Posted on Saturday September 4th, 2010 at 5:05pm by Destructoid
Back in July, we highlighted a new Chunsoft adventure game called 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. It's the story of nine strangers who must escape a boat in nine hours before bombs in their stomachs explode. This is straight-up Jigsaw Killer sh*t.
If you'd like to give the game a spin, the official site now has a demo available. You take the role of Junpei as he and a girl named Akane must escape a cruise cabin that's slowly filling with water. It's straightforward point-and-click, reminiscent of those "escape the room" Flash games that I can't get enough of. The demo doesn't last long, but I'm already sold.
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors arrives November 16th for the DS. You ought to buy it.
Posted on Saturday September 4th, 2010 at 3:03am by Destructoid
Believe it or not, Pokémon Black/White comes out this month. Naturally, this means that Japanese television is being assaulted with enough commercials to ensure that every last citizen goes out and buys ten copies of each color.
Above is the oddest of the five new ads currently making the rounds. For the first ten seconds, I wasn't even sure this was Pokémon. I got excited thinking it was Golden Sun or something! They're really testing the waters with this generation.
Be sure to hit up GoNintendo for the other four commercials.
Posted on Wednesday September 1st, 2010 at 7:07pm by Destructoid
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It seems like only yesterday that we were sitting here guessing which Spider-Men Activision would be stuffing into Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Now, the damned thing comes out next week -- it hits Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Nintendo DS on September 7.
Ben gave you an in-depth look at the game on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo DS earlier today. Words and images are great, but there's nothing quite like seeing a game. With that in mind, Activision have released a launch trailer for the game… even thought it hasn't launched yet. I'm sure we'll get another trailer next week, and they can call it "Launch Trailer 2: The Return of the Launch Trailer." Who knows.
Game looks good to me, and I'm looking forward to getting my review copy, which should (I'm crossing my toes here) show up this week. But if it totally blows, I'll be sure to let you know.
Posted on Wednesday September 1st, 2010 at 10:10am by Destructoid
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions for the DS was, quite frankly, a surprise. While the console versions of Shattered Dimensions are a great opportunity to see all the variations of the webbed wonder, they were, at the end of the day, a Spider-Man brawler. And that may not be a bad thing, if you've seen my preview. However, the DS version of the game was an entirely different experience. Basically, this is Spider-Man done Metroidvania style. The plot is, of course, the same as the console versions. Mysterio has broken the Tablet of Order and Chaos, and now Spider-Man has been brought forward across his universes to restore everything to normalcy. While only three of the four Spider-Man universes (Amazing, Noir, and 2099) are present, Spider-Man will also find himself in a new area original to the DS version of the game.
Shattered Dimensions also looks fantastic. Spider-Man has a slightly squat shape to him that makes him look more cartoony, but there is a lot of fluidity to his movement and motion. Since this is a side-scrolling platformer, each of the rooms and levels feel like they belong, as compared to the random arenas where fighting takes place in the console title. In addition, when Spidey jumps between the different realms, it feels much more natural, as if he were going through a door to the next logical place. This is additionally where we see some of the rare touchscreen minigames, where players have to protect a spinning tablet piece as it falls through the different portals.
Once in the different areas, Spider-Man will play a little different depending on what universe he is in. For example, Spider-Man Noir has some extra abilities in seeing secret places to go, while Amazing has extra web powers to get around the map. Ultimately, I came away very impressed with how great the game looks and plays, and with inspiration from Metroid, Castlevania and Shadow Complex, there are good things in store for the game. While it only takes about 4 hours to beat the game, it looks like this may still be a great game for fans of Spider-Man. Keep an eye out for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions on September 7.
Posted on Tuesday August 31st, 2010 at 11:11am by Destructoid
Nintendo has a Professor Layton themed event planned for September 7th in San Francisco, giving fans a taste of the latest release in the franchise. Taking place at Union Square, Nintendo will have red British phone booths on the premises, and actors dressed like they came out of the game will offer up a puzzle to potential players. They'll tally the guys' and gals' scores separately throughout the event in an attempt to see who is better at solving puzzles.
