61 Frames Per Second : square-enix

The Final Fantasy Rule: Why the New Final Fantasy XIII Demo Matters, Even if You Hate the Series

John Constantine — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:00:00 GMT

I’ve had to stop myself from doing something stupid many, many times in the past few weeks. Late at night, typically before bed while I’m enjoying that just-brushed-just-flossed feel of my teeth and that last drink of water, I’ve opened my laptop and gone to Play Asia, added an item to my cart, and made it all the way to the check out before stopping myself. What am I, an idiot? What kind of person would do this? I’ve slapped my own wrist, both literally and metaphorically, closed the computer, and waited for morning, when the sobering light of day inevitable reintroduces logic to my shoddy impulse control.

Honestly. Spending eighty dollars on a demo of Final Fantasy XIII, a demo in a language I don’t even understand, is stupid. Very, very stupid. Yes, it comes with a nice new version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, but even that little perk isn’t worth blowing two weeks worth of grocery money on an hour long sampling of a game that will be out before too long.

The impulse is detestable. It is, however, an inevitable impulse, one that isn’t rooted in fanaticism. The allure of a new Final Fantasy, even just a taste of it, has less to do with fetishism and everything to do with wanting to see just what any given game console can do. For almost twenty years at this point, Square’s Final Fantasy games have represented technological and artistic benchmarks for the entire medium. Like the games or not, they are always exquisitely made interactive structures. Final Fantasy IV, VII, and X may have their flaws as games, but they all demonstrated the raw potential of the technology that birthed them.

Thankfully, we don’t need a copy of the demo to get a look at it in action. This playthrough I found over at Siliconera proves a few things about the game. Yes, it looks as good in action as that debut trailer from 2006 promised. Yes, the battle system looks like a fine mixture of new and old ideas. Yes, given the pop soundtrack and Nomura character design, Final Fantasy XIII promises to be the true sequel to X that people have been lusting after for eight years.

Most importantly, though, is that it shows just how much technological juice is still untapped in the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Whether or not it’s a good game, I can’t wait to play Final Fantasy XIII. Just to see what it is.

Related links:

GDC News: Final Fantasy to Hit Virtual Console
Every Day is Better With Two Scoops of Final Fantasy XIII
Trailer Review: Final Fantasy XIII Looks Disturbingly Interesting

Dragon Quest X and the Wii Lifetime Equation

John Constantine — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:00:00 GMT

It didn’t hit me until today just how long the Wii is going to stick around. Forget the fact that Nintendo have sold millions upon millions of consoles in record time or that the box continues to sell in vast quantities on a monthly basis. The real metric is Dragon Quest.

Consider this: there have been just three new Dragon Quest games released in the last seventeen years. The shortest gap between games was the three years between Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest VI, the longest the five years before VII was released. Square-Enix plans to release Dragon Quest IX in July, a full five years after Dragon Quest VIII. This averages out to a new Dragon Quest every 4.25 years.

Dragon Quest X was announced for the Wii last December. It’s reasonable then to assume we won’t see DQX until early 2013. That’ll be the Wii’s seventh year and Dragon Quest X’s release will guarantee the system at least one million more consoles sold that year.

Dragon Quest X + Wii = Potentially the longest shelf life for a Nintendo home console.

Math is fun!

Related links:

The 61FPS Review: Dragon Quest IV – Chapters of the Chosen
The 61FPS Review: Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Dragon Quest III Remake Translation Patch Released
The 'Bout Time Report: Dragon Quest IX Gets a Release Date

The All New Retro: Bust-a-Groove and Low-Poly Love

John Constantine — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I won’t deny it. My gaming tastes are a little unusual. Take my emulation aversion. Does a normal person spend months and months tracking down a rare and expensive cheat device so they can play an imported SNES game when they could download a ROM and SNES emulator in about ten seconds? No. This is not how a normal person behaves. As I slowly morph into something approximating an adult, I’ve been noticing another strange predilection in my gaming brain: a love of low-polygon graphics.

Some games do not age with grace. Their mechanics, and especially their graphics, develop the distinct taste of vinegar when they used to be wine just five years before. Yet the games of the 32- and 64-bit era, games that I thought were repulsive even at the time, are starting to take on a strange allure. Take a look at this screenshot from Tomb Raider 3 as a prime example:

It’s a relic, no pun intended. The cliff face is made of perfect right angles, covered in muddy textures doing their best to look like rock. Lara herself looks like a drawing dummy. This screenshot should be a text book example of why early polygonal graphics are best-forgotten growing pains from the medium’s adolescence. Given, low-poly graphics like these have survived. Most 3D Nintendo DS games are comparable to this screen, though they can be much better. Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy IV is not unlike graphics seen in the best the Playstation and Nintendo 64 had to offer ten years ago. DS games of its ilk though feature graphics of necessity, not of stylistic choice. Style is where I see the potential beauty of low-poly graphics. Ugly as they are, they could make for a whole new style of retro game design.

In the same way that Retro Game Challenge and Mega Man 9 have leveraged NES-level visual limitations to inform and color compelling game designs, I can see a designer intentionally choosing a low-poly presentation to inform their game. Instead of the game looking antiquated and ugly, you have a ready made cubist style that can make for extremely expressive games. Just look at Katamari Damacy.

Bust-a-Groove, Enix’s long forgotten rhythm game pictured at the top of this post, is what got me thinking about the potential of low-polygon design. Its models are primitive, but appealing in their simplicity and expressive thanks to the game’s excellent motion captured dances. Imagine if that game hadn’t come out in 1998. Say it came out in 2016. Would we say it’s ugly? Or would we say approvingly, “That’s old school.”? Retro even.

Mark my words, dear reader. It’ll happen. And it will be, if nothing else, interesting when it does.

Related links:

Not All Games Age Well
Question of the Day: Why Can’t I Emulate?
The 61FPS Review: Retro Game Challenge
Continuing the Old-School Conversation
Don’t Call It Retro: Mega Man 9 and Design Resurrection

Screen Test: Blood of Bahamut

John Constantine — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Since its launch in 2004, Square-Enix has developed over thirty games for the Nintendo DS. Thirty. They haven’t made that many games for the Playstation 2, a system that’s existed for almost twice as long. Damn. Want to know the worst part? Approximately one tenth of their total output on the Nintendo DS is original IP. This would be troubling if it weren’t for the fact that one of those original games, namely The World Ends With You, is one of the best games made in the history of the publisher. I mean across Square, Enix, and Taito. TWEWY is that good. Blood of Bahamut, the forthcoming Nintendo DS original IP from S-E, is worth taking a look at solely because it’s something new. Convenient then that it also looks awesome.

A lot’s still unknown about how Blood of Bahamut will actually play, but the action rpg meets Shadow of the Colossus premise holds a ton of potential. Just look at that giant stone goddess. That’s cool.

More screens at Nintendo Everything.

Previous Screen Tests:

Mars
Brütal Legend
Battle Rage
Ghostbusters
Duke Nukem Forever

Question of the Day: Valkyrie Profile and the Need for Voiced Dialogue

John Constantine — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:00:00 GMT

My backlog is becoming untenable. There are games, games that I started months ago, sitting in a pile that appears to be growing of its own volition. Where the hell did that copy of Pro Evolution Soccer even come from and why is it sitting in the “to play” pile? No one in my home even likes soccer!

The worst of the lot is Persona 4. Rather than hide myself away like some horrid realization of gamer stereotype, refusing to venture into the sun until the game is complete, I’ve been working through Persona since early December, taking it a bit at a time. It’s starting to drive me crazy. A few days ago, I fired it up for the first time since mid-February and was treated to one of its scarce animated cutscenes. Turns out that bear suit made a dude! Yeah, not a dude wearing a bear suit. The bear suit formed a dude inside of it. More startling than spontaneous dude generation was hearing the characters’ voices. I had forgotten they could talk you see. This is because, with very rare exceptions, I always turn off the voice acting in RPGs. Why? Because the voice acting is almost always terrible. Dragon Quest VIII’s British cast and Final Fantasy XII’s gang of breathy stoics are exceptions to the rule. Most of the time, you have to deal with screeching whiners who insist on naming every single thing they do and I’ll have none of it. Honestly though, I wonder why voice is considered a necessity in modern design.

A few weeks back, some folks were pretty upset when Square-Enix said they would not be adding an English voice track to Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume in addition to losing the game’s already completed Japanese voiceovers. A few years back, the entire internet flipped its wig when Eiji Aonuma said The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess would not have spoken dialogue.

My question to you, dear reader, is what’s the big deal? Is voice acting necessary in every game these days? Does it actually make an RPG, or any game really, better or worse when you can hear its characters speaking? Should a game be criticized if it doesn’t have voice? What if it only has limited voice?

Let me know.

