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Post by Xeogred on May 7, 2019 22:30:17 GMT -5
Yup, I think I'm going to like DQ4 a lot. The monster catching thing in DQ5 was fine, but I'd rather enjoy a bigger cast of main characters with personalities and all, which sounds like all the other games have over DQ5. The time skips were a cool idea but also made the story a little disjointed so I wasn't always super invested. All around I had a blast with DQ5 though, but now I'm excited to see how the others stack up.
But for now, I'm ready to get back into the world of GUN HAZARD!
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Post by Ex on May 8, 2019 0:44:24 GMT -5
Honestly I've been wanting to hit up DQ4 (DS) next. Sarge is right about DQ4. DQ4 really is excellent. I beat DQ4 on DS myself back in 2011 or something like that. I put 45 hours into it. I liked DQ4 a lot more than DQ5 (which I also beat on DS). I have not played DQ6 yet. But when I do, it will be via the DS version. Sarge prefers the SFC version, but I love that mix of polygon backgrounds and sprites the DS engine provides. Yeah I forget about that. Dude if it wasn't for HLTB, I would forget most of what I've beaten myself honestly. But for now, I'm ready to get back into the world of GUN HAZARD! Good to hear. That means you're on that sweet OST. I love these tracks:
The original Front Mission just fills my veins with cold metallic joy. I LOVE IT
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Post by dunpeal2064 on May 8, 2019 3:22:33 GMT -5
Alright, so I started up Arc the Lad 1 yesterday. I have a tad bit of history with this game, despite never playing it for more than an hour. That, combined with the game's shorter length and it being developed by the same team that made Front Mission, made this one win out as my first choice. Small bit of history for me. When I was real deep in my "Final Fantasy is all I play" phase, the guy that ran the card shop I frequented lent me 3 games in order to try and expand my gaming taste. This dude was in his late 20s and decently well off, owning two businesses, and was very into retro gaming, so he had the good stuff. I'm talkin owning a Turbo Duo good stuff. He also liked to give me flak for playing bad games like Final Fantasy (He thought 7 was the last good one). Anyways, he lent me Act Raiser, Contra 3, and The Arc the Lad Collection, to try to get me to play some "real games". While I blew through Act Raiser and dug it well enough, and fell madly in love with Contra 3, I was sorta overwhelmed by Arc the Lad. This was my first exposure to any sort of special edition or game collection, and so I basically played a bit of each of them, but never really sunk my teeth into any. So, now I'm righting that wrong, at least with the first game. I put about 3 hours into Arc the Lad yesterday morning after work. Took a break for lunch, came back, and... my save was corrupted! I've been using Popstarter to load ps1 games via usb on my ps2, and while its a bit hit or miss, its generally worked fine. I even made sure to test the save file early on, since SMT on the SNES had already broken my heart. Loaded the corrupted save onto my computer, and it registered at 0kb, so its toast. After being angry for a little bit, I started the game over and basically speed-ran my way back to where I was (In about half the time!), and I'm now saving on both virtual cards and backing the saves up every now and then on my pc. So, here's where I'm at in Arc the Lad I went and re-lit the flame that Kukuru put out (That silly girl!), got summoned to the castle, killed things to prove I'm strong, went across the sea to another continent to gain access to these woods where the secret of the ark lies, killed more things to prove that I was strong to another dude, found out Arc's dad was the prince and is still alive, went back to report in and found Tosh being dragged to prison, helped him break out by killing the guards that were actually monsters, and went back to my home only to find it burned to the ground. I'm now supposed to go find a book that will help me find these Zelda-esk pieces of power that will help me find the power of the ark. The game's been pretty fun so far. I like how snappy the battles are, feels like once you know a map you can maneuver about it and take dudes out real fast. It seems like some grinding is in order on occasion, but generally only a few extra battles per area, and since the battles go quick, it hasn't bothered me. The move animations are awesome, I especially like Poco's bard moves (His healing ability reminds me of the twins in Kung Fu Hustle that fight with music). Some really pretty background sprites too, the forest outside your home town is gorgeous. Only thing that kinda rubbed me wrong is that there is seemingly no way to open a typical RPG menu... just, at all. The only way to somewhat check things is to do so in battle (ie go to use an ability to see its details). So there are things in the game that I don't quite have a grasp on (Boots that give me Level 1 Jump ability, but my jump is leveling separately from that, no clue if this is good once my jump is a higher level), and while the Instruction Manual may be the answer, I can't find the thing anywhere! My go-to spot, and the only spot that actually hosts the manual, is giving 404s on all of its downloads right now. Overall I'm enjoying myself, despite getting reset almost half way through the game, and the minor menu annoyance. Its not a mind-blowing game, but its solid, and it has me curious as to where the story will go, what new characters I may find, and what cool new ability animations I'll get to see.
