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I don't think many people necessarily hate it, but it does lack the reactivity of the later battle systems. On the other hand, there are a million abilities and combining them to create new ones in battle is very neat.
IS is mind numbingly easy and should be treated more as a VN, you're in for the crazy ride. EP is still on the easier side but it's still a major step up. It also has an adult cast which is a huge plus.
Finished Dragon Quest VI (DS) and am at the final boss of Dragon Quest V (DS)
I greatly enjoyed VI. It has the best soundtrack in the series, a fun cast of party members that interact with each other, good mini-stories in each town, love the design of the characters. Overworld gimmick of dream/real world was a bit confusing at times when someone would tell me to go to x world to y place and I couldn't remember which world was which and where that place was exactly. The style competition is honestly fucking gay but since you don't need to complete it I guess its impact is lessened. Still the sage's stone is a level 7 reward which is annoying.
I always read lots of praise for V. I went in expecting a good game, and I didn't enjoy myself. The strength in Dragon Quest has always been the stories you find in each town as you adventure, and Dragon Quest V pretty much does away with this entire concept in favor of a main story that, while having tons of potential, just falls flat completely because it's Dragon Quest - the main story has never been good. The protagonist is silent and the tone of the game is unchanged from the rest of the series. Spoilers ahead.
You see your dad die in front of you, get enslaved for 15 years, get turned to stone for another 10, marry, have kids, find your mother, see her die in front of you, and none of these events are ever explored. In classic DQ fashion, everyone reacts with a variation of "wow, cant believe that happened. haha, let's move forward". How do the events affect the protagonist? No one knows. If there is one Dragon Quest game that I'd want a remake of, it'd be V. The game is screaming for character development in the style of XI to give the events any sort of impact whatsoever.
In a game so focused on the main story, there are also no twists in relation to the villain. You know the guy's name 5 hours in and nothing changes. You have to fight him because he's the typical DQ asshole that wants to dominate the world - the end.
Breath of Fire III (PSX)
I'm only 7 hours in, but am really enjoying it so far! It's quite a step up from BOF1/2, though also quite a bit easier so far. I'm impressed already that the game has actual dungeons/mazes... I was not expecting that in a PSX RPG to be honest. They aren't very complicated but they aren't tiny linear areas, either.
The story is a lot better this time around in how it serves to move you from place to place, though I don't really care for the characters so far. It looks great for a game released only a few years into the PSX's lifetime, with very solid 3D geometry for the backgrounds and excellently animated sprites for characters, monsters, etc. I like the music so far... it's an interesting change of pace and reminds me of the "smooth rock" music that was popular from the late 70s and early 80s like The Doobie Brothers or Hall & Oates. It's enjoyable to listen to in-game, but not very memorable honestly.
Mechanically, it feels like playing BOF2. Party formation still make a huge difference in combat, and this was one of the best things about the previous games in the series.
If I have any complaint at this point, it's that it is taking forever to build up a roster of characters. The game constantly sticks you with Ryu and one other character as the story dictates, and a two-character party can be pretty dull.
Finished Valkyrie Profile Covenant of the Plume. I thought the original VP was pretty unique, this is less so but it's not that far behind. It is turn based but the combat itself is not, you have to press buttons in the correct time. People should try one of these games for this aspect alone, I don't think I have seen something like this anywhere else.
It's weird how good the dialogue itself is, since the story isn't anything special. Even thought more older people have been playing video games now than ever, there is not many recent stuff out there that have dialogue as mature as a lot of older games.
played a bit of Phantom Brave
artstyle and soundtrack are really nice. Story seems intriguing
Not sure about the gameplay though, lots of conceptually interesting mechanics but because there's no grid like in disgaea, it's extremely clunky to target a specific thing, especially when units make a totem pole (I know about the select button function, but half the time it doesn't work right). Battles have been pretty slow-paced
I don't think many people necessarily hate it, but it does lack the reactivity of the later battle systems. On the other hand, there are a million abilities and combining them to create new ones in battle is very neat.
IS is mind numbingly easy and should be treated more as a VN, you're in for the crazy ride. EP is still on the easier side but it's still a major step up. It also has an adult cast which is a huge plus.
Are you refering to the PS1 or the PSP versions? Because the PSP version of Innocent Sin lowered the difficulty for an already easy game to the point that it is exactly as you described, a visual novel.
I'm playing currently PS1 version and I've only died a few times and only a very few bosses gave me trouble when compared to the other Megaten games I've played (even the newer Persona like 3 or 4 have some challenge even on normal difficulty.) Of course, being a Megaten vet gave me the foresight to always be prepared.