Related links:

Question of the Day: Ogre Battle and How Much Tutorial is Too Much?
Question of the Day: Your Ideal Controller?
Question of the Day: Yu-Gi-Oh! And Card-Based Videogames?
Question of the Day: Why Can’t I Emulate?

Roundtable Discussion: The Relevance of Japanese RPGs

Bob Mackey — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Roundtable Discussion takes the intrepid 61FPS blogging team and pits it against itself in the search for deeper truth. The moderator for today is Bob Mackey.

This week’s conversation deals with the mythical and possibly endangered beast known as the Japanese RPG. The genre really seems to be suffering during this generation, for two major reasons: 1.) escalating development costs due to the new necessity of high-polygon, HD resources and 2.) developers’ inability to combat the most damning problems of the genre. Over the past few years, we’ve seen quite a few JRPGs hitting the shelves that feel half-finished at best; and even when a fully-realized JRPG comes along, I worry that the absolutely abysmal pacing the genre is infamous for will end up sucking all the fun out of what could be a fantastic game. To start us off, I have two basic questions: 1.) What does the genre need to do to become interesting again, and 2.) what do you think it will do?

On a side note, the only RPGs I’ve been interested in lately have been ports of remakes of classics. Is this a sign that the genre is becoming antiquated and only accessible to those (admittedly, quite a few at this point) with an understanding of its unique grammar?

Joe Keiser: I assume we're talking about current-gen console JRPGs here, as I feel the handheld JRPG field is perhaps the most vibrant it's ever been. To answer your questions:

1. Lots of JRPG ground has been broken on the PS2 in its twilight days. Final Fantasy XII, Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria, and the Persona series all did fascinating new things with the genre that begged to be explored further. That's why it was very strange to me to see such regressive RPG design in the likes of Lost Odyssey and its brethren. There's so much excellent recent prior work to look at! So why do some of these games look back so far?

This is not a very creative answer, but JRPG developers don't seem to be particularly bold these days and I'm trying to be realistic with my expectations.

2. Fortunately, men who are much more creative than me have been given years to come up with ways to make things interesting again. I think they will. I think the real problem developers have been running into this generation (besides the general Japanese console development malaise) is that there hasn't been a leading title to come out and show the little guys that actually, there is a market for JRPGs on Xbox 360 or Wii. All we've seen so far is supposedly "exciting" titles like Lost Odyssey meet general apathy at retail, which couldn't have been heartening to anyone holding any sort of purse strings. When the Level-5s or Square Enix internal teams of the world release something that cannot under circumstances afford to fail (does the game I'm thinking of have a large roman numeral in the title? Maybe.) I think you'll see the floodgates open again. Heck, maybe Tri-Ace will do it!

Maybe.

John Constantine: Hear, hear on the handheld JRPG scene. How’s that saying go? Where Dragon Quest goes, so goes the genre! What’s most telling about the preponderance of remakes on the DS and PSP (the lion’s share of them coming from Square-Enix) is that it indicates the birth of a brand new audience being inculcated with the genres unique grammar. These re-releases pull in both lapsed gamers as well as sell to those new gamers just getting reared on what’s available for the system. For every Final Fantasy, Tales, DQ, Star Ocean, etc rehash that hits the DS and PSP, there’s two brand new JRPGs with decidedly fresh mechanics waiting in the wings. Just look at stuff like Riz-zoawd, Atlus’ just-released My World, My Way, Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaiki da on PSP, and Yuusha 30. And how could I not mention that game we all love so dearly, The World Ends With You? Even Hironobu Sakaguchi’s DS debut, ASH, took some risks, as opposed to the stale traditionalism of his Xbox 360 games. ASH sucked, but it was different, right?

But this is the biggest Japanese genre in history, so what about the big, big systems. Given how reluctant the vast majority of Japanese developers have been to make anything for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 (even the Wii really), it’s none too surprising that the few JRPGs to show up on those systems have been stale as week-old bread. Especially Mistwalker’s games. The Gooch made the type of games that made him famous, games that are just about two decades old now. It’s ironic then that Lost Odyssey was co-developed by the team behind the Shadow Hearts series, some of the freshest RPGs to grace the Playstation 2. Joe’s right: close to a decade old, and the PS2 is still seeing exciting new ideas in the genre. In addition to the examples mentioned, I think the most exciting evolution of the JRPG on the PS2 is also the exact franchise that has the best chance of bringing life to the genre on current home consoles. Yakuza, baby. The Yakuza games flat-out are JRPGs, just with a different kind of battle system. They’re fast, detailed games that succeed by foregoing some of classic JRPG design’s most tiresome tropes, i.e. having to talk to every single NPC, menu-based fighting, needlessly grueling level grinds. I sincerely believe that Yakuza 3 is going to be the game that finally pushes more devs into the next-JRPG-gen.

Yakuza also does precisely what I think needs to be done to make every other JRPG interesting again. It has legitimately good writing and plotting. Not okay writing. Not good-for-a-game writing. Just good writing. For a genre that’s sold itself on affecting narrative, the vast majority of writing in JRPGs is crap. But it has to be married to faster play, like you see in Yakuza, TWEWY, and FFXII to really make JRPGs great. Lost Odyssey had good writing but the game, what you played, was sllllllllloooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww. I genuinely think that’s what’s going to happen too. I’m an optimist. Like you said, Bob, that Final Fantasy XIII trailer, against all odds, was exciting. The old way of things will stick around too. Gotta re-release something, right?

Cole Stryker: Before I even begin I must request that everyone read this, one of the best pieces of game criticism I've ever read. JRPG fans should prepare to be offended. It contains the following money quotes:

Western CRPGs have kept evolving because there has always existed consciousness of a direction towards which to evolve; JRPGs, meanwhile, have been going round in circles ever since their inception -- Fallout is worlds away from Akalabeth; not so Rogue Galaxy from Final Fantasy.

The only kind of evolution JRPGs have undergone is of a cosmetic nature: Final Fantasy was no Ultima, and its endless sequels had to be justifed in some way -- and so they were. CG or anime-style cutscenes and countless hours' worth of voice-acting and orchestral soundtracks were the justification, piled up, stacked and shoved inside cartridges...

Now then. It's no secret that I'm not a fan of JRPG's. It seems to me that the things holding JRPG's back are the very characteristics that define the genre. So I guess this is another way of saying that the best way to make a good JRPG is to not make a JRPG.

Firstly, expensive poly counts have to go in order for this genre to mean anything to me. I'm happy to see that recent portable JRPG's have done this, though I haven't played any of them. They practically had to, with the limited graphical capabilities. It's interesting how a dearth of technology can actually amount to a better game because it allows developers to cut the fat.

Secondly, we've got to lose the cutscenes. Kierkegaard tells it like it is in an epic burn, calling Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, "a groundbreaking JRPG comprised of a single 106-minute-long cutscene, whose only flaw was that it didn't give players the option to skip it." Oh snap, son. The cult of celebrity that JRPG composers enjoy also brings the genre down. Focus on what's under the hood, please.

In order to push the genre into new territory, JRPG's should decide whether they want to be actual role playing games or strategy games rather than a mediocre mixture of both. I'd much rather play a proper RPG like Planescape Torment or a proper strategy game like Advance Wars than a JRPG which offers an hamstrung version of each. Even my favorite JRPG franchise, Earthbound, is super guilty of this. The combat system, even the rhythm based one in Mother 3 is pretty mindless. Developers need ways to mix up the combat mechanics. Use Ice Power to kill Fire Demons. Fight Night Wraiths with the Heavenly Light Arrows. Yawn. Chrono Trigger made these weaksauce mechanics obsolete well over a decade ago.

Make them shorter. I just don't feel like investing 70+ hours on a JRPG. The last one I played was Baten Kaitos, a reasonably fun card-based RPG. I burned out halfway through and haven't played one since (except for the nostalgic Mother 3, for which I made an exception).

Now that I've covered where I think JRPG's should go, I'll talk about where they will go: Nowhere. There are too many people out there content to play bad games. The continued existence of the Final Fantasy franchise is proof enough.

Bob Mackey: Well, there you have it; another week, another great discussion. Feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts in the comments.

Related Links:

Roundtable Discussion: Where is the Handheld Version of Console Wars?
Roundtable Discussion: The Fandom Phenomenon Part 1
Roundtable Discussion: The Fandom Phenomenon Part 2
Roundtable Discussion: The Fandom Phenomenon Part 3

Dragon Quest IV: Re-Reading the Chapters of the Chosen

Nadia Oxford — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:22:00 GMT

Keeping true to my reputation as the Fastest Gamer in the West, I'm still playing through Dragon Quest IV. I played the NES original, though I never finished it. I was put off by the fact a Dragon Warrior game had a story, and I just never got into it. I was a very dull child, as you can imagine.

