Anime CRPG Book - Call for reviews

[Ladonna]

That would be great, I played BattleTech but really didn't like it, would be nice to have a review that explains WTF so many people seem to enjoy it.

It was ok. The ending was long, boring shit, but the early game was good for what it is. When I played it as a kid, I liked the the fact that it had a "Robotech" theme going on with the graphics, mech battles, and combat animations, as I knew absolutely nothing about Battletech. I originally thought it was basically the same thing. Robotech was on TV in the mornings, and I would watch it before going to school. I think they had some good ideas in the game, but ended up rushing it massively before release.

Robotech mechs.

Vs

Battletech mech

 

[felipepepe]

Will you be publishing a new version of the physical book or just updating the .pdf version? I was thinking of buying the hardcover before it sells out but might wait if a new edition is coming out.

I want to make a printed version of the updated version, but it's not confirmed yet... need to negotiate with Bitmap Books, since it will be a bigger & more expensive book and a lot of people already got the first edition. If it happens, will be around mid 2022.

Sadly, I can't just make an add-on to the original, as I'm adding games from all years, and fixing a few mistakes in the original too.

 

[Divine Blessing]

felipepepe

whats (resp. has been) ur intent and motivation to publish a sophisticated collection of (SMS) reviews?

 

[felipepepe]

felipepepe

whats (resp. has been) ur intent and motivation to publish a sophisticated collection of (SMS) reviews?

Well, we did the Top 72 RPGs of All-Time vote back in 2014 in order to make a reliable list of recommendations, then expanded it months later with reviews for each title. It became really popular and people started printing that list, so it was an easy leap to turn it into a book.

There's also a lot of spite involved. Video game history is mostly written by journos who say things like "BioWare are the masters of game writing", "turn-based combat was a tech limitation" and "Diablo was the first Action-RPG". It really annoys me to open Jason Schreier's latest book and see it going "Bioshock proved video games could be art!". These same people write previews, reviews and then history books... we must have another source of information.

Matt Barton's book was basically the only good source around, but was an expensive academic book, entirely in black & white... one of the most important things for me was to make something accessible and widely available. I feel like "mission complete" when I see people on reddit or twitter discussing RPGs and then liking to the book to point out something they learned from it.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

"turn-based combat was a tech limitation"

I am not in touch with what gaming journos are writing about these days. Do they still sometimes spread that myth or after noticing how turn based games can on rare occasion bring some revenue to their corporate masters had they changed their tune completely?

 

[felipepepe]

"turn-based combat was a tech limitation"

I am not in touch with what gaming journos are writing about these days. Do they still sometimes spread that myth or after noticing how turn based games can on rare occasion bring some revenue to their corporate masters had they changed their tune completely?

Turn-based combat is cool now thanks to games like Nu-XCOM and Divinity:OS, so no one says that anymore. But also no one admits to hating it for years, they'll just wand-wave it away like "these sort of games weren't well received at the time", even when they were the ones reviewing them at the time.

 

[thesheeep]

I feel like "missing complete" when I see people on reddit or twitter discussing RPGs and then liking to the book to point out something they learned from it.

I am writing to report a typo in that statement of yours.
Please correct the mistake and reprint.

 

[felipepepe]

Bumping this after a month, really no one interested in Grimoire, Tides of Numanuma and Outward?

I want to do a big push during the end of the year holidays, try to finish the book ASAP, would really appreciate help with the reviews

 

[Darth Canoli]

Didn't you review Grimoire yourself a while back?

Spoiler

 

[felipepepe]

Didn't you review Grimoire yourself a while back?

I reviewed version 1.0, not gonna jump back to check how much it changed and think it would be unfair to print the review of an older version of the game.

 

[Jaedar]

Tides of Numanuma

You'd have to play it to review it, so no thanks.

Grimoire

Surprised no one is interested in adding this one to the history book though.

 

[BarãodoDesterro]

Sadly, I can't just make an add-on to the original, as I'm adding games from all years, and fixing a few mistakes in the original too.

I don’t believe a physical add-on would be interesting either; yet I find it compelling someone could highlight all the changes from previous edition: maybe a document just listing what changed and referencing the pages (new games, new texts for old games, new sections, changes in sections and so on).

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I'm helping brother felipepepe out by giving Omega a whirl. I had to read the directions several times before I got a hang of the wonky controls. Saving a character was a bitch to figure out, but then I learned how to successfully save and load. I fully explored the city you start in and purchased a short sword and some light armor. Decided to go outside and do some adventuring, when I ran into a chaos storm just outside the city. It did a few things to mutate my character and I raised 6 levels in an instant, but was killed by the chaos magic...

Sigh... time to reroll a new character.