Gaming off the Beaten Path

Last week, we started our look at Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, one of 2025's most hyped games. E33 has cleaned up at every major gaming awards show, and for good reason. It features a unique and amazing world, a gripping story and spectacular soundtrack that has captivated millions of gamers. All of those things make for a great movie...but this isn't a movie, now is it. Here, we have gameplay to discuss. Did it live up to the high standard set by its narrative? Well, let's see. It may be French in origin, but E33 plays like a classic, turn-based JRPG. I talked a little bit about this last week, but it was so nice to see a game that played like this, at least a core level, receive the amount of reverence it has. It has the combat, the dungeons, the exploration, the pacing, all the hallmarks of the genre that those of us that grew up in the 90's came to know and love. You have turn based combat, a world map, tons of sidequests, all of the things that made these games so ...

I may as well finish the year with a bang. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past year, you've probably heard of the latest and greatest turn based RPG that's taking the gaming world by storm. It seems that these games are popping up every year now, something I absolutely love to see. It was less than 10 years ago that the general consensus was that these games were all but dead, made all but obsolete by bigger, better open world and action games that allowed for a more "true" role playing experience. I'm not going to get into that now, because I have strong feelings about that, but it feels like it was the mindset of the gaming community at large for the entirety of the 7th and majority of the 8th console generations. Console RPGs were all but dead, relegated to a niche genre for weirdos full of doe eyed chibis and unnecessary fan service. The genre that seemed to spawn new IPs left and right was all the sudden focused on a few core series, Ta...

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...