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RPG Community |OT| Take the Epoch to a New Era
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So once I wrap up my first play through of Three Houses (Yeah I'm old and slow) I want to play a Super Famicom rpg that was only released in Japan and has a fan translation. Does anybody have recommendations? I was thinking Mystik Ark or Treasures of Rudras, but I'm up for more obscure titles too.
OP
OP
Definitely Live-A-Live if you haven't played that already, it's one of the most unique JRPGs from the 16-bit era, and one of Squaresoft's most experimental in general. Multiple protagonists from different walks of life/cultures and in different chronological eras, and each of their campaigns has a wildly different tone and atmosphere.
Over the last year or so it's sometimes been viewed as a spiritual ancestor to Octopath, but other than the multiple protagonist conceit, similarities are slim.
You could give Thracia 776 a try, though from the sounds of it, it's pretty brutal.
Completed Mother 3! What a touching, yet ambiguous ending. I liked Itoi's exploration of several themes, including but not limited to: grief, loss, growth, nostalgia, capitalism and how it can effect communities, happiness, neglect, sustainability, purpose in life, and family love and relations.
The action command/timed hits system might be the most difficult out of any game I've seen. Like, I know that putting an enemy to sleep lets you hear the exact rhythm you need to match, but it's still very finicky.
Also the Bathroom Dungeon near the end is comedy gold.
Also the Barrier Trio can go to hell. I had to exploit the Ai by debuffing their defense so it would buff itself instead of nuking my party, but eventually that stopped working.
The action command/timed hits system might be the most difficult out of any game I've seen. Like, I know that putting an enemy to sleep lets you hear the exact rhythm you need to match, but it's still very finicky.
Also the Bathroom Dungeon near the end is comedy gold.
A frog! Four people rushing in from behind you to grab empty stalls! All of the Ghosts from the castle! A giant toilet for giant people! THE ULTIMATE CHIMERA!!!
Also the Barrier Trio can go to hell. I had to exploit the Ai by debuffing their defense so it would buff itself instead of nuking my party, but eventually that stopped working.
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Grats! We have a few people who just finished it today as well or close to finishing it in the discord. I expect a couple write-ups to pop up here in the next few days.
This morning I wrapped up my fourth and final game for this blitz, Mother 3. I'm here to share my thoughts.
First off, a little background on my experience with the Mother series. As a teenager I was really into RPGs on the SNES. I don't recall how I heard about Earthbound, although it most likely would have been in the pages of EGM or Gamepro, as I didn't have a Nintendo Power subscription any longer by 1995. Regardless, I heard about it, and was very excited about this quirky looking RPG. Almost 25 years later, I remember enjoying it, but I don't remember much of the specifics. You used a baseball bat, it had wavy backgrounds, and there was an alien. That's the sum total of my recollection of Earthbound. I think it came and went without much fanfare at the time, and I probably wouldn't have given it much more thought had it not been for the Internet.
When Earthbound Beginnings came out on the Wii U, I had to grab it, mostly out of curiosity with Nintendo deciding to finally bring it out in the US. As far as I know, no one was really asking for it. Was it an elaborate troll on the part of the company, or a silent endorsement of the work already done on Mother 3? Either way, the game sat installed on my Wii U, untouched, from the moment it came out. Finally, during the last blitz I decided I would play it, as I knew people would be playing Mother 3 and I wanted to play along with them, and it was important to me that I be current on the series before diving into the third installment.
I came into this playthrough essentially blind. I had no idea what to expect, outside of the characteristic quirkiness that defines the series. I knew the game was well regarded, and I knew the translation was as well, but I didn't know anything about the content of the game, the structure it would take, or really even too much about the length.
I started playing in early August, and by the end of the first chapter, I had to set the game down. Without getting into specifics, there are events that happen in chapter one of Mother 3 that somewhat paralleled things that had happened in my own life, and also that really tapped into some of my biggest fears as a father and a husband. I didn't know these things were coming, and was completely unprepared when they happened, and it made progressing in the game very difficult for me for a little while. I was expecting whimsy and a fantastical adventure! I definitely did not get those things, at least in the beginning of the game.
Having finished, I'm very glad that I went back and stuck it out however, because there is actually a delightful game in between the sadness, and the game really is bookended with sadness. I was yelling at my 3DS during the end scene of the game because I was so upset.
I haven't played a game in a very long time, possibly ever, that I've really had such an emotional connection to, at least that I can remember. I think one of the things that made the game speak to me more powerfully than most games is the fact that it's set in a world somewhat analogous to our own. That's not to say there isn't a fantastical bent to the game, just less so than your standard sword and board/high fantasy setting.
If you're a fan of either of the first two games in the Mother series and somehow haven't played Mother 3, you really owe it to yourself to play it, as I think it's the best game of the trilogy by far. I did have some issues with the rhythm combat, and the game doesn't seem to mind draining you of your precious resources and then throwing a boss battle at you. PP (the game's version of magic power) is extremely important to the combat, and moreso for me as I just wasn't very good at getting long combos. I watched YouTube videos, and even found heartbeat tracks for most if not all of the battle themes, but some of the changes those songs do stopped me from ever really getting good at that portion of the game. The game is a bit stingy with PP recovery items as well. Two of the party members really carried the bulk of the combat duties for me, and I've heard other people echo those sentiments as well.
Music across the Mother games is excellent, and I don't think this game is any different. There are some really great and memorable tracks in the game, and because the music is so tightly coupled to the combat system, I found myself really listening to a lot of those songs.
It hasn't even been twelve hours now since I finished Mother 3, and I already miss playing it. At the same time, I'm not sure when I'll be able to play it again. It's just a game that runs you through the ringer emotionally. Maybe in the future, I'll be more prepared to deal with it, but it's going to sit with me for some time.
First off, a little background on my experience with the Mother series. As a teenager I was really into RPGs on the SNES. I don't recall how I heard about Earthbound, although it most likely would have been in the pages of EGM or Gamepro, as I didn't have a Nintendo Power subscription any longer by 1995. Regardless, I heard about it, and was very excited about this quirky looking RPG. Almost 25 years later, I remember enjoying it, but I don't remember much of the specifics. You used a baseball bat, it had wavy backgrounds, and there was an alien. That's the sum total of my recollection of Earthbound. I think it came and went without much fanfare at the time, and I probably wouldn't have given it much more thought had it not been for the Internet.
When Earthbound Beginnings came out on the Wii U, I had to grab it, mostly out of curiosity with Nintendo deciding to finally bring it out in the US. As far as I know, no one was really asking for it. Was it an elaborate troll on the part of the company, or a silent endorsement of the work already done on Mother 3? Either way, the game sat installed on my Wii U, untouched, from the moment it came out. Finally, during the last blitz I decided I would play it, as I knew people would be playing Mother 3 and I wanted to play along with them, and it was important to me that I be current on the series before diving into the third installment.
I came into this playthrough essentially blind. I had no idea what to expect, outside of the characteristic quirkiness that defines the series. I knew the game was well regarded, and I knew the translation was as well, but I didn't know anything about the content of the game, the structure it would take, or really even too much about the length.
I started playing in early August, and by the end of the first chapter, I had to set the game down. Without getting into specifics, there are events that happen in chapter one of Mother 3 that somewhat paralleled things that had happened in my own life, and also that really tapped into some of my biggest fears as a father and a husband. I didn't know these things were coming, and was completely unprepared when they happened, and it made progressing in the game very difficult for me for a little while. I was expecting whimsy and a fantastical adventure! I definitely did not get those things, at least in the beginning of the game.
Having finished, I'm very glad that I went back and stuck it out however, because there is actually a delightful game in between the sadness, and the game really is bookended with sadness. I was yelling at my 3DS during the end scene of the game because I was so upset.
I haven't played a game in a very long time, possibly ever, that I've really had such an emotional connection to, at least that I can remember. I think one of the things that made the game speak to me more powerfully than most games is the fact that it's set in a world somewhat analogous to our own. That's not to say there isn't a fantastical bent to the game, just less so than your standard sword and board/high fantasy setting.
If you're a fan of either of the first two games in the Mother series and somehow haven't played Mother 3, you really owe it to yourself to play it, as I think it's the best game of the trilogy by far. I did have some issues with the rhythm combat, and the game doesn't seem to mind draining you of your precious resources and then throwing a boss battle at you. PP (the game's version of magic power) is extremely important to the combat, and moreso for me as I just wasn't very good at getting long combos. I watched YouTube videos, and even found heartbeat tracks for most if not all of the battle themes, but some of the changes those songs do stopped me from ever really getting good at that portion of the game. The game is a bit stingy with PP recovery items as well. Two of the party members really carried the bulk of the combat duties for me, and I've heard other people echo those sentiments as well.
Music across the Mother games is excellent, and I don't think this game is any different. There are some really great and memorable tracks in the game, and because the music is so tightly coupled to the combat system, I found myself really listening to a lot of those songs.
It hasn't even been twelve hours now since I finished Mother 3, and I already miss playing it. At the same time, I'm not sure when I'll be able to play it again. It's just a game that runs you through the ringer emotionally. Maybe in the future, I'll be more prepared to deal with it, but it's going to sit with me for some time.
