What kind of horror are you talking about?

I'm talking more about Lovecraftian horror except I barely read anything by lovecraft so I don't like that term. There is something lurking here but we don't know what. Etc.?

Let's go with the wikipedia article here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_fiction.

"Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle, or horrify the audience. Historically, the cause of the "horror" experience has often been the intrusion of an evil —- or, occasionally, misunderstood —- supernatural element into everyday human experience."

It's that intrusion that I'm talking about. UFO Defense was scary because the aliens were on farms and in suburban environments.

And what I said about the biolab in SGF, or Apoc as a whole, in the sense of finding places that don't make any sense... they're not supernatural, but they're *things that shouldn't be* that *are* anyway.

Sure it is, but I can maybe think of 20 RPGs in total where having a world map actually meant you were discovering things.

Most worldmaps tend to steamroll you towards one specific location, or lock you in an area with a small number of towns/caves/whatever to go to. If you're headed towards a valley, you generally know there's going to be something at the end of that valley and the sense of uncertainty vanishes.

Also, console RPGs at least are notorious for not having a lot of side stuff. Side stuff -- stuff you can miss -- stuff you have to discover -- is essential for a feeling of discovery.

FFX's main detractors were being overly linear, the few optional things you could do were sort of dumb (Butterfly catching?), and the sphere grid was also really linear so it made a lot of people wonder what the point even was, and then once you got past the linear bits everyone started becoming the same as you'd go down some other character's really linear development path. Also I don't recall ever fiddling with weapon or summon attributes much, or being particularly hurt by that. More or less, it seemed like it introduced a lot of new elements and never really developed them properly (Which I guess is a good summation of the series as a whole and why I like the dragon warrior method, where you DON'T completely ignore the last game in the series existing, better).

Actually, another main complaint was that it was all FMV or something which is complete nonsense because there were very few long FMV sequences in the game. Like, fourish? Most of them were "Character jumps in awesomely" or "Sin blows the shit out of shit the fuck up" or "Pacing while grumbling." Most of which were short.

I also seem to recall a lot of puzzle bosses that were less "find the strategy that works" and more "do something you have no reason to expect to work to beat this boss."



Nicht kaum, mein Eichhörnchen.

Pokemone used to be something you loved to hate because after pokemon was cool, it became cool to hate it. But then after a few years most people stopped giving a damn and were like HM. GBA POKEMON GAMES. LET'S TRY THIS THING.

At least that's what happened to me.

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:



Exhibit 3:

X-Com series. Technically not RPGs, but they're at least as much strategy RPG as like, a lot of strategy RPGs are. The atmosphere in the first one creeped me out. the setting in Apocalypse creeped me out. For UFO Defense, it's hard to explain, but the fact that most of your guys die in one or two hits has something to do with it, and the tendency to get night missions, and then you start getting base raids... also http://www.ufopaedia.org/images/6/6c/Chryssalid.gif

Apoc's setting is weird because one of the complaints long time fans had is that it's too bright and colorful to be scary but that just made it more unnerving to me. it's not *happy* bright and colorful. It's a very plastic and fake sort of bright and colorful. On the city map screen, it does look cute, but you get into the buildings and it kind of turns into Eraserhead, scored by The Knife.

Contact creeped me out for reasons I'm not getting into although I will say Strangelove on heavy dissociatives.

That biolab in SaGa Frontier. Then again that entire game had moments that made me feel a bit weird.

See, I think there's a common theme here, with SGF and Contact and Apoc and the original X-Com in that you get into these huge structures that barely make any sense and don't seem to ever end.

You ever have that dream where you're in that unending hallways and blue hands are reaching out from holes in the wall and touching you?

Similar, it's kind of why the original Metroid creeps me out a bit more in some other ways. It's the glitches. The way you can fall into secret worlds. Or the really high ceilings in Metroid 2, even, but nowhere near as much.

also not really an RPG, but Hardwar. another thing with Apoc was that the industries you saw everywhere that nobody seemed to operate and seemed to have odd functions, such as making babies or something. Hardwar similarly has all of these weird buildings everywhere and a weird, underlying conspiracy theory.

