Random thoughts on whatever JRPG you're currently playing?

[Reinhardt]

I've started with V because there are at least some characters i know.

 

[spekkio]

BROs, finished Fire Emblem 13 - Awakening

Took me close to 70 hrs on hard:

Sadly, it was both an overkill (final battles were pathetically easy) and not enough (final DLC missions were still impossible to complete) at the same time. But such is this game: Fire Emblem meets Final Fantasy Tactics and low-tier VN writing.

The Good:

• New "pair-up" system finally brings sth new to the stagnant formula (esp. when coming from FE11&12, which used the "back to the roots" approach). Playing the game not with individual units, but with teams consisting of two soldiers, who can be switched at any time, adds a whole new tacticool layer to the game (for example: coupling a ATK+DEF fag with a MAG+RES cunt is a fucking start). But it also introduces new problems (see below).
• Shitload of missions: regular ones, paralogues, "cleanups", DLC ones. If you love pimping up your team, it's a heavean.
• Artstyle has grown on me. But i still prefer art from the "GC / Wii" period.
• New 3D engine is generally fine (except the feet problem). Maps look good and are proper 3D renders, models aren't as sexy as in PoR, but very detailed, etc.

The Bad:

• Writing can be simply atrocious. Esp. jarring are support dialogues, Barrack banter and neverending babble in most DLC. Many times I was like "Jebus fucking christ, would you all just shut the fuck up already, so I can go back to the menus??!?". Clearly there were some VN-fags involved in developing this game (esp. DLCs). I think that DLCs alone have more text than all previous FE games combined (and by a large margin).
• After short time I started Fast-Forwarding everything spoken in the Barracks, and then I skipped them entirely (you get shitty items and +12 EXP most of the time - what's the point then?).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• FE devs are known for changing some UI elements with every game, but UI in FE13 shows clear symptoms of "new devs not playing previous games in series" syndrome. Examples:
  
  a) You don't get info about max uses of an item in main UI screen, only "remaining uses":
  
  
  
  
  
  So you don't know if you should spend your precious Hammerne staff (one-use only, wtf?) on something, or not. How many uses will it restore? 10? 20? 30? Nobody knows. Except the Convoy:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  b) You can't access the "Units" menu in the preparation phase, only during combat. Want to check which fag should pop this "STR+2" pill? Well, browse through your entire army. AFAIR even Snes games allowed you to check / sort info on your units at every moment.
  
  c) Game uses shared "Items" window for both units and Convoy (previously these were separate things). So you can't simply move item X from Fag1 to Cunt2, you have to choose Cunt2 and browse the entire list of items to find the shit you need.
  
  
  
  
• The entire game is created with "pair-up" system in mind. I'm not sure about Easy, but on Hard you have no chances of survival without pairing up your units and developing social links ASAP. With surprise buttsex reinforcements acting on the same turn they appear, you have no other choice than making your units not only strong offensive-wise (you initiate combat most of the time - like on Easy), but first and foremost defensive-wise (enemies initiate combat most of the time). And pair-ups help with that greatly. I mean good luck playing the game without:
  
  a) stat bonuses:
  
  
  
  
  
  b) supporting attacks / defenses from your homie:
  
  
  
  
  
  c) supporting buffs:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• But there's one thing that's even more crucial broken: skills. You can have the strongest units, with AAA supports, but if some "bad" enemy skill triggers (Counter, Luna, Astra), you're fucked. It's plainly visible in one of the most interesting missions (Para#22), where you face a team of your "mirrors" (units with same stats and skills):
  
  
  
  
  
  Despite the enemies not using pair-ups, I still had been owned, due to enemy skills like Sol, etc. But when I disabled my stronger skills (depriving enemies of them as well), voila:
  
  
  
  
  
  Pair-ups and my units using "Killer" weapons did the trick.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I remember how surprised I was reading online FAQs, 'cuz all fags were like: "Galeforce this, Galeforce that, get Galeforce for all your units!!!"). Until I got my first unit with Galeforce and I was like: "Oh, now I get it".
  
