| The_vagabond7 said: Well, This game certainly has gotten a limited release. I went to two gamestops, wal-mart, target, and best buy and nobody had a single copy. I'm smelling 500K release week! Essentially what I've been hearing about it, is that it's for oldschool RPG fans. It is a classic JRPG that harkens back to games like Earthbound, high difficulty level included. It's fairly deep, and quite hard, has a really good soundtrack, and weird art direction. Sounds like something I must own. As for reviews I could care less. JRPGs never do well in reviews in the US (except Final Fantasy). A western reviewer will complain that a JRPG has a stale formula but praise the five-hundredth First Person Shooter that comes out in a year for it's involving gameplay. If a JRPG in can get a 7 from western reviewers it's probably a pretty damn fine JRPG. |
Most JRPGs do have a stale formula, though. Plucky, Big-Haired, Sword-Wielding Hero recruits Motley Cast of Adventurers to stop Big-Name Evil from Destroying The World In Some Spectacular Manner. And he'll most likely do so through a bunch of menu-based battles involving medieval weaponry, magic (or some analogue), and a "defend" and "run" option.
Plus, a lot of good JRPGs were well-received by reviewers last gen. Every Shin Megami Tensei game (except Devil Summoner), Shadow Hearts 2 & 3, Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2, Baten Kaitos, Xenosaga 1 & 3, Dragon Quest 8, Suikoden 3 & 5, Disgaea 1 & 2, Star Ocean 3, and Tales of Symphonia all received at least an 80% on Gamerankings, and many of those were 85% or above. Heck, Persona 3 was RPG of the Year for many critics over the Western-developed Mass Effect last year. On top of that, I really can't name a JRPG from last gen that deserved a high review average but didn't get it.
Plus, where are you getting the idea that every FPS gets good ratings? Reviewers shoot down mediocre-to-horrible FPSs all the time. (Just look at Army of Two, for a recent example.)
But, whatever. v
v
"'Casual games' are something the 'Game Industry' invented to explain away the Wii success instead of actually listening or looking at what Nintendo did. There is no 'casual strategy' from Nintendo. 'Accessible strategy', yes, but ‘casual gamers’ is just the 'Game Industry''s polite way of saying what they feel: 'retarded gamers'."
-Sean Malstrom
