Patented "Physical Memory Experience System". The more you play Quake, the better you get!
The previous sarcastic answer was intended to show how you can rationalize almost
any game into the RPG genre. Besides, half the things you listed don't necessarily make an RPG. There are Console
Style rpgs without magic, Dragon Warrior only had one character, and as for good storyline...
well, that's a recently new phenomena in the RPG world. (It used to be "Save the World", and
dangit, that was good enough for most!)
You said it yourself: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the best sidescroller--albiet
with RPG elements, but it's a sidescroller nevertheless. True, Alundra and Zelda 64 aren't csRPGs (Console Syle)
either, but they're already covered. If RPGamer added every game with RPG elements, we wouldn't
have time to cover real RPGs. Like Beyond the Beyond.
"Woah, check out Tifa!" 'Dude, sick; she's your grandmother!'
I'm trying to program a small rpg. Its nothing special, but a fun project i
want to try. Maybe i'll post it somewhere online, I'm not sure. My question
is about part of the plot. I want to make it a little different, by making
it multi-generational. After the 1st main character dies, his kid continues
and finishes the journey, yadda yadda. I want to know if this has been done
before, because I want mine to be totally original. If this has been done
before, what game was it in? Thanks.
Thor: The Phantasy Star series used that idea. Sorry, it's not an original
concept, but much like a day/night cycle, it's something I wish more games would look
into. Good luck with the game, man. :D
Interesting note:
Interesting to note. You brought up that Nintendo considers Zelda 64 an RPG. That is
true... for Nintendo of America that is. Nintendo of Japan, however, purely considers Zelda
64 to be an action/adventure. In fact, for those of us who can read Japanese, head on over
to Nintendo's Japanese site and check out their
games list. They clearly list Zelda 64 as action/adventure.
Nintendo of Japan developed and designed Zelda 64. Nintendo of America just merely ported
them here. So who would YOU think is more correct?
Thor: Grr. How dare Nintendo abuse the "RPG" name! I think Nintendo of Japan is right, of
course. I just feel kind of used... I need a shower.
Patience is rewarded with, um, cool games.
What the hell is going on? It's January 12th, right. Last week, I read in
a bunch of places that Lunar: SSSC was supposed to be released on the 11th.
I didn't hear a peep about a delay. Now it's the 12th, and there's still
no Lunar. Has everyone is this world gone mad. Lunar has been delayed so
many times, one would think that some respectable website out there would
say something about it. Or maybe it was released on time and I just don't
know it. Then why isn't anyone covering this huge game that was just
released (or most likely delayed--again). What the hell is going on here.
-- Numer 6
Thor: A quick
glance at RPGamer's release list shows that Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
has been pushed back until 2-16-99. I'm actually not all that disappointed. If
it came out now, I couldn't afford it... But that's just shelfish ol' me. :D
The only good news is The Daily Show
Hey Thor, doing a great job with the column! Anyway, I have something rather
interesting. It's from my local newspaper, in the teen section yesterday,
they reviewed a bunch of video games. They reviewed The Legend of Zelda: OoT,
and here it is, for your viewing (dis)pleasure.
Graphics: 7
Fun Factor: 5
Play Control: 6
Sound: 5
Overall: 6.5
One of the most highly anticipated games of the 1998 holiday season fell flat
on it's face when our reviewers had their look at Zelda. Nintendo made
commercial after commercial trying to build up the hype for its latest
installment of Link's saga, but according to our bunch, this game simply was
not good.
"This game is too complicated," said one reviewer. "It takes too long to play
and there's no enough action."
The game's role-playing format is not for everyone, so unless you enjoy being
the center of attention in a long quest, this game probably isn't for you.
Because the game seemed very complex and not fast-paced enough, our reviewers
found this one to be no fun.
... I believe this speaks for it's self, really. Isn't it sad how they scored
it? I mean, I know everyone has different opinions, but are graphics and
sound and play control really that debatable? What kills me most are the "too
complex" statement made by a 17 year old. I think it's a sad commentary on
life today when Crash Bandicoot 3 and Need for Speed 3 (both really good
games) get over all higher ratings than the game that's been called the
greatest of all time. I'm wondering who they chose to do these reviews ...
for most of the games it doesn't even sound like they did anything more than
look at the back of the box. I mean, how could anyone say that Zelda was hard
to control and looked and sounded horrible? It's beyond me anyway ... what do
you think about it?
Thor: What do I think? Simple: Go fishing. One by one, you strike--wait on the
roof of an unsuspecting reviewer's home with a fishing pole. No lure, just a hook. It'll
be harder to see. Wait for him or her to walk
underneath you, then let loose the biggest yawn you can muster (try picturing Wild ARMs, heh heh).
With luck, your Mark will yawn too, and you can lower the hook in time to, well, get a bite.
After that, it's really up to you! (Uh, legal disclaimer: Just kidding?)
An unsatisfying quickie
Regarding today's satisfying quickie:
How can anyone say that first person shooters have, uh, 'loosed' their
'support and buyers?' This is ridiculous - games like Turok 2 and
Goldeneye, Quake, it's sequel, Unreal and Halflife are -extremely- popular,
moreso that any current RPG. Silly unnamed RPGamer.
Thor: Silly indeed. Um, I don't really have anything to add here. Moving on.
Wild Yawns
Oh my god...you think that Wild Arms sux?
-- Edmund
Thor: Ahem.
