Gaming off the Beaten Path

  It's time to talk about PS1 RPG number 3,252-5C. Okay, there aren't THAT many of them, though sometimes it feels like it. It really is amazing to think about how popular RPGs, especially JRPGs, were during the late 90's and early 00's. I miss those days, I really do. Of course, there was plenty of love for RPGs in other sub-genres as well, especially strategy RPGs. Final Fantasy Tactics was the catalyst for the genre's mainstream popularity in the west, but it was far from the only one. I've already reviewed a handful of strategy RPGs, including Shining Force, Front Mission 3 and Saiyuki: Journey West. It's not my favorite genre, but it's definitely up there and it may be the genre I like the most but know the least about. A lot of strategy RPGs never really left Japan until more recently, Fire Emblem comes to mind. I mean, when Super Smash Bros. Melee came out, a lot of gamers and even reviewers were legitimately confused as to who the hell Roy and

  Let's talk a little bit about launch titles. It kind of feels like launch titles have been de-emphasized in recent years. In this era of streaming subscription services, digital downloads and backwards compatibility, having a strong list of games available at launch just isn't as critical as it used to be. Because back in the day, launch lineups were incredibly important. Any time a new console was announced, people would immediately start speculating on what would be available at launch. Remember, you couldn't just go download a digital copy of whatever you wanted. You also didn't know when the next round of games was going to come out unless you subscribed to a gaming mag. Because of this, a system's launch titles were very important and often used as a selling point. However, these titles also always seemed to have a certain feel to them. Most launch lineups included one game from a major franchise, a bunch of second-rate titles in whatever genre was popular at

  I'll be here. I'll be waiting for you. If you come here, you will find me, I promise. So, I think this is going to be a two-part post, because I have a lot to say about Final Fantasy VIII. I was going to come out guns blazing as to why this game is so misunderstood, but I think that wouldn't do the game the justice it deserves. Despite all the negativity its name carries, Final Fantasy VIII is one of my favorite games of all time. In case it wasn't immediately apparent by my post last week, I find it to be one of the most, if not the most, unfairly maligned video games of all time. I'm not entirely surprised as it checks just about all the boxes I outlined last week and it came on the heels of one of the most beloved games of all time. It's very different from the previous Final Fantasy games, almost to the point of not feeling like one at all. Its aesthetic is different, its characters are different, it's gameplay is different, it's just generally dif

I have always found strategy RPGs to be among the most interesting subgenres in gaming. In some respects, they feel very different from their more traditional Japanese or Western counterparts in terms of presentation, pacing and structure. On the other, they offer similar party structures and require the same kinds of resource and character management the genre is known for. A lot of people love them, a lot of people don't but I've always been a fan, espec II ially of SRPGs from the 5th generation. The genre was relatively popular at that point, as developers attempted to ride the wave of what most of us consider to be its most commercially successful, mainstream title: Final Fantasy Tactics. There were SRPGs before Tactics (I've already reviewed Shining Force I and II ) and there have been SRPGs since, but FFT went a long way in bringing the genre to the mainstream. And why wouldn't it have? It was a great game in a highly visible series that offered something that wa

Back in the late 80's and early 90's, it seemed like every game with some level of fantasy elements was labeled an RPG. I guess I get it, most of the titles that popularized the genre in the West were rooted in elements of fantasy, borrowing heavily from Tolkien and others of his ilk. RPGs became closely connected to the genre and became almost synonymous with it. Hell, Final Fantasy has "fantasy" right there in the title. Of course, not every RPG fit this mold. You had Phantasy Star and Mother/Earthbound, and even Final Fantasy itself eventually branched out into more sci-fi territory. But those were outliers, at least they were at the time, and it seemed like whenever a game with an elf carrying a sword and casting magic came out, it got slapped with the RPG label whether it fit or not. Which brings us to Alundra, a title commonly lumped in with the golden era PS1 RPGs. It was developed by Matrix Software, but published in the U.S. by Working Design, a studio known

  Consider your wish...granted. In the past few weeks, we've talked a lot about series' first games and how their predecessors improved upon the foundations they laid. I decided it was fitting to continue that trend with our next 10's game, one of the truly great sequels of all time and a game that's truly special to me. I reviewed the original Twisted Metal a few months ago and I talked a lot about how transformational it was. I also talked about how flawed it was, which, as we've seen the past few weeks, was common. You have to experiment and try different things, how are you going to know what gamers like and don't like if you don't try different things? This was especially true of early generation games, which the original Twisted Metal was, where developers were still trying to figure out what the new hardware could do and what users wanted from it. But not everyone takes to heart the feedback they receive from critics and gamers. Some developers aren&#

  One of the biggest problems I believe the gaming industry has is how quick it is to dismiss mediocre or even bad games as a complete waste of time. That may not seem like it makes sense at all, but hear me out. Just because a game is bad doesn't necessarily mean all the ideas it presents are bad. In fact, I feel like you can sometimes learn more from a failure than a success. But that doesn't always happen in the gaming industry. I think this is a big part of why it sometimes feels like the same game gets released over and over again, developers just take everything from their successes and slap a new label on them. Sometimes, it would help the industry innovate more if they took some of the more positive aspects from their less successful titles. In case it wasn't immediately apparent, Flying Dragon, a fighting game for the Nintendo 64, isn't a particularly good game. I probably could have just said "fighting game for the Nintendo 64" and you probably could

  Last week, I discussed Suikoden II's gameplay, which was positive pretty much across the board. This week it's on to the story which...is also pretty awesome. Don't get me wrong, there are quite a few aspects of the plot I think could have been better. In a lot of ways, I feel like they missed a lot of opportunities to really drive home their point about the ravages of war and how it causes otherwise good people to do bad things. But Suikoden II still told an epic story that's among the best I've experienced in an RPG. I gave a bit of background on the plot last week, which sees our unnamed hero and his best friend Jowy on the run from their former colleagues in the Highland Army. The duo have just witnessed the death of their entire unit, killed as part of a false flag operation to prolong the kingdom's war with the neighboring City-State of Jowston. After fleeing their pursuers, the duo is separated, with the hero washing up alongside a rushing river. There,