It’s amazing how important seemingly small changes can be to a game’s overall quality. Uncharted 2 is a good example – it’s mostly the same as Uncharted 1 but by making a few tweaks here and there (blind fire, better grenade controls, smoother stealth & melee, more locale variety, etc.), they turned a pretty good game into a great one.

Final Fantasy XIII, on the other hand, was a much more divisive game than Uncharted was. It’s understandable that they might make more drastic changes to the formula with Final Fantasy XIII-2 in order to regain fans they lost with the first one. However upon playing the demo, I was impressed that not only were there the bigger changes we were all expecting, but that they had also made some smaller but no less clever changes to improve the overall feel of the game. Therefore, I present my list of 10 Ways that Final Fantasy XIII-2 is better than Final Fantasy XIII, full of changes both big and small.

1. Large text option – How sad is it that in 2012, the option to increase the text size in a game is so rare that it caught my eye? Now I know my engineer friends are going to say, “Just make the UI so that the default text size isn’t a problem!” but that approach ignores personal preference. Some people may prefer smaller text so they can more easily see the visuals, whereas others may prefer larger text so that reading is easier and less of a strain. Plus some players may still be playing on an SDTV or may have visual disabilities that make it difficult for them to read small text. That Square-Enix has given the player a choice in the matter is to be applauded.

2. Fight the enemies rather than fight the game – In Final Fantasy XIII-2, the delay from animations when paradigm shifting has been removed and there is an option to make the cursor default to the Abilities line in combat rather than the Auto-Battle line. These may seem like very minor increases in speed (a few seconds here, one less input required there) but they make combat feel more fluid and over the course of an entire game save the player a lot of time.

3. Real-time cutscenes – Final Fantasy XIII was full of prerendered cutscenes which always seemed a bit silly to me considering how good the in-game graphics already were. In Final Fantasy XIII-2, most of the cutscenes are rendered with the in-game engine. This has a number of benefits such as reducing the amount of space required for the game (thus allowing it to fit on a single DVD in the Xbox version), making the visuals more consistent, and allowing for a variable character appearances in cutscenes.

4. Monster party members – Once you had the option to choose your own party members in Final Fantasy XIII, there was rarely a reason to switch members – just pick your favorite team, your favorite strategies, and use them for the rest of the game repeatedly. In Final Fantasy XIII-2, one party member slot is dedicated to various monsters. Since I assume that later monsters will tend to be more powerful than early monsters, the player is going to want to change their monster lineup over the course of the game thus adding variety and helping to prevent the player from getting in a strategic rut.

5. Goodbye tubes – The change from extremely linear maps to more open maps is the change that most people have been focusing on the most so little more needs to be said.

6. Items & equipment – Final Fantasy XIII had a very poorly designed equipment system where the player was supposed to pick one weapon for each character and then spend the entire game grinding materials to give that piece of equipment better stats. It required the player to lock-in their decisions at an early stage and was extremely tedious to maximize stats. Final Fantasy XIII-2 ditches that poorly conceived system for a more traditional item and equipment system.

7. Greater control over the party – Final Fantasy XIII-2 adds the ability to switch the currently controlled player both in and out of combat. It also adds an optional additional layer of control over paradigms with the ability to prioritize single or multi-target abilities.

8. Trust the player – One of the main complaints many players had with Final Fantasy XIII was how it felt like the game didn’t trust the player with comments like “30 hour tutorial!” being common. That does not seem to be the case in the sequel with a full 3-character party and most combat, equipment, and leveling options unlocked very early on.

9. Time Travel – This is hard to see in the tutorial but based on comments on the full game, it’s possible to make and remake decisions in the various time periods and to see their effect on other times, thus making the story more interactive than past Final Fantasy titles.

10. Improved Leveling System – Final Fantasy XIII’s Crystarium leveling system had the illusion of freedom with its various paths but in actuality, the game carefully gated the various ranks to the point so that just playing through the game normally usually gave the player enough XP to max out everything. Final Fantasy XIII-2 looks to have removed most of the restrictions as well as speeding up the process (just select the paradigm you want to LV-Up) giving the player much more control over how their characters will progress and develop.

It’s easy to overlook the importance of relatively small aspects of game design and focus on the big picture, however games are often made by their smaller aspects. Seemingly minor things like “The jumping feels floaty” or “the text speed is too slow” are all too often the only things that stand between a great game and a not-so-great one.

