The Video Game Revue

Dragon Quest Dilemma

So here's the problem: I don't really want Dragon Quest VIII--at least, I was intending on putting off getting it for at least a few months. I have so many RPGs on the go right now (Digital Devil Saga!) and other games besides that I really don't have the time or the need for anything new. But then, of course, I got to reading about the Final Fantasy XII demo. It's been so long since I had a new Final Fantasy game to get worked up about, and it will be quite a while yet before Final Fantasy XII comes out... I have to admit, it's very difficult to resist the urge to get Dragon Quest VIII primarily to be able to play the FF XII demo. I could never justify paying the full price of a game just for a demo, naturally, so I'd be telling myself that really I'm getting it for Dragon Quest VIII, but deep down, the ugly truth would remain.

Magna Carta: Tears of Blood is also almost upon us. I've had my eye on that one for a while, but there's simply no time! I need to clear some of the titles that I currently have off of my plate. Actually, I have to admit that such a line of thinking (clearing titles off of my plate) is futile in itself. I have so many RPG games that need playing that unless I quit my job to take up gaming full-time, I have no hope of ever covering them all. To take such a defeatist attitude might make it possible for me to say "ah, why the heck not" and buy into yet even more RPGs, but then I have the very tangible feeling that I'm just throwing my money away by purchasing relatively expensive games that I might never spend more than a few hours with.

The following is a bit of a map of the current state of my RPG gaming schedule:

Digital Devil Saga is my primary RPG at the moment. I'm about 10 hours into it, and I've been playing it in about 2 hour spurts, which works well. I already have the sequel sitting on my shelf waiting to be played.

I've stalled somewhat on Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, at around the 40 hour mark. I probably only need another 10 or so hours to finish it, so there's a good chance that I'll finish it soon--but I've been saying that for a while. Here's the brutal part: I already have Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom waiting. I want to play them in order (I've already conquered La Pucelle Tactics.)

After 10 hours, I'm still throwing away stretches of time on Lunar: Dragon Song. It's a B-grade RPG at best, but it's easy enough to play little stretches of without putting much thought into. I thought that by now I'd be willing to abandon it, but somehow I keep playing it.

I'm roughly 15 hours into a play-through of Xenogears, which is an RPG that I've always meant to finish, and this time I'm really going to do it. I may opt to start Xenosaga as soon as this is done, or I might put that off for a while.

Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana is sitting on the shelf waiting to get started. I was thinking of picking this one up as soon as Disgaea is done, although I'll likely start Phantom Brave instead. I'm not sure how long it will take to get around to this game, but I'm definitely not playing it while I already have four RPGs being actively played.

Stella Deus is in much the same position as Atelier Iris. I did start playing this one at one point, but set it aside after only about an hour. I need more time to be able to afford to play through it, although I badly want to.

I got about three hours in to Paper Mario 2 before putting it down in favour of Digital Devil Saga. I picked this game up rather late (it's been out for a long while now), but I was very entertained by it. I might yet get around to it.

It's difficult to admit, but I never did get very far into Knights of the Old Republic. As an RPG fan and a Star Wars fan, I'm rather embarrased by my failure to finish this game, and that's something that I would prefer to rectify sooner rather than later.

Now if I really started digging deep, I could think up a whole galaxy of other RPGs that I would like to play or replay, and that I already own. Given this current, rather sad state of affairs, you can see how rushing out to buy Dragon Quest VIII and Magna Carta: Tears of Blood would be a foolish thing to do. By the time I get around to them, it might be 2007.

In other news, I finally made it to the last colossus in Shadow of the Colossus. I thought that there were only 12 for some reason, but it turns out that there are 16. It's taken me a little bit over 10 hours to get this far in the game, and as soon as I can figure out how to beat that last guy, I can file Shadow of the Colossus under "finished." I'll also be posting a rant at some point about how brilliant the game is, although it's likely that I won't have anything to say about it that you haven't already heard.

I'm also still having lots of fun with Soul Calibur III, Burnout: Revenge (still not sick of that one), and We Love Katamari. On the PC gaming front, I have Age of Empires III and F.E.A.R. to keep me busy. Games like that are making it even more impossible to get RPGs finished these days.

posted by Parappa @ 11:19 AM