I haven’t really seen a lot of desktop wallpaper around for Final Fantasy XIV yet, and that’s a shame because there’s a piece of large, gorgeous concept art out there that is just ripe for the picking.  That being said, I took that piece of art and broke it down into three separate wallpaper images, each including the FFXIV logo.  I’m not a genius with Photoshop, so they’re very simple.  I’m sure other people can do better.  But I like them…I’ve always been one for simplicity.

Feel free to use them on your desktop if you’d like.  There’s three in a standard resolution (1280×1024) and three in a middle-of-the-road widescreen resolution (1440×900).  Enjoy!

1440×900 (Widescreen)

1280×1024 (Standard)

I’ve always loved Atlus, their localization team has always been great. Nothing impresses that more into my mind than Crimson Gem Saga. At its heart, it’s a very traditional JRPG and the sequel to the game Astonishia Story. (Basically, its Astonishia Story 2, but with a new title both in Japan and North America.) Although it’s a sequel, you don’t need to have played the original title to figure out what’s going on – its laid out very clearly in the opening acts of the game.

You play as Killian von Rochoff, who, at the beginning of the story, graduates from Green Hill Academy in the hopes of becoming a chevalier. His dreams do end up becoming a reality, although not in the way he hoped. He’s swept into the secret search for the Wicked Stone, formerly known as the Crimson Gem. Along the way, of course, you pick up various party members with other skills to round out your band of warriors. I can’t say the story and characters aren’t cliché, but the dialog is so amazing you won’t even care. Atlus did an excellent job of localizing this title. That’s all I can really say. They did an awesome, awesome job. Many of the little quips the characters make made me laugh out loud.

The voice acting isn’t top notch, but its not horrible, either. The voices fit the characters pretty well, but still fall prey to being overly dramatic and sometimes tiresome when the same phrase is repeated over and over again in battle. The music fits the mood that the characters find themselves in, as well, but there’s nothing that really stands out. Overall, the audio is well done, but not amazing.

The visuals are stunning on that little PSP screen and the character sprites are well animated and enjoyable to watch. Keep an eye on Spinel on the battle screen right after a fight, as they’re doing their little victory dance – perhaps her sprite is a bit too animated, if you know what I mean.

For a battle system, you have typical turn-based fare, with a couple improvements to liven things up a bit. This isn’t a new mechanic, by any means, but requiring you to “tag” the enemies (which are seen on screen, no random encounters here) so you at least start on equal footing will keep you on your toes. If you manage to sneak up on an enemy, your party gains a fairly sizable advantage in battle. If the enemy sees you first, you have a few seconds to reach it, but if you wait too long, it will come after you with a vengeance and gain an advantage for itself.

Combos with the different characters during battle also spice things up, the only downside is that both the characters have to learn the combo skill before you can use this. This gets me in to a lukewarm part of the game mechanics – the skill system. As you battle, you gain skill points, and these are put into a pool that any of your party members can draw from. Each character has their own skill tree that is geared toward the type of attacks they’re designed to use – magic, physical assault, healing, a combination, etc. The problem isn’t that set up, but it’s the fact that to just uncover a skill and see what it is it costs you skill points. Then, you have to spend even more points to actually learn the skill. This strikes me as overly problematic because it will (at least for me) lead to mandatory grinding in mid- to late-game.

It would have alleviated the problem somewhat if each character had their own pool of skill points or, better yet, just have the entire skill tree exposed from the start of the game so you can at least plan in what order you wish to learn the abilities. This is really my only major gripe with the game. And, truth be told, if you enjoy a major grind-fest, it might not bother you so much.

One other small issue I have to comment on is the lack of being able to move my character at a 45 degree angle on the field screen. The movement always seems slightly off. Its hard to describe, really. Its also not that big of an issue, but probably the one thing that always got me saying, “What is up with these controls?!” every time I picked up the game to play.

Crimson Gem Saga is exquisite in so many ways that even the one major issue I have with the game pales in comparison to how great the title is overall. Its definitely one of the best RPGs for the PSP. It might be too old-school or grindy for some people, but if you enjoy those types of games, you can’t miss this title.

Score: 8.5 (out of 10)

The word “niche”, used as an adjective, conveys the idea of having specific appeal, only certain people are going to like things that are a “niche” product or service. This can be a large group of people or a small group of people, but usually when referring to niche gaming, you think about quirky titles out of countries like Japan and Korea.

