Out of all the demos I downloaded off Xbox Live the other day, I was most excited to try out two RPGs: Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon. I had heard a lot about both and they were part of what motivated me to finally buy a 360.

I had already pre-ordered Eternal Sonata so I decided to play it first. I was immediately impressed by the vibrant colors and the richly detailed landscape. This world felt so alive, from the variation in the foliage to the distinct personalities of the NPCs. It had a great soundtrack based on Chopin’s music, which appealed to the classical musician in me. While it certainly has a few flaws, I realized that this just might be the immersive experience that I have been craving.

Eternal Sonata has a fast-paced battle system that feels like a cross between Kingdom Hearts and the traditional turn-based Final Fantasies. Characters’ movements can be controlled during a limited attack time. The position of a character can greatly change their attack and defense. For example, enemies have a harder time defending against attacks when the attacker is behind them. There are also two special attacks that become available depending on if a character is standing in the light or in shadows. I appreciated all this attention to detail. While the battle system did seem to have a high learning curve, at least for a demo, its original approach pulled me into the game immediately.

Like any other game, Eternal Sonata does have some flaws. The characters speak audible lines sometimes, such as when a battle begins. Some of these lines sound really stupid, including a little boy exclaiming, “C’mon! C’mon! C’mon!” I’m hoping that these lines sounded better in Japanese. Also, my QA tester training helped me to find two bugs in the half-hour demo. I was slightly disappointed, considering the obviously high production value of the game, but most commercial games do have bugs. Sometimes these bugs are reported and closed simply because there is no time to change them anymore.

I really enjoyed the Eternal Sonata demo. It had a nice pace and the demo limits felt natural, not confining. From the user-friendly menu to the inviting fantasy world, it seemed like a polished game that will be a lot of fun for me. Eternal Sonata combines two of my favorite genres: music/rhythm games and RPGs. I’m looking forward to buying it.

However, the Blue Dragon demo hardly sold me on the much-hyped RPG. First, I was disgusted by the childish art style and the ridiculous voices. When the opening cutscene began, I felt like I was watching cheap anime in 3D. I understand that Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball Z was responsible for the character designs, but I am of the belief that some designs just don’t translate as well into HD. I had no problem with Dragon Ball Z designs in 2D, but in 3D they look wrong. It’s simply too perfect and, frankly, a bit frightening to see things like bloated heads, vacant eyes, and giant portly puppies in three realistic dimensions.

I hate to dismiss a game entirely on its artistic style. I have boycotted a couple, like Psychonauts, for this reason, but I wanted to give Blue Dragon a chance. After all, Hironobu Sakaguchi, who directed the first five Final Fantasy games, and famed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu were involved. This game must have some redeeming qualities.

I continued past the first cutscene and found myself plagued by laborious tutorial dialogue from frightening giant animals such as the previously mentioned portly puppy. While illustrative screenshots attempted to break up the monotony, there was way too much information to absorb at once. I much prefer in-battle tutorials or other more interactive forms of instruction. I was practically asleep by the time I began the game.

I ran around and fought some enemies, but my entire party attacked with these gigantic genie-like creatures. It was never explained how or why these creatures attacked for us – they could have been anything from alien parasites to manifestations of the warriors’ souls. While it did seem cool, I was left scratching my head and it took my focus away from combat. When my allies needed healing, I explored the magic menus. I was immediately overwhelmed by almost 30 different spells, all at my disposal. Also, I had a large party and it appeared as if only one or two members could actually heal other people and yet they wouldn’t even get a turn in several fights. Desperate to heal my allies, I opened the menu to see if I could heal out of battles.

The menu appeared very industrial and was immediately overwhelming. Compared to the simpler, more friendly menu in Eternal Sonata, this was quite a shock. In a demo, there is no need for hundreds of spells and items. Since the game timer allows one hour to play the game, it is nearly impossible to even cast every spell in the time allotted. While I did find my healing spells within a few minutes, I was deeply disappointed in the overwhelming amount of items and the lack of direction after the hasty, dull tutorial.