First of all, I never "Sucks", nor any derivitive of the word. I said, and I quote: "Not the
cream of the RPG crop." And I think most anyone who isn't a die hard fan of Wild
ARMs could agree.
Wild ARMs is one of the few RPGs which actually forced me to quit, take a three
month break and later continue playing just to finish the sucker. I couldn't stand
the poorly done "3d is kewl!" battle system, or the fact that you only had three
characters in the entire game, and only one of them could use magic. The plot
was good enough (reminded me of Final Fantasy 2's, right down to the "What The
Badguy Is Up To Now cutscenes"), but the backstory was as confusing and poorly
executed as Final Fantasy 7's--without all the little things which made FF7's
story worth it. Oh, and the translation was plum awful. There's even a rumor that
Wild ARMs' script was just a draft, and Sony pushed it into production before it
could be finished. (This is just a rumor, of course, so take it as you will.)
However, these little things aren't what made me dislike Wild ARMs to
the point where I sold it to an (unfortunate) friend the day after I finished
the game. I mean, the character design was nice, the (2D!) graphics were decent, the plot was good if not a little
confusing, and the opening cinema was fantastic. No, the reason I hate Wild ARMs is
because the battles were so mind-numbingly dull that I went a little bit
more insane with each random encounter.
Sometimes, I wake, screaming "NOT ANOTHER UNIDENTIFYABLE POLYGON MONSTER!". To this day I seek a cure for my malady.
Dyne Lewinski
(FF7 spoiler)
Did anyone else but me see how Barret's wife commited adultery? Think
about it. Barret is black. His wife is white. Their kid (Marlene,
duh!) is white. So... Barret's wife had to have been playing around
with someone, right? I mean, how else could it have happened?
I wonder if the guy was Dyne?
--SLADE
Thor: It's nothing as 90210 as that. Barret adopted Marlene after he thought
Dyne was dead. (And people accused Square of portraying Barret as a jerk...)
Hey, what about Cid, Vincent and Red-13?
Greetings Mighty Thor,
Damnit, all this talk about Final Fantasy 7 characters...why
can't people admire the characters from the previous Final Fantasies?
What about Cecil? He was a badass that would stomp Cloud in a
heartbeat. Or Edge? Edge was (for you younger gamers) an original
badass, and Shadow was his predecessor. People need to start
remembering the real badasses of the Final Fantasy series. Quit whining
about Cloud and Sephiroth. They were both bitches anyway.
Thor, you need to take a vote on what Final Fantasy game or
character was everyone's favourite. (Everyone under the age of 15 not
allowed to vote. We all know you horny, pre-pubecent twits all liked
Final Fantasy 7 more because of the up-close zooms, and foul language.
Just because your parents won't let you talk that way doesn't mean you
can't play games that do, eh?)
-- D.J
Thor: I printed this.... well, more or less to see what would happen, really.
Call it a cheap trick to generate feedback, call it my ego making decisions
'cause he called me "Mighty", or just call it plain ol' morbid curisoity.
How about it, guys? Would you rather the over-emotional, self-conscious,
realistic (?) heroes of today, or the near-mute Eastwood-esuqe protagonists
of yesteryear? (I admit, Cecil is my favorite hero. But Vincent was no
wussy.)
Maybe they the left game on while in the bathroom
I want to know, how can a company put claims on a games packaging
like"Between 40-and-60 hours of gameplay", such as Granstream Saga. I
bought this game thinking it would be pretty long and involving and it
took like 17 hours, my friend did it in the same amount of time. Saga
Frontiers 140 hours claim was the biggest lie, my 5 year old brother
could do it in that amount of time, and he can't even read. Anyway, I
was wondering isn't that false advertising if the majority of gamers can
beat it in less time.
-- Mike
Thor: Figuring out how long a game takes to beat is really, really hard.
I've received letters from people who finished Final Fantasy 7 in under 25 hours,
and people who spent over 100 perfecting their Materia. It really depends on how
you play your game. Do you rush through, ask friends for help seconds after being
stuck and ditch side story at every turn, or do you live your favorite RPG?
Now, what I want to know, is how an illiterate five year old can beat SaGa Frontier
faster than I can...
Quickies that satisfy:
Knight Elric had this to say aboutt Gameshark troubles: "Chances are that it's not the memory
card, but rather the GS. FF7 has similar problems. When you input a code, and then try to
load a saved game, it will say "File is ruined". This scared the bejesus out of me the first
time it happened. Luckily, it's not ruined. All you have to do is turn the GS off, load the
saved game, and then turn it back on." // OK. I tell people Xenogears is pronounced
"ZEE-noh-gears" and am corrected. I tell people Square pronounces Xenogears
"ZEH-no-gears", and am told "not to let Square bully me around." I just can't win, can I?
// Rudy Wiley fell out of his chair upon seeing my Tifa/Lara joke yesterday. I'm proud.
The more fatalities I am linked to, the better! // And finally, an unnamed RPGamer (not
the same guy, I promise) said: "im not going to give you a footrub. ask one of your loyal RPGirls.
I'll bet they do it". Unnamed RPGamer: Not on your life. Girls like me just fine, but
when it comes to touching my scary size 14 an' a half feet, they're rather uninterested...
Thor Stuff:
Itchy. Scratchy. Tasty.
- Thor "I'm sick, damnit" Antrim
I understand war and death. They cull the weak. But God, what the heck is with colds?!
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