Just to provide some semblance of comparison, they have. The series has garnered so much more love in the 4 years since the video posted.

Nicholas Skiff yeah for better or worse. mostly worse 😢

@@user-qf2rx8ir3n please define your aspects of "worse." I am not going to dismiss your opinion as "unfounded," but I am curious in what aspects you define as worse over the course of the series.

Nicholas Skiff IDK MAN I just feel like the quality of some things gets worse when more people know about it 😞

@J J how many cheese rolls do you think i can fit in my mouth

The series is great at politics and story, not since suikoden, have I ever been invested in a jrpg series.

Yep, they even managed to make obnoxious anime tropes into likable/fun characters.

Let's GOOO!!!!

@BlazingEmber66 A localization that uses the GeoFront Fan Translation as a base No less this is happening because the fans fought for it

I quit the franchise because of Cold Steel.

​​@@DeepestDankestwhy not give next year s Trails Thoughts Daybreak a chance? every arc genre shifts a bit and people who disliked cold steel have liked it so far after playing it with fan translations.

Even final fantasy series

I'd say games like Halo, Dragon Age, KOTOR, and Mass Effect are on par with the Trails series.

Say that word again Rdr2

@@masterchiefpettyofficerspa3646 Played Mass Effect, it was great and it had some good galaxy-building but IMO Trails stomps it in the people aspect

Trails while good at world building is not even close when compared to something like Rance, Arcanum and Underrail(a indie game).

Xseed is always just like "Hey you want a localisation for this very Japanese game? Alright."

Xseed always earned their Money for the Weeaboo Market.

Xseed didn't translate the second game

J Smith their are Other Competitions like Koei Tecmo, & Atlus.

J Smith Yes it did.

Transfer property. If A=B, and B=C, then A=C.

when you will start SC with a complete save from FC, you will fall over, each npc you help in the first will remember Estelle in SC.... literally, Estelle is a celebrity by the second game.

I`m envious, to forget and go back to where my obsession began...You`re a very lucky person, embrace every NPC dialogue, ride the world-build train for as long as you can.

Fair enough.

Well played.

the this F ( F is for first)

I like your channel so screw you I gave you a sub :P

But Geoff recorded it, so he was even earlier than you?

Same. Still remember how Faye looks even. Pink hair and orange suit and cap right?

How she became more distant after Sergent Abraham's confession.

“I hope the two of us can go somewhere again sometime.”

Same she's one of my fav NPCs lol I enjoyed her quest

How about Anton? Hahaha

I love khloe

Anelance!!!

@@cesarpietrocalathaki9539 Tita! She's precious!

Really? Ghostlight? I thought Aksys were the ones doing that.

eh? kinda misinformation.. let me check it..

ups... sorry, it akys games

+OmegaMetroid93 ghostlight is the EU publisher. Aksys is the NA publisher

RaifSeverence Oh, I see. Thanks for clearing it up. :)

TopHatPangolin They're middle market developers. But I guess it doesn't have a nice ring to it like indie or AAA.

I've heard them and their games referred to as "AA" games y'know 2 A's instead of 3.

Well, they aren't attached to a publisher. So by definition, Nihon Falcom is an indie studio.

daone1008 Neither does Platinum games but you wouldn't call them indie either.

Well, I wasn't talking about whether one would call these studios "indie" in the first place. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Did you ever played xenogears?

@Cool Dude yap. Xenogears has one of the best plots in a videogame history. Its legendary in presentation, themes and execution.

@Cool Dude Well, those aren't enough reason to argue it's a better story. What if someone's not into deep philosophy and the meaning of life and the concept of god? Are you saying that a game that portrays these themes is inhently better than a game that focuses on more mundane aspects of life like say, a love story, which is Trails in the Sky's main focus?

@@theazureknight9399 You could say the reverse as well. Some may care more about deep philosophical concepts than a lens into the mundane aspects of life and love. People are just giving their opinions here, they're allowed to disagree.

@@oromain Well, i never denied that in my comment, nor have i said that he isn't allowed to give his opinion, in fact, i was giving my own opinion as well. I really don't get what you wanted to accomplish with your reply.

+Yuzuki-Tan *good visual novels that give a shit about pacing

Mother's Basement most his works are like less than 20 hours and lots of things happen he just writes a lot of character thoughts. Swan Song is considered to have great pacing by many and is way more detailed than a lot of books. Please dont talk about vn because i doubt you know hardly anything at all.

