DriacKin
Arbiter
I've never played this game -- I always just assumed it was nothing more than typical overly-pretentious anime-inspired Jap garbage. And yet, this thing consistently seems to draw praise across the interwebs. And even some of my fellow Codexers enjoyed it... Dicksmoker even claimed it to be the greatest video game story evar (I'm too lazy to look for the thread where he made this claim, but I know that he did.).
I usually roll my eyes anytime I hear people claim that a Jap anime/game is 'deep' or 'artsy' or 'thought provoking'. In my experience, these tend to be the silliest and most painful variety of anime. They're almost always incredibly overwraught -- constantly beating you over the head with blatantly obvious symbolism. Not only that, but they usually come off as being completely devoid of any subtlety while also being incredibly preachy. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate all jRPG stories. I haven't really played very many of them, but I've still enjoyed some of the Final Fantasy games in a so-bad-it's-good way. They're usually incredibly cliché, have tons of plot holes, and moronic characters -- but that's what I like about them. Imo, the jRPGs that don't take themselves all that seriously can still be enjoyable because of their inherent campiness.
On the other hand, JRPG combat is always shit. I almost always find them to be overly simplistic, boring, and just too damn grindy. And although some tactical jRPGs have solid combat systems, traditional jRPGs almost always are just way too shallow and repetitive to be fun. Still, I am willing to play these games if the other components make up for it.
So, that being said, what about Xenogears? Is it as good as Dicksmoker claims? Is it shit? And If so, is it atleast shit in a somewhat entertaining way?
:discuss:
I usually roll my eyes anytime I hear people claim that a Jap anime/game is 'deep' or 'artsy' or 'thought provoking'. In my experience, these tend to be the silliest and most painful variety of anime. They're almost always incredibly overwraught -- constantly beating you over the head with blatantly obvious symbolism. Not only that, but they usually come off as being completely devoid of any subtlety while also being incredibly preachy. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate all jRPG stories. I haven't really played very many of them, but I've still enjoyed some of the Final Fantasy games in a so-bad-it's-good way. They're usually incredibly cliché, have tons of plot holes, and moronic characters -- but that's what I like about them. Imo, the jRPGs that don't take themselves all that seriously can still be enjoyable because of their inherent campiness.
On the other hand, JRPG combat is always shit. I almost always find them to be overly simplistic, boring, and just too damn grindy. And although some tactical jRPGs have solid combat systems, traditional jRPGs almost always are just way too shallow and repetitive to be fun. Still, I am willing to play these games if the other components make up for it.
So, that being said, what about Xenogears? Is it as good as Dicksmoker claims? Is it shit? And If so, is it atleast shit in a somewhat entertaining way?
:discuss: