Sycamoyr on 19/1/2015 at 16:21
Wow! This actually looks pretty sweet. I kinda gave up on Final Fantasy after I figured they perfected the game with FF12. This new (teleporting?) sword seems like a nice advantage and the combat looks impressive.
Thirith on 19/1/2015 at 16:24
This is a tangent, but I'm curious: are there any Japanese RPGs that follow a more 'western' template, just like there are western JRPGs (for want of a better word)? Is there something along the lines of a Japanese Baldur's Gate or Fallout?
Starker on 19/1/2015 at 17:08
Quote Posted by Thirith
This is a tangent, but I'm curious: are there any Japanese RPGs that follow a more 'western' template, just like there are western JRPGs (for want of a better word)? Is there something along the lines of a Japanese
Baldur's Gate or
Fallout?
Dark Souls?
Thirith on 19/1/2015 at 20:33
Dark Souls is completely its own thing, though. It's no closer to the Black Isle RPGs, for instance, than it is to Final Fantasy.
Starker on 19/1/2015 at 21:10
Quote Posted by Thirith
Dark Souls is completely its own thing, though.
Is it, though? There's Enclave, Rune, Blade of Darkness and even perhaps Dark Messiah that offer at least something comparable. It's not like From invented the action RPG.
But yes, if you define Western RPGs strictly by Black Isle RPGs and exclude things like the Elder Scrolls and Gothic series, then I suppose it is as far removed from WRPGs as it is from JRPGs.
faetal on 19/1/2015 at 23:17
Blade of Darkness is such a huge influence on Dark Souls.
Yakoob on 20/1/2015 at 06:04
Hmm, interesting... really looks different. Story-wise, it also seems to lack the overarching "some grand evil is trying to destroy the world, STAPH IT". Wonder if it still does that or is trying to be different? It looks like it might focus on the characters and exploring their relationships more (which could be plenty of material for full game).
Quote Posted by faetal
Limit breaks (and their like) are also good:
"I can probably more or less end this fight in a few seconds, but only if I'm sufficiently aggravated"
In their defense, it's not like many other games don't have the "your damage doubles when HP drops under 30%" kind of upgrades (like Shadow Warrior).
Personally, while not at all realisitc, I do like the FF style combat (particularly 5 and 7). It was a fun way to experiment with different combinations of styles, abilities, jobs, materia etc. The occasional grinding would be my only real pet-peeve (exacerbated by the magic-drawing in 8 oh dear god)
Thirith on 20/1/2015 at 06:22
Quote Posted by Starker
Is it, though? There's Enclave, Rune, Blade of Darkness and even perhaps Dark Messiah that offer at least something comparable. It's not like From invented the action RPG.
But yes, if you define Western RPGs strictly by Black Isle RPGs and exclude things like the Elder Scrolls and Gothic series, then I suppose it is as far removed from WRPGs as it is from JRPGs.
I haven't played
Enclave,
Rune or
Blade of Darkness, so those might be close to
Dark Souls, but then I thought it would be clearer from my first post (which I specifically ended with "Is there something along the lines of a Japanese
Baldur's Gate or
Fallout?") that I wasn't talking about action RPGs, where the stat building is solely about fighting. As I said, there are western JRPGs (such as
Anachronox), and what I'm wondering is if there's the reverse: Japanese RPGs that are less linear, that offer NPC interaction and options beyond "Talk to character X to get a canned conversation, with little to no interaction." Even a Japanese
Elder Scrolls or
Gothic, really, because I don't think these games are all that close to a
Dark Souls.
Jason Moyer on 20/1/2015 at 08:40
Dragon's Dogma is basically a Japanese TES/Gothic isn't it?
demagogue on 20/1/2015 at 08:46
Shadow of the Colossus was open world. Zelda and its clones were too for that matter.
I think that Japanese players are more set in their ways than a Western audience though (and not just for games), so they're not going to tolerate dropping accepted tropes as easily, or anyway that's how companies seem to feel.