Nah, we saved the world in the last game.

 I'm trying to find a decent RPG to get into right now. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne has been sitting in my PS2 for a while now, but I'm just not feeling the style at this particular moment. For those Megaten fans out there, I did not just say that Nocturne was bad in any way. I'm simply saying that I'm looking for something new. As you may have guessed from previous posts, I'm looking for something with a little more than the standard RPG experience. TRPGs are on my mind a lot right now, but in general, it's becoming more difficult to find an RPG that strikes that careful balance between playability, fun, and story.

 Playability is pretty easy to figure out. When you get an RPG, you would expect that there isn't much to take care of in the gameplay department. There are four-directional menus and eight directions you could possibly use on the field, and you press A or X to say "yes" to something and B or circle to say "no" to something. It isn't that hard. Occasionally, a developer will challenge your patience by making a game so convoluted and confusing that all that simplicity is thrown out the window. People often wonder why I don't have a high opinion about Working Designs, and I'll throw Dragon Force right back at them as that game I desperately want to get into and love, it's just that the game never ceases to confuse the hell out of me right after the introduction with no explanation whatsoever.

 Fun is why I didn't thrash Shining Force CD last review. RPGs can sometimes fail in all other areas yet maintain an addictive game. Will I play Final Fantasy X again? No. Was it fun while I was there? Battles were fun and the sphere grid was a neat gimmick to toy with, so I was able to persist to the end without. The Persona series on its own shows what happens when a developer chooses to throw a little more addiction into its games, and thankfully we have Persona 3 and 4 to show for it.

 Story. That's where everything falls apart, and while I have only begun to touch upon this in the past, it's time for a revisit to this lost art. This may just be me, but when I play an RPG, I mainly play it for the story. Yes, I can be accused of loving the good JRPGs a little too much, but there's nothing like interacting with a deep world and an epic plot rather than just slaying the dragon and calling it a day. The trouble is that with most of these games, the plot is either epic or its not, and if it's the latter, it's just not worth playing in my eyes. With each Final Fantasy installment, you're achieving a goal that is simply massive in scope, and once the world is safe, you feel very accomplished.

 Maybe I'm just bitter about not having success finding a new game, but if you've got a suggestion, drop me a line. Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit