Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: An opinion!

FINISHED LEGEND OF ZELDA: SKYWARD SWORD! 40 pounds very well spent! Skyward Sword, for me at least, is one of the best action adventure games. It is the longest. By the time I killed of the last boss my playtime was nearing 50 hours! And this is NOT an RPG! 

The story was pretty good, esp. the fact that most Zelda games are about the game play and it gets the most attention, but Skyward Sword had a riveting plot. Sure it kept things simple and still used the “Save the Princess’ theme that is synonymous with Zelda games, but the way the story was told was very interesting. There were quite a few cut scenes that had good amount of cinematic flair and kept things moving along. There is where the devs have done a great job in juggling story exposition and game play considering the long play time. For the game to be this intriguing right till the end, esp. for a game plays heavy series like Zelda was remarkable. I loved the fact as it’s an origin story; I didn’t feel as if I was being weighted down by Zelda’s past. This has to be Nintendo’s most story focused game to date.

The characters were pretty decent too. While Link was once again a blank slate and the many of the NPC were rote, but the real stars of the show were Zelda, Fi and the villain Ghirahim. Zelda side stepped the whole damsel in distress cliché and showed her as a strong willed and brave girl, but still retaining the fragile and vulnerable nature of a damsel. Unlike the tom boy version of Wind Waker or the coward type in Spirit Tracks, here was Zelda who, while staying innocent, was standing up to the evil that threaten to destroy the world  and fought it out, in different ways, along with Link. Man I would love to have a girl like Zelda. And did I mention she was quite the cutie!

Fi is Zelda’s very own Cortana! While Cortana had spunk…..amongst other…..assets, Fi was a ‘master’ of stating the obvious made her pretty memorable. At least she wasn’t as annoying as the fairy in Ocarina of Time (played OOT for 3 hours). Ghirahim takes the place of the series regular villain, Ganon and is pretty menacing….in a…queer…kinda way. I have never seen Ganon, but Ghirahim did decent job in me hating him all the same. Had fun beating his ass!!

The game play was a bit of a mixed bag, for me at least. The level designs and puzzles were amazing and very creative. Puzzles found in Lanayru Desert were nothing short of awesome! The entire game world was like a big puzzle which was fun; although a bit of normal exploration would have been good. But for me the most divisive aspect of the game was the use of the Wii Motion Plus, esp. how it was implemented in combat. At first it was fun, using precise attacks to dispatch enemies, but as the game started to get more tough and enemies attack pattern started to change, I started to find the precise waggle to be annoying to the point of almost hating it. My arm would tire very quickly which could had become a deal breaker for me if the game would had been a notch tougher. But during boss battles I would be cursing Miyamoto-san for put Wii Motion Plus in the game. So while it was fun for a while, I am glad and relived that the usage of the device had come to an end!

The thing which really impressed me was how much the game kept on offering in terms of game play. Right when I thought that all of the game play had been displayed, there would be something new.!

The production values were great! The game looked like a Claude Monet’s painting! The colors were bright and vivid and while due to hardware constricts the game textures were blurry but that played right into the hand of Nintendo and the end up giving it a unique artistic touch. The sound track was….okay I guess, but the main theme which used the classic Zelda’s theme arrangement with the new theme was just great! I like the new Zelda theme more than the classic one though. All in all while the production values could not beat the ones found in Super Mario Galaxy 2, Skyward Sword sits very cozily as one of the best looking and sounding games on the Wii.

Ok so now I am putting on my critics cap and nitpick the things I did not like about the game:

I did not like the monsters and enemy designs.  I felt that maybe the artists of the game were a tad lazy. While I appreciate game design that are aimed at a young crowd, but the ones found in Skyward Sword were just not good. I will cite one example: The Imprisoned. Here was a horrendous monster whose sight made me shudder a little, but then I saw its hands and feet! I mean..LOOK AT IT!!

In this day and age where voice acting has become so important in games, to stay so rooted the past ended up hurting Skyward Sword. Nintendo kept the game voice less which I just do not understand. The game would have benefited from voice acting if they had British actors!

The most damning feature of the game was back tracking. No, not your typical back tracking here, but visiting the new environments in the same location..3-4 times was not good thinking. A game that is as lengthy as this, there should had been locations to go to. I just couldn’t fathom reusing the same locales. EVEN IN THE LAST DUNGEON!! I had to deduct a few points.

