Hey, I'm actually supposed to be here this time. - Jeremy Steimel
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of
the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There
is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Cole's Axiom: The sum of the intelligence on the planet is a constant. The population is growing. Don't say we didn't warn you.
I feel like one lucky man, let me tell you. Not only did I walk into the middle of a next generation consoles war, but I stumbled across the Civil War of RPG fans -- Final Fantasy versus Dragon Quest. As the great Judge Mills Lane would say; "Let's get it on!"
| Flattery gets you everywhere |
| Dear Jeremeister, I was reading the column yesterday, and I know you didnt write it, but someone mentioned BUYING a converter for a US SNES
in order to play Super Famicom games. Being a nice guy and all, I figure I should let the public at large know that such a
converter is a waste. All you need to do is get a pair of plyers and rip out those two eenie weenie tabs inside the
cartridge slot. You literally have to rip them off, but they serve no purpose other than to physically prevent the
insertion of Super Famicom cartridges, so its A-OK. Stay coo'
-Raist
|
I'm all for importing, so I figured this was worth mentioning to people. Of course, you should also know that the tabs are solidly built in on some of the SNES models out there, like mine were, so you may have to resort to a well heated screwdriver to get the job done.
| "I read it in the newspaper!" |
| "It seems overly obvious that Dragon Quest 7 is hardly comparable to
Final Fantasy IX because of two factors: originality and presentation. While
I have played neither of these games, the information released is self
sufficient.
Final Fantasy IX, despite being labeled "old school," appears to be
very original, having a unique world and very "original" character designs,
which besides the black mage, bare little resemblence to anything previously
seen in the series." I don't know what this guy has been reading but he certainly hasn't
been reading the right info. In direct contrast to what this guy said about
FF9 is in this import review of it right here:
http://psx.ign.com/news/21954.html
He has such quotes as "And after pounding through the game in a sleepless
frenzy of Square-a-licious gameplay, I can conclude…erm, this is a lot like
the last game." and "Yeah,I had fun, but I eventually got the feeling that I
was driving a 1986 Ford Tempo with a fresh coat of paint. I eventually felt
the urge to pull out Vagrant Story or Panzer Dragoon Saga -- something with
a little more under the hood, so to speak." So FF9 might be very good but
it doesn't seem to be the mammoth of innovation the first guy I quoted
claims it to be.
As for DQ7 it I do agree that it will a lot of things seen in previous
DQ games (which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing) it will at least
have a few things too that will be new to the series too such as towns being able to greatly fluctuate in terms of size and population
during the game, being able to talk to your party members all the time to
see what's on their mind in and out of battle, and listening in on monster's
conversations with each other during battles to find out clues on certain
things.
I didn't want to write this in to bash FF9 and claim DQ7 will be the
greatest ever but I hate to see such things as this get misrepresented.
Pendy
|
That's about the worst link you could give me to back up your opinion, because I personally felt that that was one of the worst import reviews I've ever read in my life. I have high regards of DaveZ and all the guys over at IGNPSX, but I was really let down by their Final Fantasy IX import review.
First off, I have no problem with a negative review of FFIX. Of course, the fact that the only one I've seen so far is so poorly written and paced. The writer (who thankfully doesn't appear to be regular IGNPSX staff) seemed to be making every attempt to establish the fact that he felt he was "hardcore" so his opinion would seem more valid. He explains improvements and innovations to the serie's basic concept for a good two pages worth of writing, just to turn around and whine about how Final Fantasy IX doesn't live up to his hardcore expectations. As cool as his moogle references made him look, I think I'll pass on the "I'm fighting the hype system!" act.
As for your examples regarding Dragon Quest VII, I really don't see how those are supposed to be big drawing points compared to what Final Fantasy IX offers. I'll admit it right now -- I have no anticipation for Dragon Quest VII whatsoever. I have no problem with games staying as traditional RPGs, and thus not innovating to adventure style gameplay. However, Dragon Quest VII seems to literally shout "Love me for nostalgia!", and with that being an excuse not to improve the series in the ways it could have been. Right now, nothing that's been shown about the game, including non-gameplay factors such as story, characters, visuals, et cetera, interest me one bit. With the way DQVII is shaping up at the moment, it's going to take a lot more than being able to talk to enemies to grab my attention.
| More dangerous territory |
| I just want to comment on something I've noticed lately. It just seems to me that a lot of gamer seem to be a tad closed
minded in regards to what they want in a game. Several days ago, with the discussion about what gameplay is, the gist of
it was, "Well, I'd like it to be innovative, but it has to follow these strict guidelines, or I won't play it." I'm not
damning or making fun of anyone, I'm just asking that people look around and try something. For example, take Fallout, a
PC RPG. The main character is not the focal point of the universe, nor does he/she have any character aside from those
based on the decisions you make through the game. The draw of the game is the character that the rest of the world has to
offer. There's all sorts of interesting towns filled with interesting people, almost none of whom have anything to do with
the plot at large. It's almost all subquests, like The World of Ruin, but with none of the aimless meandering of SaGa
Frontier 1. You can download a demo for both Windows and Mac. I know I sound like a marketing shill, but my point is that
people are so eager to complain about a certain, and I wanted to just say something nice about a game I think people would
like, even though it may not follow the norm as far as its presentation goes.
|
I'll have to somewhat agree with you on the first part of your letter. Unlike a lot of gaming journalists out there (and I'm not saying they're wrong, it's all opinions and taste), innovation in a title just isn't the end-all be-all of game aspects to me. I have no quams with playing a cliché game if it's executed well. However, regarding Fallout, I'll have to let people take your word for it since I don't PC game hardly at all. I've heard good things, but haven't ever given Fallout a spin for myself.
| Strawberry Shortcake RPG |
| Jeremy,
Am I the ONLY person who thinks Rhapsody completely bites it? Most every
review points out the game's flaws, but every publication from The GIA to EGM
to IGN.com gave it above-average scores... was there something I missed on my
play through?