Nintendo is planning to hold similar events in Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia to further the man vs woman battle. Of course, this is all in an effort to promote the upcoming release of DS game Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, which drops on September 12.
For those in San Francisco, the event is taking place at Geary Street at Stockton Street from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on September 7th.
Posted on Monday August 30th, 2010 at 8:08am by Destructoid
Gaming on Nintendo's portable systems is about to get cheaper. Starting on September 12, the Nintendo DSi will now cost $149.99, with the larger Nintendo DSi XL dropping to $169.99. The "why is this thing still available?" model, the Nintendo DS Lite, will cost $129.99.
Along with the press release announcing the price drops, Nintendo's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing Cammie Dunaway is quoted as saying something about shoppers wanting "to get the maximum value out of every dollar they spend." Translated, this basically means "With the Nintendo 3DS out early next year, we're really worried it's going to put people off from purchasing new handhelds this holiday." Smart.
Nintendo also reaffirmed its first-party DS line-up for the coming months: Professor Layton and the Unwound Future on September 12; Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs on October 4; Art Academy on October 25; Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!; and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn on November 29.
Does now seem like a good time to pick up that Nintendo handheld you've been holding out on, or will you just wait for the Nintendo 3DS?
Posted on Monday August 30th, 2010 at 7:07am by Destructoid
Nintendo has dated its eagerly-anticipated Nintendo DS role-playing game Golden Sun: Dark Dawn for a November 29 release.
It makes my bones creak thinking that it's been seven years since the release of the Game Boy Advance title, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, but yup… here we are. Dark Dawn takes place 30 years after the events of the original Golden Sun and its sequel, introducing both dual-screen and touch controls to the series. Chad played it at E3 and gave it 4 out of 5 "amazing."
Personally, I have to wonder why Nintendo waited to release this title until after the real holiday rush. Pushing this release prior to the post-Thanksgiving retail stampede probably would have helped sales a bit. The November 29 release is a bit in "no-man's land," where most parents and significant others have done the bulk of their holiday shopping. I guess when Dark Dawn sells a fraction of the number of copies that it could have, we should all act shocked.
Posted on Thursday August 26th, 2010 at 1:01pm by Destructoid
GameFly is holding another one of its awesome used game sales, and if you've never bought from them, know that the shipping is free and the games come in excellent condition. At least, that's always been my experience. Also: no, you don't have to be a GameFly subscriber to partake.
Again, there are more great deals to be had than what I could cram into a single paragraph; go reward yourself for months of patience. As for the photo, Jonathan Ross has been getting into Twin Peaks lately. He said I should use that pic, and I wasn't about to argue.
Posted on Thursday August 26th, 2010 at 4:04am by Destructoid
A pair of new Doctor Who games have been announced. Evacuation Earth for Nintendo DS and Return to Earth for Nintendo Wii are reported to be in development by Asylum Entertainment. The games will land in the UK and Australia, but I highly doubt that they'll come round to America.
And that's probably fine. I hadn't heard of Asylum Entertainment and what I've found of them isn't particularly promising. This sounds like shovelware aimed at kids, which is a shame for a property which is ripe with possibilities for games and has been showing a much more mature side of late.
Posted on Wednesday August 25th, 2010 at 10:10am by Destructoid
Here's a couple of news bits on the upcoming DS RPG Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light.
First off, there's the official box art, which you can see above and in our gallery in a larger format. I think it looks pretty nice.
If you are a preorder customer, there's a few goodies that you can look forward to. A limited edition first-run poster will be included in the first manufacturing run of the game. Once that first run is gone, you're just getting the game in a box.