Dragon Quest IV's branching story isn't anything that would throw Stephen King into a jealous rage, but it's fun and ambitious, and I appreciate it very much. Jumping from the flat-rate story in Dragon Warrior III (“Save the world because your father fucked the mission up”) to a headstrong cast of warriors with their own thoughts and feelings just kind of knocked me for a loop back then. The Loto Saga was effectively over with Dragon Warrior III, and I had decided to be a pouting child about Square-Enix's decision to move on.

I know a bit better now. In fact, I admire Enix's methods very much. The story for the first entry in the Zenithian Saga is light but filling, and it keeps impressively well. I get the impression that it was well ahead of its time, at least for North America, where little trolls like myself looked at it and said, “Whatever.” The branched means of storytelling in Dragon Quest IV, which ultimately has everyone meeting at the pub after doing their own thing for a time, isn't a mechanic that's employed to a huge extent today. When it does come into play, you don't stand behind the counter as a fat merchant, selling weapons to earn commission enough for your very own copper sword. It's just a copper sword, yes, but it's damn well the hardest copper sword you'll earn—and a weapon you'll feel a significant amount of affection for. Dragon Quest IV's story is so bold and lovable, it's hard to believe it originated on the 8-bit Famicom.

When I was a little older, I really warmed up to the idea of RPGs having complicated stories and a movie-like cast of characters. It just took some time to accept the idea of supporting actors who were more than a sword or magic staff at my disposal. When it happened though, I felt like a mom who'd finally realised that her kids had grown up and acquired their own motivations and ideas.

Creepy metaphor. Sorry.

Related Links:

The 61FPS Review: Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen
Anticipation Time: Dragon Quest IV
Unwrapped: Dragon Quest IV

All the SaGa, A Fraction of the Time

John Constantine — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:00:00 GMT

It hasn’t been easy, going this long without playing a single SaGa game. They’ve always been within reach and they’ve always been tantalizing. Every game in the series, with the exception of the Super Nintendo Romancing SaGas, has been released in English, and every one of those games has been gorgeous. But the beautiful graphics, art, and music, are apparently not unlike the vibrant coloring on dart frogs; they’re a warning, not an incentive to come and play. The SaGa series is probably the only franchise I’ve ever completely avoided based on reviews. When games are that widely reviled, it’s probably for a reason.

The upcoming DS remake of SaGa 2 has me feeling a little reckless. I’m going to play that game when it comes out, because I’m curious, but before then, I feel I should build immunity to the poison. Now I just need to decide where to start.

Lucky for me, Square-Enix just put out this video of clips from every single game in the series. It’s like looking at a menu.

I think I’m leaning towards the PS2 remake of Romancing SaGa. SaGa Frontier 2 is pretty, and I already adore its soundtrack, but I’m told the gameplay in that one is especially heinous. If anyone has any other suggestions, let me know in the comments.

(Link: Siliconera)

Related links:

Why, God, Why: More SaGa Games on the Way
ONST: Square-Enix’s Rad Original Non-Soundtracks
Square-Enix's Coup Brings Back Memories
Square-Enix: Reeling in the Devotees For More, Playing the Console Market With Aplomb

Unwrapped: Dragon Quest IV

Nadia Oxford — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:03:00 GMT

Ahhh, Christmas. This is a nice time of year for a freelance writer. I’m going to ingest fermented liquids that take the edge off my passion for writing, and editors don’t feel like wading through my crazy letter soup to ball together the few sensible words that congealed in the broth. So I’m told “That’s enough, get outta here. Merry Christmas.” And I start blubbering about my little son Tim dying slowly of acidosis and rickets. Then I settle down and finally, finally get caught up on the games I was too busy writing about to actually sit and play.

First task: Finish Chrono Trigger DS and set aside the five thousand hours that’s required to sweep through the “bonus” dungeons. I’ve not experienced them fully, but I’ve been made to understand that the quotation marks are richly deserved. I can’t wait to find out why. I hear it has something to do with a fetch quest! Boy oh boy!

Second: break out and play Dragon Quest IV. Hell yes, Akira Toriyama double-feature. I’m an unapologetic fan girl and will remain thus until I drop my love for human-devouring dinosaurs bristling with spikes and unscientific add-ons.

STATUS, 22/12/2008: I still think dinosaurs are rad. Associated love for Akira Toriyama: Stable.

The original Dragon Quest III/Dragon Warrior III for the NES left an indelible impression on me; ask me sometime about the story I wrote that featured an original plot but lifted monsters straight from the game. On second thought, don’t. The point is, Dragon Quest III remains a favourite even today, but the original Dragon Quest IV/Dragon Warrior IV kind of slipped by me. It was a hard game to find and by the time it was available, I had moved on to the SNES and would shortly become too cool for boring old stories about demon kings against classic heroes.

Oh God. Come back, boring old stories about demon kings versus classic heroes. I’m spending Christmas with my father-in-law, the days stretch ahead of me and I miss journeying with characters who won’t poison me with their hair gel fumes.

Related Links:

The 61 FPS Review: Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen
Anticipation Time: Dragon Quest IV
RPGs Make Me OCD

Chrono Trigger Musical: A Lovelorn Frog

Nadia Oxford — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:44:00 GMT

It's not easy being green, amigos. Especially when you're valiant Mr Frog from Chrono Trigger, and you don't want to risk offending your beloved Queen Leanne with suggestions of romantic bogs and external fertilization.

What do frogs naturally do when they're troubled and/or horny? They sing, of course. They sing their hearts out. They lament their fate (“Oh God, so slippery!”). In this animated Chrono Trigger musical, Frog does just that. He doesn't expand his throat though, so don't get too excited.

This video suggests that songs for the rest of Chrono Trigger's cast might follow. We're all holding out for Crono's heart-rending ballad, “....”.

Related Links:

The Weakest Link: Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross
WTFriday: The Chrono Trigger Anime
China Trigger

Joe’s Top Ten Games of 2008 – Number One

Joe Keiser — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:00:00 GMT

The official mandate has come down from the top—that it is December, and we all write about games, so we all have to pick some arbitrary number of them that we enjoyed above all others this year. I am taking on this task in the way of our forefathers, using their traditional number (10) and order (from great to most greatest). Games were chosen for this list using a highly scientific list of criteria, including but not limited to dopamine levels, blood alcohol content, tarot, and how badly I wanted a button making machine upon completion. This is my game of the year.

1. The World Ends With You

This one surprised me too, but the more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t justify not putting this vast, strange, innovative and compelling portable game at the top of my list. There’s a lot to think about here, so let’s dive right in.

The World Ends With You is, at its heart, about cacophony. It’s about the cacophony of urban living—too many people, too many sounds, too many thoughts and banal life stories. It’s about the cacophony of capitalism—too many constantly swirling brands and fads, too many “friendships” borne purely of what you buy and what you own. It’s a game about surviving the barrage, about blocking out the white noise to find your own value in the meaninglessness.

The story follows the meaning. It’s about a teenager who endures the constant assault on his senses by keeping it all out, and the strange, surreal events of a fatal game that forces him to confront and engage in life. But most interesting is that the mechanics of the game also follow along, and yet are somehow workable.

There’re a seemingly endless number of pins to collect, and each one performs differently in battle, and its abilities change again in the (admittedly kind of lame) minigame tin pin slammer. It’s not always clear what every pin does, sometimes even after they are tried. And even the individual pins aren’t static, evolving upon frequent use into strange new forms.

The battle system is actually two battle systems at once, with the pin-based system on the bottom and a variety of other systems on top. Success at the highest level demands success on both screens, which can sometimes feel like you need two brains and four eyeballs. There’s a myriad of ways to engage the enemy—in groups or alone, at any difficulty level you want, wearing specific brands. It’s a cacophony of design, and as a result players quickly educate themselves to cull whatever they deem meaningless and find the most effective means of survival. And once again, we’re back to enduring the barrage. The Worlds Ends With You is completely focused in how it presents and expects you to deal with chaos.

And it works, perhaps because this is how people actually live—it’s completely organic and satisfying, rarely overwhelming unless the player pushes to discover more. It’s no coincidence that the game takes place in the real life Tokyo district of Shibuya. The World Ends With You is saying something about the urban lifestyle.

If I were a teenager when this came out, this would unquestionably be my favorite game ever. Nowadays I have to look past rather than revel in its emo, thanatophilic story to get to the heart and beauty of the game; and yet even that feels in line with what how this game wants me to experience it. And experience it I did, several times in quick succession. It’s the DS’s most ambitious, best game, a classic of this age in gaming, and my choice for the number one title of the year.

Related Articles:

Joe's Top 10 Games of 2008 - Special Jury Prizes, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
10 Games Nadia Played Instead of Working: The World Ends With You, Super Smash Bros Brawl
Bob's Top 10 of 2008 in No Particular Order: Audiosurf, Braid, Grand Theft Auto IV
Derrick's Top 13 Games of 2008 - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
What Amber Didn't Play in 2008
Time Magazine's Top 10 Games of 2008

10 Games Nadia Played In 2008 Instead Of Working: The World Ends With You

Nadia Oxford — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:35:00 GMT

If my organs don't randomly decide to leap out my mouth and run down the street before I finish my Top Ten Games for 2008, you'll come to notice that I have a lot of Nintendo DS games put down as personal favourites. Could it be that I ride the subway often enough to feel like the kin of the Morlock? Mmmmmaybe.

