Boojum - 15:20 EST

HELLO, AND WELCOME one and all to my sixth and final co-hosting earned from SOCK 1 - just one full-hosting remains before I vanish away and return you to your regularly scheduled programming. This batch of letters is about one game after another that I either never played or started and never finished, so insightful commentary is probably in short supply today. I'm really not quite such an attention-span-lacking curmudgeon as I probably come off as below - over the past few years I've enjoyed and finished quite a few games. Since this is almost my last chance at momentary fame and influence in this column, I'll take advantage of it to urge you all to try any or all of: Gladius, Baten Kaitos, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, La Pucelle, Dark Cloud 1 & 2, Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja, Puzzle Quest, and Rudra No Hihou. Anyway, on to the letters!

Sirrah Boojum, we meet again. I hope you are well?

Hokay. As I presume you've been keeping up with the PoV pipeline, you're in the know about how I favor Super Robot Taisen. Any comments on that review in particular?

Also: my unexpected liking for that game and the second Original Generations title has translated into me casting about for more of them (not yet, just to have on hand). Lo and behold, there are a LOT of these games and except perhaps for the PS2 redo of the two Original Generations games none of them are going to come out in English because of the massive lawsuit risk commensurate. Four more GBA titles, four SNES titles, two Saturn, one Dreamcast, even a genuine N64 RPG that stayed forever in Japan! Along with a plethora of stuff on Sony, natch. This is a big 'un.

Now, I espouse the music of Treasure Hunter G possibly as its best asset, even with the unique tactical-esque combat system it utilizes. As such I feel compelled to give you a sample: http://gh.ffshrine.org/song/4291/58 This would be for Atlantis, smaller than a lost continent would be expected. What think you?

I'm weighing whether to start Black/Matrix or Vandal Hearts next. Any ideas? A bit of research has revealed that Black Matrix AD on Dreamcast is different enough from the original to probably warrant investigating, incidentally.

And that crazy Dreamcast has quite a few interesting titles that I feel like exploring given time and budget. Of course they're mostly Japan-only thanks to the poor system's death. Not that it bothers me overly.

Guess I'll talk a bit about FEDA, yet another quality tactical title that you're probably familiar with thanks to my reviews. One interesting facet is how characters lost in combat are dealt with: they end up in a jail and must be broken out. This isn't nearly as interesting as it sounds since Brain and Ain (the main characters) must simply take out a couple of guards in order to free the character, but doing so uses up time. Time must not be wasted if the player wants to keep a high rank. And if the player's rank changes too much characters who will only stay a part of the team if it is law/chaos will leave permanently. I learned that on the SNES original, when I got tired of massacring everything and began to lose Chaos characters fairly soon.

I'm limiting the music today in an effort not to irritate to many people, but one other game I strongly assert has a high-quality soundtrack is Tengai Makyou Zero. Thus I submit this track to you: http://gh.ffshrine.org/soundtracks/7248/22. It comes from the point at which Hisui the fairy must give her essence to her successor Subaru, for these fairies live 20 years and then give their life force to the next.

What, the game beyond the music? Pretty hard. I was level 81 and the final boss still gave me a workout. Lots of nasty opponents throughout. One of them had a strange move that removed my readout of my character statuses, meaning I had to either quickly write down the damages and status changes or else have a good memory. Only one person was still alive when I unexpectedly dealt the final blow...

I'm pretty tired, so I decide this is an acceptable ending. Clearly you're not going to sleep right now, but fare thee well.

JuMeSyn

Same to you! Thanks for writing in.

Hey Matt!

I've been thinking. As good as an RPG may be, sometimes they can get dragged down by pathetic side quests. I do like taking on a good side quest now and then, but in somegames, they seem to cheapen the experience.

