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Reader Comments (42)

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:03PM Mama Luigi said

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Oh snap it's Isaac.

I need to replay the first two...

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 6:59PM Nolan North said

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@Mama Luigi
And he's got a beard!
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Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:09PM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

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So simple, yet so brilliant.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:07PM A Sandwich said

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Holy awesome!

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:07PM KaBob799 said

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Awesome. A perfect use of the touch screen that (nobody?) had thought of before. Makes me wonder what other website features would work in games.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 6:15PM Greippi said

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@KaBob799
This would be entirely possible to do without the touch screen... It's still a new idea, and a great one at that.
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Posted: Nov 18th 2010 8:59PM KaBob799 said

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@Greippi
Yeah, but it does make perfect sense with a touch screen (or any game with a mouse). I wasn't saying it wouldn't work elsewhere =p
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Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:19PM acefondu said

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I like what Xenosaga 3 did with it's huge history.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:19PM MeisterDon said

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This is excellent, I love great and expansive rpg games but sadly I have pretty bad memory when it comes to all the characters and other stories. This makes me really happy and I hope that other games pick this up too!

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:22PM DavyRush said

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Now, if only the Kingdom Hearts series could get this...

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 6:43PM Alexisonfire said

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@DavyRush

Wouldn't, like, every second word be hyperlinked then?
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Posted: Nov 18th 2010 7:07PM Nolan North said

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@Alexisonfire
"Darkness" is "Light". "You" are the "Master of the Keyblade" and must "lock" up "worlds" to keep the "Heartless" at bay...."Darkness"
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Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:22PM Poor Tom said

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What a great and simple idea. I've never seen this done before in a DS game, but I do know other games have had encyclopedias of sorts that gave information on things in the game.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 5:28PM ednomine said

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@Poor Tom I can't remember very well, but, didn't TLOZ: the phantom hourglass had that feature? at least the japanese version.
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Posted: Nov 18th 2010 6:39PM Alexisonfire said

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@ednomine

I don't believe it did. And if it did, I never used it.
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Posted: Nov 19th 2010 7:24PM xxxsam said

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@ednomine
It did not have this feature, but (iirc) it did have 'hyperlinks' of a sort, just to help out young kids who have difficulty reading complicated Japanese characters; if you touch these characters, it pops up a box with the equivalent simpler characters.

Actually kind of makes it an educational learn-to-read tool as well as allowing younger players access. By the way, I didn't play the Japanese version so don't know for sure it had this, just read about it.

Anyway, though that was sort of a hyperlink, I think the combination of hyperlinks in game dialogue and an actual encyclopaedia to help you remember the game plot is probably a new thing! At least on console games.

Seems like a neat idea, I wonder how well it will be implemented - but yes I definitely would appreciate it.

I was going to ask when this was coming out but then I spotted the date in the right-hand column. Yay. :)
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Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:22PM Mach2 said

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Makes me think of Mount&Blade: Warband's journal. Every lord's name, kingdom, town, and castle has an entry and when referenced in one entry, you can click it to go to that entry.
The "Family" section in particular is useful when you can't remember whose sister you're trying to woo.

The Mass Effect games need something like this. They already have the codex in place, so why not allow you to consult it mid-conversation so you know what someone's talking about.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:27PM TandemTruth said

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DOOD! Golden sun is was a great game back in the GB era. I really hope they retain their Glory on the DS.

Also, A Lufia 2 remake is out as well. But I doubt it is as good as the original on the SNES. From what I've seen, they don't have a world map you can run around in, and ditch the tradition RPG gameplay. There is more that I would comment on, but alas, I don't own the game...yet

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:27PM gatotsu911 said

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I can think of more than a few video games that could have benefited immensely from this. Hell, I can think of a few books that could have benefited immensely from this (I'm looking at you, Harry Potter).

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:35PM Blazeddc said

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Wild ARMs 3 did the same exact thing on PS2. When an important word popped up you were able to get more information by clicking a button on the controller.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 4:43PM ShirowShirow said

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This will actually really help, and should indeed be added to a lot of other games. BlazBlue comes to mind: It has a whole non-canon segment added to the story that's essentially there to explain background information in detail. Man, that series definatly has the most intricate and thought-out story in any fighting game ever... And it's only two games long so far!

