My year in console RPGs

Warning, this is a really long post!  But it’s Christmas Day and I’m bored 🙂

I took the week between Christmas and New Year’s off so today is the start of my holiday!  I plan to get a lot done on my game, because the last few weeks have been miserable and I won’t have the day job to get in the way now.  I did manage to get my documentation work done (which amidst all the recovery and stress from a decision I had to make at my day job is the last thing I wanted to do) but I need to get back into making content!

When I’m not working the day job or crunching out art or new game features for Shadowdawn Genesis, I spend most of the remaining time sleeping or playing console RPGs.  They are, after all, why I decided to become an indie game developer, and there’s no reason I’m going to let that decision stop me from enjoying them still.  Besides, I like to know which games try out some of my design concepts and how they use them. 🙂  Following is a list of every RPG I’ve played all year (even the old ones), and some thoughts about them and what I got out of them as a game designer.  Maybe they’ll be interesting reads, maybe not!  But I should warn you, this is a long post, because I didn’t want to have to keep updating it all week when I want to be working on my game, hehe.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International
Summary
This is the PS3 rerelease of the Xbox 360 original version.  Other than letting us non-Japanese players actually see the original drawn CG character art vs. the pre-rendered 3D models for dialog and status menus, and of course the original Japanese language audio track, it’s not much different.  I was really hoping to see some expansion to the endings, because unlike a majority of people I really liked this game the first time except for Sarah and the fact the endings aren’t determined by your relationships like all other games in the series.  Unfortunately, it was not to be.  The battle system is very fun and the main reason I’d recommend the game to anyone, while the trophies have some very challenging things to go for (not counting the annoying ones like collect 255 Ornothology drops).  The cast all has their ups and downs, but I managed to like even Edge.  Most people like to make a big deal about the post-traumatic “emo” Edge, but it’s not like he acts that way throughout the whole game.  Of course, my favorite characters are Meracle, Bacchus, and Reimi.
What did I learn from this game?
 – Crafting systems shouldn’t be located in a single place that is troublesome to access in certain situations.
 – Making in-game achievements should never rely on obtaining a zero-probability drop a ridiculous number of times.

Final Fantasy XIII
Summary
Another divisive entry in the long-running series.  My first impression was “oh man, I thought Lightning was a blonde” when I saw they started adding pink to her hair on the cover art.  I double-checked the older media and confirmed I wasn’t losing my head.  Why does this matter?  Oh, let me see, a game starring a strong female mercenary with pink hair and blue eyes, does that ring a bell?  Yeah, I wasn’t too happy, so I’m trying to make my character as different as possible to avoid that inevitable comparison.  Apparently, in an interview Nomura-san changed the design to counter the criticisms that Lightning looked too much like Cloud.
Anyways, that’s all beside the point.  In my opinion, FFXIII was a game with far too many cutscenes and the over-the-top hand-holding as far as what the player was allowed to do was ridiculous.  The first few hours are miserable and inconsistent, and it is very hard to follow exactly what the point is in order to keep playing.  The most jarring gameplay flow was having every character be able (and ONLY allowed to) attack with melee weapons in the first two chapters, only to have Roles introduced; suddenly, some characters had no ability to just simply fight at all.  This may be the first RPG in history where characters with weird weapons show they clearly know how to use them and then suddenly lose the ability to fight only a couple hours in.  Gradually, the Roles for these characters expand and do allow them to eventually fight, though for some of them it’s not worth the ratio of CP cost/abilities unlocked to even try.  Final Fantasy XIII‘s strongest point is its scenario, the way the world worked was pretty interesting but it was never fully explored to reach its potential.  Like them or love them, the characters are diverse and work well together, with the exception of Vanille who just comes off completely detached even when she’s “serious” with Fang not far behind.  Sazh has some of the best drama in the game, so he and Lightning pretty much became my favorites.
What did I learn from this game?
 – NPCs are meant to be talked to, not walked by as they shout random things at you like homeless people
 – A crafting system should at least make logical sense.  Weapons gain XP to “level up” Attack by synthesizing crafting items onto it.  It’s that basic, the only gimmick being to use the cheap items to boost the modifier of the rare items.  Boring.  And you never knew which rare weapon you were going for, you could waste all your items on a dud that didn’t even evolve and never know it.
 – Don’t save a wide-open area for the last chapter of the game, especially if it has nothing to do with the previous chapters.

