Quickies

- Pokémon Ranger 2 is not as half as bad as I thought it would be. It still isn't a good game, but at least it's not terrible as the first one. And it could be worse, really. God forbid I had to play a Mystery Dungeon to get Darkrai. That would be seriously cruel.

- Played lots of SMT: Nocturne trough the weekend. Did good advances but got pwned horribly by the Trumpeter. This game will still have a dedicated post here. It deserves badly.

- Will spend the week playing The World Ends With You to write a review. Heard the game was good, but Nomura is too present in this one, so I'll proceed with caution.

Need...sleep...now...

orz

Just a quick update while I'm still on work: this. Do you know what "this" means?

Means you can download Darkrai from Pokémon Ranger 2 to any Pokémon Diamond or Pearl if you finish the game and beat the secret mission that becomes available after that. It means also that I'm gonna have to go trough a horrible game AGAIN to get an exclusive legendary Pokémon. Damn Manaphy.

Fuck you, Nintendo. Fuck you in the arse.
Pokémon Ranger games could be AT LEAST decent.

Awesomeness, Part Deux

I didn't occur to me at the time (because I was so god damned tired) but there are a few more details that explain the success of Segata Sanshiro and that are not said in the video I posted yesterday.

As the people behind the documentary said, the campaign with Segata Sanshiro was a huge hit in Japan and helped to push hardware and software sales a little farther there. Because of that, the Sega Saturn had a much better (after) life in the land of the rising sun than in the US. But it's not only the kind of awesomeness of a judo fighter that beats the shit out of a whole club just because they want to dance all night and don't play their Saturns as they should. It's something deeper (?) than that.

The real success is not the character himself, but the man that portrays him. Segata Sanshiro is none other than Hiroshi Fujioka, and while that name may not ring a bell to most people in the West, it makes the whole difference in Japan.

He's the man that, in the early 70', played Hongo Takeshi, the protagonist of the very first installment of the Kamen Rider series - and that's saying much. Kamen Rider is not only one of the first big commercial hits in the live action series industry, it's a cultural trait for the japanese and a influence to all kinds of people. You see Viewtiful Joe? You see the giant red scarf Hotsuma (from Shinobi) carries around? Pointless posing? Transformation sequences with choreography? Ridiculous flying kicks? That pure Kamen Rider, all over the place.

Everyone knows Kamen Rider, everyone knows Hiroshi Fujioka. The man is, simply put, a legend. And while I don't have any documental proof, I believe that was a decisive factor even in the creation of the character itself. Fujioka was an icon, Sega needed that kind of strenght more than ever at that time, and it worked.

The thing is, even the all the masked heroes in the planet put together cannot defeat corporate stupidity and wrong marketing decisions. Segata Sanshiro was a true hero while he was on action, but even if they show us that he died in space hugging a giant missile, defending mankind, it was really Sega who killed him.

We want our heroes back.

To the extreme

Talk about awesome characters:



Frankly, his game just sucks. But the sheer awesomeness of all things Segata Sanshiro is so grand you can't ignore it. It's the kind of insanity and story of success that could be only conceived in Japan. Watch it, love it, spread it. I'll try to upload the Sega Saturn commercials I have here to you tube, they're seriously hilarious (and quite disturbing).

While we're in the topic: hey Sega, how about making some GOOD games for a change? Sonic Unleashed seems like a promise, but I'm still not convinced. A new Jet Set Radio? Panzer Dragoon? Dragon Force? Altered Beast? Galaxy Force? Burning Rangers?

You used to be awesome. Not anymore.
This makes me sad panda.

Old but relevant

For your viewing pleasure, Meet the Scout



The people who created the character types and designs for Team Fortress 2 must be feeling really, really, REALLY proud of themselves right now. It still impresses me how characters so simple and with virtually no backstory (there are like 5 or 6 lines of story for each character, I think) can be so catchy, feel so alive. My favorites, in case you are wondering, are the Scout, the Heavy and the Demo, even gameplay wise.

Seeing this new "Meet the" video made me rewatch some of the old ones and remember some discussion about gameplay versus story on videogames. Which one is the most important? Well, even being an aspiring writer myself and loving reading these stories, I have to concur that, in most of cases, gameplay and design are more important.

