So yeah, seems completely shallow interpretations of an entire nation's supply of games is a common problem. Hilarious though.
I especially like the notion that these games are "necessary for national stability".
Frankly there are some good points regarding the sheer amount of drek both countries can shove out the door.
I think it's funny that people look at BOTH sorts of RPGs and can say "there's no sublety". Yeah, I've seen that too. Especially in some recent "opus" grand games, like, yes, Dragon's Age. Making things "grittier" doesn't make it any more subtle. Also, I gotta say, American RPGs really do recycle elves dwarves and "generic middle ages" far too often. Ooh, Dragon Age, an AGE of those dragons! Haven't seen THAT before! All the art styles look like the illustrations of a Dungeon and Dragons manual, and all the landscapes go for the same boring grey and brown caves and forest paths. Heck, while we're at it, why can't they ever come up with something really compelling in terms of unique gameplay systems? While Japan is punching out one strange twist on RPG mechanics after another, all sorts of truly alien ways of viewing the whole thing, here in America it seems developers are stuck in this rut of "let's keep it D&D, only let's make it more actiony".
Yeah I think I've ragged on the cliches there long enough. There's some strengths there.
While the stories themselves are as cliched as ever, one thing I can say is American RPGs make conversation option meaningful far more often. There are exceptions, but Torment is an American game, not a Japanese one. Also, it's America that gives the full puzzle experience. Zelda (not really an RPG in the normal sense) seems to be the lone exception to the general rule that the only interaction you can do in most Japanese RPGs is talk, "check", and fight. Marrying RPG combat and some fun puzzling is a rare treat. Japanese RPGs too get into a rut when it comes to storytelling. Now sure, every RPG is someone's first, and for that person, the story Iv'e seen a hundred times will be fresh and engaging, one they will never forget. That's fine. I loved Final Fantasy 6 and Secret of Mana for the same reason. However, a rut is still a rut. The character "roster" in both cases is getting a little dated. I've seen several commercials for Mass Effect 2 at this point, and is it just me, or is Sheperd getting escorted around by a collection of sociopathic nut jobs? Every single one of them has basically the same personality according to these commercials, something to the effect of "I'm not fighting to save people, because I'm BAAAAD, I just like to kill things". It's redundant to the point where the cast is repeating itself. Japanese RPGs don't do that, they have "variety", but the cast is still cookie cutter in that I can pretty much predict exactly which one I'll be getting next. "I don't have an aloof intelligent character who detests idiots yet, so I bet I'll be getting one here in this forgotten super city", or "Hey I've got an excited plucky adventurer who will never give up, I bet his tomboyish female friend from childhood will probably end up bumping into me just as I leave and force her way into my group".
Western RPGs, "Gritty" does not automatically mean "deep and compelling". Sometimes gritty just makes it over the top and makes me laugh. How tortured a backstory does someone have to have before you shatter my ability to suspend disbelief? Japanese RPGs, it's not really "weird" to have that strange animal person that's way too curious about the main character when EVERY game has one.
I'll be honest, here's something I want to see die at this point. Stop shoving "RPG elements" into all my action genres. I mean, there's even an FPS where you level up now! Now what I basically mean is, it's time that leveling up died. Zelda SHOULD have set the standard for how powerups were done for the past 20 years. Instead we have "trees" and "leveling" and "skill training" and all this other stuff that, at it's core, just isn't fun. I honestly don't get why, for example, Kingdom Hearts and Castlevania have character levels. Can't they do those games without that entirely? Metroid shows you can do modern Castlevania without it, and all those other action games show that Kingdom Hearts could live without it.
But that's not all. "Skill orbs" in modern action games need to go. "Buying" upgrades by just murdering over and over again is boring. How about having out of the way paths and areas where powerups are hidden? Now THAT'S fun. Always has been, always will be, and frankly, it engages me a lot more than sitting around in Beast's Castle killing Nobodies in a room-by-room loop I developed JUST to perfect Master Form. Stupid Jimminy's Journal hidden ending... Of course this started with Devil May Cry, so killing it would have to start there too to really take hold. Again, there's nothing here that couldn't be done in a more compelling way as hidden powerups to find in secret areas or through special tasks or puzzles.
About the only grind even Zelda has yet to escape is money, and for that I'd point to adventure games, that is, puzzle adventure games. They do just fine without a currency system. Simply put, if something needs to be bought, just provide a big sack of generic currency that happens to cover exactly the cost of that item and no more, but generally there's always SOME fun task you can do for a character to get something you want from them.
As much as anyone else, reading "and it's even got some RPG elements!" caught my attention back when it was new, but it isn't any more, and really, the only RPG elements most game companies bother copying is the annoying grind part. Character growth I like. That's fun, but getting it just from doing the same thing over and over? Not so much.
I think maybe if a game had the fun method of growth and depth of puzzles one finds in Zelda or Metroid coupled with vast world to freely explore and character interaction of American RPGs, we'd get one of the greatest games ever made.
