/jp/ - Otaku Culture

[Anonymous No.]

I just completed playing Mass Effect 1 + 2. Goddamit, now my faith in japanese cultural supremacy s faltering big time. It was glorious, it was epic, it was dramatic, it was huge!

How can I ever again resucitate my love for Touhou, Irisu, Beato and mindless eroges...

[Anonymous No.]

8/10, pretty good try.

[Anonymous No.]

I lost shields!

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572402
>my faith in japanese cultural supremacy
>>>/a/

[Necrobrotent No.]

Why try to force yourself to love something you don't?

You could be a sci fi nerd now instead of a weeaboo nerd.

I'll even lead you some vernor vinge novels so you can do it sexily.

[Anonymous No.]

Well, what did you like about it? Can't you like both? I prefer WRPGs to JRPGs but I still like eroge, galge, and that sort of thing. I'm equally ecstatic about a lot of Bioware games as I am some visual novels. Just go ahead and enjoy both.

[Anonymous No.]

Mass Effect is just a western VN with fancier-than-usual minigames.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572432
My ass faggot. Roast yourself.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572430
Well yeah point taken, replay value is pretty zero and until Mass Effect 3 comes around I guess I'm banging my head against Suwako as usual.

[Anonymous No.]

Apparently the PS3 version of Mass Effect 1 is going to be in a novel type format.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572452
>zero replay value
>played through it 11 times.

But hey, OP, why can't you enjoy both?

[Anonymous No.]

I don't get it. I like both.

Mass Effect is one of the only western games that are decent.

[Anonymous No.]

>ASS effect

Play a real WRPG, like Fallout 2 or Deus Ex for cthulhu's sake, not this dumbed down shitty excuse for an action rpg.

[Anonymous No.]

RPGs from Bioware can be a lot like visual novels. You have different routes in visual novels and you have different routes in Bioware games, like choosing a particular love route or choosing a particular alignment or class to play. There's a lot of replay value to something like Baldur's Gate, especially, because not only do you have love choices you also a range of different party choices. They're really just very similar, especially if you compare the games to AVs. It's not unlikely that you would like both Western and Japanese games.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572475
While I don't hold anything against those I gotta say they aren't close to being in the league of Baldurs Gate, or System Shock

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572492

Deus Ex is about as good as System Shock 2. They're the two best FPS-RPGs of all time.

[Anonymous No.]

WRPG thread?

[Necrobrotent No.]

Planescape torment, Arcanum Magic and steel.

Thats my 2cents on wrpgs of the far past.

Also in b4 fallout 3 and oblivion hate.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572492
>Fallouts, Deus Ex
>not close to BG
Yeah, no.
BG might be a well polished, high budget production, but it has no soul.
Neither does Mass effect.

[Anonymous No.]

Mass Effect was enjoyable change in it's time, but the sequel was terrible in level design and had too much of a herp derp plot.

[Anonymous No.]

moot should start a board for video games so we don't have to post this shit in /jp/ all the time.

[Anonymous No.]

Play Final Fantasy Tactics.

Realize the story has nothing to do with it and you're just a whore for pretty graphics.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572517
I just realized that if there was a Japanese version of Planescape Torment, main character would be called 名無し

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572529
The plot was better than in 1st part, especially on character development part. Well, that's just me. Also, few conversations gave me serious laughs: Salarian singing about being scientist and Garrus retelling his brawl with female opponent were the best.

>>6572463
11 times, what the fuck? That's like 900 hours off your life, friend.

>>6572432
NO. More like a movie, and a damn good one with fine actors. Really gotta tip my hat on BioWare on this onw.

[Anonymous No.]

The problem with WRPGs is that they're often kind of soulless, I remember trying Icewind Dale and while it had kind of a cool mystique to it and I liked the presentation, there was no substance to the stories and characters. The setting felt like it had soul, of course it would since it's taken from D&D which has been developed for years and years.

I felt similarly about Neverwinter Nights. Too many games feel like Diablo clones. Diablo is great for what it is, a straight up Dungeon Crawler, it feels at least honest about what it is.

Even games like Mass Effect still show certain traces of the dreary mentality of these games.

While people bitch about the linearity of games like Final Fantasy, at least I feel like I'm actually being drawn in.

Video games in general for me just aren't the same as they were in the 90s or early 2000s, or at least, haven't moved on much. Of course, games from that era had their issues and can be difficult to stomach now as well for different reasons, but at least they were better for the time.

Mass Effect is a great game, the characters definitely seem a bit more solid than your average WRPG but a lot are still just placeholders and as a whole, I don't feel drawn into it.

[Anonymous No.]

Games in the 90s had a sense of mystery to them. I remember playing Duke 3D and wondering what's over there behind that building(usually either a secret room, or a message from the Levellord saying you're not meant to be there - a nice touch that somehow restored immersion even when you were breaking the game). Sonic Adventure was a great game for me too, again even when you were "Breaking the game"(albeit through forcing open the game's glitches rather than cheating) in some ways it didn't subtract to the appearnace, as you were still wondering what was "over there" and hoping to find some secret lost room the devs forgot about somewhere. Granted it rarely ever worked out, but still.

I don't get that feeling from modern games. The only WRPGs that have done that for me are the Elder Scrolls, at least Morrowind, they have given me a sense of immersion(though not as much on the "what's over there" sentiment, since the environments are a bit plainer, but since you can actually "go there", it kinda cancels out).

