Warning: Incoming WALL-O-TEXT
A friend and I were discussing the history of games the other day (because we're god damned nerds) and thought up a fun little exercise we did that I'll try to incorporate onto here over the next few days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_game_consoles_%28fifth_generation%29
The 5th Generation of consoles was a fun time for gaming. Sony has just entered their market with their little grey box and Sega and Nintendo, the two super giants, were duking it out with gusto in a fight carried over from previous generations. I suspect many escapists on here got into gaming around about this time (seeing the common age brackets) so I'd like to hear your top 5 from the era and give a small review and reflection about what you truly loved about it. I'll make another couple of similar topics in the next few days and then it'll all link itself together at the end.
I'll start: I only had a PlayStation so all my top 5 are from there. The following are in no particular order whatsoever.
1. Final Fantasy 7
For me this was the game that really started it all for my love of RPGs. The genre has never been popular in my neck of the woods so you'd never hear people talk about it at school or see big advertisements at the local stores. I remember buying game walkthrough magazines and seeing articles for FF games and being confused as hell at the stuff I was reading and thought "people play these kinds of things?"
Then one day I visit a friend and he has FF7 platinum he'd bought from Italy on holiday (in English) and didn't like it and was willing to part with it for a fiver. To this day that has been the best money:time ratio I have ever spent with a video game. Yes I know people will say that 6 was better (I liked the more distinct character gameplays for sure) and 7 is overhyped and full of fanboyism but for me it will always hold true as my first ever real RPG experience.
Fun Fact: Despite getting up to the final save point multiple times I have never killed the final boss. Because for me that would truly 'end' FF7; as it is there's always something to call me back to it.
2. Front Mission 3
Hot on the heels of FF7 I decided to try out some other games from this magical new company I had become familiar with. At the time (late 90s) I remember anime was still rising up in the area with shows like Gundam Wing popping up on Cartoon Network so I decided to all in and get Front Mission 3 (which took me a good year to find, I wasn't kidding when I said RPGs weren't popular here)
This was my first experience with a turn based Tactics style RPG. If you've ever played FF: Tactics (or War of the Lions) or Vandal Hearts then you'll know what kind of game I'm talking about. Not only was building up and customising your own mech a fun activity in and of itself but the gameplay would require skill and tactical maneuvering that is strangely absent from similar mech games that enable full on control like Armored Core. That and the story was brilliant.
Fun Fact: I named and built all my mechs around the Gundams in Gundam Wing.
3. Harvest Moon - Back to Nature
A real case of an impulse buy, I hadn't read anything about it in any magazines or had played any previous versions. I just saw it at the store in the bargain bin (because it had't sold a single copy, surprise surprise) and bought it because it looked quirky. If you've never played a Harvest Moon game then shame on you.
What followed was an entire summer gone. I was immersed into the game unlike any others I had played before, I had my little notebook with math on crops
rofit ratios and estimating the best times to purchase livestock, I was hooked. The game is often pinned as a "farming sim" (what does that even mean?!) but it's not, in its bare bones it's a branch of management RPG. Not only that but when you got past the obvious "it's a farm..." outter crust, on the inside you find a rich story that slowly pulls you in without realising it and you find yourself genuinely empathising with the various NPCs in Mineral Town and their histories/motivations.
Fun Fact: I named all of my livestock after FF characters.
4. Digimon World
Ok I know at this point a lot of eyebrows have been raised. After I talk about the previous mentioned classics I throw a Digimon game into the mix. But hear me out! At the time Digimon had just started airing on Fox Kids and of course being the age I was (perhaps 11?) I was eager to hoover up anything anime or -mon I could. So of course when Digimon World was on sale I pounced on it like a diabetic on insulin.
