61 Frames Per Second

Browse by Tags

• And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Love: Atlus Reprints Persona 2

  I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I’ve got issues with Japanese role-playing games. I tend to, well, disappear into them. And as much as they make our own Bob Mackey OCD within the confines of their battle systems, item management, and quaint townships, they tend to make me OCD in my waking life. When I start one that really gets its hooks into me, I don’t do much else with life until it’s done. Much like the troubles I had with Dragon Quest VIII back in 2005, Persona 3 ruined me for September 2007. Eighty-nine hours of level grinding, managing completely fictional friendships (whilst ignoring real ones,) and bouncing J-pop that nearly drove my roommates to murder me. It was my first time with the Shin Megami Tensei franchise and I couldn’t have been more impressed, or obsessed, with it. Needless to say, I’ve been dreading Persona 4. Not because I think it won’t live up to Persona 3. No, I’m afraid of what it’s going to do my brain. And now, for seemingly no other reason than they are awesome, Atlus is making everything worse. The publisher sent out an email today announcing that they are reprinting Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, a Playstation 1 game, “to commemorate the upcoming release of Persona 4 and to thank you for your interest, dedication, and support of the SMT series.” Who does that?! Who reprints an eight year-old game for a long-dead console? Someone who loves you, that’s who. Read More... Posted Nov 13 2008, 07:15 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, shin megami tensei, love, dragon quest, persona, atlus, persona 2 eternal punishment, persona 4, persona 3, dragon quest viii

• Trailer Review: Dragon Quest IX

  As October wears on and the fruits of game season, grand experiences like Dead Space and Fable 2, start to illuminate my living room with an incandescent and warming light, I find myself not looking forward, but back. 2008 has been, to date, a year overflowing with great games and even though it’s been less than a month since I finished it, I’m already looking back at Dragon Quest IV fondly. The characters, the leveling, the music; it was glorious. But, as it is with JRPGs, it will be a very long time before I ever attempt to complete that particularly glorious remake again. (If ever. Role-playing games are a steep time investment as is, a fact I’ve discussed many times in the past.) But this trailer, only recently presented in high-quality after its debut at Tokyo Game Show, fills me with hope for the future. Dragon Quest IX will be awesome. Oh yes, it will be so, so awesome. Read More... Posted Oct 20 2008, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, trailer review, square-enix, dragon quest, fable 2, dead space, yuuji horii, dragon quest iv, dragon quest ix

• The 'Bout Time Report: Dragon Quest IX Gets a Release Date

  The Dragon Quest games have never been known for their timeliness; Dragon Quest VII in particular had a development time so troubled that when it eventually came out, the game had a sorry first-gen aesthetic in a world where both Vagrant Story and Chrono Cross existed. But according to Kotaku, the upcoming Dragon Quest IX finally has a release date--nearly two years after the shocking announcement that the game would be exclusive to the DS. In this case, the DQ team's lack of promptness won't affect them much--as if it ever did before. The passing of time has only seen millions more DS systems sold, which means that Square-Enix is well on their way towards taking over the world. The reveal of DQ on the DS two years ago was a bit of a surprise, but it actually made sense when you stopped to think about it. Dragon Quest was never a series that prided itself--or relied--on visuals; despite what a show-stopping blockbuster VIII ended up being. When it comes to the franchise in general, VIII was a definite deviation; all of the standard DQ trappings still existed, but they were dressed up in the trappings of a lavish late-gen PS2 game--and even more so in the renovated US version. As much as I'd love to see another game in the same vein as DQVIII--which felt like the only authentic RPG of that generation--the format of IX doesn't really matter. Even with a game as relatively ugly as the DS remake of DQIV, that same addictive DQ formula is present regardless of the graphics. Read More... Posted Oct 01 2008, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: ds, square-enix, dragon quest, bob mackey, dragon quest ix

