|
 |
Ask Google |
 |
 |
And the winner is... |
 |
|
Googleshng - December 14 '04- 4:00 Eastern Standard Time
The WarCraft 3 expansion! Thus far the only package shipped a week ago
to have arrived! I can't believe I never heard they went and threw in a whole new race. Well, half-race
at any rate. I like'em.
|
|
|
Vagrant Story
|
Hey Goog,
Since you asked...why does everybody seem to hate Vagrant Story? I think it's a REALLY cool game that I'm finally, after all these years, going all the way through. Yes, the lack of damage you can do to bosses is a major pain in the butt, but other than that I think it's a really fun game that did a great job of mixing RPG elements with a Tomb Raider-style action-plaformer. So I ask you..why the hate?
Robust Stu
Gold Reviewer/Swell Guy/True Believer
|
|
Googleshng:
Well, not EVERYONE hates Vagrant Story. I know several people who can ignore all the flaws and love it
for what it does well (visual style and story). I am not one of these people however. First off, it's
a dungeon crawl. A fact I feel the need to point out because, personally, I am not a fan of the genre.
Running around in One Big Dungeon for several hours gets rather monotonous in my book. That's not enough
to make me hate the game though. That takes the deeply, deeply, deeply flawed gameplay. On paper, I like
the concept. You carry a bunch of weapons around, with various strengths and weaknesses, and the more you
use a certain weapon to kill a certain type of monster, the better it works. That's all well and good,
except that in practice, the variety of monsters needed to get your weapons properly specialized can't
be found early on, building them up takes way too long, and the whole Risk instead of Rounds bit is just
plain stupid. The end result is that I get into a boss fight, switch to a weapon which it would be weak
against if I had the proper things to whack at with it, and proceed to launch into a 200 hit attack combo,
gradually whittling it down, knowing that if I stop, it'll kill me in one or two attacks on my totally
light-aligned head.
That jus plain isn't fun. |
| | |
By similar token...
|
Hey Google,
**Mild to moderate "Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories" spoilers**
They're doing it again. And I don't like it.
What is "it"? "It" is liking Kingdom Hearts, particularly the GBA sequel to
Kingdom Hearts. And "they" is everyone. Everyone is liking the GBA Kingdom
Hearts.
I'm one of the minority who didn't think the first one was all that and a
sack of potatoes, but it had a decent story and I thought it had gameplay
that remained at least mildly fun for most of the game.
However, having played through most of Chain of Memories, I find myself now
avoiding all unnecessary battles like a fruitcake at Christmas. My
impression of the battle system very quickly went from "What the heck am I
doing with these cards?" to "OMG THIS SO COOL CARDS AWESOME YAY" to "Woo.
Battle. L+R, L+R, L+R, L+R, Omni-slash, repeat..." Ten floors of monotonous
battles quickly turned my new favorite RPG battle system into my new most
hated RPG battle system. Once you figure out how to stack your deck right,
there is absolutely no challenge left, even in the boss fights which do
provide some sense of variety that the other dungeon battles do not.
I did complete Kingdom Hearts, and I plan to finish Chain of Memories, but
only because the stories of both are intriguing. However, good story aside,
when the gameplay gets old so fast, it's kinda like giving someone the
greatest novel ever written and making them read it while being mercilessly
beaten with a croquet mallet. Yes, it would be nice to stop the mallet
beating, but this book is just so great that I don't want to stop reading it.
So my question is, is a great X, Y, and Z in a game always enough to make
someone forget about the mediocre W? I mean, whenever I hear about a bad
RPG, it's because almost everything about it is bad. So is one poor aspect
of an otherwise outstanding game always so easy to ignore?
kweee
|
|
Googleshng:
Well, it depends on the person, and what W X Y and Z are to be honest. Take me for instance. If a game
has a really original concept, with at least halfway decent execution, that's going to make me somewhat
less critical in other areas. Most people I find will ignore all the flaws in a game, no matter how big,
as long as it has "a good story" going for it. I have no clue what people mean when they say that though,
because I can name a dozen games off the top of my head with a huge base of rabid fans insisting they
have "TEH BEST STORY EVAR!" when what you really have is a bunch of extremely generic one-dimensional
characters, most of whom don't really have speaking roles, going through a poorly executed rehash of the
exact same completely predictable story we've all seen hundreds of times. No accounting for taste I guess.
The only ones that really get under my skin though are the ones who jump down your throat just for acknowledging
the flaws exist. As is often the case with...
|
| | |
FF10
|
To...whoever decides to answer this one.
Hey, IÕm a long time reader, first time mailer, with a few questions.
Well first off, IÕve been wondering what's up with the Chrono Trigger series. I mean a while ago there were rumors of another game, (y'know, the whole Chrono Break thing). But, for some reason it was nixed. Has there been any news at all about the future of the franchise? I, for one can't handle much more space-time craziness (Chrono Cross's plot still makes my head ache.) Also, I heard a few things about Grandia, and Skies of Arcadia sequels a while back. Any news about those?
I am excited about the FFVII compilation and all but, S-E is milking all it can from VII fans, not that I blame them. Advent Children looks great and maybe Dirge of Cerberus will be good, but with the release of all these games, the possibility of a "True" FFVII remake is declining. I just don't see it happening now which is sad, how about you?