In addition to the poster mentioned above, some retailers will have additional specific preorder bonuses. The GameStop people will get...another poster. Yes, it's a different one. You'll see that in the gallery below. Those that preorder at Amazon will also get a $10 gift card redeemable towards future game purchases at Amazon.com
Posted on Wednesday August 25th, 2010 at 8:08am by Destructoid
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Because you've been dying for another collection of Atari classics, Atari has announced Atari's Greatest Hits: Volume 1 for the Nintendo DS. The title will feature 50 different games, including Asteroids, Pong, Centipede, Adventure, Tempest, and more.
Love the classics but not sold on another retro collection? Here's the hook -- single cartridge multiplayer! 20 of the collection's titles will allow you to share game data with another DS for multiplayer, including Space Duel and Pong. If playing alone is your thing, maybe you'll just be interest in the game's extras, including Atari trivia (scores can be posted to Atari.com), a memorabilia showcase, and original game manuals for each title.
Keep reading for the full list of games in the $29.99 compilation, which is out this fall.
Posted on Tuesday August 24th, 2010 at 7:07pm by Destructoid
I don't really have much for you other than this free wallpaper from Super Scribblenauts. Of course, this is the follow-up to Scribblenauts, and it's coming to the DS and DSi in October. 5TH Cell has added new gameplay mechanics and upgraded controls to the mix. From what they say you can go nuts combining descriptors to create new items and whacked out situations.
Somehow this free wallpaper is supposed to inspire that kind of creativity. I don't know about that, but I appreciate the 1920 x 1080 resolution!
Hit up our gallery below and click the "download full resolution" link below the picture for the full wallpaper.
Posted on Tuesday August 24th, 2010 at 7:07pm by Destructoid
Wha...what is going on here?!
The twins from the Disney Channel's The Suite Life on Deck, and their older show, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, are filming a Pokemon commercial for HeartGold and SoulSilver. The commercial will air on the Cartoon Network, Disney XD, Nicelodeon and Nicktoons starting on August 16th. I know you're shuddering with excitement.
They shot a day on the beach in Santa Monica, going head-to-head to rack up steps in their Pokewalkers, working hard to maintain their patented hair swoop in the summer beachside wind, surely.
"I think I like Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver because we played the original Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver, so to play these games again is really nostalgic," said Cole Sprouse.
Posted on Tuesday August 24th, 2010 at 7:07pm by Destructoid
Atlus, our favorite Giver of Free Sh*t, brings us something shiny and new with our Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City copies. The DS game will come with a dual-sided "Explorer's Poster" to...explore. It's a full-color, two-sided poster that has art on one side and character class and customization info on the other. Handy and flexible!
Keep in mind that this nice bonus is on top of the other pre-order bonus we told you about earlier, the 60-page art book called Forests of Eternity. Everyone gets the poster, but only pre-orders will get the art book. Either way, you'll get the game, which is set to release on September 21st. We're working on a review for you right now.
Posted on Tuesday August 24th, 2010 at 7:07pm by Destructoid
Listen up nerds, it’s time to take off your robes and wizard hats for a second ‘cause there’s a new game in town, and it answers to the name of Battle vs. Chess.
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering amidst a friendly game of chess, “How can I make this experience less interactive?” then look no further, because Gaijin Entertainment has developed a new game for chess and battle lovers alike. If you consider yourself a chess buff, then this might just be the most fun you can have in your underwear. Assuming of course that you’ve never felt the gentle caress of a woman’s (or a man’s) touch. Hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
But until you manage to coerce an independently wealthy rocket scientist/part-time model into coming back to your lair, Battle vs. Chess will be there waiting to spoon with you on those cold, lonely nights.
Battle vs Chess (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PC, MAC, DS, PSP) Developer: Topware Interactive/Gaijin Entertainment Publisher: SouthPeak Games To be released: September 2010
Now, I can’t speak much to the game of chess itself. Too much critical thinking involved for my tastes. So let’s focus on the details, shall we? Battle vs. Chess was implemented using Fritz11! chess software, and has 10 different levels of difficulty to accommodate players of any experience level. You can test your abilities against a computer in single-player mode, or face off locally or online in multiplayer competition with the friends you probably don’t have.