• Chiptune Friday: Bed ‘N Breakfast

  It’s been raining today here in New York, a cold harbinger of October keeping us city dwellers indoors, putting on sweaters, and craving hot cocoa. Personally, I’m trying to gear myself up for tonight’s Presidential debate, but I’d be lying to you if I said that I wasn’t truly desperate for a nap, one preferably under a thick comforter and near my DS for some more Dragon Quest IV. It’s in that spirit that we present this week’s Chiptune Friday, not a single track, but a compilation of soothing tones to ease one’s weary soul and refill their hit points. Read More... Posted Sep 26 2008, 06:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, chiptune friday, animal crossing, dragon quest, xenogears

• The 61FPS Review: Dragon Quest IV – Chapters of the Chosen

  I’m not going to lie to you. Dragon Quest and I have history. It goes back some twenty years at this point, but our relationship today isn’t one based on nostalgia. Back in 2005, you could say that Dragon Quest and I were in, to put it delicately, an unhealthily codependent situation. Dragon Quest VIII had just come out in the United States, fresh faced and full of gorgeous cel-shaded graphics, newly minted menus and music, and voice work of unprecedented quality. But Dragon Quest has never had much clout on this side of the Pacific, and this was its first time going by its real name instead of Dragon Warrior. It needed someone, anyone to play it. Me, I was a recovering role-playing addict, coming off of a decade of Squaresoft devotion, trying my best to stay off the ability trees, the melodrama, and the menus. I lapsed occasionally into turn-based adventures to save the world. I’d been doing good up until that November, hadn’t touched a JRPG since Shadow Hearts: Covenant the previous winter, but I could feel myself weakening. I just wasn’t strong enough. So Dragon Quest VIII and I found each other at our weakest. Between November 15th and December 1st, I clocked just under ninety-six hours playing Dragon Quest VIII. Yeah, that’s right. Four days of my life. And I loved it. Each Dragon Quest, since the first game sprung from Yuuji Horii’s succulent brain in 1986, is an exercise in purity, a defining marquee in a genre known today for its decadence, bombast, and tedium. Dragon Quest is more often noted for its resistance to change rather than its consistent quality across the years. It’s true, Dragon Quest has remained, across its sequels, spin-offs, and numerous remakes, largely the same game it was two decades ago. The essential play – explore a large fantasy world, fight monsters in a first person perspective, collect items, talk to every single person you meet – has never changed in the core titles. But every iteration finds its elegant formula incrementally refined, and to great effect. Dragon Quest II introduced multi-character parties, III a job system that went on to become a genre staple, and so on and so forth. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, a DS remake of a Playstation remake of the NES original, could be viewed as a step back from the lavishly produced (though still familiar) Dragon Quest VIII, a retreat meant to acclimate players to the series’ transition from home consoles to portables. Surprisingly, Chapters of the Chosen isn’t a retreat at all. It is instead a perfect model of the JRPG as Horii envisioned it, immediately accessible, streamlined from the menu-juggling, command-selecting rigor moral, and trimmed of the excess narrative fat that’s typified the genre since Hironobu Sakaguchi began emphasizing drama over play in Final Fantasy. Read More... Posted Sep 22 2008, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo ds, final fantasy, 61fps review, square-enix, hironobu sakaguchi, dragon quest, jrpg, yuuji horii

• Games You Keep Coming Back To

  There are a few games out there that I know I'll never finish, but will continue to perpetually play for the rest of my life.  The greatest offender (in the nicest of terms) for me is Final Fantasy XII; I bought it the day it came out in 2006, and to this day I still play it ten hours at a time in shifts five to six months apart.  Even now, nearly two years later, I'm thinking of picking up my old save to try out some of those trickier hunting sub-quests, mainly because my brain has been completely ignorant of the game's story since pre-2007.  I know it has something to do with evil twins, but I might be confusing FFXII with an episode of The Patty Duke Show. Honestly, I can blame Final Fantasy XII itself for my bipolar feelings; director Matsuno gave the franchise a much needed shake-up (which will be all but forgotten by FFXIII), but the game's skill system is in dire need of refinement--which is why it was refined, in a Japan-only re-release.  As things currently stand with America's only version of the game, all the characters in your party are basically the same, and any kind of planned specialization soon falls apart when you realize just how counter-productive this strategy is.  With the addition of refined license boards built for specialization in the aptly-named Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System, it's possible that XII might actually be my favorite Final Fantasy; but I'll really never know. Final Fantasy XII isn't the only game that I've had an on-again, off-again relationship with; while there are many games that I never finish and which subsequently haunt my dreams, I've come crawling back to quite a few others after months of downtime. Read More... Posted Sep 11 2008, 01:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: dragon quest, addiction, bob mackey, the wind waker, final fantasy xii

