I Heart
Turkey
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| November 23rd, 2011 |
11/23- 12:00PM EST
Welcome to another edition of Q&A!
Somewhat short edition this week, being a
holiday week and all I'm sure many of you
are busy (or just consumed by games like Skyward Sword
and Skyrim).
Amway, let's jump straight into the letters!
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Crisis on Infinite
Nasuverses
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First I'd like to say this: I am a long-term
and devoted Nasuphile with an absolute
addiction to the Nasuverse, so keep that in
mind when I make these remarks.
Wheels
Oh
boy, I have no idea what the
Nasuverse is (please don't hurt
me).
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First of all, I'd like to generally state my
irritation with all the reviewers who
covered Fate/Extra,
regardless of fanboyism or anti-fanboyism in
their reviews (as they seem to be completely
polarized in those two categories).
First of all, fanboys should have had the
sense to sit back and do two separate
reviews, one for other fanboys, with
different ratings for non-fanboys. On
the other hand, the rest, jaded as they are,
seem to have focused on aspects like the
monotony of the dungeons and the general
lack of innovation in the game systems to
bash the game overall, with some focus on
the somewhat less than spectacular
soundtrack (it wasn't really bad, by modern
standards, but it wasn't great
either). However, both seem to be
missing the point. This game was
focused, first and most of all, on lovers of
the Fate universe and secondly on fans of
visual novels with gameplay elements, with
rpg-fans a distant third. Even so, it
managed to create a battle system that was
rather interesting (and somewhat brutal at
times) if not terribly new in concept.
In addition, there was a tendency to
downplay the story in the non-fanboy
reviews, which was rather mature for a jrpg
on console and held that characteristic dark
and somewhat pitiless world conception that
is so unusual in Japanese gaming, especially
nowadays.
Wheels
It
sounds like the reviewers may
have misunderstood the game to
its very core. I haven't played
the game at all, but from what
I've heard it sounds like the
game closely relates to many of
the graphic novel games out
there. The difference of course,
is that the game actually has
RPG style battles and such,
however it still has a large
focus on story. Perhaps they
focused too much on what is
supposed to be a lesser part of
the game? You've certainly
increased my interest in the
game.
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Second, I would love to expound for hours on
the wonders of the Nasuverse to one and all,
but I'm not about to present you with a
massive wall of text on a subject most
people won't get around to messing
with. However, i will note that it is
easily one of the best efforts at
world-building I've ever seen in a Japanese
game, with a degree of depth and
philosophical complexity that fascinates for
hours on end. Because of that, I can't
help but look at games written by Kinoko
Nasu through rose-colored glasses, but I do
at least realize how difficult games like Fate/Extra can
be to understand without background info.
Wheels
Certainly,
but sometimes that lack of
understanding leads people to
want to dig deeper into that
universe. That's really what a
good licensed game should do:
please longtime fans and bring
in new ones. It sounds like this
may do a decent job at that. I'm
certainly interested as I love
it when worlds are very well
developed.
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Last of all, I would like to recommend
Aselia the Eternal, which was localized by
Jast-USA recently (wow, a non-ero PC
VN/srpg... how unusual). If you give
the scenario a light outline, it might seem
cliche, but once you get down to the details
of the setting and characters, as well as
the flow of the story, it is a game that is
truly easy to get drawn into. Simply
put, this game draws on a lot of traditions
of rpg settings but utilizes Visual Novel
storytelling to put it forth in a manner
that is far more mature than has become
traditional. It is no Suikoden, but it
is as brutal in its own way... if nothing
else, certain revelations near the end both
make the horrible things that happen to the
protagonist, his friends, and the world in
general seem to be both larger and smaller
on the broad scale of things. Do not
underestimate the attraction of this game,
especially if you actually enjoy reading
your story rather than having it handed to
you on a platter. If nothing else, the
effort that went into this game's design is
rather evident in the actual creation of a
language for the world the protagonist finds
himself thrown into and the fact that on
your second playthrough, you can have the
text that was foreign and indecipherable the
first time through translated, adding a bit
of fun to mess around with in your second
time through other than pursuing
another one of the endings (not to mention
that certain people that die the first time
through can be saved the second time).
To express how I felt about this game... I
cried dozens of times throughout the game,
as well as laughing like crazy at some of
the characters' and generally was able to
have a strong sense of empathy for them
all. As for the battle system... it is
unusual and a bit difficult to master at
first (not to mention it has a Fire Emblem
aspect, where characters that die are dead
for the rest of the playthrough).
However, I found it enjoyable, trying to
survive while ending campaigns in as few
turns as possible. I cannot stress
enough that this would be a great choice for
people that are tired of the goofiness and
over-focus on cinematic jrpgs and appealing
to the brainless in the modern gaming
industry.
Sincerely,
Clephas
Wheels
I
will certainly consider giving
it a look, along with Fate/Extra.
I'm always looking for games
that do things a bit
differently!
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PS: Seriously, I really am sick and tired of
the increasingly infantile and/or boring
scenario-writing that I've had to endure in
a lot of modern jrpgs... I'm also
frequently stunned at how completely people
ignore that if it looks good visually or
appeals to 'traditional' jrpg values... a
good story is a good story. A childish
story is a childish story. And a
poorly-written story is a poorly-written
story. Stop saying its good because it
is visually beautiful, has a new battle
system, and covers for poor or lazy writing
with voice-acting... this almost turned into
a manifesto for my beliefs about rpgs
again... oh well.
Wheels
That's
all well and good, and I can
understand where you are coming
from, as many JRPGs have been
sadly lacking in the realm of
story in recent years. That
said, these are games we are
talking about, so if it has a
great battle system and is fun
to play, then at times it is
really easy to ignore a bad
story. I don't think there's
anything wrong with that. That's
not to say that people shouldn't
strive to find games that are
good at both. Anyway, thanks for
the great letter, and please
send in another telling me more
about Fate/Extra's
universe!
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@AskWheels Question: What are YOU thankful
for this holiday Season?
-JCSGamer
Wheels
Such
a fine question. I'd first have
to say I'm thankful for being
able to write for RPGamer, with
a great staff and of course a
slew of fine readers who
continue to provide me with
great material. Seriously, ya'll
rule! Also I'm thankful that the
Maestro makes such great games,
and I'm glad I saved SaGa
Frontier 2
to play at an older age,
where I can appreciate it more.
I'm thankful that Skyward
Sword is incredibly
awesome. I'm also very thankful
that XSEED brought over Trails
in the Sky when no one
thought it was possible.
Finally, I'm thankful that you
won't be mad at me for not
provided the five paragraphs I
promised on twitter!
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@AskWheels Question for Q&A - What RPG's
will you be playing over the holidays?
-BenjaminMallow
Wheels
Well that answer to that is mostly Zelda
of course. There are some
other games I'll be trying to tackle
over the holidays as well however.
I'll continue playing Trails
in the Sky, which is almost
definitely one of the best RPGs in
recent years. Also, I will be
playing some Chrono Cross,
which I've been playing on my PSP
thanks to the PSN release. I'm sure
to be playing some Payday,
though obviously that's not an RPG.
I also will be tackling War in
the North to review at some
point, which has recently been
patched thankfully. So in short, I'm
going to be playing a ton of RPGs
during the holidays! What will
everyone else be playing?
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That's it for this week! Have a great
Thanksgiving (for those in the US) and I
will see you all next week, with a fresh
letter from Gaijin.
See you then!
-Wheels
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