To be fair, there's a difference between a visual novel that's trying to tie its visuals tightly with its narrative and a visual novel that's just a book with images and music playing in the background while you read it and occasional choose-your-own-adventure decisions interspersed throughout. While those are rewarding to experience in their way, they depart from what makes the medium unique from books and focus more on the text content than the visual component. It's one way of doing it, but it also results in a fundamentally different kind of experience for the reader. - Lewis

"While those are rewarding to experience in their way, they depart from what makes the medium unique from books and focus more on the text content than the visual component." But I always believe VN's primary focus is on the text content. The visual, BGM, VA are just supplementary which enhance the reader's immersion within the story, thus a better immersive experience than books imo.

And like I said, that's one way of doing it, but it's not the kind of visual novel that really digs to their heart of what makes a visual novel unique as a storytelling medium. It's certainly the easiest kind to construct--you just have to arrange the audiovisual component around the writing--but a visual novel developed to be "played" more than "read" is going to take pains to build its text content around the audiovisual component instead. It's a question of priority and how the player/reader is intended to experience the story. - Lewis

SC is good too.

Dnetwork7 Oh yeah, I wouldn't ever doubt that. I've been told that it's even better than FC since that's basically just the prologue to SC, and even that was already one of my favorite games of all times.

Frick. I haven't touched my unfinished copy Cold Steel since January but could immediately recall each NPC's face as you mentioned them. Trails is so good.

heerotomoe Definitely. With most games I don't even remember more than maybe like 2 named NPCs. And here EVERYONE is memorable. Kenneth is still my favorite though. No matter how much shit goes down, he's just fishing. Nothing else matters ^^

Unfinished? Damn, you put something like that in front of me and I'm like a fat kid with a pack of Oreos.....They will be FINISHED

You know, I was thinking this exact same thing the other day. Overlapping story arcs, a consistent world, powerful artifacts capable of altering the universe corresponding to different elements, etc. etc.

CS4 is definitely the endgame of the previous games and a satisfying conclusion imo

Yes more people should know and play this game. Best game ever.

Don't forget to play the Third Chapter!

Yes my good friend, you do.

I highly recomend its, the Trails series are incredibly submersive with great characters

You do. They are definitely worth it

I've been playing Trails of Cold Steel, it's incredible and pretty modern so it's really easy to get into. It's my first game in the series

+Alexis Recinos is "Trails in the Sky" the first game in the series?

Did he call them Indie? I only heard him refer to them as "not AAA" and low-budget compared to the titans everyone knows, which by no means translates into Indie.

I find that indie is a term that becomes more nebulous the further you explore the medium of video games and all the variance that entails. just curious what is your definition of indie?

I think they fit the definition of "indie" in the US in that they develop independent of a major publisher and are not one themselves, at least in the US. Also, while they have been around as long as Square and Enix, they aren't nearly as large as the Square Enix empire.

He called them Indie in the title...

my god.... Nihon Falcom a INDIE fucking company? No man. It doesnt matter If they are Not as big as Square Enix. They are Not a bunch of liberal nonsencial "Free from business ways of doing things" group. They are a Company, with contractors, partners, they even have their own magazine. They are Not a fucking INDIE. Wash your fucking mouth in comparing Nihon Falcom with The likes of Shit heads like some unworthy mentioning *ShiEZ* devs

If you think their stories are not mindblowing is because you haven't played Sora no Kiseki and especially Zero and Ao no kiseki yet, Sen no Kiseki is actually the weakest entry in the series.

Still disapoint that there is no crosbell arc translated officialy (zero no kiseki fan translate is good tho....can't say the same with ao)

I actually complete all three Sora games. And I can't really say that story in those are actually mindblowing, like in Yoko Taro games, but that doesn't mean that they are bad. They are awesome, with great characters and cool twists, but they're don't make you screaming something like "WTF DID I JUST SEE!!!". And still, when I completed Sora no Kiseki 3rd, it was good and in the same time sad, 'cause I got attached to heroes so much that just didn't want to say goodbye. About Sen no Kiseki, I can agree that Sen is not that great as Sora, but I just can't agree that it's shit, and so many people saying, that Sen is shit. It's not THAT bad, for Christ sake. Sen is a little standard, but still have good characters, great storytelling, nice atmosphere, awesome music and world. I love Class VII same as guys from Liberl ark and it was still sad to say goodbye to those characters, even though not for long. I understand, that Sen is strait copying some fragments from Sora, but it's still not bad, and definitely not for people that first played Sen. I understand that Sen is not making same impact as Sora, but I still can't say, that Sen is weak installment. And sadly I still didn't played Zero and Ao no Kiseki. Still waiting full translation :c

