I work in a gaming store. Within that store, we sell both the PSP and the DS. Because of this, I get to see the flow of systems that go into and out of my store.
Now. We got a total of six PSP Go units when it first came in. We also got a total of eight DSi XLs when it first came out. Since then we’ve sold out of the XLs and have gotten replenishments. The PSP Go? We still have three of them. Three out of six, one of which came back.
Let’s keep in mind that the XL came out, what, four or six months after the Go? Four or six months, and it has sold, more than double the number of the Go.
Am I allowed to call the PSP Go a colossal failure yet?
Here’s what one issue is, as far as I see it, and let’s face it, many have said this: compatibility. Do you have a PSP? Good for you, so do I. Do you have games for it? Yes? Same here. You like how the Go looks, you like the flip top, the layout and all that? That’s good. No, wait, don’t buy it yet! No, no, no, because those UMDs? They’re useless with it. Yup. No good with the Go. That’s right, any and all games you have are entirely useless with the new unit.
The XL? All the games you had for the DS and DSi still work. Except for the games you may have downloaded for the DSi from the Shop Channel, they’re non-transferable for some odd reason, but the others, the ones you bought at the store, those work perfectly fine.
This is part of the issue, but only part of it. The other is a massive issue, and it’s one that’s plaguing both Sony and Microsoft, and it’s one of pricing. See, when you buy online, you don’t have a hard copy of the game, you don’t have packaging or instructions, only a downloaded version of the software. There’s no real issue here, of course, at least not ideally. What the issue is in the pricing. Go and compare the price of a game you can buy on the Marketplace or on the Playstation Store versus what you’ll spend when buying it retail. Most of these games are on parity with their retail brethren. Parity. Go and look that word up. Go ahead. I’ll give you a paragraph break to do it.
Done it? Good, because the issue is that the two shouldn’t be on par. The downloaded ones should be cheaper than their retail cousins. There’s far less cost to the publishers: no packaging, no distribution costs, no instructions. They’ll have to pay for the online bandwidth, of course, but is that really such a huge thing? Is that really going to make such a huge difference? You’re not shipping the game to thousands upon thousands of retail outlets, you’re putting it up onto Sony’s and Microsoft’s servers.
That’s the issue with the whole downloadable model as it currently exists. Having the possibility of games offered online and off is good, but online isn’t a viable alternative until it’s also the cheaper.
The third issue is the price difference. The XL sold at a mere $20 more than the DSi and it played all the old games. The Go sold at a whopping $50 more than the PSP 3000 that was bundled with a game and a movie. If you look at the PSPs that were sold alone then the Go turns into a whole $80 difference. $50 to $80 more for a piece of hardware that won’t play your old games, versus $20 more for one that will.
Does this math make even a lick of sense to anyone?
I don’t have any numbers, but I’d be willing to bet that if we made any comparisons that the PSP 3000 model is probably outselling the Go.
With all of this in mind... does anyone else think it’s safe to call the PSP Go a failed experiment? Anyone? Because, after this, I don’t. I think that, right now, yes, it’s a failed experiment. Total abject failure UNDER THE CURRENT CONDITIONS. I think that, perhaps, if Sony fixed everything that’s wrong with the Go (horribly price point, ridiculous lack of compatibility with previous software, a battery that, despite the lack of UMD drive, has a shorter life span than the last model’s did, pricing parity between downloadable and retail copies of the same game), then maybe it would have a chance. But until these things are fixed, something that many could argue won’t happen until the eventual PSP2, then the Go will be a failure.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Reaction: Breach Pirate Turns Himself In
Wow, what a story.
Yesterday, according to 1up.com, someone at PAX by the name of Justin May tried to pirate the still-in-development game Breach at the expo itself. He was caught, found with part of the game code on his computer, tried to bribe the arresting officer and failed, jumped bail, then turned himself in a few days later (which is good for him, as police have decided not to charge him for it considering he has no previous record, he turned himself into the police, and they know where he lives).
I have only one question: Why?
It’s not the fine he could be issued ($25,000 for larceny over $250, and $500 for buying, selling, or receiving stolen trade secrets), and it’s not the jail time (5 years for the first, 2 more for the second), though both of those are definite food for thought and huge deterrents, as far as I’m concerned. I honestly don’t know why you’d be doing something this stupid if you could be facing penalties like that.
But they’re still not the point of the why. No, the point of the why is as part of the gaming community itself.
Why would you do this at PAX? At an expo that’s all about the gaming, where Wil Wheaton once said “Don’t be a dick,” where it’s all about, from what I can gather, camaraderie as gamers, would you do something like this? I mean... was he looking to make himself a hero among pirates? Did he want to make a name for himself? Because right now, really, he’s looking at ostracising himself from the gaming community in general.
I don’t get it why you would do something so dickish. I don’t understand it at all. But, hey, that’s just me. Maybe the possible penalties would be worth it to him. I dunno. There’s not a lot of sense to it. Sure, a lot of gamers pirate their games, but even more of us want to support our developers so we can continue to get the good games (the crappy ones we just don’t buy... I’m looking at you, X Blades!). And at an expo where it’s all about the games, why would you try to pirate one? I’d be afraid of the beating my fellow gamers would deliver to me for it.
