61 Frames Per Second : final fantasy

The Final Fantasy Rule: Why the New Final Fantasy XIII Demo Matters, Even if You Hate the Series

John Constantine — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:00:00 GMT

I’ve had to stop myself from doing something stupid many, many times in the past few weeks. Late at night, typically before bed while I’m enjoying that just-brushed-just-flossed feel of my teeth and that last drink of water, I’ve opened my laptop and gone to Play Asia, added an item to my cart, and made it all the way to the check out before stopping myself. What am I, an idiot? What kind of person would do this? I’ve slapped my own wrist, both literally and metaphorically, closed the computer, and waited for morning, when the sobering light of day inevitable reintroduces logic to my shoddy impulse control.

Honestly. Spending eighty dollars on a demo of Final Fantasy XIII, a demo in a language I don’t even understand, is stupid. Very, very stupid. Yes, it comes with a nice new version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, but even that little perk isn’t worth blowing two weeks worth of grocery money on an hour long sampling of a game that will be out before too long.

The impulse is detestable. It is, however, an inevitable impulse, one that isn’t rooted in fanaticism. The allure of a new Final Fantasy, even just a taste of it, has less to do with fetishism and everything to do with wanting to see just what any given game console can do. For almost twenty years at this point, Square’s Final Fantasy games have represented technological and artistic benchmarks for the entire medium. Like the games or not, they are always exquisitely made interactive structures. Final Fantasy IV, VII, and X may have their flaws as games, but they all demonstrated the raw potential of the technology that birthed them.

Thankfully, we don’t need a copy of the demo to get a look at it in action. This playthrough I found over at Siliconera proves a few things about the game. Yes, it looks as good in action as that debut trailer from 2006 promised. Yes, the battle system looks like a fine mixture of new and old ideas. Yes, given the pop soundtrack and Nomura character design, Final Fantasy XIII promises to be the true sequel to X that people have been lusting after for eight years.

Most importantly, though, is that it shows just how much technological juice is still untapped in the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Whether or not it’s a good game, I can’t wait to play Final Fantasy XIII. Just to see what it is.

Related links:

GDC News: Final Fantasy to Hit Virtual Console
Every Day is Better With Two Scoops of Final Fantasy XIII
Trailer Review: Final Fantasy XIII Looks Disturbingly Interesting

Criterion Collection + Videogames = Best GAF Thread Ever

Peter Smith — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Over the years, much has been made of Mega Man's hideous box art, and of the general pimplyness of game art's 8-bit pubescence. But ere we hurl stones at an older era's ugly glass houses, let us first look to our own, or something!

Like this, for example. Now that is some garish shit. Even the boxes for major games like Metroid Prime 3 aren't likely to win any design awards. Most of the time, they evoke summer-blockbuster viewing more than the subtler experiences their contents (hopefully) provide. They also tend to be stuffed full of colorful characters, when, more often, the unique experience of a game comes not from its characters but from the texture of its world.

Perhaps realizing this, some clever commenter over at NeoGAF started a thread soliciting game box art designed in the vein of Criterion Collection DVDs — playful, inventive, minimalistic, gorgeous. It is — ahem — the best thread ever. So much the best that even I, not much for Photoshop, spent a few hours mocking up some covers myself. Hit the jump for my efforts and my favorites from the thread.

Super Mario 64 - McBacon
Very much in the Criterion mold, which some contributors didn't quite catch.

Dr. Mario - somnific
Elegant, simple, instantly recognizable. Awesome work.

Bioshock - Bernbaum
This one's ingenious, and (given its simplicity) remarkably eerie in its evocation of the lost city.

Mirror's Edge - Jocchan
There are a bunch of Mirror's Edge pics in this thread, many of them very handsome, but this one makes a highbrow art reference in a non-arbitrary way.

Donkey Kong Country - Jocchan
Really captures the playfulness and tactile quality of many Criterion covers in a way that also perfectly suits the game.

Sonic the Hedgehog - zaidr
Just a great idea, and it also emphasizes how Sonic and co (in their earliest, best form) are less characters than multicolored, shiny projectiles in a giant pinball machine.

Okay — here are mine:

I've always loved that sunset/sunrise scene on Zelda's title screen; by hiding what's on the other side, it implies mystery and adventure in a way unskippable owl monologues never will.

Another wonderful thing about Zelda 1 is the mystery of the ancient. I wanted this picture to look like the dusty cover of some '60s anthropology book, but I'm not good enough at Photoshop for that, so instead it looks like the poster for an IFC documentary about Bali.

Then there's Zelda's sense of loneliness, which I thought was well-served by this Asher Durand painting. I picked that font cause it made me think of academic editions of 19th-century American classic novels (which often have Asher Durand paintings on the cover, as well). If I were really working for Criterion, I'd make sure to find a Durand painting with some hollow tree roots, to emphasize that sense in Zelda that there are secrets (to everyone!) tucked away everywhere.

The original Metroid is a scary game, largely because of the feeling of exploring a dead world. Those Chozo statues don't have a comic-book back story; they're just sitting there, creeping you the fuck out. Dead birds tell no tales, friends. (Until they get sequels, anyway.)

Using game assets seems like something of a cheat on these covers, since part of the goal is to suggest a tactile quality that the games themselves leave to the imagination. But when the game art is as immortal as Yoshitaka Amano's, it's hard to say no. (Sorry — that second one doesn't scan so well on a white background.)

So there you have it. (Sadly, the word "Actraiser" superimposed on El Greco's "Annunciation" wasn't as awesome as I'd hoped.) Go check out the thread, then start demanding better from your favorite game publishers!

Not All Games Age Well

Amber Ahlborn — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:00:00 GMT

I've written this as a companion piece to my earlier post on keeping the games you buy. As I said earlier, If I enjoyed playing a game the first time, then chances are it'll have a permanent place in my game library. Some games, however, lose their appeal as they age, or as I age. One or the other.

Time has not been kind to every game I've loved. The Final Fantasy series in particular has suffered in this regard. Final Fantasy 7 is probably the best example of this. As with many, Final Fantasy 7 was my first Final Fantasy game. It was slick, dramatic, and exciting. I still have a soft spot for much of its cast and even continue to consume some of its spin off products like the eye candy fanservice movie Advent Children. I played through FF7 four or five times easily over a span of a couple years. Then, years later I played it again and discovered that not only had the shiny surface rubbed off, but the layer beneath was kind of cruddy. I still liked it but was much less forgiving of the flaws in the characters and story. It was time to say good bye.

Another game that hasn't aged so well for me is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I still like it well enough to keep it, but it no longer holds such high standing within the series for me. Majora's Mask fared much better and now sits as my second favorite 3-D Zelda.

One never knows what favored game of today might end up in the garage sale tomorrow. What about you? What games have you played that made a great first impression but failed the test of time?

Related Links:

Philosophy? In my Zelda?

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is Coming, and Cecil is a Clod

Trailer Review: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

GDC News: Final Fantasy to Hit Virtual Console

Bob Mackey — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:40:00 GMT

Fans of the old-school Final Fantasy games haven't exactly gotten the best treatment in recent years; while ports and remakes of the early games have been available in abundance, those looking for a faithful retro RPG experience have had to turn to expensive eBay copies (with possibly non-functioning batteries) or emulation to get their fix. After all, if Square can charge $30-$40 for revivals of their past hits, what incentive do they have to offer much cheaper version of these games on services like the Wii's Virtual Console?

Well, it looks like Square-Enix has had a change of heart--or they've just initiated the final stage in their "milking fans dry" plan--with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata's announcement that the famous franchise will indeed be hitting Nintendo's digital download service. According to Wired's Game|Life,

Starting in May in Japan, the first six classic Final Fantasy titles will be released on Wii's Virtual Console service. In the U.S., said Iwata, the games that were actually released in the U.S. will come out here, too.

Even if you've played the first three American-released Final Fantasies a million times, it's still nice to hear that we'll finally have a chance to play these games in their original forms--as adequate as the GBA ports of IV and VI were, they were a bit lacking when compared to the originals. If anything, it'll be great to hear Nobuo Uematsu's stunning Final Fantasy VI soundtrack again the way it was meant to be heard.

Related Links:

Cloud's Ghostly Face Says, "More Final Fantasy VII? Only I Know, Suckahs."
Trailer Review: Final Fantasy XIII Looks Disturbingly Interesting
Know Your Final Fantasy IV Trivia. It Could Save Your Life.

Me and My Moogles: A Love Affair Ahead of its Time

Nadia Oxford — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:11:00 GMT

Every tick of my heart signals another second I'll never gain back. I've been spending an uncomfortable number of those ticks sitting here and contemplating the history, physiology, and behavioural habits of the Moogle species from Final Fantasy.

There's a lot that still weirds me out about Final Fantasy being part of mainstream gaming—indeed, part of mainstream culture—but I've more or less adapted with one exception: I can't get over the fact that Moogles are now considered cuddly and cute by the world at large.

I decided Moogles were adorable when I played Secret of Mana for the first time, though I didn't really get to know more about them until Final Fantasy VI, when I drafted Mog into my party as the head of Team Aryan (Mog, Sabin, Edgar, Celes). His Dance skill wasn't especially useful when I went up against Kefka's three-tiered pile of demons stapled together, but his crazy amount of hit points made him the ideal meat shield.

