Drinky Crow said:
I don't need Western art, and I don't need spreadsheets. I'll take solid writing and decent characterizations when they're provided. What I really dislike are plots and characters pinched from the rotting colon of animu cliches -- like that of Xenosaga and the Tales games.
You're entitled to your opinion when it comes to stories in games, even though I disagree - hell, I've heard a lot stranger around here. (Like someone dubbing the Mad TV-quality humor in the GTA games 'brilliant satire'. Those games are fun, sure, but Jonathan Swift they ain't.) What I'm tired of is watching you use your complaints about a given game as a jumping-off point to rip on your usual targets, namely the fans of 'animu' (I really want to take a sledgehammer to the balls of whoever came up with that little neologism) or otherwise Japanese-influenced art and storytelling in games.
For all the bitching I hear about the plot and characterization in Japanese-developed games, I still find them a hell of a lot more compelling than those in most Western titles, anime cliches and all. (And unlike you, I don't find those cliches any more offensive than the ones that predominate in Western games - though I guess many of those pass unnoticed because everyone's so used to them that they don't give them a second glance.)
The characters in the Tales games appeal to me - they hit my personal hotbuttons for 'cute' or 'cool' better than a lot of Western characters (who embody Western cliches) do. Y'see, I don't think it's painfully embarassing to watch characters saying things that are earnest or sweet or involve standing up for what they believe in, all of which are written off by a lot of folks in the West nowadays as 'corny' or 'saccharine'. Likewise, I enjoy the Xenosaga games - the characters and their stories caught my interest, the plot raises some genuinely thought-provoking points, and the scenario writers actually seemed to have a passing acquaintance with real-world science, philosophy, and religion. (Most of the Western sf games I've played read like the authors learned what little they knew of those things from Star Trek/Star Wars, and would probably think 'Gnostics' were the furry little tree dudes at the end of Jedi.
) There are a couple of notable exceptions (I can't praise Deus Ex enough), but they're too few and too far between. Hell, even
Wild ARMs 4 - not the deepest story in a jRPG by any stretch of the imagination - still made a few interesting points about representative democracy as part of the narrative. I generally don't get that sense of a deeper subtext from Western-made titles, and whether or not
you think it's trite or hackneyed,
I happen to like it in my RPG's.
You don't enjoy those things? No problem - there are games out there for all tastes. I think you can enjoy them without appointing yourself arbiter of good taste and heckling the poor benighted fanboys who don't share your opinions.
