My New Hobby: US Reviews of JRPGs vs JP Reviews of US RPGs

[dontpanic]

Case In Point: Mass Effect vs. Lost Odyssey
Relevant links:
Lost Odyssey Review: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/849/849927p1.html (or your US critical publication of choice)
Mass Effect Review (Translation): http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=26039341#26039341

Scores:
Lost Odyssey:
IGN: 8.2 Famitsu: 36/40 (9.0)
Mass Effect
IGN:  9.4 Famitsu 13/40 (3.2)

Not suggesting IGN is the best review site out there (Personally a fan of Game Informer, since I'm from MN and all), it's just an easy link.

IGN suggests that while Lost Odyssey is an okay game, it suffers from a traditional storyline, outdated gameplay inherent to turn-based combat, atrocious loading times, making it 'not bad for a Japanese RPG.'

For me the Famitsu Review of Mass Effect is just a stack of hilarious quotes piled together, so I'm going to paste the whole thing:
Although Mass Effect has some obvious charm, that charm is short lived and at best it fails to deliver fully on its promises. The constant emphasis on combat, something many have come to expect from North American titles quickly becomes tiresome and leaves players with a bad taste in their mouth. Mass Effect maintains a futuristic, sometimes comical atmosphere throughout the entire game, yet it never really makes you laugh. Its resource management system is, at best, woeful and the interaction and dialogue between the games either extraordinarily cliché, or just plain bland characters is only barely able to get the story across but somehow manage to remain stiff and unlikeable throughout the course of the game. The weapons and their subsequent upgrades are absurdly unrealistic even when factoring in artistic license and the games setting. The multiple branching dialogue paths makes finding the correct path that you're supposed to play the game difficult at best as reloading from previous saves becomes necessary, and at times absolutely crucial in order to get the proper ending to the game. To make matters worse, the game is hardly playable in its default 'real-time' mode. It's slightly better in the turn based mode, but the lack of respawning enemies and legendary equipment makes reaching a high level near impossible.

Mass Effect was a title that promised to deliver, but sadly, despite the potential of the game and its setting, it achieves a less than mediocre level of satisfaction from playing it at best .
13/40

Okay so the weapons are unrealistic, but the game lacks legendary equipment.  A lack of respawning enemies makes reaching a high level difficult.  The real time combat is worthless, and it's barely managable in turn-based mode.  The branching dialogue means you have to reload the game to "get the right ending."

I'm sorry, this is cracking my shit right up and to the left.

This is such a great demonstration of a cultural devide of expectations from a particular product.  Everything Americans tend to find absolutely boring about RPGs are exacltly what they look for, and the things we consider innovative just mean more save reloading.

Anyone else find this as funny as I do?

[Echelon]

Damn, the irony is strong with these reviews.

I loved Mass Effect and judging by the GT video review of Lost Odyssey I'm going to love that too (Kotaku also has some impressions up today. Basically, hardcore JRPG fans are going to like it and it's way more polished than Blue Dragon).

The complaints for Mass Effect are pretty stupid if you ask me. A pain to reach high levels? Not really, just fight everything, do some sidequests ... the enemies level up with the players, so it's not that hard. Yeah it's impossible to reach the max level on your first run, but oh well.

[Hyperguy]

Anyone else find this as funny as I do?

I do, and can relate.

Once when I worked in a games store, there was this Asian family who wanted to look through all the games in the case.  I showed them quite a few western titles, many of which they weren't sure of and shook their head at.  Then they found a copy of one of the Tales Of games and got extremely excited.  It was pretty funny considering that of the games we had the JRPGs were some of the poorest sellers, but these guys got so happy and excited to find one that it seemed like they'd pay any price for it, while their attitude towards the other games came off as general disinterest.

[Echelon]

Sadly, I don't think this gap between American entertainment and Japan's stuff will ever be filled.

[黒い灯影]

if you read the mass effect review thread... you'll see there is some controversy over whether its a genuine article or not.

[JG]

Then they found a copy of one of the Tales Of games and got extremely excited.

The Tales games were quite good until the series derailed a few years back with Legendia and Abyss.

I found Tales of Symphonia in particular to be fantastic.  I put it only behind my beloved Skies of Arcadia and Final Fantasy 4 (US#2) on my list.  That's saying alot since that's higher than alot of other highly respected RPGs like FF6 (US#3.)  Symphonia's also got the best replayability of these four, with three pairs of major story arcs and eight different character relationship arcs.

[dontpanic]

if you read the mass effect review thread... you'll see there is some controversy over whether its a genuine article or not.

You're right, and egg on my face for that.  I suppose the stuff said in there seemed so credible that I just accepted it at face value.  I suppose it was a matter of confirmation bias, as I've seen these kinds of things said about western games before.  I guess it must be fake.  If my Japanese was any good anymore, I'd see if I could get a subscription and do the work myself...

