Walking Tall Among Giants

A while back I talked about how I never really played much RPG up until the last generation or so. Even then I tend to stick mostly to tactical SRPG as it suits my style of play.

Xenoblade is one of the few RPG I'm currently playing that isn't a SRPG. I also played a good ten hours of The Last Story but ultimately decided to focus on Xenoblade first. This game shows me what I'm missing from the RPG genre that I simply don't get on SRPG games : the sense of adventure.

SPRG gameplay and map are always plotted out on a grid. In a way, it makes things easier to learn for a novice of the genre like me. At the same time, it's also restrictive because you can never wander off the grid.

Xenoblade gives you the freedom to explore the world like a good RPG should. The sense of adventure in this game is truly epic to the point I cannot fathom how it plays on the N3DS port. The N3DS port will definitlely lose some of its epicness feel no matter how close it matches the Wii game's visual.

The world of Xenoblade is truly beautiful with real-time weather and daylight change. It's inhabited by a complete ecosystem that Monolith designed for this world. Playing on the TV screen gives you a nice vibe of adventure a bit like Red Dead Redemption except this isn't a barren wastelands. It's a beautiful world that will sometimes make you stop and appreciate the landscape. You can travel to anywhere you see in a distance and all that walking always feels rewarding rather than tedious.

Monster Hunter Tri is a good example of how good this game looks on the Wii but without the annoying loading screen thaat plagues each MH game. You can say I'm biased against handheld system but Nintendo should have remaster Xenoblade for a home console instead of the 3DS system. This game definitely deserves to be played on a big TV screen.

Live. Die. Repeat.

There are a few modern movies which I regret never having seen on the big screen when they were released in the cinema.

Like The Rock and the first Infernal Affairs.

These remained some of my favorite films but I have only watched them on home video release. Sadly the window of catching movies in the cinema is pretty small even with the emergence of multi screen cinemas.

Nowadays video games followed a similar path, the absolute classics that first appear on home consoles re-emerges years later on handheld systems and smartphones.

While I appreciated the notion of having these games on portable devices, I still think that big 3D epics are meant to be enjoyed on the big screen TV.

Especially if it's going to be your first experience.

My first experience of Mario 64 was totally ruined on the DS system because the controls were extremely clunky  without an analog stick. It's still a great game but nothing like Mario Galaxy in my eyes. So I'm pretty apprehensive about these handheld ports of classic games.

Games like Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Xenoblade Chronicles on the 3DS.

I have never played any of these games on their original home consoles. Thankfully the option to play them on a big screen TV is still viable, so long as you keep your old consoles around and have an internet connection.

While on the topic, I do not think everything looks better on a big screen. Certainly not most games originally made for portable systems. But it happens and some of these games leap onto the home console because publishers aren't contend with the sales of the original port. Thankfully I played most of these said games on the handheld and never had to experience what the HD remaster are like. Being a purist, the original format is always the best way to experience it especially if it's going to be your first time.

The Big White Elephant

With the next-gen consoles just days from release, I thought it would be nice to address some issues which only the biggest of geeks would be interested in -backward compatibility. Yes I know this topic has be discussed and dissected apart to the point where the conclusion is always remains the same; everyone wants backward compatibility but nobody ever really makes use of it.

The trend I am noticing these days is how backward compatibility also affects the second hand game market especially in the early days of the console launch. Try looking up second hand prices of Wii games and you will notice that most are fetching high prices. Not so much for PS3 games, in fact from what little I gathered most gamers are actually letting go of their PS3 games because they know the PS4 will not be able to play them anyway. So this creates an abundant supply of unwanted PS3 games on the second hand market as opposed to the Wii.

Now the Nintendo Wii U has not be generating brisk sales as its predecessor but the "hardcore" gamers that refused to support a non-HD console during last generation are among the early adopters. Naturally they would have missed out on the Wii software and thus, are now generating high demand for exclusive games such as Xenoblade, Metroid Prime Trilogy and even The Last Story. In fact I would say demand for Wii games are even higher than when the console was still active because of the rampart piracy of Wii games so Wii users weren't buying the software either during that time. Now getting the legitimate disc might be the only option to play them  upscaled on the new Nintendo Wii U console, assuming that the Wii U console have not been cracked open for piracy (I'm not too up to date on this matter). Therefore the demand for old Wii games are pretty high these days compared with the PS3 or even XBOX 360 games.

How about you, are you buying or selling old games these days?