So in the end I will still rank Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword as quite an amazing game. Having so much content in a game whose genre is action adventure was quite bewildering. The story was decent and the game play was solid as ever. Sure there were a few things that I did not like, for which I will be chastised by long time Zelda fan (this is the first Zelda game I have finished) but I still have loads of fun. My play time at the end was 49 hours and 32 mins. My ranking: 9 out 10!

Mass Effect 3: Magnificent, Awe-inspiring, Insipid!

NOTE: This blog post contains MASSIVE SPOILERS of Mass Effect 3!!!

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What an amazing ride it has been with Bioware’s incredible sci-fi magnum opus, Mass Effect series. For the last 5 years the creative minds at the company has created one of the most expansive sci-fi universe easily rivaling, I’d even go to say surpassing, the heavy hitters of the genre like Star Wars, Dune and Star Trek. Never before has a work of science fiction garnered so much universal praise as the Mass Effect trilogy: A complex and fully realized futuristic setting? Check. A myriad of very interesting alien races each with their history, mythology and lore? Check. A tense political scenario where history and present predicament come colliding in a grand epic plot? Check. It seems as if Mass Effect has become one of those rare game series that transcends from the video game medium and becomes a part of pop culture, something which video games are still struggling with. In the end Mass Effect will always be remembered as the game series that had the heart to become a beacon for video games as being more than a hobby for geeks, and become the game series which truly breaks into main stream with much fanfare.

Mass Effect 3 can be described in one simple word: EPIC!! Everything about the game, from its sense of urgency as the Reaper's threat becomes real and tangible, the grand scope of the plot with planets being overrun by the sentient  Reapers and every race in the galaxy scrambling together to quell the impending doom, right down to the last poignant mission on Earth. The plot moves at break neck pace bringing together all the story elements from the previous games into a rousing crescendo. Bioware’s writers did a fantastic job in knitting a coherent story line which was riveting and packed an emotional wallop and it was joy to follow the entire saga as it unfolded in the 3 games, Mass Effect 3 being the best in that regard. I also loved the way many of the lingering issues that were going on throughout the saga were resolved like curing of the genophage on Tuchanka or settling the 300 year war between the Quarians and the Geth, or being there with Thane Krios as he breathed his last or helping out Miranda’s family issues. Mass Effect 3 wrapped up all such residual issues from the previous games in a neat and satisfying manner bringing all the character threads to a close. Seeing the relationships I fostered throughout the 3 games come full circle was quite something indeed!

Now on to the game play which in my humble opinion took the best bits of Mass Effect 1 and 2 and created a perfect mixture of cover based shooting and micro management in true RPG fashion. I was quite pleased to find that the RPG mechanics had been brought back in the fold as they almost went missing in the last game. Another addition that was appreciated was weapons customization. Each weapon could be outfitted with attachments making weapons more powerful or accurate etc. Sure the customization wasn’t on the insane level of the JRPG, Resonance of Fate, but it was still pretty robust and I could actually tell the difference of any modifications I did on the different weapons.

The combat was near perfect and the action sequences were really intense. The combat moved at a fair clip and taking down hordes of enemies was done like any good 3^rd person action game (unlike the clumsy combat in the first game). The flow of the battles was raw and visceral, I especially had a blast on Rannoch and Earth with droves of baddies to shoot and shred with biotic skills of Shepard and his team (it took me 2 games to come to grips in using these skills and it certainly made for some fun battles especially against the nasty Banshees!).

Now the production values of Mass Effect 3 were once again a mix bag, a sentiment I’ve had for all the 3 games of the series much to the chagrin of a few of my Unreal Engine 3 loving friends. Look Unreal Engine 3 does a great job when it comes to showing shiny space ships or ships interiors or when it comes to showing epic space battles or when showing the grand expanse of an alien home world. But when it comes to character models the engine seems to struggle quite a bit. The eyes of characters would look creepy, there were quite a few instances of shaky animations and the general ‘muddy’ textures just didn’t impress me at all. Another problem I had with the visuals was it was ridden with glitches: I remember this really power scene before going on the Tuchanka mission which was marred by a graphical glitch that made Shepherd eyes all weird and it just killed off the scene and the impact it tried to create. And because I have the example of the incredible looking JRPG, Final Fantasy 13 whose visuals were astounding, and Mass Effect 3 just didn’t have the graphical fidelity that could out gun Final Fantasy 13!

