PixlBit

Mmmm. I can't stand Fedex or UPS. When I had my PS3 refurbished by Sony, they made me ship it Fedex. When Sony sent the refurbished PS3 back, Fedex couldn't find my house for three days, and when I called to ask them where the hell my PS3 was, they wouldn't let me come to the distribution hub to pick it up.

I always, always prefer the United States Postal Service over Fedex or UPS and will choose USPS for shipping when the seller offers that choice. The USPS is far faster, cheaper, and better than either service, and if for some reason they can't find my house I can go to the Post Office and get it. I suppose that isn't an option in Canada, though.

My favorite ending themes are those of Lunar 2, Xenogears, and The Legend of Zelda:  A Link to the Past.

What I would like for Square Enix to do is to form two FF teams. One, headed by Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura, would focus on the type of FF games that cater to fans of FFVII, FFX, and FFXIII. The other, headed by Akitoshi Kawazu and Hiroyuki Itou, with Akihiko Yoshida doing the art, would focus on more traditional fantasy settings and the Active Time Battle turn-based system. There is merit to both approaches. Remember, FFVII came into being because people were tired of medieval fantasy at the time, with that being pretty much the only trope used for RPGs for many years. The teams could alternate releases the way Infinity Ward and Treyarch do for Call of Duty. That's the lesson Square should have taken from CoD, not the game structure.

However, whichever approach they use, I want them to use the best tech available. Unlike a lot of others, I have no real burning nostaligia for 8-bit or 16-bit games, and find a lot of games made in that style nowadays look like faded imitations of the classics that were actually made during those eras. And with Tales of Vesperia, Ni no Kuni, Valkyria Chronicles, Final Fantasy XII, and Dragon Quest VIII all showing us what a talented RPG design house can do with HD technology and cel-shaded graphics being better than ever, I see no reason to revisit 16-bit graphics.

Final Fantasy: ATB is an example of a social games phenomenon in Japan called "Kompu Gacha." Japanese mobile developers are very fond of selling random DLC for people who like to collect digital goodies. It's like a monetized form of the same mentality that drives the popularity of games like Pokemon and Dragon Quest Monsters.

And Square's attitude towards mobile is sadly little different from that of a lot of other game companies. Game companies have struggled with higher production prices and diminishing returns all this generation. It's why a lot of developers in the West have gone under and why a lot of developers in Japan stayed on handhelds/mobile devices, coupled with the fact that Nintendo, Sony, and MS failed to make a compelling case for the HD generation to the Japanese gaming community. EA went whole hog into mobile when the iPad and iPhone started to take off as well. It is lazy, but that's what the stockholders demand. However, companies are starting to realize that very few games are going to see the huge success of Angry Birds - and the only real reason that game became such a success is because it's dirt cheap to buy and requires little effort from people that aren't really into video gaming anyway. But the mobile space is pretty glutted. Even in mobile land there are studios going under all the time because they can't even survive in a market characterized by cheap-to-make cash grabs.

Square has recently announced that they are planning to refocus more on the core market than on the glutted mobile market. Certainly Tomb Raider has been a bigger success than anything they've done on mobiles. I doubt Square will stop making mobile games, but it's a good sign they're realizing that the mobile gold rush has gone bust for most of the gaming world.

As for the pricing, Square's games are generally worth $10-15, with the exception of the "kompu gacha" crap in ATB that I wouldn't touch with a 39 1/2 foot pole. They're great games. The problem is that Square is trying to sell them on a platform where people are not really gamers so much as they're looking at cheap diversions to keep their hands occupied while they're on the crapper.

While I would like to see Square return to form on consoles, in the meantime, Sega and Namco have stepped up to the plate admirably and delivered the kinds of games I used to get from Square. Valkyria Chronicles and Ni no Kuni are as good as anything I've seen on PS1 or PS2. But if Square announces Final Fantasy XV and instills in me the sense of wonder I had from FFVII and FFXII, my two favorite FF games, I will be there day one.

P.S. Sorry for the comment blog. :)

Really looking forward to this game in English.

Well, the Tales games are made by the same company that makes Soulcalibur.

The only games I buy day one are niche RPGs that I know are going to be hard to find, especially if they come in nice collectors' editions. The AAA stuff I pass on until it's in the bargain bin, if I buy it at all.

You get the same issue on Square's PS1 RPGs if you play the downloadable versions. And some of those suckers are four discs long!

I stayed far, far away from SimCity. I knew that EA had ruined the game with its ham-handed DRM. I saw what happened to Spore five years ago, and Spore was nothing compared to what EA did to SC. I avoid EA pretty much on sight, TBH.

Aliens: CM - That game was another disaster in slow motion. Word has it that Gearbox took Sega's money and used it on Borderlands 1 and 2 instead. The game had a long, troubled stretch in development hell. I likewise don't think anyone expected anything from the Duke other than seeing how that train wreck turned out after over a decade.

We do deserve better from the industry. At the end of the day, these are luxury items. I don't need any of these games, but the game industry still needs our money to keep going, despite the shocking number of corporate ballwashers there are defending these practices.

Midgar is my favorite video game city of all time, and Rabanastre is a pretty good locale as well. I prefer the Twilight Princess version of Castle Town over the Ocarina version.

Since I started Ni no Kuni, I'd have to add Ding Dong Dell and Hamelin to my list of favorite gaming cities.