• Anticipation Time: Dragon Quest IV

  For as much as we like to bitch and moan about innovation in gaming, sometimes it's just nice to be face-deep in a big ol' nostalgia pie--especially if said pie was almost given to us six years ago and then snatched away without the promise of future pie time.  What I'm trying to say with this strained analogy is that the remake of Dragon Quest IV is finally coming to the US on September 16th, and we should all be thankful. If you're unaware of the scandal behind the Dragon Quest IV remake, it's important to know that we almost got it six years ago; released for the Playstation in Japan, Enix promised to bring the game to the States on the back of the instructions of the US-released Dragon Warrior VII.  Unfortunately, Heartbeat, who "programmed" both VII and the IV remake, folded, making the necessary localization re-programming more trouble than it was actually worth.  But honestly, Heartbeat's implosion was really for the best; it allowed Enix to pass the game to a much more qualified team (Level 5), and Heartbeat's take on the series kind of buried the magic of Dragon Quest under a load of crummy graphics (even for a game rooted in nostalgia) and sloppy, buggy menus.  VII was already a turd of a game, but Heartbeat didn't help matters much. Read More... Posted Sep 04 2008, 03:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: ds, dragon quest, final fantasy iv ds, remakes, bob mackey

• Time Investment

  Hooksexup, that monolithic purveyor of literary sex and cultural commentary that spawned 61 Frames Per Second from its lurid brain, has, broadly speaking, a pretty open mind about everything. We are free wheeling folks accepting of both things that are not stupid and many, many things that are stupid but still fun. Great cultural criticism and stunning new fiction? We love that heady stuff. Brainless celebrity gossip? We love that too (well, some of us. Frankly celebrity culture confounds me. That is, unless the celebrities in question are, like, Brenda Brathwaite. Or Prince. Or Optimus Prime.) What I am trying to express is that we are not easily shocked. Earlier today, videogames managed to shock our fearless editorial leader, Will Doig. He stumbled upon a story that’s been making the internet rounds of late concerning the discovery of a boss in MMORPG Final Fantasy XI that takes close to a full day of constant play to beat. Not just one player, mind you, but an entire team. The intrepid adventures in Beyond the Limitation, the name of the FFXI crew in question, spent eighteen hours straight fighting the Pandemonium Warden, stopping only because, according to one member, “People were passing out and getting physically ill.” They also apparently vomited later on. They didn’t even win the fight. This staggered Commandant Doig to the point where his only comment about the story was, “Physically! Ill!” I’m right there with him. But it concerns me that I can imagine spending that kind of time playing a game. Read More... Posted Aug 20 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, final fantasy, rpg, brenda brathwaite, dragon quest, will doig

• Trailer Review: Riz-Zoawd

  I like me a good Japanese RPG. Actually, let me rephrase: I love Japanese JRPGs. Like many a youth twenty years back, I received a free copy of Dragon Warrior with my Nintendo Power subscription. I didn’t actually play Dragon Warrior myself, I played it with my older brother, start to finish. It was, as I believe was the point of the game, epic. The experience from level one to defeating the nefarious Dragon Lord really did feel like a vast journey, a true hero quest. But I never got around to playing another JRPG until I was fourteen. That game was Chrono Trigger and it turned me into a slavering addict. These days, I only get to play one JRPG a year. They typically require a massive investment of time and, so, I’m forced to pick and choose. I’m not sure if it’s going to come to the US at this point, but if it does, I might have to make Ris-Zoawd the JRPG I play next year. Read More... Posted Aug 08 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, nintendo ds, trailer review, final fantasy, chrono trigger, dragon quest, jrpg, riz-zoawd, wild arms, dragon warrior

