An Open Letter to Bioware: Mass Effect 3, it's Controversial Ending, and a polite suggestion on where to go from here.

Warning, I intend to talk about about the ME3 in detail, Spoilers and all, so if you haven't finished it, go do that first. 

First of all, I have to set the record straight on something.  Some have heard/read my initial response to the closing scenes of Bioware's final installment of this epic space adventure and assumed that the game is in some way not worth bothering with.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Mass Effect 3 is an absolute Masterpiece, and a prime example of why the argument that "Games Cannot be Art" is nonsense. The characters are compelling, interesting, sympathetic and excellently fleshed out.  The story is rich, humorous, entertaining, and often heartbreaking.  As far as game play goes, combat is rock solid and fun as hell to play, especially with the streamlined powers, improved cover, and much appreciated selection of weapons with wildly varying properties (like a pistol that fires proxy mines and a shotgun that you can charge).  I would recommend it to anyone who has a system that can play it, no joke.  For 98 % of my playtime, I was utterly enthralled with the game, to the point that I was doing damn little else besides playing it.

But...

That 2 percent.  The Ending.  Say the last 3 scenes or so.  That bit of story that wrapped up the universe at large almost killed my enthusiasm for the series altogether.  A series that I've played religiously since the first installment and invested hundreds of hours in.  It's that jarring.  It's that... selfish, I guess is a word to describe it.  Whoever came up with the ending decided that this was the end, and nothing else besides their narrative mattered.  Which is fine, it's their story to end.  But... It doesn't really end it in any meaningful way.

Allow me to elaborate.  From frame one, the goal of Mass Effect 3 is very clearly Defined.  Stop the Reapers.  And as you progress through the game, your mission goes from insanely impossible to in the realm of possibility and finally a long shot that people are finally beginning to believe may pay off.  You collect a crew (An anemic 7 to ME2's 12, and that's assuming you got the DLC) which includes most of your ME1 crew and enlist the help of your other past crew members in support roles.  As the game progresses, it becomes more and more apparent that whatever happens, the solution to the Reaper invasion will cost a devastatingly huge number of lives and almost certainly be the end of Shepard.  The lion's share of the game is spent helping key members of sympathetic races to stabilize their systems and thus gain their undivided support.  The whole time, the goal is to bring every race into the fold and form the single most powerful force the galaxy has ever known.  With careful diplomacy, even the wholly synthetic Geth, the reluctant villains of the first Mass Effect game can be brought into the war effort.  The situation gets more and more desperate as the Illusive Man and Cerberus constantly antagonize Shepard and the galaxy at large, believing they can take control of the Reapers rather than destroy them.  All the while, a super weapon of ancient design, the Crucible, remains the best hope the Alliance has to end the reaper threat.  When it becomes clear that the Citadel is the Catalyst, the key to the Crucible, the Reapers move it to Earth at the center of Reaper controlled Space.  When Shepard at last returns to Earth, along with his assembled fleet, and a space battle of unfathomable proportions takes place.  It's a scene to rival any science fiction film to date.  As the battle between the fleet and the reapers rages on, Shepard returns to the surface and meets up with Admiral Anderson, who has been fighting there since the invasion began, and takes time to have one last conversation with all of his crew as he tours the ranks of the worn down Alliance Military. 

Then, in a final last ditch effort to open the Citadel and use the Crucible, Shepard and crew drive into the heart of the Ruin of London, fighting desperately through a no man's land that was once one of the great human cities, and at last come to the transport beam that can take them to the Citadel.  Hundreds if not thousands of soldiers are cut down, as the Reaper Harbinger flays the blasted out wasteland just to give Shepard and his/her crew a chance to make it to the Citadel.  Just as it begins to look like you might make it, Harbinger strikes your squad with a viscous blast.  At first, it seems hope is lost, until a battered Shepard, armor ravaged and flesh in tatters, rises once more.  Unable to determine if his squad, or indeed anyone from the assault, is alive, and barely able to lift his pistol, Shepard stumbles towards the beam, desperately shoots the last few husks and marauders between him and the beam, and collapses into it.  It's an incredible sequence of events and emotionally draining. 