Just finished Dragon Quest 3 for the current Backlog Blitz. Sort of last minute that I didn't think I could make it in time. Here are some quick thoughts on the game.
Played the SFC version with a fan translation. The fan translation was alright. Lacked some of the charme of the official ones for the other games I have played so far but it was playable. One bug where the game would crash if you would talk to one specific npc though. Graphically the game looked gorgeous. The sprites were pretty detailed. What I was most in awe with were the animations. Looked pretty fluid and sometimes it felt like a 3d model doing an animation. Music was also good though the emulation on the SNES Mini was spotty in that regard.
Storywise I don't really know what to say. From what I have seen of NES games it is well above other games on the platform. Though maybe not because of the main story with the premise of a big bad threatening the world while an even bigger looms in the back. Though the little stories in some of the townns/castle were pretty neat. I don't really want to comment on how it was written because I can't say for sure how much is the fan translation. People doing these often have their own ideas in either taking liberties or doing it word for word.
Eitherway, with how this games connects to the first two games I can see it being mindblowing back then. Still good today. Though over the years I stumbled upon the big twist. At the time I thought "That sounds cool" and if I wouldn't have read it it would have probably hit me harder but spoilers don't worry me much. It was however nice seeing Alefgard again. Though in a version that is the DQ1 version and not the world from DQ2. Though there is probably a reason why it is this way and I either missed or forgot what was said in the credits of DQ1 other than "went on founding kingdoms."
While I usually don't have a problem with silent protagonists because usually protagonist talk a lot of useless stuff anyway here was an instance (spoiler for near the end: when Ortega dies in the fight against the King Hydra right in front of the eyes of his child. Should be a big moment for your protagonist seeing your father is still alive but then dies 2 seconds later. Not that your character needs a text box though my problems come with the limitations of sprites because in a a 3D model you could've probably conveyed something with mimic and gestures. The moment however was pretty great with the building up to it with your father being thought dead in the upper world and then coming to Alefgard and learning he is still alive and still trying to stop evil only to fail near the end. Maybe they should have given you another piece of equipment to carry on his spirit or something for your hero.
Gameplaywise it's Dragon Quest. The series is pretty consistent with its mechanics so if you know a later or earlier entry you can apply your knowledge. Some people might call it basic because other games build on it but I like it. Give me my Kabuffs, my Oomphs and and my Insulatles and I am happy. And other than two bosses where I was missing an ability because I was underleveled I always felt it was a good level of challenge and the spikes weren't as big.
The class system is also solid though I might prefer it from other entries with unlocking classes by mastering others beforehand. Went with a basic party of Hero, Warrior, Cleric and a Mage with the Cleric becoming a Sage. With the other options in the beginning I can see taking different approaches which leads to replayability.
What I disliked were the invisible stuff on the floor. Most of the time it is stuff like the mini medals which are whatever. But there were also a few instances where story stuff is hidden there. In the mobile remakes of 1 and 2 at least there was a shiny effect to show where stuff is. Here though there are often vague hints to where stuff is hidden and you have to search an area that is not big but big enough to be a bit of a hassle.
The other part that I didn't like was around thehalfway point when you get the boat. This is always my least favorite part in JRPGs. While it can be said it opens up, you can explore the world and whatnot for me these parts are always too slow and kill the pacing. Give me the speedy flying apparatus at this point and I will happily explore everything.
Overall I really liked DQ3. And with looking at the series I can see later entries building on it, In my current going through my series I would rank it as my fourth favorite so far behind XI, VI and V.
Now for the next blitz I will go for DQIV and will play the beloved DS version.
Played the SFC version with a fan translation. The fan translation was alright. Lacked some of the charme of the official ones for the other games I have played so far but it was playable. One bug where the game would crash if you would talk to one specific npc though. Graphically the game looked gorgeous. The sprites were pretty detailed. What I was most in awe with were the animations. Looked pretty fluid and sometimes it felt like a 3d model doing an animation. Music was also good though the emulation on the SNES Mini was spotty in that regard.
Storywise I don't really know what to say. From what I have seen of NES games it is well above other games on the platform. Though maybe not because of the main story with the premise of a big bad threatening the world while an even bigger looms in the back. Though the little stories in some of the townns/castle were pretty neat. I don't really want to comment on how it was written because I can't say for sure how much is the fan translation. People doing these often have their own ideas in either taking liberties or doing it word for word.
Eitherway, with how this games connects to the first two games I can see it being mindblowing back then. Still good today. Though over the years I stumbled upon the big twist. At the time I thought "That sounds cool" and if I wouldn't have read it it would have probably hit me harder but spoilers don't worry me much. It was however nice seeing Alefgard again. Though in a version that is the DQ1 version and not the world from DQ2. Though there is probably a reason why it is this way and I either missed or forgot what was said in the credits of DQ1 other than "went on founding kingdoms."
While I usually don't have a problem with silent protagonists because usually protagonist talk a lot of useless stuff anyway here was an instance (spoiler for near the end: when Ortega dies in the fight against the King Hydra right in front of the eyes of his child. Should be a big moment for your protagonist seeing your father is still alive but then dies 2 seconds later. Not that your character needs a text box though my problems come with the limitations of sprites because in a a 3D model you could've probably conveyed something with mimic and gestures. The moment however was pretty great with the building up to it with your father being thought dead in the upper world and then coming to Alefgard and learning he is still alive and still trying to stop evil only to fail near the end. Maybe they should have given you another piece of equipment to carry on his spirit or something for your hero.
Gameplaywise it's Dragon Quest. The series is pretty consistent with its mechanics so if you know a later or earlier entry you can apply your knowledge. Some people might call it basic because other games build on it but I like it. Give me my Kabuffs, my Oomphs and and my Insulatles and I am happy. And other than two bosses where I was missing an ability because I was underleveled I always felt it was a good level of challenge and the spikes weren't as big.
The class system is also solid though I might prefer it from other entries with unlocking classes by mastering others beforehand. Went with a basic party of Hero, Warrior, Cleric and a Mage with the Cleric becoming a Sage. With the other options in the beginning I can see taking different approaches which leads to replayability.
What I disliked were the invisible stuff on the floor. Most of the time it is stuff like the mini medals which are whatever. But there were also a few instances where story stuff is hidden there. In the mobile remakes of 1 and 2 at least there was a shiny effect to show where stuff is. Here though there are often vague hints to where stuff is hidden and you have to search an area that is not big but big enough to be a bit of a hassle.
The other part that I didn't like was around thehalfway point when you get the boat. This is always my least favorite part in JRPGs. While it can be said it opens up, you can explore the world and whatnot for me these parts are always too slow and kill the pacing. Give me the speedy flying apparatus at this point and I will happily explore everything.
Overall I really liked DQ3. And with looking at the series I can see later entries building on it, In my current going through my series I would rank it as my fourth favorite so far behind XI, VI and V.
Now for the next blitz I will go for DQIV and will play the beloved DS version.
I beat Dragon Quest VII yesterday and that was an interesting ride. This was the game in the series I was most curious about for many reasons: people call it "the most DQ game in the DQ series", it's infamously huge and long and it has a robust class system.
When I finally got to play it it became clear pretty fast how different it is from the rest (though extremely familiar all the same). The game's structure embraces one of the series biggest strenghts: the vignette approach to storytelling. Most of your time with DQ7 is spent visiting new towns, learning what's bothering or tormenting the locals and finding a solution for it, then you see the fruits of your labor and later move on to the next town, repeat. It may sound kinda dull, but it works, the smaller stories are particularly strong here even for the series' standards, so as long as you can appreciate this style of writing there've very little padding or any sort of "filler", it goes right to the point /all the time/.
Now, it does have its weaknesses. DQ7 has a limited amount of assets, just like the games that came before it. This means that you'll be seeing the same limited amount of NPC models, town graphics and music for hours and hours in repeated, short cycles. At one point this started bothering me a lot to the point I had to take breaks and play it for shorter sessions; it frustrated me because I did love the game despite it. I think it's very charming, the class system is fun to experimenth with and the game has one of my favorite casts in the series (everyone is great, but Maribel and Mervyn are excellent).
Ironically, though, right after I started getting tired of the formula, the game started going for even bolder stories that featured very distinct settings and characters, so the frustration was short-lived. Starting from there the game was an extremely engaging ride and I couldn't put it down until I saw the credits roll.
Without spoiling anything, there's a very good reason you're introduced to so many different locales and characters, it all has a great payoff, and there's a shift in the narrative near the end that I didn't expect at all and resonated with me nicely (not plot twists or anything, just unexpected focus on things I thought would remain low-key), so in the end this turned out to be one of my new favorites, up there with III, IV and V, which I didn't expect at all because after the slight disappointment that was VI for me I started believing maybe DQ just wouldn't be the same after V.
And speaking of that, I'm very excited for VIII, but I think I'll take a break from the series. This blitz season I went a bit overboard and played Builders, VI, Builders 2, Monsters 1 and then this in very quick succession... But then again I did buy DQ11 S and DQ1 Switch.... Hmm.
