A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Mass Effect was one of the games that I was looking forward to. Mass Effect is the next RPG from Bioware - one of the premier developers of western style RPGs and my favourite RPG developer by far (I've played all of their RPGs except Neverwinter Nights).
After having played Blue Dragon, which I blogged about last week, I am especially looking forward to Mass Effect. Although Blue Dragon was good, the problem with JRPGs in general is that you don't really feel like you are the protagonist. In JRPGs, the protagonist is always a well developed character (assuming the developers did a good job!) and has his own personality etc. You go through the game and the only thing which you really control is how he levels up.
However, in WRPGs, the character and quests are generally designed to be a bit more open ended. This means that the protagonist in most cases, acts the way that you as the player want him to - you get to decide what you want to do and how you want to repond in different situations. Not only does this give you more replayability, but for me, it also increases the empathy I feel with the main character. Considering how long an RPG can last, this is quite an important "feature".
This is the reason that I tend to prefer WRPGs although I do still enjoy playing JRPGs for the storys which are generally quite good.
Anyway, as I said, Mass Effect is the next RPG from Bioware and I can't wait to get my hands on this. Historically, I have played each of their RPGs at least 2-3 times so I have a lot of expectations for this one. Just to share my enthusiasm, I have provided below some recent trailers and clips from the game. If you are interested, check out the games website here. I'm also not the only one looking forward to this game as it was recently awarded Best Console Game and Best RPG of E3 2007 by game critics!
The first trailer you see below is an in-game trailer shown at the recent E3. It primarily shows some of the combat mechanics and some of the back story to the game.
The next clip below shows an in-game conversation between Shepard (the protagonist) and Liara, one of his crew. As you can see, it looks like the schmuck is trying to chat up Liara (go Kirk!). The conversation mechanic in this game looks awesome and I really can't wait to check it out when the game comes up.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Blue Dragon - completed
Well, I finally completed Blue Dragon. After over a month of play, 70+ hours of sitting on my couch, I have finally completed Blue Dragon.
My final impressions of the game are definitely positive. It has a good storyline with an interesting twist at the end which I wasn't really expecting. Having said that, the twist wasn't completely unexpected as it does answer a few questions about one of the characters I had but which I initially dismissed as being bad writing on the programmers. Basically, I had noticed a few "discrepancies" in the story and wrote them off as discrepancies without giving the writers their proper due. Not the first time its happened which I guess is indicative of my opinion of writers for games!
The highlights of this game for me were definitely the story (I've always been a sucker for a good story - or even an average one!!) and the combat. More specifically, the fact that the combat doesn't have random battles. I mentioned this in my first post and I can tell you, when you near the end of a 70+ hour game, sometimes you just wanna get through the rest of the story without being distracted by plebby monsters who die with 1 hit!
I haven't got all the achievements for this game yet so I will be continuing to play. However, once I get all the achievements, I can see me putting this game on the shelf. The problem with Japanese style RPGs is that, although you get a good story and some good cinematics, the style of the game doesn't really lend itself to replay. If I play through the game again, I know exactly how the storyline and how the side quests will play out.
Still, it was a good game while it lasted. And considering I've already gotten over 70 hours of gameplay from it (which will rise as I go for the last set of achievements), it was value for money.
My final impressions of the game are definitely positive. It has a good storyline with an interesting twist at the end which I wasn't really expecting. Having said that, the twist wasn't completely unexpected as it does answer a few questions about one of the characters I had but which I initially dismissed as being bad writing on the programmers. Basically, I had noticed a few "discrepancies" in the story and wrote them off as discrepancies without giving the writers their proper due. Not the first time its happened which I guess is indicative of my opinion of writers for games!
The highlights of this game for me were definitely the story (I've always been a sucker for a good story - or even an average one!!) and the combat. More specifically, the fact that the combat doesn't have random battles. I mentioned this in my first post and I can tell you, when you near the end of a 70+ hour game, sometimes you just wanna get through the rest of the story without being distracted by plebby monsters who die with 1 hit!
I haven't got all the achievements for this game yet so I will be continuing to play. However, once I get all the achievements, I can see me putting this game on the shelf. The problem with Japanese style RPGs is that, although you get a good story and some good cinematics, the style of the game doesn't really lend itself to replay. If I play through the game again, I know exactly how the storyline and how the side quests will play out.
Still, it was a good game while it lasted. And considering I've already gotten over 70 hours of gameplay from it (which will rise as I go for the last set of achievements), it was value for money.
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