Opinion Fest 2009: Biggest Disappointment

Yes, 2010 is almost upon us, which means it's time for another round of blatant opinions on the year in review, appropriately dubbed Opinion Fest 2009!

As with last year, we're going to get the "bad" awards out of the way first. And with those comes probably the worst of the bad, the Biggest Disappointment award. As you may guess from the name, the Biggest Disappointment award goes to the game, system, event, company, or anything else RPG related that unabashedly peed in our collective cereal this year, usually in spite of high hopes for the contrary.

Let's meet the worst offenders.

3rd: Ar Tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica - Gust, NIS America - PlayStation 2
Persona 4 was a good game, but my hopes for the last great PS2 game were riding on the overdue sequel to the obscure sleeper hit Ar Tonelico. With a winning gameplay formula and shamelessly interesting story, Ar Tonelico's sequel should have brought the series into the limelight it so rightly deserved.

Instead, however, we were given a buggy, uninteresting game with amazingly less features than the original and shamefully terrible localization (even for NIS). The game felt like a giant middle finger to anyone who still held faith that small developers could make great games, and that the PS2's extended life was worth it. The sad truth was painful to experience.

2nd: Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled - Studio Archcraft, Graffiti - Nintendo DS
After years upon years of waiting, Studio Archcraft's 16-bit revival was finally upon us. With everything from the graphics to the gameplay drawing on classics like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, there should have been no way for Black Sigil to do anything but conquer the market.

But with game-breaking bugs, a painfully gimped battle system, and a ludicrous encounter rate, the hoped-for title alienated itself from virtually everyone. Anyone looking for a lesson in how to botch a seemingly bullet-proof formula for success need look no futher than Black Sigil.

1st: 2009 in General

2008 was amazing. Certainly the best year for RPGs since the 7th generation began. With solid titles releasing at least every month, and many modern masterpieces among them, many felt they had died and gone to RPG heaven.

By contrast, 2009 has been an utter dearth, with the precious few RPG releases not even holding a candle to their 2008 counterparts. Though a few notable exceptions stand out, the majority of 2009 should frankly just be forgotten. There haven't been many years this disappointing in a long time, and I personally hope this is the last time I will have to endure such torture.

Opinion Fest 2008: Biggest Disappointment

Time to get Opinion Fest 2008 underway. I'm going to start with the "bad" awards so we can get those out of the way first.

2008 had a lot of ups and downs. This award goes to the games that brought some of the biggest downs to the RPGing world. Many of these big downs came from hopes of wondrous ups, only to be smashed right in front of us. Check out the three biggest disappointments of 2008.

3rd: Black Sigil pushed back AGAIN

How many times does this make it? I don’t know exactly who to point fingers at here, but seriously, how long must I wait for this game? It’s been years, you guys. YEARS.
Just pick a date and ship it to stores already. Mmmkay?

2nd: Infinite Undiscovery’s voice work

I was very very excited for Infinite Undiscovery. I love tri-Ace, and so to see a new IP from them pushing the action-RPG genre in new ways was more than a little exciting, especially considering the game had the backing of both Microsoft and Square Enix. Everything I saw of the game up until release was nothing but confirmation that the game was indeed going to kick some serious ass.

Then the English dub came along and ruined everything.
Though a few voice actors managed to deliver decent performances, the vast majority felt half-assed at best, absolutely butchering any real feeling that the game tries to deliver. I still like this game, but I find myself shaking my head almost constantly at how terribly the English cast screwed this up.

Honestly Square Enix North America, what the hell were you thinking? You could have at least left the Japanese track on it if you didn’t want to make an effort.

1st: Continued developer support of the DS with no end in sight

I’m going to level with you. I have a DS, and I can’t stand the damn thing. The graphics are terrible, the audio quality is grating, the console is poorly made and uncomfortable to hold, and squinting at the screen for more than 10 minutes is mind-numbing. And yet developers – North American and Japanese alike – love to develop games for the thing like it’s going out of style. If someone teases a game, my first guess is always “another sh*tty DS game,” and sadly, I’m usually right.

All of this would be forgivable if the DS garnered the same interest as every other handheld in the history of the world. Y’know, a respectable install base and the occasional good release. But no. Everyone in the damn world owns one of these little buggers, letting every single developer know that its okay to make sub-par games all of the time. Dammit, DS. Go the hell away.