Since JRPGs have gone to shit, I recently completed Mass Effect.

It was exceptional. That's all I have to say about that.

Considering the post above...

Nice write up Ryudo, love the game myself.

Maybe you should read the review before making ignorant comments. Also Ys series is awesome STILL. Course it's been an ARPG since 1986 and has some of the best music in gaming history. Also The Last Story is quite good also. Don't judge an entire genre based on shovelware from NIS or Recent Final Fantasy shortcomings.

Don't take offense, it's Spencer. He's from the UK and born blunt, more blunt than the baseball bat from Mafia II.

In all honesty this generation started off pretty weak as far as RPG's, but so did the previous. It's since picked up and now houses a ton of gems, like the OP.

Edit: Like your sig. :)

^ Thanks. Next few will just be reposts of ones I wrote a long while ago.



I said this a little in another topic but here it goes. For years gamers usually got a long story from the RPG genre. In recent times in the west that was abandoned by many. More in favor of a FPS or something that seemed like a lifetime movie from a rejected wanna be film director into a series of QTE's or something very dark and gritty.
Maybe they should recheck the RPG genre. Don't look at those spiky haired group of teens going to save the world with swords so large it almost seems like it's trying to compensate for something RPGs. Take a look at Fragile Dreams for the Wii developed by Tri Cresendo. You may know them from more recent works as Eternal Sonata or Co developed Baten Kaitos on Nintendo Gamecube.

This is a game with no Phoenix Downs or Magic spells and long winded CG cutscenes.

Story

The game starts out as you play Seto a young boy who an old man he lived with he called his grandfather passes away. Seto is now truly alone in this post-apocalyptic earth. He sets out to find another human to be with. As he sets out he spots a silver haired girl singing in the moonlight he startles her making her fall. As he approaches she runs away. From her on he sets out to find her.
Along the way he finds out past souls of this world are confused upset and angry and linger everywhere. (these are mostly enemies but more on that in a bit) he encounters a talking mobile navigator until it's batt died. Then he encounters crow an odd looking human but plays around a bit with Seto but become friends.

As he sets off alone once more he finds a kind and cheerful spirit of a dead teenage girl in a hotel and she tags along with him on his quest to find the silvered hair girl. Each point you hit a critical part in the story you get a very nice animated narrated cutscene. No not anime but with silhouettes. You will meet many more characters along the way and each has a personal story of tragedy. Plus learn what it means to be alone and friendship and loss of ones you care for. Now why is this taking place after the end of the world. Well you have to play to find out.


Sai one of the few you will meet and befriend along your journey

Gameplay

This one is a little tricky for me to get into but here it goes.
You will use the Wii remote as a pointer for the flashlight and works really well. A button is for using your weapon. Weapons are normal everyday things for the most part. (apart from the occasional Bow & Katana) most weapons and healing items like Vitamins or water you get from save points which are bonfires from the merchant wearing a giant chicken head.(seems odd at first but later in the game you hear his story) now the only gripe in this game is the combat. No other way to put it. It's clunky. So whatever weapon you use like stick or tennis racket or a pipe or whatever. Eventually after so much use they all break and must re equip a new one. There is no aiming so sometimes hit nothing and esp hard for flying enemies if you don't have a bow or slingshot. It's not frustrating to the point of tossing the controller but more of a minor annoyance.

As you explore sometimes you will get lost and may have to be patient or to find someone or a certain task you don't know what to do. Be patient or if worse comes to worse always YouTube (last resort but don't think you need it to much). As you go along your journey from local to local whether just finding it or after defeating an enemy you get trinkets. This is one of the best parts of the game. At save points you get a narrative from the person who once owned it and get each and everyone's individual stories attached to the trinket. It can be a simple nice memory to a dramatic one. This is so rewarding when exploring each area. From amusement parks to malls to a Dam and more. Just be careful as in these places that are decaying some floors are not to stable so must be careful. Just so fun to explore.


A small idea of combat.


Visuals

No the Wii is no powerhouse but still very capable in it's own right.
The aesthetics are great and full of personality and the environments and characters are crisp and clean. As a sample.





Music

I wish I could post it all as it's all so pretty. Composer Riei Saitō did a wonderful job of the music conveying the story the setting and the mood throughout the game.
I will only post two of my faves from the game. The Title screen music and the intro song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vttph9W11-M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pPsJd6bPOM

Last Thoughts

This is a game that will get you emotional all the way though. A true experience. If you can forgive getting lost a couple times and a combat that was under worked but want a great experience with a moving story that defies what an RPG or story driven game should be then this is for you. If I had one complaint other than the things I said it's the Silver haired girl herself. No not the character. Her clothes. This may sound a bit odd and maybe on the pervish side. She is like 15 and wears a bit to revealing outfit. This almost can play on a pedo side in all of us and can make anime nerds squel with joy at Cosplay. I mean look.

Spoiler:

Yeah. Maybe I'm just a total perv. In any case a wonderful game with nothing like it.

Adding to the British bluntality - aside from the effort that's gone into the posts the thread is really no different to the existing games you're playing topic.

That thread consists mainly of blurbs and such, while this one requires actual player reviews. I think it's a worthy thread.

By the way, another nice addition Ryudo. Game looks great, definitely will play it some more.

Very well then, since a more palatable discussion is what you require:

I think the Japanese games industry is dying, suffering from a lack of creativity and imagination compared to ten years ago or so. The industry is stagnant. Let's board the time machine and skip back to the nineties, some of the greatest games of that decade came from Japan - Star Ocean, Legend of Mana, Suikoden, Parasite Eve, Koudelka, etc. Not to mention more popular franchises like Biohazard and Metal Gear Solid. What do we have today? The likes of Final Fantasy XIII, Last Rebellion and Blue Dragon. One of the key symptoms of this change is Square-Enix, who to be fair haven't released anything of any real merit for several years now. Square gave us a lot of good games, so did Enix. When they merged we ended up with a plethora of crap, look at Kingdom Hearts for example or the later Final Fantasy titles.

In contrast, the earlier Suikoden games had better storytelling, better characterisation and better writing. Nowadays, Square-Enix target the teenage demographic with superficial characters and cliche plots. That's where my disdain comes from, Ryudo. I was not going out of my way to target you, though you're more than welcome to hold to that belief if you wish. My point is, Japanese games just aren't what they used to be and that's a very sad thing to realise. Western developers have far surpassed them, BioWare being an example of this with the Mass Effect series. Sadly what I see these days with JRPGs is the same nonsense being churned out, lacking the charm and originality that earlier JRPGs possessed. Xenogears, for example. Brilliant, brilliant game. Then they bring out the convoluted hogwash that is Xenosaga. All symptoms of a much larger problem, I'm sure you can see where I'm coming from.

Edit: Also, speaking of Star Ocean - Dear god, what have they done to that series? I loved the first two SO games, and then the third one came along and turned the entire in-game universe into the Matrix. Words fail, they simply fail. You can see where my cynicism comes from now at least.

Games like the OP would like a word with you. Titles like Resonance of Fate, Valkyrie Chronicles, Xillia and even White Knight to an extent are all gems in their own right. I'm with you, previous generations (namely the PSX era) were light years better. However diamonds in the rough still exist and are greatly backed by next generation hardware most of the time, making for some spectacular titles.

To me a lot of the western RPG's have lost touch and come out completely uninspired. Half of them end up being third person shooters at their core and can't be mentioned next to great titles like KOTOR and Morrowind.