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serpentaurus Blog

Top ten - Upcoming RPGs

Yep,a list with the heaviest Rpgs (in my opinion) coming this year and the next:

10. Infinite undiscovery: This is the new Tri-Ace game, and although they barely have given pieces of information about it, i decided to put IU in the 10th place just because the developers never have disappointed me, and the over-artful premise of their games always end up grabing my attention.

9. Final Fantasy VS Xlll: The dark toned game of the Fabula nova Crystallis project have me hooked since the last year, and according to Nomura the development process for the game in the PS3 is going smooth, you know, he has been praising the PS3 capabilities, a good sign for VS Xlll.

8. Soul Nomad: Some people could argue about how "heavy" can this game be when compared to the cutting edge technology that others Rpgs are using in the current gen, but if SN, also known as Soul Cradle: Devourer of the world, was built with the basics of Disgaea in mind, i can expect a underplayed future cult ****c SRpg with over 50 hours of gameplay and a lot of cutesy 2d sprites (okay i am more interested in the battle system and the story :P ).

7. The Last Remnant: I heard of this game like a month (or two) ago, but the Remnant concept let me impressed. The idea of explore cities built near to giant ancient artifacts infused with some kind of magic gave me hope in the RPGs of the current gen, and the Square Rpgs specifically. If only the developers (the Saga series team) had given more information about the Battle system and the story this game surely would have been in the top 5.

6. Eternal Sonata: ES looks a lot like Radiata stories, and i used to love that game. Also, the battle system in ES (called Trusty Bell in japan) seems to have been overhauled, in relation to others ARPG, in pro of the strategic part of the battles which is a good thing.I could say other things about this game, but lets continue with the top10 :P.

5. Folklore: part action, part Rpg. The graphics and the story looks astonishing, and the ability to catch every monster in the world and then use them with the four main buttons of the Six-axis sounds like fun. But i will have to wait for a PS3 price drop though.

4. Jeanne D'Arc: The moment i saw this game for the first time, the moment i fell in love with it!. But that's not quite a surprise considering that final fantasy tactics is my favorite game of all time, you know, JD'A is a SRpg which uses mechanics reminiscent of FFtactics. I will have to buy a PSP if i want to enjoy 2xSRpg this year :P(the FFtactics remake will be available this year too)

3. Persona 3: This is my most anticipated game of the year!. P3 is very hard to explain. Well, lets start; P3 features two game modes, one in the day and one in the night. The first one is about the enhancement of relationships with school friends and the people of the city, and the second one is about the Tartarus, a creepy tower thats suddenly appear every night at the dark hour carrying monster, and where the battle system play it's role. The main character and his friends defend theirselves using personas, which supposedly are their inner beings and only can be freed when their carriers are on the verge of dying. So, here is the dilemma, how can the characters summon their Personas without being on the "verge of dying"?, they simulate their dead with a fake weapon pointing it to the head and firing. Sounds interesting, right?.

2. Final Fantasy Xlll: FF never ever have disappointed me (well, just with FFX-2), and the creativity and effort that Square is putting into this game is reason enough to give to FFXlll one of the first places in the top 10. Square always exploits the capabilities of the hardwares, and being the PS3 one (if not the most) of the best cutting edge pieces of technology, i can assure that this game will be a blast to play.

1. Lost Odyssey: The father of the Rpg is back, this is the new game of Hironobu Sakaguchi. I am very excited to see how LO turns out to be. We don't have a lot of information yet, but hey, Sakaguchi is leading the team, and being he the father of final fantasy, this game should be even better than FFXlll :P .

Games that aren't in the list but maybe should have are: Blue Dragon, the Level 5 PS3 Rpg (forgot the name), Dragoneer Aria, etc.

