Indie RPG review: OFF by Mortis Ghost

One of the biggest frustrations of being a JRPG fan is the constant blanket dismissals of the genre from both players and the media. You’ll hear that JRPGs are juvenile, that the stories are garbage, that they’re filled with hackneyed character tropes and poorly written dialogue. It’s annoying because we know, deep down, that there are far too many JRPGs out there to which those complaints apply perfectly.

Yet the genre is brimming with unexplored potential. In fact, I’d argue that the format of the JRPG – a linear adventure punctuated with story scenes, exploration bits, and combat – is one of the best out there for telling fantastic stories in games. It allows us to engage with a large cast of characters, explore and understand the complexities of a world not our own, and take part directly in the physical and emotional struggles of the characters that populate these fantasy realms. The potential for so much awesome world-building, character development, and emotional depth is right there, and yet so often it’s squandered on yet another variation of The Continuing Adventures of Team Anime Archetypes.

That’s why games like OFF make me very happy, because they remind me that JRPG styled games can be more. So, so much more.

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Official Gaming.moe Twitter account + Coming Soon!

Heya folks! This is just a handy little public service announcement. We’ve been getting an influx of new visitors lately, and that’s pretty fantastic! I’m super excited that this site is reaching new people. Gaming.moe is still pretty new, and since I’m still pretty busy with other games writing, I can’t really update every day – a couple times a week seems like it’ll be the norm. If you want to know when updates happen, I highly suggest following the Gaming.Moe twitter account, which will update whenever something new goes live (and occasionally when other interesting business is afoot).

So what do I have planned? The next thing to go live will either be a look at Terra Battle or a review of the strange, beloved Belgian freeware PC RPG OFF. Other stuff I’ve made drafts for: a review of Sega MegaDrive/Genesis Complete Works, a review-type thing for Konami’s bizarre 1984 arcade game Mikie, NIS’s mostly-overlooked PSN game Battle Princess of the Arcadias, and a figure review. I can’t say for sure when all of those will go up, but they’re definitely cookin’.

Also, I’ve had a few folks ask me if I will be taking outside contributions for articles on here, and that’s honestly something I haven’t decided yet. I want Gaming.Moe to be somewhat personal, yet I think there are a lot of people with similar tastes in gaming and great writing skills who could use some exposure. It’ll probably be a while before I make a decision either way; Right now, I just want to establish the overall “feel” of the site and increase awareness.

And, as always, the Gaming.Moe Patreon appreciates your support!

Why we should pay attention to free-to-play games

I originally had a good chunk of this text as the intro to my upcoming Terra Battle article, but it became so long-winded that I felt it’d be better off as its own bit. It occurred to me that rather than front-loading a piece that’s supposedly dedicated to a specific game with way too much text justifying covering free-to-play games, I should make it its own little editorial. After all, free editorial is part of the reason I started Gaming.Moe to begin with.

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Interview: Yusuke Kozaki

Yusuke Kozaki is one of the hottest Japanese artists right now, and it’s not hard to see why: his work has a distinct, refined style that’s both stylish and has a more “realistic” look that gives it broad worldwide appeal. Kozaki’s work in games is especially memorable: besides working extensively with Suda51 on titles like Liberation Maiden and No More Heroes, he also did the designs for Fire Emblem: Awakening (along with some additional art for Super Smash Bros. 4).

This interview was conducted at Japan Expo USA 2013. I was unable to find an interested publisher at the time, and seeing as how Kozaki’s become much more well-known in the past year or two (he’s a big part of the Under the Dog anime production effort you’ve probably heard about) I think it’s a good time to put this out there. Just remember: this is a little over a year old at this point, but I still think it’s a really nice interview with some interesting info.

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Welcome to Gaming.moe! (And please pardon the mess.)

We’re finally launching! I’ve had this site in the works for a while, and now we’re finally ready to go public. Yes, Gaming.moe is ready to take its first steps into that scary, uncharted wilderness we call the internet.

I’m planning on putting up something new every few days or so, work schedules permitting. If you want to know when the site updates or what’s in the works, follow the Gaming.Moe twitter!

Of course, there are probably a few things that will need adjusting as I ease out of the initial launch into establishing this site a bit more. You might see things like image and layout changes from time to time as some of the kinks are worked out to make this site look as attractive (dare I say… kawaii) as possible. Some of the functions might not be working 100%, either, so if you notice something amiss please drop me a line. Twitter is probably your best bet for reaching me quickly.

I hope you enjoy the site, and if you dig it, please do consider supporting the Gaming.moe Patreon campaign. Here’s to a bright future of pure gaming love!

