Reading that is making me want to replay FF1 on my psp. I'm still sad I lost my all monk save file.
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RPG Community |OT| Take the Epoch to a New Era
- Thread starter Deleted member 419
- Start date
So I finished Enderal: Forgotten Stories for the blitz yesterday. It's a full conversion mod for Skyrim that you can play for free if you own a version of Skyrim on PC that isn't the VR version.
Was looking forward to this because someone I studied with really liked Enderal and there was some hype around it here and there from what I've read. Was also intrigued by all the praise for the story even if people used the typical superlatives of "This small team/mod succeeds where multi-million dollar teams fail!".
It didn't quite deliver on that. While I think what they do in the story is good it isn't something incredibly unique. At least the single elements of the end of a civilization and how people react differently towards it. Even two of the twists right before the end didn't feel particular new or fresh. There are some neat features to how the main antagonists operate and how they do not much else other than use human traits like pride and hubris to bring the downfall of countless civilizations through the ages. And while I think the world building has some cool bits in it there are things like the Undercity under the main city. Is it there because rich people are exploiting them? Some characters go full conservative and say these people are only there because they are lazy and take drugs and only need to pull themselves together to get out of it.
There is also the incredible feat that this mod is fully voiced for dialogue in German in English. In the German dub even some more higher profile speakers. Sadly the performances are uneven. They probably didn't have the time or funds for multiple takes. There is one sidequest in which a character does a mad anime laugh and it absolutely doesn't work. But then there are also great performances like the grandmaster of the order you are working for or the songs sung by musicians in pubs.
Also have mixed feelings about the dialogue. They go for some old-timey German which personally is something I always find cringey. There is also some curses in there that are maybe repeated to often. For example there is a character who says "By the prophet's ass" every other sentence. And due to audio bugs I heard that like four times in 30 seconds. Or another character yelling "Himmelarschundzwirn" (Heaven, ass and twine) whenever he is mad at someone and he is mad constantly. Some other stuff has the same burgeois feel like comments under articles from news sites. And sometimes there are instances where an editor might have been good, especially since people are saying it aloud.
My main gripe with the game is with the side content. And with the exploration especially. I rarely found it satisfying. There are quite a few ruins scattered along the way so obviously one wants to go there to maybe find some loot. And while there is loot to be found most of it is superfluous because you either find the equipment you are already using or don't need because it doesn't suit your build. The biggest things you can get is a piece of an armour set either lying around on the end of a dungeon or on a strong enemy. But even then not guaranteed to your build or even a duplicate. At one point I had the same gauntlets for a set I wasn't using like 3 times. Usually the best you can get out of these runs is money and some potions. There is an aspect I like about it is with the encumberance that at some point you need to be selective with what you take with you because some of the better stuff to sell is quite heavy.
But usually you end up going back to the city after a location or two because your inventory is full. And for a majority of the game you can't allow to leave items that give a good price because it ties in to leveling up system.
Character progressions is a mixed bag for me, too. For every level up you get three kinds of points. One for your combat abilities, one for handicraft related talents and one for your skilltree. With the last one you can unlock some passives or the occasional active ability and can be spent for free. The other two require to buy books at vendors. And they are expensive. For large parts of the game I had several level ups unspent because I couldn't afford getting more than a few at a time. And the higher your skills get the more expensive the books get. So after every excursion I was running around to the same vendors, listening to the same lines of dialogue and then selling my stuff with consideration to then maybe buy a book or two. And after a couple of times doing this loop I was annoyed and wished for a more elegant solution.
There is some other stuff like the so called big town problem in which you come in to the big city of the game, some character tells you about each district and says bye until later and you just feel lost. But I don't want to hammer too much onto it because other games run into this problem a lot, too.
A thing I love for the forest parts of the map is how dense the foliage is. I lost killed mobs several times because the grass was so tall and thick and I couldn't see the floor.
There is also a quest I really dug in which you help a character cope that her partner killed herself due to depression and I thought it was handled rather well. In general the sidequests are good. Same for the factions quest lines despite the above mentioned anime laugh being in one of them.
There is good to be found here so I'd say since it is free it is worth checking out. Aspects that I didn't talk about much like the soundtrack or how my mage build played out would've resolved into the same "It's alright" and I needed to get the things I didn't like out of my system so sorry for my rambling. I just wish the game was a bit smaller and more concentrated. I am looking forward to what the team is working on now and hope that in their new game they are not beholden to the Elder Scrolls base.
Was looking forward to this because someone I studied with really liked Enderal and there was some hype around it here and there from what I've read. Was also intrigued by all the praise for the story even if people used the typical superlatives of "This small team/mod succeeds where multi-million dollar teams fail!".
