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Frolicking in Fantasy Realms
By: Miles Cressman

Christmas is one of the most important times of the year in many regions around the world. It heralds both a death and rebirth of Jesus Christ, a prominent figure in a few religions, but also signals the fact that the end of the year is fast approaching. 2007 proved to be a monumental year for videogames, with simultaneous chart-topping and record-shattering releases. From God of War II to Halo 3, videogames have proven that they are not only powerhouses in the realm of sales but also powerhouses in the media. People have found each other, even married over Halo 3 online, and other games have been outright banned for offensive content (lesbianism in Mass Effect, gratuitous violence and gore in Manhunt 2). For the role-playing fan in 2007, you also have a wide array of wonderful titles to choose from over the course of the year that you may have overlooked or waited ‘till Christmas to receive as a present. I am here to guide the wary gamer through a list of what RPGs I recommend and others that deserve the bargain bin.

I will kick off this list with handheld RPGs, games you can enjoy on the go or positively hate slogging through. The venerable Tales of… series has enjoyed a lot of success over the years, and just recently has moved onto the realm of portable gaming. In the US, we received Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology for the PSP, a crossover title that plays similarly to an MMO but features characters from numerous Tales titles. Once again, the World Tree is under some sort of danger, and uses the last of its power to create you, the player, who will then seek out the devourer who is eating all of the Mana in the world. Much of the game revolves around fetch quests for guilds, and in this respect it loses a lot of its staying power. The feature of being able to crossover Tales characters with each other is nice in the end, but I could only recommend this title to hardcore fans of the series.

A bevy of strategy RPGs landed on handhelds as well. Jeanne D’Arc by respected developer Level-5 for the PSP blends historical events with fantastical elements to create a very well-done RPG. As you can expect from a Level-5 title, gorgeous visuals and solid gameplay abound. Definitely worth a look. Luminous Arc, for the DS and developed by Marvelous Entertainment is a by-the-books sRPG, that, from what I have heard, is extremely frustrating. Take a look at the review on our site if you are curious. Its brethren, Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth Remix, published by Atlus, is also very difficult. If you are a diehard sRPG buff, try these games out… to everyone else, the difficulty may prove to drive you away very fast. As part of a Final Fantasy XII compilation, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is more or less a sequel to the hit PS2 title. It features a somewhat weak story but has decent strategy action. I would also hit up the review on our site for more details on this title.

Dungeon-crawling RPGs, while almost out-of-date, are still making their way onto handhelds. Etrian Odyssey, a difficult adventure title from Atlus, breathed a bit of new life into the stale genre. You pick classes for your party and are sent into a thirty-floor dungeon. These are filled with FOEs, who are essentially extremely difficult enemies that either can kill you outright or are just plain hard. Every class has some use, but like many RPGs of this type, the beginning is definitely boot camp. I recommend this title for the hardcore. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker features SMT-ish gameplay in that you control the main hero, along with three monsters in your party. The game plays out like other DQ games, with turn-based combat. This time, however, monsters can be seen on the world map. I would recommend this title if it did not have such intense grinding. For me, it is a mixed bag. Worth a try if you are into level-grinding, I guess.

Taking a look at consoles, there were somewhat fewer releases in general but many absolute gems, and all of them mostly on the PS2. January brought us Rogue Galaxy, a Level-5 title with the absolute best cel-shaded graphics on the system. The game is built similarly to FFXII, where the party consists of three characters who explore large planets with battles on the field. Rogue Galaxy has “random” battles in that enemies spawn in certain areas and will respawn later in time. You play as Jaster Rogue, a boy who dreams of being a space pirate, and is then put through a series of unfortunate events that leads him onto a pirate ship. From there, he meets a strange assortment of characters from human to non-human that all come from differing planets. You will explore every planet in the solar system, as well as solve the conflicts that occur there. It is definitely a fun title, but may get repetitive very fast. Amazing visuals, a solid soundtrack, but repetitive gameplay. If you love Level-5, this game is one you should pick up.

Persona 3 from Atlus definitely turned some heads. With its unique art style, a controversial method of summoning Personae (shooting yourself in the head with a pistol-like device), a strange plot and even stranger soundtrack (Japanese rap!), you have a title that is definitely love-or-hate. I can absolutely recommend this title for any players that have been playing Shin Megami Tensei games and spinoffs. While the game features dated visuals and strange music, underneath it all are astounding production values and absolutely fantastic menus (lots of colors, style, pizzazz – amazing). You essentially traverse a dungeon called Tartarus which has randomized floors. Enemies can be seen onscreen, and battles take place in turn-based style. If you exploit weaknesses, you get another turn but unlike other SMT titles this extra turn is given to the party member that exploited the weakness. It is a dungeon crawler through and through. Outside of dungeon crawling, you have to build relationships with people around the city that, in turn, are related to Arcana that all of the Persona fall under. As you build relationships, the level of that Arcana grows and the more EXP a new Persona will inherit through fusion. It’s a strange title but definitely my pick for best RPG of the year. I recommend it to all RPG players.