A good personal example of that is Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, for the PS2. I'm totally insane for Akumajo Dracula. I can spend hours discussing the storyline, the recurring themes, the hunters (even the one that never appeared as selectable characters) and all that. Seeing how Curse of Darkness is a direct sequel to Castlevania III, one of the best, I decided to play it. But the game is so bad, so terribly bad, ugly and broken, that I couldn't bear to put more than 3 or so hours in it - even if I was dying to know the truth behind Hector and how legendary badass vampire hunter Trevor Belmont (because 'Ralph C.', his japanese name, just doesn't make him justice) was involved in all of this. But I just couldn't. The two first Tenchu games are also good examples.

And still I can play Halo with no problems at all. Sure, it's "My First FPS for Dummies" and Master Chief is a complete joke as a character but it's fun to shoot aliens with lasers guns even if you're not really interested on Arbiters, Convenants and whatnot. Bite me, Halo fans.

I like to believe in a world where gameplay, design and story mix themselves in just one incredible soup of awesomeness. Out of my head I can think about the Metal Gear Solid Series and just about anything by Suda 51 (from the excellent Killer 7 and No More Heroes). Him and Kojima can do this so well it's not even funny. Their creations are not just games, they're complete experiences. And that's what I think it's the real challenge for the people making games today: to create something that transcends .

...and that's what you get by trying to write something while craving furiously for a bed and some sleep.

You Say Yes, I Say No

So one of the topics of the week in the gaming world was the rumor that a new version of the Nintendo DS could be shown at this year's E3. This, according to the several online reports from most of the big gaming news websites, came from Koichi Hamamura, president of the Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, during a presentation he made recently.

The news came originally from the japanese version of the Bloomberg website, that quoted Hamamura. All was fine and well.

But that day I noticed that the official Famitsu website had a special report on the event, and decided to check it out, look for the original context of Hamamura's prediction and write my own piece about the subject. Problem is...it wasn't there. It just wasn't there. I read the report twice, three times to make sure, but the fact is that the official report on the event had no mention of the supposed statement. But everyone bought the story anyway.

The day after, Nintendo denied that was any new model of the DS being planned for the E3 show. And then one more day later, Enterbrain issued an official note denying that Hamamura had made such a statement. The same websites gave both the reports, but none made note of the Famitsu official thing once again.

So...what gives? What am I missing here?

At one side you have a single japanese website (no other big japanese sites that I know gave the report) that says something, and the official source that says another one, totally contrary to that. What makes you believe the first one? Weren't journalists supposed to check their sources before publishing the news?

I'm not trying to point fingers here, but this episode hit me with something strange. I even came up with that information on the Kotaku post on the subject, but the mods didn't approve my commentary. Go figure. Nothing personal against them.

For the record, I didn't published the first story on the website I work for. This was a personal editorial decision I took. Maybe the reports were right: maybe when E3 comes, Nintendo will show a new DS. Hooray. But that's not my point. My point is that no one noted (or pretended not to note) the official information. And as a journalist, I believe you have to show both sides of every story, not only the one that will bring you more pageviews.

Sorry, I wish I could put the link to the Famitsu report here, but couldn't find the link.

Love is Over

Final Fantasy IV, I'm done with you. Pack your things and go away. Don't look back.

This describes accurately what I was feeling last week. I was sad, and still am.

You see, I had to write a preview of the Final Fantasy IV 3D remake for the Nintendo DS to be published on the website I work to. I obviously had to do some research before beginning to write, so I thought it was a good idea to borrow my girlfriend's japanese copy of the game, play a little and to the article based on that and on info I would gather from the web.

And I soon realized that it actually wasn't such a good idea.

I never played FFIV back on the day, when it was first released in North America - I went straight to VI, which is just that awesome. I started tracking back on these older games way later, and played just the emulated versions of the game on the SNES and on the GBA. I thought the game was great, the characters amazing, all was very fine. But the years passed, and I just can't see it with the same eyes anymore.

The new DS version really impressed me, technically speaking. The opening CG is awesome, graphics are top notch and goddammit the characters speak! Like, with real voices! And it's not even low-quality radio vioces like in Megaman ZX Advent! The beginning really pumped me up. It really did.