If I wasn’t impressed by the visuals of the game, the audio department picked up the slack. The voice acting was once again some of the best I’ve ever heard and that made for a rich game experience. Hollywood star Martin Sheen once again provided great chords for the menacing Illusive Man, while Seth Green got a bit more voice time. The voice work of the main characters was phenomenal with Liz Sroka (Tali) doing in an awesome job. Keep your ears open for the Rannoch mission for some awesome voice work by her. Ali Hillis as Liara did solid work as did Keith Davis whose portrayal as Admiral Anderson was exceptional. But Mark Meer’s performance as Commander Shepard was the most nuanced and well rounded and Meer easily discarded the cardboard like performance from the previous games and gave a rousing performance. Bioware’s games always have great voice acting and Mass Effect 3 another fine example. The soundtrack was appropriate and uniformly very good.

With that mini review done I will now write a little about the romantic option I took, some of the best moments from Mass Effect 3 and of course the much talked about ending. So here goes:

The Loving Man:

The female friend that I went for this time was Tali, who I also choose in Mass Effect 2. There was something about Tali right from the start. Admittedly I went for Liara T’soni in the first game, but I was always attracted to Tali as I would make it a point to go to engineering and chat with her. Something about her race: the masks wearing Quarians, their history with the Geth and their mass exodus from their home world all added to the mystique of Tali.  And don’t get me started on the sensual exotic accent of her voice! In Mass Effect 2 I went for Tali and was rewarded with some really innocent puppy love relationship (which got marred by the clumsy love scene), but in Mass Effect 3 I was surprised at how maturely they handled the relationship, I actually felt a connection with her character, something which I have not felt since I ended Final Fantasy 10. The mission on Rannoch was where this was more evident. And then true to Bioware’s promise that they would show what Tali looked like and although they messed that up in spectacular fashion, I wasn't that miffed about it. So in the end Tali was quite the video game character, strong willed and determined but also had a vulnerability which to me was very endearing.

WTF!! Moments:

Here are some of the most awesome moments in the game. Enjoy these video clips:

This moment occurred right at the end of the mission on the Quarian home world of Rannoch. After killing the Reaper I had the chance of either siding with the Geth or the Quarians and for some odd reason I sided with the Geth and saw the entire Quarian race being destroyed and my beloved Tali commit suicide. This was one of the rarest moments in video games which really got to me emotionally (my blood spiked quite a lot and I almost broke down). I quietly pressed reset and loaded a previous save. No way in HELL was I letting Tali die off like that!

The Krogans and their sordid history with the Rebellion Wars and then the race getting decimated by the genophage was very interesting. I always wanted an option to be able to cure the virus and this is what Mass Effect 3 let me do. This scene occurs when I managed to release the cure in the atmosphere of Tuchanka and had lost my crazy Salarian scientist team mate Mordin Solus in the process. Just was one of those amazing moments!

This moment occurred on the Asari’s home world of Thessia. Finding the Prothean beacon and getting answers to my questions by the Prothean VI on the history of the Reapers, the cycle of destruction and the Crucible. Give me Goosebumps! (33:45)

Going towards the very last section on during the last mission on Earth, I get to meet up with every single member of my team. Meeting up with Liara T’soni netted me this great scene which I just cannot explain in words. It was just one of the unique moments of Mass Effect magic!

Ok with that done now it’s on to the most divisive part of Mass Effect 3: The Endings. Note: This section of the post is filled with MASSIVE SPOILERS for the endings. So BEWARE!!

It ends here:

Just when you thought that Mass Effect would create something memorable, utterly EPIC, it almost comes crashing down to its knees! I know a lot has been said and written about the infamous endings, but I still cannot get my head around it. How can Bioware, masters of telling a great tale, end their most popular game franchise with such useless endings is beyond me. There were so many plot holes right at the end that made all the time spend gathering up war assets, spending time resolving issues and killing the Reapers a waste of time. Since finishing the game I have watched a few many YouTube clips where gamers highlighted what was wrong with Mass Effect 3 endings, and the worst bit is I agreed to all of them! Here are some of the problems I had with Mass Effect 3’s ending:

First of was the Illusive Man. The guy spend years upon years trying to find ways to control the Reapers and get incredible power and to that end he did succeed (indoctrination or not), but the way he was killed was stupid. One Renegade option, one bullet, BOOM, Illusive Man, Dead! So the guy who was wielding Reaper’s power was shot dead by a measly bullet from a handgun?!?!

