Random Thoughts on Random RPG News

Etrian Odyssey 4 comes to North America on February 26, 2013. Hurray!

There have been a few interesting tidbits to pop up regarding RPGs that I'm looking forward to over the course of the day, so I figured I'd make this post as a bit of a catch all where I talk / gush about this stuff.  It's all related to handheld RPGs, but we only know that one of them will be seeing a western release, and that's a bit of the news right there.

So, what am I all excited about?  Well, first of all Atlus has finally announced a firm release day for Etrian Odyssey 4.  Up until now we just knew it was coming to the west at some point in 2013, but we didn't know when.  Now we have an answer to that question, or at least people in North America do, and that's February 26th.  With that I say hurray because I've been quite excited about the game since it was announced, and it's nice to finally know exactly when it will be available.  I've not spent anywhere near as much time as I would have liked with the previous games in the series, but I'm not going to make that same mistake with number four.  It will be mine day one.

Idols are coming to 7th Dragon 2020
Part II, and charisma is an important
stat for them.

The other bit of news that caught my attention is that 7th Dragon 2020 Part II is in the works, again for the PSP.  I sincerely doubt that this game will ever see a release outside of Japan given that the first two parts of the series were never localized.  Nonetheless, there seems to be some interesting tidbits trickling out about the game like how there is a character class called an idol, and that its primary stat is charisma.  Even without further details, I find that kinda neat.  I always look at charisma as the stat for opening up extra conversation options, and that's about it.  Hopefully it'll do a little more than that here.

Oh, I should also mention that Phantasy Star Online 2 has a release on the Vita confirmed for Japan next year.  It'll be coming along as a free download as well as a special edition physical version that will run about 5300 yen.  I'm happy to hear that this version of the game is still a thing, especially given how lackluster things have been on the software front for the Vita.  Hopefully the game being free to play will help to generate some more interest in the handheld, and move some units.  Obviously we should be realistic here.  PSO2 is still a pretty niche game, and isn't going to single-handedly save the Vita, but it's still a quality title, and it would be nice if it could contribute to a healthy uptick in sales for the system.

Phantasy Star Online 2 is confirmed for Vita in Japan next
February.  PS - Wired lances are pretty awesome.

Anyway, just some random bits of RPG news that popped up over the last day or so that I thought was pretty interesting and / or exciting.  It's nice to see this stuff, especially in the run-up to Christmas.  I wonder if there will be any more interesting announcements before the end of the year.

Dungeon Siege III: A Reminder of What Bad Cameras Are Like

The camera is pretty useless at this angle

Okay, a quick rant for today. Well, maybe not a rant, but a little bit of grumbling on my part. I've been muscling my way through Dungeon Siege III over the last few days so I can hopefully finish it, and add one more game to the list of ones I've actually managed to finish. It's an okay game. The story is keeping my attention, and the visuals are kind of nice. However, the camera is driving me nuts.

The thing isn't fixed so it moves as my character runs around and if for whatever reason, my pointer finds its way to the edge of the screen, it sends the camera spinning. I've been constantly wrestling with it, shoving the camera back into a position that is at least somewhat useful for me, but much of the time it becomes a constant battle because it likes to shift around again every time I move somewhere else. This is especially "fun" during battles or other heat of the moment situations where the mouse is being flung around the screen with wreckless abandon. Often it leads to even more frenzied twirling of the camera.

Only recently have I learned that I can disable this. However, then I have to manually move the camera around with the A and D keys. There's still no option for the trusty hold right mouse button and flick style of camera control that has worked so well in countless games before. Frankly, I wish auto camera wasn't an option in the first place. The other problem is that sometimes the camera will zoom in a ton so that it's right on my character making it so that I can't even see where the monsters are around my guy. It's far from helpful.

I think I would have been happier with a fixed isometric view for the game. It's a bit more old school, but at least there wouldn't be that constant battle with the cameras. I'm over half way through the game, though, so I'll try to soldier through it. Like I said earlier, the story has been keeping me entertained, so I'd like to see how it ends. The combat itself is pretty fun. I'm playing as Katarina who uses a rifle and pistols, and she's a nice ranged class character. Still, it's hard to overlook the cameras. They're not the worst I've seen in a game, as there are plenty of PS2 titles in my library that are far more worthy candidates for "Worst Camera Evar!", but it's still tough to overlook the issue.

How about you? Are there any games out there that really stand out for you because they have bad cameras?

So Many Games That I Still Want to Play

I think the next game I'll try and finish is Dungeon Siege III. I'm already
seven hours in, and the game isn't that long, so I might as well.  It's pretty fun too.

For the longest time now I've seen my backlog of RPGs build and build. It's feeling like quite the daunting task to actually get around to finishing them, but I've finally decided to buckle down and put at least a dent in that backlog. A big reason it even exists is from all the years I pretty much just played nothing but World of Warcraft, and ignored everything else. When I finally pried myself away from that game I realized, "Hey! There are a bunch of really fun RPGs out there that I haven't played yet!" and from there I started loading up on them. I guess the nice thing about that was that these games were getting older by then, so they were really cheap. Mountains of games were picked up at Steam sales for $5-$10, then I got to thinking that I should collect all of the DS RPGs, and most of the worthwhile current gen JRPGs. That's when my backlog ballooned. Now I've probably got a good 40-50 RPGs I need to get through, and these things are pretty meaty, so I suspect it's going to take a while to complete them.