The World Ends With You was probably the nicest surprise of the year for me. I cared very little for the game when it was in its development stages: one gaggle of Kingdom Hearts fangirls is all it takes to forever spoil your appetite for Tetsuya Nomura.

So when I accidentally found myself with the game for review purposes, I threw a sulk in the style of The World Ends With You's orange-haired protagonist. He even started the adventure with an inner monologue about how the world in general could descend into Hell for all he cared, waah waah, Linkin Park.

I'm a sullen bitch who bites people on the ankle when they prove me wrong, but it was a joy to discover just how wrong I was about The World Ends With You. It's true Nomura slapped buckles on every character with the fixation of a mental patient, but for once, he was justified. The game takes place in Shibuya, Japan, the birthplace of outlandish buckles, chains and glittery shit according to educated travelers.

Most JRPGs are about sprawling worlds, but few can seem to offer much beyond castles, swamps, forests and brothels. The World Ends With You spans a handful of Shibuya landmarks linked by a few streets--and yet the confines of this real-life neighbourhood feels interesting and fresh. The battle system is a new experience too, with stylus controls and power-packed "Pins" being the key to unleashing devastating attacks against the tribal-style enemies.

It'll be interesting to see how The World Ends With You's art style ages (no doubt the fashions of its main characters are already dated by Shibuya standards), but the gameplay should have no problem holding up. The beauty part is that the game can be as difficult or as easy as you like, and said difficulty can be adjusted on the fly. The battle system calls for attacks to be volleyed between two characters, which is intimidating at first. "No worries," says the game. "You just handle your end and we'll control the other character, probably without killing him. You can try taking over when you're ready."

It's the same tactic a caregiver would use on a young kid who's too scared to try advancing from training wheels to a two-wheeled bike. The old ways are comforting, but once he sees his friends tearing around and having a great time, he can't resist trying. After some initial spills, he takes to the change and going back to the slow crawl offered by the training wheels is unthinkable. Passing the "Light Puck" in The World Ends With You seems like a scary tactic you're better off avoiding--but once you try it, it quickly becomes apparent that you can fight well versus the computer's tendency to just fight competently.

The soundtrack is the most impressive feature of the game. Considering the quality of the entire package, yes, that's pretty damn incredible. The beats tend towards the Pop side. Regardless of your feelings about the genre, everything fits perfectly. This is high-quality J-Pop, not the shrill ten-cent idols that clutter bargain bin anime. You will enjoy it.

Even dirty numb angel boy Neku gets his shit together in record time. His change of heart is admirable. "I want to be left alone. Oh wait, I'm alone and this sucks. I don't want to be alone."

You're not alone, Neku. You have me. Want to read this fanfic I wrote about us?

Related Links:

10 Games Nadia Played In 2008 Instead of Working: Super Smash Bros Brawl
What I Missed: A Look At What I Didn't Play in 2008
Joe's Top Ten Games Of 2008--Special Jury Prizes

Brave New Wi-Fi World: Square-Enix Might Just Change the Way We Play Nintendo Games

John Constantine — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I was a little miffed when Square-Enix announced Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time. More Crystal Chronicles is certainly a good thing, especially when it’s new Crystal Chronicles that promises online and an opportunity to improve on Ring of Fates’ flaws (no story mode co-op is not cool, guys.) I was just sad because this meant the first Crystal Chronicles announced for Wii, The Crystal Bearers, looked even more likely like a candidate for the vaporware hall of fame. I’m getting over the sour grapes though. A game that can be played cooperatively on either a Wii or a DS is the connectivity dream realized, a grand delivery on the promise of Gamecube’s Crystal Chronicles and even Miyamoto and Toru Iwatani’s Pac-man Vs. Graphics be damned, this is the future of co-op.

The news is already racing around the internet that Square-Enix might be giving Dragon Quest IX the Echoes of Time treatment. EGM’s classic rumor monger Quartermann says DQIX might hit both of Nintendo’s consoles, ensuring that it will sell a billion copies instead of just half a billion. If this turns out to be true, and both Echoes of Time and DQIX play well over Nintendo Wi-Fi, Nintendo’s sickly online strategy may finally have its first bonafide hook. One of the biggest factors keeping me away from games like Mario Kart Wii (beyond its dumbed-down play) and Animal Crossing: City Folk (beyond its anemic new-features list) is that I already have perfectly functional, complete versions of both games on my Nintendo DS. If S-E’s new games trigger a broader trend, one that sees networked games coming packaged with both a Wii disc and DS cart, the problem of separate versions of what are essentially identical games will evaporate. How about a Wii/DS New Super Mario Bros. 2 with a meatier version NSMB’s awesome competitive mode? Or a brand new Zelda: Four Swords? That would rule. And Nintendo has to be salivating thinking about a premium priced Mario Party on both systems.

Then again, that’s a whole lot of Friend Codes to wrangle…

Related links:

A Change of Paint For Nintendo
Nintendo Might Just Hate You
WiiWare: Nintendo, Babe, It Just Isn’t Working Out
The 'Bout Time Report: Dragon Quest IX Gets a Release Date
Trailer Review: Dragon Quest IX

China Trigger

Bob Mackey — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:45:00 GMT

Most of you out there are probably playing Chrono Trigger DS--or at least you should be. I have to admit that I'm a total hypocrite, though; if I do play through Chrono Trigger again, it's not going to be for a while. Listen, when you suffer through hours upon hours of Chrono's abysmal PSX port to unlock some pretty pedestrian bonus content, you need to take a little break. I'll be at the five year mark around springtime, so please look forward to my coverage of Chrono Trigger DS in April 2009.

Believe it or not, there are versions of Chrono far worse than the PSX port, which was like playing a beloved RPG while immersed in quicksand. Our industrious friends in China actually produced their own pirate Famicom version of the game, as they've done in the past with many other games that have no business being on an 8-bit platform. Maybe this video will show you why:

Diagnosis: adorable--in a "broken toy on a thrift store shelf" sort of way. If you can get past the horribly mangled loop of "Peaceful Days" playing in the background, that is. Unfortunately, this video doesn't consist of more than a lot of walking around, which is making me wonder just how much of Chrono Trigger this cheap knockoff copies. I'm tempted to become completely literate in Chinese just to see what an 8-bit Zeal looks like. I guess that'll give me something to do during my retirement.

Related Links:

Adding a Thirteenth to Twelve Delicious Flavors: Chrono Trigger DS’ New Ending
The Weakest Link: Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross
OST: Chrono Cross

ONST: Square-Enix’s Rad Original Non-Soundtracks

John Constantine — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:00:00 GMT

When talking about the good ol’ Square-Enix days, back when most every game they published was either very good or at least interesting, it’s impossible not to note their stable of composers. Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Yoko Shimomura, and a number of other remarkable musicians have received more international acclaim and love from listeners of their videogame soundtracks than most Japanese traditional musicians. You may have noticed that we ourselves have something of a penchant for these composers. It’s rare, however, to hear work by any of them that isn’t related to videogames. There’s Mitsuda’s Kirite, but even Uematsu’s lone solo album, the prog-as-hell Phantasmagoria, closes with an arrangement of Final Fantasy’s “Prologue”. Little did I know that Square-Enix themselves realized their musical masterminds needed broader creative outlets. The Square-Enix Official Bootleg series, launched back in 2006, is comprised of three EPs spotlighting totally original songs by S-E composers and they are uniformly awesome. Highlights include “Aquarius Option” by Kumi Tanioka (Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles), “Feel Gravity” by Ryo Yamazaki (Front Mission 4), and pretty much everything by Mitsuto Suzuki. Suzuki’s work on the Bootlegs was actually so well-received, S-E put out his entire solo album In My Own Backyard, which sounds like a pleasant mixture of Air and Brian Eno’s Ambient Works. All the bootlegs are iTunes exclusives, so you don’t have to worry about the absurdly high cost of importing physical copies, and all four collections will run you twenty dollars. Go check ‘em out already.

