|
Welcome to another edition of the
mailbag! I'm still working on Dark Souls 2 and Final
Fantasy X-2, both sequels to two of my favorite
games of all time. Can't say I have many complaints at the
moment. Good to actually be enjoying Final Fantasy X-2
this time around! Anyway, let's jump right into it.
- Michael
"Wheels" Apps
|
This Edition's Contents:
|
LOL Whoops I Missed Some Questions
Nobody's gonna answer my questions? You're all twitter
and no lolwhoops.
Wheels' Comment
Lies! OK I am all
about Twitter this is true. However, I am here
to correct this wrong!
|
How often do your sinuses bother you? Do you get pain or
headaches often?
Wheels' Comment
I have some bad
allergies pretty often, but not too many
headaches though.
|
what is the next cool robot based game that is coming out (Titanfall
doesn't count)?
Wheels' Comment
Well we just got
an Armored Core, but I'm going to say Armored
Core VI.
|
What's the longest you'll go without a
shower?
Wheels' Comment
A day at most.
|
What RPGs come/came out this year that are currently on your
'buy when cheaper' list?
Wheels' Comment
South Park.
Not for any particular reason other than I have
too many RPGs to play at the moment. I'll also
probably add Deception IV to that list
as I'm mildly interested in it. Conception
II and Drakengard 3 may go on
that list as well as I'm not too sure about
either of them. Anything particular for anyone
else?
|
what company have you not heard a lot from so far this year
that you're expecting to announce something great?
Wheels' Comment
I'd expect some
more from XSEED this year, though I am worried Killer
Is Dead didn't do very well for them. I'm
still hoping for Atlus to announce the 3DS
version of Devil Survivor 2 but they
don't count as they've already had a big
announcement. I'm still holding out hope for
another Tales on 3DS but Namco
also doesn't count because they already had a
big announcement. I'm just going to say
Square-Enix. Note that this is based more on
hope than any solid evidence.
|
As for Dragon Quest, I'm dying for it to come out.
In fact, I own Dragon Quest 7 on the PS1 and I got
about 30 hours into it. However, I moved and hadn't picked
it back up because by the time I found it again I already
forgot where I was in it and wasn't eager to spend those 30
hours getting back up to like level 10. I'm missing a piece
of map and I have no idea where I've already looked and
going through the whole world in hopes of finding it seems
like a drag. I would welcome a remake on my 3DS because I
play that all the time and I heard it trimmed the fat and
made it less ridiculously stretched out. I got every remake
on the DS and pretty much every DQ game since 8, so
it's a sure buy for me. I just wish it would have some
announcement about it, even if it's a ways off or something.
Nintendo should want to keep the high quality gaming flow up
for this year to follow a stellar 3DS 2013. Right?
Wheels' Comment
I would think so.
I still don't think it's out of the question
because it would be a long localization, and
2013 was already jam packed with 3DS RPGs.
Nintendo is very good about spacing things out.
Of course the lack of the other recent Dragon
Quest rreleases simply fills us with
unease. It would just be sad to see the series
fade from the west after finally getting the
trio of SNES classics and and the brilliant Dragon
Quest IX. I guess all we can do is keep
the sales for 3DS RPGs going and hope! Come on
Nintendo/Square-Enix!
|
Does anyone other than me want to play more Medabots?
Or maybe Little Battlers? Or the PS3 Super Robot
Wars OG? Why isn't there some kind of Operation Robots
group out there petitioning to get me some Robot RPGs? I
would stand behind that movement.
Wheels' Comment
I'm not sure, do
those sell in the West? I know the Front
Mission series never did anything here,
but I'm not sure about any of the others. I'm
the wrong one to ask about Robot RPGs!
|
Here's one for the old noggin: What is your favourite 50+
hour RPG? Like one that has a story that lasts 50 hours, not
that you can just play for 50 hours. Can you think of one?
Good. Okay, now take that game and make it 20 hours of story
but still worth playing. Which game, how would you compress
it, what are the reasons for removing or keeping certain
parts? Leaving out any notable characters?
-lolwhoops
Wheels' Comment
I can't think of
too many, at least I can't think of too many, or
rather I can't think of many that are longer
that I couldn't conceivably compress at all.
Actually, I do have one, Final Fantasy XIII.
