Random thoughts on whatever JRPG you're currently playing?

[Viata]

It still the same bullshit, though.

 

[Sigourn]

Ys IV: Mask of the Sun

This game brings back the bump-style combat of Ys I & II but with a few important tweaks:

1. The first is that you simply can't run into the enemy anymore and expect no damage. Whereas the originals let you deal reasonable damage to the enemy, while being hurt yourself if the enemy attack you first, here you will ALWAYS receive damage and deal NO damage if you are attacking an enemy that's stronger that you.
2. As a consequence, it is imperative that you learn how to properly attack enemies. This is easier said than done, because enemies in Ys IV move around quite a bit, readjusting their position constantly, as opposed to the more passive Ys I & II enemies.
3. Last but not least, whereas in Ys I & II you would be knocked back when dealt damage, in Ys IV you can simply continously bump head on into an ever recoiling enemy that will nonetheless be dealing damage to you instead (but minimum damage, which nonetheless accumulates quickly if you don't realize you are the one being hurt instead).

Overall this means that you will receive damage far more often, and enemies will die more slowly. I would be very happy with just point 1) and maybe point 2), but point 3) makes the combat fairly frustrating. I just beat the first boss and that asshole took me quite a while compared to how easy the first boss in Book I was.

 

[Viata]

The first is that you simply can't run into the enemy anymore and expect no damage. Whereas the originals let you deal reasonable damage to the enemy, while being hurt yourself if the enemy attack you first, here you will ALWAYS receive damage and deal NO damage if you are attacking an enemy that's stronger that you.

I'm pretty sure you can attack them without getting hurt. Usually a little above/below them as you hit them.
Here, the guy kills two enemies without taking damage:

 

[Sigourn]

The first is that you simply can't run into the enemy anymore and expect no damage. Whereas the originals let you deal reasonable damage to the enemy, while being hurt yourself if the enemy attack you first, here you will ALWAYS receive damage and deal NO damage if you are attacking an enemy that's stronger that you.

I'm pretty sure you can attack them without getting hurt. Usually a little above/below them as you hit them.
Here, the guy kills two enemies without taking damage:

Yep, this is what I meant with point 2). In Ys I & II you could simply attack those slimes head on and suffer no damage, given they are the weakest enemy in the game. But in Ys IV, you need to level up quite a bit before you can do so.

 

[Puukko]

Oh yeah, I can see where the complaints about Chrono Cross' weird "humans are bad" message are coming from. I can only hope this gets elaborated on because as it is I don't really know where the game is going with it. So a local ecosystem gets wrecked because the hydras got poached into extinction. Is the player supposed to feel remorse about this? I don't think a single person playing this game would be in favor of animal extinction for profit. There's several intelligent non-human species who collectively get along but all of them seem to hate humans as the rule. Are the frog people a stand-in for blacks? Series like The Witcher have a much more believable human-nonhuman interactions where nonhumans are shown living in worse conditions in human cities and groups like the scoi'atel uniting them under a common goal (of treefucker terrorism).

The game also has traps where seemingly random choices can lock you out of signature skills for characters. For example, Razzly the fairy can't get hers if you bring her to fight the hydra which is the next boss after she joins you.

 

[flyingjohn]

Oh yeah, I can see where the complaints about Chrono Cross' weird "humans are bad" message are coming from. I can only hope this gets elaborated on because as it is I don't really know where the game is going with it. .

Nope,it is simply kato's bullshit writing.And the more you progress the plot the worse it gets.

 

[Silentstorm]

Basically, a lot of the dialogue makes it feel like humans are constantly being total jerks or the story acts like it's set on Earth, but the game suffers because non-humans have it good compared to many discriminated fantasy races in other stories and some like the dwarves act far worse than humans but no one cares, and the ecosystem seems pretty good too.

It's like the writer and the people behind the world design didn't talk to each other at all, making it seem like everyone is blaming humans for their problems while humans are mostly just hanging around, sure, not all humans are good, but with how Chrono Cross describes humans, you'd think they were constantly polluting and killing babies for fun.

 

[aweigh]

i barely remember anything about the jumbled mess of a story in Chrono Cross. I remember being decidedly disappointed with the game after having anticipated a sequel to Chrono Trigger for a while, by then. I played CT when I was much younger and I remember everything about it, whereas I played Cross as an older teenager and the entire thing is hazy.

 

[Grauken]

Never played Chrono Cross, but that message stuff makes me not want to play it, sounds utterly terrible

 

[Viata]

Chrono Cross is my favorite JRPG. Then again, I never cared about plot in JRPG and can't remember a single one that I liked.

 

[Grauken]

Chrono Cross is my favorite JRPG. Then again, I never cared about plot in JRPG and can't remember a single one that I liked.