Personally while the game is kind of relentless in the tragedy department, I still see it as wholesome and positive. It's kind of the opposite of Undertale where it's generally cute and funny, but reminds you at times that "the world out there" isn't quite as friendly and kind; Mother 3 shows you the bad and tragic instead, but also reminds you that life is worth living and that you can (and sometimes have to) overcome whatever it's thrown at you in order to keep on growing up. It's kind of a raw and cruel, but well-meaning and encouraging realism.
When I finally got to play it it became clear pretty fast how different it is from the rest (though extremely familiar all the same). The game's structure embraces one of the series biggest strenghts: the vignette approach to storytelling. Most of your time with DQ7 is spent visiting new towns, learning what's bothering or tormenting the locals and finding a solution for it, then you see the fruits of your labor and later move on to the next town, repeat. It may sound kinda dull, but it works, the smaller stories are particularly strong here even for the series' standards, so as long as you can appreciate this style of writing there've very little padding or any sort of "filler", it goes right to the point /all the time/.
Now, it does have its weaknesses. DQ7 has a limited amount of assets, just like the games that came before it. This means that you'll be seeing the same limited amount of NPC models, town graphics and music for hours and hours in repeated, short cycles. At one point this started bothering me a lot to the point I had to take breaks and play it for shorter sessions; it frustrated me because I did love the game despite it. I think it's very charming, the class system is fun to experimenth with and the game has one of my favorite casts in the series (everyone is great, but Maribel and Mervyn are excellent).
Ironically, though, right after I started getting tired of the formula, the game started going for even bolder stories that featured very distinct settings and characters, so the frustration was short-lived. Starting from there the game was an extremely engaging ride and I couldn't put it down until I saw the credits roll.
Without spoiling anything, there's a very good reason you're introduced to so many different locales and characters, it all has a great payoff, and there's a shift in the narrative near the end that I didn't expect at all and resonated with me nicely (not plot twists or anything, just unexpected focus on things I thought would remain low-key), so in the end this turned out to be one of my new favorites, up there with III, IV and V, which I didn't expect at all because after the slight disappointment that was VI for me I started believing maybe DQ just wouldn't be the same after V.
And speaking of that, I'm very excited for VIII, but I think I'll take a break from the series. This blitz season I went a bit overboard and played Builders, VI, Builders 2, Monsters 1 and then this in very quick succession... But then again I did buy DQ11 S and DQ1 Switch.... Hmm.
I remember reading you say that it was a difficult game to go through but I didn't know what you meant, makes sense. I'm really sorry that you experienced such a shock playing it, man; it IS quite the heavy game and perhaps we could have offered some content warnings, but I'm very glad that you enjoyed it in the end.
Personally while the game is kind of relentless in the tragedy department, I still see it as wholesome and positive. It's kind of the opposite of Undertale where it's generally cute and funny, but reminds you at times that "the world out there" isn't quite as friendly and kind; Mother 3 shows you the bad and tragic instead, but also reminds you that life is worth living and that you can (and sometimes have to) overcome whatever it's thrown at you in order to keep on growing up. It's kind of a raw and cruel, but well-meaning and encouraging realism.
Sceptile I saw that you finished Mother 3 for the Blitz. On the Discord I offered a few related prizes for people that finished the game so I wanted to extend that offer to you as well if you're interested.
First place is the Mother 3 Handbook from Fan Gamer and second place is a Lucas Amiibo. If you want to be part of the raffle just let me know and we can include you. Luminaire is conducting the raffle later on in the week.
Just a couple of caveats. If you win the handbook and prefer the PDF version I can do that. If you live outside of the US and shipping ends up being prohibitively expensive I'd do the PDF as well.
If you don't want to be part of the raffle you can let us know, or just don't say anything and I'll take it that way as well. Good luck!
First place is the Mother 3 Handbook from Fan Gamer and second place is a Lucas Amiibo. If you want to be part of the raffle just let me know and we can include you. Luminaire is conducting the raffle later on in the week.
Just a couple of caveats. If you win the handbook and prefer the PDF version I can do that. If you live outside of the US and shipping ends up being prohibitively expensive I'd do the PDF as well.
If you don't want to be part of the raffle you can let us know, or just don't say anything and I'll take it that way as well. Good luck!
OP
OP
I also finished up Mother 3 the other day for my third Blitz game. This now makes all 3 Mother games that I've played for the past 3 Backlog Blitzes, and it's been a hell of an experience.
Mother 3 pulls absolutely no punches with it emotional moments. I don''t think they hit me quite as hard as some of the other members here who played it, but they still had an impact. I knew very little of the game going in except for references I've seen from Smash Bros, so I had no idea it was that kind of game (and I'm glad this was the case).
But it's clear this was a magnum opus for Itoi and a labor of love. The music, the sound effects, and the sprites are all superb and extremely detailed. Especially the music, there's just so much of it and it's all excellent. Frankly I'm surprised they could get it all onto a GBA cart, even if it is MIDIs.
The Mother train has been a hell of a journey and I'm a little sad that it's ending. But I'll keep it going in an unofficial capacity next Blitz with Undertale (and probably Deltarune after that).
Oh and speaking of Smash Bros, it's fun to go back and look at how much detail was included there too. The designers there clearly had a love and respect for Mother as well.
And in closing,
Mother 3 pulls absolutely no punches with it emotional moments. I don''t think they hit me quite as hard as some of the other members here who played it, but they still had an impact. I knew very little of the game going in except for references I've seen from Smash Bros, so I had no idea it was that kind of game (and I'm glad this was the case).
But it's clear this was a magnum opus for Itoi and a labor of love. The music, the sound effects, and the sprites are all superb and extremely detailed. Especially the music, there's just so much of it and it's all excellent. Frankly I'm surprised they could get it all onto a GBA cart, even if it is MIDIs.
The Mother train has been a hell of a journey and I'm a little sad that it's ending. But I'll keep it going in an unofficial capacity next Blitz with Undertale (and probably Deltarune after that).
Oh and speaking of Smash Bros, it's fun to go back and look at how much detail was included there too. The designers there clearly had a love and respect for Mother as well.
And in closing,
I already played Undertale for the previous blitz, but I'll definitely jump in the Deltarune train when we get there.
Opa-Pa I honestly am glad I didn't get any warnings about the content of Mother 3. I liked having the undiluted experience. I do think ultimately the message of the game was one of hope, and there were some genuinely humorous parts to the game throughout as well. I wish more games had that kind of impact.
Opa-Pa I honestly am glad I didn't get any warnings about the content of Mother 3. I liked having the undiluted experience. I do think ultimately the message of the game was one of hope, and there were some genuinely humorous parts to the game throughout as well. I wish more games had that kind of impact.
Got through the normal ending of Tokyo Xanadu eX+ a few days ago after about 60 hours, so I'll consider it completed for this blitz. Wanted to share some thoughts on it while I still have the chance. I'll cover the true ending stuff in a later post as I'm still making my way through that.
I had plenty of fun with it, even if the game doesn't become much more than decent. Part of that is the quality of the gameplay, which isn't that striking at all coming from most Falcom games. It has its Zwei DNA with the graded dungeons the main character having a gear like weapon infused with elements of Cold Steel. The Xanadu name has no bearing on the game, I like to think they just named it Xanadu because of the labyrinths. The thing is all these series are probably worth more your time to explore separately (especially Xanadu Next). Coming at it from a different angle though, new players get a fusion of the Falcom cocktail with a stand alone story and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Let's start by saying that the localization is definitely not as good as I wanted (thanks Aksys), but after so many chortles you kinda lose count after a while and it blends in. Just like my favorite anime. Speaking of, every chapter in Tokyo Xanadu starts with blasting the animated opening again. Luckily you can skip it, but I only noticed that 2/3 of my way through the game... Not that it's a bad opening, but the vocals kinda drown out in the song and seeing it over and over again can get annoying a bit. Really not sure why they thought this was a good idea.
I can definitely see why it sold particularly well in Japan, given its roots in the media it uses as it themes. The earthquake and tsunami of 2011 probably left a big impression if they used that a circumstance that surrounds the game. Tokyo Xanadu doesn't try to do anything new, but I did get a cohesive whole story crafted with some meticulous repetition and well executed timing. Although if you ask me I would have wanted something a bit more higher paced (Ys).
I feel the true heart of the game lies in the minute to minute daily lives of all the NPC's that you encounter throughout the game, which is why it's a shame you can't fill out all the entries in a single playthrough. This is where I mostly spent my time in the game. As more and more locations become available, sometimes just the talking took me one playsession haha.
Liked most of the characters. Like yeah you can guess which character will have which trope attached to them just by looking at them, but that's not a bad thing. Each character has a role to play and they do that role very well and they're also not confined to just that role. Every character has some kind of relation with the maincharacter yeah, yet they don't need the main character to maintain relations between other characters. The sidechapters provide a good look into this and give a good excuse to be forced to use certain characters in combat. Definitely had some faves in combat, Sora just hits hard and her mobility is just great. Shio is way too slow, but god he hits hard. Goro is really good as well with his range options. While more limited, Mitsuki was also pretty fun to use with her barrier. Both Kou and Asuka were pretty solid allrounders. Yuuki's ranged attack just wasn't what I wanted out of him, but I do like his close combat. Rion just sucks lol. White Shroud on the other hand had anime on their side, whew.
