January 6, 2010
Filed under Games, The Role Playing Guy, featured
Role Playing Guy: January
Written by Mark | Contact this author
New This Month!
Sands of Destruction:
I previously covered this game as one of my “games to watch” and rightly so, although this has the misfortune of being on my least favorite platform to play RPG’s (the DS), I still have it pre-ordered, and still have high hopes for this game. With the Xenogears team behind it, who wouldn’t?
Mass Effect 2:
This may very well be the biggest RPG release this year, alongside Final Fantasy XIII. Everything will be forsaken when this game arrives at my doorstep, I cannot wait to play through the sequel to what is most likely my favorite RPG of the last decade.
Dragon Age Expansion Announced!
Bioware recently announced its first expansion, Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening. The expansion will include an all new area, with new characters, skills, etc. Sounds like something worthy of purchase! The downside? The release date! March 16th 2010. I personally think its suicide to release a game, expansion, whatever within a month of any Final Fantasy, but hey, it’s an expansion, so people who love the game are bound to pick it up regardless, though the question being, are we willing to put down our final fantasies and mass effects to play it? See you in summer, Dragon Age…
Sands of Destruction – 1/12
Mass Effect 2 – 1/26
Lunar 1 – 2/2
Star Ocean: TLH (ps3) - 2/9
Ragnarok DS – 2/16
Final Fantasy XII – 3/9
Resonance of Fate – 3/9
A Fresh new game from seasoned developers “Tri Ace”, Resonance of Fate could turn out to be a thing of beauty. I do not know too much about the game aside from what I have seen in videos, but it looks fantastic. The battle system could turn out to be very interesting as you do not see many JRPG’s with shooter based battle systems, although if I know one thing about tri-ace its that I’ve always loved their battle systems, the Star Ocean games have always been a ton of fun, and from the video’s alone, it looks like this one will not disappoint. Tri Ace is also known for coming up with some very interesting and unique storylines, I hope to see this new game follow suit. Rather then posting some images, here’s a video:
I am looking forward to checking this one out. Although for some strange reason, Tri-Ace decided to release this game ON THE EXACT SAME DAY as Final Fantasy XIII. I’m sorry people, but even if it sucks, RPG fans are going to have a hard time ignoring the first release in 4 years of the biggest franchise in RPG history. Throwing your new game out there on the same date just seems like insanity to me, I will try this game, but not until I’ve had my fill of the latest Final Fantasy.
Truth be Told, I haven’t touched an RPG this month! I think I’ve been too excited for January releases to know that if I pick up anything right now, it will be outright abandoned shortly.
Also, over the holidays I acquired a Playstation 3 for the purpose of playing Final Fantasy XIII in high def on the platform it was meant to be played on, if anybody has any recommendations for good PS3 RPG’s I’d be happy to hear them. Just don’t mention Demon Souls, I’m not a masochist.
On A separate note I also found out this month that I will soon be a father! So it has been a very busy month for me, just not in terms of RPG’s, you can expect a very loaded travel log next month however!
Nothing..
Awaiting greatness..
none
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue
Platform: Sega CD, PS1
Release Date:
Sept, 1995 (Sega CD)
Dec, 2000 (PS1)
There is something magical about this series, especially the second one. When it comes to RPG’s, one thing about the games I truly love is strong character development. And in my long history with the genre, The lunar series has proven to be amoung the best, if not the best when it comes to memorable characters.
This game in particular has some of my favorite RPG characters out there. The former priest, now gambling drunkard Ronfar had some truly hilarious moments. And the Schizophrenic enemy: White Knight Leo who justified doing the right thing in helping heroes by taking on a alternate and whacky persona while doing so had me in stitches. I also loved the awkward coming of age romantic humor between our main character and heroine of the story, while throwing in jealous pet baby dragon who always insisted in getting into the middle of things. All these wonderful little moments seem to mix perfectly with the dark overstory creating an almost perfect tale.
I love this guy!
