The latest news and updates on game releases from Japan. Includes reviews, videos and guides.

I wanted Final Fantasy XIII-2 to be the game to prove that Square Enix hadn’t lost touch with their audience and the JRPG genre.  I wanted it to justify why I couldn’t turn my back on the developer despite years of lackluster titles.  My past held me back — fond memories of hours spent with games Square released during their golden years.  As difficult as it is to admit to myself, I believe Final Fantasy XIII-2 is proof that the franchise and perhaps its developer have lost the magic they were once capable of crafting.

*Note: I invested roughly 10 hours into Final Fantasy XIII-2 but did NOT complete it*

The story follows Serah who is on a quest to find her sister, Lightning, and prove she survived the events of the previous game.  For an unknown reason, only Serah is aware of Lightning’s survival preceding her disappearance.  One day a man with large, dumb pants named Noel appears.  Noel is from a future in which he was the last surviving human (sounds like a more interesting setting for a game, no?).  For some reason Noel knows everything about time travel.  Apparently having time traveled once makes you an expert.  Noel is accompanied by a Moogle, which Lightning inexplicably summoned, who can inexplicably turn into a bow and arrow.  The Moogle is also quite knowledgeable about time travel.  Any time I had a “what the hell is that” moment, one of them would chime in “Oh, that’s a time paradox distortion crystal sign sigil”.  The duo would proceed to explain that it was a result of time travel and it could be fixed by, you guessed it: time traveling.  I would expect such a weak basis for a story from a mission-based game — not a Final Fantasy.

I feel compelled to mention the game’s leading duo, who should be extremely developed considering there are only two of them.  But they are not.  Serah never feels like a true protagonist, just eye-candy lacking any spark of intelligence.  This is accented by the game’s “Live Trigger” dialog wheel that pops up from time to time.  If Sarah is the one doing the talking, there is nearly always an option that suggests she has no clue as to what is going on:

Who could blame her, really?  But if my protagonist doesn’t understand the events happening around her, why should I try to?  As for Noel, he has an interesting backstory.  I wanted to see his world on the verge of humanity’s extinction — that might have at least helped me understand his motivations better.  But this opportunity is sadly missed, and so Noel is nothing but a vaguely understood tagalong with dumb pants, a sword, and an encyclopedic knowledge of time travel.

There is no single world or time in Final Fantasy XIII-2.  Rather there is a hub called the Historia Crux where the player will return to after combining a magical time crystal with a magical time gate — in other words, completing a mission.  Once there the player may scroll through a number of other locations, all of which are at different eras and all of which have a distortion that needs mending.  When I revisited an area at a different time, little had changed other than a path opening or different NPC dialog.  Some characters who I thought were crucial to the story didn’t even remember who I was.  Due to time travel, they couldn’t possibly remember my intervention.  And so any rapport we had was gone.  This lack of continuity across time and space made it very difficult to feel attached to any given area or world.  I was simply passing through, in a rush to complete my mission and move on.

The biggest update to combat in Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the addition of collectible monsters, awarded to the player upon defeating them.  The player can assign a roster of three monsters to round out their paradigms they may shift to during battle.  This feature proved easily to be the game’s greatest improvement.  It was enjoyable to find a monster, name them, assign them to my party, and give them an adornment such as a silly hat or tattoo.  I also appreciated the depth of how I could raise a monster, as certain materials will increase their stats differently.  This allowed me to tailor a beast to correspond to its role in combat.  However, many of the monsters are simple palette swaps with different skills and roles.  This lack of individuality among beasts made it hard to feel excited to raise a new one when another had become obsolete.  Sadly the feature I was most excited for became simply a necessary part of party management rather than something to make the combat system of Final Fantasy XIII feel fresh.

The monster system is the game’s biggest improvement, but it still fell short

Final Fantasy XIII-2 was not a good game.  Its time travel-based story not only failed to build substance onto the foundation built by its predecessor but it failed to entertain, leaving me frustrated.  Marginal improvements to combat and exploration were overshadowed by a disjointed mission-based system which kept me from knowing the world I was trying to rescue.  The game’s tepid duo never felt like true protagonists, but a brick on the gas pedal moving me through the time-traveling bullshit.  If Final Fantasy XIII was a nail in the coffin of Square Enix JRPGs, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the undertaker.

This weekend I made a lot of progress in the world of gaming.  Among my accomplishments was completing the Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning demo.  There have been a lot of conflicting opinions on this game so I decided the time had come for me to establish my own!

I liked the format of the demo a lot.  It allowed me to create a character and proceed through the story until arriving at the game’s open world, at which point I was given 45 minutes to explore.  And there is quite a bit the player can experience in those 45 minutes, with so many mini quests generously doled out by numerous dull NPCs.

