Well it seems like a lot of his more tangible complaints such as for the hex system don't come into play until later in the game so I can't say whether I agree or disagree, will just have to see when I get to that point.

The Last Remnant got that too. I can understand points being taken for the tech issues. But not difficulty.

Oh it's just too hard! I suck so bad so -5 points!

Everyone has different opinions of what Hard means. The game has to be designed at some point... which means the devs had complete control over how the gameplay mechanics work out. If the mechanics seem like a chore or a grind or difficult or however you want to call it... it can take away some of the fun. Games are about fun right?

Anyways, I can't wait to get this game... but itll have to wait for after ff13 and dragon age =P

I have to say, the main reason for the "bias" is that these JRPGs don't exist in a vacuum.

When FFVIII had stilted characters, bad dialog, a cheesy story line and a horrid main character ("I'm a lone wolf I can't let anyone in..."...give me a break) it was OK because what was the alternative? Pools of Radiance?

I mean there were a few western RPG gems but they were almost all on the PC and REALLY required a commitment to understanding the very complex rules of systems like 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons. There just were no good mainline Western RPG games on the scale of Final Fantasy.

That is no longer the case. After games like Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout and Oblivion showed what could be done with a game, the old good enough rules don't apply.

Once you have truly human characters like Alister or Morigan from Dragon age in games weird annoying characters like the kid in Star Ocean 4 just don't cut it. Once you have evidence of how much choice adds to a game just linearly going from objective to objective with stilted dialog and no real connection to your main character doesn't cut it.

Look at the review, battles are super easy or frustratingly hard, sounds like most JRPGs (either easy and boring normal enemy fights and crazy annoying boss fights, a staple).

Next we have horrid voice acting and really stupid dialog again (why can't they just hire a western writer just once so we can get something that makes at least a little sense, and maybe no characters that haven't gone through puberty for once).

Finally a "new innovative battle system" that works on gimmics and doesn't really translate well across easy vs hard fights. How hard is it to make games that play well in all situations like Mass Effect or Dragon age or Jade Empire?

One thing JRPGs REALLY need to learn is scaling fights to the player so that it is always interesting. If you power level in Mass Effect or Oblivion suddenly when you go to a dungeon instead of running into a few weak enemies (as you would at low level) its suddenly you vs a horde or a big ass super tough enemy to make sure you remain challenged.


In short I used to love JRPGs. I beat Dragon Warrior when I was 6 back in 1989 and have been playing JRPGs ever since. I bought a PS1 just for FFVII and have played more or less every JRPG not on the Saturn (never bought one) including the weird ones like ephemeral Phantasia and Magna Carta.

More and more I realize I just liked JRPGs because there weren't many good competing choices, its not just a slight difference between Final Fantasy 13 and Mass Effect 2, its night and day. Besides the graphics the dialog, gameplay, story and characters are just so much better in Bioware games then Square games its kind of ridiculous.

It's not that JRPGs are worse, its that the scale has shifted from something like Dragon Warrior being the baseline to really good Bioware being the baseline by which RPGs are judged. Compared to games like Dragon Age games like Star Ocean just seem dated and lame. I still play JRPGs, but only when I've finished all the major WRPGs first these days.


I would bet RoF deserved what it got, just like FFXIII totally deserved 7s and 8s after I've played through most of it. If you want a 9-9.5 RPG try Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2 or Fallout 3.

  There really is a conspiracy to ruin the JRPG industry by WRPG makers, Bioware in particular.

  It is not carried out by secret societies or backroom deals though.  Pretty simply Bioware makes super awesome games with realistic characters even in fantasy settings and real (and interesting) choices combined with great gameplay.  This more or less makes games that otherwise would look awesome seem dated and unsatisfying.

 It's like how there is a conspiracy against other swimmers by Michael Phelps.  He makes them look bad because he's so much better then all of them, but that's their fault for not raising their game not his for being awesome.

That's the problem I'm having right now in Chapter 3. Everything is a breeze until I hit the boss, and then I have to redo the whole dungeon again which sucks. Many would be turned off by that. I hope later dungeons aren't long, and I wish there were save points in the dungeons. I know you can save during battles and dungeons, but you can only load it up once.

Haven't experienced the grinding for hex, but I can understand his frustration. I sort of experienced this in Devil Summoner 2 where I had to level up one of my demons' stats to 30 to move on to the next level...ridiculous.

I disagree with his view on the voice acting; I think it's pretty good.

Bought this from Amazon for $46.99 after $10.00 gaming credit. I didn't get FFXIII because I couldn't afford 3 games. I'll always have a sweet spot for Tri-Ace because I loved the Valkyrie Profile series. My purchase on release date is my way of giving reviews the middle finger. (I don't usually buy games on release date, too expensive for me.)

I'm just really interested in what Sega (who brought me my favorite PS3 RPG to date) and Tri-Ace can come up with.

Games should be challenging. I agree with you on that but the game system itself shouldn't be.

Look at Contra. It's one of the most challenging games around but the gameplay? Pick up a gun and shoot people. Easy enough for anyone to understand.

Or look at a more recent example; Etrian Odyessey. Very difficult game but very easy to understand, that's what I'm talking about.

And your analogy is silly, you're comparing modes to the battle systems? That's like docking point from ROF for not having multiplayer which the reviewer clearly doesn't do.

Yes it is but the game should be marked down for lack of accesiblity. I can tell you that playing Falcon 4.0 is amazing but to get to the level of fun you need to read pages upon pages of manuals to master the basic controls of that game. Would you get frustrated? Yes you would. Isn't that the opposite of what a game should do? Yes.

Meaning that if you have patience to work with a new system of battle with some challenge, you'll get your money's worth since you'll spend plenty of time getting better at it.