Tropical
Fun
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| November 18th, 2011 |
11/18- 12:00PM EST
Welcome to another edition of Q&A! I
return from a cruise to warmer places, and
hope you all enjoyed the fantastic Ask
Ocelot last week. Lots of games came out
since I've been away, and I'm knee deep in War in the
North, Uncharted 3, and even a
little Mario
with Zelda
to follow very soon. Anyway, let's
see what you all wrote me while I was away
(OK some of these have been in the backlog
for longer)...
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Dear Wheels,
What's this? I'm sending a letter
less than three month after
the last? Well, you see, the reason I send
letters in rarely is mostly
because I don't always have ideas for topics
or questions. However, it
seems at least one person liked my little
history lesson on the
beginnings of the Megami Tensei
series. So I thought, why not continue to
send in letters covering the
rest of the games in the series that have
not been released in North
America? I'll stick to three games per
letter so these
don't get monstrously long.
Wheels
Yes!
I enjoyed hearing about the
history of the series, so more
of that is more than alright by
me. Let's see what you've got.
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The first game actually titled Shin
Megami Tensei takes place in
Tokyo in 199X. Demons have
begun to invade the world and a Japanese
general named Goto
attempts to take over the country by using
these creatures. The
nameable protagonist soon gets an email
containing a demon
summoning program. With it, he goes
out to try to stop Goto along
with some other nameable characters he meets
along the way. Regardless
of the choices the player makes, he is
unable to prevent the Great
Destruction. He then must decide what sort
of new world will arise from
the ashes of the old: will he side with the
angels and create the
thousand year kingdom of God, will he join
with the demons and create a
world of chaos, or will he beat back both in
order for humans to build
a new world for themselves. The familiar
elements of demon negotiations
and fusing return of course from the Famicom
games. Human playable
characters aside from the Hero are the
namable Heroine, a namable “Law
Hero” and a namable “Chaos Hero.” Only the
Heroine stays by the Hero’s
side regardless of the path taken. The
Hero’s alignment, which
determines the ending, is dependent upon
certain factors, the main ones
being which tasks he takes on assigned by
either the Law (Messian)
faction or the Gaia (Chaos) faction. Also
the demons that are recruited
and summoned can lean the alignment
slightly. On a side-note, the
inventor of the demon-summoning program is a
man named STEVEN (yes, in
all caps like that, for some reason). He is
disabled and confined to a
wheelchair because he tested an experimental
teleporter malfunctioned
and sent him to Makai (the demon world),
where he was attacked by a
demon. If you haven’t guessed by now, he’s a
reference to famed
physicist Stephen Hawking.
Wheels
Wow,
a lot of that sounds somewhat
like what I've heard about Nocturne,
so I guess the series has
certainly stayed consistent.
Anyway, for an older game this
sounds incredibly complex. I'm
sure it wasn't quite as advanced
and well made as the more recent
games, but obviously they had
all the familiar systems in
place. Shame we never got this
game. Also, the inclusion of
Stephen Hawking is pretty cool.
One think the series should move
away from that it is still doing
though: silent protagonists.
Seriously, take a cue from Mass
Effect Atlus.
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Shin
Megami Tensei
II makes the neutral ending of the
first game canon. Taking
place some fifty years later, the world is a
pretty crudy place plagued
by disasters. In the city of Tokyo
Millennium, people fight in
tournaments for the chance to live in the
Center, which is protected
from the demons that still roam the world.
The main character is named,
though I think still silent. His name is
Hawk, but he soon learns that
his real name is Aleph and that he is the
Messiah, who will save
humanity and bring about the Thousand
Kingdom. Sure it sounds nice, but
this kingdom is completely subjugated under
YHVH, a tyrannical jerk of
a god. Also, only a select few people would
be able to live there. This
is one of the few games in the franchise
where you actually can kill
YHVH (the other one I’m aware of being
Megami Tensei II). There are
Neutral demons in the game, instead of just
Law and Chaos ones. Some
other gameplay changes include having more
freedom in passing skills to
fused demons and being able to choose kills
for demons to use in
battle, in exchange for MP or HP. You can
also actually face up to two
different types of demons instead of just
one! (:P) Also, it seems that
while the playable characters from the first
SMT
died or vanished, STEVEN is
still alive. Both games were remade on the
PSX and there is a GBA port
of this game.