I am definitely not pre-ordering Blue Dragon. If the gameplay or story could capture my attention, I would be willing to overlook the ridiculous visuals and childish voices. Unfortunately, my high expectations were met with disappointment in what felt like a hastily assembled demo. I am just glad that I have the Eternal Sonata demo to play, as I would be happy to check it out again.  

When I discovered that I was sick this weekend, it was not necessarily the end of the world. After all, “taking it easy” meant that I could game for hours on end. That sounds great, right? Unfortunately, the games I’ve been playing recently (with the exception of Elite Beat Agents and Ouendan) haven’t been able to grab me. I’m still searching for the next Okami, Final Fantasy VIII or original Kingdom Hearts. I want a game I can really sink my teeth into for 50+ hours and make it my own. While I really love the DS, I haven’t found a game yet that can provide that type of immersive experience.

I like to think I'm a forgiving person when it comes to games, and I really wanted to give Final Fantasy XII another shot. I had similarly hated the constant movies in Final Fantasy X, but after playing past the ten-hour mark, it got better. It may have just been that I was finally used to the characters and had enough invested in the game at that point that I grew to like it. However, I hope that wasn’t the case and ended up playing FFXII for several hours, hoping it, too, would get better.

I was at a point in the game where I could run around and fight for several hours. I fought monster after monster, getting battle chains of 36 enemies or more so I thought I would get some great items. I then went to sell my items at a shop (since that’s how you make a large portion of your money, as enemies don’t drop much money). I was so excited because I had fought for nearly two hours straight and had leveled up my characters to the point where they finally surpassed the level of my guest character. I was so happy because I finally had enough money to upgrade my weapons.

I was able to afford new weapons for most characters…except one. I then discovered that, not only did I not have enough to upgrade everyone’s weapons, but I also had forgotten about armor upgrades and regular items. Even when I sold my old weapons I barely had enough and then there were still some vital spells I had to buy. Once again, I was back where I started. I needed money but there was no fast way to get it. Even fighting didn’t help that much, because you spend so much time fighting that your stats seem to increase before you could buy a weapon that would do the same thing. I wouldn’t be so upset if I wasn’t so frugal with my money. I hardly ever use items if I can help it, to the point where I consistenyl endanger my party due to low MP. Yet I still never seem to have enough money.

To make it worse, I’m not too happy with the license board character improvement system. I wasn’t fond of Final Fantasy X’s sphere grid, but at least characters would be on certain tracks that would turn them into more of a healer or a warrior or a black mage. With this game, I have to spend a ridiculous amount of time peering at tiny print in my strategy guide's license board, trying to figure out who should learn what. I think this is a case when there are just too many choices. Every character can learn everything and I really don’t think that should be the case. When you have six characters, it makes sense that they should specialize. So why aren’t there more licenses in the magic section that increase MP or evasion? Why is it that you can have everyone as a melee fighter and a ranged fighter? This method is very expensive, as you have to keep so many types of weapons on hand. It just takes way too much effort to try to outfit everyone so they are balanced fighters and mages. I really get frustrated with this system, as I feel I have too little direction.

Finally, I was aggravated to unlock new “quickenings” (like limit breaks in previous final fantasies) and discover no help at all in how to use them. I skimmed through the section in my strategy guide before the boss fight and it seems like something terribly complicated with buttons and timing. All the game needs is a mini interactive tutorial on quickenings. It would take two minutes of our time and yet the game just leaves you hanging.

I think it’s time to take another break from FFXII. Between the stupid movies (where they say phrases such as “manufacted nethicite” in every other sentence) and the frustrations in the economy and leveling system, there is little to enjoy. I have a couple of the older final fantasies, and it may be time that I replayed them to rediscover my love of RPGs. I really miss that case of game addiction. I just can’t stand the thought of playing FFXII again, only to discover more and more issues that make it feel like I’m wasting my time for nothing.  

In my impatience to begin FFXII, I dove right in without following my usual routine. This pre-RPG ritual involves reading the game’s manual (cover to cover) and the overview in the strategy guide that comes before the walkthrough. This system has worked well for me in several RPGs, such as Chrono Cross, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, and Kingdom Hearts.

