Kotaku 
Enter your username and password.
Denver, 6:32 AM
Tue Dec 8
64 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip us:
Editor-In-Chief:
Brian Crecente
| AIM | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Stephen Totilo
| AIM | Twitter
Senior Editor:
Michael McWhertor
| AIM | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor, Japan:
Brian Ashcraft
| AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, East Coast:
Michael Fahey
| AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, Oceania:
Luke Plunkett
| AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, Weekends:
Owen Good
| AIM | Twitter
Correspondent, San Francisco:
AJ Glasser
| AIM | Twitter
Columnist:
Leigh Alexander
Columnist:
Tim Rogers
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
09/08/09
09/08/09
09/08/09
I'd love to see a return of pre-rendered backdrops on handheld RPGs.
09/08/09
Fuck, just a PSP port (or PS1 Classic) of Legend of Mana would make my day.
09/08/09
Too be honest I always thought full 3D were a bit bland, especially on the lower polygon counts like they were back in the day.
I know critics loved it, but I personally always thought that fully rendered objects looked worse than, let's say, the scenery in FFIX.
That does not apply much to current gen, since games like Assassin's Creed are simply marvelous to look at.
09/08/09
09/08/09
09/09/09
09/08/09
Very much looking forward to another.
Also: The tree person looks cool, but I think that Mushroom is going to molest me
09/08/09
09/08/09
Obviously, thats not to say all of them, though. Valkyrie Profile came out unscathed for the most part (didn't finish it, but I did notice a drop is writing quality; not necessarily DS related) and I hear the Shin Megami game stood strong as well.
09/08/09
Not knocking the PSP rpg lineup, but the DS's battery life and indestructable form have made it a better traveling companion for my pocket than my PSP has made.
Also, har har. Its got a lot of competition against other Nintendo handhelds, eh? :P
YOU HANG IN THERE GBA
09/08/09
Sadly, I agree that portables are definitely the goto for RPG's this gen. Though last I checked the PSP had a ton of 'em too. Either way, EACH of 'em probably have more quality ones than all the home consoles combined. Which is really sorta sad, as I don't have any reason or incentive to play portable games. And RPG's, with their typical long play times, I'd argue are probably the worst possible match for portables.
I do *rarely* play them on plane trips, but it's so infrequent I completely forget what's happening in the game between trips.
I blame the japanese apparent love for public transit.
09/08/09
09/08/09
09/08/09
Shin Megami is incredible. And I'd argue against the 'E for Everyone' moniker simply by difficulty. The game I mentioned, Etrian Odyssey, is not for the faint of heart or the easily frustrated.
@GnatB:
Yeah, the PSP is nice for RPG's too, but until they make some kind of crazy hybrid of DSPSP or Daystation or something, I tend to carry my DS everywhere.
See, for me, I'd rather play my RPG's on a handheld than a console. I'm not home enough these days with a job, school, people I'm forced to hang out with... having em on a portable allows me to keep playing the same game whenever and wherever I get the urge, so that it doesn't become a 'I havent played this game in four weeks and now I have no idea where I am' lost cause, as happens with a lot of jrpgs for me.
I just think sometimes people forget the charm of less graphics+more customization/options. You guys would laugh at me if I told you that I think imagination can be a wonderful tool to fill in the blanks of what you're doing, its why I grew up with a bag of dice and hexagonal grids always nearby. I dig it, though.
The problem I have with 3d model DS rpg's is they tend to look like crap compared to the PSP ones, to the point where I don't like playing them. FF III remake was a complete turnoff. But Disgaea, EO and SMT are right up my alley.
@Archaotic:
As a person with a horrible short term memory that ruins JRPG's on consoles if I dont keep playing them from start to finish, which can be difficult due to life getting in the way (my stuck save file on Lost Odyssey disc 4 from a year ago being exhibit A), I must say, portables are not a bad thing for the genre at all.
09/08/09
And I don't know if this says more about me or the game, but it's the first Shin Megami game I've actually finished.
09/08/09
I'm more tolerant of PSP RPGs because I can play them on my TV in full screen, but I have to spend so much time squinting and adjusting my hand position because of how awkwardly designed the DS is, it brings me out of the game REALLY fast. Especially in the DS RPGs that try to force you to use the stylus. =/
I think handhelds in general are better designed for shorter bursts of action, easily digested stuff like platformers, action games, and puzzle games. Long-form JRPGs? I overwhelmingly prefer playing them on my TV.
09/08/09
I don't think I made myself too clear though, so allow me to try again; it is a hard opinion to voice without sounding snooty.
Its not so much the way the game looks as much as it is the way the game carries itself, or what audience it is trying to convey its story to.
While I absolutely love (insert Pixar movie) and Iron Giant, I can only watch about one of those movies for every 4 of my There Will Be Bloods, Lord of the Rings, the Wrestler, and Burn After Reading (chose largely newer movies that a little fresher in my mind) We really don't have a lot of videogames that hit that maturity level though--most rated M games are too immature to be truly mature.
