Caltrops - Reviews - Re: dastardly review!

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by Pearson 11/15/2004, 10:54pm PST

I put the quote at the quote at the bottom if you would like to refer to it.

To begin with, you seem to think there is no connection between the Assyrians and the concept of the evil empire. Have you ever read Kings II or Chronicles II? If you had you'd understand that the Assyrians were the quintessential evil empire. They destroyed multiple cities that resisted them and exiled entire populations from their homelands. Did you take a look at the book of Esther or Lamentations?

I am not saying that Star Wars is merely a rip off of the Bible; I am saying that the concept of an evil empire is far older than Star Wars or Final Fantasy games which FABIO implied when he accused Namco of being unoriginal for using the concept. I did not say that Star Wars is a retelling of a biblical story with lasers and spaceships; only that a few of the concepts they had came from much earlier.

Now lets proceed to the concept of time which FABIO would either like to distort or has little understanding of. He seems to believe that one hour means the same to all artistic works (games are a form of art, if still in their early development). This is not the case though. Proportional equality is often more important than numerical equality. An hour spent watching a three-hour movie means more than an hour spent watching a forty hour game (Fable was equated at 20 hours if you need comparison). 1/40 of anything equals 2.5%. Therefore only seeing 2.5% of a 180 minute movie (The Fellowship of the Ring) equates to only 4.5 minutes of watching the movie. There is still 97.5% of content waiting to be seen.

Now I agree with you that time is valuable, this is the first time I've bothered to write in any game review. I responded because what I read was simply quite aggravating. FABIO judged a game before he could possibly have understood it. This sort of reviewing might be excusable in games less dependent on plot (Mario Kart or FPSs for instance) but it is not sufficient for an RPG. I am not saying that one has to play every game; I have reduced my game-playing to a few hours a week. What I am saying though, is that when someone opens up the review of a game they have a responsibility to actually know the game they are reviewing. This means more than 2.5% of the game.

To give an example, I got bored with FFVI after an hour of play and simply did not like the game. I did not write a scathing review on it but abandoned the game for about a year before at a friend's behest I gave the game a second chance and played through the game. I realized then that it was actually a pretty good game.

Finally let me deal with the accusation of Japophilia. I DO NOT WATCH ANIME. I DO NOT KNOW JAPANESE, KOREAN, CHINESE or any other oriental language. I haven't even taken a course specializing in Far East history. I do believe Tales of Symphonia is a great game, but this does not stem from any Japophilia or low standards. I keep a small palette of games due to the simple fact that I prefer to devote more time to studies than games. And its college, not AP english.

As to your final accusation that I neglected to read all of your review, I admittedly missed that final verdict and only saw your other criticism of Tales of Symphonia and a bit of your digression into shooter games. However, you say that you quit at the point where you had to find the statue. That is not even a quarter of the way through the game, probably not even an eighth. If you had actually bothered to travel to find the statue you would have realized that where the people had dropped the statue was at one of the four temples. Even in your later review you continue your earlier mistakes. Even were I wrong about Tales of Symphonia the mistakes made by FABIO in judging it are inexcusable.

FABIO wrote:

Pearson wrote:

why don't you first accuse Square-enix of ripping off Christianity and Judaism.

It's been done.

If you would have spent the time to at least get to the second disk

A person's time become more valuable sometime between mid-teens to early adulthood. I'm sure we'll both look back at this and laugh together once you're there.

Star Wars ripping off the idea of the EVIL EMPIRE from the Jews and their relationship with the Assyrians and Persians? Or the Aeneid for ripping off the Illiad? Or how about Paradise Lost ripping off the Bible? Its in the combination, presentation and innovation of old ideas that a work becomes original, and if you had spent more than an hour playing before writing that dastardly review you would have realized that.

Are you kidding? The EVIL EMPIRE was modeled after the Jews! Silly.

That accelerated highschool English class is really paying off.

I would expect far better taste from anyone who claims to respect plot.

Too easy.

Its a pattern to most good RPGs to begin simple with a great deal concealed and eventually reveal a much more complicated plot.

DISGAEA, MOTHERFUCKER!

On the other end, Xenogears & Xenosaga. You = wrong

Take Chrono Trigger for instance, an hour into the game you have very little idea of what your doing. Then it seems all you have to do is defeat the evil Magus in 600 a.d. to make everything right. You do that and you find out that was not the actual solution. You then proceed to Zeal and the story all congeals into a masterpiece.

HA HA HA

And if you are complaining about the Tree of Mana (actually called the Giant Kharlan Tree) you have neglected to actually look into the history of the Tales series.

ACTUALLY, the game ACTUALLY calls it "THE MANA TREE" right in the intro (actually!). Maybe you were too busy memorizing the family trees of the series' characters to notice.

You seem to think reviewing games should be some sort of massive research project invloving montages of digging through the local library's microfilm and vertical file. Speaking on behalf of 99.9% of gamers everywhere, the history of the Tales series means absolutely nothing to us nor anyone else who doesn't worship Japanese culture outside of its gameshows.

The Tree of Mana was originally in Tales of Phantasia, one of the best games for the SNES next to Chrono Trigger and A Link to the Past.

Except that it was never released in America, so no one cares.

Are you going to complain that maintaining a historical element of the world is unoriginal? God forbid, we'd have to condemn Warcraft III for stealing the idea of the Eye of Sargarros from Warcraft II, and Final Fantasy X-2 for continuing several characters from one game to the next.

Funny, the plots of those games sucked too. I think I see the problem here.

play a game all the way through before reviewing it. To put things in perspective, that would be judging The Fellowship of the Ring or Braveheart based on the first 4.5 minutes.

Way to rush ahead and not read the final verdict. Read the entire review before reviewing it!!!!! >:(

No, it would be like judging The Fellowship of the Ring based on the first hour. Because they both take an hour, and both should not suck during that hour. To put things in perspective, you're a mewling Japophile who thinks the plot of Tales of Symphonia "congeals into a masterpiece". Since you're setting the bar so low, may I make a suggestion?