don't got game
I beat a video game for the first time in years, but this belated progress on my game queue mostly taught me that I need to blow the queue up and start over. The game I finished is Shadow Hearts, released in 2001 for the PS2. The game's setting, early 20th-century Asia and Europe but infused with mystical elements, provided a nice change of pace from most RPGs, and the precise timing and rhythm required by the "judgement ring" mechanic added some tension to the combats. I found it quite enjoyable as console RPGs go.
But then Sarah started playing Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, a more modern RPG released for the PS2 last year. It has superior graphics, art direction, character design, voice acting, music, and writing compared to Shadowhearts. Hell, even the setting in a modern Japan high school is simultaneously more alien and more intuitive (consistent) than Shadowhearts's mashup of mysticism and foreign locales. But the key difference is that Persona 4's gameplay actually gives the player more interesting choices to make. In hindsight, the most important decisions in Shadow Hearts are what accessories to equip on each character to grant the most appropriate buffs, often in the absence of many hints about what the coming battles will be like. In Persona 4, the player must decide every day after school whether to spend time on extracurriculars that forge social bonds or whether to climb into the television set at the local megastore to confront shadowy monsters, using avatars whose powers depend in part on what social bonds have been formed. Oh yeah, this game also has a lot more style, too.
Alas, I'm not sure how much more time I'll have for gaming until after I finish my thesis. Once I do, I'm strongly considering weeding out all the last-generation games from my queue. Then again, I spent half this entry talking up a PS2 game, and I still haven't played FFXII....
But then Sarah started playing Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, a more modern RPG released for the PS2 last year. It has superior graphics, art direction, character design, voice acting, music, and writing compared to Shadowhearts. Hell, even the setting in a modern Japan high school is simultaneously more alien and more intuitive (consistent) than Shadowhearts's mashup of mysticism and foreign locales. But the key difference is that Persona 4's gameplay actually gives the player more interesting choices to make. In hindsight, the most important decisions in Shadow Hearts are what accessories to equip on each character to grant the most appropriate buffs, often in the absence of many hints about what the coming battles will be like. In Persona 4, the player must decide every day after school whether to spend time on extracurriculars that forge social bonds or whether to climb into the television set at the local megastore to confront shadowy monsters, using avatars whose powers depend in part on what social bonds have been formed. Oh yeah, this game also has a lot more style, too.
Alas, I'm not sure how much more time I'll have for gaming until after I finish my thesis. Once I do, I'm strongly considering weeding out all the last-generation games from my queue. Then again, I spent half this entry talking up a PS2 game, and I still haven't played FFXII....