Review JRPG Codex Review: Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone

[Humanity has risen!]

Wow, that's bad. Not a deal breaker though.

 

[kazgar]

mmm. I'll take the kid. anyday.
wait a minute. why is this a sticky thread?

codex generated content (as opposed to stuff stolen from rpgwatch or gamebanshee submitted or related content) always gets stickied for a while these days.

Mostly due to its drama generating abilities superiority over the other news.

 

[Black]

Facebook and twitter I could stomach.
But this... this has gone too far.
START THE FURNACES

wait a minute. why is this a sticky thread?

Looks like someone got too excited for 10 yo animu girls.

 

[mondblut]

That's what happens when you let the women in.

 

[RK47]

wait a minute. why is this a sticky thread?

Looks like someone got too excited for 10 yo animu girls.

I WAS TOTALLY WAITING FOR THAT REPOSE, BLACK!
BUROFISTO!

 

[Sukeban Cho]

hey how about a turn based magical girl tactical grid fightan version of super robot wars except you know with mahou shoujo from every single series and fanfiction ever

lead them in tactical battles against evil to to save all of reality as the world's first mahou shonen commander and maybe date them as well I dunno what you kids want these days

Good idea, but remove the mahou shonen commander and make the game kind of like X-Com. The game occurs in virtual Tokyo that the girls get to explore Sims 3 like: They buy shit for their mahou shoujo base at the school's dormitory, meet new friends and hot guys, go shopping for new clothes or costume pieces, go to the movies, get part-time jobs, and must keep their needs sated and their moodlets high. Every now and then an alert is received and a monster-of-the-week, crisis event, or boss fight spawns somewhere around the city and you must control your squad of mahou shoujo in deep turn based tactical combat against the armies of darkness.

Just make sure both halves interact well enough and you have a winner with the "Power of friendship!" tween girls, the "Power of fashion and hot guys hitting on me!" teen girls, and the "Nanoha and Fate were woohooing each other's brains out when the terror event started, so I had to make do with whomever was close at the time." creepy guys.

 

[RK47]

I think you're talking about Sakura Taisen.
I never liked the male protag on that one.

The game is a Strategy RPG that features a unique sim-based story system. An in-depth storyline exists, much like in any other RPG; however, the player's destiny in the game is not predetermined, character interaction plays a major role. The player's interaction with the game dramatically influences the storyline and the ending, as the player nurtures relationships between certain characters, their performance in battle will also improve and the strength of their attacks soars. This means that the game's social elements are closely tied to the battle system.

In the first two Sakura Wars games, the battle mode gameplay is similar to that of tactical role-playing games. The player gives commands to all attack squad members piloting a spirit armor in a square-based grid. Commands are arranged in groups, and only two commands from different groups can be issued for each turn. Beginning with Sakura Wars 3, this had since evolved into a gridless action-point based combat scheme known as Active and Real-time Machine System (ARMS). In ARMS, a unit can move as far and attack as many as its action points would allow it, although some orders are still limited to once per turn.[21] This type of combat system would later be the basis for Valkyria Chronicles, developed by much of the same team.[22]

According to Famitsu's 1996 top ten wanted list, Sakura Taisen scored second place just below Final Fantasy VII.[38] The game went on to win the Game of the Year prizes at the CESA Awards and Semi-Grand Prix Awards in 1997.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

What happened on 11/11/11?

I'm baffled you forgot it. It was the day when you and other cRPG enthusiasts like Twinfalls showed up to drool over the latest entry to the Elder Turds saga on day 1. Awesome! Mature lore and stuffies! All is forgiven Todd!

 

[made]

Art direction sucks. Writing sucks. Won't even torrent.

 

[Stinger]

Does this mean next time I can write a full length review for an inevitable Devil Survivor 3?

Come on, we all know Devil Survivor is a better WRPG than most games calling themselves WRPGs.

Anyway interesting game, Crooked Bee and you've explained it quite comprehensively...I might check it out if it ends up on Steam at a cheaper price.

 

[RK47]

Does this mean next time I can write a full length review for an inevitable Devil Survivor 3?

Come on, we all know Devil Survivor is a better WRPG than most games calling themselves WRPGs.

Anyway interesting game, Crooked Bee and you've explained it quite comprehensively...I might check it out if it ends up on Steam at a cheaper price.

I support user made content. You should do it.

 

[Mortmal]

Does this mean next time I can write a full length review for an inevitable Devil Survivor 3?

Come on, we all know Devil Survivor is a better WRPG than most games calling themselves WRPGs.

Anyway interesting game, Crooked Bee and you've explained it quite comprehensively...I might check it out if it ends up on Steam at a cheaper price.

You should , those games are stats heavy rpgs, plenty of good things to say about it , only draw back is its often with a school and student background.

 

[Niektory]

I think I might try this out. I have nothing to lose. Touhou already drained me of all manliness.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I think you're talking about Sakura Taisen.
I never liked the male protag on that one.

I always dreamed of an English translation for that one.

 

[Jasede]

What happened on 11/11/11?

I'm baffled you forgot it. It was the day when you and other cRPG enthusiasts like Twinfalls showed up to drool over the latest entry to the Elder Turds saga on day 1. Awesome! Mature lore and stuffies! All is forgiven Todd!

