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Post by Sarge on Nov 15, 2018 0:43:13 GMT -5
Speaking of PS2 games, while it was probably a bit more popular, I almost never hear Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits* mentioned. Although interestingly, Sony did drop it onto PSN for the PS4. It's a really solid SRPG with a pretty good story to boot. Definitely one of the boons of the JRPG era. Also, more people need to play the Growlanser games. *Unless it's me or toei .
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Post by toei on Nov 15, 2018 6:17:34 GMT -5
How the Growlanser series isn't an household name is beyond me. Okay, maybe not "household", but serious gamers and RPG fans should be aware of these games. Maybe then someone would fan-translate the original PS1 entry. I don't know any other series that does what it does, and out of the three game I've played so far (there were four released in English, though I've hear the last one wasn't as well received), one was good and two were excellent.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2018 7:58:50 GMT -5
Oh yeah, I distinctly remember playing The Immortal for two minutes, dying a few times, having no idea what I was doing and then giving up in disgust. Guess it deserves another chance. Played some Lost Kingdoms but I just didn't have strong feelings about it. I suppose it was merely okay in my book. It's interesting how they kinda reused the card battle system in Kuon. Brandish was pretty cool. I definitely want to play Brandish 2. I have also read from some gaming blog that the non-translated games are quite playable even if you don't understand Japanese. Descent is one of those games I played a lot as kid. Which isn't surprising, since a PC was all I had. - As for myself, I'd like to mention Blade Runner (1997) by Westwood Studios: Why people don't play it: Well, that's just because... It's clearly because... Ehm. I don't really know, you tell me? It only came out on PC, but that was par for the course for adventure games at the time. However, it's currently abandonware (copyright issues are probably to blame) and can't be purchased on Steam or GOG, so that definitely doesn't help. Why people should play it: It's a very well crafted adventure game with a strong cyberpunk atmosphere that takes inspiration from both the novel and the movie but still manages to be its own thing and tell its own story. There are several endings, random events and character encounters can also vary from playthrough to playthrough, puzzles are fairly challenging but doable and not too out there. It manages to make you feel like you're doing actual detective work. A good game for: Whoever likes adventure games - or even if you don't, since it's not a particularly challenging game. If you like the source material or games like Snatcher, there's really no excuse not to play this game. Not a game for: Whoever just can't see themselves playing an adventure game. Ever. Well, I know some people speak French around here, so here's where you can get the game if you're interested. You can install it without hassle and it works on modern systems. Unfortunately, it seems like you'll have to tinker with the English version of the game a bit before you can get it to work.
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Post by Sarge on Nov 15, 2018 11:25:03 GMT -5
Nice. I still have my copy of Blade Runner, all four glorious discs. (And I never played into it very far. Perhaps I should.)
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Post by Ex on Nov 15, 2018 11:27:17 GMT -5
Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits I'll admit I didn't even know the game existed until you told me about it years ago. And, I still have my brand new sealed copy of AtL:TotS which I bought on your advice! Why haven't I played it yet? Because I wanted to finish the Arc the Lad series on PS1 first. Of which, I've only finished the first Arc the Lad thus far. I enjoyed the first Arc the Lad, but it didn't blow me away and make me want to immediately jump on the rest of the games. However, I understand that Arc the Lad II is supposedly leagues better than the first game. I do at least have Arc 2 & 3 on my PSP loaded ready to play. serious gamers and RPG fans should be aware of these games While shamefully I have not played any Growlanser games yet, I do at least own the localized PS2 and PSP entries. Is each game's plot standalone? Or does this series have a continuous narrative? Oh yeah, I distinctly remember playing The Immortal for two minutes, dying a few times, having no idea what I was doing and then giving up in disgust. Happened to me as well. The Immortal is absolutely an RTFM kinda game! Descent is one of those games I played a lot as kid. I can't recall how, but somehow I owned Descent as a kid as well. It was around 1995, so it must have been when the game first released - maybe I bought it at Walmart I don't know. I remember not enjoying Descent at all. I found the lack of plot and destroying simple flying robot drones to be boring. I also didn't see much difference in Descent's combat design versus other jet combat flight sims I'd already played. That is to say; flying enemies could attack you from any 360 direction, yet you also could do the same. The only difference was Descent's combat pace was much slower than jetfighter sims. Perhaps as an adult I would appreciate the 360 navigation of Descent's enclosed tunnel-like environments more though. can't be purchased on Steam or GOG I honestly think this is the sole reason that Westwood's Blade Runner languishes in obscurity. --- Backstreet Billiards | PlayStation | 1998
Why people don't play it: It's a pool simulator from the late '90s with old crusty graphics. Lots of people don't even play pool in real life.
