Zero Punctuation: The World Ends With You

[Jack Spencer Jr]

A wonderful review as always.

I also have no love for JRPGs. Just this morning I tried playing Arc the Lad: End of Darkness. I did not play long enough to warrant posting in the User Reviews forum (like I played any game I've reviewed there long enough), nor to start a general ***** thread about JRPGs, so I'm posting this here where it can get safely lost in the shuffle.

But, the first, what seemed like an hour, I was just watching inane dialog play out. It was particularly annoying in this game as it lacked voice actors, so you have to read everything. The most annoying thing about these dialogs in my opinion are that you have to push a button to get the next block of text. I've hated this since the NES days. It makes things go really, really slow.Fortunately, you can skip most of that shit by just hitting the button, but I'll bet that eventually an important bit of information will get accidentally skipped that way.

Anyhoo, nine hours later, I finally got more interaction than just hitting a button to get the next line of dialog. And it was, wait for it... wait for it... running around the village and, that's right, talking to people. This has got to be my least favorite part of JRPGs. It's almost as tedious as running around a cocktail party talking to real people. And as per usual, you have to talk to one guy to unlock the ability to talk to some other guy, and thus be allowed to advance the plot.

So, basically It's like Yahtzee had reviewed this game, too. It also lacks the turn-based combat and all of that, but it sure as hell wasn't interesting enough to make me keep playing. Even naming the protagonist "Fuqtard" provided minimal enjoyment to the dreary proceedings

 

[Parallel Pain]

1. Fundamentally Unbalanced Combat

2. Grinding.

3. Saving the World.

They may tell the biggest story (over and over and over again), but I definitely don't think that JRPGs have any ground to assert themselves as "most artistic genre."

Answering very late

You know I did say the "GOOD" ones. I did say the bad ones are just Hollywood flicks, which you have proven.

It's art as in a piece of literature, just like how films are art as a piece of drama, but only the good ones.

The original XianJian doesn't have those problems you mentioned (ok maybe a bit saving the world, you save a tribe, not the world), though it isn't JRPG more ERPG as it's Taiwanese and not Japanese.

 

[btingu]

why are you people force feed me "drawn by pain". I understand the commercial, but wtf are you trying to do here? Trying to prove that you have more than on talented bloke on this site? I liked "Drawn by pain" when I first saw it browsing the site, but I don't like force feed.

 

[tutethedude]

Yahtzee rocks!!!

 

[QueerBiNatureNYC]

HOLY $HIT! YOU'RE YOUNGER THAN ME?!

 

[jaxxduece]

It is precisely how I feel about JRPGs, but still attempt to play them anyways.

 

[danaird]

This game is a new genre in itself. You have the 'button mashers', now you have the 'stylus scribblers'

 

[WizardsQuest]

I made this account to point something out. and I'll get to it in a minute becasue I have to say something else first. Does anyone besides me notice that if you read these posts impartually you are either just mimicing Mr. Croshaw's arguements and contributing little more than a bit of quantification (probably misspelled) (ditto) or defense of a game that as Mr. Croshaw has said before NEEDS NO DEFENSE. let the dog lie. please for the sake of the World collective IQ, I been watching the damned thing drop for years. anyway, origional argument. JRPGs, love them, or hate them are just video games. Play the ones you like, don't the ones you don't.... and also, this is a note just to our Humble Host but some of these people like you a bit much reading some of the posts through time. Maybe I'm hallucinating, wouldn't be the first time. okay, I'm done now. let the hate commense. probably going to shut up from here.

 

[maximara]

Your comment about games not letting you do the obvious reminded me of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective game where to complete the case to where you could go to the judge you had to go to a place where you really didn't need to go to solve the bloody thing.

That another one of the cases involved trip through developer's weird little world view instead of anything even remotely resembling reality (unless reality is Holmes and Watson both using Holmes's old reliable 7% solution because that is about the only way the solution made any degree of sense). As a result you go over London and then have to resort to using the Baker Street Irregulars (something you didn't have to do in any other case) going to the same locations you just personally visited before the judge finally hears your case.

Thanks for the review.

 

[Sylocat]

*sigh* can we have a rule that ZP comment threads are locked after the first month or so?

 

[Leon K. Fox]

Dude, JRPG's aren't THAT bad, yeesh...

 

[Nychii]

I don't see a reason to lock the threads. People might still have interesting things to say about older reviews. I'm still referring him to friends and customers that come into the game store I work at.

Well, in regards to JRPGs, I can't say I haven't enjoyed them for what they're worth. I completely understand the "watching and not doing" aspect of it and I do admit that it can get frustrating. But for some reason, I like the level grinding the characters (this one just doesn't have level but has a nice difficulty customization), collecting items, doing side quests, and finding more pieces of the story after the game is over. And although the computer does take over the top screen for this game in particular, it's definitely a lot more satisfying when I'm able to pull off some long chain of stacked double attacks myself.

I've beaten this game, as in played to the end, and was pretty happy to find that I could skip to any chapter I want to and I could use any of the partners. The thing is, I have no motivation to do it. If I had know that this thing existed, I probably wouldn't have tried reading all the dialogue the first time I played through it...

Anyway, thanks for the review!

 

[likalaruku]

For me, JRPGs are just prettyboy eyecandy, but no fun at all to play. I chould put a Japanese RPG on autoplay & watch it like a movie, but if I want to play something & have fun, I usualy play something with "Wizards of the Coast" slapped on the side of a box or whatever new dish Bioware & their cohorts are serving up.

 

[Arella18]

Perfect review though he didn't mention the music of the game...anyway its one my favorite jrpgs but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the review.

 

[petey hunter]

now in his mid twenties
Happy Birthday Yahtzee, sorry i couldn't get a stripper to visit you

 

[elichan7]

personaly i actualy liked this game, but then again im part asian so why would my opinion matter

 

[slopeslider]

personaly i actualy liked this game, but then again im part asian so why would my opinion matter

5-month Necro FTL.

 

[J-Alfred]

Great job, Yahtzee. And trust me, I'm a JRPG fan and the top screen combat was still a total clusterfuck for me too.

 

[Dr.Horrible13]

I have it...and I am not playing it for a long time too many other things like here and the holidays eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! and I am GAINING power for my pins by not playin so by the time I am bored enough to play it I WILL BE A GOD!