Don't judge an RPG before it's released

by Brigitte I. Cornwell

"Chrono Cross is going to be SO cool!"
"I'm getting a reserve copy fo LoM!"
"Final Fantasy 9 sucks!"

There are three philosohpies that have seen me safely through 17 years of my life. Don't judge a book by its cover, don't squeeze cheese from a goat before it's hatched, and don't judge an RPG before it's released.

I fail to see how anyone could deduce that a game "sucks" or "rules" by downloading a trailer, looking at screenshots, or reading a plot summary from RPGamer (don't get me wrong, RPGamer is the #1 place for info and multimedia. </annoying marketing agent>).

And preordering games is a waste of time, unless you happen to be lazy (any type of Gamer tends to be stricken with lethargy from playing for days straight, but this is understandable). There aren't so many RPGamers in your neighborhood to form a line a mile long outside of your local Electronics Boutique. Chrono Cross isn't going to be sold out if you wait an hour after its release. And that guy at Blockbuster is NOT going to look at you funny if you rent that game to see if you like it before you spend $59.99 on it.

I'm already hearing people tell me how disappointed with Legend of Mana they are. Either they simply had impossibly high standards for the sequel to an almost unanimously excellent game, or they have enough money to waste on something like that. But not everyone hates/loves a game; as with ff8, there can be enormous contraversy over how much fun it was, how likeable the characters are, etc. It's a matter of opinion. By reading reviews and hearing other people's comments, it's impossible to know if the game will hold a special place in YOUR heart like FF7 did. When you download a movie from an upcoming game, who's to say that it's not the only one there is? But buying a game purely for the graphical content is a different editorial.

So don't get disappointed if Vagrant Story isn't how you thought it would turn out. If you're prone to saying any of the 3 quotes first mentioned, you only did it to yourself. And by all means, don't blindly throw away your life savings (yes, this means you. I know you've done this before.) on a game you haven't even taken for a test drive. If you love the game, great! But if you don't, bitching about it in #rpgamer is not going to take the pain away.