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10 RPGS WE WANT ON XBOX ONE Date: 10/23/2013 Views: 534
The top entry comes care of Funkcase, whose tale of a Morrowind-tinted youth had me saluting a statue of Alduin - he'll get a copy of Diablo 3 (including the Infernal Helm, an in-game item which grants an early EXP bonus), a Diablo 3 T-shirt, a hardback Art of Diablo 3 artbook, and a 4GB USB stick which contains Diablo 2 for PC and its expansion pack Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. The runners-up are SteadiestShark, sexualchocolate, Arm Fall Off Mav and Furie - they'll receive a copy of the game apiece. Winners will be contacted shortly for their addresses, assuming we don't have them already.
Here's a round-up of the victorious entries, plus a few more that struck me as particularly interesting or plausible.
1. Skies of Arcadia HD
An updated take on (or even, dare we say, a proper sequel to) the Dreamcast's high-spirited pirate 'em up may yet happen - Sega renewed its Skies of Arcadia trademark in November last year, though this may relate to the brand's wider applications in compilation games and spin-offs. I never played it, but the intro video below makes me deliriously happy. The Rayman franchise excepted, they don't make games like this any more.
"I would love for a HD edition of Skies of Arcadia to come to the Xbox One. I've got so many fond memories of playing it on my Dreamcast for hours on end and also flying pirate ships! Can't get much better than that!" (MangledRex)
"I'd like to see Skies of Arcadia remade. It subverted a lot of JRPG stereotypes and had one of the most incredible worlds to explore. The game was cheesy but told a story as well as Bioware does now a days. The Dreamcast version is quite easy to find but the Gamecube remake is very rare (PAL) and far superior. Yeah, it's pretty good. It also put a smile on my face, not may games do that for me." (sexualchocolate)
2. Final Fantasy VII HD
Square Enix must be sick to the back teeth of being asked for an HD remake of Cloud's adventures, so quite why they haven't greenlit the project eludes me. According to Final Fantasy XIII-2's producer Yoshinori Kitase, it's a problem of resources - recreating those pre-rendered backdrops as HD 3D environments would break the bank. "If we were to recreate the same kind of game - sequel or not - with the same volume, but give it a much higher level of graphical quality, it would us take three times, four times, even ten times longer to make such a game," he told us last year.
"Even though its probably going to mentioned a lot the game they should bring on to the Xbox One is Final Fantasy VII. My reasons for picking it are that it would be interesting to see in HD and with the addition of next-gen graphics it would bring tears even to the hardest gamers with what they could possibly do with battle and cut scenes." (walclr01)
3. Knights of The Old Republic HD
Now that parent company EA has partnered with Disney to publish a number of Star Wars projects, the odds of BioWare reviving the Old Republic series on console have risen drastically. The only question, for me, is how the developer would avoid creating competition with its own Mass Effect series.
"A HD remake of Star Wars KOTOR is an absolute must. I was late in the game to get it, upon hearing countless comments of people singing its praise and hearing it was made by the masters at BioWare, I finally decided to grab my copy. Such a fantastic game and a definite game I'd get again if it ever graced the Xbox with its presence." (ScottyBotty)
4. Ni No Kuni
Quite possibly the PS3's last great JRPG, and reportedly another sterling turn from the dependable Level 5, assisted by peerless animation house Studio Ghibli. You'll come for the familiar combat and sumptuous visuals, but you'll probably stay for Drippy, a hilarious Welsh fairy.
"I've heard so many good things about this and really feel like I've missed a cracking game here. Would love to see this come to Xbox One. With improved graphics this would be an astounding visual pleasure!!" (T0N10)
"Ni No Kuni is a.ma.zing. Completely odd and random at times as you'd expect from Ghibli, but beautifully done and a brilliant story. Obviously I've played it already, but I think they missed a trick by not publishing on multiple platforms, there's not nearly enough in terms of JRPGs on the Xbox." (captainhetty)
5. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
I've heard decidedly mixed things about the second Final Fantasy MMO's performance at launch on PC and PS4, but the game has been reworked thoroughly, and SteadiestShark's thoughts about the ease of class-switching are enticing.
"If MMORPGs count, I'd like to see Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn on Xbox One. It is a beautiful world full of delightful music, a whole boatload of series-relevant fanservice, and hosts a generally pretty darned solid battle system. Due to every character being able to become any role at a mere switch of the weapon, there's so much out there for you to achieve - and without things getting too repetitive. Also it'd mean that I'd be able to play with some of my friends that I'd otherwise be unable to." (SteadiestShark)
6. Dragon Quest
Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King was perhaps my favourite PS2 game, a refreshingly down-to-Earth epic that's alternately grandiose, bawdy and touching. As with other instalments, its brilliance is partly that it doesn't try to dress up the battle system in fancy acronyms. A sequel for the Xbox One would tickle me Sanguini-pink.