OK so everybody agrees that Mass Effect is an EPIC game franchise right? And Mass Effect 3 was to be the best game in the series right?. Well then where the HELL was my EPIC Final Boss Battle?!!?? Where was the ultimate evil guy (or gal) who’s behind Shepard was to kick?!!? Instead all I got was a few Reaper baddies to kill (OK fine, QUITE a few), but where was the last boss??!!? So Bioware ended the Mass Effect saga without a final boss battle?! And when the first and second game had a last boss battle!!  Don’t know about you guys but this just stinks!

During the last stand we got to see representation from all the galactic alien races, from Krogans to the Asari, but where was the Rachni Queen and her army of creepy crawlies? I didn’t see a single Rachni battling it out against the Reapers. So what was the purpose of recruiting the Rachni again?

Why did the mass relays have to be destroyed? Doesn’t this send the humans back years in terms of technology? What about the other alien races those were in Earth’s orbit. Aren’t they stuck in Earth’s orbit with no chance to returning to their home worlds?

The concept of multiple endings is not a new one. The idea behind multiple ending is to give different perspectives to a game’s story. Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross had 5-9 endings and each of them different from one another. So what in the world happened in Mass Effect 3?! There were a total of 3 endings and each ending was ALMOST identical, expect for the color of the blasts and a little difference here and there. But everything else was the same. How can these be regarded as multiple endings?!

But for me the biggest problem I had with all the ending (YouTube FTW) was the lack of resolution. What happened after the Reapers were destroyed? What happened to the crew of Normandy (apart from crash landing on some planet) and its crew? What REALLY happened to Shepard? Nothing was properly sorted out. And what was the purpose of the ending after the credits? Who were those two nondescript individuals? Look I don’t need a happy or bright ending per say, but at least give me a satisfactory one! And why in the world do I need DLC to get to an ending that makes sense?!. That is poor game design right there! Final Fantasy 13 had a confusing story and there was too much of these random words (L’cie , Fal’cie) but at least I did get an amazing ending which made up for the shortcoming of the entire story. I won’t even remember the small details of the plot but I will always remember the ending to Final Fantasy 13. So why was Mass Effect 3 given such a poor send off? I feel I wasted 83 hours I put in the three Mass Effect games. The RPG that will give Mass Effect 3 run for its money for the Game of the Year award this year, Xenoblade Chronicles, had an amazing ending as well. Sure the last 1/3 of the game became confusing and the techno-babble and religious overtones got a little over bearing but the ending put everything on track. While I was smirking at the end of Xenoblade, I was cursing Bioware for the insipid endings. It’s as if Bioware made a magnificent 3 course meal and then pissed on it!!! 

As so this wraps up my analysis of the only WRPG game (franchise) I ever liked. I am an out and out JRPG fan so Mass Effect series inclusion in my JRPG heavy favorite games list was quite an achievement. I enjoyed every minute of all three games I played. I don’t know if any other WRPG would invoke such a passion from me, (quite A LOT of JRPGS do) like how Mass Effect did. But the sour taste left by the final ending of Mass Effect 3 is too much to swallow and it just dented the experience for me. But in the end Mass Effect franchise was one hell of a series and easily ranks as of greatest game series in gaming history!

Legendary Game in Xenoblade Chronicles!

I procured my copy of Xenoblade Chronicles last year and since then have been fully entertained by its solid storyline rife with sci-fi and philosophical themes, true to Takahashi’s form, a bevy of interesting characters who deftly defy the JRPG clichés, a great battle system, which when in full flow made for some really amazing battles especially the boss battles where usage of strategy and tactics is paramount along with some new wrinkles to the JRPG mechanics. Add all this with a HUGE game world to explore! It was bewildering at first because of the incredible amount of exploration on a fantastically realized game world and by the time I prepared myself for the last section of the game I could not help but be amazed at Tetsuya Takahashi's labor of love.

So last night I manned up to the incredibly challenging last boss, and after 'trying' to kill it for the umpteenth time: read: 6 times, I got myself a save file from GameFaqs, uploaded it on my Wii internal hard drive and went on to kick the last boss's butt! What happened after that was truly epic! I was greeted with one of finest ending in a JRPG!

