RadioRadar Podcast 006: Escape from Japan

Wii U, Borderlands 2, and War of the Roses take center stage this week

Words: GamesRadar Staff on September 19, 2012

Japan. Lovely, lovely Japan. How we can’t wait for your sweet gaming treats to flutter from the heavens, to touch our shoulder and fall to our feet, like the moment after a cherry blossom reaches full bloom. Oh, oh Japan.

All of this is to say, the Tokyo Game Show’s happening this week, and we’re basically running on a skeleton crew. Yay. The Wii U gets its due, Borderlands does 2, and there may also be a taming of the shrew. That last bit, as well as everything that came before it, was nonsensical. My bad.

This Week's Hosts: Sophia Tong, Sterling McGarvey, Lorenzo Veloria, and Tom Magrino

The Deets

Post date: September 19, 2012
Intro song by: Danny Baranowsky
The Question of the Week: Which Western game would have been better as a JRPG? (The top answer gets Sony's Pulse wireless headset!)

Platforms:

Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PC, PS Vita, 3DS, Wii, Wii U, iPhone, DS, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows Phone 7, Arcade, PSP, Dreamcast, PS1, Game Boy, Saturn, GameCube, Sega CD, GBA, SNES, Genesis, Turbografx, NES, Xbox, N64

Topics:

podcast, RadioRadar

24 comments

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MyCoolWhiteLies - September 25, 2012 2:21 p.m.

For this week's question, I say The Avengers would make a great JRPG. I know they haven't yet made a game, but that's because they couldn't figure out a way to really make it work (and there was that abandoned first-person game). There was Marvel Ultimate Alliance and the old X-men Legends games, but I could never get into those. All the characters mechanics were way too simplified making the large casts feel completely generic. Though I know it wouldn't have mass appeal, I think the characters and setting would work great in a traditional JRPG formula.
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F4G1TR0N - September 22, 2012 1:17 p.m.

Since I took the effort to look at all the comments to see if mine was mentioned, and thankfully it is no, I gotta say the Uncharted series. I mean it's got all the things I love in them animes, strong charming lead, beautiful, yet strong, women, and ACTION! Gosh what could be better than watching Drake-KUN (UGHHH) fist fight highly stylized opponents in tropical locations. Figuring out the shooting mechanic would be weird, possibly having branches specializing in certain weapons, armed and unarmed. The game would either have to play like FFXIII or even just simple turned based, and then after the fight, breaks to standard running on a map and platforming. I dunno listening to Ramble On by Led Zeppelin as I write this,but it sounds cool! Anyways, good job on this podcast guys! Always looking forward to listening to it and I do follow on twitter haha.
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n00b - September 20, 2012 7:54 p.m.

when i click download i get episode 5. anyway my pick for a jrpg of a western game would be gears of war, call it Advanced Gears Of War. -more colorful art -characters that would be fun to be around -awesome record scratching sound track.
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GamesRadarSophiaTong - September 20, 2012 9:54 p.m.

clear your cache? It should be episode 6.
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brianofthewoods - September 20, 2012 5:28 p.m.

Borderlands 2, it wouldn't be better but it would be great as a turn based JRPG, and it wouldn't be more of a spin off/reimagining, you would have a party of 4 (or 8 while selecting which 4 to fight) Maya's phaselock could heal her team or damage/ freeze multple enemies, Axton could be a damage dealer by deploying his turret, Salvador could use lots of damage boosting moves and use 2 attacks in 1 turn, Zer0 could be use confusing enemies, and deal massive damage with attacks that take 2 turns (one for decepti0n and one for a sword strike) Roland could buff his team with his turret, Lillith could be similar to Zer0 but damage multiple enemies and deal status effects, Mordecai could send bloodwing to steal items from enemies and stun them, Brick would be the tank with massive health and damage but would attack last with his slow speed stat, and when you win a battle you would get random loot (obviously) and you would level up very similarly to borderlands with 3 skill trees... not sure if multiplayer would work but it might be a nice feature, i never played secret of mana but what sophia said makes me think that maybe Borderlands the rpg could have some type of multiplayer component
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brianofthewoods - September 20, 2012 5:30 p.m.

i mean it would be a spin off/reimaginig
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ClockworkBro - September 20, 2012 3:52 p.m.

I am going to break your question by picking a game that wouldn't get better by being a JRPG but would of been FREAKING AWESOME regardless. My choice is Psychonauts! There's already more characters, story, and amazing dialogue than you can shake a katana at. With so many different powers and people, I wouldn't mind building a party with some of the other campers and shooting blast blasts turn based style in someone's head. You know what, I just want Double Fine to do a full blown JRPG-like game, not like Costume Quest but something huge and awesome that only they could do.
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Unoriginal - September 20, 2012 2:48 p.m.

