{"id":454,"date":"2010-12-25T16:29:21","date_gmt":"2010-12-26T00:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shadowdawngenesis.com\/devblog\/?p=454"},"modified":"2010-12-28T17:22:20","modified_gmt":"2010-12-29T01:22:20","slug":"my-year-in-console-rpgs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shadowdawngenesis.com\/devblog\/?p=454","title":{"rendered":"My year in console RPGs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warning, this is a really long post!\u00a0 But it’s Christmas Day and I’m bored \ud83d\ude42<\/strong><\/p>\n

I took the week between Christmas and New Year’s off so today is the start of my holiday!\u00a0 I plan to get a lot done on my game, because the last few weeks have been miserable and I won’t have the day job to get in the way now.\u00a0 I did manage to get my\u00a0documentation\u00a0work done (which amidst all the recovery and stress from a decision I had to make at my day job is\u00a0the last thing I wanted to do) but I need to get back into making content!<\/p>\n

When I’m not working the day job or crunching out art or new game features for Shadowdawn Genesis<\/em>, I spend most of the remaining time sleeping or playing console RPGs.\u00a0 They are, after all, why I decided to become an indie game developer, and there’s no reason I’m going to let that decision stop me from enjoying them still.\u00a0 Besides, I like to know which games\u00a0try out\u00a0some of my design concepts and how they use them. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Following is a list of every RPG I’ve played all year (even the old ones), and some thoughts about them and what I got out of them as a game designer.\u00a0 Maybe they’ll be interesting reads, maybe not!\u00a0 But I should warn you, this is a long post, because I didn’t want to have to keep updating it all week when I want to be working on my game, hehe.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International
\n<\/strong>Summary<\/em>
\nThis is the PS3 rerelease of the Xbox 360 original version.\u00a0 Other than letting us non-Japanese players actually\u00a0see the original drawn CG character art vs. the pre-rendered 3D models for dialog and status menus, and of course the original Japanese language audio track, it’s not much different.\u00a0 I was really hoping to see some expansion to the endings, because unlike a majority of people I really liked this game the first time except for Sarah and the fact the endings aren’t determined by your relationships like all other games in the series.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it was not to be.\u00a0 The battle system is very fun and the main reason I’d recommend the game to anyone, while the trophies have some very challenging things to go for (not counting the annoying ones like collect 255 Ornothology drops).\u00a0 The cast all has their ups and downs, but I managed to like even Edge.\u00a0 Most people like to make a big deal about the post-traumatic “emo” Edge, but it’s not like he acts that way throughout the whole game.\u00a0 Of course, my favorite characters are Meracle, Bacchus, and Reimi.
\nWhat did I learn from this game?<\/em>
\n\u00a0– Crafting systems shouldn’t be located in a single place that is troublesome to access in certain situations.
\n\u00a0– Making in-game achievements should never rely on obtaining a zero-probability drop a ridiculous number of times.<\/p>\n

Final Fantasy XIII
\n<\/strong>Summary<\/em>
\nAnother divisive entry in the long-running series.\u00a0 My first impression was\u00a0“oh man, I thought Lightning was a blonde”\u00a0when I saw they started adding pink to her hair on the cover art.\u00a0 I double-checked the older media and confirmed I wasn’t losing my head.\u00a0 Why does this matter?\u00a0 Oh, let me see, a game starring a strong female mercenary with pink hair and blue eyes, does that ring a bell?\u00a0 Yeah, I wasn’t too happy, so I’m trying to make my character as different as possible to avoid that inevitable comparison.\u00a0 Apparently, in an interview Nomura-san changed the design to counter the criticisms that Lightning looked too much like Cloud.
\nAnyways, that’s all beside the point.\u00a0 In my opinion, FFXIII<\/em> was a game with far too many\u00a0cutscenes and the over-the-top hand-holding as far as what the player was allowed to do was ridiculous.\u00a0 The first few hours are miserable and inconsistent, and it is very hard to follow exactly what\u00a0the point is in order\u00a0to keep playing.\u00a0\u00a0The most jarring\u00a0gameplay flow\u00a0was having every character be able (and ONLY allowed to) attack with melee weapons in the first two chapters, only to have Roles introduced;\u00a0suddenly, some characters had no ability to just simply fight at all.\u00a0 This may be the first RPG in history where characters with weird weapons show they clearly know\u00a0how to use them and then suddenly lose the ability to fight only a couple hours in.\u00a0 Gradually, the Roles for these characters expand and do allow them to eventually fight, though for some of them it’s not worth the ratio of CP cost\/abilities unlocked to even try.\u00a0 Final Fantasy XIII<\/em>‘s strongest point is its scenario, the way the world worked was pretty interesting but it was never fully explored to reach its potential.\u00a0 Like them or love them, the characters are diverse and work well together, with the exception of Vanille who just\u00a0comes off completely detached even when she’s “serious” with Fang not far behind.\u00a0 Sazh has some of the best drama in the game, so he and Lightning pretty much became my favorites.
\nWhat did I learn from this game?<\/em>
\n\u00a0– NPCs are meant to be talked to, not walked by as they shout random things at you like homeless people
\n\u00a0–\u00a0A crafting system should\u00a0at least\u00a0make logical sense.\u00a0 Weapons gain XP to “level up” Attack by synthesizing crafting items onto it.\u00a0 It’s that basic, the only gimmick being to use the cheap items to boost the modifier of the rare items.\u00a0 Boring.\u00a0 And you never knew which rare weapon you were going for, you could waste all your items on a dud that didn’t even evolve and never know it.
\n\u00a0– Don’t save\u00a0a wide-open area for the last chapter of the game, especially if it has nothing to do with the previous chapters.<\/p>\n

