RPG Community |OT| Take the Epoch to a New Era

[Deleted member 419]

Hi all. After a bit of discussion and tinkering, I think we're ready to roll out the Era RPG Club!

The goal of this RPG book club is to select an RPG every month that we can play through together. Ideally, this will give a lot of us an opportunity to play important/classic games that we never got a chance to go through. Additionally, this will be a great opportunity for people to broaden their RPG horizons and delve into stuff that they might not have tried otherwise :)

This will basically be the process for the RPG Club:

1. Every month, we'll have an informal discussion about what the criteria will be for nominating games for that month. For example, our first category will be "console RPGs that released in 1990-1992." This conversation will happen in here, but also largely in the RPG ERA discord, which I recommend you join if you haven't already!

2. Once we have the broader category, people are then free to nominate games and give a little write-up/explanation for why they chose that game (doesn't have to be an essay of course, just a few thoughts). Nominations should be posted in this thread.

3. As people post nominations, we all just discuss the options and ultimately decide on a game to play for the month.

4. Once we've decided on a game, we'll make a dedicated thread for it that anyone can post in, and it'll basically be a glorified LTTP/OT thread. It'll be a separate thread from this one, but will link back to this thread and also explain what the RPG Club is.

5. After all that, anyone who wants to join us playing through the RPG for the month can do so! A month will be the base time frame, but we can keep it flexible and shorten/expand it depending on how long the game is supposed to be.

So with all that being said, the first category will be:

Console RPGs released in 1990-1992

If you have any game in mind that fits this category and you'd like to nominate for the RPG Club to play through, post it here and give it a quick write-up explaining why.

There'll probably be some hiccups since this is the first time we're doing this, but for now let's get started and see if we can get the ball rolling :)

 

[Sinatar]

Console RPGs released in 1990-1992

If you have any game in mind that fits this category and you'd like to nominate for the RPG Club to play through, post it here and give it a quick write-up explaining why.

There'll probably be some hiccups since this is the first time we're doing this, but for now let's get started and see if we can get the ball rolling :)

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A game that can appeal to both the console JRPG fans and old school CRPG fans. A first person dungeon crawler with JRPG aesthetic and mechanics. Pretty cool game.

And yes it has an automap.

 

[MoonFrog]

Hmmm...

Putting some of the more obvious ones out there (not as nominations, just for thought):

DQIV-1990 (accessible)
DQV-1992 (accessible)

FFIII-1990 (accessible?)
FFIV-1992 (accessible)

MTII-1990
SMT-1992 (accessible? iOS situation is up in the air)

PSIII-1990 (accessible)

Currently working on two of those myself.

What are some of the less obvious ones?

 

[Box of Kittens]

The Ice Cave never gave me too much trouble for some reason. I think I just get consistently lucky with it for some reason.

I've never gotten Warmech either though...I've always wanted to fight him :(

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I'm pretty sure I've encountered Warmech on a majority of my playthroughs. Luck of the draw.

 

[Seda]

I'm totally up for a monthly RPG club, but that time period is a blind spot for me so I'll abstain from nominations.

 

[Arulan]

Lagrange Point

I've been looking over the RPGs I've played that are within the given restrictions for my nomination, but a lot of those are fairly common picks. I decided instead to choose something I haven't played, but that I myself am interested in. I hope you agree.

It's the 22nd century, and mankind has successfully colonized outer space. These three structures built at the Lagrange points between the Earth and the sun - Land-1, Land-2, and a satellite base - fall under mysterious attack by a mutant menace. Earth has sent two teams to investigate, but they have not returned. As a young soldier named Jin (with a last name of your choosing), you are a member of a third mission to explore the crumbling remnants of survivors, assemble a crew to help you, and dispose of the corporate faction that has attempted to take over the colonies for their own gains.

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The above plot-summary and other resources were taken from Hardcore Gaming 101.

It was only released on the Famicom, but luckily there is a translation patch.

For a Famicom title, it's visually quite impressive. It's also worth pointing out that it's the only game that uses Konami's Virtual ROM Controller 7 FM sound hardware. The results are very good.