The ending inspired varying degrees of emotions from sense of achievement that I had beaten the game (so what if I cheated right at the end, I played 98% of the game properly), to being awe-inspired at what transpired in the end and then being melancholic and sad as the credits started to roll and I said farewell to Shulk and his gang after spending 68 hours   finishing the game!

Xenoblade Chronicles is easily one of the best RPG experience this generation! Although it was on inferior console but this game should rank amongst the best of the RPG genre in the last 6 years. Yes it competes as an equal with the heavy hitters like Skyrim, Mass Effect to Valkyria Chronicles and Tales of Vesperia. Personally I rank Xenoblade Chronicles in my top 10 RPGS of all time. This indeed is a legend of a game!

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception mini review!

                         

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception once again proves that Naughty Dog's penchant of creating fantastic games still exists in spades, making them quite the task masters in such a cut throat industry. This year the video game industry is making all the headlines for all the right reason with release of some of the biggest games and Uncharted 3 is one of them. What sets 2011 apart from previous years as a watershed year for the industry is that quite a HUGE number of games are Game of the Year quality, that pitting these games against one another is a really tough proposition! The last time such a phenomena occurred was way back in 2004, but 2011 ekes out in front cause of the sheer number of quality games on show.

                        

Uncharted 3: Drake Deception is a meticulously crafted, superbly paced, explosive action game with some incredible production values yet suffers from 'been there, done that' vibe which doesn't really bring the game down in any sense, but while playing it I could'nt shake the feeing of deja-vu. And because the game will inevitably be compared with the epic Hollywood-esque Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, that Uncharted 3 feels like a TV show isn't a damning indictment for the game but a glowing praise for it's prequel. Having said that, Drake's Deception may be epic-est TV show ever made if I may add! But by all accounts this is a game worthy of the Uncharted moniker and a fantastic action game on its own. My play time 8 hours 27 mins and my rating a 8.8/10. 

The best video game I played in 2011!

1) Xenoblade Chronicles – Wii:

It was maybe e3 of 2009 when I spotted a game by the odd name of Monado: The Beginning of the World on Gamespot’s e3 page. I was very excited when I read the small preview of the Japanese version and saw the name Tetsuya Takahashi, the director of the awesome Xeno series for the PS1 and the PS2, and Monolith Soft, the dev company which made Xenosaga trilogy , at the helm of this new title. And the fact It was coming on the JRPG starved Wii was another reason for my excitement. But as the days and months wore (which brought a change of name: XenoBlade, which resulted in me throwing a tantrum) there was almost no news of an English version anywhere, while the game’s momentum was picking up Japan. When it got released in Japan to very high praise and sold really well, I seriously started to get worried that the game won't make it out in English.

I was expecting some sort of news to come out from the US for an English release, it took me by surprise that game was being localized by Nintendo of Europe, now dubbed Xenoblade Chronicles. Nintendo of Europe's website even had little video snippets highlighting the game world and the music. Slowly small bits of info started streaming out and it all made for awesome reading, and soon enough a concrete release was announced and what was more bizzare that the game was only coming Europe and not the US. Not that I cared that much as long as I could play this bad boy!!. August 19 was D-day and as soon as I got my copy from Amazon UK (via a family friend who was fortunately visiting Pakistan at the time) the game didn't pop out of the Wii for a good 2 months and this was the only game I was indulging in, without even bating an eye for the huge games during that time (Gears of War 3, Infamous 2 to name a few).

Was the game as good as they said it would be? HELLS YEAH!!!!. The game literally came from left field and has gone on to reinvent the JRPG genre which  considered to be stagnating for a while (its a conspiracy I tell you!!). Monlith Software once again proved that they have command over the genre, rivalling the JRPG giants of SquareEnix and Atlus and NIS.

Xenoblade Chronicles is the perfect example of how to meld two different sub-genres i.e WRPG and JRPG and concoct a game which eschews all the fault of both the genre to create something quite unique. For starters the world setting, the melodramatic plot with sci-fi trapping isn't too far from what you get in an traditional JRPG. The melodrama has been toned down quite a bit especially if you compare it with other recent games in the genre, but still have enough twists, turns and shocking revelations which makes for very intriguing viewing.