I have to say that zero no kiseki really" good, arguably even better start then trails in the sky 1, although if you aren't play sora no kiseki, you won't understand some of the refrence (some of the sora characters comeback here and one of the most intriguing characters from sora explain the background here)

Dude stop. I already can't wait full translation and you just add fuel :c

Random2960 sadly I am in the same boat. I played it, LOVED it, and then discovered.... there is literally nothing to top it. I hit the apex.

You're not digging enough. Lots of great JRPGs, especially in the SNES and PSX era.

Random2960 witcher 1 to 3 as cliche as this game now sounds to use its truee.

Planescape: Torment, Tyranny, Tales of Berseria, Xenogears, ...............NieRAutomata maybe? :D

Berseria's world felt flat but the gameplay is good.

You may not like Bethesda's Fallouts but no way in hell does this weeb shit come close to New Vegas.

+Enclave Communications Officer You have to admit though Fallout 4 and 3 are dull as fuck. And New Vegas wasn't even developed by Bethesda, Obsidian did that. Bethesda just published it.

I never said Bethesda made FNV, I was saying you can't call all Fallout games ass because Fallout 4 was sub par. Also, 3 is my favorite in the whole franchise. Interplay writes hella good stories, but 1 and 2 are completely uninteresting gameplay-wise. 3 was quite a challenge compared to NV and had some of my favorite weapons, despite having a rehash of 2's plot.

You can't just dismiss anything Japanese as "weeb", it only makes you look ignorant and rather xenophobic. And the reason Bethesda sell so many games is because of how simple they are. Over time they've been getting rid of many RPG features just so as many people as possible can buy it.

Christ, even just casually using the word weeb triggers people? It was a joke man, I'm a huge anime fan. I have nothing against Japan. But about Bethesda's simplifying of games, I'd have to argue that FO4 was one of the only ones that really did that. Skyrim had a weird leveling system, but that seemed to be more a result of trying to create an immersive one, not a stream-lined one.

Odd question here, but I only played trails in the sky, is the other LOH game he's talking about called Cold Steel? (the one with 3D dudez)

+TheAwkwardGuy yea

yeah, he is talking about Cold Steel, but there is another two games that takes place at the same time as Cold Steel, Trails of Zero and Trails of AO.

Well idk, I probably won't see a mention of Estelle and Joshua so they don't technically happen at the same time. Err ok I didn't listen to the video pretty well but I guess he did say that all of their games are in the same location and time.

Cold Steel plays a bit after the whole Joshua/Estelle thing has been resolved, and it seems to play simultaneously to at least one of the crossbell games, which we don't have yet. I wouldn't count on there being no relations to Trails in the Sky though, you might be surprised.

But it's the most popular company when it comes to these type of games.

+Nycro Unfortunately

cue the Bethesdrones.

+Joe "but Skyrim is my favorite, and fallout is so famous, etc."

"But it's the moster popular company when it comes to these type of games." And this is really really sad.

hahaha yeah, having a company that make like 3 games a year since the 80s, suuuper indie ps: probably was paid for this xD (maybe)

I don't think he was paid but he was implying that they have a lot less resources.

WayForward has been making games since the 90's but they're still considered indie.

***** Budget doesn't equal indie tho. While they may be smaller than AAA, that doesn't mean they aren't established players of the industry and longevity matters when we talk about indie. Saying they are indie generally implies that they are new and small, companies experimenting because they have no budget. While Falcom is smaller than AAA and don't have AAA budgets, they definitely aren't indie size small. When we think about indie, we don't think about companies like konami or capcom their longevity makes them established in a way that indies aren't even tho they self publish, and Falcom is the same way. They are a key part in shaping the industry even if they aren't all that well known in the way and are no way indie, and using indie to describe them is an incorrect statement that only serves as clickbait. If you're new to gaming, you may not be familiar with middle tier game development, companies like from software that are in between AAA and indie, that's where Falcom is, one of the established players of that space. There used to be a lot more middle tier devs (or AA devs) but they're dying out because of high cost of game development...

