Digital Chumps

(Note: the following only makes sense if we pretend I never touched Persona 3/4, or Nocturne, all of which I love dearly)

Japanese RPGs used to be my favorite genre of videogames. Weeks, months, and occasionally years (hello, Lunar 2) were devoted to exploring every last inch in games that prided their mammoth 40 to 80 hour play time. In the past, my JRPG anticipation and consumption levels were off the charts, but today, in 2010, I can't find one of interest. It's been almost two years since I finished Lost Odyssey, and I can't even remember what else I cleared before that. Final Fantasy XII, probably, but that was over three years ago. It's not like they don't exist anymore; Square Enix’s tepid current gen offerings (from a publishing standpoint) have included a new Star Ocean, Last Remnant, and Infinite Undiscovery, plus a treasure chest of remakes on the DS. Blue Dragon was apparently closely aligned with the school of old, but for whatever reason those kinds of games no longer appeal to me. And it's a shame, because I used to ravenously devour JRPGs in the late PS1/early PS2 era. I don't exactly know why I've fallen out of love with my former life partner, but I think I've narrowed it down to four potential sources.

# 1 I was 14-20 during most of that phase and, thus, uncultured

In my youth, I was relatively underexposed to alternative forms of fiction. I didn't read books, I barely went to go see good movies, and my interactive entertainment of choice consisted of platformers and Mega Man. RPGs looked too mundane; I remember being baffled by the concept of waiting to hit someone, and I couldn't understand why my friends were so infatuated with Final Fantasy III (VI) and Chronotrigger. It wasn't until I (almost accidentally) acquired Panzer Dragoon Saga that I gave the genre a shot, and then, along with Final Fantasy VII and Xenogears, JRPGs instantly evolved into my favorite style of game.

For all intents and purpose, the content in those three games blew my little mind. I was completely absorbed with the sweeping narrative presentation, and hadn't previously recognized any discernable emotional connection to what was happening on the screen. Games had been a fun way to kill a Saturday, not a legitimate adventure with an end seemingly fixed to the horizon. I was also relatively young, which not only made it easier to overlook obvious plot holes and muddled translations, but also allowed my imagination to fully engage the considerably rich fiction. Everything is awesome when you’re a kid.

Regarding Xenogears, watching Id's red gear come out of nowhere to lift the Yggdrasil was, at the time, the most shocking turns of events in any fictional medium I had experience, and waking up alone and abandoned in the Nortune prison camp completely rocked my world. It was primitive by today’s standards, but at the time I hadn’t ever (and haven’t since) felt a sense of isolation so profound. I indulged in Final Fantasy VII as well, and the sheer presence of Sephiroth was so alluring that I kept a save file in Kalm so that I could go back through the Nibelheim flashback with him on my team. And Panzer Saga's Uru showcased the finest marriage between music and visuals I had ever encountered; the ruined landscape was saturated with ambience and desolation, and I literally spent hours just flying around and absorbing every last inch.

Those three games charmed and engaged me on a level that I've been searching for ever since the late 90's. No matter what I play, there's always an element of I've seen before or a section I feel like I'm reliving. It isn't new or novel and, no matter what the context or marginal innovation, fails at captivating my imagination in any meaningful manner. I haven't done heroin, but it’s probably not unlike always trying to rediscover your first high. No matter what, I'll never be like your first time. I'm like Jack Shephard taking plane rides in a pointless quest to go back to the promised land, only without the time machine air plane.

# 2 More Games Exist Today - OR - I Have a Job Now

Like most other kids with no legitimate income, I only got a couple videogames a year. In my youth this resulted in endless days of Sonic and Mega Man, which, through the magic of "well, what else am I going to do," never got old. The concept of a having backlog of games I hadn't played yet was completely alien; regardless of its quality, I played the ever loving shit out of everything I was fortunate enough to receive for my birthday or Christmas.

With the advent of my interest in RPGs, I didn't I have to replay them over and over again. I could stretch an entire play through over the course of a few months. I started Final Fantasy VII in the spring of 1998, and I didn't stop playing it until the next winter. The main quest only took a few months, but then, in comparison to other games, outrageous amount of extraneous content stole my soul. Gold Chocobos, a litany of side quests, and rare materia were one thing, but the endless stat-maxing and leveling up I did turned Final Fantasy VII into entirely different obsession. I had it in my mind that Sephiroth was going to be the hardest thing ever (the fiction certainly convinced me of such), so I felt it necessary to master like five of every materia, morph or steal seemingly infinite stat sources from the monsters in the downed Gelnika airplane, and throw countless elixirs at Magic Pots in the North Cave. Of course Seph wound up being a total pushover, but my needless leveling felt like a performance, not a grind.

And while GameFAQs existed, it didn't exactly qualify as an immediate resource. I had the time to sit there and figure out every last detail, even if that meant a month of Chocobo racing in Final Fantasy VII or endlessly battling Ramsus and Miang (early in the game in person or later in Gears) in Xenogears because I couldn't grasp the concept of deathblow combos. Now, if I can't get a puzzle solved in five minutes or if I can sense that it’s filled with tedious nonsense, I'll skip over to GameFAQs and do in an instant what would otherwise take hours. I have the time, sort of, but there is just too much other shit that competes for my attention. The review pile factors in, but the need to experience everything I can has taken priority; why would I ever do a new game plus when, instead, I could indulge in a completely different game?

