And the mediocre reviews keep on coming.

For discussion of Lunar: Dragon Song (Lunar: Genesis), the only Lunar game on the DS
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HuBBsDoctor
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And the mediocre reviews keep on coming.

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GhaleonOne
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Post by GhaleonOne »

I don't get it personally. I think this game deserves in the 70% area so far. It's not as bad as these reviewers are making it out to be.
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Post by LUNARverse »

The impression I have always gotten from IGN and other professional reviewers, is that they give favorable reviews to what is expected to sell. Case and point, Jade Empire. IGN gave it a 9.7 I believe(or it may have been a 9.3 ~ regardless it was very high). I was already excited about it so i rushed out to buy the limited edition. Well low and behold, its far from the greatness that they boasted. I would rate it somewhere in the area of a 6.5-7.0. Now along comes Lunar, on the DS no less, a system that doesnt exactly sell millions of copies of anything to the same audience as Jade empire (or gta, madden, halo...). Its got a great story, memorable characters, but some design flaws. Immediately, every major publisher with the exception of a few, have blasted it for these minor problems, immediately citing that it doesnt feel anything like Lunar. Well I've got news for them GTA3 was a drastic departure from previous GTAs and some would say it wasnt a perfect transition, but critics loved it. It all boils down to bias in my opinion. Anyone who is interested in a game with half a brain to make their own decisions on what to buy will buy Lunar regardless of critical reviews. Dont be a lemming, and follow the reviewer crowd off the cliff top, make up your own mind and enjoy Lunar DS for what it is, even if it is somewhat of a departure in areas from the past titles.

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Post by Werefrog »

I quit listening to reviews about four years ago. So these remarks don't really bother me. However, the fact that the remarks will convince some people to not even try it does.

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Post by drumlord »

Werefrog wrote:However, the fact that the remarks will convince some people to not even try it does.


That's what reviews are for. :P
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Werefrog
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Post by Werefrog »

Well guys, I've given up on the Four Heroes Adventures. Way too many people are going to be discouraged by the low EGM scores. Like I needed another reason to hate EGM.

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Post by Alunissage »

drumlord wrote:
Werefrog wrote:However, the fact that the remarks will convince some people to not even try it does.

That's what reviews are for. :P

The goal of the review shouldn't be to convince the reader to buy or not buy the game, though. It should be to provide information to allow the reader to make that choice directly. Hairsplitting, I know, but that's the point of having a disinterested (as in having no involvement, not UNinterested) reviewer, so the review isn't slanted toward an agenda of the reviewer's. Shouldn't matter to the reviewer whether or not anyone buys the game.

*cough*MGS2

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Post by Rune Lai »

Ditto. I read a review to give me an idea of what I'm getting into and if the game flaws are something I can live it. Sometimes, the very thing the review is "selling" is what turns me off from the game. (For instance, if a game is billed as a "laugh your head off comedy" I'd be much less likely to buy it even if it is the best humor game to come out this year.)

The reader ratings I've seen on places like IGN are universally better than the reviewers, so the majority of fans are obviously happy even if the press is not.

Then again, it's possible Dragon Song doesn't have appeal beyond the core fanbase and those reader reviewers don't mean much in the grand scheme of things.

I think the primary reason for the low scores (having not played the game yet myself) is that the game isn't cutting edge and on top of that doesn't look like a technological improvement. It uses minimal DS functionality and looks, barring the dual screens, like it could have been a GBA game (and probably would have been rated much better if it had been).
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Post by Alunissage »

I concur. (We can just keep agreeing with each other all night.) I didn't really isolate it so clearly, but yeah, there really is no reason for this to be a DS game. I should have realized that when I was talking about how easily it could be converted to a PSP game. :P They might have been more likely to use the traditional range system if that second screen weren't up there; it seems like there's a lot of attention paid to making the battle area look large with the panning -- and all that's strictly for show, there's no reason to pan at all. I suppose first-gen games tend to be a bit unpolished, though.

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Post by Apophis san »

Meh personally I'm not getting this game because I hate handhelds with a passion. If this was on a console or PC, I would be on it so fast.....