Wasn't a big fan of the orbment system and unlocking stuff with materials. Game also had so many dungeons to go through and while they where quite short, it never was quite what I wanted out of it. Got through dungeons just fine most of the time, only to be slaughtered by bosses. That kinda soured me on the gameplay part. Later on in the game it felt a bit better. The final boss was, while being a hard hitter, not more difficult than the midgame boss for example. Was a sucker for having to use everyone for that fight as well as branched paths in dungeons taking in teams though.
I did leave pretty satisfied after finishing the main story, mainly because Kou stuggled finding a place to fill in his empty heart and never understanding why he felt that way and I didn't expect the game to answer that in full when I started. Parts of the puzzle definitely fell in place there. With that in mind everyone was kinda speaking about Kou without him really having any word in, so when he was like cut the crap and was able to move past that was a very powerful moment. Of course it kinda sucks he doesn't fully realize the outcome and Shiori has to die (again) for that to stick. Becomes depressed again, but a lot more hopeful with everyone reaching out for him. The acceptance of loss starts at the end of the game when he can accept Asuka's invitation for coffee (oh they fuckin') with a little push from Shiori. It's pretty good and kinda ballsy to end it on a subdued note (kinda like CS2) here and I'll probably hate the true ending for trying to make up to it. I had no problem with it in DQ4, because that felt like the right thing to do, but here it kinda makes it seem the choice is invalid.
I can definitely see why it sold particularly well in Japan, given its roots in the media it uses as it themes. The earthquake and tsunami of 2011 probably left a big impression if they used that a circumstance that surrounds the game. Tokyo Xanadu doesn't try to do anything new, but I did get a cohesive whole story crafted with some meticulous repetition and well executed timing. Although if you ask me I would have wanted something a bit more higher paced (Ys).
I feel the true heart of the game lies in the minute to minute daily lives of all the NPC's that you encounter throughout the game, which is why it's a shame you can't fill out all the entries in a single playthrough. This is where I mostly spent my time in the game. As more and more locations become available, sometimes just the talking took me one playsession haha.
Liked most of the characters. Like yeah you can guess which character will have which trope attached to them just by looking at them, but that's not a bad thing. Each character has a role to play and they do that role very well and they're also not confined to just that role. Every character has some kind of relation with the maincharacter yeah, yet they don't need the main character to maintain relations between other characters. The sidechapters provide a good look into this and give a good excuse to be forced to use certain characters in combat. Definitely had some faves in combat, Sora just hits hard and her mobility is just great. Shio is way too slow, but god he hits hard. Goro is really good as well with his range options. While more limited, Mitsuki was also pretty fun to use with her barrier. Both Kou and Asuka were pretty solid allrounders. Yuuki's ranged attack just wasn't what I wanted out of him, but I do like his close combat. Rion just sucks lol. White Shroud on the other hand had anime on their side, whew.
Wasn't a big fan of the orbment system and unlocking stuff with materials. Game also had so many dungeons to go through and while they where quite short, it never was quite what I wanted out of it. Got through dungeons just fine most of the time, only to be slaughtered by bosses. That kinda soured me on the gameplay part. Later on in the game it felt a bit better. The final boss was, while being a hard hitter, not more difficult than the midgame boss for example. Was a sucker for having to use everyone for that fight as well as branched paths in dungeons taking in teams though.
I did leave pretty satisfied after finishing the main story, mainly because Kou stuggled finding a place to fill in his empty heart and never understanding why he felt that way and I didn't expect the game to answer that in full when I started. Parts of the puzzle definitely fell in place there. With that in mind everyone was kinda speaking about Kou without him really having any word in, so when he was like cut the crap and was able to move past that was a very powerful moment. Of course it kinda sucks he doesn't fully realize the outcome and Shiori has to die (again) for that to stick. Becomes depressed again, but a lot more hopeful with everyone reaching out for him. The acceptance of loss starts at the end of the game when he can accept Asuka's invitation for coffee (oh they fuckin') with a little push from Shiori. It's pretty good and kinda ballsy to end it on a subdued note (kinda like CS2) here and I'll probably hate the true ending for trying to make up to it. I had no problem with it in DQ4, because that felt like the right thing to do, but here it kinda makes it seem the choice is invalid.
I had plenty of fun with it, even if the game doesn't become much more than decent. Part of that is the quality of the gameplay, which isn't that striking at all coming from most Falcom games. It has its Zwei DNA with the graded dungeons the main character having a gear like weapon infused with elements of Cold Steel. The Xanadu name has no bearing on the game, I like to think they just named it Xanadu because of the labyrinths. The thing is all these series are probably worth more your time to explore separately (especially Xanadu Next). Coming at it from a different angle though, new players get a fusion of the Falcom cocktail with a stand alone story and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
I didn't finish any of my blitz games either. I did finish Ni no Kuni 2 though. I feel weird about it.
I think it had a gorgeous art style, and the towns were very beautiful, especially Goldpaw and Hydropolis. I also enjoyed the kingdom building. Everything else about the game was forgettable, though.
I thought the music was just okay, nothing memorable. I am torn on the Goldpaw theme because parts of it sound good but other parts of it are grating.
The combat is fine if you want to just hit stuff. I played on normal. Some enemies are hard to read (the slimes in particular) and dodging/guarding didn't help me against some attacks which was annoying. This wasn't really the case with story fights, more with the tainted monsters. I like the higgledies and I like the loot drops but there wasn't much monster variety, one of the things I treasure most in JRPGs. Don't get me started on skirmishes. I'm interested in going for the game's platinum, but the fact that I have to do all those skirmishes... God please no. I haven't done the 10th dreamers door but I think they're fun in concept. I was always anxious about my danger level going up, even after I had all the research buffs that slowed that meter's gain.
Early on I enjoyed learning about the NPCs but by the time I finished the game and finished getting all 100 citizens, I skipped through all the dialogue in the quests. I appreciate how well designed the NPCs were, though. Especially since once they move to your town you don't even get to see their full 3D model. So it's interesting how much effort was put into them. Most JRPGs I've played don't give such high quality visuals to what are essentially quest givers. There are like 98 of them, that's not even counting the ones who don't move to your town.
The party members don't have much characterization outside of the arcs in which you acquire them, which sucks. They don't even interact with each other a lot outside of key story moments. I don't mind that too much, only because the party members aren't actually all that interesting to begin with. I can't say I would have liked to see the dynamic between say Leander and Bracken, because I don't have much of an interest in them to begin with. I did like Roland though. Especially once we got to see that other side of him.
So the story. The story is uhh, something! Let me just talk about the things that bewildered me. Firstly, I don't think the Hydropolis "plot twist" made much sense, and its implications are never shown. For that matter, I don't understand how Leander gets engaged and then immediately decides to go off with our little merry group. He has a hot fiance now. Usually I like time loop type stuff but this didn't seem well thought out to me, and if I'm not mistaken it's really never addressed again. Does Hydropolis ever get destroyed? I don't know!
Oh God. Can I talk about the Ding Dong Dell thing. Evan's dad's ghost comes back from the dead to tell Mausinger that he forgives him. If I'm being real, this was probably the best character interaction in the game. I remember earlier in the game the boy in Evan's dreams told Evan that he thinks Mausinger did what he did because he was afraid of being cast aside by the king. The boy specifically says, "What could be more frightening than being discarded by someone you love?" And here we have the king's ghost from the great beyond, telling Mausinger all this crap about how he knows he'll be a good king of the nation he stole from him, that he forgives Mausinger for KILLING HIM and trying to kill his CHILD, and that they'll definitely meet again in the great beyond. How did the game sell me on their homoerotic yearning better than Leander and the queen? Lol we will never know! More importantly though, what causes me to lose my shit about this scene is that, EVAN IS RIGHT THERE AND HIS FATHER NEVER SAYS A WORD TO HIM! He just looks at him. No "son I'm proud of you" no "I know you will build a kingdom that will unite all of our realm" type shit, wow. I couldn't believe my eyes. Damn, dads really do be like that.
Lastly, I thought the ending was strange. Admittedly the whole time I never realized Doloran was an anagram of Roland, probably because I didn't care enough about him. Oh god can we talk about how he fell in love with his kingmaker, essentially a dragon? This whole game was horny for anthropomorphic animals. That's what I really came out of this story with. So many "hot" catpeople, dogpeople, mousepeople, merpeople, now the main villain just wanted to get it on with his hot dragon. The thing about the boy in his dreams being his son, and the library lady being a seer, those were weird last minute revelations. Maybe when I play the original it will shed some light on this? I have a feeling it won't. I wish we could have seen adult Evan instead of his son that I don't even care about. I also think it would have been nice to have Doloran as a party member, or at least as an alt Roland costume.
In order to cope, I am choosing to ignore how confused I am about Roland's entire storyline.
I thought the music was just okay, nothing memorable. I am torn on the Goldpaw theme because parts of it sound good but other parts of it are grating.
The combat is fine if you want to just hit stuff. I played on normal. Some enemies are hard to read (the slimes in particular) and dodging/guarding didn't help me against some attacks which was annoying. This wasn't really the case with story fights, more with the tainted monsters. I like the higgledies and I like the loot drops but there wasn't much monster variety, one of the things I treasure most in JRPGs. Don't get me started on skirmishes. I'm interested in going for the game's platinum, but the fact that I have to do all those skirmishes... God please no. I haven't done the 10th dreamers door but I think they're fun in concept. I was always anxious about my danger level going up, even after I had all the research buffs that slowed that meter's gain.