Note: Although most of the characters on this list are primarily physical warriors, I did make a few exceptions for some hybrids (characters that are good at both physical and magical combat).

Top 20 Best JRPG Warrior Heroines:

For XBLIG figures, the format is Sales/Trial (Trial to Sales Conversion Percentage).

XBLIG - Breath of Death VII (April 22nd, 2010 release, $1 price tag)

And here are a few Steam codes for our games. Again, these are 1-time use codes so whoever gets to them first, gets them.

Cthulhu Saves the World:

Breath of Death VII:
J2F7R-9DNCL-DLLE9
NHZBC-AWE84-C2EG6
RGJKF-7ZKCW-CX9H3

Merry Christmas!

Top 10 Favorite Games of 2011

10. Sanctum (PC) – Fun mix between FPS and Tower Defense that I found more fun than other Action/FPS like Dungeon Defenders and Trenched. The devs have been doing a great job of supporting the game since release, both with major free and paid DLC.

9. Bastion (PC/XBLA) – Fun action/adventure game with some wonderfully melodramatic voice acting. Not much to say that hasn’t been said elsewhere.

8. Dungeons of Dredmor (PC) – Probably the most fun roguelike I’ve ever played. Nice mix between hardcore and accessibility. Good dev support as well. Oh and they helped me with the tech aspect of getting our games working on Steam so I owe them for that.

7. Anomaly: Warzone Earth (PC) – Wonderful reverse tower defense game where you’re the invader. Fantastic production values for an indie game.

6. Tactics Ogre (PSP remake) – Take a great game, remove some of the annoyances, add a fantastic new translation and other features – what’s not to love?

5. Sonic Generations (PC, X360, PS3) – Never been a huge fan of Sonic games, but this one’s a blast. The 2D levels are only decent but the game shines with the 3D levels – a perfect mix of racing, roller coaster, and platforming.

4. Corpse Party (PSP) – Can be frustrating at times, but the expertly crafted interconnecting horror story kept me glued to my PSP. Best audio of the year.

3. Trails in the Sky (PSP) – Feels like a novel in JRPG form. Best cast of characters in a game this year. Great cliffhanger ending. Hope the sequels come out.

2. Portal 2 (PC) – Dragged in a few parts but still an amazing game. Extremely funny & many good puzzles (though not as many as the first game).

1. Dark Souls (PS3, X360) – Someone called Dark Souls the 3D spiritual successor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. That’s accurate. If that definition doesn’t make you want to rush out and buy it, I don’t know what will.

-Best games from past years that I didn’t play until this year-

4. Metro 2033 (PC) – I thought this was a straightforward FPS. If I had realized that it was an expertly crafted horror game, I would have jumped on it so much sooner. So good.

3. Demon’s Souls (PS3) – Would have been higher but then Dark Souls came out.

2. Siren: Blood Curse (PS3) – The most accessible Siren game but also probably the weakest (#2 is my favorite). However, weakest Siren game still makes for an awesome game.

1. Dragon Age: Origins (PC, X360, PS3) – I had avoided this game because I hated Baldur’s Gate, but I gave it a try when the ultimate collection was on sale for $15. So glad I did. Fixes all the problems I had with BG and is one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played. Great combat & leveling systems. Shame to hear that the sequel is basically a completely different and inferior game.

-Games I own in my backlog that I’m looking forward to playing the most-

5. Blackwell trilogy (PC) – Picked this up in an Indie Royale. Looks like a really interesting old school adventure game. Haven’t played one of those for forever – should be fun.

4. Gemini Rue (PC) – See Blackwell trilogy.

3. Fallout: New Vegas (PC)  - Thought Fallout 3 was decent. I’ve heard New Vegas is noticeably better so I’m excited to try it out.

2. 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3) – Old school Zelda with silly modern effects? Sounds right up my alley.

1. Valkyria Chronicles (PS3) – I’ve heard nothing but good things about this one. The demo for the sequel kind of threw me off but I hear the original is much better.

-Biggest disappointments of 2011-

(Note, disappointing does not necessarily mean bad.)

4. Arkham City (PC, X360, PS3) – I really liked Arkham Asylum but when I finished it, I felt like I was done with its style of simple but fun brawler mixed with stealth and detective work. I was hoping Arkham City would be noticeably different but it’s not. It’s just the same thing but bigger, with a few new gadgets, and slightly less tight design. I understand how that could be really attractive to people who couldn’t get enough of Asylum, but it’s not for me.