Heavenly Sword had great anime-esque character designs and a closet JRPG plot but the gamplay was kinda boring so I think it would benefit from going JRPG. Nariko really fills the typical JRPG warrior class and Kai could totally work as an archer. Add some characters, grinding, subplots and a brood button and you are set.
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Lurkero - September 20, 2012 12:59 p.m.

Darksiders could definitely have been a better JRPG. I was disappointed with Darksiders 2, but if that game was a JRPG with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as your party members I would have definitely enjoyed it more. Just look at how Darksiders 2 was wrought with equipment, statistics, levels, and numbers all over the place. The plot is incoherent, the player goes through multiple worlds to explore, there are shops to buy and sell equipment, and many other things commonly found in JRPGS. The one thing missing was a detailed hub world where the player can visit a town to rest at a hotel and talk to townsfolk to get information about the next quest. And as far as I can tell there haven't been many JRPGs that heavily utilize themes of the Apocalypse so the story would have a sense of originality among JRPG players. Darksiders 2 could have been so much better if it were a JRPG.
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KillerT0fu - September 20, 2012 11:57 a.m.

Love the show guys, keep it up! Question of the Week: What about Game of Thrones - The Game as a JRPG? Why? Well first off, any other version of that game has a pretty good chance of being better than the original from a few months ago, what a disappointment :( Also, the world of Westeros, its characters, locations, and stories, would lend itself pretty well to any game style. You have the party's made up from any of the main characters branching story lines, plenty of equipment and loot to find and upgrade. I'm imagining a Final Fantasy 16-bit style world of Westeros, how sweet would that be!?
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KillerT0fu - September 20, 2012 11:59 a.m.

Oh, and dragons.
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crazor89 - September 20, 2012 7:40 a.m.

Looking forward to listening to this, been really enjoying the revamped podcast!
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bobby-portlock - September 20, 2012 2:49 a.m.

im going to say that, Halo would work really well as a JRPG the plot is already silly, and nonsensical you are very rarely out on your own, always with a small a group it already has a classical score, and a sexy blue techno chick this writes itself
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Nikku7 - September 20, 2012 12:55 a.m.

Based on what I've learned from playing Earthbound and Mother 3, I could definitely see fallout 3 translating to a hilarious JRPG. Their take on American culture could result in the craziest Capitol Wasteland ever. The gameplay would probably translate to more of a third person shooter RPG hybrid that really isn't a whole lot different from Fallout 3's combat except for that their would be a lot more gauges and status effects, plus it would be much harder to manage things in battle. You would also have a lot more party members, each with a completely insane or dark back story and in addition to the other enemies you fight their would probably be anything from laser shooting toasters to incredibly creative mutant beasts. The art style would obviously be more stylized and you as a main character would be an amnesiac or have a terrible secret in your past. Probably both.
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Tony Wilson - September 19, 2012 8:52 p.m.

Western game that would have been better as a JRPG? Gotta go with Too Human. Who wouldn't want to spend forever scrolling through attack menus, planning the best way to take a down a Norse demon, only to die and sit through that glorious 30 second death animation?
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rainn'sgaydar - September 19, 2012 7:49 p.m.

I'm gonna say Batman Arkham City. The lead character already has the back story to be the typical emotional JRPG lead man. Change Catwoman from a skin tight catsuit to school girl uniform with a kitten ear headband. And change the Joker from himself to a slightly more feminine looking, makeup wearing version of himself.
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Moondoggie1157 - September 19, 2012 6:40 p.m.

I'd like to see American Mcgee's Ali... Aaaaand I just heard that this is only an American giveaway. Well, fine then, I'm not even going to bother telling you. Good show guys!
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Stabby_Joe - September 19, 2012 4:41 p.m.

Great podcast guys. As for the the QOTF: Marvel: Ultimate Alliance where you could have a multiple class system but instead using the variety characters and powers available from the Marvel universe and the story would be delivered in text like an old school JRPG but in a comic book style presentation instead.
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Tranquilbez34 - September 19, 2012 3:10 p.m.

Bioshock, They can do something even more creative with Rapture than what 2K Marin did with it. Though I'm not saying that 2K Marin did anything wrong with that game but it would be interesting to see what japanese developers could do with Bioshock
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StrayGator - September 19, 2012 2:10 p.m.

Not my work, but this is the best take on Mass Effect 3 I have seen.
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