Resonance of Fate
\n<\/strong>Summary<\/em>
\nI really like this game, but it suffered from what I’ve long referred to as “Tri-Ace” Syndrome.\u00a0 Their games almost always start strong, but the atmosphere is dreary and hard to keep motivated to play.\u00a0 Even Valkyrie Profile<\/em> had this problem, and my first playthrough of that game was finished before I knew it, so I ended up not understanding why it was so good.\u00a0 But that’s Tri-Ace for you, most of their games play like that, but the pay-off for giving\u00a0them your full attention is worth it.\u00a0 Resonance of Fate<\/em> is the same, the game just started on a very bizarre note and then goes on as if nothing happened.\u00a0\u00a0If I had to say anything bad about the game, it is regards to how hard it is to survive once Hero Guage is broken.\u00a0 This is more a problem for earlier in the game when the guage is smaller, with with the game encouraging its usage (which drains it), but taking damage also drains it, you’re kind of stuck unless you figure out how to exploit it.\u00a0 There aren’t many playable characters, but I like all three of them, even if I didn’t like Zephyr at first.\u00a0 The\u00a0many outfits and accessories are a fantastic touch that I\u00a0think surpasses the customization level of current MMOs.
\nWhat did I learn from this game?
\n<\/em>\u00a0– Tutorials need to be less wordy, it’s easy to miss the most important step in all that reading.\u00a0 You’re pretty much expected to know how to do everything in the game right away, and it’s overwhelming how much there is.
\n\u00a0– Girls with guns are cool (but I already knew that, just look at my character, Tiya)<\/p>\n

Mimana Iyar Chronicle
\n<\/strong>Summary<\/em>
\nI really wanted to\u00a0enjoy this game.\u00a0 Some of it was interesting, and I liked the retro-premise of the first act, so the story didn’t put me off.\u00a0 I think what eventually killed my interest was how long the dungeons get to be.\u00a0 The battles are slow and not very interesting, especially with this weird system of only being able to attack or cast spells straight left or right but while moving up and down.\u00a0\u00a0Having to find the right path and backtrack over and over again while\u00a0fighting the same boring monsters over and over again gets tedious.\u00a0 I didn’t mind it at first when the dungeons were shorter, but the more you have to repeat fights, the more you realize how boring they are.\u00a0 As an anime fan, the “harem” cast concept is no stranger to me, but I found it out of place in an RPG that starred a guy who hated everyone and everything (at first), plus the girls\u00a0had\u00a0the personality depth of\u00a0driftwood\u00a0compared to typical all-female casts.
\nWhat did I learn from this game?<\/em>
\n\u00a0–\u00a0When making an action RPG with spells, don’t make the spells shoot in a straight line if there is no enemy in that direction
\n\u00a0– As much as I like girl characters, this game could have used another male perspective to balance out Crais’s overly harsh\u00a0personality.\u00a0 Apparently\u00a0almost\u00a0all\u00a0character designers think just making a female character pretty or cool is enough, personality be damned.<\/p>\n