Early on I enjoyed learning about the NPCs but by the time I finished the game and finished getting all 100 citizens, I skipped through all the dialogue in the quests. I appreciate how well designed the NPCs were, though. Especially since once they move to your town you don't even get to see their full 3D model. So it's interesting how much effort was put into them. Most JRPGs I've played don't give such high quality visuals to what are essentially quest givers. There are like 98 of them, that's not even counting the ones who don't move to your town.
The party members don't have much characterization outside of the arcs in which you acquire them, which sucks. They don't even interact with each other a lot outside of key story moments. I don't mind that too much, only because the party members aren't actually all that interesting to begin with. I can't say I would have liked to see the dynamic between say Leander and Bracken, because I don't have much of an interest in them to begin with. I did like Roland though. Especially once we got to see that other side of him.
So the story. The story is uhh, something! Let me just talk about the things that bewildered me. Firstly, I don't think the Hydropolis "plot twist" made much sense, and its implications are never shown. For that matter, I don't understand how Leander gets engaged and then immediately decides to go off with our little merry group. He has a hot fiance now. Usually I like time loop type stuff but this didn't seem well thought out to me, and if I'm not mistaken it's really never addressed again. Does Hydropolis ever get destroyed? I don't know!
Oh God. Can I talk about the Ding Dong Dell thing. Evan's dad's ghost comes back from the dead to tell Mausinger that he forgives him. If I'm being real, this was probably the best character interaction in the game. I remember earlier in the game the boy in Evan's dreams told Evan that he thinks Mausinger did what he did because he was afraid of being cast aside by the king. The boy specifically says, "What could be more frightening than being discarded by someone you love?" And here we have the king's ghost from the great beyond, telling Mausinger all this crap about how he knows he'll be a good king of the nation he stole from him, that he forgives Mausinger for KILLING HIM and trying to kill his CHILD, and that they'll definitely meet again in the great beyond. How did the game sell me on their homoerotic yearning better than Leander and the queen? Lol we will never know! More importantly though, what causes me to lose my shit about this scene is that, EVAN IS RIGHT THERE AND HIS FATHER NEVER SAYS A WORD TO HIM! He just looks at him. No "son I'm proud of you" no "I know you will build a kingdom that will unite all of our realm" type shit, wow. I couldn't believe my eyes. Damn, dads really do be like that.
Lastly, I thought the ending was strange. Admittedly the whole time I never realized Doloran was an anagram of Roland, probably because I didn't care enough about him. Oh god can we talk about how he fell in love with his kingmaker, essentially a dragon? This whole game was horny for anthropomorphic animals. That's what I really came out of this story with. So many "hot" catpeople, dogpeople, mousepeople, merpeople, now the main villain just wanted to get it on with his hot dragon. The thing about the boy in his dreams being his son, and the library lady being a seer, those were weird last minute revelations. Maybe when I play the original it will shed some light on this? I have a feeling it won't. I wish we could have seen adult Evan instead of his son that I don't even care about. I also think it would have been nice to have Doloran as a party member, or at least as an alt Roland costume.
In order to cope, I am choosing to ignore how confused I am about Roland's entire storyline.
We have similar feelings though mine were more negative. You brought up some stuff I didn't even THINK about and now I'm wondering how much just passed over me due to how poorly it was handled.
Nothing left me in awe the way Evan's dad did. So many decisions about this game's plot are bizarre. Yet also very cliche and predictable. It's a feat.
I was focusing on the weird plot details and I forgot to mention how disappointed I was that most dungeon designs were just the same crystal cave. :(
Ok now that I'm home I can provide more thoughts.
I...don't remember anything about this. All I recall about Hydropolis was the giant eye and not being allowed to go placed. Was it even a time loop? I have no idea, they explain/present it so poorly that I cannot recall anything of interest. I didn't even remember who Leander *was* until I googled him. He was such a useless nothing character who had so little to do with the actual story. I used him maybe twice in combat? I have no idea if Hydropolis had anything of note happen to it. I completely forgot about it until you brought it up, ahaha.
THIS. WAS. SO. INFURIATING. He never once even ACKNOWLEDGED his son. I don't know what the hell they were thinking. This entire time they make you go through all this shit and talk about how great a king he was but there's so much that says otherwise. He was a lazy and seemingly abusive ruler, especially if he riled up the rodent people so much to the point that they rebelled. It was baffling. Were they trying to say that the father was blinded by his trust in Mausinger? So much to the point that he didn't even consider his own son? It's really unclear what they were trying to get across with that scene. There are twenty different ways to interpret it and none of them are satisfactory
I didn't even realize the Roland / Doloran (Rolando?) thing. I also thought Doloran was a pretty stupid villain. Barely any of his actions had any meaning or sense to them. He just seemed like a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain. That said, I am quite fond of games were the villain isn't just killed. They're defeated and either let you carry on and give you their blessing or admit defeat even if they won't admit they're wrong.
For the ending I don't even know where to start. Doing everything in the fantasy world somehow stopped the missiles from nuking the city? But the city being nuked it was put Roland in the fantasy world in the first place? I don't even know. I loved the intro but as I went on with the game it just...smacked me on the head more and more and more.
The final boss was a frustrating mess that took me like 30 minutes to defeat. Who thought it was a good idea to make a SINGLE WEAPON out of your three, out of your THREE characters, only be able to damage the boss in a notable amount? ADDITIONALLY - the deus ex machina and macguffin (super ancient secret powerful evil smashing sword hidden awaysssssss) were irritating. It really felt like the game fell apart after the halfway point, but you could see it starting to become undone as it approached that.
I liked building my kingdom. I hated their fake timer system. I loved building an army. I hated fighting with that army. I loved crafting new weapons and gear. I hated having to swap through.
It was a frustrating mixture that I think I grow more irritated about as I recall it. Otherwise its a largely forgettable but very pretty game. I wish it were more ambitious than it ended up being.
I really try not to be so negative on games because I believe in finding the good where possible, but it's just so difficult with Ni no Kuni 2. Everything I like is harshly countered with something I don't like. In the end I just felt empty and on autopilot. I don't hate it, I've played worse games. I've also played way better games that have more lows than NNK2 but way, way higher highs to make up for it.
I don't actually think so! I meant to liken it to a time loop, particularly when it came to the queen and Leander. She says to him--after she'd been treating him like a miserable dog? I blocked that out--She says, "I had to have one last day by your side. Again. And again..." That made me think of time loop tropes! Like you said, it was so poorly presented that there's no real way to tell what the hell it was. It was more like putting the city in stasis, I believe. I think her magic was keeping the city in a state where as long as nothing within it changed, it wouldn't be destroyed. I don't even remember what was gonna destroy it. A volcano? ?? Something to that effect that we never hear of again after she stops protecting the city.
And yeah lol Leander didn't do much of anything. He did put together the scheme with Roland to have Roland infiltrate Ding Dong Dell.
Oh God thanks for reminding me of something I'd wanted to bring up. This game talks a lot about the mouse people versus the cat people and i remember there was a quote that implied the king was so progressive because he made Mausinger his trusted advisor. I laughed, thinking about what kind of tokenism that could imply in the real world. Not to mention doing the bare minimum for mousekind, if everyone's gripes about the king were to be believed. The game was incredibly naive, and I usually like living in la la land when it comes to my fiction, but I couldn't suspend disbelief for them. For Roland to have come from the "real world" and a terrorism attack sending him to theirs, he was naive as hell most times.
I also think this game should have had at least one of the party members be fully non-human. Of the five kingdoms we get to sign the treaty: Evermore, Hydropolis, Goldpaw, Broadleaf, Ding Dong Dell--Broadleaf is the one with mostly humans (and even then, there are some other races hanging about). So why the heck weren't any of the party members non-human. I understand why they didn't make Evan a full cat (their furry game agenda would have been exposed /s) but replace one of the boring forgettable party members with someone who's gonna shake the table a little. Lofty was the most opinionated of the bunch and he wasn't even controllable!
Doloran was a waste, yeah. Then we find out his kingmaker girlfriend isn't gone because he tried to marry her, she's gone because apparently a kingmaker's whole existence comes about from sealing away a great evil like she did with "The Horned One." Something like that... In a way, I think the game left us with more interesting (albeit nonsensical and out of thin air) plot developments than it actually had. I'd love to find out why Evan's son could travel through time in dreams, why the main villain was just alternate universe Roland and if that meant anything for President Roland, and mysteries about the true nature of a kingmaker.
The final boss was such a slog. And yeah the macguffin. Go to the library once, find the girl already in your kingdom, of course she can read this ancient text! It just felt a little trivial.
I loved building the kingdom but I agree, about 12 hours of my playtime were spent leaving the game idle so I could get KG, materials, and finish research!
Also finished Suikoden for the blitz in roughly 18 hours. I believe it was Bloodarmz's favorite (on the list).
It was nice having something short to play along on my vita. Halfway through the castle in gregminister I even had to charge it because it just dropped dead into battle lol.
