Gaming off the Beaten Path

  For the first time, I'm going to have to put an asterisk on a review. Yeah I know, even at the beginning of the review I know its going to have to happen. It's just going to have to. I know Sega fans really love Jet Grind Radio (called Jet Set Radio outside the US) and its generally pretty well regarded for a variety of reasons. But here's the thing you have to remember when you are reviewing media; reviewers are looking at both objective and subjective aspects. When it comes to video games, that means you are looking at things like control and graphics as well as fun factor. However, I've always felt things always leaned more on the subjective. Sure, some games have outright bad controls, but sometimes they have a bit of a subjective component as well. Some people hate tank controls, others don't mind them. Sometimes, a game can be objectively strong, but a reviewer can find it subjectively bad (as I did with Star Fox Adventures ). Other times, a game can make up

I don't want any more sad things to happen! I hate suffering! That means we need to destroy the mist, that will stop the suffering! Contrary to popular belief, there were RPGs developed by companies other than Square or Enix. Hey, remember when they were separate companies? Or when they weren't owned by EA? They really made some outstanding games back then. I'm going to cover quite a few of those games in the 10's, but this week we're going to take a look at another RPG, one of only a handful of games ever developed by Contrail and Prokion. The small, internal studio within Sony didn't last very long or produce very much. However, it was responsible for producing what I consider to be one of the most underrated, underappreciated, misunderstood games of all time: Legend of Legaia. Legend of Legaia received somewhat middling reviews in its day, and in some respects I can understand why. It has a relatively simplistic plot, at least on its surface, and some of the

  Sometimes, I just don't get it. Honestly, I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I think it kind of makes me more understanding when it comes to different gaming opinions. I try to do my best to see things from other people's perspective and I feel like I usually do a pretty good job. I would never focus entirely on one single game genre, but I understand why people do. I love RPGs, but I totally understand why some people don't. Speed runs don't interest me, but I do see why people find them fascinating and what they bring to the gaming community as a whole. But to this day, I don't understand the effusive, almost hyperbolic level of praise that Treasure games receive. For those that don't know, Treasure is a Japanese developer known for its unique game design philosophy and focus on high quality. They were something of, what we would consider today, an indie developer that initially made games exclusively for Sega before branching out. It'

  This week's entry is going to have a little bit of everything: a "Was it Really" post, a game review and some general thoughts. It's like all the different stuff I do rolled into one nice, neat package. One of the topics I wanted to cover more since I started GOTBP is the competing narratives surrounding certain games. I touched on this a little bit with my Legend of Dragoon review, as that game was considered somewhat underwhelming when it came out but is now lauded as a classic. I find that such revisionist history is common in gaming, for better or for worse. Of course, it cuts both ways. It's become fashionable to bash classic games, call them dated, say they were never that great, etc., etc. Final Fantasy VII, Goldeneye and Halo are a few that spring to mind as favorite targets for this. Some of the more recent criticism is justified, some of it is ridiculous, but all of it leads to a disparate narrative about those games and their brethren. But for now,

  It really is amazing how video game series' come and go. On one hand, you have the IPs that cross multiple gaming generations, your Marios , your Final Fantasys , your Sonics , etc. On the other, you have weird, obscure one-off titles like Nano Breaker or Shadow Madness. Sometimes series' seem to drop off the map without warning, like F-Zero or Star Fox. But I'm not sure I've ever seen a series take as strange a path as that of Onimusha. These games were a huge deal in the 6th generation. It gave us four mainline titles, the first of which will be our subject today, as well as a tactics-style game. Onimusha: Warlords, was the first PlayStation 2 game to sell more than a million copies and was eventually ported to the original XBox. It came from a huge studio in Capcom and was designed by Keiji Inafune, a name all too familiar to Mega Man fans. The game actually began development as a 64DD title in the 90's, as the higher ups at Capcom reportedly wanted a Resi

  Last week, we discussed the plot, characters, etc. of Front Mission 3 , a tactical RPG for the PS1. While there was definitely a lot to like and tons of potential, localization issues and confusing dialogue ultimately prevented FM3 from excelling in those departments. That would have buried a traditional JRPG, but I've always believed those elements were less important to tactical RPGs where gameplay and combat is usually the biggest selling point. Fortunately, FM3 is largely successful in those areas, though it certainly has its flaws. First and foremost, the combat is pretty solid. Anyone who's played Final Fantasy Tactics or any of its ilk will know exactly what to expect. Each battle arena is laid out on a grid, with your unit's stats and Action Points (AP) determining how far your characters can move and what actions they can take. Of course, none of these arenas are flat, so you will have to contend with varied heights and obstructions, which cost more AP to navigat

I'm not sure if you've heard, but there are a lot of really good RPGs on the PS1. A lot of consoles have become known for specific genres over the years. The NES is filled with 2D platformers, the Genesis is known for its sports games, the modern consoles are known for FPS', on and on, etc. etc. But few systems are as synonymous with a specific genre as the original PlayStation is with RPGs. I kind of understand this and kind of don't. Sure, the PlayStation had tons of RPGs. It also had tons of literally every other kind of game because its library is so large. However, it was certainly more RPG focused than its contemporaries, the Saturn didn't have nearly as many (though a lot of the RPGs that did land on the console are excellent) and you could probably count the Nintendo 64 RPGs on one hand. A lot of it had to do with the fact that most of the "big name" RPG franchises made their home on the PS1, with Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest being the most not