There are times when I like what this company produces, and other times that I just want to gag. I'll preface my rant on this with a warning. I have no experience with the gaming production, nor do I have much insight into XSEED other than SSH and couple minor titles like Brave Story and the Ys series(all of them).
But I am a graphics guy, a designer, and I do look at games with a bit more critical eye than others. Maybe too much at times. This is why I'm talking about two games that are being released: Unchain Blades and The Last Story.
Simply put, Unchained Blades is a game that has the director of Lunar (Toshio Akashi, as the game's page says. Sourced at the bottom of the "features page") and tells the story of a dragon who is mad at a goddess for casting him back to earth as a weak human. This means you, the player, have to crawl through maze after maze in search of powers and strength while meeting other characters in hopes of being granted a wish by the same goddess(I guess somewhere along the line the dragon boy is going to get an attitude check)
I'm not going to lie, I think this game is a terrible idea. Some people may like going back to the old dungeon crawler, and maybe the run-of-the-mill story will make some people happy. But man, this game feels lazy. There is a guy that does a let's play of this (Here) and the whole time I wondered "he payed for this?"
Now, better him than me, but the game still feels so lazy. Throwing .png files around a screen to "simulate" fighting games and then leading me into a dudgeon crawler where I don't even get a hint of animation is a hell of a waste of my time when I could just read the story. To each their own, but I'm sorely disappointed in what I've seen of this so far. Voice acting felt silly, the battles seem repetitive and uneventful, I jus' think this is bad.
Now, I know I'm about to compare it to another game with a system that is much stronger and more capable of handling the graphics that I like but consider the following:
-SSH had animated sprites. This was also and XSEED title. So, I know it would have been possible
-Ys had a fun way of animating and telling the story. The cutscenes and dialogue of Unchained Blades seems to be a cover up for a bad game altogether and an easy way to attract people who see anime characters and go bonkers for it.
-I'm just goin' to add another bullet for affect: be wary of this games appeal sprite wise and don't let the "Toshio Akashi (Lunar) as the director" fool you into thinking this is going to be great.
The Last Story on the other hand feels like it's had a lot of TLC. I'm hoping it's really that way.
The story centers around the hero and his band of mercs that get involved with a princess and what will probably a fight against the dictatorship of the land. That's my way of telling you as much as I can in one sentence, without the plot twists, the cinematic way the story is told, or the individual characters that the game promises you'll care about.
From what I can tell, IGN giving it and 8.5/10, Gamespot giving it a 9/10, Game Informer giving it a 6/10(They do terrible reviews to games now and again), I feel I can say this game is going to be a great collectible and a good story. The same guy did a let's play of TLS (Here) which I haven't gotten to see much of. There aren't many things I can say bad about the game. It feels like it had a lot of time and care put into it and I'm hoping for the attachment to the characters that the game promises. XSEED chose a great title to release here in the States, I just hope it's as fun as it looks.
Some of the notable features in various reviews and videos I've seen of this is the voice acting and the realtime actions RPG elements. I think FFXIII had been brought to it's knees with he presentation of this title. Sure, this game doesn't have the Enix pretty cutscenes, but this is the game I imagined when they were talking about realtime action RPG FXIII was supposed to be. TLS is supposed to have a slew of characters that have one of the most diverse voice acting casts backing them up.
The japanese site for TLS is here(Maybe someone will be able to read more than I could). BTW, before you click, the music is gorgeous, be prepared for that.
Anyway, that's all I have for it. Hope someone finds this all equally interesting as I did. I don't like that Lunar's name is on Unchained Blades. It saddens me really. I may be a bit confused to why it would even be that lazy, but the game just seems so… cheap and dumb? I guess that's the word for it.
But, TLS seems to make me forget that XSEED even thought that was a good idea by releasing this. Gamestop still has preorder for TLS with extra(Soundtrack and art book). I've also heard from a local source that keeps tabs on TLS that it's going to be very limited. Grab it while you can.
Even with side quests, it's going to be great.