I drew Mog on my schoolbooks, my bags, whatever cheap computer Paint program I could get a hold of. People wanted to know what kind of affliction in the head gave me my fondness for deformed cats.

For years I thought Mog and Moogles in general arecats. They're not, as I recently discovered. The species' Japanese name, Moguri, is a combination of the Japanese words for “Mole” and “Bat.” Gone is my long-held belief that “Mog” was Woolsey's play on “moggy,” a British term for a cat.

Even though I'm not used to everyone embracing their Moogle dolls while squealing and exclaiming, I'm kind of glad the world now understands that I wasn't just obsessed with flying cats. Still, I heart you the most out of everyone, Mog.

Related Links:

Know Your Final Fantasy IV Trivia. It Could Save Your Life
The Great Final Fantasy VI Breast Challenge
Trailer Review: Final Fantasy XIII Looks Disturbingly Interesting

Crystal Defenders: Square's New Low

Bob Mackey — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:45:00 GMT

While hopping onto the Xbox Live Marketplace yesterday to force another innocent soul into the cult of Peggle, I noticed something that could only be described as “curious.” Somehow, a Final Fantasy game had snuck its way onto XBLA—and it wasn’t just any Final Fantasy-based product. This new title, Crystal Defenders, was entirely based on the Final Fantasy Tactics (Advance) universe, my most preferred of Final Fantasy settings. So, knowing absolutely nothing about Defenders, and with the screenshots and marketplace description giving no clue as to what the game actually entailed, I downloaded Crystal Defenders if only to find out what the hell it was. Booting the game up, I was greeted by a selection from Hitoshi Sakimoto’s amazing Final Fantasy Tactics A2 soundtrack.

And after that, it all went downhill.

What I didn’t know is that Crystal Defenders is a tower defense game—at least, according to various online sources. I’ve played tower defense games, and they usually involve towers (or at least buildings) which need defended. Crystal Defenders has none of this; instead, the game involves placing units (a selection of the familiar FFT classes) with differing strengths around a path that waves of monsters will eventually walk down. The thing is, the monsters don’t really fight back, which makes for a pretty hilarious sight when a parade of seemingly ambivalent critters are brutally murdered by your team of heroes for merely walking from point A to point B. If I didn’t know better, I’d say this game takes place in Texas.

To some, the description I’ve given may make the game seem somewhat appealing—and I’m sure the Crystal Defenders concept could produce something similar to fun if the game didn’t feel so cheaply made. From the minute I booted it up, I knew Defenders was just a port of a cell phone game—and even for a modern cell phone game it looks pretty terrible. While the game uses sprites recycled (or perhaps inspired) by the portable Tactics games, Crystal Defenders manages to look much worse in a way that only cheaply-made Japanese cell phone games can. This general sense of shoddiness extends to the ugly menu system to the actual gameplay itself; it actually took me a few minutes to figure out which button actually started the game after setting up my units. And when this happened, I could only sit back in dismay as I realized that Square was essentially selling a turret placement simulator for 800 friggin’ Microsoft points.

Oh, and there’s nothing more soothing than hearing the same “thwack” sound of your unit hitting an enemy repeated every tenth of a second. Crystal Defenders may be the first accurate reproduction of what a dryer full of tennis balls sounds like.

What makes this all so tragic is that Square attached the Final Fantasy Tactics name to this awful product, and that’s a name that still has some dignity left. I ask you, why couldn’t Crystal Defenders have been a licensed Secret of Mana product? That’s the form crappy Square games used to take for many, many years.

Related Links:

Square-Enix's Coup Brings Back Memories
Brave New Wi-Fi World: Square-Enix Might Just Change the Way We Play Nintendo Games
Square-Enix's Prez Sez: "Japan needs to be #1 in gaming again, homeslices."

Your Kingdom Hearts Cosplay is Not Helping Your Cause

John Constantine — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 02:00:00 GMT

Every single time I get into a conversation with friends and work peers about the never-ending debate over videogame censorship in the United States, I have to stand back and remember how much worse it is for gamers elsewhere. Sure, we have ill-informed nobodies like Kevin McCullough gaining national attention with their rants over Bioware’s corrupting lasciviousness, but that’s nothing compared to the strict ratings policies that plague our gaming brethren in places like Germany and Australia. It may be a crap game, but at least Manhunt 2 can actually get released in this country.

Speaking of Australia, the strongest rating for videogames allowed by Australia’s Office of Film and Literature is “M” which, unlike the equivalent ESRB rating in America, defines games as appropriate for players age 15 and up. To clarify, this means that no game deemed inappropriate for a fifteen year-old can be released for a major console. Mighty young, don’t you think? It’s that definition that keeps games like Fallout 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV from releasing in Australia uncensored. Aussie retail chain Gametraders and their faithful community have had enough with their lack of access to all the gaming wares the world has to offer and organized a protest in favor of the R18+ rating. South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson is the literal last-man-standing in keeping Australia from an R18+ classification for games, and Gametraders are hosting their protest on the steps of the Adelaide Parliament House to sway his opinion. They are, however, not putting the best face on the gaming community by using cosplay to express their *ahem* adult passion for the medium. If you’re looking to have your beloved artistic medium recognized as artistically valid, dressing up like Riku and posing with your pal in the Sora get up on the steps of Parliament is simply not the answer.

I’m not looking to disrespect cosplayers right now. When I was fifteen years old, I most certainly attended the Syacuse Jazz Festival dressed like Vincent Valentine for no other reason than I loved Final Fantasy and wearing a cape. But why would you choose an inherently infantilizing mode of expression to sway governmental respect? A protest isn’t out of order, but show up wearing the dress, the costume if you will, appropriate to that forum. I wish you the best of luck my Australian compatriots. I beg you not to show up with pens, paper, and reasoned arguments on your belts instead of Pokeballs.

(Link: Game Politics via Joystiq)

Related links:

Facepalm: Kevin "Sex Box" McCullough Returns
Too Soon? No Nukes for Japanese Fallout 3
The End of Time and the Beginning of Fan Drama

Integrating Mini-Games the Right Way

Amber Ahlborn — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:00:00 GMT

As a Wii owner, I've gotten awfully familiar with the concept of the mini-game. I imagine my fellow Wii fans are a little tired of them in fact. Mini-games, however, are not necessarily a bad thing and can bring vibrant variety to larger games when incorporated into the overarching play mechanics. Or at least that's their potential when utilized well. The best way to make use of a mini-game within the framework of the main game is to make it work within the context of the main game. When pulled off successfully, it enriches the experience. When not integrated well or even at all, the mini-game kills immersion.

Before I continue, let me offer a quick definition for mini-game. A mini-game is a task or challenge that works within its own set of rules and mechanics not present within the larger game that encompasses the mini-game. A simple example is the chocobo race in Final Fantasy 7. Even though you can ride chocobos outside of the mini-game, the birds operate differently and follow specific performance rules within the mini-game exclusively.

Speaking of Final Fantasy, as much as I enjoy the series in general I'll be tapping these games as providing my example for how not to use mini-games. The Sly Cooper series of games will be my example of how to do it right.

Suspension of Disbelief Failure.

Final Fantasy 8 worked hard to envelop gamers in its world. There were warring nations and enemies with mysterious motivations. The protagonists each had a hidden past and there were budding relationships to explore. There was also this card game called Triple Triad. I almost never actually played it, not because it wasn't a fun card game but because playing it seemed just so damned inappropriate. A prime example of what I mean occurred during an invasion of my base. I and my crew were running about, battling the enemy and saving our comrades in the midst of a deadly situation. However, in order to get some primo cards for my deck I had to put the disaster on hold and challenge an NPC to a card game.

Never mind the smoke and fire, the looming death ray, forget the screams of the wounded and the noise of gun fire; I gotta play me some cards. Nothing jerks me out of the experience faster than being slapped with a situation that screams “Hey!, you're playing a video game. These characters you're trying to connect with are freaking polygons and texture maps, now play some damn cards!.”

This is What Seamless Integration Plays Like.

After playing Sly 2: Band of Thieves and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, I was struck by how these titles were bursting with mini-games. The main play mechanics of the Sly Cooper games involved lots of running and jumping, sneaking and climbing all over the environments. But there was also RC car racing and plane flying, pirate ship battles and ballroom dancing. Unique things to do were abundant, each complying with its own play mechanic and yet perfectly integrated into the game world's logic and plot.

RC Car challenge

Dancing with the Enemy

The best mini-games are ones that blend in to the point that they don't feel like mini-games at all.

Related Links:

Character Case Study: When Good Characters Get Bad Attitudes

Things that Make Me Swear Profusely: A Top 10 List - part 2

Gimmick: not a dirty word

Roundtable Discussion: The Relevance of Japanese RPGs

Bob Mackey — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Roundtable Discussion takes the intrepid 61FPS blogging team and pits it against itself in the search for deeper truth. The moderator for today is Bob Mackey.

