Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium
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Spring 2009 (Part 5) - Written In The Stars
Phantasy Star VIII: Beneath The Spectral Canopy
Phantasy Star VIII is an RPG developed and published by Apple (though Sega is credited as the developer, and most of the same team from the previous games returns for this one) exclusively for the iTwin. Like its predecessors, Phantasy Star VIII mixes sci-fi with fantasy, and is set on a distant planet where technology and magic come together and the forces of light clash with the forces of darkness. Whereas Phantasy Star VII for the iPod Play was a bit experimental, with some action RPG-esque features, Phantasy Star VIII is somewhat of a return to the basics for the series. It features turn-based combat, though with a dynamic turn system very similar to the system from OTL's Final Fantasy X, in which turns can change order on the fly depending on speed and counter-attacks. It also has five characters in the active party, out of a total of nine playable characters (none of whom die in the game, also unlike Phantasy Star VII). It also puts a heavy emphasis on dungeon exploration, with many massive dungeons that the party must traverse as they travel through the game. There are dungeons between towns, dungeons outside of towns, dungeons in unexpected places... the game really tries to bring back the dungeon-crawling aspects of the classic games, with far more time spent in dungeons than in the previous game. And while Phantasy Star VIII continues to bring in a few aspects of the popular Phantasy Star Online spinoff series, it also nixes some of the additions that Phantasy Star VII brought in, including the randomized loot system. There's still some random loot in this game, but not nearly to the degree that there was in Phantasy Star VII, and it doesn't have such an MMO-like distribution, either. The game primarily takes place on the planet of Bastion, a world shrouded in a worldwide forest, with massive trees that rise miles into the sky. Their foliage gives off a beautiful luminescent glow that simulates the stars and the sky, and people live their lives both under these massive trees and within them. Though the presence of a worldwide forest would suggest a backwards, nature-oriented planet, Bastion is actually an advanced technological world, far more advanced than our own, with the people having lived with the trees and having used their energy to power their technology. In fact, the clash between technology and magic forms a major part of the game's battle system. Enemies are classified on a scale from entirely technological to entirely magical, with varying degrees inbetween, while attacks are classified the same way. Magical enemies are weak to technological attacks, but not vice versa, making it to the party's advantage to use as much technology in battle as possible. Technological attacks activate combat bonuses and buffs, though these bonuses are less pronounced when enemies and the field itself are oriented toward the technological. There is a third classification, biological, that can have elements of technology, magic, or both, and reacts to technology in varying ways. The most notable manifestation of biological enemies are the Blight, an alien organism that attacks the trees and plant life on Bastion and makes its appearance fairly early into the game. Players must not only become skilled at juggling the combat triangle, but the dynamic turn meter as well. Phantasy Star VIII features a fairly large, open world, though it's not open to quite the same degree as a Xenoblade or a Final Fantasy XII (OTL) might be. Players can explore large environments to find treasure and complete side quests, with side dungeons awaiting players who explore particularly well. The game's optional motion controls are mostly used for various mini-games or puzzles in the dungeons, and don't play too much of an impact on the overall game itself besides making certain puzzles easier. Phantasy Star VIII features some of the best graphics yet seen in an iTwin game, with lush environments and excellent character animation. The dungeon graphics get a bit repetitive at times, but each dungeon does have its own unique flare. Motoi Sakuraba returns as the game's composer, giving the game a more "epic" score than he gave to Phantasy Star VII. With the success of the Phantasy Star VII localization, Apple continues to throw a lot of money at the game's dub, ensuring a talented cast of Los Angeles-area voice actors filling numerous major roles. Nika Futterman stars as the voice of the game's primary protagonist, Glis, who is heavily based on Alis Landale from the original game (with their first names being only one letter different).
Phantasy Star VIII begins by establishing the world of Bastion, and that though the planet has amazing technology, the beings of Bastion do not travel into space, for the planet gives them all that they need. However, internal strife does occur, and Glis, a captain in the military of Lanel (the country where Glis hails from and where the beginning of the game takes place) is leading a raiding party of nameless soldiers on a military installation staffed by the nation of Caratia. This opening mission is mostly a tutorial for the game's battle system, and ends with a boss fight against a battle tank, followed by a sudden ambush in which Glis' fellow soldiers are wiped out. Glis is captured and interrogated, and this is where we first learn about the mysterious Blight, though it's just a rumor at the time. Glis is able to escape her cell, but then the perspective switches to Halter, the brash leader of a rescue mission to save Glis. Halter (voiced by Travis Willingham) is accompanied by his lieutenant, the somewhat quiet and demure Rin (voiced by Stephanie Sheh). Events conspire to lead Glis and Halter together, and after Halter and Rin are separated, Glis agrees to help Halter find her. This leads to a sequence of events in which the three encounter two more party members (one permanent and the other only temporary and won't return until later), end up lost deep in the forest, and encounter the Blight, which takes the form of strange green aliens who look like Swamp Thing, run and climb over one another like the zombies in the film adaptation of World War Z, and at first are completely immune to the heroes' attacks. Glis, Halter, Rin, and their new permanent companion Septaine (an arrogant bookworm who starts out extremely unlikable but who grows on the player as the game progresses), must find cover as they watch the Blight completely destroy a massive tree in which was once a large city that the four of them visited. The group goes through a couple more dungeons before they encounter the young Caratian general Valerie (voiced by Megan Hollingshead), who commands a powerful regiment of soldiers and who initially tries to have Glis and her group killed before realizing that they have valuable information about the Blight. Valerie and Glis distrust each other for a large portion of the game, with their similarities and differences both accentuated in their interactions with one another. Halter can't stop flirting with Valerie, much to Rin's chagrin, and it's established that the only reason that Valerie doesn't try to have the group killed is the presence of Septaine, who has taken copious notes about the Blight and its spread. The group makes their way deep into Caratian territory, and we meet a new character, Valerie's twin sister Camilla, who, unlike her combat-oriented sister, has taken to research and science. Camilla also knows a great deal about the Blight, and she and Septaine begin to put their knowledge together. Meanwhile, the Caratian military is still focused on its war with Lanel, and Glis is initially believed to be a saboteur. Valerie reluctantly vouches for her but it's still established that Glis and her companions are considered prisoners of war, and only alive at Valerie's pleasure. More questing and journeying takes place. We get another permanent party member (a combat robot named Tropp), and the Blight continues its advance, while the war continues as well. We also learn more about the nature of Bastion itself, and that many on the planet believe the trees that protect them to have been planted by an ancient god who came from space. The things that Glis' group discovers when they journey into the trees, including ancient writing, mysterious voices, and powerful magic, seem to somewhat support this theory. Glis believes that the ancient magic theory is true, while Valerie dismisses it (she would later admit that Camilla believes in it as well). We also learn more about Camilla, who doesn't join the party but who fills an important supporting role as a sort of explainer of the game's lore and discoverer of Bastion's secrets. We learn that Valerie and Camilla's parents favored Valerie, and that she has been the only one to support her sister's ambitions. About 60 percent of the way through the game, there is a cataclysmic battle between Lanel and Caratia (by now, Valerie is wavering in her loyalty to Caratia as she warms up to Glis, but she does leave the party temporarily and is fought as a boss battle before deciding to follow Glis' group again). Caratia is winning, but Lanel is putting up a good fight, when suddenly the Blight overwhelms Lanel. Caratia retreats, but the Blight wipes out the tree that forms Lanel's capital city, and millions are killed or left homeless as Lanel's capital is overrun with the Blight. By now, the party is able to damage the Blight, and fights some of them off, but the Blight is overwhelming, and Lanel is overrun.