Resonance of Fate
Summary
I really like this game, but it suffered from what I’ve long referred to as “Tri-Ace” Syndrome.  Their games almost always start strong, but the atmosphere is dreary and hard to keep motivated to play.  Even Valkyrie Profile had this problem, and my first playthrough of that game was finished before I knew it, so I ended up not understanding why it was so good.  But that’s Tri-Ace for you, most of their games play like that, but the pay-off for giving them your full attention is worth it.  Resonance of Fate is the same, the game just started on a very bizarre note and then goes on as if nothing happened.  If I had to say anything bad about the game, it is regards to how hard it is to survive once Hero Guage is broken.  This is more a problem for earlier in the game when the guage is smaller, with with the game encouraging its usage (which drains it), but taking damage also drains it, you’re kind of stuck unless you figure out how to exploit it.  There aren’t many playable characters, but I like all three of them, even if I didn’t like Zephyr at first.  The many outfits and accessories are a fantastic touch that I think surpasses the customization level of current MMOs.
What did I learn from this game?
 – Tutorials need to be less wordy, it’s easy to miss the most important step in all that reading.  You’re pretty much expected to know how to do everything in the game right away, and it’s overwhelming how much there is.
 – Girls with guns are cool (but I already knew that, just look at my character, Tiya)

Mimana Iyar Chronicle
Summary
I really wanted to enjoy this game.  Some of it was interesting, and I liked the retro-premise of the first act, so the story didn’t put me off.  I think what eventually killed my interest was how long the dungeons get to be.  The battles are slow and not very interesting, especially with this weird system of only being able to attack or cast spells straight left or right but while moving up and down.  Having to find the right path and backtrack over and over again while fighting the same boring monsters over and over again gets tedious.  I didn’t mind it at first when the dungeons were shorter, but the more you have to repeat fights, the more you realize how boring they are.  As an anime fan, the “harem” cast concept is no stranger to me, but I found it out of place in an RPG that starred a guy who hated everyone and everything (at first), plus the girls had the personality depth of driftwood compared to typical all-female casts.
What did I learn from this game?
 – When making an action RPG with spells, don’t make the spells shoot in a straight line if there is no enemy in that direction
 – As much as I like girl characters, this game could have used another male perspective to balance out Crais’s overly harsh personality.  Apparently almost all character designers think just making a female character pretty or cool is enough, personality be damned.

Wild Arms
Summary
One of the very first Playstation RPGs in North America.  This game amazed me back then, and on replay I enjoyed it that much more.  I had already played through Wild Arms: Alter Code F two years before and loved the remake, but I found myself forgetting some of the story ever happened in the 2D version of the game.  So I downloaded it from PSN and powered through it.  This game is deceptively long, coming off an era where most RPGs could be finished in around 10-15 hours.  Rudy and Jack are still some of my favorite RPG characters ever.  Although the remade scene in Alter Code F is much more powerful, at the time when Rudy does the unthinkable after Ziegfried tries to drag him along to their mutual death, that moment and aftermath is easily one of my top moments in gaming history.  It’s almost comical how often sacrifice happens in Final Fantasy IV, but I had never felt the same way I did when I saw this scene in Wild Arms.
What did I learn from this game?
 – Tools are fun
 – You can rebuild a town, but you can never rebuild fairgrounds ruined by demon invasion

Ys Seven
Summary
The long awaited sequel to one of the most definitive action RPG series.  The Ys series has really hit the limelight this year after several years in obscurity, all thanks to XSEED’s efforts.  As the first game in the series that finally lets Adol have his friend Dogi’s actual support (among other new companions), it was a refreshing experience.  The jumping mechanic was removed but I feel having three party members more than made up for it.  I loved the art style and the graphics for the environments were very well done.  I felt the story was very solid, it didn’t try to do anything over the top but it was a nice departure from earlier games in the series and had believable and somewhat unexpected plot twists happen at just the right time.  My only complaint was in the last third of the game, when it felt like you were asked to redo the first half.  The Moon Dragon was an especially huge letdown, for various reasons I won’t spoil, but otherwise I couldn’t recommend the game more.  My only recommendation?  Be sure to level up all your characters, even if you don’t think you need them…
What did I learn from this game?
 – Strong music really does wonders for a game’s atmosphere.  The player should be excited to play, and the music should reflect that.
 – Auto-regen isn’t such a bad thing if done right.  Not being able to regenerate in dungeons adds to their challenge.
 – Combat skill system was similar to my game, so I really paid attention to its implementation and what they did right and wrong.  It’s not quite the same, but close enough.