Plus... the jail time and fines! Why, man?
I also have no pity for this guy. If you’re stupid enough to try something like this, then if you get caught, nuts to you. I don’t know how much money and effort went into the game code that this guy tried to steal, but it’s probably more than $25,000, that’s for sure. Slap him with the full fine, at least, if not some jail time. Nuts to him, I say. At least he had the common sense to turn himself in when he found out an arrest warrant had been issued.
Is that harsh? Yeah, it is. But, honestly, I have no patience for pirates these days. Screw ‘em.
Yesterday, according to 1up.com, someone at PAX by the name of Justin May tried to pirate the still-in-development game Breach at the expo itself. He was caught, found with part of the game code on his computer, tried to bribe the arresting officer and failed, jumped bail, then turned himself in a few days later (which is good for him, as police have decided not to charge him for it considering he has no previous record, he turned himself into the police, and they know where he lives).
I have only one question: Why?
It’s not the fine he could be issued ($25,000 for larceny over $250, and $500 for buying, selling, or receiving stolen trade secrets), and it’s not the jail time (5 years for the first, 2 more for the second), though both of those are definite food for thought and huge deterrents, as far as I’m concerned. I honestly don’t know why you’d be doing something this stupid if you could be facing penalties like that.
But they’re still not the point of the why. No, the point of the why is as part of the gaming community itself.
Why would you do this at PAX? At an expo that’s all about the gaming, where Wil Wheaton once said “Don’t be a dick,” where it’s all about, from what I can gather, camaraderie as gamers, would you do something like this? I mean... was he looking to make himself a hero among pirates? Did he want to make a name for himself? Because right now, really, he’s looking at ostracising himself from the gaming community in general.
I don’t get it why you would do something so dickish. I don’t understand it at all. But, hey, that’s just me. Maybe the possible penalties would be worth it to him. I dunno. There’s not a lot of sense to it. Sure, a lot of gamers pirate their games, but even more of us want to support our developers so we can continue to get the good games (the crappy ones we just don’t buy... I’m looking at you, X Blades!). And at an expo where it’s all about the games, why would you try to pirate one? I’d be afraid of the beating my fellow gamers would deliver to me for it.
Plus... the jail time and fines! Why, man?
I also have no pity for this guy. If you’re stupid enough to try something like this, then if you get caught, nuts to you. I don’t know how much money and effort went into the game code that this guy tried to steal, but it’s probably more than $25,000, that’s for sure. Slap him with the full fine, at least, if not some jail time. Nuts to him, I say. At least he had the common sense to turn himself in when he found out an arrest warrant had been issued.
Is that harsh? Yeah, it is. But, honestly, I have no patience for pirates these days. Screw ‘em.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Ruminations: Over-Analysis of Final Fantasy XIII
So, considering it’s what I’m playing right now, I figured I’d give my own personal impressions on FFXIII.
Let’s start with a bit of a preamble: I am a huge Final Fantasy fan. I played FFIV on the SNES when it was known as the second entry, and the FFVI when it was known in North America as FFIII. To be honest, I’ve played every main FF entry except for the first two on the NES. One thing the series often does is reinvent itself with every entry. Each game stands alone.
Not all of these changes, of course, panned out for the best. Every entry will have at least one weak point. Personally, I’m not too fond of FFVIII. The story’s a mess, the main villain’s goal is nonsensical, the main character’s such a jerk for such a huge chunk of the game that it’s hard to feel any sympathy for him, and his love interest is such an airhead that you can’t even see how either one could fall for the other. It’s also one of those entries that eschews magic points. Instead, you draw different magic spells from enemies and stock them up to a total of 99 per spell. Drawing gets tiresome, however, especially when your draw fails or you draw only one of the spell at a time, and once you get the ability to junction spells to stats to raise them, using spells becomes fairly pointless, lest you see your Strength stat fall, or your Hit Points go down.
Is the game a total abject failure? Not at all. It’s still fun to play, so long as you can get past its faults. And, again, a lot of people love it. I’m not one of them. Certainly I’ll go back and play it, but when the main couple have as much chemistry as (and as much in common with) Anakin and Padmé, things get aggravating. Zell’s not too bad, at least, for a blowhard jock, and Selphie’s kinda cute, in a vaguely annoying sort of way. Let’s face it, though, the game’s main cast is saved by the presence of Quistis, least annoying of the cast you’re first introduced to, and Irvine, the cowboy sharpshooter and ladies man. Even the rivalry that they introduce in the intro cinema, between Squall and Seifer, goes absolutely nowhere.
It’s a testament to the series that, even the episode I rank as lowest of the ones I’ve played (I find it hard to count FFXI as a main entry, considering its perpetual online world), despite all of its faults, is still fun to play. Talking about it even now makes me want to pop it in and give it another go.
Final Fantasy XIII is, again, a huge departure for the series. The gameplay is fast and furious, the layout is almost horribly linear, and almost all control during battles is wrested from your hands. But, for me, all of it works.