Glis is devastated, though some of her friends from Lanel did make it out safely. They're accepted into Caratia as refugees, but must pay a heavy tax for the privilege. Valerie asks the Caratian leader if she can investigate the Blight, but is instead put in charge of ensuring that Lanel's refugees obey their orders, while Camilla has been put in charge of investigating the Blight. Once again, the party must do some time without Valerie, though she's replaced by both the final party member and the permanent return of the temporary party member from earlier, giving the heroes a mostly full contingent for a long and tough dungeon in which more of the planet's secrets are uncovered. Meanwhile, Valerie learns that Camilla has found a way to communicate with the Blight, and implores her to help stop them. Soon after, Valerie is declared a traitor by the Caratian leader, and is forced to flee back to find Glis, where she helps to save them from a Caratian ambush. After another quest, the group returns to the Caratian capital, but it's been overrun by the Blight, and Camilla is feared dead. However, what the party finds is much worse: Camilla has been communing with the Blight, and has been directing their actions for quite some time. Valerie tries to reason with her twin sister, but is attacked along with the rest of the party, who is forced to flee after defeating a massive Blight monster. Now that Camilla's secret is out, she no longer holds back her power: massive swaths of the spectral forest encompassing the planet are destroyed, and during this pivotal scene, the real sky is exposed for the first time, showing that instead of the beautiful stars that the canopy's trees have shown humanity on the surface of Bastion for thousands of years, the universe is actually a chaotic and terrible place. It's later learned that a group of human beings came to Bastion 3,000 years ago, fleeing a calamity in their own galaxy. They settled down on Bastion and terraformed the planet, planting seeds that transformed their world, but also prevented them from ever reaching the stars again. These trees have been their protectors and providers ever since, but now the Blight threaten to destroy that protection, and must somehow be stopped. Glis leads the party to rediscover the ancient magic that the founders of Bastion used to grow the massive spectral forest, and learn that the Blight is actually the manifestation of an ancient darkness that's plagued the universe for many eons. It's a biological disease given form by the malice and evil that the ancients fled so many millennia ago, an evil that has taken root inside Camille's mind. Camille is the only one who can stop the Blight, but she must be defeated. Valerie refuses to let the party kill her, and Glis is determined to find a way to keep that from happening. Eventually, the party has to find a way to get back into space and reach the ancients' homeworld to find an artifact that might purify Camille. They leave Bastion behind, not knowing what they'll return to. They find on the ancients' planet a runic knife that can pierce into the heart of darkness itself, and might be able to save Camille without killing her. They are also forced to battle a powerful ancient evil creature on the planet before returning to Bastion, which by now has been almost completely overrun (fortunately, most of the game's cities and locations are still intact, so the party is still able to access most of the quests they've neglected up to this point). Finally, the party goes to the core of the Blight to take on Camille. Camille now appears with a humanoid Blight creature that has the appearance and mannerisms of Dark Falz, the villain of the original Phantasy Star games, further tying this game in to its predecessors. After a fierce fight with Camille, who now utilizes powerful dark magic amped by a technological powersuit, Valerie is able to plunge the knife into Camille's heart, severing her connection to Dark Falz and bringing her to her senses. It seems that she's saved, but her bitterness and jealousy still remain, no matter what Valerie says to her. She tries to pull Valerie into the Blight, but Glis saves her just in time, and the two women watch in horror as Camille is fully absorbed into the Blight to become a creature of pure darkness and evil, sustained by Camille's hatred. This creature, known as Eternal Hatred, is a formidable foe, but she too is defeated by the party. Camille, defiant and bitter to the end, curses Valerie one last time before dying, and Valerie collapses in tears, comforted by her comrades as they rise to confront Dark Falz himself, who has possessed seemingly the entire planet to attack Glis and the heroes as the cosmic nightmare Blight Force. Blight Force is defeated as well, purging Dark Falz's evil influence from the planet and purifying Bastion in a way that the ancients could not. The Blight retreat from the planet, and though most of the Spectral Canopy is gone, Bastion is safe once again, its people now turning their attention toward seeking out the stars.
Phantasy Star VIII receives a solid critical reception, averaging right around an 8/10 from critics. While this is a very good score, it's more than a full point lower than the average for the previous game, and most of this has to do with the game's pacing and structure. Dungeons are long, complicated, and chock-full of enemies. While these encounters can nominally be avoided, since enemies do appear on the map and must be touched to battle them (no random encounters), the narrow corridors in many of the dungeons make this difficult and sometimes impossible. In many ways, the game has much of the same structure as OTL's Star Ocean IV: The Last Hope, with massive dungeons breaking up large, open areas of gameplay and long cinematics. It's a very beautiful and well made game, but the long and arduous dungeon crawling makes it somewhat anathema to RPG newbies, and even longtime series vets find it a bit of a chore to get through. Despite the slightly disappointing critical reception, sales are anything but: the game is released on April 28, 2009 in North America (after a January 2009 Japanese release and about a month before the European release), and is easily the most hyped Phantasy Star game to date, pushed as the iTwin's biggest RPG of the year. It did extremely well in Japan, selling about two million copies there before the North American release, and in North America it sells just over 250,000 copies in its first week, a huge number for the series and its most successful Western launch to date. The series' popularity has been elevated by both the successful iPod Play game and the Phantasy Star Online series, while the two previous remakes also help raise the series' profile somewhat. Even with mixed word of mouth, sales remain fairly strong in the West, and it becomes a bona-fide hit, easily the most successful offline Phantasy Star to date.
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Final Phantasy? Phantasy Star VIII Is Anything But
Phantasy Star VIII enjoyed the most successful launch of any game in the series to date, with even better early sales numbers than Phantasy Star Online 2, itself a major launch title for the Apple iTwin. Even before the launch of Phantasy Star VIII, its team has been hard at work on the next games in the series, but now that the latest game is a success, these new titles can expect even more hype as they prepare for launch.
