Podcast Questions!

Hey guys here a questions for ya, do you think JRPGs should drop "J" in Japanese role play game? in light of Recent releases i.e (XenoBlade2) people don't seems to be in Favor of whole Anime feel of the game. Should the Japanese developers focus on making games with less of anime style to them or do you guys think that anime style can still bring going to future . also side question for mike since you're the story guy, do think an anime style game can hold back the story of game even if it was a very good story .

This is mostly for the Sperrys: My wife is currently pregnant with our first child and for the last few weeks I've really been taken with the idea of my son and I learning a language together, though I think I should get a head start. I am not Japanese and I don't live in an area with any significant Japanese population, but my love for Japanese food, video games and other media has me really itching to go for it. So here are some questions off the top of my head: How difficult is it to learn Japanese without direct access to other Japanese speakers? What are the best ways/programs to learn Japanese that you recommend? What are some interesting/amusing/enlightening stories you have of being an American who learned Japanese? Finally, do you plan on teaching your children Japanese, and if so any advice for someone like me? Thanks!

ClankStarr

Another question if you need it :D Do you think JRPG fans tend to overrate the importance of "story" to a game's appeal? Thinking back on a lot of games I played growing up, there are only a handful of titles where I really cared about the story as an independent element - for example, cheating in Starcraft 1 to see the ending of the Protoss campaign. And there were a lot of games I loved where the story wasn't a significant element at all, but that still captured my imagination. I wonder whether "story," defined as plot, character arcs, traditional McKee beats, etc. is really the primary appeal for a lot of us allegedly story-driven gamers, except as a delivery vehicle for things like discovery, exploration, world, music, character personality, and adventure - the things that games really do well. I mean, I love Final Fantasy IV, but I would never read the novelization. And there are some games that would be significantly better if they didn't bother to try to tell a traditional story at all - some of the later Zelda games spring to mind ;)

Hello, I asked a question a while back on the Discord that I think might have fallen through the cracks. Either that or I may have missed the answer. The announcement of Noctis as a guest character for Tekken 7 and the upcoming release of Dissidia arcade/NT in 2018 has made me think of an interesting question/Experience: Are there characters that you have experienced in a fighting or cross-over game that you enjoyed more in that game than in their original game? And if so, did that give you a more positive feeling or memory of the character when thinking back on or replaying the original game? This happened for me with the original Dissidia for PSP. I really didn’t care for the Emperor character in Final Fantasy II when I first played that game. I thought he was a very generic and boring Villain character that wasn’t very unique. But I absolutely loved the character in Dissidia because he had a very different playstyle compared to most of the other characters in that game. (Setting up traps and baits. Controlling space on the screen/environment). He also had a more interesting role in the messy Dissidia story compared to the other Villains. Although the writing in Dissidia is not worth much praise, the character’s lines and role in the overarching story did reinforce his scheming and arrogant character from the original game. And being able to experience the character and act out the sort of “Master manipulator” playstyle in the game itself gave me a stronger connection to the character that I didn’t get from the original game. I then went back and replayed Final Fantasy II (PSP version) and found that my view of the character was more positive overall. (Though I don’t think he’s one of the better villains in the series now or anything to that extent). Question: Have any of you had a similar experience when playing as an character outside of the original source material? Maybe not with Dissidia specifically, but with a game like Super Smash Bros or Marvel vs Capcom or something else? Maybe even to a lesser extent with a more silly game like Mario Kart?

Also, thanks for the answer you gave to my Vagrant Story question in the latest episode. I plan on giving it another go and I’m so excited. The game is so cinematic.

I don’t believe I’ve ever heard your thoughts on the game Chrono Cross. Did you enjoy it? It was my first RPG ever so I have a special attachment to it; but it is not my favorite or in my top 10 (Chrono Trigger is in my top 10, though). I’ve replayed it more than once and I recognize the faults with the story at the end where the ties to Chrono Trigger are revealed, though. Fans of CT like to say it’s not a sequel but it actually is; it’s just a sequel to one of the many timelines created by the events in CT. Another critique I hear often is the number of characters being an issue due to “lack of character development and focus”, but there are several central main characters and they actually get more development than majority of the CT party. Also, have you thought about doing a video discussing this black sheep sequel?