  
  
  
• Mission design is generally bland ("kill everyone" or "kill the boss" all the time), which gets even worse on Hard (enemies move towards you from the start + reinforcements act on the same turn the appear). Best tactic is to hold your ground initially, then counter-attack when enemy numbers are close to yours / reinforcements are still far away. Rinse & repeat for 50 missions.
• No Warp staff, only Rescue staff. So you can rescue some ally from the opposite part of the map, but you can't teleport you stronger unit there to kill the boss some weak thief who will run away with shit that should've been yours. Decline.
• New jobs / skills system is so convoluted / poorly explained, that even after reading couple of online FAQs, I still had to experiment with Master & Second Seals to learn what does what and at which level.
• Game requires / encourages skill grinding: you can't dream about clearing Par#23 or some later DLC missions without:
  a) eugenically-enhanced 2nd gen units (2 skills inherited from parents + all their +1 stats)
  b) strongest skills (Galeforce, Sol, Astra, etc.)
  c) weapons forged to the maxx
  d) strongest supports
  
  My units were in their 40-ties (brawlers) and 70-ies (healers), and still my situation in Par#23 looked like this:
  
  - 30 allies against 50 enemies:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  - Weapon triangle unfavorable:
  
  
  
  
  
  - Weapon triangle favorable:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I mean there's no room for tactics here, you can kill a couple of enemies, but eventually will be owned no matter what you do. Which brings me to the last point.
  
• Stats are (almost) everything. You can deal with almost every mission in the game by pure grinding. "Tried 20 different tactics and still got owned? Don't worry, just go back to this mission 20 levels later and you'll breeze through it". Older games, where you couldn't grind at all / only in Coliseums, felt totally different in this aspect. If you had problems with some mission, it meant you either were doing it wrong tactically, or failed earlier strategically (core team not trained enough). In FE13 you can just outgrind yourself from most problems.
  
  

The Ugly:

• Game still suffers from heavy stuttering problems in Citra during shader compilation. Not game's fault, but hurts the fun.
• Had to check the web on the "where are their feet?" dilemma. I was sure that was some sort of emulation bug. Fucking inept devs.
• Almost every weapon in the game can be freely bought and forged. I've preferred limited supply of Brave or Anti-X weapons from earlier games. Same with the limited use of forging (only once after every mission).
• Some "final" DLCs (The Future Past), where you have to protect disarmed allies against hordes of enemies, with bonus "final" wave of ultra fast and deadly reinforcements on top, have convinced me to just go for the final mission and be done with the game ASAP. I mean I was doing fine till Turn#7, killing dozens enemies each turn (initial + reinforcements), when suddenly this happened:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Without knowing that disso shitto will happen right from the start, you have like 0 chances not only to protect the two remaining allies, but to fucking survive with your units.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I hate the "long-rage enemies that can't be reached" idea (waste of EXP!). So bad, that I've decided to memory-edit around the problem:
  
  
  
  
  
  

Rant ends here.

MVPs:

2nd gen MVPs (mostly used in DLCs):

Verdict: and a fucking half. Sadly, people who suggested skipping every line of dialogue weren't wrong.

So, FE #3 -#13 done, only ones left: Fates, Valentia & 3H. And then I can start from the beginning.

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

Never managed to finish FE Awakenening always end up dropping it but i have 200hs in Fates, to this day Conquest is the best FE in my opinion, the story is fucking trash but gameplay is fucking amazing. Chapter 10 will always have a special place in my heart, that chapter alone is worth studying for anyone interested in video game design.

 

[Reinhardt]

Ok, starting SRW V ng++ was a mistake. It was already very easy before but with 15 max upgrades instead of 10 it's even more ridiculous. Everyone can cross map in 2 turns and hits for 2-3 times of enemy health.
I guess it's time to move to next game.

 

[Reinhardt]

Started playing SRW X and suddenly instead of space battleships and ded Earth from V it's fantasy with giant robots and magic. It was unexpected, but i like it. Keeps things fresh.