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2019 4:42:58 GMT -5
Haha, you guys complain about slow starts and being forced to carry out menial task in RPGs. Meanwhile, in Gothic I had to pick up turnips for Lobart the Farmer and bring them to his wife for 5 golds. I also got scammed into bringing water to the rice farmers - you know, just that once - now the guards of the Rice Lord would beat me senseless and steal my money whenever I tried to cross their rice field without bringing water to all the workers first. And you have to cross that rice field. They'll keep bothering you until you're strong enough to kill them or at least give them a good thrashing. Best Polish migrant worker simulator. 10/10. My 104 hour Mass Effect trilogy marathon came to an end the other day, so now I'm ready to jump into Front Mission DS soon. Let's hope I have some energy left for another long game, lol.
Nice, I'm looking at playing that game myself for the Brand New Déjà Vu month, since I've already beaten the SNES version. They say the script was a bit less serious/dark on the DS, but otherwise that seems the best version. The DS version of FM1 is really cool, because it has the original content, plus an alternate campaign where you play as the "bad" guys. The alternate campaign has entirely new missions and a unique plot unto itself. Two games in one! Finishing both campaigns without using a walkthrough or strategy guide took me 38 hours. Do you automatically unlock the alternate campaign or it's the split path kind with more or less obscure requirements à la FM3/ Vanguard Bandits/ Der Langrisser? Alright, so I started up Arc the Lad 1 yesterday. Nice, I want to play that one myself. You're right though, can't find manuals for any of the PS1 games, that's too bad. Almost put Jeanne D'Arc aside as midway through the game you're forced to make do without your strongest characters - including the main character herself - for quite a few missions. Pretty much a way for the game to tell me 'go grind for a couple of hours now'. Well, I managed to pull through without grinding, but I'm not a fan of games taking units away from you without warning, especially if it's the main character. You can very well waste a ton of exp on a unit you'll never get to use again. Aside from that, game's pretty cool. But I know what you're thinking. If this game truly is a highly accurate, highly historical depiction of the Hundred Years' War, then where are all the obese purple frogs and talking French bulldogs that - as we all know - used to make up the bulk of the French army at the time? Well, I'm so glad you asked.
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Post by Ex on May 8, 2019 10:56:42 GMT -5
It seems like some grinding is in order on occasion I doubt you'll need to grind. My clear time was 9h 54m, and I didn't use a strategy guide or ever have to grind. These were my thoughts when I beat Arc 1 back in 2016:
If you enjoy Shining Force, you'd probably enjoy Arc the Lad. It's a simple to play SRPG just as Shining Force is. Such things as terrain elevation, elemental weaknesses, or permadeath aren't factors here. This simplicity means speedier battles, and the terseness also carries into character setup and plot exposition. Arc the Lad doesn't concern itself with fluff, it just gets down to its SRPG battling business and stays busy.
There are many things I enjoyed about Arc the Lad. For one thing, this is a game from 1995, and embodies a lot of positives from that platinum era of gaming. Beautiful 2D artwork fills the gameworld with pleasing sprite animation. A spry and eclectic J-rock OST keeps the soundtrack pumping, much preferred over the typical orchestrated fantasy sludge. The main characters are all unique, with plenty of weirdo monster designs to combat. There's lots of variety in the types of attacks your team has at their disposal. And best of all the hero, Arc, is not a whiny emo brat as most modern Japanese RPGs tend to have. Arc is about kicking ass and getting the job done.