Previous OSTs:
Duck Tales
Bubble Bobble
Chrono Cross
Soul Blazer
Everyday Shooter
Rule of Rose
Treasure of the Rudras

Related links:
Make the Music With Your Games, Kids!
Infinite Mega Man 9: Composer Ippo Yamada Talks Living Up to a Serious Musical Pedigree
You Can't UNhear It: Time's Scar
Kirite: The Secret Best Yasunori Mitsuda Soundtrack

Rock Star Designer Fallout: Team Ninja’s Post-Itagaki Future

John Constantine — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:00:00 GMT

While the videogame-designer-as-rock-star phenomenon is still a growing factor across the game development landscape, it’s had a recognizable poster boy for close to a decade. The be-sun-spectacled Tomonobu Itagaki is gaming’s very own Noel Gallagher, a mouthy, arrogant source of great quotes with a spotty creative track record, but who’s inarguably responsible for a couple of masterpieces. He’s also a magnet for controversy. Even beyond his inflammatory comments about rival game franchises, namely Tekken and Devil May Cry, Itagaki has been at the center of multiple legal entanglements with his former publisher, Tecmo. First, it was charges of sexual harassment. Then, this past June, Itagaki quit Tecmo after shipping Ninja Gaiden 2 and immediately sued the publisher for not delivering on promised pay bonuses.

This is the problem with the rock star designer phenomenon. In the aftermath of Itagaki’s departure from Tecmo, everyone in the industry was asking what’s next for Itagaki and what is his beleaguered publisher – Tecmo’s president resigned shortly after Itagaki left and they were nearly acquired by Square-Enix after that, before agreeing to merge with Koei – going to do without him. No one really asked what Team Ninja, the team that Itagaki founded, was going to do without their public face. How does a development team recover when their image, an identity that’s secured them a devoted audience more than the games they’ve made, has walked away?

Well, the verdict’s still out on that one. Gamasutra’s Christian Nutt sat down with Itagaki’s successors, Yosuke Hayashi – Hayashi directed the Playstation 3 port of Team Ninja’s first Ninja Gaiden, a game publicly panned by Itagaki – and Hitoshi Hasegawa, and Team Ninja’s future is still an unknown. Both Hayashi and Hasegawa put on a brave public face, discussing this console generations’ still-growing potential, the team’s satisfaction in their work, and their enthusiasm for those machines. But neither commit to specific, new projects, nor what they might be interested in doing with the new creative freedom that comes from an auteur’s departure.

I wonder if it even matters, really. Do people buy Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden games because of Team Ninja and Itagaki’s reputation or because of those brands? Considering the emphasis Microsoft has put on Itagaki and the team’s name since the Xbox 360’s launch, you have to think that it’s at least a factor. Personally, I think that Tecmo will continue to sell these franchise games with or without the Team Ninja name on them. But I’ve been wrong before.

What do you think, everyone? Is Team Ninja hurt by the loss of their rock star?

Related links:

Game Designers: Rockstars, Auteurs, Dweebs?
Where Will You Go, Tecmo? What Will Happen to Our Love?
The 61FPS Review: Ninja Gaiden 2
Where is Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden?
Watcha Playing: Ninja Gaiden - Dragon Sword
Whatcha Playing: The New Adventures of the Nintendo DS

The Weakest Link: Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross

Nadia Oxford — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:42:00 GMT

Chrono Cross is the official sequel to Chrono Trigger, and I often wonder if it should have been. I really enjoyed Chono Cross: the graphics are beautiful, the music is stunning and the cast (even though it numbers in the trillions) is generally fun to hang with. As its own game, Chrono Cross is a Playstation must-have. As a sequel to Chrono Trigger, however, it's kind of off-colour. Following up Chrono Trigger with Chrono Cross is like eating a zuccini right after an ice cream cone. Both taste good, but for entirely different reasons that don't mix well.

There stands an excellent chance that Chrono Trigger DS will hammer some hasty bridges between it and Chrono Cross, and I really wish it wouldn't. The Playstation re-release of Chrono Trigger (avoid avoid avoid) already established links between the two, so I fear it's too late.

You may have noticed that I mouth off a lot about how the quality of game stories can stand to be closer to what you'd find in a book. I don't know if there has ever been an author who took over a beloved universe and promptly killed off its cast in the most half-assed manner possible in order to move in his roster, but if there is, I doubt he made any friends.

The death of Crono and his buds bothered me because there was nothing about Chrono Trigger that indicated the Kingdom of Guardia was at war with Porre. Porre never even gave any indication that it wanted to be more than a three-house town with a fuzzy monster who called himself the Piano Man. Chrono Cross puts the two at war and it was as baffling as watching a little boy play Death Army with Barbies and My Little Ponies.

It's not to say every link between the two is impotent. The trip through the Dead Sea is appropriately spine-tingling, and even though I have big problems with Chrono Cross making burnt offerings of my favourite characters to tell its own story, I can acknowledge that it is a good story.

But when I play Chrono Trigger DS this winter, there will be a great sadness in my bosom. :(

Related Links:

OST: Chrono Cross
The End of Time and the Beginning of Fan Drama
Chrono Trigger Port: Are You Excited or Disappointed?

Up All Night: Power Blade

John Constantine — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:30:00 GMT

Somewhere in upstate New York, on a chill night in April 1991, a television glows ominously in a family living room, illuminating the suburban setting in an uneasy, blue light. A boy sits before the television, knees tucked beneath him, with an NES pad in his hands. He is transfixed, his stare one that betrays nothing but a devoted concentration and perhaps a hint of desperation. This war against the despotic computer mainframe has gone on too long. It is taking its toll on his small mind. From upstairs comes a slow thumping, the sound of weary parental feet shuffling in the dark.

A call rings out.

“If I come down there and you’re still playing videogames, I’m going to throw that stupid box out the window.”

A whisper.

“Can’t talk. Final level.”

“GO TO BED!”

“No! No, I cannot go to bed! I must defeat these godless machines! I MUST STAY UP ALL NIGHT!”

Yes, Friday’s Chiptune got me thinking about that true Up All Night classic, Power Blade. One of Guy Wearing Tank Top and Sweatpants’ last great hurrahs on the NES, Power Blade is, unlike some UAN candidates, a legitimately good game, chock full of tight platforming and robot murdering in the grand Mega Man tradition. It also has an interesting history: Power Blade actually started, as Kurt Kalata puts it, a literal Mega Man clone called Power Blazer. In a rare stroke of ambition, Taito decided to not merely localize Blazer for a United States, but completely overhaul the gameplay and redesign the main character as well. The result was a superior game that was even more stuffed-crust-cheesy than most in 1991. Your set-up: in the year 2191, a super computer runs all of society. As super computers in the future are wont to do, it goes insane and kills all sorts of nice folk. GWTTS plays a tough guy named Nova who kicks ass like all tough guys: by using a giant metal boomerang and occasionally wearing some rad full-body armor. He uses both the boomerang and the armor to make robots explode across seven crazy futuristic levels.

Power Blade eventually spawned a sequel, which is notable for being both one of the last NES games ever released and also for having what is possibly the most suggestive cover of any NES game ever.

Look at that. Yes, of course it looks like he’s holding an enormous metal erection. Reminds me of that Empire Strikes Back trading card prank. This one:

Droid dongs aside, let us all kindly ask Square-Enix, owners of Taito, to give Power Blade a new life on Wii’s Virtual Console, lest we all emulate the damn thing. See you next time, everybody!

Previously on Up All Night:

Cannon Spike
Parasite Eve
Trojan
Dark Sector
Ex-Mutants
Nightmare Creatures
Bad Dudes
P.N. 03

Cloud's Ghostly Face Says, "More Final Fantasy VII? Only I Know, Suckahs."

Nadia Oxford — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:24:00 GMT

We might be in for more Final Fantasy VII, and I'm kind of, uhhh, excited about the prospect, to be honest.

Final Fantasy Union posted a pale picture of Cloud that has "Coming Soon" printed on it. What does this mean? It means the fangirls are peeing themselves with joy; we can surmise that much without going door-to-door. Less clear is whether or not this is a new Cloud-centric game, and if so, what kind?

Everyone, including me, wants to believe that this will be the Final Fantasy VII remake that Square-Enix promised us is never coming, ever. Logic, which has been ruining mankind's fun since the dawn of time, states that this will be another game altogeter. Most likely another entry in the never-ending Final Fantasy VII Compilation.

Final Fantasy Union speculates, Lord forbid, that this might be a sequel related to Dirge of Cerberus.

For those who aren't aware, Dirge of Cerberus introduced the now well recognised Genesis Rhapsodos, but under the name of G. He appeared at the end of the game saying that they still have work to do. Following this, he was then given a starring role in Crisis Core, a role which shed more light on to his character.

Putting these two things together, it seems logical that Square Enix would look to produce another title which takes place after the events of Dirge of Cerberus, where Genesis may even be an ally. Or they could be looking to produce a game similar to Crisis Core, where Cloud is the only playable character.

Dirge of Cerberus continuation? No! Crisis Core sequel? Better!

God, I can't belive I'm anticipating more information from a teaser with Cloud's pouty-boy face on it. It might be time for the doctors to send me to be killed.