Posted by: Dark Jaguar - 17th January 2010, 2:18 PM - Forum: Tendo City
- No Replies
I have noticed lately that Nintendo is finally FINALLY using full color images on their disks instead of those grainy partially colored disk images they've been using since the Gamecube. Shattered Memories, Mario Bros, and the Metroid Trilogy disks look a lot better for it.
So I'd heard it was good, and seen screenshots and stuff, but wow. The graphics (read: art style) in this game are absolutely stunning, some of the best stuff the PS2 has ever seen for sure. Just unbelievable work. Does the Wii version look the same, or better? Either way it'd look great unless they really messed something up.
As for the gameplay I'm still quite early in teh game, but it seems like a fun enough Zelda clone. Not really innovative for the most part, though the brush system is interesting and kind of new, but fun. The slow text speed is really annoying though, it scrolls really slowly and really drags things out a lot longer than they should be... and you can't skip most of it. Bah. The fact that it has save points instead of save anywhere is also unfortunate. Still, I'll be playing this one a lot more for sure! The style and design are just so, so well done, and the game's at least competent, so far at least. Solid story too, with a strong classical Japanese feel of course.
Pretty weird set of things to see together, isn't it? I mean, it's nothing new, but the December sales reinforced this yet again.
On the one hand, the Wii crushed all previous December sales records that month, selling 3.8 million systems, by far the best ever for any system in a single month. Total sales for the year were down slightly from 2008, but thanks to December, not by much. NSMBWii is a massive hit and sold millions. Nintendo-developed Wii games were six of the month's top ten, and it was pretty much the same for the year.
But on the other hand, no third-party Wii games were in the top 10, and the sales numbers we know are mediocre at best; third-party Wii sales aren't all awful, actually, but they aren't stunning either. They don't come anywhere close to first-party Wii sales, and in many cases don't match third-party sales on the PS3 or 360 either.
Of course, a lot of that is the third parties' own fault. Why would it be surprising for rail shooters to not sell that great, honestly? It shouldn't be! Rail shooters are a niche genre! And yet EA (Dead Space: Extraction) and Capcom (the second Umbrella Chronicles game) seem surprised that their rail shooters didn't sell as well as they hoped, and might cut Wii support as a result. Third parties just aren't putting their better teams on the Wii, and then they complain when their B and C team efforts get destroyed by Nintendo, one of the world's best developers. Hmm, yeah, that's hard to understand.
But anyway, it's definitely odd to see the Wii sell so incredibly well, while third parties still complain so much and overall third party support on the Wii really probably hasn't matched the GC's support in terms of quality, much less the PS2 or something. It's got quantity, and vast amounts of shovelware, but quality... not so much.
But still, considering how great Nintendo's own games are, the system fully deserves to sell as well as it is, I think. Hopefully eventually some third parties will get a clue.
Oh yeah, and I'll get a Wii sometime this year for sure...
It seems to be a parody of those old 1980's video game review shows like GamePro (yes, the magazine actually had a show at one point), and a few others I forget the name of.
I don't know if this looks awesome or stupid... probably pretty cool, but we'll see. Better Transformers designs than the recent movies at least, though. :) I don't hate the movie designs as much as some people, but yeah, they just aren't the same as the classics... this game isn't quite the straight classic designs, but it's close, and that's great.
As for the gameplay though, that we'll have to see.
Anyway, so far, the game's mostly good, very much like Phantom Hourglass but with a somewhat better story and less choice in where you can go (because instead of being able to sail freely around you're stuck on the tracks). Because you don't need to go up the tower each time the fact that you're returning there each time means less, and I think I'd actually call that a bad change. Also, I've heard that the game is harder than PH, but apart from what I'm about to complain about below I haven't really noticed that. The music, graphics, and gameplay are all good, and it's just as fun to play as PH was. Mostly a good game.
So, what's the real problem? The flute. Specifically, those songs you need to sing on it in time with the spirit things. I'm at the second of those, with the spirit in the snow area, and I got there several days ago but can't get any farther because it's pretty much impossible. I might just have to give up here, I don't know... it's bad enough that it's a music game thing with timed button presses, and remember that that is something I'm HORRIBLE at, but beyond that, in order to press the buttons you have to BLOW INTO THE MICROPHONE! It's just ridiculous. Oh yeah, and the game gives you no indication of what you're doing wrong or how well you're doing until you suddenly fail after the third time you're supposed to play the notes. Cruel. So yeah, I'm stuck there and don't know if I want to keep trying... it's just ridiculously hard.
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I just found some interesting things on the server.... Hmmmm..
Ow well enjoy!
![[Image: 5-24-Pat-Robertson.jpg]](http://www.bendib.com/newones/2005/may/small/5-24-Pat-Robertson.jpg)
![[Image: Pat_Robertson_putz.gif]](http://www.b12partners.net/mt/images/Pat_Robertson_putz.gif)