I don't think many people necessarily hate it, but it does lack the reactivity of the later battle systems. On the other hand, there are a million abilities and combining them to create new ones in battle is very neat.
IS is mind numbingly easy and should be treated more as a VN, you're in for the crazy ride. EP is still on the easier side but it's still a major step up. It also has an adult cast which is a huge plus.
Are you refering to the PS1 or the PSP versions? Because the PSP version of Innocent Sin lowered the difficulty for an already easy game to the point that it is exactly as you described, a visual novel.
I'm playing currently PS1 version and I've only died a few times and only a very few bosses gave me trouble when compared to the other Megaten games I've played (even the newer Persona like 3 or 4 have some challenge even on normal difficulty.) Of course, being a Megaten vet gave me the foresight to always be prepared.
I was talking PSP for IS/PSX for EP since those are the "definitive" translated versions currently available (arguable for IS). I've talked about these games enough that I guess it's easy to forget to clarify.
I've been playing Blue Dragon Plus on DS of all things. Yes a handheld JRTS from 2009. Believe it or not, mechanically the game is consistently involving and fairly interesting. The plot is absolute drivel though.Hironobu Sakaguchi wrote the plot...
About 20 hours into FFVII Remake and I have to tap out. Worst offenders to me are the combat and the level design. I mean... the transitions between areas are just complete filler.
As for combat sometimes it works really good (like the 1vs1 battle against Reno) and sometimes you have no clue what's happening. It's especially painful when fighting flying monsters which do state changes. And whiffing spells and special attacks is just plain annoying. I understand that they thought the combat should be "modernized" but it doesn't work for me.
Characters and their animations are really well done, and Cloud's Japanese voice actor matches the image I had of him when playing the OG FFVII. The dialogue in general is pretty weak, however, was it that much better in the OG version? Barrett especially is quite irritating in the remake.
I have to revisit the OG version to see if it's as good as I remember. In my head at least the general tone of the game was much darker than the remake.
Hey guys. I have another thought about Stranger Of Sword City. An amazing game all around, but one very underrated feature is the management of your entire roster. People are going to die, thus they will need to be revived and their Life Points restored, both of which take days-worth of time. So, u will have to rotate in other party members from your roster (who also gain XP based on your current party's XP gain), making u use all sorts of classes, formations, skills, etc.. It's a lot of fun managing the entire roster, giving u new looks and finding new synergies and strategies as u tackle the difficult dungeons. This game is not an easy one, to those who compared Experience Inc. to McDonald's, I have to say, this game is more like a fine steakhouse with a gourmet buffet! :D Really great stuff.
About 20 hours into FFVII Remake and I have to tap out. Worst offenders to me are the combat and the level design. I mean... the transitions between areas are just complete filler.
As for combat sometimes it works really good (like the 1vs1 battle against Reno) and sometimes you have no clue what's happening. It's especially painful when fighting flying monsters which do state changes. And whiffing spells and special attacks is just plain annoying. I understand that they thought the combat should be "modernized" but it doesn't work for me.
Characters and their animations are really well done, and Cloud's Japanese voice actor matches the image I had of him when playing the OG FFVII. The dialogue in general is pretty weak, however, was it that much better in the OG version? Barrett especially is quite irritating in the remake.
I have to revisit the OG version to see if it's as good as I remember. In my head at least the general tone of the game was much darker than the remake.
The tone is darker. The one thing I miss about JRPGS is the dark tone games like the valkyrie profile franchise. Even the intentional now days dark jrpg games like tales berseria is a lol joke.
Man, the final boss was great; great music, very cool visual set-piece, and a very satisfying fight for me.
The ending epilogue was also very good imo. Playing the game was a bit of a chore for me at points (combat takes forever due to animations, which kind of threw me off since I consider DQ to have typically quick battles) but after having sat for a few days after the experience I can say I really enjoyed the game.
It just oozes charm and character, and some of the vignettes stuck out as some of my favorites in the series. I'll be thinking about this game for a long time for sure.
The only DQ games I haven't beaten now are 7 and 9.
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PPSSPP Emu)
The glaring contrast between the quality design of monsters such as Tigrex,Nargacuga or Diablos compared to old shit such as KutKu,Garuga or the Raths v1.0 are pretty evident. The latter insta charges and their hitboxes are all messed up, Rathalos is on his more infuriating shape; He tends to fly far out the reachable area and merrily waste your time. Also, Rajang punch swipes are instant too. Also, they have like three to four types of moves. The only way to get them without getting potentially ran over in the attempt is to preemtively attack as they turn to face you.
