I'm not a big RPG guy, but I've enjoyed a few over the years. I always struggle to finish them, once I start, however. Notoriously, I started Final Fantasy VII a number of times, between when I bought it in 1999, and when I finally beat it well over a decade later. I played through the main story of Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete on the PlayStation, but my characters weren't leveled up enough to run the gauntlet of the epilogue. A decade plus later, I played through it again on PSP, and finally did just that. And I've started Final Fantasy Legend for GameBoy more than once, intending to finish it. One of these days, I'll actually do that.
I wanted to get Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii, but slept on the preorder, so I missed out on the special red controller, and a first print run of the game. After that, the price skyrocketed, and I didn't expect to ever be able to play it. Thankfully, GameStop commissioned a second print run, since it was their exclusive, and I was able to obtain one. I didn't get terribly far, but it's a beautiful game with an amazing soundtrack, and I had fun with what I played. When its sequel came out, despite wanting to finish the first game before diving in, I couldn't resist, and bought Xenoblade Chronicles X. I put the original aside, and dove headfirst into the new game, marveling at the amazing graphics, immersive, expansive world, and all the cool stuff the game offered the player. I put about 80 hours into it. Then, the Nintendo Switch dropped.
Continue reading Xenoblade Chronicles X - Final Wii U Masterpiece?
November 13, 2000.
When most in the gaming United States was buzzing about the wave caused by the newly released PlayStation 2, I was grudgingly purchasing Final Fantasy IX. I didn't really plan on getting the game, but through a set of circumstances I was standing at the electronics counter of my local Meijer store, waiting for the employee to get my game from behind the glass so I could leave.
When Final Fantasy IX was originally announced, I was oblivious. Well, I was slightly interested, but more because I was reading a lot of gaming magazines while working on the assembly line at Ford, and that game (as well as the upcoming Final Fantasy X) was the talk of the town. We had been having a lot of multi-hour long "gaps" (empty spaces in the assembly line where a truck should be) and since I read at least three different gaming magazines at the time I guess it was just going to happen. But despite the exposure, I didn't care as much as one might think. Despite wringing some fun out of Final Fantasy VIII, after twenty hours the hormonal angst of Squall Leonhart had driven me away from any JRPG with a passion. I don't hate FFVIII, but dealing with Squall's teenage-isms when I was twenty-two and newly married was about as fun as squeezing water from a rock.
Continue reading A Personal Journey into Final Fantasy IX
I've often talked about how I feel like I'm no longer the target audience for most game makers these days and how I've been more rapidly retreating into older generations of gaming to get the types of games I love most. One of the amazing side effects of the current state of gaming is that when games come out that appeal to me, they are quite often niche games or passion projects that have decades worth of influence to draw upon and implement, or use for inspiration in their new project. Octopath Traveler was immediately on my radar when it was announced due to the beautiful visual style of the game coupled with the fact it was a console quality JRPG. The young Square Soft fan that has been locked deep, deep inside of me and has slowly been losing faith in them really wanted this game to scratch the itch that they used to for me. To say that Square has finally put out a game that is everything I love about the genre and is one of the few games that takes newer gaming concepts that I thought I would never enjoy and makes them fun and appealing to me is a true pleasure in every way.
*The following review is spoiler free*
Continue reading Octopath Traveler
May's game of the month here at RF Generation was the quirky musical roleplaying game Rhapsody - A Musical Adventure. It was fun to play through and discuss with everyone else playing along and gave me a reason to review a JRPG for the first time ever. Rhapsody is short and sweet, turns some typical rpg tropes upside-down, and includes great musical numbers. But does the gameplay hold up? Here's my take on the game.
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