Does the final retail copy include a vial of crack?
First of all, you've got a pitifully short ten-hour quest, which divided by
the whopping $49.99 retail price gives you a five-dollar-an-hour gameplay
experience before taxes. And how much character/story development could
possibly happen in that length of time? Hint: not much.
What's worse, it's ridiculously easy to blow through Rhapsody without dying
(or for that matter, encountering one smidgen of challenge). The only
"difficulty" I had with Rhapsody was in the lookalike palette-swapped
dungeons, and even then the main struggle was to avoid simply turning the
game off. The backgrounds, as nice as they may look, were recycled and
recolored more often than a Mortal Kombat character.
The far-too-hyped musical numbers just completely tanked. The English vocals
sound nice, but the lyrics are just so poorly written. What should have been
the best part of the game wound up being the most unbearable.
Finally, as is usually the case with crap, the assumption seems to be that
Rhapsody would be "just PERFECT" for children and females. The latter
suggestion is remarkably sexist, and the former just doesn't make any sense
given Atlus' risque translation and mature packaging/advertising.
If anybody out there is thinking of buying this one, do yourself a favor and
rent it instead. You'll not only be able to decide if you like it, you'll be
able to beat it over the weekend.
Chris Kohler |
While I've yet to play Rhapsody myself, I'm pretty sure it's a classic hit-or-miss RPG. Given the setup and style of the game, I don't think anyone should be surprised to find out that it has a limited appeal. Although regarding your complaints to the difficulty, I do believe there's a difficulty setting available to chose at the beginning of the game, although I don't know how difficult this makes the game in the end.
| Let me guess, he likes Legend of Dragoon. |
|
I noticed this on the top of your letters section on the GIA: "Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and
potentially offensive material afoot. Yep, it's another non-sequitur. Enjoy. Don't say we didn't warn you."
I have to disagree with the first line. After reading several news articles over the past couple of months, I have come to the conclusion that your site is extremely biased and is very
unfair. Any opinions expressed by you, the moderator, generally reflect the overall mentality of every other staff member on this site. Almost every single game reported by your staff
seems to go through a 'Final Fantasy' comparison. If it turns out to have original style and doesn't have enough FMV to be a movie it almost certainly will get a thumbs down. I get this
same reaction from a lot of people I talk to, and as a result I think I'll begin looking around for other sites to get my news from.
I also have a comment. It seems like the Final Fantasy series is taking a step away from the gaming world and into the 'big screen' or 'movie' world. No, I'm not talking about the upcoming
Final Fantasy movie, I'm talking about the overall direction the Final Fantasy 'games' are taking. The games are too linear and not involving enough. Lack of challenge, mystery and
exploration tend to replace the purpose of any game -- fun, with boredom. After Final Fantasy 7, I have pretty much given up all hope for the series. I think the only thing keeping it afloat
is the media hype, and that people don't try enough other games. If I want an interactive movie I think for now I'll stick with a DVD and play around with the options on the DVD player
for a little while. Who knows...maybe the upcoming movie will be the next 'game' in the series and we can get it on DVD for under $20.
Jeff Ewasiuk (Jigsaw) |
The Gaming Intelligence Agency's staff is made up of a wide variety of gamers -- to say that disclaimer line is false is rather humorous, because we have very varied opinions amongst staff. Fortunately, we've all managed to grasp the concept of accepting other peoples' opinions rather than whining about them, and realized that not everyone feels the same about every game.
Of course, there's no denying that Legend of Dragoon was compared to recent Final Fantasy titles. However, did you ever stop to wonder why we had done this? It's not in any other recent review, so were we just picking on Legend of Dragoon? Unfortunately, if a develper decides to grow out of their britches and claim that their upcoming game is the "Final Fantasy Killer!", or the killer of whatever game is appropriate for its genre, they damned well better be ready to get a harsh comparison if the reviewer feels they fell seriously short. And of course, if we were so demanding for FMV, why was our most recent review of a FMV-laden game (Legend of Dragoon) given a 1, where our most recent perfect score was for a game that had almost no FMV whatsoever? (Vagrant Story, which had a brief opening FMV, and brief FMV during the staff roll) The simple fact is that no game will ever be universally enjoyed, so you may as well prepare to see someone not like your favorite game, and have enough sense of mind to not waste your time being overly angry about it.
Closing Comments:
This was a wee bit short, and a wee bit late, so I apologize for that. Ed McGlothlin steps in tomorrow. You know, the guy who's been giving you an insight to the industry with his Wire tap columns, or perhaps you better remember him as the sole reviewer to take a stand against Grandia? Yeah, I thought so. Make sure to drop him a line, I'm sure he'll have plenty to say.
-Jeremy Steimel |
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