These titles usually – but not always – have an anime- or manga-inspired art style and over-the-top dialog that is unlikely to be surpassed by anything else. Typically you think of some type of RPG when considering niche gaming. These days it seems like the only RPG franchise out of Japan I wouldn’t consider niche is Final Fantasy, and even at that, a lot less people are into Japanese RPGs than there used to be 10 to 15 years ago. It seems the Western RPG has taken over with blockbuster titles like the Elder Scrolls franchise, Mass Effect and Fable, just to name a few.

Part of the reason niche games only do well in their own little world is, quite possibly, the fact that they aren’t promoted well enough. No one knows about them, besides gamers who follow them. I dread to see how many gamers have never played a Persona title or experienced the connection between Ico and Yorda. You never know how much more popular those critically acclaimed games would be if a wider audience knew about them. That’s the reason you’ll likely see quite a few reviews, previews and just general posts about niche RPGs on my site – I feel if word can get out about some of them (especially the better ones), everyone would be all the better for it. (Although, that doesn’t mean I won’t be talking about and reviewing mainstream titles when I get the urge.)

Its coming, that day where all our games will be downloaded straight to our hardware without the hassle of going out to a brick and mortar store to buy the game and then finding a space to store it on a shelf somewhere. The PlayStation Network, Xbox Live and Wii Ware services are all in full swing with new download-only titles coming out every week. The PSP has its own PSN store and, soon, will have an iteration of its hardware that has no physical media drive – everything you play on it must be downloaded.

The day I spoke of is likely many years off yet – a day when all games will be downloaded. The reason for this is two-fold. First, these titles are, at their largest on BluRay discs, nearly 50 gigabytes of data. Imagine trying to download MGS4onto your PS3 through a typical residential high-speed Internet connection. Then, imagine poking your eyes out with a screwdriver. Case in point. Games are simply too large to make a service like this feasible. This is why game downloads are limited mostly to demos, games designed for digital distribution only or “classic” titles put up to make more money.

There is a second reason and, to be honest, this reason might well still be a roadblock long after the previous reason actually becomes a moot point. Certain brick and mortar retailers have a lot of clout in the gaming industry – GameStop and Best Buy in particular (in the U.S., at least). Since the PSP Go was announced, there’s already been rumblings from some retailers about disliking the direction this hardware is going, perhaps even threatening to not carry the hardware at all.

So, publishers and developers have a fine line to walk, especially now. Which games to they release as a physical product? Which ones to they distribute digitally? Do they sell the game in both formats? Which way is more profitable? Remember, it all comes down to the almighty dollar (or euro or yen or whatever).

When it comes to niche titles – most notably RPGs – it seems that a digital distribution method would be most effect and most profitable. This is what I see happening to a lot of titles from publishers like Atlus, NIS and XSEED- a game is released that next to no one knows about, it has a limited distribution or publication period. Retailers might stock a few copies over their pre-orders, but when all those are gone in a week or two, you never see another one on the shelf. Used copies end up selling for more than the original new copy because the game is so hard to find and a lot of people who might want to play it never get the chance.

Instead, imagine a digital distribution method for these games. They’re put up on the PSN or XBLA, displayed prominently on the front page for a few weeks and are there forever for anyone who wants to purchase and download it. No pouring through used games at GameStop, or paying through the nose on eBay for a copy. I see niche games released in this manner to gain more popularity and, ultimately, be more profitable than the way in which they’re released now – on physical media. Of course, you can still have your limited edition physical copies, and when they’re gone, they’re gone. But the game itself would still be available any time for download.

Why not all games, you ask?  Big-budget, triple-A titles usually have tons and tons of promotion and shelf space to make themselves known.  Niche titles do not.  They would be infinitely more exposed on the front page of a download service like PSN.  Also, niche titles tend to be smaller in file size, like PSP, DS or PS2 games…although we are seeing more PS3 and 360 titles that would match the criteria of being marketed toward a niche crowd.

Perhaps then great games like Crimson Gem Saga (which I had a hard time finding just a week after release), Jeanne d’Arc (which actually is available to download on the PSN), Ar Tonelico and Disgaea might end up in more gamers’ libraries. Whatever else the PSP Go is – overpriced, a rip-off, whatever you want to call it – it stands to be a good medium for these niche developers to give their games more visibility and open gamers who may not have gotten the chance to try some of these great games to a whole new world of gaming.

There will undoubtedly always be a need for brick and mortar stores to provide products of the gaming industry to consumers, but that doesn’t mean they can’t work together with a digital distribution method – even more so than they are now – to save these niche titles from being lost to gaming history.

I’m always trying game demos, although I haven’t had the chance to try many this week.  Let’s talk about the two I did try, however.