This week’s conversation deals with the mythical and possibly endangered beast known as the Japanese RPG. The genre really seems to be suffering during this generation, for two major reasons: 1.) escalating development costs due to the new necessity of high-polygon, HD resources and 2.) developers’ inability to combat the most damning problems of the genre. Over the past few years, we’ve seen quite a few JRPGs hitting the shelves that feel half-finished at best; and even when a fully-realized JRPG comes along, I worry that the absolutely abysmal pacing the genre is infamous for will end up sucking all the fun out of what could be a fantastic game. To start us off, I have two basic questions: 1.) What does the genre need to do to become interesting again, and 2.) what do you think it will do?

On a side note, the only RPGs I’ve been interested in lately have been ports of remakes of classics. Is this a sign that the genre is becoming antiquated and only accessible to those (admittedly, quite a few at this point) with an understanding of its unique grammar?

Joe Keiser: I assume we're talking about current-gen console JRPGs here, as I feel the handheld JRPG field is perhaps the most vibrant it's ever been. To answer your questions:

1. Lots of JRPG ground has been broken on the PS2 in its twilight days. Final Fantasy XII, Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria, and the Persona series all did fascinating new things with the genre that begged to be explored further. That's why it was very strange to me to see such regressive RPG design in the likes of Lost Odyssey and its brethren. There's so much excellent recent prior work to look at! So why do some of these games look back so far?

This is not a very creative answer, but JRPG developers don't seem to be particularly bold these days and I'm trying to be realistic with my expectations.

2. Fortunately, men who are much more creative than me have been given years to come up with ways to make things interesting again. I think they will. I think the real problem developers have been running into this generation (besides the general Japanese console development malaise) is that there hasn't been a leading title to come out and show the little guys that actually, there is a market for JRPGs on Xbox 360 or Wii. All we've seen so far is supposedly "exciting" titles like Lost Odyssey meet general apathy at retail, which couldn't have been heartening to anyone holding any sort of purse strings. When the Level-5s or Square Enix internal teams of the world release something that cannot under circumstances afford to fail (does the game I'm thinking of have a large roman numeral in the title? Maybe.) I think you'll see the floodgates open again. Heck, maybe Tri-Ace will do it!

Maybe.

John Constantine: Hear, hear on the handheld JRPG scene. How’s that saying go? Where Dragon Quest goes, so goes the genre! What’s most telling about the preponderance of remakes on the DS and PSP (the lion’s share of them coming from Square-Enix) is that it indicates the birth of a brand new audience being inculcated with the genres unique grammar. These re-releases pull in both lapsed gamers as well as sell to those new gamers just getting reared on what’s available for the system. For every Final Fantasy, Tales, DQ, Star Ocean, etc rehash that hits the DS and PSP, there’s two brand new JRPGs with decidedly fresh mechanics waiting in the wings. Just look at stuff like Riz-zoawd, Atlus’ just-released My World, My Way, Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaiki da on PSP, and Yuusha 30. And how could I not mention that game we all love so dearly, The World Ends With You? Even Hironobu Sakaguchi’s DS debut, ASH, took some risks, as opposed to the stale traditionalism of his Xbox 360 games. ASH sucked, but it was different, right?

But this is the biggest Japanese genre in history, so what about the big, big systems. Given how reluctant the vast majority of Japanese developers have been to make anything for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 (even the Wii really), it’s none too surprising that the few JRPGs to show up on those systems have been stale as week-old bread. Especially Mistwalker’s games. The Gooch made the type of games that made him famous, games that are just about two decades old now. It’s ironic then that Lost Odyssey was co-developed by the team behind the Shadow Hearts series, some of the freshest RPGs to grace the Playstation 2. Joe’s right: close to a decade old, and the PS2 is still seeing exciting new ideas in the genre. In addition to the examples mentioned, I think the most exciting evolution of the JRPG on the PS2 is also the exact franchise that has the best chance of bringing life to the genre on current home consoles. Yakuza, baby. The Yakuza games flat-out are JRPGs, just with a different kind of battle system. They’re fast, detailed games that succeed by foregoing some of classic JRPG design’s most tiresome tropes, i.e. having to talk to every single NPC, menu-based fighting, needlessly grueling level grinds. I sincerely believe that Yakuza 3 is going to be the game that finally pushes more devs into the next-JRPG-gen.

Yakuza also does precisely what I think needs to be done to make every other JRPG interesting again. It has legitimately good writing and plotting. Not okay writing. Not good-for-a-game writing. Just good writing. For a genre that’s sold itself on affecting narrative, the vast majority of writing in JRPGs is crap. But it has to be married to faster play, like you see in Yakuza, TWEWY, and FFXII to really make JRPGs great. Lost Odyssey had good writing but the game, what you played, was sllllllllloooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww. I genuinely think that’s what’s going to happen too. I’m an optimist. Like you said, Bob, that Final Fantasy XIII trailer, against all odds, was exciting. The old way of things will stick around too. Gotta re-release something, right?

Cole Stryker: Before I even begin I must request that everyone read this, one of the best pieces of game criticism I've ever read. JRPG fans should prepare to be offended. It contains the following money quotes:

Western CRPGs have kept evolving because there has always existed consciousness of a direction towards which to evolve; JRPGs, meanwhile, have been going round in circles ever since their inception -- Fallout is worlds away from Akalabeth; not so Rogue Galaxy from Final Fantasy.

The only kind of evolution JRPGs have undergone is of a cosmetic nature: Final Fantasy was no Ultima, and its endless sequels had to be justifed in some way -- and so they were. CG or anime-style cutscenes and countless hours' worth of voice-acting and orchestral soundtracks were the justification, piled up, stacked and shoved inside cartridges...

Now then. It's no secret that I'm not a fan of JRPG's. It seems to me that the things holding JRPG's back are the very characteristics that define the genre. So I guess this is another way of saying that the best way to make a good JRPG is to not make a JRPG.

Firstly, expensive poly counts have to go in order for this genre to mean anything to me. I'm happy to see that recent portable JRPG's have done this, though I haven't played any of them. They practically had to, with the limited graphical capabilities. It's interesting how a dearth of technology can actually amount to a better game because it allows developers to cut the fat.

Secondly, we've got to lose the cutscenes. Kierkegaard tells it like it is in an epic burn, calling Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, "a groundbreaking JRPG comprised of a single 106-minute-long cutscene, whose only flaw was that it didn't give players the option to skip it." Oh snap, son. The cult of celebrity that JRPG composers enjoy also brings the genre down. Focus on what's under the hood, please.

In order to push the genre into new territory, JRPG's should decide whether they want to be actual role playing games or strategy games rather than a mediocre mixture of both. I'd much rather play a proper RPG like Planescape Torment or a proper strategy game like Advance Wars than a JRPG which offers an hamstrung version of each. Even my favorite JRPG franchise, Earthbound, is super guilty of this. The combat system, even the rhythm based one in Mother 3 is pretty mindless. Developers need ways to mix up the combat mechanics. Use Ice Power to kill Fire Demons. Fight Night Wraiths with the Heavenly Light Arrows. Yawn. Chrono Trigger made these weaksauce mechanics obsolete well over a decade ago.

Make them shorter. I just don't feel like investing 70+ hours on a JRPG. The last one I played was Baten Kaitos, a reasonably fun card-based RPG. I burned out halfway through and haven't played one since (except for the nostalgic Mother 3, for which I made an exception).

Now that I've covered where I think JRPG's should go, I'll talk about where they will go: Nowhere. There are too many people out there content to play bad games. The continued existence of the Final Fantasy franchise is proof enough.

Bob Mackey: Well, there you have it; another week, another great discussion. Feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts in the comments.

Related Links:

Roundtable Discussion: Where is the Handheld Version of Console Wars?
Roundtable Discussion: The Fandom Phenomenon Part 1
Roundtable Discussion: The Fandom Phenomenon Part 2
Roundtable Discussion: The Fandom Phenomenon Part 3

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers

Amber Ahlborn — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:30:00 GMT

Has anyone seen my red cape?

Way back when Nintendo was trying to sell the Connectivity idea between the Gamecube and GBA, Square played along by creating a spin-off Final Fantasy title called Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Alas, the very Connectivity that the game was trying to promote proved FF:CC's downfall, as gathering together enough people with GBAs who were interested in playing proved to be a bit of a pain. Alas, the slightly dull solo campaign couldn't save the day either. I rented the game myself and played almost to the end of it in single player, but couldn't work up enough enthusiasm to finish it. The very brief experience I had with it's multi-player campaign was a blast though. Despite its faults, Crystal Chronicles had some fun ideas and a lovely art style going for it. Thankfully, Square Enix decided to continue the Crystal Chronicles series in a big way.

If you've been paying any attention to the Wii and DS scenes, you know a pile of Chrystal Chronicles branded games have been released with more on the way. So far we have: Ring of Fates, My Life as a King, and soon Echoes of Time. However, it is The Crystal Bearers that I am, as of right now, the most excited for. I first saw this game shown off years ago, then it vanished from sight. Well, it's back and I have the footage to prove it.

I'm not quite sure what's going on in that chaos, but it looks like a load of fun. The grab and throw mechanic the hero seems to use is perfect for the Wii, as those few who played Elebits or Boom Blox can attest. I hope we'll be hearing a lot more about this promising title soon.