#3 A Stagnant Genre

The common criticism of JRPGs failure to evolve is completely valid. In fact, fighting games are the only other genre that hasn’t done anything legitimately new in the last ten years. I mean, first person shooters, action games, and even point and click adventures have torn down and rebuilt their formula in that time, but JRPGs struggle to do little other than update the graphics engine. Lost Odyssey was a great example - the game looked great, but it didn't do a damn thing to iterate upon a foundation laid a decade ago. Instead, it just made everything load slower in a genre that most already consider monotonous. Star Ocean: The Last Hope, from what I briefly played and constantly read, followed the same path.

On the late 1UP Yours podcast, Shane Bettenhausen stated that everyone else waits for each generation’s premier Final Fantasy, and then operates under that newly established paradigm. I'm not sure if I agree with that, but significant evidence exists to support that trend and, if that is indeed the case, it’s pretty sad. It's mindless incompetence on the part of the developers, and the timid nature of the Japanese culture along with a lack of risks in the gameplay department typically makes for a been there, done that feel. And, even when they try and incorporate western ideas, it's sort of half assed. If Final Fantasy XIII is going to be what kicks off the latest wave of games (four years into the console cycle) then so be it, but it's certainly a dead end of that trend continues.

#4 Lack of Concern for Narrative

This sort of relates back to my first point, only with the credit to advances in how we consume media. These days, with nearly every game trying to inject a story into framework that clearly didn't need one, I don't have the patience for archetypes spouting at predictable or boring dialogue for plots that, in the end, don't matter and don't stay with me after I put the controller down. Non RPGs, like the new Bionic Commando or even Gears of War, didn't exactly benefit from the narrative and, honestly, my eyes glazed over whenever the action stopped. That isn't why I play those games, and it's not what was trying to obtain from the experience.

JRPG's used to be all about narrative, and there in lied the endearing hook. I pushed through because of the story and because I wanted to see where it was all going. With the advent of people posting videos of cut scenes on the internet and especially with cinema heavy games like Xenosaga, it's perfectly fine not to finish a game. Screw it if you can just chew the fat off YouTube and skip the contrived gameplay, right?

And I don't know whether or not this is a result of poor translations or a legitimate need to completely explain everything, but I actually liked Xenogears and FFVII's fascination with not explaining every last detail. American audiences typically demand resolution, which, in effect, negates any post-credits thought; if it's all spelled out, what am I supposed to wonder, or remember?

I've also reached the point where I can instantly identify a tired archetype in most Japanese games. It's disappointing because that familiarity ultimately results in a deflated narrative and twists you can see coming a mile away, and it's tragic because it completely takes the piss out of the plot line. If I've seen it before then I'm not going to care, and if I don't care then I'm not going to play.

Will Final Fantasy XIII amend my broken marriage? Will the shining beacon of JRPG hope renew my interest in the genre, or is it another tired representative in name only? I'll try and let you know with a review this weekend or early next week!

Zeno Clash

(Live Arcade, April 21st)

 Using the Source engine for a weird first person melee combat is intriguing, but then wrapping that around weirdass art direction that, from media I've seen, looks like an Oddworld + Fable mash up, and it becomes entirely different animal. It looks different, and it seems to be taking a reasonable number of risks - something we don't typically see in games concerned with turning a huge profit. Yes, it's been available on PC since last year, but my PC is from 2003 - so it's still new to me.

Super Meat Boy

(April(?), WiiWare - Live Arcade)

 I heard about this game because it was apparently going to feature random characters from other 2D platformers (like Tim from Braid and the alien from Alien Hominid) and their respective abilities, but I fell in love because it looked like, from a gameplay perspective, 'Spolsion Man; 2D side scrolling done right, and without the bullshit games like Mario have beaten into our head. The game is challenging but not overly punitive, eschewing the lives concept our friendly red plumber has necessitated for the last 25 years. The replay feature, where, upon completing a level, the game shows you a simultaneous run of ever one of your attempts, as well as the awesome soundtrack, are cool too.

Nier

(April 27th, PS3 – 360)

Not entirely sure why I'm looking forward to this. Cavia hasn't really ever produced a top tier title, the other "half" of the game isn't coming stateside, the trailers look terrible, and it seems exist solely to plug a hole in Square-Enix's release calendar, but I think the art direction is appealing enough to render interest. Odds aren't in its favor, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

3D Dot Game Heroes

(May 11th - PS3)  

My excitement here is augmented by the fact that I have almost no idea what the hell this is. I know From Software just knocked it out of the park with Demon's Souls, I know it looks like what would happen if did acid when I was eight years old, and I think it may or may not be sort of like older school Zelda. Beyond that, I have no idea - but I know I want to play it.

Red Dead Redemption

(May 18th, PS3 - 360)

 Neversoft’s Gun made me realize that western (as in Wild West) games had potential, and the prospect of mixing that aesthetic with a modern open world design has me foaming at the mouth. Angel Studios (or Rockstar San Diego, whatever) is no slouch, Midnight Club and Smuggler's Run were two gems from last gen, and I am eager to see what they can do with a high budget all star release. I expect them to have learned from the mistakes of GTA IV (not that it had many) while still managing to produce a highly atmospheric and wholly unique experience.

