My Opinion Surrounding The Charms Of Golden Age JRPGs

A few weeks back Ilauded Vagrant Story for itsambiance and storytelling. This week, I’m here to deconstruct that praise by presenting you, the reader, with what I hope is a mostly intelligible rant aimed at some of the major gripes that I have with the game.

Admittedly, the complaints I have with Vagrant Story are largely rooted in how comparatively old the game is. Released back in 2000 for the PS1, Vagrant Story is a product of its time in many ways, and reflects a period when the video game industry was enveloped in a social movement of sorts which encouraged experimental game design, especially in RPGs and their ilk.

They Say The Classics Never Go Out Of Style, But They Do, They Do

Recently I’ve become engulfed by what I would classify as a desire to consume all manner of “golden age JRPGs”. This era, which I consider to have begun during the SNES’ heyday and to have reached full swing during the PS1’s lifecycle, was notable for the enormous amount of diverse, excellent RPGs developed by Japanese development studios.

Many of these exceptional titles presented varied combat mechanics, aesthetics, and/or subject matter. Vagrant Story is no different. Unfortunately, it also shares many issues which plagued games of this golden age, such as convoluted gameplay mechanics and cumbersome UI. In particular, I’d like to address how the game handles its combat.

Pump The Breaks

Combat in Vagrant Story is largely handled in real-time. This is to say that you engage enemies, position yourself actively in the game’s environments and attack as regularly as you like, without restriction. Once you do, you are given the option of chaining your initial attack to additional attack types. Each attack type offers additional bonuses, such as casting silence on the enemy, gaining HP or MP, etc. The intention is for the player to chain an optimal combo against an enemy, providing the player with additional resources while dealing direct damage to said enemy.

When fighting an enemy in Vagrant Story, I’m often reminded of tug-of-war, where the goal is to consistently gain ground on your enemy through the manipulation of momentum. “Momentum” is itself acquired by equipping the right weapon, with the right element, and the right affinity against the particular enemy you are fighting.

In managing to properly prepare for each and every fight (of which there are literally thousands over the course of the game), the player is rewarded with a relatively brief enemy encounter. Oftentimes, a single combo can kill even bosses, assuming that you’ve done enough planning to ensure that your weapon is optimally built to manage this foe. Oftentimes, it is not. Failure to plan effectively usually leads to swift defeat or a long-winded encounter in which the player deals almost literally no damage to the enemy they are fighting.

Usual encounters for me break down to analyzing a foe, equipping the right weapon and accessory, enhancing my weapon’s elemental affinity, and then equipping the right attack chain. Once all of these steps are completed (which takes roughly 30 seconds or so), I begin the actual fight, which occasionally doesn’t last more than 10 seconds.

I’m all for planning, but the ratio of preparation to actual combat is slightly discouraging. Moreover, the game often pairs the player up against several different types of enemies, each of radically different weaknesses. It’s enough to make me want to stop playing at times, though I’ve managed to persist to about 15 or so hours into the game so far (having played through about 60% of the game’s map).

Final Thoughts

Vagrant Story is trying in all the right ways thankfully: its art direction, storytelling and design is mostly beautiful, and manages to sell the otherwise sluggish combat. Interestingly and to its credit, every fight manages to give off the impression of an actual fight in many ways, and I often feel as though there is a very strong correlation between the effort I put in to pre-fight planning and the outcome of that skirmish. With all that in mind, I actively find myself wishing that the heaps of innovation didn’t have to come with such a large amount of convoluted mechanics.

What do you think about RPGs from 10-15 years ago? 

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The Dungeon Delver

This week I've been hacking away at another early access game that goes by the name of Delver. Delver is a first person dungeon crawler with randomized dungeons and retro style graphics; it is definitely worth your attention.

The goal of Delver is the definition of simple: get in, get the treasure and get the fuck out. The meat of the game however lies in the dungeons themselves—between the enemies, traps, twists and turns, and the randomly generated maps combined with the permadeath feature, the game is always pretty interesting and challenging. It also has a wide variety of weapons, potions and gear for you to horde and collect with a cornucopia of enemies to keep you interested and on your toes. The overall look and feel of the game reminds me of a medieval doom with cleaned up and wacky sprites and it really has that old school PC gaming feel that I'd put right up there with the original Wolfenstein.

One of the coolest draws to the game is the mod support, which is really awesome. It allows you to create your own items, textures and even enemies which allows for some really interesting and cool community mods that are definitely worth looking into. If you're the artistic type, you can look into creating your own too.

Delver has a lot of trial and error, which you'll end up taking full advantage of due to the permadeath. The fast paced nature of the gameplay is challenging but makes it fun and forces you to think out certain actions and situations to protect your progress and levels so far. The game itself is easily worth the 8 dollar price tag and with the randomly generated maps the game has a lot of replay value to hold your attention.

I will admit that the game could use more content but that is backed up with mod support and the community. That being said however, it’s no excuse for a lack of content that isn’t community created but like I said before the game is still in beta and it’s only an early access copy. Delver is definitely a game to throw on your wishlist and keep tabs on because the official release is certainly something to keep an eye on. In my opinion Delver isn’t game of the year material but it's definitely worth pumping a few hours into now and then and worth every penny.