Indie doesn't mean "slow" or "new" or "small" anything dumb like that. It just means "independent." Longevity is just a stupid bullshit thing people bring up when they want to make a new player seem artsier somehow. - Lewis

Cage532 I love that the npc,you saw and talked to in cold steel are in cold steel 3 with full portraits and are grown up especially mint.

I am! I beat Cold Steel 1 last Thursday and now I can jump into the 2nd game once it comes out.

MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

I spent the summer beating CS 1, so I am super pumped.

+Clint McKee Same here. That was probably one of the best game's I've ever played.

it's not that I'm not excited, I'm just not ready. I've been moving through cold steel 1 at snails pase.

65 years or 55 if you don't count the 10 he was trapped in oblivion.

If I remember my lore correctly Oblivion is a mere 4 years after Morrowind which is only a few years after Daggerfall so it's more like 20-30 years. Yeah surprised he didn't really talk about Elder Scrolls that much which are imho the best open world rpgs available.

and fallout 3 and 4 are pretty close too just roughly ~10 years or so

And Fallout 1/2 are "only" 70 years or so apart, just like 3 and NV have a decade between them and 4. Only Skyrim fits his description.

how much time between oblivion and skyrim? 200 years?

General what are you doing here in KZfaq A new settlement needs your help I will mark it on your map

Go back and check the treasure chests after you've taken the loot, every single one of them has something funny to say about the fact that you're checking an empty treasure chest.

@@SuperSupersoda enforcer no. 00 , this empty chest (From trails in the sky the 3rd )

@@Azure9577 Yeah, by the time you get to Cold Steel, only the blue treasure chests have chest messages anymore, and those were obviously imported by Liberl or Crossbell.

@@SuperSupersoda lmao

Rip good games from Bethesda 1986-2008

+Acualy Is (Sylva) elder scrolls online

*1986-2011 FTFY

Bethesda never made good video games

Dex F Lol. Just lol.

***** I noticed the main characters were pretty fleshed out so far in my journey but really had no idea. Welcome to the group btw.

Other things in that first town you can find out. The lady whose cat runs away when she's sleeping? If you pay attention to her, you can see that as you progress the intro, she goes from eating, to being tired, to sleeping (with the cat gone) to waking up and putting in the request at the guild. Also if you check the hotel every now and then, you can see when exactly Josette shows up, and talk to her, before she goes to see the Mayor and scope out to steal the quartz

Blawynn That really is cool. I'm paying way closer attention to the townsfolk now. Hopefully it leads to a bit more than just dialogue but its still pretty interesting stuff.

+wolfflow Haha, these games turned me into a stalker, i swear. making sure i knew where every npc was and making notes of everything they did. it's an infectious behavior

Blawynn lol

Which podcast # is it?

WFoong98 #143: Mother's Sh*tbag The preview video was quite hilarious as well.

It's because of that episode that I got that game. Love it so much.

I love worlds with enormous lores and backstories but I can see why the average market consumer wouldn't be all that into it.

The point is that having NPC's with stories which actually get on with their own shit instead of say, standing still endlessly spouting the same line to you, regardless of what point in the story your character is in, makes that game world feel more alive and immersive.

True. But this video isn't about having interesting main characters or a great plot. It's about world building. That's some people's jam.

Hey, I used to think like that too. Maybe talk with an NPC or two if I think they have a quest or a hint for me, and be done with them afterwards. But these Falcom games made me realize how much I actually wanted to care about the "unimportant" NPCs all along. And now that I know how great it can be, I can't go back to the likes of "Welcome to corneria" and "It's you, the hero of Kvatch."

The thing is that having story lines to minor characters shows the respect of the writer with their story, and this is pretty cool, but I don't think it's a factor that "kicks the butt" of other games. Maybe this game "kicks the butt" of all Fallout games combined, but in my opinion it would be because of the overall story/character development/climax, not because it shows the life of a merchant or something. I'm just saying that this video leaves a bad taste in the mouth because it's like saying this game's world is better than Fallout 2, for example, just because FO2 doesn't focus on the life of the "Citizen A". I'm pretty sure that hardcore Persona fans felt the same when Persona was referenced like a game that "things only happen when the protagonist is around".

hornylink bethesda's is the best at world building in the west, believe it or not. What they are not good at is story telling.

Bethesda are objectively pretty bad at world building though this isn't opinion either this is why people consider Morrowind to be the best game they ever made.

drinkyourtea Oblivion is better

You don't seem to know what World Building means. It has nothing to do with it's looks.