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Post by drumlord »

alun and rune: I didn't say that it's the job of a reviewer to try to force themselves on others. I think you guys are mainly angry with the style of reviewers more than the purpose though. See the comment before mine. He was upset that people will read negative reviews and then make the decision to not purchase the game, which is pretty normal behavior. He said he wasn't upset with how the reviews were written, which if you guys are upset, seems to be where the upsetness is directed. But you don't really sound upset, just nitpicky ;)
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Post by Alunissage »

Yeah, I was reading him as saying reviews will convince people to do such-and-such, and you said that's what they're for, implying that you feel the job of a review is to convince other people to buy/not buy, which is what I was arguing against. But I didn't think you meant it that strongly. ^_^ The nature of reviews is just one of those perennial topics where everyone has an opinion but no one has a universal solution.

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Post by Fangarius »

I think the real dilemma also happens to be the name value as well.

When you hear anything with Lunar in the title, you tend to think outstanding RPG, kinda the same way people react when you hear anything (positive) about GTA, they anticipate high expectations for it.

Thus, many of the reviews are expecting to see this superpowered series to immediately come out for the DS, not realizing the fact the system is a handheld, not to mention the first Lunar not to be published by Working Designs, so yes, the reviews end up being mediocre because they expected a bit too much from the game.

As for me, I like it so far, despite some of the short comings, and it would've been nice if someone out there had published a strat guide for it, but that's just me. And contrary to what the critics think, I've discovered this is currently one of the most sought after DS game at the moment, because (1) Stores didn't think the game would do well so they ordered minimal quantity; and (2) Several Lunar fans are just discovering the game came out for the DS.

Overall, I've learned nowadays not to always go by the reviews, but more upon what I like. And if a game disappoints, well, then, that's my own misjudgment, not somebody else's opinion. :roll:

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Post by Werefrog »

Okay, maybe I shouldn't be mad at the reviewers but the mindless sheep who follow them.

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Post by Rune Lai »

I don't think there really are any mindless sheep. A review is just an opinion, and I think most people use reviews to get more information. If a reader finds a reviewer whose tastes closely align with their own, then it's a good bet that any given review that person writes will resonate with that particular reader and taking that reviewer's word for it might not be such as bad idea. If a player is doubtful about an game to begin with, sure a negative review will probably turn them off, but if they were doubtful to begin with, perhaps it was with good reason? And if they were looking forward to a game, they would probably buy it anyway as long as the review didn't make the game out to be a total pile of trash.

One bad review won't make or break or a game, but if someone visits several gaming sites and everybody's saying the same thing, maybe there's some truth to their words. There are a lot of games in this world, and I can understand why a gamer might want to pass on a potentially good game (in the hands of the right audience) to buy one that has universal appeal.
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Post by phyco126 »

Heh, reviews are silly. Case in point, Epert and Ropert gave a movie two thumbs up because the "Rape scene was spectacular, nothing was left out, it made you feel like you where actually there watching it." yet gave Agent Cody Banks two thumbs down because of it's sexual theme with a 14ish agent and a 30ish agent. Riiiight.

However, Rune is right, as I generally don't listen to several people's view, unless they are all the same: Horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, and horrible. Regardless, you still shouldn't go off of what people say, just take it as what it is, a review. I hate reviews, but it looks like they will be here for quite sometime, and what right do I have hating or loving them?
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Post by Alunissage »

You have every right to your own opinion. Even when it's wrong. ;)

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Post by drumlord »

phyco126 wrote:Heh, reviews are silly. Case in point, Epert and Ropert gave a movie two thumbs up because the "Rape scene was spectacular, nothing was left out, it made you feel like you where actually there watching it." yet gave Agent Cody Banks two thumbs down because of it's sexual theme with a 14ish agent and a 30ish agent. Riiiight.


They're reasoning is rather condensed in TV format. If you read any of Ebert's written reviews, the guy's a movie genius. And sometimes you will disagree with him. I disagreed with him on LotR and Spider-Man (in TV format, anyway), but overall he's probably my favorite movie reviewer. You brought movie reviews and really, movie reviewing is just a big cesspool right now. Some "reviews" I've seen talk about an actor's personal life for half the time. When it isn't like that, the reviewer spends the entire time trying to come up with witty statements. Given, I'm sure there are some great reviewers out there, but by the time it makes it through 3-4 editors and gets printed, their reviews are garbage.

It may seem sad, but other than book reviews, video game reviews are probably the best of all entertainment right now. I have such a hard time stomaching movie, music, and theatre reviews nowadays.
-Rich-

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