Now, let’s get another small bit of background out there: I loved FFXII. That one, along with VI, ranks as my favourite entry. I loved the politically-heavy plot, I loved the characters (especially Balthier and Fran), the localization and voice acting was absolutely amazing, and the combat was surprisingly strategic. For those not in the know, you directly control one character, the others are controlled by the AI. You control the AI by way of the game’s Gambits system, which basically means you tell the game “If Condition X, Do Action Y.” It gives you a wonderful number of options and strategies, and it’s wonderful to see the Gambits work like they’re supposed to. Character progression is done by spending points on the Licence Board, with only adjacent squares available to you. This means you can teach anyone to be a mage, or a thief, or a healer, or anything. All that’s required is the proper licence, and sometimes the proper spell (you need to purchase a magic spell before you can use it).
A lot of people hated the Gambit system. “It’s like watching the game masturbate,” people said, as you simply watched your entire party act without a single input from yourself. (as for myself, I always made sure that the party leader’s Gambits were turned off, so I had direct input over something) Some even disliked the Licence Board, a bit of a take on FFX’s Sphere Grid, another non-linear method of character progression. But where the Sphere Grid only gave you stat and abilities upgrades, in XII you could only use better equipment if you bought the proper licence. This irked some. The politically-heavy story also rankled some people. I loved it through-and-through, though.
So, is it really any surprise that I’m really enjoying FFXIII?
Level layout, at least over the first eight to nine chapters, is very similar to the entire design for FFX. One straight line, no real branching paths, and no world map. Again, this doesn’t bother me as much as it does a lot of other players. What some don’t realize is that most JRPGs are exceedingly linear affairs, basically pushing the player from Point A to Point B. What the World Map and Towns do (two features lacking in FFXIII) is give players somewhere to explore and people to interact with, thus giving them the illusion of something that’s significantly more open-ended than they’re aware of. Oh, sure, you can go all over the map, but you won’t be given anything new to do until you go to Point B, and even then it’ll simply be to make your way over to Point C. Tales of Vesperia does exactly this. You have your objectives, and the story won’t continue until you accomplish them; there are no side-quests to really speak of, that I can recall. Even Eternal Sonata, during the first five or seven hours, was decidedly lacking in anything resembling a deviation from the main story.
FFXIII is a lot like that, but without the illusion of nonlinearity. It’s a more streamlined experience, but because of this, it also holds your hand for a good chunk of the game. The opening hours are potentially tedious, especially when your team consists of one or two people. Combat is a matter of spamming the x button. While the game does, eventually, give you the opportunity to Paradigm Shift (change the roles in your party between six presets that you determine in the main menu), your initial choices are limited to only three or so variations, limiting your combat options. Granted, Square-Enix did this to ensure that those new to the game weren’t lost, or weren’t poring over an instruction manual to learn to play, but the initial few hours could be boring, depending on your temperament.
Eventually you get three party members, and the combat takes off. It’s invigorating when your party’s full and you need to switch Paradigms constantly depending on the situation. So, yes, while the game is playing itself, you’re micro-managing to ensure that your party leader doesn’t run out of Hit Points. The combat system has been built so that it would be virtually impossible to control the entire party during combat and keep everyone alive without pausing it at each turn, thus interrupting the flow. Does this make their decision right or wrong? Who knows. But I’m having fun with the combat. The only issue is that, during the first eight chapters (a good 20 hours or more of gameplay, at least on my clock), you rarely have more than two people on your team, and when you do, it lasts for far too little time. Only in Chapter nine do things really open up combat-wise, with a satisfying chunk of it taking place with a three-character party.
Sadly, the voice acting is a step back from the previous entry, and I blame at least part of that on the setting. In FFXII, you had a world that was fully realized. Everything had its place, everything had its history, and it felt immense and huge, with multiple warring factions and races, fabulous character designs, with everything oozing personality and style. FFXIII, by contrast, is missing much of this. Certainly, there’s a history and mythology here, with a good portion of the datalog dedicated to Cocoon society and mythology, but it doesn’t permeate the game, it doesn’t feel important. There isn’t that over-arching sense of history that XII had, and the character designs (with the exception of Sazh and Fang) are fairly generic, nothing truly memorable. By contrast, it’s hard to forget either Fran or Balthier, and Vahn’s design was unique in a street-urchin kind of way, as was Penelo’s. (sadly, I’d have to admit that Ashe and Basche got the short end of the stick when it comes to character design, good thing their voice acting was just as good as the others) And how can you forget the judges in the game? Or any number of the other races and monsters? So far, it’s sad to say, there’s so very little variety to be seen in FFXIII, so little of the society that you truly get to glimpse (as far as Chapter 9, at least), so very little of the setting that actually feels inspired, that it’s no surprise the voice acting isn’t as stellar as before.
Plus, no matter how you spin it, it would simply be damn difficult to top XII’s vocals. They were that good.
Again, I’m harping a lot about what may be missing from the latest entry in the Final Fantasy series. The fact remains that, despite all of this, it’s still a great game. Despite how uninspired the setting feels, the story is actually quite intriguing, and I find myself playing to see where it will go next, how it will all play out in the end. I want to know more about the rivalry between Cocoon and Gran Pulse. I want to know more about the fal’Cie and the l’Cie and all of these things. There’s so much that’s slowly fed to the player, so much mystery still left that the datalog doesn’t fill you in on, that it’s hard to not wonder about it all.