Later this year, we'll see the worldwide release of Phantasy Star Online 2: Return To Algol, which will take the online games back to the home system from the original four games in the series. Players will get to retrace the steps of heroes such as Alis Landale and Chaz Ashley, and will be searching for pieces of the Landale Legacy, a set of ancient magical equipment said to be invaluable in the fight against evil. They'll also be encountering the wicked Dark Falz, villain of the original saga, as his minions search for the Legacy in order to use its power to revive their dark master. Return To Algol will introduce new quests and allow players to level up like never before, taking on powerful new monsters with their new abilities. The expansion won't be free: it'll cost 30 dollars when it launches later this year, and players who don't have the expansion will remain restricted to the universe of the original game (which in and of itself is quite a big universe). More about the expansion will undoubtedly be discussed at the upcoming E3 conference, and we'll likely get a release date there as well. Phantasy Star Online 2 remains the most popular console MMO and third most popular MMO overall in terms of user base, behind World Of Warcraft and Final Fantasy Online (though Final Fantasy Online counts both console and PC users, with Phantasy Star Online 2 coming out slightly ahead in terms of console users alone). It also remains the most popular non-subscription MMORPG of all time, with its total userbase having surpassed that of Sony's PirateQuest late last year. Reggie Fils-Aime, in a recent interview with GameInformer, re-iterated that Phantasy Star Online 2 will remain a subscription-free RPG for the remainder of its lifespan, stating that "from the very beginning of its development, Phantasy Star Online and its sequels have always been intended as games that, once you pay the upfront price of the game, it's yours to play forever. We won't charge a subscription fee, and we'll never charge one. Phantasy Star Online is a place where millions of players have come together to journey the stars and battle the forces of evil, hunting for treasure and leveling up together, and we want to see millions more players join the fight in the future". Interestingly enough, Fils-Aime didn't say "sequel", he said "sequels". When pressed on that comment, he vaguely clarified himself, saying "Certainly, we'd like to do another Phantasy Star Online game in the future. For now, our focus is on Phantasy Star Online 2 and expanding its universe to make it even more fun to play as the years go on, but in the future, of course, it's possible that there could be a Phantasy Star Online 3."
One Phantasy Star series certain to get a third installment in the near future is the popular remake series, with Phantasy Star III on deck. Called Phantasy Star Generations, the game, which remakes the classic Genesis game that sees three generations of heroes in an ongoing war against evil, will be released this summer in Japan, and will see a North American release sometime after that. The game will be released on the iTwin, and looks very similar to Phantasy Star VIII from a graphical perspective, though it draws heavily from the original game for its combat system and storyline. Phantasy Star Journey and Phantasy Star Venture did quite well in Japan on the Katana, and helped to boost the profile of that console there, along with Apple's reputation in the country. Phantasy Star Generations looks to be the most hyped of the remakes to date, thanks to the success of Phantasy Star VIII, and if it's successful, we'll certainly see a remake of Phantasy Star IV, considered by many fans to still be the best game in the series.
-from a May 15, 2009 article on Games Over Matter
Phantasy Star VIII is an RPG developed and published by Apple (though Sega is credited as the developer, and most of the same team from the previous games returns for this one) exclusively for the iTwin. Like its predecessors, Phantasy Star VIII mixes sci-fi with fantasy, and is set on a distant planet where technology and magic come together and the forces of light clash with the forces of darkness. Whereas Phantasy Star VII for the iPod Play was a bit experimental, with some action RPG-esque features, Phantasy Star VIII is somewhat of a return to the basics for the series. It features turn-based combat, though with a dynamic turn system very similar to the system from OTL's Final Fantasy X, in which turns can change order on the fly depending on speed and counter-attacks. It also has five characters in the active party, out of a total of nine playable characters (none of whom die in the game, also unlike Phantasy Star VII). It also puts a heavy emphasis on dungeon exploration, with many massive dungeons that the party must traverse as they travel through the game. There are dungeons between towns, dungeons outside of towns, dungeons in unexpected places... the game really tries to bring back the dungeon-crawling aspects of the classic games, with far more time spent in dungeons than in the previous game. And while Phantasy Star VIII continues to bring in a few aspects of the popular Phantasy Star Online spinoff series, it also nixes some of the additions that Phantasy Star VII brought in, including the randomized loot system. There's still some random loot in this game, but not nearly to the degree that there was in Phantasy Star VII, and it doesn't have such an MMO-like distribution, either. The game primarily takes place on the planet of Bastion, a world shrouded in a worldwide forest, with massive trees that rise miles into the sky. Their foliage gives off a beautiful luminescent glow that simulates the stars and the sky, and people live their lives both under these massive trees and within them. Though the presence of a worldwide forest would suggest a backwards, nature-oriented planet, Bastion is actually an advanced technological world, far more advanced than our own, with the people having lived with the trees and having used their energy to power their technology. In fact, the clash between technology and magic forms a major part of the game's battle system. Enemies are classified on a scale from entirely technological to entirely magical, with varying degrees inbetween, while attacks are classified the same way. Magical enemies are weak to technological attacks, but not vice versa, making it to the party's advantage to use as much technology in battle as possible. Technological attacks activate combat bonuses and buffs, though these bonuses are less pronounced when enemies and the field itself are oriented toward the technological. There is a third classification, biological, that can have elements of technology, magic, or both, and reacts to technology in varying ways. The most notable manifestation of biological enemies are the Blight, an alien organism that attacks the trees and plant life on Bastion and makes its appearance fairly early into the game. Players must not only become skilled at juggling the combat triangle, but the dynamic turn meter as well. Phantasy Star VIII features a fairly large, open world, though it's not open to quite the same degree as a Xenoblade or a Final Fantasy XII (OTL) might be. Players can explore large environments to find treasure and complete side quests, with side dungeons awaiting players who explore particularly well. The game's optional motion controls are mostly used for various mini-games or puzzles in the dungeons, and don't play too much of an impact on the overall game itself besides making certain puzzles easier. Phantasy Star VIII features some of the best graphics yet seen in an iTwin game, with lush environments and excellent character animation. The dungeon graphics get a bit repetitive at times, but each dungeon does have its own unique flare. Motoi Sakuraba returns as the game's composer, giving the game a more "epic" score than he gave to Phantasy Star VII. With the success of the Phantasy Star VII localization, Apple continues to throw a lot of money at the game's dub, ensuring a talented cast of Los Angeles-area voice actors filling numerous major roles. Nika Futterman stars as the voice of the game's primary protagonist, Glis, who is heavily based on Alis Landale from the original game (with their first names being only one letter different).
