(Experience Points 01 Prime 90-93 here)
(Longer version of this post here)
One of the things you have to realize when we talk about RPG's from Japan is that their release schedules are extremely fast in their homeland. While we have to have translations and deals made with publishers and sometimes marketing and store shelf negotiations, Japan is still making the games. During these years, a new Final Fantasy was a once in a 3-4 year event, something that was celebrated by the gaming community as a milestone. In Japan, they were getting them almost yearly. Many franchises had 2-4 releases in a 3 year period. The word "churned" is used a lot about the JRPG industry in Japan at this time. Not all releases were quality.
Speaking of Final Fantasy games, Japan had 3 titles get released during this time. I already talked about Final Fantasy IV(2) in the American section, but Japan also got Final Fantasy 3 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and before the era was over they also got Final Fantasy 5. Final Fantasy 1, 3 and 5 all follow a trend of having a small cast that you keep through most of the game, and allowing you to choose how the cast fights by changing or choosing their "class". Final Fantasy 2, 4, and 6 all had a very large cast of characters, and their classes were set in stone, a part of their personality. There are a couple of reasons we never did not get a quick translation and import of the games here in the West. First, the class change systems were thought too complex for our little Western minds, second, Final Fantasy 3 in particular was seen as a ripoff of Dragon Warrior 3, and Final Fantasy 5 was not seen as a large enough "leap" in style and content; they assumed we would be bored of the "same old same old"
Other JRPG's of the era include those in the Megami Tensei franchise. This series is known for its multiple releases and spinoffs a year. Many times the spinoffs propel the franchise to even greater fame, one of the few franchises that actually thrives off spinoffs. The original, Digtial Devil Story: Megami Tensei, got its sequel in this era. The spinoff Shin Megami Tensei started its run, and grew more popular than the original series. On the Gameboy, Megami Tensei: Last Bible parts 1 AND 2 were released. Dragon Quest became a culture phenom in Japan with part 3, but that ended a trilogy. So the new trilogy got started with Dragon Warrior 4 AND 5 getting releases in this span of 3 years.On the Tactical side of things, Japan has a MASSIVE boom of tactical RPG's. Langrisser continued in popularity, but many franchises started that added more regular RPG elements, forcing Langrisser to follow suit. Shining Force got FOUR releases as the premier Sega developed TRPG. Fire Emblem also got its start, staying close to Nintendo's side. It was seen more simple than Langrisser, but also more approachable. Super Robot Wars is another franchise popular in Japan that we never got. This time it was due to the copyright issues outside of Japan. You see, Super Robot Wars is a mash up TRPG about pitting popular anime mecha from television and movies, against each other. It would not be until the team made a completely original game for the Game Boy Advance that we would see them.
This era is knee deep in an era described as a being full of mediocre RPG's that were probably best left in Japan. There are dozens I have not listed here, as I am trying to keep them relevant to us here in the West, I am sticking with series that will one day affect us. Next time on Experience Points I will talk about Western Developed RPG's of this time.
August 25, 2014
Ni No Kuni has an ancient, magical alphabet that was used by a previous civilization. It has a couple of "complication" in its rules for translating, but in general it is pretty easy to utilize. The game also does not automatically translate it for you. The book has several pieces of it, and you'll find it all around the world as well. My first translation was for the "old stick" you get at the beginning of the game. I can go online and just see the translation myself, but I've already said that Ni No Kuni is a kind of "experience", and just going online would cheapen it. I want to do it as Ollie would, so I sit down and write out the words and translate them by hand. It is like a puzzle as well, since there are no spaces or punctuation, and some letters are combined or lost when going to English. It is really fun, and I would suggest you all experience the fun of doing it yourself as well.
Can't decide if Twitch being bought by Amazon instead of Google is... better? I am glad that Youtube will still have a competitor, and the team in charge of Youtube can't seem to stop screwing up, so maybe some good competition will have them fire some idiots and stop being such idiots. The two biggest problems at Google these days is that while G+ has one of the best dev teams ever assembled, they got idiots pulling the strings and forcing it down everyone's throats... and the 2nd problem is that the Youtube team can't stop being assholes. Seriously, like Google moving into any industry is one of the happiest things I can think of, I'm just a Google-fanboy I guess... but damn did they screw up G+ by forcing people to do things and forcing changes people didn't want for the sake of propping up Youtube. I'm just worried because Amazon doesn't have anything really to handle this... but then again maybe that means they'll let Twitch stay more independent but with better resources to handle its stuff? Really I just want G+ and Youtube to be as good as they could be.
As I've said several posts before, we're watching Lodoss Wars. Something about the show feels so familiar and so nostalgic... but that's weird because I was probably around 22 when I first saw it. So I was thinking about it, and I realize now what it was. When it was animated and adapted for release over here in the States, the cartoons of my childhood were very popular. This means that they used many of the voice actors from those shows, particularly Thundercats, the cast is FULL of people that did voices in Thundercats, from the Knight of Hook Mountain to Wiley Kit, and several of the "bad guys" of the show too. On top of that, the sound recordings are about the same quality, and even uses a lot of the "royalty free" sounds and music that they used to fill out parts of the show that in Japan they just left silent. One last, weird nostalgic thing; I prefer the worse quality, low resolution version lol. Its for the same reason I prefer the older versions of "Legend". The fuzziness that surrounds things, the bloom that light effects have, is more "fairy tale" and "magical" to me than the hard, crisp lines of HD transfers. It is NOT a common decision for me, that's literally the two I can think of off the top of my head. Legend and Lodoss War... SD preferred.
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