New School Platformers and Old School RPGs

I've been preoccupied with two games as of late, and they are about as different from each other as you could imagine: Super Meat Boy, a Xbox 360 port of a flash game by Edward McMillan (who apparently did some concept art for indie-hit Braid), and Phantasy Star IV, a 1995 Genesis old school RPG by Rieko Kodama (among others), producer of such games as Phantasy Star I and II, Skies of Arcadia, Magic Knight Rayearth, and 7th Dragon (which, sadly, does not look like it will come out in English - a pity, because it plays like Etrian Odyssey and is gorgeous).

Super Meat Boy is a ridiculously hardcore sidescroller, akin to N+, only it plays much faster. You are given around 300 levels, and tasked with reaching the end by touching Bandage Girl (who serves as the "damsel in distress" for this game). Actually, click here for a nice post about Meat Boy that also delves into the story and characters a bit, because I don't really feel like writing about them.

The gameplay, though, is incredible. Meat Boy moves really fast, and can walljump - which is honestly where the game throws its challenge at you. Sure, there is the aspect where the player has to figure out how to beat each level, but even when they do, they have to actually do it - which is easier said than done. This is why I love the game so much. It makes no bones about what you have to do - get to the end point of the level - but it so expertly ramps up its difficulty throughout. By the end of the game, there are levels that to someone who just started, would look impossible - and a veteran player will fly through the level as though it is a tutorial. Likewise, early levels that had initially proved difficult are a breeze. This is good game design - sprinkling new level design throughout the game to teach the player new techniques to move the little guy around. Also having the ability to unlock new characters - who control differently from Meat Boy! - is great as well. The Double Jump mechanic one unlocks when the unlock The Guy (a cameo of the main character from I Wanna Be The Guy) changes the way you play every level in the game completely.

It is very likely that Super Meat Boy is my favorite Xbox 360 game.

As for Phantasy Star IV, this is the second time I've started the game up, and this time, it has clicked. It is as old-school as RPGs can get, which means a lot of grinding, but the game is very polished. As in, the graphics are the best I've seen anyone get out of the old released-in-1989 Sega Genesis, the music is some of the best I've heard from the same, and the localization isn't a complete turd (like, sadly, the first two Phantasy Star games).

The story is told in a way that I haven't really seen anywhere else in games, too. Cutscenes are told through use of text and what amounts to colored comic book panels which pop up as different characters speak or different events happen. It's a really neat effect, and I wish other games would use this sort of style to tell their story - particularly contemporary RPGs designed to be old-school, such as Nostalgia (or especially Sands of Destruction, which could have dropped the shitty voice acting and horrible load times in favor of snappy dialogue delivered in a cool way).

Regardless, Phantasy Star IV (and, really, the entire series, save for what little I've played of III) evokes a type of world you don't see too often in (good) RPGs - sci-fi. As in, outer space, laser beam, laser sword, sci-fi. Sure, there is Star Wars KOTOR, but what else is there? Not many good ones, I'm afraid. It's done well, too - you start out on a fairly barren planet and slowly make your way around it, then get a spaceship and start traveling to space stations and new planets and such. I legitimately enjoy exploring these worlds because I haven't explored similar worlds in RPGs before.

Also, being really familiar with the stories of the past games makes Phantasy Star IV all the better. Having played through about half of PSII and having a passing familiarity with the stories of PSI and PSIII means a lot of the references in Phantasy Star IV are really cool. For example, I just beat what I believe to be the reincarnated last boss of Phantasy Star I! I have also seen a statue of the heroine from Phantasy Star I as well, but no one in the town it is in really seem to know who the hell it is. The player does, however, which is a cool way to present that (PSII took place 1000 years after PS1, and PSIV takes place 1000 years after PSII, which explains why the townspeople are fuzzy in regards to the statue). I found a crashed ship from Phantasy Star III, and most of Phantasy Star IV's story seems to tie in with Phantasy Star II's. I won't get in to any more details, but you don't see this often in RPGs either - intimate little nods to past games in the series.

I'm really enjoying both games so far, having finished Super Meat Boy's main story mode while now trying to beat the dark version of all the levels, and I have no idea how long Phantasy Star IV will take me. I may go back and try to play Phantasy Star II after this, too, if I have the patience - THAT game is a grindfest (although it has awesome, synth-tastic music).