Analysis/Review of a new JPRG (part 4)

A really big plus in Tokyo Xanadu is the open world and how well developed it is. There are a number of areas to visit, such as a high school (with 8 different areas), a shopping mall, a small-town shopping district with street shops, a shrine, a park, and more. Each area has its own distinct flavor and is populated by people working or roaming around that you can talk with. Most of them will say interesting things that pertain to the story, and some of them will have different lines and conversation, depending on how many times you try to talk with them. RPG’s are all about open world environments—exploring is part of the draw of these games. Yet RPG gameplay can suffer if the areas to explore seem like cookie-cutter modular pieces that have just been thrown together and the option to explore feels more like a chore when you need to traverse environments. Another great aspect of Tokyo Xanadu is that there are a number of items and different equipment that can be found or purchased. I have also been finding materials that are useful for upgrading weapons and armor, so the rewards reaped from battle always feel more exciting. In addition to all the little errands and personal goals you can make for yourself with the items and unlocks, you can also unlock character mini-stories by choosing to spend time with certain characters that periodically have the option, depending on the timing and the story. Although I’d like to get to know everyone, so far I’ve had to be selective because I only have a limited number of “affinity shards”—the currency for being able to initiate these in-depth character conversations.

Analysis/Review of a new JPRG (part 3)

Another aspect of Tokyo Xanadu that I think makes it work is an element I wish I’d see in more RPG’s—a clear navigation system through the quests of the game. It seems simple, and some games do it, but with RPG’s, I think it is especially important that quest progress and objectives are clearly available to the player at all times. Some of the RPG’s I stopped playing had no quest guide, so when I’d pick them up to play again a few days or weeks later, I might have forgotten what I should be doing. I’d spend the next hour searching around, wasting time, trying to figure out where I was supposed to go and what I was supposed to do. If developers could track where people give up on their games (and this technology is now beginning to be used by some), they’d quickly see that the absence of a quest tracker/prompter is what loses a lot of players. 

As I’ve said before in past posts, the PS Vita is my gaming system of choice for RPG’s because I can suspend play by pushing the standby button at any time, and pick up right where I left off without having to worry about finding a save point. But that works only so well if the next time I power up to play, I can see what I was working on and where I need to go. Tokyo Xanadu keeps track of the main quest and the side quests, with prompts in your map showing you were the main quest will take you next and updates to all quests about your progress and what remains to be done. Even better, if you want to mess around in the open world some more, it will always give you the option to do so if you’re on a main story quest, saying, “Are you sure you want to continue with the main story right now? You won’t be able to return to this point after it advances.”

Analysis/Review of a new JPRG (part 2)

First, I think one of the most important aspects of an RPG is the characters. As with a book or movie, if you don’t like the characters, you’ll lose interest quickly. The characters in Tokyo Xanadu are interesting because they have depth—they’re not just typical cookie-cutter stereotypes that you might often see in Japanese anime, games, or manga. For example, one of the characters is a hacker who thinks himself superior in intellect to his classmates so he doesn’t bother going to school. He’s arrogant and condescending, and rather proud of himself for making it on his own; he’s developed a successful app that has earned him a lot of money—enough to pay for his own apartment in an upper-class area. Yet when something happens to someone he cares about, the hacker quickly realizes he is out of his league and unprepared to deal with the situation. He suddenly finds himself relying on others and admitting that he needs their help. This is just one of the characters, but each one has their own story that can be explored. The game actually catalogues each character you’ll meet—and there are a LOT of them at the main character’s high school. Each archived character has notes detailing what you’ve learned about them so far, with slots for additional information should you learn more over time by interacting with them. So far, I have over 30 different character profiles!

Analysis/Review of a new JPRG

I recently bought a video game for my portable system, the PS Vita. If you looked at my game library, you’d see that at least 50% of the games I own are RPG’s. However, I haven’t finished most of them. This is partly because I lose interest after a while, partly because I buy RPG’s as research, and partly because there’s just something missing that doesn’t keep me coming back for more. This recent purchase, however, has kept me playing, almost every day, and I’m not tiring of it. The game is a JRPG, which stands for “Japanese” Role-Playing Game. There’s a certain style to JPRG’s that appeals to me, but even those don’t usually keep my interest to the end. Yet there’s something about this recent purchase that, so far, has me believing I might be sticking with it for the long haul. I love analyzing games and noting what is working and what isn’t, so I’m going to do just that with this new game, called “Tokyo Xanadu.” What makes this game special?

