Not Impressed

by Darius Kazemi on September 26, 2006

in Uncategorized

Penny Arcades seems to be impressed with a White Knight Story trailer. I watched it, and I have no idea how Tycho, who’s a really smart guy, could draw any reasonable conclusions about the game or even have any expectations whatsoever. I mean, I don’t love most JRPGs, so I’m not the target market. And yes, the game is really pretty. But to me, it looks like exactly what I expect from a probably-doctored trailer for a random PS3 JRPG. Lots of cut scenes, inscrutable combat, and transforming mech/monster/demons.

{ 5 comments }

Anonymous September 26, 2006 at 7:50 pm

Ha! I thought something similar: “Wow, it looks like a crappy anime-inspired RPG, but prettier!”

Ian Schreiber September 27, 2006 at 5:36 pm

I agree with your assessment (and I *like* JRPGs), but why are you surprised?

I mean, didn’t we go through this exact same thing with the PS2, with its “emotion engine” and all the pretty screenshots? Remember the obviously-rendered cutscenes from FF7 and FF8 that were passed off as gameplay? And the press fell for it then, and they’re falling for it now.

Maybe because they’re hoping that if the hype for the PS3 follows the same pattern of the PS2, then the quality of games will also follow, even if the two aren’t directly related.

Anonymous September 27, 2006 at 5:47 pm

I’m glad I’m not alone on this. It reminds me of Ultraman with swords.

andrew khosravian September 28, 2006 at 9:29 am

I was just telling someone earlier today how annoying it was that I have seen a number of people bandwagoning on it. It is especially disappointing because his PA post gives no indication of anything specific he liked about the trailer other than to say “Compare that to the White Knight clip, which is a fairly comprehensive tour of my private desires.”

Darren Torpey September 28, 2006 at 1:04 pm

I couldn’t agree with you more. I don’t care if it’s half-fake or not, it didn’t look impressive at all. The interface seemed okay, but the transitions were terrible. If that’s what the game’s like I feel like the Japanese are just mocking how much their games’ players are used to just taking whatever’s thrown at them.

Looks like Shadow of the Colossus will still for some time stand as leader amongst games that hint at what I’ll consider to be the grand vision for next-gen games in terms of atmospheric effect of an outdoor world.

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