[SPOILER] Lunar 2 is also quite infamous for its false ending, which leaves the player hanging and completely depressed as the credits role. Leaving us delighted as the game suddenly continues right after the credits (a MEAN, albeit awesome trick) inevitably leading us to a much more satisfying conclusion. [END SPOILER]
The gameplay is also much easier in the sequel as limited inventory problems made the first incredibly difficult, the second is far more fluid and much less frustrating. While I think the second was a much better tale then the first, (the first being a bit too cutesy for my taste). The first is currently about to receive its FOURTH remake (sega cd, playstation, game boy advance, and now PSP) while the second still has yet to leave the playstation, so unfortunately, this game is VERY hard to get ahold of. Although perhaps if the psp remake of the first gets enough attention, we’ll soon see a remake of the second.
Battles were difficult, but possible!
If you can get you hands on a copy of this game, I highly recommend it, If we’re lucky we’ll be seeing a re-release of it soon, or possibly even something over PSN. Lunar 2 definitely holds a place in my top 10 all time favorite role playing games.
Soon I shall be spooning my collector’s edition of Mass Effect 2, I hope the rest of you will be doing the same! Stay tuned next month for my first impressions, or possibly a review of this hopefully fantastic game!
Did i forget to mention i love you...?
Breath of Fire 3 pulled this same trick. You didn’t get the true ending until you went and finished the final showdown after the credits rolled. Man, that was a good game.
ah false endings
The ending to Chrono Cross was by far the most evil…
FYI, Sands of Destruction did not disappoint,
http://thebigcritique.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=273
Mass Effect 2! MASS EFFECT 2!! BLARGH-ARRRRRRRRGGHHH!! Feeling sick… can’t stay in office…
likewise..
i just know its going to be on my doorstop when i get home for lunch, and i’m not going to want to return..
I now have confirmation that the package has been delivered, I currently have a burning hatred for being employed
Let’s make a pact to call each other out for “very important” on-site calls. My internet is uh… on FIRE! I need new internets installed on my computer. Hurry!
BEE’S IN THE MODEM, MOTHER FUCKING BEE’S!!! WE MUST CONTAIN THEM IN THE ETHERNETS!! WE NEED ALL AVAILABLE TECHS!!
Hmm, I’m pretty sure there’s already someone at my house playing this right now.
the bastard!
I got to cuddle mine during my lunch break..
…it was nice..
Ummm. I’m loving it so far.
i only got 1 hour with it tonight, curses! and holy crap, Martin Sheen!
So… yeah. I guess I was under the mistaken impression that Mass Effect 2 was an RPG and not… Halo. I mean, it’s a sequel to an RPG, so I didn’t think I’d be so far off. If I wanted to play a squad shooter, Bioware, I’d have bought one. Maybe I’m just becoming too much of an RPG nazi, but I want meaningful stats, kill-based experience, lootable corpses, and a goddamn inventory!
oh yea, i did find the lack of inventory very disturbing.. in the little that i did get to play.
so long as their storytelling remains epic though.. it shouldn’t bother me too much..
Yeah, because inventory management is the most fun part of any game! I can’t imagine being so surprised by the gameplay since it’s barely different than the first.
oh, inventory management was HORRID in the first.. so i guess one could call this an improvement, hell.. i need more time with this before i can register any complaints.. i just barely made it past the intro and shot a couple of things..
Hey, some of us enjoy inventory management. Some of us even enjoy looting every possible thing that isn’t nailed down so that we can sell it to buy more crap to clog our inventories.
in a perfect world.. we could combine the loot whoring and awesomeness of borderlands with the role playing and pristine storytelling of Mass Effect..
Maybe I should just relax and enjoy Mass Effect 2 for what it is: Halo with a dialogue tree? Nah, if my world isn’t perfect, it’s obviously someone else’s fault.
Wow.. even conservative reviewers are giving ME2 some of the highest marks possible, calling it vastly superior to the first in almost every way..