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An HD Coat of Paint‏

Last week, I talked about the new Oddworld remake that just came out. Of course, this is a PS1 remake, so the developer—Just Add Water—waited long enough and really re-made the game: new graphics, animations and voiceovers.

Last generation, we experienced a similar thing, where PS2 games were remastered for the PS3. Upscaled graphics, and more importantly, an HD, 16:9 presentation made the purchase worth it. Games like Kingdom Hearts were actually built almost from the ground-up, and many seemed to have included a couple of games all in one package (Jak & Daxter, God of War, Final Fantasy X/X-2). The value is there for me since going from 4:3 to widescreen looked great, especially with new or upscaled graphics. Seriously, try playing your PS2 games now: they really don’t look that great anymore.

A nice article on Kotaku made me think: are we going to see the same trend on PS4? The Last of Us got a remastered edition. The PS4 edition was thoroughly improved with updates such as higher resolution and better framerates. But in the end, is it worth it? Maybe so, for someone who has not yet played the game. I myself wouldn’t mind returning to the game as it was easily my favorite game of 2013. With that in mind, the game was barely made 1 year ago. Moreover, I don’t think jumping from 720p to 1080p is much greater than the move from 480p to 720p. Maybe it would be if I had a 50”+ television, but the original PS3 game looked great on my 40” 1080p screen.

Anyway, I digress. My real point is: will The Last of Us open the floodgates for remastered last-gen games? I feel like it will, and I’m very indifferent about it. On one hand, some games may play much better given the better hardware; but on the other hand, I bet some developers will put a half-assed effort into re-releasing games that are barely 1 year old.

GTA V

Naughty Dog has clearly put a lot of effort into remastering The Last of Us for the new architecture, but in the end, consumers don’t really care and just assume it was easy to just port a game. Regardless, I feel that successful franchises should make use of the beefier hardware and port older games to acclimatize themselves to the new consoles’ architectures. It’d be a great learning tool and a better chance at making their following games better and faster.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if The Last of Us: Remastered and GTA V are big successes just like they were last year.

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My Most Anticipated PS4 Games This Fall

The upcoming holiday season seemed to have a ton of high profile games to be released. I was super hyped for The Order 1886 because of its exclusivity and phenomenal graphics. I had similar interest in Batman: Arkham Knight and The Witcher 3, but all 3 games have since been delayed until 2015. 

You might be asking yourself what even remains? Well fortunately there is still a plethora of games on my radar! These are my top 5 most anticipated games for the 2014 holiday season:

5. Assassin's Creed Unity

Some of you may be surprised that this game has made my list, mainly due to the fact that I never really sunk much time into any of the other games in the series...at least that is until AC Black Flag came out. Hailed as one of the best AC games, it's hard not to like Black Flag—especially for me since I have an unconditional love for pirates.

Unity is set during the French Revolution, and along with having its usual single-player affair, it will also include co-op for up to 4 players. Not every mission will be accessible through multiplayer, but a good amount of them should be. The combat system is also supposed to have been reworked a bit, taking a larger influence from fencing (which is cool because I used to fence). But who are they kidding: how much does Ubisoft ever really change the combat in AC games?

4. Far Cry 4

God damn it Ubisoft, you and your massive open-world games. I never played Far Cry 3, but damn if Blood Dragon (along with the second Far Cry) weren't amazing. The main reason for me being intrigued by Far Cry 4 is its change in setting. Ubisoft have opted for the Himalayas this time around instead of their usual jungle-themed maps. Because of the newly acquired verticality in the map they have added a grappling hook to the player's repertoire along with re-introducing the squirrel suit; I think this is really going to mess with the gameplay.

On top of this, Ubisoft even announced at E3 this year that Far Cry 4 (at least on the PS4) will incorporate an online 2-player co-op in which one of the users doesn't even need to own the game. I almost feel like this is impossible haha; it certainly is unprecedented—Mario Kart on the 3DS was able to achieve this locally only, not online.

3. Lords of the Fallen

A game many of you might not even know about, Lords of the Fallen creeped in during E3 and is getting shown off a bit more at the San Diego Comic-con, which is taking place as I write this. It's a hard-as-balls action-RPG that sort of looks like a cross between Demon's souls and this obscure PS3 game called Viking: Battle for Asgard. If you look at a video the combat appears to be bit sluggish, but not in a bad way, these are some burley dudes.

Lords of the Fallen is being developed by this German Studio Deck13 interactive. And though they have developed a number of games, I have never heard of any of them. This looks like it might be their biggest endeavor yet, and it does look quite good, so let's hope they can pull it off so we see more from them in the future. The only reason I placed this game higher than both Ubisoft titles is because it's new and interesting. I just hope it lives up to what my opinion of it already is.

2. Guilty Gear Xrd

I have talked about Guilty Gear Xrd many times before so it is no surprise that it is on my list. It's been many years since we received a Guilty Gear game—sure we got BlazBlue, but it just isn't the same—and I for one am glad they are returning to it. My only hope is that it doesn't get delayed till next year. As it stands right now, the game is expected to launch this year on PS3 and PS4 but has yet to receive a concrete release date. Cross your fingers folks!