The characters, too adhere to the mould of JRPGs but the dev team has done a really good job in making all the characters stand out from the crowd of emo-filled, angst ridden young heroes. The characterization is pretty solid where every character can be sympathized with and each adding something to plate to the flow of the story. The best bit is that these are NOT cliched characters that you will find in any X,Y,Z RPGs but rather they have pretty distinct personalities and agendas. Tetusya Takahashi and his cohorts have once again pushed the limits on how to present characters in a JRPG.

So right off the bat the game is following the JRPG blue print quite nicely but as soon as the game goes into high gear the influences from the WRPG genre start kicking in. The game world is HUGE, I mean the game takes place on top of 2 titanic gods for crying out loud!. If recent JRPGs felt claustrophobic then Xenoblade Chronicles will inundate the gamers with a humongous world to explore and discover. Hell discovering new area rewards player with experience points which really takes the cake if you like exploring, which also does away with linear exploration native to JRPGs. Another feature taken from WRPGs is the INSANE amount of side quests to do. Every new area or town have LOADS of NPCs almost lining up for the heroes help, from hunting monsters to finding items to raw material gathering, they are all there.

But it’s the battle system though which fully combines the West and the East game designs. It’s a quasi-real-time/turn based battles system fought on the field (i.e. no more screen shattering battle arenas), with abilities to choose on the fly (coupled with a cool down mechanics). The battles become pretty hectic but its very easy to see a neat turn based mechanic is also at play. This is where I think that Monolith Soft has done an awesome job as Xenoblade's battle system works for both fans of JRPGs and WRPGs. I will even go on to say that this game may be a very rare kind of JRPGs that caters to any sort of RPG player, and this where the game really shines more than its peers. So yeah I consider the battle of game as one of the greatest in RPGs. That is a huge claim especially for a game on the Wii and how JRPGs have kinda lost their steam in the last few years, but the level of polish and genius present in the battle system makes a lasting impression and something which other RPG makers will do well to take a note of. What this also means that Monolith Soft didn't really chuck out the JRPGs mechanics out the window in order to make something new, but stuck to what makes a JRPG tick while incorporating the WRPGs mechanics and that is the real achievement of the developers and the game.

The customizations options are also similar to many of the great WRPGs where every character can be molded into however the player wants them. And that's not all, there is a really good loot system in place as well where the players can gather all sorts of equipment, weapons and trinkets. But these WRPG mechanics are once again balanced with the focus on progressing the story like in any JRPG of the past.

As I mentioned earlier how the battle system merges the JRPG and the WRPG, I will say that the entire game is like that. The perfect marriage of two pretty different genres is a sight to behold. Fans of both the genres have been at logger head for years now. Both set of parties have very convincing arguments, but XenoBlade Chronicles shows if developers are game enough to experiment with both the genres they can end up with something really special and the game is a true testament of that.

Now add all of this RPG goodness with some really fantastic production values, even though the Wii is not an HD enable console likes its competition and you get a game that exceeds all sorts of expectations and as well as silencing the naysayers. Technically the game isn't up to the mark with some of the high end Wii games like Super Mario Galaxy series or Metriod Other M but overcomes that technical deficiency with incredible art style and a grandiose scale unlike anything seen before in the JRPG genre. Though technically it maybe lacking but surprising the game rarely chugs or experiences a hiccup, even with so much happening on the screen. But for me it really is the art style of the game is really carries the game to upper echelon of the genre as it juggles sci-fi motifs with the more earthy aspect of the game world with aplomb.

Even the sound track is top notch with some of the biggest name in the industry in the shape of Yoko Shinumura and Yasonari Mitasuda and the 3-person band ACE+ who basically have produced one of the best sound track of the year!

I don’t know how many people in Pakistan have given Xenoblade Chronicles a look in especially as the Wii is usually considered a 'kiddie' console, its really a shame that this game will not get its fair due in the Pakistani gaming circles.

On a personal level I am of the small percentage of gamers who still revere the JRPG sub-genre and am confused at all the hoopla of the ‘decline’ of the genre. But even then Xenoblade Chronicles has done a great job in elevating itself in a pretty saturated field which is a HUGE accomplishment with the Wii on its last legs. Initially I was kind of worried that the story telling would take a hit considering the criticism Tetsuya Takahashi got for the Xenosaga trilogy, but already having put in more 40 hours in the game I am very satisfied at the balance of storytelling mechanics (i.e. cut-scenes) and game play. Sure its not on the epic level of the first XenoSaga game but its still a lot which is awesome!.