Then... The end.  The one that has a lot of fans up in arms.  In an unusual area of the Citadel, littered with corpses, Shepard awakens and finds that he and Anderson are the only ones who made it to the beam.  As they locate a control panel, the Illusive man thwarts them, using his reaper-tech derived ability to indoctrinate humans to control Anderson.  The final confrontation with The Illusive Man ends up the only way it could, an argument about control that either ends with Shepard shooting him or The Illusive Man committing suicide if you convince him he was wrong about controlling the Reapers.  The Alliance docks the Crucible at the Citadel and a lift takes Shepard to a massive area where a VI calling itself The Catalyst explains that the old solution, the Reapers purging the most advanced organic lifeforms in the galaxy, will no longer work, as the knowledge that will be passed on and the resistance of the current species is too great.  It claims that the balance between Organic and Synthetic must be maintained, or the organics will destroy everything (How?  Why?  how do the Uber Powerful reapers not tip the balance?  Never explained.) 

The Catalyst offers Shepard a choice.

Unfortunately, no matter what choice you make, you will inevitably feel like it doesn't matter.  The Galaxy is Fucked no matter what you do.

(Bear in Mind, these are the so-called "Best" endings possible.  I'd hate to see the bad ones...)

Option One.  Control.  As it turns out, the Illusive Man was right that the Reapers could be "Controlled", but only Shepard could do it.  If you select this option, Shepard takes Control of the Reapers and basically cancels their invasion with a wave of blue energy, sending them back into intergalactic space, at least for now. 

Option Two.  Destroy. The original plan, and the one Anderson suggested, Destroy the Reapers outright.  However, it wont just kill the Reapers, but all synthetic life, including The Geth, EDI, and Shepard (who became part synthetic at some point?  When Cerberus resurrected him?  I guess I missed that.)  If you choose this option, Shepard blasts conduits with his pistol and ends the reaper cycle forever with a wave of red energy.

Option Three.  Synthesis.  The Metaphysical Evangelion ending.  Shepard can leap into the energy beam of the Crucible, and his combined Organic and Synthetic biology will overwrite the biology of every life form with a wave of green energy, organic and synthetic alike, making all life a hybrid of the two and thus eliminating the presumed need for balance. 

And all three follow the same basic story from there.

The effort of performing any of the 3 tasks appears to be fatal to Shepard (More on that in a bit).  The Blue/Red/Green energy beam required to reach all life in the galaxy overloads and destroys the Mass Relays.  For some unknown reason (it's never stated where they are going or why), the Normandy is attempting to flee the beam, but is overtaken.  After crashing on a primordial planet, Joker and two other crew members emerge from the Normandy, look around and smile (if you chose synthesis, it will be EDI and she will be huggin on Joker as they are both covered with circuits. Your love interest will always be there as well.)  Then... Credits.  After which you may, depending on your military strength or something, get a brief scene in the distant future of that same planet, where an old man (voiced by Buzz Aldrin!) tells his grandson legends of "The Shepard". Then a message appears that says that Shepard ended the reaper threat and became a Legend.  Now make his legend greater by playing DLC when it comes out!  (Shit you Not!)

Oooookay, where to start?  Why does every possible outcome of even the best endings mean a depressingly shitty end to an epic series, a snub to a cast of sympathetic characters fans have a vested interest in, and a blanket party for one of the richest sci fi universes since Star Wars?  I'm glad you asked.

Control.  This option sucks.  Just completely sucks.  It's the trite and cliched do-gooder solution.  Shepard sacrifices his life to send the reapers packing and solves nothing in the process. 

Sure, the reaper threat has ended.  For now.  But for how long?  Will the reapers remain controlled by a dead man for all eternity and never return?  And if not, how long until they do?  At best, another 50,000 years, the end of another Cycle.  At worst, just as soon as they come to their senses and rebuild the Mass Relays.  Who knows how long that is, building Mass Relays might be child's play to them.

And what about this "Balance" that suddenly became so fucking important in the last five minutes of a 100+ hour game series?  Given that Shepard got rid of the reapers forever, wont that still mean that the balance will go bad and Organics will obliterate themselves (Again, fucking how?!)? 

Destroy:  This option would be the obvious choice, except for one bullshit provision. 