Lost Planet 2

 (May 18th, PS3 - 360)

 I didn't really care much for the original Lost Planet. Much like Dead Rising, I thought it was a great concept hampered by handful of bizarre design choices. Can't say the same for Lost Planet 2, where, each time I've played it, I've walked away with exceeded expectations. It's still a thoroughly Japanese affair, but this time it comes with modern game design sensibility. Hooking up with friends and bringing down massive, hulking goliaths is a ton of fun (presumably even more so when we all actually know what the hell we're doing), and the rest of the game looks to have the depth to maintain interest outside of the considerable boss fight. Might be a bummer by yourself, but should be great for those finally ready to set Borderlands aside.

Alan Wake

(May 18th, 360)

 Remedy is one of those enigmatic developers that only releases a game a few times a decade. It'll be announced, then you won't hear about it for three years, then suddenly it'll be back at the forefront of a publisher's marketing blitz. They take their time, and it usually bleeds through in their work (small in number, but Max Payne is all you have to say). Alan Wake, from what I've seen, looks like Alone in the Dark if the people who made Alone in the Dark had the proper amount of time and money to make Alone in the Dark. Which, of course, sounds awesome.

Super Mario Galaxy 2

(May 23rd, Wii)

 I Ioved Mario Galaxy enough to complete it (242 stars, folks) twice in its first week of release. The game was incredible, and it easily outclassed Mass Effect, Portal, and Persona 3 for my game of the year in 2007. I've heard rumblings that a bunch of the levels are just unused design concepts from the first game, and I've never been a big fan of Yoshi, but I still can't wait to ravenously consume every single morsel of gameplay. Nintendo rarely gives its fan base something they actually want, and I am going to savor the opportunity.

Blur

(May 25th - 360)

 The enthusiast community has been kind of down on Bizzare's arcade/cart racer mash up, but I found the game incredibly charming when I played it at E3. To me, Project Gotham was always a second tier series and never really "all the way there" in terms of execution, so I'm happy to see Bizarre trying out something new. Arcade racers have been everywhere this gen (topped off with Burnout Paradise, how I love three), but it Blur might be able to carve its own niche by throwing cool weapons into the mix. My only worry is it’s apparently shallowness; they're going to have to think of something to justify a full $60 price tag.

Sin and Punishment: Star Successor

(June 7th, Wii)

 Maybe it was my penchant for rail shooters, maybe it's the pedigree of Treasure, but I walked away from E3 2009 thinking the sequel to Sin and Punishment was the best Wii game on the show floor. Nintendo releasing this first party is arguable more shocking, and, while I can't imagine this being a very long game, I'm excited to give it a shot.

But I love it.

Since this is a spoiler-free zone I am forbidden from saying more.

But what I will say are a few words of my impressions of Mega Man 10 after spending around three hours with it today and beating all eight robot masters.  In no particular order:

•  
  • Love the new enemy ideas, such as:
    • The Mettaurs which shoot the sticky goo crap at you in Pump Man's level which makes you slide
    • Little floating heads which dock with special parts on the ground to become grenade-dropping pains-in-the-ass
    • Mouse cursors which draw rows of box-shaped projectiles and send them flying at you
  • Some levels feature multiple routes, something we saw in later Mega Man games but not (as far as I can recall) in MM9
  • We also see for the first time ever in an 8-bit Mega Man game some... other nonlinear elements.  You'll see what I mean
  • Sheep Man's level... LOL.  I love the complete lack of relevance
  • Music is quite good; a few songs are disappointing, but overall, a pretty solid Mega Man soundtrack
  • The new challenge mode is an awesome idea
  • "Great" storyline
  • Awesome new gameplay ideas to prove 2D platforming can still be innovative.  Just a few from off the top of my head:
    • Great color-coded block elements; the color of block you jump on immediately begins to flicker and disappears in a couple of seconds.  The blocks can also include other items, such as spikes!  This makes for a really cool fast-paced puzzle element and some truly awesome opportunities for suicide IRL emo omg.
    • Nifty see-saw lifts which move horizontally to the right as you jump back and forth between the platforms, typically overtop the requisite expanse of spikes below
    • Opaque sandstorms which send you flying to the right and completely obscure your view of the level as you travel until they end a few seconds later
    • Trucks which race through road segments, decorated with spikes aplenty, of course

And all of this pales in comparison, of course, once again, to Wily Level 1, which is just such a bitch.  But a wonderful, 8-bit, nostalgic, nearly-impossible bitch.  And oh, do I love her, pixilated disposition notwithstanding.

