One Google Search Is All It Takes

 

We all like to rag on a game journo from time to time.  Despite being members of enthusiast press they often don't seem very enthusiastic about the things they are writing about.  However upon my travels around the internet it seems that it's not only video game press that consists of hack writers that probably failed English in high school and the world of Table Top also seems greatly affected.

Despite how steeped I am in Shin Megami Tensei video games I had no idea that this rule book for a table top game even existed.  To be fair, almost all of my table top gaming experiences to this day have been extremely negative so its something I tend to ignore and turn my back on.  Anyway, the game is called Shin Megami Tensei: Tokyo Conception and its based on, obviously, SMT 3 Nocturne and was originally released in 2004.  It even has a supplementary book called the Amala Labyrinth or something that adds even more shit to it.  It seems pretty cool and if I could find a table top group that doesn't make me want to fellate the business end of a shotgun then I'd be extremely down to give it a try.

So in swoops Chase Carter of Dicebreaker.com and to his credit, the majority of his article isn't even that bad.  He mentions that there's other SMT table top systems and these things have been around since 1993 which was an interesting fact I didn't know.  Pretty much exactly what I wanted that hack at Gamespot to do when talking about Helldivers (http://identitygaming.blogspot.com/2024/03/gamespot-being-embarassing-again.html) although he then does proceed to refer to the game as Tokyo Connection and Tokyo Conception so maybe a lack of reading is how such a fucking awful headline happened.

"Shin Megami Tensei tabletop RPG based on Persona's video game series" is what it reads and if you know anything about Shin Megami Tensei even just in passing you'll know that what is written here is just WILDLY incorrect.  Just in case I have to spell it out for you, Shin Megami Tensei is the mainline series and Persona is the spinoff.  It's not so much that the information is wrong that gets to me, its that this guy is supposed to be a contributer to this niche interest website and yet can't do even the most basic bit of research to get things correct.  One google search is all it would have taken to know that SMT is the main one, Nocturne is the 3rd game and the Conception is the event that happens at the start of the game which kicks of all of its events.  Its literally on the fucking Wikipedia page and takes about 4 seconds to look up.  Even if you didn't want to look it up you should know that the headline is just wrong because Persona 3 and 4 both had "Shin Megami Tensei" in the fucking title.

If I was willing to be charitable to Mr Carter here I would say that, at best, he's a click harvesting little fuckhead.  Persona is undeniably, at this point, the more well known and more popular arm of SMT so using that in the headline is probably more likely to draw traffic to the rag he's writing.  However I'm not willing to be charitible so I'm just going to assume he's a lazy piece of shit.  You're a niche writer for an enthusiast website.  A website where I imagine its members spend all day pretending to be half-elves while jacking off to pornography of bears or whatever the fuck you weirdos are into.  You aren't so busy that you can see something like this and not look up the absolute basics of what it is and what is is about.

If you're going to take the trouble of writing for a niche topic or in this case, a niche interest within that niche topic, make sure you do it justice.  Instead of just shitting out a crap article to earn a quick couple of bucks why don't you take some time and actually write something helpful to people who may be interested.  But let's be honest, Chase Carter doesn't really give a fuck about what he's doing and gives even less of a fuck about SMT.  Farm clicks, get money and move on

A fucking sad way to exist

Shadowrun Returns

Right, I literally just beat this thing, so let's talk about it!

Shadowrun is originally and it's essentially the same sort of thing as Dungeons and Dragons.  The difference between this and Dungeons and Dragons is that it's not all high fantasy swords and sorcery stuff, it's set in the future where people have guns, explosives and cybernetic implants.  However the swords and sorcery stuff is still there, so you end up with this really cool mix of DnD fantasy stuff being played out in slums filled with drug addicts shooting at you.

Anyway, Shadowrun Returns is an RPG avaliable on multiple formats that attempts to provide you the Shadowrun experience but without all the pens, paper and need for 5 or 6 people to get a session going.  Obviously, there isn't going to be as much freedom because if the developers tried to mimic the table top game completely then this shit would never get released. 

The story follows your character who is some kind of down and out in a slum somewhere in Seattle.  One day your dude gets a call from a dead friend saying "hey, go kill the guy who killed me for big bucks", and being poor you decide that this is about the best chance you have to earn some money and so your adventure begins.  The story in Shadowrun Returns is actually really good and the writing is really good and helps generate a good atmosphere of being on an epic quest in a run down shit heap part of Seattle.  Everything moves along at a good pace and keeps you interested and by the time you finish one chapter, you won't wait to wait to play the next one.  The game also looks pretty nice too with well designed areas with lots of detail even if they are a bit small sometimes.

Game play wise, Shadowrun Returns is basic yet functional.  You basically do everything with the mouse and with turned based combat you need to worry more good strategy than having to micro manage 4 players at a time.  There is also some degree of character creation as you get a bunch of classes to pick at the start and over the course of the game you gain karma so that you can upgrade your various stats.

But it's not all sunshine and daisies with this game.  I have a problem with Shadowrun Returns and it's a pretty big fucking problem.

Now I wasn't following this game when it was development at all, but if you ask me this fucking thing just wrecked a lot of its potential.  The game was released for iPad and Android systems and my problem with Shadowrun Returns is that it feels like it was designed specifically for these platforms rather than PC.  The game is really linear giving you a straight path from A to B with very little to explore.  Side quests are barely existent and really have no impact on anything and neither do the dialogue trees.  Also the lack of a save system is really annoying because I can't go back and play my favourite sections of the game now, I have to replay the whole damn thing if I want to get to that area.

Anyway, despite my gripes with this glorified tablet game, it's actually quite fun.  I really enjoyed playing it through and the plot kept me interested enough to see it through to the end.  Also the pen and paper esque part of the experience has been preserved in the form on a campaign editor where you can make your own adventure and then make it available for download so everyone else can play your quest, so if you're into user generated content then there is a lot of game here for you.  As long as you don't have soaring expectations of a true pen and paper experience, Shadowrun Returns is a good RPG that's worth at least one play through.