Is janky as fuck, but still fun. I'm close to reach G rank. I play on Hunsterverse vpn server.
Got my feet wet with King's Field IV. This game is soulful, atmospheric, mysterious and clunky as all hell. Your character controls like a forklift and takes 5 seconds after each swing to recharge his stamina, but he can at least sprint constantly. The combat in its simplicity still has some depth to it in the way you dance with the mobs and time your attacks. I definitely want to finish one of these games to expand my repertoire of From games. Kuon is another likely candidate for when I hopefully finally get a proper horror theme month done like I keep planning every year.
This is also one of those games that fell into the cracks and got forgotten by emulator devs, because it still has a number of graphical bugs that are prominent enough that I am playing it in software. Which is honestly fine since it looks like a PSX game's older brother.
When you do get to 9, remember you can now once again unlock the online only stuff by forcing the game to redirect to a fan-run server by setting a specific DNS. This even works on an emulator if you're using the only DS emulator worth using (MelonDS). You're stuck with a save editor for local MP based stuff though, but that's minor in comparison.
About 10 hours into Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster.
I modded the game to have identical balance to the NES version.
It is quite fun so far. A lot better than the shitty mobile version I played before, which was a port of the PSP Anniversary version. Spell slots add a lot to this game, so I highly recommend replaying FF1 if you only played it with MP before.
I have not had a game over yet, but I have come precariously close often enough to be content with the difficulty.
The first spike was the Marsh cave, I had to retreat a dozen times from there. So much poison.
After that, the Earth Crystal dungeon was challenging aswell. Petrify is a nasty effect, status effects in general are pretty rough to deal with, as your White Mage needs the specific spellslot to cure them.
I had a somewhat easy time with the Ice Cave, despite going into it first. Getting out was quite stressfull, as my White Mage died along the way, but the fights itself were intense but winnable.
Volcano came really close to killing me. On one trip I only escaped with the Black Mage and White Mage alive, a few unlucky hits and that would have been game over. Luckily my BM won initiative and zapped all my enemies with lightning every time.
The story is not bad for such an old game.
The little surprise with the old King being the Dark Elf all along was nicely done. I didn't expect it in such an old game, but there were enough hints with the bats and the npcs telling you that noone lives in the western keep. The four crystals and four towns which live off the crystals is ultra generic by now, but the way the towns and dungeons fit the respective crystal is pretty neat. Not too shabby for 1987.
Gameplay wise you already see the buds for many trends to come in JRPG design. Outside of bossfights mages are only casting the Fire/Ice/Thunder and Cure/Antistatus spells, as inflicting conditions or buffing up is just not ressource effective against the sheer amount of trash you fight. Also the airship wasn't a second too late, the encounter rate is barely adequate in the field, in the water where you are expected to cross vast distances it is absurdly annoying. Yet just like Dragon Quest the game gets the primitive ressource loop right. Go to a dungeon, try to get as far as you can, effectively manage your ressources by saving spells for strong encounters and heal efficiently, have to retreat anyway, buy new gear, heal up and return, rinse and repeat until you beat the dungeon.
I think it is interesting to compare this game to its historical competitors. Phantasy Star 1 from the same year and Dragon Quest III from a year later.
Phantasy Star has the best story and setting out of the bunch, but the worst gameplay. In Phantasy Star magic is garbage, you only want to cast spells during bossfights. It also has fairly cruel dungeons,a nd no party customisation.
Dragon Quest III has the best gameplay. Magic in Dragon Quest is fun to use, and between Sap, Buff, Dazzle and Oomph casters are more than just walking nukes. Also the balance is pretty good, there is a real case to make for Martial Artists and Fighters being pretty much equally good in the physical damage dealer role. The game is also fairly cruel, ressurecting and healing long term status ailments gets really expensive, before your priest gets the respective spells.
Final Fantasy has a good midrange between the two. It is also significantly more casual than DQ III, with many cruel status ailments running out after battle, and ressurecting in town being dirt cheap. Tents and Cottages are also a real convenience, as you don't need to backtrack all the way to the city. Saving on the world map is also a big factor. Despite that it is not lacking in tension. The game kills you less often than DQ III, but the threat of death still lingers above you constantly. Sometimes a double pack of Ice Dragons will cast snowstorm and leave you very close to death or kill you. With the more grave consequences of death than Dragon Quest the game is hard enough to keep most of the tension alive.
I am definitly enjoying my time with this game, so much so in fact that my Wrath of the Righteous run is on hold until I finish this.