The inspiration from Phantasy Star seems fairly direct. The combat system seems fairly typical for its time. You have four party members, of which there are several, that can use Attack, Special, Item, and Escape commands, while facing off against up to six enemies.

There is also a weapon system, involving several types of weapons and damage classes. But perhaps most interesting is a fusion system similar to Megami Tensei's demon fusions.

 

[Knurek]

Console RPGs released in 1990-1992

If you have any game in mind that fits this category and you'd like to nominate for the RPG Club to play through, post it here and give it a quick write-up explaining why.

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How about Just Breed?

Of on NES (well, Famicom)'s swan songs, nice Kohei Tanaka score, gameplay seemed decent from what I tried - Shining Forcesque.
Has an English patch. Will not probably show up on other people's radar, since it seems to be pretty much forgotten.
Aeana might pitch in how it's regarded in Japan.

 

[MoonFrog]

Ah FE1 and 2 also fit the 1990-1992 pattern for reference. Never thought about the NES ones as 3 and 5 are next on my personal radar.

And glad to see that people whose ken is wider have some games to suggest :). I only can think of obvious ones :).

 

[Deleted member 419]

Knurek I'm waffling between a short list of 3 possible nominations and Just Breed is one of them! So it's definitely on at least one other person's radar :)

Keep the nominations coming all, some great options mentioned already. I'd already have a hard time deciding between them at this point.

I'll add my own nomination once I decide which one to go for. Or I might end up just cosigning on one of the ones already mentioned.

MoonFrog this list on Wikipedia has a decent amount of RPGs released in the time frame (it's not exhaustive, though, and it also includes PC RPGs). Yea there's definitely a lot of stuff I've never heard of to be honest. But there are also some good options that straddle the line between "well-known classic" and "very few people have actually played this."

 

[MoonFrog]

A question about Just Breed, though: is the title intended as a suggestion to fornicate or is it about a just loose familial grouping of some organism?

 

[Deleted member 419]

A question about Just Breed, though: is the title intended as a suggestion to fornicate or is it about a just loose familial grouping of some organism?

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That's why we have to play it, to find out! :p

 

[ara]

The former immediately came to my mind when I saw that artwork and I burst out laughing.

Looking forward to playing Just Breed on the first RPG Club :^)

 

[Deleted member 6137]

My vote goes to Realms of Arkania.

 

[Sinatar]

My vote goes to Realms of Arkania.

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Never had a console release.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

Never had a console release.

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Ah, console games. Nvm, then. :)

 

[Deleted member 419]

Labadal We limited the first category to console to make it a more manageable set of games. Don't worry the classic PC RPGs will get a time to shine :)

For instance, Sinatar I think was just playing Pool of Radiance, that'd be a great one for people to go through together.

 

[zanderace64]

How about Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom. Released in Japan in 1990 and the West in 1991.

Admittedly I haven't played it, but it's been on my list of RPGs to play for a long time. Although maybe Phantasy Star II is the better choice if it counts (released in Japan 1989, but in the West 1990)?

 

[JustSomeone]

Pool of radiance was released on NES on april 1992,so I would like to nominate that.
Unlike 99% of console RPGS from 1990-1992, it is actually possible to get a legit copy of it.

 

[Rufus]

And there's the usual crop of complaints about the combat being bad, but I've seen this for every PB game going back to Gothic 1... and I just don't agree. You can't mash, and timing your hits gives you a major advantage. I really like that about it.

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Sadly, in Risen 2 it was just straight up bad. The wildlife in particular was hell to fight. They patched in a dodge roll and added/fixed blocking against animals months after release, though I'm not sure consoles ever got that patch. If you ever plan on playing it, stick to guns early on. Long term, they're very boring to play with, but early on, they will save you a lot of frustration. (Though if you just want to get things over with, as I eventually did...)

