I was recently directed to new video series over at Gametrailers.com, a retrospective of the Final Fantasy series. While I’m all for nostalgia, I’m becoming a little jaded by it. I’m happy to see gamers acknowledge their roots, but frankly I’m tired of game companies looking to cash in by exploiting my childhood memories.
I was, however, pleasantly surprised at the quality of this retrospective. I expected a cheesy montage of gameplay footage, but instead found that the videos explored some interesting questions: How was Final Fantasy radically different to other games at the time? What innovations did it each sequel bring to the RPG genre? How were the early games unbalanced?
You may also want to check out their Metroid and Zelda series retrospectives, which are also good.
July 26th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Yeah GameTrailers has surprisingly good quality of just about all their original work. I don’t really go for their GameHead or Bonus Round because what’s-his-name wants to be Kevin Pereira so bad it’s pathetic. That being said, however, their reviews are top notch and their packages are not only slick in style but have a well rounded sense of substance to them. The Retrospective videos are great examples of this. Also, their site and streaming capacity far outweigh GameVideos, which has been in “beta” since inception.
Don’t be surprised if you find yourself dipping in that well more often than not. It’s addictive.
July 26th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
I usually go to IGN, Gamespot and Gamerankings for my game reviews… not because they’re especially good, but mostly out of ignorance of other options. I wasn’t even aware Gametrailers did game reviews (haven’t explored the site much).
At your suggestion, I went ahead and took a look. I searched for Shadow of Destiny, a game I recently picked up, but they didn’t have an entry. I watched their Okami review instead, which was much better than video reviews I’ve seen on other sites. I’ll cruise by there again next time I need a good review, methinks. Thanks for the tip, Dave.