The game uses the Elo rating system, the world’s official standard in chess rankings, to keep track of your scores. So whether you’re a casual user just looking to improve your game or an aspiring eight-time Chess Master, this will provide hours of entertainment and a learning experience all bundled into one sexy package.
Undoubtedly the most valuable feature in Battle vs. Chess is the option to have hints accompany each turn (along with a detailed explanation of why a particular move is optimal), making the game a great investment for any beginner looking to procure mad skillz. For intermediate players, there are a handful of modes designed to challenge and improve your existing skills, such as gameplay with a limited number of turns or pieces. There’s even an option that transports you directly into the seat of former chess masters, allowing you to compete in games that mimic actual famous matches in chess history. Other notable variations include “Madness” mode, where the computer randomly distributes pieces across the board. Then there’s the “Tactic” mode, where players have the option to arrange pieces on the board however they like while still abiding by the traditional rules of the game.
What really sets this one apart from just another chess emulator, however, is “Battle” Mode. This form of fantasy gameplay puts a combative twist on the classic game by transforming the board into one of eight virtual battlefields whose pieces end up duking it out for the contending spot. The twist here is that rather than peacefully advancing an opponent’s square, the pieces come alive using distinctly realistic animations and the players must fight using weapons or strength.
Though an interesting spin on the classic game, I don’t expect this feature to elicit much from the player other than a fleeting “Huh, that’s cool.” It offers no real advantage in terms of technique or strategy, and frankly, if I wanted to play a fighting game I’d bust out my Sega Genesis and rock Streets of Rage like it was 1992.
Regardless, Battle Mode is interesting if only for its inherent uniqueness. I could see it being more suited for group situations, but if digitally-generated chess is a frequent activity at your parties, chances are you have bigger things to worry about anyway.
Posted on Tuesday August 24th, 2010 at 7:07pm by Destructoid
[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish
opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware that it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]
Discussions of faith always seem to make people uncomfortable, as most participants in such discussions are involuntarily thrust into the situation. “Hey, can I talk to you for a minute about Jesus?” Not all of them are religious, like the always awkward “Why don’t you have any faith in me?” Why do you think we see so few games willing to touch such a topic unless it’s some JRPG with a world full of inhabitants who worship the “world tree?”
Amidst all of this, there’s Dragon Quest IX, a game in which themes of faith -- religious and otherwise -- pervade each hour spent playing. In fact, this strange DS role-playing game even takes the theme of faith beyond what the developers intended. For me, the game had a quite profound and unexpected effect.
Dragon Quest IX restored my faith in traditional, Japanese-developed RPGs, and the game’s focus on themes of the restoration of faith had a lot to do with that. For the first entry in this two-part series, let’s take a spoiler-free look at why Dragon Quest IX has the power to make you love JRPGs again.
For those readers who have not played Dragon Quest IX and refuse rather vehemently to consider it due to its status as a JRPG, this initial part of the discussion may seem written as a letter to you. In a way, it is. I understand your position. I slogged through hour after hour of White Knight Chronicles after agreeing to review it, and watching a recent live stream of the game nearly made me slam my pinky toe in a car door.
In fact, does this match up to your own reasons for giving up on JRPGs? “If the combat system hasn’t already bored you into a coma, the mission design surely will.” “None of the incredibly boring characters makes the journey more bearable.” “It forgets the one thing that I love so much about JRPGs: charm.”
These are all lines taken from my review of White Knight Chronicles, and they perfectly sum up why I’ve been disappointed in the vast majority of JRPGs in the last ten years. I ended up hating Final Fantasy XIII long before its conclusion for the exact reasons above. Time and again, I’ve entered into a JRPG experience only to give up after it failed to capture my attention.