[Hyperguy]

I bet it's real and it's just that those fanboys in that thread can't accept it.  I mean, most of them didn't even know what Famitsu was.

[EnsignRyusei]

http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?s=153d8be061666f81b417d9b1967943ee&t=5602

Its not about a rpg game, but i figure this was the most suitable thread to post this in

[bfg00]

I hope that's a joke post there because otherwise I have no idea how he got the idea that those images were concept art for Mario Galaxy.

[Hyperguy]

The entire site's a parody of an actual Christian website.  I mean, they actually trademarked 'True Christian' and have a section called 'Accept Jesus as your savior and win a free PS3!'.

It's a pretty sad concept really.  Fake religious zealots acting just like or much worse than the people they're trying to mock, and all for the sake of comedy.  What makes it sad is that if you don't know they're joking it really just shows a side of humanity that's hard not to hate.

[Xierfrogs]

Parody or no, that mentality is one of 3 things that scare me.
I don't even know what to say to people who have anything close to that way of thinking.*

*note: this includes the entire mother's side of my family. Not kidding. -_-

The other two things that scare me are Spiders and the Ocean. Can you say "primal"?

about the Tales of Symphonia bit:

The voice acting and the amount of Deus Ex Machina pissed the HELL out of me. plus the fights you HAD to be a certain character to win.
On the plus side, COLETTE AND PRESEA. Hells Yes.

I couldn't really get deep into Skies of Arcadia...I had a friend who kept bugging me to play it, but when I did I didn't see anything stellar about it. It was "another RPG"

I supposed that's why I liked Baten Kaitos so much. Not the story (I don't play games for storylines), but the combat was a very welcome change from either "Real time hitting and spell-slinging the same as everyone else"
or
"ATB the same attacks/spells as everyone else".

[JG]

plus the fights you HAD to be a certain character to win.

You mean the ones you have to play as or the ones you have to have in your group?  Because they're two different things.  For example its far easier to play as the melee attackers (Lloyd, Kratos, Regal, Presea) than the pure spellcasters (Raine and Genis).  But at the same time its next to impossible to beat most bosses without Raine and her healing spells in the party.  I will grant you however that some of the special boss fights, like Sword Dancer and Abyssion, just about have to be fought with a Lloyd-Collette-Raine-Genis party.  You might be able to swap Lloyd for Regal, or even Zelos or Sheena if you want to play risky (neither attacks as fast or does as much damage), but you're a fool to take Presea into a boss fight becuase her attacks are way too slow.

On the plus side, COLETTE AND PRESEA. Hells Yes.

Uhm, hello!?  What about SHEENA??

I couldn't really get deep into Skies of Arcadia...I had a friend who kept bugging me to play it, but when I did I didn't see anything stellar about it. It was "another RPG"

It develops really slowly compared to most RPGs.  But if you give it 5 hours you'll be hooked for another 40.

[Xierfrogs]

You mean the ones you have to play as or the ones you have to have in your group? 

Uhm, hello!?  What about SHEENA??

It develops really slowly compared to most RPGs.  But if you give it 5 hours you'll be hooked for another 40.

I meant the ones where for instance you had to control Lloyd. I hate lloyd.

I didn't like sheena's combo or special attacks, so I didn't play as her. She was funny though

I'll try skies again, after I finish FF8...damn, damn damn you ff8 and your addicting boss music.

[Ultros]

I meant the ones where for instance you had to control Lloyd. I hate lloyd.

I didn't like sheena's combo or special attacks, so I didn't play as her. She was funny though

I'll try skies again, after I finish FF8...damn, damn damn you ff8 and your addicting boss music.

You've got more patience than me friend. I got tired of the Squall fangirls, personally I just sort of hoped it would blow over.

[dontpanic]

Skies really is a solid game. I remember when Shenmue and Skies came out within a week of each other on Dreamcast.  That was a hard time to be a gamer.

If you want a game with sweet boss music: Blue Dragon.

Seriously, it's hilarious.  It has lyrics and it sounds like... you know, the japanese version of heavy metal.

[Xierfrogs]

If you want a game with sweet boss music: Blue Dragon.

Seriously, it's hilarious.  It has lyrics and it sounds like... you know, the japanese version of heavy metal.

Want.

Wanting: what do you want?

the soundtrack is on BlueLaguna, I'll have to go see...

[Ultros]

I guess it's good that other countries besides Japan are trying to make their own mark on the gaming industry. It just sucks that they need so much corporate funding. For instance, Ireland is trying to make a massive multiplayer game, but they have to cater to Hershey since that's their sponsor. I dunno, an M&M O'RPG?

[MMX]

I remember when Shenmue and Skies came out within a week of each other on Dreamcast.

YOu mean a great time to be a gamer; I bought both.


Cless + Mint >>> ToS
take that symphonia fanboys.


I bought Skies for DC and for the GCN remake.  I still miss Pinta's Quest on the VMU though.