So in conclusion 2011 did have a lot of truly magnificent games across the board, more so on the PS3 and 360, but this unassuming title on a system which is way past its prime took most of my time. Although I still have not finished the game I have loved every minute of it!

Honorable Mentions:

Xenoblade Chronicles was indeed an awesome game, but 2011 was a phenomenal year for the video gaming industry and personally as a gamer there never has been a better time to indulge in medium of video games. Here some of the games I enjoyed last year:

1) Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception

2) Batman: Arkham Asylum

3) Radiant Historia

4) Infamous 2

5) Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

6) Beyond Good and Evil HD

7) Super Mario 3D Land

8) de Blob 2

9) Tactic Ogre: Let us cling togather

10) Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Dragon Quest goes online!!!

SquareEnix held a press conference yesterday in order to announce the next game in their venerable series Dragon Quest. For a couple of years we have been hearing that the company was working on a game for an unannounced platform but now the long wait has ended. Dragon Quest X: Waking of the Five Tribes is coming out in 2012 for both the Wii and Nintendo’s upcoming new console Wii U. But here’s the real kick to the nuts: It’s an MMORPG, or in layman terms: an online RPG!!

Now I have been playing JRPGs for more than a decade and have always enjoyed this genre more than any other for their propensity of telling a great story with memorable characters. This is where JRPGs differ from other genres which become the perfect hook for gamers looking for a great yarn. That is why I have never been a fan of online RPGs as they kill the concept of a story. But as they usually come out on PC, and I do understand the fact that there are a huge number of people who enjoy playing online PC RPGs, but when some of the biggest JRPGs franchises decide to go it is makes me very angry indeed.

SquareEnix has been the past master of the JRPGs for years now and many of their games are great classics from the likes of Final Fantasy 4, Secret of Mana, Romancing Saga to name a few. I will even go on to say that I have never been let down by the company, except on two occasions. First came with the announcement of Final Fantasy XI. The leap from a single player experience to an MMORPG one was quite disappointing and I still hold against the company of ruining the numbered series. Because of that I haven’t even give much thought to Final Fantasy XIV, for me that game doesn’t even exist!

Dragon Quest X being an online RPG is the second instance that I have been disappointed by the company. Look I am all for innovation in the genre, hell I support positive innovation. But does the gaming industry need ANOTHER online RPG?!? If online component was so important to SquareEnix they could had done what they did in Dragon Quest IX i.e. providing a solid single player experience with the added option of going online and playing with a friend. For me that would had made sense. Oh well I guess what’s done is done, and it’s a shame really. I guess I will be ignoring this game and will be thanking the stars that The Last Story is in the process of being translated in English.

Trails in the Sky shine so Bright!!

In amongst the fans of the Japanese video games, Xseed as made quite a name for itself by localizing and publishing niche Japanese titles in the American market, which otherwise would had been ignored by bigger publishing companies. Xseed’s resume is indeed an impressive one with some good solid games published on multiple gaming platforms from the likes of Wild Arms 5 (PS2), Lunar Silver Star Harmony (PSP) or Fragile Dreams (Wii). Xseed has also partnered Marvelous Entertainment USA to co-publish a few more titles with Rune Factory Frontier (Wii) as the main attraction of the said partnership. The creation of the company is one of the better legacies of the last gaming generation which is still relevant in the HD era.

As impressive as all this may sound Xseed needed a proper AAA title to stamp its authority on the localizing market. Enter Nihon Falcom and their flagship game series on the PC, Legend of Heroes. Nihon Falcom has a knack of creating very robust RPGs with fleshed out battle systems and intriguing settings. Legend of Heroes: Sora No Kiseki was a PC game trilogy which was a big hit in Japan when it was released in 2004, while the ensuing sequels have also garnered massive following. It was a logical move when a port of the game series appeared on the PSP (Japan only) that the series truly hit cult status. For the non Japanese speaking public they could only watch at the sidelines, hoping against hope that some company would translate the game and release it outside Japan. It was really out of the blue when in 2010 Xseed announced a partnership with Falcom which would see release of not only 3 Y’s games in the space of 3 months but also the first chapter of the Sora No Kiseki series in 2011. Dubbed Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, was to become the most exhaustive undertaking by the company as the game had a staggering amount of text to be translated: 1.5 million Japanese characters to be precise! But when the game came out rest assured the efforts of the localizing team at Xseed had out done themselves as the translated script was full of witty and hilarious dialogue and characterization which went swimmingly with a fascinating story along with some solid RPG action. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is the company's best work to date and easily one of the top PSP games.