All synthetics Die, including EDI (even though there is no indication that she died in the final scene) and the Geth, for no adequately explained reason.  Why the hell would the Catalyst and the Citadel have any power over Synthetic lifeforms of this cycle?  Did the Catalyst adapt it's program to included new synthetics in the event some guy blasted it's innards?  And if so, why?  If not to be a big Fuck You to the player.  Personally, the last thing I did before the Invasion of Cerberus and Earth was broker Peace between the Quarians and the Geth, in the process helping the Geth become truly Sentient Beings and welcoming them into the galactic community of enlightened races, as well as the Allied Fleet that would help me take back earth and use the Crucible to deal with the Reapers. 

So the inclusion of the "Kills the entire synthetic race you just liberated and convinced the rest of the galaxy to accept because the Catalyst said so" clause in the Destroy option takes the most sensible course of action and turns it into the biggest Dick Move in galactic history.  You would be worse than the goddamn Slimy Salarians, fucking over the Krogan with the Genophage after you didn't want to deal with them any more.

Synthesis:  This is the Option I actually took, but only because it seemed Less Dickish by a narrow margin and it's the "Hidden" one I did all that extra work collecting resources for.  It's not worth it.  I don't even have a particular gripe, other than it feels like the Tree Hugger option.  Two constantly warring lifeforms become one new form of life, like, so deep man!   Not to mention, been done, in a bunch of Anime Movies/series for a start (Eyes on Mars, Gall Force, Vandred, etc).  Not to mention that the Crash scene is all about Joker and EDI and how they can bump uglies now because they are the same life form or something.  The "EDI and Joker, sittin in a Tree" subplot was cute, but it's not what I want the last goddamn scene to focus on.  Also, shouldn't she be dead since the Normandy got fucked up by the beam and crashed?  Not to mention that the two lovebirds are making kissy faces at each other while your love interest (in my case Tali.  Poor, sweet, awesome, brave, and kind Tali) is standing right there, most likely devastated by the fact that the love of her life is almost certainly dead.

Which brings me to another point.  There is apparently some kind of dark magic that I wasn't aware of that you can perform to earl a 15 second bonus clip where what appears to be Shepard's body draws breath before the cut to the credits.  I'm sure the developers thought this was a great way to placate the fans who were pissed off about Shepard dying, nobly or otherwise.  "Look, he's alive!  Stop writing us angry emails now please!"  But in reality, it's just another poorly thought out Fuck You to the player.  Let me explain.

Lets just assume that Shepard somehow managed to live through his ordeal.  And lets assume that he gets medical attention and makes a full recovery.  Or lets say, just for funsies that Miranda puts together another Lazarus team and resurrects him again.  Great.  You know he's alive!  Guess who Doesn't?  Tali and the rest of the folks who got stranded on fuck knows what planet in fuck knows what system, in fuck knows what sector for Fuck knows what reason.   So consider this.  With the Mass Relays destroyed, this tragic couple will never be in the same system again, let alone the same room.  Assuming inter stellar communications aren't FUBAR'ed, the best they can hope for is to Holo Chat from light-years away.  What would that do other than constantly remind them that they will never be able to embrace one another again?  How long until one of them moves on or kills themselves in grief? 

And that's another point, how fucked are all the aliens who bravely volunteered to help the Alliance repel the Reapers, not to mention mankind.  We're talking probably hundreds of thousands of aliens trapped in the sol system with mankind.  Will everyone go to Earth?  If so, how will a planet that just got the ever loving shit kicked out of it support it's native population and accommodate a bunch of most likely pissed off aliens who will probably never see home again?  How pissed are the Quarians trapped in the Sol system not weeks after they got their home planet back, for example?  If you cured the Genophage, you will have a runaway Krogan Population before you know it, and that's to say nothing for the Krogans back on Tuchanka, a nuclear wasteland of a planet.  The Turians have entirely different body chemistry, could they survive long term on Earth?  The Asari are the only race among them that might accept their lot and become a part of Human society.  The Batarians certainly wouldn't.  Not to mention Aria's Mercs.  How long until they become Space Pirates?  And what becomes of all the devastated Council home worlds now that they are cut off from most of their colonies that supported them?  Massive famines and civil wars, that's what. 

In short, the ending is a fucking mess that feels like they threw it together at the last minute for some reason (The IGN leak, some have speculated). 

