Bios -
December 28, 2000 - Chris Jones
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. Springsteen's Nebraska is also appropriate this
time of year.
Don't say we didn't warn you.
After a few days of looking around town, I finally tracked down
a copy of Skies of Arcadia, but haven't had a chance to crack it
open yet. Right now I'm about 20 hours in to FF9, an hour or so
into the third disc. I dunno if that's slow or fast by most
standards, but I'm pleased with working through the game at this
pace - I've gotten about 15 hours done since Christmas, but don't
feel like I'm particularly rushing through things. Hopefully
that'll give me more time to enjoy the game than FF6, which I've
always felt I didn't get to enjoy as much as I should have because
I bolted it down too quick.
Anyway, a reminder about the poll: through January 2nd, you can
drop me an
email with the subject line "2000 poll". All I'm looking for
is a ranked list of your top 5 games of the year, and if you really feel
like it, a short (~50 words) blurb on your favorite title of the year. At
the end of the period, I'll tally the votes up and put together a small
feature.
Onward.
| It's ok, it's ok... no,
wait, forgot about the dub... |
| For as much as I started quivering with terror once I heard there would be
voice acting in FFX, I now feel rather calmed. If we've got Akira Ishida as
Tide, I see hope for us yet. My worry? A US dub with Kaworu's American
voice over...here comes the terror again...
Dan |
The bad news is that there almost certainly be a dub for the US
version - FF's way too mainstream a series to provide anything else,
for fear of alienating American fans (who apparently don't like
Japanese dialog, reality notwithstanding). Having the game on DVD would give us
the option of bilingual audio tracks, but even that's something of a
longshot.
The good news is that based on a few of Square's recent games, I've
got faith in their ability to give us a decent dub. Nearly everything
they've released this year has had an excellent translation, and their
choice of voice actors for the FF Movie leads me to think they might have
some clue as to what constitutes talent. Heck, I even liked the voice
acting in Brave Fencer Musashi - yeah, it was way, way over the top, and
that was the point. It wasn't half-assedly over the top, and I don't think
it was accidentally cringe-worthy. And in my book, doing a purposely
absurd piece of voice acting is the next best thing to doing a purposely
excellent one.
| The annual award for
Outstanding Achievement in the field of Excellence |
| Mr. Jones,
Great GoogilyMoogily! Dragon Warrior 7 wins award for best interactive digital
art! Someone's been drinkin' a little too much Sake if you ask me. Having seen
the game in action I can't imagine it ever attaining such high praise, not with
games like Shen Mue and Jet Grind Radio out there redefining the way we look
at gaming. Much like Torneko: The Last Hope winning Top Honors for best game
last year in Japan, yet here it has yet to get anything more than a mediocre review.
It seems to me that the Japanese are tied too much to tradition, and it at times
skews their objectivity. While DW7 was like the second coming there, it'll probably
be little more than a passing fancy here and the rest of the world for hardcore
gamers. Torneko was huge there and lauded as one of the years best, but here
it's slammed as being a deeply flawed and boring game. One must ask, if Dragon
Warrior 7 had nothing to do with it's tradition if it was the first of it's series, would
it be so highly regarded? Could it stand up to FFIX, Shen Mue, Jet Grind Radio,
Samba De Amigo, Zelda, and all the other devastatingly well made games out there?
Or would it be looked upon as an excuse for leveling up in a clunky looking game?
Dragon Warrior is ok, I'll admit that, but I'll take FFIX, Shen Mue, Jet Grind Radio,
The Sims, Grandia 2, Zelda, and a whole laundry list of other games anyday of the
week and twice on Sunday before I'd pick it up for a good long strecth, I've done my
"leveling up" time. And this is supposed to be "Interactive Art"? Since when is leveling up art?
Mr. Cruz
(a little tired and crotchety) |
You've got some great points, but let's get our heads around what's
actually been given out here. We're dealing with a government award
here that likely reflects two things - the game's extreme popularity
in Japan, and its genuinely impressive sales. Giving out "best of
year" awards on those criteria is actually pretty common - Titanic won
a boatload of Oscars, although I'll laugh in the face of anyone who
actually suggests it's a better movie than LA Confidential.
More than
that, the Japanese government has a much different relationship with
business than the US government does - I'd likely botch the details if
I tried to explain it, but it wouldn't surprise me if this was
basically a big pat on the head for DQ7 singlehandedly causing about half a billion
dollars worth of economic activity. In other words, don't take it too
seriously - it makes sense in the given context, but not beyond.
| Double Agent:
spreading infectious memes since 1998! |
|
You didnt' tell use what you got for Christmas. I mean, you had to have gotten
SOMETHING. So tell us. Unless you didnt' get anything. And
then...uh......well.....at least you have the letters column.