It didn't quite deliver on that. While I think what they do in the story is good it isn't something incredibly unique. At least the single elements of the end of a civilization and how people react differently towards it. Even two of the twists right before the end didn't feel particular new or fresh. There are some neat features to how the main antagonists operate and how they do not much else other than use human traits like pride and hubris to bring the downfall of countless civilizations through the ages. And while I think the world building has some cool bits in it there are things like the Undercity under the main city. Is it there because rich people are exploiting them? Some characters go full conservative and say these people are only there because they are lazy and take drugs and only need to pull themselves together to get out of it.
There is also the incredible feat that this mod is fully voiced for dialogue in German in English. In the German dub even some more higher profile speakers. Sadly the performances are uneven. They probably didn't have the time or funds for multiple takes. There is one sidequest in which a character does a mad anime laugh and it absolutely doesn't work. But then there are also great performances like the grandmaster of the order you are working for or the songs sung by musicians in pubs.
Also have mixed feelings about the dialogue. They go for some old-timey German which personally is something I always find cringey. There is also some curses in there that are maybe repeated to often. For example there is a character who says "By the prophet's ass" every other sentence. And due to audio bugs I heard that like four times in 30 seconds. Or another character yelling "Himmelarschundzwirn" (Heaven, ass and twine) whenever he is mad at someone and he is mad constantly. Some other stuff has the same burgeois feel like comments under articles from news sites. And sometimes there are instances where an editor might have been good, especially since people are saying it aloud.
My main gripe with the game is with the side content. And with the exploration especially. I rarely found it satisfying. There are quite a few ruins scattered along the way so obviously one wants to go there to maybe find some loot. And while there is loot to be found most of it is superfluous because you either find the equipment you are already using or don't need because it doesn't suit your build. The biggest things you can get is a piece of an armour set either lying around on the end of a dungeon or on a strong enemy. But even then not guaranteed to your build or even a duplicate. At one point I had the same gauntlets for a set I wasn't using like 3 times. Usually the best you can get out of these runs is money and some potions. There is an aspect I like about it is with the encumberance that at some point you need to be selective with what you take with you because some of the better stuff to sell is quite heavy.
But usually you end up going back to the city after a location or two because your inventory is full. And for a majority of the game you can't allow to leave items that give a good price because it ties in to leveling up system.
Character progressions is a mixed bag for me, too. For every level up you get three kinds of points. One for your combat abilities, one for handicraft related talents and one for your skilltree. With the last one you can unlock some passives or the occasional active ability and can be spent for free. The other two require to buy books at vendors. And they are expensive. For large parts of the game I had several level ups unspent because I couldn't afford getting more than a few at a time. And the higher your skills get the more expensive the books get. So after every excursion I was running around to the same vendors, listening to the same lines of dialogue and then selling my stuff with consideration to then maybe buy a book or two. And after a couple of times doing this loop I was annoyed and wished for a more elegant solution.
There is some other stuff like the so called big town problem in which you come in to the big city of the game, some character tells you about each district and says bye until later and you just feel lost. But I don't want to hammer too much onto it because other games run into this problem a lot, too.
A thing I love for the forest parts of the map is how dense the foliage is. I lost killed mobs several times because the grass was so tall and thick and I couldn't see the floor.
There is also a quest I really dug in which you help a character cope that her partner killed herself due to depression and I thought it was handled rather well. In general the sidequests are good. Same for the factions quest lines despite the above mentioned anime laugh being in one of them.
There is good to be found here so I'd say since it is free it is worth checking out. Aspects that I didn't talk about much like the soundtrack or how my mage build played out would've resolved into the same "It's alright" and I needed to get the things I didn't like out of my system so sorry for my rambling. I just wish the game was a bit smaller and more concentrated. I am looking forward to what the team is working on now and hope that in their new game they are not beholden to the Elder Scrolls base.
Finally finished Yakuza: Like A Dragon yesterday. It's a really good game, took me about 72 hours. I think there's definitely room to expand on this format of gameplay, although it might be hard to beat in the story department. Ichiban as a protag works really well, as he feels like a human being warts and all. Also having an adult cast you can drink and hang out with filled a good hole these past few months I played the game.
I got Judgment left to go through next, but don't feel like starting it just yet.
I got Judgment left to go through next, but don't feel like starting it just yet.
Started a Chrono Cross playthrough last night. I'm supposed to be playing through the BOF series but I sunk a good 6 hours into CC and now I don't know what to do.
Completed Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga (DS) for the current Blitz & the theme game- Defunct Developer.
=25 1/2 hours to beat.
I really enjoyed Superstar Saga back in the day, but this didn't really pull me in. Some thoughts-
-With the babies crying, the shrill voice samples and grating text sounds I ended up muting it and listening to music instead.