Does Entertainment Keep Us Healthy? (part 5)

If anyone has ever called you a “gamer,” then you probably fit into a category of people that find stress relief when playing games. Perhaps traffic was really awful on the way home from work, so letting off some steam in a single-player action video game can do wonders to release pent-up aggression and calm the nerves. Sitting down on the couch with a family member or meeting a few friends online to play a video game can be a great release, too. If you can gather around a table to play a game with other people, it can be another wonderful way to leave the anxieties and concerns of the world behind. It's almost an unspoken rule among gamers that we don't talk about politics, religion, or any other weighty topics that are sure to evoke a wide range of impassioned responses. Instead, gamers focus on the game, laugh together, and forget the rest of the world and their opinions about it for a few hours. Honestly, I don't think there is anything wrong with that—the world will always be there waiting for you when you're ready to concern yourself with it again.

Does Entertainment Keep Us Healthy? (part 4)

Why is it that people take their method of stress relief so seriously? In Japan and South Korea, after a very long day of intensely focused, hard work, co-workers all go out together and essentially party. It's common in their culture to go out and drink heavily with co-workers, sing together at karaoke/noribang bars, and drink some more before going home to sleep it off. They even have a cab-like service dedicated to ferrying people safely home in their own cars every night. We Americans have our own form of stress relief. Some people use their own unique hobbies to relax them, while others like to use physical activity to release. Physical activity like exercising at a gym, running around the neighborhood, or playing sports with friends is a great meditative relief for some types of people, but others need to release their stress mentally instead of physically. Granted, stress release through physical activity is healthier than sitting in front of a TV, book, smartphone, or computer, but with some people, physical activity is even more mentally draining than the stress they are trying to escape from. Mental escape through entertainment at the end of the day is a way to immerse the mind in something other than reality.

Does Entertainment Keep Us Healthy? (part 3)

Don't get me wrong—it's important to be somewhat aware of world events. We of course need to be compassionate and offer help when we can, pray for those that are suffering, and be aware of dangers so that we can prepare. I still remember my mother calling me when I was in college, asking me if I was ready for Floyd. I asked, “Who's Floyd?” I was so busy studying and was so stressed about school that I was out of touch with the rest of the world and didn't realize a deadly hurricane was headed my way. But on the flip side, I think we can also become far too consumed with the soap opera that is the world we live in. Some of us honestly don't want to know about the latest terrorist attack or disaster somewhere in the world because it depresses us and adds to our stress. We feel a great burden of guilt to have any happiness in life at all, because somewhere, someone is going through extreme suffering. Our stress and concerns are nothing compared to what those victims are going through, so we should deny our own problems and believe that we don't deserve to be happy about anything, right?

Does Entertainment Keep Us Healthy? (part 2)

Work-related stress, the stress associated with school, and the stress that comes from family life is sometimes something we can barely handle on a daily basis. Does it make sense to then park ourselves in front of the TV or smartphone and absorb the “news” to add to our concerns a long list of things happening so far out of our reach that there's literally nothing we can do about it but stress out more? We then feel compelled to talk about it to try and release our stress—to find a sympathetic ear. But how often have you been trying to have a relaxing evening when someone starts talking or texting you articles and their opinions about the horrible things going on in the world? They are probably only trying to release their own stress associated with that information, but it becomes viral, because as soon as you hear about it, the compulsion is often to share it with someone else and try to talk about it with them. Then we all begin to engage in opinionated rants (perhaps like this one?) and rebuild everyone's stress levels until someone pops and says, “I don't want to talk about this anymore!” Or, they just ghost you and never reply to your anxious texts.

Does Entertainment Keep Us Healthy?