In the current environment of game design, which sees Japanese developers seeming to lose faith in themselves and suggesting that they need to be more like Western developers, it’s easy to see why this is happening. These games are trying to be something that they aren’t. It’s as if Japanese developers want to appeal to an image of the Western gamer that is more twisted and deformed than the figures in a Dali painting.
Because of this, that quality of charm that I mentioned before has nearly disappeared from RPGs, Japanese or Western. Hell, did anyone smile while they played Final Fantasy XIII? Aside from the beautiful introductory cutscene and the incredible music, I found little to smile about. Frocobo (the chocobo who lives in Sazh’s afro) was cute, I guess.
Still, no one can call FFXIII a charming game. Its story has little to no personality. While its characters aren’t the worst of the recent JRPG releases, they’re not much fun to spend time with, and their struggles and problems don’t feel particularly human.
Then there’s the gameplay, which I initially thought to be a nice way to streamline a game in a genre where the gameplay feels unnecessarily overcomplicated. After about fifteen hours, those thoughts were gone. Streamlining, in this case, meant taking away everything that I enjoy about RPGs: interesting progression, exploration, and the furtherance of an epic quest.
Again, none of these problems is specific to any one game. Instead, they represent what appears to be a future design theory that is slowly killing what used to be my favorite genre. In trying to evolve and meet the demands of a changing industry, developers are leaving us with products that aren’t nearly as enjoyable as the games they made fifteen years ago.
Then there’s the Dragon Quest series, which has somehow continued to get better as the years go by. Dragon Quest VIII was one of the most traditional RPGs released during the PS2’s life, yet it was also one of the best. Somehow, without changing the formula much at all, it managed to provide a much more enjoyable journey than those games that tried to stir the pot.
Dragon Quest IX is a similar story. Its turn-based combat doesn’t have any flashy additions to the typical formula: choose your action from the menu and wait as the fighting unfolds. On paper, its story sounds pretty basic: someone wants to destroy the world, and you have to stop it. Aside from the addition of multiplayer, the game sounds like it does nothing new at all. And, really, it doesn’t.
Instead, it just does everything well, which seems to be the major element missing in all of these evolutionary JRPGs that can’t seem to get anything right. There’s no value in doing something new if it isn’t any good. New does not automatically equate to good, and old does not automatically equate to bad. It’s the adherence to this philosophy that allowed Dragon Quest IX to restore my faith in the genre.
There are a lot of specific things that the game does to achieve this, and perhaps the most important simple thing is that elusive element: charm. Our own Jim Sterling said in his review of the game that it “exudes charm from every pore and reintroduces the concept of giddy excitement in games with each new step taken.” Indeed, this is one hell of a charming game, just as the series always has been. It isn’t afraid to keep those elements that make it this way, including the ridiculously named monsters like the “Meowgician” and the “Raving lunatick.” Games nowadays are terrified of being silly. Dragon Quest IX is not.
The charm enters into the fantastic writing as well, with even the most innocuous of characters adding to the world in some pretty hilarious ways. For instance, all over the world players find churches at which to “confess” and save their progress. Most priests are typical priestly sorts, who save your progress in a very proper manner and bless you before you’re sent on your merry way.
However, one of these priests in a random town just happens to be a total bro. Approach his altar and hear his holy words such as “Yo! Man, I am choked up! My eyes are filled with water. The words of the Almighty have spread far across the plains. Word! Perhaps you will open your ears to His words too. For sure they will help you in the sweet times and the wack.” Word, indeed.
It’s stupid, but it’s the most charming kind of stupid. You can’t help but smile as you come across this dude and hear his most righteous rap, and he’s just some copy-paste priest character model hanging out in a cave! Things like this make for a rich world that is far more fun to inhabit for the often extended running time on an RPG.
And while the game eventually tells the story of a group of adventurers saving the world, its initial adventures are far more rich and original. You play as a Celestrian—essentially a guardian angel—who can travel to the world below and perform good deeds for people, though they cannot see or interact with you at all. It’s actually a very startling beginning; RPGs always put us right in the spotlight, but the first time you help someone in DQIX, half of the people don’t even believe it.