-The animations and level layouts are good, as were a number of enemy designs.
-Some of the humor works.
-I think the main thing I didn't like was that some enemies and bosses have too much HP imo. Also, constantly having to press buttons in time on offense and defense can get boring when you're up against multiple foes and you have to wait for each one of them to attack (sometimes multiple times apiece). Some enemies will call in help or resurrect dead ones too. I also found it difficult to tell if Mario or Luigi was being targeted sometimes and fights can just drag on when you have to heal.
-I'm not sure why, but before playing I though Baby Mario & Luigi stuck to the top screen (ala The World Ends With You). Exploring and battling in the past and affecting things for their grown up counterparts in the present. Would have been cool to see something like that as splitting up here is just used to hit switches basically.
-One of the last bosses has an irritating countdown gimmick that only gives you 1-2 chances to delay a game over. Not a fan of that.
-The main last boss was tedious and drawn out.
Things I'd like to have seen-
-HP refilling upon leveling up.
-The ability to wear multiple badges.
-More party members, it's just young and older versions of Mario & Luigi throughout.
-More mini-games. There's two "float to collect coins/ gems" games, and another that's a slot machine. Superstar Saga Saga had double that number.
I still had fun playing it, I'd just rank it last of the Mario RPGs I've played so far.
-Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
-Super Mario RPG
-Mario & Luigi: Super Star Saga
-Paper Mario: Sticker Star
-Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
Still have Paper Mario (N64), M&L: Bowser's Inside Story. M&L: Dream Team, M&L: Paper Jam, Super Paper Mario, Paper Mario: Color Splash & Paper Mario: The Origami King to play though.
I've been playing Dragon Age Inquisition on XSX thanks to the framerate update. Been putting quite a bit of time into it.
I was wondering if the DLC content was worth it? Currently the cheapest sale right now is $15 for the GOTY version, which includes all the DLC content. I also have a $5 promotion from Microsoft, so I'm debating if it's worth the $10.
So how's the DLC? Is it meant to be experienced within the game itself or is it post-story content?
The game itself is also enjoyable save for the repetitive combat. I almost never have to issue ally commands and I'm just smashing frozen enemies with my big sword (sometimes a big ax). I'm almost tempted to raise the difficulty, but I prefer not to if all they do is increase damage.
I was wondering if the DLC content was worth it? Currently the cheapest sale right now is $15 for the GOTY version, which includes all the DLC content. I also have a $5 promotion from Microsoft, so I'm debating if it's worth the $10.
So how's the DLC? Is it meant to be experienced within the game itself or is it post-story content?
The game itself is also enjoyable save for the repetitive combat. I almost never have to issue ally commands and I'm just smashing frozen enemies with my big sword (sometimes a big ax). I'm almost tempted to raise the difficulty, but I prefer not to if all they do is increase damage.
The genre refresh worked wonders for Like A Dragon but they really need to add some more wrinkles with the sequel, otherwise I think it could quickly get pretty stale.
That said, it's wise that they recognised keeping the traditional action combat with the Judgment series is the way to go, rather than forcing a reset on the entire franchise.
Anybody played the Evolution World games? I have a weird obsession with these games. I barely tried them back then on dreamcast and never completed them. But I have always been thinking about them. I know there is a gamecube port that includes both games and I want to know if I should go with it or the dreamcast versions. There's barely any talk online about this series and people seem to think they are not worth it. But I still want to play them. I really like the art style, world and goofiness.
Any Advice would be appreciated.
Any Advice would be appreciated.
Ah, this thread has been kinda abandoned lately, but since we've just started a new Blitz season, I think it's time to talk a little bit about the games I'm playing for this season:
1. Monster Hunter Stories. Real life has messed a lot with my gaming time so I haven't finished this one. I have no idea either how much I've progressed in terms of the story since I've explored most of the map by now and I have to go to new island. I must sat that with the new game coming out next week, I want to beat this one asap. It's been an incredible game so far and I'm excited to see what they're gonna do with the second game.
2. Persona 5 Strikers. Since I played mostly RPGs last year until early 2021 I was a little bit burned out and it took me a few months to recover, so P5S went to the backlog, but now I think I'm in the mood to play it. People say it's fun so I'm curious to see how good or bad is the result of the mix of Persona and Mussou games.
3. Pokémon Ultramoon. I stopped playing this one when Swoshi came out. I have to go back and beat it. I've enjoyed what I played so far. People say it is pretty long for a Pokémon game, we'll see.
4. Monster Hunter Stories 2. Games that come out two weeks after July 1st can still be included in your list so this one qualifies. I'm very excited to see what they do with the series. I haven't played the demo but I don't need to, this is totally an Iva game.
5. Lagrange Point. This season's RPG Club theme is "Fan Translations" so I have to go back to this and beat it for real this time.