Speaking of the datalog, this is a feature that Final Fantasy has been sorely missing for years. If nothing else, it’s a way to keep track of what’s going on in the story in case you need to walk away from the game for a while. A lot of RPGs need this function, and while Western RPGs have it in the form of Quest Logs, very few JRPGs have adopted it (notable exceptions: the Tales series and, to a lesser extent, Rogue Galaxy). Why? I can’t say, but I hope that more and more of them will include this option as this console generation goes on.
So, yes, I’m enjoying FFXIII. While it may not be the strongest of the bunch, it’s certainly a fun, challenging (the challenge ramps up in Chapter 9) and intriguing entry. It’s not VI or XII, and it certainly isn’t without its faults, but it’s still a damn fine game that deserves the attention and reviews it’s been getting.
Let’s start with a bit of a preamble: I am a huge Final Fantasy fan. I played FFIV on the SNES when it was known as the second entry, and the FFVI when it was known in North America as FFIII. To be honest, I’ve played every main FF entry except for the first two on the NES. One thing the series often does is reinvent itself with every entry. Each game stands alone.
Not all of these changes, of course, panned out for the best. Every entry will have at least one weak point. Personally, I’m not too fond of FFVIII. The story’s a mess, the main villain’s goal is nonsensical, the main character’s such a jerk for such a huge chunk of the game that it’s hard to feel any sympathy for him, and his love interest is such an airhead that you can’t even see how either one could fall for the other. It’s also one of those entries that eschews magic points. Instead, you draw different magic spells from enemies and stock them up to a total of 99 per spell. Drawing gets tiresome, however, especially when your draw fails or you draw only one of the spell at a time, and once you get the ability to junction spells to stats to raise them, using spells becomes fairly pointless, lest you see your Strength stat fall, or your Hit Points go down.
Is the game a total abject failure? Not at all. It’s still fun to play, so long as you can get past its faults. And, again, a lot of people love it. I’m not one of them. Certainly I’ll go back and play it, but when the main couple have as much chemistry as (and as much in common with) Anakin and Padmé, things get aggravating. Zell’s not too bad, at least, for a blowhard jock, and Selphie’s kinda cute, in a vaguely annoying sort of way. Let’s face it, though, the game’s main cast is saved by the presence of Quistis, least annoying of the cast you’re first introduced to, and Irvine, the cowboy sharpshooter and ladies man. Even the rivalry that they introduce in the intro cinema, between Squall and Seifer, goes absolutely nowhere.
It’s a testament to the series that, even the episode I rank as lowest of the ones I’ve played (I find it hard to count FFXI as a main entry, considering its perpetual online world), despite all of its faults, is still fun to play. Talking about it even now makes me want to pop it in and give it another go.
Final Fantasy XIII is, again, a huge departure for the series. The gameplay is fast and furious, the layout is almost horribly linear, and almost all control during battles is wrested from your hands. But, for me, all of it works.
Now, let’s get another small bit of background out there: I loved FFXII. That one, along with VI, ranks as my favourite entry. I loved the politically-heavy plot, I loved the characters (especially Balthier and Fran), the localization and voice acting was absolutely amazing, and the combat was surprisingly strategic. For those not in the know, you directly control one character, the others are controlled by the AI. You control the AI by way of the game’s Gambits system, which basically means you tell the game “If Condition X, Do Action Y.” It gives you a wonderful number of options and strategies, and it’s wonderful to see the Gambits work like they’re supposed to. Character progression is done by spending points on the Licence Board, with only adjacent squares available to you. This means you can teach anyone to be a mage, or a thief, or a healer, or anything. All that’s required is the proper licence, and sometimes the proper spell (you need to purchase a magic spell before you can use it).
A lot of people hated the Gambit system. “It’s like watching the game masturbate,” people said, as you simply watched your entire party act without a single input from yourself. (as for myself, I always made sure that the party leader’s Gambits were turned off, so I had direct input over something) Some even disliked the Licence Board, a bit of a take on FFX’s Sphere Grid, another non-linear method of character progression. But where the Sphere Grid only gave you stat and abilities upgrades, in XII you could only use better equipment if you bought the proper licence. This irked some. The politically-heavy story also rankled some people. I loved it through-and-through, though.
So, is it really any surprise that I’m really enjoying FFXIII?
Level layout, at least over the first eight to nine chapters, is very similar to the entire design for FFX. One straight line, no real branching paths, and no world map. Again, this doesn’t bother me as much as it does a lot of other players. What some don’t realize is that most JRPGs are exceedingly linear affairs, basically pushing the player from Point A to Point B. What the World Map and Towns do (two features lacking in FFXIII) is give players somewhere to explore and people to interact with, thus giving them the illusion of something that’s significantly more open-ended than they’re aware of. Oh, sure, you can go all over the map, but you won’t be given anything new to do until you go to Point B, and even then it’ll simply be to make your way over to Point C. Tales of Vesperia does exactly this. You have your objectives, and the story won’t continue until you accomplish them; there are no side-quests to really speak of, that I can recall. Even Eternal Sonata, during the first five or seven hours, was decidedly lacking in anything resembling a deviation from the main story.