This is an easy one too. You could remove a lot
of the earlier scenes or them together into
longer sequences, then cut out some of the early
areas that take too long without much access to
the battle mechanics. Then the game could move
to Grand Pulse a lot quicker. However, you could
also then expand the open nature of Grand Pulse
to provide more optional activities. This cuts
out the overlong tutorial type segments, gets
you to the meaty combat quicker, and provides a
breezier story with the option to extend time
further thanks to many activities in Grand
Pulse. How does that sound?
|
|
Grumpier Old Men
Hey Wheels, just to clarify, I wasn't mocking the Square
Enix MMO's, rather the mobile phone stuff. Mana,
that weird FF game with all the cameos, those games.
Still, I stand by my case. Not that I need freshness in my
RPG's per sé, just that games nowadays focus entirely on
fancy graphics but are basically the same game I played ten
years ago, or are hommages in which I case I can appreciate
that part but continually push archaic parts as "part of
being an rpg" when in fact they were part of the fact that
there were technical limitations in play way back when.
It makes sense in my head.
Daniel Brouwer
Wheels' Comment
I see, that seems
an odd thing to mock then. Aside from that one
terrible Final Fantasy game, Square
Enix's mobile efforts have mostly been very
good, with the port of The World Ends With
You being a particular highlight. Granted
it is mostly ports (not sure what Mana
thing you're talking about), but there have been
some standout original efforts on mobile as
well. Mobile is sort of its own beast so I'd
mostly keep that as a separate conversation.
I understand where you're coming from, I just
can't agree with it. While that argument may
hold some weight when you look at it from a
high-level perspective, it quickly falls apart
when you get into the nitty-gritty. Seriously,
what ten years ago played like Lightning
Returns? What RPG ten years ago played
quite like Tales of Graces F? Resonance
of Fate? Tales of Xillia? OK
ignore that last one. Heck, look back at ten
years ago, the market was filled with lots of Quake
3 based shooters and as I recall many Diablo
clones (which to be fair has persisted to
today). There will always be iterations and
samey titles, but at the very least they often
add new features and touches (like in Bravely
Default), and yes sometimes just look
nicer. Technology can help in more ways than
just looks though, open world games benefit
greatly from the added resources for example. If
you think the market lacks fresh titles, I think
you are just looking in the wrong places. I
think you need some Kawazu in your life.
|
I
guess I am not the only one who feels that way.
-Daniel
Wheels' Comment
Well that's sort
of a whole different issue, and one that is
actually largely gone outside of portable and
lower budget RPGs. Lots of "old-school" RPGs
keep it in place just for old time's sake. I
don't think it's a huge issue though. One way or
the other you're going to get into some fights,
so shouldn't we focus on how fun those they
actually are? I'm sorry but I don't see how, for
example, Final Fantasy X would magically
be much better if I could see the enemies and
run away from them. Of course that's not to say
random encounters are great per-say. Just
shouldn't be on top of our complaint lists,
especially when they're mostly gone anyway. I
quite like the way Bravely Default
handles them, so that could be a way forward for
low budget and indie games that still use them.
Long story short, give some new games a try!
|
|
Top Tweets
Wheels' Comment
Macstorm, chances
are it will be a long time before I'm close to
being able to answer the question "is Dark
Souls 2 better than the original." I
didn't even appreciate the first game fully
until I spent a lot of time in new game plus and
began to regret not giving it a five out of
five. This game being as massive as it is, it
could take even longer to fully appreciate this
one. Dark Souls 2 has ways to do new
game plus type stuff during your first run! That
said, if my experience continues to be as good
as it has been, I can say that 2
provides a better first run than the original.
This is for a variety of reason, which I'll save
for my eventual review. I've still got a ways to
go, so hopefully the end game is great.
Erik, I had completely forgotten about the new Rocket
Slime! Now I'm sad again. At this point, I
see zero chance of it coming to the West. Oh
well, at least we got the original?
|
|
Hot Topics
Here are some hot topics I've seen around
the net:
- Is the level of negativity in the gaming community
something new, or just something more focused on now?
- No seriously, where are your Dragon Quest VII
thoughts and opinions?
- What should BioWare do in the next Mass Effect?
See you next week!
|
Mailbag Archive
|
|