IdeaFactory
Latest
Record of Agarest War gets some hardcore strategy on
If you've been eagerly anticipating the collaboration of three fairly large role-playing developers/publishers from Japan, you will have probably heard of Record of Agarest War. As a mixed effort between developers RED and Idea Factory, published by Compile Heart, you know you're getting two things: anime girls and role-playing. Everything else is just bonus, like a strategy RPG. If you want to see more on the game, look at the official site.The screenshots released for this game are, well, only impressive to those actually looking for an SRPG. Two of the screens are admittedly throwaways, but one gives you the opportunity to see what to expect. The layout of the game seems to be a strange cross between Disgaea and Suikoden Tactics. Since both of those games were fantastic, we're not going to pass judgment on this game yet. We do wonder how much titles like these benefit from the move onto Blu-ray and HD gaming, though.
Record of Agarest, formerly known as Phantasy Star III, enters
The crowd who enjoyed the Phantasy Star series on the Sega Genesis are surprisingly sparse. Not because the games weren't that great, or niche, but because the Genesis wasn't exactly the system to turn towards for your role-playing fix. The third Phantasy Star game, subtitled Generations of Doom, was the black sheep of the bunch and left a sour taste in many longtime fans' mouths. Why? Don't ask us, or Morgan Webb. We thought it was fantastic. Apparently Idea Factory, Red Entertainment, and Compile Heart thought so, too, because their new title Record of Agarest shares the most interesting factor to that "black sheep".Record of Agarest puts you in a the position of controlling a main character, going through what we assume will be a paper-thin story, choosing a bride and having a kid. You then take control of the child and so on and so forth for five generations. Each generation explores a new continent, much like the "generations of doom" explored more and more parts of the Alisa III in PS3. We expect more partner choices and branching stories in Agarest, though. That aside, it seems to be planned out as a standard RPG -- turn-based battles and all. Does it sound like we're bitter? We're not. We're excited, since we thought the whole generation-spanning aspect of the Genesis classic was wonderful and we'd love to see an evolved form of it take shape. Our eyes are on this probably-import-only title, due out at the end of September in Japan.
Mist of Chaos -- voted worst PS3 game so far?
This is kind of a smack to the face for all the tactical RPG fans out there. According to the Japanese blog LiveDoor, Mist of Chaos has been deemed the worst PS3 game so far by Famitsu magazine, based on the raw scores given to it. Totalling a massive 16/40, the game was faulted on these fronts: System and story are hard to understand The graphics are underwhelming Everything about the system is unforgiving (think Fire Emblem, but even less friendly as far as character deaths go) Sometimes, the text is impossible to read It's tough to get into Sounds like the Famitsu guys have a case of the "I don't get it, I can't beat it"s. Tactical RPGs are difficult. It's true. The stories are generally epic, with tons of characters and a really complex storyline that's nigh impossible to follow unless you've a copy of the script in front of you. Multiple endings don't help either, especially if you get the worst one possible (damn you, Tactics Ogre... I tried so hard). So, does the game deserve such a low score? Absolutely, but not because it's a bad tactical RPG. It's just not a good game for anyone to buy unless they've experience being incredibly frustrated at a game and don't mind retrying a map multiple times, tediously watching every move so that one healer just doesn't get killed by that damn archer that appears on turn 9.Thoughts?
SRPG Mist of Chaos experiences a release delay of one month
Ahh, the Playstation 3's first strategy role-playing game, Mist of Chaos. Initially slated for an early February release of this year, the game has recently been pushed back to March 22, for obvious reasons. A lot of games are coming out in Japan between February and March -- many of these are decently anticipated. Not sure if this game is coming to the US or Europe yet, but hopefully it'll make an appearance.The game is by Idea Factory, the same team behind other titles such as Spectral Souls and Generation of Chaos. They like chaos. Keep in mind that SRPG's never really fully take advantage of graphics, but focus more on character development and intensely, er, strategic gameplay. With that said, the game does boast a large amount of simultaneous on-screen characters as well as large, open maps. Since this writer is an SRPG whore (who truly craves a full English patch of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776), he'll try to pick this one up and let you know how easily it is to get absorbed in the story of, most likely, betrayal and political intrigue.
Spectral Souls trailer
It's been a long, long time since we've heard any news of this game from Idea Factory. RPGs are becoming more and more plentiful on the system, and with the excellent Valkyrie Profile already on the shelves, and Jeanne d'Arc on the way, can this baby compete? I guess we'll find out when it launches in October.
