A look back at: Phantom Brave

Glad to have finally beat the main campaign of Phantom Brave. A very interesting story-driven tactical RPG, where you can just customize almost everything about not just characters, but items too.

It's so weird, with all the customization options, all the random dungeons you can create and go through, all the mana you can collect to forge and fuse items, all the skills you can learn, all the titles you can gain, and so much more. Perhaps the reason I didn't give this the same score as Soul Nomad may be because in all honesty, the amount of customization drowned out all the story due to loads of level grinding and interesting random dungeons and I forgot where I was going. Oh well. One good thing this game does is allow you to replay story battles, although sometimes you fight different enemies on story stages. Like you're not gonna fight Raphael again on a stage that has him. With that in mind, some of the storyline battles tend to have one-time only items. Combine this with certain phantoms with certain obtain rates as well as tough enemies, and actually getting the items is one of the game's biggest challenges apart from the post-game stuff, which I've decided not to do yet.

Characters, well, it's all centered on Marona, the kind, charming, loving, little Chroma girl who tries to be friendly and positive about everything. Yet she's basically a Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer kind of character, basically nobody likes her because she's considered possessed because of Ash being her guardian. Marona seems like a static character, meanwhile as the game's episodes go by, the rest of the characters start to warm up to her good deeds, one by one. One especially notable side character is Walnut, who actually is Endorph from Soul Nomad, except here he's a huge jerk doing the jobs for the money. Beating him multiple times shows that he himself has it much harder, then he makes an ultimate sacrifice at the end (or so you think since he DOES come back in Soul Nomad) for his sister and her new friend. The Putties are cute little mutes who also play a role in the whole "sealing of the evil demon plot". To be frank, while this plot isn't THAT cliche, I kinda get the feel that despite the warming of the characters, it just seemed to drag. Especially at the end since Sulphur just wouldn't die, not after Sprout slays the demon, not after the demon possesses Sprout and Marona has to fight the cursed knight, not after Sprout commits suicide, and not even after Marona defeats Sulphur a second time. It's just one of those moments where it just keeps going.

But overall I liked this Nippon Ichi title, and I can guarantee there's plenty more where it came from. Pretty addicting.

RPGs: Combining fantasy with high tech

You can obviously tell I'm running out of ideas, since I barely if ever update this blog for more than 10 days. Might as well keep running down the list. At our 10th, we reach the Luddite (George Lucas) Rule: Speaking of which, technology is inherently evil and is the exclusive province of the Bad Guys. They're the ones with the robots, factories, cyberpunk megalopolises and floating battle stations, while the Good Guys live in small villages in peaceful harmony with nature. (Although somehow your guns and/or heavily armed airships are exempted from this.)

Well, it's actually quite common, as most JRPGs I played tend to straddle the line between both fantasy and sci-fi. Most Final Fantasies end up doing this. Dual Orb 2 ends up doing this to a tee, while Chrono Trigger and a few other games are completely all over the place. Meanwhile, stuff that blacksmiths create from a fiery forge, as well as medicinal herbs being bought at stores that look like they're not gonna last more than a year in such poor villages are among the things that the good guys end up going to more often. The bad guys, which include all those evil empires, tend to have the biggest technological advancements. Look at Valua in Skies of Arcadia or the Empire in Final Fantasy 6, then compare it to the much more poorer locales everywhere else in those games. Or an even better example, the Kingdom of Zeal and the incredibly poor and famished lands below in Chrono Trigger.

Yep, this is an RPG cliche I see far too often that it makes perfect sense that it's considered one. Even Phantasy Star, an otherwise mostly sci-fi game, has shades of this, with the third game almost seeming like complete fantasy at first but showing some big robots later. And the second game actually replaces biological organisms with robots as the main enemies at the halfway point. Again, it's the ones with the most technology that end up always being the biggest of the bad.

And yeah, your own weapons and airships definitely are exempt from the "inherent evil", most likely because the people who create them (like the numerous Cid's in early Final Fantasy titles) are always good guys, making technology great, unhackable, whatever. Wild Arms tries to oust characters with guns as bad, but given that they stay with the players all the way through and don't do anything outrageous like turn on their users, the guns also are exempt. I can't think of any other examples of technology that's perceived evil but is used for good, but it would also be exempt. So yeah, this is a cliche I pretty much agree with. Especially since it's worded so well.

Dungeon archetypes in RPGs.