"The Dragon Quest series had a one time PS2 release here and I'm sure they will be making DQ 10 for console this time round. Imagine that on Xbox One. You would want to live in there. There have been too many DS exclusives and I know the series is not tied down to Nintendo. Let the uprising of petitions begin." (phillybear2010)
7. Chrono Trigger HD
Square Enix attempted to revive Final Fantasy's pioneering, multiple-era sibling franchise on PS1, in the shape of the great but relatively unambitious Chrono Cross. I had to get my console chipped to play it in the UK. Perhaps it's time the publisher took a second shot at the idea.
"I can't think of any game that deserves an appearance on Xbox One more. This classic from the SNES has everything! Emotion, deep storyline, characters that you can't help but care about and a brilliant soundtrack. If this game was remade for the Xbox One , it would literally blow my mind." (patster24)
8. Breath of Fire
I've played the fourth one, which struck me as solid but a little too slow-paced for comfort, though I loved the game's 2D sprites. With the fifth, the series took a turn for the worst in the shape of some weirdly harrowing, elongated 3D character models, and the difficulty curve was a tad uneven. Still, Breath of Fire remains one of the greats, not least for its more eccentric moments, as detailed below.
"The Breath of Fire series for me, particularly the third one. Classic turn based combat, lots of sidequests and a talking onion! Oh and did I mention that the main character has the rather splendid ability to TURN INTO A FREAKING DRAGON!!! Whenever he gets pissed off? Other bits of coolness include: beating up an egg until it turns into a pychotic chicken; a character who turns into a were-tiger at random moments; a really nasty dolphin boss fight. Oh , and did I mention the talking onion?" (Arm Fall Off Mav)
9. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
People keep banging on at me to play this one - I fear my tolerance for vampires in games may have been forever damaged by Square Enix's refusal to remake Soul Reaver, and the dire cultural fallout from the Twilight series. Still, I like the idea of multiple vampire breeds. Nice to have a bit of choice, anyway.
"The game really drew you into the atmospheric World Of Darkness (which I hear is getting MMO treatment on the next gen anyway) partly through the artistic vision, partly through the great audio but also through some game features. The storyline changed as you played it with different missions done in different orders changing how other things played out, and the Frenzy system could suddenly limit your control over situations if you weren't careful. Everything just added to the atmosphere. A HD remake of that, with remastered graphics and sound, an engine that could handle the game instead of glitching out every two seconds (the original was notoriously buggy), and controls redesigned for console from the ground up. All of that would easily stand up to todays games." (Furie)
10. The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind HD
I'll leave it to Funkcase to make the, erm, case for Bethesda's original trip to Vivec's old kingdom, recently paid homage to by Skyrim DLC pack Dragonborn. [Update - as Metalrodent notes, Morrowind isn't strictly speaking a valid choice for this competition, as it's on Xbox already, but Funkcase did mention a number of non-Xbox RPGs in his post - I just happened to like his thoughts about this one the best.]
"This game was my childhood, it ate up so much of my spare-time that it pretty much actually was my childhood. Just seeing the remains of Morrowind in smoke across the ocean in the Skyrim DLC 'Dragonborn' was almost enough to bring a man to tears. To this day my brother and I still frequently use the word 'N'wah' as an in-joke, as everyone else in the vicinity look confused as hell. A remastered version would make the best Christmas gift from Bethesda.
"Morrowind was the game that made me call myself a gamer, before it games were just casual to me, something for when I was bored but nothing to really see through to the end (unless it was Pokemon). I remember times I would use the boots of waterwalking and see how far I could go out to sea, or scouring the land for Vampires, and searching through ruins for relics. Some days I was an explorer climbing the biggest mountains; others I was a Vampire slayer, someone hunting down the undead; or I was but a simple guardsman, protecting the town I called home.
"Let's not forget it's wacky towns, something that we didn't see as much in the past two Elder Scrolls games. This game is nostalgia heavy to me; if any Elder Scrolls games recieve a re-make, I want it to be this one. Morrowind introduced me to gaming in a whole new way, and to RPGs (playing KOTOR and Deus Ex soon after, and great 90's RPGs like Fallout and Final Fantasy 7) I still have fond memories of when I first docked and signed my release papers. (Funkcase)