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

Currently playing Ogre Battle 64 and while I had a rough time at the start (due to not being aware of how alignments works and how they are connected to liberating/capturing settlements), I'm having a blast due to the level of freedom you have in customizing your units to your tastes.

Although I prefer March of the Black Queen due to having much more varied maps and having far more memorable characters.

Edit: I should just discuss March of the Black Queen as since I'm also playing it alongside the above. It's basically an RTS game on the Snes and it has tons of customization and freedom to create your own units. Not to mention the map design is very varied and natural, you really feel like you're on a long campaign across the continent.

How does Battle Ogre 64 emulate? I'm thinking of buying a fucking wii u of all things because it has native emulation of basically every nintendo console.

 

[Kaivokz]

Finished Dragon Quest IV and V in just under 40 hours each and started playing Phantasy Star III.

DQIV (ds)
+neat idea of introducing the party members in their own chapters
+completing the game requires talking to people and exploration
+quite a few secrets to find
//comfy jrpg in both gameplay and overall story
-combat is boring; some bosses are challenging but the strategy to beat them is always the same and the way to win is to hunt metal slimes for half an hour because even doing most optional content you will be under-leveled for the last boss

DQV (ds)
+another neat idea of choosing a wife and having your children as party members
+same as DQIV, no quest markers or journal so you need to talk to people and explore to progress
//it seemed to me there were less secrets in this game and more casinos; I didn’t really enjoy the tnt minigame
//same as DQIV this game is comfy but not really exciting in any way
-everything I said about the combat for IV applies here, especially since every boss seems to breathe fire so insulatle or spamming multi heals is necessary

PSIII
I’ve only just started this one, but some thoughts:
The spirit of PSII is present in the giant empty dungeons with flashing backgrounds that all look the same.
Game feels unfinished with limited animation and confusingly translated dialogue. The clues they give are almost as bad as having quest markers, but in the opposite direction; it can be a chore to figure out what you’re supposed to do, not because there’s some puzzle or challenge, but because the translation or writing is so unclear. All the building look exactly the same and everything feels empty.
The menu design is clumsy; the amount of button presses you need to change everyone’s target or input item/magic commands is bad. It has resulted in me auto attacking the first enemy even if it’s suboptimal, just because changing everyone’s target is so cumbersome.

Only positives I can give right now are that the music is great, and the character art is pretty good too. So far, I enjoyed PSII more, which is a surprise because I had a lot of complaints about that game too.

 

[Gastrick]

Currently playing Ogre Battle 64 and while I had a rough time at the start (due to not being aware of how alignments works and how they are connected to liberating/capturing settlements), I'm having a blast due to the level of freedom you have in customizing your units to your tastes.

Although I prefer March of the Black Queen due to having much more varied maps and having far more memorable characters.

Edit: I should just discuss March of the Black Queen as since I'm also playing it alongside the above. It's basically an RTS game on the Snes and it has tons of customization and freedom to create your own units. Not to mention the map design is very varied and natural, you really feel like you're on a long campaign across the continent.

How does Battle Ogre 64 emulate? I'm thinking of buying a fucking wii u of all things because it has native emulation of basically every nintendo console.

There's no such thing as native emulation, if it was native then it wouldn't be emulated. In fact, there are a lot of games that do not work on Wii U VC. The best way is to find out is download the latest version of Project64 and see whether the game works. Besides Pokemon Snap, I've found every N64 game easy to emulate.

 

[spekkio]

How does Battle Ogre 64 emulate? I'm thinking of buying a fucking wii u of all things because it has native emulation of basically every nintendo console.

Completed it on Project64 back in 2012 without major problems. Should be even better on newshit N64 emus (LLE).

And about the "Wii U has native emulation of basically every nintendo console" part - are you sure it's still the case? I mean, there's this:

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/is-3ds-dead.133991/page-3#post-7752940

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

Yeah that doesn't matter, homebrew for Wii U is amazing and can emulate pretty much everything so of course i was talking about having a hacked wii u.

 

[spekkio]

Wouldn't be cheaper / easier to just buy some old 13'' laptop with Windows / Loonix and connect it to the TV / projector and a wireless gamepad? I mean if you plan on using emulators anyway, why not use the superior platform for them?