I don't mind simple kill the bad guys' plot, but if the writing is too on the nose to the point it distracts me from enjoying a simple adventure, then it bothers me

 

[Viata]

The advantage of playing something that you don't understand the language used in it. First time I played CC was in Japanese, when I didn't know it, yet I loved the game. When I could understand it, I already loved it enough to not allow that to stop me from still liking it.

 

[Puukko]

I am enjoying it as well, I'll just gave to tune out whenever the game starts preaching about humans or environmentalism since it's clearly pretty half baked.

 

[Silentstorm]

It's not too bad, but you can notice it, it's just not as good as the first game though.

Anyways, for whatever reason, decided to replay some SRW Judgement on GBA and good lord is the game less fun than i remember, and dialogue, so much dialogue, while it's not the case, it sometimes feels like i can't play for 3 minutes without having to go through a 10 minute speech, and then deal with reinforcements, and after that more reinforcements, and don't worry, i have no trouble at all in this turn based strategy game because dear Lord, they give you really damn good units.

I mean, i remembered the game being easy, but Jesus Christ, the main character shreds through enemies no matter what mecha you pick, Mazinkaiser is so strong i feel pity for the enemies, Zeorymer is pretty damn good and apparently there is a secret ultra powerful version that seems completely pointless due to how good the first one already is, and Tekkaman Blade just dodges through everything and deals good damage, and other units while not being as good, are still pretty worthwhile.

Also, man, using Super Robots or Real Robots, it makes no difference, but i find that units tend to go after Super Robots for being less dodgy i guess, forgetting that they are like that because they have good defense and great firepower, just put some Super Robots and see them take few damage while getting a lot of experience.

 

[eric__s]

I'm going through hardcore Shin Megami Tensei withdrawal and so I'm playing around with Nocturne, Strange Journey Redux and SMT IV at the same time.

Nocturne is as great as ever - it's one of the best RPGs of all time. Right now I'm at the tower where you fight the three fates and finally meet the Maiden, and I'm having a great time, but I've kind of lost my desire to play a bit because I've royally fucked up my team. It just isn't very good. I'm sure I could spend a few hours fusing a better one, but that would be exhausting and tedious. Even my Daisoujou isn't very good. I'll come back to it eventually, but the prospect of continuing on right now with my garbage demons is turning me off.

Strange Journey Redux is also excellent. I played it a bit when it came out, but didn't get too into it. I'm at the fourth dungeon now, and I'm really enjoying it. The dungeons are very well laid-out and fun to explore, there is a consistent challenge and there are tons and tons of demons to fuse (although many of the ones the DS era added are awful). One of the things I like most about the game is the demon analysis and skill crystalization system. I think it's very cool that few skills are transferred over during fusion, and that the majority of your skills are gotten through collecting the skill crystals. This encourages you to fuse as many demons as possible and cycle through them during battle instead of building up a few perfect demons.

I'm just not enjoying SMT IV. I'm in Tokyo, but I find it all so tedious. The quest system is awful, the plot and characters are awful, and most of all, I hate the demon fusion system. Because I can choose every single ability that demons get when I fuse them, all of my demons are the same - they all have my strongest abilities, they can all perform every role, there is no distinction between them other than resistances. The demon fusion in SMT IV was really poorly thought out and I don't see why they would have done it like that, because it disincentivizes the creation of new demons; why make new ones when they'll have the same abilities and roles in your party? It's just not that great. Does SMT IV get better? I'm not that far into Tokyo yet, maybe things change?

 

[Puukko]

IV is carried by its music and atmosphere - from a mechanics standpoint it is mediocre. If you're not enjoying it now, it's unlikely you'll enjoy it later.

SJ/R may have handled fusions the best. Giving the player too much control can indeed be a bad thing since it results in very samey demons. IV/A had the best fusion tools though, those search functions are a YHVH send.

 

[Viata]

Does SMT IV get better?

Nope. It gets worse even more if you go Neutral path.

 

[GhostCow]

Nocturne is definitely one of the best jrpgs ever made but the amala labyrinth is also one of the worst dungeons I've ever had to slog through

 

[Puukko]

Amala is fine. YHVH's universe on the other hand...

 

[Viata]

The original jp only version doesn't have it. But it also didn't have fiends which is bad.

 

[Rahdulan]

Finally got around to finishing The Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch after it lingered on my PSP for about five months. Quite a long time for a relatively short JRPG, not to mention one that got released in the wrong order when western localization of the trilogy came about. Thankfully it's a loose trilogy where each game is more or less standalone from what I've read so no great foul there.

A remake too basic for its own good with some blatant problems derived from a much maligned translation, but also presumably in the process of making it easier for the new audiences or adapting an old game in new style. With pacing that lends itself to arc-based structure and very slowly building up to a grander story until the last quarter before things ramp up I'd be hard pressed to recommend Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch unless you really want an average JRPG to pass some time. As an additional note it has no ties to more widely known The Legend of Heroes games which could discourage few people interested in the complete experience. My desire to play the entirety of Gagharv trilogy has certainly been paused even if the remaining two games are supposedly much better overall.

