On a quest to save the world...on another quest to, oh save the world

JRPGs, one of the most straightforward genres of games that many argue to be boring and mostly uninspired. Yes a lot of them involve saving the world, always some kind of evil bad-guy menace whom your main character more likely than not has a personal vendetta against. The games tend to be rife with cliches and such, so what is it that is so appealing about them? I can't speak for everyone but one big attraction for myself has always been the number crunching side of it. That doesn't sound too glorious on it's own right? When it comes down to it though, the levels, mix-matching of skills, finding comboes, or infinite possiblities offered in some games is an appeal to me. Also art direction/character design holds a huge sway as well, and finally the spin of a game is massive.

If a given game has a solid skill system or character growth system we find ourselves hooked on the game for the sake of advancing our characters and seeing just what the hell is possible. Will we really be able to make Jake some badass sword-saint? Can Jessie really pull off being that slutty-whore of a witch that we want in skimpy robes so bad? Maybe it's just me, but on some level our minds always want to sculpt a character into our idea of a great adventurer for a given story if we were in the specific situation. This point rather applies to all games though.

JRPGs always have presentation/art as a huge selling point. If you're down with anime generally then you're right at home. The vast majority of Shin Megami Tensei games won me over immediately due to Kaneko Kazuma's astounding artwork and absolutely grim storytelling. Whether it was me reshaping the world how I saw fit (I joined Lucifer to oppose The Almighty.... he had REALLY cool treasures...) or being a rebellious combat AI program that in turn sacrifices everything to save the world, the stories have been something that were slightly generic yet had it's own twist that makes it unique. Actually who am I kidding, Nocturne and DDS were for the most part pretty non-generic stories but they are special cases. The unique spin on those games and character dynamics were solid, but lets go examine something more obvious. What the hell made Dragon Quest VIII so goddamn awesome.

I loved Dragon Quest VIII, I will admit I never played the previous iterations on PS or whatever other forms they were in. First off, the cel-shading in the game was love at first sight. I love cel-shading, I personally think my Wii should utilize more cel-shading to have more of an artsy approach rather than trying really hard to prove itself. Artistic spin > LIFE LIKE DETAIL HIGH RESOOOOO. I am a fan of turn based combat, it takes all kinds, and I like the classic battle interface that is present in the game. Character customization was there, you build your character to have a weapon preference and then learn moves for the given weapon. Character personalities and stories are a little cookie-cutter but the voice acting was solid and it played out like a generic fairy tale with a lot of soul. It's that summer blockbuster that you see, you admit was cheesy as hell, yet you have to admit you loved every bit of it. My affection for JRPGs can be similar to my appreciation for the amazing genre that is Drum 'n' Bass. Example (fuckin right Dieselboy, this track is sick live):



Drum 'n' Bass to a lot of people all sounds the same, JRPGs for the most part from afar look all the same: "Cutesy anime characters (or ridiculously over-emasculated ones....or emo) running around on a quest to *insert noble cause*". Once one starts to dive beneath the surface of one though minute details are picked up, a real sense of individuality for the particular game can be found in it's setting, presentation, and characters. As a poor bastard that has played his fair share of overly generic JRPGs (Atelier Iris, Final Fantasy, Star Ocean, Tales, Chrono) to ones that have a lot more of an "artsy" or "unique angle " to them (SMT:Nocturne, SMT:DDS, Valkyrie Profile, Xenogears) and I have honestly enjoyed and found worthwhile things in each of the games. Even ones that I played and didn't enjoy I still found positive things about them. I find it interesting that my disinterest in some games of this genre can be totally irrational and not make sense yet it exists. While my dislike of FF X is quite obvious in the bad VAing and utter loathing of the art direction of the game and characters in it (everything in that game just seemed so gaudy to me) but my lack of appreciation for the Xenosaga line of games is harder to put my finger on.

I own two of the games, hell I preordered the third to get the artbook, I think one of the biggest faults I had with the series is that the creators tried to create a story that is far in the past of the story of Xenogears. In doing this they created characters that are direct copies from the previous project I guess intended to be a nod to fans but came off as corny to myself. I don't want to see Vanderkaum of Citan's practical clone "Jin", the throwing around of Citan's surname Uzuki as a "hey fans remember this". Then for good measure lets throw in some Nietzsche to make the story profound, I mean in Xenogears it fit rather well with the whole schizophrenic etc. but it felt so forced in Xenosaga. I feel like I would have actually really enjoyed the games if they had no attempted links to the original incarnation on PS. I mean the story they have is rather detailed and well thought out, the characters work well together but what kills it for me is some of the forced symbolism/terms. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if it had had no voice acting, because half of the voice acting in the games are really well done (the previously posted clip with KOS-MOS outside the spaceship is so great) but other parts just had me wanting to tear my hair out (FF X syndrome). Finally, I said I am a huge fan of the art direction of a game and a lot of the character designs in Xenosaga I can't dig at all. I liked the mecha designs, as well as the ship designs, Iggy was cool but then some of the outfits and fusion of realistic/anime threw me. So to sum it up I just buy into them, maybe some day in the future when I try to replay them it'll click but right now the associations they throw into them with the previous generation's title just kills it for me. I respect the games, I know plenty of people who like them and there is a lot to like, but aspects of the games just slay me. I can see this similar to seeing a movie that is based on a book and finding the movie lackluster, or too flawed for your taste while a friend of mine may have liked it having not read the book and taking the movie on it's own merits (not having expectations). To be fair, it is dangerous territory when working on spiritual successors to a game that shaped my early video game appreciation many years after the fact (so my nostalgic memories are skewed to be even better than they probably were).


Brazilian Girls at 930 Club in just over a week YUSSSS!!
Ladytron I want to see you again >_<