But when I got out of the castle and marched with Kain towards the first mission on the Mist Valley... I started having second thoughts. The more I explored the caves, completed the map and battled the enemies, the more the game seemed bland to me. "This is just good and old Final Fantasy", in the not-so-good sense of the word. Nostalgia much? I don't know.

A week before I got my hands on FFIV again I started Mother 2 (Earthbound) on the GBA, and I just loved it. Gameplay is even more japanese-hardcore than Final Fantasy (actually it remembers me more of Dragon Quest), but I still loved it. There's nothing not to like on that game. And still, I can't seem to have the same degree of enjoyment with something I already liked before.

And of course, it showed on the preview text that was published. I just couldn't find the energy to talk about the game. And if the review falls on me when the game come out, it will probably show too. Maybe it won't, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Have anyone had an experience like that? Did anyone play the DS remake of FFIV, for that matter? Is the Final Fantasy traditional gameplay style really spent up?

Line Rider

I love RPGs, as you can see at the block "Games In Progress" there at the right. Specially the japanese ones.

That doesn't mean I dislike western ones, though. I didn't play many of them so most of what I "knows" comes from research, videos and whatnot. One of those few I did play and thought was awesome was Mass Effect.

The thing is, everywhere I go my dear japanese RPGs are accused of sheer, complete, absolute and mortal linearity, and because of that they are supposedly inferior. "It's not like you have a choice in the first place. LOL." says the Internet Dude. The japanophile, in the other hand, says that all heroes from western games are stereotypical bald/muscle men dubbed by the Devil himself. The war goes on.

Should the presence or lack of linearity on the narrative and/or gameplay be such a big deal? Does this Cold War of the Videogames have any value?

Maybe I'm completely missing the point here, but I really don't see much difference between say, Oblivion and any Final Fantasy (besides XI, because it's a MMO) in these terms. You start from one point, and the game will inevitably end in another one. And the player will go trough a pre-determined process to get from one point to another This is absolute, an immutable fact.

Oblivion has a huge open world, thousands of quests, NPCs, events and whatnot, but that doesn't mean it's less linear - it means only that the line is, well, broader. You have lots of options that, at the end of the day, keep you on the same road. Inside the same process and going forward to the same objective. Nothing has changed. The muscular knight in full armor and the blonde man-girl with the huge, compensating sword are on the exact same boat.

A greater degree of freedom, on the other hand, can be seen on the earlier installments of the Shin Megami Tensei series, which I would say are very, very japanese. I didn't play the Megami Tensei games on the Famicom, but at least from the first "Shin" to Nocturne you actually get to choose which adventure you will play. Depending on your actions during the course of the game, the alignment of the main character will vary between Neutral, Chaos and Light, and this changes just about everything: friends can (and will) abandon you, the demons you can recruit changes, the last boss changes, the story events changes. The whole world reshapes itself depending on the choices you actually make. That's some non-linearity to me. The type you can also find at varying degrees on Jade Empire and the already mentioned Mass Effect.

That said, I believe linearity is not a necessarily good or bad thing. Sometimes I want to be the story, sometimes I want just to see a good story. And I hope there's nothing wrong with that.

Achieving true non-linearity is a very difficult task, I think. Because if you don't do things right, you may end up in a situation very well described by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw in his Fable video review: you can only become either Mother Theresa or Satan. There's nothing in between. There's no neutrality, no shades of gray. There's no subtlety. And that sucks.

What do you think of this? Any lights or signal posts to help out on this one? Am I just a sad, sad man? I hope not.

Hello World

Say hello to my sixth or seventh blog since the dawn of the internets. One more, probably destined to die like all the others. But maybe not.

I'm a 23 (almost 24) guy gamer - or what you might call a "hardcore gamer", if you consider playing Team Fortress 2, Megami Tensei and Pokémon hardcore anyway.
I'm with someone who is as hardcore as I am, maybe more. When I had both Dreamcast controllers working, we used to play a lot of Ikaruga together, and she can totally kick my ass in Soul Calibur.

So if you haven't guessed yet, this blog project will be about games. And if you haven't guessed yet, English is not my first language. Bear with it. Please. With a cherry on top.

What I intend here is to talk about games in general. Things I like about games, about the games I like, about the games I don't like and any other related topic. Related with games, of course.

So I'll leave this just as it is for now. Maybe I'll start for real tomorrow. Yeah, maybe.