I immediately disliked the game’s aesthetics and art direction, feeling like a cross between World of Warcraft and a bad Disney movie.  Everything from armor to swords looked clunky and out of place.  Knights deftly wielded large rounded swords which looked like they should have “Nerf” written somewhere on the hilt.  My complaint lies mainly in character design, environments and non-human enemies were passable, albeit a little predictable.

Combat is where the game shines.  I chose to become a thief or rogue — always a good idea when testing a game’s deeper mechanics such as stealth and ranged attacks.  Initially I yawned at the hack and slash feel of basic combat, but as my arsenal of weapon varieties grew, the game showed that it had a lot more to offer.  After acquiring a set of daggers I was told to sneak up behind an enemy, which allowed me to execute a one-button kill yielding a violent and gratifying cinematic.  This felt fun and clean, and was a nice alternative to mindless button mashing.

Character progression also had some potential.  I was given a few opportunities to decide my character’s path, honing in on my desired playstyle.  Once I was comfortably saddled on the route to becoming a thief, a tree of skills opened up to me which provided even more substance to combat.  I could increase damage passively, apply status effects to my weapons, or unlock new attacks.  I was especially partial to one dagger skill in which I could charge through a number of enemies repeatedly at high speeds.  The more I put into character customization, the more rewarding it, and conversely combat, became.

The story was nothing special, but I did rather enjoy the beginning in which your character awakens in a pile of corpses — a mysterious way to begin a game if ever there was one.  It was all downhill after that.  Convenient amnesia made my character dumb to the events happening around it and most NPCs provided little in the way of concrete information.  They did have, for whatever reason, a number of dialog options that caused each NPC to repeat the same vague snippets I’d heard from every other NPC.  The world and its inhabitants failed to feel alive or engaging.

Conclusion: If you took the combat system of Kingdom of Amalur and dropped it into a game where more effort was put into art direction and story you would have an amazing package.  Ultimately Kingdom of Amalur came off as an unfortunate combination of innovation muddled by lazy execution.

Every Friday I make a post containing links to interesting articles I have found throughout the week.  If you already follow me on Twitter, then you will have probably seen most of the following links.  Enjoy!

LOOK

• JE Sawyer, one of the key minds behind Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, talks weapons.
• A recent study shows that, unsurprisingly, MMORPGs can put a strain on marriages.  Here is the full report for you scholarly folks.
• A complete list of JRPG cliches.  How many are in your favorite game?
• The Vita is out!  I am not buying one, but here is a list of all the compatible PSP titles that work on the system.
• Nice job, Capcom.
• Cormac McCarthy (one of my favorite authors) and Ridley Scott (one of my favorite directors) are teaming up on a project together, entitled The Counselor.
• Fukuoka island cats — the luckiest critters there is, I reckon.
  • My cat, Hobbes, taking a snooze.
  • Cat zombie apocalypse
• Chapter 3 of Rumbirds has started, time to catch up!
• For Valentine’s day I had burgers and local beer made with local chocolate, yum.
• The Emu War was one of the least successful and most hilarious military campaigns ever.
• These are the new Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite PSN avatars.
• Breaking Bad X Starcraft
• Which category of Japanese man are you?
• Wondering what the newest Atlus e-mail teaser image was hinting at?  Persona 4 for Vita perhaps?

WATCH

Gwyn, Lord of Cinder Played in Piano

It really helps me out.

Tunnel Snakes Rule.

Watch me fight a Kushala Daora in Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite with a Heavy Bowgun

Foreigners living in Japan explain what they find unusual in the country.  Here is a full translation.

When I go to Target, as I did this weekend, I make it a habit of checking out the Pokemon toys that are in stock.  There are usually only a few, tucked away between figures of the latest Disney abortion and those mini skateboard for your fingers that no one knows how to use.  My goal is always the same: to find a simple figure of one of my favorite Pokemon for my desk at work.

I haven’t purchased many, most of them don’t appeal to me, generally featuring a collectible monster I don’t want.  Another, more common problem, is that the figures aren’t simply figures, but part of some larger poorly constructed game in which users launch plastic projectiles at one another to determine a winner.  At least, I think that’s how it works.  Here is one of these toys I am talking about I saw yesterday at Target:

If you’re confused as to exactly what this toy does, allow me to present you with the copy taken directly from Toys R’ Us:

With the Pokemon Black & White Pop n’ Battle Launch with Attack set you can become a Pokemon Champion by mastering this awesome game play experience with this 1.5 inch Poke Ball Launcher and 1 inch Pokemon inside that launches out to battle! Includes attack target that snaps closed on Pokemon when a successful attack is launched.

Was that written by a coked up nine year old who attended a marketing class at a community college?

