mrstickball said:
With my 78 score for TLR, I am using a composite of the scores I would give it with, and without the HDD install. I'd give it a 74-75 without the install, and 82-83 with. The game 'feels' different when you have no load times, no frame drops, and greatly reduced texture pop in. It still has it's problems, but helps put it closer to the upper-eschelon of JRPGs on the 360. It's not 'near classic' thanks to the storyline, pacing, and a few combat flaws. However, the game oozes ambition, and hits so many good chords that a strategy-based RPG has not had in ages. I can only HOPE that Square Enix revisits the TLR formula, and polishes it. I think that if they took the combat/union system, attached a better story, and less technical problems, they'd have the best JRPG on the 360. Really hope that TLR2 comes out, or a spiritual successor. As for ES and BD....My problem with ES is the fact that the story (at least in the US translation) is the most god-awful story I've ever had the displeasure of playing through. Ever. It gets so contrived and meaningless in the last 2 chapters, it loses it's soul. Furthermore, the economy of the game is borked due to Beat's camera, and the battle system became stale at the end of the game. For Blue Dragon, I feel that, despite the unoriginality of what the game presented - between the storyline, and overall 'feel', the fact remains it was well-executed, and there's a lot of depth to the battle system. Throw in incredible graphics, and Uematsu's best soundtrack in ages (IMO), and I think it was a great game. I know I've rated it much higher than other games, but BD is a love-or-hate-it game, and I revel in all of it's faithful homage to a well-executed 16 bit game. Ultimately, JRPGs fall into 4 categories:
In many of the X360's JRPG cases, few games are in the 'ambitious' pile. Only TLR and ES are truely in that category (both for combat, and ES for visuals). Neither game follows in the 'polish' category which many other JRPGs have gone into (BD, LO and most of all, ToV). On the other side, many games feel uninspired, as few rely on any 'new' innovations. Even my favorite JRPG, Tales of Vesperia, is outside of this category. On the other end, many are flawed in major fashions, and some like PSU, IU and EM are just plain uninspired, and lack any sort of soul. LO and BD could also be lobbied (slightly) as being uninspired, as they rely on former inventions of the genre. Of course, very few JRPGs ever hit chords as both ambitious and inspired. 2 of the few JRPGs I can think on that faithfully executed on those formats would be all-time greats such as Chrono Trigger, and Kingdom Hearts. The Last Remnant had some glimmers of Chrono Trigger-esque choices in combat, but the overall package is severely lacking. But it could with a TLR2, however. |
Woah,now. Here is where I have to disagree. Lost Odssey and Tales, while my two favorite 360 games, are definetly not polished JRPGs. Both of them cut corners whether it be bugs, technical issues, or lackluster AI.
I haven't beaten BD, so I won't comment. I do think if Tales and LO were in development for a few more they would have that level of polish that only Final Fantasy usually achieves.