Because I love buying more games than I have time to play, here's what's on my calender:

Final Fantasy XIII

March 9th (PS3 - 360)

Mainline Final Fantasy games, despite always being overwrought with inane complexity, always manage to penetrate the mainstream market. People who would otherwise, especially in the current game climate, never touch a Japanese RPG are going to pick this up on day one, and I am no different. I haven't completed a true JRPG (save three Persona games) since XII came out*, and I am eagerly anticipating dropping another 100 or so hours of my life into XIII. Every Final Fantasy since V (well, except for XI) I have beaten into the ground and completed every single quest, and I can't wait to do it all over again. A lot has been cast aside from traditional "Final Fantasy" design (like towns, apparently), but removing the padding from the gameplay, if that's what they did, surely must work in its favor. I don't care if its linear, I don't care if I'm going to miss crap I'll never be able to go back and get, I just want to play Final Fantasy XIII (and Versus XIII, which I'm sure we'll see in 2013).

Yakuza 3

(March 9th - PS3)

Despite some issues with release timing, I'm still really looking forward to the third entry in the series. Blasting through my old Kabukicho stomping grounds with the added beauty of current gen tech is all it takes for my sixty dollars. I know that's sad, I know that the gameplay is going to be rehashed with minor improvements, I'm aware no one else is going to buy it, and I think it sucks that Sega is cutting culturally flavored (link) content, but, dammit, I love you, Yakuza. 

Mega Man 10

(March 1st, WiiWare - March 11th, PSN - Live Arcade, March 31st)

Like anyone else born with a soul in the 80's, Mega Man games were intrinsic to my childhood. It was through Mega Man that I learned I was never going to be good at anything, and that any time I start to feel otherwise, reality is going to be right there to punch me in the face. Overly punitive games were great real life training, especially when I somehow pulled one out my ass and actually beat a Mega Man game. I through VI all fell under my sword, as did IX in 2008. The retro-revival isn't quite as mind blowing this time around, but it's still a trip down memory lane that I (and my damaged brethren) would love to take any day of the week.

God of War III

(March 16^th - PS3)

Oh come on, who isn't looking forward to this? Early reports indicate a focus on refinement over innovation, but Kratos' long awaited PS3 debut won't have to do much to knock the socks off its competition. It's easily going to rub the shine off Dante's Inferno and expose Bayonetta's weakness in narrative and atmosphere while simultaneously upping the ante for gratuitous sex and violence. I'm not sure why God of War gets a pass in that department, but few other games have made the act of simply pushing a button look so awesome and feel as badass. Bloodlust aside, the sense of scale is what I expect to impress me the most.

Metro 2033

(March 16^th - 360)

Games pumped out of the eastern Europe always make me smile. They're usually crude in their interpretation of accessible gameplay, but they're so overwhelming different from the cookie cutter first person shooters overflowing from the West that I can't help but remain charmed by their existence. The Stalker games have had their problems, but they're just too damn cool to pass over. Members of that team apparently made it over to 4A Games, and then took an immensely popular Russian novel and created a (slavishly faithful to the source material) game out of it. Cool.

Gran Turismo 5

(March - PS3)

Finally, right? I mean how long has this one been cooking? I downloaded the HD demo in 2006, played the hell out of Prologue (and probably got ripped off) in 2008, and finally we're rewarding with the first current gen entry of the best driving sim out there. Driving cars around a course is one of my real life hobbies, and getting to replicate that in a game produces a feeling of satisfaction not offered by any other genre (seriously, how often can you say you've done something in a videogame in real life). It's about time.

Fanboy fodder: Gran Turismo 4: 02/22/05. Forza Motorsport: 05/03/05 - Forza Motorsport 2: 05/29/07 - Forza Motorsport 3: 10/29/09. Look, I'm not saying, I'm just saying...

Perfect Dark

(March 17^th - Live Arcade)

The first time I ever really hung with Steve Schardein happened because Perfect Dark had just been released. He, his friends, and I shared a common interest in Goldeneye, and we were looking forward to Rare's follow up like modern day teenagers eagerly await the next Halo. Goldeneye was the game of our high school existence, and the hype for the sequel was, at the time, unparallel. We ended up burning out pretty fast and concluding that Goldeneye was probably better, but I still enjoyed the game for what it was. Nearly ten years later, I'm quite curious how well it's held up. Perfect Dark was a product of its era (best defined as "pre Halo," or, "before the best FPS games were on console"), so its compromises (like the weirdass aiming system, seriously, go back and play it) may not sit well with the Halo generation. The up-res'd single player campaign will be a nice stroll down memory lane, but the area of interest lies with the multiplayer. Will it take off on Live? Will it still be any fun? Honestly I already know the answer to that question, because the addition of Goldeneye weapons and levels will send us all into nostalgia overload.

Cave Story

(March 22^nd - WiiWare)

I know this has been available for free, in one form or another, on something called "the internet" since 2004, but I look forward to being able to play it in front of my television. Cave Story's overt simplicity gives way to a myriad of complexity (in traditional metroidvania fashion), but the appeal arrives with the understanding that everything before you was composed from a sole vision. One guy made this game, and that sort of hard work and dedication in the current software climate is as rare as it is admirable. Apparently it's a ton of fun to play, too.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

(March 23rd - DS)

Yeah, go ahead and call it Shin Megami Tensei 4, because that's basically what we're getting. No, it doesn't take place in post apocalyptic Tokyo, but the lack of a number lies with the taboo of retrofitting a mainline series entry into the portable market (but hey, it worked for Dragon Quest IX). Anyway, I love (love love love) SMT games. Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga 1+ 2 were some of my favorite games on Playstation 2, with Persona 3 and 4 not following too far behind. Sure, the gameplay is highly recycled and seemingly omnipresent amongst the series, but they're all still worlds apart from traditional JRPG design. I still hope the day when Atlus finally moves up to current-gen tech, but, in the meantime, this is more than fine.