After playing FFXII without the benefit of the additional reading, I had the constant feeling that I was missing something. I was afraid I would screw something up in the licensing (leveling) system and ruin the rest of my lengthy experience. I was purposely avoiding playing FFXII for about two weeks because of my constant dilemma: when I wanted to game, I didn’t want to read, but when I was able to sit down and read, I had to do so for class.

At the encouragement of my sister, I was finally shaken out of my paralysis and sat down to read FFXII material on an otherwise empty Friday night. Two hours later, I regained the confidence I so sorely lacked. I now had an intellectual understanding of the leveling process, key mechanics, and new Espers. I could now play, knowing that I would make informed choices.

By the time I finished reading, I had only a few hours to play. I was able to go through a couple missions: one for a sunstone and another through a castle underground.

The sunstone quest was structured traditionally, but with one key difference: I was by myself for the first half of the mission. While the “go here, talk to a certain person, go there, get an item” pattern was the basis of the quest, I couldn’t even get more information until I had battled several creatures of the desert by myself. Most of the monsters weren’t too difficult, but I was running low on potions by the time I got to the village. I had been following the maps in my guide to try and collect scattered items in treasure chests, but some chests appeared to have mysteriously vanished. (I found this issue earlier as well – are randomly spawning chests a new feature?)

Once in the village, I found a friend who would fight with me and make my life easier. I was rather confused when read in my guide that she had the Cure ability, but I couldn’t figure out how to make her use it. I don’t know if I stopped paying attention during an earlier tutorial, but I soon discovered that spells had to be purchased. I find this system to be rather redundant, since you earn points in battle that have to be spent to earn an ability such as Cure. Essentially, you have to buy the spell twice (once to get the license and again to get the spell itself). Although the magic regeneration is fairly rapid, I find the spell acquisition process to be cumbersome. I wish the game had made the acquisition of vital spells such as Cure more clear.

My second mission involved running around a castle’s underground waterways. I got to fight alongside some neat characters – a sky pirate and his partner in crime, a striking female warrior of another race. I had been getting used to the fighting system at this point, but there were still some issues for me to iron out. I was shocked after I set my main character to constantly heal everyone and then my female warrior got knocked out. I soon realized that my MP (“Mist Points” like magic points) had grown too low and I could no longer cast cure.

FFXII has been the butt of many jokes for being a game that could "practically play itself." However, from my reading and experiences with the automation system, I can see that that is quite an exaggeration of the truth. It still takes a great human mind to harness the A.I. behind the battle system and use it to its full advantage.  

As an aspiring game designer, I knew that I had to play Zelda sooner or later. Embarrassed not to immediately associate the name “Link” with happy childhood memories unlike many of my peers, I decided I could avoid Nintendo no longer. I had always had a PlayStation and never bothered to play Nintendo games (due to the seemingly limited options available for games on their consoles) and had never been a big fan of Mario. Yet the Zelda series kept coming up in class discussions and casual conversations. As an RPG fan as well, I was long overdue to play Zelda.

Fortunately, my professor brought The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker to class today. I jumped at the opportunity and sat down to play. I was engrossed in the game and found the island strikingly similar to that in the original Kingdom Hearts. I played for a good twenty minutes before noticing that a few people had gathered around to watch. I offered to let them play, but was glad when they declined. I was finally getting the hang of the controls and the style of the game.

When a mystical bird flew in with a girl in its talons, I was quickly reminded an article on Shigeru Miyamoto. It talked about his sense of exploration and fun. The colorful world of Zelda held the distinctive, imaginative style that has defined Miyamoto’s games since the original Mario series. I began to see why such a fan base has grown.

An hour later, class was over. Sadly, I could not save my progress or return to play Zelda later. However, I was excited to play again. I even considered buying a GameCube. I would not mind playing that hour again because it was a lot of fun.

When I returned home, another game in the same genre was waiting in my mailbox: Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. I had an opportunity to play it later in the day. After feeling stressed from the week, I was glad to have a fun game to play (after having rented so many games exclusively for my school project).

This game started out with a lengthy cinematic process. Once into the game, however, it was mainly platformer action. I enjoyed the playful style and friendly characters. One particular task, herding creatures resembling water buffalos into a pen for a farmer, reminded me of a very similar task in the third Spyro game. I player for a couple hours.