3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC, X360, PS3) – This is a problem of misguided expectations. I was expecting an RPG and instead got a FPS/Stealth game. High quality game but again, not what I really wanted so when it started getting repetitive, I quit. Oh and I didn’t care about the characters or story at all – talk about an unlikely group (though I guess that’s not unusual for cyberpunk). Hacking minigame was awesome though.

2. Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) – Gorgeous graphics and music, some clever puzzles, but I’m just not having much fun with it. I think the biggest problem I have is with the pacing – compared to the 2D Zeldas or even the Souls games, everything just feels like it takes forever. Not sure if I’ll bother to finish it or if I’ll just go and trade it in before then.

1. The Third Birthday (PSP) – Seriously, Square-Enix?

-Games I’m looking forward to the most in 2012-

7. Cherry Tree High Comedy Club (PC) – The US has a distinct lack of anime-style life sims where your goal is to create a high school comedy club. This should fix that gaping hole.

6. Pretty much everything that Carpe Fulgur is going to localize.

5. Sound Shapes (Vita) – Everyday Shooter was a great game so I’m looking forward to seeing their next effort.

4. Bioshock Infinite (PC, PS3, X360) – Loved Bioshock 1 & 2 and I hear they’re trying to change up the formula with the new one. I expect great things.

3. Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii) – A friend of mine at Nintendo showed the game off to me and I gotta say I was impressed, especially by the massive world. Not the JRPG I would make (I prefer my games turn-based and mostly linear) but high quality JRPGs that aren’t on a portable system are a rare commodity.

2. Diablo 3 (PC) – Not much I like more than a good hack & slash RPG. Got in the beta and really enjoyed what little there was to play. Can’t wait for the full version. Definite Game of the Year contendor for 2012.

1. Gravity Daze (Vita) – Unique art style, amazing gameplay concept (gravity manipulation in a 3D Action/Adventure game) on a brand new system developed by one of my favorite developers (Siren team)? Sold!

0. Rainslick Precipice of Darkness episode 3 – Because I like to eat. Oh and it’ll be awesome too.

-Games I’m looking forward to the most that might not come out in 2012-

4. New Tomb Raider (PC, X360, PS3) – The mix of classic Tomb Raider, a Metroidvania, and horror sounds great but it’s so far off that I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets pushed into 2013.

3. The Last Guardian (PS3) – Starting to wonder if it’s vaporware at this point; it’s been in development for so long.

2. Grim Dawn (PC) – Loved Titan Quest and though Diablo 3 looks to be a lot of fun, I want my Titan Quest spiritual successor as well.

1. Desktop Dungeons (PC) – Hoping they have an official release soon and it doesn’t just stay in Minecraft-style beta for forever.

I’ve probably accidentally overlooked your favorite song, so please forgive me for that.

In no particular order…

-Dragon Quarter-

-SMT: Nocturne -

-Persona 3-

-Persona 4-

-FFT-

-FF8-

-FF10-

-Chrono Trigger-

-Final Fantasy VI-

-Tales of Vesperia-

-Secret of Mana-

-Wild Arms-

-Half-Minute Hero-

-DDS 1-

-DDS 2-

-Lunar: EB-

-Grandia-

Progress on the job & battle system for the new game is coming along. Should have a battle prototype soon.

Oh and I’ll be wandering around Anime Expo this Friday & Saturday with my wife & daughter. I’ll probably be wearing my Cthulhu Saves the World shirt so if you see me, feel free to say hi.

Second, since many people have asked, no, we are not using any extra DRM on our PC release of Cthulhu Saves the World & Breath of Death VII: The Beginning. The Steam version will have the standard Steam DRM that all Steam games have, but nothing else. The Gamersgate version will be DRM-free. I’m personally a big fan of Steam and feel their form of DRM is about as non-obtrusive as it gets, but I know some people are adamantly against all forms of DRM which is why we wanted to make sure there was an alternate place to pick up the games as well.