I am also stoked to go into Final Fantasy III with spell slots after this, provided that I can find a NES balance restoration mod for that aswell.
Not sure if it counts as a JRPG, but I'm playing Pokemon MD: Explorers of the Sky. Quite a fun dungeon-delving roguelike. Shame the friendly AI is retarded, and the difficulty is uneven: At points, you're steamrolling the opposition, then, suddenly bad weather fucks up your party, and you stumble upon a Monster House (aka the room is flooded by powerful enemies), cutting your escape. THEN you step into a trap tile when you try to move to boot.
Finally finished this game, then watched a LP for the postgame because it's actually boring. Took me 50+ hours. Quite good and highly recommended, don't let the Pokemon look fool you, this game IS NOT for kids: The difficulty spikes near the end, with enemies capable of spamming attacks that insta-kill your entire party, traps that can remove party members from your party for the entire dungeon (or even make your escort vanish and thus fail a "escort NPC" mission"), enemies love to target your vulnerable units, you can accidentally wander into post-game dungeons you randomly unlock that will tear your apart if you're not prepared, some Pokemon choices for your avatar are horrible traps that will make things VERY hard, the plot is mature and not bad (no swearing and at one point you're tied in front of an execution squad lead by the villain, who decides to have you clawed to death before you have a chance to escape), etc.
The Super Mystery Dungeon has lots of QoL improvements, but many steps back, including random items you can grab to get bonuses that have a RT timer to be acquired. In a fucking turn-based game. You also cannot make suspend saves, which is absolutely criminal. For good or bad balance is also nonexistent due having 700+ of the critters present: Being one-shotted by an attack off-screen can happen. At least your partner dying is not an instant loss. The plot is also sadly more "kiddy", which is a step-back compared to EoS.
It's also odd that your avatar is a school boy that was transported from whatever he is to a Pokemon world... And he still goes to a school as a pokemon, derp. At least most of the classes are survival/battle themed.
Loving Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana. Feels like a game perfectly tuned for me, lots of funny dialog, fun combat and an art style that kind of reminds me of golden age adventure games. Really detailed environments while still very cartoony.
Love how it really breaks the mould by explaining most things very well in game, tutorial systems are great but it does help that I've played a few other gust games already I suppose.
Feels a lot of more meaty as a JRPG than ars tonelico which I was expecting this to be more similar to and the item hunt melds really well with the main story. The characters in the world all have a good amount of depth which I feel really enhances a JRPG. Highly enjoyable.
Played Earthbound till the end. Fantastic game all around. I think the best part is the writing.
At the beginning, it plays like a true parody of the genre, with the superb ambiance and dialogue that speaks to the adult in me. Clueless parents, intense children, worldly outcasts, and a myriad background characters babbling about very precise nonsense. Turns out the script was created by a copywriter. I guess he succeded in painting a pretty picture of what each individual wants, and sold me the game's premise on that basis
Then you get lost on the game's world, only to meet Mr. Saturn from the Saturn Valley. This is the moment when it all becomes about imagination and wilderness. These, and more cute concepts throughout the game, manage to turn a field trip into an happy colourful adventure. Some cliches of the genre oppose initial memories of the story, but adding them with an expert hand was enough to expand the appeal in a tasteful way, all the way to the Nintendo Hall of Fame
Sprinkled along the way, awaits the dark menace of bizarre magic and alien devices. Many unexplained notes leave you remembering the tale, wondering about the point of it all. Strange visitors, divine masters and unmeasurable power guide you through neon pathways, underworld civilizations, the manic shadow of a city and even the tunnels of time itself. It never lingers, so I guess discussion remains part of the magic
From this description alone seems like 67% of the game would've been best enjoyed as a child, carelessly feeding on the new. And that's true, it felt less and less inspiring as gameplay went on. But boy, was it fun
Still, some day I hope to get my hands on an RPG that is as enamored with reality as the prologue of Earthbound lets on.
Took the bait since 1st time I've heard of this Square Enix game and looks different than the usual from gameplay videos.
Sigma Harmonics (NDS) [2008]
A mashup of detective genre with light ATB (active time battle) combat.
~ Clues are obtained by exploring
- mostly within the same 2-floor mansion
~ by interacting with large, unmissable pillars AND
- pixel-hunting(!) by spotting blinking blue pixel in Search Mode
~ Random battles triggered by invisible enemies
-- Combat is a joke, basically a 3-ATB gauge, card-based combat
~ Once green gauge fills, drag the skill card to the top empty slot to activate skill; swap skills (within each ATB gauge) by tapping on the skill card
~ Depending on what job class is equipped on the battle character (female partner), the skills layout (to each gauge) and a few of the skills' Power Level will be different. Each job class comes with a skill and can be hotswapped during battle
~ Just a Lv stat, with HP and base Power derived from it
~ HP fully healed at end of combat
- Enemy can appear in 4 directions. But due to an Attack-all skill and easy over-leveling (without any grinding), simply spams that skill after mid-chapter
- Enemy variety is another joke: 1 (random) enemy type for Chap 1, 2 enemy types for Chap 2.