However, I ran into much more frustration in Jak and Daxter. I was continually dying, but there wasn’t a limit on the number of lives. Toward the end, I believe I spent about ten minutes trying to beat a boss. I kept dying, but about 80% of the time I died was from carelessness during the simple jumps to get to the boss. I was so angry about losing that I lost my focus. I was so stubborn that I kept at it over and over again, and finally beat the boss. I played a little bit longer after that, and got stuck. I was still upset from beating the boss and quit around 1 a.m. to get some sleep.

After playing both platformers, I began to wonder why one had appealed to me so much more than the other. Both games were made into best-selling series. Both had whimsical creatures and bright, playful levels. The characters and stories were rich. It seemed to come down to the puzzles and difficulties. The Zelda game felt more intellectual and charming, such as when you could discover that you can hide under barrels to avoid getting caught unarmed. The Jak game had more meaningless mini-games, such as catching 200 fish (catch only two of the three types and the speed at which they swim increases) or the animal herding. It reminded me of Kingdom Hearts II and getting frustrated with ridiculous tasks.

While both games may be strong, I believe that they do appeal to different types of players. Zelda requires more of a puzzling mind, where you have to ask yourself how you can use what you know to solve the problem. Jak and Daxter gave less initial guidance but left the world so open that you had to discover things for yourself that had less bearing on mental challenge and left more to chance or physical skill. While both games satisfied my need to run around and collect items, I found that Zelda was more fun, simply because it was crafted like a puzzle; all the pieces were there and you just had to figure out how to use them. I felt like I was respected as a player to solve simple challenges that were attainable with a little thought. With Jak, the action was there, but the cleverness and subtlety was not.

I am not sure whether the fluidity of Zelda was due to the countless iterations and since the beginning of the Zelda series or simply more compatible elements (simple puzzles as opposed to mini-games in the same game type). However, I do think that the Jak games would appeal to players who are less inclined to want to think through a puzzle and simply win by pushing through the incidents of ridiculously menial tasks.  

After a stressful week, I find that playing a video game can be rather therapeutic. You can project your enemies onto the plethora of monsters you must fight and gain a sense of satisfaction from completing in-game tasks. While the individual tasks in a game as long as an RPG can be quite nominal, they are fairly easy to complete. I am a person who makes lists and loves to cross things off of them, so it is fun for me to go through with a strategy guide and mark my progress.

Richard Bartle would probably classify me as an achiever for this reason. I do thoroughly enjoy running around the levels and collecting items. I like playing independently – I enjoy competition most if it’s against the game or myself. I don’t mind leveling up at all, but there could be two possible motivations for this. The first would be that I enjoy gaining levels, another form of achievement. I find that higher levels make boss fights a little bit easier, and I am a fan of low-stress games. My second motivation is that I enjoy killing monsters. As I mentioned earlier, I can unleash any pent-up aggression on the virtual monsters. If a monster scares me, it shatters that line where I feel safe (like when I jumped and screamed after the sudden appearance of a monster in Doom). This takes me out of the play and I would much rather fight monsters when I can see them clearly.

These two motivations are not mutually exclusive, however. While Bartle’s ideas apply mostly to MUDs, I do think that it is possible that people can fit multiple classifications, and these qualities may be seen more clearly in different games. I believe that I do have a bit of a killer in me – I’ve been known to shout Bartle’s “Die! Die! Die!” (a killer classification quote) when excited about any fight. However, I think that my neurotic collecting and leveling up would classify me as an achiever, even if I do decide not to go after EVERY ultimate item at the end of these games. (Usually, at the end of RPGS, I am at such a high level that it really does not matter if I get all the items since it would not make it significantly easier to beat the game.)

I had been neglecting my RPG addiction in an effort to spend time with my mother during her recent visit and get my homework done. However, once I had a few spare hours to myself, I decided it was time to jump back into that genre I love and give Kingdom Hearts II another try.

I was so excited to play again, thinking that after my first five hours, the game would really take off. I had regained control of the original party (not the main character’s doppelganger and his friends). I was thrilled to have to chance to run around and collect items, and maybe slay a few enemies along the way. Unfortunately, I had triggered a story point before I saved that cleared the area of monsters. How disappointing. While it was nice to run around quickly, I missed the satisfaction of slaying the monsters. I told myself not to get too upset, as I would soon enter a new area that was sure to offer more enemies.