 

[Aeana]

1990-1992 is one of the richest periods in console gaming history. There are so many great games here, we'll definitely have to circle back many times. I mean, this is the era that has (just sticking to stuff that has English translations available) DQ3, DQ4, DQ5, Madara, Ultima 4 console ports, Crystalis, SaGa 2 / Final Fantasy Legend 2, Megami Tensei 2 (one of the best games ever made!), Shin Megami Tensei, FF3, FF4, FF5, Fire Emblem 1 and 2, Radia Senki, Lagrange Point as mentioned above, Metal Max, Warsong, Shining in the Darkness, Silva Saga, Cosmic Fantasy 2, Ys 3 SNES version, Romancing SaGa, Soul Blazer, Legend of Heroes 1 console port, Glory of Heracles 3 (I want to nominate this so badly), ... just off the top of my head. I'm sure there's plenty I'm missing.

I can't breathe

 

[Ascheroth]

Btw, if you're playing Berseria on PC, there's a CheatEngine-Table that can increase your run speed.
That was like the only thing that annoyed me about the game, so I'm glad that can be taken care of.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

Spellforce II: Shadow Wars is completed and shall never be spoken of again. Took me 35 hours to beat.

 

[Pellaidh]

Console RPGs released in 1990-1992

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I guess Star Control 2 wouldn't count for this right? It was originally released in 1992 (on DOS), but only got a console port in 1994 (3DO). Because it feels pretty much like an ideal pick for this sort of thing. Old, kind of obscure, with some pretty decent historical significance, and with unique gameplay that you don't really see these days. It even has two sequels in development right now (one with the official license and one by the original creators). On top of that, it also has a completely free remake based on the source code of the 1994 version which makes it actually pretty playable even today while still feeling like you're playing an old game (unlike some modern JRPG remakes).

I do look forward to seeing what games people would nominate for this period though, since it's a pretty big blind spot for me. I haven't even heard about most of the things people posted (excluding famous franchises like FF, DQ, Romancing Saga, Langrisser and the like).

 

[MoonFrog]

This is the time period of my birth. Idk it is interesting (to me :P) looking at which games are a little older and which a little younger than I am.

For example, DQV would be the first mainline DQ released after my birth and DQIV is older than I am. And the same for all the other 1992 games with 1990 predecessors.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

It's kinda crazy to realize that Final Fantasy 3, 4 and 5 all came out within 3 years

 

[Deleted member 419]

Later today I'll post my own club nomination and also collect the noms we've had so far into a summary post. It's already a great set of games...I'd be cool with playing any one of them to be honest. But we'll have to choose!

Pellaidh Star Control 2 definitely is a great game that more people should play, I think accessibility would be an issue with it though. IIRC there's a fan "remake" for it on PC, but emulating the console version would be a bit tricky. I've never actually tried 3DO emulation.

It's kinda crazy to realize that Final Fantasy 3, 4 and 5 all came out within 3 years

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7, 8, and 9 were pretty close together too, in addition to all of Squaresoft's other PS1-era output. It's almost unimaginable nowadays.

 

[4Tran]

Pellaidh Star Control 2 definitely is a great game that more people should play, I think accessibility would be an issue with it though. IIRC there's a fan "remake" for it on PC, but emulating the console version would be a bit tricky. I've never actually tried 3DO emulation.

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On the contrary, Star Control 2 is one of the most accessible games in the world right now because you can (legally) download the Ur-Quan Masters version for free, and it's even playable on Windows, OSX, and Linux! In comparison, finding out about obscure Japanese RPGs is pretty cool, but you're not going to be able to track down a legal copy of those without jumping through a ton of hoops.

Actually, availability might be a good requirement for the RPG Club. There would be no way for me to join in with a ton of these games because there'd be no way to find them.

 

[Deleted member 419]

On the contrary, Star Control 2 is one of the most accessible games in the world right now because you can (legally) download the Ur-Quan Masters version for free, and it's even playable on Windows, OSX, and Linux!

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Oh this was what I was talking about, I didn't know it was a full legal version of the game though, I thought it was a patch you had to apply to the original game files.