You know what this ending feels like?  Pointless and Tragic, in spite of the fact that the Reaper Cycle is broken, and that's a terrible way to end it.  I don't mind a sad ending, but only when it makes sense.  

Now, How do you fix it?  It's bafflingly simple, in my book.

First, forget everything after the Mass Relays are destroyed, and the Geth and EDI being lumped in with the reapers.  The Normandy outrunning the beam, Shepard not dead, Joker and EDI sucking face, that stupid plasticine forest they seemed determined to include, Buzz Aldrin, everything... Well, Buzz is okay I guess.  But Toss that shit, it fucks everything up.  In it's place have a montage of scenes based on What resources you unlocked in the process of building your army.  If you united the Geth and the Quarians, have a scene of Tali and the Geth working together on a plan to build new Mass Relays or ships that are capable of Mass Effect travel without the relays.  Krogans setting up homes on Mars or Luna.  Turians maintaining order against pissed off Batarians and Mercs, with Garrus and Zaeed in charge.  Asari helping preserve human culture and rebuild infrastructure, coordinated by Liara, the Shadow Broker.  Jack and her former students opening a school for Biotics.  Miranda working on a second Lazarus Project to bring Shepard back again.

You know what that ending feels like?  Hope. 

And that's what we really needed to make Shepard's death to save existence worthwhile.  Hope for the future of the universe we know and love, not the supposed future that will come about thousands of years from now on the planet where Buzz is.  We don't even need an actual Payoff of those events for them to be more meaningful than what we got.  Just the possibility that life in the Mass Effect universe might some day soon recover from the Reaper invasion is enough.

People have argued that expecting Bioware to change the ending is ludicrous because we would expect it for free.  Not at all, I'd be willing to pay a few extra bucks to have this mess cleaned up as part of the next DLC.  It can be done, it remains to be seen if it will be done.  Will the creators accept that the ending could be improved by these types of changes?  Or will they stick to their guns, ignore the, I'll say it, Anguish this cheap ending caused and claim artistic license as their reasoning?  I don't know, but for now, I for one consider everything past the Relays blowing up Non Canon, and that allows me to love this game again.  I just wish I didn't have to bullshit myself. 

But who knows, if Bioware makes another Mass Effect game, maybe they will clear up some of the craziness in the process, fingers crossed!

The Witcher 2

Hey, I've not done a single Game Review.  What's the deal?  Here we go then, The Witcher 2.  To be fair, I'm only 1/4 of the way through the story, but I'm mostly going to talk about the mechanics anyway.

I'm clearly getting old.  There was a time when an extensive inventory and crafting system was exhilarating.  When managing what you can carry was a trifle or an added challenge.  When a complex combat system mixing spells and swordplay offered interesting variety.  These days, these things feel more like tedious busy work than intriguing game-play.  And in the case of The Witcher 2, these aspects are all too prevalent. 

To be fair, I've always been a little put off by limited space in inventory in games like this, going back to Diablo as one of the first games that really drove me nuts in this category.  The difference being that in games like Diablo, if I was a Barbarian, I knew I could sell any magic wands or staves or cloaks I acquired when I returned to a shop.  In the case of W2, most of what one loots is hunks of whatever it was looted from; hearts, eyes, teeth, etc.  The problem being, that there is no clear way to tell what parts of what monsters one might need in the future to make potions or craft weapons or armor.  Some are obvious; one will always need iron ore to make the next Steel Sword upgrade for example.  But others are fairly vague.  After working on a quest to kill a bunch of giant plant crab something or others called Endragoras or whatever, I had gathered my maximum amount of loot I could carry.  After slowly trudging my way back to town (yes, it's one of those games) I sold off a ton of stuff I didn't think I'd need, including a handful of Plant Crab teeth which I hadn't found a use for yet.  Then I stopped at the smithy later and found that the best Steel Sword required 15 of them to make for some reason.  I couldn't buy them back so I had to go pointlessly murder the now much less common crab spiders for their teeth. 