So, here we are. Blitz season is best season.
I'm looking forward to reading your write-ups and impressions of the games you choose!
1. Monster Hunter Stories. Real life has messed a lot with my gaming time so I haven't finished this one. I have no idea either how much I've progressed in terms of the story since I've explored most of the map by now and I have to go to new island. I must sat that with the new game coming out next week, I want to beat this one asap. It's been an incredible game so far and I'm excited to see what they're gonna do with the second game.
2. Persona 5 Strikers. Since I played mostly RPGs last year until early 2021 I was a little bit burned out and it took me a few months to recover, so P5S went to the backlog, but now I think I'm in the mood to play it. People say it's fun so I'm curious to see how good or bad is the result of the mix of Persona and Mussou games.
3. Pokémon Ultramoon. I stopped playing this one when Swoshi came out. I have to go back and beat it. I've enjoyed what I played so far. People say it is pretty long for a Pokémon game, we'll see.
4. Monster Hunter Stories 2. Games that come out two weeks after July 1st can still be included in your list so this one qualifies. I'm very excited to see what they do with the series. I haven't played the demo but I don't need to, this is totally an Iva game.
5. Lagrange Point. This season's RPG Club theme is "Fan Translations" so I have to go back to this and beat it for real this time.
So, here we are. Blitz season is best season.
I'm looking forward to reading your write-ups and impressions of the games you choose!
Haven't been keeping up with the blitz since this thread kind of died and it became basically Discord only. But the theme this time might actually get me back into playing the Fantasy Maiden Wars games (Touhou themed Super Robot Wars fangames). I really liked the first one, but never had time to play the others.
Hopefully posting impressions here is still fine and people still follow this thread, since I basically don't use Discord at all.
Hopefully posting impressions here is still fine and people still follow this thread, since I basically don't use Discord at all.
The Blitz spreadsheet is the same as when we started it all. (same link and all). We know the limitations of Discord, so I'm kinda expecting people to post their write-ups here.
The DLC is fucking incredible and you'd be doing yourself a huge disservice by not playing it.
I played FF15 for this blitz and called it done after 80-something hours, finishing the story, the DLCs and doing a bunch of postgame until I got bored.
There are so many things I have to say on the subject of Final Fantasy XV, and on the internet ecosystem in today's video game opinion.
So I start with a premise.
I am a player from almost 30 years.
I have followed the flow of generations over the time, and I have seen how sometimes there have been things that have improved in internet opinion, unfortunately there are also things that have worsened because of the internet "opinion" today.
And among these are the opinions on videogames.
A continuous and endless war on the massacre, with the only purpose of decreting a winner and a loser.
I no longer represent myself in this "distorted system" of competition and war, which has brought only the isolation and the constraint of the purely personal opinion.
(which in an era like this, without any real freedom of expression, only brings disaster, isolation or scandal)
And this is very serious for a medium like that of video games that, if it continues like this, will become just "entertainment of the elite class "and who decrees what is right and what is wrong.
That said, I will now list all the things I liked about Final Fantasy XV:
The cartoon Brotherhood (very nice)
The film Kingsglaive (visually extraordinary)
The game Final Fantasy XV (I like almost everything)
Great villan (Ardyn is to the levels of Kefka as best villan of the saga)
Excellent protagonists (Noctis is the best protagonist of the Final Fantasy series with Cloud) and Ignis, Gladio and Prompto have a beautiful group alchemy, and also a very nice background
Excellent DLC ( especially those of Prompto and Ignis, which for me represent the best DLC that I played in this generation [quality / price ratio])
Excellent and stratospheric OST
Incredible Summon
Magnificent and majestic OpenWorld (at a technical level, the most splendid openworld of this generation [especially thanks to the PC version])
BS dynamic, beautiful, and above all fun (in fact, a game must also be able to entertain)
Beautiful minigames (fishing is exceptional )
and means of transport, such as the Regalia base / the Type D and F, the Royal Yatch, and the Chocobo are very useful and very beautiful to navigate the world of Eos
Excellent animations (the best ever made for an action jrpg)
Great food
Beautiful and original magic sistem
Great particle effects
Beautiful dungeons
Beautiful dynamic weather
Beautiful lighting
and amazing and intriguing Lore
Beautiful story
Stunning and impressive CG
Magnificent ending (one of the best in the series, and the best end for a video game in this generation)
And so, for me, Final Fantasy XV as well as being a GOTY of 2016, is also one of the GOTY of this generation.
And it is also one of the best Final Fantasy ever made.
(and probably also the largest realized, even exceeding the compilation of FFVII)
This is why I'm happy to have played this pearl videogame, which I recommend to all true fans of video games to play absolutely :)
There are so many things I have to say on the subject of Final Fantasy XV, and on the internet ecosystem in today's video game opinion.