The criteria for accessibility at the moment is pretty much: is it at least playable on a mainstream emulator, and is it either in English or does it have a widely available fan translation.

GOG is very good for a lot of older PC RPGs, but older JRPGs will require emulation. There's not really any way to get around that. I'm personally flexible on emulation when there really isn't any way to purchase or even play the game in your own language officially, but each person can decide for themselves what their stance on these issues are before deciding to play the game.

 

[Boddy]

While playing Tales of Berseria I noticed that the boss is 12-14 levels higher than my party members and I'm playing on the second highest difficult setting in the game (it's not even available from the start, you have to unlock it).
I knew I was unleveled, but I had no idea that it was this bad. I didn't have that much trouble, even when fighting the quite challenging optinal hunts.
Since said boss takes forever to die, I guess it's time for me to start grinding.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

I have to say I really like the "Book Club" idea, curious how it'll go. Discord stresses me out too much (I have this weird quirk where I always feel like I "miss out" on stuff when I can't easily read it) but hopefully I have the time to post a bit here even if I don't manage to finish a game within a month it'll be interesting to see.
I don't think I know a single game nominated so far which is neat cause it leads to new discoveries.

 

[Deleted member 419]

I have to say I really like the "Book Club" idea, curious how it'll go. Discord stresses me out too much (I have this weird quirk where I always feel like I "miss out" on stuff when I can't easily read it) but hopefully I have the time to post a bit here even if I don't manage to finish a game within a month it'll be interesting to see.
I don't think I know a single game nominated so far which is neat cause it leads to new discoveries.

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I like Discord but yea most chat-based places like that are too fast for my taste as well. I prefer the more subdued pace of an old-fashioned forum. We are a dying breed lol

Many of us, if not most, have pretty significant time constraints so I think the realistic goal will be to play the game and hopefully give it enough of a college try to get a feel for how the game works and what it does well. Personally, if I manage to beat the game outright, I'll consider that a nice bonus.

 

[MoonFrog]

Okay I said I was done with Xenoblade comments, but I just updated my GotY ballot (which I discovered is a mess but--oh well, I like all of the games on it :P), so reposting those thoughts here (largely a rehash and somewhat edited):

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - The strongest point of the game is, in my opinion, its world. It gives us a fantasy reimagining of outer space, that also serves as a reimagining of the sky as the ocean. You have living megafauna orbiting a central tree as planets do the sun in a "cloud sea." Humans live on these creatures as they fly upon the surface or dive deep. You have flying sea ships propelled by and, at times, in conflict with, flying whales and turtles and dragons. You have undersea salvaging in the sky. In all of this you have an established world order that the game exploits well with its episodic structure and which the entire cast is at some point in some way involved. The high point of this all is the middle section of the game. I particularly liked the Nopon, Mor Ardain, and Tantal content, with respect to the side cast.

The main story has its awkward strains and weak moments, but it rises above them to tell a focused narrative, and, generally speaking, is more than its shonen tropes rather than just being an expression of them, even if at times I was shaking my head, in that it tends to use them towards narrative purposes greater than them. There is thematic convergence centering on the central romance. Pyra herself (ignoring her ridiculous design) is a fairly inoffensive awkward and sweet girl with deep (and grim) determination and melancholy. She enjoys Rex's boisterous nature and simple, naive, positive world outlook. Yes the game paints her as motherly to Rex and it presents an awkward age gap where Rex looks like he's a kid and people treat him as such, whereas Pyra looks like an older teenager and is an immortal, but I don't think the love story is that bad (well, the Mythra wrinkle is also a really weird point) and ties into the overarching themes of the game, with all of the antagonists (and the architect) being in a similar way to Pyra and reacting differently. It is a game about the various ways people react to hating part (or all) of themselves and the world and Rex saves Pyra from this and his world from this.

I do wish that all of the antagonists had been handled somewhat differently, but there are enough points of interest and nuance in their portrayal to leave me, in the end, content. And yes, the theme is melodramatic and self-indulgent but also extremely relevant, in my opinion. Humans have a penchant for melodrama and self-involvement and beyond this there are plenty of reasons both to hate ourselves and the world. And there are plenty of bad ways to react to this, which, well I think we are very much experiencing these days.