I was bitterly disappointed when I played for the next two hours, when I encountered fewer than 20 fights (lasting about 15 seconds each) and more and more movies. The movies were obviously being used as a crutch to patch together an overly complicated story. I was in control of the characters for less than half of the time again. I found that the play mood was interrupted and I was rudely thrown outside this game “magic circle” each time a new movie appeared. There were so many that I kept wondering how long it would be until I would get to play again. This game me the felling that I was not invited to my own party – they didn’t need me, the player, to help them tell the story. I was just there to hack up the occasional enemy (ridiculously easy) and move along a very clear path in order to trigger more movies. It not longer felt like play.

Even if the killer in me could not be satisfied by the fights, I had hoped that the achiever part of me could find satisfaction. However, the collection of items didn’t even seem fun anymore. After eight hours of gameplay, you could collect synthesis items to synthesize better weapons but you didn’t have enough to actually improve weapons yet. Even the ready-made weapons were (what I considered) worse than what I already owned. Plus, I did not have enough money because I had barely been allowed to fight. The only other way to gain money in the game was to complete ridiculous mini-games and I really did not want to waste my time re-playing games that were ridiculous when I completed them earlier as the doppelganger.

After all this, I really thought that I would give the game one more shot or at least play it until I got to the Pirates of the Caribbean level. Unfortunately, my strategy guide walkthrough showed me that it would be at least 5-10 hours away, and I simply did not have the patience to wade through so many movies for a level that I heard wasn’t nearly as cool as it seemed.

The magic circle was shattered and my needs as a player were not met. I decided to send this game back and stop wasting my time being disappointed by a game that would not satisfy my player types.  

I switched game rental providers last week so I could play the new releases I had been eagerly anticipating. My first choice was Kingdom Hearts II, the popular sequel to the Disney/Square RPG I had beaten last winter. I already had the guide and was excited to play it despite disappointing reviews from my friends. They had warned me of the ridiculous mini-games and errand-runnning, but this was not what I have found to be the problems.

I popped the disc in and watched the opening cinematics, impressed by their clean lines and clever cinematography. The flashiness of the movie helped to hide the fact the clips didn’t really make sense within a narrative structure; I decided it was just a fun way of previewing an intricate plot.

The plot picks up after GameBoy game that takes place in between the first and second games. This linking game’s story was summarized in my strategy guide in a confusing one-paragraph description. The plot, involving regaining memories and running around a castle, seemed far-fetched.

Even more far-fetched was the idea that the game began with an entirely new character, Roxas. He appeared to be a parallel character to the first game’s protagonist, Sora. Roxas dreams about Sora and his memories.

While I do have a capacity for suspension of disbelief even in 60-hour RPGs, I found it hindered by the patience required through all the introductory movies. In a three-hour play session, I literally controlled Roxas for fewer than 30 minutes. This was not even consecutive. This few precious minutes consisted of moving my character around small sections of levels with a extremely basic tutorial.

For a game that requires such a great knowledge of a complex backstory, the tutorial is ridiculously basic. They explain how it’s a good idea to talk to NPCs (who repeat instructions thus far in case you forgot them in the thirty seconds since the last movie). They warn you to be very cautious in fights, yet most enemies can be defeated in a few single hacks.

In the beginning, the game allows you to set the challenge mode. I have been playing on “Standard” mode but am re-considering switching to “Proud” (challenging) mode. (There is also an “Easy” mode for beginners.) This game seems too easy for the seasoned RPG player. Is it geared toward children? If so, the plot would leave even the brightest child behind. I am a college student who understood the first game and am still baffled. How can children be expected to sit through all the movies when everything will go over their heads?

The opening of Kingdom Hearts II is far too dependent on cinematics to convey the plot, which is still a mystery. The gameplay is easy and does not provide a challenge; it tests the players’ patience after waiting through all the movies. However, I am still excited to play this game – I want to get through the Roxas section and believe there are fewer than two hours left of it. I will hold out hope that this game will get more challenging (I can switch modes if needed) and allow me to take more control. If not, I am going to send it back and move on.