Related Links:

Trailer Review: Final Fantasy XIII Looks Disturbingly Interesting

Looking Ahead: 10 Wii Games that I'm Looking Forward To in 2009. part 1

Looking Ahead: 10 Wii Games that I'm Looking Forward To in 2009. part 2

Things that Make Me Swear Profusely: A Top 10 List - part 2

Amber Ahlborn — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:30:00 GMT

In part 1, I listed a few game moments that furrowed my brow and set my teeth on edge, but we really don't see the old temper flare up until we hit the second half. Look away oh faint of heart and sound proof the walls. Now I start yelling.

Rage + 6. Final Fantasy 9 and, wait, what do I have to do? - I don't know what to say here, other than to point out that the side quests for getting the best stuff in the game hit Random in Final Fantasy 8 and sped right past Retarded in Final Fantasy 9. I looked at a FAQ once to see what was hidden in the game and the tasks were so tedious, nonsensical and stupid that I didn't even want to try. Screw you Square.

Here are some of the fun things you can't get unless you're a masochist.

Rage + 7. Jak 3 flipping over the dune buggies – Apparently, even the biggest buggies are made of super light-weight tinfoil and will roll over three dozen times at the slightest provocation.

Of course, this guy seems to be a better driver than I am.

Rage + 8. Mario Kart Wii Blue Shell and Lightning Cloud – and well, about every other item in the game. I don't really hate MK Wii and its occasionally overbearing items, but few things make me cuss like a drunken sailor more than a bad day at the races.

Sometimes I just have to walk away.

Rage + 9. Final Fantasy 10 Lightning Dodging – What a mind numbingly stupid challenge. It's not hard, it's just not remotely fun, and getting hit by a bolt after dodging it 194 times could lead to violence done to innocent electronics.

I'd rather chew glass. Oh wait, that'll be a mini-game challenge in the next Final Fantasy!

Rage + 10. Final Fantasy 10 Chocobo Race – Whoever is responsible for this bullshit should be covered in honey and staked to a fire ant hill. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest his armpits. Hate, is not a strong enough word for how I feel about this mini-game. Final Fantasy 10 force fed some of the most heinous mini games down the throats of any gamer who wanted to get the ultimate weapons and by far the worst was the Chocobo Race where you rode a bird that steered like a semi truck missing a few wheels in an attempt to hit balloons with microscopic hit detection boxes while dodging high speed homing missiles in the shape of seagulls. Sheer, unadulterated, inexcusable pain has been wrought here.

Ultimate Rage Inducing.

Related Links:

Things that Make Me Swear Profusely: A Top 10 List - part 1

Top 5 Reasons Why 2009 Will Bring the End of Lists

What Games Actually Appeal to Casual Gamers

Star Ocean and the HD-JRPG Conundrum

John Constantine — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:00:00 GMT

After literal years of anticipation on the part of geeks across the world, Square-Enix will finally release Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope for the Xbox 360 on February 24th, 2009. It’s a momentous occasion for the genre. Star Ocean is the first A-list JRPG franchise to make the leap to HD consoles. You can argue that Tales of Vesperia earned the honor first, but Namco’s Tales franchise is more a brand/masthead than a bonafide franchise, one even more diluted than the Final Fantasy heading. I’ve never cared for the Star Ocean series’ battle system – Penny Arcade said it best when they described Star Ocean’s battles as “deciding which character gets molested by lizard men” – and its science-fiction narrative has always been more interesting in concept than in execution. I want to be excited about Star Ocean 4, but not because I feel like I’m missing out on a series that so many other gamers seem to love. I just want to be excited about an HD-JRPG.

JRPGs have been enjoying a renaissance on the DS, not unlike the one they had on the PS1 some twelve years back, but the genre has been woefully underserved on the 360 and PS3. Half-baked efforts like Enchanted Arms and Eternal Sonata, janky action-based experiments like Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant, lumbering traditionalist games like the aforementioned Vesperia, and the twin disappointments from Hironobu Sakaguchi, Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, are all we lovers of leveling and melodrama have had to sink our teeth into since the 360 launched in 2005. Why? Why is it that the best JRPGs to come out in 2008 were either re-releases or games made on decade-old hardware?

The most obvious answer is Japan. Not a little has been written about the decline and stagnation of the Japanese games industry, so it’s no wonder that their number-one genre has suffered alongside the console market in the transition to HD. The answer is slightly more complicated though. The disintegration of traditional genres has defined console gaming over the past few years. Look at Call of Duty 4, a game that transcends the traditional first-person shooter mold by making RPG-style character growth an essential component of its multi-player modes. Or take Little Big Planet, a game which is a platformer at its core, but whose real appeal is in molding the game into whatever you want it to be. Shooters are no longer just shooters, platformers aren’t just platformers. JRPGs have yet to successfully transcend the boundaries of design tradition, and attempts to grow the genre, like The Last Remnant, have been underfunded.

I hope that the 360 and PS3 get a JRPG as exciting and adventurous as Persona 3 and 4, and I hope that game gets made soon. But I’m starting to wonder if videogames finally have their genre equivalent of jazz: an art form that’s also an evolutionary dead end.

Related links:

Why, God, Why: More SaGa Games on the Way
Your JRPG Narrative is Bad and You Should Feel Bad
Fun Fact: Dylan Cuthbert - The Genre Masher
Pay-Per-Grind: Tales of Vesperia Let’s You Level With Cash
Whatcha Playing: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Low-Rent RPGs: A Good Idea

Why, God, Why: More SaGa Games on the Way

Bob Mackey — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:00:00 GMT

I don't "get" Akitoshi Kawazu. More importantly, I don't get his games. And I certainly don't get how anyone could possibly enjoy the SaGa series. No offense intended if you happen to be a Kawazu fan, of course; but for me, playing the SaGa series has always been the equivalent of heading outside to enjoy a nice summer day and immediately getting taken out by a sniper before making it past the front porch. When you play a SaGa game, it's like entering into some bizarro video game world where all the rules have changed and you might need to saw off one of your feet to escape.

Needless to say, I wasn't too thrilled when I saw GoNintendo's report (via Japanese mag Shonen Jump) that the second SaGa game, released for the original Game Boy in America as Final Fantasy Legend II, will see a DS remake this year. I'm slightly consoled by the fact that SaGa 2 isn't quite as devious as some of Kawazu's later games, but this kind of thinking will only lead to me trying it and then hating myself just a few short hours later. I'm not about to embarrass myself and tell you the exact number of times I've come crawling back to the SaGa series thinking things would somehow be different, but here's a hint: too damned many.

It's not clear if this game is going to make it over to America, but one thing is certain: Kawazu's contempt for the human race will continue unabated.

Related Links:

ONST: Square-Enix’s Rad Original Non-Soundtracks
Square-Enix's Coup Brings Back Memories
Square-Enix: Reeling in the Devotees For More, Playing the Console Market With Aplomb

New Year's PS3 Wish List: part 2

Amber Ahlborn — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:30:00 GMT

The first part of my list featured games that have already been released. I'll now end with some titles scheduled for release this year.

6. Afrika – I'm still not entirely sure what all you do in this game but I'm getting an Endless Ocean vibe from it. The animal models truly are impressive and the animation is looking great. I'll really be interested in seeing how well they avoid a slip into my favorite Valley.

7. Beyond Good & Evil 2 – Issues with the art style aside, this is the one that tipped me over the fence on getting a PS3. Everyone reading this has played the first game right? Right?

8. Final Fantasy XIII – I have to admit, most Final Fantasy games are short lived for me. I love my initial experience but that luster steadily tarnishes on subsequent play-throughs as all of the bone headed character devices and plot moments eat away at my enjoyment. Not every FF has fallen from my favor though. I still enjoy FF 6 and FF 12 after all.

9. Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier (supposedly in pre-production) – I'm really happy to hear this series is continuing. While not everyone appreciated the changes, I liked the direction Jak & Daxter took after its Mario Clone premier. The story and characters really shaped up pretty well, squeezing a decently interesting dystopian tale out of such shallow beginnings.

No footage yet but here's a fun video of the sorts of visual bugs you see during development plus an animatic at the end showing different stages of animation development from Jak X.

Anyone have any additional game recommendations for me?

Related Links:

New Year's PS3 Wish List: part 1

Looking Ahead: 6 DS Games that I'm Looking Forward To in 2009.

Looking Ahead: 10 Wii Games that I'm Looking Forward To in 2009. part 1

Looking Ahead: 10 Wii Games that I'm Looking Forward To in 2009. part 2

Amber Ahlborn — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Everybody is making lists this time of year (and checking them twice) so I figured I'd get in on the act. While most of the lists I'm seeing pop up reflect on games of the past year, I figured I'd wish ya'll an early Happy New Year and knock off a couple lists of games I'm looking forward to in 2009.

Continued from part 1...

5. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time – It's about damn time. The much disparaged original Chrystal Chronicles on the Gamecube was a great game crippled by a poorly considered play mechanic. I'm looking forward to seeing how this one is improved.