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite: The Japanese, with their small-ish hands, probably have no problem with the horribly awkward camera controls in this title.  A friend of mine wanted me to try the demo and buy the game, since it would be something fun to play together and I’m the only other person he knows with a PSP…but there’s no way on Earth I’m going to play this game with that mess of camera control.  There’s also no way to remap the buttons, which makes things even worse.

The graphics and general game play are what originally got me thinking this might be something I’d like to try, but not at the expense of my sanity.

Phantasy Star Portable: Like Monster Hunter, I’ve never played any Phantasy Star games, either.  As soon as I booted up the demo, I was greeted with a ton of customization options in creating my anime-inspired character and I was thinking, “Hmmm…this will be fun!”  It was, until I actually got control of my character.  Then I was presented  with the same horrible camera controls I found in Monster Hunter.  Seriously?!

The saving grace was that, in Phantasy Star Portable, the camera actually did a better job following your character and rotating so you could keep track of what was going on.  You also had a first-person mode to try out, as well.

Both demos were rather disappointing, but I now feel the need to rent both these games and review them.  Out of both titles, the one I’d be most likely to enjoy is Phantasy Star Portable – sci-fi setting, the camera isn’t near as wonky and the customization is great.  (Yes, there is customization in MHFU, but they didn’t show me that in the demo!  Plus, I enjoy the anime style visuals in PS better than the realistic style of MH.)

Let’s speculate for a moment or two. Collector’s editions, pre-order bonuses and downloadable content for games seem to be par for the course these days. Assuming the eagerly awaited Final Fantasy XIII has all of the above, what would I want them to be? Now, don’t get all uppity, this is all pure speculation and desire on my part, there haven’t even been rumors about these things yet. As a Final Fantasy fan and gamer, here’s some things that might be nice (and a few things from which they should stay away).

In a Collector’s Edition or as pre-order bonuses I would like:

• I love art books. Give us one. You have no choice, Squeenix. Resistance is futile.
• In-game items are awesome – new character outfits, special weapons, a new area to explore (similar to the Assassin’s Creed 2 pre-order bonus). This isn’t a multi-player game, so balance isn’t much of an issue. Go crazy.
• A spiffy metal case like the FFXII CE had. I still have that game in that case. I love it.
• A soundtrack CD. Give us one of these, too. I know, I’m a demanding fanboy, I admit.
• A behind-the-scenes DVD with a lot of good content would be nice, too (check the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King WoWexpansion CE’s for good examples).

I tend to like to not like most physical items that are given with Collector’s Editions – key chains, bookends, necklaces, duffel bags, etc. They don’t get used (by me, anyway) and are usually cheaply made. If it’s a very well made item, then maybe, otherwise, forget it. What I do like as physical items are art books, soundtrack CDs and behind-the-scenes DVDs. Throw those in whenever and wherever you can.

What about downloadable content? For some reason, I seriously doubt this game will have any, but it is the first major Final Fantasy title of the DLC generation, so who knows. I could be surprised. If there was though, what would I want?

• New areas to explore with deep, involving side-quests.
• New outfits to play dress-up with (I swear I should have been born in Japan).
• Uber-powerful bosses in the world (its likely these will come on the disc, but you can never have too many optional challenges to overcome).
• A Japanese language track (for the 360 version, which won’t have it on the discs). This should be free.

What I don’t want to see in any way, shape or form as DLC:

• Purchasable levels or experience (*cough* Tales of Vesparia).
• Items that you will get anyway if you play the game the way its supposed to be played.
• Stuff that’s already on the disc.
• Anything resembling a multi-player mode.
• Multiple difficulty levels (if its already in the game, fine, but don’t make us pay for it).

There you have it, all my desires for FFXIIIgoodies and DLC laid out on the table. Will we see any of it? I doubt it. But there’s nothing wrong with dreaming.  We’ll see how wrong I am when (if?) these things are actually announced.

The sights and sounds of the Dragon Quest franchise are near and dear to my heart. The very first title with that name (or Dragon Warriorin North America) was the game that introduced me to RPGs and was game that jump-started my love of the genre. “A Slime approaches!” is all I think about when I see slime-type enemies in these newer titles.

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride was never released outside Japan until this DS remake, so having not seen any of the original game, its hard to make comparisons about anything, really. A few things were added and, obviously, the graphics were improved. Touch-screen controls were added, but they aren’t necessary by any means. In fact, while playing games like this (Chrono Trigger DS and Final Fantasy IV DS are two other examples), I would much rather use the buttons than the stylus any day of the week.

