Thoughts on various HRG-compliant 7th gen console RPGs?

Well, this one is super great. I played it four times in a row - different characters and difficulty levels. A 9/10 for me. I never thought of it as an RPG though, but the internet seems to agree it is, in fact, a side-scrolling ARPG. I always regarded it as a hack 'n slash. For the record, I played the Wii version. Radiant Dawn and Oblivion are pretty good, too.

I have played and finished two of them, Blue Dragon and FFIV: The After Years. I had to borrow the consoles both times, which shows you how much I wanted to play each of them. In that light, both were disappointments, though BD isn't necessarily bad.

For Blue Dragon, it was my older brother's 360. He and his girlfriend at the time left on a vacation for a week (I think) and wanted someone to watch his place. I was either on vacation myself or between jobs, cause I agreed to stay there for the week, and I'm pretty sure I bought Blue Dragon just to play it during that week. I had kept up with all the hype - people wanted it to be either the new Chrono Trigger (because Toriyama was working with Sakaguchi again) or something like the 360's Dragon Quest 8. The boss theme had been leaked and had become like a mini-meme - it was weird and ridiculous and sung by the Deep Purple guy (who needs lyrics during a boss fight, even?), and kind of great, too.

Anyway, I didn't like the way the game started at all. Your hometown was destroyed right away, before you got the chance to get familiar with it, so there was no way you'd care; you were just thrown into some story you cared nothing about with no proper introduction to anything.

It took about 10 hours before things improved (I was more patient then). Then the game entered a weird cycle; it'd be good for several hours, with the story picking up and the writing getting livelier and interesting locales to visit, then it'd get bland and boring again for several hours, up until the end. The battle system was decent, but the battles were too easy, so I just avoided most battles. The bosses and stronger enemies on the map, who usually protected treasure, were fun, though. It took too long to search areas since every damn thing could be examined.

And I'm a Toriyama fan, and I love a lot of his character designs, but the Blue Dragon cast was as plain as can be. In particular, Jiro has to be the lamest, most boring mofo in videogame history. He's the guy on the right:


He looks like a Lego with a preppy haircut stole Link's ugly green tunic. Actually the girl and the main dude look like the most boring Bulma and Goku clones ever conceived, too. Just no personality.

So yeah, very uneven game. I sold it on ebay after I finished it, since I wasn't going to buy a 360. I ended up playing the ARPG DS sequel, which had a terrible story but was surprisingly fun. It won't be compliant for another year, though.


FF IV: After Years is a shorter story. Borrowed a friend's Wii, brought it home, bought the game on the Wii shop. I didn't have the greatest attachment to FFIV - it's got its moments, but it's no FFVI - but I just wanted another SNES-style RPG, and it seemed like it could be legit. 

It plays like fan-fiction early on. Lots of revisiting areas, seeing people again. They couldn't be bothered to make new dungeons or pace things properly, though, so they had you going back and forth through that same damn tunnel dungeon about 50 times as filler. Nothing much happened, storywise (in fact, I don't remember what it was about at all). Then the weirdest thing happens; you get to the final dungeon, and it's several times longer than the rest of the game. I mean the dungeon is like 15-20 hours long. It never ends. Figuratively, because I did finish it, but I remember the disbelief as I beat boss after boss and made it down further and further and the damn thing just kept going. Ridiculous.

I don't recommend playing that one unless you're just the biggest FFIV fan. There's probably better romhacks, and I say that as someone who never bothers with romhacks.

I'll throw some quick thoughts out. If anyone wants me to elaborate further I can do so.

Games I've beaten/played from the list:

Baroque = Beat this on PS2 actually (but I owned the Wii version at one time), it was a decent roguelike with an incomprehensible plot. 7/10

Demon's Souls = Beat this on PS3, it's a masterpiece. 10/10

Dokapon Kingdom = Beat twice on Wii, super fun multiplayer-RPG. 8/10

Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors = Beat this on Wii, quite a fun action-RPG, but last boss is kinda ridiculous. 8/10

Fable II = Played this on 360 via co-op. We both got bored with it and quit.

Fallout 3 = Beat this on PC. Super great WRPG, but not as good as New Vegas (because NV feels more like traditional Fallout). 8.5/10

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers = Beat this on Wii, very fun action-RPG with great graphics. Deserves more love than it got. 8/10

Mass Effect = Beat this on 360. I loved the heckleberries out of it. 9/10

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel = Played this via co-op on 360. We both got bored with it and quit.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion = Played this on PC. Didn't hold my attention long enough to beat.

Valkyria Chronicles = Beat this on PS3. Lovely lovely SRPG, such a great plot and wonderful characters. 9/10

Games I own but haven't played yet from the list:

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice
Dragon Age: Origins
Enchanted Arms
Eternal Sonata
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Infinite Undiscovery
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom
Little King's Story
Lost Odyssey
Magna Carta 2
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Phantasy Star Universe
Phantom Brave: We Meet Again
Rise of the Argonauts
Rune Factory Frontier
Spectrobes: Origins
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Tales of Vesperia
The Last Remnant
Two Worlds
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
Valhalla Knights: Elder Saga
White Knight Chronicles

Whoops, missed Mass Effect buried in that list. It was better than DA:O.