1. Destiny

What do you get when you mix Borderlands with Halo? You get Destiny. Prior to this moment, I really hadn't put much stock into Destiny. I don't know why. I was never a big Halo fan. The series was fun, don't get me wrong. I just felt like the story was the same rehashed thing over and over again, and unlike the AC series who at least changed the setting up every time, Halo just always appeared the same.

This past week saw the Beta for Destiny open up to all who had the time to play. I didn't get a chance to try it out, but I know Brandon tried the Alpha a little while ago and really enjoyed himself. Because of the Beta there has been so much media coverage for Destiny and all of it looks quite amazing. I can hardly wait the 40 some odd days it will take to release. Not to mention one of my favorite genres is sci-fi and the fact that this game is rooted in our own solar system really helps ground the lore into something I can get behind.

Final Thoughts

So that's my list, adjusted for the delays. I'm sure I made a grave error by omitting your favourite game, so what did I miss? What is your most anticipated game for the holiday season? 

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Why Disney Infinity Is Crack (In The Best Of Ways)

Want to build a snowman? Perhaps you want to release the Kraken? Maybe your dream was to create your very own Halloween townas you gazed upon the spiral hill in the distance? If any of these sound appealing to your Disney-oriented mind then Disney Infinity is the game for you! Likewise, "be prepared" to spend a pretty penny.

A couple of months ago, my gal got the Disney Infinity starter pack for her 360. In case you weren't aware of what the starter pack consists of, it basically hands you the game disc, the game base (which is where you house your figures to play), as well as three starter figures. We sat ourselves down and played through the incredible introductory level. That's all it took for me to go out in the world and spend two-hundred dollars on figures and power disks within the first week. Yes, you read correctly, I threw some big bucks to expand a Disney game. A twenty-five year old man, buying an Elsaand Jack Skellington is not as embarrassing as you think. I'm a '90s kid, I cried through Lion King in theaters when Mufasa died (ermagawd Spoilers). I love Disney and the Disney corporation knows that. Insert their flawless business marketing here. Much like their ingenious "Disney Vault" concept for their animated movies, they have a similar concept for this game. As previously stated, they give you three starter figures with the appropriate world to play with. However, if you want to play multiplayer within the story mode, you can only do so with characters of the same world. For example, Jack Sparrow is one of the beginner characters, therefore, a small trip to a nearby store and 12.99$ later, we returned home with Davy Jones. As a result, madness ensued on the raging seas upon the Black Pearl. Dear Zeus, this game is fun.

Likewise, they also have the concept of power disks which are character upgrades based on a ridiculous number of classic and modern Disney movies. You want to ride around on Angus from Brave? Maybe you want Mickey to use Stitch's blaster? Then pump yourself up and buy a butt-load of blind bagged power disk packs. With three series that cover most of the Disney classics, it's a bit ridiculous but oh so fun. The problem is that the bags only contain two disks each and I'm at the point where we constantly get doubles. There are chase clear orange and red disks that are "rare", but I've gotten three of those rare Dumbo disks. I really hate Dumbo, this hasn't helped. Stupid elephant, thank Ares that Tantor (the cooler Disney elephant) is a power disk.

I probably haven't said enough to convince you as to why I think this is one of the best games I've ever played despite how pricey it is. Let me break it down for you my would-be Disney-lovers. Options, the game's key feature is that there's so much you may do. There's a mode that allows you to play a pretty decent story for certain movies such as: Pirates of the Caribbean, Monster's University, The Incredibles, Toy Story in space, Cars, etc. Additionally, it has the Toy Boxoption, which allows you to create your very own world with an incredibly huge and detailed world-builder system. In this mode, you may roam around with characters who don't have a world in Disney Infinity yet—characters such as Vaneloppe from Wreck-it Ralph and even Sorcerer Mickey from Fantasia.  Power disks further allow you to customize the world with textures and skydomes from those same movies. Furthermore, you can download fan made worlds for free. A lot of these are absolutely great as well as challenging. My gal and I have spent hours designing our perfect Disney world. In her mind, everything needs to be Sugar Rush themed while I keep trying to dump Halloween Town rejects across the world. The exciting thing is that there's so much more that they can do with this game. It's got a great feel, plays excellently, offers a variety of options and has incredible attention to detail. I can't count the amount of moments we've spent daydreaming about future playset releases and characters. There's a serious lack of classic playable characters and I've got the feeling that they're waiting for the perfect moment to unleash them. I'm sure they've got Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Alladin, Herculesand Lion King in the works. They could even supplement their already released characters with more, such as an Oogie Boogie and Sally for Jack.

With their announcement of Disney Infinity 2.0, it's hard not to be excited about all the new improvements. Level cap raised, skill trees for all the characters, Marvel themed aspects, oh boy, it's going to be an expensive next few years. Whoever dreamed of having Iron Man tag team with Lightning Mcqueen? No one and that's why it's amazing. It's a dream scenario that you never realized you wanted. So far, they've announced the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxyand Spider-Man. I hope they squeeze in the X-Men and perhaps some more obscure characters. Okay, forgive me but I've got to go build a magma surrounded Disney castle with turrets and candy cane trees. Fare thee well Disneyfans, feel free to sound off on what characters YOU would wish could make it into the Disney Infinity roster.

