Angry Gaming 06.18.07: It's Nerf or Nothing - Role Playing Roundup
Posted by Damian Sarcuni on 06.18.2007
9999 damage as opposed to 0 damage. Hmmmm…
Welcome to Angry Gaming, the stuffed mushroom that brings about the game industry's heartburn. I am your hate master, Damian Sarcuni, and I would like to once again remind everyone that I am a writer, not a journalist. Learn the difference!
It's Nerf or Nothing: Role Playing Roundup
Today's game market has seen dozens of massively multiplayer online role playing games come and go. Yet even after suffering a rumored decline, Blizzard's World of Warcraft MMO has been dominating the online role playing genre in sales and player appeal for some time now. Yet even after putting together a new enhanced computer system, I still find myself tied to the MMO I was truly able to shine in: Final Fantasy XI.
My friends always ask me what the appeal is and why I stay in an MMO world that is supposedly dying fast. To them, all I can say is that FFXI not only reminds me of the happier times when I first started playing it, but it also reminds me of my past favorite titles throughout the Final Fantasy series. Ever since the first FF title was released on the NES, I've longed to personify myself as a red mage and later as a summoner either online or in some customizable fashion. Games like Final Fantasy VII made that wish a reality somewhat, but there's still nothing that compares to taking your favorite RPG job online to assist your fellow players.
The problem though, is that throughout many RPG's, things tend to go a bit on the "inconsistent" side. The spells and weaponry that we absolutely love to abuse in one edition of a game can mean absolutely nothing in the next, leading to an utterly useless experience that leaves us cursing game developers who have nerfed our favorite moves for no reason other than to momentarily steer us down a wrong path. "Oh wow! Casting ‘meteor' in Final Fantasy is completely useless now! I guess I'd better not do that again!" This is the extent that nerfing a job class, spell or weapon has in an RPG, and yet from title to title developers continue to mess with the best parts of their previous games. I can somewhat understand the need to add in new innovations from game to game or at least to add a change of pace, but if developers are going to do that then why bother putting our favorite stuff into the new title at all?
Today we'll take a look at three different RPG titles from three different series, guilty of harboring character classes that are a mere shadow of their former selves. As always, feel free to email in with some of your more frustrating experiences with RPG class weaknesses and gimping.
Shadow Hearts: From the New World - Johnny Garland
There are few things that lame up an RPG much worse than a main character that isn't quite as fun to use as the rest of his/her party. Such is the case of young detective Johnny Garland, who not only is one of the most difficult characters to use throughout the entire game of Shadowhearts: From the New World but also the one with the most lackluster abilities.
One of the notable things about the third entry into the Shadowhearts series is that each playable character, though never seen before and with an entirely original storyline, has job abilities that are a direct rehash of other characters from previous Shadowhearts games. Johnny Garland is somewhat of a copy of Anastasia Romanov from the second Shadowhearts game and shares her ability to take photographs of her enemies using the "snapshot" ability. Yet Johnny's snapshot and Anastasia's snapshot are two very different things.
When Anastasia used the snapshot ability on her enemies, it would enable her to summon the abilities of those enemies for us in battle later on. Johnny's snapshots on the other hand, have little in battle at all. In fact, the main reason for Johnny to use the snapshot ability at all is for the snapshot trading subquest, which leads to the game's ultimate dungeon known as purgatory. While the snapshot ability does give some minor information about each enemy, it is hardly worth pursuing (especially considering that purgatory has no impact on the game's ending).
Add to all of this Johnny's morphing abilities which aren't unlocked until far later in the game and the fact that his judgment ring is for some reason very difficult to use, and you are left with a walking disaster. Johnny Garland is, at best, a parody of previous Shadowhearts characters and while he does add an interesting aspect to the game's storyline, his battle abilities leave far too much to be desired.