As you travel and continue to help the world’s populace, you’ll come across some pretty amazing situations involving incredibly rich and original characters, and their stories are actually far more human and emotional than you’ll find in the typical overwrought RPG story. You won’t find every other character crying for stupid reasons in this game. The emotion is left up to the situations themselves and the player’s understanding of them.
The game is initially set up as a series of short stories that the player participates in—you’re not actually aware of the overarching “save the world” plot until late into the game. For instance, there’s a quest near the middle of the game to assist a town that has been ravaged by a terrible sickness. A man’s daughter has fallen ill, and the man has locked himself away in order to find the cure. I won’t spoil it here, but it doesn’t exactly turn out like most RPG quests do. Other quests involve finding a man who has recreated an entire town in stone and a woman whose unique powers allow her to control a monster fish, compelling it to provide the townspeople with food.
The point here is that you’ll actually get invested in each town and each set of characters you come across. Even in this very traditional RPG, quests are set up so that you don’t feel like you’re doing the same useless tasks over and over again that have some loose, unstated connection to “helping.” Your voiceless character and your three voiceless companions enter into these stories and leave as quickly as you came, but the effects are lasting not only for the town and its inhabitants but also for you as a player.
What Dragon Quest IX really proves to me is that a game can achieve a sense of JRPG whimsy and tell rich stories at the same time without resorting to a bunch of melodramatic blubbering. That sentence there really sums up why Dragon Quest IX gives me hope that there are still people out there who love making good JRPGs the right way, capturing everything that we loved about the genre in the first place. It truly restored my faith.
It’s strangely coincidental that DQIX achieved this, since it is a game in which the theme of restoring faith is so prevalent from start to finish. I’m going to take a good look into the story of DQIX and how this theme is used in the second part of this series, so stay tuned. In the meantime, go play Dragon Quest IX or, as bro priest would say, "go forth and have your faith restored in a totally radical way, homie."
Posted on Tuesday August 24th, 2010 at 7:07pm by Destructoid
[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish
opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware that it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]
In my last post, I told you about how my time playing Dragon Quest IX quickly restored my faith in JRPGs. Never again did I think I would lose myself so completely in a Japanese role-playing game, yet over 100 hours later, here I am, and I’m not planning to stop any time soon. Hell, I never thought I’d play any game for 100 hours again.
But while my own faith was being restored, I was caught up in a world where angels roam the earth yet no one is aware of their presence, and few are believers. My role as an angel complicated this: my pink-haired, female Celestrian (the game’s own special brand of angel) traveled the world alone, doing good deeds in silence and often not receiving the credit.
However, like all things in a JRPG, this situation was soon turned on its head. Suddenly, I found myself less concerned with humanity’s faith in me and more concerned with my own faith in humanity. Sh*t’s about to get hardcore analytical in here, so if you’re allergic to spoilers, now’s the time to bookmark this and flip on your DS.
Soon after your first escapades as a Celestrian doing good deeds in the shadows, a mysterious event in the heavens sends you crashing down to the earth, no longer donning that floating halo above your head. You’re not quite a mortal but no longer an angel. The biggest change? Now people can see you. And since there’s a massive statue with your name on it in town, you’d expect that people would start praying at your feet.
That doesn’t happen. Instead, people wear their lack of faith on their sleeves, refusing to even entertain the thought of your character and their town’s guardian being the very same. Mistrust pervades your encounters, and some even accuse you of being an impostor with ill intentions. For your first ever contact with humanity, it’s underwhelming to say the least. Only one person seems to trust you at all -- a girl named Erinn who will be invaluable throughout your time in the game. She runs the inn in Angel Falls (haha get it?), and her father was the world’s greatest “Inntertainer” before his passing.