All I recall us saying was that the game was fun, exploration was excellent and for all its flaws it was still a far better product than Oblivion - and as such, incline, by Bethesda standards. Nobody ever touted this game as a flawless RPG or the next PS:T. It's a hiking simulator, and a good one at that, like Morrowind, with some cool lore for the lorehounds, some eyecandy for those who like spelunking and somewhere in there there's also a crappy RPG.

Not sure why you make that into "all is forgiven, Todd!". Black & white worldview much? I always considered us to be gentlemen with refined opinions that are a little more sophisticated than "worst game ever!" and "best game ever!".

Honestly, why can't you guys be a little more... differentiated? There is nothing wrong with praising the good parts of a game or pointing out its bad parts. You can do that without becoming either a drooling fan or some blind ball of hatred. Skyrim had good bits in it. Even that piece of shit Oblivion probably did; I wouldn't know about that game. This doesn't have to change how good or bad the whole package is, but it's surely worth debating?

PS:T, part of the holy trinity, is teeming with flaws. And that's okay because as a whole it's still a great experience.

Getting back on topic there is nothing wrong with pointing RPG players to some jRPG animu-game because more often than not they actually have some interesting combat and character building mechanics that western RPGs somehow discarded in favor of "CLICK FASTER, GERALT".

 

[felipepepe]

Jasede, you are too good for this place.

And worse than PS:T, the Troika Trinity, Arcanum, TOEE and Bloodlines are "flawed yet good" as a game can get.

Anyway, all that JRPG hate is just cultural shock. Same way you have angry potatomen spitting at JRPGs huge and ridiculous weapons,just to go play with their Warhammer:

 

[FeelTheRads]

Anime, especially in games, is an abomination and should be killed.
You'd have to put up with too much to dig up what may or may not be a good game under all that horrifying crap.

 

[DwarvenFood]

While I can tolerate jRPG content and reviews, having this as a sticky is a bit overdoing it - it's not like it's a Codex interview or something. Reported.

 

[Marsal]

Anyway, all that JRPG hate is just cultural shock. Same way you have angry potatomen spitting at JRPGs huge and ridiculous weapons,just to go play with their Warhammer

Think a bit more about this and try to figure out why it's not ridiculous to have big weapons in Warhammer universe, then make an image ridiculing your limited intellectual capability if you can't.

 

[quasimodo]

If they would upgrade to ASCII I would give it a try.

 

[Mrowak]

I am very butthurt about the games I am not going to play regardless of any merit they may have, so I'll invent contrived reason why game XYZ is better and how it has "reasons" for bullshit art direction, thus proving my intellectual superiority douchebaggery and endless capacity to miss the fucking point.

Fix'd.

Take a cheel pill, brah.

 

[felipepepe]

Anyway, all that JRPG hate is just cultural shock. Same way you have angry potatomen spitting at JRPGs huge and ridiculous weapons,just to go play with their Warhammer

Think a bit more about this and try to figure out why it's not ridiculous to have big weapons in Warhammer universe, then make an image ridiculing your limited intellectual capability if you can't.

Bro, they are equally ridiculous and serve the same "AWESHUM-looking things" purpose in both places, no matter what your lore or superior intellectual capacities say...just stop taking yourself so serious and being butthurt about everything...

 

[Alex]

I think his point is that whereas space marines are pretty much monstrous looking, being brutish giant soldiers made by science. For them, carrying giant chain weapns make perfect sense. Whereas JRPG protagonists are small and androgynous looking, I believe, in the hope of creating an interesting contrast. However, many people (myself included) find this contrast silly and unpalatable, as well as the theme in they address in the story itself.

Either way, space marines in the original WH40k were supposed to be silly, the work being mostly parody and not intended to be taken completely serious (but not as straight up comedy either, I think). I find this version of the setting much more interesting, to be honest.

 

[Kz3r0]

And worse than PS:T, the Troika Trinity, Arcanum, TOEE and Bloodlines are "flawed yet good" as a game can get.

No, they are good because are masterpieces, and their flaws are condoned only because the possibility to get anything on par or better is almost nil.

 

[felipepepe]

I think his point is that whereas space marines are pretty much monstrous looking, being brutish giant soldiers made by science. For them, carrying giant chain weapns make perfect sense. Whereas JRPG protagonists are small and androgynous looking, I believe, in the hope of creating an interesting contrast. However, many people (myself included) find this contrast silly and unpalatable, as well as the theme in they address in the story itself.

Again, pure culture clash, is like Bruce Lee vs Ivan Drago; the asian image of "the perfect warrior" is skilled fighter with a finely crafted weapon, while europeans would probably say a massive and unbeatable viking-like warrior. Thus you have agile and skilled anime characters with ridiculously powerful weapons, against big and tough warhammer fighters, made to endure everything.

A german thinks Leman Russ would break Cloud in half like a stick, while a japanese would imagine Cloud quickly dodging his attack and slicking Russ with a super-duper Omnislash... you can't really say one is right and the other is wrong without looking like a 12-old arguing if Batman would beat Iron Man...