FFXIII is a lot like that, but without the illusion of nonlinearity. It’s a more streamlined experience, but because of this, it also holds your hand for a good chunk of the game. The opening hours are potentially tedious, especially when your team consists of one or two people. Combat is a matter of spamming the x button. While the game does, eventually, give you the opportunity to Paradigm Shift (change the roles in your party between six presets that you determine in the main menu), your initial choices are limited to only three or so variations, limiting your combat options. Granted, Square-Enix did this to ensure that those new to the game weren’t lost, or weren’t poring over an instruction manual to learn to play, but the initial few hours could be boring, depending on your temperament.
Eventually you get three party members, and the combat takes off. It’s invigorating when your party’s full and you need to switch Paradigms constantly depending on the situation. So, yes, while the game is playing itself, you’re micro-managing to ensure that your party leader doesn’t run out of Hit Points. The combat system has been built so that it would be virtually impossible to control the entire party during combat and keep everyone alive without pausing it at each turn, thus interrupting the flow. Does this make their decision right or wrong? Who knows. But I’m having fun with the combat. The only issue is that, during the first eight chapters (a good 20 hours or more of gameplay, at least on my clock), you rarely have more than two people on your team, and when you do, it lasts for far too little time. Only in Chapter nine do things really open up combat-wise, with a satisfying chunk of it taking place with a three-character party.
Sadly, the voice acting is a step back from the previous entry, and I blame at least part of that on the setting. In FFXII, you had a world that was fully realized. Everything had its place, everything had its history, and it felt immense and huge, with multiple warring factions and races, fabulous character designs, with everything oozing personality and style. FFXIII, by contrast, is missing much of this. Certainly, there’s a history and mythology here, with a good portion of the datalog dedicated to Cocoon society and mythology, but it doesn’t permeate the game, it doesn’t feel important. There isn’t that over-arching sense of history that XII had, and the character designs (with the exception of Sazh and Fang) are fairly generic, nothing truly memorable. By contrast, it’s hard to forget either Fran or Balthier, and Vahn’s design was unique in a street-urchin kind of way, as was Penelo’s. (sadly, I’d have to admit that Ashe and Basche got the short end of the stick when it comes to character design, good thing their voice acting was just as good as the others) And how can you forget the judges in the game? Or any number of the other races and monsters? So far, it’s sad to say, there’s so very little variety to be seen in FFXIII, so little of the society that you truly get to glimpse (as far as Chapter 9, at least), so very little of the setting that actually feels inspired, that it’s no surprise the voice acting isn’t as stellar as before.
Plus, no matter how you spin it, it would simply be damn difficult to top XII’s vocals. They were that good.
Again, I’m harping a lot about what may be missing from the latest entry in the Final Fantasy series. The fact remains that, despite all of this, it’s still a great game. Despite how uninspired the setting feels, the story is actually quite intriguing, and I find myself playing to see where it will go next, how it will all play out in the end. I want to know more about the rivalry between Cocoon and Gran Pulse. I want to know more about the fal’Cie and the l’Cie and all of these things. There’s so much that’s slowly fed to the player, so much mystery still left that the datalog doesn’t fill you in on, that it’s hard to not wonder about it all.
Speaking of the datalog, this is a feature that Final Fantasy has been sorely missing for years. If nothing else, it’s a way to keep track of what’s going on in the story in case you need to walk away from the game for a while. A lot of RPGs need this function, and while Western RPGs have it in the form of Quest Logs, very few JRPGs have adopted it (notable exceptions: the Tales series and, to a lesser extent, Rogue Galaxy). Why? I can’t say, but I hope that more and more of them will include this option as this console generation goes on.
So, yes, I’m enjoying FFXIII. While it may not be the strongest of the bunch, it’s certainly a fun, challenging (the challenge ramps up in Chapter 9) and intriguing entry. It’s not VI or XII, and it certainly isn’t without its faults, but it’s still a damn fine game that deserves the attention and reviews it’s been getting.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Super Castlevania IV: The 8-Way Whip and Why It Needs to Come Back
In light of the newly released Castlevania: Rondo of Blood on Nintendo’s Virtual Console, I wanted to go into a bit of a Castlevania spin for this entry.
To begin, I’m a huge Castlevania fan. I wasn’t always, though. No, my first exposure to it was back in the NES days, when the very first one was released. We had rented it through the local video store and, let’s be honest, I sucked at it. It was far too difficult for me to play. I was all of six or seven years old at the time, mind you, so I had good reason to be horrible at it. My older brother had a much better grasp of the game, and he seemed to enjoy it. I wouldn’t turn into a Castlevania nut until a few years later, when Castlevania 3 was released. It’s a great entry, and to this day one of my favourite video games.
So, yes, I’ve played most of the Castlevanias we’ve seen released over the years, with one or two exceptions (Judgment included). And, while most have taken and borrowed from the past, there’s one thing missing from them, an innovation that my favourite of the bunch introduced and was promptly left behind.
8-directional whipping.
See, while Castlevania 3 was an amazing game, and, with its branching pathways, was a precursor of sorts to the so-called Metroidvania way of play that we’ve seen dominate the series of late, made popular by the still-stellar Symphony of the Night from the PS One days, it would be Super Castlevania 4 that would mark my favourite and most-played entry into the series. From the graphics to the soundtrack to the levels to the enemies, the game’s near-perfect. It’s made even better by introducing the concept of being able to use your whip in every direction, delegating the sub-weapons to the R-button of the SNES controller.