Verdict:

 

[Sigourn]

Ys IV: Dawn of Ys

I've been playing this for seven hours already and it has been very nice so far. I have some pet peeves that have nothing to do with the gameplay that really ruin what could be a 10/10 polished experience. They are as follows:

• The game uses great portraits for shopkeepers and other NPCs, but for some reason these don't have their own dedicated screen, so text boxes usually cover up quite a bit of them. Why did this change from Ys I&II, I have no idea.
• The game relies way too much in voice acting, and this is a problem I already had in Ys I&II so I won't blame it on the fandub, but it really makes it a chore to listen through conversations and only getting 75% of them because the other 25% is a bit hard for me to hear. Meaning I have to consult the Speech Translation Guide just so I can read what I missed. If there's one thing I loved about Mask of the Sun, it is that there was no voice acting and thus I never missed a single word.

Since they are two takes on the same basic premise, it's no wonder Dawn of Ys has a lot of callbacks to Ys I&II, including the revisit of locations found in those games. But I prefer Dawn of Ys' much more because they are more tangible and less "hey, remember that one thing you did in Ys I&II? I member". Some of them are indirect callbacks, if you will: what was once a very frustrating, labyrinthian dungeon with a very narrow field of view now is anything but that since the citizens have gotten to transform it into the path for a shrine.

Overall it's a wonderful sequel to Ys I&II, and so far I much prefer the story and structure to that of Mask of the Sun, which is funny considering the latter used to be considered the canon game by Nihon Falcom, until they released Memories of Celceta.

 

[Silentstorm]

Super Robot Wars Judgement is making me get whiplash from the story, just how, can anyone please tell me how are the villains so cocky and sure they are going to win?

Why are there racist aliens thinking their tech or skills are so superior to humans, i am genuinely amazed at how easy this game is and how overpowered some of the units are, i mean, there was at least a thing with the Fury being able to freeze my units early in the story without being able to attack, but after that's gone and Mazinkaiser can freely attack anything, you'd think the aliens would be like "OH SHIT, THAT MECHA DESIGNED BY THE GUY BEHIND DEVILMAN IS WAY TOO POWERFUL, IT'S LIKE WE'RE FIGHTING SATAN OR GOD ITSELF!" and running away.

Because, let me tell you, Mazinkaiser can deal absurd amounts of damage and can survive anything, if you do things right, it can have more than 1000 HP, get hit by the very strongest attack of the final boss...and only take 10 HP from it and the villains think they can handle that!?

It's just amazing seeing the villains act like any victory was a stroke of luck and that they can totally win when i keep winning without losing anyone at all and having no hardships at all.

 

[Silentstorm]

The game relies way too much in voice acting, and this is a problem I already had in Ys I&II so I won't blame it on the fandub, but it really makes it a chore to listen through conversations and only getting 75% of them because the other 25% is a bit hard for me to hear. Meaning I have to consult the Speech Translation Guide just so I can read what I missed. If there's one thing I loved about Mask of the Sun, it is that there was no voice acting and thus I never missed a single word.

Funny how this is a thing in the old versions, but in the recent remakes with Chronicles, there is no voice acting, seriously, play the PC version and there is no voice acting, at least not on Steam, you get new graphics, other stuff and changes in the plot and the game, even just some small stuff like the fortuneteller actually being found before she passes away and giving her last message to a guy who waits for you rather than a letter.

But voice acting?

Pfft, that isn't needed, not that it harms the game, it just feels odd that a previous version had it but the remake doesn't, anyways now you are going for the last 16-bit game in the franchise, after this, it's all post-2000 and you get new entries with 3D graphics or remakes that change the original story a bit, also a party system though still maintaining a fast paced combat, you mostly just switch characters on the fly.

Also, i think Ys V is the one game to never come to the West, the remake is also Japan only, to a point where i think Falcom has talked about doing a new remake and finally releasing the game on the West which would be awesome.

Oh, and Adol gets a new design in the latest game, apparently to symbolize he's older, though not old, mostly because Falcom has stated quite a few things about Adol's future, apparently he goes on to write 100 journals of his adventures that get published later on, gets a red beard and...dissapears when he is 63 years old in the middle of an adventure and no one hears from him again, also, aside from sometimes taking a break to write, Adol never ever stops going on adventures, meaning that even after nine games, we haven't seen nearly half of his adventures.

But for some reason, Falcom doesn't seem very excited at the idea of having red bearded adult Adol kicking ass saying they can't make a game like that, at best you get Adol being 24 years old in one game...maybe Ys X has the director has stated he wants to suprise fans and make it a particularly memorable game, being the tenth game and all, it certainly would suprise fans if Adol was 40 years old with a beard.

 

[Sigourn]

Silentstorm Gameplay changes aside, I think it's a travesty that the remakes use a completely different anime artstyle. The latest entry (Monstrum Nox) seems particularly soulless.