So I start with a premise.
I am a player from almost 30 years.
I have followed the flow of generations over the time, and I have seen how sometimes there have been things that have improved in internet opinion, unfortunately there are also things that have worsened because of the internet "opinion" today.
And among these are the opinions on videogames.
A continuous and endless war on the massacre, with the only purpose of decreting a winner and a loser.
I no longer represent myself in this "distorted system" of competition and war, which has brought only the isolation and the constraint of the purely personal opinion.
(which in an era like this, without any real freedom of expression, only brings disaster, isolation or scandal)
And this is very serious for a medium like that of video games that, if it continues like this, will become just "entertainment of the elite class "and who decrees what is right and what is wrong.
That said, I will now list all the things I liked about Final Fantasy XV:
The cartoon Brotherhood (very nice)
The film Kingsglaive (visually extraordinary)
The game Final Fantasy XV (I like almost everything)
Great villan (Ardyn is to the levels of Kefka as best villan of the saga)
Excellent protagonists (Noctis is the best protagonist of the Final Fantasy series with Cloud) and Ignis, Gladio and Prompto have a beautiful group alchemy, and also a very nice background
Excellent DLC ( especially those of Prompto and Ignis, which for me represent the best DLC that I played in this generation [quality / price ratio])
Excellent and stratospheric OST
Incredible Summon
Magnificent and majestic OpenWorld (at a technical level, the most splendid openworld of this generation [especially thanks to the PC version])
BS dynamic, beautiful, and above all fun (in fact, a game must also be able to entertain)
Beautiful minigames (fishing is exceptional )
and means of transport, such as the Regalia base / the Type D and F, the Royal Yatch, and the Chocobo are very useful and very beautiful to navigate the world of Eos
Excellent animations (the best ever made for an action jrpg)
Great food
Beautiful and original magic sistem
Great particle effects
Beautiful dungeons
Beautiful dynamic weather
Beautiful lighting
and amazing and intriguing Lore
Beautiful story
Stunning and impressive CG
Magnificent ending (one of the best in the series, and the best end for a video game in this generation)
And so, for me, Final Fantasy XV as well as being a GOTY of 2016, is also one of the GOTY of this generation.
And it is also one of the best Final Fantasy ever made.
(and probably also the largest realized, even exceeding the compilation of FFVII)
This is why I'm happy to have played this pearl videogame, which I recommend to all true fans of video games to play absolutely :)
Overall it's a great game and it's very fun to play, and it could be one of the best games in the entire series if they had taken care of trimming a bit of the content. It has the annoying things that are everywhere in modern games where almost every little action comes with a pointless animation that you have to suffer through. It gets tiresome after the 10th time and you have to do them thousands of times, so do the math (e.g. getting into/out of the car, camping, hunts/shopping menus, NPC dialogue, etc)
The combat was pretty fun, though it is true 90% of it can be simplified to "hold attack to win and occasionally warp". Luckily, there are a bunch of hunts and optional bosses that actually require you to play around with the other mechanics so you can always go for those if you are bored. On the other hand, I don't know who decided having jump scares in a FF game was a good idea.
Lore and storywise, I think it gets crushed by its ambition. Presenting the story using 4 or 5 different mediums allows SE to provide more detail to everything, but sometimes more is not necessarily better. At several points things get confusing and the same character acts contrary to what was established in other media. I did like the background lore, specially the story of Ardyn.
The DLCs were mostly meh, with Ignis being the only one I found fun to play. Gladiolus was Sekiro but worse, Prompto was a random TPS and Ardyn was OK. It's a shame we didn't get the rest of them.
Finally, on the technical side it's awful. I had a ton of crashes while playing and considering there are instances where you can't save for 1 hour that's no good. Luckily it never crashed on those parts, the most I lost was around 10 minutes of progress but still annoying.
Also, ban fishing minigames on every RPG
The combat was pretty fun, though it is true 90% of it can be simplified to "hold attack to win and occasionally warp". Luckily, there are a bunch of hunts and optional bosses that actually require you to play around with the other mechanics so you can always go for those if you are bored. On the other hand, I don't know who decided having jump scares in a FF game was a good idea.
Lore and storywise, I think it gets crushed by its ambition. Presenting the story using 4 or 5 different mediums allows SE to provide more detail to everything, but sometimes more is not necessarily better. At several points things get confusing and the same character acts contrary to what was established in other media. I did like the background lore, specially the story of Ardyn.
The DLCs were mostly meh, with Ignis being the only one I found fun to play. Gladiolus was Sekiro but worse, Prompto was a random TPS and Ardyn was OK. It's a shame we didn't get the rest of them.