Wild Arms
\n<\/strong>Summary<\/em>
\nOne of the very first Playstation RPGs in North America.\u00a0 This game amazed me back then, and on replay I enjoyed it that much more.\u00a0 I had already played through Wild Arms: Alter Code F<\/em> two years before and loved the remake, but I found myself forgetting some of the story ever happened in the 2D version of the game.\u00a0 So I downloaded it from PSN and powered through it.\u00a0 This game is deceptively long,\u00a0coming off an era where most RPGs could be finished in around 10-15 hours.\u00a0 Rudy and Jack are still some of my favorite RPG characters ever.\u00a0 Although the remade\u00a0scene in Alter Code F<\/em> is much more powerful, at the time when Rudy does the unthinkable after Ziegfried tries to\u00a0drag him along to their mutual death, that moment and aftermath is easily one of my top\u00a0moments in gaming history.\u00a0 It’s\u00a0almost comical\u00a0how often sacrifice happens in Final Fantasy IV<\/em>, but I had never felt the same way I did when I saw this scene in Wild Arms<\/em>.
\nWhat did I learn from this game?
\n<\/em>\u00a0– Tools are fun
\n\u00a0– You can rebuild a town, but you can never rebuild\u00a0fairgrounds ruined by demon invasion<\/p>\n

Ys Seven<\/strong>
\nSummary<\/em>
\nThe long awaited sequel to one of the most definitive action RPG series.\u00a0 The Ys series has really hit the limelight this year after several years in obscurity, all thanks to XSEED’s efforts.\u00a0 As the first game in the series that finally lets Adol have his friend Dogi’s actual support (among other new companions), it was a refreshing experience.\u00a0 The jumping mechanic was\u00a0removed but I feel having three party members more than made up for it.\u00a0 I loved the art style and the graphics for the environments were very well done.\u00a0 I felt the story was very solid, it didn’t try to do anything over the top but it was a nice departure from earlier games in the series and had believable and somewhat unexpected plot twists happen at just the right time.\u00a0 My only complaint was in the last third of the game, when it felt like you were asked to redo the first half.\u00a0 The Moon Dragon was an especially huge letdown, for various reasons I won’t spoil, but otherwise I couldn’t recommend the game more.\u00a0 My only recommendation?\u00a0 Be sure to level up all your characters, even if you don’t think you need them…
\nWhat did I learn from this game?<\/em>
\n\u00a0– Strong music really does wonders for a game’s atmosphere.\u00a0 The player should be excited to play, and the music should reflect that.
\n\u00a0– Auto-regen isn’t such a bad thing if done right.\u00a0 Not being able to regenerate in dungeons adds to their challenge.
\n\u00a0– Combat skill system was similar to my game, so I really paid attention to its implementation and what they did right and wrong.\u00a0 It’s not quite the same, but close enough.<\/p>\n

Tales of Vesperia
\n<\/strong>Summary
\n<\/em>I had already played through this game in early 2009, but I needed some help with animation in the up and down directions and it was the only anime-styled game I had in an HD format.\u00a0 I\u00a0booted up\u00a0the game\u00a0and realized I had never fought the last boss, so I restarted the whole thing and played through.\u00a0 Now, I still prefer Tales of the Abyss<\/em> to this game, but on second playthrough it was a lot more fun.\u00a0 I still feel the combat system is\u00a0too rigid and unresponsive, especially in the beginning, and the insane shared Overlimit gauge is my biggest pet peeve.\u00a0 Whereas in Abyss<\/em> characters each had their own gauge and could use Mystic Artes at will, now with the shared guage it’s nearly impossible to even see another character’s Mystic Arte without controlling them directly.\u00a0 The AI just uses the gauge at will (yes I know you can tell them to wait until it’s\u00a0completely full or not at all) and doesn’t consistently do anything useful let alone a Mystic\/Burst Arte with it, wasting its potential most of the time.\u00a0 I like the entire cast except main character Yuri, though Karol is only good because his personality is not typical\u00a0in an RPG.\u00a0 Judith and Raven win my vote for favorites from this game.
\nWhat did I learn from this game?
\n<\/em>\u00a0– Animation observation.\u00a0 Facing down and up makes for weird perspective in 2D games that’s hard for me to visualize, especially for complex attacks.\u00a0 I have long\u00a0suspected this is the reason many\u00a02D indie RPGs stick to retro graphics or side-scrolling, to avoid this problem.
\n\u00a0– How to make a good variety of special skill effects<\/p>\n

