Jarrod returns with a look at three JRPG’s that have been recently released!

If there’s one genre that has been severely lacking over this new console generation, it has been the Japanese RPG. This cycle is nearing three years old and it has only managed to produce six true JRPG’s: Enchanted Arms, Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata, Lost Odyssey, Operation Darkness, and Spectral Force 3. Of those, only Eternal Sonata and Lost Odyssey are worth a damn, with the other four ranging from mediocre to utter shit. So needless to say, if you’re a fan of the genre you’ve had slim pickings.

Thankfully this summer has shown a beacon of hope as we’ve had three different JRPG’s released within a week of each other: Tales Of Vesperia by Namco Tales Studio and published by Namco Bandai, Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice by Nippon Ichi Software and published by NIS America, and Infinite Undiscovery by Tri-Ace and published by Square-Enix. Let’s see how they stack up.

Writers note: As of this writing, I am about 10 hours into each of these games. As I now currently have a life, I can‘t blow through these games like I did back when I was 15. But I feel confident enough that I can compare and contrast each of these games strengths and weaknesses. This isn’t a review, per se, but rather a competition of some sort.

While these are all JRPG’s, they each take very different approaches in storytelling, even though Vesperia and Infinite Undiscovery essentially have the same story. Both games involve a ragtag group of adventurers on their quest to save the world and both involve similar themes such as political intrigue, mistaken identity, and ancient technologies. Vesperia however goes for a more light-hearted approach and it’s funnier and more cartoon-like then most JRPG‘s. My biggest problem with the Tales series over the years has been its excellent characters and character development are squandered by mediocre and predictable scenarios. While the scenario presented here is a little better than most Tales games, it still falls under multiple clichés. The Noble with no clue of how the outside world works, the “recent increase in monsters”, the orphan, and the ones mentioned above all rear their ugly heads. However, Vesperia is able to overcome it’s clichés because of just how charming it is. The characters are very likable (par for the course in a Tales games), and the dialog is natural and well written.

Infinite Undiscovery doesn’t do as well. How many times have you seen the incurable and extremely rare disease that one of your party members just happens to have? And it also has one of my least favorite conventions: twin kids. Ever since Palom and Porom reared their ugly heads in Final Fantasy IV, this has been an annoyance in the genre. It worked well in Lost Odyssey because the game did such a fantastic job of creating an emotional connection with all its characters. But in Infinite Undiscovery it just falls flat on its face and sticks out even more because of how the seriously the game takes itself. It also doesn’t hurt that the kids (named Rico and Rucha) are creepy as fuck and have this eerie blank stare in their eyes at all times. Infinite Undiscovery takes itself far too seriously and is almost completely devoid of all humor throughout, which would be fine if the dialogue was as well written as it is in Vesperia. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Because of these problems, Infinite Undiscovery has a serious lack of personality. This is a shame, because its story shows the most potential of the three to have impact, but I don’t foresee it living up to its potential.

Disgaea 3, on the other hand, is a whole other story. You play as Mao: the number one honor student at a demon academy where skipping class and watching anime is considered good behavior. When your father, the Overlord and Dean of the school, crushes your Slaystation Portable that contained millions of hours of game data you decide to overthrow him. Because Mao spends his entire day playing video games and reading Manga, he comes to the conclusion (using his 1.8 million IQ) that the only way to defeat the overlord is to switch sides, become a hero, and save the princess. Your enjoyment of Disgaea 3’s story will hinge entirely upon your appreciation of Otaku culture and very quirky anime. If you’re into that kind of thing, then you’ll love this yarn filled with Power Ranger knockoffs and exploding penguins.

Where these games truly differ is in their presentations. The Tales series has always been known for their anime-inspired look, and Vesperia is no different. It’s a cel shaded game, so if you don’t like that particular style then you might not like how this game looks. However, Vesperia is absolutely stunning to behold. From the lush vistas to the gorgeous character models, there are very few faults. Few games have come this close to looking like a real anime, and the character design by Kosuke Fujishima really stands out. It proves that great art design will always win out over pixel pushing, and of the three titles this is easily the best looking. The game sounds great as well. The English voice actors do a great job with their parts, and as previously mentioned, it doesn’t hurt that they’re working with a well-written script.