Finally, on the technical side it's awful. I had a ton of crashes while playing and considering there are instances where you can't save for 1 hour that's no good. Luckily it never crashed on those parts, the most I lost was around 10 minutes of progress but still annoying.
Also, ban fishing minigames on every RPG
A man with new ideas is called crazy until his ideas succeed
This Friday I am giving away three RPGs during my retro wheel stream (6:30p est). Shadows of Adam, Blossom Tales, and Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster. All you need to do to win is be a follower of RPGamer, and answer my questions right and first in the chat.
Yes, there is. Same spreadsheet as always.
I must say tho, most of the people who run that community don't post on era anymore.
I must say tho, most of the people who run that community don't post on era anymore.
I'm feeling in a JRPG mood randomly, and I was wondering if anyone had any Xbox suggestions, either One/Series, or BC titles?
I've played all the FF and KH games on there, DQXIS, Dragon's Dogma, and Nier Automata, maybe some others as well that I'm forgetting. In terms of JRPGs, I'm very much a combat>>>>>>story person, so I kinda need a game which allows me to get creative and experiment, and play in my own way, be it with free form class systems, or varying character builds and the like. I don't particularly like it when a game turns round and goes "you're the warrior class, she's the black mage, he's the ranger" etc.
My favourites in the genre are FFX-2, FFTA, Dragon's Dogma, Jade Cocoon 1 and 2, FFXII TZA, DQIX, and various Pokemon and KH games. So basically all games that let me build characters how I wanted to, and which allowed me the freedom to swap things around at a moments notice. I'm currently hoping that FFV Pixel Remaster will get a console release in the future, as that seems right up my alley. I'm also more a fan of battle systems that aren't strictly turn based, and that have an interesting gimmick/mechanic (I didn't mention them as my favourites because I only played an hour or so of them, but Radiant Historia and Valkyrie Profile 2 had unique battle systems which were really engaging to play), which is part of the reason I don't like FFX and the battle parts of Persona 4 and 5.
I've been eyeing Romancing Saga 3 while it's £20 off, but I'm completely unfamiliar with the franchise. I definitely want to try Blue Dragon, but it's been on sale for £3 something a few times earlier this year and I'll wait again to grab that one.
I've played all the FF and KH games on there, DQXIS, Dragon's Dogma, and Nier Automata, maybe some others as well that I'm forgetting. In terms of JRPGs, I'm very much a combat>>>>>>story person, so I kinda need a game which allows me to get creative and experiment, and play in my own way, be it with free form class systems, or varying character builds and the like. I don't particularly like it when a game turns round and goes "you're the warrior class, she's the black mage, he's the ranger" etc.
My favourites in the genre are FFX-2, FFTA, Dragon's Dogma, Jade Cocoon 1 and 2, FFXII TZA, DQIX, and various Pokemon and KH games. So basically all games that let me build characters how I wanted to, and which allowed me the freedom to swap things around at a moments notice. I'm currently hoping that FFV Pixel Remaster will get a console release in the future, as that seems right up my alley. I'm also more a fan of battle systems that aren't strictly turn based, and that have an interesting gimmick/mechanic (I didn't mention them as my favourites because I only played an hour or so of them, but Radiant Historia and Valkyrie Profile 2 had unique battle systems which were really engaging to play), which is part of the reason I don't like FFX and the battle parts of Persona 4 and 5.
I've been eyeing Romancing Saga 3 while it's £20 off, but I'm completely unfamiliar with the franchise. I definitely want to try Blue Dragon, but it's been on sale for £3 something a few times earlier this year and I'll wait again to grab that one.
Blue Dragon's combat is turn based. Another turn based one that I like very much is Valkyria Chronicles 4… it's a weird combination of third person shooting + turn based combat with pretty graphics and a huge cast of characters. Yes, the writing sucks but the combat is incredible. You don't need to play other entries to understand this one, but I'd totally recommend to play the first one too (on steam or somewhere else)
as for something more action oriented, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is on Gamepass atm, there's also NieR Replicant.
as for something more action oriented, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is on Gamepass atm, there's also NieR Replicant.
Blue Dragon falls under the 'it looks charming' thing that DQ falls under for me, so I can look past turn based stuff there lol. I forgot about VC- I've always wanted to give the original a shot, but I think I remember getting put off when the other games ended up being PSP and possibly Japan exclusive.
Does DQB2 feel more like an RPG? I played the trial of the original and I was wishing combat was more of a focus, and not just 'build stuff and talk to NPCs while hitting a single Dracky everry 30 minutes'.
the thing with VC is that both the first and VC4 happen at the same time in the chronology. The others are sequels that recycle maps of VC1 and aren't really that good (according to my friends who played it).
if you're more interested in real time combat maybe you could give Tales of games a try (if you haven't done that already), they say that the combat and the pace of Arise is pretty good. I haven't played Arise or Scarlet Nexus myself because I'm stuck playing Genshin Impact, but my friends have and they say Arise is incredible (and I trust their opinions).