One of the best examples of a good use of side quests was in Chrono Trigger. Everything you did after the Ocean Palace was really a set of sub quests to beef you up in preparation for the final battle with Lavos. It was able to clear up some character's storylines (Especially Marle and her father, and trying to change the aftermath of what happened in the Ocean Palace). We got to see the characters develop more and face their individual challenges head on. Not to mention most of them were really satisfying.

One of the examples of Side Quests was Final Fantasy X. As much as I liked the game, most of the subquests were either really tedious (Blitzball!) or totally not worth the effort (Ultimate weapons that sucked, even after you got the crests needed to use them!). Whenever there was an option to play blitzball, I totally bypassed it. It was a sub quest that could potentially max out Waka's Overdrives and get him an ultimate weapon, but they really weren't necessary since his initial overdrive was pretty powerful to begin with! The colliseum was a neat concept, but fell flat on its face because the prizes offered were often kind of lousy. Too bad most of the Side Quests didn't flesh out the characters (Except for Auron). It would have made going after them worthwhile.

Well, subquests are here to stay. Let's hope the developeres can be creative with them.

Witecat

"Gar like green tea. Gar civilized!"

It's true, but here's a place where developers really could stand to take a look back into the past and learn a thing or two from the classic games of the SNES era. It's been awhile since I've felt compelled to complete the optional stuff, but I miss those days like a baby bird that misses its regurgitative mother.

FFX was a huge disappointment. There were a number of issues.

Firstly, I thought the story was really ordinary, but what made it worse was the insistence on trying to make every cutscene emotional and memorable. The result was an over the top mess, best illustrated by the "laughing cutscene".

Secondly finding the ultimate weapons and creating the best armors was plain annoying. There is no way anyone can get the ultimate weapons without a guide. I repeat no way. And what made it worse that even after using a guide you had to play silly minigames with the hope that you get lucky on your 1000th attempt. Armor was an even more time consuming affair. For any good ability you needed to spend hours and hours collecting and then start again for the next character. Since you couldn't transfer abilities from one armor to another you'd normally go through the game with inconsequential equipment and relying largely on your stats, all the while saving the customizable items for the 4 free slot armor. That gave it a very tedious feel. Unfortunately this trend of relying on luck and grinding away has been carried forward to FFXII, which while a better game really became a chore if you wanted all the best weapons and armor.

I really felt that with the resources developers now have, they could make proper sidequests where you finish hidden dungeons to get the best weapons, etc but they seem to prefer making players go through 100 hours of grinding.

My favourite FF's are the trinity of 6, 7 and imo the best one is 8. I really hope Square Enix revisits those games and changes up the formula they have been following.

On the non FF RPG front I hope they continue the Xenosaga story. Even if it's a new cast set in a Xeno-like universe, Id be happy. The stories are unparalleled. They can stay with you long after you stop playing and make you think and read up on Nietzsche, Jung, Gnosticism, etc. I think it's fantastic if a game can raise an interest which carries beyond gaming.

My fav RPGs this gen:

Xenosaga 3 (although you need to play the previous iterations to truly appreciate it)

SMT Nocturne

DQ8

Rahul

I haven't gotten around to Xenosaga yet, but Nocturne would definitely make my list as well. Gladius is another that would certainly make the cut, and the third spot comes down to a tossup between Baten Kaitos and Dark Cloud 2. I'm about 20 hours into DQ8 so far, and am enjoying it quite a bit, but it's been pushed aside for the moment in favor of Odin Sphere. Anyway, thanks for writing in, Rahul.

Hey Matt, I've been reading your Q&A for a while and it's nice to know that there's people like me out there that get every single item and go through every single ridiculously time consuming side quests and horde all the items (elixirs, stat boosting items) instead of using them. Unfortunately my condition goes a little beyond that. I can't move onto another game even if "completing" my current game has become a chore, you know, when the story is all done and you're just constantly leveling up to beat that big extra boss or getting useless rare items in some mini game you hate. In such cases I tend to play another genres to fool myself to thinking I'm not "cheating", which is why I've been playing fighting far more than RPGs lately.