Liked most of what the game has to offer, although sometimes I became a bit lost on where to go and what to do. Definitely didn't like siege or field battles. Having ninjas helped getting rid of some of the randomness, but still was quite easy to lose an unit and me having to go through it again...
Combat wise the dragon zombie was a weird spike in difficulty and some of the random bosses like the crystal or shell later on were harder than the final boss. I did enjoy playing around with different characters in the group.
Seeing the base expand as the game progresses was definitely one of my favorite things to see.
And the framing of war and the consequences of it definitely are an interesting aspect of the game.
I'll be playing Suikoden II next blitz as well.
It was nice having something short to play along on my vita. Halfway through the castle in gregminister I even had to charge it because it just dropped dead into battle lol.
Liked most of what the game has to offer, although sometimes I became a bit lost on where to go and what to do. Definitely didn't like siege or field battles. Having ninjas helped getting rid of some of the randomness, but still was quite easy to lose an unit and me having to go through it again...
Combat wise the dragon zombie was a weird spike in difficulty and some of the random bosses like the crystal or shell later on were harder than the final boss. I did enjoy playing around with different characters in the group.
Seeing the base expand as the game progresses was definitely one of my favorite things to see.
And the framing of war and the consequences of it definitely are an interesting aspect of the game.
I'll be playing Suikoden II next blitz as well.
Nice!
The castle expansion is one of my favourite things ever in games, and I love it whenever a game has something similar, such as the Tarrey Town segment in Breath of the Wild.
Since it is unlikely there will be another entry in this series, I am hopeful an indie dev will one day make a game that takes heavy inspiration from some of these systems.
Also, even though it is too late for the blitz, I'm playing through 4 Heroes of Light (recommended by Gio) and am hoping to finish it sometime next week.
Good morning!
Season 3 of the RPG Blitz has ended as of October 1st! Thank you for joining with us and trudging along through our backlogs. I'm happy that we had so many people join us this time. It started off a bit slow, what with the One-Two Punch of FFXIV Shadowbringers and Fire Emblem: Three Houses coming out and sucking up so much of our game time. But alas, after putting those behemoths to rest for a bit, there was a lot of progress - especially in the last couple weeks! I wanted to put together some data like always since everyone loves data. If anything is off/weird, let me know. I already lost this post once as I was building it up on...Wed? I've been a bit sick so I might've caused the post to self-destruct somewhere along the way. Anyways, DATA!
We not only had more people join, but also had more games completed! We were mega close to 100, but just missed it. Clearly this is the sole fault of FiveSide. Along the way, we had a number of people playing the same games and sharing their thoughts. A few posts up, you can see the sudden completions of Mother 3. It looks like that game in particular really touched a lot of people, as seen by the warm and cozy write-ups. There was a similar train running along the tracks for Dragon Quest VI. Hopefully one day I'll get to both Mother 3 and DQVI and find out just how special they are. It's really nice when people find new favorites. Even better when people get to share their favorite game with others and see them take to it quite positively!
Data data data~
Season 3
47 Participants
257 Games Selected
98 Games Completed
Season 2
44 Participants
219 Games Selected
90 Games Completed
Season 1
29 Participants
144 Games Selected
61 Games Completed
Participants
Games Selected
Games Completed
Games With More Than One Completion
Without further ado
Information
Prize Drawing Results!
We ran the names through https://miniwebtool.com/random-name-picker/ and the results are below!
First Prize - $50 Gift Card (PSN, XBL, eShop, Steam, Amazon, etc)
...the winner was preta!
Congrats and thank you for joining us!
Second Prize - $20 Gift Card (PSN, XBL, eShop, Steam, Amazon, etc)
...the winner was Blue Odin!
Congrats! Thank you for joining!
Third Prize - $10 Gift Card (PSN, XBL, eShop, Steam, Amazon, etc)
...the winner was ara!
Congrats! Thanks for joining!
I'm dishing out some bonus prizes (steam keys) over the weekend, so if you managed to complete a game, your name is in the drawing. If you're not in the discord, I'll hit you up on here and let you know what your choices are!
Between blitzes, we have mini-blitzes that are often themed. This mini-blitz theme is Halloween/Spooky. There's no RPG requirement, but if you'd like to join us for the month of October, let us know~ Otherwise, the fourth season of RPG Blitz will start on November 1st, 2019 and go until February 1st, 2019. November will be a year since we first started. Exciting~ As a reminder, you *do not* have to be in the discord to participate or win anything, so don't feel pressured to join.
We'll take some feedback throughout the month. As we get about two weeks away from November, the preliminary list will go up and people can start sorting their stuff out if they'd like. We'll be adjusting a few things such as the RPG Club picks and how that works, so stay tuned~
Pick 5 freely, the last one has a theme that you have to follow. This time it was favourite RPGs of other members.
Might a good idea to see what other are playing, so you can discuss it better with us.
Like how Mother 3 was pretty popular this time around
Thanks :)
Mother 3 is not happening any time soon for me unfortunately, as i have no way to play it :(
In the meantime, i just found the relevant threadmark, so i know how it works now. I'm assuming i should make a list in the next couple of weeks? Does a replay of a game i last finished 20 years ago count, if i consider it backlog?
Sorry for the questions, but i just now found this thread. Cheers.
My sore thumb and my tired mind (due to lack of sleep) are physical reminders that I finally beat Kingdom Hearts III early this morning.
This write-up may be even messier and less coherent than usual but I need some sort of closure after spending almost a year playing these games so, bear with me.
Kingdom Hearts III or how to make a game for those who can't understand nothing
Reading all the comments about how the game was so damn easy made me question what was the right difficulty for me, and I ended up choosing to play it on Critical again and I can't say I regret it. The game was super fun and challenging though by the time I reached the endgame section I wished I hadn't chosen the highest difficulty available, some of these fights could last less than 10 seconds if I wasn't careful. The bosses were brutal and unforgiving but I believe that exactly because of that, beating Xemnas, Ansem, Vanitas, Terra and co. was super rewarding. So in the end I have no regrets? Does that make sense? probably not.
Talking about rewarding things in KHIII boy, do the presentation in this game is super impressive: the music is pretty good, it has the prettiest graphics I've seen this gen, voice acting is top notch and the huge amount of content that it offers is almost overwhelming; it's super obvious they spent a huge amount of time and money on this title (they made three different models for Sora and one of them was playable for less than a minute!)... one of my favorite things was the transition between cutscenes and actual gameplay... more than once I was left wondering how it was possible that the whole game looked like a CG movie.
Now, about the part that matters: the game itself was better than I expected: the worlds/levels are huge and there are all kinds of minigames, secrets and gimmicks that reward exploration. That being said, there are some annoying things that made it into the game like searching for 300 hidden crabs, reaching the peak of a mountain only to be thrown at the bottom again and again, a fucking musical... and I'm sure I'm missing other stuff; still, in general all worlds were fun and pretty. The combat, which is the most important part is a step down compared to BBS's and DDD's (gasp): Building your own deck gave me a reason to try all the spells and secret techniques in those two games while here I just used cure all the time and stick to hitting enemies like a madman because on critical I hardly had the MP to try other things. Still, I had plenty of tools available that made the combat interesting like: combined attacks with Goofy, Donald and other Disney characters, the 'Press Y to awesome' moves, shotlocks, weapon transformations, summons, and those weird traversal abilities available which I forgot their name. So even if I didn't use spells I had a lot of fun with the combat but I still think that decks are more fun and encourage you to experiment.
About the worlds available: I must confess I haven't watched most of the Disney movies represented in KHIII. My favorite world was Toy Box, followed by PoC and Olympus while the one that was pretty disappointing was the 100 Acre wood. I think some of those worlds while fun fail to represent the movies they come from... particularly San Fransokyo. Worlds like Scala ad Caelum and Twilight Town, I wish were bigger and I had more excuses to explore though.
Now, about the story... sigh I can't say much without spoiling a lot to those who plan to play the game so I'll be vague here:
I've read that "the Disney worlds are what held the story of KHIII back" and I don't know if I agree with that opinion or not. In each Disney World there's a ton of exposition but most of it it's known already by the people who have played the previous games and this is where I kind of understand what Nomura and co. attempted to do: I don't think most people who are playing/played KHIII have played all the previous and relevant entries of the series, therefore Nomura is explaining things to them. In my opinion KHIII is a game made with the people who only played KH and KHII in mind... and in the end the most story heavy sections are shown at the end... the same approach they took with Dream Drop Distance. The game ended with a bang both in terms of the story and the gameplay sections but the ending itself wasn't particularly satisfying to me because I feel like they cared more about setting up a sequel rather than giving closure to "the Seeker of Darkness saga" and that's quite disappointing.
Other things I found awesome but didn't comment on:
-The Gummy ship sections aren't bad this time
-The Classic Kingdom games were amazing
-Roxas, Aqua, Terra and Ventus are back and we have excuses to plays as them in future games!
-They brought back the food-related status effects they introduced for the first time in The World Ends with You
-The Flan heartless challenges were fun
I think I'm forgetting a lot of things but as of right now, KHIII is my game of the year so far.
My Battle Report:
lips emoji
This write-up may be even messier and less coherent than usual but I need some sort of closure after spending almost a year playing these games so, bear with me.