This has actually gotten me thinking about my consumption of games. For the longest time, I would watch release schedules and just get games as they came out. I think that this is a pretty normal thing for quite a lot of people, but now I'm more inclined to wait. It's not just because I have a mountain of games before me that really should get around to completing, but also because I'm just so much more aware of how quickly game prices drop if I wait. This is especially true on the PC where Steam has lead the charge in aggressive price points, but even on consoles it's much more worthwhile to wait. Why should I fork out $60 for a game at launch when I can wait six months, and more that likely get it for half that? Heck, some games can be had even cheaper if one is patient. I got both Tales of Vesperia and Lost Odyssey for about $10 each, and that was a great deal.

Phantasy Star Zero is another one
on the to-do list. I'm a sucker for
space cowboys.

Granted with some games, if I wait too long, they'll disappear, and be really tough to find later on. Thankfully these are easy to spot because it's mostly games from Atlus, XSEED, NIS America, and I guess Aksys that tend to have more limited print runs. So, if they're putting out a game that I'm interested in, and it's physical release only, then I know to give it a lot more thought about buying the thing quickly lest I have to pay a premium for it down the road because of scarcity.

Collecting and payment strategies aside, I've also realized that simply looking at all of the RPGs that have come out over the years up to this point that there are a massive, massive number of amazing games out there that I haven't played. I could pretty much stop buying new games now, focus on older ones, and be very well served for at least a decade, perhaps longer as I try and play through all of these games. There are still plenty of 8 and 16-bit games I haven't played, several on the PS1, the PS2 has an absolutely massive number of RPGs I still have yet to play, and just browsing through the stuff available at GoG.com, there are countless DOS RPGs that I know I would like to spend time with as well.

Last Remnant is
another game in my
backlog. If only Rush
wasn't so annoying.

I'm not really swayed much by graphics, so I'm okay with visiting older games as well as newer ones, so I could see myself making an effort to play a lot more of these older RPGs going forward. I think the industry, thanks in no small part to marketing, has conditioned gamers to always move forward and consume the next big thing, ignoring older stuff, and leaving it in the past. I guess that sort of behavior is good for business, as it keeps people putting down money on recent projects, but I want to take time to enjoy my favorite genre in all of its eras to this point.

There are just so many RPGs out there, and only a limited amount of time that I can put towards them. Now I want to take the time to check out all of the games that I missed during my time with WoW. It looks like I'm going to have a busy five or so years ahead of me getting through them all, but I'm up for the challenge. Thankfully we're heading into a relatively quiet period of RPG releases, so I do have some time to actually play these games without being interrupted by other releases. How about you all? Do you have a backlog of games that you want to get through, or do you actually complete each game before getting a new one?

Final Fantasy: Waxing Nostalgic about my Favorite Cid

There are plenty of little touchstones that one can find in the Final Fantasy series: chocobos, moogles, Gilgamesh, and so forth. The one that I find myself wondering about the most when I play one of these games is Cid. What will he look like? What kind of person will he be (besides an engineer-y scholar type)? I've always found him to be an interesting fellow, but there's one above all else that I'm particularly fond of and that's Cid Pollendina from Final Fantasy IV.

I think a big reason for this is because he was the first Cid I ever encountered. I grew up in the late 80s and early 90s, so when the Final Fantasy games came here (what few that did, that is), I was playing them before he got retconed into the first game, and the second and third games in the series didn't see a release in the West on the NES. After the first game debuted on the NES, the series just jumped right into part four on the SNES with the thing being renamed Final Fantasy II over here. So, I didn't even get to see the two previous incarnations of Cid in the second and third games in the series.  As far as I was concerned at the time, this was the only Cid there was because I didn't know any better at the time.

But yeah, my first Cid, my favorite Cid.

He's certainly a likable guy, if a bit on the loud and exceptionally confident side. Cid fills the archetype of the middle aged master builder quite well. It's certainly a character type that we see a lot of in anime, like Hiraga Gengai from Gintama, for example. I like that he pushes himself so hard for the team, and has very concrete views of right and wrong. It's these attributes that make him so likable. Sure, some of the other Cids also exhibited these traits to varying degrees, but this Cid in particular really amplified them in just the right way to make me warm up to him far more than any of his counterparts.

It probably also helps that Final Fantasy IV is my favorite in the series, so I have overarching positive feelings toward the entire game that likely make me look at this Cid in an even more positive light than I might otherwise. The characters in the game, the world I explored, the story in general, they all resonated with me in a big way. Final Fantasy VI does this as well, but IV does it just a little better for me, edging the former out of top spot in my books. So, being particularly fond of the game in general probably makes my like of this Cid all the more.

Anyway, go Final Fantasy IV Cid! You'll always be my favorite, you ridiculously likable, hardworking engineer, you! Do you have a favorite Cid in the Final Fantasy series? If so, I'd love to know which one. Hop in the comments and share your own thoughts about the character.