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• Your JRPG Narrative is Bad and You Should Feel Bad

  I recently gave up on Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World a scant four hours into my experience for one reason alone: the game was literally stabbing me in the brain with its narrative.  It's not that DotNW's story was exceptionally bad; actually, it was delightfully mediocre, which is really all I can ask for from a JRPG these days.  The biggest problem, you see, is that DotNW's stopped to show me its accursed story about every 5 seconds, like an attention-starved child waving a macaroni art project in my face. "Yes, I see. Very nice. Daddy's trying to play his game now." Listen up, JRPG developers: the stories you're trying to tell?  They aren't necessarily worth telling.  In fact, I can really only name two RPGs in the past decade that've had stories which ranked far above "serviceable:"  Final Fantasy XII, and Mother 3--note that the latter of these two was written by an actual writer.  I may come off as kind of snobbish with this post, though I think that just comes with age; there was a point in my life when I thought RPG plots were totally tubular, but that was back when I was in high school.  Turning into a cranky old man has given me the benefit of perspective; through experiencing a number of excellent narratives (across various media), I've obtained standards that I can't quite drop.  (Also, I need some way to justify my expensive BA.) The problem of lousy narrative is a pretty big hurdle for JRPG developers, but I've taken the liberty of coming up with some easy-to-follow and unsolicited solutions. Read More... Posted Nov 26 2008, 04:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: chrono trigger, mother 3, namco bandai, jrpg, bob mackey, story, tales of, tales of symponia: dawn of the new world, narrative

• Whatcha Playing: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

  I've probably blathered about this before on 61FPS, but the original Tales of Symphonia marks the most time I spent with a game during the last generation of consoles. I spent over 100 hours milking that game for all it was worth, and I don't regret it at all--though, to be fair, at the time I was living at home and only marginally employed.  So when a semi-sequel to one of my favorite games snuck up on me, I had to check it out; and while common sense told me the my disappointment in Tales of Legendia and The Abyss may indicate Dawn of the New World's quality, I decided to pick it up anyway.  (I'm a weak, weak man.) As a sequel to Symphonia, Dawn of the New World is a pretty shameless cash-in full of recycled assets with a decidedly last-gen look. But, in coping with its shamelessness, New World has some interesting qualities; namely, its status as a direct successor to a previous RPG. Outside of stuff like FFX-2, you don't find games like this too often--most RPG sequels usually end up taking place 100 or 1000 years before/after their previously-released games.  Not so with New World; the events of Symphonia are in the not-too-distant past, which actually explains the state of the in-game world.  Turns out that 100-hour quest from Symphonia actually made things worse, and managed to turn Symphonia-protagonist Lloyd into a ruthless killer. Go fig. Read More... Posted Nov 20 2008, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: whatcha playing, namco bandai, jrpg, bob mackey, tales of, tales of symponia: dawn of the new world

• Klonoa: Careful, Namco. You Tread On My Dreams.

  I’m not a purist. No, really. When it comes to classics being revisited, modernized, or remade, I don’t need every facet of the past perfectly preserved just the way I remember it in order to get a desperate nostalgic thrill. I delight in Mega Man 9 because it’s a great game whose presentation and technological limitations are carefully made design choices, not because it’s a new NES game. I’ll let you in on a secret: I actually like Mega Man 7 and 8. Yeah, that’s right. I think they’re good games. Not as good as their forebears, but all the same. When the new Bionic Commando was announced last year, even before Rearmed was revealed, I didn’t balk at Radd Spencer’s Adam-Duritz-makeover. I think the new look is cool, especially the way his dreads flow behind him like delicate willow branches as he soars through dystopian cityscapes and… oh! Excuse me. What I’m getting at is that not everything from yesterday is sacred. Some things, especially in games, should be changed. Final Fantasy III DS is a good thing. The NES original is just too slow now. Tomb Raider Anniversary preserves a revolutionary game’s best qualities while also making it, you know, playable. In with the new, out with the old may not be an all-encompassing maxim, but it’s more often than not good advice. That said, Namco, if you go through with this, I will hurt you. The Raw Meat Cowboy himself over at GoNintendo received a survey from Namco-Bandai today, the subject of which was their impending Wii remake of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. RMC has smartly inferred that Namco is testing the waters to see if Klonoa should be localized for North America. One of the questions in the survey asks which of these two character designs is preferable. Read More... Posted Oct 30 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, wii, capcom, final fantasy, bionic commando, nes, mega man, tomb raider, klonoa, mega man 9, namco bandai, mega man 7, mega man 8, namco, bionic commando rearmed, final fantasy III, poochie

• Low-Rent RPGs: A Good Idea

  Tales of Symphonia was how I spent the summer of 2004, and, along with Dragon Warrior VII and Persona 3: FES, is one of the very few games I've spent more than 100 hours playing. I've known for a long time that a sequel to Symphonia would eventually be hitting the Wii--but I must've not been paying attention, because Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World comes out next friggin' month. While I figure out how to take a leave of absence from graduate school, wet your whistle (or any woodwind instruments you have lying around the house) with the official English trailer: I'll say right now that the Tales games have a pretty low batting average; on the whole, about a third of them are worth playing--and out of that third, only a few are truly excellent. I've actually been a bit disappointed with the series since Symphonia; Legendia--despite having what may be the world's greatest RPG soundtrack--was a major step down, and Abyss was fun until my experience was throttled by constant, inescapable load times. I'm still not certain if DotNW will suck on toast, but at least one thing is clear: I dig Namco's approach. Read More... Posted Oct 07 2008, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: wii, retro, namco bandai, jrpg, bob mackey, tales of, tales of symponia: dawn of the new world

• Klonoa's Truimphant(?) Return

  Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, a mostly-forgotten mascot platformer for the PSX, may be far less forgotten in the not-too-distant future. 1UP reports that the first--and admittedly, best--Klonoa game will see new life on the Wii in a fully-refurbished remake this December, which is great news--for Japan, anyway. Not only will this remake excise the game's lousy pre-rendered sprites; everyone who missed Namco's mascot of indeterminate species back in 1997 will finally get a chance to see why they should regret all of their decade-old mistakes. Here's a video of the original game in action, lest we've forgotten: I've always held a bit of disappointment in my heart for the general failure of the Klonoa series; despite the furry trappings, the first game was a whimsical adventure with a seemingly contrary bittersweet--and slightly depressing--tone. And the economy of effective storytelling fit in well with the game's deceptively-simple puzzle-platforming mechanics; Klonoa is a solid little game, and very similar to the 8-bit 2D platformers that undoubtedly inspired it.  Unfortunately, the series was launched at a time when 2D vs. 3D was a common argument, back before people realized they could live together--kinda like Ebony and Ivory (ask your parents). Read More... Posted Oct 01 2008, 03:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 14 comment(s) Filed under: remake, wii, klonoa, namco bandai, bob mackey

• Ready? Okay! Wii've Got Spirit, Yes Wii Do...

  There was one male cheerleader in my high school, and every time I saw him in routines at one of the mandatory pep rallies all I could think was "I could do that so much better than him!" I wasn't scared of being a cheerleader either, I just couldn't stand that being a cheerleader would require me to A) attend sporting events and B) display school spirit. Well, Namco Bandai's We Cheer may just be the game to earn me my long overdue varsity letter. These three gameplay videos from E3 make the Wii cheerleader sim look a lot like a cross between Polly Pocket at Elite Beat Agents. Read More... Posted Jul 17 2008, 03:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: the go team, derrick sanskrit, wii, rock band, elite beat agents, e3, namco bandai, ouendan, we cheer