Just Cause 2

(March 23^rd - PS3 - 360)

Another sequel that almost makes the original feel like a proof of concept, I expect Just Cause 2 to be the absolute pinnacle of fantasy-sandbox gaming. Logic and reason have absolutely no place here (just look at the video gametrailers posted) and tell me that isn't going to be a load of fun. Yeah, it's crazy and impossible but, dammit, that's what I want. The best part? There are literally dozens of other videos of insane shit exactly like that. When it's all strung together who knows what kind of mind blowing stunt combinations we're going to attempt, or, best yet, do on accident. Crackdown 2 looks to exploit the same vibe, but I have yet to see any media that indicates it's going to pull it off with the finesse of Just Cause 2. Red Faction: Guerilla and Saints Row 2 have proven absurdity has a place in the sandbox sect of action games, but it feels like JC2 might be the first one that's fun for more than a couple hours. Can't wait.

Splinter Cell: Conviction

(April 13^th - 360)

Shameful fact: I've never played a Splinter Cell game. Call it stupidity, or the ignorance that arrives with trying to finish my college education for most of the earlier parts of the decade, but this franchise never really hit my radar. Conviction didn't either, at least until it resurfaced last summer at E3. For once, Sam Fisher actually appealed to me, no doubt added by the slick presentation ganked directly from Fringe. The "last known position" feature also looks to add relevance to the stealth genre, which hasn't really had anything interesting since Metal Gear Solid 4 two years ago. Co-op sounds cool, too.

* I forgot about Lost Odyssey, and so should you.

I left the original Metroid Prime highly confident I would never revisit Retro's take on the franchise, but, since I couldn’t justify only using 1/3 of the Trilogy disc, I decided to give the sequel a shot. Much to my surprise, after about ten minutes, I was really into it. The familiarity earned with the prequel, both in regards to gameplay mechanics and the basic control scheme, came back instantly. Echoes was a game I was automatically comfortable playing, it didn't require a learning curve or some awkward period of waggle adjustment like most other Wii software. Given I played Prime just six months ago, but it was still nice to not have to clear that hurdle.

Anyway, the design behind Echoes is kind of a bummer. I expected to start the game with certain powers only to momentarily lose them to some random act of fate, but I wasn't prepared to have to go and refind the exact same powers that I spent all of Prime acquiring. Power bombs, the grapple gun, charge missiles, a new suit, boost jump, and boost ball have all been lost and found. The two new beams are sort of annoying because they require ammo, and they're at least thematically different, but their core use remains identical; now you can open doors you couldn't have opened before. I know that this is basically the tried and true Metroid formula that is, by requirement, going to happen in every single Metroid game, but it doesn't even feel like Retro went out of their way to make it feel any different.

Except for, of course, the light/dark world nonsense. While I do feel that such a mechanic can be done well (Link to the Past and (sort of) Final Fantasy VI, to name two), in Echoes it just comes off as sloppy and lazy. Having to stay inside a bubble wasn't any fun, and nor was having to alternate between the two worlds to hit arbitrary switches or collect pointless objects. It all just seemed so contrived and purposeless, as if Retro didn't know how else to make as sequel so they just took a bunch of ideas from the lineage of videogames and reskinned Metroid Prime. Darkness (or whatever) infecting certain creatures, light/dark ammo strengths and weaknesses, randomly placed portals, and an enigmatic evil clone of myself wreaking interdimensional havoc. It's still a well designed game, but it comes off as predictable and uninspired. I can’t get immersed in the world because all of these design choices keep reminding me that I am playing a videogame.

Which sort of leads to the problems I’m having with the art direction. Prime's environments, Phendrana Drifts specifically, all managed to tell a story. Though I am scanning some stuff, I can't be bothered to go through my menus and read a bunch of drab text - maybe the future has spoiled me, but I want to learn everything I need to know and feel by simply walking through the game's environments. Super Metroid did this automatically, and Prime did in spite of the large amount of the same text, but I'm not getting that same sense from Echoes. The environments just don't feel all that distinguished from one another; I wouldn't be able to tell you the differences between Agon Wastes and Temple Grounds. Prime had all these thematically different places you were going to, and, so far, it seems like Echoes just has drab brown, some under water stuff, and dark purple.

Despite the laundry list of complaints I can't say I'm having a bad time. I like the new menu interface, the color coded scanning, and seemingly better hidden missile/energy expansions. Samus in ball form seems to be easier to control, though that could be because the puzzles aren't as taxing thus far and I sort of knowing what I'm doing this time (though I can now regularly double bomb jump). Combat seems to flow better aside from the constant resource drain, and the bosses are way, way less annoying despite their considerable lengths sometimes. Speaking of time, I'm pretty sure the in-game clock is gimped or doesn't count when I'm in a menu or something. I sat there for ten hours of real life yesterday and my clock only read like six hours. I only died once, so I'm not entirely sure what the hell is going on there.