Of course, since I brought up space, Star control 2. It's odd cause it's really a damn funny game, but in a really dark way, but that's not why it's scary. It's scary cause space is huge and doesn't make a lot of sense. Starflight 1 and 2 and Noctis also get that down, but not as well. I don't know why. Space is creepy. Space is *inherently* creepy. But in SC2, you know stuff's out there, but not what, and that's what makes it all the weirder.

One time -- I used to live in Wapakoneta, Ohio, and my dad had an office there -- one time we're driving back from one of the festivals -- river fest or summer fest or Neil Armstrong Fest -- and dad wants to stop at his office for a second. I'm like, five at the time. Anyway, there's a light or something on, and he sees a shadow, and calls the security guys.

Star Control 2 is like *that.*

Of course, Daggerfall's dungeons don't work because as soon as you start anticipating this stuff too much the effect disappears.

I guess in the same sense, the weird labs in Phantasy Star 2 should've been freaky since you get the impression nobody actually built them but maybe they build themselves but there's nothing to really make you feel that way. Then again, maybe there is. I don't know.

The horror in Persona 3 comes from seeing a yellow dot come up on the minimap when you're low on health, on a floor that's past your level, and the exit's nowhere in site.

I don't think it was ever trumped up as a horror RPG though.

Also System Shock 1 was creepier than 2.

Yeah. As someone who adores the oldschool 3D style where everything is fairly detailed but utterly textureless (SU27 Flanker, FFVII, Frontier: Elite 2, Mercenary 2: Damocles, Out of this World TECHNICALLY...) it doesn't really work when translated to FMV.

Not to mention DQVII's FMVs never occured when they'd make any sort of sense. Or without any sort of regularity. Although I guess that means they also mostly forgot to stop doing them entirely after a certain point which is good (as opposed to XG, who's little anime cutscenes I like because I think 70s-styled anime is just the absolute most).

By the way, what's up with DQIX now? I know some people aer miffed it's no longer an action RPG anymore -- which doesn't bug me much even though I tend to like more actiony RPGs -- mostly because Enix seems to know what they're doing with that kind of battle system, but what's all this hubub about online stuff?

BTW I know I'm alone on this one, but I loved how DW7 looked. The grainy spritse and texture sort of turned into this demented pointilist oil painted gestalt after a while.

Anyway though if this comes out this summer, awesome. FFIV looks like it fixes every problem I had with the original and then some, and DQIV would be another nice, summery game. I'm digging WEWY, but that's one of the most autumnal games I've played since like, goddamn Nocturne (And if I'm going to bleed the topic of music appropriateness to hear [I am] then it's more on a temporal and less location-wise basis that I find the music in WEWY and P3 appropriate. You could maybe make a case for spring -- spring and fall are sort of similar -- but we didn't have spring in Ohio this year and I'm rather pissed about that. Associative tendencies, wot-wot, I want to be a hyena eating glue).

Persona 3 was more of an august thing. That quesy, overheated, hay-scented bit between between real-summer and early-fall.

I wasn't even into Dragon Warrior till last summer and I've spent the most time on 7 and I've played that consistently and spread out over several months -- it's like watching TV. Playing DQ7 is just something I do in the evenings. It's not gaming. It's playing DQ7. I don't know why the overlap's not there -- so there's not particular time, except maybe the day before I picked it up when I was walking around town and renaming streets and fictionalizing locations and pretending I was watching airplanes fly across the surface of the moon (Eating pumpkin pie ice cream, rushing back to see a concert, being too tired to enjoy it, the concert sucking anyway. Why don't I feel like 2007 even happened, and another school year's almost gone). I don't have those associations. This'll be interesting.

I always liked the *idea* behind strictly ai-controlled characters in DW4. It's just that the AI was bad that was offputting about it. You wouldn't have even needed full on commands. Just general command sets like "Use your weapon's special power!" or "Use magic!" or "Heal me you goddamned betentacled blob!"