Phantasy Star VIII begins by establishing the world of Bastion, and that though the planet has amazing technology, the beings of Bastion do not travel into space, for the planet gives them all that they need. However, internal strife does occur, and Glis, a captain in the military of Lanel (the country where Glis hails from and where the beginning of the game takes place) is leading a raiding party of nameless soldiers on a military installation staffed by the nation of Caratia. This opening mission is mostly a tutorial for the game's battle system, and ends with a boss fight against a battle tank, followed by a sudden ambush in which Glis' fellow soldiers are wiped out. Glis is captured and interrogated, and this is where we first learn about the mysterious Blight, though it's just a rumor at the time. Glis is able to escape her cell, but then the perspective switches to Halter, the brash leader of a rescue mission to save Glis. Halter (voiced by Travis Willingham) is accompanied by his lieutenant, the somewhat quiet and demure Rin (voiced by Stephanie Sheh). Events conspire to lead Glis and Halter together, and after Halter and Rin are separated, Glis agrees to help Halter find her. This leads to a sequence of events in which the three encounter two more party members (one permanent and the other only temporary and won't return until later), end up lost deep in the forest, and encounter the Blight, which takes the form of strange green aliens who look like Swamp Thing, run and climb over one another like the zombies in the film adaptation of World War Z, and at first are completely immune to the heroes' attacks. Glis, Halter, Rin, and their new permanent companion Septaine (an arrogant bookworm who starts out extremely unlikable but who grows on the player as the game progresses), must find cover as they watch the Blight completely destroy a massive tree in which was once a large city that the four of them visited. The group goes through a couple more dungeons before they encounter the young Caratian general Valerie (voiced by Megan Hollingshead), who commands a powerful regiment of soldiers and who initially tries to have Glis and her group killed before realizing that they have valuable information about the Blight. Valerie and Glis distrust each other for a large portion of the game, with their similarities and differences both accentuated in their interactions with one another. Halter can't stop flirting with Valerie, much to Rin's chagrin, and it's established that the only reason that Valerie doesn't try to have the group killed is the presence of Septaine, who has taken copious notes about the Blight and its spread. The group makes their way deep into Caratian territory, and we meet a new character, Valerie's twin sister Camilla, who, unlike her combat-oriented sister, has taken to research and science. Camilla also knows a great deal about the Blight, and she and Septaine begin to put their knowledge together. Meanwhile, the Caratian military is still focused on its war with Lanel, and Glis is initially believed to be a saboteur. Valerie reluctantly vouches for her but it's still established that Glis and her companions are considered prisoners of war, and only alive at Valerie's pleasure. More questing and journeying takes place. We get another permanent party member (a combat robot named Tropp), and the Blight continues its advance, while the war continues as well. We also learn more about the nature of Bastion itself, and that many on the planet believe the trees that protect them to have been planted by an ancient god who came from space. The things that Glis' group discovers when they journey into the trees, including ancient writing, mysterious voices, and powerful magic, seem to somewhat support this theory. Glis believes that the ancient magic theory is true, while Valerie dismisses it (she would later admit that Camilla believes in it as well). We also learn more about Camilla, who doesn't join the party but who fills an important supporting role as a sort of explainer of the game's lore and discoverer of Bastion's secrets. We learn that Valerie and Camilla's parents favored Valerie, and that she has been the only one to support her sister's ambitions. About 60 percent of the way through the game, there is a cataclysmic battle between Lanel and Caratia (by now, Valerie is wavering in her loyalty to Caratia as she warms up to Glis, but she does leave the party temporarily and is fought as a boss battle before deciding to follow Glis' group again). Caratia is winning, but Lanel is putting up a good fight, when suddenly the Blight overwhelms Lanel. Caratia retreats, but the Blight wipes out the tree that forms Lanel's capital city, and millions are killed or left homeless as Lanel's capital is overrun with the Blight. By now, the party is able to damage the Blight, and fights some of them off, but the Blight is overwhelming, and Lanel is overrun.
Glis is devastated, though some of her friends from Lanel did make it out safely. They're accepted into Caratia as refugees, but must pay a heavy tax for the privilege. Valerie asks the Caratian leader if she can investigate the Blight, but is instead put in charge of ensuring that Lanel's refugees obey their orders, while Camilla has been put in charge of investigating the Blight. Once again, the party must do some time without Valerie, though she's replaced by both the final party member and the permanent return of the temporary party member from earlier, giving the heroes a mostly full contingent for a long and tough dungeon in which more of the planet's secrets are uncovered. Meanwhile, Valerie learns that Camilla has found a way to communicate with the Blight, and implores her to help stop them. Soon after, Valerie is declared a traitor by the Caratian leader, and is forced to flee back to find Glis, where she helps to save them from a Caratian ambush. After another quest, the group returns to the Caratian capital, but it's been overrun by the Blight, and Camilla is feared dead. However, what the party finds is much worse: Camilla has been communing with the Blight, and has been directing their actions for quite some time. Valerie tries to reason with her twin sister, but is attacked along with the rest of the party, who is forced to flee after defeating a massive Blight monster. Now that Camilla's secret is out, she no longer holds back her power: massive swaths of the spectral forest encompassing the planet are destroyed, and during this pivotal scene, the real sky is exposed for the first time, showing that instead of the beautiful stars that the canopy's trees have shown humanity on the surface of Bastion for thousands of years, the universe is actually a chaotic and terrible place. It's later learned that a group of human beings came to Bastion 3,000 years ago, fleeing a calamity in their own galaxy. They settled down on Bastion and terraformed the planet, planting seeds that transformed their world, but also prevented them from ever reaching the stars again. These trees have been their protectors and providers ever since, but now the Blight threaten to destroy that protection, and must somehow be stopped. Glis leads the party to rediscover the ancient magic that the founders of Bastion used to grow the massive spectral forest, and learn that the Blight is actually the manifestation of an ancient darkness that's plagued the universe for many eons. It's a biological disease given form by the malice and evil that the ancients fled so many millennia ago, an evil that has taken root inside Camille's mind. Camille is the only one who can stop the Blight, but she must be defeated. Valerie refuses to let the party kill her, and Glis is determined to find a way to keep that from happening. Eventually, the party has to find a way to get back into space and reach the ancients' homeworld to find an artifact that might purify Camille. They leave Bastion behind, not knowing what they'll return to. They find on the ancients' planet a runic knife that can pierce into the heart of darkness itself, and might be able to save Camille without killing her. They are also forced to battle a powerful ancient evil creature on the planet before returning to Bastion, which by now has been almost completely overrun (fortunately, most of the game's cities and locations are still intact, so the party is still able to access most of the quests they've neglected up to this point). Finally, the party goes to the core of the Blight to take on Camille. Camille now appears with a humanoid Blight creature that has the appearance and mannerisms of Dark Falz, the villain of the original Phantasy Star games, further tying this game in to its predecessors. After a fierce fight with Camille, who now utilizes powerful dark magic amped by a technological powersuit, Valerie is able to plunge the knife into Camille's heart, severing her connection to Dark Falz and bringing her to her senses. It seems that she's saved, but her bitterness and jealousy still remain, no matter what Valerie says to her. She tries to pull Valerie into the Blight, but Glis saves her just in time, and the two women watch in horror as Camille is fully absorbed into the Blight to become a creature of pure darkness and evil, sustained by Camille's hatred. This creature, known as Eternal Hatred, is a formidable foe, but she too is defeated by the party. Camille, defiant and bitter to the end, curses Valerie one last time before dying, and Valerie collapses in tears, comforted by her comrades as they rise to confront Dark Falz himself, who has possessed seemingly the entire planet to attack Glis and the heroes as the cosmic nightmare Blight Force. Blight Force is defeated as well, purging Dark Falz's evil influence from the planet and purifying Bastion in a way that the ancients could not. The Blight retreat from the planet, and though most of the Spectral Canopy is gone, Bastion is safe once again, its people now turning their attention toward seeking out the stars.