This brings up another point, the dual sword system.  Now, the idea of a monster hunter who carries two swords, a steel sword for slaying humans, and a silver sword for slaying monsters sounds pretty awesome at face value.  And the hero, Geralt looks pretty cool with two swords slung over his back, no denying it, and as far as a Fantasy Novel character device goes, it is a pretty interesting one.  The problem comes in when you implement it into the game.  For a start, you will find yourself very frequently upgrading your steel sword in the first chapter and not fighting a lot of humans til the close of the chapter.  Not to mention that there is only one Silver Sword upgrade in the first chapter, and it comes immediately before the end of said chapter, just in time for the afore-mentioned human bloodbath.  So for the whole first chapter, you will mostly be using the basic silver sword and upgrading your steel sword for really no good reason.  And it bears mentioning that if you use the wrong sword on a type of enemy, it will do almost no damage.  This makes sense and would not be a problem if there weren't instances where human bandits and monsters will stop fighting one another in order to collectively kick your ass, so you have to choose a sword, weed out the appropriate enemies, then switch swords and kill the others.  And again, this would not be that big of a problem if not for buggy and occasionally unresponsive controls.

The controls appear simple enough.  Press 1 to draw/sheath your Steel Humanoid slaying Sword, press 2 to draw/sheath your Silver Monster chopper.  Easy enough.  The only problem is at times, if you get surprised by an enemy, and just hit the mouse button, Geralt will draw whatever sword he was last using.  If it's the wrong one for the enemy, you will have a few moments when you will be vulnerable as you switch.  And that's assuming Geralt responds at all.  I've had plenty of times where I've found myself mashing the 2 button as a monster beats my face to a pulp and Geralt stands there getting pummeled with his Steel sword drawn.  So then I would try to press 1 to put the steel sword away, and he still stands there like a bloody bump on a log.  Another time, I was fighting a group of elves and as the last one died, I heard a distant scream like a large cat, announcing that some Nekkar's were on their way.  They were far off yet, couldn't even see them, so I pressed 1 to Sheath my Steel sword.  Nothing.   Tried it again as I spotted a Nekkar off in the distance.  Nothing.  Okay, I'll push 2 to draw my Silver Sword.  Nothing.  Getting closer, could really use my silver sword sooner than later, pressing 2.  Nothing.   They are about to start punching the guts out of me, back to 1.  NoF'ingThing.  They've reached me, and are stomping my gizzards flat, pressing 1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2.  Guess What, Nothing!  So finally I start swinging with my Steel Sword and Rolling to dodge their assault.  After I flail ineffectually against the nearest Nekkar and do almost no damage, I tried 2 one more time in a moment of grim jocularity.  The white haired Git finally switched swords.

I heard the Nekkars coming from a country mile off, and was at half health before Geralt decided it was a good idea to draw the appropriate sword.

And that's to say nothing of the combat system itself.  Don't even get me started on the incomprehensibly named spells.  But the swordplay mechanics are either brilliantly complex or idiotically simple, and I honestly can't tell which.  It doesn't help that W2 takes the tack that you must have just finished W1 on the hardest setting or you wouldn't be playing W2 (I never played 1 by the way), so it throws you into combat with almost no instruction and cheerfully watches you get mercilessly slaughtered several times by the first enemies you encounter.  I had to go down to easy mode just to get through the damn intro.

Another niggling point that drives me batty are the quick time events.  I'm already bored to death with the concept now that every action game since God of War has aped it, but it doesn't help that W2's variety is a tiny indicator in a strange, orangish sepia tone that almost always gets washed out by the backgrounds.  For example, at one point I had to rescue some elf girls from a burning building before we were all consumed by the flames.  I found the girls and one said "Release us" so I went over and clicked on her, then pissed away precious seconds before I realized that I was standing there not actually releasing her, because for some reason it was deemed necessary to attach a 'Click a whole bunch' Quick Time Event to this action.  Needless to say we all burned, and I was forced to repeat the cut-scene (skipable, but still had to load) and a combat sequence before climbing the tower and trying again.  All because I couldn't see the tiny little QTE bar.

Now don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good reasons to play W2, or I would have quit a long time before the end of the intro.  The visuals are downright gorgeous, and the voice acting is pretty good, with Geralt's occasional Batman voice and the repetition of lines from townsfolk being the only real issues.  The world is very deep and the story impressive.  Again, I feel I must warn any others who skipped W1, prepare to be confused, and it may not be a bad idea to find a plot summary on line to get up to speed, because again, the game assumes you are an old hand and will know exactly who's who and what's happening.  But, the story that unfolds is very interesting so far and worth the effort of bashing your head through some of this games failings.