At this point, you’re exposed to the narrative device that drives all of the storytelling in Dragon Quest IX: ghosts who have failed to depart the world due to unfinished business. Edwinn, Erinn’s father, remains to watch over his daughter, who runs that quaint little inn in Angel Falls and is unaware that her father gave up his illustrious title to care for his unhealthy daughter. Erinn refuses to believe it, and it’s up to the player to prove it to her.
Soon, Erinn realizes the truth about her father and agrees to pick up where he left off, traveling to the largest inn in the world to be a great Inntertainer. This is the player’s first taste of helping someone and being recognized for the deed, and it sets up the rest of the game quite nicely. All of the characters involved have their own rich personalities and clear motivations, which makes helping them as rewarding as it is fun. Unlike many RPGs where helping people amounts to “Here’s the wood you asked for,” each main story quest is a fully developed short story, tying in beautifully to the overarching plot.
Strangely, that overarching plot isn’t revealed until much later, though the game’s main themes become apparent before long. In each town that you travel to, you come across someone who is knee-deep in one of humanity’s serious flaws. Whether it’s greed, mortality itself, opulence, or asocial personality, the people you interact with are all deeply flawed people. It’s actually rather rare to find such flawed characters in a JRPG, a genre which seems to pit a world of good against an evil force that wants to destroy it.
What the player soon finds out, however, is that all of these flaws are what make these characters great, especially as your actions provide them with the tools they need to overcome their struggles. For instance, one of the greatest stories told by the game involves a very strange girl named Marion, who is the maiden of a mansion in one of the world’s larger towns. As soon as you enter the town, you hear tales of the incredible generosity of Marion, who will give just about anything away in return for friendship. Since you need a ship, it seems like sweet deal.
However, as soon as you meet her, it’s clear that something is not quite right. She flips out on you claiming that you aren’t her friend and refuses to see anyone else for the rest of the day, instead retiring to her room. After finding Marion’s ghost and her gravestone, it’s very clear that something is amiss. The living Marion is actually Marionette, Marion’s doll, who Marion brought to life before she herself passed on. A life-long illness had prevented her from experiencing friendship in the real world, and the doll was the closest to a real friend that she ever had. All she wanted was a few moments to experience her best friend as a real girl.
While unconventional, a pretty basic story of human friendship and the need for companionship is told here, and we can all at least understand the situation presented -- a person is physically prevented from experiencing real companionship and instead opts to create it in a manner not unlike what we all read about in the beloved Calvin and Hobbes comic series. We can all imagine ourselves in such a situation even if it has likely never happened to us.
Again, we get to see a little bit of the beauty of humanity in what is an ultimately ugly situation, and that’s the common thread that ties all of the story quests in DQIX together. These short little stories are truly heartwarming, and as you continue to move toward the game’s eventual conclusion (still unaware of who the “enemy” is) you see more and more glimpses into humanity and people’s power to rise above their flaws.
Then, once the game’s main antagonist appears and the threat against the world is made clear, it all suddenly makes sense. Corvus, a fellow Celestrian, has vowed to destroy humanity after losing his faith in the world’s inhabitants, claiming that they are a flawed creation undeserving of existence. Over time, you come to learn that his rage can be traced back to one simple day. He had been protecting his town from an evil army when defeat approached, so he went to rest in a cave. Soon, the army found him just as his love, Serena, gave him a potion that made him fall asleep. Thinking he was betrayed by the human he loved most, his hatred was born and his purpose made clear: destroy the humans that betrayed him.
Therefore, the question posed to the player becomes, “Is humanity worth saving?”
It is at this moment that the player realizes that each of the story’s quests had been designed to instill in the player a love of the world’s inhabitants. Though the player character is an outsider in this world (just as the player himself must get to know a brand new world), the heartfelt quests and rich characters give the player a reason to oppose this evil force.
