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Post by Xeogred on Apr 22, 2019 21:28:44 GMT -5
It's good to see that one get a lot of praise from you all. Chances look higher and higher it'll be a Vanillaware game I like!
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Post by dunpeal2064 on Apr 23, 2019 11:12:46 GMT -5
This was the era where I started to pull away from playing tons of RPGs, but I did get around to a few of these: Blue Dragon - Put maybe 25 hours into this one. I thought it was okay, but it didn't do anything that made me want to stick around. Looks good, and has some great tunes, but the story and gameplay left something to be desired for me personally. Lost Odyssey - I was hesitant on this after Blue Dragon, but I'm glad I gave it a chance. Out of the '09 RPGs I've played, this is my 2nd favorite. Its basically a ps1-era Final Fantasy game, but with some absolutely wonderful writing. It has all the melodrama and plot twists that I love from these types of games. Its long, and can move a little slow at times, but I think its well worth playing, enough so that I've played through it twice! Phantasy Star Universe - I tried to like this game, multiple times even, but it just doesn't do it for me. Not entirely sure why, all the ingredients are there. I guess PSO was just lightning in a bottle, as all of their efforts to revisit the style have disappointed me in one way or another. Muramasa - I agree that this is the best Vanillaware game, at least that I have played. I liked it, it looks stunning and the combat is pretty good. I think, though, that I must just not like Vanillaware much, because even their best game didn't really blow me away. It was fun, but I didn't think it was great, just decent. Tales of Vesperia - This is literally the only Tales game that I actually liked, and I've tried to play most of them. The protagonist is actually likable, and the combat rewards you for playing well to alleviate the button-mashy nature of their previous games (You can still mash, but its worth playing well to see the sick finishers). I think thats all of them on the list that I've played enough of to comment on. I still need to play Demon's Souls, really badly, but I still don't have the ability to. I also have Infinite Undiscovery and Eternal Sonata on the shelf, hoping to get around to those someday too. ...But you left one very important game off of that list, released in December of 2009 in Japan on the ps3, just sneaking in. Final Fantasy XIII - Thought you could sneak this one by eh? This is, hands down, my favorite RPG on this list that I've played (despite not being on the list), and one of my favorite Final Fantasy games. Its not perfect, but it has the best character development in the franchise, possibly the best turn-based combat I've ever experienced, gorgeous, gorgeous hallways, and a stunning soundtrack. I wish Final Fantasy XV could have been half as good as this game. I'll defend this game to the grave, its missteps always seem to be magnified and its qualities ignored, but I think that its a wonderful game, and now seems likely to be the last FF game in the style I like most.
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Post by bonesnapdeez on Apr 23, 2019 11:21:42 GMT -5
I really liked Eternal Sonata. Babyish characters and a kinda odd attempt at a "hybrid" combat system, but it's a fun little title.
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is better than it deserves to be. Probably even with its predecessor in terms of quality. Nice meaty JRPG.
Never bought into the Demon's Souls hype, sorry dudes. It's well-made and decent enough for the generation it's part of, but not some insanely powerful transcendental experience. Oh, and the whole meme culture that propped up to glorify the game was phoned-in and corny as hell. Ugh.
Final Fantasy XIII is, I can say with zero hesitation, the worst video game ever developed.
Dragon Age: Origins is pretty solid. Funny how accessible and popular "WRPGs" are these days. Played it on PC, will get to the sequels someday.
Dragon Quest Swords sucks. Gimmicky waggle nonsense.
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Post by dunpeal2064 on Apr 23, 2019 11:35:12 GMT -5
I really liked Eternal Sonata. Babyish characters and a kinda odd attempt at a "hybrid" combat system, but it's a fun little title. Glad to hear you liked this one! Did you happen to try its supposed co-op mode? Curious if its actually fun with two people, since this seems like the sort of game my wife would be into. On the Souls thing, I agree its status got annoying, even as a huge fan of the series I got tired of it. Admittedly, I kinda miss Souls being the thing casuals raged over now though, beats the hell out of fortnight dances. Plus, I liked using Dark Souls as a gateway to make people play other, much more brutal games, and for that short time spam it actually worked.