There are certain kinds of movies that totally destroy this outlook though like Miyazaki movies, for instance. Actually, Ico and SOTC, two of my favorite games ever, remind me a lot of studio Ghibli movies.
09/08/09
I agree, but theres a difference between Lord of the Rings, and a season of Futurama (to use the show as an example for the second time this week), yanno? Lord of the Rings was obviously designed for a larger than life experience (hence your console), but the season of Futurama manages to hold the same length, while being just as enjoyable, just in a different way.
I still prefer my Epics and emotional triggers on a console, but theres nothing wrong with number crunchers (EO) on handhelds. Screens and screens of numbers and hundreds of thousands of customization options are a little more manageable when I'm reading them from the palm of my hand, and not my TV.
09/08/09
I mean, I think of it this way. The PSP is alright because it can handle decent character models and voice acting, but its library of truly good RPGs is rather limited. Square's really the only JRPG developer putting forth a truly driven effort on the system, with Namco Bandai focusing on spinoffs, Capcom ignoring it ENTIRELY aside from Monster Hunter, and Atlus and NIS largely focusing on ports. It has more potential as a storytelling device, but that potential is largely being ignored outside of Square.
On the other hand, the DS gets a lot more "unique" titles, though as time has gone on we've gotten a lot less TWEWYs and a lot more "we took an old PS2 franchise, chopped out all of what made it unique, and plopped it onto the DS because DS games sell" experiments. Valkyrie Profile and Suikoden being the most notable victims. We also see a lot of remakes of SNES games being done with haphazardly handled 3D visuals when well-animated upgraded sprites could easily have sufficed.
Neither system really has gotten it truly right, with the DS' technical limitations and the PSP's lack of truly deep support from publishers (seriously, the DS has THREE mainline Tales games and Namco can't be arsed to give the PSP ONE?) holding them back, the handhelds will always simply be a stopgap, a time-killer until the JRPG developers get their asses in gear for the consoles.
09/08/09
See, I like both. Lost Odyseey is obviously my favourite JRPG of years and years, and its very story driven. But when it comes to crunching numbers, I also like to do that. I don't necessarily like mindless level grinding for the sake of level grinding, but its fun to be given a hundred and one options to customize your characters to find a style that suits you best. Hence, the SRPG's I like to play.
Hey, don't knock Monster Hunter. *heart*.
Handhelds are fine for story, but I think its the screen size that limits what kind of story you can tell. Because your eyes can see around your DS, it kind of breaks the illusion of whats going on. Have you played the Mario RPG games? They're pretty funny. As well as the Phoenix Wrights'. But obviously, nothing has made me bawl like a little girl or make my eyes go wide in awe like something on the consoles.
But thats exactly why I think its a waste of time making a serious graphic JRPG epic on the PSP. I'll take a really pretty number cruncher or a JRPG-lite like Persona, but cmon, like it or not, you're going to run into the same limitations no matter what handheld you go to.
09/08/09
Odyssey *cough*
09/08/09
I'm just fine with playing KH: Birth By Sleep on my TV. Persona will be equally entertaining (and speaking of which, Persona 1 is about as far from "JRPG lite" as possible; that game is HARDCORE) when it comes out later this month.
And believe me, sir, I love Phoenix Wright games as much as the next guy, but the thing is that the Ace Attorney franchise actually has good visuals. Well-drawn, personality-filled sprites will ALWAYS trump the hideous, chunky, blocky 3D models that JRPG developers seem to think work just fine on the DS. Visuals may not be everything, but if I have a choice between two games with similar gameplay, but one has shit visuals while another one has good ones, I'm ALWAYS going to pick the one with better visuals.
09/08/09
I just call Persona JRPG-lite because its hard to catagorize. I've played the first one. In fact, I've got an english translation of the Super Nintendo's and Playstations right here on this computer. Its got its 'hardcore' element, and the ability to drop hundreds of hours into it is certainly hardcore, but as far as hand-held storytelling or number crunching that takes place ala many JRPG's, its unique in that it doesn't do much of either.
The thing about the 'similar gameplay' remark is that one of the DS'es strong points is that dev's have been willing to take risks with different/new/difficult gameplay. So while the graphics have been less, the gameplay hasn't exactly been equal.
But we agree on one thing. The DS'es 3D capabilities are awful. I can't name drop a single 3d modeled game that I like on it that isn't made by Nintendo.
09/08/09
09/04/09
However, I am looking forward to future MMOs. Perhaps you should have asked about some of them, rather than 3 MMOs that have been around 5+ years.
And MMOs on consoles catch some flak because everyone assumes putting one on an MMO will make it magically get invaded with even more retards than they already are, or that it will make communication difficult.
The former is silly, while the latter is a valid point. Consoles don't come standard with a keyboard, and voice chat can't be used for group, guild and zone/global chats all at the same time. Yes, I know about the controller-connected keyboards and that you can plug them into the USB slot. I do both depending ont he situation. But not everybody does.