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 5:03PM BigD145 said

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It's only really necessary for RPG's. Most everything else is a twitch-fest that doesn't give you anything you need to remember for more than 2 seconds.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 5:03PM BigD145 said

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It's only really necessary for RPG's. Most everything else is a twitch-fest that doesn't give you anything you need to remember for more than 2 seconds.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 5:04PM naginalf said

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Now all an RPG needs is the ability to save notes with each save about what the heck I was doing the last time I played 2 months ago.

Posted: Nov 19th 2010 1:19AM asymptotic said

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@naginalf

One of the things I greatly admired about FFXIII was the plot recap that scrolled down every time I loaded up a save that way I never felt lost when I took a break and picked it up a few weeks later.

Course since all I had to do was walk forward a recap wasn't all that necessary eh?
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Posted: Nov 18th 2010 5:04PM naginalf said

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Now all an RPG needs is the ability to save notes with each save about what the heck I was doing the last time I played 2 months ago.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 5:13PM Ethan said

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Stuff in the 'articles' should be hyperlinked too so you can lose what you were originally looking at, just like wikipedia.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 5:13PM voxie said

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Hmm, this is cool. I think the iPad and iPhone could work DS ideas further.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 5:11PM voxie said

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Hmm, this is cool. I think the iPad and iPhone could work DS ideas further.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 5:12PM Ethan said

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Stuff in the 'articles' should be hyperlinked too so you can lose what you were originally looking at, just like wikipedia.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 5:15PM SpishackCola said

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I loved the encyclopedias in the Star Ocean games. I always wondered why more RPGs didn't do that. Though, using hyperlinks in-game to pop-up the encyclopedia is one of those "DUH?! Why haven't devs done this before?!" additions.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 5:47PM KupoCheer said

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Civilization 5 does this. It's something that every game should have. Very nifty.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 5:47PM FierceRegalia said

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Going to buy and love this like the previous two.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 6:27PM Alexisonfire said

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Yeah, I noticed this at PAX.... Seems like a simple and elegant way to allow new players to experience the game without falling behind on the terminology.

And, if I'm not mistaken, didn't Final Fantasy 2, of all games, have something similar to this?

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 6:39PM fulluphigh said

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Wasn't this mentioned on Joystiq a long time ago? I don't know if it's been in one of your preview articles, but I do know that it was known even before the Japanese release. I could have sworn a read about it on Joystiq, too.

Oh well, regardless, it's a freaking excellent idea. On top of being incredibly convenient, it'll add even more time to the game for people like me, who read all of the scans in metroid prime, and all of the mini-articles in age of empires: age of kings, and all of the entries in Mass Effect 2, regardless of whether we knew it already or not, *just because it's there*.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 6:43PM Alexisonfire said

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Also,

Isaac has mean beard going on.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 6:43PM Lerkero said

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Got damn that's a great idea

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 7:04PM RupeeClock said

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Megaman Starforce 3 also did this, it popped up keywords when they were mentioned for the first time, especially if they mention things from previous games.

Posted: Nov 18th 2010 9:12PM motang said

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This will come in handy!

Posted: Nov 19th 2010 12:36AM x3r9g6 said

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i thought it was gonna be a remake of the first 2 but sounds like a sequel.

Posted: Nov 19th 2010 1:19AM Fo0dNippl3 said

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Metal Gear kind of did this with the Metal Gear Solid Database. You could download it and browse through tons of articles on characters, locations, weapons, events, etc.

Posted: Nov 19th 2010 7:09AM Jinketsu said

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I thought I remembered screenshots after the game was initially announced of GBA to DS transfer, so you could transfer the data from The Lost Age to Dark Dawn. Did they scrap that idea in favor of the touch-screen encyclopedia, or is that still going to be available?

I kinda liked transferring my data from one game to the next. Made me think I was continuing my adventure, rather than starting a new adventure in a sequel.

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