Anyways, I'm a big fan of the Tales games, so I was both surprised and dissapointed by the new Tales news. First the Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut thing... why? The game itself is a complete remake and the last version is not even a year old. What could they have changed or added in so little time? I feel silly for investing over 80 hours on that game now. About the other 3 games I can't say I'm too excited because I don't own either of the three systems. The dissapointing news for me was that they announced that the Nintendo DS was going to be the new home of the Tales series. You've been saying for a while how great the DS is and how it can become the new RPG console of choice but I didn't expect it to happen this fast and with franchise as big as Tales. While the great plot and gameplay will be spared, the change to a handheld, less powerful console like the DS will affect the graphics, and more importantly for me personally, the amount of voice acting in the series. If there's something that gave the Tales series a special place was the amount of great quality voice acting in almost almost every single story event ever since the Tales of Eternia days. I'll probably keep playing them though, and this piece of news made me decide to get a DS over a PSP, which I couldnt decide since forever.

Later Matt, and sorry for the huge letter.

Epyon-01
--
Ernesto Herrera

Hey Ernesto, it's okay- and it's not that huge.

The thing is, that it already has happened. The sequel to Final Fantasy XII is coming to the DS. The next main-series Dragon Quest is coming to the DS, for heaven's sakes, and that's one of the biggest RPG series in the whole wide world. It's not to say that the PSP isn't a happy home for RPGamers; au contraire. In fact, I'm almost willing to say that it's the second-best choice out of all systems if you're a fan of the RPG. Why "almost"? Shining Force just came out on Wii's virtual console, just as I predicted it might. Yeah. I know. CRAZY. SO incredible.

Anyway, I appreciate your letter, Ernesto. And yeah, it wasn't that long, so do not worry.

My favorite Zelda? It is surely Wind Waker. The game has one one flaw I can think of: It is too short, about 10 hours. It hits in all areas: Graphics, gameplay, story, sound/music. The pacing is excellent. Critics will say the combat is too easy, but I didn't mind that. Which one is your favorite?

Flamethrower

Ooh, you guys are just determined to expose gaps in my RPG credentials today, aren't you? Wind Waker is the only console Zelda game that I never finished (well, technically, I'm still in the middle of Twilight Princess, but that's new, so it doesn't count). I got a few hours in, and just had a hard time maintaining interest because of the sailing portions. Actually, come to think of it, the big overworlds that take a long time to get around and don't have all that many points of interest have been my least favorite aspect of all the 3D Zeldas. I kept meaning to go back to it, but something else came out (I think it was Fire Emblem), and I got distracted. That said, I loved the visual style, and am excited to see it come back in Phantom Hourglass, especially with all the positive buzz and reviews that the gameplay is getting. I know you cite short length as a problem with Wind Waker, but ironically, that makes me more interested in going back to finish it up, since it's less of a time commitment. Anyway, my favorite Zelda would have to be A Link to the Past - it just had a perfect balance of exploration, puzzles, and combat, and was paced ideally. The light/dark world mechanic was also really well-executed, and I felt that the way it touched so many aspects of the game made it work better than any of the subsequent "twists" in the series. Its attractive, clear, and colorful graphics and memorable music were also big points in its favor. Thanks for writing in, Flamethrower!

Matt/Boojum

On the announcement of all the new Tales games and the lukewarm response from people, well, it doesn't seem that different from when Final Fantasy ports and remakes are announced. We just need to go back to Q&A columns of a few months ago to see people's reactions to the PSP/DS announcements for FFI, FFII, and FFIV. To me, they seem very much like the early responses to these Tales ports and remakes. And even though people initially complained about those FF rehashes, I bet many still bought them anyway. (I know I did!) And I recall you, Matt, also admitting that you would probably buy them too, so I'm sure you can understand how these Tales fans are feeling, even if you haven't played a game in the series yet. I think many of these complaining Tales fans are going to buy these games anyway, and I know that I'm going to be buying them when they're released (I adore Tales).

