Schwaltzvald Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 crimson gem saga comes to mind You should've gone with Yggdra Union if you actually bought CGS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollgagh Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 yeah no kidding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwaltzvald Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 yeah no kidding I didn't think you'd be serious, well... For some reason I'm having a horrible time with "Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman, What did I do to deserve this?!" Fun game but man I'm so shit at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollgagh Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 well, I didn't actually buy either of them, but I have put 15 hours into CGS and 5 into YU 15 hours because I was pushing through and hoping it'd get better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwaltzvald Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Time's too precious to waste these days... Then again I'd happily waste mine on bullet hells, among other things as well. I think I took an hour on the tutorial on trying to create 8 lizard men and still fail. Fucking slimes either keep taking away nutrients from the block closest to allow me to make lizard men or have no sense of spooging said nutrients in a focused area. Haven't touched it since, but I'm sure a relative of mine would like a copy of the game... But yeah I found YU much more engrossing, if not captivating at times. Though the enemy sometimes piss me off in a good way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcana Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 The World Ends With You, the future of the genre looks a lot brighter. In a lot of ways, The World Ends With You totally breaks normal "JRPG" conventions and does its own thing. The term "Japanese Role-playing game" is kind of misleading - it's meant to suggest an ethnic origin of a game and in proxy is supposed to be a stereotype of the types of games that Japanese developers tend to produce. The reference "Korean grinder" (reference to MMORPGs) is the same way. Of course, if a company then breaks conventions and does something like World, which has more in common with a fighting game than a traditional RPG, then I'd almost argue that the implications that come along with the phrase "JRPG" almost doesn't apply anymore. That's just my view. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollgagh Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 sure but then people just all it a jrpg anyway since square made it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwaltzvald Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 sure but then people just all it a jrpg anyway since square made it Not to mention anything else from NIS and Atlus as well; though DS is an exception... Edit* Konami, a name one does not usually associate with rpgs in general, recently released Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement. From what I hear it's supposedly good but with the art/graphics being the downside of it, everything else seems to be golden... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thalzon Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 I'm pretty sure the reason a lot of JRPGs are considered crap is because a lot of them are intensely focused on the trite "white knight" plot. That is, the hero is young, dashing, and must Save The Girl or Save The World (one is often dependent on the other). It doesn't matter what his actual personality, goals, or mannerisms are. That is the lead's role. The female lead, meanwhile, is the Princess. Again, background, personality, whatever does not matter. She will need saving, and eventually must reciprocate the White Knight's love. She is not allowed to reject his advances after the story's halfway point (unless she is lying to herself about her true feelings, and this will be hinted at constantly), though the White Knight can ALWAYS reject hers if he wants. Ultimately, the Princess only finds love in the arms of another man and the White Knight learns he can act however he pleases and still get the hottest piece of ass around. This may sound ridiculously vague and there are doubtlessly exceptions out there, but they are just exceptions. The character dynamics are basically played to death and it's ultimately what is killing appeal for JRPGs. I don't necessarily have a solution beyond using different character groups/archetypes, but at least that would be a start, you know? Oh, and Japan? No more names like "Edge Maverick." Really now, unless you're being ironic, that's just embarrassing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
relyanCe Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 it's tri-ace dude Fayt Leingod? Jack Russel? they're all like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar of Justice Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 The female lead, meanwhile, is the Princess. Again, background, personality, whatever does not matter. She will need saving, and eventually must reciprocate the White Knight's love. She is not allowed to reject his advances after the story's halfway point (unless she is lying to herself about her true feelings, and this will be hinted at constantly), though the White Knight can ALWAYS reject hers if he wants. Ultimately, the Princess only finds love in the arms of another man and the White Knight learns he can act however he pleases and still get the hottest piece of ass around. What game is this? An RPG where the two paired romantic leads don't end up together, the male rejects the woman, and the woman ends up with someone else actually sounds pretty interesting for an JRPG story. Also, if he's a White Knight, wouldn't that mean he SHOULD get the hottest piece of ass around, or are you saying hot girls only like assholes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcana Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 This may sound ridiculously vague and there are doubtlessly exceptions out there, but they are just exceptions. The character dynamics are basically played to death and it's ultimately what is killing appeal for JRPGs. I don't necessarily have a solution beyond using different character groups/archetypes, but at least that would be a start, you know? The character templates in many of these games are simply too strong. One of the reason why I liked FF9 was actually because the lead character acted a bit out of normal JRPG fare by being charming, and the lead