slimequest: (YOU FAIL)
[personal profile] slimequest
30 Days of Video Games Day Four: A game that made you sad

Just like a game can make you happy in a lot of different ways, games can cause sadness like that, too. Here's a game with sad content, a sad fanbase (or anti-fanbase?), and just... yeah. It tugs on the heartstrings!





If you've played this game, you know how depressing every single goddamn thing that happens to Marona is. She's basically beat up and beat down the entire game BY THE ENTIRE WORLD except for her phantoms. Which no one can see. Oh, and she has a friend, A CRIPPLED FRIEND, who isn't much better off. Just when you think Marona's going to be okay... NOPE! FUCKED AGAIN!

It's a tragedy in a game full of them. I mean Ash is killed violently in the very beginning of the game, for crap's sake. And it's pretty depressing that he (and the other phantoms) are one of the reasons Marona gets so much shit, yet they're the only thing she has to rely on in the world, pretty much.

Oh, and I cried VERY MANLY TEARS at the ending, even if it's not an incredibly depressing one. How does a game even managed that? Phantom Brave does.

The other "sad" aspect is the fact that PB is my favorite of the "Nippon Ichi SRPG series", and yet is arguably the one that gets the most shit from fans. It unfortunately followed in the footsteps of the first Disgaea, which was full of wacky demon fun and horse dongs. PB is a more serious story (and depressing, as previously mentioned), so its tone is completely different. But it seemed like these newfound NIS fans wanted another game that stuck very closely to what Disgaea had layed out. Disgaea was super-popular and a fun game (at the time) so I guess that's understandable... but this game's title isn't "Disgaea 2". NIS has also produced games like Rhapsody and La Pucelle which aren't like Disgaea either, but it's not like we can expect fans to bother understanding that.

So basically, PB got a bunch of people who bought the game expecting one thing, and got disappointed when it wasn't an exact Disgaea clone, because I guess they assumed NIS's games are all the same, or something. That puts it in kind of an underdog, less-appreciated position among NIS SRPGs. It seems like Makai Kingdom got spared a bit of that resentment, maybe because of the people who got "burned" (they should be so lucky) from this game? At least from what I remember reading online around that time.

Oh, and this game began the "put fucking Laharl, Etna, and Flonne as cameos in every NIS game ever made after this point" trend. The true sadness begins.

Date: 2010-10-18 02:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sethimothy.livejournal.com
<3 I loved this game. And wow, did the ending turn things around in a beautiful, respectable way. Although I guess it's easy to make friends when you've gained the respect of people who will beat the crap out of those that aren't!

The carry over of Walnut as a significant protagonist into Soul Nomad was awesome as well.

Date: 2010-10-18 03:03 am (UTC)
ext_189275: (Too cool for the afterlife)
From: [identity profile] slimequest.livejournal.com
I've still got to play Soul Nomad. It's one of those PS2 games that I intend to get into, but haven't had the chance. By the time I get around to it, I wonder if NIS will have added it to the grand list of ported/remade games of theirs? Either way, it seems interesting, including the PB connection.

I've got the Wii version of PB and I'd like to try out the "Another Marona" mode sometime, too.

August 2012

S M T W T F S
    1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 

Style Credit

Page generated May. 29th, 2025 07:50 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Most Popular Tags