Nintendo Wii

Many Nintendo Wii owners, specifically those with more gaming experience have been crying for a RPG. I happen to be one of those people. I've never been a ‘huge' Tales of Symphonia fan, but enjoyed the more cheeky, and funny JRPG oriented stories in the video game. Apparently, Daemon Hatfield of IGN doesn't feel that way as he has blasted the new Tales of Symphonia video game in his review.

After reading his review, it seems like the same problem I see from most video game reviewers. I can tell from the problems that Hatfield has with the video game, that he probably isn't as well versed with JRPGs as many of the genre's dedicated followers. There's nothing inherently right or wrong with that, just that it leaves a skewed view. If I happen to like some of the off-the-wall, zany fun that most JRPGs have, I'd like to hear that voice so I can respond accordingly.

Yes, The Hero Is Probably A Whiny Teenager. Just Like Every FPS Has A Standard Pistol For A Starting Weapon. But Review Scores Shouldn't Be Based On Those Trends.

I could be totally wrong and Hatfield could be right about his points. I'll have to wait to play the video game to make that decision. The way he worded his article though, it seemed like more of a bash on the genre than just the particular video game. JRPGs have always been linear, and their storylines tend to always be convoluted. Just like video games of other genres all follow certain patterns.

I'll safely admit that I'm not a huge fan of third-person shooters. I like my shooters in the first person variety. So, if I were to review a third-person video game, I'd like to give my readers a review from someone that does appreciate the third-person aspect. That way there's a balance for everyone involved.

I'm not going to lay into Daemon Hatfield for his review because everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just would rather see more variety from some of the larger review sites. I know they have the budget to do it, and I think their fans would appreciate that. You can already tell there's going to be a huge backlash from Tales fans, because there's already 86 reader ratings. The reader score is sitting at 9.6 after those ratings, and the video game comes out today. Considering most video game stores won't have it until noon, I highly doubt that those readers have actually played any of it. Which leads me to suspect those reader ratings are from upset fans who actually haven't bought the video game yet.

If I was a JRPG fan, and was waiting for an opinion that reflected close to my feelings of the genre I'd probably be upset too.