Rarin' to go

Here's some photos of the rarest and most costliest games (at least to me) I own:

 

A Slideshow of Rare games I own from Stuart Nichols

Take up this blade

This week I’ve been playing a lot of Xenoblade Chronicles.
Yes after some bafflement at it’s selective releasing, I finally have my claws on Xenoblade Chronicles. It may have cost me an arm and a leg but there is enough curiosity to justify such an investment. The reinvention that JRPGs were in dire need of? The last gasp of the Wii? A shining beacon in amongst a barren RPG-starved platform? A game that was so good that it was only released once in Australia? And before the US for that matter? Well that’s enough for me.

So what do I think about Xenoblade Chronicles? Well I’m six hours in and so far it’s looking good. Now I’ve played numerous Final Fantasy games so that will ultimately influence my perception of JRPGs in general – indeed, when playing other JRPGs I’ve found it very hard not to notice the fingerprints of Final Fantasy abound. That being said, I’m so far finding that Xenoblade Chronicles is doing a lot of things differently: I’m enjoying the combat and the necessity for being mobile on the battlefield. I like how the time cycles work and the difference in day/night environments. The random encounters are handled great through being in purely optional manner. The mecha designs are pretty good and I’ve enjoyed the vast array of subquests. The environments are very beautiful too and the graphics are incredible to a point that I never thought possible on the aging Wii. I’m also enjoying the British Accents throughout the game and the fact that the PC, Shulk, isn’t an incompetent, whiny, little bitch.

Of course this only the beginning – whether this welcome will last or fall flat on it’s face is only matter of time. I find the subquest completion system a bit odd (you do certain quests and they’re automatically done? No return for confirmation? O….K….) and this being part of the Xeno series I strongly suspect there’ll be some heavy handed condemnations of the Catholic church (as JRPGs are wont to do).
But ultimately I can see the claims that Xenoblade Chronicles does things differently have weight – and going against the grain is indeed something that should be championed. Indeed, I’ve been playing this after a long absence from JRPGs and it is great to finally be having some fun again.

Indeed, it would be interesting to see, as I progress deeper into this game, if this pace can be kept up…

Drop the Bomb

I recently read that SquareEnix is currently in a rather precarious position: Following the flop that was Final Fantasy XIV, the once revered JRPG company is in the position where if yet another flop comes along, it'll be curtains for SquareEnix as a whole.

Personally, I hope such a thing does come about. Yeah that's right: I sincerely hope that SqueeEnix does close it's doors for good and we can all move on. Sure that may not be an opinion shared by a group of people who vastly outnumber me but I speak as someone who's realized that the glory days of SqueeEnix are well & truly past and it's unlikely they will ever get back on their feet again.

Call me a cynic (or a heretic) but it is a somewhat realistic approach: SquareEnix is not the giant it once was and it's continued presence is looking more like a deadweight. Why? Well several reasons actually:
Key figures within the company have left the company and struck on their own (in the form of Mistwalker and Monolith Soft); no new talent is being groomed or developed in the wake of the aforementioned departures; the company is sticking to their RPGs and not trying (or, more accurately, risking) anything new; the possibility of a Kingdom Hearts 3 game is looking unlikely with each passing year; and SqueeEnix seems to be running on established ideas with it's recent involvement in the recent Tomb Raider and Deus Ex games. All of which suggests that SqueeEnix seem unwilling to try/risk new ideas and/or get some new blood into the stable.

So maybe it is time to move on: If SqueeEnix aren't prepared to try something new and would rather keep milking the cash cows of previous successes then maybe it is time to let it die in peace. The world has changed considerably since 1997-2000 and instead of basking in nostalgia how about finding something new you haven't discovered before? Who knows, you might actually find something enjoyable.

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Addendum:
To those who still want a FF7 remake: You're not helping. Yes we get the idea that Final Fantasy 7 may well have been the zenith of JRPGs but there are other games out there - including JRPGs - so you should at least give them a chance (apparently Xenoblade Chronicles is really good). Besides, it's better to got out and explore than giving up completely right?
And besides, if you keep claiming that doing an update of a 2d-game-done-3d in modern tech can be done then how about producing some evidence to back it up?