As of this writing I just picked up my Dark Visor. I'd like to finish the game, but, umm, tomorrow starts the Heavy Rain, Lunar, Final Fantasy XIII, Mega Man 10, Perfect Dark, God of War III, Yakuza 3, Just Cause 2, and SMT; Strange Journey in three weeks onslaught.

My anticipation level for Heavy Rain is hovering somewhere around the level of mindless hype last experienced when I saw Mario 3 in The Wizard. I loved it at E3, and I loved it at CES. I want this game badly, and my irrationally thinking brain has already elevated its arrival to second-coming status. I'm hype-drunk, and I've convinced myself that Heavy Rain has the capability to right most of the current wrongs in modern game design. Yeah, I know, outrageous - but give me a second to try and explain the usual lack of snarky doubt oh so prevalent in videogame criticism.

I’ve completely bought in to Heavy Rain being one of the first "truly mature" titles. Do you ever get the feeling that most of the games you're playing are either catered to 90's era Japanese adolescents or violence-hungry American teenagers? I enjoyed Modern Warfare 2 and God of War, but to say those game were telling a compelling story was sort of equating G.I. Joe or 300 with House of Sand and Fog or Saving Private Ryan, each excels at their purpose - but boobs and stupid violence do not a mature narrative make. Heavy Rain, from what I have seen, looks to use violence and sexuality for a purpose other than exploitation. Heavy Rain has emotional weight, and it uses its characters as means to convey a sense of pure tension and conscious loss that we otherwise haven't experienced in interactive entertainment.

Videogames as a medium haven't exactly been aiming high with outside-the-box methods of storytelling and interaction (mainly because the tripe handed out is enough to sell well, and few publishers want to attempt a financial risk with anything experimental). Condemned did some amazing things with the headset, and Metal Gear Solid has always found new ways to mess with the player, but Heavy Rain appears to take alternative storytelling from brief gimmick to an essential part of the game. I want Heavy Rain to be a game about emotional resonance and long term consequence, and everything I've seen so far is indicative that it's going to go that direction. Games are usually all about empowerment - but what about loss, failure (not fail-states), depression, desperation, or emotional degradation? Not every game has to be an action movie, and the wide range of human emotion is largely untapped by modern software. Heavy Rain, as I am lead to believe, might take a few steps toward something else entirely.

I'm also quite optimistic about how the game is going to play around with nontraditional means of interaction. Yeah, it's easy to say it's all just a bunch of quick-time events, but I'm willing to give it a pass based on its ability to demonstrate that it can, in fact, contextualize the actions. Typical QTE's are full of mindless button presses that completely disconnected the my hands on the controller from the action on screen, but the instances in which Heavy Rain has thus far demonstrated its mechanics have made me slightly more optimistic. It's still a little hard to tell what the hell certain inputs are going to do before you do them, but the versatility and ingenuity experienced thus far has me on the positive end. Additional, Quantic Dream's promise to make certain gestures as uncomfortable to perform in your hands as it is for your character to do on screen has me intrigued.

I once saw Quantic’s previous game, Fahrenheit (rebranded as Indigo Prophesy in the United States), as being likened to a giant ice cream cone that seems to instantly melt after you've only taken a few bites - a metaphor I didn't disagree with. The game had enormous potential, clearly visible at that very first scene in the diner, but it was inevitably ruined by terrible a racial stereotype, a batshit insane series of plot twists, and not-quite-there levels of character interaction. It's been nearly five years since Quantic churned out their first stab at this "genre" and I'm eagerly waiting to see how much they learned from their previous failings. Fahrenheit could have been an amazing, era-defining experience not unlike Ico or Colossus, but the execution came up way short of its ambition. The turnaround, along with lead designer David Cage's relentless confidence, has lead me to believe Quantic has a better grasp of what they're doing this time around.

I still carry a few reservations, as there are some areas that make me a bit nervous. Chief among those is the accents of the main characters. I understand that the game was made by Quantic, a French developer, but casting French actors and having them do "American" accents isn't doing any favors for realism. Maybe its ethnocentrism, maybe it’s part of the uncanny valley created by the astounding visuals, but what little I've heard of Heavy Rain's voice acting nearly broke immersion. It wasn't bad, but it did have kind of an "I can tell a guy is reading these lines off of a sheet" vibe. In a post-Uncharted 2 world, that's kind of disappointing. I'm also a bit skeptical of the direction the narrative can take; is it on straightforward with a few allowances for me to veer off the path, or can I truly change the middle and end-game based on my decisions? Lastly, I’m not entirely sure the game has mass appeal. People are ready for it, I’m sure, but trying to sell something so radically different might be a challenge.

Regardless, I am going to put this one in on Tuesday and probably not eat/sleep/shower/work until it's finished. Look for our review next week!

I know, I know. It sounds crazy. The possibility of a successful system that is embedded in millions and millions of houses actually hurting an industry that is depending on it. 

That's the rub, though. The industry right now is depending on the 360 and the system isn't living up to its end. 

Now, before we get into it, this has nothing to do with the large amount of 360s that had died or are dying. This absolutely has nothing to do with that because most fans of the system don't mind getting a new system under the current warranty offered by Microsoft. 

