Random game impressions, updates

passerby

Regular
Mojib Ribbon
Interest to importers. Music rythmn games are either easy enough to appeal to everyone, or difficult enough to make one group of people hate it and another group love it. Mojib Ribbon falls into the latter category. Having said that, I admit that I've fallen for it. The overall package is incredibly well-polished. This IS art.

Final Fantasy XII
Got to take a close look at shots of the game in a magazine. Yup, those definitely are circular shadows for characters. Various objects and architecture "appear" to cast shadows. But on closer examination, the shadow cast by a railing doesn't have the same number of rails as the railing itself. So probably those were "statically rendered", or whatever term fits.

Xenosaga 2
More information is slowly being revealed by Monolithsoft. While it has not been explicitly stated, it appears that a sizable portion of the game takes place in the past. 14 years ago, the "Miruchia" incident, where gamers will experience for themselves what actually happened. It was revealed that Chaos was actually present at the incident 14 years ago - adding to the mystery concerning this character, who is definitely much older than he looks.
 
Gregory Horror Show
It's an adventure game. Since the genre has lost its appeal in NA, the chance of it being published = nil. Europe is a different story, as the genre is still alive, though much reduced compared to long ago.

It's a very nice adventure game. It received gold awards and 8/10 scores from every publication that reviewed it. Certainly worth a look by fans of the genre. Unfortunately Capcom had decided to pump all their advertising efforts into Biohazard Online, resulting in about 3-4 months of continuous BO coverage in nearly every game magazine, and only ~2 weeks of coverage for Gregory Horror Show. As a result there was no big sales numbers for GHS. A disgraceful shame, as Japanese tastes tend to be receptive of quirky stuff, and this is definitely sleeper hit material. BOO.
 
Mojib Ribbon falls into the latter category
So the game is actually difficult? I've heard it's actually painfully easy to the point that the game feels pointless. Those were the first impressions of a guy who played only couple of levels
 
passerby said:
Gregory Horror Show
It's an adventure game. Since the genre has lost its appeal in NA, the chance of it being published = nil. Europe is a different story, as the genre is still alive, though much reduced compared to long ago.

It's a very nice adventure game. It received gold awards and 8/10 scores from every publication that reviewed it. Certainly worth a look by fans of the genre. Unfortunately Capcom had decided to pump all their advertising efforts into Biohazard Online, resulting in about 3-4 months of continuous BO coverage in nearly every game magazine, and only ~2 weeks of coverage for Gregory Horror Show. As a result there was no big sales numbers for GHS. A disgraceful shame, as Japanese tastes tend to be receptive of quirky stuff, and this is definitely sleeper hit material. BOO.

I bought this one out of curiosity but had sold it in the end because I simply couldn't get myself playing it and my backlog of games has grown to a lot over the last 2 months.
 
I've heard it's actually painfully easy to the point that the game feels pointless. Those were the first impressions of a guy who played only couple of levels

There are ~20 levels. Anyway music games easily fall into the "love it or hate it" category.
 
From personal experience, Amplitude (and also Frequency) were loved by everyone i showed them to...

They are, after all, excellent games...
 
Does anyone know something about the story for the new FF game, is it the same team that made FFX(esp is it the same musicdirector), any news about it?
 
Did u really not like either of them?

The music just does not appeal, that's all. Come to think of it, I can't say I love Mojib Ribbon's music either. But I'm a bit of a sucker for tunes with an Asian touch. Also a sucker for artsy stuff. I *almost* picked up SCEJ's "My Storybook".

Just noticed this
Haibane renmei : Blue Flow
The Haibane Renmai OST, Hane-No-Ne is absolutely fantastic. Full of beautiful tunes, and the 1st piece "Refrain of Memory" is quite stunning.

How was the HK Game Show BTW?
 
I hope they keep the story a bit less over the top this time, a nice FF7 style would be nice, epic but not a FFX-go-get-the-god kind of thing, which got silly in the end...

The music director HAS TO be the same, FFX has some great music.
 
FFX had 3 music composers: Nobuo Uematsu, Junya Nakano and Masashi Hamauzu. Supposedly Nobuo Uematsu was in the lead, as he composed the main themes. Junya Nakano did most of the ambient pieces. Masashi Hamazu was the surprise entry, his work Includes "Splendid Performance", "Travel Agency", "Thunder Plains", almost all the pieces played during the wedding attack, "Northern Tribe", the last battle piece, etc. In summary he did most of the more...majestic(?) pieces.

