If you like RPGs as much as I do (especially of the turn-based ilk) then you’ll understand why I was thrilled to visit the Ignition booth this past E3. The company is known for bringing sweet, sweet Japanese-developed games over to the US under their brand. Recently they released Blue Dragon Plus stateside, and have taken over the releases of King of Fighters XII and Muramasa.
While the booth was smaller (compared to those of the ginormous publishers) it was packed with games I was anticipating to see and experience. Read on for my impressions of the aforementioned games, as well as Nostalgia.
Nostalgia
Upon my arrival at the booth my first stop was Nostalgia, an RPG developed Red Entertainment — the same folks who’ve had a hand in the Final Fantasy III & IV remakes for the DS. In fact the game carries over the same look and feel of the character designs albeit in an ultra-cool steampunk setting. The game takes place in an alternate reality 19th century, globe-trotting around locations like Egypt, London, and parts of the US. There are about 20-30 hours of gameplay which, for a handheld RPG, is perfect.
The land battles are similar to the Final Fantasy games as well, with the added appearance of airship battles. In fact this is where the major focus of the game lies. Much like the airship combat in Skies of Arcadia, Nostalgia allows for upgrading and outfitting of the ships in preparation for in-air fights. The battles looked extremely fun, offering ratings and rewards based on how the battle is fought. So for instance if a player simply mashes the attack button over and over the rating and reward is lower. But, by taking a more methodical approach the game rewards the player with bonuses and upgrades for the air war machine. Extremely cool premise, and a great way to keep battles from becoming repetitive. Nostalgia drops in September.
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
God, this game was fun! Muramasa is the kind of game that you remember playing, years after you’ve played it. Then, you brush off the disc and game system, and have another go. From the creators of the highly-awesome Odin Sphere, Muramasa is the next game to prove that 2-D gaming is just as beautiful and enticing as almost any 3-D glitzy rendered experience out there. The visuals are lush, the art and design is masterful, and the games looks like it is a moving painting. The art of parallax scrolling returns! In fact, my favorite part of the visuals was that the game embraced a word that hadn’t been used in gaming in years: sprites. And damn good ones at that!
The visuals weren’t the only things that set this game apart from other action games. The game played like an old school mash-up of Turtles in Time meets the NES Ninja Gaiden. In fact I felt like a 11-yr old doing a speed run through Crystalis once the action started on the screen. There is a definitive arcade style to Muramasa that is rarely explored in gaming today, from the simple button controls (no, there are no significant motion controls) to the collection of items on hard-to-reach ledges.. Muramasa’s sword drops in the fall, and may very well be the only Wii game that you come back to in 10 years time with the same loving thoughts.
King of Fighters XII
The fighting game genre is back, and with a vengeance. From the latest Mortal Kombat games to SFIV to Smash Bros, fighting games are the new FPS. The most recent to come from Ignition (developed by SNK Playmore) is the latest entry in the King of Fighters line, Roman numeral XII. The KoF series has been a fighting game mainstay for years, culminating in several classics over 5 & 6 years ago. This version, long time in coming, caught me eye on the big screen at Ignition’s booth, with several players huddled around a couple fo arcade sticks on a stand. From the looks of it they were quartering-up with their E3 passes or business cards. I didn’t play the game, only watching the sure-to-be experts of the series tear up any newcomers. KoF seems like the most hard-core, hard-to-master fighting game series on the planet. Episode XII was no different, as the controls looked to be well beyond what I’d grown accustomed to in SFIV. The visuals were great, matching the old-school controls with giant hand-painted sprites. The speed was fast: I don’t think any matches lasted more than 20 seconds.
Clearly I have been missing out on a legacy of fighters. While I didn’t find anything that would pull me away from SFIV and the upcoming Tatsunoku game I did enjoy the amount of passion that each player showcased furing their flurry of button-mashes. I only hope my poor XBox d-pad can keep up.
In Conclusion…
I can’t help but continually say that I enjoyed my time at specific booths, as the people at Ignition were friendly and helpful. I did end up spending most of my time alone playing the games, which is probably the best way to do it after a brief demo of controls. It seems like every game Ignition distributes Stateside already has a cult following here, as the other attendees knew exactly what to do when playing the games for the first time. The emphasis on JRPGs is fantastic, as it’s a genre still near and dear to my heart. Nostalgia, Muramasa, and King of Fighters all look like games that we cultists can be proud owners of. And with other great games to follow, I can assure the followers that the cult of Ignition is only going to grow.
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