The real issue here is the system is sporting old technology, mainly the DVD drive. Countless developers are having to cut back on the games they have developed to fit their content on these discs. One example is from Brian Ashcraft's article in Kotaku in regards to one of Capcom's team having to cut back content on the upcoming Lost Planet 2. Here's an excerpt from Ashcraft's article:

"This time, truly, the content that was cut was significant," Takeuchi added, "and at the end, we had to wrestle with disc space."

That's just one example. What about Final Fantasy XIII where Square-Enix had to fit, and possibly cut back on visual quality, their game on three DVDs?

My question to you is this.... How many games had to cut back to fit onto a format that is over a decade old? How many developers had to underachieve to meet the demands of a huge fanbase (and to basically survive) because the 360 didn't go Blu-ray or some other large format? 

More importantly, is this good for the industry? 

Maybe it isn't Microsoft that needs to change, maybe it's the developers. Who knows, but regardless if something doesn't change quick then the industry is going to hit a wall and someone is going to get hurt in the process. 

Right now, it's the gamers. 

I love Sega's Yakuza games.

Japanophiles should share a similar admiration. Most Japanese-developed videogames feature otherworldly, highly stylized art direction not often present its their Western counterparts.  That’s fantastic for fantasy environments, but doesn't often (aside from something like Okami) offer insight into the minutia of Japanese culture. Yakuza games take the road less traveled, opting for a slightly stylized aesthetic threaded with a realistic take on modern urban Japanese society. Hyperviolence aside, Yakuza is the closest approximation available for what it's like to actually walk around Tokyo all night. Having played the original Yakuza before I went to Japan in 2008, I found myself strolling through nocturnal Tokyo and thinking "jesus christ this is just like in Yakuza!" People running up and down the street and handing you shit, neon lights in every place you look, jingle music inside the minimarts, UFO catchers everywhere, thematically different pockets of the city, and the general commotion associated with urban Japanese culture were as visible in real life Tokyo as they were in videogame Yakuza. Sega nailed the atmosphere (further evident by playing Yakuza 2 after I got back, and then finding a place in Osaka in the game that was nearly identical to a picture I took in Osaka in real life). Yakuza isn't just a franchise for people who love Japanese game development; it's a game for people who love Japanese culture.

As a healthy subscriber to both, this is why the arrival of Yakuza 3 comes with a bit of sadness; as best as I can guess,* it's probably the last English-translated Yakuza that I am going to be able to play. Yakuza 3, over a year after its Japanese release, is finally coming to Europe and North American on or around March 9th. It's a dream come true for those of us who nearly imported it and printed a huge translation FAQ in order to play it, but a pure nightmare for the same group who is deathly afraid of having to do that for the already-announced Yakuza 4. You see, March 9th is also the day the 2010's biggest** Japanese developed game, Final Fantasy XIII, arrives on shelves. If that wasn't threatening enough, God of War III (a PS3 exclusive like Yakuza 3) looks to hammer the last nail in Yakuza 3's coffin just a week later. The game, for all intents and purposes, is being sent to die.

I'll concede that Yakuza games (what I've played of 3 included) definitely aren't for everyone. Shenmue + Streets of Rage + Awesome isn't enough to sell everyone on premise alone, and the lack of evolution, at least in terms of gameplay mechanics, isn't going to help its cause. Yakuza plays well, but it isn't stellar; it looks terrific in a screen grab, yet kind of unwieldy in motion, and its control is precise in certain aspects and cumbersome in others. It is, however, more than the sum of its parts, and it succeeds in offering the videogame holy grail; an experience that is not only wildly fun, but also objectively different than most else you're used to playing. It's kind of a hard sell, which is why casting it off alongside two other heavy hitters isn't going to do it any favors. It's still going to hit with people like me who are going to buy it anyway, but it seems like Sega isn't giving it a shot at mainstream success. Yakuza 3 needs all of the attention it can get, which isn't going to be as much as it could have been in its current release window.

After watching Sega mis-market the original Yakuza as Japan's answer to Grand Theft Auto, and then feeling fortunate with a small run of Yakuza 2 in late 2008, I'm afraid Yakuza 3 will not make a profit for my favorite publisher. Typically I couldn't care less about a game's financial success, but as someone who is deeply involved in Kazuma Kiryu's world and the ongoing narrative of the franchise, I will probably really want to play Yakuza 4. I'll do it with a translation FAQ if I have to, but I know that glancing back and forth at my laptop would kill immersion and sour the entire experience. But hey, maybe Sega only needs to sell to Yakuza's audience in order satisfy a small, yet incredibly vocal minority. The huge petitions and fan campaigns to get Yakuza 3 localized assure a total success for its fan base. It's a gamer's game, for sure, and maybe that's all it needs to be for the western market. I hope, anyway.

* This is, at best, an uninformed guess. My B.A. is not in marketing.

**Assuming Zelda's latest Legend doesn't make it out the door.

So I just got done resizing and posting a freaking ton of Mega Man 10 screenshots and art.  You'll find every weapon showcased, as well as a good number of level examples and even some stuff from challenge mode.

