Monolith Soft announces GC/PS2 rpg

[Great Rumbler]

Monolith Soft has posted an official statement in their homepage, stating that the company is currently working on a new RPG, which will be heading to both GameCube and PlayStation 2.

This is certaintly good news: a new GC rpg and it's from the makers of Xenosaga. Doesn't get much better than that.


Magic Box

[OB1]

Too bad it's not GC-exclusive though.

[WhiteFleck]

"You're... so... selfish!"

Name the reference and win an internet cookie.

[A Black Falcon]

That is cool... now if only it wouldn't have random battles...

[Great Rumbler]

Random battles aren't that bad.

[Private Hudson]

Selfish, maybe. But I'm certainly with OB1. I, myself, know many people who are teetering on the purchase of a GCN who actually love Japanese RPG's.

A great exclusive RPG could swing them over.

Although, Crystal Chronicles is already on the way :D

[OB1]

Let's just hope that's not another Mystic Quest. It doesn't exactly have the appeal of FF X, yunno?

[A Black Falcon]

Huh? What's Mystic Quest have to do with this?

[Great Rumbler]

Hudson mentioned Crystal Chronicle and OB1 commented that he hoped it didn't turn out like Mystic Quest.

[A Black Falcon]

But Crystal Chronicle is nothing like Mystic Quest...

[Great Rumbler]

That wasn't what he was saying. Mystical Quest was an awful game and OB1 hopes that Crystal Chronicle doesn't turn out to be a bad game.

[Private Hudson]

lol Falcon :D

[OB1]

Exactly, GR.

[OB1]

Originally posted by A Black Falcon
That is cool... now if only it wouldn't have random battles...

Their last game (xenosaga) didn't have random battles so I wouldn't worry about that. And the turn-based battle system in 'Saga is excellent.

[A Black Falcon]

I still don't see where the parallel comes from... I gotthat he meant he didn't want it to turn out bad, but I don't see why he'd expect it to end up anything like Mystic Quest... the circumstances of those games are so different... it doesn't make sense.

Oh, and its great that it well might not have random battles... that instantly improves any RPG by quite a lot...

[OB1]

GR and Hudson didn't seem to have a problem understanding that simple comment.

[Dark Jaguar]

Mystic Quest is different for a very large reason. Mystic Quest was specifically made to cater to American RPG newbies. Not even general Americans here, just the people who never played an RPG in their life. It didn't have random battles by the way, not that it made it any better. You still couldn't avoid them since they were in your path, and since you learned to hate the battle system as you went on (yes, I know saying "you" in a list of instructions or progress is terrible grammqr, but whatever) it just got worse and worse. End that with the ability to kill everything in the game with life and cure spells (even the last boss), and the high number of those you have access to, and the just plain boring gameplay outside of battle, plus the dull story, and you end up with a very boring game. It was MEANT to be easy and simple though. They did that job exceptionally well. However, it was SO easy and simple that it accomplished the opposite of it's goal and got some RPG newbies to hate the genre with their first game.

On the other hand, Crystal Chronicle is not in that situation. Game companies learned that doing something like that is indeed a very bad mistake. It's just different is all. Mystic Quest was only intended to be simple and easy, not "revelutionary". Compairing the two is silly when you realize the only similarity here is that they are spin-offs of the main series. Even then though, Tactics is a spin-off and it turned out great.

[OB1]

Ok, let me quote Great Rumbler who understood what I was saying, one word at a time for you slower folk:

That
wasn't
what
he
was
saying.
Mystical
Quest
was
an
awful
game
and
OB1
hopes
that
Crystal
Chronicle
doesn't
turn
out
to
be
a
bad
game.


Does that make things simple for ya? If you'd like I could act out a little play for you guys that would better illustrate this point in a manner that could perhaps be easier for you to understand than big complex words.