Why do we read books, watch movies and TV, and play games so much? Why do we often look forward to these things when we are driving home from work or school? I've been looking online for statistical data about stress relief as related to the entertainment industry, but so far, I haven't found anything. Without studies that I can reference, though, I believe I can present a solid theory with some strong supporting evidence. You might even be able to add your own experience to help support this theory. It's nothing profound and is maybe even rather obvious, but I think our culture—at least here in America—is so stressful and busy that we need entertainment to counter-balance our stress. People from different cultures have different ways to release stress, but here in America, I think we really rely on movies, TV, and games as a form of stress relief. Stress relief from our lives, but also, from the reality of the world. Let's face it: we have far more access to reality than ever before. The internet brought information about the entire world to our computers, but now we can carry it with us everywhere we go with our smartphones. And during any downtime—waiting in line at the store, sitting at home quietly with family on the couch, or even lying awake at night while trying to fall asleep—we have the “go-to” habit of picking up our phone to browse. What's going on in the world? It's a constant barrage of information, with updates sometimes every few minutes. Yet with all this access to information, do we ever stop to wonder if we really should be inundating ourselves with it so constantly? Is it healthy for us to be mentally shouldering all of the cares of the world on a daily basis?

Galactic News Stream Report! (Day 5)

Thanks to our vigilant reporting on Starliner Flight 252, we have been contacted by the ISU and offered a chance to interview one of the agents involved in the ongoing investigation. Our guest is Reln agent Apatilus Nephu. We are including highlights from that interview below.

Q: Why has the ISU gone to such efforts to hide the alien encounter from the public, including an effort to misinform news agencies such as ours?

A: You have to understand that some information involves issues of interstellar security, and we did not want the public jumping to the wrong conclusion when we were still investigating the matter.

Q: Yes, but why create a story blaming a pilot for a navigational error around a flare star when the truth seems to be that the ship was attacked by alien spacecraft?

A: Don't be so quick to insist that this was an attack, or that the spacecraft was even alien. We are still reviewing evidence and it is quite possible that a faction of Omul separatists have developed a new EMP weapon.

Q: If that wasn't an attack then, sir, what was it?

A: Keep in mind that passengers were all recording the encounter, and it is more likely that the supposed EMP pulse was intended to disable their devices rather than to disable the entire starliner.

Q: What about the strange discrepancy regarding time loss? Passengers claimed the ship was only down for several hours, but the starliner pulled in to port 4 entire days late. What happened during those 4 days, and why don't any of the passengers seem aware of the time loss?

A: We're still investigating this, but it is likely that the starliner drifted through a temporal anomaly in the region when it was temporarily off course. This would account for the time loss.

We'd like to thank special agent Apatilus Nephu for his time on our show today, and we will update you with any further developments surrounding the mysterious Starliner Flight 252. Please comment and share your questions and theories!

Galactic News Stream Report! (Day 4)

Despite ISU efforts to contain the situation surrounding Starliner Flight 252, a new development has occurred. One of the passengers aboard the flight withheld video evidence and has anonymously put it online for all to see under the name True252, including statements that Union Guard agents from the ISU were called in to “suppress” the release of this information. The video clearly shows unidentified spacecraft of unknown alien origin flying alongside the starliner, some of them darting in briefly for what seems like an attempt at a closer look. Shortly after the encounter, a pulse of energy engulfed the starliner and all power was shut down. The poster of the video claims that he suspects it was an electromagnetic pulse—an EMP blast—of some kind, and that it appeared that the alien ships were potentially hostile. After the starliner lost power and was adrift in space, the passenger claims that the alien ships appeared to lose interest and departed, though there is no video proof of this because all electronic devices shut down. The passenger states that he decided to remove his device's data card, which he encouraged several other passengers to do. Once the starliner powered up again and eventually reached port, all devices were confiscated by waiting ISU officials. The passengers that had removed their cards, however, were able to hide the data cards. Some of the passengers brought those cards to us, but when we sent the data to be independently verified, we have learned that the ISU confiscated the data and advised our verifier to insist that the videos were fakes. If not for the anonymous posting of one brave passenger, we might never have known the truth! ISU, what are you trying to hide from us?