I really want the magic to come back into games. It's not purely nostalgia as I still see plenty of it here and there in modern games, just not enough in one place. Otherwise, I will never feel the same way I did playing Shenmue I&II.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572525
>BG might be a well polished, high budget production, but it has no soul.

Are you crazy? It definitely has a soul, and so does Planescape: Torment.

Agreed about Mass Effect, though. Soulless sack of shit.

And while Dragon Age wasn't terrible, it sure as hell is nowhere near good enough to be considered a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate. BioWare fucking lied to us. Never again.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572565
Thank you for putting how I usually feel about WRPGs into words.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572565
You act as though the characters in JRPGs or VNs aren't all modeled on templates/archetypes like "childhood friend," "tsundora," "tough delinquent girl" etc.

[Necrobrotent No.]

>>6572588
Its not like wrpgs don't have their models.

IF I GET A FUCKING BUDDY DORF ONE MORE TIME.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572565
>The problem with WRPGs is that they're often kind of soulless, I remember trying Icewind Dale and while it had kind of a cool mystique to it and I liked the presentation, there was no substance to the stories and characters. The setting felt like it had soul, of course it would since it's taken from D&D which has been developed for years and years.

Icewind Dale is meant to be a combat-oriented game. You're not supposed to be playing it for the soul.

>Mass Effect is a great game

Nope. Try again.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572588

Even though this is true, you still get a lot of divergence along these paths. That's why you'll get people talk about "Tsundere types" "Rei types", it's the type of person they are, but not the entirety of their character. Generally we rely on personality archetypes so people can mentally place that person until they receive further information on them. In fact that's largely where "Tsundere" comes from.

I'm playing Umineko 7 at the moment, around the same time I'm playing Mass Effect. Even though I never particularly liked a lot of the characters, when you really get to hear their stories in a similar manner to the Shepard team building convos almost, there is something there a lot of western games lack. It's more like a good book than a video game(which I suppose is what it's meant to be).

For all the ridiculous plot twists, Umineko still has a lot more soul than something like Baldur's gate. Umineko may be guilty of trying too hard, but at least it's trying.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572567
That's because you were kid back then, friend. Since I entered my 20's, I've been this excited about
- FFVI, which I played on emulator
- Zelda: TP, the only game ever that made me skip work
- Deus Ex, the only game ever to effect my IRL decisions
- Touhou, thanks to immersion provided by both in- and out-game due massive fandom & official works, kinda lifestyle-thingy more than a game.

[Anonymous No.]

I disagree about certain games having or not having 'soul'. It seems that the games that you're saying have 'soul' and 'mystery' are games that allow yourself to insert yourself easily into the game by avoiding giving the protagonist a strong character, and giving you a world to roam in without much guidance. It's just a different kind of gameplay.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572613
>For all the ridiculous plot twists, Umineko still has a lot more soul than something like Baldur's gate. Umineko may be guilty of trying too hard, but at least it's trying.

Fuck you. You never played Baldur's Gate. It had soul to spare.

And the shitty "Dark Alliance" spinoffs are NOT Baldur's Gate, in case that's what is confusing you.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572615

Most of these games were when I was a teen rather than a kid. Morrowind was when I was 18-22 as well.

I'm not the best sample space in some ways, as I feel like I've become more stuffy with age and less able to absorb depth and atmosphere from things, but I've also gotten better at compensating for that. I can still see what I saw in these older games.

>>6572616

That isn't it at all, since the games I'm praising are the ones that give you a strong character, i.e. Final Fantasy games versus Balder's Gate which is all D&D archetypes(though of course FF evolved from D&D pretty much too). Unless you're talking to someone else.

[Anonymous No.]

STOP LIKING WHAT I DON'T LIKE

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572629

I could be mistaking it for one of the spin off games. However I'm sure of Icewind Dale and a few other games like it. I did hear Baldur's gate was much better than Icewind Dale quite recently. But in general things based off D&D settings never feel near as fun as the real game played with real people, it's not the best setting for a video game as it's too tied down.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572638

Also, I played Icewind Dale when I was considerably younger too, around the time I would have played some games I consider to have some Soul, I think I got it around 2002 or so. not long after that everything started to take a nosedive for me. The PS2 was the last great console IMO.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6572644
>I did hear Baldur's gate was much better than Icewind Dale quite recently.

It is, but Icewind Dale is good for lots of combat and whatnot. Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale use the same engine, but Baldur's Gate has awesome characters, places, quests, and a good story.

I mean, come on. How the hell can you say the game which gave rise to Misc and Boo had no soul? And all of the other characters in it. It was truly a masterpiece.

>But in general things based off D&D settings never feel near as fun as the real game played with real people, it's not the best setting for a video game as it's too tied down.

Well, in some ways it's better than the PnP iteration which spawned the game, because you know that there's balance and things are constructed nicely, and the characters are interesting.

On other hand, you have much less room for RP, you can't always make the kind of character you'd like, and some other things.

I'm not saying that Baldur's Gate surpasses the PnP game on which it was based, because with a good group there is no real comparison.

But as a cRPG, it is absolutely wonderful, and you can play it time and again and still enjoy it. And how many groups would play for twelve hours straight or more, and day after day? Most groups I know play only weekly, and average between six to twelve hours of play time per session.