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Post by Ex on Jun 27, 2021 0:48:44 GMT -5
Etrian Odyssey, Dark Souls Respect for those two especially. I've only beaten one EO thus far, but it was great and quite challenging (on Expert difficulty anyway), and although I've not played Dark Souls yet (soon), I did beat and greatly enjoy Demon's Souls. I consider both of those to be good stock. I have to assume you also enjoyed Secret of Evermore. Indie games do get pumped out at an exceptional pace. Retro 2D platformers are an especially common staple I see released on Steam often. Those and ecchi visual novels. when you leaned too hard in one direction for a long time, sometimes you need to really lean into the other for a while to compensate That's an understandable reaction. Really a person should have more than one hobby in general. With some folks I've met on the net, it seems like gaming is their only hobby. I believe a healthy mind should be divested across a broader range of interests than a sole hobby. And obviously, if a hobby is taking up so much of a person's time, that it's detrimentally affecting their ability to mature into a worldly adult, than that is a problem. Perhaps it's not fair to blame the hobby itself though, as the overindulgent behavior itself speaks more towards escapism due to avoidant personality disorder. If overdosing the hobby is the symptom, avoiding the hobby is not necessarily the cure. However, avoiding overdosing a hobby should give someone more time to reflect on the driving issue and remedy it. The hobby will always be waiting for them afterward, to be enjoyed henceforth in moderation. Truly special RPGs are rare. Amen to that brother. I've become more fond of ARPGs myself than I used to be. Due to their more immediate battle systems and general lack of random encounters. You seem to already have shmups on lock, but I think it would be interesting to see you play more FPS games. - Also I want to make it crystal clear; This thread isn't meant to diss on RPGs. I still greatly enjoy RPGs! The point of the thread was that I've been dropping RPGs more often than I used to, and was wondering if there was a better method to not doing that. The truth of the matter may have been that I was just playing RPGs that didn't really fit my vibe. Lest we forget last year I put 116 hours into New Vegas. For my limited gaming time that is a crazy amount of hours for one game. Obviously if I find an RPG that resonates with me, I'll keep the train going.
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Post by Sarge on Jun 27, 2021 0:50:59 GMT -5
Oh, yeah, I'm definitely not dissing on them. For instance, when a new Dragon Quest comes out, I'm usually burning through it post-haste. The only reason I didn't with DQXI was the whole "S" version thing and not wanting to double-dip. I figure it's in my near future, though. I'd also like to try some other great JRPGs again - I know, for example, that Live A Live is loved by quite a few folks. Wozz was recommended by toei, and I liked what I played of it. I need to play through Heracles III eventually, too.
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Post by toei on Jun 27, 2021 1:12:47 GMT -5
Ex Oh, I don't blame the hobby. Sarge Herakles III was great. It seems like a pretty basic Greek Mythology-theme DQ clone at first, but the story really takes off after a while. Squaresoft hired the writer off the strength of this game, and when you put yourself in the context of the time, it's easy to see why. And yeah, Wozz was solid.
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Post by paulofthewest on Jun 27, 2021 7:01:13 GMT -5
1) Only play one RPG at a time. 2) Don't be afraid to drop an RPG if it is terrible. 3) From experience I can tell when I'm ready to enjoy the next one.
1) & 2) are pretty straight forward as it minimizes the RPG overlap and time dedicated. 3) just took some time to figure out. I learned there is usually a break period between RPGs so I'll be ready to love the next one. Also, I think of playing RPGS more as watching an episode of a TV show, but instead it is a game. This is probably why Dragon Quest 7 remains one of my favorite, the game is very episodic with the missions/quests.
As silly as it is, my favorite aspect of RPGs is that I don't have to press pause to go help some kid. One of my hugest issues with games right now is that someone just *needs* help all of sudden. It probably doesn't help my 4th just started potty training.
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Post by Xeogred on Jun 27, 2021 7:05:18 GMT -5
That's where my hang-up is though. I do fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy with video games. I totally get that. It's going to take me a bit to get over Valkyrie Profile even, if I truly let it go. 12 hours gone...
I think my two examples for the 30 hour mark are Dragon Age and Witcher 3. Guess you could say they were fulfilling some kind of "filler" role before I hit a wall of realizing I didn't like them much.
I'd say maybe try to give yourself a soft cap of X amount of games you can play at once Ex. See how that goes. But yeah, we all have our own ways in consuming hobbies. I actually was rotating a bit more games earlier this year and liked the variety. But real life has been crazy so I've reeled it back again, now kind of in a lull and not sure what to play next...
Some other random food for thought:
- I still love and get in the mood for traditional turn based games at times. So it's nice that I still have a lot of PS2 options there. Lost Odyssey (2007) was one of the better newer ones. I'm glad Dragon Quest has stuck to its guns too. Some here know I'm a bit of an action game junkie though, so this might also be why I'm not "living and breathing" JRPG's like I did back in the day. I like to try and rotate through different genres and game types to keep it interesting throughout the year. But I think I've managed to beat like ~3 big RPG's every year for awhile now.