Galactic News Stream Report! (Day 3)

As the investigation into the events surrounding Flight 252 continues, we must apologize to our followers for what we can only call misinformation. Yesterday we reported that videos of strange purple lights had been seen by some passengers, but we have been notified that these passengers were never on Flight 252. We have attempted to contact the supposed passengers we spoke with yesterday, but none of them have returned any calls. Although we had sent their videos to be independently verified before sharing them with you, we have been informed that all the videos were fakes. The videos are not being released for viewing because they have been deemed fake. We apologize for our error, and assure you that the incident with Flight 252 has been confirmed to be pilot error. The pilot of the starliner did not heed star-data reports and flew the ship within range of the radiated zone surrounding the Ignatius flare star. All passengers are being tested for radiation poisoning, and are being held at an undisclosed location by ISU officials until further notice.

Galactic News Stream Report! (Day 2)

Breaking news: new information has surfaced in the investigation of Epsilon Flight 252, the starliner thought lost until it pulled into port yesterday, 4 days late. The flight log does indicate that the craft was nearing the region of the unstable, high-mass Ignatius flare star, but warnings and adequate route adjustments had already been made before the sudden power failure. Telemetry and positioning data indicates that the flight was not near the star enough to suffer a power failure and communications loss. Several passengers have come forward, under condition of anonymity, to share strange videos they managed to take just before the incident occurred. Odd, purple lights were spotted, moving along the same path as the starliner while darting in closer for brief moments, then quickly resuming their course at a distance. The crew's Science Officer has refused to comment and is not returning calls.

Galactic News Stream Report!

This just in: A starliner bound for the colony on Ourea that was believed lost last week has finally pulled in to port, more than 4 days late. Reports indicate a communications failure, but some passengers have independently confirmed a solar event during the expected two week travel time. According to eyewitnesses, the starliner experienced power loss and was adrift for several hours before power was regained. Emergency life support systems kept everyone alive during the frightening ordeal. The captain later informed the passengers that the starliner had to change course because of the activity of a flare star on their route. It has been confirmed that the star, Ignatius, is now in its final phase. All routes have been altered to avoid the extreme radiation levels--enough, scientists say, to cook all occupants inside any nearby spacecraft. An investigation is underway.

Writing Your Own Solar Echoes Mission (part 5)

I have a few more final tips for mission writing. I highly recommend keeping the GM's narrative sessions short, because players often have short attention spans and they are not very patient when it comes to “story time.” Don't write a book! I usually try to keep things down to one or two paragraphs of narrative if possible, the only exceptions being the mission briefing at the beginning and the mission debriefing/epilogue at the end. Intersperse your narrative with decisions for the players to make. Even a simple “Awareness Check” involves everyone making die rolls with the hope of rolling high so they can determine something helpful for their team. Keep things concise in your writing and don't get overly descriptive—you can do that when you're talking with your players and describing the situation as they're playing. For example, as the players' characters breach a warehouse and see the smugglers, you can quickly describe the smugglers as a group of 5 humans that immediately reach for their assault rifles. Keep things moving and get to the action, but during the action, you can start to fill in the description. For example, a player targets a particular smuggler and as they exchange gunfire, you can describe the smuggler, saying something like, “this human leers at you maliciously as he quickly turns to fire back, his black leather trench coat whirling behind him like a cape.”

I'd also like to add that you need to keep loot and flavor in mind while writing a mission. Players are always excited to discover new weapons, armor, and equipment during their missions, so make sure that they can find a few unusual items. Flavor is a term I use to describe short embellishments of the setting you've created. I hope the mission-writing tips this week have been interesting and useful! I'll end with a short flavor example from the mission, “Egg Drop,” when players finally locate a bar called the “Star Wrangler” that they've been searching for:

As you pass various curio and souvenir shops at the starport, your attention is suddenly captured by a bright, holographic projection. A colorful animation shows a star being captured with a rope and pulled in to another cluster of stars by a Krissethi wearing a ten-gallon cowboy hat. He sits proudly upon the cluster of stars, points right at you, and winks. The words "Star Wrangler" appear for a few moments, and then the animation cycles again.

