Hey, look, another Crisis Core preview. This one’s about the power of friendship.
OK, not really. But I will say that Crisis Core has been my second biggest surprise of the year so far. I honestly expected another Dirge of Cerberus, but in fact it’s not. Which is good. It’s not gonna win any award for deepest game of the year, but it’s a gol-dang quality portable game, and the writing is handled with a lot more restraint than you’d expect from anything associated with Final Fantasy VII.
In other news, Majesco sent me a copy of Blokus Portable today, but I’m a good guy and decided to pay money for my own copy. Partly because I don’t like to take freebies (it creates that stink of compromised integrity), but mostly in a vain hope that success on this front means the gorgeous-looking Steambot Chronicles 2 will make its way overseas.1 And let’s face it, with that cover art I’m actually the only person in the world who’s going to pay money for this game. It’s sad, but I like Steambot Chronicles so much that I’ll still shell out for a spin-off even after seeing the cast transformed into (from left:) Feyd-Rautha, Monica Lewinsky, Jack Tretton and Aerith Gainsborough (Songstress Dress Sphere version).
However, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to throttle the person who greenlighted this. They could use a good near-death experience, honestly. Force a sense of perspective into their life.
1 Though after this affront, hopefully not courtesy of Majesco.
Personally, I would’ve went with “Tidus > Courtney Cox > Jason Alexander w/ wig > Aeris” but that’s just me.
Anyway, is the game at least good? Supporting Steambot is all well and good, but if the game’s a stinker then that makes things complicated.
It’s Blokus. Blokus is fun.
Oh.
To me, the Steambot Chronicles reeks of FFVII imitation (cloud w/squall trim, tifa, aeris) with the brooding manipulative L. Ron Hubbard peering over their shoulders and watching every move they make while wearing something that draws as little attention to him as possible.
I am totally psyched for Steambot 2. So I guess it’s fortunate that my lack of a PSP prevents me from having to angst about whether I should be picking up a random horribly-localized puzzle game in indirect support of it.
I do like Blokus and Steambot Chronicles…
I think the guy in the back is Meatloaf.
Jeremy, would you recommend Crisis Core to someone who hasn’t played FFVII? This…this guy I know, he really likes JRPGs in general and thinks Final Fantasy is just fine, but he took a little break from gaming in the mid-’90s and missed out on the whole phenomenon.
He would be terribly, terribly lost. The game presumes familiarity with things like Shinra, Soldier, Mako poisoning, etc., and most of the later plot points about Sephiroth et al. make more sense with proper context.
The hell is up with her nose?
Smashed in a head-on collision with the Ugly Truck.
Moran:
Steambot Chronicles, like the Suikoden series, is from my personal fantasy alternate timeline where FFVII and onward never existed. Choices that affect the story? No long, boring cinematics that are a contest to see how fast you can press the X button? (although with Basil’s voice actor you will anyway.) Characters who are memorable for what they do and say? Places that are memorable for what happens there instead of how pretty they are? Character’s backstories aren’t explicitly spelled out for you? Oh, and no god damn flashbacks. I can’t emphasize that point enough. It’s pretty much a middle finger to the Final Fantasy/Xenosaga philosophy.
It’s strange… Irem Japan owns the name “Steambot Chronicles”.. aren’t the crazy American renames usually owned by the localizer (in this case, Atlus?)