I don't play Bethesda rpgs. I play their shooters, Wolfenstein and horror evil within, also Dishonored is really good! but sincerely fuck skyrim, i can't play that stuff

I'm honestly surprised this *still* hasn't happened.

+BarelyAttractiveTwentySomething maybe, but then I wouldn't be using my stand power of shilling to its fullest.

Yooo, thanks for the reply! And, you know what? That's a compelling argument, I guess. Love your shit.

Good, because Bethesda has been shit lately, especially with their paid mod bs

Hunie-Pop

Now there is a game with an engaging storyline ;)

Rory Haresnape Persona though

I actually played HuniePop, and refunded it once I realized that you can only get one sex scene with each girl. I appreciated the social challenge of guessing what to say, but after the first three girls you've basically memorized everything and are a pro at the puzzles. It's just a huge grind for such shitty scenes. Not worth. Play a freakin visual novel

I know right. Why work hard, when you can find literally anything to fap to on google? Also, Hunie-Pop was $10, while the internet is free.

Uh huh

Dragon Quest is love. Dragon Quest is life.

Bethesda's Fallout 4 had better combat, was less buggy. Had a far better survival mode and economy.

When will Anton have a happy ending? He deserves it hahaha

IMO, originality is really oversold. The most thrilling stories we have are knockoffs of older, rustier stories from long ago, and most often something that's said to be "original" has already been done before. All that really matters is how you take an old concept or make it better, not creating something that is totally different than what we've seen before.

This. Where this bothers me the most is in the genre of MMORPG's. I play Rift, because it's the closest thing to WoW that is free, but it's pretty old and the game developer is kind of an asshole, so I've been looking for a new one to waste all my time on. Except I can't find a single one I like, every new MMORPG has some kind of annoying gimmick that makes it original, but that is not what I want. What I want is WoW/Rift all over, a standard fantasy MMORPG, but updated to 2016.

Nope, it takes tired tropes and turns them on their head, that is one of the reasons the series is great. Not to say it does not adhere to certain tropes as well to be fair

I second what Josh Li said. I haven't played either of them (Not knowing Japanese sucks) But I have seen game-play of their translated first chapters. Trails of Zero (Ao is the direct sequel of this) in particular seems very original. What RPG comes to mind that evokes a City Noir 1950s urban feel, being set in magical fantasy world and has you playing as a cop/detective? Urban Fantasy done right imo. As for "Trails in the sky The 3rd" I will take an XSEED twitter post to describe the game. “So a priest and a nun walk into a game….” *Sigh* Now I'm sad that these three gems haven't been localized yet...

***** I've played and beaten all of the translated games so far, don't get me wrong! I love the Trails series and agree for the most part with what he's saying in this video here. I just felt he overstated his point when he started talking about how this game outclasses The Witcher in world building. And a part of me prefers the much more mature and morally grey storytelling of the latter compared to the contemporary anime style of the former which is still filled to the brim with anime cliches (Renne). It doesn't make it bad, or inferior necessarily, but it does kind of feel stale or pandering when you see such popular character archetypes trotted out again and again. But I digress, I still love the Trails games and am looking forward to the next one releasing in just a few days.

the whole cold steel have that with Trista and Leeves and some character that follow each place you visit during field exercices. Pretty sure crossbell being only one big city is like this all the time.

+JT less slick: NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS TO THE KENNEDYS

+Mother's Basement I CAUGHT THE CLONE HIGH REFRENCE SO FAST MAN THAT SHOW WAS GREAT.

I caught the reference as well

and here i thought near nobody watched Clone High

Not a basic bitch. THE basic bitch.

He has clearly not played an DQ game through. Formula is simple, but never basic.

Hemang Chauhan they are very basic. always the chosen/prophesized hero vs demon king/evil empire.

I was talking in terms of the battle systems/mechanics. And also, have you played it DQ5 or 8? Sure the basic "plot" is kill the evil and save the world, but what happens in between is what makes it so special. DQ is masterful at small scale world building.

He was calling the DQ series 'basic' in terms of world building. Only in world building. Not combat, not story, not customization or progression. World building. While I may not agree with it, I still respect his opinion, but I felt it was important to point that out.

They actually have about the same number of NPCs. The Trails games are notorious among localizers because they have many lines to translate. Literally multiple copies of War and Peace sized dialogue. And each game keeps getting bigger and bigger.