Chrono Trigger<\/strong>
\nSummary<\/em>
\nAnother legendary RPG, I picked up the Playstation version recently despite warnings about load times.\u00a0 As I had wanted to design a game that had turn-based and kept party members fighting on the same map where enemies were encountered, this was the only game I could think of that did that.\u00a0 In fact, one of my long running pet peeves is how console RPGs always make battles happen in another engine; it just doesn’t make sense to me.\u00a0 Objectively speaking, though this is one of my favorite RPGs ever and one that many who generally dislike Japanese RPGs actually enjoy, this game is not without its own minor flaws.\u00a0 I was never a big fan of how it advertised multiple endings, but the only way to get almost all of them is to play the game again and beat the last boss at obscurely precise moments in the plot.\u00a0 Out of all the alternate endings, only one of them felt valid (the one without Crono), though I’m well aware the rest of the endings ARE funny and\/or cool to see.\u00a0 Just have to bow down to the “rule of cool” in this case.\u00a0 All that said, like Rudy’s event in Wild Arms<\/em>, Crono’s scene in the Ocean Palace against Lavos is likewise one of those moments in gaming that is hard to top.\u00a0 It’s things like that that make me so upset that the sequel\u00a0Crono Cross<\/em> just totally dismissed everything these characters had gone through to save the future and, worse, made them out to be the bad guys.\u00a0 There wasn’t a single member of the cast I disliked, though Ayla and Robo were my favorites.
\nWhat did I learn from this game?<\/em>
\n\u00a0– An RPG doesn’t have to have a fully mapped town to be good
\n\u00a0– Combination techniques are a fantastic use of multiple party members.\u00a0 Normally in RPGs everyone operates alone, but having two or three characters work together really helps bring them together in the player’s mind<\/p>\n

Ys: The Oath in Felghana<\/strong>
\nSummary
\n<\/em>Another Ys<\/em> game, this one is a remake of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys<\/em> from the early 90s.\u00a0 And I mean full remake, everything is different, as the original was a side-scrolling action RPG, and this one is now an overhead action RPG.\u00a0 Taking a step back from Ys Seven<\/em>, Adol returns to his roots as a solo adventurer solving the problems of the\u00a0country he happens to have wandered into.\u00a0 There was something about the platform elements that eventually put me off, and some of the bosses were just outright annoying.\u00a0 The gameplay of the\u00a0final boss reminded me of Dracula in Castlevania III<\/em>.\u00a0 Still, this is one of my favorite soundtracks of all time, and it lets you listen to three\u00a0versions of\u00a0each track\u00a0(though not my favorite, the TurboGrafx CD OST).\u00a0 The voice acting started off a bit rough but eventually became pretty endearing, Chester at the end of the game was very well done.
\nWhat did I learn from this game?
\n<\/em>\u00a0– Apparently power-ups to magic, though non-essential, are going to be hidden in the most inconspicuous way possible.
\n\u00a0– Adol should have let Dogi be the hero this time, Elena and him were meant for each other.\u00a0 Sorry, but it’s true!\u00a0 Adol has enough girls falling over him all over the world.\u00a0 Oh wait, this is about what I learned, well, I learned that the hero may not be the least bit interested in love, but that won’t stop those around him\/her from feeling the same way.<\/p>\n

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
\n<\/strong>Summary
\n<\/em>Is this really an RPG?\u00a0 Though I doubt it is actually classified as such, many clones and games inspired by it (aka “Metroidvania”) games are called action RPGs.\u00a0 This is actually another pet peeve of mine; simply because the game has an XP system, money, and equippable items… well I guess if the gaming community feels this qualifies as an RPG what can I say.\u00a0 But the fact is that this game is not the first thing people think of when referring to RPGs, only its successors, so why the discrepancy?
\nThis game is legendary like Chrono Trigger<\/em>, but when I first played it I wasn’t that impressed.\u00a0 I mean, I loved the 2d artwork, the animation and the environments were great.\u00a0 But I thought the gameplay itself was a bit too easy after a long series of much harder Castlevania <\/em>games.\u00a0 The voice acting was and still is atrocious.\u00a0 I like how people believe the many philosophical quotes from this game, such as “What is a man?\u00a0\u00a0A miserable little pile of secrets!” were made by this game and not some documented historian or author somewhere.\u00a0 I also was not as enthused about the inverted castle.\u00a0 Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was awesome at first, but when I quickly realized it was just one huge map with no real direction to explore or any interactions it felt like padding, however the subtle callback to Simon’s Quest<\/em> was awesome.\u00a0 There were also far too many weapons that were useless when they were finally found.
\nI know this sounds like I’m ripping on the game, but like I said, that was my first impression.\u00a0 I didn’t replay it until many years later and realized that the game doesn’t need to be hard to be fun, plus it was the pinnacle of 2D gaming and still is to a degree.\u00a0 I wish more games in the series had this much to explore, Castlevania itself was so well designed that no other game after even came close to its intricate complexity and interweavings.\u00a0
\nWhat did I learn from this game?
\n<\/em>\u00a0– I really want a remake of Castlevania III with the sprites from the battle in the inverted Colliseum.
\n\u00a0– Some interesting tricks for 2D games to use regarding special effect animations<\/p>\n