2.5 hours into it, enjoying it very much, but wishing i had a nice 8 hour chunk to sit down with it and get totally sucked in.
Conservative reviewers wouldn’t know a good RPG if it came up and whacked them for 1d12+(1.5xSTR) with a great axe.
finally got about 8 hours into ME2
I don’t miss the inventory one bit at this point, how much time do you remember turning gear into omni gel? good lord i hated that..
it is still a role playing game in the most literal sense, and once again the storytelling is fantastic.
The combat in this game feels quite a bit more refined then in the last. sure we had all that gear, but how much of it did we actually use?? i found myself doing quite well with an assault rifle and a cooling clip that allowed me to just hold down fire and never worry about taking my hand off the trigger again, mowing down everything in my path with little effort. there are still upgrades, and weapons with different (and awesome) effects, i still need to unlock the nuke launcher..
So far, i’m preferring this game over the last in terms of gameplay, i love the almost perfect balance of storytelling and battle in this game, you never get bored.
Jesus, Mark, EVERY game is a “role-playing game” in the most literal sense. Super Mario Bros. was a fucking RPG in the most literal sense. My problem is that ME2 isn’t an RPG in any BUT the most literal sense. And, yeah, I do miss spending time turning stuff into omni-gel because I at least had the option of doing that. Unlike you, the more I play ME2, the more I miss ME1 and hate mainstream gamers for ruining good games because producers force the devs to try and reach a larger target audience, forsaking the people who they should be making games for (namely: me). Yeah, I understand basic economics and that this is all a numbers game, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.
*Ahem* All that being said, I am enjoying ME2 for what it really is: a competent shooter with an amazing storyline and nothing more.
I play games like mass effect for its completely engrossing story line, there isn’t an RPG on the planet other then those made by bioware that really suck you into the role of the player this much. So they get the role playing part of the genre better then most publishers and have every right to call it a role playing game. i’ll take a well branching storyline over stats and inventory any day in ANY RPG.
problem is that MMO’s have spoiled me on gear, stats, and skill tree’s and no finite RPG has ever come close to the complexity of games like WoW, RO, etc..
I do love highly customizable skills, stats, gear, etc in a game, i really do. but i’d much rather see those systems in a multiplayer/competitive environment then in a single player game, as there really is no drive for me to use that system to its full capabilities when your only opponents are predictable machines..
For RPG’s designed to tell a story, i just want simple gameplay to string me along and remind me i’m playing a video game here and there. Mixing an amazing tale with complex gameplay just annoys the shit out of me.
For RPG’s designed for competitive or co-operative multiplayer, yes, i prefer a more complex stat/skill/item system.
The rest of us call those Point-and-Click Adventures, Mark. Not RPGs.
Hey, the younger Mark wouldn’t disagree with you..
hell, i LOVED the 1980’s pen and paper RPG “Champions” and they do not get more technical then that..
But he has been replaced with the Mark who wants a quick and easy ride with a fantastic tale to tell. The Mark who would much rather play D&D version 4… life’s too damn busy anymore for stats/skills/equipment and min-maxing the f*ck out of every aspect of every character in every RPG i’ve played (note: doing 99999 damage to the final boss with yuna on my first playthrough of FFX and one shotting it, or giving cloud a counter attack materia in every freaking slot and not even having to take a single shot at old sephy, laughing maniaclly whilst my counterattacks raped him..)
I’m glad some game companies still do that, but those games aren’t for me anymore, I appreciate the direction Bioware is taking here, for me it works, perfectly. The root of the RPG is the role playing, and thats what bioware does best, complex game mechanics? thats just the icing on the cake.. for some..
Joe, you should look into “Demon Souls”, the RPG that makes you its bitch..