That's a moot point. Just decrease the number of NPCs and give them more realism. That was one of the points he made lol

I love Dark Souls, but I always feel like the NPCs are oversold. Yes, they actually have personality, but actual character development is generally kept to a minimum, with only a few exceptions. Most of the time they only serve to reflect on just how shitty, or how mysterious, the world is in those games.

+RPGMel710 Did you see the picture of the script in (probably) Hiragana that I think Tom from XSeed posted on gamefaqs for example? We all knew how much dialogue FC had, and the script for SC was like 4 times as thick.

Compare a list of named NPCs with dialogue in a given Bathesda game with a list of NPCs in a Trails game and I think Trails would probably come out on top.

I met Trails in the Sky in my elementary school prob 2008 or 9. Falcom games were pretty popular in East Asia while I was still there. Some really remarkable memories with the series.

Craig Anderson Trails 1 and 2 are on PS Now. That's how I first heard about them.

the thing is most of the tropes were used before by falcom and most people now will get to play them will feel meh about them.

+Shemegory I've played a lot of Trails series but I don't think its world building is better than for example Fallout as the video claims it to be. I'm not saying it's bad, it's actually quite good, better than most JRPG. But the video is just giving it too much credits. The best RPG in terms of world building for me is still Fallout New Vegas (better be played along with the first two Fallout games because you can really see the world evolves and history moving on) and theMass Effect Trilogy.

It's because he's confusing Lore with World building in the video, you can have a shit ton of lore with little world building and a ton of world building with little lore.

yeah they're middle market I guess?

WayForward's been making games since the 90s and is still considered Indie....and I think he meant they're low on resources compared to many others.

Siddharth actually Falcom was founded in 1981. It is one of the oldest game devs around but I get what you mean.

no

World building= Fucked up shit happens in the capital

The world building wasn't bad!... It was non-existent :')

"How a Japanese Indie Studio Kicks SAO's Butt at World-Building"

AgK's story was pretty piss poor too though.

Enforcer no.00 this empty chest From trails in the sky the 3rd

Vexnexus My first full play through from Falcom was YS VII.. I thought it was excellent but I’d gotten a new respect for them after Cold Steel 1&2, TiTs and YS VIII.. These are some of the best titles ever and made me rethink how great the rpg genre could be.. Although some of the older ones could use a remake with more up to date graphics n voice acting.. As far as their competition this one I’m currently playing by Atlus called Radiant Historia PC is probably the only thing that comes close as far as being epic..

i just beat witcher 3 yesterday and its amazing. every character and npc had personality and acts like real people. I love how the games world focuses more on the politics and societal structure. it's universe is like ours

I think most AAA WRPG's can't have the same level of deph because they have to be voiced. It's kinda how the Deus Ex sequels will never have the same deph as the original because of fancy graphics

but the wolrd bulding itself is great, reading the books you find, and the notes posted on the towns public boards, giving no useful information most of the time but rather glimpses of the day to day life of an ordinary inhabitant, that is the kind of stuff that helps with the realism of the experience

Everything about the Witcher was amazing. Considering the DLC is as well, where you got 40+ extra hours for $20. The game was an absolute bargain in my opinion.

The Witcher 3 has the best quest design I've ever seen in a video game. It ruined quests for other games for me.

I don't think he's really advocating about backtracking just to talk to NPCs. Not entirely anyway, it's nice that it's there for those who do enjoy it (slightly guiltily raises hand) but that the NPCs show more character in the trails games than they do in most others. I do agree with you that actual changes happen too, towns are different, like say a town destroyed early in the game shows more and more progression of rebuilding as the game goes on. mayors, and festivals also would be very nice ways to show that the world is alive. But as he pointed the NPC text is the cheapest and easiest way. For changes to towns that means more models and textures. New shaders for the buildings. Probably some new sound files if there were fires still burning or say clean up and rebuilding going on. A lot of that could be reused but it still is some more money, and likely some of the first stuff on the chopping block for cuts and stuff. Something I feel he kind of missed is that there really are different reasons behind playing a JRPG vs a Western RPG. Extra credits did a fairly good series of videos for it, but the important distinction for this conversation, I feel is that JRPG's are all about a story, where as a Western RPG is all about your effects on a story--and possibly a more cinematic experience in general--because in most Western RPGs the player's character is a blank slate that the player can make into themselves, or anything they want. Whereas a lot of JRPGs the player character--if there is only one--is usually already defined, and if it is a blank slate there isn't usually a whole lot of effect they can have on the story in general. That's why I think that the Bethesda games have more focus on voice acting and maybe why most of the NPCs beyond plot and player companions tend to be rather lacking in characterization. The focus isn't on them or even the world so much, as it is on the player and what they are doing. I also have to say that I think choice is also a very strong narrative component to games and their ability to tell stories. but yeah he is right there are some things games can't do that other forms of media can. I still feel however that video games can be one of the strongest narrative formats we have when it's used right.

