It’s in the title. I’m about to talk about the end here. I want to give you fair warning. Just… avert your eyes if you care to. I’ll put the spoilers after the jump.

Ok. So, I’ve played through Fable once as a good guy and now I’m going back as an evil guy. As a good guy, I wasn’t all that good and actually let about 4 million people die. I thought that sounded horrible, but as it turns out, after the invasion, life pretty much went back to normal. There were a couple of corpses strewn about, but no big deal. I can still do missions and such in that save. As a mean guy, I’m trying to be pure evil. The very essence of evil. I want to save absolutely everyone.

I thought these were the only two options, but I was talking fable with someone the other day and they said they were the essence of nice, so when the darkness came, everyone died. Every single person. So, in his save, when he walks through the streets, there is just no one anywhere.

The sad part is this person now hates the game. I think there are some games that you have to play twice to get the full experience. I think games should have extreme consequences because they are fictional, and you have that ability. But this should result in two valid and exciting experiences.  It’s a huge deterrent for someone to play the game and have everyone die.

Maybe Fable should have some voice over or dialog about how you should play again, just to suggest that it’s possible to save people and keep playing that save if you leave some alive. Or maybe that’s the responsibility of the gamer. I dunno. It just seems so horrible to play Fable and then have that ending, which after speeding through the year of rule, you feel cheated out of $60.

After seeing a Nintendo roundtable discussion, Kotaku posed the decade old question, “Why doesn’t America like JRPS? This is an old discussion, but now Japan is actually thinking about trying to care. Just like Japan culture at large, they were making things for themselves and that was enough. Making games solely for the interests of Japan was successful. Now it’s not as profitable, and Japan’s gamers are starting to like western rpgs. So what’s the problem?

CHARACTERS
They may be too feminine for western eyes. Some are guys, some are girls, some of the more girly ones are guys. It’s a somewhat safe bet that shorter hair is a guy and longer hair is a girl, but that only gives about a 70% success rate.

SCOPE OF TIME
Spanning a decade is a bit of a stretch for Americans. Not much in America is older than 400 years. (nothing the settlers didn’t drive out, anyways.) An American game may be way in the future, or way in the past, but if it actually travels that amount of time in the storyline, it’s just not feasible. Western RPGs usually stay within one lifetime, and often a couple years, of their main character. JRPGs will casually span decades, centuries, or even longer. This is sensible enough, since Japan has a longer unified history than America.

LENGTH
Even though Westerners want to complain when their $60 game is not long enough (Call of Duty), they also complain when it is too long. Maybe they want to attain a more immediate sense of achievement. Maybe they collectively lack the attention span. One could argue that Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto IV are long, successful, American games, but then we enter the realm of theme.

THEME
Length in American Games is permitted, but only if the theme is good enough. Red Dead Redemption has an old wild west theme, something that is truly American. Grand Theft auto has a modern urban crime theme that, sadly, America really goes for. Mass Effect is a more neutral theme, but I’m willing to bet two things on that account: less Americans would play it if it didn’t advertize militarized male lead (as A LOT of American games do) and that a good chuck of the people that liked mass effect would enjoy a Square-Enix type RPG.

TAKING TURNS
I know there aren’t as many turn based RPGs these days, but it should still be said that Americans are generally impatient, and hate taking turns or waiting in line. To take turns in a games is widely held as a boring and time wasting endeavor.

REPETITIVE
I will take the most recent successful example I can: Kingdom Hearts. It’s not secret that I’m a big fan. Before Kingdom Hearts, I was intimidated by the whole JRPG genre. It was too intricate, too time consuming, and seemed generic. However, I was hooked on Kingdom Hearts from the moment I played it. I know it’s not really a JRPG, but it was a gateway game for me.

I have been buying and playing every Kingdom Hearts game since. Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, and Birth By Sleep are legitimate entries, but Re:coded and Chain of Memories are senseless money makers. Exploiting a successful series with sub-par titles is a quick way to frustrate players. This is no different than what Activision has done to Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero, and… well most of their games.