Related Links:

Would You Play a Final Fantasy VII Remake? Hmmm?
Games You Keep Coming Back To
TVTropes' "Woolseyisms"

Trailer Review: Dragon Quest IX

John Constantine — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:00:00 GMT

As October wears on and the fruits of game season, grand experiences like Dead Space and Fable 2, start to illuminate my living room with an incandescent and warming light, I find myself not looking forward, but back. 2008 has been, to date, a year overflowing with great games and even though it’s been less than a month since I finished it, I’m already looking back at Dragon Quest IV fondly. The characters, the leveling, the music; it was glorious. But, as it is with JRPGs, it will be a very long time before I ever attempt to complete that particularly glorious remake again. (If ever. Role-playing games are a steep time investment as is, a fact I’ve discussed many times in the past.) But this trailer, only recently presented in high-quality after its debut at Tokyo Game Show, fills me with hope for the future. Dragon Quest IX will be awesome. Oh yes, it will be so, so awesome.

Which isn’t to say it hasn’t previously. It’s just that this is the first look at what the game is going to look like in a complete state. The 3D engine does a truly impressive job of replicating DQVIII’s luscious cel-shading and the character designs, the mix of super-deformed characters and more human proportions, have evolved nicely since 2005’s Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker. It’s still up in the air whether or not DQIX’s multiplayer will be a quality addition or distracting from Dragon Quest’s inherent, and generally solitary, merits. But the trailer assures us of two things: the game will be beautiful and it will be chock-full of Dragon Questly goodness. Bring on the slimes, Mr. Horii.

Previous Trailer Reviews:

TGS Trailer Time: Resident Evil 5
Retro Game Challenge
Golden Axe: Beast Rider
House of the Dead: Overkill
Riz-Zoawd
Idolm@ster PSP
The Last Guy
Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff
Captain Rainbow
The Past and Future With Mega Man 9 and Chrono Trigger DS
Densetsu no Stafi 5
Sonic Unleashed
Infinite Undiscovery
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Street Fighter 4
The Conduit
Mirror’s Edge

Time For Terranigma! Right?

Nadia Oxford — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:54:00 GMT

Friends, join me in a round of "Let's Push Our Effin' Luck." The Virtual Console has done such a good job at not sucking for the past few weeks that it's only natural for me to raise my hopes and watch them get sheared.

So, Nintendo. Square-Enix. Everyone. Time to stop starting and stopping like a nervous thoroughbred. It's time for commitment. It's time for Terranigma.

When you were young, you probably played Soulblazer and/or Illusion of Gaia on the Super Nintendo. Both games provided Zelda-flavoured adventures that were nevertheless unique. Illusion of Gaia in particular still stands out in my mind for its mild hero, Will, a boy with telepathic powers who must jump-start Earth's stagnant evolution. Terranigma actually preceds Will's journey and Soulblazer story-wise, casting the player as Ark. Ark is cast out of his Eden-like villiage and tasked with beginning the very evolution that Will is later called upon to re-direct.

Terranigma plays similarly to Illusion of Gaia, but it might seem unfamiliar because it never made it to North America. It did, however, see a release in Europe. So there's the beauty part: Terranigma already has an English translation waiting patiently for us.

Why do you want to play Terranigma? Because it's expansive, gorgeous and has a soundtrack that rivals greats like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. Also, I'm holding your mom hostage so you might want to work something out with Square-Enix. Just kidding. Really though, listen to The Underworld theme and tell me it's not beautiful. Choose your words carefully; I am holding a big stick (not kidding this time).

Terranigma also has a pretty epic story going on, but seeing as how you're cast as God Junior, that's to be expected. One aspect I enjoy about Illusion of Gaia is the subtle storytelling, which Terranigma continues. As world shapes around you, nobody screams "Holy crap, it's the Great Lakes!" Except you, of course.

Come on, Nintendo. Square-Enix. Do it. I'll be your friend.

Related Links:

Virtual Console: Now The Best Thing Ever
Reminder: Shining Force is Awesome
Flying Gay Men Invade Virtual Console

You Can't UNhear It: Time's Scar

Bob Mackey — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:00:00 GMT

It's true; the Chrono Cross soundtrack is one of the most ass-kickingest collections of music to ever exist in our unworthy world. And the pinnacle of said soundtrack--at least, in my opinion--is the opening song, "Time's Scar;" Yasunori Mitsuda's stirring mix of wistfulness with a sense of urgency may be the highest point of his career. That's being said, I've probably heard the song hundreds of times in my life; and because I'm such a big fan of Time's Scar--and anything Mitsuda--something very minor about the recording of the song makes me cringe every time I hear it.

Crank up your speakers to 11 and wait for the sound at 00:16.

Did you hear that tiny little thump? It has haunted my dreams for the past decade.

I have no idea what it is, but it certainly can't be part of the composition. Was something being plugged in? Was a music stand kicked over? Did the conductor drop his Big Gulp? Whatever the case, every time I listen to Time's Scar, I tense up until that little thump comes and goes. It's a pretty big blemish on an otherwise awesome recording/song--and if you think I'm being a tad crazy about this, just remember: I wouldn't be a gamer if I didn't get psychotically obsessed over meaningless details.

To calm my nerves, and make you less worried about me, here's an awesome guitar arrangement of Time's Scar that's played using official Procyon Studio (Mitsuda's HQ) sheet music. I would pay for an entire album full of stuff like this:

Related Links:

OST: Chrono Cross
Where is Yasunori Mitsuda?
The End of Time and the Beginning of Fan Drama

Square-Enix's Prez Sez: "Japan needs to be #1 in gaming again, homeslices."

Nadia Oxford — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:37:00 GMT

Square-Enix's President, Yoichi Wada, had a few things to say about Japan's lagging game industry at Tokyo Game Show 2008. Namely, "'Eeeeey man, this isn't cool!" and "Let's get off our asses and do something about it."

I personally find it unfortunate that Japanese game development has been lagging behind North America and Europe. I want to see Japan's industry thrive for a couple of reasons.

First, having grown up with the Nintendo, gaming (to me) will always feel like the domain of the Japanese. God knows America failed me for my fix of mushroom-jumping Italian plumbers, so pardon me for sleeping with the other side. Really though, there was something extra special about our elders being baffled by Japan's bizarre concepts.

"Frog-men? Shape-changing leaves? What the hell is a 'Tanooki?'"

(They were just lucky that Mario's tanuki suit lacked the mythical creature's trademark: gigantic testicles. Actually, I think we're all lucky for that.)

Unlike Atari, Nintendo's early games did not emerge like Venus from a cloud of marijuana smoke. Regardless, Super Mario Bros first captured me because it felt so different from my Atari games while it still managed to be, well, classic. "Rescue the Princess" wasn't very new to anyone who's grown up with fairy tales (or its delightful twists, like The Paper Bag Princess--anyone?), but to me, it offered something Atari games rarely did: a goal. An end. Something more than "Get a high score, wank off to it."

I am, however, still happy to see that other countries are bringing their ideas to this beeping orgy we call game development. This comes to my second point, in which I am going to argue that losing any culture's gained influence would be a bad thing. I doubt Japanese game developers are ever going to go away entirely, but it's sad to see it trickle off. We all must agree that there is a certain, er, charm to Japanese games that no other country is going to emulate. Man, who's going to cater to my fruity-wooty JRPG fix? Rockstar? Oh wait, that might be interesting.

Wada has the cure, however. Or at least he thinks he does. From the article:

Wada pointed out that this problem is "not limited to the game industry," but rather structurally to the entire Japanese nation. He went on to look at possible solutions -- mainly an opening up of attitudes.

He specifically referenced the potential "psychological resistance" of the Japanese developer to achievement based on "standing on the shoulders of giants," -- that is to say, using external tools and building on top of them.

The CESA chairman attempted to psychologically define and split out the technical and creative parts of game development, and a key point was to be that overly rigid definitions of roles and a lack of willingness to use outside technology are hobbling Japanese companies.

Square-Enix has never been shy about putting on shiny new clothes and screaming, "Lookit me!" The DragonQuest series has always been pleasingly spartan, but DragonQuest would sell millions in Japan if each game came packed with a rabid weasel. Final Fantasy, on the other hand, dresses up and stresses innovation with each new title since VII. So I can see why Wada thinks that aiming for Bigger and Fancier is the way to go in this situation, but one comment on the article, left by "Sjors Jansen", brings up an excellent point:

"I am slightly disappointed by this stance. IMO Shadow of the Colossus and Killer 7 have not yet been surpassed by games with more modern/advanced technology. I think the 'japanese way' of creating games should not be written off that easily. Especially not now that we are seeing more acceptance for technologically less impressive games like megaman 9 and the wii platform. I'm not saying we should go totally retro. I'm saying new technology in games is overrated as the audience for wii, indie and retro games is growing. And that if "we change ourselves" it is possible to lose the uniqueness of the 'japanese way' of game making."

What thinkest thou?

Related Links:

Square-Enix's Coup Brings Back Memories
Turning Japanese: Microsoft's Last-Ditch Effort to Win the East
Know Your Final Fantasy IV Trivia. It Could Save Your Life.

