|
I have a small beef with video game previews. I understand their purpose, though. Previews serve as a marketing tool to inform gamers about upcoming titles and get them excited about the game well before the title even comes out. I enjoy reading previews to hear about the latest game features and such. What I don't like is when a game preview tells me half the story before I get a chance to play the game. Before I even get started I already know what's going to happen for the first five hours. No wonder RPG intros can get boring; we've already read that part five months prior.
Take Final Fantasy XII for example. I was so excited about the game that I soaked up any bits of information I could. But I was very disappointed when I read two short lines in one article. It said that at the beginning the character plays as Reks, Vaan's brother, who fights along Basch's side. This section of the game serves as a tutorial for the battle system. Anyway, at the end of this section, Basch inexplicably kills the king and Reks. I found all this out in the preview. That ruined that section of the game for me. I would have liked to have been surprised when Basch shanked Reks with a knife. But instead, I sat around wondering when exactly it was going to happen. Thankfully, there were a few pleasant surprises not covered in the previews before the game's story went downhill. But still, it would have been nice to find out what was going on instead of already knowing everything.
That's probably what I liked most about Final Fantasy VII. It had a fresh feel to me. It was my first RPG and I knew absolutely nothing about it. A friend just recommended it to me, and I bought it, just like that. (I needed a new game.) It was nice to begin playing and learning about the story and the characters bit by bit. My experience would have been a bit different if I already knew what would happen for the first few hours. I'd read the instruction manual before playing, but it didn't give away too much of the story. In fact, it told just enough to pike my interest. That's how I think reviews should be.
So, maybe the solution is to just not read previews at all. But then again, that wouldn't make much sense. How would we find out about the latest games? I read RPG previews because I want to know what RPG I should purchase next once I'm done with the ones I have. I want to see if the ones that are coming out will be any good. I want to know about the gameplay, more than anything. I want to know if it will be turn-based or action, if there are any innovations. A little tidbit about the plot is fine, but I mostly like to discover the story for myself, and not be told everything that starts things off. Imagine if a film trailer showed some important plot points. Amazingly, many film trailers tell little about the story, the most important aspect of a film, but still entice people to go see the films. For instance, I've seen a few trailers for 300. I didn't know what it was about, but I still wanted to see it. If only RPG previews were the same.
"What happens is, you play as a young adventurer, but then your mom dies, and you have to go save your sister from the evil emperor who is likely to be the final boss." Ok, now I know pretty much half the story. Now that I think about it, a preview without any story bits wouldn't be all that compelling. But still, it shouldn't tell too much. Tell me just enough to get me interested. But not telling too much also makes people more interested because they want to know what happens. It may ruin the experience to tell too much because the gamer is expecting certain things to happen at a certain time instead of discovering it for the first time. There should be a nice mix.
Previews packed with story info may bother some, but others actually prefer it. They don't want to dive into a game headfirst without any idea what the game would be like. I can understand that, but there is a limit. But like all things, to each his own. I'll just continue to scroll past the story bits when I'm reading a preview. I'm thinking about picking up Rogue Galaxy soon, but what's the point since I already know what happens at the beginning, middle, and end. Bloody previews.
|
RSS feed
iTunes