Then again, I have to think about their chances of actually getting released here. Now the only two "main-series" (non-spinoff) installments of Tales that aren't available in North America in any shape or form are Tales of Destiny 2 and Tales of Rebirth. And there's something that these two have in common: they're both sprite-based PS2 games. I remember hearing a few years ago that SCEA somehow has some kind of grudge against sprite-based games on the PS2. I don't know if that's still true, or if it's true at all. However, looking at how the only two sprite-based, PS2 installments of the main Tales series are also the same two main-series games to never get localized here, seems to support that anti-sprite notion (Tales of Legendia and The Abyss on PS2 were localized, and they used polygons). The same even goes for the PSP, with the sole polygon-based Tales game on it, Radiant Mythology, being the only localized one on the system. It sure is frustrating to be a Tales fan in North America. At least I'm learning Japanese, but I assume that many other fans aren't, which is a pity.

FirstAid

Hey, I'd LOVE to learn Japanese as much as the next avid gamer, but it's not exactly something that can be easily fit into a busy guy's schedule.

As for the chances that these will be brought to North America? I'd say that they're pretty good. The DS is doing extremely well everywhere in the world, so what do they have to lose by releasing it here? On top of that, Tales of Symphonia was, in the eyes of many, the Gamecube's flagship RPGs and, I believe, the strongest-North-American-selling Tales game ever to be released. They'd be stupid not to release the Wii sequel, based on this. The Playstation 2 remake is probably the least likely to be released here, but it's hard to say.

Any way you cut it though, Tales fans have a whole lot to celebrate. Crack open the champagne, have a toast, and get ready to play!

Hey-o Matt,

I've sort of got a love hate relationship with the Tales series. I bought Tales of Destiny way back on the PS1 and loved it quite a lot. The story and game play were amazing.

Then I played Tales of Destiny II(it was called something else in Japan) and was slightly disappointed. It played similarly, but it felt like re-treading over the first game. In many ways good, but in a lot of ways bad.

I still enjoyed Destiny 2, but not nearly as much as Destiny. So later when Symphonia was announced I was very excited. Then I started playing it. Is it me or is the story the same as Destiny 2? I persevered for a while. But one of my friends beat it and I was only halfway through. So I asked/told him how the game would end. He told me I was spot on in every count. Which upset me a bit seeing as I had just recapped the Destiny 2 story. Killed my desire to play the rest of the game.

So I've been keeping the Tales series on the back burner. I want to have more RPGs than I can play. But I also want them to be good. I have purchased Tales of the Abyss, but have not yet played it. I wonder though at this announcement of more Tales games.

Will they bring back the joy of Destiny? Or will they simply rehash the old plot with new characters? I'm hoping for the best.

Ken

Well, it sounds like Tales of the World will be more of a mashup of characters from the whole series than a typical new RPG. I don't remember what the other upcoming Tales games are. That said, they're definitely on the back-burner for me as well, though for different reasons. For me, it's more about the battle system. In my experience, a fun and engaging battle system for an action-RPG is extremely difficult to do well, because both sides have to be perfectly balanced. If there's too much emphasis on stats, then it gets annoying not having tight control to dodge or pull off interesting moves or attack patterns. If the emphasis is too heavy on the action elements, though, the RPG portions feel tacked-on and unnecessary. Hitting that perfect balance is, in my opinion, tougher than creating an engaging battle system for a traditional or tactical RPG, and I can only think of a handful of games that have really nailed it (Secret of Mana, Terranigma, Diablo I and II, and Odin Sphere are the ones that come to mind), and ToS's battles just left me bored. While I wouldn't mind trying another Tales game if it sounded like it had made significant improvements, it's not a series that I'm following particularly closely. Thanks for the interesting topic, Ken.