FFXIII vs. Earthbound: Tension in Turn-Based RPGs

Wow, been a while. But you'll never predict when inspiration strikes.

I'm replaying Earthbound lately. Fantastic old RPG if you ever want to play it. Hard to find, but seeing as how Nintendo won't re-sell it, I don't feel so bad ROMing it.

However, something struck me as I was playing it earlier. My hatred of Final Fantasy XIII received new...Context.

First, a simple point:
The battle systems of both of these games are boring. Both of them. The battle system in and of itself isn't exciting, engaging, stunning, or even particularly fun. Both battle systems are monotonous, repetitive, and just plain dull when broken down into their mechanics.

So why do I like Earthbound and hate FFXIII?

Earthbound has tension. The way your health rolls down rather than instantly moving gives you chances to respond in bad situations. Battle to battle you worry about your health and PP and making it to the next area. When characters die, reviving them is a chore. If the party wipes, you keep your EXP but lose all your PP and half of your money (and only Ness is revived). Very quickly, tension between each battle builds up. Your desire to continue the story is pushed along by this tension of trying to make it through each area. You want EXP, but you are afraid of death. This pushes me through Earthbound. It takes what is otherwise boring mechanics and creates a meta. I strategize in each battle. I avoid certain enemies and fight others. I am afraid of this enemy and then happy when I start to insta-win against weak enemies (a FANTASTIC feature). It succeeds in maintaining my interest, though I occasionally take breaks to keep myself sane.

FFXIII removes all the tension and makes fights feel like a boring chore, even though they tried to provide more mechanics and more interesting choices. Your health is maxed out after every battle, you see. So battle to battle, there's no tension. Each fight now feels like it's just DELAYING your progress through the linear world rather than providing a tense and difficult challenge of survival. A struggle is now changed to a slog. Additionally, you are graded on your performance in each fight. Higher grades means better loot. This teaches the player to optimize and pick one dominant strategy. This strategy will be used in most battles (Most are easy and don't require the player to think very hard), and so the player will find themselves doing the same thing to win battles as fast as possible over and over and over again until they reach the next cutscene. The battles don't feel tense, you're not super worried because the consequences are so low and there's no meta. The mechanics are still boring, because the whole reason to have something like an ATB (Active Time Battle) system instead of a Turn-Based one is so that there's tension where you have to act and think quickly. But you just develop a dominant strategy and only control one character, so it's really easy and non-complex. The interest and strategy of each individual battle goes down, because you're not trying to conserve resources and live while also leveling up. You expend lots of resources because the next battle everything is back to max.

Maybe I'm far off the mark, but it just feels...Bad. Boring. The battles have lost what made them purposeful in older RPGs, and Square-Enix seems to have forgotten why you have random encounters to begin with. If they don't make me feel tense and provide some level of difficulty more than 5% of the tmie...Then why have them?

Weird Movies? We Got Em

I've come to the conclusion that I don't really like big name Hollywood movies. Each big action movie seems to only be a few soulless explosions followed by a poor climax. Cheap dramas don't seem to try to make a new plot in fear of scaring off the six million people that go and see every one. The award shows are useless, and the people that mindlessly watch whatever gets nominated. Rarely do movies come along that I truly want to see. Scott Pilgrim was one of them. Ninja Assassin was another. Inception.  I've gone and seen other movies, socially, but I've rarely walked away thinking 'I really enjoyed that.'

Happy 25th Metroid!

Link isn't the only classic Nintendo hero celebrating a birthday this year. On August 6, 1986, a little NES cartridge was released on Japanese store shelves, and much like several other games of the time, its simple beginnings would blossom into generations of fame.

We all know how the Metroid series has been the first thing that comes to mind when someone says "good women game protagonists." I am aware of that, and I would refer you to IGN's latest article about Samus' impact if you want to read more. But I'm gonna talk about some of the other burning questions of Metroid's legacy. Like: What made Metroid so special? Why does Super Metroid live on as the pinnacle of 2D gaming? Who cares about Metroid II? Why am I so annoying about the Metroid Prime trilogy? And why Other M can, in fact, be left as a large stain on this good franchise, a stain that may spell doom for the entire series?

An Excursion Through the Ninth Fantasy

When people give their favorite Final Fantasy game, I usually hear I, VI, VII, or X. Occasionally others, but not really. Now, to be fair, I do fall into the VI-loving category. However, most of these people haven’t played Final Fantasy IX, and will tell you that they know next-to-nothing about it. While the game is certainly popular in its own right, comparatively to other games in the franchise, it is widely ignored for its more techno-savvy compatriots with less jarring art styles. But gamers ignoring Final Fantasy IX are ignoring a carefully crafted game with one of the most consistent themes in all of Final Fantasy. Most of the other games have extremely mixed messages, but to put it bluntly: Final Fantasy IX is a play. Seeing as how it opens and ends with a play, this shouldn’t be too hard for people to believe.

The Many Failings of Capcom (or "How Not to Develop a Game")

So, yeah, this is gonna be an article about the failings of Capcom as a company. It’s funny, because a year ago, I would be singing Capcom’s praises as though they were one of the greatest companies ever. Not only did they release Mega Man 9 and 10, two excellent throwback titles, but they also announced sequels to two of their beloved franchises, Marvel vs. Capcom and Mega Man Legends. Capcom had been releasing pretty good games for a while, and I honestly didn’t have much to complain about. But, as I watch recent developments, I can’t help but see a failing trend at Capcom, and I think if we look at the evidence, we’ll see that it has existed for quite a long time ago.

The Japanese game industry has been having problems for a while now. Former Capcom employee Keiji Inafune was long-quoted as saying that the industry was unwilling to change, and that they were sticking to the same tired old formula. This was ultimately the reason Inafune left Capcom in October of 2010. If we look at Capcom’s recent history, we will see that it very much follows the idea of an industry unwilling to change.

The Shape of Things to Come: Skyward Sword

Original Writer: Andrew S.

It's really hard not to be a Zelda fan. Over time Nintendo has pumped out some grade A titles for the Zelda franchise. Ocarina of Time is widely accepted to be one of the best games of all time. Recently however there has been some doubt in Nintendo. Twilight Princess was pretty, but it really did not live up to what it could have been. Skyward Sword seems to be shaping up to redeem Link in his console endeavors and there are a few key reasons why. 

EA didn't ruin Dragon Age II

Earlier this year, EA and Bioware released Dragon Age II on the PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and Mac platforms. The game has since stirred up tons of controversy and talk, with fans of the first game and new players both citing numerous faults in the game’s methodology of presenting its story, characters, and gameplay. Dragon Age II’s predecessor, Dragon Age: Origins (henceforth referred to as DAII and DA:O, respectively), was a slow-paced game with lots of exploration, a wide-spread story, tons of decision making, and an almost entirely customizable character. DAII eschewed this idea in favor of a more set in stone protagonist and storyline, with less obvious choices like in the first game and more intention on telling a specific story. However, I’m not here to review DAII (though I personally enjoyed the game). I’m here to talk about EA.