I was inspired by this from the "Japanese RPGs are stale" news thread. So I thought I might ask the question.
How might the different forms of games, be it from the west as well as the East, innovate? What could make us pay more attention to the Japanese genre? What could make it so that we have more Dragon Age games or more unique properties from the developers we know and love?
I'll go first.
Square used to be known as an RPG powerhouse. They had the unique Super Mario RPG which took the concept of Mario and greatly worked his concept into a something never seen before. Say what you will, Geno was the shit.
Chrono Trigger is still enjoyed to this day. While FF7 is still debated, I can say that it had its merits. And I'll still play Valkyrie Profiles, although the artificial limit still gets to me.
Bungie is (FINALLY) done with Halo. Not that Halo was bad (after the first, it was horrible) but I still have the opinion it was generic with no personality, a military shooter that's about the weapons, and nothing else. The mythos would have kept me. After reading the books, and being severely (let me repeat that, SEVERELY) disappointed in Halo 2's story, I never found much bother to play the third.
Capcom has been doing a good job of pushing boundaries. From updating the decade old Street Fighter franchise, to making new titles all over the place, they have an idea of what to do. Although Resident Evil is really getting stale. Come on guys, think up a name other than RE6... It's no longer an Evil that is Resident. It's gotten a little bigger.
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So, how does this tie together? Square has needed to branch out and stop hiding in the shadow of Final Fantasy. It may be their magnum opus, but it's far from their only franchise. Saga Frontier, Valkyrie Profile, Chrono Trigger... They have the series that they can work on, or improve upon what came before. Hell, Vagrant Story was pretty mature and few have played it!
And for god's sake, stopping fighting your fans! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSTpkMB9kNk] They love the games, let them create more!
FPS - Not much can be said. There's a reason I play Half Life 2 and TF2. In HL2, I figure out the story with no one telling me about everything. Modern Warfare 2 has no story to compare to that. The "save the world with your bro" is pretty expertly told, but it's not worth the asking price of $60 dollars. It's far too short to be mainly a multiplayer game. I believe the main problem with FPS's is the fact that there is too much focus on the multi. If you play for story, like I do, then you really don't care as much about playing with others. Granted I still play TF2, but the cartoony stuff and the fact that it doesn't take itself so seriously is more appealing.
Action games - Perhaps GoW 3 is a swan song for the genre. Maybe we need a transgression back to 2D or we can do more. I'm out of ideas for the action genre because in all honesty, the chainswords has got to be one of the coolest weapons so far. Anything further would kinda be absurd.
If people have ideas, I'd love to hear them.
How might the different forms of games, be it from the west as well as the East, innovate? What could make us pay more attention to the Japanese genre? What could make it so that we have more Dragon Age games or more unique properties from the developers we know and love?
I'll go first.
Square used to be known as an RPG powerhouse. They had the unique Super Mario RPG which took the concept of Mario and greatly worked his concept into a something never seen before. Say what you will, Geno was the shit.
Chrono Trigger is still enjoyed to this day. While FF7 is still debated, I can say that it had its merits. And I'll still play Valkyrie Profiles, although the artificial limit still gets to me.
Bungie is (FINALLY) done with Halo. Not that Halo was bad (after the first, it was horrible) but I still have the opinion it was generic with no personality, a military shooter that's about the weapons, and nothing else. The mythos would have kept me. After reading the books, and being severely (let me repeat that, SEVERELY) disappointed in Halo 2's story, I never found much bother to play the third.
Capcom has been doing a good job of pushing boundaries. From updating the decade old Street Fighter franchise, to making new titles all over the place, they have an idea of what to do. Although Resident Evil is really getting stale. Come on guys, think up a name other than RE6... It's no longer an Evil that is Resident. It's gotten a little bigger.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
So, how does this tie together? Square has needed to branch out and stop hiding in the shadow of Final Fantasy. It may be their magnum opus, but it's far from their only franchise. Saga Frontier, Valkyrie Profile, Chrono Trigger... They have the series that they can work on, or improve upon what came before. Hell, Vagrant Story was pretty mature and few have played it!
And for god's sake, stopping fighting your fans! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSTpkMB9kNk] They love the games, let them create more!
FPS - Not much can be said. There's a reason I play Half Life 2 and TF2. In HL2, I figure out the story with no one telling me about everything. Modern Warfare 2 has no story to compare to that. The "save the world with your bro" is pretty expertly told, but it's not worth the asking price of $60 dollars. It's far too short to be mainly a multiplayer game. I believe the main problem with FPS's is the fact that there is too much focus on the multi. If you play for story, like I do, then you really don't care as much about playing with others. Granted I still play TF2, but the cartoony stuff and the fact that it doesn't take itself so seriously is more appealing.
Action games - Perhaps GoW 3 is a swan song for the genre. Maybe we need a transgression back to 2D or we can do more. I'm out of ideas for the action genre because in all honesty, the chainswords has got to be one of the coolest weapons so far. Anything further would kinda be absurd.
If people have ideas, I'd love to hear them.
