Why can't I be a lawyer in ABL?! Argh >< I'll see what an actor can do, but I think I'm gonna be joining the Defenders permanently. And farmers... meh.

I have watched several times and I like when 'no pants' is mention and the shocked faces and snot covered Sokka (his sand sculptures look like blobs of molten plastic or hot glue to me. Pathetic.) always cracks me up into a uncontrollable state of laughter. Got into deep trouble before for laughing out loud like that in the past. Ps. I only like the tv series due to crack up faces and the multiply eyes staring on pant less people (luckily they found a mat to hid themselves). Sorry got carried away.

Here is my reactions to all the funny moments that where mentioned.

http://www.youtube.com/v/sXCdcSuRUjE

http://www.youtube.com/v/-0CNPoNBRQY

@binas: ...what does that have to do with games?

Sorry I was replying to I think Ivvan's post. I guess wrong info to give. But back to the topic.

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I see no difference between RPGs and the other one mentioned. What is?

@binas: You were replying to the TV club, probably, since you mentioned "Sokka". Still, can you get rid of the vids? You coulda just posted a link. not embed them. It's making the site heavy and laggy.

About question. "What is" what? The difference between JRPG, a.k.a "Japanese RPG", and Western RPG? Be clear when you're asking.

Who the hell is Ivvan? Unless you're referring to me, I haven't posted in the TV club for a while. d-_-b

I was referring to you (I sometimes misspell it ) since you did post about it in here (go back one page and look for your post about anime). But we should drop it.

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Back to the topic. I did not know there was a JRPG AND Westerner RPG. Wow. A whole new concept for me.

Wellp, it's pretty much what makes Final Fantasy different from Skyrim or Mass Effect. Both are RPGs, but there's something that makes these two different, and it's not the aesthetics. As in, they're not different simply because one looks like anime while the other looks like DC/Marvel style of stuff.

Not sure what you're saying: Having played both ME/Skyrim, I'd put Skyrim in a different category than ME and it's not just cuz one is set in medieval era while the other is Sci fi.

Skyrim prides itself on its extreme open sandbox nature. Plot and character development are distant priorities.

ME is the opposite: plot/character development/etc. are everything and the game is fairly linear.

Imo, JRPGs (grandia 2, skies of arcadia, Evolution) biggest difference is that majority are turn based rather than real time. Of course, you got some like Phantasy Star online which is like Linear Skyrim.

Yes, I do realize that most JRPGs tend to have turn- based battles, as opposed to real time (Chaos Rings comes into mind). But then again, most RPGs made with RPG makers tend to have turn-based battles. I don't really like turn-based, though. Makes the whole concept of "attack speed" and agility practically pointless.

Blah, I just realized that Mass Effect was a bad example and I came back too late to edit earlier post. Anyways.

I guess in essence what the video makers' point was that JRPG = narrative-oriented, main character is NOT "you", while WRPG = experiencing fantasy, you are the main character. Whether the battles are turn-based or real-time fight has nothing to do with it (supposedly). More like developers of JRPGs most of the time didn't bother improving that turn-based system because their focus is to deliver narrative. Problem arises when the story didn't hold up strongly enough, causing the game to flop.

And then it ties in sorta with their episode on cutscenes. Games that get cutscene-happy is... er, not a good idea?

GAH, this series ain't called "Extra Credits" for nothing. I felt like I just a ttended a week's worth of lecture just by watching the videos. For the record, I personally don't care if an RPG is JRPG or WRPG. I'm just repeating what the videos say.

RM RPGs: RPG Maker purposely wants to emulate "old-skool RPGs" in the style of FF6 and below. Turn-based fights are inevitable and real-time fights require custom-coding?
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Just tried Aldorlea's new game "The Book of Legends". The snarky narrative and the super-annoying-jerk--of-a-hero reminds me very much of Tales of the Drunken Paladin, except that Drunken Paladin didn't implement the branching story path until its later builds.

I wonder if Aldorlea is purposely trying to, well, not copy but... Repackage? Remake? Adapt? Emulate? Or if it's a coincidence. I mean, Aldorlea never ever slacked off in the faceset department in his games before. This is the first time he ever just went and used default RTPs without even doing anything to them. Which is exactly what Drunken Paladin was like. It was made entirely with RTP (faceset, tileset, and all), and the only custom stuff that was brought in was the NPCs and some extra stuff for RMVX's Tile E. Aldorlea imported the Samurai Expansion and used XP, but still...