Now you may be an amateur to the world of Pokemon, but I’ve played every game since 1998 when the series first broke soil in North America, and the above description makes no fucking sense to me.  Are you attacking with this Scraggy or are you attempting to catch it?  Why is there a box?  Is the box within the Pokeball, like some kind of dream within a dream Inception-style bullshit?  Either way it’s clear that these toys aren’t consistent with the world of Pokemon which no doubt confuses fans of the series.

Recently a certain brand of toys has begun successfully bridging the gap between toy and video game as well as consumers both young and old: Skylanders.  You’ve no doubt heard about the impact the franchise made on the 2011 holiday season, with sought after figures selling for close to hundreds of dollars an auction sights like eBay.  If you’re not in the know, this trailer explains more or less how the game and its figures work:

So in a nutshell you purchase the game as well as at least one figure.  You can’t actually access a certain character without its relative figure, meaning if you want ‘em all you gotta buy ‘em all.  After acquiring a figure, you place it on the magical stargate thingy, and you assume control over that character in game.  There you are free to battle enemies using simple action-RPG and platforming mechanics, accruing EXP which can be used to customize your character and their abilities.  At any point you may remove the figure from the base and replace it with a different one to seamlessly transition into another figure’s persona.  Any modifications you make to a character are saved on memory built into the figure itself.

Now I’ve never played Skylanders, but allow me to explain what the series is doing right in my eyes (which is largely why it is succeeding):

It Recognizes Its Market

When toys are made to emulate anything pertaining to video games, it can be assumed that the target market understands video games.  That’s not much of a leap, right?  They are familiar with the rules and concepts that permeate the medium, so why give them boiled down nonsense, like that Scraggy Pop n’ Battle Launcher?

Desire to Collect

There are a number of successful video game and action figure franchises that appeal to the consumer’s desire to collect.  Skylanders builds on this principle by offering something that is both physical and digital.

Blazing Trails

Considering the popularity of Skylanders it’s easy to imagine the technology being used for other games in the future.  This seems even more likely given the recent announcement that the Wii U will feature the same NFC technology in the console’s controller.  I wonder what Nintendo could have in mind for this feature?  Could this be the feature that sets the newest Nintendo console apart from the pack in the way motion control once did?

Not Just DLC

One of the biggest gripes concerning DLC is that you pay for something that isn’t tangible.  After a brief download or an unlock, you’re left with little else to prove your money was turned into something that matters.  With NFC technology, nearly any physical object can be used to store and transmit data which effects your game.  Provided that these figures aren’t simply a vehicle for said data, but a well designed piece of plastic, NFC technology starts to look far more desirable than DLC.

Letting my imagination concoct different possible applications of this tech is exciting.  Here are some examples which should get you salivating:

• Pokemon Colosseum — Collect Pokemon figures, level them up, organize their skills, battle your friends
• Monster Hunter — Collect monster figures, unlocking them in-game as well as weaponry and Felyne comrades
• Animal Crossing — Bring your character’s figure to visit someone else’s town, purchase new village residents or town upgrades
• Fighting Games — Customize your character’s outfit (store the data on a figure, card, fight stick) load it up at your friend’s place and fight in style
• Multiplayer RPGs/Shooters/Etc. — Buy a character’s figure, customize them, level them, team up with friends to take on bigger, badder enemies, purchase new weapons which are unlocked in-game

My wallet just shuddered, anticipating a world where I lose all control over my credit card hand.  But in all seriousness, Skylanders has begun to fuse together my love of video games with my love of toys in an innovative and relevant way.  Seeing the massive popularity of Skylanders as well as the adoption of its core technology in future consoles tells me that we haven’t seen the last of this fusion, and I look forward to seeing new ways it is implemented.

Last week fellow enthusiast of awesome games Brad Galloway asked his Twitter followers if there were games they loved despite being flawed in some way.  I sprang at the opportunity to switch gears and get all nostalgic for a bit.  Keeping up to date on modern gaming news can be taxing, and sometimes the only cure is to slow down and slip back into the feeling a beloved game of generations past once gave you.  The game I chose to gush about was Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter.  I’ve included a portion of my bit below, but please check out the full article over on Brad’s blog.

Some games, like religious prophets, simply come before their time – before they can be comprehended by the masses. This was the first strike against Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. The game had cutting edge features for the Playstation 2 – features present in today’s modern generation of games: cell-shading, an AP driven battle system, and roguelike mechanics. Capcom took a big chance on Dragon Quarter, and many fans felt that in doing so they created a game that was not definitive of the Breath of Fire series. That was the second strike against Dragon Quarter, ultimately dooming the game to relative obscurity and criticisms. And yet I would list Breath of Fire’s final iteration among my favorite titles on the Playstation 2.

So please head over the Brad’s blog to read the rest as well as excerpts from other gamers.  This article is part one in a series so there is more heartfelt nostalgia to come.  What games, despite not quite achieving perfection, make you remember why you love games?