Third, now that we’re pretty much done with getting our games ready to sell (mostly just odds and ends like answering questions from the Steam & Gamersgate staff now), we’re now focused on our next game. Due to signing a non-disclosure agreement, I can’t say much about the game at the moment other than that it’s a turn-based RPG, it will have a new battle system from our previous games, and is scheduled to come out on the PC & XBLIG later this year. Oh and I’ve given it the codename, Project Bistro Ludicrum, but only because that name amuses me (it doesn’t actually give any hints as to what the game is).

Fourth, I’ve fallen behind on reviews for games I’ve been sent so I’m going to try to review a game a day this week to try to catch up. First up is League of Legends! Yes, I know it’s not an indie game, but A) I’ve been playing it a lot in my spare time in the past week and a half so I feel like I can write a decent review, B) it’d be nice to have some people I know to team up with on occasion (my username is RainbowDespair), and C) I get free stuff if you use my referral link here and play the game a bit and as a poor indie developer, I love free stuff (yes, I’m shameless).

League of Legends review

If you know me well, you know I’m a very competitive person. Unfortunately, most online competitive games these days are either FPS or RTS games, neither of which I’m a big fan of. My favorite genre is RPGs (shouldn’t be surprising given the games we make) and most of those are single player games. Sure, I could start a MMORPG, but those are massive time sinks and being competitive there mostly means not having a life.

Enter League of Legends. It’s a competitive Action/RPG that rewards skill over time investment. A standard game generally takes between 30-60 minutes and goes like this. Before the game starts, you pick the champion that you want to play as (out of a very large selection), two summoner spells (unique spells that anyone can equip), and some runes & mastery points (ways that you can give small bonuses to your champion to further customize them). If that sounds like a lot to pick, don’t worry – you can create preset pages when not playing and then just quickly pick the page you want when a game is starting.

In the actual game, you have two bases at opposite ends of the map with 5 players at each base. The goal is to destroy the opposing team’s base, but there are turrets (towers that shoot highly damaging beams), minions (non-player warriors that are weak and just march forward) and the other team’s players to deal with. Everyone starts each game at LV1 with a small amount of gold so a big part of the game is killing enemy champions, minions, and monsters (neutral enemies that just sit around at set points on the map unless attacked) to gain XP & gold so as to improve your champion and make him or her more capable of defeating the enemy.

Why I like the game?

1 – It’s a fast paced Action/RPG that boils the essence of the genre (fighting & becoming more powerful) into short 30-60 minute matches.
2 – It’s a team-based game where I feel like strategy and planning is more important than having super-fast reflexes (looking at you, standard FPS & RTS games).
3 – It’s easy to learn. There’s a tutorial to learn the basics and you can create single player + bot matches early on to get a handle on the basic mechanics without fear of annoying teammates.
4 – It’s free. Everything gameplay related is attainable just from using IP (points gained for playing and winning matches) and you get IP at a fast rate. Unlike the vast majority of free games, I don’t feel like they’re purposefully gimping things to try to coerce people into paying money. You unlock things by playing the game – just like it should be.
5 – Good performance. The graphics are good and colorful, random matches usually only take a few seconds to get started, and lag has never been a problem for me.
6 – Personalization. Between the large number of playable champions, the mastery choices, the various runes, your LV-Up order, and the equipment you get in games, you have a huge amount of freedom in creating the hero that you want to play.
7 – Immediate vs. Long term. There are small long term bonuses you can gain from playing & winning a lot of matches, but the vast majority of the stat & ability bonuses you get are attained in each individual match, creating a relatively level playing field.

So there you have it. League of Legends is a fun strategic, team-based game that is free and rewards skill over time spent playing. If you’re already a fan of the game, you’re welcome to add me to your friend list and maybe we’ll team up for a match sometime (username is RainbowDespair). Right now, I primarily use Amumu (life draining aura, stun-inducing sad mummy boy), Sivir (wipes out minions & turrets like crazy), and Nunu (a boy riding on a yeti who is a good jack-of-all-trades), and I’m looking to add a few new characters like Yorick (gravedigging necromancer) and  Blitzcrank (a giant robot) in the future.

If you haven’t played the game yet and would like to give it a try, here’s a referral link.

Exhibit One, the PC indie title, Capsized. Gorgeous graphics, but I didn’t particularly care for the gameplay. However, I have to wonder how much of my dislike for the game from the game itself and how much of it came from me expecting to get a Metroid style action/exploration game and instead getting a run & gun shooter with a complex control scheme.