Phantasy Star VIII receives a solid critical reception, averaging right around an 8/10 from critics. While this is a very good score, it's more than a full point lower than the average for the previous game, and most of this has to do with the game's pacing and structure. Dungeons are long, complicated, and chock-full of enemies. While these encounters can nominally be avoided, since enemies do appear on the map and must be touched to battle them (no random encounters), the narrow corridors in many of the dungeons make this difficult and sometimes impossible. In many ways, the game has much of the same structure as OTL's Star Ocean IV: The Last Hope, with massive dungeons breaking up large, open areas of gameplay and long cinematics. It's a very beautiful and well made game, but the long and arduous dungeon crawling makes it somewhat anathema to RPG newbies, and even longtime series vets find it a bit of a chore to get through. Despite the slightly disappointing critical reception, sales are anything but: the game is released on April 28, 2009 in North America (after a January 2009 Japanese release and about a month before the European release), and is easily the most hyped Phantasy Star game to date, pushed as the iTwin's biggest RPG of the year. It did extremely well in Japan, selling about two million copies there before the North American release, and in North America it sells just over 250,000 copies in its first week, a huge number for the series and its most successful Western launch to date. The series' popularity has been elevated by both the successful iPod Play game and the Phantasy Star Online series, while the two previous remakes also help raise the series' profile somewhat. Even with mixed word of mouth, sales remain fairly strong in the West, and it becomes a bona-fide hit, easily the most successful offline Phantasy Star to date.
-
Final Phantasy? Phantasy Star VIII Is Anything But
Phantasy Star VIII enjoyed the most successful launch of any game in the series to date, with even better early sales numbers than Phantasy Star Online 2, itself a major launch title for the Apple iTwin. Even before the launch of Phantasy Star VIII, its team has been hard at work on the next games in the series, but now that the latest game is a success, these new titles can expect even more hype as they prepare for launch.
Later this year, we'll see the worldwide release of Phantasy Star Online 2: Return To Algol, which will take the online games back to the home system from the original four games in the series. Players will get to retrace the steps of heroes such as Alis Landale and Chaz Ashley, and will be searching for pieces of the Landale Legacy, a set of ancient magical equipment said to be invaluable in the fight against evil. They'll also be encountering the wicked Dark Falz, villain of the original saga, as his minions search for the Legacy in order to use its power to revive their dark master. Return To Algol will introduce new quests and allow players to level up like never before, taking on powerful new monsters with their new abilities. The expansion won't be free: it'll cost 30 dollars when it launches later this year, and players who don't have the expansion will remain restricted to the universe of the original game (which in and of itself is quite a big universe). More about the expansion will undoubtedly be discussed at the upcoming E3 conference, and we'll likely get a release date there as well. Phantasy Star Online 2 remains the most popular console MMO and third most popular MMO overall in terms of user base, behind World Of Warcraft and Final Fantasy Online (though Final Fantasy Online counts both console and PC users, with Phantasy Star Online 2 coming out slightly ahead in terms of console users alone). It also remains the most popular non-subscription MMORPG of all time, with its total userbase having surpassed that of Sony's PirateQuest late last year. Reggie Fils-Aime, in a recent interview with GameInformer, re-iterated that Phantasy Star Online 2 will remain a subscription-free RPG for the remainder of its lifespan, stating that "from the very beginning of its development, Phantasy Star Online and its sequels have always been intended as games that, once you pay the upfront price of the game, it's yours to play forever. We won't charge a subscription fee, and we'll never charge one. Phantasy Star Online is a place where millions of players have come together to journey the stars and battle the forces of evil, hunting for treasure and leveling up together, and we want to see millions more players join the fight in the future". Interestingly enough, Fils-Aime didn't say "sequel", he said "sequels". When pressed on that comment, he vaguely clarified himself, saying "Certainly, we'd like to do another Phantasy Star Online game in the future. For now, our focus is on Phantasy Star Online 2 and expanding its universe to make it even more fun to play as the years go on, but in the future, of course, it's possible that there could be a Phantasy Star Online 3."
One Phantasy Star series certain to get a third installment in the near future is the popular remake series, with Phantasy Star III on deck. Called Phantasy Star Generations, the game, which remakes the classic Genesis game that sees three generations of heroes in an ongoing war against evil, will be released this summer in Japan, and will see a North American release sometime after that. The game will be released on the iTwin, and looks very similar to Phantasy Star VIII from a graphical perspective, though it draws heavily from the original game for its combat system and storyline. Phantasy Star Journey and Phantasy Star Venture did quite well in Japan on the Katana, and helped to boost the profile of that console there, along with Apple's reputation in the country. Phantasy Star Generations looks to be the most hyped of the remakes to date, thanks to the success of Phantasy Star VIII, and if it's successful, we'll certainly see a remake of Phantasy Star IV, considered by many fans to still be the best game in the series.
-from a May 15, 2009 article on Games Over Matter
Late but the squirrel story struck me as really funny. Wish something like that happened to me.
Jejeje when you're in the test but forgot to study....
Still...people, the games...some pennies on them..
Look at what just got published on Polygon: https://www.polygon.com/2018/11/26/18080492/playstation-history-ken-kutaragi-sony
What can you say, the man had ambition.
What can you say, the man had ambition.
I would properly imagine that this Great Blackout would properly hit worldwide news because this isn't something that would only be American news. It might also make the Australian government think about their renewable stance from OTL at the moment (mainly focusing on the coal powerplants and that).
Spring 2009 (Part 6) - Everyone, Everywhere: Mobile And MMO Gaming In 2009
Mobile's Killer App? Welcome To The World Of Scribblenauts, Where Literally Anything Is Possible
As the iPhone and the latest Android devices continue to make their way into the hands of gamers, the games being made for them have steadily improved in quality. Theoretically, these devices are more powerful (in some cases, significantly more) than Nintendo and Apple's dedicated gaming handhelds, but the majority of games being released for them have been somewhat disappointing, either simplistic puzzlers or gimmicky touch-screen games that don't compare to the experience of the best handheld games. Still, there are diamonds in the rough, and when Scribblenauts launches later this year for Apple and Android devices, we could see the shiniest gem yet.
Scribblenauts takes advantage of cell phone touch screen technology to allow players to write and type in words that transform into objects that appear in the game. Anything, and we mean anything, can be created to solve the game's dozens of puzzle stages. Want to use a monster truck to knock down a building? You can. Want to make a lion appear to fight off a bunch of thugs? You can do that too. Even God himself can be placed into the game to solve puzzles and fight off baddies, just type his name into the game and he shows up, ready to be dragged into place with the player's finger. Scribblenauts is one of many games becoming possible through the use of touch screen technology, and utilizes the powerful processors of modern phones to incorporate an incredible database of objects, over 10,000 in all. Game director Jeremiah Slaczka says that Apple approached his company, 5th Cell, about making the game exclusive to the iPhone, but 5th Cell had already secured a publisher for the game, and wanted to make it available for as many devices as possible. He also says that while a version for the Supernova and iPod Play might be technically possible from a processing perspective, that the game really doesn't work the way it should without a touch screen.