Tales of Vesperia
Summary
I had already played through this game in early 2009, but I needed some help with animation in the up and down directions and it was the only anime-styled game I had in an HD format.  I booted up the game and realized I had never fought the last boss, so I restarted the whole thing and played through.  Now, I still prefer Tales of the Abyss to this game, but on second playthrough it was a lot more fun.  I still feel the combat system is too rigid and unresponsive, especially in the beginning, and the insane shared Overlimit gauge is my biggest pet peeve.  Whereas in Abyss characters each had their own gauge and could use Mystic Artes at will, now with the shared guage it’s nearly impossible to even see another character’s Mystic Arte without controlling them directly.  The AI just uses the gauge at will (yes I know you can tell them to wait until it’s completely full or not at all) and doesn’t consistently do anything useful let alone a Mystic/Burst Arte with it, wasting its potential most of the time.  I like the entire cast except main character Yuri, though Karol is only good because his personality is not typical in an RPG.  Judith and Raven win my vote for favorites from this game.
What did I learn from this game?
 – Animation observation.  Facing down and up makes for weird perspective in 2D games that’s hard for me to visualize, especially for complex attacks.  I have long suspected this is the reason many 2D indie RPGs stick to retro graphics or side-scrolling, to avoid this problem.
 – How to make a good variety of special skill effects

Chrono Trigger
Summary
Another legendary RPG, I picked up the Playstation version recently despite warnings about load times.  As I had wanted to design a game that had turn-based and kept party members fighting on the same map where enemies were encountered, this was the only game I could think of that did that.  In fact, one of my long running pet peeves is how console RPGs always make battles happen in another engine; it just doesn’t make sense to me.  Objectively speaking, though this is one of my favorite RPGs ever and one that many who generally dislike Japanese RPGs actually enjoy, this game is not without its own minor flaws.  I was never a big fan of how it advertised multiple endings, but the only way to get almost all of them is to play the game again and beat the last boss at obscurely precise moments in the plot.  Out of all the alternate endings, only one of them felt valid (the one without Crono), though I’m well aware the rest of the endings ARE funny and/or cool to see.  Just have to bow down to the “rule of cool” in this case.  All that said, like Rudy’s event in Wild Arms, Crono’s scene in the Ocean Palace against Lavos is likewise one of those moments in gaming that is hard to top.  It’s things like that that make me so upset that the sequel Crono Cross just totally dismissed everything these characters had gone through to save the future and, worse, made them out to be the bad guys.  There wasn’t a single member of the cast I disliked, though Ayla and Robo were my favorites.
What did I learn from this game?
 – An RPG doesn’t have to have a fully mapped town to be good
 – Combination techniques are a fantastic use of multiple party members.  Normally in RPGs everyone operates alone, but having two or three characters work together really helps bring them together in the player’s mind

Ys: The Oath in Felghana
Summary
Another Ys game, this one is a remake of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys from the early 90s.  And I mean full remake, everything is different, as the original was a side-scrolling action RPG, and this one is now an overhead action RPG.  Taking a step back from Ys Seven, Adol returns to his roots as a solo adventurer solving the problems of the country he happens to have wandered into.  There was something about the platform elements that eventually put me off, and some of the bosses were just outright annoying.  The gameplay of the final boss reminded me of Dracula in Castlevania III.  Still, this is one of my favorite soundtracks of all time, and it lets you listen to three versions of each track (though not my favorite, the TurboGrafx CD OST).  The voice acting started off a bit rough but eventually became pretty endearing, Chester at the end of the game was very well done.
What did I learn from this game?
 – Apparently power-ups to magic, though non-essential, are going to be hidden in the most inconspicuous way possible.
 – Adol should have let Dogi be the hero this time, Elena and him were meant for each other.  Sorry, but it’s true!  Adol has enough girls falling over him all over the world.  Oh wait, this is about what I learned, well, I learned that the hero may not be the least bit interested in love, but that won’t stop those around him/her from feeling the same way.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Summary
Is this really an RPG?  Though I doubt it is actually classified as such, many clones and games inspired by it (aka “Metroidvania”) games are called action RPGs.  This is actually another pet peeve of mine; simply because the game has an XP system, money, and equippable items… well I guess if the gaming community feels this qualifies as an RPG what can I say.  But the fact is that this game is not the first thing people think of when referring to RPGs, only its successors, so why the discrepancy?
This game is legendary like Chrono Trigger, but when I first played it I wasn’t that impressed.  I mean, I loved the 2d artwork, the animation and the environments were great.  But I thought the gameplay itself was a bit too easy after a long series of much harder Castlevania games.  The voice acting was and still is atrocious.  I like how people believe the many philosophical quotes from this game, such as “What is a man?  A miserable little pile of secrets!” were made by this game and not some documented historian or author somewhere.  I also was not as enthused about the inverted castle.  Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was awesome at first, but when I quickly realized it was just one huge map with no real direction to explore or any interactions it felt like padding, however the subtle callback to Simon’s Quest was awesome.  There were also far too many weapons that were useless when they were finally found.
I know this sounds like I’m ripping on the game, but like I said, that was my first impression.  I didn’t replay it until many years later and realized that the game doesn’t need to be hard to be fun, plus it was the pinnacle of 2D gaming and still is to a degree.  I wish more games in the series had this much to explore, Castlevania itself was so well designed that no other game after even came close to its intricate complexity and interweavings. 
What did I learn from this game?
 – I really want a remake of Castlevania III with the sprites from the battle in the inverted Colliseum.
 – Some interesting tricks for 2D games to use regarding special effect animations