The music in Vesperia is good but not great. There are some really great tunes in towns and in the over world, but this falls into another Tales series cliché: the battle theme in this game consists of cheesy, fake sounding 80’s guitar riffs that sound terrible, don’t fit the mood at all, and are completely unnecessary. You hear flutes and violins in the middle of a forest, hit a battle, and then are treated to a tune that sounds like something Dragonforce would shit out in their sleep… only not as good. It’s a blemish on an otherwise great sounding game.

And I don’t know a better place to put this, so I’ll do it here. As you may know, I am a sucker for “Collectors Editions”, and Vesperia has one. So what do you get for your extra $10? A steel case, a soundtrack, a couple of pages added to the back of the instruction booklet with some bonus art, and “something special”. There’s a paper insert in the case with a code on it that you can enter on their website to get “something special”, but it’s “not ready yet”, so I don’t know what the fuck it is. Overall, not worth the extra cash unless you’re a collector of some kind.

Unfortunately, Infinite Undiscovery underwhelms on the presentation front. The visuals get a big fat “meh”. I don’t like using this term, but the game really just doesn’t look very “next gen”. The textures are kinda blotchy, there are draw distance issues, and the character models in particular just aren’t up to snuff. Their faces are pretty lifeless and they’re just not very detailed. However the real dagger is the frame rate. Every battle you fight in, the frame rate slows drastically to the point of it hindering game play, and that’s never a good thing. There are flashes of brilliance, however. Some of the armor looks pretty good, for example, but technically and artistically everything else is just kinda bland. It kinda reminds me of Final Fantasy XII in a way, and that’s not a complement in my book. Even the FMV sequences, a Square-Enix trademark, don’t look very good. The music fares a little better, but it’s nothing to write home about. The voice work is also a mixed bag, with some solid performances and a whole lot of overacting. The script might be the culprit in this case. Another problem is that some cut scenes are missing entire bits of dialog for some reason. I’d say that about 75% of the cut scenes so far have voice work, and those 25% that don’t really stick out.

Also the name is fucking stupid.

However, no measure of expectations will prepare you for when you pluck in your 50GB capacity Blu-Ray of Disgaea 3 into the most powerful gaming console on the planet and gaze in amazement at what you are witnessing on your 40 inch 1080p plasma screen. I’m not going to mince words here: this game looks fucking terrible. They have made no engine enhancements whatsoever while bringing this series to PS3. It’s the same sprites they’ve been using since 2003 for the PS2. This isn’t a PS2 game, it’s a PS1 game. Even the character artwork looks blown up and blocky when you get up close. The only thing different is now you can look at this shit in 16:9 display in HD. You almost wonder why they even bothered putting it on PS3. Wouldn’t they sell more on PS2? At least the actual character design is totally off the wall and awesome; it’s just too bad it can’t be better represented on screen. The sound design is…inspired. The voice work falls under the “so bad it’s good” category, with the guy playing Mao in particular having a ball hamming it up to no end with his ridiculous script filled with one liners and pop culture references. It’s full of bad accents and obviously double-casted parts. It truly is amazing how even V.O. this awesome can come from such a shoestring budget. Bravo NIS America. Bravo. The music is also low rent but catchy and enduring. I challenge you not to get the over world theme stuck in your head.

However it’s the core gameplay that really matters, right? Here’s where things get a little more interesting. My biggest complaint with Tales of Vesperia is its combat. Simply put, not a lot has changed from Tales of Symphonia, and that game came out almost four years ago. This wouldn’t be that bad if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve played Tales of Legendia, Tales of The Abyss, and Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology in those past 4 years and they all pretty much have the same combat. It’s an action RPG where you fight on a 2D plane in a 3D space running up to a bad guy, pressing B until your thumb hurts, then hitting him with a little bit of A to unleash a special attack that isn’t all that special until later in the game, and running away from a guy to give yourself a potion every once in a while. One new feature to the combat is the ability to run freely and attack in the 3D space, but this isn’t very effective due to the controls. It’s a fun combat system, but it’s shallow and has overstayed its welcome. I hope that the next game in the series tries something different in this department before it’s just a chore to play. But considering this was supposed to be the “next gen” Tales game, it’s a shame that the combat didn’t get the same TLC that the graphics did. Other than that, it’s standard stuff for an RPG: go to a town, get info, go to dungeon, kill boss, come back, continue the story, grind a little bit, head to next town, wash, rinse, repeat. There are the old Tales standbys like cooking food after battles to restore small amounts of health and those little side conversations you can have your compatriots (which are now thankfully voiced), but nothing you’ve never seen before. It’s serviceable, but not new or innovative.