And really that's the only problem.  At times, Witcher 2 feels very much like a game that does not want to be played.  As though it is actively trying to twart your attempts to advance by bugging out at all the wrong times, sending Geralt careening across the room to strike the one enemy standing 10 feet away and ignoring the other seven standing right next to him trying to spill his innards.  All in all, it's worth the annoyances.

Just remember to breath and count to 10.

Top Ten: RPG's

Thanks to my home skillet Nick for suggesting this topic when I was stumped.

RPG's have been a passion of mine pretty much since I was old enough to hold a controller.  The idea of filling the roll of a character thrust into extraordinary circumstances in a fantastic setting was always so appealing.  From old-school Silent Protagonist games to the Choose your Destiny choice driven games of today, anything that has the words Level Up and X Exp Gained has my interest.  While my interest in new J-Rpgs has been waning of late, I still love to replay the classics from time to time, and modern RPGs still bear hug me into submission.  I'll rank them by quality of system, story, sound, time played, times beaten, etc.  So, here is a list of my faves, and in the interest of avoiding filling half the list with one series (Cough Final Fantasy Cough), I'm going to limit myself to one game per series.

And No, there will be no Super Mario RPG on this List. 

10) The World of Warcraft


This pick was actually a tough one to make my mind up about.  It has to be said that WoW might hold the "Most hours Played" title for me, since I've been playing all but a few months since it's debut in late 04.  And while the game is neck deep in lore, the massively multi-player aspect always takes me out of the story.  That said, there are few games that give you more options for character customization.  From basic appearance andtitles to varied classes and talent trees, not to mention the joys of being a Hunter and naming a menagerie of pets (Like my bear, FurryTractor, for example) and boatloads of gear and mounts to acquire , the options are huge.  And while it was a little boring soloing in the past, the leveling process revamp that came with Cataclysm has provided a single player experience on par with rpg's that are exclusively single player.  Combine that with the fun of teaming up with 4 friends to take on a dungeon or24 to raid the most challenging depths the world has to offer, as well as professions and playing the server wide auction house, and there is plenty of fun to be had.

9)  Neverwinter Nights


Based on the d20 system rules of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, Neverwinter Nights was a 3D culmination of a lot of Nerd fantasies.  For the first time, a fully realized, fully 3D D and D game was available.  While the main stories of Neverwinter 1 and 2 are good in their own right, the real value to be had here was in customizing the game itself.  From the deep character customization included right out of the box to the plethora of downloadable mods that added additional options, to modules that added all new player generated stories and the official expansions that added more depth to the core experience, the re-playability of this game was off the charts. Add to this the ability to play multiplayer cooperative games and this game became a regular installment at LAN parties.  Good times had by all as we leveled our characters, killed monsters, and laughed when one of us got killed by a trap.

8)  Breath of Fire II

Now we're kickin' it Old School.  Throughout the 8 and 16 bit eras, I was a JRPG fanatic, and I still have a soft spot for Sprite Based Role Playing.  Breath of Fire II is a standout in a period when there were a lot of excellent games in the genre.  Centered on the life of Ryu, a young orphan who is the last of the ancient Dragon Clan, BoFII starts out simply enough.  After a brief scene in which we see a glimpse of Ryu's childhood which culminates in an encounter with the Nightmarish creature Barubary who makes his family vanish and the rest of the village forget who he is, an older Ryu and his fried Bow set off to find a Pet Pig for a Princess.  It isn't long after this quest that a much larger plot unfolds and Ryu and crew face off with a number of various threats, from Demonic possession, to a corrupt Religion, to a final confrontation with Barubary and his Master.  The cast of characters is varied and interesting, and only gets deeper when you learn how to fuse their souls with elemental shaman to grant them new forms and powers.  The town building element, by which the player builds a town up from a single shack to a thriving community full of useful vendors and craftsmen, was revolutionary at the time. The story is rich, very character driven and full of emotional moments.