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

Playing jayrpigs on PC is haram.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I'd play games on PC whenever possible simply due to the sheer convenience factor. On PC, I can save anywhere or create save states (a near necessity for old games with... bad/antiquated game design where you're going to die/game over a lot and then have to spend lots of time redoing your last half hour of progress. I don't consider that a fun expenditure of my limited free time). I can load the game and resume where I left off immediately. I can throw in reshade or turn on CRT shaders. I can alt+tab out and look something up within seconds.

Keeping old consoles is too much of a hassle for me. Many televisions don't have HDMI plugs anymore, let alone RGB plugs, so that's more adapters you need to wind up/unwind and store and replace in case they stop working. Also, if you have an old console, then you really need an actual CRT TV to hook them up to because that's what old games were designed to be projected through. CRT TVs take up a lot of space. If you're not using one and just hooking up your console to an HD TV or a monitor, then you mind as well just use CRT shaders to achieve the same effect. Setting up the old console takes a lot of time. Acquiring new games to actually play is also a hassle, either because you have to go shopping for those games, wait weeks for them to come in the mail and maybe they work, or you have to fiddle around trying to transfer data onto a cartridge (which you have to do if you are playing fan translated ROMs or mods). And there is the fact that consoles and their controllers just break down and stop working over time and it is incredibly expensive to replace them. Overall, it's hard to justify wasting all of this time, effort, and money when you can just play the game right now on PC and you'll have way more convenience features.

Licking your fingers and wiping your N64 cartridges and blowing on them, and then sticking them into your N64 and waiting 20 seconds for the console to boot up... and it doesn't work, and doing it 5 times in a row is not fun. Spending 5 minutes fiddling with your finnicky Xbox controller cords trying to get your controller inputs to get through to the Xbox... and then you move your body an inch to the left and the connection ceases is not fun.

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

I don't like emulating if i can avoid it, my PC can run the lastest AAA trash no problem the thing is that when you play the original version you can see better that some design decisions were made with the hardware in mind and it's gimmicks too, i always want to play the intended way. Is it shit to play some games at 23 FPS? Yes but when playing OG hardware you can also appreciate how optimized some games are and how much effort they put in for it to look good and with stable framerate.

I understand your point, why not play something at 4k 120FPS when you can? I just try to get the original experience.

 

[Reinhardt]

Never trust enemy low % to hit, especially if you fight boss with character that needs to survive mission.

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

Is Ryza 2 good? The first one made me drop the franchise.

 

[j2alg]

Playing Imouto! Seikatsu -Fantasy- by Inusuku

Little sisters and adventure, the finest things life has to offer. I got walled by a hard fight like 80 days in but I'll try harder. Easily my favorite game this year so far.

 

[spekkio]

BROs, is it just me, or does SMT4 have the worst UI of any Megaten game evar? I mean there are two screens to use, yet you constantly miss some crucial info, like checking demons' skills requires additional click, while the stats bars take up like 1/4 of the screen:

Or you need 5 fucking clicks every time you want to fuse some faggit (not to mention going back and forth to re-summon fused demons). And some of these menus have like 2-3 options. I mean, what the fuck:

Going from DeSu games and Strange Journey, it looks and feels fucking retarded.

 

[lightbane]

Welcome to modern SMT games. It will get worse if Soul Hackers 2 is any indication.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Vantage Master - 8/10 (Very Good)

Finished this last night. It's a tactics game/SRPG where you play as a master who summons monsters (called Natials) and tries to slay the enemy master. The game looks aesthetically gorgeous.

After each battle, you loot a totem off of the enemy summoner that allows you to summon a new type of monster. There are some peculiar looking monster designs. For example, you can get a totem that is a ship-in-a-bottle, which is used to summon a winged fishbowl Natial. Cool designs.

You can be a wolfman who summons fishbowl monsters and cleaves wizards with his claymore!


