was just about the opposite for the PS3 with its massive price tag and its less-than stellar online system no one really cared about the Wii's flaws graphically and online-wise but now it's been completely reversed.
Sony made a lot of good changes with the PS3. They knocked down the price $200, they put out a bunch of awesome games, trophy support, in-game XMB and Resistance 2 shows that the PSN can do online just as good (if not better than) the Xbox Live. Meanwhile the Wii hasn't really had any change. All the games that we wanted to be released were released, it's just nothing new was announced on the way.
This second anniversary really shows how much the tables have turned. Last year the PS3 had Uncharted and Ratchet, The Wii had Mario Galaxy, Metroid and then a few months later Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Wii Fit. After GTA was released, the PS3 totally turned the tables on the Wii with MGS4, Trophies, In-Game XMB, Pixeljunk, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2 and now Killzone 2 in February. The tables have turned, maybe in another 2 years the Wii would've leap-frogged the PS3 but we've totally had everything reversed.
Well, last night I picked Shadow of the Colossus back up again. Dang that's one awesome game. I beat it about 10 minutes ago after taking a little bit TOO long on the final boss because I wasn't actually killing him properly. No wonder it was so freakin' hard. Anyways, I just have to say the Shadow of the Colossus is probably the best game I've ever played. Maybe not the best game I've ever played but at least one of my favorites. I do still need to play Half Life 2 but as of now I've pretty much played every single old game that I'd need to play besides Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Okami and now that I love Team ICO so much, I might as well play their namesake.
The thing that makes Shadow of the Colossus so great is because it's just so incredibly epic. I've said "EPIC" about a billion times but really, you don't get more epic than riding on a horse next to a crashing stone-dragon trying to jump onto it's wing and then stab your sword into it's back. There is NOTHING more epic than that.
Graphically (artistically mostly) Shadow of the Colossus is still incredibly to look at, the Colossi especially. The Collosi are just so well thought out and beautiful. The lack of real textures doesn't really hurt, although, I would probably suffocate if I saw whatever Team ICO was working on now.
Speaking of which, it's been 3 years since Team ICO released a game and they haven't even announced one yet. Some people may say that they're worried but I'm just extremely excited. There was a 4 year difference between Shadow of the Colossus and ICO and I expect the time gap to be identical for their next game. I just wanna know what it's all about. The leap from ICO to Shadow was huge and a cross gen gap between Shadow and whatever the crap Team ICO's making could mean one of the greatest games in history.
But, what might this game be? I think that it'll be something like Animal Crossing but you're all alone in a wasteland with a hot girl AND your horse. Every once and a while Tom Nook comes around where you'll have to climb up his back and stick a sword through his brain.
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