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Post by Ex on Apr 23, 2019 11:39:40 GMT -5
Between you and Xeogred praising this one, it's moved on up to the short list of 7th gen RPGs I care to play first. I didn't leave this one off purposefully, honest. I'm sure there's more 7th gen RPGs that released in '09 in Japan, then later in the west, which could be added to the list. For all the flak people gave FFXIII about its "hallways", it's hypocritical that FFX didn't get that same flak. FFX is a linear straight line through all its content, including dungeons/areas - comically so. Never bought into the Demon's Souls hype, sorry dudes. not some insanely powerful transcendental experience It absolutely depends on the player and what they value in their gaming. I could certainly see some people not caring for Demon's Souls whatsoever. For me personally, it hit all the right notes and sung an existential dirge. - Has anyone here played any of these, have any thoughts?: Enchanted Arms Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon Magna Carta 2 Rise of the Argonauts Rune Factory Frontier Spectrobes: Origins Valhalla Knights: Elder SagaEdit: I liked using Dark Souls as a gateway to make people play other, much more brutal games What other third person action-RPGs are "much more brutal" than Souls stuff? Or do you mean just harder games in general, despite their genre?
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Post by dunpeal2064 on Apr 23, 2019 11:58:13 GMT -5
Yeah, I more meant games in other genres, since people seemed more open to games beating them down when the Souls hype was high. Ninja Gaiden II (360) was probably the only game that was close to Souls in genre that I got one guy to play quite a bit of, but it was usually bullet hells (surprising, I know), with some older games in the mix like Contra 3, Castlevania 1, and the like.
Most of the time I'd just put on Mushihimesama Futari on God difficulty and let them have at it for a bit.
Oh, on FFX's hallways, I remember people complaining about it when it first came out, but it seemed people took better to the change with that one. I never got that particular complaint either, as aside FF8, there was almost nothing to explore in FFs world maps anyways, they tended to just be... well, really wide hallways, except way less pretty.
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Post by Xeogred on Apr 23, 2019 18:01:13 GMT -5
Final Fantasy XIII is, I can say with zero hesitation, the worst video game ever developed. Call me in 2026 when you get around to FF15.
Maybe FF10 didn't get as much flak because the Sphere Grid is awesome and way better than FF13's weird circular tower grid thing. You could control a bunch of characters mid combat in FF10 which ruled, also it's no instant game over when a "party leader" dies or whatever. Both are linear but it doesn't take ~30 hours for you to be able to customize things and do a lot on your own accord in FF10!
I've warmed up to FF13 a lot over time, I mean even back when I played it I did a lot of post-end game content because when it finally opens up the combat system is amazing. The OST is out of this world (the sequels too), etc. But yeah dunpeal is the biggest fan for sure heh.
I'd wager FF5 and FF6 are two that got really "open" world in the back half for both. FF2 early on so it's easy to get screwed haha. FF7-FF9 and FF12 had tons of side content though.
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Post by Ex on Apr 23, 2019 21:46:08 GMT -5
Final Fantasy XII is the best 3D series entry I've played. I loved it. That said, I'm clearly not the biggest fan of this series. There's loads of entries I've not played yet:
FFI FFII FFIII FFVIII FFX-2 FFXI FFXIII (and all its sequels) FFXIV FFXV
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Post by Xeogred on Apr 23, 2019 22:13:07 GMT -5
I can't fathom what anyone would think of playing FF8 nowadays for their first time. I'm a huge fan, but man it's a weird one.
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Post by dunpeal2064 on Apr 24, 2019 8:08:00 GMT -5
I'd wager FF5 and FF6 are two that got really "open" world in the back half for both. FF2 early on so it's easy to get screwed haha. FF7-FF9 and FF12 had tons of side content though.
Definitely agree that those games did side content well, I just don't think losing the world map took away from that or was vital to it. Case in point, FFX also has loads of side content! More superbosses than the whole series combined, really awesome optional summons, and the infamously ridiculous ultimate weapon quests. FFVI's back half is definitely the best use of the world map in the series though, and its one thing I think couldn't have been done as well without it. On XIII's combat, I can see why people would be disappointed with the lack of customization, but I think it was necessary to make such a tight, tense, and difficult turn-based game. Imo, FFXIII is easily the hardest main series FF game (The final dungeon of FF3 aside) You could never make, say, FF8 nearly as difficult, because anyone who didn't master the obtuse Junction system would never get anywhere, which meant those that did understand their systems were usually treated to a very easy game. In combat, I think XIII's system worked great, felt almost like an action game with how you'd actually have to respond to boss tells, how timing mattered. You'd see Barthandelus raise his fist and need to react then, not when the move went off, rapidly flying through different roles to get buffs and heals going before you went back to working up the enemies meter so you could let it rip. Love that shit. Alright, I think I got the XIII talk out of my system
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