female was capable and even rejected the character's advances. Yeah sure, eventually they get together and all, but 50 hours in actually makes it believable. A big reason I really liked the game "Kartia" is because the characters tended not to fit into the normal stereotypes either. Other than featuring extremely vibrant, vivid in-game character art (Yoshitaka Amano, you all know who he is), there's actual character conflict where the characters just plain don't like each other but tolerate each other for the sake of succeeding at their objectives. A lot of JRPGs focus too heavily on the same themes as well, including "friendship", "love", and "being true to yourself" as well as focusing too intently on issues like morality, justice, and even spirituality (most Final Fantasy games focus very much on faith in things like the Planet or in whatever the game's spiritual life force tends to be). Granted, people tend to love JRPGs because of this "heart". If you compare a game like Dragon Age to Final Fantasy, a big difference is that Dragon Age, when you get down to it, doesn't really have any underlying meaning to it. It's just a big story where you're the main character and you get to do stuff. JRPGs tend to play out like fables, where you get a "lesson for life" afterward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BooDidley7 Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 I don't necessarily have a solution beyond using different character groups/archetypes, but at least that would be a start, you know? I thought FF VI did a great job of decentralizing the character leads and gave us time and a lot of little moments with a diverse cast of characters and story arcs, that weren't walking amalgamations of cliches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuketheXjesse Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 A lot of JRPGs focus too heavily on the same themes This man deserves a medal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinaddar Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 A big reason I really liked the game "Kartia" is because the characters tended not to fit into the normal stereotypes either. Other than featuring extremely vibrant, vivid in-game character art (Yoshitaka Amano, you all know who he is), there's actual character conflict where the characters just plain don't like each other but tolerate each other for the sake of succeeding at their objectives. Hurray! More people that have played Kartia! I borrowed it from a friend and played through it once, like, over ten years ago. I remember vague bits of gameplay, and I REALLY want to replay it -- if I can ever find it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekofrog Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 For anyone still interested in White Knight Chronicles, you might want to sit down. http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/whiteknightchroniclesinternational 64 on Metacritic, with a damning 5.1 from IGN and a 6.0 from GameSpot. Seriously? They had over an entire year to polish it from its already-attrociously reviewed Japanese counterpart and they couldn't do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dissidia Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 I'm glad I wasn't hyped for that game. I am looking forward to FFXIII though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwing Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 Hurray! More people that have played Kartia! I borrowed it from a friend and played through it once, like, over ten years ago. I remember vague bits of gameplay, and I REALLY want to replay it -- if I can ever find it again. I liked Kartia also. It was a fun game, good storyline, awesome battle system, and great characters. The cover art heavily reminded me of Terra from the FFVI artwork though. I'm glad I wasn't hyped for that game. I am looking forward to FFXIII though. My friend already has the Jap FFXIII and he said it's downright amazing. But he drools over anything remotely Japanese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Legendary Zoltan Posted February 9, 2010 Author Share Posted February 9, 2010 So now that these games have come out, does anyone have any first-hand opinions? I still haven't received White Knight Story in the mail yet, but I got Star Ocean 4 on release day (which was Feb. 4th in Japan yo!) and have played the heck out of it. I want to know what exactly you guys don't like about it. Here's my review on it in bullet format: -I agree that the music, while good, doesn't exactly blow minds. -I can't believe how right everyone was about how "emo" Edge is. -The environments are to DIE for. -The voice acting and one-liners are not as good as they were in SO3. -The story may be considered to be cliche and average but it's pretty fun for me. I enjoy the totally over-the-top Sci-fi elements. They have a dictionary to tell you stuff like what a Subspace Flight Tracer does and stuff. Whoever wrote the story for this was quite enthusiastic about it, I think. -The gameplay is FUCKING FLAWLESS, and that's coming from a guy who doesn't use swear words. There are a million different ways to go about empowering your characters: The BEAT system, item creation, leveling up the skills individually, or just the good old exp. grind. Lots of things that you can collect and I think, for the first time they actually might NOT be a pain in the ass to get because you don't have to just search every random nook to find stuff. So why didn't you guys like it again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malaki-LEGEND.sys Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 I think the reason most of us don't like the game is because it kind of sucks. The BEAT system? Totally pointless. Why would I want to train Edge as a long distance or magic user if all of his abilities are geared towards full frontal attacking? Why would I want to use the N BEAT if it'll remove all my learned abilities that I've been relying on for the past 10 hours? Also, learning about only 5 different abilities for 40 levels is hardly fun. The music? Well that's what happens when you have one composer working on a shitton of games at once. Over the top Sci-Fi is fine, but this is so blatantly hammy that it's impossible to take anything seriously, and the whole "friendship" shtick is really, REALLY getting old. Environments are pretty, but it's honestly hardly Sci-Fi with all the traipsing around medieval settings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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