"A touch screen makes it possible for objects to be moved much more freely, without pausing the action on screen," said Slaczka. "It also makes it easier to enter letters into the game quickly, something that would make a non-touch screen version of the game quite cumbersome."
The only non-mobile device considered for a version of Scribblenauts was the iTwin, and while Slaczka doesn't want to rule out an iTwin port, he also told us that for now, the game would be exclusive to phones.
"We're focusing on the phone release at this time. It's such a rapidly growing market and we feel the game's going to have a lot of success there."
-from a May 10, 2009 article on Kotaku
-
REVIEW: Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?
Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? was a defining PC gaming franchise of the 1980s, and had a brief stint of success in the early 90s with a popular series of games for the CD-ROM consoles of the day, but our favorite thief hasn't had much of a presence in the world of gaming since then. That could change with the release of the most hyped Carmen Sandiego game in the last decade, her leap to mobile phone platforms. While the game at first looks like it could be a port of the SNES-CD version from 1993, it's anything but that: this is a brand new game with all new cases and characters, and the graphics have been completely revamped, with colorful backgrounds, brand new animation, and some excellent 3-D graphics as well (though limited to static background images and a few small character animations). There's no voice acting in this game either, but there's plenty of witty text dialogue and some catchy music tunes as well. The game plays much like the Carmen Sandiego titles of old: Carmen is on the loose, having stolen some important artifact from somewhere in the world, and you, a rookie ACME agent, have to track her down, using geography-based clues to narrow the search. These clues are where the game really shines: the game features over 10,000 different possible locations, making it impossible for any one game to be the same as any other. In addition, the game's programmers have promised to add even more clues to the game as time goes by, further limiting the possibility of repeat clues. You'll use your geographical knowledge to gather clues and catch Carmen's henchmen, who can be interrogated for even more hints.
(...)
What really sets this mobile game apart is the GPS functionality, which will allow players to actually chase Carmen to certain locations around their own hometown, or even more if so inclined. This functionality is limited at first, but developer Niantic promises to expand it in the future, and we can imagine a world in which one day, particularly dedicated (and, admittedly, wealthy) players can actually go looking around the world for Carmen Sandiego.
(...)
Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? is a fun game that can teach geography to kids or allow adults to test their own geographical knowledge. It's a perfect game for mobile phones, and we're extremely intrigued by the possibility of actually hunting down Carmen Sandiego for real someday. The game is available on Android devices, but is not, as of yet, available for download on iPhone.
RATING: 8/10
-from a review of Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? for Android, posted on Mobile Gamer on May 26, 2009
-
Jeff Gerstmann: Make no mistake about it, Incursion From The Geistrealm was a disappointment. It wasn't a disappointment on the level that it killed how much I like World Of Warcraft, but it was definitely disappointing.
Ryan Davis: And it's a shame too, because with so much of the spotlight thrust on PC gaming at the end of last year thanks to SimSociety and how successful it was, a really good World Of Warcraft expansion could've gotten people super hyped for the game again and that didn't happen. Geistrealm was a mess. It had a crap story, the new dungeons were crap, the level pacing was really bad, it was way too grindy... and yet World Of Warcraft is still the most popular MMORPG in the world.
Gerstmann: It's still the king of the hill for sure. And we're still waiting on that console version.
Davis: It's not gonna happen.
Gerstmann: I think it is. I think maybe it is. Remember what Rob Pardo said about the Sapphire, and how much he liked the Sapphire?
Davis: Doesn't matter, it wouldn't work. The Sapphire could handle it graphically, sure, but the controls, you'd have to buy a keyboard and mouse for the Sapphire and it just wouldn't work. Mouse hasn't worked for a console game since Mario Paint. And besides, Blizzard I think right now has a better relationship with Apple than with Nintendo, because they did, um, Rhapsody Of The Firmament for Apple, remember?
Gerstmann: That's Jeff Kaplan's pet project, that has nothing to do with what Blizzard thinks of Apple. Blizzard made that game an iTwin exclusive because of money and because of the control scheme, they would've put that game on the Sapphire or the Xbox otherwise.
Davis: I think we'd get World Of Warcraft on the iTwin before we'd get it on the Sapphire, but we're not getting it on either one of them so there's no point in continuing this line of discussion.
Gerstmann: Well, either way, World Of Warcraft is still selling really well and it's still the #1 MMORPG. But the #2 MMORPG, Final Fantasy Online, IS on consoles and on PC, and let's talk about it. We already know Squaresoft is bringing it to the Sapphire.
Davis: Which they're going to talk about at E3.
Gerstmann: So my question is, why port the original when you can just make a brand new game? Apple did it. Phantasy Star Online 2 is doing great.
Davis: The Wave did so much better than the Katana, though. So you have a LOT more legacy players for Final Fantasy Online, which is amazing by the way since it's a per-month subscription game.
Gerstmann: It's incredible.
Davis: Final Fantasy Online's had some expansions recently. The last one was... spring of 2008, I believe?
Gerstmann: Pandemonium Reborn.
Davis: And that was received... really well, actually. And the new one is being developed to coincide with the Sapphire version and we think that'll be announced at E3 also.
Gerstmann: Can't wait to play it on the Sapphire, but you know what I'd like to play even more? Final Fantasy Online 2.
Davis: The cool thing about MMORPGs is you don't need sequels. You can just expand them.
Gerstmann: They haven't done either for Ultima X.
Davis: Are you still playing Ultima X?
Gerstmann: Lots of people are still playing it. You can play it on the Xbox 2, which is nice.
Davis: There's a rumor we're going to hear about Ultima XI at E3. That'd be nice too.
-from the May 19, 2009 episode of the Gamespot Podcast With Jeff And Ryan
-
"An increased number of MMOs are now launching on mobile phones, bringing the open worlds of massively multiplayer RPGs into the mobile arena for the first time. This is particularly common with newer Korean MMORPGs, which aren't quite as technology intensive as games such as World Of Warcraft and are able to fit onto smaller devices. The most popular new Korean MMORPG of 2009 is Fairycross, a game that features a world of steampunk fairies set in Victorian England, and whose name seems to take inspiration from the song "Ferry Cross The Mersey" by Gerry and the Pacemakers. In Fairycross, you battle evil ogres while gathering up treasure scrap to construct equipment and machinery. The game blends high fantasy with steampunk fashion, while utilizing a 2.5-D graphics engine that gives the game a retro, early-Sega Saturn game look to it. Players can meet one another in the game's 16 different zones, and can either battle each other or team up to hunt for treasure or battle ogre mobs. The game's touchscreen interface allows battles to play out very quickly, with the player simply tapping objects they want to interact with or enemies they wish to target. The game definitely has a grindy feel, encouraging players to spend many hours hunting down treasure or baddies, which keeps them in the game looking at advertisements longer (the primary source of income for the game comes from ad revenue, though there is a $19.99/year subscription version of the game that allows players to access 16 more areas and face stronger mobs of enemies). Fairycross came to the West simultaneously with the Korean release, as is increasingly the trend for Korean mobile games.