Been sick of my life for the past few days. Let's see if I'm sick of the next cliche on our analyzing tour which will probably span into next year because I'm so unmotivated.

"There's always a fire dungeon, an ice dungeon, a sewer maze, a misty forest, a derelict ghost ship, a mine, a glowing crystal maze, an ancient temple full of traps, a magic floating castle, and a technological dungeon."

This certainly qualifies for a boatload of games. Wanna list some examples?

Fire dungeon: Mt. Zublo in Breath of Fire 3, Thor Volcano in Treasure of the Rudras, Thwomp Volcano in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.
Ice dungeon: Jokes End in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, White Dragon Cave in both Lunar titles, Great Glacier in Final Fantasy VII.
Sewer Maze: Nortune D Block Sewers in Xenogears, Sewer Access in Chrono Trigger, Viper Manor Sewers in Chrono Cross.
Misty Forest: many forests in Legend of Legaia, Guardia Forest in Chrono Trigger, Misty Forest in Grandia
Derelict Ghost Ship: The one from Legend of Dragoon, the Ghost Ship from Dragon Warrior 3, the Ghost Ship from Grandia.
A mine: The mines from Brave Fencer Musashi, Moon Stone Mountain in Skies of Arcadia, Tinto Mines in Suikoden II.
A glowing crystal maze: Abandoned Laine Village in Grandia, Lunar Subterranae in Final Fantasy IV, Crystal Tower in Final Fantasy III.
An ancient temple full of traps: Temple of Memory in Wild Arms, Ankor Wat (sp?) in Illusion of Gaia, Tombs of Amenti in Valkyrie Profile.
A magic floating castle: Doom Island in the Lufia series, Beauty Castle in Rhapsody, Floating Castle in Legend of Legaia.
A technological dungeon: Factory in Breath of Fire 3, Geno Dome in Chrono Trigger, The Grindery in Lunar 1.

So three examples of each. Obviously, not every game has these compulsories, and it's not a bad cliche in the slightest to have any of these. Perhaps the bigger focus would be on how the compulsories can have adverse effects on the battles, such as in Odin Sphere with the fire and ice locations requiring specifically crafted potions that way you won't suffer draining damage wherever.

Happy Freakin' New Year

Yeah, I was busy this entire winter break. Do you expect me to find a few things to blog about? I had family to deal with, a setlist for RPGs to play (while simultaneously still playing one right now), and there's still more to come. Still though, expect this to gain some ground. I'm not gonna be blogging every day of the week, you know. Let's ensure 2019 doesn't suck.

A look back at: Skies of Arcadia

A whole lot of this game is still fresh in my mind. Gotta take advantage of it. This also will be my last game of the year.

So Skies of Arcadia apparently was different from all those cash-ins at Final Fantasy VII, but it pulls off so many cliches and tropes. Yet it does those amazingly. In other words, you'll be seeing things in this game that you'd see elsewhere, but this game does all those well. For my look back, let's look at all the cliches!

