Fayt ownz Lloyd

Okay, I've seen some pretty silly crap on the Internet. But it seems that hell has no fury, like a Namco fanboy scorned, and there is apparently an entire forum dedicated to trashing the Square-Enix RPG Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time.

http://s8.invisionfree.com/Lloyd_Owns_Fayt/index.php?showforum=18

I consider myself a pretty avid amateur gamer. I love nothing better than a good RPG, my favourites being the classics Chrono Trigger and Seiken Densetsu 3 (聖劍傳說3, known as Secret of Mana 2 here in the States). I will as readily sit down to play a Bioware game as a Black Isle as a Square-Enix as a Nintendo, with no preconceptions. Given that, consider this a non-biased, non-partisan gamer's opinion.

A good RPG is driven not by its battle engine and not by its world designs. A good RPG is driven by its story. A great RPG will also have a well-designed world (or multiple of them) and an intuitive battle engine - even better (though this is icing on the cake), it will have a kick-ass soundtrack. But it won't matter one bit if it's got the greatest battle engine since Tri-Ace and all the beautiful world designs of Chrono Trigger. If the story is poorly written, the game will be boring.

Say what you like about Fayt Leingod's name being silly; say what you like about the Star Ocean universe ripping off Star Trek's Prime Directive and Guardian of Forever. Star Ocean 3's story was engaging. When it wasn't concerned with Fayt's separation from his family and friends or with his rescue by the shadowy QUARK, it was dealing with a side-quest which was just as interesting. The politics of Elicoor II were convincing (though there were some moments in the negotiations that made me cringe) and the characters were realistic, well-developed and sympathetic.

Also, add to this the fact that there is a shortage of good science-fiction RPG's out there: KotOR tops my list, and there's also Fallout (I haven't had the fortune to play any of the Front Mission games yet), but I haven't heard of any other big names on the sci-fi RPG docket. This game definitely tickles my Trekkie tastes without being too blatant about it. Then there's the soundtrack - I'm begging your pardon, Bruce McCulloch, but I just love the jazz. I'm still listening to 'Fly Away in the Violet Sky' and 'Pert Girl on the Sandy Beach', not to mention the more rockish numbers 'The Divine Spirit of Language' and 'Expiration'. Thirdly, there's the plot twist - but you'll have to play the game to get that one. Suffice it to say, it's almost as good a plot-twist as KotOR's, and that's no mean praise. I was liking the character designs as I saw them (Nel Zelpher's in particular; I am obligated to concur with Cliff Fittir's elegant, if rather brusque, assessment of her maidenly pulchritude), and the voice-acting wasn't half-bad for a Squenix RPG, Michelle Ruff's Sophia notwithstanding.

And seriously, folks, comparing the merits of Star Ocean 3 and Tales of Symphonia (the much-touted Namco game for NGC developed by the same team, Tri-Ace) should be no contest. I wasn't an hour into the game before I was cracking 'Lloyd... I am your father' jokes about Kratos and singing 'Your own personal Jesus' whenever Colette opened her demure little messianic mouth. Tree of Mana connecting the worlds... my God, where could I have heard that one before? And of course, I could see it coming a mile away that our heroes' quest was going to piss someone off in some other world down the line. Angels = evil; yes, I saw that one coming also - I have watched a certain Hideaki Anno anime, you know. (To be fair, they did the evil angels thing in Star Ocean 3, too, but when it came to foreshadowing Squenix did have to their writing a marvelous little thing called subtlety.) And then the player interface rubbed me the wrong way (what the hell was with that font?), the voice acting was annoying (except for Jennifer Hale's contribution to Shiina Fujibayashi, naturally), and the sound and music were a rather underwhelming experience.

A little advice, Namco, if I may be so bold: stick to what you do best. I love the Soul series, though I'm not a fighting-game man myself. Soul Calibur III was polished and colourful, the battle system was shiny, the characters were well-balanced, hell, you even put gave the game some decent music, sound-effects and voice acting! You had the gravity-defying, incomparable good looks of Taki gracing the franchise since the arcade days. But Sales of Tymphonia left a lot to be desired, in character development, in plot development, even in concept. Leave the RPG development to Bioware.

And as to Lloyd 'owning' Fayt, this is an interesting match, so let's walk through this one. Fayt Leingod has height, weight, reach, age and training on his side, meaning that in a straight-up fencing match, he's probably more likely to win. Lloyd does have two katanas on his side whereas Fayt's only got his zweihänder. As any D20 player knows, however, unless the little dude's got the Master Two-Weapon Fighting feat, he might get more attacks per round, but with his to-hit penalties he'd be lucky to land Fayt even one. Aside from all that, Lloyd's got no supernatural or paranormal abilities whereas Fayt's got the Destruction Gene. Sorry, Mr. Irving, but the writing on the wall reads 'Mene mene tekel u-Faytin'.

I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.