Finally, Order of ambrosia

I just got the hightest rank of FFXll, Order of ambrosia. In other words, i beated everything that could be beated, including Yiazmat, Omega Weapon and Zodiark; obtained every spell, map, etc, etc, etc. Except a Danjuro,the infamous almost impossible to obtain dagger, and the Zodiac Spear, just because this was my firts playthrough and i didn't know about the treasures that couldn't be openned (i wonder who came out with the idea... :| ). All in all, i found the game very deep and enjoyable, but also found a lot of flaws that could be fixed in the International version, like the vanish spell, or the lack of "break damage limit" for the lv3 Espers, and if they are, i even could take in consideration to import the game. Well, i think i will finish this entry with my most-less memorable and funniest moments in FFXll:

  • Most: The battle with Ultima in the great crystal, with my characters underleveled, wearing regular equipment and my other Espers, hearing every moment the Esper battle theme, nothing more to say. (runner up: (spoiler i suppose) the moment when Larsa decides to betray his brother in the Sky fortress bahamut)

  • Less: Discovering that "Schaton", the "overdrive" of Ultima was capped at 9999. Whoever though of this should be fired, really, why 250 points of magic power (only rivalized by the Zodiark 50k damage and the black hole/luminescense concurrences), without count how hard is to trigger, if the damage would be equal to that of a normal character in two seconds, why? :cry: .(Runner up: The fact that i noticed a serious lack of story segments after the events at Mt Bur Omisace, until Old Archades).

  • Funniest:When i got my first quickening, i didn't know how to use combos, so i just pressed continuously the R2 button without getting results. I felt very... when found out that the combos could be made pressing the other buttons. (Runner up: my characters fighting Zodiark, zodiark hp less than10 %, zodiark inmune to physical damage, only three allies left. I used the trick of reflectgaand Scathe on all my allies and left only a bit of hp in zodiark, i though i would win, but then, almost inmediately after my scathe is reflected, he uses his own scathe on my three characters wipping them out. Funny, isn't it).

Mythological reference in games

Speaking of rpgs and action_adventure games in general, i consider this complex area of the gameplay as important as a story, battle system or soundtrack can be. "Why would it be so relevant?" or "It is even gameplay?" are obvious questions that could derive from my last affirmation, and my answers would be, yes, it is relevant and yes, itis gameplay. A good mythological reference sets the background, and ultimately the introduction for a game. Also, in my opinion, it makes a soundtrack much more natural and enjoyable, i wouldn't be expecting a game based on, for example, japanese myths (like Okami) to feature western-like sounds and music, it would ruin the game, at least for me. And for those whoes haven't noticed yet, the myths are already a part of the gameplay; i cannot imagine myself playing God of War without know anything at all about greek mythology, Castlevania ignoring all the time the vampire reference found through the story (any of them), or final fantasy withouth notice that every piece of weapon (at least the powerful ones), bosses, summon monsters, etc., are based on some kind of myth; its simply 50% less fun.

I know that most of people tend to ignore this juicy and deep part in a game, but for those whoes doesn't, enjoy, every game is better that way.

Odin Sphere and Grim grimoire, i want to play them now!!

My Ps2 is still alive, and this gen wont be over until the day in which my gamer soul finally reaches its peak beating both of those games (just kidding). Then, full speed next gen! (speaking of next gen, and still haven't decided which console to buy). While i will be playing the games i missed, replaying what i didn't missed, and... studying so that this semester dont be a failure.    

FFXll not for the average player

I hate the way some people want to speak about FF12. I have been playing games since a long time ago, and have found nothing better than the ff series. Recently my best game moment was no other than to play through FF12, and i just loved it, the graphics, the soundtrack, the battle sistem, they were all almost perfect through my eyes. But i oftenly have been reading post from people whoes apparently think of 12 as an horrible game, and i hate it!. I think this happened because some persons that never had played a FF game in their life, or even a RPG, tried to pick it up and i suppose they were just oversized by the inmensity of the game. The ff games get around 20 years of history but i still cannot pretend everybody be informed about their greatness, however, i wish i could suggest to whoever would want to make a comment about ff12 that if don`t know what if talking about firts read or ask about what is ff.