[I wrote most of this post last year but it quickly became extremely weird ramblings resulting from several stages of insane mental leaps so I never showed it to the public. I am lacking the juice to write a new post this year so I decided to publish this over a year later.]
9S is cute
my choice of costumes didn’t help here
“So here’s a compiled review of I, Omega, and II before I start the main dish.”
— awesomecurry in Chaos Rings I + Omega + II Review, December 1, 2014
It’s obvious the era of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII has long past — what is often considered the golden age of JRPGs will never come back in the same form in the world of ever-evolving technology and expectations. Some will go so far to say that JRPGs have stagnated or are dead, and video game sales have reached an all-time low in Japan while the budget required to create a game that matches modern standards is only increasing.
Developed by Square Enix’s new brand Tokyo RPG Factory, promotional material hyped up Setsuna to be “what brings back JRPGs.”
Chaos Rings debuted on mobile devices and boasted impressive production values for its platform at the time. It spawned a prequel, an indirect sequel, and what seems to be a even more indirect third entry recently. I never played them because my phone sucked and was uncomfortable to play games on, but with the release of Chaos Rings III came a compilation of all four games for the Vita. Obviously I bought it for CRIII since that was the game that boasted the most content, but I decided to start from the first game and play in release order. So here’s a compiled review of I, Omega, and II before I start the main dish.
They’re developed by MediaVision, most notable for the Wild Arms series, and published by Square Enix.
When I played this game, I honestly wasn’t expecting much. I haven’t heard anything particularly good about the Star Ocean series, it doesn’t look very unique, and I found it for $8 during my trip to the USA. I gave it to my friend last Christmas because I completely forgot about the holiday and had no presents ready (Please don’t comment on my thoughtfulness in a gift, I receive plenty of complaints in that department in real life.), and I recently got it back to play because I had to go to China and knew I needed more things for my ADD self on the airplane ride. I went in thinking it’d be a mediocre game with overused plot, one-dimensional characters, and very dated combat. What I got was a fun game with overused plot, one-dimensional characters, and very dated combat that I somehow enjoyed. I don’t know what happened here, considering how I was much more indifferent about Grandia and Chrono Trigger, and I actually consider the latter to be a much more polished game (that actually stood against the test of time) than Star Ocean. I guess this is like one of those games that you inexplicably like, despite all its shortcomings.
Here it is, the game that everybody who call themselves an RPG fan and their cats have played, and loved by message boards across the internet. Chrono Trigger is known to be a classic, legendary RPG (at least across several message boards I’ve visited) that remains quality to this day. It’s pretty much considered a kami-ge, a memento from the wonderful 90’s before Square merged with Enix and started screwing things up and the game industry went downhill, etc. If we’re judging by the internet message forums that I’m visiting, then pretty much everything is going downhill and dying. Anyways, whenever there are threads about a specific genre dying, posters will always list old games that are supposedly much, much better than the crap that comes out today, and Chrono Trigger is one such game for the Eastern RPG genre. It’s a highly praised game from the 90’s that, unlike Final Fantasy VII, doesn’t suffer from much backlash at all. Also shockingly, despite having a blog that is at least 50% about RPGs, I haven’t played it until recently. After playing the game, I have to day that I just ain’t seeing the same magic that everyone else saw.
Oh yes, a port of THE original Final Fantasy, the game that put cash into Square’s pockets. The original NES version was released way before I was born, and the remakes thereafter either happened before I was born, or they happened before I started playing RPGs seriously (I had a GBA in elementary school, I lent it to a girl who moved to China the next day, and was never seen again. That happened before I got anything other than the default game it cam with. Maybe this is why I don’t like people touching my systems today and keep a keen eye on them when close friends play for a few minutes). Therefore, this is my first time playing FF1 EVER. I’m reviewing only the PSP version, since I never touched any of the ones before.
Continue reading
Because I have nothing else to say right now.
1) Getting ready for Disgaea 4 by…playing Disgaea 3. I don’t want to just miss 1 game in the series and it cost $20, so I got it. There’s some new classes, but mages, warriors, female archer, female healer, male gunner, thief, and beastmaster have the same sprites from Disgaea 2. New skill system sucks because instead of gaining generic skills through leveling up weapon mastery, you now have to buy them with mana. They also get stronger by upgrading by paying mana. In other words, mage spells don’t become stronger or AoE until you pay up and the class feels extremely nerfed. Other than that, I’m having a blast. I like the cast better than Disgaea 2. Almaz is adorable~! His facial expressions are moe. Raspberyl is also adorable, and then we have our princess Sapphire who tried to open someone’s heart using a chainsaw…
I’ve been checking some sites, and it seems like NISA is bringing over the PSP version of Phantom Brave eeveryone’s been wanting, along with Neptune (named Hyperdimension Neptunia for NA release). There’s actually a lot of stuff I didn’t know about, so I’m compiling a list for upcoming RPG both NA and JPN release.
Japanese releases are in italics
Nintendo
Pokemon Black & White (Spring 2011, DS)
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (Feb 14 2011, DS) – This should probably go under another company, but it’s listed on Nintendo’s website and counts for Club Nintendo points so I put it here.
Sega
Valkyria Chronicles 3 (January 27 2011, PSP)
Atlus
Radiant Historia (Feb 2011, DS)
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 Tsumi (March 3 2011, PSP)
Level 5
The Little Battlers (March 17 2011, PSP)
NIS America
Hyperdimension Neptunia (Feb 2011, PS3)
Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle (March 2011, PSP)
XSEED
Ys I & II Chronicles (Feb 2011, PSP)
Marvelous
Rune Factory Oceans (2011, PS3 + Wii)
Imageepoch
Tale of the Last Promise (TBA, PSP)
Black Rock Shooter: The Game (Summer 2011, PSP)
Square Enix
Final Fantasy IV: Complete Collection (Spring 2011, PSP)
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (February 15 2011, PSP)
Gust
Atelier Violet: Alchemist of Gramnad 2 (February 3 2011, PSP)
Namco Bandai
Tales of Xillia (2011, PS3)
Venus & Braves (TBA, PSP)
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3 (Feb 2011, PSP)
…actually, I don’t wanna see any more news of Namco Bandai stuff so I’ll stop here unless they’re releasing something in English.
I probably missed some stuff here and there, but I’m pretty sure that’s it so far for English releases and noteworth Japanese games. I’m interested in the Atelier games by Gust, and anything NISA decides to bring over is at least worth a look for me. I’ve already got Radiant Historia pre-ordered and I’ve got my fingers crossed for P2. I do like FFIV and Tactics Ogre seems to have a lot of praise so I’ll check out SqEnix this time. Level 5’s The Little Battlers seems interesting, but I’ll wait to see how it does first. Imageepoch’s game has permadeath so I’ll have to wait and see instead of rushing into things head first. Now that they’re partnering with NISA, I’m more relieved for the company’s games being localized.
On a side note, on the PSP dating sim scene, we’ve got Photo Kano (links to Siliconera article), where the PSP is like an in-game camera and you take pictures of the girls. The 3D seems to be very well done here, especially the girls’ expressions. I’m not too fond of such realistic hair tones though. I prefer crazy anime hair colors to just browns and blacks. One of the reasons why I’m interested in Dream Club more than other recent-ish dating sims is because they’ve got a variety of hair colors.
カレーまみれ勇者の冒険 Curry Chronicles 