~ Combat is integrated to gameplay loop though as each chapter's Boss Power is being diminished, determined by how well player has deduced the case
~ S-rank the case: 1st Chap Boss fight can probably be won at Lv 1 (I've easily won at Lv 2); random clue matching: could not win at Lv 4 on a single attempt
~ Next chapter unlocks as long as the Boss is defeated (due to Boss being the crime instigator); Lowest I've won is C-rank at Lv 3. Just didn't want to grind anymore for abysmal EXP to test for a lower rank
+ Reasoning and deducing the murder case with the clues
~ Prompt when all clues are obtained; optional hints are picked up by pixel-hunting
~ Player's have to put in the correct clues into the correct position in the deduction node before the next node appears. Wrong position/clues may surface a different node leading to a different deduced conclusion
Is the suspect present when crime took place?
Different nodes due to different reasoning
+ Crime will be explained based on both player's (correct/incorrect) suspect identification and (correct/incorrect) clue placements for each deduction nodes. It's enjoyable to see the crime explanation by purposely pinning an innocent as the suspect/placing clues randomly
~ Cues will indicate the incorrect deduction node after explanation and then with option to redo the reasoning
+ Cases are of decent mental exercise; only A-rank on 1st attempt for 1st case - not the actual suspect but with correct clue placements on each nodes
TLDR: Try it if into detective games but *only for* those having decent Japanese proficiency (or Chinese for fan translation) and doesn't mind the required timesink due to inclusion of pixel-hunting and joke combat.
Hey guys. I just have to say, after 30ish hours so far with Stranger Of Sword City REVISITED, this game is NOT easy! It's actually hard as nails, lol. I feel like I'm barely scratching the surface too - the Blood Crystal skill tree showing how many Lineage Types I have left to kill has a HUGE number of them left. This game is massive, hard, and oh so good for a dungeon crawler! Highly recommend. Just be prepared, it ain't easy.
Nearly done with Strange Journey Redux (3DS). On what I think is the final boss (H dungeon end), which is clearly a huge difficulty spike as I'm basically not getting anywhere with my current set up in the low 70s - playing on hard mode or whatever it's called for reference.
Overall the game is clearly very good. I am quite tired of it after 70 hours, however, and I think the over-reliance on dark crawling and teleporting in some of the dungeons (especially WoG) wore out it's welcome for me. That said, I do like the way they handle demon sources and main character abilities (read: wayyy harder to make your MC and demons all stack the best skills). Unfortunately, I feel like I've hit a hard wall now with my setup (need to find a way to get debilitate out as I've somehow managed to lose the ones I had) and I'm not looking forward to some form of grinding (for more levels to make stronger demons, for more sources with good skills, or both) in order to finish off the final boss.
Will probably finish it off in the next couple of days. Overall if you like SMT and are ready for a challenge (and ok with a fairly hardcore dungeon crawler experience), I think it's an easy recommend.
Hey guys. Also playing Shiren The Wanderer: The Tower Of Fortune And The Dice Of Fate. And wow, what a game! Really, truly impressed. This game feels like a proper RPG, they didn't cut corners to deliver that sort of immersive, expansive RPG experience. It honestly doesn't feel like a roguelike if you just survive and play intelligently. In other words just do the best u can and u *should* be okay! Very fun game. And DEEP. Man, the amount of features and item interactions they included is IMPRESSIVE. Really quite a unique experience, u gotta play it to really get a feel for it. And you'll probably fall in love with it when u do! :D Take care guys! <3
I have another thought about Stranger Of Sword City. An amazing game all around, but one very underrated feature is the management of your entire roster. People are going to die, thus they will need to be revived and their Life Points restored, both of which take days-worth of time. So, u will have to rotate in other party members from your roster (who also gain XP based on your current party's XP gain), making u use all sorts of classes, formations, skills, etc.. It's a lot of fun managing the entire roster, giving u new looks and finding new synergies and strategies as u tackle the difficult dungeons. This game is not an easy one, to those who compared Experience Inc. to McDonald's, I have to say, this game is more like a fine steakhouse with a gourmet buffet! :D Really great stuff.