See? No Blade Chronicles

Last year I was feeling pretty chuffed about Xenoblade Chronicles. Finally we Australians were getting some recognition by the gaming industry! We were getting a game well before the places that actually matter (the U.S.)! And hearing many a good thing about Xenoblade Chronicles only made me more excited.

But the release date came and went and I've never saw the game available anywhere. Puzzled, I looked around constantly but came up with zip. Eventually though I got in touch with a friend and he filled me in: Yes Xenoblade Chronicles was released in Australia before the U.S. BUT it was only one shipment. Needless to say, it sold out quite quickly.

Mere words cannot describe this disappointment. I really thought we Australians were finally being taken seriously as a gaming market but all it amounted to was just another kick in the nuts.
So, in the vain hope that some distributor is reading this, may I say the following: You know why people go on ebay and buy imported games? Yeah there is a reason for that....

The Magnificent Seven

I feel like I'm the only one in the universe who's not wanting SqueeEnix to remake Final Fantasy 7. Now I have played FF7 and found it quite enjoyable but this was on my own terms: If I came late to it (2009 was when I actually sat down and played it for real), it was the intimidation factor: The accolades of the game and the continuing popularity of the game (practically unheard of in gaming before or since) raises the level of expectation to near impossible levels - so much so any newcomer would go in expecting to find Jesus.

SqueeEnix have steadfastly refused to remake FF7 and their reasons are sound enough: Namely the cost involved, building the whole thing over from scratch and the key people behind the original now scattered into different avenues. But still the fans persist to have their demands heard, you'd think they were holding a building full of people at gunpoint.

I've expressed some of thoughts already from suggesting that the prospects of remakes could be put to better use fixing the games of the post FF-7 era and how a game you played at ten years old being remade won't make it better but really, I give up: Why do you people want FF7 remade? What, hasn't there been any better games released in the fourteen years since? It's already on the PSN so it's not like it's not readily available and not getting played. Is it really the Nirvana of JRPGs that anything else isn't worth it (although I hear Xenoblade Chronicles is pretty cool)? Is it because it's so good that no other JRPG designer - not even SqueeEnix themselves - have no hope in hell of matching it, let alone surpassing it?
Yes it sold millions, yes assisted Sony in it's rise to power but at the end of the day so what? The game did it's job so why can't we just walk away and leave it?



In fact, the longed for revamp of FF7 makes an interesting counterpoint to the recent Star Wars release on Blu-ray. Here, George Lucas has enough money to do whatever the hell he likes but his attention is still focused on the thing that made him famous. And with the Blu-ray he is still mining for hard nerd cash that people will gladly hand over without a second thought.
BUT! The Blu-rays have been tampered with yet again into something that makes the original release near unrecognizable. Many fans are calling foul and getting into the rage that only nerds can muster. People are furious that George has been tampering continually with something they adored and wish he'd stop.

So I put this question to you FF7 fans: Is this what you want?
Do you want your favorite game tampered with?
Do you want something you loved being raped and repackaged?
Do you want to hand over your dollars to someone who doesn't give a toss what you think?
Do you want to support a company who's staying afloat through their single moment of glory?
Do you want to support a company who can't seem to move on from that single moment of glory?
Do you want so many childhood memories forever ruined?

But really a game still hailed with such fervor after fourteen years, and a few generations, seems to suggest the person in question haven't played anything else since
That being said, maybe it's high time we all started living in the present.

It's gonna rain

I recently found out that that Project Rainfall has, surprisingly, borne fruit: Whilst the campaign to bring The Last Story, Pandora's Tower and Xenoblade has not been heeded by Nintendo of America, it has however made Nintendo of Europe sit up and take notice.

Thus The Last Story, Pandora's Tower and Xenoblade will now all come out for Europe and Australia. Yet whether or not an American release comes about remains to be seen.

But for now, I'd like to take this moment to relish the fact that, for once, us Australians are getting something whilst the US has to miss out.

Does it feel good to be smug? Oh God yes.....