It has yet to come back.
Certainly, there have been variations on it. Portrait of Ruin gives you diagonally downwards whipping while jumping, should you complete the “Defender of the Stairs” side quest. Even the Genesis game, Bloodlines, gave you diagonally upwards whipping, with sub-weapons again delegated to a separate button. But true 8-directional whipping hasn’t been seen since the first SNES entry.
I cannot for the life of me figure out why. I’ve pondered this. They’ve kept the other innovation from that title, the dangling and flicking of the whip, though I still think that Castlevania 4 did it best. Other innovations through the series, from Rondo of Blood’s gift of being able to pick up a lost sub-weapon if you accidentally grabbed one you didn’t want, to the exploratory level design and RPG elements of Symphony of the Night, have been kept and adapted for later entries. So why not this one?
It’s not as if today’s controllers can’t handle it. They all have more than two face buttons. Even the GBA, while it was limited to an A and B button, had the shoulder L and R buttons. Why hasn’t this been picked back up? Would it make the games too easy? Was it something that didn’t sit well with the fan-base? What happened?
I keep holding out hope that, one day, Konami will look at the design and reintroduce it to the handheld versions, or another downloadable retro-throwback. This gameplay element needs to come back. It was awesome back then, and it’s awesome now. It’s one of the innovations from that first SNES entry that needs to be brought into the light.
Just imagine it. There’s a bat coming at you, but jumping at the little bastard is just a bit too awkward. Diagonal whip! There’s a skeleton on the platform above you, a platform you’ll need to get to. Upwards whip! Climbing some stairs but there’s a bone pillar shooting flame at you, how do you take it out without exposing your head? Diagonal whipping! And those flame-throwing dragon skeletons, can you imagine how less of a pain they’d be?
Put like that, it makes the game sound too easy. I view it as the game evolving, because all you need to do is go back and replay Castlevania 4: it’s not an easy game. Just like most other Castlevanias, it’s a pretty damn tough game, 8-way whip or no, what with the multitudes of traps and environmental hazards: the advantages the whip gives the player have to be rounded out with the level design. Don’t take away the advantages of the whip, but build the levels and challenges around it.
Take level 4’s mini-boss, Puwexil: it’s a skull that falls from the ceiling and attacks by dropping chunks from the ceiling and... well... licking you with its tongue. He’ll also throw bits of bone or brain from himself. Upwards whipping will defend you from the falling blocks and hit him when he’s above you. It’s a boss that’s designed around the whip’s capabilities, and a tough one at that, until you get the hang of it. (or you have the right sub-weapon)
Another example of how the game uses the multi-direction to its advantage is the final boss: Dracula. At one point of the fight (arguably the easiest Dracula fight in the series, I’ll admit) he summons two pillars of flame; from the tips of the flame detach two elementals that fly at and chase you. The easiest way to take them out is by using the multi-directional whip. When you hit them, however, they plummet in the direction they were flying and cause another pillar of flame to erupt when they hit the ground. These are agile little elementals, and, even in death, dodging them is not easy. The whip is a tool, a useful one, that the designers built the game around, but it in no way replaces the skill required to get through it.
Hell, it even made whipping candles easier, as you could downwards whip them in mid-air without losing any forward momentum.
The 8-way whip needs to come back. It was awesome nineteen years ago, and it’s awesome now.
Does anyone else feel this way? Does anyone else keep wishing Konami would bring it back every time a new DS entry is revealed? Am I the only one who misses this innovation? Discuss, and let’s see if we can’t get this feature back into one of the best video game series out there!
To begin, I’m a huge Castlevania fan. I wasn’t always, though. No, my first exposure to it was back in the NES days, when the very first one was released. We had rented it through the local video store and, let’s be honest, I sucked at it. It was far too difficult for me to play. I was all of six or seven years old at the time, mind you, so I had good reason to be horrible at it. My older brother had a much better grasp of the game, and he seemed to enjoy it. I wouldn’t turn into a Castlevania nut until a few years later, when Castlevania 3 was released. It’s a great entry, and to this day one of my favourite video games.
So, yes, I’ve played most of the Castlevanias we’ve seen released over the years, with one or two exceptions (Judgment included). And, while most have taken and borrowed from the past, there’s one thing missing from them, an innovation that my favourite of the bunch introduced and was promptly left behind.
8-directional whipping.
See, while Castlevania 3 was an amazing game, and, with its branching pathways, was a precursor of sorts to the so-called Metroidvania way of play that we’ve seen dominate the series of late, made popular by the still-stellar Symphony of the Night from the PS One days, it would be Super Castlevania 4 that would mark my favourite and most-played entry into the series. From the graphics to the soundtrack to the levels to the enemies, the game’s near-perfect. It’s made even better by introducing the concept of being able to use your whip in every direction, delegating the sub-weapons to the R-button of the SNES controller.
It has yet to come back.