The biggest problem that I’ve seen with the game, and I will admit that my time with it is fairly limited, is that there is very little choice to be had. Now I don’t mean that there are no branching options among the dialogue tree, there are, but they seem to be insanely broadly written and basically boil down to “sooo, do you want to get paragon points from this or renegade points?” And the choices are so obvious, there is no real gray area, just “save the box of asthmatic kittens.” or “my that mulching machine looks hungry, lets feed it a cat.” I have this same beef with most games though.
In regards to its streamlined leveling system I am, however, really saddened. You cannot fail at a persuasion attempt, try it, you can’t. Since there are no skills other than those that effect combat there is no room to make your character anything other than Generic Space Marine. Granted there is a “class” system, but the biotics are nerfed as hell and although you can hack some mechs there are some that you just can’t, and frankly, I don’t want to be told my character Can’t do something. If I couldn’t hack the big mech and go nuts because I had invested my development points in combat oriented abilities then I would be fine with it, but I can’t hack that mech because I have nothing to invest in BUT combat abilities. My character will be almost exactly the same as any other Cmd. Shepherd anyone else makes. You have no real options in HOW to complete a mission. To explain I will use Deus Ex as an example. In that fine RPG you had a slew of skills and only so many points to invest in them. If you wanted to run and gun you could, if you wanted to hack the security system and turn the turrets to the batshit kill everything setting you could, if you never wanted to draw your gun and just talk and investigate your way through the storyline you could. This means that multiple mission paths have been in place since 2000 and it seems disingenuous for an alleged RPG to not offer a degree of control over my characters development.
In conclusion, I am not a loot whore, I hated the inventory system from the last one for the most part (I liked upgrading my weapons but that’s kinda in the new one sort of). But being forced to follow a clearly defined and not very well camouflaged set of rails with the only deviations being “are you good or eeeevil” chafes me the wrong way. And it’s a damn shame.
Is Demon Souls only on PS3? Also, anything Atlus does is pretty much RPG gold as far as I’ve seen.
Also also, Bioware basically came right out and said that ME2 was supposed to be their more action-oriented release, whereas DA:O was supposed to be their RPG release.
yeah. only on the PS3, i’ll admit i’ve been interested, but from what i’ve read, its insanely difficult and likes setting you back hours for stupid mistakes or bad planning… my backlog is already too big to waste time on such a game (hell, i still need to play freaking fallout 3!)
Jordy,
I see what you’re saying, and i’m still in the phase of recruiting characters, good and evil seem to be the only options so far. although i’ve read the “grey area” decisions seem to show up further down the road, we’ll see what happens.. i know Bioware knows how to write some pretty morally ambiguous parths, they did a great job with that in Dragon Age. So i still hold to some hope that i’ll be seeing that before completion…
I really enjoy ME2 because it is for me the correct amount of RP to make the game move alone with out having to talk to every damn person in the universe. i never played ME1. I also enjoy the fact that things are pretty linear so if i am on a mission i dont have to worry about 99 other things fucking with what i am trying to accomplish at the time. I am on disc 2 have the loyalty of every charactor but one because you have to sacrafice it for another. all and all i am extremely happy with is and find myself with hours drifting by while i play and not even noticing it. +10 in my book
*extremely happy with it and find myself with hours drifting by while i play and not even noticing it. +10 in my book
Hey Mark, I picked up Demon’s Souls this last weekend. It’s funky that it’s both single player and MMO at the same time. I’ve only played for about an hour and a half, dying about 4 times in the first area after The Nexus. I’m having fun, and its refreshing to see a game where the difficulty factor wasn’t over-emphasized or lowered to our stupid American standards.
Nice! i’ve read a lot about that game, If i had the time to lock myself in a room for a few hours at a time and play it i’d totally pick it up. Apparently beating that game is a badge of honor, and a lot of people just give up, i do like a challenge, i just lack the time required to accomplish such challenges. we’ve certainly been spoiled over the years, and its good to see a few developers are still willing to kick our asses (autosave.. seriously….)
why do i feel like my old man retired years are going to be a lot more like my teenage years, video games till my face turns blue! i cant keep the repressed gamer within down forever…