DualShockers writes: "Those who enjoy cut-scene-driven games are a dying breed. Back in “the day” we enjoyed that part of a game’s story telling. Remember watching as Cloud raced his bike through the streets of Midgar or the opera scene in Final Fantasy VI? Those were some truly defining moments in the history of, not just the Final Fantasy franchise, but video games in general. These days, though, a new generation of gamers is rather spoiled by all the “must have action now” attitudes that prevail throughout their peers. First person shooters with pitiful excuses for stories, RPGs that try to cater to this “I want it now” generation, but fall flat because the story isn’t expounded upon as much as it should be and games that attempt to cover over the fact that their story sucks with massive amounts of customization and personalization of the characters and everything else are all commonplace."
I've always loved the storytelling aspects to RPGs especially ones based on Anime characters. I think that Anime and Video games like Cross Edge are going to be a great way for Anime to come to life for its fans on another medium. Final Fantasy is one of the best examples of storytelling done at its best, I personally find Final Fantasy VI to be the most amazing storytelling experience but it has aged of course from what we now consider standard.
Lupin the Third would work as more of an action game though.
While there's certainly more room for visual novels in the west, I'm honestly surprised that the author of this particular piece didn't write about those which have been successful. After all, what are the Phoenix Wright games if not visual novels? Actually, quite a few successful games on the DS have arguably been visual novels. Professor Layton probably qualifies, Hotel Dusk most certainly does. Perhaps the real problem right now is that Western Gamers aren't so willing to accept these kinds of games on their PC.
you know whats a good visual novel (EVER17 The Out Of Infinity)
Don't see that happening any time soon.
There's quite a bit of stigmata associated anime in general. Get caught watching it in public at high school, and suddenly everybody thinks you're a registered sex offender.*
*true story, one of my friends ended up like that. He's fine after he got into Uni, though.