Certainly, there have been variations on it. Portrait of Ruin gives you diagonally downwards whipping while jumping, should you complete the “Defender of the Stairs” side quest. Even the Genesis game, Bloodlines, gave you diagonally upwards whipping, with sub-weapons again delegated to a separate button. But true 8-directional whipping hasn’t been seen since the first SNES entry.
I cannot for the life of me figure out why. I’ve pondered this. They’ve kept the other innovation from that title, the dangling and flicking of the whip, though I still think that Castlevania 4 did it best. Other innovations through the series, from Rondo of Blood’s gift of being able to pick up a lost sub-weapon if you accidentally grabbed one you didn’t want, to the exploratory level design and RPG elements of Symphony of the Night, have been kept and adapted for later entries. So why not this one?
It’s not as if today’s controllers can’t handle it. They all have more than two face buttons. Even the GBA, while it was limited to an A and B button, had the shoulder L and R buttons. Why hasn’t this been picked back up? Would it make the games too easy? Was it something that didn’t sit well with the fan-base? What happened?
I keep holding out hope that, one day, Konami will look at the design and reintroduce it to the handheld versions, or another downloadable retro-throwback. This gameplay element needs to come back. It was awesome back then, and it’s awesome now. It’s one of the innovations from that first SNES entry that needs to be brought into the light.
Just imagine it. There’s a bat coming at you, but jumping at the little bastard is just a bit too awkward. Diagonal whip! There’s a skeleton on the platform above you, a platform you’ll need to get to. Upwards whip! Climbing some stairs but there’s a bone pillar shooting flame at you, how do you take it out without exposing your head? Diagonal whipping! And those flame-throwing dragon skeletons, can you imagine how less of a pain they’d be?
Put like that, it makes the game sound too easy. I view it as the game evolving, because all you need to do is go back and replay Castlevania 4: it’s not an easy game. Just like most other Castlevanias, it’s a pretty damn tough game, 8-way whip or no, what with the multitudes of traps and environmental hazards: the advantages the whip gives the player have to be rounded out with the level design. Don’t take away the advantages of the whip, but build the levels and challenges around it.
Take level 4’s mini-boss, Puwexil: it’s a skull that falls from the ceiling and attacks by dropping chunks from the ceiling and... well... licking you with its tongue. He’ll also throw bits of bone or brain from himself. Upwards whipping will defend you from the falling blocks and hit him when he’s above you. It’s a boss that’s designed around the whip’s capabilities, and a tough one at that, until you get the hang of it. (or you have the right sub-weapon)
Another example of how the game uses the multi-direction to its advantage is the final boss: Dracula. At one point of the fight (arguably the easiest Dracula fight in the series, I’ll admit) he summons two pillars of flame; from the tips of the flame detach two elementals that fly at and chase you. The easiest way to take them out is by using the multi-directional whip. When you hit them, however, they plummet in the direction they were flying and cause another pillar of flame to erupt when they hit the ground. These are agile little elementals, and, even in death, dodging them is not easy. The whip is a tool, a useful one, that the designers built the game around, but it in no way replaces the skill required to get through it.
Hell, it even made whipping candles easier, as you could downwards whip them in mid-air without losing any forward momentum.
The 8-way whip needs to come back. It was awesome nineteen years ago, and it’s awesome now.
Does anyone else feel this way? Does anyone else keep wishing Konami would bring it back every time a new DS entry is revealed? Am I the only one who misses this innovation? Discuss, and let’s see if we can’t get this feature back into one of the best video game series out there!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Keyboard vs Controller
There’s a somewhat constant argument that was brought to my mind thanks to 2k Marin’s Bioshock 2: which is better for the FPS a keyboard and mouse setup, or a gaming pad. The question has gotten pushed to the forefront of my mind, at least, since 2k stated that there will be no gamepad compatibility with the PC version of Bioshock 2. This had many gamers up in arms, oddly enough. I’m surprised because I figure that most PC gamers would hate to leave their mouse and keyboard setup for a gamepad, especially for a shooter.
But I digress.
What the debate comes down to, in the end, is accuracy. Mouse and keyboard enthusiasts will go on about how much easier it is to pinpoint and aim with the mouse. Controller enthusiasts, well, they like how the controller feels, I guess. They’ve been playing with one all their lives and they just prefer it. I’m forced to agree with the mouse and keyboard crowd, really. It’s far easier to zoom in, to get the crosshairs over the enemy’s forehead, to get a bead on your opponent, when you have the accuracy and the control of a mouse. But, in the end, I’m still going to go back home to the controller, that which I’ve spent most of my gaming life using.
Because I’m all about the experience.
A lot of games have you take on the role of a character. In a sense, just about every game, less a few like Tetris, are roleplaying games. And I find myself drawn into games, often treating my interactions with them like I’m in that role. Let me give you an example.
Super Metroid. The game opens with a brief recap of the first two Metroid titles, with Samus leaving the baby metroid on a scientific space station for study. Shortly afterwards, she picks up a distress call from that very station. Upon landing there she discovers that the place has been attacked by pirates. As you explore, you enter the room where the baby metroid was being held. On the floor are the bodies of some of the scientists.
Some people may have simply walked right through this scene, mentally noting the bodies but nothing more. What did I do? I played the role. I walked up to the bodies, knelt down, and examined them. Granted, all I did was crouch then hold the R button to point my gun diagonally downwards, but to me it was as though Samus was checking for a pulse, or doing a scan for life signs. To this day I can’t play that part without kneeling down and checking them.