I probably don't need to tell you how excited I am about the Blue Bomber's next venture, but then again, not everyone is probably as amused as I am by the fact that, say, every single Mega Man seems to include one of those orbiting shield weapons (this one's no exception)!

Ah, sweet uv ajed

Oh, by the way, the game's out on these dates:

WiiWare – March 1 ^st

PSN – March 11 ^th

XBLA – March 31 ^st

Anyway, rather than listening to me drone on about it all, why not check out the full feature?

Mega Man 10: Weapons revealed and more

I am of two minds about Platinum Game's Bayonetta. On one hand I can't believe how a videogame with so many forehead slapping design choices aced both Edge and Famitsu. The oddities associated (and lambasted) in Japanese game design are widely prevalent; a lengthy narrative presented as essential yet constructed of absolute nonsense, autosaves that force the player to either watch a cut scene or engage in some trivial skirmish before a boss battle, a user interface that's as cumbersome as it is unintuitive, and ancillary gameplay sections that are terribly constructed and have nothing to do with the combat engine. Bayonetta has a litany of head scratchers, and could have infinitely benefited from Ryan Payton- on-MGS4-esque oversight to force modern design choices down the throats of otherwise out of touch Japanese developers.

That being said, I am overwhelmingly glad the brass at Sega allowed all of that to actually make it through to the retail release. Bayonetta, more so than any other videogame in recent memory (save maybe Noby Noby Boy), is the fulfilled vision of a sole entity. It is a product unaffected by focus group research, marketing interference, or publisher oversight. Hideki Kamiya made the game he wanted to make, and, in the process, authenticated his work with an incredible sense of purity. With Bayonetta, you're actually playing the game someone set out to make. Regardless of minor failings in its execution, it's a singular vision free of the stench of outside interference.

And, at least in terms of the combat engine, the end result is currently the pinnacle of the genre. Bayonetta herself, from a pure player-control standpoint, handles input better and moves with more fluidity than any other action game character thus far. The ability to instantly cancel out of any combo at any time is a godsend to the genre, and the versatility behind her vast move set is just as impressive. Factor in an array of weapons, equipment combinations, accessories, and bonus items and you're left with combat mechanics faster than Kratos, less restrictive than Dante, and more cohesive than Ryu. I never, ever got discouraged when I played Bayonetta; trial and error isn't a penalty, it's an opportunity to learn more and build my skill set. The game really isn't even that punishing - the difficulty builds perfectly and insures you're only as good as your last battle. Repeating bosses is an unfortunate holdover from the Capcom days, but presenting similar foes with slightly different techniques or speeds is, at worst, a serviceable way for Platinum to squeeze every bit of content possible out of their assets.

Living my fantasy for me, fellow editor Steve Schardein was around when Bayonetta was doing pictures at E3 2009

While I sort of regret not skipping over the cut scenes entirely, I can't help but think what the narrative could have been with a little more clarity. Bayonetta's journalist friend Luka  is lame and I couldn't care less about Cereza possibly being a time displaced version of Bayonetta's younger self, but the angel-fighting aspects could have been really cool. It wasn't until Sapienta that I actually gained an appreciation for the art direction. A bunch of rogue angels on the loose trying to resurrect a fallen creator is actually an intriguing concept, and such intricately designed creatures (each displaying vague shades of human features) could have made for a dazzling story. Instead we're left with utter nonsense, and anyone who tries to justify it as anything of substance or consequence (see IGN) has swallowed the purple kool aid. That shit's meaningless.

But, at the same time, the batshit insane narrative, from a purely visual standpoint, is one of Bayonetta's greatest strengths. I did a lot of insanely crazy shit over the course of the 12-15 hours it took me to plow through it on normal. I killed a boss by cutting off the tentacles emerging from its 10 story mouth, I save Luka by ensuring a missile picked him up after he was thrown out a window (after I road that same missile roughly 40 miles), I surfed an angel down a pile of lava, and I found it necessary to summon a giant chainsaw and cut through these seraph bat things. Finally, I watched a church (or some shit) turn into a rocket ship, blast off into outer space, and then give way to a space deity that used Bayonetta and Balder for its eyes. The whole game has a giant WTF stamped over every scene. Every single level you're doing things that should be physically impossible, but none of those discrepancies seems to matter. It's not a game where cohesion or logic has anything to do with the context. All that shit is happening because a bunch of  guys thought it would be awesome

The only way the whole thing could have possible been even more ridiculous was to layer a 10 foot amazon stripper on through every facet, and that's what they god damn did. Bayonetta sheds her clothes to execute her more impressive attacks, walks like a model in high heels when you fire her gun, uses a giant staff as a stripper pole, constantly has a sucker in her mouth, and is laced with more sexual innuendo than The Ambiguously Gay Duo. Her hypersexualization reached its climactic peak after the credits where, for whatever reason, I was rewarded with a sultry pole dance and corresponding music video. And it's so over the top it's almost impossible to be offended by it. She's intentionally exploitive, and the game goes out of its way several times over to ram that point home. It's not that they don't make games like this anymore, but more like no one's ever made a game like that, ever. Such an unapologetic take on game design deserves to be commended, if not revered for its blatant disregard for moral high ground. Or, at the very least, sixty of your American dollars for the pleasure of playing it.