Bajumeru
3 reviews liked by Bajumeru
I DID IT I FINALLY BEAT MY FIRST JRPG
This has been a genre that has eluded me for far too long. A lot of things factored in to that, most of it being the ungodly long runtimes and my former distaste for turn-based combat, but something about Mario RPG made it all click for me in a way I never thought possible.
Most of the time, when I went to try a JRPG, it would be Pokemon. I don't know why, but for some reason I thought that would be the best path in. It's an IP I'm already incredibly familiar with, so that would help. What those games (falsely) taught me was that JRPG combat is bad, but you get through it for the other stuff. I don't even know if I could consider Pokemon combat "bad," but it's not for me.
Mario RPG showed me what a good turn-based combat system can do. 1v1 battles are boring as hell turn based, but with a full party you have so much more room to actually do some minor strategizing, even if it's not all that deep. Combine that with the slightly more active and "skill based" timed attacks and you have a recipe for something that will actually keep me engaged across a long runtime.
But that was the other huge thing: by presenting a great JRPG in a short (sub-20h) context it manages to make me feel so much less stressed about how many other things I could be doing instead. This thing is also paced immaculately, where no matter what was happening in the game I couldn't wait to pick it back up every day.
There's also just... So much charm here. They do SOOOO much with so little in terms of animation and sprite counts, and at least once every dialogue I said to myself "wow, I never would have thought of that." The visuals are charming, the music fantastically catchy, and the dialogue is witty in all the best ways. I wanted to spend even more time with all of these characters. Geno and Mallow are so much more fleshed out than they have any right to be, and I love how all the legacy characters get characterized here with funny, very stylized dialogue.
I feel like this game has opened Pandora's box for me. I'm going to spend a little more time with Mario first, diving into Paper Mario, but I'm finally starting to feel ready to dive into a "true" JRPG. I can't believe it.
This has been a genre that has eluded me for far too long. A lot of things factored in to that, most of it being the ungodly long runtimes and my former distaste for turn-based combat, but something about Mario RPG made it all click for me in a way I never thought possible.
Most of the time, when I went to try a JRPG, it would be Pokemon. I don't know why, but for some reason I thought that would be the best path in. It's an IP I'm already incredibly familiar with, so that would help. What those games (falsely) taught me was that JRPG combat is bad, but you get through it for the other stuff. I don't even know if I could consider Pokemon combat "bad," but it's not for me.
Mario RPG showed me what a good turn-based combat system can do. 1v1 battles are boring as hell turn based, but with a full party you have so much more room to actually do some minor strategizing, even if it's not all that deep. Combine that with the slightly more active and "skill based" timed attacks and you have a recipe for something that will actually keep me engaged across a long runtime.
But that was the other huge thing: by presenting a great JRPG in a short (sub-20h) context it manages to make me feel so much less stressed about how many other things I could be doing instead. This thing is also paced immaculately, where no matter what was happening in the game I couldn't wait to pick it back up every day.
There's also just... So much charm here. They do SOOOO much with so little in terms of animation and sprite counts, and at least once every dialogue I said to myself "wow, I never would have thought of that." The visuals are charming, the music fantastically catchy, and the dialogue is witty in all the best ways. I wanted to spend even more time with all of these characters. Geno and Mallow are so much more fleshed out than they have any right to be, and I love how all the legacy characters get characterized here with funny, very stylized dialogue.
I feel like this game has opened Pandora's box for me. I'm going to spend a little more time with Mario first, diving into Paper Mario, but I'm finally starting to feel ready to dive into a "true" JRPG. I can't believe it.
Skullmonkeys
1998
With what it strives in style and aesthetics it lacks in literally everything else.
It controls really slippery, its level design is on par with a mid-tier Genesis game, it was way too many levels for its own good, and it has these werid difficulty curb between the dumb as dogshit levels and it's piss easy bosses and laughable.
I will say this the best part is Doug Tennapel had nothing to do with this game, so I can sleep easy at night knowing the game I played wasn't made by an absolute monster.
Fuck Doug Tennapel!
It controls really slippery, its level design is on par with a mid-tier Genesis game, it was way too many levels for its own good, and it has these werid difficulty curb between the dumb as dogshit levels and it's piss easy bosses and laughable.
I will say this the best part is Doug Tennapel had nothing to do with this game, so I can sleep easy at night knowing the game I played wasn't made by an absolute monster.
Fuck Doug Tennapel!
Vagrant Story
2000
Having now played all of the games Matsuno directed during his time at Square and... I'm certain he is a brilliant director concerning story-telling, but apart from FFXII I hate actually playing his games.
Vagrant Story is definitely the pinnacle of his very intricate or rather obtuse design were you may find fun, if you can get into at all. The menu crawling, weapon crafting and weapon training however was too much for me to enjoy. Besides I think the level design here makes actually traversing the intriguing city of Lea Monde a pain to get through. I felt like having to walk through a field of needles to finally get to the good bit - the story.
Both the narrative in and of itself as well as its presentation and the dialogue make this game really shine... Only problem being it's only 2 hours of the 20-30 hour ride.
I do admire Matsuno, but I think it's best that FFXII was also supervised by Itou, leaving us with an actually enjoyable gameplay. Same goes for his last project with Square as writer for the Story of the Bozja content of FFXIV, while leaving the rest of the team in charge of gameplay.
This man has brilliant ideas, but the gameplay execution really makes it hard for me to enjoy his games. Everything about it is way to hardcore, which is a shame, cause his story are so god-damn unique.
I just gotta hope FFXVI will actually live up to being a game with a Matsuno-like story and great gameplay.
Vagrant Story is definitely the pinnacle of his very intricate or rather obtuse design were you may find fun, if you can get into at all. The menu crawling, weapon crafting and weapon training however was too much for me to enjoy. Besides I think the level design here makes actually traversing the intriguing city of Lea Monde a pain to get through. I felt like having to walk through a field of needles to finally get to the good bit - the story.
Both the narrative in and of itself as well as its presentation and the dialogue make this game really shine... Only problem being it's only 2 hours of the 20-30 hour ride.
I do admire Matsuno, but I think it's best that FFXII was also supervised by Itou, leaving us with an actually enjoyable gameplay. Same goes for his last project with Square as writer for the Story of the Bozja content of FFXIV, while leaving the rest of the team in charge of gameplay.
This man has brilliant ideas, but the gameplay execution really makes it hard for me to enjoy his games. Everything about it is way to hardcore, which is a shame, cause his story are so god-damn unique.
I just gotta hope FFXVI will actually live up to being a game with a Matsuno-like story and great gameplay.