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Surviving The Forest

Have you ever wanted to play Minecraft but found it wasn't terrifying enough? Well look no further because The Forest is just that! Now as I said last week, because of the glory that is the Steam sale I've recently acquired a lot of early access games I've had my eye on, one of which was The Forest.

The Forest is an open world survival horror game where the main baddies are a tribe of savage albino cannibals who would like nothing more than to eat a delicious slice of Long Pig—which while we're on the topic is the nickname I gave the main character. Now the game's story is pretty simple: you're traveling on a plane with what appears to be your son, but due to some unknown circumstances, it rips in half and crashes in the middle of a forest. You wake up in the flaming tail end long enough to see your "son" getting carted off by this weird albino native before you slip back into unconsciousness, you wake up again shortly after and that's where the game begins.

The game itself is a lot of fun and it has a ton of cool mechanics that help your overall survival while not being tedious or boring and without dulling down the gameplay. The Forest has a lot in common with Minecraft and Don't Starve; you spend a lot of your time foraging and collecting supplies to eat, make weapons, and to build your shelter. A lot of the early game is spent collecting things and exploring, while also trying to stay hidden from the packs of albinos who patrol the forest looking for food, which is you. The stealth aspect of the game is really fun too and reminiscent of the Amnesia titles.

In the same vein as Don't Starve and Minecraft, your goal is survival and the game doesn't make it easy on you. Between the weather affecting your stamina and well-being, the constant need to forage and hunt for food while balancing out the creation of your shelter and eventual base, then throw in the occasional cannibal pack attacking you, the game becomes pretty difficult. It also has a similar crafting system to the aforementioned games, utilizing whatever you can find to create makeshift weapons and even explosives.

The natives themselves are really well-designed; they're this perfect mix of creepy and unsettling but at the same time, you're always in such close proximity you learn a lot about them, like how to avoid them, their routines and once you find the village you can see their goings-on. The weird part is once you've fought enough of them you can take their bodies and create these weird burning effigies to ward off others. The reason I find it weird is that you have to chop up the corpses to do so, so do they find you frightening or are they just accepting you as one of their own?

Now as I said before this is an early access game and it's still in its alpha phase, so it's nowhere near the finished product but all that said, the game is still a lot of fun. I find myself constantly establishing goals like building a base and then creating gardens for renewable food, going and setting up traps to catch even more food and so on and so forth and it really instills a sense of accomplishment as you fulfill them.

I'll be the first to admit I'm a little biased when it comes to most survival games as when I was a kid I loved the genre of survival books like Hatchet and Brian's Winter along with shows like Survivorman, so this game was right in my wheelhouse. Saying that, I think this is gonna be a game that's definitely worth looking into but with that being said the game itself in its current state is pretty glitchy. On the other hand, it's being regularly updated and through an interesting ticker on the main screen you'll always be aware of when the newest patch will be ready. If you like the survival horror or just a good open world game, The Forest is worth a look and at the current price, there's no reason not to.

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Oddworld: Something New 'n' Tasty‏

A game I’ve always taken for granted was Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee. Released in 1997, I was weirded out by the cover art and ignored it like the rest of my friends (back then I had to judge games by their covers since I never checked reviews). What really piqued my interest in the game recently was YouTube user Caddicarus and his video on this game.

Basically, I loved his passion for the series, so I decided to check it out. Oh yeah, it was free on PlayStation Plus, which was a plus. Since it was free.

In total, I only played a couple of hours, but wow was it great. What I loved was its great visuals and creativity. It’s a 2D platformer, with static, pre-rendered backgrounds. Pre-rendered graphics aren’t anything new, but the cutscenes were really well done and I didn’t feel like it had shown much age. I loved the voice acting since it had its funny moments despite feeling a bit grim overall.

It set a darker tone in many ways, which makes me feel that this game was mature for its time (no wonder I was weirded out as a kid). The developer really wanted to stand out from the rest, starting with developing Abe as a character. Abe might be the weirdest-looking protagonist in any game I’ve played, but he has multiple redeeming qualities, like his charm and innocence. He’s kind of dumb, but you can’t help but feel bad for him.

What really set this game apart from the rest was “GameSpeak”. Basically, Abe is a Mudokon who is trying to rescue other Mudokons from their oppressors the Glukkons, who use the Mudokons for slave labor.

You rescue Mudokons by guiding them using GameSpeak: a set of commands allowing you to tell other Mudokons what to do, similar to Lemmings. This system is pretty intelligent and complicated. For its time I imagine it really wasn’t that complex, but seeing as how we’ve been babied so much nowadays, GameSpeak can become a pain if you forget which button does what or if you don’t time your commands properly. There’s even a GameSpeak option in the main menu, which I would assume serves as practice.

Unfortunately, I never went back to the game, but my few hours with the game were memorable. More importantly, Abe’s Oddysee is getting an HD remake titled Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty! and I feel like this is the perfect opportunity for me to properly re-acquaint myself with the series, and give it the love I think it deserves.