Another good thing; Working Designs didn't screw this localization up! Working Designs was hit and miss with a lot of their stuff, but they remained constrained with Arc the Lad. You won't have the fourth wall broken every time you turn around, or find yourself groaning at quickly outdated pop culture references. However the primary plot of Arc the Lad is not so hot in and of itself. This is a story of a teenager, fighting an ancient evil, brought on the planet by mankind's disregard for nature, yadda yadda. You've seen this show before. Thankfully some of Arc's crazy teammates keep the plot interesting, despite so many genre tropes.
Arc the Lad is a brief SRPG, it'll take you about 10 hours without a walkthrough. It was designed that way because this is a prologue to Arc the Lad II. Fair enough, because Arc the Lad is still a great game in its own right. With a bit more mission variety, and some actual challenge, I would have bestowed an even higher score. Arc the Lad is super easy, like babby's first SRPG easy, and for me that wasn't a positive. I can understand why the developers did this though... trying to ease players into Arc's world. But genre veterans won't be breaking a sweat here.
So there you go, I enjoyed Arc the Lad quite a lot. For being a 21 year old SRPG, I say it's held up just fine. If you like simpler strategy games, devoid of modern day cruft, give this one a shot. Especially if you enjoy great 90s game design. Arc the Lad may not be the apex of its numerical trilogy, but it certainly set the path forward at the right trajectory.
I found out today that Arc the Lad has an anime: myanimelist.net/anime/55/Arc_the_LadAfter you beat the original campaign in Front Mission DS, the new campaign becomes available.
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Post by toei on May 8, 2019 14:55:44 GMT -5
I'm just gonna say that you really don't have to grind in literally any Arc the Lad games. If anything, the first AtL was too easy; the only fight where I felt threatened involved fighting your own team, with identical stats I think. AtL2 has a Hunter's Guild like in Phantasy Star 4 where you can do sidequests for EXP and money, and 3 is all guild work. The good PS2 one (I always forget which is which, even though one is really good and the other is a mediocre fan-fiction level unnecessary sequel) is also quite easy, but it's more turn-based RPG than full-scale SRPG.
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Post by dunpeal2064 on May 8, 2019 15:06:26 GMT -5
Yeah, after playing a bit more Arc the Lad, it seems grinding won't likely be necessary. The rate enemies were increasing at made it seem like it could be beneficial, but then my party size doubled from 3 to 6 in a couple battles. The game's opener makes it seem like it might have some teeth, since you fight 6 or 7 enemies that can 2hko you, but it pretty much immediately lost its teeth.
Still having a decent time with it, in the middle of hunting down all the Guardians.
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Post by Sarge on May 8, 2019 15:18:47 GMT -5
Twilight of the Spirits is the good one, End of Darkness is the "meh" one. Just associate "darkness" with being bad, or "end" meaning the end of the series. Either way, it makes it easier to keep straight.
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Post by toei on May 8, 2019 15:56:06 GMT -5
Twilight of the Spirits is the good one, End of Darkness is the "meh" one. Just associate "darkness" with being bad, or "end" meaning the end of the series. Either way, it makes it easier to keep straight. Both titles sound like they wanted to end the series (twilight, end), which is probably why I can't get it straight. It's a shame they couldn't do another full-fledged PS2 AtL on the scale of the first one. End of Darkness re-uses a ton of locations and assets, and the action is very simple; I figure budget played a large role in what it ended up being. Maybe the first one cost too much to make? Also, looking at Cattle Call's credits, I see they made a 3DS RPG called "The Legend of Legacy" a few ago. I didn't think a title could be so absurdly generic while simultaneously making no sense at all. Hopefully it gets a sequel titled "Story of a Tale" some day.
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Post by Sarge on May 8, 2019 16:00:54 GMT -5
It did get something of a spiritual sequel, actually, called The Alliance Alive.
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