The 'Bout Time Report: Dragon Quest IX Gets a Release Date

Bob Mackey — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:00:00 GMT

The Dragon Quest games have never been known for their timeliness; Dragon Quest VII in particular had a development time so troubled that when it eventually came out, the game had a sorry first-gen aesthetic in a world where both Vagrant Story and Chrono Cross existed. But according to Kotaku, the upcoming Dragon Quest IX finally has a release date--nearly two years after the shocking announcement that the game would be exclusive to the DS. In this case, the DQ team's lack of promptness won't affect them much--as if it ever did before. The passing of time has only seen millions more DS systems sold, which means that Square-Enix is well on their way towards taking over the world.

The reveal of DQ on the DS two years ago was a bit of a surprise, but it actually made sense when you stopped to think about it. Dragon Quest was never a series that prided itself--or relied--on visuals; despite what a show-stopping blockbuster VIII ended up being. When it comes to the franchise in general, VIII was a definite deviation; all of the standard DQ trappings still existed, but they were dressed up in the trappings of a lavish late-gen PS2 game--and even more so in the renovated US version. As much as I'd love to see another game in the same vein as DQVIII--which felt like the only authentic RPG of that generation--the format of IX doesn't really matter. Even with a game as relatively ugly as the DS remake of DQIV, that same addictive DQ formula is present regardless of the graphics.

With a March release date in Japan, I'm guessing that we won't actually see DQIX in the States until next fall at the earliest--unless Square-Enix is going for a simultaneous launch in multiple regions (very doubtful). But we are going to see it; Square-Enix is definitely making a concerted effort towards making Americans aware of the series. The upcoming remakes of DQV and DQVI are both coming out here, so--unless those games see some catastrophic sales--there's no reason to believe that they'd hold back on IX.

Related Links:

The 61FPS Review: Dragon Quest IV – Chapters of the Chosen
Anticipation Time: Dragon Quest IV
Square-Enix: Reeling in the Devotees For More, Playing the Console Market With Aplomb

Oops, I Don't Like Super Mario RPG As Much As I Thought I Did

Nadia Oxford — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:16:00 GMT

My husband and I ended up playing something this weekend, after all: Ride the Happy Horsie. Er, I mean, Super Mario RPG.

Rather, he played. I've just been watching. I had the game on the Super Nintendo, but I find it odd that watching the Virtual Console playthrough has not given me a nostalgic itch. He keeps offering to let me play and I keep shaking my head. By contrast, we were pushing each other like kids for the chance to play Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. "MY TURN" "NO MY TURN" "NO NO NO!"

I find that I'm remembering how so many parts of Super Mario RPG made me...well, weary.

"Oh Jeez, Croco. This fight's boring. Oh man, the Kero Sewers. This was a pain to navigate. Oooh, the Forest Maze! This was cool! Oh Christ, stupid Moleville Mines. Snore."

I also think Super Mario RPG looks as ugly as all heck, though it certainly tried given its limited resources. But for the first time, I noticed how many parts of the Mushroom Kingdom seem to be bordered by nondescript green foliage and an ominous empty blue void.

Finally--and maybe this is just me--I really get the impression that Squaresoft wasn't very interested in the whimsy of the Mario canon. Super Mario RPG's eventual successor, Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door gave us settings like Rogueport, a seedy, graffiti-strewn town that still managed to exude 100% Mario charm through its rugged population of sailor Bob-Oms and the thieving rat bandits from Yoshi's Island. Super Mario RPG starts us off with an obligatory "Yeah yeah, the Princess is kidnapped, this is getting old" scenario that's meant to be comedic, but it gives me a whiff of eye-rolling, too.

The comedy is fine, but the prologue is literally ripped in half by the invasion of a Squaresoft creation who's meant to be far more menacing than Bowser. Mario recruits Square-developed friends who are more powerful and interesting than himself (even Mallow has near-divine roots); Geno goes as far as to say that he chose the body of young Gaz's "strongest" doll. The other dolls, for reference, include Mario and his friends.

Of course, all of Gaz's dolls show up eventually as playable characters, but creating an original character who's stronger and smarter than the established cast is the favourite activity of 12-year-old Inuyasha fangirls who've just discovered fanfiction.net. It feels like Squaresoft is pushing aside Nintendo and saying, "Let us show you how an RPG story is meant to be written."

But even I have to admit that Geno is pretty badass, and that Super Mario RPG is excellent in soome regards. The writing, for instance, is way above par, even compared to today's games. It also works to give the Toad people a personality above, er, "royal toady." Also, I never noticed that the inhabitants of Rose Town, which is under fire from an arrow-happy monster, have bullseyes painted on their "hats." That's too cute.

Still, with my game queue bursting at the seams already, I won't be conquering Super Mario RPG any time soon.

(Oh crap, I just remembered the seaside dungeon. Uuuuurgh.)

Related Links:

Sweet Sassy Molassey! Super Mario RPG on the Virtual Console.
Questionable Nintendo Products: Mario's Cradle-Robbing Picnic Plates
TVTropes' Woolseyisms

The 61FPS Review: Dragon Quest IV – Chapters of the Chosen

John Constantine — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:00:00 GMT

I’m not going to lie to you. Dragon Quest and I have history. It goes back some twenty years at this point, but our relationship today isn’t one based on nostalgia. Back in 2005, you could say that Dragon Quest and I were in, to put it delicately, an unhealthily codependent situation. Dragon Quest VIII had just come out in the United States, fresh faced and full of gorgeous cel-shaded graphics, newly minted menus and music, and voice work of unprecedented quality. But Dragon Quest has never had much clout on this side of the Pacific, and this was its first time going by its real name instead of Dragon Warrior. It needed someone, anyone to play it. Me, I was a recovering role-playing addict, coming off of a decade of Squaresoft devotion, trying my best to stay off the ability trees, the melodrama, and the menus. I lapsed occasionally into turn-based adventures to save the world. I’d been doing good up until that November, hadn’t touched a JRPG since Shadow Hearts: Covenant the previous winter, but I could feel myself weakening. I just wasn’t strong enough. So Dragon Quest VIII and I found each other at our weakest.

Between November 15th and December 1st, I clocked just under ninety-six hours playing Dragon Quest VIII. Yeah, that’s right. Four days of my life.

And I loved it.

Each Dragon Quest, since the first game sprung from Yuuji Horii’s succulent brain in 1986, is an exercise in purity, a defining marquee in a genre known today for its decadence, bombast, and tedium. Dragon Quest is more often noted for its resistance to change rather than its consistent quality across the years. It’s true, Dragon Quest has remained, across its sequels, spin-offs, and numerous remakes, largely the same game it was two decades ago. The essential play – explore a large fantasy world, fight monsters in a first person perspective, collect items, talk to every single person you meet – has never changed in the core titles. But every iteration finds its elegant formula incrementally refined, and to great effect. Dragon Quest II introduced multi-character parties, III a job system that went on to become a genre staple, and so on and so forth. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, a DS remake of a Playstation remake of the NES original, could be viewed as a step back from the lavishly produced (though still familiar) Dragon Quest VIII, a retreat meant to acclimate players to the series’ transition from home consoles to portables. Surprisingly, Chapters of the Chosen isn’t a retreat at all. It is instead a perfect model of the JRPG as Horii envisioned it, immediately accessible, streamlined from the menu-juggling, command-selecting rigor moral, and trimmed of the excess narrative fat that’s typified the genre since Hironobu Sakaguchi began emphasizing drama over play in Final Fantasy.

That said, Chapters of the Chosen’s story shouldn’t be undersold. While it isn’t full of lengthy dialogues, it isn’t without dramatic instance. The original Dragon Quest IV’s variation on the DQ theme was its narrative structure: following a brief prologue wherein you play as the classic silent-protagonist of your choosing, the game is broken into the titular chapters, each one devoted to the seven other party characters that ultimately make up your adventuring party. These chapters allow you to play and experience the inciting incidents that introduce these characters into the game’s arching save-the-world narrative. Despite the limited characterization, this allows you to form deeper attachments to these characters than you would if the game followed the JRPG formula of the protagonist being the inciting incident that draws these characters into the adventure. It’s both a unique take on JRPG storytelling as well as a way to better facilitate play; since you are playing these characters individually during the game’s first half, you aren’t tied to “level grinding” them later (or having their levels superficially bumped up to match your protagonist’s.) Even after entering the game’s fifth chapter and having gathered the disparate characters together, Chapters of the Chosen is never structured to serve the story. The story is developed just enough to encourage more play, more exploration, more fights, more collection. This is why Dragon Quest IV, and its parent series, is the model of Japanese role-playing. It is, first and foremost, a game, rather than an interactive anime or fantasy novel with a lot of fighting thrown on top of it. There aren’t enough kind words to give to its presentation, from Koichi Sugiyama’s re-mastered score to Akira Toriyama’s endearing art, not to mention Square-Enix’s remarkable colloquialism-laden localization. But they’re all just icing on the proverbial cake.

