Archive for April, 2008

Ôkami – “Pretty as a picture, and flat as one…”

Even Takeshi Kitano’s films or Mamoru Oshii’s animes, that portray modern-age Japan, feature more recognizable classical Japanese artistic codes than “Ôkami” does, and it’s set in pre-Edo period, when those trends originated. As much as I would’ve loved to applaud “Ôkami”, I cannot, for it mistakes flash with substance, color with aesthethic, story with message, and art with entertainment[ READ MORE ]

Lost Odyssey – “The (Real) Final Fantasy”

After crying endless times from reading every “1000 Years of Memories” and watching the gorgeous cutscenes, you’ll understand what Sakaguchi is trying to say with his game: why go forward, when the dramatic potential of the genre is still underachieved? “Lost Odyssey” is Sakaguchi’s greatest masterpiece, a game so heartbreaking, profound and beautiful that it fully deserves the title of “The (real) Final Fantasy”[ READ MORE ]

Number 2 – Yasumi Matsuno

“Final Fantasies” have always been tales about love, friendship, family, protecting the world and the conquering of evil… until Yasumi Matsuno took over FFXII and changed the series upside down, that is. Final Fantasies’ mass audience probably didn’t know (or comprehend) Matsuno-san, and so the change of style from FFX to XII (XI is a [ READ MORE ]

Number 3: Yoshinori Kitase

Of all the developers in this list, Kitase should’ve been the one with the most notorious name, but sadly, he got completely overshadowed by his mentor: Hironobu Sakaguchi. Kitase, as a writer and director, is behind the 4 more influential and well regarded RPGs in gaming history: “Chrono Trigger”, “Final Fantasy VI”, “VII” and “VIII”. [ READ MORE ]

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