So at first I wasn't all that impressed with the game as the first 1-2 hours lurched at a snail’s pace, the graphics weren't exactly great and the lack of voice acting soured the deal for me, but I stuck with it. And the more I played, the more I started to realize how the much game reminded me of some of the top RPGS of the PS1 era. Games like Grandia, Breath of Fire or Thousand Arms came to mind as I delved deeper into Trails of the Sky and that fact alone made it stand out among its peers. Characterization and dialogue were uniformly awesome with great banter among the characters, the sense of adventure and wonderment is prevalent throughout while the game play mechanics were slick and polished. If the game would had come out back in the day it would had been hailed as one of the greatest but even as it stand right now its still an awesome game for the PSP.

As for the general plot, that too adheres to the blue print of the 32 bit RPGS of the PS1. Basically the plot revolves around our two protagonists Estelle Bright and her adopted sibling Joshua Bright as they make ways around the Liberal Kingdom training to become Bracers; an organization that helps the people in need: be it killing monsters, upholding the law or doing things for the well being of the people. And through their training they meet and befriend new people as they slowly get embroiled in a huge conspiracy against the crown. It’s not as cliché as it sounds because the writing and pacing is excellent (something bigger companies can re-learn from this title), introducing new plot twists in each of its first 3 chapters, culminating in everything coming together in the final chapter. The ending does a great job in tying up loose ends, while opening up a whole new can of worms for the sequels. I really enjoyed the plot and the characters of Trails in the Sky and can’t wait to get to the conclusion of this inspired trilogy.

Legend of Heroes: Trails of the Sky is a turn based game but Falcom has added a few new wrinkles to the system which makes it a fresh entry. The fast pace of battles and the tactical nuances made the system deep yet rewarding, almost as good as the perfect turn based systems found in Persona 3 and Persona 4. More often than not I would actively be going out of my way to fight beasts and monsters as I trekked along the countryside or deep, dank dungeons. Another cool aspect was how slowly my characters leveled up as the final levels of my characters stood at 36 which made all the unnecessary level grinding a chore of the past. I also really enjoyed how the side quests were handled as well and due to their bite sized nature side questing didn't feel senseless or boring. It made balancing story progression and side-questing an enjoyable ride.

Some of the best moments of the game were undoubtedly the 4 main cities which the characters visit. Each of the cities has its own vibe from the sleepy town of Rolent to the industrial hub Zeiss. Talking to NPCs of these cities would always yield some interesting tidbit about the events that are taking place or stuff about the city they inhabit.

But perhaps the most awesome features of Trails in the Sky are the main characters. Although they do conform to the anime clichés but they still come off as refreshing and full of personality. Be it Estelle’s over exuberance, Joshua’s grounded sensibilities or Oliver's egotistic behavior, they all come off as quite endearing. It all helps with the stellar localization done by Xseed which sees such eccentricities come to life and how!.

Most people who will cast their eyes on the visuals of Trails of the Sky will NOT like them one bit. The game does not look that hot, even for a PSP game, but as a wise man once said ‘beauty is only skin deep’. The same can be said about this game too as once you get past the retro 32 bit look of the game, you will notice good amount of details in the environments. The towns are filled to the brim with small neat touches, the in game cut-scenes have loads of diversity and the battle visuals are quite easy on the eyes. Then again the game will NOT win any beauty pagents but that does not mean the game is awful looking, I would call the visuals.….charming!

Ok time to wrap this up: Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is a great PSP game and a really neat JRPG in its own right. The games does not reinvent the wheel but rather adheres to the typical JRPG mantra, but is presented in such a way that it makes for solid gaming. The story doesn’t takes itself seriously for most the game, the characters and relationships are both funny and touching, the game play mechanics add little nuances to the turn based system which keeps the system fresh and fun, and the huge world to travel and explore is downright addictive. PSP is really on its last legs but it still is chugging along willfully as Trails in the Sky still has 2 more sequels to come out to finish the trilogy. So hear me now Xseed: You better not pull a fast one on the PSP owners and the fans of this awesome game by not bringing out part 2 and 3. We want these games NOW!!!

My play through was 47 hours, 14 minutes and 28 seconds (47:14:28) while my rating is a solid 9!