Re: RPG companies know what we want... right?

by Skywardshadow 

I have found often times in my life that what we think we want, isn't always what's best. Let me begin with some personal examples. While playing through Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger on my Snes, I would often wish that I had many more games like these to play. I beat both of these titles too many times to remember, but I really enjoyed playing through them again and again. But now as I sit here and write this, I glance at my game library and am still amazed at just how many rpgs I haven't completely finished, or only beaten once. I really enjoyed playing through quite a few of these games, but none of them have come near to enthralling me as the earlier mentioned titles did. Why?... because whenever I beat one, there is a large stack more just waiting for me to play. I still feel an attachment to most of the FF VI cast, whereas in more recent releases, I forget about most of the character revelations and plot within a few months. I got my wish for a ton of great games to play through, but at the cost of really loving each game. I found every secret in both of those games on my own, but now I buy strategy guides so that I can find everything the first time through, letting me move on to the next game.

Moving on to other things that rpgamers want for a lot, extras. In the Q & A column, someone was complaining about the high cost of Lunar 2. I also remember reading about how Japanese gamers are a bit envious of us due to the low cost of our games. Do we really want to pay at least 60-70 dollars per game just to get a few extras included like stand-ups, cheap pendants, and cloth maps? I love Working Designs as much as the next guy, but I wouldn't want EVERY game that I bought to cost that much.

Now to tackle the subject of FF XI. Long before I ever played Everquest, I greatly disliked anything resembling an online game. But finally, a friend convinced me to create a character and give it a try. I started with a Wood Elf. I mostly stood around by a shop and role-played with passing adventurers. Before I knew it, I was having a good time slaying orcs, questing for magical items, and traveling a realistically sized continent to further my own causes. The reason I stopped playing Everquest was because I kept dying, over and over, and had to hunt my body down each time, but that's another story. When FF online was first announced, I thought to myself... FINALLY...someone will make an online rpg that works! I'll be able to make a knight like Cyan, or a Thief like Locke, and go adventuring in a large world. I'll be able to sit in FF styled environments and actually role-play. If there is a company that can do this right, it's Squaresoft. They have yet to announce any real details concerning the game, so lets wait and watch, and at least give this new venture a shot. A lot of people have made comments about AOLamerz ruining online games with stupid comments. Well, this is your chance, we are the ones this game is for, and we are the ones that will determine how fun the experience will be. Final note on this subject: Squaresoft has been making games for a very long time, if they are a bit tired of the whole... fight through a dungeon, level up, fight boss, move on... gameplay, and want to try something new, what's wrong with that? We have over a hundred rpg titles spanning all platforms, lets see some originality.

Some games are just bad. If a game company doesn't think a game will sell, why would they spend the cost of translation and production only to lose money when nobody buys it. Lets start with FF Anthology, I happily bought it, played it, and was disappointed. The CG movie quality was horrid, and the game graphics received no upgrades. Now, from my understanding, the Wonderswan color will be receiving FF I-VI, giving each a graphic upgrade. Would it have been so bad to wait a while, and then get to play an actually improved version of the games? You could have easily downloaded the CG movies from an online website. The same goes for Chrono Trigger, after downloading the anime cutscenes... in which I was severely disappointed once again, I can just replay my Snes version. Another then you have games like Guardians Crusade and Shadow Madness... that probably should never have been released for surely the companies lost money making them. (Although I'm not sure if either of those games are Japanese in origin.)

In short, the only power we have to determine what we get here in the west, is through our consumer status. BUY the games that you like, a scary number of people (you, you and you...you know who you are.) play pirated games, and that only hurts our cause further. If you don't like a game... then don't buy it. So many people complain about FF VIII, and yet even today it sells pretty well. (I work in a game store, gives a unique perspective to everything.) I like FF VIII a lot, so I bought it, and have played through it twice. If you still hate the concept of an online game... then don't buy it. If no one buys it, then guess what, they'll realize that they made a mistake and FF XII will be different.