4. Marble Saga: Kororinpa – Better than Monkey Ball. Well okay, the first Monkey Ball was pretty good but after that...

3. Sonic & The Black Knight – Secret Rings was solid step in the right direction for the Sonic series. Here's hoping Black Knight keeps on stepping.

2. Sin and Punishment 2 – Assuming it makes it out in 2009. This game, if it's anything like the first, will kick major ass.

1. Ghostbusters – Hey, if Luigi armed with a vacuum cleaner can make a reasonably entertaining ghost hunting game, then playing with the experts should really rock, yeah?

This list is hardly exhaustive and no doubt other games not highlighted here will come out and blow me away. Still, from the perspective of speculation, these titles look promising and worth anticipating their releases. Now to compile my DS list...

Related Links:

Looking Ahead: 10 Wii Games that I'm Looking Forward To in 2009. part 1

Derrick's Top 13 Games of 2008 - Part 1

Top 5 Reasons Why 2009 Will Bring the End of Lists

Every Day is Better With Two Scoops of Final Fantasy XIII

John Constantine — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:00:00 GMT

There’s some speculation out and about on the internets that, even though there’s going to be a Japanese playable demo in March, Final Fantasy XIII will not be released outside of Japan until 2010. That means a full four years will have passed between the game’s debut and when we actually get to play the game. That is just shy of a videogame console’s traditional lifespan. Clearly, Square-Enix hates us all. And since there’s nothing quite like salting a wound, S-E is releasing a magazine in Japan tomorrow entitled Re: Final Fantasy XIII. The mag has a bunch of art and screens that people have been staring at for some two and a half years already as well as a DVD with the trailers for Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII that were shown at last summer’s DKS3137 event behind closed doors. Yes, Square-Enix is making people pay for trailers for their games. That is not nice.

But, thankfully, the internet exists, and so, naturally, these trailers have already been ripped from the DVD and are free to watch right here.

This is the first time I’ve gotten to see this Final Fantasy XIII footage in such high quality and while the CG is beautiful, as expected, there isn’t even a millisecond of actual gameplay. No running around an overworld, no fights, no nothing. One day, we will find out if Final Fantasy XIII is indeed a game or if Tetsuya Nomura’s team has dropped all JRPG pretenses and just made something to watch.

The Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer is a bit more interesting since very little high quality footage of the game has leaked at all. Unfortunately, it too is all CG. Fancy CG, but CG nonetheless.

What’s the good word, FPSers? Think FF XIII is going to be worth the wait?

(Link: Final Fantasy XIII.net)

Related links:

Screen Test: Final Fantasy Versus XIII
E3 Day One: Microsoft, Sony, Final Fantasy, and For Whom the Bell Tolls
Square-Enix: Reeling in the Devotees For More, Playing the Console Market With Aplomb
Square-Enix's Coup Brings Back Memories
Screen Test: Dissidia – Final Fantasy

Whatcha Playing: On the Road Again

John Constantine — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:15:00 GMT

Wherein travelling inevitably leads to thinking about Zelda, the nature of game linearity and unskippable passive sequences in games.

Five men in their late 20s are heading south on route 80 through New Jersey in a white Dodge Caravan. They listen to loud music and discuss plans for the weekend ahead of them. Before too long, they pass signs for a town called Hibernia. As they are a group raised on far, far too many videogames, the fanciful name of what is likely a small, simple town full of good, honest folk quickly transforms it into a land of adventure, intrigue and obnoxious obligation.

“Ho stranger! You have stopped for gasoline in Hibernia? I would love to give you some, but first you must travel beyond the woods and acquire a ruffled dragoon feather. I need them to make gasoline!”

“Hey! Hey! Have you tried pressing Z to look at signs? Press A to read signs! Hey!”

“You must equip a sword and a shield before you can leave the car. Who would leave the car without a sword and a shield?”

Yes, even something as an innocuous as a roadtrip leads to making fun of Zelda, and by proxy, every other videogame that makes you engage in a string of needless bullshit before letting you actually play. After we got the jokes out of our systems, we did start talking about how, when the itch arises, we all love going back and replaying past Zeldas, but have almost no desire to replay any of the 3D games any time soon. Everyone in the van has affection for Ocarina and Wind Waker – Opinions on Majora’s Mask vary. Personally, I find it to be a freaking chore to play, no matter how creative. Twilight Princess, we agreed, feels like actually doing chores when you play it. – but the prospect of wading through a never ending stream of unskippable conversations makes returning to these games unsavory. The constant handholding is bad enough, even without taking five minutes to listen to some owl made of triangles rant about a mountain, finally getting through the diatribe, and accidentally asking him to repeat himself.

The conversation was oddly prescient. I started playing the DS remake of Final Fantasy IV for the first time shortly after everyone settled into the drive. I enjoyed the Final Fantasy III remake two years back, and was ready to see what IV had to offer. After the ever-familiar Red Wings assault on Mysidia, Cecil’s sad departure from Baron, his introduction to Rydia and sad exile, I noticed that the shift from Final Fantasy III to IV was significant. Between 1990 and 1991, Hirnobu Sakaguchi made two RPGs, one that offered a great deal of exploratory freedom at the game’s outset and then another that led the player largely by the nose throughout its initial hours. Final Fantasy IV, in any of its incarnations, is nowhere near as coddling as Ocarina of Time, but it is representative of games, specifically adventure and role-playing games, becoming increasingly linear following the 8-bit era. What caused the shift? Why did adventure in games start to become as directed as it is in the mediums that inspired it?

Yesterday, on our return trip, we passed by Hibernia a second time and chuckled again. It occurred to me that the trip made a good model for adventure design. We couldn’t avoid passing Hibernia. It was inevitable that our route would bring us past it multiple times. But we didn’t know it ahead of time, we were left to find it on our own. Shouldn’t every adventure be that way?

Related links:

Whatcha Playing: Tale of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Whatcha Playing: The Palette Cleanser
Whatcha Playing: de Blob
Whatcha Playing: Weight of the Stone
Know Your Final Fantasy IV Trivia. It Could Save Your Life.
Gaming on a Train: Final Fantasy IV

Ludacris Presses the Start Button

Cole Stryker — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Why do I find it difficult to believe that the same guy who wrote:

The fancy cars, the women and the caviar, you know who we are, 'cause we pimpin all over the world.

ever played Final Fantasy?

I picture some underpaid record label intern tasked with googling "best selling video games of all time" and writing up a list of words that rhyme. Add video game-y samples and viola: Millions of pageviews.

This is one of Luda's weakest songs, but it's not the first time he's dropped gaming-related science. I guess this is just one more example of celebrities attempting to maintain internet fame by copping to their subculture. See: Weezer, South Park, Soulja Boy, etc.

Again, this man wrote the following:

Yo, girl you taste like a cinnabun
So sweet from the thighs to the cheek
Sex on the beach check the size of my meat
Call me the pusher ludacris king ding-a-ling sheet smusher
Sweet street pusher give me that gusher.. nasty stuff

Do you think he cried when Aeris died?

Brave New Wi-Fi World: Square-Enix Might Just Change the Way We Play Nintendo Games

John Constantine — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I was a little miffed when Square-Enix announced Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time. More Crystal Chronicles is certainly a good thing, especially when it’s new Crystal Chronicles that promises online and an opportunity to improve on Ring of Fates’ flaws (no story mode co-op is not cool, guys.) I was just sad because this meant the first Crystal Chronicles announced for Wii, The Crystal Bearers, looked even more likely like a candidate for the vaporware hall of fame. I’m getting over the sour grapes though. A game that can be played cooperatively on either a Wii or a DS is the connectivity dream realized, a grand delivery on the promise of Gamecube’s Crystal Chronicles and even Miyamoto and Toru Iwatani’s Pac-man Vs. Graphics be damned, this is the future of co-op.

The news is already racing around the internet that Square-Enix might be giving Dragon Quest IX the Echoes of Time treatment. EGM’s classic rumor monger Quartermann says DQIX might hit both of Nintendo’s consoles, ensuring that it will sell a billion copies instead of just half a billion. If this turns out to be true, and both Echoes of Time and DQIX play well over Nintendo Wi-Fi, Nintendo’s sickly online strategy may finally have its first bonafide hook. One of the biggest factors keeping me away from games like Mario Kart Wii (beyond its dumbed-down play) and Animal Crossing: City Folk (beyond its anemic new-features list) is that I already have perfectly functional, complete versions of both games on my Nintendo DS. If S-E’s new games trigger a broader trend, one that sees networked games coming packaged with both a Wii disc and DS cart, the problem of separate versions of what are essentially identical games will evaporate. How about a Wii/DS New Super Mario Bros. 2 with a meatier version NSMB’s awesome competitive mode? Or a brand new Zelda: Four Swords? That would rule. And Nintendo has to be salivating thinking about a premium priced Mario Party on both systems.

Then again, that’s a whole lot of Friend Codes to wrangle…

Related links:

A Change of Paint For Nintendo
Nintendo Might Just Hate You
WiiWare: Nintendo, Babe, It Just Isn’t Working Out
The 'Bout Time Report: Dragon Quest IX Gets a Release Date
Trailer Review: Dragon Quest IX

What's in my MP3 Player: Shadow's Theme

Amber Ahlborn — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:00:00 GMT

You know what? I have a lot of Final Fantasy remixes. It seems like the Final Fantasy series and Chrono Trigger have contributed more raw material to the remixing community than any other game or series. Maybe that's not actually true but that's the way it appears just looking at my own collection.