Syvalion Extra Credits: Sybubblun for X68000

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While consoles were the dominant forms of at-home gaming in Japan, proprietary personal computers were also quite popular amongst the more tech-inclined and older players (in other words, people who could afford them). Before Windows and MacOS became the standard systems most folks across the globe used, Japan had a whole mess of fragmented PC platforms from manufacturers like Sharp, Fujitsu, and NEC. I’m not going to pretend like I’m an expert on old Japanese PCs – it’s an area of gaming I’m still actively learning about and researching, but when I find interesting things about the systems and the games they played host to, I definitely want to share.

One such thing involves the port of Bubble Bobble for the Sharp X68000, a platform that played host to both a lot of amazing arcade ports and original titles. Bubble Bobble is an example of the former, a practically arcade perfect transplant which had creator Fukio “MTJ” Mitsuji himself aiding in the port.

The porting team at DEMPA didn’t stop there, however. With MTJ’s aid, they added a hidden “expert mode” with 20 brand-new levels… and a facelift connected to one of MTJ’s other titles.

Thus, Syvalion and Bubble Bobble had a beautiful crossover baby, and they named it…

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Syvalion (Taito, arcade, 1988)

The first thing I said to myself when getting this site up and running was “oh boy, I can’t friggin’ WAIT to talk about old Japanese Taito games!” And the first of said Taito games I want to look at is one that is oft overlooked in the West: Syvalion.

Syvalion

Syvalion was another creation of the late Fukio “MTJ” Mitsuji, who is perhaps best known for Bubble Bobble but was responsible for numerous Taito masterpieces (though personally, I’ll confess to wanting to like Rainbow Islands a lot more than I actually do like it). Syvalion is the third game by the Taito “Bubble Team” and considered another one of MTJ’s great works.

You’ll be hard pressed to see any affection for it outside of Japan, though. Syvalion doesn’t seem to have received any international releases, though a prototype “world” set of ROMs for use with MAME is floating about online. This is the only English version available, though the localization is… rough, to say the least. (So about par for the course for Taito arcade titles of this era.) It’s a truly fascinating game, though, so a closer look is certainly in order! Continue reading

Book review: EVO Moment 37 by Glenn Cravens

There are lots of great publications out there about games and gaming, and yet, there’s not a whole lot of coverage or reviews of said publications in the gaming media. This is incredibly unfortunate, as there are some really great books on games that have been released, both from major book publishers and as small-press efforts. One thing I knew I wanted to do when I conceptualized gaming.moe was to review these books, making more people aware of their existence and letting folks know if they were worth their time and money.

I figured I’d start off with this title, which I obtained from the author himself at this year’s EVO. Seeing as how 2014 marks the tenth anniversary of the “Daigo Parry” – and seeing the fighting game scene become far more internationally interconnected in the past few years – I figured this would be a good title to kick things off with.

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EVO Moment 37 by Glenn Cravens

Cover image: John Choi’s MAS stick looking like it hasn’t aged a day

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Game music highlight: Last Rebellion

Last Rebellion is one of those games that really deserves an in-depth dissection, mainly because pretty much everything that could go wrong with a PlayStation 3 RPG did manage to go wrong here. You don’t win a kusoge of the year award from Japanese players without screwing up royally somewhere along the line, after all. Hell, it released in January of that year (2010) and was bad enough that it stuck in everyone’s minds for that long!

There’s one thing going for it, at least: some of the music by Rei Kondoh is good. Like, really good. Especially the main battle music, which is phenomenal:

Bonus: the Hironobu Kageyama theme song, which I’m pretty sure has never been sung at a concert. (But I’d sure love to be proven wrong there!)

Moe Gaming Anime: Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls

I must admit, when I first heard the news that the KEI-designed Sega Hard Girls were getting an anime, I was not terribly enthused. Not because I didn’t like the designs – hell, when I met KEI and was offered a sketch, I requested Saturn instead of the obvious Hatsune Miku – but more because the quality track records of game-themed anime and corporate-made material featuring moe anthropomorphics are pretty abysmal. Strangely, when I heard later that the show was being made in Miku Miku Dance – an inexpensive piece of CG animation software used primarily to create visuals for short music pieces – I became a bit more intrigued. After all, the delightfully absurd show gdgd Fairies had put MMD’s low-budget glory to utterly spectacular use. I said something on Twitter (which I can’t find – thanks, terrible Twitter search engine!) to the effect of “I would be perfectly okay with it if the Sega Hard Girls anime was just gdgd Fairies with old game jokes.”

Little did I know that that’s exactly what Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls seems to want to be.

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