[A Black Falcon]

Well that isn't what we intrepreted it as... I was thinking pretty much what DJ said there... ie actually thinking you meant it as a comparison on more than just the game's success. If you didn't, then you should have said that! As it is it makes no sense... as DJ said, Mystic Quest was designed to be simple for American audences... unlike CC... and CC isn't even in the same genre! Its a action-adventure game like the Mana series!

[OB1]

Damn, you two really have a knack for completely blowing things out of proportion. Right now CC is a big question mark. It's too early to tell if it's going to be any good, so I said that I hope it won't suck like Mystic Quest did, because that's the only bad FF game I can think of.

[A Black Falcon]

But why would you think it might be bad?

Oh, and I don't see why its so strange to actually think you meant what you said...

[Dark Jaguar]

Woah, perhaps you misunderstood me. I was actually just venting, not responding to that statement (which I JUST read). I don't think you actually view the two as the same, but I thought I might as well make arguments against that point anyway.

[Great Rumbler]

Actually you can draw parallels between Mystic Quest and Crystal Chronicle.

Mystic Quest: Dumbed down for American gamers.

Crystal Chronicle: Under worst case scenario it is dumbed down for younger audiences.

Hopefully this will not be the case. But too many developers are dead set that the GC is for kids and it wouldn't surprise me if Square pulled something like that.

[OB1]

Originally posted by A Black Falcon
But why would you think it might be bad?

Oh, and I don't see why its so strange to actually think you meant what you said...

It might be bad because there isn't too much info on it. It also might be good. It's too early to tell.

Boy, it really gets old having to explain these elementary concepts to you on such a frequent basis.

[Dark Jaguar]

Aside from a quote that was likely mistranslated from Konami, and some 3rd party company that never made a game I liked anyway, I don't recall anything like that. Then again, I forget that even one is "too many" :D.

[OB1]

Anything like what?

[Dark Jaguar]

I was actually responding to GR.

[OB1]

About what?

[big guy]

people thinking the GC is for kids

[big guy]

hmmm...how can i put this gently...i hate Xenosaga.

i'm not saying that it's a bad game...it's too early to pass tyhat judgement on the poor thing, but i don't understand how the developers, nay, the industry can even consider this a game. 8 hours into it and i think i've sat watching scripted events for probably 6 of those hours...not even FF8 was that bad...given, the snippets of gameplay in between the enormous story segments are more satisfying than those in FF8...and the story being told for 3/4 of the game is more engaging that the one in FF8...and the characters are more interesting... anyway, it just isn't a game...it's a movie that has you push buttons to progress the story.

to anyone here who owns it, does the game unfold? will there be segments of exploration? will the gameplay begin to outweigh the story sequences? i really want to like this game, because the story and charactyers are so cool...but it's just so boring to sit and watch so much story stuff. the gameplay is almost trivial in the scope of things.

anyway, i bring this up because i really hope this GC game that monolith is working on has more playtime than xenosaga...or at least has more playtime in the first 8 hours of the game...

ah well, time for bed.

[OB1]

Well yeah, if you don't like cinemas you probably won't like this game. But there is around 20-30 hours of gameplay underneath it all (my empire of dirt--sorry), so you can definitely call it a game. I don't think there's much in terms of exploration (gets Skies for that), but the story is excellent and the battle system is in my opinion one of the best in this type of game.

[Dark Jaguar]

Nah, when you get access to the EVS, the exploring part is really expanded.

If you hate cinemas, pause and press triangle!

[OB1]

But then you miss all of the story!

When do you get the EVS?

[Dark Jaguar]

[OB1]

oh that. I never bothered with it since none of the environments I've been to have been that exciting.

[big guy]

well, i would skip the story except it seems there'd be even less to do in the game without it...and i have skipped quite a few of the cinematics so far...after having already seen them once before...so that skipping option is wonderful.

from what i've played of each of these games it just seems that this is a step back from xenogears. oh, and i don't actually own the game, i've been playing a friends copy...which is why i'm playing it instead of skies of arcadia.