The story is rather unique for a standard JRPG. As the journey begins, you are a young boy, accompanying your father on a few errands here and there. Eventually, time passes and you grow up into a strong young man with greater responsibility. The option to marry the girl of your dreams presents itself about half way through the game. You’re allowed to marry one of three girls – each has their own strengths and weaknesses. That girl will travel with you for the rest of the game, so base your decision on more than the color of their hair. You have other faithful companions that stick with you through thick and thin, as well.

The graphics were updated to look pretty spiffy, most notably the terrain, towns and dungeons. The lighting effects in various areas are rather impressive for the DS. I really can’t say much about the character sprites. Some of the characters always look either angry or like some sort of alien, whichever you prefer. Although, the anime-style character portraits are nice, and should be a style familiar to fans of the DQ franchise.

What I enjoy most about this title is the story and the straight-forward battle system. There are no frills, no skills learned from equipment, no special combo attacks with various party members, nothing. Its simply old-school, turn-based RPG goodness. The variety comes from the choices you can make as to how your party is set up. This comes in two ways: 1) I already mentioned you get to choose a female character for your mute main character to marry, and each of the three girls available has different strengths and weaknesses, but also 2) you can get monsters to join your little band of travelers and build your party with the strengths and weaknesses you want. If you only have two set party members and want a melee-strong party, fill it with two monsters you acquired who focus strongly on melee attacks, if you want a magic-heavy party, do the same with monsters that are casters, if you want some buff/debuffers, do that. The choices are literally endless. Throughout the early part of the game, your main character is likely the main healer and damage dealer, but the entire party together, assuming you start adding monsters to it, can handle just about anything, and then some.

However, this game isn’t all roses, there’s quite a few thorns, most of which are likely holdovers from the original release, and can be blamed on its age. Way too often its way too difficult to figure out where to go next. You’ll finish one “quest”, one part of the story, you end up in the town where it all started and…well, you just have to figure out where to go next. You either have to talk to every person in town (sometimes multiple times) or explore around the world map until you find someplace that might be your next destination. If this was in a new game, I would knock it down a notch, but that’s just the way RPGs were back when this game was originally developed. Its still incredibly frustrating.

Also, something about the text bothers me. There’s way too much of it. When I want to save the game, I don’t want the guy at the church to go through his whole schpeel. Every. Single. Time. When a major event happens to my party, like a main character joins or leaves, the dialog stays on the screen for what seems like an eternity, while music plays in the background. No, hitting the “A” button won’t close the dialog box. This happens often, as well. Really, the only part of the game that should have anywhere resembling a novel’s worth of dialog is actual story segments. In that case, it wouldn’t be a problem. But, if I want to save, just let me save, without all the extra time spent scrolling through dialog boxes.

I also would have liked to see maps of interior locations, dungeons mostly, and a better, clearer world map. As it stands right now, its hard to tell exactly where you’re going or plot a direction to go on the pixelated world map. I dislike the requirement to only full-save the game at a church. You can quick-save anywhere on the world map, but to completely save your game in the regular manner, you must be at a church.

Overall, I quite enjoy Dragon Quest V, and will likely continue playing it until completion. The thing that irks me, though, is that while the developers are remaking the title, a lot of these little annoyances should have been taken care of. After all, they went through the trouble of adding touch-screen support, and even a new female character and all the dialog that goes with it, just for this remake. It would have been nice if they made the game a little less rough around the edges while they were at it. If you’re into very traditional JRPGs, this is a goldmine of quirky fun and turn-based adventure definitely not to be missed by fans of the genre.

Score: 8 (out of 10)

The scene was tense. You and your party had just fought through to the center of the Forgotten City for a two-fold purpose. Aerith, a mysterious flower girl from the slums of Midgar, whom you had befriended, has run off into the Ancient ruins for some unknown reason. You must find her. On top of that, your arch-nemesis, Sephiroth, must be halted in his attempt to collect a Black Materia. Finally, you reach your destination and your heart leaps with joy when you find Aerith praying at an alter. She looks up at you and smiles, her face innocent and pure, like an angel guiding and protecting your ragtag band on their important mission.

Suddenly, a rush of wind sweeps over you and your eyes flinch for a moment. When you’re able to take in the situation, you see Sephiroth swoop down and impale Aerith through the torso before you can even react. You don’t know what to do or think. You sit in disbelief, speechless at the events that have just transpired.

That was one of the first scenes in a video game that actually pulled at my heart strings – realizing that Aerith (then known as Aeris in the original North American version of Final Fantasy VII) had been killed right in front of me. You had spent perhaps hours and hours leveling her up, honing her skills and abilities to become the perfect compliment to your party. Now, through a twist of evil genius, the Final Fantasy gods had taken her away from you. How did you feel?