Why people should play it: First off, pool is a great sport in general. Backstreet Billiards has one of the best pool simulation engines I've ever seen, and I've played more than a few pool video games. Beyond that though, this game is a hybrid of pool simulation and adventure game. Yes, adventure game. This is a billiards sim with varied characters and a fun plot. You play as a young man seeking the stolen cue stick of his late father - whom was a legendary billiards master. You travel around town investigating local pool dives, playing against pool sharks for information, trying to track down the cue stick, and enact revenge against whoever stole it. Backstreet Billiards is a brilliant effort when it comes to pure aught atmosphere, this game's OST is a moody masterpiece.
A good game for: People who enjoy billiards AND enjoy adventure games. Players who want to try a genre they normally never would. Players who enjoy a noir detective mystery, and perhaps have a penchant for jazz.
Not a game for: People who are bad at pool and don't want to get any better. Players who really don't care for character story-driven experiences. Gamers who don't appreciate hybridizations of genres that seemingly have no business intermingling.
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Post by toei on Nov 15, 2018 11:55:02 GMT -5
Ex Growlanser 1 & 2 were directly connected, but Growlanser 1 was never released in English, while 2 was part of Generations. It still works as a stand-alone game; the difference is that all the references to the prequel play out as backstory. The other ones are all self-contained. I'd really advise you either start with 3 (the other part of Generations) or 4 (released as Wayfarers of Time on the PSP - the PS2 original is Japan-only) as they share the same style. 2 has menu-based towns and no exploration - it's basically a real-time SRPG - while 3 & 4 let you walk around towns and outside while keeping the same battle system. 5 did come out in North America, but I've heard it wasn't as good for whatever reason (I still intend to play it at some point), while 6 remained in Japan. The series was created after Career Soft, which started as an internal team within NCS/Masaya, became independent. After a few years they were bought by Atlus, and eventually integrated within the company. The previously made the Langrisser games, but Growlanser is very different, and the "spiritual successor" talk is overstated in my opinion.
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Post by Sarge on Nov 15, 2018 12:26:55 GMT -5
Yeah, Growlanser really plays nothing like Langrisser. I suppose there is commonality in that Urushihara did the artwork, though, giving the games a similar feel while being distinct from other games in the genre.
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Post by Ex on Nov 15, 2018 12:53:51 GMT -5
Thanks for the breakdown, that was quite useful. I think the PSP version is what I'll hit up first. Next year I'm planning on hitting up some PSP SRPGS anyway*, so it can go on the short list. *Arc the Lad II Jeanne d'Arc Valkyria Chronicles IIIUrushihara did the artwork That's what gravitated my attention to the series to begin with. Satoshi Urushihara's one of my top 5 favorite anime/manga artists. He was also involved in Assault Suits Valken (character portraits), and Next King: Koi no Sennen Oukoku on Saturn.
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Post by Sarge on Nov 15, 2018 13:05:42 GMT -5
I think you'll find the improvement from AtL to AtLII rather significant. The first game was decent enough, but the amount of polish with AtLII had me drawing comparisons with Chrono Trigger and Shining Force.
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Post by toei on Nov 15, 2018 13:47:19 GMT -5
AtL feels like AtL2's prologue. My biggest issue with 2, though, was that you fought the same battles way too often - meaning the exact same enemies, same numbers, maybe even same configuration - and I remember getting really tired of that at times. Another thing that annoyed me was that when you use a spell that damages multiple enemies, the game goes through them one by one instead of just showing the damage to all or the death animations simultaneously. I found that really tedious. I didn't have that experience with 3; I thought it kept things fresher and had better pacing. I seem to be alone in thinking that, though - everybody loves AtL2, and 3 is somewhat disliked due to its mission/job-based structure (ie you work for the Hunter's Guild like in Phantasy Star 4, and while there's a main story, you spend a lot of time doing side-quests).
Twilight of the Spirits is barely a SRPG at all. The battle system has a grid and all, but the focus isn't really on the fighting, and it feels much more like a traditional RPG overall.
And yeah, you'll get as much Urushihara as you might want in Growlanser. Personally I only liked his style on female characters initially, but I got used to it very quickly.
Apparently the former Career Soft people made the Devil Survivor games after being integrated into Atlus, but those are definitely not of the same caliber as either of their previous series.
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