That said, I think one of the greatest strengths of the JRPG genre is the emphasis on storyline. It could be to their detriment, but engagement in a great story will carry a player through repetition easily.  Eternal Sonata had an amazing storyline, pulling in a variety of themes gently scattered throughout game play. I loved playing it, but when explaining it to others I always qualified that they would need to enjoy the story first, and the game second. I think storyline is what Western RPGs are improving. They have finally started to understand that games are capable of holding a novel-quality story.

The culture at large is accepting this too, as many more games are being made into moves. This is something Japan has been aware of for a long time. Maybe it’s because they already had serious cartoons for adults, so the jump to games wasn’t such a stretch. Maybe it’s because they are can more easily connect with their audience than the west.

Despite how much America resists them, there is a trend developing to make Western RPGS better. The west is learning it can make deep, engaging RPGs with rich story lines. They are more willing to elongate their stories. They are beginning to see characters age and stories expand beyond the present moment. They may even start varying their character models. Strangely, Western RPGs are taking over JRPs through imitation.

I believe it was Pablo Picasso that said, ” Good artists copy; great artists steal.” I am but a good artist, because I will only be copying an idea of this guy. He has created a fun series of minimalist images to go with some popular movies and games. Because America usually gets the worse version of every case, these simple versions gave me an idea. The visual clutter that is my gaming shelf has always been a problem. Even when it’s clean, it looks sort of messy because of all the random colors. If I were to use covers like lbo’s, I could get a nice uniform look, and swap mine so I could see the originals when I open the cases. The only problem? That easily 100+ cases that need iconic designs…

I have a bad habit of creating too many projects at once. And they all feel necessary.

Save

Rather, I like it, as I have yet to beat it. It is another fun and upbeat game predictably on Nintendo Wii, but made by THQ .his Spring a sequel will be released for 360, PS3, and Wii. I’m glad to see this fun little game get a multi-platform release. The original feature de Blob, a amorphous orb best thought of as a ball of paint. It is the players task to navigate deblob along the color deprived areas of city, leading an underground movement to restore joy after the inky goverment starts regulating color.  It’s sort of a cheesy re-hashing of a classic plot, but there’s something catchy about it.

The use of sound in the game may be the reason I enjoy it so much. It starts silent, then as you add color, there music goes from simple beats to a crazy jamming party. I haven’t heard much about deBlob 2 but I’m interested to see if the game has the same feel when played with an average controller. The wii controller had you actually flicking de Blob around, so pushing buttons might feel a little boring. Additionally, niche games like this one don’t fare as well on additional systems. Katamari Damacy has been on four systems, and by the time it finally made it to ps3 it was merely fan service (which we fans appreciated!) but just a re-hashing of what had already been done. I hope de Blob continues to innovate and grow with each new title. Though, the SyFy kids logo in the bottom corner has me worried, and feeling a little ridiculous for being so excited for this game.

And by the way, blob is green on the 360 cover, red on the PS3 cover and blue on the Wii cover. Colors are fun!

I’ve finally gotten around to playing Rockband2, and I’m surprised by how much I like it. I haven’t played drums or bass yet and have only played with two people so far (I’m waiting on the guitar hero band kit).

Song Selection
In every set there’s been at least on song that excited me. I can proudly say that one of them was Livin’ on a Prayer, because that’s karaoke GOLD. Equally, there have been a couple that I hated, but that’s good diversity, I imagine.

World Tour Mode
This is all I’ve done so far, and I like the way it’s organized. It’s not at linear as guitar Hero (I never played the first rock band, so I don’t know how it compares). I like the option to jump all over the continent playing different shows, but I suppose that’s a little unrealistic. You seem to have more options regarding your tour: who to hire (which reminds me of the crew in Need For Speed Carbon) whether or not to play 4x or nothing shows or to play benefit shows.