Oh, I don't know. I need to stop being such a conspiracy theorist. I know, I put in "nudges" to my fandoms in my projects, but not everybody does that. Right?

Anyways. I LOL at the names. You have characters that look like samurai and traditional Japanese people, and they have names like "Jordan", "Jasmine", and "Barbara" And the canon pairing is too obvious. As in, you can make your hero get together with any of the girls, but only one ending has him happily married with the girl. The other endings had the couple break up for some reason or another, even in the "maxed-out attraction points" endings.

I think that maxing the atraction points is not the right choice to do with that characters, I think that you have to make choices that fits the characters. Like when the party reunites after the Wittaland mission, Clea was worried about Jordan you have 4 choices to make, between them has kiss or hugs her gently. I think that Clea would have prefered to be hugged gently instead of being kissed, after all she's the calm and worried girl. Still, I don't know how it works like that, I never got a ending where one of the characters end up together forever.

@Squall: Er, Squall, you're not understanding how "attraction points" work. Choosing the right action at the right moment IS what gives you the invisible "attraction points". Doing something wrong will give you either 0 point or even a minus. If you continue to do the right things, eventually you'll "max out" the points.

Let's look at the example you gave me.
Quote:
For example, Clea would prefer a hug. Then "hug" would give you, say, 3 points. The kiss might give you 1 point, while the other choices worth 0 points and doesn't do anything.

You MAY be chasing after the wrong person if you're not getting a happy wedding ending. Like I said, there's only ONE person who gets a wedding scene, which led me to assume that it was the "true pairing". Wrong person = no wedding pic for you, even though you've maxed out the attraction points. Aldorlea has a new version up, so who knows what changed. Mine was probably outdated.

Spoilers: it's Jasmine

Hmmm, I understand what you mean... but what I tried to say it's about not I don't think that all the choies that we think it's right for the characters IS the actually right for the characters. About the spoiler you mentioned, I don't know if I'm right or wrong but I don't think THAT is the only couple that is possible to have a happy ending.

@D_A: what exactly do you mean when you say that "you" are the main character in WRPGs? Not all WRPGs allows you to create the main characters like you do in MMORPGs, you know.

@rogue: I'm just repeating what the video says. I personally have no clue what they mean. I don't know what counts as WRPG, so I can't make my own judgement.

Maybe they mean WRPGs is more focused on gameplay and mechanics. I dunno. They way they present it overlap other issues, so I confused myself watching the videos

@Squall: Point remains that there ARE specific choices that are designated as right and you have to hit those to get the points. That is what I meant by "doing things right".

Regarding the happy ending. No, you can date any girl if you do it right, BUT all of them will end up with a narrated break-up and there's only ONE "happily married ending". You can "end up" with any girl if you max out the points enough and have a cute scene with the two interacting, BUT the epilogue will say that Jordan got fed up with the girl after a few years and they break up. Only one girl ends with "they live happily ever after".

Here's my take on the Extra Credit lecture and my personal feelings on JRPG vs. Western RPG. It's really about the "feel" of the game and how you feel while playing it.

JRPG - Main focus is the story, character development, and the feelings/interactions between the characters. The story is already laid out and you are just along for the ride. You don't feel like you are personally "in" the game. It's like you are watching a movie, but you get to control the main characters' movements.

Final Fantasy games would be a good example here.


Western RPG - Focus is on the mechanics of the game: customizing the character, focus on fighting styles, skills, interaction with the environment, etc. All this gives you the feeling that you, yourself, are actually in the game, since you spend so much time investing in your characters. The main character is a virtual you.

World of Warcraft, Skyrim, other MMORPGs would fit in this catagory.


I would consider ME3 a mix of the two: the story is set and there is a focus on character interaction and emotions, but there is also customization and decision making that puts you in the game.


Does any of this make sense? (Well, it does for me )

ME3: Heh, I like how you said 'story is set' since it's not suppose to be set in stone. There's suppose to be choices. Yeah, I'm still bitter about it.

So Jrpgs are just visual novels with more bang. Eh sure, I'll go for that explanation even though I feel there are a lot of exceptions to both.

Maybe JRPGs are just RPGs in Japanese form.

Aveyond would be a good example of RPG.

what do you mean by 'japanese form'.