At the time of writing this post I haven’t yet played the HD remake, so I’m not sure if it will have the same qualities as the original, but I can safely say that the charm of Abe and the creative gameplay will remain and shine through.

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Binging Media: Go Big Or Go Home

I've been playing a lot of Final Fantasy VIII recently, and I've come to the realization that I tend to binge the entertainment that I consume—whether that happens to be the games that I play, books I read or TV shows I watch. I have a bit of an addictive personality and once I start something it's a bit hard to stop...

...Which is funny because if I miss a beat at any point, I actually find it very difficult to get back into something. Take The Sopranos for instance: amazing show, heralded by many, and the 3 seasons or so that I did watch were very enjoyable. But I had taken a break from the show, for a reason that happens to escape me at the moment, and as it stands I don't have any inclinations to finish up the series.

The same thing can easily happen to me right now with Final Fantasy VIII. I think this is the 4th time that I've restarted this game over the last 15 years. I've never gotten past the second disc and I currently stand on par with the furthest I've ever gotten in the game.

Benefits?

I'm not really 100% sure if binging is a good or bad thing but, at least in regards to RPGs, it has one large benefit: an unabridged story. The biggest culprit for not continuing an RPG has to be taking a break in the middle of a mission and then having no clue what you were doing when you start the game back up again. I couldn't even count how many times this has happened to me and my friends over the years. Thank the devs that started integrating logs into games; being able to keep track of progress is amazing.

Now binging a 40-hour RPG is one thing—even if I played 4 hours a day it would still take over a week to beat—but what about a shooter? Typically a shooter—like Wolfenstein or Killzone—only lasts around 8-12 hours, if I were to binge that it would be over in a couple days, almost leaving me feel a bit wasteful because I didn't relish the little bit of gameplay it offered. Not to mention if I bought it on day one, dropping $70 on it and then just beat it in 3 days...not the best feeling.

Final Thoughts

Along with Final Fantasy VIII, I'm also currently binging The X-Files, which is amazing I tell you! My love for the X-Files aside, swapping back and forth between the two actually works out pretty well; even if I get a little bored with one, I can just switch every other day and continue.

I'm curious about all of you, how do you consume media? Do you take the more methodical approach, take your time, savor the moment, or, do you try to consume as much as possible in an attempt to stave off your impending boredom? Let me know!

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Persona Q: Looking Back At My Memories Of The Persona Series

I am incredibly stoked for upcoming dungeon crawler Persona Q: Shadow of Labyrinth a 3DS exclusive released on June 5th 2014 in Japan, and coming out in North America on November 25th 2014 as well as in Europe on November 28th 2014. It may appear outwardly as another JRPG to some, but I have a great deal of respect for the often innovative gameplay additions brought to the Shin Megami Tensei series, of which Persona belongs to.

However, given that Persona Q itself has yet to be released, I figured I would explore my time with Persona 3, which represented a radical change from previous Persona titles, and which captivated me for all of its 100 hours of gameplay.

Three’s A Crowd

My time with Persona 3 was long-winded, yet enjoyable overall. At its core, Persona 3 is a dungeon crawler, which means that the majority of the player’s time is spent aimlessly shuffling through long corridors, fighting enemies of varying forms, and then eventually beating a boss. This cycle livened by the occasional story bits which help motivate the player to continue the gameplay loop all over again. And as drab as this all sounds, I enjoyed a great deal of the time that I spent with Persona 3.

From the social links that the player formed with his classmates, to the rhythmic passing of the seasons, Persona 3’s very essence was shaped by repetition. Which I suppose is at the core of most any RPG; though Persona 3 seemed to wear this design troupe proudly, walking with just enough confidence and swagger to posture this repetition nicely.

That said, as with most RPGs, I ended up losing steam with Persona 3. I recall it being around the 80 hour mark. I simply could not force myself to play the game any longer. And so I quit. For 3 months. For whatever reason, I felt compelled to pick up the game for a second time, but instead of restarting, I was drawn to seeing the game through to its end.

Having been away from the game’s story for 3 months, I was doing myself very little favour by jumping back into Persona 3. But when I lost sight of who anyone was, and why they were all fighting the good fight, I began the simple act of allowing myself to become re-involved in the game’s repetition. And like a slipstream, the social links, changing seasons, and dungeon crawling, in their collective familiarity, glided me forward for the next 20 hours; at which point, having beat the final boss, I felt relief.  The cycle was broken, and I managed to finish the game while admiring the craftsmanship that went into shaping what made it a great video game, instead of what made it a great story.

Final Thoughts

And really, isn’t that why we play RPGs? Sure, the writing, localization (if applicable), voice work and storytelling are all important. And sure, I actually hold a well-written story in a video game in high regards. But I’ve also come to appreciate the beauty found in the careful and thoughtful repetition unique to RPGs. Does anyone else view RPGs in this manner, or do you typically prefer an RPG’s story to its gameplay?

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TBT - Space Kids, Their Dog And A Whole Lot Of Ants

I'm willing to bet that most of you knew what game this article would be talking about simply by reading the title. For those of you too young to know, read on to discover a gem lost in time.

