Editor’s note: A community-driven monthly guide for new RPGs? Sign me up! Jeremy plans on giving us the scoop on what’s coming out each month on the RPG scene. February looks to be an especially promising (and expensive) month. I’m having a grand time with Star Trek Online and am eager to pop White Knight Chronicles into my PS3 this afternoon. Are you eager for any of these games? And if you already have one or more of them, let us know if they’re worth our hard-earned treasure. -Jason
Role-playing-game fans live in a wealth of riches these days. The genre receives entries from all corners of the world and with different styles. This can make it hard for gamers to makes sense of the multitude of releases. But take heart! This monthly column breaks down each month’s RPG releases, including gameplay descriptions and word on the street about a game’s equality.
We’ve got lots of console releases this month, though most of them don’t strictly fit their own genres. That often makes for more interesting gameplay experiences, but let’s see how these fare.
Most Promising:
Shiren the Wanderer (Wii)
Release Date: February 9
Scoff if you want, but the 2008 U.S. release of Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer, a remake of the original Super Famicom game, was both an incredibly overlooked and incredibly satisfying RPG. Roguelikes don’t get a lot of love outside of niche audiences, but the Shiren series stands out for its well-designed mechanics and its persistent worlds. Think turn-based dungeon crawler but with a Mario-like progression thanks to the fact that you lose all your items and levels and must start at the beginning when you die. Creative thinking and use of resources can get you out of an impossible situation with some chess-like planning. And since you lose all your items and levels when you die, your experiences and cunning are core to you surviving the game.
For those who are intimidated by Shiren’s perceived hardcore difficulty, the Wii Shiren, which is actually the third game in the series, attempts to make the genre more accessible. The player can select among difficulty levels; you can choose to keep your items and levels on Easy mode or just keep your levels on Normal. This Shiren has a heavier focus on story as well, with fully voiced cut-scenes and fleshed-out NPC interaction. Atlus is even positioning the game further into mainstream eyes by disowning the term “roguelike.” But with all these new trappings, the game’s core should still deliver. Any RPG fan should give the Shiren series a try. This game makes it easier than ever to get into without sacrificing what makes the series so great.
Biggest Risk:
Last Rebellion (PS3)
Release Date: February 23
That Last Rebellion comes from NIS may raise red flags with some gamers. The company has a reputation for releasing shoddy products as of late, with game-crashing bugs aplenty in an alarming amount as well as middling localizations. The developer might also be a reason to give pause, as while internally developed NIS games are usually solid, this game was also co-developed by Hit Maker, developer of several terrible-to-mediocre RPGs. Very little word, however, is out there on how the game plays. It’s in 3D rather than the sprite-based fare that NIS built their name on and seems to be turn-based with an emphasis on attacking body parts, which holds promise. And since this game is on the PS3, patches can fix any bugs that end up in the final release. But for now this is one to wait on.
Also this month:
White Knight Chronicles: International Edition (PS3)
Release Date: Available now
This game has an odd history. It started its life with a mountain of hype, given that it was a PS3 exclusive RPG from Japanese “superdeveloper” Level-5 and had a supposedly epic single-player campaign. But when the game finally came out in Japan, impressions were not overly positive. The single-player mode felt insubstantial, and players deemed the multiplayer component lacking next to the Monster Hunter monster. Fast-forward to February 2010, when the game finally debuts in America. It’s different from the Japanese release. This package fleshes out the multiplayer and includes all of the fixes and content released later for the Japanese version of game. And the single-player still looks like it will be worth a look given its slightly unique real-time battle system. It’s probably worth your time if you don’t let hype blind you.
Star Trek Online (PC)
Release Date: Available Now
This is another tough one to give an unqualified recommendation based on people’s impressions of the beta. The ship battles received praise, but everything else sounds fairly bog standard, which is a very serious sin for any MMO post-World of Warcraft. Some players have also complained that it doesn’t have enough content to level with as well as low-level missions being the most boring. Still, these claims aren’t universal, and many have also had a lot of fun with the game (this may have to do with how developer Cryptic uses the license). Given how mixed the reports are from the beta, it might be worth it to wait until Cryptic adds more content down the road, though I’m sure many Star Trek fans would have lots of fun should they jump in at launch.
The Rest:
A couple of ports are coming out this month. The PS3 version of Star Ocean: The Last Hope is set for release on February 8, but as an International version. Square Enix’s International rereleases always come packed to the gills with extra content that sometimes even changes the base game itself. This one seems to only add extra content and options, such as dual voice tracks and subtitles in multiple languages. It doesn’t change the biggest complaint gamers have with the game: its horrid audio-visual presentation. Also coming out on February 23 is a Xbox 360 port of PC RPG Risen, though if European reviews are any indication, interested parties may want to spring for the PC version.
A couple of add-on releases hit this month as well. A compilation of the first two add-ons for Borderlands, The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned and Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot, will be at retail for the Xbox 360 and PC on February 23, which is a good deal if you need more Borderlands in your life. Finally, or perhaps shockingly, EverQuest II sees its sixth expansion with Sentinels Fate on February 16. It’s amazing that Everquest II is even still running. If you’re still into it, this expansion seems to be in line with its predecessors.