Is Wild Arms 3 worth buying for €25?
EDIT: Oh well, bought it. Couldn't resist. 25 isn't much for something I wanted to try for a while.
EDIT: Oh well, bought it. Couldn't resist. 25 isn't much for something I wanted to try for a while.
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Late response, but yes, yes it is. Wild Arms 3 is charming, fun, has good combat, nice exploration, and a bangin' soundtrack.
I just started playing Skies of Arcadia on a Dreamcast. This is a game that I got pretty far in back when it originally came out, but just sort of fell off early in disc 2 I think. I remember getting frustrated by the battles; there seemed to be too many and the difficulty was tuned too high. My old save is long gone though, so this is a fresh start.
So I've only played about an hour or so, but gosh what a lovely game. Some of the lighting choices are a little odd though, it seems think characters and pieces of the environment alternate between very dark and very brightly lit. I'm playing on real hardware with a CRT television, so it generally looks and runs great. It's pretty funny how because it's a Dreamcast game, you get an early warning there's a random battle coming because you hear the drive accessing the disc, haha. I spent years hoping they would do some kind of rerelease, but gave up and decided to just play it on Dreamcast. I know the Gamecube version had some improvements, but this is the one I'm nostalgic about and I don't own a Gamecube.
So I've only played about an hour or so, but gosh what a lovely game. Some of the lighting choices are a little odd though, it seems think characters and pieces of the environment alternate between very dark and very brightly lit. I'm playing on real hardware with a CRT television, so it generally looks and runs great. It's pretty funny how because it's a Dreamcast game, you get an early warning there's a random battle coming because you hear the drive accessing the disc, haha. I spent years hoping they would do some kind of rerelease, but gave up and decided to just play it on Dreamcast. I know the Gamecube version had some improvements, but this is the one I'm nostalgic about and I don't own a Gamecube.
I remember that sound! I seem to recall Xenogears doing something similar on the PS1. I loved Skies, I hope you manage to make it to the end this time, it's a great game.
Haha, yeah. I haven't played Xenogears on real hardware since the nineties, but I think the game would kind of hang for a moment before the screen shatter animation announcing the battle? Optical drives and random battles aren't really a match made in heaven; it's why those games ended up getting those long battle-start animations to give them a chance to load.
Update: Skies of Arcadia is still great. I'm 20ish hours in now (I know I'm slow). I just got the Delphinus for anyone familiar with the game. This seems to be the point where it starts to open up a bit. One criticism I remember from the first time I played it was that the ship battles go too slowly; you spend too much time watching them sail around. That's alleviated somewhat today since I can scroll twitter on my phone haha.
I think after Skies, my JRPG plan is to tackle Panzer Dragoon Saga followed by Xenosaga Episode 3.
I think after Skies, my JRPG plan is to tackle Panzer Dragoon Saga followed by Xenosaga Episode 3.
Haven't played SoA since release, glad to hear it's holding on well! Guess that the fights will forever be a tad slow but the universe is surely worth it yep!
Solid plan ahead! All three of them are excellent but Panzer Dragon Saga is the real masterpiece in this lot imo. Such an incredible atmosphere through and through!
Solid plan ahead! All three of them are excellent but Panzer Dragon Saga is the real masterpiece in this lot imo. Such an incredible atmosphere through and through!
Tonight at RPGamer's twitch channel, we are starting JRPJuly off with a giveaway stream.
Some gift cards and steam keys will be given out while I am playing a bunch of SNES RPGs.
Stop by, and chat with me, and maybe win some free things!
Some gift cards and steam keys will be given out while I am playing a bunch of SNES RPGs.
Stop by, and chat with me, and maybe win some free things!
Do I need to play/beat Bravely Default and Bravely Second before Bravely Default 2, in terms of spoilers? I was already spoiled on Bravely Defaults big twist years ago.
Not really, but I would play them because they are some of the best jrpgs of last gen.
This is my latest quiz over at Sporcle, enjoy!
www.sporcle.com
Green-Haired RPG Characters
Can you can guess the character name or the game the character is from.
www.sporcle.com
In anticipation of Xenoblade 3, I was considering going back to Xenoblade Definitive Edition, which I never finished (finished the original game, wanted to go through it all again before touching the extra chapter), or something similar.
But I worried about burning out early on the Xeno combat system, as I'm hoping to give Xenoblade 3 my full attention without breaks, as I tend to do with RPGs (just a few weeks ago I finished, for the first time ever, Dragon Quest XI….230 hours to reach the end, no kidding).