• Good Grief: Snoopy DS

  Square-Enix has obviously found a great deal of success in the Nintendo DS with six Final Fantasy titles (including Tactics, Fables and Crystal Chronicles), four Dragon Quest titles, two Mana titles, The World Ends With You, Space Invaders Extreme, Arkanoid DS, Super Mario Hoops, and many others. With at least two more Dragon Quest titles on the way to the dual-screened portable, along with Kingdom Hearts, Valkyrie Profile, and Chrono Trigger, you might think the kids at S-E had just about run out of old and new properties to fit on those tiny game cards. Well you would be wrong, because Square-Enix is hard at work bringing Charles Schulz's classic comic strip to the party with Snoopy DS: Let's Go Meet Snoopy and His Friends! Read More... Posted Aug 06 2008, 05:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: the world ends with you, nintendo ds, derrick sanskrit, final fantasy, chrono trigger, square-enix, dragon quest, snoopy

• E3 Day One: Microsoft, Sony, Final Fantasy, and For Whom the Bell Tolls

  There was a very brief period of crossover time, between 2002 and 2006, when E3 was still a gargantuan, money-wasting event and high-speed internet access was ubiquitous. During these years, gamers across the English speaking world regularly crashed websites following videocasts and liveblogs of press conferences as the biggest game announcements of the year hit the public. In the wake of the old E3’s dissolution and 2007’s lackluster event, the press cycle for the games industry seemingly changed forever; game announcements, platform holder initiatives, and publisher events have been spread out over the last eighteen months, no longer restricted to only a handful of days in the summer leading up to the usual holiday deluge of high-profile releases. The days of “breaking the internet” appeared to be over. Then Microsoft announced that Final Fantasy XIII would be coming out for the Xbox 360 and it was the good ol’ days all over again. Read More... Posted Jul 14 2008, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, nintendo, microsoft, xbox 360, wii, final fantasy, sony, gran turismo, monster hunter, dragon quest, god of war, e3

• The Ten Most Adventurous Sequels in Gaming History, Part 1

  More than any other creative medium, videogames rely on sequels. Unlike serial fiction (television, comics) or film franchising focused on continuing narrative and familiar characters, videogame sequels — at their best, mind you — are not just the next chapter of a story or the return of a popular protagonist. The most successful gameplay designs are perfected through revision. Practice, as they say, makes perfect. And while sequel-as-business-model more often than not leads to stagnation, sometimes pandering to the audience reveals a vein of creativity richer than that found in the source material. Sometimes, a good idea needs to be demolished and rebuilt over its original foundation to become great. This week, 61 Frames Per Second takes a look at gaming's ten most adventurous sequels: direct successors that significantly alter the fundamental design, aesthetically and mechanically, of their predecessors. Some of the entries on this list are great successes, others failures. But they all broke the mold to change our ideas about play. — John Constantine Adventure Island IV Even as an old-school die-hard I've always been pretty indifferent to the Adventure Island series. Sure, it's solid hop-and-bopping, but without much aesthetic or architectural distinction. Does anyone feel passionately about Adventure Island, really? More people might if Adventure Island IV had come out in the States. IV melds the series's standard run-around-whacking-stuff-with-other-stuff mechanics to an ambitious Metroid-esque superstructure, in which newly acquired items must be used to open previously inaccessible sections of a large, continuous map. (The snowboard you pick up in one area gives you passage through a snowy field, and so forth.) This is a familiar tactic today — see recent Castlevania games, for example — but at the time it was unusual, and certainly not where you'd have expected a staid platforming series to go. — Peter Smith Read More... Posted Jun 05 2008, 08:30 PM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, metroid, top ten, castlevania, list, akitoshi kawazu, the ten most adventurous sequels in gaming history, hironobu sakaguchi, final fantasy II, dragon quest, adventure island iv, doki doki panic, super mario bros 2, shigeru miyamoto