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Post by Ex on Feb 21, 2019 11:21:04 GMT -5
My gut tells me you won't be a huge fan of this one either, but I'd still be curious to see what you thought of it. LO seems to be a more serious, darker JRPG, so that's already leaning towards the aesthetic I prefer. It's possible it'll resonate with me. I may have time to get to it towards the end of the year. I've already got a wish list of games I'd like to play first though. I was excited for the sequels and spinoffs, but they all fell short by chasing whatever trend was big at the time. Metroid Prime 2 I really enjoyed, and beat the original Metroid Prime. For various reasons MP2 did not jive with me nearly as well, I never finished it. I got about 2/3rds of the way through it before my patience ran out. I'd like to give it another shot someday, just to have it finished and behind me. You can definitely tell Miyamoto and Iwata were hands off with this one though.
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Post by bonesnapdeez on Feb 21, 2019 11:39:09 GMT -5
Chrono Trigger - I didn't fully appreciate this until I played Panzer Dragoon Saga. PDS did so many things wrong that CT did right. Chrono Trigger's characters seemed more fun and memorable. Chrono Trigger kept the same villain looming over the horizon throughout the whole tale instead of changing it 3/4 in. Chrono Trigger also avoided one of the most common sins of video game storytelling by not taking itself so darn seriously. CT's exposition sticks to the brevity expected of a 16-bit game, so it never went overboard. I think modern games could learn a lot from Chrono Trigger. Truth. There are a couple of other things that Chrono Trigger does extremely well. First, it's a time travel game with actual cohesion between the time periods, as opposed to using time travel as an "excuse" to showcase diverse environments. The consequences of the heroes' actions feel real and tangible. It was especially brilliant to include a flourishing civilization that ends up collapsing (12,000 BC); I certainly did not see that coming. I also enjoy how two periods exist within "close" proximity (600 and 1000 AD), and how they appear superficially similar but 1000 subtly and slowly becomes altered based on the actions in 600. Second, I typically despite "supreme evil" intangible villains, but the inclusion of Lavos was done superbly. It's fascinating to see how the attitudes of the general public change throughout history -- Lavos is feared, revered, forgotten, despised, and so on. It's a good game.
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Post by chibby on Feb 21, 2019 12:05:23 GMT -5
Plus if you play your cards right, you can turn the princess into a frog!
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Post by Sarge on Feb 21, 2019 12:23:18 GMT -5
Yeah, I'll agree with Metroid Prime. So much story is contained in those logs and whatnot. You can play without it, but they add immensely to the experience.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 21, 2019 19:59:23 GMT -5
I love the whole Metroid Prime trilogy, but the quality flavor text definitely downgraded in the two sequels. Couldn't even scan as much stuff in general. My gut tells me you won't be a huge fan of this one either, but I'd still be curious to see what you thought of it. LO seems to be a more serious, darker JRPG, so that's already leaning towards the aesthetic I prefer. It's possible it'll resonate with me. I may have time to get to it towards the end of the year. I've already got a wish list of games I'd like to play first though. It also seemed a lot harder than FF's to me for the most part and I know you like a challenge. But it employs nearly the exact same skill/magic level up system from FF9, with accessories or some equipment that lets characters learn magic. So by the end game if you do some optional side dungeons/quests, etc, you can get very overpowered. It felt rewarding in this game though, because it can really kick your ass at several points. One particular encounter (with some knights on horses) seemed downright unbalanced and unfair though. But you finally get some revenge in the end.
I've seen some people (here too even, I think) speak highly of The Last Story... I played about 5 hours of that and it felt like quite possibly the most generic Sakaguchi game I've played. For my money, it was not even remotely close to Lost Oddysey's quality. I'm sure LO's tone and characters (some adults even!) could resonate with you way more than FFX did. But yeah I've been wrong plenty of times so who knows.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 21, 2019 20:24:59 GMT -5
Too new to talk about, though, or I'd have already brought it up.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 21, 2019 20:30:20 GMT -5
Oh, had no clue and I care so little about it I didn't bother checking the release date, lol. The one time graphics matter... Lost Odyssey holds up much better and seems like a far bigger production. Kind of just automatically assumed it was Mistwalker's last big release, since it looks like it.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 21, 2019 21:29:59 GMT -5
Yeah, surprisingly, Lost Odyssey came first, and even more surprisingly, that was when I'd argue the JRPG scene was stronger on the 360 than the PS3. Kinda weird to think about, but the 360 had Lost Odyssey, Tales of Vesperia, Eternal Sonata, Infinite Undiscovery, Blue Dragon, Star Ocean 4, Magna Carta 2, The Last Remnant... I mean, it was kind of ridiculous. I know some of those got ported to PS3 eventually, but at a time where console JRPGs were dropping off, the 360 was there.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 21, 2019 21:51:13 GMT -5
Sadly I don't think any of those sold very well though, so I don't think the 360 really did them any service. I kind of wish MS didn't have LO locked down as well, maybe we would have gotten some nice ports of it on other platforms by now if it wasn't an exclusive. It was amusing dealing with multiple discs for a 360 game, haha. I always see some strong fan support around Tales of Vesperia among all those. But that might be because the Tales series is still relevant with a lot of consistent releases. I guess Vesperia just got some new releases itself, but I have a newer one to play that'll probably be my final test for a Tales game. Tales games would be the polar opposite of what this thread is asking for...
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Post by Sarge on Feb 21, 2019 22:22:13 GMT -5
They didn't, really. Mostly owing to being on the 360. A combination of not being the "JRPG" platform in the States and... well, not being much of a platform at all in Japan.
Believe it or not, I do think a few Tales games have decent plots. I think Tales of the Abyss was one of the stronger entries in the series, and I remember being intrigued by the various plot twists in that one.
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