I completely agree with you Freezezonian. WRPGs and JRPGs have very different scopes, it's like comparing the Dark Knight to the Avengers. Both could be called action, sure, but how they deliver on that premise is very different. Those expecting/wanting a fairly lighthearted bright tale from Dark Knight will be disappointed, and those expecting deep, dramatic, and gritty realism from the Avenger's will also be let down. Those that play JRPGs are usually looking for something different when compared to those who favor WRPGs, but many time people forget the strong distinctions between the two and want to debase one for lacking the qualities of the other, despite those very qualities being that which makes the distinction in the first place.

Of course that isn't to say that they can't borrow from each other too. Avengers can have some serious moments, and Dark Knight can have some small bits of funny. And that idea, is something I think he was suggesting could and possibly should happen.

Agreed!

no back tracking involved actually. you don't go through the whole game world to talk to everyone after every major story event, you only need to talk to the people in the town that you are currently in after each event involving that town. the game is split up into chapters, each chapter is set in a different city/town in the game with their own story arc that eventually culminates into a larger narrative. if you have ever played a dragon quest it's will feel very similar.

Actually, I was curious about whether any games of that genre (life sim?) did this type of world-building well. I only played one Harvest Moon game and it disappointed me in this regard with only a few set pieces.

Min Ro Harvest moon's world is bad... the series is composed mostly of mediocre games, and now that Marvelous dosen't produce it anymore Natsune took the lead and started making below avarage games... Rune Factory is the only series that did it great. You should absolutly check out RF3 or 4 (4 is way better than 3, but it's on the 3ds, so you'll have to buy it) Unfortunately Neverland (the company behind Rune Factory) died after releasing RF4, and now all the rights belong to Marvelous... So there's still hope for a "fifth" (Seventh) game...

rune factory is an absolute treasure and a must play for any gamer that enjoys rpgs or farming/crafting/fishing for resources. i was completely amazed about how every day had different dialogues and ongoing plots for villagers when my only comparison was harvest moon which had the same stupid dialogue all year.

I really wouldn't say Harvest Moon's world is "bad" or it's games are "mediocre" [I'm strictly talking about the ones that Marvelous produced]. I don't even really think you can compare the two since Harvest Moon is strictly a life sim and Rune Factory is a Role Playing sim. They share a few of the same elements but their different enough to make it sound like you're comparing apples to oranges. Still fruit, but different kinds of fruit that have a different taste to them. [I ESPECIALLY don't thing you can compare Animal Crossing. Comparing Animal Crossing to either of them is like comparing an apple, an orange, and a boat]. I will admit I've had a very small sample size of RF compared to HM having only played Frontier [which I could not get into for the life of me] and 4 [which I genuinely enjoyed more than any of the handheld HM games]. It's an acquired taste really. But I really don't think you can say one game's "world" is "better" than the other, their just different. Although I will half agree that, at least for myself, every Harvest Moon [and Story of Seasons] game post Animal Parade has been incredibly difficult to get into. I think the problem is both the shift to handhelds [I much prefer a HM game on a console] and the rather drastic change in art direction [which made it feel...more generic honestly.] I will also digress, A Wonderful Life was my first Harvest Moon game, which as you pointed out, has EASILY the best world building in the entire series. It's such a shame those games are looked at so poorly and had some...questionable choices for mechanics.

Chimar Varmidium I know, right? People are now talking about Stardew valley and how good it is, but compared to the rune factory series, it's still an inferior game. The characters are just so funny and unique in their own way... I mean... Every harvest moon has someone who's from the"De Sainte-Coquille" family, but every one of them is wierd in its own way. Or the "Asian-type girl archetype", in the first game you had Mei, than in the second, Yue, Sakuya, Xiao Pai. and Uzuki. Every one of them are different, they have different personalities, likings and dislikings, goals and morives. It really is sad to think that the series may have come to an end :'^(