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Inevitable, even with so many good games to be had, there will be games that,
for whatever reason, don't live up to the hype, the expectation, or the
quality of its predecessors. These games may not necessarily be bad on their
own (though plenty are!), but a game that promises much and doesn't deliver
can be a poor game indeed. With so many RPGs to choose from on a variety of
platforms, RPGamers have the luxury of being picky. With that in mind, the
readers vote on the game that disappointed them most during the past year, and
those become our Letdown category. in 2004, there were a lot of good games,
and few really stuck out that readers as a whole truly despised.
Biggest Letdown 2004 Winner
Fable
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Much like many disappointing games in the past, Fable is a title that promised
plenty, but delivered only a fraction of it. For example, Fable was
originally supposed to sport online play, downloadable content, and other
tie-ins to Xbox Live; all of these were 'nerfed' during the latter ends of
production. Many players were disappointed by how short the required
storyline path of the game was, which could be defeated in less than 10 hours.
Whether this is because the side stories are hard to find or whether there is
little motivation to get them is anyone's guess.
The final thorn in many players' sides was that, despite the freedom to be
good or evil, it was rather difficult to stay evil. This stems partially from
the fact that killing monsters, with little exception, is considered a
positive action and will move the player more towards the good side of the
spectrum - or, at least, out of the bad side of it. All of these factors,
along with an overabundance of silliness include marriages to males and
females in every town as well as a wearable dress item, meant that the fabled
Fable, while breaking many sales records at its launch, found many XBox users
wishing there were more RPGs to choose from.
Tripping into second on the Letdown list is an unsurprising entry. Nearly
every year, while a Final Fantasy game will generally win many top awards, it
invariably ends up in the disappointments as well. This year, Final Fantasy:
Crystal Chronicles receives the dubious pleasure of being second place in the
Letdown category. The hardware cost of Crystal Chronicles alone (a GameCube,
and a GameBoy Advance for each player) left many Final Fantasy fans in the
cold, shaking an angry fist at Square-Enix. Many that did play found that
something, the spark that makes a game out of the Final Fantasy series feel
like, missing from Crystal Chronicles. Toss in a single player mode that is
on the boring side, and unless an RPGamer has a lot of friends with GBAs,
they're out of luck.
On the note of Final Fantasy games, a second title in the series made it into
the hall of shame for the year 2004. Much like Crystal Chronicles, starting
up an account for Final Fantasy XI on the PS2 was, to many, prohibitively
expensive. Combine together the cost of a PS2, a hard drive, an online
network adapter, the game, future expansions, as well as a monthly fee, and
many Final Fantasy fans screamed in fury and rage. The ones that did get into
it found the game had many problems: plenty of immature players as well as
those looking to use the game to make real life cash ruins the atmosphere for
many. Add in harsh penalties for dying as well as a slow level grind, and
it's easy to see why many readers threw up their hands in frustration and
voted for Final Fantasy XI's PS2 version for the bronze spot in Letdown.
by Anna Marie Whitehead
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