alright guys; side a thinks the game sucks and side b thinks the game doesn't. can't we stop bickering and actually get back on topic >_>//
The topic sucked. I hate list topics (DUR WHUTZ UR FAVORITE GAEM LEMME GUESS FINAL PHANTASY SEBBEN NO WAI M9 TOO GLOMP!!11). This is far more interesting and fun so if anyone else wants to join in please do.
@Miek:
The game had a combat system slightly updated from a 1980s rpg. That's the only factual thing in your argument. The game didn't have poor balance, you probably just wandered into a hard dungeon or something (actually the game is pretty damn easy.)
If you grinded in order to purchase the next level of insanely priced equipment (seriously by the end of chapter 4 armor starts costing 40,000-100,000 sekels or whatever the currency was and common enemies at the time only dropped 1,000-2,000 and the harder dungeons were more cash was dropped was too hard without the better armor). To make matters worse, if the hero died it was
INSTANT game over. To make matters even worse, enemies were pretty much magnetically attracted to him and attacked him almost exclusively.
Also, you can't say the encounters where boring when you're fighting fucking demonic frogs, elephants tied to balloons and eccentric latin dancing scarecrows.
Um, art style and gameplay are two totally different things. You could make a video game where you click your mouse on the collected works of pablo picasso for 20 hours and the game would still be boring.
Your opinions are all entirely subjective, and that's why you're wrong. Just because you're a JRPG fan doesn't mean you're going to like all JRPGs, and that you're magically the JRPG Dalai fuck Llama.
No but it does mean i can spot a game that's completely out of place. Okage's engine was like a game made in rpg maker 2003 with 3D graphics. Heck, even rm2k3 had more features and a faster battle system than Okage.
You say you like FFVII but I sometimes happen to think it's a crappy game with an overwrought storyline, exploitative blunt characters, no sense of structure and all the characters look like chibi Popeye the sailor man with giant lower-arms and no mouths. Just because I don't like FFVII does that mean it's a bad game? No. Though, since I have legitimate criticisms of the game of a qualitative nature.
Yeah but everything you hate about Final Fantasy is exclusive to the writing and graphics. Why don't you mention the customization of the characters through an extensive materia system? How about the plethora of mini-games? The side-quests? Do you have a complaint about the way the game is
played? You could bring up the balance between narrative and gameplay, but do you actually have a complaint about
the way you PLAY it?
No? Okay, so you don't like the story or the graphics meaning the writing is shit but the game is still
good, right? So Final Fantasy 7 has good gameplay, bad story. Fair enough.
Okage has good writing and fun characters but playing the game is like a slower version of Final Fantasy NES with horrible stock sound effects. There's nothing to do in the game at all aside from the handful of side-quests (like 4-5 sidequests + character compatibility thing). You seriously run from town to town pressing X on random townsfolk until you trigger the next sequence. There is
absolutely nothing to the game aside from fighting monsters in a bare bones combat system.
So Okage has a good story but bad gameplay. That is a
bad game.
This however is a logical fallacy, as the lack of extra shiny summon buttom-mash crap a bad game does not make. Does Final Fantasy I suck because there's no run button? No. It's not as fun to most people, but the game system does not require a run button. Okage's system is extremely bare bones, but it doesn't do anything wrong because it's so simple.
And here is the fallacy in your logic.
Was a run button common in 1987? Where quick time events and mini-games an industry staple? Was an engaging plot with multiple paths and variable endings an everyday thing?
If you answered no to all of those questions then surely you'd understand that
SIMPLICITY AND LAZINESS are two very different things. Mega Man is simple; the basic idea is to jump around shooting badguys. However, Mega Man's success doesn't rely on complicated systems but rather how those systems are applied to the game. Every level is unique and requires you to run/jump/shoot in a different manner using a different strategy.
That is simple.
Okage is running from location A to location B, fighting monsters to get enough gold to purchase Armor A and Weapon B, and talking to people until something happens. This is a jrpg staple but there's seriously no variation in it; nothing to hold the player AT ALL except for a narrative (and if the player doesn't like the narrative, and Okage has a quirky and niche story, then you're fucked). Final Fantasy 10, a game that came out at the same time as Okage, featured variations in the gameplay through the sphere grid customization and blitzball. Wild Arms 2, a game with a
smaller budget than Okage that came out on a weaker platform, had more variation to the gameplay than Okage.
This is laziness. If you bought a car that was completely stripped of seat cushions, no radio, all of the paint scraped off, and a flat tire
for the same price as a new car wouldn't you be pissed? This is what Okage is: a stripped down boring video game with a kind of interesting plot that was sold for the same price as games that did things better.
And for those of you who haven't played the game,
watch this video. Now imagine that you hear that same awful repetitive music, horrendous menu sound effects, and repeating animations for the next 25 hours. Other than running around the town map/dungeons, this is what you do in Okage. You guys just witnessed the entire game.
