sigh...

OMGizzle - 3 post in a day, nay in a few hours? Ridiculous, especially cuz that last one doesn't really count much (read: at all)

Mmm, yes, feeling in a sighing mood. Busy, I'm sure. I might have to try alternate means of contact.

So anyway, oblique references aside, I started playing Chrono Trigger. Not sure about it yet, but it's not knee-deep in a bunch of hardcore fantasy shit yet, so I'm still sticking with it. The impetus for it, of course, was poking around on Action Button again. Funny, the site never seemed to merit being bookmarked, but I still stop back there every now and then and spend inordinate amounts of time reading ridiculously long "reviews". I say that with quotes 'cause they're really not reviews, so much as rants somewhat loosely affiliated with a game that the "reviewer" might have played at some point recently, or not. It's a tenuous connection in many places. A lot of it is excessive crap, but I never visit there because I actually want to know whether or not to get/play a game. That's for more mainstream sources. No, Action Button serves more as a thoughtful look at games, especially those of the Japanese variety. The review on Chrono Trigger was glowing, and I certainly like how there isn't a jarring shift from the world to the combat zone - so props for that. That said, the very things that purportedly make this the best JRPG ever may end up making me hate it. Tim Rogers may despise FF7, but I love it...to an extent. The same goes for X, but with even greater reservations. The combat is vaguely interesting in 7, not so much in the latter. X is hurt even further (this really was my biggest problem with the game) by the totally linear nature of it. Absolutely no open spaces, compared to 12's ridiculous amounts of roaming room (which made it feel much more real). I like the story of 7 quite a bit, poorly translated as it may be. Now, I am led to understand that it isn't singularly original, but that's fine with me, really. The assault on the Shin-Ra headquarters will forever be one of the greatest, most powerful dungeons that I've ever played through. All of the weird music and pixelated blood was honestly disturbing and set a great tone for the level. And shortly after that...they get out of the city and the story's cohesion falls apart until the end game. Granted, some of that is needed in terms of getting you to new places and opening up sidequests and whatnot, but I really have to wonder what would have happened if the whole story played out in Midgar. I'm going to be keeping that in mind for LiZ 2nd Edition (or whatever I end up calling this big, ugly mess). Funny how my interest in the whole love story thing is fading, and it's all because my inbox is devoid of white stripes. Ah, my moods are ever mutable and fickle. No fear, 3EB will fix that nicely.

So, on to the focus of my thinking over the last hour or so. Somebody needs to murder every person associated with JRPGs - fans, producers, everyone. Might as well loose lions on the entire freaking country for what I'm proposing. The problem is that, twenty years ago, the SNES couldn't handle anything other than incredibly simplistic, turn-based combat. The games were superb, and that bred a large fanbase that hasn't been able to get it through it's collective skull that there isn't a reason for turn-based combat any more. The 360 and the PS3 are more than capable of something other than hideous, boring number crunching. That said, TB is just interesting enough to keep players from ripping their eyes out and drowning in their own inner agony, but when you compare it to any reasonable shooter, the quality of the gameplay just dies. As pointed out on Action Button, the combat in Gears is exactly the same throughout the entire game, with only slight variations in terms of weaponry. You are doing the exact thing for 10-15 hours, it is extremely simple (in concept at least), and it never gets boring, never becomes a grind. TB combat, on the other hand, loses it's charm before you ever start playing the game. I'm not saying we need something as watered down and fruity as Kingdom Hearts, and I have high hopes for FF13 and all of that rapid command entering nonsense. I'm also interested to see what happens with Eternal Sonata - the combat looks like it might just give this realm a shot in the arm. On the other hand, I'm not advocating something like the fighting in Odin Sphere, which is only marginally better than, say FFX. It is just as simplistic, but the level design makes this so much more obvious than in Gears of War. No, perhaps a much more fleshed out system, a grown up version of what is going on in Kingdom Hearts, where you are inputing specific attacks in order to make your character pull off all of his/her ridiculous attacks. Whatever it ends up being, it must be something that can finally replace turn-based combat. Nobody stuck to the little tree-shape tiles because that was a core aspect of the genre, and there is no reason to do the same with poor gameplay. Now the cliche fantasy elements are another rant entirely.

Glad I've got this to take my mind off of other things. It's not that I think that things are heading downhill or anything, it's just that even the most fleeting contact every now and then is...reassuring, not in the sense that it allays any fears (there aren't any), it just engenders warm, fuzzy feelings, which I find I like. Sigh...
It'll be interesting to see how this all pans out. I really hope it works, I honestly do, but...Again, we'll see.

- Veracity Out -
"wait and see"