Monday, September 7, 2009

The Games of PAX - Day Two  

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Games: Continuing the post-PAX love.
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Since this was my first year going to a conference as a family unit (mommy-daddy-baby) I decided to skip most of the presentations and after-hours events. My little boy was great on the exhibition floor, but I didn't want to push my luck… or his endurance. Since I don't have much to say on the other events that occurred (and boy, there were an absolute ton of them) here’s my final rundown of the games I saw and played.
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>Saboteur – PS3/360
A game that seems to be getting a modicum of buzz thanks to its B&W/Color mechanic, seeing it in action nearly put me to sleep. Granted, I didn't watch it for that long, but the bits that I saw looked like incredibly standard third-person action. I was trying to keep an open mind, but I just didn't see anything that piqued my interest.
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>Bayonetta – PS3/360
Okay, okay… I know everybody and their mother has been talking about this game for months, but I just didn't buy into the hype. The last DMC game was weak, and from everything I was seeing, this looked like another iteration of the same formula. After a hands-on, I can't say that it's a huge departure from the ‘Adventures of Dante’, but what I can say is that the handling and mechanics feel superior, and more finely polished. There was a certain ease in controlling the main character, and the action felt very organic and natural. It felt pretty good in my hands, and the visual style was interesting enough to get me wanting to see more. I was prepared to call bullshit on this title before actually trying it, but I'm starting to see strong potential.
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>Muramasa: the Demon Blade – Wii
I was definitely not the biggest fan of Vanillaware’s previous work (the wildly overrated Odin Sphere and 2D RTS GrimGrimoire) but it looks like they may be onto something with this change to straightforward action. It goes without saying that the artwork is beautiful, with an insane amount of detail put into every aspect. Cutting away the RPG extras leaves the framework that seems to fit more logically with the visual approach. Muramasa looks like it's going to be a pretty hot property for the Wii.
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>No More Heroes 2 – Wii
Taking a glance at NMH2, and the only impression I had was that it was virtually indistinguishable from NMH1. If not for the fact that main character Travis Touchdown was wielding two light sabers instead of one, I never would've known the difference. I'll check it out just to see the freakshow that's sure to be on display, but it's nowhere near the top of my list.
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>White Knight Chronicles – PS3 – Round Two
So, in the previous PAX entry, I expressed some misgivings about WKC and vowed to take a closer look. I did. After doing so, I was left both more confused and more reassured that I was the first day. Granted, RPGs are the toughest games to see at conventions because so much goes into the set-up, so much of their value is in the storytelling, and a vast majority of content is contextual. Walking into a fifteen minute demo with basically no information is pretty much the worst way possible to see an RPG.
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So, what was confusing/reassuring? Watching combat, it was good to see a real-time-ish engine come into play and I finally got to see the main character transform into the titular White Knight. Basically, it's a limited-time power-up that players can activate to wipe out groups of enemies, or take on large bosses one-on-one. This aspect of the game looked pretty solid. What was confusing? The amount of stuff that was on the screen. In the upper-left was a constant scroll of text that looked straight out of an MMO. Apologies to IGN for swiping their screenshot, but it was the only one I could locate that actually showed how cluttered the screen was during play. If I didn't know better, I'd say that Sony has selectively chosen the available screenshots in order to avoid revealing how busy it is.
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Like I said, it's practically impossible to get an accurate feel for RPGs at conventions, but if nothing else, WKC has me extremely interested to see how it's going to turn out.
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>Shank – 360 XBLA
I have a feeling that this title will be getting a lot of attention in the coming months. Basically, it's about a mercenary-type dude who kills people, a lot. What makes it special is that the animation is extremely impressive, with tons of little touches and nice transitions between actions. Combat was fast and smooth, and looked like a hell of a lot of fun. Guns, chainsaws, knives… I may even have seen a sharp stick or two.
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Last, but certainly not least…
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>Osmos – PC
One of the indie titles competing in this year's PAX 10 contest, Osmos is one of those abstract, artistic titles that's both absolutely compelling and a little head-scratching at the same time. Walking by, I had absolutely no clue what was happening on screen. Once I had a hands-on, it was a totally different story. Essentially, the player takes on the role of a single-cell organism with the intent of consuming everything around it as long as it's smaller than itself. The catch is that in order to move, this creature has to expel some of its mass. Move too much, and the cell shrinks, limiting your opportunity to feed. There’s a little more to it than just that, but really all you need to know is that you need to try it. It's fairly chill and relaxing, but still maintains enough ‘game’ to keep a player engaged. The music is pretty sweet, too… some nice ambient techno tracks that suit the content perfectly.
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Wrapping up, there were dozens of other titles I looked at… Splinter Cell: Conviction looks like it received an incredible upgrade, Mass Effect 2 seems to be on-track to meet or exceed standards set by the first, Sony’s EyePet looks like it will be great fun for kids, Scribblenauts is looking like a lock for purchase, and besides those were too many others to list here if I intend to get to bed at a decent hour.
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(Oh, just one last bit: I completely forgot to check out Red Dead Redemption-- and it was one of my most anticipated titles! Argh!!!)
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All in all, I had a great time on the floor and would like to extend warm personal thanks to Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik for continuing to host the show in the Emerald City. It's fantastic that we have such a world-class Expo right here in our own backyard, and it's all due to the hard work and dedication of the entire PA crew.
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Loved it, guys… let's do it again next year.
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6 comments: to “ The Games of PAX - Day Two


  •  

    Funny you should mention Odin Sphere as being wildly overrated. Are you referring to reviews, mostly?