Today's MP3 is an oldie but goodie from OCR. In fact, if I were to make a list of my all time favorite tracks at Overclocked Remix, well, that list would be very long but it would definitely include Shadow's Theme by K. Praslowicz.

I'm not really sure what to say about this piece of music that isn't already stated in the MP3's write up at OCR. Is badass descriptive enough? However you might break down the musical merits of this track, I simply find that it fits Shadow (my favorite character) from Final Fantasy VI to a T.

If you enjoy video game remixes and don't already have this one in your collection, then I really can not recommend it highly enough.

Related Links:

What's in my MP3 Player: Kindred

What's in my MP3 Player: Yellow Valkyrie

Through the Fire and Flames on Mariopaint

How-To: The Ultimate Final Fantasy Marriage Proposal

Joe Keiser — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Congratulations are in order for one Mr. James Mielke, aka the editor-in-chief of 1Up.com. He proposed to his girlfriend recently, and…hey, don’t leave! Okay, maybe it’s not such a big deal to you that she said yes, but it’s how he got that agreement that is absolutely mind-blowing.

What Mielke concocted is basically the ultimate Final Fantasy proposal. I’ve heard that there are a lot of girls out there who spent their youth pining for the strong arms of Sephiroth. This proposal would shatter a girl like that. She would leave the moment changed, irrevocably, memories of past RPGs played fading to shadow compared to the brilliance of this.

Mielke’s detailed blog chronicling how he put the whole thing together reads like a how-to of perhaps the greatest games-related proposal of all time (though the Chrono Trigger hack proposal was good too). Could you follow it to a life of wedded bliss with your own Squeenix fangirl?

…Well, no. Mielke is the head honcho of a big ol’ gaming website, and he pulled a lot of strings to put together this. Unless you are rich or spend a lot of time interviewing developers in Japan, you will probably not get legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu to compose a theme song for your proposal. It’s also likely you will not get suggestions from one Kenji Eno, the eccentric developer of bizarre Sega cult titles and a man who disappears from the public eye for nearly decades at a time. You will certainly not get Yoshitaka Amano to design your freakin’ ring.

So yes, congrats are in order for the Milkman. Congrats and rage, as he’s just raised the bar on this sort of thing to unreachable levels.

ONST: Square-Enix’s Rad Original Non-Soundtracks

John Constantine — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:00:00 GMT

When talking about the good ol’ Square-Enix days, back when most every game they published was either very good or at least interesting, it’s impossible not to note their stable of composers. Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Yoko Shimomura, and a number of other remarkable musicians have received more international acclaim and love from listeners of their videogame soundtracks than most Japanese traditional musicians. You may have noticed that we ourselves have something of a penchant for these composers. It’s rare, however, to hear work by any of them that isn’t related to videogames. There’s Mitsuda’s Kirite, but even Uematsu’s lone solo album, the prog-as-hell Phantasmagoria, closes with an arrangement of Final Fantasy’s “Prologue”. Little did I know that Square-Enix themselves realized their musical masterminds needed broader creative outlets. The Square-Enix Official Bootleg series, launched back in 2006, is comprised of three EPs spotlighting totally original songs by S-E composers and they are uniformly awesome. Highlights include “Aquarius Option” by Kumi Tanioka (Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles), “Feel Gravity” by Ryo Yamazaki (Front Mission 4), and pretty much everything by Mitsuto Suzuki. Suzuki’s work on the Bootlegs was actually so well-received, S-E put out his entire solo album In My Own Backyard, which sounds like a pleasant mixture of Air and Brian Eno’s Ambient Works. All the bootlegs are iTunes exclusives, so you don’t have to worry about the absurdly high cost of importing physical copies, and all four collections will run you twenty dollars. Go check ‘em out already.

Previous OSTs:
Duck Tales
Bubble Bobble
Chrono Cross
Soul Blazer
Everyday Shooter
Rule of Rose
Treasure of the Rudras

Related links:
Make the Music With Your Games, Kids!
Infinite Mega Man 9: Composer Ippo Yamada Talks Living Up to a Serious Musical Pedigree
You Can't UNhear It: Time's Scar
Kirite: The Secret Best Yasunori Mitsuda Soundtrack

Japan Scares Me: Final Fantasy VII's Tifa in Tifatan X

John Constantine — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Final Fantasy VII did not become famous because it was a good game. JRPGs did not grow out of their comfortable niche because of that game. No, both game and genre hit big thanks to Tifa Lockhart. They boomed because of bazooms, became massive thanks to mammaries, and were triumphant due to tits. I’ve floated this theory here on 61 Frames Per Second before, but it bears repeating, if for no other reason than most folks, whether they admit it or not, tend to click on any internet link related to breasts. The breasts in question do not need to be too large, too small, or even in a moment of Goldilocks-esque serendipity, just right. They simply need to be breasts. Of course, today I have a perfectly logical reason beyond this truth. Today I discovered Tifatan X.

Were Tifatan X ever going to make the trip to North American shores, an appropriate re-titling would be Kung Boob. The game is an explicit homage to Irem’s side-scrolling classic Spartan-X, better known here as NES launch title Kung Fu. It stars, as you may have already deduced, Final Fantasy VII’s Tifa Lockhart. The actually play is just the same as Spartan-X’s, except you have a slightly expanded selection of moves and the dudes in purple you regularly defeat take more than one hit to dispatch. Tifatan X makes it into the Japan Scares Me category for a familiar reason. Can you guess? Surprise, it’s inappropriate sexual content! Spartan-X’s regular enemies had a peculiar way of killing you back in 1984: they would just sort of stand uncomfortably close to you and your energy would drain. Tifatan’s creator saw a gold opportunity in this combat model, so instead of the enemies just weirdly glomming onto Tifa, they’re *ahem* groping her. The groping is accompanied by some very suggestive drawings of Miss Lockhart. Oh, Japan. You and your busy hands.

Kurt Kalata, forever one of our favorite people on the internet, is responsible for using up the precious part of my brain that’s now being used to acknowledge Tifatan X’s existence. Thank-you, sir. Mr. Kalata has a fresh article up about not just Tifatan X, but also its apparently awesome sequel. Head on over for more scares.

Editor's Note: I'm kidding, of course. Final Fantasy VII does not owe its success purely to Tifa Lockhart's bustline. But it certainly didn't hurt.

Related links:

Japan Scares Me: To Love-Ru - Exciting Outdoor School Version
Japan Scares Me: Tokyo Game Show Rising, Strangeness, and Panty-shot Beat ‘Em Ups
Japan Scares Me: Mario and The Western Show
Sex/Violence: Oneechanbara and the New Localization
NSFW: The Top Five Game-Based Pornos

Klonoa: Careful, Namco. You Tread On My Dreams.

John Constantine — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:00:00 GMT

I’m not a purist. No, really. When it comes to classics being revisited, modernized, or remade, I don’t need every facet of the past perfectly preserved just the way I remember it in order to get a desperate nostalgic thrill. I delight in Mega Man 9 because it’s a great game whose presentation and technological limitations are carefully made design choices, not because it’s a new NES game. I’ll let you in on a secret: I actually like Mega Man 7 and 8. Yeah, that’s right. I think they’re good games. Not as good as their forebears, but all the same. When the new Bionic Commando was announced last year, even before Rearmed was revealed, I didn’t balk at Radd Spencer’s Adam-Duritz-makeover. I think the new look is cool, especially the way his dreads flow behind him like delicate willow branches as he soars through dystopian cityscapes and… oh! Excuse me. What I’m getting at is that not everything from yesterday is sacred. Some things, especially in games, should be changed. Final Fantasy III DS is a good thing. The NES original is just too slow now. Tomb Raider Anniversary preserves a revolutionary game’s best qualities while also making it, you know, playable. In with the new, out with the old may not be an all-encompassing maxim, but it’s more often than not good advice.

That said, Namco, if you go through with this, I will hurt you.

The Raw Meat Cowboy himself over at GoNintendo received a survey from Namco-Bandai today, the subject of which was their impending Wii remake of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. RMC has smartly inferred that Namco is testing the waters to see if Klonoa should be localized for North America. One of the questions in the survey asks which of these two character designs is preferable:

Yes, there on the right is Klonoa, already slightly altered to more closely resemble his 21st century self than the Klonoa of 1998. It’s great, he’s looking good. On the left, is some monstrosity, a Japanese Poochie, his raised ears giving off a deliberate whiff of the EXTREME. He has just enough buckles and straps to satisfy a Nomura. The implication is that Namco thinks this bastard would be more suited to North America’s indelicate palette.

