Gaming off the Beaten Path

Last time out, we started our look into XBox 360 action RPG Infinite Undiscovery, covering its story and characters. You should go back and take a look at part 1, whether its on the blog or the pod. But to summarize, IU was, to put it nicely, not great in those categories. Did the gameplay fair any better? Well, I guess I would answer that question with an emphatic "kind of." It may have had a nonsense story with lame characters, but IU definitely has a few bright spots in the gameplay department. A lot more of the experimentation hit here, though there were still plenty of mechanics that could have stood to be cut. Interestingly enough, many IU's gameplay pitfalls were caused by the same mindset as the story's problem. If I could use two words to describe the narrative, they would be "nonsensical" and "bloated." Fortunately, only the latter applied to the gameplay. But before I talk about the bad, I will give IU credit for a few things it did well...

It's once time to take a look at an RPG from an unlikely source. I've already talked about this, but the XBox consoles have never really been known for the genre. While I do think this was initially by design, I think it was also something that Microsoft realized was something of a mistake. I'm sure there were plenty of bro gamers that wanted to delve into a title with a dense narrative between finishing Tony Hawk levels and binging on Mountain Dew. In all seriousness, I think Microsoft eventually made a conscious effort to bring more RPGs into their eco system, particularly during the 7th generation. While there weren't a huge number of entries in the genre on the XBox 360, the few the console did have tend to have something of a reputation as cult classics. Last year, I looked at one of those games, the absolutely exceptional Lost Odyssey. I am going to reiterate now, you should believe the hype surrounding that title, especially if you are an old school RPG fan. It...

Last week, we looked at the story of PS1 RPG Valkyrie Profile, a game that frequently finds its way onto hidden gems lists and other such conversations. I think I made it clear that while it had its high notes, the story and characters were just a bit disappointing for me. So now, it's time to talk about the gameplay. Could this bring the game up? Or will it knock it down to unplayable status? Well, it definitely won't make the game unplayable, but there is a lot to look at here. You see, VP is very, very different from just about any JRPG of its era. Heck, it's pretty different from most entries in the genre ever. I have to give them a ton of credit for originality, though the expirimentation doesn't always land. But there is not denying that, for better or worse, VP is a different breed in terms of combat, exploration, pacing and structure. First, let's start with the combat. Even here, it's probably where you will spend most of your gameplay time. And that...

Last week, we started our look at Lost Odyssey, a title that seemed to break unwritten rules of gaming left and right. We have a traditional RPG, which is the brainchild of the creator of Final Fantasy, released for XBox, a console not known for the genre, at a time when said genre was at what felt like the absolute bottom of its popularity. We started with the story, characters and world, all of which I thought were really good to great. That's a great start for an RPG, where those aspects are very important. But all of that can be undone if the gameplay isn't up to par. It's critical in any generation, but this is an essential aspect to call out in 7th gen RPGs. There was a lot of experimentation going on in the genre at the time, a lot of which didn't yield positive results. I guess I get it, the genre wasn't doing well at the time and developers were trying to do anything they could to bring it back to relevance. Sometimes, that meant terrible gimmicks. Other ti...

  As usual, it took way longer than it should have, but I did EVENTUALLY do exactly what I said I was going to. It's a year late, but I've finally made my way through the Quintet trilogy. Playing these three games became a stated goal of mine since I started podcasting last year. One of my earliest episodes covered Soul Blazer, the first title in the pseudo series. The second game, Illusion of Gaia, was also a landmark episode as it was the first one to include the intro song ("A Glass Half Full of Tears" by Aura Blaze, who's music you should check out here ). Both of them received pretty solid scores, though I didn't quite like the latter quite as much as a lot of people seem to. After all these years, I'm still surprised I never played these games when they came out. Both were definitely right up my alley and readily available to buy or even rent at my local video store, but I just never picked them up. It's a little more understandable that I had ne...

When I first started writing about games, I was very hesitant to include PC titles at all. As I've said numerous times before, it's just not something I've ever really felt qualified to talk about. There are so many iconic PC games that were just blind spots for me as I never really actively sought them out. If it didn't come on a PC Gamer demo disc or I didn't hear about it through word of mouth, I didn't know about it. Does anyone else remember those PC Gamer demo discs? I had as much fun playing with the UI on them as I did any of the actual demos. Maybe if I spent less time clicking around the secret underground club and more on actually playing the games, I would have had more PC experience. Eh, I'm okay with the fact that while Fallout and Diablo weren't nearly as critical a part of my early gaming life as Coconut Monkey. Even when I did play and enjoy PC games, it was typically because I played the console versions first. Games like Doom, Command ...