Final Fantasy XI - Dragoons
The evolution of the dragoon, or dragon knight, is a tragic tale. Most gamers first got a glimpse of the dragoon character class in Final Fantasy II for the SNES, and fans were immediately drawn to their unique abilities and compelling storyline. In FFII, Kain is the leader of the dragoon knights (though no knights under his command are ever shown in the game) and his personality is that of a badass loner who shifts between the sides of good and evil. Consider also Kain's cool looking armor and spear like weapon choices and it isn't surprising fan interest in dragoons hit a pretty serious peak.
Much like summoners, many fans started asking for more of the dragoon character class in future Final Fantasy games. Primarily, many people were left wondering just what did the dragon knights actually have to do with dragons and how powerful were they in comparison to other classic Final Fantasy character class choices. Many fans were overjoyed when the dragoons were introduced in the Final Fantasy XI: Rise of the Zilart expansion pack, and these fans were about to have all their questions answered in the worst way possible.
FFXI is a very class based game. Without a complete party representing several different job classes, it's very hard for anyone to gain precious experience points and level up at all. Character classes such as healers, damage absorbers or tanks, magic support and damage dealers are all necessary to make up a balanced party. Dragoons were placed into the damage dealing category, and players quick found that the dragoons were not very good at their job. Other character classes such as dark knights or rangers turned out to be far superior in the damage dealing game, and many players quickly abandoned the forsaken class altogether.
Going back into the history and namesake of the dragoons, players who chose this class were given the ability to summon a pet baby dragon that aided in battle, could not be healed, and could only be summoned once every two hours (which would later be changed in a future patching of the game). Dragoons could not level up their dragons and make them grow, so even the most powerful dragoon knights in the game still had little baby lizards battling at their side. The "jump" ability of the dragoons, which was useful for avoiding hits as well as dealing damage in previous games, became nothing more than an extra hit to get in every five or ten minutes when the ability was available. To this dragoons are still not the favored choice of damage dealers in any FFXI party, and have suffered one of the worst nerf jobs in all of RPG history.
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Soren
Let me first admit right off the bat that I cannot resist any given opportunity to make fun of the Fire Emblem series, and especially not Path of Radiance. Available only on the Nintendo Gamecube, Path of Radiance was a highly anticipated turn based strategy RPG that advertised distinct abilities such as weapons customization and the ability to select from several different character classes. The fine print to those points, however, is that the game only allowed for so many members of each character class.
Soren is one of the only wizards or black mages in the Path of Radiance game. While playing the game for the first time I did not realize that there was no form of resurrection in the game. When a character was killed in the game, they stayed dead for the rest of the game which heavily affected the storyline progression of each game and often made for some truly hindered battles. Since Soren is one of the few characters able to use offensive magic, especially so early in the game, I had to start the game over after realizing he wouldn't be back. The second time around, I quickly learned that the CPU controlled opponents in Fire Emblem were all too aware of how weak Soren actually was, and they pursued him all over the battle field in hopes to remove him completely from my campaign.
Keeping Soren alive is no easy task. In the beginning of the game, his magic only has so much power and Soren himself has almost no health. It only takes a mere two or three hits to do Soren in, and watching him die repeatedly (thus ending my attempt at the game for that round) was one of the most frustrating experiences I've had in any turn based strategy game. The fact that characters who might be vital to the storyline can die without being ever being resurrected puts a huge discredit on Fire Emblem as an RPG, but this is especially true of Soren who is pretty much a weak bitch and helps to ruin the experience of the game right from the beginning.
The Anger
Role playing games are known for their longevity and play time durations. While an action based video game might only last for a few days, some role playing games can take weeks or longer to complete. As such, really good role playing games seem all that more fun considering the extensive amount of fun a player can have. On the down side, an RPG considered bad turns into long hours of torture. Consider then how devastating it is to have a great RPG that is hampered by a nerfed or gimped character, wrecking what would otherwise be a great experience. I think a lot of these problems come about when developers get too cocky or confident in their game series (like all good nerds). So the next time another edition of your favorite RPG series is about to come about, be sure to choose your words to the developer carefully and try to take their egos down a few notches. Until then, embrace the hatred.