The story does, also, have a tendency to get in the way of the game in cutscenes. By this I mean there is a tendency to retcon boss battles and replace them with cinematics after you have finished the boss. I think, as the game goes on, they tend to flow more freely from the combat experience but at times, especially early on, it feels like the game is telling you that the way you experienced the fight wasn't good enough and that you need some prolonged cinematic fight scene to replace it. It is kind of awful when the scene doesn't match your experience at all, especially when there are moments that are supposed to be highly emotional in the cutscene. I'm thinking of end of chapter 3, which was, for me, the low point of the game. The whole thing just felt like farce and it is a scene that games have been able to fit in better for decades now.

The combat gameplay is strong and a clear improvement on its predecessors in terms of party play. The auto-canceling system keeps you invested in the moment to moment usage of your arts. I do wish, however, there was more identity and difference to the roles.

I think many of the other game systems suffer from being too convoluted, the case in point being the quests, which tend towards having too many sub-objectives that require far-flung things and different skills from what you had going into them. Also notable in this regard is the frequency with which you unlock an area using field skills only to find another lock that requires you to reconfigure your party wholly or slightly just a bit further in. Or the ridiculous number of ingredients required to cook. Etc. The game requires a lot of going in and out of menus and sorting through huge companion and item catalogues to explore fully and it can be rather awkward.

...

Sorry :P

 

[Deleted member 6137]

A PS1 game I never heard about got a translation:
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/3393/

 

[MoonFrog]

What kind of game is it? Looks like you are given route choices and then have turn-based battles? Is the point to choose the best route through a gauntlet of enemies?

 

[Deleted member 6137]

What kind of game is it? Looks like you are given route choices and then have turn-based battles? Is the point to choose the best route through a gauntlet of enemies?

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"About the game: An odd sort of RPG, with a simple storyline. Its strategic elements involve fighting your way through a series of randomly generated maps. You earn a score by protecting towns, defeating dungeons, defeating monsters in specific combinations and such.

By playing through the Story Mode, you unlock characters and levels for the quick battle mode."

I literally know nothing about it other than that.

 

[Sinatar]

It's kinda crazy to realize that Final Fantasy 3, 4 and 5 all came out within 3 years

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That's nothing, SSI released THIRTEEN Gold Box RPG's over the span of 4 years (1988 - 1992).

 

[Fou-Lu]

I am going to nominate Glory of Heracles III for the RPG Club! It has a fan translation, so don't let the Japanese box art scare you. I haven't played it myself, but I have heard it is one of the best for the SNES (multiple times from Aeana). It's a game based on greek mythology that plays like many of the classic RPGs the SNES had to offer. Apparently it has a lot of twists and turns to its story.

 

[Aeana]

Glory of Heracles 3 is one of my favorite RPGs on SNES for sure, but I should probably chime in to keep expectations in check: in terms of gameplay, it's fairly traditional. The stuff it does that's unique and interesting deals with having immortal party members. The story was written by Kazushige Nojima, and it's probably the game that got him hired at Square before he wrote FF7.

 

[MoonFrog]

Glory of Heracles 3 is one of my favorite RPGs on SNES for sure, but I should probably chime in to keep expectations in check: in terms of gameplay, it's fairly traditional. The stuff it does that's unique and interesting deals with having immortal party members. The story was written by Kazushige Nojima, and it's probably the game that got him hired at Square before he wrote FF7.

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Hmmm do you have an example you like?

I like the Greeks, personally. Quite a bit.

 

[Sinople]

Tengai Makyo II isn't translated yet, is it? That would have been such a great choice.
Otherwise, I, too, would like to suggest Glory of Herakles III. Gameplay is nothing special but it's one of, if not the best story written by Nojima. I was planning to replay it this year, so that would be a good opportunity if it's chosen.