The game has accrued a fandom across the world, and many famous K-Pop stars also play the game, with a few even screencapping their accomplishments to show off on Friendster or Twitter. Many players congregate in areas recently visited by these stars, hoping to meet them in the game, and the game's developers have been quoted as saying that subscription activity spikes whenever a famous star is sighted in one of the premium-gated areas."
-from an article in the June 2009 issue of Wired magazine
-
"A really troubling trend in these MMORPGs as of late is the use of celebrity endorsements to gin up subscription numbers in these games. Last week, K-Pop star Myung Hee Song announced her new tour, sponsored by World Tree, makers of the popular mobile MMO Fairycross. Sounds innocent enough, eh? Well, World Tree is trying to push their new expansion with these new areas based on Balmoral Castle, you can find some big ancient ghost king there or some such thing, and of course you've got to pay the subscription fee of 20 dollars a year to go there. Well, who should show up in Balmoral Castle but the Fairycross avatar of Myung Hee Song, gleefully posting screenshots as she grinds away with her level 62 moon fairy, having a grand old time. World Tree sponsors Myung Hee Song, and here she is exploring this premium gated area, and posting pictures like she's some virtual tourist, like she's visiting Disney World or something. It's a pretty big fucking coincidence, wouldn't you say?"
-Jim Sterling, from an Escapist article posted on June 14, 2009
As the iPhone and the latest Android devices continue to make their way into the hands of gamers, the games being made for them have steadily improved in quality. Theoretically, these devices are more powerful (in some cases, significantly more) than Nintendo and Apple's dedicated gaming handhelds, but the majority of games being released for them have been somewhat disappointing, either simplistic puzzlers or gimmicky touch-screen games that don't compare to the experience of the best handheld games. Still, there are diamonds in the rough, and when Scribblenauts launches later this year for Apple and Android devices, we could see the shiniest gem yet.
Scribblenauts takes advantage of cell phone touch screen technology to allow players to write and type in words that transform into objects that appear in the game. Anything, and we mean anything, can be created to solve the game's dozens of puzzle stages. Want to use a monster truck to knock down a building? You can. Want to make a lion appear to fight off a bunch of thugs? You can do that too. Even God himself can be placed into the game to solve puzzles and fight off baddies, just type his name into the game and he shows up, ready to be dragged into place with the player's finger. Scribblenauts is one of many games becoming possible through the use of touch screen technology, and utilizes the powerful processors of modern phones to incorporate an incredible database of objects, over 10,000 in all. Game director Jeremiah Slaczka says that Apple approached his company, 5th Cell, about making the game exclusive to the iPhone, but 5th Cell had already secured a publisher for the game, and wanted to make it available for as many devices as possible. He also says that while a version for the Supernova and iPod Play might be technically possible from a processing perspective, that the game really doesn't work the way it should without a touch screen.
"A touch screen makes it possible for objects to be moved much more freely, without pausing the action on screen," said Slaczka. "It also makes it easier to enter letters into the game quickly, something that would make a non-touch screen version of the game quite cumbersome."
The only non-mobile device considered for a version of Scribblenauts was the iTwin, and while Slaczka doesn't want to rule out an iTwin port, he also told us that for now, the game would be exclusive to phones.
"We're focusing on the phone release at this time. It's such a rapidly growing market and we feel the game's going to have a lot of success there."
-from a May 10, 2009 article on Kotaku
-
REVIEW: Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?
Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? was a defining PC gaming franchise of the 1980s, and had a brief stint of success in the early 90s with a popular series of games for the CD-ROM consoles of the day, but our favorite thief hasn't had much of a presence in the world of gaming since then. That could change with the release of the most hyped Carmen Sandiego game in the last decade, her leap to mobile phone platforms. While the game at first looks like it could be a port of the SNES-CD version from 1993, it's anything but that: this is a brand new game with all new cases and characters, and the graphics have been completely revamped, with colorful backgrounds, brand new animation, and some excellent 3-D graphics as well (though limited to static background images and a few small character animations). There's no voice acting in this game either, but there's plenty of witty text dialogue and some catchy music tunes as well. The game plays much like the Carmen Sandiego titles of old: Carmen is on the loose, having stolen some important artifact from somewhere in the world, and you, a rookie ACME agent, have to track her down, using geography-based clues to narrow the search. These clues are where the game really shines: the game features over 10,000 different possible locations, making it impossible for any one game to be the same as any other. In addition, the game's programmers have promised to add even more clues to the game as time goes by, further limiting the possibility of repeat clues. You'll use your geographical knowledge to gather clues and catch Carmen's henchmen, who can be interrogated for even more hints.
(...)
What really sets this mobile game apart is the GPS functionality, which will allow players to actually chase Carmen to certain locations around their own hometown, or even more if so inclined. This functionality is limited at first, but developer Niantic promises to expand it in the future, and we can imagine a world in which one day, particularly dedicated (and, admittedly, wealthy) players can actually go looking around the world for Carmen Sandiego.
(...)
Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? is a fun game that can teach geography to kids or allow adults to test their own geographical knowledge. It's a perfect game for mobile phones, and we're extremely intrigued by the possibility of actually hunting down Carmen Sandiego for real someday. The game is available on Android devices, but is not, as of yet, available for download on iPhone.
RATING: 8/10
-from a review of Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? for Android, posted on Mobile Gamer on May 26, 2009
-
Jeff Gerstmann: Make no mistake about it, Incursion From The Geistrealm was a disappointment. It wasn't a disappointment on the level that it killed how much I like World Of Warcraft, but it was definitely disappointing.
Ryan Davis: And it's a shame too, because with so much of the spotlight thrust on PC gaming at the end of last year thanks to SimSociety and how successful it was, a really good World Of Warcraft expansion could've gotten people super hyped for the game again and that didn't happen. Geistrealm was a mess. It had a crap story, the new dungeons were crap, the level pacing was really bad, it was way too grindy... and yet World Of Warcraft is still the most popular MMORPG in the world.
Gerstmann: It's still the king of the hill for sure. And we're still waiting on that console version.
Davis: It's not gonna happen.
Gerstmann: I think it is. I think maybe it is. Remember what Rob Pardo said about the Sapphire, and how much he liked the Sapphire?
Davis: Doesn't matter, it wouldn't work. The Sapphire could handle it graphically, sure, but the controls, you'd have to buy a keyboard and mouse for the Sapphire and it just wouldn't work. Mouse hasn't worked for a console game since Mario Paint. And besides, Blizzard I think right now has a better relationship with Apple than with Nintendo, because they did, um, Rhapsody Of The Firmament for Apple, remember?