-Vyse being a determined hero. We see that in almost every RPG that has a designated hero. Vyse however, shows his determination everywhere, from escaping inescapable areas, finding things no one else has found, going through seemingly impossible things. Wow.
He also has the distinction of being an RPG protagonist with both parents, which is uncommon. Both parents even live, and his father is naturally a notorious pirate on his own.
-Fina is a good example of the "mysterious girl" who does show some lack of knowledge and tact, but she's the one with the main goal and allows the others to go for her quest.
-Aika is the simple, but effective sidekick who's somewhat in love with the hero and ends up in some sort of love triangle. Thankfully this isn't as oversaturated as other things.
-The idea of two different pirate factions is pretty cliche on its own right. One is the Blue Rogues, the Robin Hood-esque guys who steal from the rich and give to the poor, while the Black Pirates go all out. Neatly enough, we don't see much of a war between these two, and we don't need to.
-Captain Drachma is basically Captain Ahab, while his nemesis Rhaknam is basically Moby Dick. Drachma gets sidetracked from his own goal for the rest of the heroes, but eventually gets to Rhaknam. What ranks this better than just a mere cliche is that much later, Drachma's apparent sacrifice turns out to be fake, and he comforts Rhaknam in his last moments. Not to forget, his backstory about his son and the name of his ship are taken into account, neat.
-Gilder is just another dashing pirate, without TOO much story to make him lame. All he has is just being another ally, but running away from a crazy female pirate.
-The Valuan empire naturally just HAS to be evil, and the token member of the empire who is of a "kingdom" title, Enrique, is good, while everyone else is associatively evil. Empress Theodora is naturally one of conquest, and Head Admiral Galcian moreso.
-Heck, the five admirals under Galcian all manage to have unique personalities as well. Alfonso being the wealthy coward, Vigoro being the ladies' man and the buff guy who works only for the good fights, De Loco being Mr. Mad Scientist with superiority complex, Belleza being the trickster in disguise (honestly I noted that Bellena was Belleza first time I played) with a troubled past. Gregorio is the somewhat boring one but is sort of an Obi-Wan figure to Enrique's Luke, while Galcian himself and Ramirez are Palpatine and Vader, respectively.
-The main fetch quest Fina gives is cliche, find six Moon Crystals, each in respective locales. It does a better job of making you get them too, because you go around the world to get them and the time it takes between each one isn't unorthodox (in other words, makes you take a long time to get just a few and the rest are immediately gained afterwards).
-Speaking of locales, you've got plenty, and they are often allegories of real life places. What else would you expect Yafutoma to be? It's completely Asian in nature! Same with Ixa'taka, which is indigenous jungle people similar to say, the Incan civilization. Nasr of course is Ottoman Empire/Middle Eastern nations, while Valua would be similar to Napoleonic Era France or some other empiric European nation, with a dash of Spanish and British given character names. The Dark Rift seems like a no man's land, while the so-called Cape Victory area resembles Australia.
-And speaking of six crystals, there's six particular Gigas, all of which fought in ship battles with different strategies. Gargantuan abominations that somehow still are charming to fight.
-Oh what do I see, a Doomed Hometown! Surprisingly no one who is named dies, and EVERYONE on Pirate Isle is named. But Pirate Isle loses its main pirates, and Fina is also captured. Meanwhile the two main characters are off for loot when this happens. It does a better job of portraying potential bleakness but averting it by not killing everyone like Tales of Phantasia did.
-It's not the only one, once Vyse gets his home base it does get burned down, plus he loses five of the six crystals in something rather predictable. Ramirez portrays himself as dangerous pretty well in this scenario.
-Said home base also used to be a deserted island where Vyse fends for himself for a week before he gets rescued. An interesting thing is how Gonzales, the dead guy he meets, ends up being somewhat of an inspiration.
-The Maginot Line Rule, a cliche on the Grand List, is in effect for Nasrad, whose naturally an enemy of Valua but doesn't realize the potentiality of it's worst admiral. Of course, the town is to be rebuilt at the end, along with Valua itself, which gets vaporized later on.
-Okay I'm not too into the whole Enrique-Moegi thing since it came out of nowhere, but at least it wasn't entirely too obvious except to the other characters. Them marrying at the end was a pretty neat thing since it shows that they really did bond. Moegi's feelings are pretty hard to convey since she never once opens her eyes.
-The plot twist in that Fina was to call down the Rains of Destruction isn't something completely out of the ordinary, but at least Fina proves the Silvite Elders wrong enough to not look crappy. Not to mention I got some Xenogears vibes with the Silvite Shrine being upside-down like Solaris. Neat touches.
-A coup within the empire, seems interesting enough. Gotta give Galcian some credit, he was intending for his defectors to die once he showed them his goals. Him being all for power is yet another allusion to his similarities to Palpatine. It's a shame that Ramirez's whole deal with being similar to Vader is seen mostly in the Legends release, so I didn't get to see that.
-God, I just LOVE how friend and foe alike come together to help Vyse stop Galcian. Just watch as a whole armada of allies drives in to help. From an old-timer noncombatant like Centime to a rival like Baltor, it's just so enticing. Always like it when I see Avengers-like teams appear to stop a greater evil, as cliche as it is.
-Ramirez completely losing it after Galcian gets rammed by Belleza is also not out of the ordinary, him attempting to really destroy the world is also not out of the ordinary. Regardless of any potential opinion here, the circumstances are quite epic with the Silvite colony drop. Not to mention his "last stand" final boss battle still remains epic, and quite horrifying given his attacks.

So yeah, very much recommended game no matter how cliche things are.

RPGs: What's the deal with nominal importance?

Haven't done one of these in a while it seems. Regardless, here's a look at the RPG Nominal rule: Any character who actually has a name is important in some way and must be sought out. However, if you are referred to as a part of a possessive noun ("Crono's Mom") then you are superfluous.