7)  Fallout 3


Fallout 3 is a great example of how the genre is evolving to be more action oriented, but still maintain the aspects that make RPG's so much fun.  Set in an alternate America who's culture stagnated in the 50s, and was subsequently destroyed in a nuclear war, F3 depicts a very grim reality of how the Atomic Age could have ended. Starting from you birth within a community sized bomb shelter known as a Vault, the life of your character is completely controllable.  And while the illusion slips from time to time and you realize how much the story is "On Rails" as they say, it is largely an open-ended adventure that encourages the player to interact with the world around them any way they choose.  Add an ingenious and endlessly entertain system of incorporating slow motion dramatic action scenes into the heat of combat so players can savor just how much they can mess a guy up with a combat shotgun or any of a number other weapons, and the addictive nature of this game should come as no surprise.

6)  Mass Effect 2


The current King of the "Modern RPG" hill, Mass Effect 2 is a truly epic space adventure.  The title character, Shepard, is whatever you make of him/her, from baby hugging goody-two-shoes to baby punting heartless bastard.  As you begin this sequel, you can import data from your Mass Effect 1 save to deepen the immersion and see the results of you actions from the first game on the second.  And while there is a definite feeling of being 'on rails' on your journey, the good news is that it's a great ride.  The story starts with Shepard being brought back from the dead after the Normandy was destroyed by a Cerberus, an enigmatic pro human organization who's leader, the equally enigmatic Illusive Man see's Shepard as the only hope for humanity.  The cast of characters is impressive and varied, with fan favorites rounding out a group of interesting newcomers.  One may argue that this game only barely qualifies as an RPG, and as far as the combat and Item system goes, I have to agree.  In those areas, it could easily be described as RPG Lite.  But the story is where it's at:  Full of intrigue, deception, action, romance, mirth, despair, hope, and determination.

5)  Illusion of Gaia


Another Snes title, Illusion of Gaia is another game that isn't quite the textbook definition of an RPG, but has more than enough soul and character development to earn it this spot on the list.  Set in a world with many familiar landmarks like the Pyramids, Machu Pichu, and the Great Wall of China in unfamiliar places, Illusion of Gaia has a lot going on under the surface of a game that plays a lot like Zelda.  Will is a young man who was the only person to return from his Father's expedition to the Tower of Babel, though he has no memory of how.  He leads a normal life in the care of his Grandparents until one day he is summoned to the palace by the King of his land.  The King has requested that he bring the Crystal Ring Will got from his father, but throws him in prison when he arrives.  After escaping with the help of the Earth Spirit, Gaia, who transforms young will into the powerful dark knight Freedan, Will and his friends embark on a journey to visit sacred ruins all over the world and learn the secrets of the Spirit Statues and what became of Will's Father on his expedition.  The ending is a real tearjerker and I've played through this game many times just to experience the story again.

4)  Disgaea



Oh, Disgaea.  How to describe this game?  Well, it is hilariously aware of what it is, an insanely deep Tactical RPG with an insane number of possible characters and side-splitting tongue-in-cheek story. Early on, we learn that our hero, Prince Laharl, is the next in line to inherit the throne of Overlord of the Netherworld, after his father died when he choked on a Black Pretzel.  Unfortunately, Laharl has been taking a nap for the last two years and missed it.  In the meantime, other demons have started to lay claim to the title of Overlord for themselves.  The first of these demons that Laharl dispatches is Vyers, the self styled Dark Adonis.  The prince dismisses him as a trivial stepping-stone on the path to domination and to drive home the point, he officially changes his name to Mid Boss.  This self referential joke is an example of what makes this game as hilarious as it is additively challenging. 



3)  Final Fantasy VI


Picking one Final Fantasy game as the best is a hard enough task in and of itself, let alone deciding where it belongs amongst it's peers.  While FF Tactics is an absolute classic in my book, and VII changed RPGs and their Fanbase forever, I still have to say that FF VI is the high water mark of an excellent series.  An Industrial Era world where Magic scarcely exists and is spoken of as a myth of ancient times is a compelling setting for a FF game, which up to this point, had only featured worlds steeped in sorcery.  There are only two known magic users in the world when the game starts, and one of them is Terra.  Press-ganged into military service with a mind control device by the nefarious empire, Terra is sent to acquire a recently unearthed frozen Esper, a Magical creature of mysterious origin.  When Terra encounters the Esper, a sequence of events is set into motion that will see the world torn apart.  The graphics and sound were jaw dropping when it was released, and the epic story stands the test of time and multiple playthroughs. 