Why does it get honorable mention though? Because after the years I have matured and have gained the ability to view things differently that I could have a decade ago and when I look at Digimon World I'm drawn to a conclusion: it's a brilliant game that got a bad reputation for the wrong reasons. By this I mean a lot of people (and quite a few professional reviewers/magazines) all blasted it as rip off of the cartoon when in fact the game was released in Japan BEFORE the cartoon was even going to be a cartoon. In fact on the PAL version you have the 7 original digidestined's digimon when you don't even HAVE Gomamon or any of his alt versions in the game! Digimon World was a pure sequel to the original tamagotchi-pets version of Digimon. Many aspects of the game are what got converted into the anime (the first season of the first series, the only good one might I add) and so did many characters and their archtypes (noble Leomon, possessed Andromon, etc etc).
But I've not mentioned the game itself have I? It was an exploration RPG, simple as that. You had items, healing items, buff items, etc etc and your partner Digimon had customisable attacks (such as punches and fireballs) with their signature moves as their finishing attacks. Also a surprising fact is your partner Digimon could and would die quite frequently. So after all the training your hard earned Ultimate digimon would just up and die of old age one day and you'd have to start out all over again. This was not really a game aimed at kids because it was pretty hardcore gameplay-wise.
Fun Fact: The game's "mascot" is MetalMamemon, a Digimon who has received next to no recognition in any other forms of the franchise.
5. Jade Cocoon - Legend of the Tamamayu
If there was ever a case of an obscure gemstone it's this game. It's so obscure and cultish that on my first day I actually got commended for knowing what Jade Cocoon even was by another member. This game however I had actually played a demo of in the old UK PS Magazine and fell in love straight away. A good couple of years later when the shops finally got it I bought it and I was not seen again for weeks, except for the occasional foraging for food.
The story is about as anime as you can get but the story develops over time into something beautiful and moving that I will not spoil. The game itself is a critter-catcher RPG and sadly was credited as being a Pokemon/Digimon ripoff by most magazines. That is bullshit my friends. Jade Cocoon had gameplay much deeper than even the current gen of Pokemon has. In Jade Cocoon you could go out and capture monsters (Divine Beats, or "Minions") and level them up and even fuse them together. Fusing would not only mix and match abilities but also physically change the look of the monster, an extreme graphical feat for its time. Each Minion had 46 different aspects (horns, tails, bug eyes... think Spore) that could be altered and fusing would carry over 23 from each "parent". Also moves would be linked to specific body parts so they would actually run up and use their horns/tails etc of all different shapes and sizes to actually combat the enemy. It was (and still is) leagues ahead of Pokemon but sadly got washed away into the abyss of obsurity.
Fun Fact: For some odd reason I can't shake the feeling this game reminds me of the movie Princess Mononoke.
So there you have it, sorry that ended up being MUCH longer than I first thought it would be but there it all is in it's wall-of-text glory. Remember this is the first of a three parter series and there will be a special epilouge that will tie them all together and explain what the point of this whole thing was. I just hope by then I still have people interested...
A friend and I were discussing the history of games the other day (because we're god damned nerds) and thought up a fun little exercise we did that I'll try to incorporate onto here over the next few days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_game_consoles_%28fifth_generation%29
The 5th Generation of consoles was a fun time for gaming. Sony has just entered their market with their little grey box and Sega and Nintendo, the two super giants, were duking it out with gusto in a fight carried over from previous generations. I suspect many escapists on here got into gaming around about this time (seeing the common age brackets) so I'd like to hear your top 5 from the era and give a small review and reflection about what you truly loved about it. I'll make another couple of similar topics in the next few days and then it'll all link itself together at the end.
I'll start: I only had a PlayStation so all my top 5 are from there. The following are in no particular order whatsoever.
1. Final Fantasy 7
Then one day I visit a friend and he has FF7 platinum he'd bought from Italy on holiday (in English) and didn't like it and was willing to part with it for a fiver. To this day that has been the best money:time ratio I have ever spent with a video game. Yes I know people will say that 6 was better (I liked the more distinct character gameplays for sure) and 7 is overhyped and full of fanboyism but for me it will always hold true as my first ever real RPG experience.