Kingdom Hearts III or how to make a game for those who can't understand nothing
Reading all the comments about how the game was so damn easy made me question what was the right difficulty for me, and I ended up choosing to play it on Critical again and I can't say I regret it. The game was super fun and challenging though by the time I reached the endgame section I wished I hadn't chosen the highest difficulty available, some of these fights could last less than 10 seconds if I wasn't careful. The bosses were brutal and unforgiving but I believe that exactly because of that, beating Xemnas, Ansem, Vanitas, Terra and co. was super rewarding. So in the end I have no regrets? Does that make sense? probably not.
Talking about rewarding things in KHIII boy, do the presentation in this game is super impressive: the music is pretty good, it has the prettiest graphics I've seen this gen, voice acting is top notch and the huge amount of content that it offers is almost overwhelming; it's super obvious they spent a huge amount of time and money on this title (they made three different models for Sora and one of them was playable for less than a minute!)... one of my favorite things was the transition between cutscenes and actual gameplay... more than once I was left wondering how it was possible that the whole game looked like a CG movie.
Now, about the part that matters: the game itself was better than I expected: the worlds/levels are huge and there are all kinds of minigames, secrets and gimmicks that reward exploration. That being said, there are some annoying things that made it into the game like searching for 300 hidden crabs, reaching the peak of a mountain only to be thrown at the bottom again and again, a fucking musical... and I'm sure I'm missing other stuff; still, in general all worlds were fun and pretty. The combat, which is the most important part is a step down compared to BBS's and DDD's (gasp): Building your own deck gave me a reason to try all the spells and secret techniques in those two games while here I just used cure all the time and stick to hitting enemies like a madman because on critical I hardly had the MP to try other things. Still, I had plenty of tools available that made the combat interesting like: combined attacks with Goofy, Donald and other Disney characters, the 'Press Y to awesome' moves, shotlocks, weapon transformations, summons, and those weird traversal abilities available which I forgot their name. So even if I didn't use spells I had a lot of fun with the combat but I still think that decks are more fun and encourage you to experiment.
About the worlds available: I must confess I haven't watched most of the Disney movies represented in KHIII. My favorite world was Toy Box, followed by PoC and Olympus while the one that was pretty disappointing was the 100 Acre wood. I think some of those worlds while fun fail to represent the movies they come from... particularly San Fransokyo. Worlds like Scala ad Caelum and Twilight Town, I wish were bigger and I had more excuses to explore though.
Now, about the story... sigh I can't say much without spoiling a lot to those who plan to play the game so I'll be vague here:
I've read that "the Disney worlds are what held the story of KHIII back" and I don't know if I agree with that opinion or not. In each Disney World there's a ton of exposition but most of it it's known already by the people who have played the previous games and this is where I kind of understand what Nomura and co. attempted to do: I don't think most people who are playing/played KHIII have played all the previous and relevant entries of the series, therefore Nomura is explaining things to them. In my opinion KHIII is a game made with the people who only played KH and KHII in mind... and in the end the most story heavy sections are shown at the end... the same approach they took with Dream Drop Distance. The game ended with a bang both in terms of the story and the gameplay sections but the ending itself wasn't particularly satisfying to me because I feel like they cared more about setting up a sequel rather than giving closure to "the Seeker of Darkness saga" and that's quite disappointing.
Other things I found awesome but didn't comment on:
-The Gummy ship sections aren't bad this time
-The Classic Kingdom games were amazing
-Roxas, Aqua, Terra and Ventus are back and we have excuses to plays as them in future games!
-They brought back the food-related status effects they introduced for the first time in The World Ends with You
-The Flan heartless challenges were fun
I think I'm forgetting a lot of things but as of right now, KHIII is my game of the year so far.
My Battle Report:
lips emoji
Since I finally decided to install Bluestacks, are there any Android RPGs worth playing? I mean, besides Chaos Rings.
Great writeup! I'm glad someone besides me enjoyed KHIII this year, and I agreed with a lot of your specific takes. One thing I will say, that's probably somewhat obvious, is that you get to experiment with combat a lot more on easier difficulties. On-the-fly keyblade swapping might not have quite the versatility level of decks, but there's some cool combinations of things you can do if you really mess around with it for a while.
Well, the funny thing here is that I played BBS on critical too and I had more chances to mess up with all kinds of spells and abilities. By leveling up those skills and fusing them to get new and better ones the game made me try new and cool things that I didn't know were cool until I actually equipped them; I cannot say the same about KHIII and yet playing KHIII wasn't boring at all, far from it, but more customization is always welcome.
So I guess this is the best place to ask.
How bad are the Switch ports of DQ I,II and III.
I really want to play them but I heard they're not the best. So if there's a better way to play them I'm all ears. I have a GBA, Super Nt, jailbroken PSP, Wii, Wii U, Vita, PS4, Switch, PS1, jailbroken 3DS, PS3, Xbox. I don't have any of the SD2 carts but have been wanting to get one for awhile now so I'm not opposed to that if it means playing the best version of those games. At the same time for a few bucks and a few minutes I could be playing 1 tonight.
Help me out RPGera, thanks.
How bad are the Switch ports of DQ I,II and III.
I really want to play them but I heard they're not the best. So if there's a better way to play them I'm all ears. I have a GBA, Super Nt, jailbroken PSP, Wii, Wii U, Vita, PS4, Switch, PS1, jailbroken 3DS, PS3, Xbox. I don't have any of the SD2 carts but have been wanting to get one for awhile now so I'm not opposed to that if it means playing the best version of those games. At the same time for a few bucks and a few minutes I could be playing 1 tonight.
Help me out RPGera, thanks.
I'm already trying to narrow my choices down for the next blitz, and they're all handheld rpgs that I've either started or want to start. There's 25 of them.
They are quite bad yeah. I've only played DQ1 as far as Switch ports go, but text speed settings don't seem to work and the default speed is way too fast, and the scrolling seems very slow too, so it creates a very awkward effect that gives me motion sickness; it's quite bizarre as I had never had this problem with an RPG. All this is on top of being extremely ugly too.
As for alternatives, for DQ I and II you can play the fan translated SNES remakes or the officially localized Gameboy Color ones. The latter are my favorites but either should be fine. III got its GBC remake localized as well, but the SNES one is pretty much the definitive version of the game and it's also fan translated. It's actually the version the Switch and mobile ones are ports of, but those were sadly altered and got content cut in the conversion.
Okay cool. Thanks for the info. I'll look into the game boy carts. I'll also check out the super famicom cart of III when I get the sd2snes for the super nt.
You don't have to come up with entirely new ones either. If you want to finish them really badly, you can give another go at it next blitz.
So i finally finished Anthem's main storyline. Was doing most side content up to a point, but then the game kinda funnelled me to the last mission, so i did that and immediately lost all interest in going back. Overall, i found it really mediocre.
Writing wise, it's an extension of modern Bioware, which i find grating. The story is another saviour Jesus type story, though our main character doesn't even get a name, or nickname, or anything. We are called Freelancer by everyone from start to finish, which feels weird seeing as there are many other Freelancers in this world. Imagine being simply called Ex-Soldier throughout all of FF VII. The dialogue and voice acting has that Bioware Bro Banter quality, that i personally find extremely annoying. Everyone has to sound like they're the coolest cat in town. Sorry but no one talks like that except douchebags. Though it also has its genuinely funny moments. Brin is awkward and funny, Faye has some good stuff and the dude that wants to outlaw puddles has his moments.
The gameplay is extremely repetitive and the 'encounter design' borderline insulting. We got a variety of flying to point X, holding button on mcguffin and slowly chipping away waves of distant enemies you can barely tell apart until your Special attack fills up, at which point most encounters end. And that's literally it. Oh and sometimes you have to carry thing from point A to point B as well. It's just so unimaginative and derivative of the wrong parts of something like Destiny. Talking of that game, i spent a good chunk of this game thinking 'this is exactly like Destiny but much worse.'
Anthem is also kinda broken still, after all these months. I lost count at the amount of times i got booted out to the main menu or that the game straight up crashed.
I had little faith in Bioware's future going in and Anthem just drained the rest.
Writing wise, it's an extension of modern Bioware, which i find grating. The story is another saviour Jesus type story, though our main character doesn't even get a name, or nickname, or anything. We are called Freelancer by everyone from start to finish, which feels weird seeing as there are many other Freelancers in this world. Imagine being simply called Ex-Soldier throughout all of FF VII. The dialogue and voice acting has that Bioware Bro Banter quality, that i personally find extremely annoying. Everyone has to sound like they're the coolest cat in town. Sorry but no one talks like that except douchebags. Though it also has its genuinely funny moments. Brin is awkward and funny, Faye has some good stuff and the dude that wants to outlaw puddles has his moments.
The gameplay is extremely repetitive and the 'encounter design' borderline insulting. We got a variety of flying to point X, holding button on mcguffin and slowly chipping away waves of distant enemies you can barely tell apart until your Special attack fills up, at which point most encounters end. And that's literally it. Oh and sometimes you have to carry thing from point A to point B as well. It's just so unimaginative and derivative of the wrong parts of something like Destiny. Talking of that game, i spent a good chunk of this game thinking 'this is exactly like Destiny but much worse.'
