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Post by toei on Apr 4, 2024 18:12:46 GMT -5
Ex I considered that one but I didn't want to put 20 hours into a GBC game at this time. I guess this is a more dungeon-crawler spin-off, from what it looked like (I tried it briefly back when the French fan translation came out many years ago). I'm often impressed by GBC graphics. You can really tell it's not the same system as the GB when you play some of those exclusives. The Dragon Quest 3 remake is another pretty RPG. The original Star Ocean is good, as is 2. I lost interest in the series after that. There's a GBC Grandia spin-off too that looks well-made.
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Post by Xeogred on Apr 4, 2024 20:14:33 GMT -5
Had no idea a GBC Star Ocean game existed. It looks pretty insane.
I fell off 2 somehow back in the day, think it was just an era of JRPG burnout I went through. I'm going to give the remake a shot someday. The first game always looked solid. Maybe it's better than Tales of Phantasia? Which is pretty decent too, but another Tales game I never finished. lol
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Post by toei on Apr 4, 2024 20:28:37 GMT -5
Xeogred It is. More reasonable encounter rate, better battle system. They're similar though, as the original Tales was made by the future Tri-Ace three aces right before it. Like Tales of Phantasia, the really imaginative stuff (in SO's case, this also means the sci-fi stuff) doesn't really happen until the endgame, sadly. But it's still fun overall. There's a catch, though. Back in the day, there was a bug in every SNES emulator except Byuu's (I think it was called Bsnes?) that would cause the battles to go at twice the speed. He would always bring it up as an example of why his focus on accuracy over anything else was so important. Which I would normally agree with, except that it turned out that the battles were way more fun at twice the speed. They should have always been faster. So that's how I played Star Ocean, not knowing about the bug. Star Ocean 2 is cool but it was the beginning of Tri-Ace going full Tri-Ace. There's a ton of actually important story elements hidden super obtusely and all that nonsense. It's not nowhere near as bad as Valkyrie Profile or anything, though - you still get what feels like a normal, full experience just playing the game normally, even if you're missing all these revelations and details and character scenes. But it's still obnoxious design.
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Post by Ex on Apr 4, 2024 20:52:36 GMT -5
I didn't want to put 20 hours into a GBC game at this time From what I can see it's a 20-30 hour long RPG. Figure I'll just chip at it here and there till it's done. >I'm often impressed by GBC graphics Me too, but I'm still amazed that Blue Sphere is retro-compatible with the original GB. That means the under the hood stuff is built within the confines of the GB's less powerful spec's. Granted Blue Sphere looks more impressive in color via GBC mode. It really is incredible from an aesthetics/technical perspective. Tri-Ace going full Tri-Ace My experience with their output is merely: Valkyrie Profile <-Beat and enjoyed, but missed 25% of the game because bullshit. Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria <-Put a few hours in and fell off. Insane graphics, possibly the best on PS2, but the difficulty balancing is... let's say not particularly balanced. Star Ocean: Blue Sphere <-It's good so far, but I've barely started. So of the 28 or so games tri-Ace has developed, I've only played three.
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Post by Xeogred on Apr 4, 2024 21:03:42 GMT -5
toei : That speed bug rings a bell! Haha, pretty sure I've heard of that legend and experienced it myself. I did sample Star Ocean briefly back in the day. Must have been on either ZSNES or snes9x. But yeah Tales of Phantasia I actually got a few hours into. Think I got stuck story wise or something impeded my playthrough and I just moved on.
Of their newer games, I'm still curious about this one. I played it very briefly via Gamefly once back in the day but couldn't wrap my mind around the combat system. Now I think maybe I'll grab the remaster on a deep sale someday...
It looks like one of Tri-Ace's biggest budget games and the vibe/setting is really cool at a glance to me.
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Post by toei on Apr 4, 2024 21:22:19 GMT -5
I remember Resonance of Fate catching my attention as well. All the gun-based gameplay in a RPG setting looked cool, plus it was Sega-published. Speaking of which, Infinite Space on the DS was another game from that time I was intrigued by, though in the end I never bought it because when you look at videos, the entire game is just menus.
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Post by Ex on Apr 4, 2024 21:36:22 GMT -5
Infinite Space has always looked intriguing from a distance. But it is mostly menus with occasional space ship battles. And that's fine, except the game is 50-60 hours long. That's quite the commitment, but I could do it as long as the plot is legitimately gripping and interesting.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 7, 2024 19:34:34 GMT -5
Marvelous: Another Treasure Island is down for the count. Thoughts later, but liked it overall.
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Post by Ex on Apr 9, 2024 14:37:36 GMT -5
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Post by Sarge on Apr 9, 2024 14:49:31 GMT -5
Haha, I gotta get back to this, haven't felt like writing anything up yet. I'd probably put it in the 7.5/10 bin, leaning toward 8/10. It's really charming, but not without its irritations.
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