Now, there are going to be some vague spoilers here, so beware. Even beyond the fantastic platforming, level design, and soundtrack, what makes Door to Phantomile so special is that it subverts expectation. Klonoa himself, and his introduction in the game, portray complete innocence, a cutesy cartoon anthropomorphic at play in a pleasant fantasy world. But the game quickly becomes melancholic, and by game’s end, the pleasant Disney aesthetic is pulled away, violently, to reveal that the story is, in fact, a tragedy. The game is about a loss of innocence, and the character’s design is essential to that theme. This redesign places the character more firmly in a recognizable, and marketable, anime tradition, where existential angst is an expected component. Remaking Klonoa in this image completely betrays the point of Shuichi Sakurazaki’s story.

Don’t do this, Namco.

(Link: GoNintendo)

Related links:

Where is Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden?
Klonoa's Truimphant(?) Return
Christmas in Nintendoland: The Tokyo Conference
The Tale of the Identical Box Art
Lowering the Standard: Why Nintendo’s Hardcore vs. Casual Commitments Aren’t the Problem
Abominations of Technology: Pre-Rendered Graphics

Square-Enix's Prez Sez: "Japan needs to be #1 in gaming again, homeslices."

Nadia Oxford — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:37:00 GMT

Square-Enix's President, Yoichi Wada, had a few things to say about Japan's lagging game industry at Tokyo Game Show 2008. Namely, "'Eeeeey man, this isn't cool!" and "Let's get off our asses and do something about it."

I personally find it unfortunate that Japanese game development has been lagging behind North America and Europe. I want to see Japan's industry thrive for a couple of reasons.

First, having grown up with the Nintendo, gaming (to me) will always feel like the domain of the Japanese. God knows America failed me for my fix of mushroom-jumping Italian plumbers, so pardon me for sleeping with the other side. Really though, there was something extra special about our elders being baffled by Japan's bizarre concepts.

"Frog-men? Shape-changing leaves? What the hell is a 'Tanooki?'"

(They were just lucky that Mario's tanuki suit lacked the mythical creature's trademark: gigantic testicles. Actually, I think we're all lucky for that.)

Unlike Atari, Nintendo's early games did not emerge like Venus from a cloud of marijuana smoke. Regardless, Super Mario Bros first captured me because it felt so different from my Atari games while it still managed to be, well, classic. "Rescue the Princess" wasn't very new to anyone who's grown up with fairy tales (or its delightful twists, like The Paper Bag Princess--anyone?), but to me, it offered something Atari games rarely did: a goal. An end. Something more than "Get a high score, wank off to it."

I am, however, still happy to see that other countries are bringing their ideas to this beeping orgy we call game development. This comes to my second point, in which I am going to argue that losing any culture's gained influence would be a bad thing. I doubt Japanese game developers are ever going to go away entirely, but it's sad to see it trickle off. We all must agree that there is a certain, er, charm to Japanese games that no other country is going to emulate. Man, who's going to cater to my fruity-wooty JRPG fix? Rockstar? Oh wait, that might be interesting.

Wada has the cure, however. Or at least he thinks he does. From the article:

Wada pointed out that this problem is "not limited to the game industry," but rather structurally to the entire Japanese nation. He went on to look at possible solutions -- mainly an opening up of attitudes.

He specifically referenced the potential "psychological resistance" of the Japanese developer to achievement based on "standing on the shoulders of giants," -- that is to say, using external tools and building on top of them.

The CESA chairman attempted to psychologically define and split out the technical and creative parts of game development, and a key point was to be that overly rigid definitions of roles and a lack of willingness to use outside technology are hobbling Japanese companies.

Square-Enix has never been shy about putting on shiny new clothes and screaming, "Lookit me!" The DragonQuest series has always been pleasingly spartan, but DragonQuest would sell millions in Japan if each game came packed with a rabid weasel. Final Fantasy, on the other hand, dresses up and stresses innovation with each new title since VII. So I can see why Wada thinks that aiming for Bigger and Fancier is the way to go in this situation, but one comment on the article, left by "Sjors Jansen", brings up an excellent point:

"I am slightly disappointed by this stance. IMO Shadow of the Colossus and Killer 7 have not yet been surpassed by games with more modern/advanced technology. I think the 'japanese way' of creating games should not be written off that easily. Especially not now that we are seeing more acceptance for technologically less impressive games like megaman 9 and the wii platform. I'm not saying we should go totally retro. I'm saying new technology in games is overrated as the audience for wii, indie and retro games is growing. And that if "we change ourselves" it is possible to lose the uniqueness of the 'japanese way' of game making."

What thinkest thou?

Related Links:

Square-Enix's Coup Brings Back Memories
Turning Japanese: Microsoft's Last-Ditch Effort to Win the East
Know Your Final Fantasy IV Trivia. It Could Save Your Life.

The 61FPS Review: Dragon Quest IV – Chapters of the Chosen

John Constantine — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:00:00 GMT

I’m not going to lie to you. Dragon Quest and I have history. It goes back some twenty years at this point, but our relationship today isn’t one based on nostalgia. Back in 2005, you could say that Dragon Quest and I were in, to put it delicately, an unhealthily codependent situation. Dragon Quest VIII had just come out in the United States, fresh faced and full of gorgeous cel-shaded graphics, newly minted menus and music, and voice work of unprecedented quality. But Dragon Quest has never had much clout on this side of the Pacific, and this was its first time going by its real name instead of Dragon Warrior. It needed someone, anyone to play it. Me, I was a recovering role-playing addict, coming off of a decade of Squaresoft devotion, trying my best to stay off the ability trees, the melodrama, and the menus. I lapsed occasionally into turn-based adventures to save the world. I’d been doing good up until that November, hadn’t touched a JRPG since Shadow Hearts: Covenant the previous winter, but I could feel myself weakening. I just wasn’t strong enough. So Dragon Quest VIII and I found each other at our weakest.

Between November 15th and December 1st, I clocked just under ninety-six hours playing Dragon Quest VIII. Yeah, that’s right. Four days of my life.

And I loved it.

Each Dragon Quest, since the first game sprung from Yuuji Horii’s succulent brain in 1986, is an exercise in purity, a defining marquee in a genre known today for its decadence, bombast, and tedium. Dragon Quest is more often noted for its resistance to change rather than its consistent quality across the years. It’s true, Dragon Quest has remained, across its sequels, spin-offs, and numerous remakes, largely the same game it was two decades ago. The essential play – explore a large fantasy world, fight monsters in a first person perspective, collect items, talk to every single person you meet – has never changed in the core titles. But every iteration finds its elegant formula incrementally refined, and to great effect. Dragon Quest II introduced multi-character parties, III a job system that went on to become a genre staple, and so on and so forth. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, a DS remake of a Playstation remake of the NES original, could be viewed as a step back from the lavishly produced (though still familiar) Dragon Quest VIII, a retreat meant to acclimate players to the series’ transition from home consoles to portables. Surprisingly, Chapters of the Chosen isn’t a retreat at all. It is instead a perfect model of the JRPG as Horii envisioned it, immediately accessible, streamlined from the menu-juggling, command-selecting rigor moral, and trimmed of the excess narrative fat that’s typified the genre since Hironobu Sakaguchi began emphasizing drama over play in Final Fantasy.

That said, Chapters of the Chosen’s story shouldn’t be undersold. While it isn’t full of lengthy dialogues, it isn’t without dramatic instance. The original Dragon Quest IV’s variation on the DQ theme was its narrative structure: following a brief prologue wherein you play as the classic silent-protagonist of your choosing, the game is broken into the titular chapters, each one devoted to the seven other party characters that ultimately make up your adventuring party. These chapters allow you to play and experience the inciting incidents that introduce these characters into the game’s arching save-the-world narrative. Despite the limited characterization, this allows you to form deeper attachments to these characters than you would if the game followed the JRPG formula of the protagonist being the inciting incident that draws these characters into the adventure. It’s both a unique take on JRPG storytelling as well as a way to better facilitate play; since you are playing these characters individually during the game’s first half, you aren’t tied to “level grinding” them later (or having their levels superficially bumped up to match your protagonist’s.) Even after entering the game’s fifth chapter and having gathered the disparate characters together, Chapters of the Chosen is never structured to serve the story. The story is developed just enough to encourage more play, more exploration, more fights, more collection. This is why Dragon Quest IV, and its parent series, is the model of Japanese role-playing. It is, first and foremost, a game, rather than an interactive anime or fantasy novel with a lot of fighting thrown on top of it. There aren’t enough kind words to give to its presentation, from Koichi Sugiyama’s re-mastered score to Akira Toriyama’s endearing art, not to mention Square-Enix’s remarkable colloquialism-laden localization. But they’re all just icing on the proverbial cake.

I stopped carrying the Nintendo DS on my morning commute recently, worried that I was becoming illiterate after playing videogames during every literal moment of my free time throughout the day. I knew Dragon Quest was coming though. I’m not a strong man. We fell back into our old routine in the past week since its release. To be honest, it’s remarkable I was even able to stop playing long enough to write this. It’s wrong, really, to let a game, even one as great as Chapters of the Chosen, take you over.

But it feels so, so right.

Grade: A

Previous 61FPS Reviews:

Metal Gear Solid IV
Ninja Gaiden 2
Grand Theft Auto IV
Wii Fit

Suikoden: Tierkreis is Coming, But Is It Everything Fans Hope For?