Writing Your Own Solar Echoes Mission (part 4)

I don't have a set formula for writing a mission, but I do seek a fair amount of balance among the different activities. Though this can vary because of the mission plot, I'd recommend that squad combat events should range somewhere from 30% to 50% of the mission, while vehicle/starship combat can be anywhere from 10% to 30%. Hacking should be about 5% to 15% of the mission, and dialogue encounters should be present in all missions, ranging anywhere from 20% to 50%. I try to include all of these activities in a mission if possible, but sometimes the story doesn't warrant certain things. For instance, if the story involves a planetside scenario for the entire mission, trying to fit starship combat into the story will just feel contrived. In a situation like that, though, terrestrial vehicle combat is a great alternative. But do try to include everything if possible, because you want players to feel that the skills they've invested in are useful to the team. A player who was excited about starship combat and designed his character with related skills will be very frustrated and disappointed if he doesn't have a chance to shine. Thanks to the Solar Echoes skill point system which forces skill diversification, no character will ever be unable to contribute, but think about the players you are writing for and try to include situations in the mission that will make them feel special. If you're not writing for a specific group of players, then keeping the different activities balanced is even more important!

Writing Your Own Solar Echoes Mission (part 3)

Players can turn a good story into a great story, depending on the decisions they make. In my many years of running RPG games, I've learned that the best stories can happen when the Game Master is able to improvise and adapt the story line. Rail-roading players removes from them the feeling that they have any affect upon the story, so the GM needs to write his missions with a lot of opportunities for player choice. It's difficult to do this, though, because you'll find yourself trying to write branching paths for every possible decision players might make. Trust me, it's impossible to think of everything! Some events will happen regardless of what the players decide, and these “hard events” occur because they are larger than the players—they are outside the players' sphere of influence. At the same time, though, players should feel like they are heroes whose decisions are impacting the story, so the smaller “soft events” should have eventual impact on the storyline. When you begin the mission and introduce the mission goals to the players through their Operations Sergeant (OS), make certain that the goals are actually achievable. When the mission is finished and the players' characters are reporting back to their OS, they will feel like the experience rewards they've earned are fair because each reward is associated with whether or not they achieved the mission objectives.

Writing Your Own Solar Echoes Mission (part 2)

In a weird sort of way, writing a mission for an RPG like Solar Echoes is similar to writing a movie script. You're the director and you have the plot and the lines. Your main actors are going to improv their own lines the entire time, so you'll need to adjust to them and have your secondary actors respond accordingly. That part is up to you, too, since you are acting out the parts of every single one of the secondary actors! Write a mission like a story that is going to happen whether the players are present or not, but indicate how the non-player characters (NPC's) in the story would react if someone stood in the way of their scripted goals. For added depth, some of the NPC's should have priorities that outweigh their larger objectives—for instance, an NPC working for a smuggling ring might have a personal debt he needs to pay off, so if offered money to betray the smuggling ring, he might be very willing to do so. Another smuggler might have been branded by the Chiraktis Empire as a servant, and his resentment for them might outweigh his fear of them. Such a character could become a useful asset for the Union Guard! Whatever the situation, the NPC's in your mission can shape the story almost as much as the players' characters (PC's), so your imagination is the limit. Just don't expect all to go as planned once the players enter the story—it really is impossible to consistently predict what they might do!

Writing Your Own Solar Echoes Mission (part 1)

There are currently 15 official missions for Solar Echoes, and then there are several shorter missions included in some of the available supplements, like the Explorer's Guide to Samesh. But what if you want to run your very own campaign, with your own story? Even if you don't have time to work on an entire campaign—which can last months to years—you might want to write shorter missions for your players that occur between some of the official missions you're running. Whatever the situation, writing a mission involves an approach that might not initially seem intuitive. If you own a Mission Controller's Guide, there are a lot of tips detailing how to create your own missions and campaign. This week, I'm going to share some basics so that you can try your hand at it. And if you think you've really managed to put together a solid mission and are interested in getting it published, send me an email at corefunstudios @ gmail. com (ignore spaces) and I might consider it. I already have one outside writer working on a mission for Solar Echoes, but there's room for more!