Imagine taking a PC MMO and disallowing text chat and only allowing voice chat. I still know quite a few MMOers that won't voice chat for whatever reason.
I put no on Persona and Dissidia just because they don't interest me. It's nothing to do with JRPG vs WRPG. They just don't look that interesting to me.
09/04/09
09/05/09
09/04/09
*Goes back to waiting for Dissidia to come in the post*
09/04/09
i like being on the same page with RPG plot. i hate that you kids dont realize Persona 4 was the best RPG to happen since like ever. I adored FF XII, but XIII's gonna have to really, really surprise me to take back "best ongoing RPG series" in my book. Shin Megami's been eating its lunch in recent years.
09/04/09
09/04/09
Who knows? The survey really doesn't give us much grounds to jump to any analysis.
09/03/09
I'm shocked. That's the idea RPG to me.
09/03/09
09/04/09
@Anemone: for shame! ok, i gotta run through 4 more as well but at least KOTOR is my current excuse, sir.
09/03/09
...*snrk*
09/04/09
09/03/09
I am VERY interested in EVE. However, after trying out the free trial.... I realized that while I LOVE the idea of the game... in practice it just feels like too much work.
Aside from Eve... I've never been interested in an MMO... at all. I don't get the appeal. I have a few friends who are VERY VERY into World of Warcraft. I've watched them play. I don't get it.
The only MMO that I'm currently looking at is Old Republic, and I'm only even letting myself think about it because it's Bioware. Aside from that, I'm not really interested in it.
09/03/09
As for EVE, hit the YouTube link.
I wonder what people thought about "mundane tasks." Is it the gameplay itself, or is it the grinding requisite with MMOs and probably lots of single-player RPGs?
I also figured interest in Fable and Elder Scrolls would be higher. Do people not like fantasy RPGs as much as expected, or is it just these two games in particular?
I don't like fantasy and I really liked Fallout 3 (still waiting for the PS3 DLC), so neither of those interested me.
09/03/09
I enjoyed Oblivion and Both of the Fable games VERY much. I must have played through the Original Fable something like 10 times.
Still, Fallout 3 operates on an entirely separate level for me. I think it's the setting. I don't mind the fantasy setting... and I think Oblivion and Fable both had their own interesting takes on it (Fable had the 'Old Kingdom,' Oblivion took a lot of aesthetic stuff from the Roman Empire,) but I just don't like fantasy all that much.
I also really love the formula of Fallout 3. Unlike Oblivion and Fable, the quests, aside from the main story line, don't just happen upon you. You have to physically walk out into the wasteland and LOOK for them.
The feeling of stumbling upon a new settlement or small family in the middle of post-apocalyptia is wonderful!
I think a lot of people would complain about this. A lot of people don't like the idea of just wandering around for hours on end... but the whole feel of the setting makes it okay for me. I can spend hours just sitting at the computer, wandering around whilst listening to marching songs and 50's music.
09/04/09
09/03/09
Yes: 28 percent (4,550 total responses)"
There probably would have been more that answered yes but they were already playing WoW and never saw the survey. :P
09/03/09
09/03/09
09/03/09
And it's really easy to find Persona 4 for cheap. It was $25 just the other day at more than a few stores. And not only that, but I fail to see how it isn't worth its full price. It certainly has more content than pretty much every other game coming out this summer. It's one of the best modern examples of an RPG and yet even that doesn't mean it should be purchased at full price? This is pretty ridiculous to me!
It may be hard to find in Canada but it most definitely is not in the US. I can walk into any Gamestop/EB and find it. I can order it (probably at a cheaper price) from all sorts of online outlets. It's everywhere.
09/04/09
09/03/09
09/03/09
And that was all time spent trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.
JRPGs just aren't for me is the conclusion I ended with.
09/03/09
It might have to do with how engaged I've gotten with shooters, which probably spoiled my enjoyment of a slow paced game of any kind... or I just don't have the time anymore :(
Also for myself, WRPGs (and I know I'll be hated and stoned for this comment since WRPGs > JRPGs seem to be all the rage now) bore me to tears.
If I ever become an insomniac, I'll just watch someone play Oblivion.
09/03/09
Or maybe your drawing the wrong opinions?
e.g I don't want to play Dissida, but thats not because I hate the game, or aren't interested. It's because I don't have a PSP.
So maybe add a "can't play option"
Also "Do you want to play Fable II?", well that's a no, because I HAVE played Fable 2.
So maybe an "Already played" option. especially for games that have been out. In fact the only game in that list that "Do you want to play" suits is FFXIII.
11 assumes there is a barrier for some folks playing RPGs. Some folks may not care about any of those things.
The questionnaires are cool, but unfortunely they are currently broken.
09/03/09
09/04/09
Maybe a better question would have been "Would you recommend that a friend play..."