In essence, the game gives the player faith in humanity before it presents you with a force that has no faith whatsoever. Though your early encounters with humanity were less than fulfilling, the deeper you get past the faithless, abrasive people you first meet, the more you see that humanity is indeed worth saving. While most RPGs expect you to care about saving the world and its inhabitants without providing a compelling reason, Dragon Quest IX spends the vast majority of its narrative nurturing a seed that it plants in the player very early. You’re not fighting on behalf of a princess, a king, or even a planet. You’re fighting for each of the incredible people you met, and the humanity that they represent.
Eventually, after defeating Corvus, even his faith in humanity is restored as he learns that Serena’s betrayal was simply a misunderstanding, and she was only trying to protect him. Once again, the real story here is that between Corvus and Serena, not between an evil force and your party of adventurers. It’s a brilliant way to set up the story, as it allows you to experience a completely rich set of characters without being a voiced character yourself, and it is through those characters that you, as a player, develop your own view on the events of the story.
I’m confident in saying that Dragon Quest IX has one of the richest stories I’ve ever experienced in a role-playing game, and it’s all due to the way that the game employs the theme of faith. There’s really no religious message to be found here. This is a story all about faith in people and our belief that the people around us are inherently good, even if our first encounters with them are very unpleasant, and even if they are corrupted by the many forces at work in the world.
How many of us can honestly say that we haven’t lost some measure of faith in humanity? From idiotic YouTube comments to an unbelievably bad response to a devastating oil spill, we have a lot of reason to forget that underneath what is readily apparent upon first glance, humanity is good.
Some of us may have lost faith in humanity. Some of us may have lost faith in a particular genre of videogames. What is truly staggering about this humble little JRPG, with its silly meowgicians and Bill-and-Ted priest, is that it addresses both of these in kind, and the result is clear.
Humanity and the JRPG are worth loving and worth saving.
Posted on Tuesday August 24th, 2010 at 7:07pm by Destructoid
Nintendo has an awesome line-up of games to keep us busy from now until the Holiday season. These next three months also sees the return of three classic Nintendo franchises.
The DS, WiiWare and DSiWare is listed below, but I'm going to point out that Nintendo may have accidentally let slip the name of Gaijin Games's next game. It's BIT.TRIP.FATE.
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (DS) -- Sept 12
Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs (DS) -- Oct 4
Art Academy (DS) -- Oct 25
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! (DS) -- Nov 14
Super Scribblenauts -- Oct 2010
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (DS) -- Oct 5
Posted on Tuesday August 24th, 2010 at 7:07pm by Destructoid
Silly gamers, Sonic Colors is for kids! At least that's what Sega wants us to believe, but I say screw Sega and what it wants. Sonic Colors is looking really good, and it was actually fun when I played it at E3. I say we do what feels right, no matter what the age group. That's the reason I still drink my mother's breast milk!
Here's a huge batch of Sonic Colors screens for both the Wii and DS versions. I will probably play both of them. They may suck or they may be awesome. How about you? Anybody still interested in Colors, or has Sega successfully shooed you away?
Posted on Tuesday August 24th, 2010 at 7:07pm by Destructoid
So yeah, Ubisoft is actually making a Michael Jackson game, and it's not a remake of the awesome Moonwalker. It's called Michael Jackson The Experience, and it's a singing and dancing game that will utilize Kinect for Xbox 360, Move on PlayStation 3, and the stock motion controls for the Wii. The game will also be coming to the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS, but will require far fewer movements on the player's part. (Read: It's for lazy people.)
The first batch of songs are being confirmed at gamescom in Germany today, and they're what you'd expect from a Michael Jackson game. I mean, the dude's a pop icon, with a ton of hit singles and well-known tracks; it would be hard to populate the track list with unknown songs. So of course tracks like "Bad," "Beat It," and "Billie Jean" have made the cut. They'll join "The Girl Is Mine," "Who Is It," "Earth Song," and "Workin' Day and Night" off of one of my favorite albums of all time, Off The Wall.
Ubisoft is promising "many more" songs on the final disc, which is scheduled for release this holiday.