John Constantine — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:30:00 GMT

Konami had a pleasant surprise at their NYC fall preview today in an early build of Suikoden: Tierkreis, the recently announced seventh game in the twelve year-old RPG franchise, and first original handheld entry in the series. Tiekreis, weird name aside, looks like a solid 3D role-playing game on the DS, easily the technical equal (and possibly even superior) to Matrix Software’s Final Fantasy III and IV remakes. While the brief demo on display couldn’t show if Tierkreis lives up to Suikoden’s grand tradition of great storytelling, it did make me wonder if the handheld entry isn’t something of a missed opportunity.

It’s well known that sprite-based 2D games have a better chance of success on handhelds, particularly Nintendo’s dual-screened juggernaut. Suikoden hasn’t sported sprite characters since its first sequel, and while its successors’ 3D character models and environments have been nothing to sneeze at, they were never as memorable as those found in the first two games. As you can see from these screens, Suikoden: Tierkreis is a looker, and the play looks just as good even though parties are limited to four characters and not the traditional six. But I can’t help but wonder if the game wouldn’t have been better served by returning to the series’ graphical roots.

What do you think, dear reader? I know you, 61 FPSers are JRPG hounds! Let me know in the comments section.

Related links:

Are You Buying Final Fantasy IV DS? Huh? Huh? Huh??
Gaming on a Train: Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy IV DS: Love, Hope and Betrayal For the Busy Commuter

Where Will You Go, Tecmo? What Will Happen to Our Love?

John Constantine — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:00:00 GMT

This has been something of a tumultuous year for Tecmo. In the past twelve months, they’ve shipped just four games, three of which are Ninja Gaiden games. The fourth, Fatal Frame IV for Wii, wasn’t even developed in house (it was handled by Suda 51’s Grasshopper Manufacture.) None of these games were actually published by Tecmo, relying on companies as diverse as Eidos, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and Nintendo for distribution. In June, their public face and star designer, the outspoken, boozing womanizer Tomonobu Itagaki, quit the company days after Ninja Gaiden II released to middling reviews. In August, their president resigned and Square-Enix tried to take over the company. Today, Tecmo announced they’ll be the latest Japanese company to find refuge from shrinking domestic business by consolidating. Their new partner will be Koei.

Tecmo, I’m worried about you. Times are tough for Japanese developers developing traditional games for home consoles. We’ve had wonderful times together and I’m still looking forward to Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff this fall. Remember all the good times we had with Tecmo Bowl? Yeah. Corporate mergers are a good thing for Japanese developers. Look at Namco-Bandai, that’s gone well! That totally cut down on all those terrible licensed anime games Bandai made. Mergers are also good for creativity. Sega totally kept their strong creative streak after ducking out of the hardware business and merging with Sammy. Look at Square and Enix! They keep on making the same new, adventurous software they did fifteen years ago when they don’t have to. Why, they could just keep on cranking out things with the words Final and Fantasy on them and make a buck.

…

Bottom line, I’m concerned about Tecmo retaining their identity after the merger. They are, after all, merging with the house of Dynasty Warriors. Tecmo doesn’t always release great games, but they have a rich history of fun and interesting games. It would be a shame to see them just fade away.

(Link: Edge Online)

Related links:

Trailer Review: Tecmo Bowl – Kickoff
Whatcha Playing: Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword
The 61FPS Review: Ninja Gaiden 2
Where is Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden?

All Ages: Viva Piñata and Building Games For Children

John Constantine — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:00:00 GMT

I got no end of grief from Peter Smith when I started playing Pokémon Diamond a couple of months back. Pete’s no stranger to mindless grinds; the man’s confessed his many replays of the NES Final Fantasy games. No, he was opposed to Pokémon because, “It’s for f$?!ing babies, man.” The argument confused me. After all, Pete, like me and the rest of 61 FPS’ team of outlaw journalists, was raised on the 8-bit era’s simple designs as conceived by Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo. Though Pokémon’s billion-dollar audience is mostly made up of the Trapper-Keeper and Lunchables set, the game itself is in the age-and-gender-neutral mode that’s made Nintendo the corporate success they are today. “Family Friendly” is the accepted term but it’s just a media savvy way of saying that games like Pokémon, Mario, Brain Age, and Animal Crossing can be played and loved by very young players, but they aren’t games explicitly for children. He did get me thinking, though: Have I ever actually played a game designed specifically with very young players in mind? Not the Reader Rabbit-style edutainment so many kids have been subjected to since the early-80s. Just regular, old, played-for-fun videogames.

My first exposure to Viva Piñata was marked by cynicism. Microsoft’s monumentally expensive acquisition of Rare was just under four years old when it was announced and the partnership had yielded dubious results; bad sequels, middling remakes, one atrocious new IP, and another that had been years in development on three separate consoles before it was finally released. Between the animated series and the variety of brightly colored critters to gather in the game, Piñata seemed like a soulless and pointed marketing machine built for no other reason than to make Microsoft some of that proverbial Pokémon money. So it came as a surprise when the game turned out to be both a commercial flop (relatively speaking) and a critical success, praised for its peaceful, eccentric presentation while being ignored by gamers and parents alike. I never got around to playing the first, but its reputation brought me to Viva Piñata’s sequel, Trouble In Paradise, free of cynicism and curious about what I’d find. Turns out it’s a reputation well-earned. Even though Piñata is a brazen fusion of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing and Pokémon – surrounded by strange, brightly colored characters, you are given free reign to alter a seemingly mundane plot of land to your gardener-heart’s content but are tasked with gathering hordes of diverse fantasy creatures in order to level up and expand your domain – it is impeccably made, its charms difficult to resist.

What’s most impressive about Viva Piñata, though, is that it is explicitly designed for children. Where family friendly fare like Pokémon relies on tried-and-true game design tropes to remain accessible (simple but abundant text explanations, limited buttons, menus comprised mostly of lists, etc,) Viva Piñata relies on the language of children’s media to invite players in. When beginning a game, or garden if you prefer, you’re introduced to Leafos, a masked, soft-voiced woman who guides you through your first tasks. Rather than burden you with sheaves of instruction, Leafos points you to a small red and white symbol that will appear over your next action on the screen. The target can point to things as simple as your menu button or one of the first piñatas to enter your garden. She’ll leave you to find your own path, but when you succeed in any task in the game, she praises you for the achievement and briefly explains why what you’ve done progresses the game. You’re also scolded for bad behavior. Hit someone with a gardening tool, you get a warning. Do it again, and you’re punished by having your tool taken away. Over the game’s first two hours, you’re introduced to the other colorful characters who live around your garden and aid you in your endeavors, a cast whose similarity to Fred Rogers and Jim Henson’s compatriots is hard to ignore. After those initial hours though, you’re set free to explore and play. The game teaches and encourages the player through positive reinforcement in a secure environment rather than through text-based instruction and trial-and-error. Its hand-holding is never condescending or frustrating, merely helpful.

There’s the difference between a game made for children and any other. Viva Piñata, like Pokémon, can be enjoyed by everybody, but its design is built around how a child learns. It isn’t the toys surrounding it, just how it’s made.

Related links:

To Be a Pokémon Master
Going Back in There: My Very First Hour With Pokémon
The B.Beard All-Stars: Hour Eight of Pokémon
Common: Rare Makes Bad Games
Raised on the Stuff

Game Rage

Amber Ahlborn — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Video games can be relaxing. They can be stimulating or relieve stress. They can also be utterly rage inducing and that's what this post is all about: The Rage.

Only a few games that I've played actively make me angry. Final Fantasy 10 and its stupid, pain inducing side quests would be one. I was bound and determined to get a 0 second time on that miserably broken chocobo race. I did finally succeed but I probably peeled the paint with my shouted vitriol. I swear, if I ever meet the guy responsible for that blight I'll tie him down and extract all of this teeth with a pair of pliers, or worse, make him play his own creation.

Not everything that fills me with screaming rage is something I also hate; there's Mario Kart Wii. I play Mario Kart online on the weekends and my racing sessions can, and often do, cause my mood to deteriorate. I do despise that damned lightning cloud with an unhealthy passion though. Getting piled on with opponent tossed items can tick me off a lot but nothing causes my temperature rise quite like pulling a boneheaded move and screwing myself over. Truly, I yell at myself more than anyone else.

Controls that don't quite work as well as they are supposed to is another trigger for rage. A favorite game of mine, Zack & Wiki, is for the most part a wonderfully stimulating adventure game that uses motion controls to interact with the environment. Mostly it all works well, but there was this one rotating device that would just not turn correctly. I had to dial it into a certain position and no matter how I tried swinging or shaking the remote, it would not stop in the right place. I messed around with that frigging thing for a little over a half hour before finally, finally it stopped where I needed it to be. The people in the next town over probably could hear my yelled obscenities while I struggled with it.

I just noticed I seem to be asking a lot of questions of my handful of readers lately. Well, here's another one. What games have caused your temper to boil over? Ever gotten complaints about the volume of your game rage induced screaming? I haven't, but as I tend to have a window open during the summer time, It would not surprise me if my neighbors were a little worried about my welfare.

Realted Links:

F--k the Moon

Watcha Playing: Loving/Hating Mario Kart Wii

Love-Hate: In Defense of the Cutscene