Metal Gear Solid is another example. At one point in the game, right before your first fight with the cyborg ninja, you come across a corridor littered with corpses. I’d walk up to them and kneel down, as if I was examining the corpses, looking for clues as to what had sliced them up so well. That the game was designed to change camera angles when you knelt by them didn’t hurt.
Which brings us to controller versus mouse and keyboard. See, I have no issue with the mouse. The mouse is fine, it’s great. Love the speed, love the accuracy, love the fact that it has more options during movement than move and stop. The keyboard, on the other hand, has just that: move and stop. Oh, sure, if you hold a certain button you can dash, or if you press another you can crouch and so move more slowly, but it’s not the same. Give me two analog sticks and I have full control over how fast my character moves around as well as how fast they look around. (granted, never as fast as with a mouse, but, with a gamepad, even if I can adjust the sensitivity to match that speed, I never feel comfortable with it)
Take the following as an example: You take your first few steps off the biosphere in the first Bioshock and you look around in awe. Your footsteps gradually slow as you make your way, overtaken by the surreal underwater scenery and the danger of a nearby splicer that just gutted a man in front of you. Try this with a dual-analog controller. It’s easy, right? Now do this with a mouse and keyboard. You can look around in awe quite easily with the mouse, but considering the keyboard’s purely digital inputs, you can’t gradually slow down your walking speed. What could be a nice, dramatic moment gets botched because of the limitations of the controls.
I like the controller. It suits my gaming style. It helps me get into the character’s shoes, helps me play the role, helps make things just a bit more cinematic, a bit more engaging. A keyboard would be perfect for some multiplayer mayhem, don’t get me wrong. Hell, it would be preferred. But when it comes to the single-player story, where I’m asked to pretend I’m someone else, I’ll take the sticks, please.
But I digress.
What the debate comes down to, in the end, is accuracy. Mouse and keyboard enthusiasts will go on about how much easier it is to pinpoint and aim with the mouse. Controller enthusiasts, well, they like how the controller feels, I guess. They’ve been playing with one all their lives and they just prefer it. I’m forced to agree with the mouse and keyboard crowd, really. It’s far easier to zoom in, to get the crosshairs over the enemy’s forehead, to get a bead on your opponent, when you have the accuracy and the control of a mouse. But, in the end, I’m still going to go back home to the controller, that which I’ve spent most of my gaming life using.
Because I’m all about the experience.
A lot of games have you take on the role of a character. In a sense, just about every game, less a few like Tetris, are roleplaying games. And I find myself drawn into games, often treating my interactions with them like I’m in that role. Let me give you an example.
Super Metroid. The game opens with a brief recap of the first two Metroid titles, with Samus leaving the baby metroid on a scientific space station for study. Shortly afterwards, she picks up a distress call from that very station. Upon landing there she discovers that the place has been attacked by pirates. As you explore, you enter the room where the baby metroid was being held. On the floor are the bodies of some of the scientists.
Some people may have simply walked right through this scene, mentally noting the bodies but nothing more. What did I do? I played the role. I walked up to the bodies, knelt down, and examined them. Granted, all I did was crouch then hold the R button to point my gun diagonally downwards, but to me it was as though Samus was checking for a pulse, or doing a scan for life signs. To this day I can’t play that part without kneeling down and checking them.
Metal Gear Solid is another example. At one point in the game, right before your first fight with the cyborg ninja, you come across a corridor littered with corpses. I’d walk up to them and kneel down, as if I was examining the corpses, looking for clues as to what had sliced them up so well. That the game was designed to change camera angles when you knelt by them didn’t hurt.
Which brings us to controller versus mouse and keyboard. See, I have no issue with the mouse. The mouse is fine, it’s great. Love the speed, love the accuracy, love the fact that it has more options during movement than move and stop. The keyboard, on the other hand, has just that: move and stop. Oh, sure, if you hold a certain button you can dash, or if you press another you can crouch and so move more slowly, but it’s not the same. Give me two analog sticks and I have full control over how fast my character moves around as well as how fast they look around. (granted, never as fast as with a mouse, but, with a gamepad, even if I can adjust the sensitivity to match that speed, I never feel comfortable with it)
Take the following as an example: You take your first few steps off the biosphere in the first Bioshock and you look around in awe. Your footsteps gradually slow as you make your way, overtaken by the surreal underwater scenery and the danger of a nearby splicer that just gutted a man in front of you. Try this with a dual-analog controller. It’s easy, right? Now do this with a mouse and keyboard. You can look around in awe quite easily with the mouse, but considering the keyboard’s purely digital inputs, you can’t gradually slow down your walking speed. What could be a nice, dramatic moment gets botched because of the limitations of the controls.
I like the controller. It suits my gaming style. It helps me get into the character’s shoes, helps me play the role, helps make things just a bit more cinematic, a bit more engaging. A keyboard would be perfect for some multiplayer mayhem, don’t get me wrong. Hell, it would be preferred. But when it comes to the single-player story, where I’m asked to pretend I’m someone else, I’ll take the sticks, please.
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