Dante's Inferno will open up a whole 'new' world to developers, regardless of the profits of the game. Since someone was okay enough with green-lighting a project that will depart greatly from the Divine Comedy, what else could be an untapped goldmine of gaming delight?
I have some classics for you to consider.
Ivanhoe
Who doesn't want a collection of Jousting tournament mini games? Picture Ivanhoe, rather than the disowned son of a Norman noble allying himself with the Saxons, you play as a knight desperately seeking the hand of Lady Rowena and proves himself worthy through the tournament. Forget the Saxons v. Normans, all that intrigue, all the elements that make the story captivating, and stick with what you know: there is a knight, his name is Ivanhoe, and he digs Rowena.
The Black Arrow
Richard Shelton is fighting through the troubled times of the War of the Roses, finding himself betrayed, confused, and desperately seeking his dear Joanna who was captured by the man who killed his father. Sounds like an Action-Adventure to me, one filled with bands of 'criminals' fighting against Joanna's captors in a various of locals. There would even be call for ships and seafaring! That's a better plot than a lot of chase after the princess games have had in recent years. Give it a snappy engine and a lot of anachronistic elements and I say no one will know what Henry VI is supposedly in power.
Wuthering Heights
The world's most depressing dating sim.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh and Enkidu preparing for an epic, ultra-violent, co-op adventure. Imagine God of War but with Sumerian gods and monsters. It won't just be a a God of War clone because it is co-op *wink*. Also, Enkidu won't die somewhere along the line, and they might just achieve Gilgamesh's goal of eternal life.
Ugh, what's sad is that I can picture the Epic of Gilgamesh as a game.
I am incredibly wary of Dante's Inferno. The concept seemed interesting, but the idea of seeking Beatrice in an ultra-violent romp makes me a bit uneasy. In time we will see, but I highly doubt the doors will open to similar projects, likely because there is only so much relics of humanity's culture can provide, and only so much historians can stomach.
I would play the Wuthering Heights game.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Virtually Useless
Of all the things I most appreciate about this current generation of consoles, the Virtual Console by far outshines movie rentals and international networking. Or at least it does to me. It clearly does not do much for Nintendo, given their treatment of the service. I do not want to harp on the old issue of Nintendo's serial abandonment of key features they pioneer. Instead, I want to discuss the DSi and their commitment to mediocrity.
I gladly stood in line for my DSi back in April. Well, I stood in Game Stop and chatted with my favorite employees as I was the only customer in the store around midnight. Perhaps my excitement/expectations for the handheld were verging on fanatical. That is what I am, a DS fanatic so consumed by the addictive potentials of portable RPGs, pet simulators, and imagining a variety of careers. Before you actually believe that sentence, know that I once had to recommend games in the Imagine series to unsure soccer moms because Ubisoft struck up a deal with Game Crazy that required us to do so. That left a bad taste in my mouth and a very grim outlook for the future of my trim and trendy portable.
I hoped the DSi would restore my faith in Nintendo's promises. Thus far I have been rewarded with clocks and calculators skinned in francises I'm really not that fond of. I like Mario games but I do not want a Mario calculator, even if it were free. I look at the DSi and remember the hopeful whisperings that spread across the internet before its Japanese launch. The DS already has all the strength to network with the Wii, and since the DSi would be fairly similar to the Wii in menus and services, it would then make sense that the networking would increase. Networking in terms of the Virtual Console. I feel Nintendo is completely overlooking numerous possibilities here, but are doing so in true Nintendo style.
Rather than improve the functionality of what already exists, they give us a third digital release store that is lacking in both quantity and quality. This is where I feel Sony has the upper hand in networking between console and handheld.
Remote play is a brilliant idea on their part. Certain elements of the PS3's library are accessible and even playable via the PSP through this way. This opens up the PSP user to the Pixel Junk games and to the various media stored on their much larger console's drive. This should not be some under-publicized Sony gem but rather an industry standard as handheld gaming becomes more realized every year.
There is no reason that I can see, other than Nintendo being completely uninterested, that the DSi would lack some sort of networking capability with the Virtual Console. The WiiWare store should remain with the Wii, just as the DSiWare store remains with the DSi. The Virtual Console should have the same versitility as the PSone classics. The fact that this was completely overlooked is a continuation of the sort of support I'm rappidly coming to expect from Nintendo: enough to get by, but not enough to truly satisfy anyone.