Anthem is also kinda broken still, after all these months. I lost count at the amount of times i got booted out to the main menu or that the game straight up crashed.
I had little faith in Bioware's future going in and Anthem just drained the rest.
I tried this in the Stupid Gaming Questions thread but it's struck me that this might perhaps be a better place to get people in-the-know to see it:
So I'm toying with the idea of moving on to playing some older-style CRPG goodness soon, and one avenue I might explore is Spiderweb's games.
I have a little history with Spiderweb, in that I played and enjoyed Escape From The Pit waaaay back when it was 1995's Exile: Escape From The Pit. However, I've not touched anything of theirs since then, and the sheer quantity of rereleases and remakes mixed in with new titles in a variety of different universes is... a little overwhelming.
So with the following caveats:
* I'm generally a stickler for playing series in order
* I'm broadly okay with replacing earlier entries with remakes...
* ...but I'd quite like to be able to persist characters from release to release if at all possible (I've no idea if Spiderweb's games do that old staple, but given how trad-CRPG they are, I assume it's not all that unlikely!)
* I'd like to plan to be *somewhat* futureproof, in that if a remake is known (or I guess at least highly rumoured) to be in the works for a franchise, I probably wouldn't want to start on that one just yet.
* I did complete Exile - all endings, in fact - but as I said it was many years ago. I'm probably not averse to replaying it in remake form, although I'm a little curious how much is actually different once we get beyond the cosmetic stuff.
So with those caveats... what do I need to know, what pitfalls might I fall into... and what would people recommend from the breadth of their range?
So I'm toying with the idea of moving on to playing some older-style CRPG goodness soon, and one avenue I might explore is Spiderweb's games.
I have a little history with Spiderweb, in that I played and enjoyed Escape From The Pit waaaay back when it was 1995's Exile: Escape From The Pit. However, I've not touched anything of theirs since then, and the sheer quantity of rereleases and remakes mixed in with new titles in a variety of different universes is... a little overwhelming.
So with the following caveats:
* I'm generally a stickler for playing series in order
* I'm broadly okay with replacing earlier entries with remakes...
* ...but I'd quite like to be able to persist characters from release to release if at all possible (I've no idea if Spiderweb's games do that old staple, but given how trad-CRPG they are, I assume it's not all that unlikely!)
* I'd like to plan to be *somewhat* futureproof, in that if a remake is known (or I guess at least highly rumoured) to be in the works for a franchise, I probably wouldn't want to start on that one just yet.
* I did complete Exile - all endings, in fact - but as I said it was many years ago. I'm probably not averse to replaying it in remake form, although I'm a little curious how much is actually different once we get beyond the cosmetic stuff.
So with those caveats... what do I need to know, what pitfalls might I fall into... and what would people recommend from the breadth of their range?
If you don't get any feedback here, I'd post the same questions on their forums, or consider sending Jeff an email.
I don't know first hand, but I'm pretty sure that parties don't carry over from one Avernum game to the next. There are loctations and NPCs that are found across games but you have a new party each time. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was just reading about that the other day).
Yeah, Spiderweb's catalogue is pretty confusing these days.
As far as their series go, you have:
1. The original Avernum Trilogy (Avernum 1-3). These are based on the original Exile games. Confusingly, the ones you can find on current storefronts are actually remakes/remastered versions, so in a sense they're a remake of a remake. And because of that, they're also the most recent Avernum games to come out (Avernum 3 in particular only came out last year). They're probably a pretty good place to start, with Avernum 3 in particular being a fan favorite.
2. The second Avernum trilogy (Avernum 4-6). Despite having bigger numbers, these ones are actually older than 1-3 at this point. The release order was basically Old Avernum 1-3 -> Avernum 4-6 -> Remakes of Avernum 1-3. As such, they kind of feel dated, and I never really felt that these games were as good as the first three.
3. Geneforge 1-5. These are to me the best Spiderweb Software games, with a bigger focus on exploration and story choices, but with a much weaker combat system. Also, Geneforge 2-5 are very similar to one another, to the point where you can just play 1 then skip to 5 and not really miss all that much.
4. Avadon 1-3. This is the most modern original trilogy, and it shows some pretty clear Bioware influences. Instead of making your own party, you get predefined companions, each with loyalty quests similar to how post Mass Effect 2 Bioware RPGs do it. It's also the most combat focused of their games, and thankfully also has the best combat system. Granted, I've only played the first one, so maybe the other two change this.
5. Queen's Wish. This is the latest release. I haven't played it yet, but people do seem to like it quite a bit.
As for the specific questions
There's no character transfer in any of their games that I've played, as the story always has you starting with a new party. The only real exception to this was Blades of Exile/Blades of Avernum, where you could carry over your party through different user made scenarios. But I'm not really sure you can even play those on modern systems.
This also means that their games are pretty much standalone, and you don't really have to play through all of the games in the series to get to the one you want.
Jeff Vogel said that the Geneforge games are next in line for a remake, so you should probably avoid those.
The remakes do actually change quite a bit. The most obvious one being the simplification/streamlining of the combat system (Avernum only has 4 party members, there's less skills and spells and so on). Some people hate that, but to be fair Exile was kind of loaded with too many irrelevant skills and spells. They're also all much more straightforward in telling you where to go, and the dialogue system is now the standard system where you pick dialogue choices rather than the keyword based one in Exile. All in all, they might not feel quite as old-school as you're expecting them to be if you're going solely based on your experience with Exile. Because for as dated as the visuals feel, they aren't opposed to copying modern RPG conventions (like regenerating health, free respecs, streamlined character building, or Bioware styled companions).
So with all of that in mind, Geneforge is out because it has remakes coming, and I wouldn't really recommend Avernum 4-6 since those are pretty old at this point. Leaving either Avernum 1-3 or Avadon. Avadon is more focused on combat, more linear, and has Bioware styled companion interaction. Avernum lets you make a full party, will maybe have some nostalgia value, and a lot of people consider Avernum/Exile 3 to be the best Spiderweb game.
Thanks for all that, there's a ton to take in. I was loosely leaning towards Geneforge, so it's been helpful to see that perhaps I shouldn't do that just yet. I suspect I might go down the Avernum line due to having the familiar hooks, at least as far as the first game is concerned (I *think* I had a little dabble with Crystal Souls in the Exile era, too, so there's that).
Out of interest, how do they vary as far as length is concerned?
It's been a while since I've played any of their games, but from memory all of them are pretty long. About 50 or so hours at least, I'd guess. The Geneforge games are probably slightly shorter than the others if you just rush through the main story, but since they're focused on exploration and have several different routes to go through, they're also the longest for completionists.
I finished Queen's Wish a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it.
It does look a bit worse than the Avadon and Avernum games, as they've changed from the diamond to square tiles, but other than that I'd say its the best Spiderweb game since Geneforge.
Get your socks ready everyone.
"October marks the 10th year anniversary of Project 1999; March of this year also marked the 20th anniversary of Everquest. The intent of our project was always to restore the original classic experience of Everquest from launch through Velious, and our most recent patch was the last major milestone in that effort. It seems appropriate now that we relive through that timeline on a proper, fresh classic experience.
Introducing Project 1999: Green, to be released on October 25, 2019 (Early Afternoon Eastern Time)
Project 1999 Green is a new PVE server without any patches or expansions enabled upon release. Old-style mechanics and drops will be enabled, including legacy items such as Guise of the Deceiver and Manastone. The server will then progress through all patches on the same timeline as Everquest's original launch, all the way up to the last patch in Velious. This means that based on an October 2019 launch date, the following are a few major timeline changes:
* January 2020: Plane of Fear
* April 2020: Plane of Hate
* May 2020: Temple of Solusek Ro opens / Legacy items cease to drop
* August 2020: Plane of Sky
* November 2020: Ruins of Kunark
* April 2021: Epics
* July 2021: Scars of Velious
* The above list is not exhaustive; each month will have unlocks of patches from March 1999 to December 2001. "
"October marks the 10th year anniversary of Project 1999; March of this year also marked the 20th anniversary of Everquest. The intent of our project was always to restore the original classic experience of Everquest from launch through Velious, and our most recent patch was the last major milestone in that effort. It seems appropriate now that we relive through that timeline on a proper, fresh classic experience.
Introducing Project 1999: Green, to be released on October 25, 2019 (Early Afternoon Eastern Time)
Project 1999 Green is a new PVE server without any patches or expansions enabled upon release. Old-style mechanics and drops will be enabled, including legacy items such as Guise of the Deceiver and Manastone. The server will then progress through all patches on the same timeline as Everquest's original launch, all the way up to the last patch in Velious. This means that based on an October 2019 launch date, the following are a few major timeline changes:
* January 2020: Plane of Fear
* April 2020: Plane of Hate
* May 2020: Temple of Solusek Ro opens / Legacy items cease to drop
* August 2020: Plane of Sky
* November 2020: Ruins of Kunark
* April 2021: Epics
* July 2021: Scars of Velious
* The above list is not exhaustive; each month will have unlocks of patches from March 1999 to December 2001. "
Also check out DQ: Legacy of the Lost when you have time.
Its a complete fangame inspired by DQ VII that uses the GBC sprites and tilesets. Played about twenty hours and its pretty good.