For many, this was the first time a game made them cry. Others, perhaps, felt anger, betrayal, or, dare I say it, satisfaction. Her death in Final Fantasy VII had impact and meaning both in that game world, and in the gaming community worldwide. Yet, by today’s technical standards, that game was hardly the graphical masterpiece it was at the time of release over a decade ago. Are games today capable of conveying better emotion – with realistic character models and facial features – or is that iconic scene, and those like it, more than the sum of their parts? Are there more things at work here than just representing character emotion through the graphical components of a game?

Indeed, there are. I’ll state my opinion right here – realistic graphics do not necessarily, in and of themselves, illicit raw emotion in the player. They could, yes. In fact, there’s no reason they shouldn’t. But gamers feeling emotion came long before hyper-realistic graphic engines were mainstream, as in the case of Final Fantasy VII. Even farther back than that – early console role playing games such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and The Legend of Zelda attempted to bring players face-to-face with their softer side. Back then, they didn’t have the awesome graphic capabilities we have now. No, instead of visual stimuli alone, they used a combination of techniques to bring out that emotion.

I was in GameStop the other day browsing, and during the short time I was in there, the employees were asked about three different games by three different customers. Every single question revolved around the graphics of these games. “How are the graphics?” “Is the game realistic?” In fact, this is an unfortunate trend I overhear quite often wherever I come into contact with other members of the gaming community. It seems that, to the typical gamer, graphics trump all. They want bigger and better graphics each new game, each new gaming system. This isn’t necessarily bad, but there are a lot more aspects that go into producing a great game than graphics alone. In fact, I’d go out on a limb and say that every successful or critically acclaimed game would not be that way if it weren’t for a combination of development techniques, not just the visuals.

No, it’s a combination of music, sound effects, voice inflections (in more recent times), lighting, mood, character animations and, yes, overall graphics, that spark emotions in the players and that is why games that didn’t have the best visuals based on today’s standards have stuck in our hearts all these years because of the strong emotional impact they had on us. There have been very few titles since Final Fantasy VII that have hit those notes with me, and none of them were AAA mainstream, sell-a-million-copies-in-the-first-week games.

I’d like to see more emphasis placed on mood and story in non-RPG titles. First-person shooters have the nasty habit of being hyper-realistic, yet only bringing out the emotion of “nerd rage” as the players litter each other with virtual bullets and trash-talk over Xbox Live. Many of the high-selling games as of late seem to lack story and, as a result, any emotional connection with the player. The visual impact of Gears of War 2 is amazing, yet the story was severely lacking in many gamers’ opinions. Too much focus is given to visuals and not enough to the other aspects of the game – arguably the more important aspects.

Titles in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras seemed to be able to make us feel with just little character sprites and amazing soundtracks. I suppose this could stem from the fact that we didn’t expect it out of those sprites – we didn’t expect them to be realistic. When they ended up impacting us in such a way, it really stuck in our minds. Today, we have excellent realism, so you would expect a greater sense of emotion being transferred between the characters in the game and the players, yet you don’t. Perhaps now we expect it and are let down far too often, so it doesn’t even bother us anymore.

The conclusion of the matter is this: There is no reason why today’s graphically intense titles can’t convey a strong emotion to the player, much like gamers around the world experienced with Aerith’s death. On the other hand, modern technology gets overrated quite often. Its not needed in the least to be able to make the player feel more than the excitement of killing someone else’s virtual avatar. Those who think it is are just fooling themselves.

The theme problems have been rectified…by a much nicer and simpler theme – one I can actually understand!

So, here’s what I’ve got coming up:

• Review of Crimson Gem Saga (still want to play a bit more first – loving the game though).
• Review of Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (played about 12 hours so far and loving it).
• Review of 1 vs. 100 (played for the first time over the weekend and enjoyed it).
• A couple pieces delving into certain aspects of game design and its effects on the player.
• A column with my brother discussing different viewpoints of various gaming topics.
• My thoughts on how the various aspects of WoW patch 3.2 will affect the casual player (like me!).

As new games come out, of course, there will be more reviews.  I’m rather interested in comparing/contrasting Infamous and Prototype.  Due to my time constraints, I can’t review every game that comes along, but I’ll pick and choose the ones I probably enjoy the most.

Now, off to work on another post and play some FFVII!

I screwed something up with my template and had to reset it.  Its too late tonight to try to figure everything out, so I’ll deal with it tomorrow after work.

*Wishes he knew someone who knew something about these things*