Finally, I'd like to hear Google's take on the flaws in FFX. I thought I was the only one who didn't like it much. Granted, the graphics were great and, blitzball was mildly entertaining, but Tidus... lets just say my comments are unfit for the ears of the younger readers. X-2 just makes me want to gouge my own eyes out for looking at it. But, as you guys have said many times over, S-E can cast a singing pile-o-feces as the protagonist of FFXIII and still sell 30 million copies, heck IÕd still buy it...
Anyways, thanks for your time.
- Toran
|
|
Googleshng:
You know, you can't "nix" a game that you were never even working on to begin with.
The premise of an FF7 remake would best be held off until we all have a chance to see if we aren't fed
up with it after all these spinoffs I'd think.
Finally, my main problems with FF10.
#1- Way way way too easy. Rushing through, you're going to have characters
doing 9999 damage halfway through, I never so much as had anyone get low on MP, and in order for something
to kill you, it would have to be able to take down every single one of your summons, and then your entire
party.
#2- Bad voice acting. "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"
#3- Tidus. As a character, I can't stand him. That much I can get by though with the help of all the decent
characters hating him too. What's really bad though is that the role Tidus plays in the story is the clueless
idiot people explain everything to for the audience's benefit. So, his complete inability to work anything
out is actually an insult to MY intelligence.
#4- This here is the biggie. I hate the Sphere Grid system. On paper, it's just find and dandy. Of course,
on paper, there's actual choice involved, and I don't have to press 14 buttons and mess with a joystick
to go up a level after just about every fight. I could produce the same thing with one button press,
without losing anything.
I wouldn't dimiss singing feces out of hand though. It worked just fine for Conker's Bad Fur Day.
|
| | |
Hat Trick!
|
Hello again,
What exactly was it that you didn't like about Vagrant Story, Chrono Cross, and Final Fantasy X? This is only out of curiousity of course since you are very wise in your knowledge of and criticism of video games.
On a side note, what is it about games that interests you the most when you think about buying it?
The Buddy Wingnut
|
|
Googleshng:
Since I already covered the other two, Chrono Cross it is.
Aside from the fact that the connection to Chrono Trigger managed to be both vague and a complete kick
in the teeth, it has this odd unfinished quality to it. Major plot points often seem like they were just
pencilled in and nobody got around to fleshing them out, that sort of thing. Plus, you know, switching
people's magic setups around was pure hell if you actually wanted to change your party around sometimes.
Oh, and the main thing that influences my game buying decisions are the reputations of the developers.
If you've made a bunch of good games, I'll grab your next one no questions asked. If it sucks though,
you're most likely off the list.
|
| | |
Release Dates
|
Hi Goog,
I'm that guy that is writing the research paper on Role-Playing Games and
I was just wondering if you would like to post it as maybe and editorial
or something? If you do want it (a really big IF) who should I send it
to?
Also, a couple of other questions as well. Why does your Christmas Theme
for your website only appear during the middle of the day? At night and
in the morning, it's the normal theme. It's rather bizarre. And why was
your last Q&A filled with random E's? That was rather bizarre as well.
Anyway, one of my main questions is about Wild Arms: Alter Code F. On
your website in the Released Dates section, the release date for this
game was 2.21.2004 for America. But the last article in your News
Archives saying that this game was "Headed to North America" was posted
on 4.26.2004. When I click the link to read that article though, it
takes me to a completely different article completely. Then when I go to
the Games section, and choose this game, the same article is then labeled
as being posted on 4.26.2003. I don't think this game is out yet, but
according to your site, it's been out since February of this year. Is it
out?
Sorry. I like to notice glitches. I've found myself doing that a lot
lately.
One more question really quickly. Do you know when Digital Devil Saga is
going to be released? I've heard February 15, 2005, but i'm not sure if
it's right. I've also heard of some Pre-order bonus DVD, but i'm not
sure about that either. THANKS!!!
Morridor
Danny
|
|
Googleshng:
Nothing wrong with spotting errors. You'd be better off throwing them to webmaster@rpgamer.com though
for future reference.
Anyway, the mystery of these things: Ê
Basically, there's a lot of various characters that can appear in a block of text. Some of them are just
fine and dandy anywhere you see them. Others are less standardized. Like this one here: ¥ In my text editor,
that's a big thick bullet. In web browsers, it tends to look like the euro symbol or somesuch, and if you
grab he source and paste it somewhere, it might turn into the yen symbol. Anyway, one of these non-standard
characters is something people's e-mail clients throw in that (usually) looks like a space, but is actually
a seperate character, which is good because if you type a bunch of spaces in html, you only end up with
one, unless you use some funky character. The problem is, I said usually. Somewhere between people's
e-mail editors and web browsers, that little sucker goes from " " to "Ê" on you. I generally make a point
of running a quick search/replace for all such weird characters (smart quotes are another), but it slipped
my mind yesterday.
As for dates, DDS: 2/15. Wild ARMs: 2/19. I'll see about getting the proper person smacked for bad dates
and links there.
Finally, the matter of disappearing, reappearing snowflakes, that's all you. Try emptying your image cache.
|
| | |
RSS feed
iTunes