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June 10, 2008

Smooth move, Japan.

For those of you who weren't paying too much attention to the conference that Microsoft recently held in Japan...

They held one?

It showcased several (j)RPGs:

  • Tales of Vesperia. I made a post a while back about this, and Tales games are pretty much the only JRPGs I bother playing. Sadly, it looks like I may not get much of a chance to play this one.
  • Star Ocean: Last Hope. Star Ocean is an alright series. Not the best, not the worst. I played through the first one during a summer stint at a cousin's house, long ago. Good? Bad? Who knows. Generic? Probably.
  • Infinite Undiscovery. I saw a trailer on this several months ago. It looked interesting. The entire "lets sneak around and avoid ogres, and then run away" concept doesn't appeal to me in the least, however. It's a cool idea, but it looks really gimmicky in its execution *cough wii cough*.
  • Last Remnant. The small information page on IGN makes it look like some kind of Japanese version of Viking: Battle for Asgard. Doesn't look that interesting. Haven't seen the trailer they've supposedly released, but I suppose it could play out well.
So we have a healthy lineup of Japanese RPGs heading out (mostly) at the end of the summer. Tales of Vesperia hits on August 9th, 2008. Several days before Madden 09 (I think) and 10 days before Too Human. That raises the question: Do I plop $60 for a new Tales game only a week and a half before Too Human, the game I've been looking forward to for over 3 years, comes out? Will I be able to enjoy it all by then? Will I have enough goddamn money?

The answer is, regrettably, no. I will probably not end up getting this game, or any of the other ones mentioned in my nice bullet list. I'm interested to see SquareSoft's new IP's, sure, even if I do hate the company; but nothing will stand in the way of my enjoyment of the games we all know we'll be playing instead: Too Human, Gears of War 1.75, Fable 2, and Fallout 3.

I have respect (not much) for the jRPG genre, but I still don't think that Asian developers have anywhere near the production values that Westerners do, with the exception of very few games such as Metal Gear Solid 4, Ninja Gaiden 2, or any well-respected fighting series (Street Fighter, DBZ, DOA, Virtua Fighter, etc.).

And I have to ask: great, you're making 4 new games, but...

Where the hell is the diversity?

(Hit the title for an IGN LiveBlog)

4 comments:

Tha Pirateninja said...

Of course they aren't going to help us out, but when I found about about Star Ocean last night it surprised me. If you want horrible JRPG's, buy a triple. I'll probably buy Tales.

Megasha said...

Dam, well that some good news for hardcore RPG fans on the 360.

Jayge said...

God damnit, Justin.

Not necessarily hardcore RPG fans in general, Shaman. Hardcore Japan fans, yes. Although I'll sorely miss playing the Tales game. I'll probably cave and buy it anyway.

Anonymous said...

Meh.

Good for you guys.