In 1999, Rare released a game that would rock the N64's sense of distinctive games—a concept that has yet to be revisited since. That exceptional game was Jet Force Gemini. Looking back now, Jet Force Gemini was one of the most original games conceptually and I'm glad that it had received a fair amount of media coverage.

So what is Jet Force Gemini? The game initiates with a small cinematic that presents you the three protagonists. Juno, a young angry sort of child who's drinking space coffee, Vela, his blue-haired twin sister who doesn't seem to be doing much and lastly, their dog Lupus, who's sporting a trendy space suit with a blaster strapped to his back.  I know exactly what you're thinking: "What the shit?", but it gets better. So if two estranged kids and their gun wielding dog was not weird enough, their ship is attacked by eight-foot tall ants. Yes, giant, blue, gun trotting, ants.  Grammatically, that last phrase may have single handily killed the English language, but that's okay because we're talking about GIANT ALIEN ANTS. Take a moment to ponder on that. Breathe in the extremely awesome revelation I just handed to you on your computer monitor.  Somebody over at Rare paid attention to his strange childhood habit of stomping on ants and turned it into a video game, brilliant!

Furthermore, the game presented me with my earliest recollection of choice in terms of the character you play as, other than fighting games of course. It was your standard third person shooter with some platforming that rewarded you with an interesting storyline and hours of bug-blasting fun. You unlocked several different weapons such as your standard machine gun and the cluster bomb. You dealt with endless amounts of rehashed enemy types. You had your standard blue ant which was the equivalent of any typical grunt but the game covered all their bases in terms of enemies. The green ant was a sniper, red ants did something I can no longer recall, big purple beetles were your heavies and there were even zombie ants. Pause, say that with me.

Zombie......ants.....

In addition, your mission of being a three-man pesticide squad had the ultimate goal to eradicate Mizar, a big mother of a bug. Along the way, you made pit stops on different worlds to save some uncanny Ewok looking bear creatures. I do not recall what the incentive was when you saved these cuddly senseless creatures but I do know that I did not get them all. So there's your replay value right there, go find all the bloody Carebears who've gone into hiding. Nevertheless, it was fun and there was something refreshing about retrieving sentient beings opposed to a gold star or similar objects. That being said, let's sum up all the incredible features: responsive third-person gameplay, lots of guns and unlockables, decent storyline, '90s charm, Carebears, the dog equivalent to the T-800, world to world bug genocide and zombie ants. I realize that you gamers are pondering "Charlie, this sounds amazing, how can it get any better?". Well I'll tell you what makes this even better, Multiplayer!

That is right my friends, multiplayer is large and in charge. Growing up, my father never really gamed alongside me. When he purchased this game for me, he couldn't help but watch me play. It was so unique that he figured what the heck and decided to play the multiplayer. Let me tell you, it was a blast. The multiplayer was excellent because it really used the game's strength to its favor.  With an established responsive gameplay (the game felt good to play), the designers created large square MP terrains with different vertical fields. The level that comes to mind is the abandoned town. There's a series of buildings that you can climb to different levels to either escape, ambush, snipe and troll your opposing player. Not to mention that you can play as all the bloody bugs in the game. The green ant was my favorite while my father always picked the reddish beetle. I remember hours of carnage as we enacted this exo-skeletal civil war.

To summarize: kill the ants, become the ants, kill each other. In all honesty, it was an incredibly enjoyable game and truly endearing to me. My father never played any other game with me since then. If it attracted him to it then it is safe to say that there is something special about it and if you had the opportunity to play it then take the time to reminisce a bit. If you never had the chance to indulge yourself in this fictional world then just remember one thing:  zombie ants.

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Announceacle

So this week I don't so much have an article, I have more of an announcement and a battle plan for the upcoming weeks.

After the recent steam sale I've noticed I now own a large number of single player and early access games and it seems to me that there is no better time to start playing and streaming these games then now. You, the readers, can form your opinions on whether or not these games are worth picking up for yourselves through me, so as of this posting I will be streaming a lot more often and fairly regularly with the hopes of developing and strengthening a community built from the fanbase of this website. I feel like this is going to be an awesome way to get feedback from you all and a way for me to spend my time gaming more productively and to be more fun and entertaining for you guys. I also want to create some community events as well as online tournaments and other fun things like that in the future which I think can be a ton of fun.

I feel like this is a good jump-off point for me—as my time at work is gonna be a lot less, so I will have more time to devote to the site by streaming, writing and going back to the podcast. I also recommend, if you haven't all ready, to follow us on Twitter @GamerBasement. I’ll be using it to let you know when and what I'm streaming and it also updates regularly with site news and other things you should look out for.

I hope to see a lot of you in my Twitch chat www.twitch.tv/TheCampeau, also if there's anything you want to see me play tweet it to me @TheCampeau. Other than that I plan on my future articles being more tied in with the streams and the games I’m playing therein, so keep an eye out for that as well.

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InFamous: I've Seen the Light‏

I’ve generally avoided DLC since it always felt like a cash grab by companies, or as if the developer deliberately excluded a portion of their game to get more money from fans; I’m looking at you Street Fighter costumes and Call of Duty map packs.

