My New Hobby: US Reviews of JRPGs vs JP Reviews of US RPGs
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IGN suggests that while Lost Odyssey is an okay game, it suffers from a traditional storyline, outdated gameplay inherent to turn-based combat, atrocious loading times, making it 'not bad for a Japanese RPG.'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?
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?