I find it rather amusing (and infuriating) after all the bad about Infinite Undiscovery, I found it’s core combat well done. It works kind of like what Vesperia might play as if it was in full 3D. You can do light attacks with A and power attacks with B, but the combat just seems to flow better than in Vesperia. You can call upon your other party members to use their attacks, such as getting Aya to shoot a nearby exploding barrel to take out a bunch of enemies. You can build up a meter to use more powerful abilities, such as launching your foes into the air for a little Soul Calibur-worthy juggling act. You also have more options of attack. For example, you can sneak up on opponents to get a preemptive strike where all your attacks do critical damage and you get more EXP, but the enemy can also do the same. It just seems to have more variety in what you do in combat. In a situation early on, you have to carry someone to medical attention. Your character can’t attack, thus you have to rely on the people around you to protect you as you dodge fireballs and other enemies. In another situation, I had to frantically run up stairs to get away from an ogre who was capable of kicking my ass six ways to Sunday. It’s the more action game like mechanics that make Infinite Undiscovery fun to play. It’s just too bad the rest of the game couldn’t hold up to the great combat mechanics. Also, the game is painfully short. I went online to see how far I was, and after 9 hours of game play time, I’m about 30 minutes from the end of disc one. Apparently the game only lasts 20 hours, and the side quests are few and not worth doing, which is a bit of a shame, and it’ll make you wonder why they couldn’t fit it on one disc.

Then there’s Disgaea 3. Its combat is like its graphics: they haven’t changed a whole lot. Unlike the graphics however, this isn’t a bad thing. You’ll find few games in your lifetime with more depth then Disgaea 3. It’ll take you hundreds of hours to see everything the game has to offer, and with the ability to level your characters to 9999 (dunno why you would, but you can), you could be playing this one for a long fucking time. It’s still Disgaea, so it’s still a turned based RPG in the traditional sense. However the game really pulls off that “just one more fight to get my archer to level 56” mentality, and I’ve spent a few nights playing it not realizing that it was three in the morning, and five hours had just past. New to the formula is the Homeroom Mode. In it, you can arrange where each of your characters sit to give characters stat boosts, have your characters join clubs to get stat boosts, and go to the student council and ask for things such as better items in the student stores and cheaper medical bills. And if they don’t see your way, then you could always just bribe them. Disgaea 3 gets a pass for its game play not being very original because its execution is nearly flawless.

So you’re a JRPG fan and you’ve got $60. Where do you take your money? I would say that, for the most part, the “best” game of the three is Tales of Vesperia. It’s just the complete package and presented the best. However, because of my tastes, I’m personally having the most fun with Disgaea 3. I love it’s quirky charm, bonkers storyline, and its combat is the most engrossing of the three. Also, Disgaea 3 is only $50. Your choice really comes down to what systems you have, and which style of RPG you like most. The distant third is Infinite Undiscovery. It’s not a bad game, just not a great one. It’s too generic for its own good and it doesn’t excel in any particular category. If you’re a hardcore JRPG player, then you should still probably pick this one up as you’re probably starving for something. However, while all three of these games (well, maybe two of them) are worthy entries into the genre, none of them really blew me away like Lost Odyssey did in February, and that is still the best next gen JRPG available. But those aren’t bad picks and it’s nice to have them come out at this pace.

Now y’all got some adventuring to do.

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Tags: disgaea 3, infinate undiscovery, jrpg, tales of vesperia

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Announcements, Games, Theatrical, Videogames. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.