A dedication to multimedia should be fully realized. As the PS3/PSP interface has shown, multimedia comes with more interaction than a demo download service, which Nintendo already provides. Fully realized multimedia functionality comes with some amount of shared properties. Perhaps I am condeming Nintendo far too early in the DSi's life, but so far their releases have left me with this unsettling feeling that I wasted $169 on a device prepared to handle numerous calculators covered in various Nintendo properties. In the next three years I hope that something is done about this, but I already know the answer to this. Nothing will be done about it, just as Kid Icarus is NEVER going to be remade.
I gladly stood in line for my DSi back in April. Well, I stood in Game Stop and chatted with my favorite employees as I was the only customer in the store around midnight. Perhaps my excitement/expectations for the handheld were verging on fanatical. That is what I am, a DS fanatic so consumed by the addictive potentials of portable RPGs, pet simulators, and imagining a variety of careers. Before you actually believe that sentence, know that I once had to recommend games in the Imagine series to unsure soccer moms because Ubisoft struck up a deal with Game Crazy that required us to do so. That left a bad taste in my mouth and a very grim outlook for the future of my trim and trendy portable.
I hoped the DSi would restore my faith in Nintendo's promises. Thus far I have been rewarded with clocks and calculators skinned in francises I'm really not that fond of. I like Mario games but I do not want a Mario calculator, even if it were free. I look at the DSi and remember the hopeful whisperings that spread across the internet before its Japanese launch. The DS already has all the strength to network with the Wii, and since the DSi would be fairly similar to the Wii in menus and services, it would then make sense that the networking would increase. Networking in terms of the Virtual Console. I feel Nintendo is completely overlooking numerous possibilities here, but are doing so in true Nintendo style.
Rather than improve the functionality of what already exists, they give us a third digital release store that is lacking in both quantity and quality. This is where I feel Sony has the upper hand in networking between console and handheld.
Remote play is a brilliant idea on their part. Certain elements of the PS3's library are accessible and even playable via the PSP through this way. This opens up the PSP user to the Pixel Junk games and to the various media stored on their much larger console's drive. This should not be some under-publicized Sony gem but rather an industry standard as handheld gaming becomes more realized every year.
There is no reason that I can see, other than Nintendo being completely uninterested, that the DSi would lack some sort of networking capability with the Virtual Console. The WiiWare store should remain with the Wii, just as the DSiWare store remains with the DSi. The Virtual Console should have the same versitility as the PSone classics. The fact that this was completely overlooked is a continuation of the sort of support I'm rappidly coming to expect from Nintendo: enough to get by, but not enough to truly satisfy anyone.
A dedication to multimedia should be fully realized. As the PS3/PSP interface has shown, multimedia comes with more interaction than a demo download service, which Nintendo already provides. Fully realized multimedia functionality comes with some amount of shared properties. Perhaps I am condeming Nintendo far too early in the DSi's life, but so far their releases have left me with this unsettling feeling that I wasted $169 on a device prepared to handle numerous calculators covered in various Nintendo properties. In the next three years I hope that something is done about this, but I already know the answer to this. Nothing will be done about it, just as Kid Icarus is NEVER going to be remade.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Azure Dreams: The Game That Could Be
1998 was a wonderful year for releases with Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 2, Gran Turismo and Spyro The Dragon all hitting the shelves. Konami released a few other games besides Metal Gear, one of which was Azure Dreams.
In '98, I was more concerned with fearing Resident Evil 2 and torching sheep to give much notice to another in a long series of RPGs to eventually be discarded by retailers. It was not until late in '99 that I noticed the game. Koh's friendly coloring and the Kwene monster on the case lured me to rent the game. I rarely fall in love with games in that way but I came up with reason after reason that the game should remain in my possession. It was not until 2000 that I would have the game for my very own.
To hear reviewers and other players talk, I don't know why I attached myself to this game. It is a primitive rogue-like with elements of Pokemon mixed in. You play as Koh, the red-haired son of the gamed Monster Hunter Guy who unfortunately met his end in the looming Monster Tower just outside your hometown of Monsbaiya. You're very poor and long for the day you are 15 so that you may follow in your father's footsteps.