Wheels
Very
interesting. These games are
just a refreshing changes from
RPGs both past and present, and
its a real shame we didn't get
the earlier games. I'm sure
they're a bit archaic by this
point, but perhaps a nice coat
of paint and a modern Etrian
Odyssey style engine
could see them returned to
glory? Also by the sound if it,
I'm assuming SMT
III (Nocturne)
isn't a direct sequel?
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The last game I will talk about is Shin
Megami
Tensei:
If. One thing I find especially
interesting is
that fans of the franchise see this
game as a sort of "missing
link" between the classic SMT
games and the Persona
series. Like the Persona
games, SMT:
If take place at
a high school and stars teenagers. These
kids attend Karukozaka High
and one day their school is suddenly
transported to Makai, where one of
their classmates, Ideo Hazama has declared
himself the new Demon
Emperor. Hazama was harshly bullied and
betrayed by his first love, so
he does the sensible thing and tries to
summon demons in the school
gym. The spell goes awry, and instead sucks
the school into Makai,
eventually becoming emperor. As the
player, you choose between a
namable girl or boy. As with the past two
games in the series, the
characters can recruit demons through
negotiations and fuse them. If
also introduces Guardian Spirits. These
being appear when the main
character dies, affecting his/her stat
growth the next the next time
he/she levels up.The type of guardian
determines the stat change. These
Spirits can apparently be considered the
precursors to personae. Also,
the female player character appears in the
first two Persona games (or
three perhaps since Persona 2
consists of two games), where she is called
Tamaki Uchida. She is a
minor character, but some of the things she
says and does can be taken
to mean the Persona games and SMT: If
are
in the same continuity...or maybe it's just
a mythology gag. :P This
game was also remade for the PS1, and all
three games mentioned here
are on on Japanese Wii Virtual Console.
Wheels
I
have heard a bit about If,
namely that it was the
pre-cursor to the Persona
series. Sounds like it
has a similar sort of setup, the
whole summoning thing reminding
me of how Persona
1 starts. This is
another game I'd love to see
translated in some way. Atlus
has been good about bringing
over the remakes of previously
unreleased games, but I'd love
to see them maybe translate an
older game for release on the
virtual console or something.
I'm sure that wouldn't really be
worth their while, but we can
dream!
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So those were the three SMT
games on the Super Famicom, though there
were other games in the MegaTen
metaseries. It seems like
they would have be fun to play, but for
various reason, they've never
come here. I'm actually rather surprised
there hasn't been a recent
remake, as I'm sure they'd do fairly well
considering the franchise's
popularity in North America. There is that
3DS "Shin
Megami Tensei" game that was
announced some time ago. Here's hoping it's
some kind of remake of at
least the first two games.
Wheels
That
would be interesting, and with
an Etrian Odyssey game
also coming to the platform,
they could create an engine to
use with both games. Of course
such an engine could easily be
used to create a brand new SMT
game, but you never know. Atlus
does seem to enjoy remaking
games in the series. Any SMT
on the 3DS is fine by me!
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I'm afraid I have no actual questions to
ask, as this letter is quite
long enough, and I can't really think of any
other than obvious ones
(which game sounds more interesting to you,
how would you like them
remade, etc.). So I'll end here. Thanks for
reading! Next time I'll
discuss the Majin Tensei
games.
-Strawberry Eggs
Wheels
No
worries, you've provided a lot
of good information I'm sure the
readers will enjoy, certainly
more than my usually nonsensical
replies!
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In honor of our recent debate on the RPG
Backtrack, I ask you to come
up with an easy way to make use of the
smithing system in Legend of Mana that can
get good
results without a lot of thought. It'd help
me out with playing the
game.
-TwinBahamut
Wheels
I'm
not quote sure that there's any
"easy" way to make use of the
smithing system, but perhaps you
would be better off ignoring it?
Legend of Mana's
sub-systems can get pretty
in-depth, but given that the
combat is usually on the easy
side, I'm not sure sinking a lot
of time into that particular
system will be worth your while
(I never bothered with it
myself). I find the best way to
enjoy the game is to just relax,
explore, and not worry about
whether you're crafting the best
items. Just make whatever you
can with the materials you've
found on your journeys. I would
never claim Legend
of Mana is a completely
brilliant game, and I think the
fact that the combat system is
often not challenging weakens
any enjoyment you may get out of
smithing, monster raising, etc.
My recommendation is to ignore
the smithing system if you find
it difficult or bothersome and
just go explore the colorful
world!