XZellDx-Tired of typing that name, and listening to the Vagrant Story OST thanks to you. :P |
What'd I get for Christmas? A bunch of books, the titles of which
comprise this week's column titles, and the Vagrant Story OST, which I've
apparently hyped enough. That's all I asked for, all I expected, and all
I wanted, so it's cool.
| I say tomato, you say
tomato... wait, that doesn't work in text... |
| Chris,
Justin Case, yesterday, made mention that the final fantasy series was not
a true series. You then made mention that it was not how it was intended to
be. I agree with both of you, but only to a point.
Final Fantasy could not be a true series, or rather a serial (think Flash
Gordon, circa 1930), because that was far too constricting. You would have
to've had the exact same characters, or descendants thereof, with the exact
same magic system, or variation thereof, with no possibility for change.
You would end up with the same world map, the same history of the planet,
the same basic towns and the same overall people. Doing this would restrict
you to, at most, three or four games, and that's being optimistic.
But Final Fantasy does have at least some of those elements (with the
exception of FFVIII, there were always moogles and chocobos, as well as the
same summon-monsters), even if each one is not the same setting, does not
have the same people or the same magic systems. So, while having familiar
elements to keep the fans coming back, they are still able to move beyond
their original borders and create new game after new game. Remember, if
they had kept all FFs the same as the original NES version, they'd never
have gone as far as they have. We'd still have 2-D sprites with no clear
names or backgrounds.
But, still, there is a danger one takes when they move far outside the
guidelines they set for themselves. I'm sure voice-acting is not going to
go over very well with most other FF fans (Alex was Fisheye? Who knew?).
But what can I say. I've always been open minded when it comes to the
exploration of new ideas. Like I said in a previous letter, this is
something I want to see. I want RPG's to explore, without the fear of
making mistakes. If FFX bombs, okay, now we know not to do THAT ever again.
Of course, the hard part is figuring out exactly what THAT was. And that's
the fun of it. Trial and error.
In closing, I'd just like to say that if FF really has gotten so bad, why
has the series lasted so long, and how come their still number one in
sales? But, I do regard FFX with a suspicious eye.
-Banjax, who feels that FFX is the easiest FF to type since FFV. |
You might want to check a few of your facts again - moogles weren't
present in a few FFs, with I and IV springing to mind, and the summoned
monsters aren't always the same. That said, I'm not sure what your
disagreement with me is - yes, there are continuing traditions from game
to game, which represent the signatures of the developers as surely as
DaVinci 's backwards name represented his work.
The thing is, in gameplay
terms these continuations don't really mean that much, because the way
they're used changes from game to game. The moogles in FF9 are closest to
those in FF6, by my reckoning... but they still act and feel differently,
at least as far as I'm concerned. Beyond that, the old school/new school
wars should be sufficient proof that the mere presence of moogles or
chocobos isn't enough to keep the fan base satisfied. Dragon Quest is
unquestionably more of an actual series than Final Fantasy is... but what
that actually means, I'll leave up to you.
| It's all about name
recognition |
| Justin Case sent in a letter about Chrono Cross, direct sequels and
such, so I've got a couple of comments.
Although Final Fantasy 2+ seems like an oxymoron, what are you going to
do? The name has cash value. In anycase, wouldn't a rose by any other
name smell as sweet? Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
The Japanese have plenty of long running tv shows - take Dragon Ball
(the orginal, Z, and GT). Ranma 1/2 ran for at least eight seasons.
There was also a program (non-animated) whose title I've forgotten that
involved the shogun's brother investigating local rulers. It ran for
twenty years. Granted, every eposide was basically the same...
ridwan ^_^ |
That's about the size of it, I think - you might successfully argue
that FF 1, 2, and possibly 3 were close enough in using nearly the
same graphics, battle system, etc, to be true sequels, but by this point we're buying it
because the game's Final Fantasy... whatever that implies.
| A momentary lapse of
reason |
| Chris,
I...I can't remember what I've played that's been released this year.
~Ian P. |
That's ok, Ian, it's not like we'd have counted your vote
anyway... but as a general guideline, just remember this: if it's an
Atari 2600 game, it probably wasn't published this year.
Closing Comments:
It's late, so I'm just gonna crash for the night. Sorry if the
column's been a bit anemic this week, but I'll try to bootstrap us back
up to something close to normal next week. Catch you tomorrow.
-Chris Jones, his tag line
stolen by Banjax |