Add-ons like the ones I’ve mentioned above really don’t do much to the core experience and truly serve as cash grabs. Even worse are avatars and wallpapers on PS3/PS4. When was the last time anyone paid for wallpapers on their computer? Why should I pay for something that is free on any computer anyway? But I digress.

I’m getting hyped up for InFamous: First Light. This is a great example of DLC done right. Like other great DLC of the past (Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, etc.), it’s its own story, so you’re getting something new from the developer. It expands on the universe of InFamous with a character I’ve been curious about, Fetch. She was basically an accomplice/love interest to the main protagonist, Delsin. While we touch base with her in Second Son, First Light will focus on her instead. I like how Sucker Punch is using InFamous to expand on the franchise similar to how comic book publishers expand with new characters. I feel as though InFamous already has a heavy influence from comic books/graphic novels anyway, so this would be a great way for Sucker Punch to progress this generation.

What’s also great is how it doesn’t require you to own Second Son. Seeing as how I only borrowed the game, I still have the option to buy First Light. No need to really explain how great Sucker Punch is for this. Here’s to hoping they make more games based on different characters in the same universe.

Side Note

Here’s a video on IGN that sparked this post:

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What Influences Creators?

Last week I talked about my enjoyment for the roundabout way that TombRaider and Uncharted both benefited from influencing each other. It really got me thinking about how games can share common influences. Sometimes this influence is obvious or even stated by the developers, as is the case with Tomb Raider and Uncharted. Other times people try to make comparisons that are valid but never thought about our even intended by the developers.

Dark worlds

A number of weeks ago Sean mentioned how similar the game he was currently playing, Vagrant Story, was to the Demon's and Dark Souls games. Both share disturbingly dark worlds with all manner of monstrosities to combat.

The way each game approaches combat is different, but the feeling is largely the same. Not necessarily one of hopelessness, but sort of this foreboding feeling that doom is around every corner.

The real question is: was Demon's/Dark souls actually influenced by Vagrant Story, or was this just a mere coincidence? I don't really know how well known Vagrant Story is. It was a pretty obscure game for Squaresoft to release and this was pre 2000. And considering it didn't have the words "Final Fantasy" in the title, many people could have easily skipped over it without a second thought.

Cold-Blooded

Taking some personal experience into account, I feel that a lot people put a little too much effort into seeing things that aren't actually there. Having worked on the most Canadian game in existence—Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves—so many people on the forum were like "Wow, this game remind me so much of (insert title here), did you know/do that on purpose?". As a developer (and an ex video game store lackey) I do know my fair share of game, but I don't know every game.

The one influence we had when making Sang-Froid was tower defense/strategy games. We didn't look into older games because we were dead set on making our own game the way we wanted it. The funniest game to come up was an old DOS game called The Horde. None of us on the team had ever even heard of the game before it was brought up in the forum. I have to admit though the similarities were pretty crazy.

Final thoughts

It's hard to tell what really influenced a group of developers when designing a game. You can make a guess, but unless you can read minds or they flat out tell you what it was, you're pretty much just blowing smoke out your ass.

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Incoming New Challenger

Hey basement gamers,

My name's Charlie and it looks like I'm the team's new rookie. I've been given the opportunity to write alongside these fellow game enthusiasts and hopefully I'll be half as entertaining.

So where to begin? I suppose the basics will do just fine. I'm nearly twenty-five and have lived in Montreal my entire life. I just recently graduated from Concordia University with a double major in English Literature and Classics (God of War fans brace yourselves, I'll be covering the franchise quite a bit) and currently combating with the fates for a half decent career.

Incidentally, being born in '89, I saw the emergence of the original NES. I feel like a bloody dinosaur. I remember gazing upon that Duck Hunt/Mario cartridge in awe. Here it was, presented to me in grey plastic glory, my first video game. Do you know what conclusion I came to after investing an hour or so into that cartridge? That I hated that nuisance of a dog. Subsequently, I began my quest to discover new pixelated adventures. Fast forward a few years, the SNES is released. Conversely, the NES was great, what with the golden Zeldacartridge and its Megaman "I die every 5 seconds" difficulty and what not, but holy Olympian gods did the Super Nintendo blow my mind. Especially in 1992 with the release of Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior. The moment I picked up the controller and mashed the buttons resulting in E. Honda's hundred-hand-slap, I knew I was in love with gaming. In '94, I was introduced to my very first video game crush, Cammy from SUPER Street Fighter 2. Interestingly enough, I still play as Cammy twenty or so years later.

You may have guessed it by now, but I'm an avid 2D fighter fan. Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, Marvel Vs Capcom, you name it. However, recently I've started exploring outside of my comfort zone. Not that I exclusively played 2D fighters but those were the games that I excelled in (I'm decent, I guess?) and devoted most of my time to play. In fact, I skipped three days of college upon Street Fighter 4's release just so I can get some serious online crunch time. Nevertheless, I still played all your classic game genres and big name games such as: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Resident Evil, Call of Duty, etc. Besides gaming, I'm also a huge Transformers geek. Now, when I say Transformers, I don't mean the Michael Bay cluster-f*ck of machinery, but the 1984 G1 cartoon and toys and onwards. I've got a pretty ridiculous collection of Transformers figures alongside a modest assortment of He-man, G.I. Joe and X-Men. I feel like I'm rambling on; am I rambling on? I need to stop.