A PS1 game I never heard about got a translation:
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/3393/

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A XING game? Ugh, doesn't sound good but let's have a look... Yep, it's a kusoge.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

I've been playing a bit more Dragon's Dogma and I still don't know how I feel about it.
I think I have passed through some sort of threshold because now I'm just cutting through enemies like butter again. That Griffin? No problem? That LionSnakegoat? Please, in my sleep.
But now I'm just running through the most empty and boring world ever, trashing enemies without even really knowing what I'm doing since my Assassin has a move where she basically warps from enemy to enemy and as long as I hit somebody it doesn't cost any stamina. So I'm just mashing the attack button and hit a random direction and in the end everybody falls apart. What a weird game.

 

[Sinatar]

I've been playing a bit more Dragon's Dogma and I still don't know how I feel about it.
I think I have passed through some sort of threshold because now I'm just cutting through enemies like butter again. That Griffin? No problem? That LionSnakegoat? Please, in my sleep.
But now I'm just running through the most empty and boring world ever, trashing enemies without even really knowing what I'm doing since my Assassin has a move where she basically warps from enemy to enemy and as long as I hit somebody it doesn't cost any stamina. So I'm just mashing the attack button and hit a random direction and in the end everybody falls apart. What a weird game.

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The best part of Dragon's Dogma is the Bitter Black Isle expansion pack stuff, that's where the game really comes into it's own. If only the whole game was structured like that.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

The best part of Dragon's Dogma is the Bitter Black Isle expansion pack stuff, that's where the game really comes into it's own. If only the whole game was structured like that.

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I didn't get to that yet since somebody told me that's post game content.
Another weird thing is that the game told me "Oh, here are some warp stones, watch out though they are one-use only.......also here is a warp stone with infinite uses"
I either got extremely lucky getting that thing as a drop or they patched it in later but it was weird to discover it anyway. Also I don't understand why sprinting uses stamina. It makes running through the world even more tedious. Weird, weird game.

 

[Opa-Pa]

I didn't get to that yet since somebody told me that's post game content.
Another weird thing is that the game told me "Oh, here are some warp stones, watch out though they are one-use only.......also here is a warp stone with infinite uses"
I either got extremely lucky getting that thing as a drop or they patched it in later but it was weird to discover it anyway. Also I don't understand why sprinting uses stamina. It makes running through the world even more tedious. Weird, weird game.

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It's really stupid because that's stuff you got for free (along with other things in your storage) back in the original game once you bought the Dark Arisen expansion, but they never added in game text about it, so the PC version and the current gen remasters that come with the DA content by default come with expansion gifts too with no explanation yet again and it often clashes with what the game tells you.

 

[Deleted member 419]

I nominate Soul Blazer for the current RPG Club pick. It's the first of the loose action-RPG trilogy by Quintet (the later two being Illusion of Time/Gaia and Terranigma), and is definitely the least played of the three. But it has a long-standing reputation as a genre classic, and has a few neat mechanics like persistent town-building (somewhat similar conceptually to ActRaiser, which was also developed by Quintet).

It was originally released for the SFC/SNES in 1992.

 

[Deleted member 419]

Also, at the moment we have 7 nominations:

Arcana
Glory of Heracles III
Just Breed
Lagrange Point
Phantasy Star III
Pool of Radiance
Soul Blazer

I'll make a more detailed summary post later quoting to the posts where each of these were nominated. This is already a great set of games if you ask me, I would be happy playing any one of them.

We'll keep nominations open a bit longer, then we'll lock it down, discuss our options and put it to a vote (I'll probably just make a strawpoll). If you have any other game you want to nominate, please do so!

Hopefully we'll have a final game by this weekend or Monday! Looking forward to seeing what we play through.

 

[Aeana]

I'm paralyzed by choice on nominations, but considering that my mentioning of Radia Senki is one of the reasons why this whole thing got moving, I'll go ahead and nominate it. We really need to circle back to this category because there are just so, so, so, so many great games.


