The Earth is uninhabitable, and human civilization survives only around and within a gigantic clockwork tower, Basel. The age and origins of Basel itself are a mystery, but everyone knows that the tower is slowly beginning to malfunction and wear down. The story follows the exploits of Vashyron, Zephyr, and Leanne, who live in Ebel City, on Basel’s fourth level. Working as mercenaries, they run errands and do odd jobs for the Cardinals, a group of eccentrics living at the highest levels of Basel society.
That’s about as far as Resonance of Fate goes with regards to opening premise. There is no imminent threat or world-ending crisis to be averted. Instead, everyone’s just focused on getting by in a world that’s slowly decaying.
The opening chapters deal quite literally in a series of fetch quests, with the trio picking up one mundane object or another and trucking it over to the local noble’s estate. Of course, things are never quite as they seem. For example, task to bring a bottle of wine from the icebox turns out to be a dangerous trek through portion of Basel frozen over by a dilapidated cooling system.
The languid pacing and the attitude that nothing is ever exactly as it seems permeates the whole game. Early on, the cast conforms to the expected anime archetypes. Vashyron’s the hornball war veteran, Zephyr’s the sullen teenager, and Leanne is the peppy girl. But each successive chapter builds a little bit on the characters’ pasts and personalities, presenting questions for the player to wonder about as the story ambles along. Why did Leanne try to commit suicide in the opening FMV? How was Vashyron involved in a conflict that blew up the town of Lucia on level six? How did they all meet in the first place? And so on.
Resonance of Fate builds its world mostly through inference and implication rather than exposition. Things get more “serious” in tone into the latter half of the game, but with the main plot being somewhat threadbare, it never really ascends to the kind of epic scale one would expect from the genre. In fact, some core elements are spoiled during the main menu FMVs, so be warned if you want to idle on those screens while you settle into your chair or something. On the other hand, the game doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it all balances out in the end. Cartoonish slapstick gags punctuate and help defuse some of the melodrama that would otherwise risk making character development tiresome. There’s even a Christmas chapter!
Look, I know many of you didn’t understand what it is that I just wrote. Honestly, after the translation, I didn’t either (I speak French, oui oui!), but what I’m trying to get at is that there is a brand new game coming out developed by a Mexican, Spanish speaking studio, published by a Japanese company, and focused on the Spanish-speaking market in America. It really is a new precedence, one that is interesting to see how a new, bilingual gaming audience could be born.
Lucha Libre AAA: Héroes del Ring is, quite simply, a lucha libre wrestling game. Based upon the incredibly popular Mexican wrestling, this style of wrestling is as over the top as the American counterpart, but is studded with even more outlandish personalities, sometimes more violent wrestling skills, and the sacramental respect for the mask, the ever famous disguise almost all luchadors. Lucha libre has a minor following in the English speaking market as more of a novelty, but for Spanish speaking immigrants and people all across latin america, the luchadors can reach major heights of fame.
Now, my hands-on with Lucha Libre AAA: Héroes del Ring didn’t exactly show me something extremely new with the gameplay. Coming to every console available, with the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP and DSiWare all receiving versions. I checked out the PS3 and Xbox 360 version, and I can make this claim: it is a wrestling game, and to know if it is better than the rest would take more hands-on time. However, good old wrestling favorites, like a create-a-character mode, a 25 part story mode, online play, and up to four players all mean that the good old standbys of wrestling games will be here.
Thankfully, the development studio behind the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, Immersion Games, is a studio based in Mexico, and everyone involved, from the CEO to younger brothers of the PR (yep, they were there) had an obvious glee and love of lucha libre. It is clear these guys love the sport.
Core elements of lucha libre will make an appearance. First of all, the masks (and the famous men behind them) are making a strong appearance. There are dudes like La Parka and other legends of the ring will be making an appearance. Also, the elements of the mask will be coming, so Mask and Hair matches will be coming. Huh? Well these matches are matches where the mask and a wrestler’s hair is on the line. If a wrestler losses a match, he’ll have to show his mask or shave his head. In luchador culture, this could be an end of a career, and these sort of matches will be available for online matches. Unfortunately, the legendary wrestlers will not be allowed to do this on these online matches, as you don’t want to ruin those guy’s careers.
Other luchador elements to make an appearance in the game is the element of popularity. Each wrestler has a few special moves and one super move that they need to fill a meter before that they can use. Popularity means that if the crowd likes you, you can pull all these elements off, and so taunting your opponent, or, uh, sexily enticing all the women in the crowd, will fill up your meter and allow you to pull off these moves. There are some locks placed on these super moves for realism (pull off a special move, and your meter will literally frost over for a while), and this is designed to make entertaining matches.
Finally, even language has been designed to appeal to the Spanish speaking audience. With only a language switch of your game settings, the entire game can be done with either English or in Spanish. Yes, all the announcers are famous Spanish (or less famous English) luchador announcers. This is actually pretty cool, as hearing everything done in Spanish was a nice change of things. For a game appealing to a certain cultural group, it is nice to see the developers go all the way.
I for one have always been interested in seeing how games designed for the Spanish language market would do in the United States, and why such games have never really existed. That is why Lucha Libre AAA: Héroes del Ring is so interesting, as the focus on a cultural group in America that is normally ignored is really neat to see. The developers are confidant. One representative said “We already know we will have great success” and the team is really looking forward to strong word of mouth. For those who like wrestling, and those who just want to see something different, Lucha Libre AAA: Héroes del Ring looks like it might just offer that.
| It’s a case of handbags at dawn as two Japanese RPG developers got involved in a little verbal jousting over Mistwalker’s upcoming Wii game, The Last Story. Mistwalker boss and Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi was mocked by Final Fantasy Gaiden director Takashi Tokida for “rehashing” the very series he built. While most likely in jest, Sakaguchi still took the opportunity to justify his game.
The debate started when Tokida asked Sakaguchi, “How about stopping with the Final Fantasy rehashes?” The accusations were carried on in a more serious tone by a simple fan, who stated that he felt The Last Story did indeed look like it was just recreating Square Enix’s franchise.
“I think you’ll feel this once you’ve tried it. LS is not a rehash,” stated the Mistwalker chief, defending his game.
Considering we haven’t really seen anything of The Last Story yet, outside of some artwork and plot details, it’s a little early to make accusations. I think most of the “rehash” comments come simply from the fact that it’s called The Last Story, which of course sounds very similar to Final Fantasy. Just goes to show you how easy it is to influence perception with a few simple words. |