Persona 3 Portable<\/strong>
\nSummary
\n<\/em>I have owned every game in the Persona series (except the first half of\u00a0Persona 2: Innocent Sin, which is coming out soon), while owning only Nocturne of the overall Shin Megami Tensei series.\u00a0 The trick is, I never played any of them except the first few hours of Nocturne until this year.\u00a0 Over the summer, I gave the original Persona a chance and the combat quickly turned me off to it.\u00a0 I couldn’t stand how a character in the wrong spot in the formation couldn’t hit the single remaining enemy.\u00a0 Otherwise, it seemed like it could have been an interesting game.
\nSo imagine my surprise when I finally decided to try Persona 3.\u00a0 This game amazed me from the very beginning, the characters were deep and interesting, the deceptive introduction was very intriguing, the whole scenario was much more interesting and thought-provoking than the straight “demon-invasion” stories that Nocturne and Persona had.\u00a0 What really sold me was how fun the battle system was.\u00a0 I don’t think I’ve ever played a turn-based game this fun and responsive, though Suikoden II was pretty close.\u00a0 The social link system, how you make friends and start dating girls or guys (depending on your main character), is very in depth and some of the stories you experience as you get to know these people are just, well let’s say Bioware has a long way to go to make characters this deep (barring Planescape).\u00a0 The game really makes several solid statements about exploring the meanings of life and living, and the perils of a society that has lost their will.\u00a0 A very topical game, if you ask me.\u00a0 The voice acting is great with the exception of Fuuka and sometimes Aigis.\u00a0 This otherwise perfect game has the last part slow down the pacing of the incredible story to an almost crawl, perhaps to let the player do the side-content like Persona fusions and the difficult quests, but I found it a bit of a let down.\u00a0 But I am aware making an entire year of events happen has to have some downtime, I mean,\u00a0my year had its lulls, too \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 I also was less than impressed with Ryoji’s appearance, he was\u00a0technically introduced near the very end but everyone acted unusually responsive to him for the short time they knew him.
\nI was surprised to hear that the PS2 versions of this game have you control your character on the various maps like the school and mall.\u00a0 The Portable version removes this and has the map appear with hotspots, streamlining the exploration considerably.\u00a0 I think the game has so much content (my first playthrough without revisiting Tartarus to level up\u00a0or doing the 4\/5-star quests was 95 hours), I actually\u00a0prefer this, and normally I’m one for having an avatar to move around on maps.
\nI randomly\u00a0bought Persona 4 earlier this year as one of the last Ps2 games on the shelf at the store, now that I know it is like 3 (but supposedly improves on its flaws), I’m really looking forward to starting it up.\u00a0 But not until I finish the female main character playthrough of 3… her social links (relationships) and story are almost entirely different than the guy’s was, with all new characters and clubs to join.\u00a0 I’m already befriending Junpei in the first week, which threw me off because he treated the main male character like a jerk almost the entire game.
\nOh and before I forget, my favorite characters are Yukari, Junpei,\u00a0and Akihiko, though several of the social link\u00a0NPCs had a serious\u00a0impact on me.
\nWhat did I learn from this game?
\n<\/em>\u00a0– I really want the relationships that Arashi forges in Shadowdawn Genesis to have even half the effect that Persona 3 had.
\n\u00a0– Turn-based doesn’t have to mean slow and boring.\u00a0 It can be done right.
\n\u00a0– Don’t introduce a vital character in the last leg of the game, it can ruin the whole dynamic.\u00a0 Oddly enough, I have the same complaint about the TV anime Evangelion regarding Kaworu who was handled in the same way.<\/p>\n

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