Home (Day 273)

So, I've basically got three games in my rotation at the moment and they are Final Fantasy X (finally), Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden, and Bravely Default. I'm alternating between the first two when I'm at home and playing the last during breaks at work. I shoved Bravely Default away several weeks ago because I got caught up in Dragon Quest and then Super Robot Wars. I don't dislike the game, necessarily, but it is pretty disappointing in a way that I can't fully describe.

I spent a long time slogging through Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light in anticipation for what is considered its spiritual sequel. Despite a laundry list of frustrations, I have to say I enjoyed the gameplay of 4 Heroes for the most part. It was very  basic, but it had a decent level of challenge and variety. Bravely Default takes that formula and improves on it in just about every way imaginable while upgrading the quality of the sound, graphics, and overall production values. And yet, I still find myself somehow unsatisfied. It's not living up to my expectations so far. On paper, everything about it is better, but I still keep finding things about it that annoy me.

I think one saving grace of 4 Heroes of Light is that it was pretty light on dialogue. The plot was certainly nothing special, but the game also didn't try to belabor the point with me to convince me that it was better than it really was.Bravely Default is overloaded on dialogue, a troubling trend in recent JRPGs. I don't mind extensive dialogue when I'm actually interested in what's going on, but I find it difficult to care as far as this game's characters are concerned. Maybe I'm just jaded; I dunno.

As far as Final Fantasy X goes, the main thing that stands out about it for me so far is the combat system. Being able to freely switch in inactive party members is a huge plus. It always bugged me in older Final Fantasy games when I was forced to always field a party of 3-4 characters even though I practically had an army at my disposal. I recall Chrono Trigger explained it away by rationalizing that only three people could travel through time safely. Breath of Fire IV featured a similar switching system, with the added benefit that inactive party members could occasionally launch support attacks from the back row.

The most unfortunate thing that stands out about the game is the stilted voice acting. I can give it a pass on that front just because it was a pioneer in the field of JRPG voice acting, but I wish Square-Enix had at least made an attempt to sync up the characters' mouth movements to the English voices. Some of the acting is great, particularly John Dimaggio on Wakka--but a lot of it comes out sounding really awkward and stilted, especially when a conversation between Tidus and Yuna is involved. And speaking of Tidus, he is a huge whiner. So far he has little to no positive qualities--a bold choice for an RPG protagonist.