I stopped carrying the Nintendo DS on my morning commute recently, worried that I was becoming illiterate after playing videogames during every literal moment of my free time throughout the day. I knew Dragon Quest was coming though. I’m not a strong man. We fell back into our old routine in the past week since its release. To be honest, it’s remarkable I was even able to stop playing long enough to write this. It’s wrong, really, to let a game, even one as great as Chapters of the Chosen, take you over.

But it feels so, so right.

Grade: A

Previous 61FPS Reviews:

Metal Gear Solid IV
Ninja Gaiden 2
Grand Theft Auto IV
Wii Fit

Ten Reasons Why Secret of Mana Sucks

John Constantine — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Caution: Humor and Satire Within.

I want to make two things abundantly clear. I love Super Nintendo-era Squaresoft. I love those games with a ferocious passion that transcends nostalgia. I am not being cute or silly when I say that Chrono Trigger changed my life. It did. Had I not played that game for the first time in December of 1996, I would have never kept writing, would have never been listening to the soundtrack which led to my getting up the courage to making a move on my first serious girlfriend, and a number of other causal ripples coming out of that formative experience. I also want to make it abundantly clear that I have very little time for baseless hating on anything, whether it be a human being, a flavor of lollipop, a book, or videogame.

That said, Secret of Mana sucks and I hate it. I have tried. Lord knows I have tried to play, to beat, and to love that game. I have tried so damn hard. But the truth is inescapable. It sucks and it will always suck. Here’s why!

1) Santa? Fuck you!
2) Stupid rabbites… think you’re so damn cute… whyioughta…
3) Takes forever to play.
4) Feels even longer because of stupid mechanics.
5) Multiplayer isn't fun when everyone gets stuck on a mushroom every two seconds.
6) If I swing a sword at a giant bee, it should fucking hit a giant bee.
7) Terrible soundtrack.
8) Just kidding, that soundtrack's amazing.
9) Protagonist is shitty bootleg version of Crono.
10) Plot makes about as much sense as the ending of Matrix: Reloaded.

I’m just sayin’!

*Now, before y’all go racing to the comments section, I want to make it abundantly clear that this list is for eliciting mirth and humorous reactions. I am not being serious. Well, a little serious. Watching this footage of the recent Virtual Console release of Secret of Mana just got me thinking about the game’s tireless fan-following and how I’m consistently mystified by it. The game is, love it or hate it, simply not up to the sterling standard set by Squaresoft’s other games of the 16-bit era. It has none of the refinement than any of the legendary publisher’s other titles. Frankly, when people talk about how far the series has fallen in the last decade, plagued by shoddy controls and boring environment design, I’m mystified. It’s always been that way.

(Link: NeoGAF)

Related links:

The Dividing RPG: Secret of Mana
TVTropes' "Woolseyisms"
Flying Gay Men Invade Virtual Console!

Where Will You Go, Tecmo? What Will Happen to Our Love?

John Constantine — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:00:00 GMT

This has been something of a tumultuous year for Tecmo. In the past twelve months, they’ve shipped just four games, three of which are Ninja Gaiden games. The fourth, Fatal Frame IV for Wii, wasn’t even developed in house (it was handled by Suda 51’s Grasshopper Manufacture.) None of these games were actually published by Tecmo, relying on companies as diverse as Eidos, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and Nintendo for distribution. In June, their public face and star designer, the outspoken, boozing womanizer Tomonobu Itagaki, quit the company days after Ninja Gaiden II released to middling reviews. In August, their president resigned and Square-Enix tried to take over the company. Today, Tecmo announced they’ll be the latest Japanese company to find refuge from shrinking domestic business by consolidating. Their new partner will be Koei.

Tecmo, I’m worried about you. Times are tough for Japanese developers developing traditional games for home consoles. We’ve had wonderful times together and I’m still looking forward to Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff this fall. Remember all the good times we had with Tecmo Bowl? Yeah. Corporate mergers are a good thing for Japanese developers. Look at Namco-Bandai, that’s gone well! That totally cut down on all those terrible licensed anime games Bandai made. Mergers are also good for creativity. Sega totally kept their strong creative streak after ducking out of the hardware business and merging with Sammy. Look at Square and Enix! They keep on making the same new, adventurous software they did fifteen years ago when they don’t have to. Why, they could just keep on cranking out things with the words Final and Fantasy on them and make a buck.

…

Bottom line, I’m concerned about Tecmo retaining their identity after the merger. They are, after all, merging with the house of Dynasty Warriors. Tecmo doesn’t always release great games, but they have a rich history of fun and interesting games. It would be a shame to see them just fade away.

(Link: Edge Online)

Related links:

Trailer Review: Tecmo Bowl – Kickoff
Whatcha Playing: Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword
The 61FPS Review: Ninja Gaiden 2
Where is Shuichi Sakurazaki, Creator of Ninja Gaiden?

In My Fantasy World, There is a Final Fantasy VI Anime

Bob Mackey — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:00:00 GMT

That's right. Back when I had a brief anime phase in college, which mysteriously coincided with a long sexual drought, I had strictly non-sexual fantasies of a Final Fantasy VI anime. Two reasons: A.) Final Fantasy Unlimited was so bad that not even Japan wanted to see more of it, and B.) Final Fantasy VI's epic, operatic storyline that actually made sense (an important distinction) seemed perfectly tailored for serialized, animated fiction.

Unfortunately, Square's forays into the world of non-interactive entertainment have been affronts to even the unholy god who allowed them to exist in this world to prolong the suffering of mankind. Thank whatever applicable deity for obsessed Japanese fans, who have the spirit and free time I lack to make my own dreams come true.

Yes, it's essentially Full Metal Alchemist characters cosplaying as Final Fantasy VI characters and rotoscoped over previously-existing animation, but--damn it--a man can dream. Am I the only out there with such a far-off, adaptation-based wish? (This is where you respond and I feel better.)

Related Links:

Rockman Lucky Star
TVTropes' "Woolseyisms"

The Dividing RPG: Secret of Mana

Nadia Oxford — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Squaresoft's Secret of Mana will be coming to Virtual Console this September, probably as Seiken Densetsu 2. It's probably a good thing Square-Enix didn't try to reshuffle the Mana titles when they came to America. Re-numbering Final Fantasy already requires more math than I want to do outside a school setting.

(Yes, I was a dunce, and I still am according to expert testimony.)

Secret of Mana's VC revival got people a-muttering on message boards and IRC. And I was shocked and appalled to learn that there are people out there who care not for Randi's pastel-coloured adventure to find a giant tree.

They called it dated.

They called it boring.

They called it buggy, and "buggy" is actually being generous. By all programming logic, every copy of Secret of Mana should have imploded on the store shelves.

I might be biased. Secret of Mana was my first RPG outside of the Dragon Warrior/DragonQuest series, so it wasn't too hard for me to be blown away by the harrowing story of an orphan who was fathered by a sword.

On the other hand, I have no problem going back to old games and calling myself a loser for ever enjoying them. I bought Breath of Fire II on the Virtual Console a few months back and now I'm trying to remember what brand of crack I was smoking when I thought that was a playable game.

But when I play Secret of Mana, it always feels, if you allow me to borrow Chuck Mangione's body for a second, so good. I love the bright graphics and detailed enemy sprites. I love the towns that can't help but be rainbow-coated tourist attractions even if it's full of shuffling zombies and is neighbour to the shrine of a death cult. I love the three-player option that let my younger brother act like a total dick while I was trying to save the world. I love having to backtrack and help my brainless computer-controlled partners figure out how a door works while metal crawlers chase me and burn my ass. Oh wait, I hated that. That was bullshit.

I love wondering if Squaresoft knew they were naming their female hero after a Jewish holiday that encourages revelers to get really drunk.

Finally, I love the music. Calm and summery, Into the Thick of It remains one of my favourite pieces for the "overworld" music in any game. But even that doesn't touch The Dark Star or Still of the Night.

Oh God, that last piece initiated Griffon Hand flashbacks. Fetch me my Dragoon Lance, Billy.

Secret of Mana remains the only Mana game that I would jump in front of a bus to protect. Even Seiken Densetsu 3, which received a lovely fan translation, never grabbed me. I, however, grabbed the Game Boy Advance's Sword of Mana, threw it on the ground and jumped on top of it with steel-toed boots. Take that, relentless menu navigation.

Perhaps I was not meant to understand the ways of others, as they were not meant to understand me.

Or maybe my taste rocks and everyone else's sucks. Yeah, that has to be it!

Related Links:

TVTropes' "Woolseyisms"
Square-Enix's Coup Brings Back Memories
Know Your Final Fantasy IV Trivia. It Could Save Your Life.