Gameplay
My favorite feature of the game play is the stars filling up on screen while you play. In Guitar Hero it was a bit of a crap shoot; you didn’t know your star rating until you finished. I also like the separated solo sections within songs and the solo rating. The ability to save a band member is also nice, and better than the star power option in Guitar Hero. Again, these might be features from the first Rockband which I didn’t play.

Details
The character options aren’t stellar, but they are present. Making a rocker that looks like you, or the rock star you wish to be is better than picking one of Guitar Hero’s generics. As I continue to play, it seems that more customization options will become available through clothing and accessories.

I’ll keep doing the tour mode before investigating anything else, but you can color me impressed so far. The plan for tonight is to download some songs, which I believe I can incorporate into my tour set lists.

First Impressions take place in the first hour of playing a game. These list the excitement (or disappointments) felt initially. It’s like unboxing, but with gameplay instead. Ungaming? That doesn’t sound right…

Ok, you may think that it’s a very easy game that’s impossible to suck at. This post is not for you. If you’ve played and keep getting insulted by the King of All Cosmos as he abuses you, here are a couple of tips.

1. Non-stop Rolling.
Try to never stop moving. even if you are rolling up little things, it’s better than rolling up nothing. Aim for always hearing the pluck of new items on your Katamari.

2. Find a Path.
If you do a Prince Look, you will often see that the level is laid out in a pattern or path. Once you understand the paths, you don’t need to prince look to find them every time.

3. Stay in Your League
Try to stay around things you can pick up. Don’t wander too far away where everything knocks you around. You’ll loose a lot of time, and possibly shrink your Katamari in the meantime.

4. Look for Hidden Spaces.
Often there are doors that open to reveal a hidden space filled with things to roll. (In Beautiful Katamari, there’s a room filled with gold bars or Xboxes.) When rolling outside, look for shops or restaurants you can enter. Usually they are packed with easy to roll items. These places make the difference in growing your Katamari and completing your collection.

5. If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try Again
Familiarity with the level is a huge bonus in Katamari. Once you are familiar, you know what you can roll up and when, so you can have a mental game plan about which areas to tackle first. For example, in indoor levels, I try to stay on tables or shelves as long as possible, because items are often bigger and closer together than on the wide open floor. And, once on the floor it’s hard to tell where you are and what’s around you without taking the time to Prince Look.

If you’ve been playing Kingdom Hearts since 2003 this post is not for you. If you picked up Birth By Sleep on a whim for your PSP and you’re finding it tough, here are a few tips:

1. Meld. Meld again. And then meld again.
It may not seem important as you play, but when it comes to boss time, you’ll be sorry if you didn’t. The meld list is very long too. You may want to buy a strategy guide or looks online, like here so you know what makes what. That way you won’t waste a bunch of leveled up spells.

2. Backtrack.
If you seem stuck at a certain point, backtrack to the places you’ve already been. It can feel like a waste of time, but you will find things you missed and level up as you go.

3. Command board.
It’s weird. There’s no reason to have a board game in the middle of an rpg. They could have made everything easier to get in the main game and not had a command board, but they didn’t. So use it. It’s an alright distraction from the regular game play and can help you level up.

4. Stay in touch with the story.
You can mostly go where you want and do what you want in this game. For this reason, it can be hard to keep up with what is happening. Notice the battle levels on the different worlds as they open. You don’t have to do them in difficulty order, but it’s not a bad idea. The fights will gradually get harder, and the storyline will more logically progress.

5. Take notes.

There’s enough spells, abilities, and items to keep up with that you may want to take notes. I had a group of pages for each character as I played, and my organization got a little better with each play-through. I used a steno notebook because it’s already formatted for columns. Some may feel that taking notes for a game is too much like work, but its quicker, in my opinion, than having to constantly refer to the guide book or in-game menus.

The inherent flaw/advantage in Birth by Sleep is that you will play the game three times. Each time you play, it’s gets a bit easier, but also a little more boring.