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Secrets of Secret of Mana
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Hi Wheels!
I noticed that a certain Daniel had
mentioned a remake of Seiken
Densetsu 2 (otherwise known
as Secret
of Mana) in his
letter. Has anyone with connections ever
actually attempted to figure
out what happened to the pieces of the REAL
Seiken
Densetsu 2?
Wheels
This
is a good question, as you'll
soon reveal I'm sure, Secret
of Mana was originally
intended to be a larger game on
an accessory that was never
released, not that the final
product seems much harmed by
this fact.
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Scratching your head, are you?
Haven't you ever noticed that things
throughout the game seem to be...
somewhat unfinished? Have you noticed the
unusually orchestral quality
of the music, compared to many SNES games of
that particular year? Have
you noticed how truncated the dialogue seems
in many places?
There's a reason for it.
Wheels
I'm
not quite sure I ever noticed
things as unfinished. The story
is a bit brisk at times, but it
was largely typical for games of
that era. I will say some areas
seemed underutilized, but that
didn't necessarily equate to
being unfinished. The music was
brilliant, but what Squaresoft
games for SNES didn't have
brilliant music?
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Here's the deal. Seiken Densetsu 2
wasn't originally designed to be played from
a cartridge. It was one of
the first Square titles specifically made to
be played from a CD- with
orchestral quality music, a vast world...
basically an astoundingly
huge masterpiece. When Nintendo screwed Sony
over by publicly
humiliating them during the SNESCD debacle,
they also figuratively
kicked Square in the teeth as well- the RPG
maker had to hastily take
the game they had so lovingly been making
and slash it to pieces, all
so it would fit into a sixteen megabit
cartridge.
Wheels
As
previously revealed, I did in
fact know this somewhat, though
I wonder if our other Daniel
did? Anyway, Nintendo really
shot themselves in the foot with
this whole CD thing, but we all
know that story. I wonder if the
reason it was killed is similar
to the reason they stuck with
cartridges for so long, that
reason being a hatred for
loading times. I can't say I
dislike the idea in theory, but
who knows what could have been
had Nintendo embraced CD media.
Perhaps we would have gotten a
bigger Secret of Mana
and many other similarly huge
games? Then again, it could have
ended up with the same fate as
the Sega CD and largely be
ignored.
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So hey, if anyone who's got any connections
might end up reading this-
how about seeing if Square might put back
the stuff we lost- a real,
true release of what Secret of Mana
was meant to be?
-Daniel
Wheels
Well,
there's a large number of
problems with this. The first
is, did they ever actually make
that content? As far as I can
recall, it was certainly planned
as a CD, but I don't recall
whether or not it actually was
anywhere near completion as a
release for the CD accessory. It
could be it was planned that
way, and then scaled back
mid-development or during
planning and that content may
never have even been made. The
other issue is Japanese
developers are notorious for
having lost source code for a
lot of old games, so if it did
exist, chances are high
Square-Enix doesn't even have
the data anymore. Sadly I don't
think we'll ever get a great
answer to this, but maybe they
should just remake Secret
of Mana and make it
bigger and better? I'd buy that.
Anyway, great question Daniel,
be sure to write in some more!
Don't want to be outdone by
Other Daniel X, do you?
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My last challenges too easy?
Let's link The Match King to The Rhapsody
of Zephyr, then!
Wheels
My good sir, I thought you'd present
me with a challenge? The
Rhapsody of Zephyr was
developed by softmax -> softmax
developed the Magna
Carta games -> Namco
published Magna Carta II in
the US -> Namco published the
game based on the 2010 version of Clash
of the Titans -> Warner
Bros distributed that film ->
Warner Bros distributed some version
of the film The
Match King
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Link The
Locked Door to Langrisser 4!
JuMeSyn
Wheels
Alright, this one is going to get a
bit insane. Langrisser
4 developed by Careersoft
-> Careersoft developed Langrisser
III for the Saturn ->
the PS2 version of that game was
published by Taito -> Taito is
now owned by Square-Enix->
Square-Enix made the film Final
Fantasy Spirits Within
-> Sony distributed this film
-> Sony's TriStar Motion Picture
group distributes some MGM
films-> MGM owns United Artsts
-> United Artists distributed The
Locked Door. As the kids
would say, BOOYA.
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That's it for this week! I'll see you all
next week, wherein I'm sure I'll have
nothing but Zelda on the brain.
See you then!
-Wheels
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