Fun Fact: Despite getting up to the final save point multiple times I have never killed the final boss. Because for me that would truly 'end' FF7; as it is there's always something to call me back to it.
2. Front Mission 3
This was my first experience with a turn based Tactics style RPG. If you've ever played FF: Tactics (or War of the Lions) or Vandal Hearts then you'll know what kind of game I'm talking about. Not only was building up and customising your own mech a fun activity in and of itself but the gameplay would require skill and tactical maneuvering that is strangely absent from similar mech games that enable full on control like Armored Core. That and the story was brilliant.
Fun Fact: I named and built all my mechs around the Gundams in Gundam Wing.
3. Harvest Moon - Back to Nature
What followed was an entire summer gone. I was immersed into the game unlike any others I had played before, I had my little notebook with math on crops
rofit ratios and estimating the best times to purchase livestock, I was hooked. The game is often pinned as a "farming sim" (what does that even mean?!) but it's not, in its bare bones it's a branch of management RPG. Not only that but when you got past the obvious "it's a farm..." outter crust, on the inside you find a rich story that slowly pulls you in without realising it and you find yourself genuinely empathising with the various NPCs in Mineral Town and their histories/motivations.Fun Fact: I named all of my livestock after FF characters.
4. Digimon World
Why does it get honorable mention though? Because after the years I have matured and have gained the ability to view things differently that I could have a decade ago and when I look at Digimon World I'm drawn to a conclusion: it's a brilliant game that got a bad reputation for the wrong reasons. By this I mean a lot of people (and quite a few professional reviewers/magazines) all blasted it as rip off of the cartoon when in fact the game was released in Japan BEFORE the cartoon was even going to be a cartoon. In fact on the PAL version you have the 7 original digidestined's digimon when you don't even HAVE Gomamon or any of his alt versions in the game! Digimon World was a pure sequel to the original tamagotchi-pets version of Digimon. Many aspects of the game are what got converted into the anime (the first season of the first series, the only good one might I add) and so did many characters and their archtypes (noble Leomon, possessed Andromon, etc etc).
But I've not mentioned the game itself have I? It was an exploration RPG, simple as that. You had items, healing items, buff items, etc etc and your partner Digimon had customisable attacks (such as punches and fireballs) with their signature moves as their finishing attacks. Also a surprising fact is your partner Digimon could and would die quite frequently. So after all the training your hard earned Ultimate digimon would just up and die of old age one day and you'd have to start out all over again. This was not really a game aimed at kids because it was pretty hardcore gameplay-wise.
Fun Fact: The game's "mascot" is MetalMamemon, a Digimon who has received next to no recognition in any other forms of the franchise.
5. Jade Cocoon - Legend of the Tamamayu
The story is about as anime as you can get but the story develops over time into something beautiful and moving that I will not spoil. The game itself is a critter-catcher RPG and sadly was credited as being a Pokemon/Digimon ripoff by most magazines. That is bullshit my friends. Jade Cocoon had gameplay much deeper than even the current gen of Pokemon has. In Jade Cocoon you could go out and capture monsters (Divine Beats, or "Minions") and level them up and even fuse them together. Fusing would not only mix and match abilities but also physically change the look of the monster, an extreme graphical feat for its time. Each Minion had 46 different aspects (horns, tails, bug eyes... think Spore) that could be altered and fusing would carry over 23 from each "parent". Also moves would be linked to specific body parts so they would actually run up and use their horns/tails etc of all different shapes and sizes to actually combat the enemy. It was (and still is) leagues ahead of Pokemon but sadly got washed away into the abyss of obsurity.
Fun Fact: For some odd reason I can't shake the feeling this game reminds me of the movie Princess Mononoke.
So there you have it, sorry that ended up being MUCH longer than I first thought it would be but there it all is in it's wall-of-text glory. Remember this is the first of a three parter series and there will be a special epilouge that will tie them all together and explain what the point of this whole thing was. I just hope by then I still have people interested...
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