Above all, you must all be wondering why am I here and what you can expect from me. Well, even though I've got a super academic mind, I tend to enjoy the simple things when it comes to gaming. All I want is to be entertained when I play a game. I have certain criteria that I follow when I play but I don't expect award winning gameplay or narratives. I'll enjoy a Dynasty Warriorsas much as I enjoy The Last of Us, it simply depends on if it properly executes what I need at that given moment. I'm also very fortunate to have an incredible girlfriend who enjoys gaming with me, so I'll have the opportunity to discuss the couch-based multiplayer of games who have that criteria. Lastly, I want to bring a distinct, genuine and fun opinion to compliment this extraordinary team. 'Kay, it's over, I swear.

Cheers!

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Asura's Wrath: A Toe To Toe Bromance

As I previously discussed, I think Asura’s Wrath is a great game. Developers CyberConnect2 and publisher Capcom carefully crafted a largely uncompromising brawler with a strong emphasis on story-telling and quick time events.

That said, I also felt as though co-protagonists Asura and Yasha shared a very strong, and at times distractingly silly, bromance with one another. And that got me thinking about how a bromance can be used to effectively illustrate an otherwise serious story through the lens of two men engaging in non-romantic affectional intimacy with one another.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

I’m currently playing through Asura’s Wrath’s fourth and final chapter right now. It is purchasable DLC named Nirvana, and it, like the three chapters which preceded it, is great fun. However, I found myself wondering increasingly why Yasha and Asura constantly find themselves with enough time on their hands to fight one another. Just to provide story context, both of these protagonists are currently friends and allies, and are working together to stop a looming threat which is attempting to erase human existence.

I suspect that whoever was responsible for writing the game’s script determined that the best way for Asura and Yasha to express themselves was through violence inflicted onto one another. Both characters represent two stoic emotional extremes, with Yasha being contemplative and depressed and Asura being superficial and angry. Neither is ever all that clear in stating that they respect the other, except for when they get into heated fights. 

In providing the player with a chance to control Asura and to fight Yasha, we are able to peek into the minds of each of these protagonists as they battle one another. We can view the differences in each demigod’s fighting style as rooted in their psychological makeup; and their inability to open up to one another is a nice contrast to how evenly-matched and on-point they are when fighting one another.

Or maybe Asura and Yasha fight each other because it makes for fun entertainment. Either way, the bromance between both characters is striking in how commonly it occurs, and distracting in its silliness.   

Final Thoughts

I’m curious to hear what others think about bromances in video games: do you feel that they can be an effective way for certain character archetypes to express themselves to one another, or do you see them as nothing more than distracting plot developments?

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TBT - Sprites: Yay Or Nay?

If you happen to listen to our podcast, you might have heard that Dodds has been playing Final Fantasy 7 recently, and by god it got me thinking about playing Final Fantasy 8. So that is exactly what I did. You would think a PS3 could do a better job at up-scaling, but alas it cannot, forcing me to subject my eyes to the horrible graphical prowess of a PS1 game.  And this is why I will always be a firm believer in stating that, for the PS1, sprites were the way to go. I have always loved 2D sprites; the art that goes into them is just phenomenal.

Now the PS1 and the N64 did well to thrust gaming into the three-dimensional world, but I for one felt it might have been a little too premature. The power just wasn't there and while gamers might not have known better at the time, it's hard for some games of the era to stand the test of time. Now of course I'm solely speaking graphically, since for the most part many of the games from this era are well crafted gems in terms of design and gameplay.

So many Super Nintendo games look breathtaking, and that's mainly due to the fact that well-done 2D art is amazing to look at. Bring that to the PS1 with the upgrade in power and the 2D sprites were just that much better. A good example of this is Secret of Mana and Legend of Mana. I can't even begin to imagine how Legend of Mana would have been like if it had been in 3D.

Fast-forward a little bit to the PS2 and we start seeing some solid 3D titles...Maybe not at the beginning, but surely by the end of the cycle some of the graphics getting pumped out were amazing. But again, although heavily outnumbered this time around the developers using 2D sprites shined through.

One of the most unique developers to have emerged from this era was Vanillaware. Embracing the second dimension they were able to bring us a product like Odin Sphere—featuring vibrant colours and crisp sprites, the game's just gorgeous eye-candy. Moving forward, Vanillaware continued developing 2D games. Dragon's Crown, the most recent of which, was released on the PS3 and Vita about a year ago and the HD sprites look even better!

This begs the question: What will happen to 2D games on the PS4 and Xbox One? I have no doubt that indie developers will continue to use the second dimension, but what about bigger studios? I'm sure you know one of my favourite fighting games is Guilty Gear. This series to date has stuck with the 2D art...at least until now. Developers Arc System Works are releasing Guilty Gear Xrd later this year on PS3/PS4 and will be dropping their hand drawn 2D art for 3D models...but to be honest, it's so well done you can hardly tell the difference until the camera moves. Have a look:

I love my 2D sprites and I hope that developers will continue to use them, but when you can have 3D cel-shaded graphics with that level of quality...well I just don't know what to think anymore. What say you?

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