Posted by Djinn on
July 12, 2011
While the main Tournament Page is still undergoing a bit of construction, the RPGDL Tournament marches on! A smaller substitute Tournament is being held on the Forums, organized by CmdrKing. Come get all RPG-hero deathmatch needs by voting in the Forum Topic.
Discussion is welcome, but not required, for placing your vote.
Standard Duelling League rules apply. The one exception is that a few of the more famous characters who weren’t on the Ranked DL roster have been allowed to compete. Maybe one of your favorites is beating up Sephiroth right now?
Tournament 2011 – Round 1 Topic
Round Two is now open!
Tournament 2011 – Round 2 Topic
Posted by CmdrKing on
June 13, 2011
Welcome once again to the demented hellscape that is Thematics. And if you have a snappier name, by all means speak up. In the previous article, I mentioned offhandedly that Final Fantasy VII was probably the first video game that could take serious literary analysis. But this isn’t to say it had the first game to attempt serious storytelling. It was just the first to have enough dialogue to avoid jarring gaps in characterization and plot flow. Fortunately, since we’re concerned with broad stroke and looking at trends and conclusions when hunting themes, this doesn’t matter. As such, sit back as we go way back to 1994 and the launching point of the modern jRPG, Final Fantasy VI.
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Posted by CmdrKing on
June 7, 2011
Welcome to Thematics, where everything’s made up and the plot points don’t matter. That’s right, they’re like armor in a Nippon Ichi game. Today we’ll be looking at that perennial favorite of any conversation, Final Fantasy VIII. The follow-up to the greatest game ever circa 1999, Final Fantasy VIII had more or less infinite expectations behind it, and so had to blow everyone out of the water with its gameplay, character building, cast, villains, and of course plot, especially since Final Fantasy VII had quite possibly the first video game plot with both the concepts and scripting to make serious literary analysis worth anyone’s time. So naturally, FFVIII had a complex theme requiring hours of in depth examination of the script, character relationships, and overall plot arc to divine. Or wait, I have that wrong. It loudly proclaims itself “An epic story based on the theme of love, set in a massive new world”. Huh. Well that was easy.
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Posted by Djinn on
May 15, 2011
Long-time Final Fantasy VI Hacker, SageAcrin, brings us his latest update to the Evil Type patch in 3 years.
FF3 Evil Type is a rebalancing patch the focuses on improving monster/boss AI and stats, rather than the standard practice of nerfing PC skills/equips. The forum topic highlights all of the changes.
Download the patch, talk about the changes, or just check it out here:
SageAcrin’s Final Fantasy III Evil Type 1.1 Topic
Posted by Djinn on
May 12, 2011
More twintails than you can shake a tsundere at!
OblivionKnight brings us some much-needed boss stats for oft-released Dept Heaven game, Riviera: The Promised Land. And from Pyro, our latest new stat topic is for the recent PSP release, Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky.
Check ‘em out:
Pyro’s Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky topic
Tonfa’s and OblivionKnight’s Riviera: The Promised Land topic
Posted by Grefter on
May 11, 2011
Do you like Grandia 2? Are you a someone who takes pride in your taste in video games? Do you want to read some nonsense about all of the above? Then this is the article for you. Do you none of the above apply to you? Well I don’t really fit the categories either but wrote some junk about it so you could totally check it out. There is some jokes and some ranting. Mostly the jokes though.
Disclaimer: Post contains words of a degenerate. The contents of which may be vulgar and disgraceful. Read at your own discretion.
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Posted by CmdrKing on
April 15, 2011
Valkyrie Profile: a gameplay-driven yarn featuring loosely adapted Norse Mythology detailing the events of Ragnarok. We take the helm of Lenneth, middle sister of the Valkyries, as she searches Midgard for worthy souls and trains them for the coming battle in Jotunheim. But with the evil pedo wizards, the business end of Odin’s dickery, the fire giants and watching people die and slaying vampires, what’s Valkyrie Profile trying to say? What’s the idea at the center of its unique take on a story older than the written word? That’s the task for Thematics, a little experiment I’m running in which we’ll be applying something approximating literary analysis to RPG plots and seeing if there’s anything left.
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Posted by Grefter on
April 10, 2011
A discussion article on the ever growing trend of including RPG Elements into the First Person Shooter genre, what is wrong with it in the current trend. Not actually an article about how they totally took our gimmick and should give it back. Disclaimer: Post yet another post containing words that display the vulgarity and disgrace of the wretched and the wicked. Read at your own discretion. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Djinn on
March 30, 2011
The lastest RPG in exciting Revisionist History, Radiant Historia, now has its own endgame Stats comparison topic thanks to our very own Pyro. Check it out here:
Pyro’s Radiant Historia Stat Topic
And right on its heels, CmdrKing announces open nominations for a new Board Tournament of Futurama, featuring Radiant Historia and the fifth generation of Pokemon! Futurama is a tournament where newer, unranked games get their chance to shine against classic favorites from the League. Nominations fill up fast, and there’s only 2 per customer, so show your support for your favorite new RPGs while there’s still time!
The Future of RPGs Tournament
Posted by Grefter on
March 24, 2011
A discussion about a few different ways to think of Artificial Intelligence. All of which doesn’t discuss much of anything, but is a lot of words. Do you want to read someone call Final Fantasy 6 enemies dumb and praise the suicidal Final Fantasy Tactics as far smarter? Well you can do so here.
Disclaimer: Post does not contain your daily quota of vulgar content. You will have to go elsewhere to get your hard swearing today. Read at your own peril.
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