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Welcome to another edition of the
mailbag! We've got more from the multi-part letter from
the King of Content. That means more Final Fantasy!
We also discuss the topic of indie legends, and a little Ys
talk.
Let's get right to it...
- Michael
"Wheels" Apps
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This Edition's Contents:
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Grand Space Emperor of Content Part 2
Final Fantasy IX. While tempting, since I
played it almost ten years ago now, I don't know that going
back and finding out the load times are much more irritating
than I remember would be wise. I certainly had fun
though, and the fellow I borrowed it from at the time gets
big-time kudos for making me have a fun summer when I wasn't
scanning crap into a computer system.
Wheels' Comment
The load times
weren't great for sure, but that game is so good
that I barely even remember the load times being
an issue. Final Fantasy IX so expertly
captures everything that was so great about the
earlier series, while executing the visual flair
the series was known for by that point. That's
not even touching on the soundtrack, which is
quite possibly the best of the trio of PS1 Final
Fantasy games. I have very few negative
things to say about Final Fantasy IX.
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Final Fantasy X. Now this theoretically could
be interesting, since I adored the fighting but thought the
plot took WAY too long to unpack its information and had
huge holes. I don't expect to change my mind much, but
it could happen a bit. Fighting was a joy, anyway.
Wheels' Comment
I feel like the
great characters (note: not blue guy) make up
for the plot holes, but we will agree that the
combat was an absolute joy. More games need to
find ways to make use of the whole party roster
in combat. Now if they could just remake the
game and touch up the plot a bit...
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Final Fantasy X-2. Look, a sequel I
played! I have to wonder how many people would adore
its combat system if they'd played any Grandia games
though - those games did a much better job with similar
component parts. Plot is silly and I didn't like the
mission structure at all, nor did I get anywhere close to
all the Dress Spheres since the requirements got pretty
arcane for some of them. I didn't HATE it, but I don't
see the need to inflict it upon myself again either.
Wheels' Comment
I'm coming around
to it now during this whole second chance
contest. Everything seems to fit the goofy style
of the story pretty well, especially the whole
costume changing nature of the combat. While Grandia
certainly does all the real time interuption
stuff much better than Final Fantasy X-2,
it certainly can't mach the fun job swapping.
Someone needs to mash the two together into one
glorious and awesome system.
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Final Fantasy XI. Never
gave it a first chance, not going to either when my internet
likes to go out and I refuse to go through the hassles this
game requires. Sorry.
Wheels' Comment
I could never get
into it, partially because I had played World
of Warcraft before it which is leagues
better in terms of interface and design. Final
Fantasy XI was just a bit dated in those
regards. I've heard the story does get pretty
cool. It's a shame there's no single player
version of it.
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Final Fantasy XII. I remember liking it quite a
bit, though the loss of Matsuno was not a good thing since
it left a lot of dangling plot items that were just kind of
ignored. Fun to play and rewarding to explore
though. If I was to play it again though I'd probably
get sucked into trying to tackle those monstrous extra
battles - I remember just blundering into Zeromus and
getting taken apart in under two minutes. Not so good,
eh?
Oh, and the conclusion rips off Star Wars even more
than certain other parts. Just gotta get that out
there. Death Star escape at the end of Return of
the Jedi, anyone?
Didn't play Revenant Wings. Should I?
Wheels' Comment
Yeah, the whole
Matsuno situation is a crying shame as I'm sure
this game could have been even better had the
plot been properly wrapped up. Also I feel like
Matsuno probably didn't want Vaan and maybe
Panelo in there, as they barely feel like they
belong with the rest of the cast. No sense
pondering what could have been though. As it
stands, Final Fantasy XII is a fantastic
game.
Revenant Wings is a decent enough
experience, I'd recommend giving it a try.
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Also didn't play XIII, XIII-2, or Lightning
Returns. I'm comfortable waiting a long time
before tackling that trilogy. You can go ahead and try
to convince me to do it immediately, but unless you're a
silver-tongued devil (Django Unchained memories...) I
don't expect it to succeed.
Wheels' Comment
No, wait a few
years to tackle this so that the insane vitriol
has died down. Also, you don't need to play XIII-2.
Others love it, but I found it to take
everything that XIII did right and
needlessly mess with it, including ditching the
loveable cast for two awful characters. Lightning
Returns is a far better experience, that
offers unique gameplay and lots of nods to the
series as a whole.
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Same with XIV. I'm perfectly prepared to
believe it's an awesome MMO. I've never gotten into
one and that's not about to change.
Then there are all the side entries in this series...
no. We don't need to suck up even more time with them,
unless you've got some burning a hole in your brain that
must be used to convert people right now In
which case - go for it!
Wheels' Comment
WHERE
IS THE FINAL FANTASY TACTICS
TALK?!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
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Let's try one you might get easily... put Anna Kendrick into
an RPG!
Wheels' Comment
Well she played
Scott Pilgrim's sister in the movie adaptation
of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, so how
about some bizarre spin-off RPG where you play
as Stacey Pilgrim trying to navigate the bizarre
things happening to Scott?
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Now to touch on the continuing bane of my existence.
Oh yes, I'll talk about Agarest again. Only
one mention of the title though. No need to get too
hateful yet.
-JuMeSyn
(TO BE CONTINUED...)
Wheels' Comment
That's right
folks, tune in next week for some Agarest talk!
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The Legend
In nearly every media, there have been surprise masterpieces
created from the vision and hard work of but one
person. Why hasn't this happened in the indie RPG
yet? Where is that one game where people ask "where
did he come from" that catapults some dude from hobbyist to
legend.
-Eric
Wheels' Comment
I don't really buy
into the whole idea of "vision and hard work of
but one person" thing. There's always others
involved, be it creating certain assets, actors,
set designers, musicians, etc. While there are
certainly plenty of individuals who act as a
driving force behind something, rarely are they
the only part of the package. Such is usually
the case with video games, especially
considering you aren't going to find many
programmers who are also artists and musicians.
There's a few instances, like Jeff Vogel being
the main force behind his original Exile series
and the many indie RPGs that followed from
Spiderweb Software, but I don't think he makes
the art or music assets himself. So long story
short, I don't think the thing you're looking
for exists in any medium. If you're looking for
"driving forces" behind games I think there's a
ton, they just aren't always as front and center
as they are in other places. If you did you can
find them though!
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Top Tweets
Wheels' Comment
That is great to
hear! I always enjoy hearing people get into an
Ys game. It's a series I've come
to love in recent years. Memories of Celceta
in particular has the great battle system from Ys
Seven along with a larger world to
explore, and of course the usual fantastic
music. As much as people seem to drool over the
Legend of Heroes games, I wish that
Falcom had more resources available to make more
frequent Ys entries. I can't really
complain though, the Ys games they do
eventually put out have been fantastic. It's
good to finally consistently get localizations
for a series that was once open only to
importers. Thank you XSEED!
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Hot Topics
Here are some hot topics I've seen around
the net:
- JRPGs don't seem to be having much trouble selling
decently in the West, so where has Dragon Quest
gone?
- Atlus has announced localizations for the upcoming
bananza of Persona games, but what of Devil
Surviver 2: Break Record
- If Child of Light is a success, will we see
more RPGs with the UbiArt engine?
- WHACHA GONNA DO BROTHA
See you next week!
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