Objection!
I've been working on a couple new projects in my spare time = I've been letting all my other projects rot in a ditch. Still, they're interesting. I'll post something about them when I have something real to post. In the meantime, I talk about some games I've played, and the writing in them.
In the meantime, I played through Hotel Dusk and loved it. Then again, I shamelessly consulted a FAQ to bust through a couple puzzles which I found annoying, and one time when I just didn't feel like I could be bothered. At that point, was I even really playing? Well, it's not that kind of a game, really. I enjoyed reading what the characters said, and finding out what happened. It's more of a moving comic book than anything else, with excellently written dialogue. The puzzles are pretty clever at times, but there are some valid complaints to made about those: In particular, as PA's Tycho said, not letting your character do something, notice something, or pick something up until they have triggered an event which makes them realize it is necessary is a very unpleasant wall to run up against. The game is incredibly linear, and you have to follow its chain of events exactly in order.
I've been thinking about it and Phoenix Wright. I really enjoyed Phoenix Wright, and there are some parallels to be drawn. Of course, the overall tone is quite different - HD goes for a much more serious, noir-ish feel, while Phoenix is more about slapstick comedy. Still, the dependance on the strength of the writing, and some of the complaints about gameplay, are similar. I heard somebody complain about having to simply try everything mechanically in order to advance the game in HD. I think the same thing happens in PW, it's just that mechanically trying all your options is so much easier in that game, so even if you're completely stumped, you don't really need a FAQ or any help to get through it. (Oh, I guess this was also translated by Alexander O. Smith)
Also, I've been playing Final Fantasy XII. Yes, I am late to the party again, I know. I'm enjoying the game a lot, though. Again, the script writing shines, here. I understand that it was translated by Alexander O. Smith, who you may know as the man who brought us the English in Vagrant Story, another masterpiece (which is probably where the Vagrant Story references crept in). The voice acting is also, for the most part, commendable. Balthier deserves his own special mention for being awesome. Either I just didn't notice it at the time, or there are a lot more references (or 'lifts') in the text for FFXII. Not just a Shakespearian word or two, but whole (memorable) phrases, like "suffer... slings and arrows" and the like. It could also just be a matter of relative length. My guess is that FFXII probably had a script several times the size of VS, so if each passage didn't get quite as much attention, it would be hard to criticize them for it.
One other game I really appreciated the writing for was Final Fantasy Tactics. Not the GBA one, the real one (as I like to think of it). We're getting into end-of-middle-school territory for me, now, but there are still a lot of lines I can remember. Delita's "don't blame me; blame yourself or God," the job quotes... there was some really great stuff in there, if my memory serves.
Overall, I'd have to give Hotel Dusk the nod for best writing. It's believable, and the characters have very well done voices. Everybody has their own way of talking, to the point that you could easily tell who you're talking in any scene without seeing their picture. They never break character. In a way, it would be easier to do HD than the other games - a very limited cast, and a more modern setting, in particular.
(I didn't think that Alex Smith would have done Phoenix Wright, just because I knew him for two Squaresoft games. I guess the localization business has a lot of freelance, then? Or maybe he's just such a big rock star that he gets an exception.)
Anyway, Final Fantasy XII seems pretty great so far, and is visually fantastic. The facial expressions are especially astonishing. I'm a little bit scared of the license system right now, though. It's like the sphere grid in FFX, but much more free-form. However, that might allow you to make actual mistakes. In the sphere grid, you could see all the nodes before you made your moves, but in FFXII it's a little more like stratego, and you can only see squares adjacent to squares you've already bought. I would have appreciated being able to see even just two or three squares away.
In the meantime, I played through Hotel Dusk and loved it. Then again, I shamelessly consulted a FAQ to bust through a couple puzzles which I found annoying, and one time when I just didn't feel like I could be bothered. At that point, was I even really playing? Well, it's not that kind of a game, really. I enjoyed reading what the characters said, and finding out what happened. It's more of a moving comic book than anything else, with excellently written dialogue. The puzzles are pretty clever at times, but there are some valid complaints to made about those: In particular, as PA's Tycho said, not letting your character do something, notice something, or pick something up until they have triggered an event which makes them realize it is necessary is a very unpleasant wall to run up against. The game is incredibly linear, and you have to follow its chain of events exactly in order.
I've been thinking about it and Phoenix Wright. I really enjoyed Phoenix Wright, and there are some parallels to be drawn. Of course, the overall tone is quite different - HD goes for a much more serious, noir-ish feel, while Phoenix is more about slapstick comedy. Still, the dependance on the strength of the writing, and some of the complaints about gameplay, are similar. I heard somebody complain about having to simply try everything mechanically in order to advance the game in HD. I think the same thing happens in PW, it's just that mechanically trying all your options is so much easier in that game, so even if you're completely stumped, you don't really need a FAQ or any help to get through it. (Oh, I guess this was also translated by Alexander O. Smith)
Also, I've been playing Final Fantasy XII. Yes, I am late to the party again, I know. I'm enjoying the game a lot, though. Again, the script writing shines, here. I understand that it was translated by Alexander O. Smith, who you may know as the man who brought us the English in Vagrant Story, another masterpiece (which is probably where the Vagrant Story references crept in). The voice acting is also, for the most part, commendable. Balthier deserves his own special mention for being awesome. Either I just didn't notice it at the time, or there are a lot more references (or 'lifts') in the text for FFXII. Not just a Shakespearian word or two, but whole (memorable) phrases, like "suffer... slings and arrows" and the like. It could also just be a matter of relative length. My guess is that FFXII probably had a script several times the size of VS, so if each passage didn't get quite as much attention, it would be hard to criticize them for it.
One other game I really appreciated the writing for was Final Fantasy Tactics. Not the GBA one, the real one (as I like to think of it). We're getting into end-of-middle-school territory for me, now, but there are still a lot of lines I can remember. Delita's "don't blame me; blame yourself or God," the job quotes... there was some really great stuff in there, if my memory serves.
Overall, I'd have to give Hotel Dusk the nod for best writing. It's believable, and the characters have very well done voices. Everybody has their own way of talking, to the point that you could easily tell who you're talking in any scene without seeing their picture. They never break character. In a way, it would be easier to do HD than the other games - a very limited cast, and a more modern setting, in particular.
(I didn't think that Alex Smith would have done Phoenix Wright, just because I knew him for two Squaresoft games. I guess the localization business has a lot of freelance, then? Or maybe he's just such a big rock star that he gets an exception.)
Anyway, Final Fantasy XII seems pretty great so far, and is visually fantastic. The facial expressions are especially astonishing. I'm a little bit scared of the license system right now, though. It's like the sphere grid in FFX, but much more free-form. However, that might allow you to make actual mistakes. In the sphere grid, you could see all the nodes before you made your moves, but in FFXII it's a little more like stratego, and you can only see squares adjacent to squares you've already bought. I would have appreciated being able to see even just two or three squares away.