The plot is relatively generic in that respect. Every time Koh enters the Moster Tower his level starts back at zero. This is a standard rogue-like element of gameplay, and the items he takes and the monsters remain unaffected by the curse that depletes the character's level. Outside of this game I hate this element. Somehow it was done so well with how you can level up your swords and sheilds and call upon your monster for support magic that I never cared that I had to basically restart the game each time I entered the randomly generated floorplan of the tower.
What had me think of this game again was all the talk of remakes of this and that, of fanboys crying over Final Fantasy VII and of my own desire to see something remade that deserves a second chance. The Azure Dreams series has a single sequel, the ill-advised DS game Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal. There was also a Game Boy Color release of Azure Dreams, but I best remember my time spent with the blocky PS1 title.
I can see Azure Dreams in a fully 3-D world. At the time of its release, the PS1 was already feeling strained and tired, and the game has more in common graphically to Super Mario RPG than it does to its Konami contemporaries. It was a simply made game without a true ending. The dating sim element was not completed, the rival element seemed to trail off dramatically at a point, and the ability to upgrade Monsbaiya was interesting but also incredibly limited. At the time I knew of nothing that allowed me to have that sort of control over my world, at least not to the point of building a dance hall then going on a date with the star dancer. This sort of world-altering depth would not be seen again, by me anyway, until Fable.
In this time of remaking movies, tv series, and video games, I want to see something i would actually play be revisited. I long for Koei to remake Gemfire but since this is likely an impossible goal, I will outline my hopeful Azure Dreams remake, and why you might want to play it then.
Rogue-likes, no matter what some reviewers say, still have a place in this world. It would be nice to see some archaic RPG element overthrow the ruling Strategy style for once. Strategy RPGs are tiresome and running out of fresh ideas to the point that Atlus is releasing barely playable games with the notion that they are just too difficult to grasp right away. There is a difference between difficult and ridiculously unintuitive. I say Rondo of Swords falls in the latter category. It would be nice to see a fresh look at this style in dazzling PS3-quality detail.
Azure Dreams wanted to look pretty. In this day and age it is completely possible for the spinning tower and randomly generated levels to have the scope they deserve. The game is riddled with traps and secrets and a real sense of adventure with a grid layout. What if, rather than a simplistic grid layout, the levels were drawing from better models and ratios than before? This game could be simplistic and breathtaking at once. Not every worthwhile venture has to be riddled superfluous action.
The quest system is strong. As the game progresses, NPCs in town ask you to retrieve items from different levels of the tower. NPCs ask us to retrieve all sorts of things still. The quests make sense in the development of the town and also encourage the player to seek out higher floors in the seemingly endless tower.
Developing Monsbaiya is begging to be looked at indepth. Rather than building simplistic mini games, the town could really change. Existing buildings could be upgraded, new elements added, and the city can truly reflect the prosperity your efforts bring about. Koh becomes a living legend as more and more requests are met. It would be fantastic to push this idea to its limit.
Lastly, that Pokemon element. I always felt the monsters were deeply fascinating but not reaching their full potential. The player has the ability to fuse monsters and hatch eggs throughout the quest. With more monsters, more fusing possibilites, and perhaps a Pokemon-esque online trading system, this could be an endless source of entertainment. More monsters could be released over time and this one element could extend the life of the game for years after the initial release. I'm not too keen on trading cars, but let me breed and fuse new and exciting monsters and I'll happily devote a large amount of time and effort to the process.
What hurts is that I can see this game. I know it is impossible and I should be content with what I have, but my one hope is that someday someone else realizes this potential.
In '98, I was more concerned with fearing Resident Evil 2 and torching sheep to give much notice to another in a long series of RPGs to eventually be discarded by retailers. It was not until late in '99 that I noticed the game. Koh's friendly coloring and the Kwene monster on the case lured me to rent the game. I rarely fall in love with games in that way but I came up with reason after reason that the game should remain in my possession. It was not until 2000 that I would have the game for my very own.
To hear reviewers and other players talk, I don't know why I attached myself to this game. It is a primitive rogue-like with elements of Pokemon mixed in. You play as Koh, the red-haired son of the gamed Monster Hunter Guy who unfortunately met his end in the looming Monster Tower just outside your hometown of Monsbaiya. You're very poor and long for the day you are 15 so that you may follow in your father's footsteps.
