Rogue Galaxy is all sorts of awesome, and once again reminds me of why I love Level 5. It is only $40, and is completely worth the purchase.
That is all.
Rogue Galaxy is all sorts of awesome, and once again reminds me of why I love Level 5. It is only $40, and is completely worth the purchase.
That is all.
More on Rogue Galaxy: Sega called, and they want their plot back. I’ve been through Juraika, which is basically Ixa’taka with the stereotypical darker-skinned jungle backwards-in-technology tribe with scantily clad amazon women, and now am running through a big dungeon (literally) in Zerard and am trying to “escape the unescapable” AKA Valua. Did I mention pirates? Except in space instead of the sky. I mean, really.
This is totally Skies of Arcadia II, or something so far. In spirit anyways. I really love it.
Heh… The thing about Skies, though, is that it was meant to be a salute to old school RPGs. The team tried to include all the usual suspects: spunky childhood friends, magic user/healer wispy girl, jungle city, imposing empire, etc. etc.
Was debating whether or not to pick this up. As well as DQ8 is made, it’s still more of the same. Level 5 is no doubt a great developer… I’m just hoping for something new in RPGs. I’ve spent a lot of time deconstructing the genre and I wonder why no Japanese RPG makers have done the same (well, probably because the games would stop selling in Japan.)
This one looks interesting to me, especially since its competition is Ar Tonelico. I’m dreading the arrival of Blue Dragon, though.
Rogue Galaxy was, indeed, a beautiful game. However, after finally beating the game a couple of days ago, I’ve deconstructed the game for what it really is, and it’s nothing more than cliched tripe. Once you get 3/4 the way done, the story literally falls apart and doesn’t recover…leaving the player saying: “where the fuck did that come from?”
Abadd is saying something new is needed to the RPG genre to make it better, but I say that what the RPG genre really needs, more than anything, is FOCUS. You know there is something seriously wrong when the storyline and direction fall into a gigantic black hole half way through the game…it almost seems as if these developers, when they design the game stories, only think of them halfway before development, and then when development finally does happen, they make things up as they go along. I have NO respect for people who do this shit, and the developers of Rogue Galaxy are no exception. Better luck next time, fools.
I’m not necessarily saying something new for newness’ sake… It’s just that the RPG formula is tired. And I think the reason why stories fall apart is because (other than the fact that most RPG writers aren’t that good) is that it’s very difficult to write a narrative that is 40 hours long. It’s possible (take a look at TV shows), but it needs to be structured very differently. The Shakespearean 3-act structure simply doesn’t cut it.
Sega accomplished the 40 hour narrative with Shining Force 3; unfortunately, they shot themselves in the foot and didn’t release the other 2 scenarios outside of Japan. The other 2 scenarios were ten times better than the first one; the story just kept getting better, and didn’t fall apart either.
I dunno, scenario 2 was the least interesting of the three, I thought. Also turned out to be the easiest of the three to complete, heh.
At any rate, I’m enjoying Rogue Galaxy for what it is. Skies of Arcadia was full of cliches and it didn’t stop me from enjoying it, and the same applies for Rogue Galaxy. For those games we’re looking for that are “different”, well… they’re coming, though not from the land of the rising sun.
It’s my hope that Sega announces their next big RPG project at E3 this year, but we’ll see. I’m also really anxious about Square Enix’s and Bioware’s respective next-gen MMOs, and Mass Effect.
Well, I know I’m gonna be shot down for this, but I thought Skies of Arcadia was pretty crappy, other than the air battles, which were just flat out cool. The roaming around town and the story were incredibly awful.
With that said, the only game I have ever truly played (and I mean only!) that has been flawlessly executed from beginning to end is PDS. Why oh why can’t all games be as good as it was? Where has all the talent and vision gone?
What happened to your love of Ys Book I & II? Heh…
My love for Ys was spawned from the amazing soundtrack…which I, apparently, have outgrown. Don’t get me wrong, the Ys games are great in their own right, but they seriously lack substance. I don’t think I would have been able to admit that several years ago, but times change and tastes change.