Persona 3 Portable
Summary
I have owned every game in the Persona series (except the first half of Persona 2: Innocent Sin, which is coming out soon), while owning only Nocturne of the overall Shin Megami Tensei series.  The trick is, I never played any of them except the first few hours of Nocturne until this year.  Over the summer, I gave the original Persona a chance and the combat quickly turned me off to it.  I couldn’t stand how a character in the wrong spot in the formation couldn’t hit the single remaining enemy.  Otherwise, it seemed like it could have been an interesting game.
So imagine my surprise when I finally decided to try Persona 3.  This game amazed me from the very beginning, the characters were deep and interesting, the deceptive introduction was very intriguing, the whole scenario was much more interesting and thought-provoking than the straight “demon-invasion” stories that Nocturne and Persona had.  What really sold me was how fun the battle system was.  I don’t think I’ve ever played a turn-based game this fun and responsive, though Suikoden II was pretty close.  The social link system, how you make friends and start dating girls or guys (depending on your main character), is very in depth and some of the stories you experience as you get to know these people are just, well let’s say Bioware has a long way to go to make characters this deep (barring Planescape).  The game really makes several solid statements about exploring the meanings of life and living, and the perils of a society that has lost their will.  A very topical game, if you ask me.  The voice acting is great with the exception of Fuuka and sometimes Aigis.  This otherwise perfect game has the last part slow down the pacing of the incredible story to an almost crawl, perhaps to let the player do the side-content like Persona fusions and the difficult quests, but I found it a bit of a let down.  But I am aware making an entire year of events happen has to have some downtime, I mean, my year had its lulls, too 🙂  I also was less than impressed with Ryoji’s appearance, he was technically introduced near the very end but everyone acted unusually responsive to him for the short time they knew him.
I was surprised to hear that the PS2 versions of this game have you control your character on the various maps like the school and mall.  The Portable version removes this and has the map appear with hotspots, streamlining the exploration considerably.  I think the game has so much content (my first playthrough without revisiting Tartarus to level up or doing the 4/5-star quests was 95 hours), I actually prefer this, and normally I’m one for having an avatar to move around on maps.
I randomly bought Persona 4 earlier this year as one of the last Ps2 games on the shelf at the store, now that I know it is like 3 (but supposedly improves on its flaws), I’m really looking forward to starting it up.  But not until I finish the female main character playthrough of 3… her social links (relationships) and story are almost entirely different than the guy’s was, with all new characters and clubs to join.  I’m already befriending Junpei in the first week, which threw me off because he treated the main male character like a jerk almost the entire game.
Oh and before I forget, my favorite characters are Yukari, Junpei, and Akihiko, though several of the social link NPCs had a serious impact on me.
What did I learn from this game?
 – I really want the relationships that Arashi forges in Shadowdawn Genesis to have even half the effect that Persona 3 had.
 – Turn-based doesn’t have to mean slow and boring.  It can be done right.
 – Don’t introduce a vital character in the last leg of the game, it can ruin the whole dynamic.  Oddly enough, I have the same complaint about the TV anime Evangelion regarding Kaworu who was handled in the same way.