Exhibit Two, the PC indie title, Dwarfs!? I’ve put in a couple hours into this game and so far, I’m really enjoying it. However, going online, I discovered that many people hated it because it’s not a complex simulation like Dwarf Fortress. Instead, it’s a fast-paced, score-focused arcade game that’s kind of like an out of control top-down Lemmings. Oh and it’s got a well done tower defense game as one of its bonus modes.

When people’s expectations don’t match the reality of a product, disappointment almost inevitably sets in regardless of the quality therein. You could have the best orange in the world – it still makes for a crummy apple.

With both Capsized and Dwarfs!?, much of the confusion came because of the setting. Capsized is a 2D platformer with a setting similar to Metroid so I expected similar gameplay as well. Dwarfs!? and Dwarf Fortress both feature dwarf colonies digging out tunnels as their basic premise so some players expected they would play similarly as well.

However, there are other ways that player expectations can become misguided. Consider Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. Dragon Quarter is one of the most brilliant RPGs of all time, a true piece of gaming art. However, it did horribly at retail. Why? Because the fans were expecting another Breath of Fire III, a fun, colorful, and fairly stereotypical fantasy RPG, and instead got a very dark sci-fi/fantasy blend with several experimental gameplay systems.

Shadow of the Colossus is considered one of the finest games ever created. And yet, I bet you if you had taken the exact same game and all you did was change the name to The Legend of Zelda: Shadow of the Colossus and replaced the two leads with Link and Zelda that the game’s reception would have been drastically worse due to failed expectations.

Or take pricing. Players have different expectations for $60 games than they do for $15 games than they do for $1 games. This can be either advantageous (great value!) or disadvantageous (overpriced!) to the developer. To use a personal example, I purchased Bioshock 2 for $5 in a recent Steam sale and so far, I’ve been loving it. Would I have had the same reaction if I had paid $60 for it? Maybe not.

Or consider Mirror’s Edge. It’s a great and unique game, but had underwhelming sales. Had the game been designed & marketed first and foremost as a unique take on the racing genre, I daresay it would have sold drastically better than it did. As it is, people played it expecting a FPS/platformer, finished the short story mode, were unimpressed and set the game aside, not realizing that the story mode was basically just an extended tutorial for the really fun stuff – becoming totally awesome while doing time trials & speed runs.

With expectations being so critical to a game’s success, both critically and commercially, what are some things that can be done to help gamers to have the proper expectations for our games?

1. Price your game appropriately. My simple rule for game pricing is “What is the highest price we can charge for this game while still making the game an incredible deal?”

2. If your game has superficial similarities to a popular game but the gameplay is very different, you need to make these differences very obvious in any and all marketing you do for the game.

3. If your game is a sequel to a highly respected franchise but features major differences from previous titles, consider releasing it as a spin-off instead of a main game entry. This advice is less applicable if the series is widely considered past its prime and in need of a reboot.

4. Long held expectations can take time to change so start your marketing early. If I’ve been hearing details about your game for months, then I’m probably going to have a good idea of what to expect when I finally get to play it. If the first I hear of it is when it shows up on Steam’s New Arrival list, I have much less to base my expectations on and so there’s a much higher chance of inaccurate expectations forming.

5. Take care when describing your game that you don’t inadvertently overemphasize less important aspects. For example, with Capsized, one of the features listed in their Steam description was “massive non-linear environments” which combined with the sci-fi setting, naturally made me think of Metroid.

6. Name your games with care. I feel this is something we did successfully with our first RPG, Breath of Death VII: The Beginning. Just from reading the title, the average fan of RPGs should be able to correctly guess that our game is 1) an RPG. 2) a parody, and 3) undead-themed.

7. Make sure that the player knows how hard your game is. Some people love hard games and others prefer easy games so you want to make sure your game gets matched up with its correct audience. Super Meat Boy did a great job of this. Its Steam description contains phrases like “tough as nails”, “old school difficulty of classic NES titles,” and “difficulty from hard to soul crushing.” Its difficulty is a selling point, not a surprise. Conversely, the excellent PS2 horror game, Siren, failed to emphasize its extremely high level of difficulty (seriously, it’s one of the hardest story-based games of all time) in its marketing and so much of the backlash towards game was a result of people finding it frustrating.

Too many great games have underperformed because of misguided expectations. By keeping gamer expectations in mind when we design and market our games, we can help our games to be appreciated for what they actually are and avoid being disliked for what they are not.