The battles take place on a hex grid which allows for more interesting movement options. There is no stat or equipment micromanagement and no sidequests; the game is very focused on just getting you to the fun part of the battles. Battles are about 15-30 minutes long, so the game avoids the tedium and frustration that plagues other tactics games/SRPGs.

There are 30 battles and the game took me about 22 hours to complete it. Strangely, there is a world map but the entire game takes place on one of the four continents. The final battle takes place in a desert on a landbridge to the second continent. That being said, the game did not outstay its welcome.

The gameplay has a lot of depth to it. Natials can be one of four elements and there are type disadvantages. Water beats Fire. Fire beats Heaven. Heaven beats Earth. Earth beats Water. Earth elements tend to be slow but have high defenses and are good for digging in and entrenching a position. Heaven units can fly over terrain and are good for capturing distant positions like ley lines, or flanking. Water Natials usually move slowly over land but way faster over water. Your master can summon a magic spell that can raise or lower the water level, enabling your water units to travel further (or to landlock an enemy master's navy). There is also elevation, so you can have archer units that stand on top of hills and shoot further, while units down below can try to block line of sight by hiding behind pillars, and so on.

The game is quite hard. There is a so-called "easy mode" but it is still nonetheless quite hard. I would strongly recommend playing the game on easy.

After every 4 battles, there is a 40 second cutscene which I presume is the plot happening, but the cutscenes aren't translated (except for the last one), so don't play this for the story.

There is some fantastic music too!



The game is free to download from Falcom's website.

I had a ton of fun playing this game. Probably the most enjoyable tactics game/SRPG I've played. Strong recommendation.

 

[spekkio]

BROs, decided to drop Shin Megami Tensei 4 after ~12 hours (shortly after reaching Tokyo).

Reasons:

• Godawful UI (hardly functional, shit like having info on one screen while making y/n choice on the other, accessing multiple levels needed for basic operations, etc.).
• Boring exploration, simple maps, etc.
• Fusing new demons being less interesting than in other SMT games - smirk mechanic defeats the need of "race to power". I mean you either:
  1) hit enemies first to initiate combat, and then wipe them out using proper elemental attacks, which leads to them not having a chance to act at all,
  or
  2) got ambushed, and if enemy gets even a single smirk, wiped out yourself without a chance to act.
  IMO this is the single most retarded mechanic in any Megaten game I've played so far (SMT 1&3, Persona 2, DDS1-2, Raidou 1, SJ, DeSu 1&2).
• Very high encounter rate with (only one) mechanic that can mitigate it (Estoma Sword) being very cumbersome when compared to other games (Estoma Spray, AR codes in worst case scenario).
• Weird design when it comes to "apps". I mean you can & should invest all your "app" points into unlocking protag & demons' skill slots. Then fuse your team so all your demons have agi, bufu, zio, zan + some dia / hama / -kaja skills. You won. At least until outsmirked by the enemy.

I liked story and world for the most part, but I can't excuse playing such a time-consuming game (constant combat, fusion, exploration), when it has so many glaring design flaws that can't be easily fixed (mods).

Aborted.

Absolute decline / shamefur display when compared to SMT3.

That's only my second MegaTen game I've dropped, with Persona 2 - Innocent Sin being the first.

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

"Finished" Trio of Towns today, probably the best story of seasons/ harvest moon game there is out there, i'm thinking of replaying Rune Factory 5 when the halal version comes out next month and compare to jp RF5 at launch.

 

[lightbane]

decided to drop Shin Megami Tensei 4 after ~12 hours (shortly after reaching Tokyo).

I believe someone recommended doing just that, as the game gets worse by then.

, and if enemy gets even a single smirk, wiped out yourself without a chance to act.

To be fair, a similar thing happens in all games if the enemy ambushes you, hits a weakpoint or crits, then proceeds to wipe out your party. Ie: Encountering the giant Ghirimekhala in a random encounter in DDS2.
You also didn't mention the terribad new designs for some of the demons.
Theoretically the expansion is better than the base 4th game.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Terrible decision little girl. Looks are deceiving. RUN AWAY! Didn't your parents tell you to not talk, look, or interact with strangers?

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

It's too late for them.