2)  Secret of Mana


There's really only one word I should have to say to explain why this game was such a big deal when it came out in '94.  Multiplayer.  At the time, RPG's and even Action games like Zelda never even attempted Multiplayer modes.  In Secret of Mana, it's one of the best reasons to play.  Three people could huddle around their Super NES and play through an extended quest of epic proportions.  Hours of gametime with friends, slashing, casting, and laughing when people got turned into Moogles.  It is almost a forerunner of MMORPGS, like a first baby step in that direction.  And while the action is largely similar to action games like IofG or Zelda, there is definitely strategy and timing involved, and the story is epic and worthy of the genre. 





1)  Chrono Trigger


Seriously, who's surprised?   Anyone who has asked me to recommend a game since 95, including my niece, knows this might be my favorite game Period, not just in the RPG genre.  Crono, the hero of our story and all round nice guy/silent protagonist type bumps into a beautiful girl named Marle at the Kingdom of Guardia's Millennial Fair.  After showing her the sights, they go to see a demonstration of a Crono's friend Luca's new invention, a Teleporter.  Marle excitedly volunteers to try out the device, but when Luca starts it, the teleporter reacts with the pendant Marle is wearing and she is transported into a mysterious Gate, leaving the Pendant behind.  Luca examines it and realizes it is a royal artifact that belongs to the Princess of Guardia.  Without hesitation, Crono takes the pendant and steps onto the teleporter, intending to rescue her.  He arrives in Guardia, but it quickly becomes clear that he has traveled hundreds of years back in time.  As the story progresses, Crono and crew ally with a loyal Robot from the far future, a gallant knight that was transformed into a frog, and a tough as nails  prehistoric woman.  As they attempt to return to their own time, they learn of a plot by a master of the dark arts, Magus, to summon Lavos, an inter-planetary Parasite that will destroy the world.  They decide that cannot simply return to their time and live out their lives burdened with this knowledge, and set out on a quest to destroy Lavos before the Cataclysm can occur.  One of the great things that made this game so replayable was the New Game + feature that allowed the player to start a new game with the endgame character data.  To add to this mode there were several varied endings to the game, both good and bad, based on what point in the replay you defeat Lavos.  The soundtrack is one of the most memorable of the 16 Bit Era.  It's a game that has been copied, remade in part by fans, and had a fanmade sequel in the works before Square "cease and desist"ed them.  It's a game that spans the entire history of human existence, from it's primal beginnings to it's eventual destruction and decline, and offers the chance to change history.  It's a game full of interesting characters, monsters, and fantastic locales.
It's a classic.

Bonus, Nifty Japanese Commercial.

Honorable Mention: Final Fantasy Tactics, FFIV, FFVII, FFX (in that order), Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age Origins, Destiny of an Emperor, Secret of Evermore, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, .The Lufia Series

Going forward.

So, it's clear I don't really have anyone reading this yet, and that's cool. I'm just having fun doing it. However, I just wanted to put this up since, for me, having it on a site or whatever makes it feel official and helps me stick to it.

So, I've got a few movies that are coming out soon in mind for a review treatment. Tron: Legacy this week, and True Grit the next, which I am extremely excited to check out. I plan to use this as an excuse to go to more movies in the theater, since I've not been doing that as much.

I'll likely talk from time to time about stuff that's coming soon that I am interested in.

I'd like to do some more Classic Reviews too, I had a ton of fun with Django and I have plenty of movies in mind that scream "Why Haven't I seen that yet?"

I've got a few games that I've been neglecting lately that I might get back to soon, and when that happens, expect some insight on those. First in that area will likely be my thoughts on Cataclysm, the latest Warcraft expansion.

I had a great Idea to bring back the spirit of The Sci Fi Channel's old Saturday Anime programming slot by having a weekly viewing of some anime, either favorites from my personal collection or something new off Netflix Streaming. Gives me an excuse to watch some "cartoons" on Saturday mornings again. I may also shake it up by throwing in a Samurai movie from time to time.

You can bet I'll be talking about anything new from Dir En Grey, and probably some other bands too.

Anyway, like I say, Don't even know if anyone will read it, but I plan to do it anyway for laughs.