Tales of
More Stuff
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| March 16th, 2012 |
03/16- 12:00PM EST
Happy Tales
of Grace F release week! Yes, I've
taken a break from playing this great RPG,
along with Mass Effect 3, to bring
you some more Q&A. If you didn't catch
it on twitter, you can have a chance to win
a copy of Ys:
Oath in Felghana on Steam if you
send me in a pitch for a prequel to some
RPG. The deadline is Sunday.
On to your letters!
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I'd like a Rogue Galaxy prequel, it's
high time Level 5 went back to that
science-fantasy IP instead of the usual high
fantasy fare. I think there's a lot of
unexplored storyline in that universe,
possibly the story of Dorgengoa and how he
became a pirate captain, or the story of
Zegram the bounty hunter with the mysterious
past. Alternately, I'd like a game that
focuses on Kisala's perspective as the
protagonist.
-Anonynamja
Wheels
I
wasn't the biggest fan of Rogue
Galaxy, but there's no
doubt it has its charms, and we
certainly need moe
science-fantasy type IPs to
change things up. It sounds like
the game has a lot of unexplored
territory, and there's no doubt
Level 5 could produce some
incredible looking HD visuals to
go along with it. This could
also fix some of the bland
dungeons I remember seeing in
the game, and make the universe
more interesting to explore.
Regardless, I think you'd find a
lot of fan support for this
idea, so here's hoping it comes
true! I mean, it couldn't be as
bad as Level 5's White
Knight Chronicles games,
right (sorry that was harsh!)?
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Dear Wheels,
The Devil
Children games are often regarded
as Pokémon
clones. While not entirely false, it was MegaTen
that invented the monster-catching genre, so
who copied who first? These are aimed at
children, having less violent and lighter
stories and making most demons cutesy and/or
cartoony. If you haven’t guessed, DemiKids
Light and Dark Version released for the GBA
are part of this sub-series. Before them
were a number of games for GBC and PSX. They
even received GBA sequels, which along with
some side games, I’ll go into more briefly.
Wheels
The
MegaTen series
certainly did monster-catching
first, but I think the clone
talks come from the fact that
these games are all about the
monster collecting, instead of
it just being the way the game
handles battles, like is the
case for most of the series.
Similar to calling the Dragon
Quest Monster
games clones, I
think it is valid there as well,
because though Dragon
Quest V did it before Pokémon,
it was simply a way the game
presented party building, and
not the primary focus. Anyway,
continue!
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The first games were called Shin Megami
Tensei: Devil Children Black Book
and Red
Book, released for the Gameboy
Color in 2000. Much like Pokémon,
there was also a "third version"
called White
Book released in 2001. Unlike Pokémon,
these games starred different characters and
had different, though intertwining stories.
It would take me too long to go into each
one, so I'll just say that the stories
center around kids who discover that they
are Devil
Children, half-demon and half-human
(indeed, the protagonist of Black Book,
Setsuna Kai is literally the son of
Sat--erm, Lucifer), giving them the ability
to recruit demons and have a partner demon
guide. Much like other early MegaTen
games, the demons do not level-up and they
must be fused or new ones recruited by
conversing with them to get stronger ones. Devil Children
apparently summon demons using a gun-like
item called the Devil Riser. Though these
children level up, they themselves do not
fight, but instead send out two demons at
once. It is also possible to battle
and trade human opponents using the link
cable. The initial Devil Children games are
apparently similar to the more recent DemiKids,
except the latter lets you use three demons
at a time and has better graphics .
Considering what fellow staffer Nyx thought
of Demikids,
this may not be a good thing. Red and
Black Book
were ported to the PSX in 2002, bundled
together with enhanced graphics, somewhat
better sounds, and added an animated opening
and voice acting.
Wheels
They
sound interesting enough, but
I'm guessing based on that last
comment, that may not be the
case. Anyway, I think the series
is best when it focuses on doing
combat well, and then integrates
the demon collecting/summoning
into, so I feel like focusing on
the latter may have been bad.
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The next set of Devil Children games were
released in North America, better known as DemiKids.
As mentioned before, these games received
direct sequels in 2003 on the GBA: Shin Megami
Tensei: Devil Children Fire Book
and Ice
Book. They star DemiKid's
protagonists, Jin for Fire Book
and Akira for Ice Book and like the rest
of the sub-series, the two games' stories
are different, but they intertwine. There is
very little information out there on these
games from what I could find, so I have no
idea if the gameplay has improved in any
way. After these games came Shin Megami
Tensei: Devil Children Messiah Riser,
released on the GBA in 2004. It's a
real-time strategy game for a change of
pace. Even so, the story is stock JRPG (stop
the evil empire from awakening a massively
powerful sealed demon), the interface is
clunky, and the unit AI is a bit dumb.
Sounds like a real winner. :P
Wheels
I
never really heard of them when
they came out, but based on the
reviews out there I guess I
didn't miss much? The real-time
strategy one sounds like an
interesting idea, even though I
can't really picture that kind
of game working out too well on
the GBA!
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Being a series aimed at kids, Devil Children
got its own trading card game. There was
also a video game titled Shin Megami
Tensei Trading Card: Card Summoner,
released for the GBC in 2001 and aimed at
kids. I'm actually not certain if this game
is directly based on the Devil Children
card game since the title doesn't have the "Devil Children"
in it, but I'll include it here anyway .
Though there are portions of the game were
you walk around and talk to people, most of
the game involves fighting card battles and
getting new cards. Another GBA side game,
this time for DemiKids is Shin Megami
Tensei: Devil Children Puzzle de Call!
The game stars Jin and Akira's partner
demons, and they must rescue the boys by
navigating through Sokoban box puzzles.