This one is kind of silly because most people who play console RPGs never pay any attention to character names unless they are party members or villains. Especially since the vast majority of NPCs aren't really named anyways. In some games where you have loads of recruits, like the entire Suikoden series or even Skies of Arcadia, there's gonna be quite a few names to remember for recruitment. Suikoden makes it easier because the characters all have portraits.

Another reason it's silly has to do with some RPGs having many characters with names but aren't important at all. Grady from the first Suikoden for example is named, but doesn't have a portrait. Interestingly enough, he has actual artwork, which makes him completely one-of-a-kind in the Suikoverse. But apart from that, he's a completely minor character who plays next to no part once you are done with the beginning of the game. In Skies of Arcadia, every individual shopowner has a name as well as the type of shop they run, but do you think "Lor's Ship Parts" is gonna stick with you the entire way? I don't, he's not recruitable and doesn't have any sort of interest apart from being a shopkeep. The more recent Wild Arms games I played (in my case Alter Code F and 3) actually name every single NPC. While it gives these NPCs a large amount of personality, in the end these names are likely forgotten after awhile.

Let's get to the second part of this cliche, the superfluousness of the ones who are referred to as possessive nouns. With the number of superfluous named NPCs mentioned, as well as this rule correlating with the Single Parent Rule, it's quite surprising how many parents of protagonists don't have true names. It's quite confusing in the game I'm playing right now. Why does Vyse have a mother without a name and a father who DOES have a name?* Neither of Alex's parents in Lunar: Silver Star have names. The same with Cornet's grandfather (Rhapsody), so they're all superfluous and fit this trope. Meanwhile, Cornet's mother, along with Annette's father in Growlanser 3, have names but don't do much. To me, having a name doesn't make you any more superfluous than anyone else if you're an NPC in a game.

*Said father also ends up superfluous after the beginning events of Skies of Arcadia are done as well. You don't see Dyne doing a whole lot afterwards, and he doesn't join your crew either. Okay, he does join your air pirate fleet group at the end, but what else does he do that's really important?

A look at: Freelancer

I still play this game, but usually with the expansion mod known as Discovery. People often erroneously refer to Discovery as a mod, but see, it holds much of the basic parts of the original games along with new content, that it's really an expansion.

As for the main game? Well, there are some things that can catch your attention with a game. One of those is how things are named and set up. See, when I saw that there's a space system going by the name of New York and a planet called Manhattan, well, what can I saw. I'm awed. And I want to know about the rest of the locales. Truth be told, it's exactly what I figure out. Liberty is Space America, sweet. And the other houses are done similarly. Rheinland is Space Germany, Kusari is Space Japan, and Bretonia is Space UK. The lost house of Hispania is divided into Mediterranean space pirates (Corsairs) and South American drug lords (Outcasts), while other independent factions are listed as well. Discovery of course adds Gallia, which is Space France, and even brings the Coalition (Russians) back into the universe.

Given that your character is in fact, a freelancer, you can do anything, particularly once the singleplayer campaign is over. Go lawful, go unlawful, go smuggle some illegal goods or trade regular ones. Go hunt down pirates or terrorists or fight off police forces as a pirate or terrorist yourself. Each and every faction has some goal, some motif, enemies, allies, and it especially applies to Discovery where the focus is on roleplay. The game in itself doesn't advertise roleplay otherwise, but you do gain net worth and levels as you progress, so it sort of qualifies. The singleplayer campaign has its freelancing bits in between missions, but tries to progress things accordingly, so it's impossible to be overpowered until after it's all finished. Then again, the progressively tougher combat, particularly once you reach the Nomad lands, can only make fancy flying a necessity.

The many ship classes, weapon classes, and bases make a whole lot of things vast. On the surface though, the thing to take note is that space is essentially 2D in this game. Your navmap is 2D and everything apparently is on a plane. This is a bit lame honestly, as if you fly above or below the plane, there's nothing of interest. Mods of course, don't follow this rule. The political zones correspond to what factions are met in those zones, while mineable zones show places where you can shoot at rocks to gain free trading items.

The utilities I use to play and hack into the game have helped me dissect everything I need to know about Freelancer, and I'm still playing it to this day even after starting it way back in 2006. Honestly, it's a good game to play, mild at the worst, enjoyable most of the time.