The Solar Echoes Universe (part 4)

Not all of the encounters between the races were hostile, however. Though the Humans claim that they discovered the Reln, the Reln insist they discovered the Humans. When they met, both began a cultural exchange of ideas and technologies, and it is likely that the two felt most at ease with each other because of their physical similarities. The Humans, however, still had to contend with their warlike Krissethi neighbors, and many say it was the Humans that decided to form the Interstellar Union (ISU) to try to form a lasting peace. Both the Reln and Humans put together a council and invited the other races to join. With promises of fair borders and fair trade, the other races—even the Krissethi and Chiraktis—joined the ISU and worked together to find ways to co-exist. The plant-like Erwani were glad to join the ISU so that the Omuls would be held accountable for their frequent raids on Erwani planets. The Chiraktis seemed to be the only race that was ready to violate ISU agreements, however, because the mandate of their Queen was to expand their kind. As a result, the ISU put forth restrictions upon their expansionist tendencies through a law known as the Non-Proliferation Addendum. Many believe the supposed compliance of the Chiraktis Empire was only due to the combined threat of all the other races.

The six races finally found a tentative peace and expanded trade, shared cultural ideas, and enjoyed a growing prosperity. During joint explorations of unknown space, the Archaeloids were discovered in the Zeta 1 quadrant. They were a peaceful, aquatic race that had not yet ventured out of their system, though they had also coincidentally attained light-speed travel when the other races had. The Archaeloids seemed quite caught off guard to learn of everyone else, and though they were kind and welcoming, the surge in their military production gave everyone pause. The Archaeloids joined the ISU and assured everyone that they desired peace, but also indicated that they thought it was foolish to assume the treaty would last forever, or that the seven races were the only intelligent life in the galaxy. How right they were… 

 

The Solar Echoes Universe (part 3)

The reptilian Krissethi territory is located between Human and Chiraktis space, and the Krissethi were very aggressive when they realized they could be facing incursions from both sides. Though the Humans were not aggressive, they did fight back when attacked by the Krissethi, and fought with such strength that the Krissethi immediately considered them a potential threat. The Chiraktis, however, are blamed by some historians for inciting the warlike frenzy of the Krissethi, because they aggressively advanced the presence of their hive outward from their territory. Chiraktis were unyielding, and their steadfast resolve to expand their presence across the universe quickly became the primary concern of their immediate Krissethi neighbors. Many battles and even several full-scale wars were fought as the Krissethi pushed back and tried to stop the Chiraktis from taking hold of nearby planets and moons.

The Solar Echoes Universe (part 2)

Coincidentally, the other alien races in the Solar Echoes universe also began to explore around their home planets at roughly the same time. Present-day historians have a theory about this, suggesting that it seems too coincidental that all the races claimed to have discovered faster-than-light (FTL) speed travel within around 100 years of each other. Some historians suggest that something might have subtly introduced or orchestrated the discovery of FTL around the same time to facilitate the races eventually meeting each other, but there is currently no evidence to support this theory beyond the similar time frame. Despite the lack of evidence, many do believe that there was some type of intervention from beyond--almost as if there was a larger, urgent purpose for the races to meet--and this notion has fueled peace efforts among the races. However, when the races did first discover each other, peace was not on everyone's mind...

Art by Jon Aguillon

The Solar Echoes Universe

The universe is a very big place, and it’s hard for us to conceive what it might be like to live in a future where faster-than-light speed travel is a common part of life. The Solar Echoes universe involves a very large section of the galaxy, but it is far from our current corner of the galaxy. If you’re unfamiliar with Solar Echoes history, the Humans in the universe are pioneers that left Earth long ago in a starship known as the Ark 3. They were intending to find a new planet for the Humans to inhabit, but after years in space, they unexpectedly encountered a wormhole that vaulted them into a new section of the universe. They discovered a habitable planet, very similar to Earth, and decided to settle there, naming it “New Terra.” The Humans established a colony with the spacefaring inhabitants of the Ark 3, and eventually began to venture into space to explore the surrounding area…