Normally I see these puzzles within RPG, but
not as entire video games. There are other
things added to spice-up the gameplay, like
boss battles and having a limited amount of
time to get to an egg that hatches into a
helper demon, but it still doesn't sound
terribly exciting. I'm sure it will also
come as no surprise that the first Devil Children
games and DemiKids
were both adapted into 50/52 episode anime
series.
Wheels
Sounds
like Atlus went pretty hard for
the kids market for awhile
there. I mean a Trading Card
game? Anime?
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I assume that Devil Children must have
had some success in Japan to get this many
games and other media tie-ins. Even so, it
seem to have finally petered out after 2004,
as there hasn't been anything for the
sub-series since then. This is
probably another branch of the franchise
most of us wouldn't miss (though it is
getting more votes in this month's poll than
Majin
Tensei, oddly). But hey, even Atlus
is allowed to tap into the kids' games
market once, right? It's not like it
lasted anyway, heh. On a related note
and in regards to your response to my last
letter, you are right in surmising that the
Shin
Megami Tensei label didn't start
being used in North America until Nocturne.
However, DemiKids
Light/Dark actually have the
Japanese Shin
Megami Tensei logo on the boxes
despite not having SMT in their English
titles, and those games came out about a
year before Nocturne. Go figure.
My Megami
Tensei history lessons are nearly
finished! Next time, I'll discuss some
stand-alone games. Until next time, Wheels!
Strawberry Eggs
Wheels
Sounds
like things petered out around
the same time many other Pokémon
clones did. I'm not
really surprised they gave it a
try, since so many other
companies did at the same time.
It's too bad the games weren't
more interesting. Oh well, at
least we didn't miss much?
Looking forward to hearing about
the stand-alone games! Does this
mean we finally get to hear
about that Virtual Boy game?
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P.S. The two games I've played in the
franchise are Devil Survivor and Shin Megami
Tensei: Strange Journey. I've
played both the original Devil Survivor
and Overclocked
for the 3DS, so you could consider that
three games, or two-and-a-half or something.
Wheels
That's
interesting, as Strange
Journey is what got me
into the series! Oddly it wasn't
actually playing Strange
Journey. I had loved Etrian
Odyssey (playing it
several years late) so Strange
Journey looked very
interesting after enjoying EO
so much. I actually picked up
some other SMT
games beforehand however,
so it wasn't the first one I
played.
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Hi, my name is Wes Falls. I am an
aspiring indie-game maker with Secret-Arts
Games. The following is just an
idea I had, not anything I have any
immediate plans on pursuing development for.
Wheels
Very
cool, let's see what you've got!
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I am going to take the easy route and hit on
Chrono
Trigger. Fan-sequels and
prequels to this game have been churned out
wholesale since the game first came
out. I choose not to incorporate
characters from either Chrono
game, rather I choose to try and grasp for a
thematic similarity--which is what I believe
made Chrono
Trigger such a great game in the
first place.
Wheels
I
don't know if I'd call that the
easy route, but that's OK. I'm
all for more Chrono
type games.
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Canon Arch
- A Chrono Trigger Prequel
Once upon a time, there was a village in the
Kingdom. Then, one day, the village, and its
people,
vanished without a trace; the Kingdom went
on as if they village had never been. All,
it would seem, had forgotten the village,
save for one person—a young boy.
The Boy lived on in other places, ridiculed
for his memory by those who had forgotten.
Until the day came when he met a Girl who,
too, remembered.
The Girl told him that he was living in a
Deluded Timeline. A nefarious, but unknown,
agency had hewed whole great spans from the
Deluded Timeline, causing those left after
to lose memory of what had been altered. The
Girl showed him the way to another world, to
the Anomalous Timeline.
Wheels
I
like it already! I really
enjoyed the split timeline idea
explored in Chrono
Cross, so it sounds
like this is more along the same
line. Am I to guess the eventual
Chrono Trigger
timeline is the correct one?
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The Anomalous Timeline was an amalgam of all
the spans of time stripped from the Deluded
Timeline. All stolen time-spans existed
concurrently with one-another. Prehistoric
dinosaurs were ridden by medieval knights
who tilted their lances against futuristic
robots. She told the Boy that in order to
restore the Concordant Timeline, the Boy
must traverse the chaotic Anomalous Timeline
and find a way to restore each stolen
time-span.
As the Boy's quest took him back and forth
between the Timelines, his effort in the
Anomalous Timeline caused changes to the
Deluded Timeline. Slowly the people regained
their memories, as if they'd always had
them. When finally the Concordant Timeline
again came to be, the cause for its prior
alteration became evident. Only by hiding
its Fate from it, could the Planet have been
saved from destruction.
"Heresy is the life of a mythology, and
orthodoxy is the death."
Wheels
Very
interest, sounds like a good
start to me. I'd be very
interested to hear more though.
Care to expand on it at all? I
look forward to hearing more!
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Why does Blizzard not acknowledge that we
all live on the same planet but try to
segregate us instead?
-Whaleman
Wheels
I really have no idea. I mean, was
it always like this? I recall that
it once possible somehow, to have
some Americans, an Australian, and
someone from Sweden all playing Warcraft
III together online.
Granted it was incredible to begin
with that they were all online at
the same time, but I don't get the
move to restrict servers by region.
Didn't they eventually move World
of Warcraft away
from that? This is a new global age,
where online communities are often
spread out across the globe.
Whatever the reason for segregating
regions, it simply is not a good
enough excuse. Thankfully, importing
is also very easy to do in the
modern age, so at least there's a
way around it!
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That's it for this week!
I'm headed back to play some more Tales of
Graces F...
-Wheels
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What I can't wait for:
1. Ys Origin
2. Dragon's Crown
3. Ys IV Vita
4. Grand Knights History
5. Disgaea 3 Vita
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