Still, though, as others have said I think the most exciting potential is in the future release of DQ5 and 6 here (Even though 6 was sort of offputting to me; I don't know why. I hear it's the best, but I enjoyed 7 and 8 more, and 5 sounds cooler. I didn't, admittedly, much play of it, but it never really clicked with me. I seem to recall getting somewhere and then realizing I'd need to leave and go level up for a bit. DQ8 only has a tiny bit of powerlevelling at the beginning. It's only annoying though if you get to the end of the dungeon and realize you have to go back. THAT'S what hurts).

I did love the way so many of the caves had little orange lanterns in them. I adore orange lanterns.

A chapter book.

:v

:V

:\/

:\/

But seriously. How do you want to define chapters, here? In DQIV, chapters were story chunks, basically, with their own areas and characters. the gameplay wasn't radically different between them.

Also, technically, "chapter based" and "episodic" are very similar, which means you can throw in a lot of old shareware RPGs and, really, a lot of RPGs that let you transfer characters between games if you want to.

Or why not something like Persona 3? Months are pretty much chapters, in a fairly similar sense to DQ4.

Or PS3's generations.

Chapters are sort of an arbitrary demarcation for pretentious authors that have a proclivity towards large words.

Anyway, that got me thinking. What about an ice skater RPG?

Also, one thing about the scans that bugs me. I love the character art! I don't love how the character models don't look like the character art but instead look sort of genericy.

Let's start with this: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=semen+tree

Bradford Pears. All over the place. And yeah. They smell exactly how UD describes them. Only worse. You can put up with it for a while. A short while. Then it starts making you want to vomit because you can taste the smell and then you can like, start HALLUCINATE smelling it.

Also, the science building. First two floors are normal. Floor one has a lizard lab and lecture halls. Floor two has the aquariums and class labs. Then it gets weird. third floor is taxedermied birds. *Fifth* floor is taxedermied babies.

? the game doesn't really start till after the second day, it seems. And if you only played till the second day, you... only played it for about an hour? You didn't even get past the tutorial.

Which brings me to my biggest concern right now, actually. Unless days start getting longer or a lot less linear, the 15 hour playtime estimate is going to be way, way, *way* on the overly generous side.

I don't have a problem with the controls. Well, not Neku's at least. You don't need to move around in battle too much so far. I do have trouble getting lightning bolts to fire consistently.

I don't really see how I'm supposed to control both characters at once, though, unless you just memorize the partner's combos and kind of enter them mechanically. I'm assuming the strategy behind that opens up later. Right now, I only have three combos and they don't seem that different.

---edit---

Okay, there's something up with the in game clock. It say I's played for about 5 hours. This doesn't work.

A) Played the game from 3:30 to 5ish, maybe
B) Walked across town at... 5? or 4:30 to get ice cream.
C) Got back at about seven.
D) DEFINITELY did not play past nine.

So that's, tops, 3hr30mi total. WTF?

---edit2---

NM, I'm a fucktard. That's hours since you last played the game.

Anyway, apparently the gameplay consists of seven days with each partner. Not seven days total.

Thanks for not making that obvious MR. GAMEBOX. also stabbing that thing for retarded rap lyrics on the back.

What the hell is a "pete wentz?" I'm guessing either A) A mixed drink. B) Dong piercing of some sort. C) Dead comedian from the age of black and white talkies that we used to seen in nickelodeons as boys before realizing that "this is where I came in" and so we left to become men and fight the hitler.

Anyway I just got this because A) I live in a town where FES will not sell. To anyone. Ever. B) I feel obligated to support the game store near campus before I go home for summer.

---edit---

Random Observation: Music seems to be far more shoegaze than JPop.

http://img218.imagevenue.com/view.php?image=42212_uporg1383184_122_230lo.jpg

^--- What the hell?

Oh wait NM. It loaded up a picture of two ice skaters, for me. I have no idea why.