Gerstmann: That's Jeff Kaplan's pet project, that has nothing to do with what Blizzard thinks of Apple. Blizzard made that game an iTwin exclusive because of money and because of the control scheme, they would've put that game on the Sapphire or the Xbox otherwise.
Davis: I think we'd get World Of Warcraft on the iTwin before we'd get it on the Sapphire, but we're not getting it on either one of them so there's no point in continuing this line of discussion.
Gerstmann: Well, either way, World Of Warcraft is still selling really well and it's still the #1 MMORPG. But the #2 MMORPG, Final Fantasy Online, IS on consoles and on PC, and let's talk about it. We already know Squaresoft is bringing it to the Sapphire.
Davis: Which they're going to talk about at E3.
Gerstmann: So my question is, why port the original when you can just make a brand new game? Apple did it. Phantasy Star Online 2 is doing great.
Davis: The Wave did so much better than the Katana, though. So you have a LOT more legacy players for Final Fantasy Online, which is amazing by the way since it's a per-month subscription game.
Gerstmann: It's incredible.
Davis: Final Fantasy Online's had some expansions recently. The last one was... spring of 2008, I believe?
Gerstmann: Pandemonium Reborn.
Davis: And that was received... really well, actually. And the new one is being developed to coincide with the Sapphire version and we think that'll be announced at E3 also.
Gerstmann: Can't wait to play it on the Sapphire, but you know what I'd like to play even more? Final Fantasy Online 2.
Davis: The cool thing about MMORPGs is you don't need sequels. You can just expand them.
Gerstmann: They haven't done either for Ultima X.
Davis: Are you still playing Ultima X?
Gerstmann: Lots of people are still playing it. You can play it on the Xbox 2, which is nice.
Davis: There's a rumor we're going to hear about Ultima XI at E3. That'd be nice too.
-from the May 19, 2009 episode of the Gamespot Podcast With Jeff And Ryan
-
"An increased number of MMOs are now launching on mobile phones, bringing the open worlds of massively multiplayer RPGs into the mobile arena for the first time. This is particularly common with newer Korean MMORPGs, which aren't quite as technology intensive as games such as World Of Warcraft and are able to fit onto smaller devices. The most popular new Korean MMORPG of 2009 is Fairycross, a game that features a world of steampunk fairies set in Victorian England, and whose name seems to take inspiration from the song "Ferry Cross The Mersey" by Gerry and the Pacemakers. In Fairycross, you battle evil ogres while gathering up treasure scrap to construct equipment and machinery. The game blends high fantasy with steampunk fashion, while utilizing a 2.5-D graphics engine that gives the game a retro, early-Sega Saturn game look to it. Players can meet one another in the game's 16 different zones, and can either battle each other or team up to hunt for treasure or battle ogre mobs. The game's touchscreen interface allows battles to play out very quickly, with the player simply tapping objects they want to interact with or enemies they wish to target. The game definitely has a grindy feel, encouraging players to spend many hours hunting down treasure or baddies, which keeps them in the game looking at advertisements longer (the primary source of income for the game comes from ad revenue, though there is a $19.99/year subscription version of the game that allows players to access 16 more areas and face stronger mobs of enemies). Fairycross came to the West simultaneously with the Korean release, as is increasingly the trend for Korean mobile games.
The game has accrued a fandom across the world, and many famous K-Pop stars also play the game, with a few even screencapping their accomplishments to show off on Friendster or Twitter. Many players congregate in areas recently visited by these stars, hoping to meet them in the game, and the game's developers have been quoted as saying that subscription activity spikes whenever a famous star is sighted in one of the premium-gated areas."
-from an article in the June 2009 issue of Wired magazine
-
"A really troubling trend in these MMORPGs as of late is the use of celebrity endorsements to gin up subscription numbers in these games. Last week, K-Pop star Myung Hee Song announced her new tour, sponsored by World Tree, makers of the popular mobile MMO Fairycross. Sounds innocent enough, eh? Well, World Tree is trying to push their new expansion with these new areas based on Balmoral Castle, you can find some big ancient ghost king there or some such thing, and of course you've got to pay the subscription fee of 20 dollars a year to go there. Well, who should show up in Balmoral Castle but the Fairycross avatar of Myung Hee Song, gleefully posting screenshots as she grinds away with her level 62 moon fairy, having a grand old time. World Tree sponsors Myung Hee Song, and here she is exploring this premium gated area, and posting pictures like she's some virtual tourist, like she's visiting Disney World or something. It's a pretty big fucking coincidence, wouldn't you say?"
-Jim Sterling, from an Escapist article posted on June 14, 2009
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I see Jim hasn't lost his cutting edge bluntness and hatred of shady practices in the gaming industry.
I'm really looking forward to see when the guy inevitably talks about Steve Jobs.
I wonder what his main Jimquisition topics would be at this time TTL.
Right now in OTL, his main topic is loot boxes.
I remember when, almost 10 years ago, 2NE1 were included in some kind of FPS...
...now one of them's a religious zealot, another's probably thinking about moving to the Philippines for good, the third was subject to a witch hunt about prescription drugs that ended her career, and the last one was royally screwed out of a promising US debut by the CEO of her own label. Time sure flies, man.
Wait what? Thats a wild split....I remember when, almost 10 years ago, 2NE1 were included in some kind of FPS...
...now one of them's a religious zealot, another's probably thinking about moving to the Philippines for good, the third was subject to a witch hunt about prescription drugs that ended her career, and the last one was royally screwed out of a promising US debut by the CEO of her own label. Time sure flies, man.
I know right.
Long story short, these four young women used to be huge in the last few years of the 2000s and the first few years of the 2010s, so much so that an US debut, produced by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, was being planned. Then, the CEO of their label (a notorious misogynist who basically groomed a girl in her early teens to be his wife and lived on to tell the tale in television, while bragging about it, and suffering no consequences whatsoever because of it) got tired of them, since they weren't good-looking enough for his standards - we're talking about a guy who looks like an overgrown toad here - so he replaced them with a prettier and younger clone group, but not before constantly berating 2NE1 for their looks (two of the members became kind of addicted to plastic surgery as a result), delaying their releases so much that one of the members left the company out of frustration, basically throwing another member to the wolves when it was revealed she'd "smuggled" medication to South Korea from the US, even though she badly needed it - as someone who's seeing a therapist right now, I could tell something was off about her even back then - and trapping another member in his company by promising her he'd kept the group together and made her debut in the US... neither thing happened, of course.
The guy's basically a tinpot mafia boss on a power trip, and if there's some animosity between the members right now it's only because he played divide and conquer with them.
And by K-Pop CEO standards, he's one of the nicer guys.
That's too bad, since one of the members was showing signs of having some real talent as a songwriter, and the group itself could actually sing quite well, unlike some of their peers.
you knew i thought he would be back someday...forgot about him...didn't care that much
- Status