Wild ARMs 5, the latest installment in the long-running series, finally shows an end of a dying franchise. While it has great production values, and amazing music, followed by innovative gameplay… it’s the plot that definitely sinks the ship. What follows is one of the most cliché storylines you have ever experience in an RPG. The only true exception to this is the character Kartikeya, who is a truly insane character reminiscent of Albedo from the Xenosaga series. I don’t know what happened to Media Vision or why they cannot make any interesting storylines anymore, but I don’t even know what happened after Wild ARMs 3. It’s like the writers just gave up on trying to do anything new or interesting. For this reason, I cannot recommend this title. I do recommend buying the soundtrack, though.

Gust has made a killing off of quirky, lighthearted RPGs this year. Both releases, Ar Tonelico and Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm, are relaxing titles that appeal more to casual gamers. Ar Tonelico is not a very serious title, and requires very little grinding on the part of the player. The key characters in the game are Reyvateils, musical maidens who sing songs of either destruction or healing. These characters can sit and power up their songs to insane amounts (something like 220,000% or more, I don’t even know) but are fragile and require strong defensive characters in the front to stay alive. Much of the game has sexual innuendo in the form of worlds inside of the Reyvateils that allow the main character to form strong relationships and increase the strength of their Songs. It is a very relaxing title that is worth a look. Atelier Iris 3 is more of a grindfest with the standard alchemy system present in the previous titles in the series. It features a lot of questing and therefore I can only recommend it to fans of the series.

For the first time in a long time, the Xbox 360 is getting some decent role-playing games. Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon, from Tri-Crescendo and Mistwalker respectively, are the first good jRPG contributions to the system. ES has real-time gameplay with luscious cel-shaded visuals. A lot of the gameplay is influenced by musical elements along with names of various characters being related to music. The plot centers around a fictional dream that Chopin could have had while lying on his deathbed. Essentially he dreams of a fantasy land where people who have incurable diseases (such as his own tuberculosis) have great magical powers. I haven’t played this title yet, but from first glance the cutesy art design has already turned me off. I’m always interested in real-time RPGs, but for some reason I don’t think I would get into this one as much as others. Try it if you like this sort of game, I suppose.

Mistwalker, a company with many big names behind it, showed off its first console game with Blue Dragon. It is an extremely traditional, old-school turn-based RPG with somewhat new features. Reminiscent of the 2001 RPG Okage: Shadow King, the characters in the game have Shadows that allow them to have much greater strength and use magic. The Shadows are also like a class system, where you can decide what type of class you want certain characters to be. If you love very traditional RPGs that do not stray too far from the formula, pick this title up. Beware of the boss battle music, though.

I will now touch upon the last console RPG of the year, Mass Effect. Developed by the juggernauts of amazing storytelling at Bioware, this game does not disappoint. With multiple branching paths of conversation with absolutely everyone that changes the storyline in multitudes of ways, it is definitely a story that you shape and mold. Very few games stray from the Campbellian structure of a story, and this title gives you the freedom to change the course of the future. Will you be a hero, or will you side with the darkness? It’s all up to you. The gameplay is all action-oriented, but is frequently marred by framerate issues and pop-in. These, of course, do not shatter what is otherwise a solid RPG for the 360. Bioware has yet to disappoint, and this title shows a natural evolution of the freedom they want to bestow upon RPG players.

I did not play many RPGs for the PC this year, but the most noteworthy one by far is The Witcher, released by Atari. The game plays out like standard point-and-click fare but includes such neat features as alchemy for potion brewing, and a rhythm-based fighting system that requires focus and precision to keep combo chains going. The story is based off of a Polish series of novels following Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher (fancy name for monster-slayer) who does not remember his past and has to travel through cities helping people out to uncover more of his past. Like Mass Effect, the game offers both good and evil ways of talking to people. In the end, you’ll want to help them out for EXP sake, but more often than not the people you help out are corrupt and deserve nothing short of death. There are plenty of gratuitous sex scenes in the game, as well. You can sleep with almost every female NPC in the game. During the sex scenes, an erotic card drawing depicting that particular NPC will appear. Let’s just say the game deserves its M-rating well. I definitely recommend it to those who enjoy more traditional PC RPGs. It has solid graphics, music, and a decent gameplay system that is somewhat innovative. Another title to check out.

I hope this editorial helps out a few gamers on what games they should pick up during their holiday season, even if it will come at a time when everyone is rushing out to get gifts. I may have missed a few RPGs here and there, but for the most part I think this list is pretty damn exhaustive. Also, gamers, be wary of the ESRB rating system. A few of the RPGs I have listed here are M-rated and should only be played by adults.

Enjoy the holidays and Happy New Year to everyone! -- Miles Cressman