The plot is relatively generic in that respect. Every time Koh enters the Moster Tower his level starts back at zero. This is a standard rogue-like element of gameplay, and the items he takes and the monsters remain unaffected by the curse that depletes the character's level. Outside of this game I hate this element. Somehow it was done so well with how you can level up your swords and sheilds and call upon your monster for support magic that I never cared that I had to basically restart the game each time I entered the randomly generated floorplan of the tower.
What had me think of this game again was all the talk of remakes of this and that, of fanboys crying over Final Fantasy VII and of my own desire to see something remade that deserves a second chance. The Azure Dreams series has a single sequel, the ill-advised DS game Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal. There was also a Game Boy Color release of Azure Dreams, but I best remember my time spent with the blocky PS1 title.
I can see Azure Dreams in a fully 3-D world. At the time of its release, the PS1 was already feeling strained and tired, and the game has more in common graphically to Super Mario RPG than it does to its Konami contemporaries. It was a simply made game without a true ending. The dating sim element was not completed, the rival element seemed to trail off dramatically at a point, and the ability to upgrade Monsbaiya was interesting but also incredibly limited. At the time I knew of nothing that allowed me to have that sort of control over my world, at least not to the point of building a dance hall then going on a date with the star dancer. This sort of world-altering depth would not be seen again, by me anyway, until Fable.
In this time of remaking movies, tv series, and video games, I want to see something i would actually play be revisited. I long for Koei to remake Gemfire but since this is likely an impossible goal, I will outline my hopeful Azure Dreams remake, and why you might want to play it then.
Rogue-likes, no matter what some reviewers say, still have a place in this world. It would be nice to see some archaic RPG element overthrow the ruling Strategy style for once. Strategy RPGs are tiresome and running out of fresh ideas to the point that Atlus is releasing barely playable games with the notion that they are just too difficult to grasp right away. There is a difference between difficult and ridiculously unintuitive. I say Rondo of Swords falls in the latter category. It would be nice to see a fresh look at this style in dazzling PS3-quality detail.
Azure Dreams wanted to look pretty. In this day and age it is completely possible for the spinning tower and randomly generated levels to have the scope they deserve. The game is riddled with traps and secrets and a real sense of adventure with a grid layout. What if, rather than a simplistic grid layout, the levels were drawing from better models and ratios than before? This game could be simplistic and breathtaking at once. Not every worthwhile venture has to be riddled superfluous action.
The quest system is strong. As the game progresses, NPCs in town ask you to retrieve items from different levels of the tower. NPCs ask us to retrieve all sorts of things still. The quests make sense in the development of the town and also encourage the player to seek out higher floors in the seemingly endless tower.
Developing Monsbaiya is begging to be looked at indepth. Rather than building simplistic mini games, the town could really change. Existing buildings could be upgraded, new elements added, and the city can truly reflect the prosperity your efforts bring about. Koh becomes a living legend as more and more requests are met. It would be fantastic to push this idea to its limit.
Lastly, that Pokemon element. I always felt the monsters were deeply fascinating but not reaching their full potential. The player has the ability to fuse monsters and hatch eggs throughout the quest. With more monsters, more fusing possibilites, and perhaps a Pokemon-esque online trading system, this could be an endless source of entertainment. More monsters could be released over time and this one element could extend the life of the game for years after the initial release. I'm not too keen on trading cars, but let me breed and fuse new and exciting monsters and I'll happily devote a large amount of time and effort to the process.
What hurts is that I can see this game. I know it is impossible and I should be content with what I have, but my one hope is that someday someone else realizes this potential.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Nintendo Drops Ball Before E3 Begins
No, this is not going to be a post about the apparent leak of new Mario and Wii Fit games by the end of 2009. I woke up this morning planning to get on WiiWare and buy Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (the sequel to my favorite game of all time) to consume the hours between 9:00 and 12:25 (central time) when Microsoft's press conference starts.
Too bad WiiWare still hasn't been updated since last Monday. Really, what is it going to take for the big three to get their downloads up at the stroke of midnight so that obsessive nerds will no longer be inconvenienced by the need to wait a couple of hours?
Too bad WiiWare still hasn't been updated since last Monday. Really, what is it going to take for the big three to get their downloads up at the stroke of midnight so that obsessive nerds will no longer be inconvenienced by the need to wait a couple of hours?
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