    I had a really powerful experience with that game. It was one of my favorite games of the last several years, so I guess I'm in the "love it" camp. However, I don't think I've ever read a single review of it. I discovered Odin Sphere entirely on my own and have pretty specific ideas as to why I like it, but I'm not sure how these fit with the overarching critical reception of the game.

    I thought it had good gameplay, but mostly I felt it had one of the best stories to appear in a JRPG since Suikoden II. It was so good it kept me going for 72 hours, and it motivated me to master the alchemy system, which I found extremely rewarding once fully comprehended.


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    Hey Matt.

    >>Funny you should mention Odin Sphere as being wildly overrated. Are you referring to reviews, mostly?

    Yeah, it received a tremendous amount of buzz before launch and had basically stellar reviews for quite a while afterwards. It wasn't until quite a bit later that some more downbeat pieces started showing up. I basically bought it after hearing so many people swear that it was the real deal, but ended up being bitterly disappointed.

    >>I had a really powerful experience with that game.

    I'm actually very curious as to why you like it, because I found it to be extremely unpleasant and offered very little that encouraged me to keep playing.

    I've heard from a few people that the story was their driving motivation, but honestly, I found the game so non-entertaining that I couldn't stick around to find out how it went.

    So, why was it so good for you?


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    > So, why was it so good for you?

    It's hard to explain, but I think it had something to do with how I didn't even know the game existed until it was right in front of me.

    Someone brought it over to a friend's house the day it came out, and I was immediately impressed by it on almost all points. I have a real weakness for beautiful 2D sprite art, and an even greater weakness for such art when its in the service of a great story in the grand tradition of the best JRPGs. Odin Sphere's melancholy epic narrative about the end of the world really hit the ground running, and I was hooked from the first scene. It made me feel the way a JRPG hadn't in almost 10 years, since I played Vagrant Story on the PSX. Vagrant Story is one of my absolutely favorite JRPGs ever, even though I found it repetitive and frustrating when I first played it.

    Odin Sphere is actually similar to Vagrant Story in a lot of ways, right down to the music (which is by the same guy), the overly complicated character advancement system, and the fact that it combines said system with twitch-based combat. Maybe I'm just a fan, but once I began to see Odin Sphere as Vagrant Story somehow reincarnated I really began to obsess with learning how to enjoy it.

    Vagrant Story I hated so much the first time I played it I actually returned it. Later, after giving it a second chance, I realized that the game's seemingly repetitive combat was really a symptom of me not understanding the weapon crafting system. Once I mastered that, the grinding was replaced with complex strategic planning. Although Odin Sphere seemed to have similarly repetitive combat on first glance, I was convinced a similar pattern was at work.

    Odin Sphere is really boring if you don't master the alchemy system. You can level up by endlessly killing enemies or by growing fruit and cooking. The right dish will send you up four levels instantly and save you hours of grinding. If you know how to play it, Odin Sphere is basically a cooking game with intermittent boss fights and a great story.

    The art, the music, and the fact that I really "got" the system all made it easy for me to enjoy the story, which only got better and better until it culminated in the most harrowing apocalyptic scenario to appear in a game since FF6. The characters are all fantastic, the translation is really good, there is no bad English voice acting to distract you, and everything comes together beautifully in a marvelously tragic finish.

    I don't imagine any of this would make you change your mind about this game, but at least you can understand how someone could like Odin Sphere for intelligent reasons. I admit the game is not easy to get into. You have to work at it. My first impression of the game was so strong that I was very motivated to work at it, and I felt very rewarded in the end.


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    Hey Matt.

    Thanks for those details… you're not the only person who I've heard say that Odin Sphere had a good story, but in all honesty, I couldn't get past the gameplay. It's kind of a shame since I am always a sucker for a great story, but in this case I found that I wasn't able to power through for the sake of the narrative. Funny you mention Vagrant Story, though… I had the same initial reaction that you did, and I eventually came around to enjoying it quite a bit. I remember the last boss being badly designed, but other than that, I still have very fond memories of my time with it.

    Not so with Odin Sphere though… or GrimGrimoire, or Muramasa either. I certainly love Vanillaware’s art style, but all their games leave me extremely cold. = P


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    I couldn't get into GrimGrimwoire... but that's because I'll never, ever like RTSs regardless of how well-designed they are. I'd rather play an EA sports game than an RTS, frankly.


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    Heh, I've gotta say that RTS titles are among my least favorite games. Something about the slow, tedious, passive build-up/swarm nature of the formula just turns me off. I've played a few, and they all bore me. = P