So I finally decided on Baten Kaitos, on the Gamecube. As of this posting, I'm about 10 hours in and have remained engaged.
I never showed much interest in the game when it came out, and skipped over the prequel as well. Normally I'd never do that as I was just as JRPG hungry then as I am now, but I believe that the character designs turned me off in addition to the card system.
While I still don't think the designs are very inspired, I do think they fit the world very well. I'm rather fascinated by the aesthetics in general, like a mix of FFX and Chrono Cross. You certainly feel the latter most of all considering the team behind it, and from what I've heard there's a really good twist in the story, which already has me engaged in the implications as well as the simple RPG subversion of (early spoilers):
I'm also pretty fascinated by the combat system, particularly its limitations. The concept is simple, you want to match up the best possible cards to do the big damage, but you can't pass on your turn either without using a card, so you have to basically throw away a card during the turn. And since you can't target the enemy and a party member on the same turn, you also have to decide whether to skip attacking an enemy in favor of healing a party member (since the heals are always "free" in battle, you always want to top them off). But you can also use a support item on an enemy in the hopes that it unlocks an attack card in your deck, so I've had combos where I'm tossing an antidote or something on an enemy just to keep the attack combo going. It's nuts, along with all the weird extra cards you get on the field.
The picture-taking mechanic is also pretty bonkers and surprisingly in-depth for the time. It's the sort of shit Kojima would come up with.
Yeah, I'm digging it. Also playing it with Japanese language as I've often heard the dub is really bad. Does that apply to the prequel too?
But I worried about burning out early on the Xeno combat system, as I'm hoping to give Xenoblade 3 my full attention without breaks, as I tend to do with RPGs (just a few weeks ago I finished, for the first time ever, Dragon Quest XI….230 hours to reach the end, no kidding).
So I finally decided on Baten Kaitos, on the Gamecube. As of this posting, I'm about 10 hours in and have remained engaged.
I never showed much interest in the game when it came out, and skipped over the prequel as well. Normally I'd never do that as I was just as JRPG hungry then as I am now, but I believe that the character designs turned me off in addition to the card system.
While I still don't think the designs are very inspired, I do think they fit the world very well. I'm rather fascinated by the aesthetics in general, like a mix of FFX and Chrono Cross. You certainly feel the latter most of all considering the team behind it, and from what I've heard there's a really good twist in the story, which already has me engaged in the implications as well as the simple RPG subversion of (early spoilers):
the main character NOT having amnesia, but you the player (who is kind of like the protagonist's invisible Navi) do. It's already got me questioning the protagonist's motivations
I'm also pretty fascinated by the combat system, particularly its limitations. The concept is simple, you want to match up the best possible cards to do the big damage, but you can't pass on your turn either without using a card, so you have to basically throw away a card during the turn. And since you can't target the enemy and a party member on the same turn, you also have to decide whether to skip attacking an enemy in favor of healing a party member (since the heals are always "free" in battle, you always want to top them off). But you can also use a support item on an enemy in the hopes that it unlocks an attack card in your deck, so I've had combos where I'm tossing an antidote or something on an enemy just to keep the attack combo going. It's nuts, along with all the weird extra cards you get on the field.
The picture-taking mechanic is also pretty bonkers and surprisingly in-depth for the time. It's the sort of shit Kojima would come up with.
Yeah, I'm digging it. Also playing it with Japanese language as I've often heard the dub is really bad. Does that apply to the prequel too?
^I haven't played it since 2007 but I remember considering Origins' dub waaay above the first game's and one of the better dubs of that era, period
Origins all-around was a step up from BK1, from faster combat to more fleshed out protagonists and a rare prequel story that both justifies its existence for what parts of the original it fleshes out and creates tension bc all 3 player characters are original to that game. You have no idea what happens to them just going off the first game. A hidden gem and one of my faves
Origins all-around was a step up from BK1, from faster combat to more fleshed out protagonists and a rare prequel story that both justifies its existence for what parts of the original it fleshes out and creates tension bc all 3 player characters are original to that game. You have no idea what happens to them just going off the first game. A hidden gem and one of my faves
Scar's Top 10 SNES RPGs
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Finished Skies of Arcadia! It's a lovely game, the real strength are the fun characters and the setting. They really nail the adventure fealing and exploring the world. It was laugh out loud funny when at the end Fina gets a pirate costume, haha. Today that would be some stupid DLC add-on. The battle system is pretty weak though. Some of the long boss fights at the end had me listening to podcasts and scrolling twitter a lot.
I don't think the game needs a sequel or some kind of elaborate remake, but I do wish they'd make it accessible on modern consoles.
I don't think the game needs a sequel or some kind of elaborate remake, but I do wish they'd make it accessible on modern consoles.