Radia Wars Chronicle (Radia Senki) for NES/Famicom, developed by Tecmo. It's a delightfully refreshing game where battles play out on the field (there are no separate battle screens), and progress in a way that some might liken to FF12. You control to hero and set tactics for the rest of your characters. Combat for your hero is a bit like an action RPG where you sword slash in real time. It's got a great soundtrack, and Ninja Gaiden-style cutscenes. It has a competent fan translation, so nothing to worry about there.



I really like this game a lot, and I think it's a pretty important game in console RPG history.

 

[MoonFrog]

Took me a bit to figure out to only heal the boss on the mountain. First I stopped attacking with Cecil, thinking that was what he was countering. I was still Fira'ing though although I'd adjusted Tellah to Cura from Fire and Porom was already Cura'ing. Then I tried not Fira'ing either when he was still countering me into status effect oblivion and things worked out.

The beginning of this game is quite nice but I've pretty much gone through the moments in the game that really stuck with me already (possibly because I've played the intro multiple times). Hopefully I stay engaged enough to see the entire thing through this time.

Tbh, the visuals disturb me a bit; I wish they'd at least kept the portraits for the menu. FFIV music is so good though and I had forgotten how much I enjoy FF sound-effects, like the coin noise when you buy something.

...

Also ran around Ginza B2 (? I think the save station is on B1) a bit. Forgot I hadn't mapped that level yet as I had found the way to Shinagawa and just gone there. Died to a Lamia while auto-battling (charm) :P and decided to make Cecil a Paladin. I've managed to (or for some reason it has) cancel auto battle once before but I didn't know how I did it when I did so tbh.

Xenoblade knocked me off the horse but I will regain momentum. Might just skip the basement and go straight to Ikebukuro tbh.

That said, I've been curious for a while if intelligence ups MP. I've never seen it do it as I just got the heroine with higher MP (and intelligence) and when she had a suspicious bump in MP it did come after I used an intelligence incense on her (but also after she'd recently gone up a level so I was confused if she'd gotten it then or with the added intelligence). I didn't really invest in it on the law guy because Magic and other stats had better bonuses when I checked them on level up so I just dumped them there.

I'm wondering if it is like stamina where there are a bunch of points in between HP growths...Still she has like 250 some MP right now however she got to it but her magic power also seems really strong.

I've also been prioritizing speed on everyone. It buffs defense and accuracy and evasion. I've been assuming that more accuracy helps with all the multi-hit stuff going on. Not sure if it is the speed or the luck (from luck incense) that allows me to get the drop on the enemy so often. (I thought it was luck in Nocturne?)

Guns seem really powerful though, not depending on strength and ignoring rakukajas and tetrakarns. Still a bit disappointed in the grasscutter but it is my aoe attack on the hero as I've got him with a single target gun atm. Point is, I'm wondering how much dumping so much into his strength means anything :P.

 

[Ascheroth]

Welp, my last Spellforce save is from 2013 and apparently I was actually fairly close to the end (of Order of Dawn at least).
Really don't want to restart after ~40 hours so I guess I'll suck it up and just continue, maybe look for a quick refresher. After Berseria though.

Anyway, looking at my library of unplayed or unfinished RPGs I could probably get by without buying a single game this entire year.
Alas, there are Falcom games coming to PC, so there's at least 3 I'll get day 1 on principle:

Zwei Eins: coming... next week?
Cold Steel 2: February or March probably
Ys: Memories of Celceta: coming sometime this year.

List of games I should consider playing before buying other shiny new games:

Dungeon Siege: own all three of them. Played DS1 as a kid and loved it, but have never finished it. Never played DS2, finished DS3 with one character at least.
Gothic: own all of them. Started 1 sometime last year, played 2 as a kid but never properly finished it, never played 3 and 4.
Risen: I have 1 and 3, lol. Once again, started 1 once but never completed it.
Divinity: Original Sin 1: started it last year, in the first town.
Pillars of Eternity: started it last year as well, in the first town.
Spellforce: own 1 Platinum and 2 Gold. Haven't played 2 yet.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

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