Japanese RPGs on Xbox 360 – Quick Reviews
Disappointment. Poor execution of what could have been a great game. The battle system in Blue Dragon is not engaging and the graphics are choppy at times. Battling gets old very quickly. The story was slow and the character dialogue was stiff and didn’t do justice to the characters created by Akira Toriyama. Japanese voice track is available but this game failed on too many fronts to compete.
Above Average. The polished cell-shaded graphics of Eternal Sonata are what makes this game great. The characters are individually interesting and look great. The semi-active battle system is fresh but limited. The game is short compared to the others and the story gets strange towards the end in classic Japanese fashion. The addition of the piano interludes from Chopin are a new idea but don’t add or subtract from the game. Japanese voice track available!
Very Good. Another cell-shaded game, but Tales of Vesperia builds on cell-shaded technology. The world of Vesperia looks down right beautiful. The game is of adequate length and the active battle system is enjoyable. The story is engaging but the little skits get old. The characters are all very likeable especially Judith. Sadly the anime cut scenes don’t do this game justice, lacking the same level of polish. Cell-shaded cut scenes would have probably put this game in contention with some Final Fantasy games. Lack of Japanese voice track is a disappointment but character dialogue still held up well. Unlockable items and costumes will keep you coming back.
Below Average. One of the rare JRPGs where the battle system is better than the cutscenes and characters. The character dialogue is stiff and boring. The english lip syncing is terrible to go along with bad voice acting. This makes the characters themselves a bit boring. The pacing is thrown off by long dungeons and long cutscenes. We’re talking about 2-3 hour dungeons followed by 30min cutscenes with no save points in between. The active battle system is great and the leveling and custimization of your characters is also engaging. Lack of Japanese voice track is disappointing when you look at the poor job they did at lip syncing. Side quests will keep you coming back but this 3 disc epic is already long on its own. This game lacks polish and attention to detail.
Conclusion
Cell-shading and attention to detail when it comes to characters look like the way to go for this generation of Xbox 360 JRPGs. I know I left out a few games but these are just the games that I have played. I’m looking forward to Final Fantasy XIII being the best JRPG on Xbox 360 ever.
at this point, i’d actually prefer kosuke fujishima character designs to anything that toriyama would put out. haven’t played it, but the tales of vesperia character designs look pretty awesome.
Toriyama is classic though, and Chrono Trigger was awesome!