So far, it has been confirmed that Nobuo Uematsu is involved in FFXII.
 
overclocked said:
Yeah the music in FFX is beautiful, "to Zanarkand" i think was amazing.


Yes, i'm not sure but i think that one and some others made my eyes watery... Don't know how they did it (almost nothing coming out of a TV or such can hit me emotionally, although some melodies can), but they were BEAUTIFUL melodies...
 
Yes, i'm not sure but i think that one and some others made my eyes watery... Don't know how they did it (almost nothing coming out of a TV or such can hit me emotionally, although some melodies can), but they were BEAUTIFUL melodies

Same here, when i listened too it now i can feel the emotions, sure some music in the game was terrible(the combat music)..
It´s a romantic love story told, so wonderful.. Ahhh Yuna..
 
passerby said:
Just noticed this
Haibane renmei : Blue Flow
The Haibane Renmai OST, Hane-No-Ne is absolutely fantastic. Full of beautiful tunes, and the 1st piece "Refrain of Memory" is quite stunning.

How was the HK Game Show BTW?

I haven't been to the Game Show, not quite interested to go there.

I have all the OSTs, they are really fantastic pieces of music, ha ha ! And for sure the whole set of Japanese original DVDs.

http://www.felixmcli.org/haibane.html
 
london-boy said:
I hope they keep the story a bit less over the top this time, a nice FF7 style would be nice, epic but not a FFX-go-get-the-god kind of thing, which got silly in the end...

I believe you´re completely wrong on this one. How can it become too over the top, when from almost the very beginning of the game the objective is described to you: "go on a pilgrimage to defeat Sin"?

Sin was also very present on every part of the story, and it was pretty obvious too that you would have to defeat him eventually.

The music director HAS TO be the same, FFX has some great music.

Nobuo Uematsu is only composing the main theme. The rest will be composed by the composer of VS´s soundtrack, AFAIK.

Oh, and BTW passerby, I appreciatte the impresions, but what does the actual game looks like? I mean, I really don´t give a damn if the shadows under the characters are circular or not. :)
 
Almasy said:
I believe you´re completely wrong on this one. How can it become too over the top, when from almost the very beginning of the game the objective is described to you: "go on a pilgrimage to defeat Sin"?

Sin was also very present on every part of the story, and it was pretty obvious too that you would have to defeat him eventually.

U do know that defeating Sin is only the first step. Did you defeat Yu Yevon? If the game stopped at defeating Sin, it would have been cool enough. Mate, i played the game for like 140 hours, absolutely loved it, all i'm saying is that it DID get a bit silly in the end... defeating a god, erasing a religion. the idea was col but i think they could have realised it a bit better. Still, no game can be perfect, and this one was probably my overall favorite this generation, apart from other few gems here and there...


Oh, and BTW passerby, I appreciatte the impresions, but what does the actual game looks like? I mean, I really don´t give a damn if the shadows under the characters are circular or not. :)

FFX-2 already has real shadows, i don't see why they whould take them out of a game coming out 1 year after that.
Also, shadows are some of the last things to be added to the game, i remember when J&D was first screened, and up to a few months of release, without shadows, then it came out with proper ones..
 
what does the actual game looks like?
Actually to get a feel of that, best way is to download the movie that was screened at the Jump fiesta and posted by Quiter. Of course the movie has since been taken off. :p

It looks more visually pleasing than FFX/X-2. It will still be one of the best looking RPG when it releases. The animation of facial expressions is probably the best I've seen. There is also a dungeon shot that shows many objects and details, and characters also look highly detailed. But there is one scan of a dragon-type monster that looks slightly a bit too "square". In summary, I feel I won't be disappointed, but I'm not setting expectations too high.
 
Hopefully they will use some of the ideas from other games, technologically. ZOE2 particles, JAK2 scope...

How knows... I do acknowledge though, that FF games have never been about technology as much as they are about art and design, therefore i'm not raising my expectations too high in terms of technology, although i will be one of the ones picking this up on the first day of release, in 2007 when it will be released here in Europe... But let's not go there...

Any news on the release date of FFX-2 in Europe/UK?
 
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