- I'm still kind of neutral on random encounters vs onscreen enemies. However, the encounter rate can definitely make a break a game for me thesedays. One of my go to examples in the last decade or so would be Tales of Destiny. Holy smokes, every two steps was an encounter. That drives me away from RPG's a lot of times now. - Old school save points can be a good way to cut off a session and break things up, now that said if there's one big perk to modern RPG's to me, it's often being able to save anywhere. Granted you can do this with emulation and save states. But if I could retroactively put a "save anywhere" feature in old RPG's, I would. The irony with me and save states is that I've re-trained myself to not abuse them like I did as a kid, so I often now just use save states only to double up on a real save point haha. But that said, it's nice to have the option.
Maybe all of us here had a heavy "RPG phase". It certainly sounds like it. But we've all branched out more and keep it in moderation, so it seems like more of a challenge to get through this genre perhaps.
paulofthewest: Haha yeah, I like that about RPG's too versus other genres. They don't always need "immediate" attention and demand. So they can be more casual in the moment but I guess like we're talking here, they require longer playtime in the end which can be a hangup sometimes.
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Post by Ex on Jun 27, 2021 21:20:41 GMT -5
1) Only play one RPG at a time. 2) Don't be afraid to drop an RPG if it is terrible. I agree with both of these. But at what point do you decide an RPG has become no longer worth your time? What are the deciding factors? There's always that fear of "if I just put another hour into it, it'll get better again". Yep, and I believe in playing a continuous mix of genres. Variety is the spice of gaming. As a fellow married father, I get what you are saying. It can be challenging to just maintain playing video games in general, with such responsibilities. Let alone playing really long video games like RPGs. For me, sacrificing sleep was mandatory when my daughter was young. She's grown up now and lives on her own, but I still devote time to my wife every day. That's why I play games late at night, after she's gone to bed. Luckily she goes to bed early (9PM). With four kids and still gaming, you've obviously got a good system worked out. I'd say maybe try to give yourself a soft cap of X amount of games you can play at once Ex. Good advice. 2 should be max. I can't hang with Sarge , he's a master of multitask gaming. Or at least, he used to be. That's how it was with Digital Devil Saga. DDS is a super awesome game, except the encounter rate is completely ludicrous. I mean you'd get random encounters within random encounters, something I'd only seen before in 8-bit JRPGs. I just don't understand why developers think that level of battle frequency wouldn't annoy the player. It's like, did you dudes even play your own game?! For me it was the '90s 16-bit stuff, that was my JRPG phase. Then I was into FPS for a long time, and other genres. So I missed a lot of 5th/6th/7th gen JRPGs, there's a lot of catching up for me to do there. I get what you guys are saying, but I'm laughing remembering how you can't even pause in Demon's Souls. But that's an exception, granted.
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Post by paulofthewest on Jun 28, 2021 13:53:52 GMT -5
1) Only play one RPG at a time. 2) Don't be afraid to drop an RPG if it is terrible. I agree with both of these. But at what point do you decide an RPG has become no longer worth your time? What are the deciding factors? There's always that fear of "if I just put another hour into it, it'll get better again". Well mainly it is experience that tells me when to quit. If I had to quantify it: If it obviously in the first half of the RPG it gets one "okay I'll put one more hour/get past this one part." On the second occurrence I quit, there are too many RPGs to spend more time on it. If it is the second half, then each "awesome moment" will negate one "okay I'll put on more hour/get past this one part". Again, I really think of it as a TV show. Sometimes there are really boring episodes of DS9 you have to get through that make later episodes amazing.
For the record The Original Series is my favorite, it is that DS9 had a lot of build-up.
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Post by Ex on Jun 28, 2021 14:13:18 GMT -5
If it is the second half, then each "awesome moment" will negate one "okay I'll put on more hour/get past this one part". Fair enough. The second half is where I run into trouble. Seems the BS level of JRPGs is most prone to rear its ugly head in the latter half of the game. Then the sunk cost fallacy comes into play. Literally. This is how I'd rate the series I've seen the entirety of: ST:TNG > ST > DS9 > Voyager I'm currently watching Enterprise. It has its ups and downs. It's better than Voyager was though.
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Post by paulofthewest on Jun 28, 2021 14:58:41 GMT -5
ST:TNG > ST > DS9 > Voyager I'm currently watching Enterprise. It has its ups and downs. It's better than Voyager was though. ST:TOS > TNG > DS9 > Voyager here. I remember watching a couple of episodes of Enterprise when it came out, but I couldn't get into it. A lot of people say it i s better than you think, but not great.
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Post by Sarge on Jun 28, 2021 15:11:38 GMT -5
It's been a long time since I've watched through DS9, and I'm sure I missed a bunch of episodes of it in the day. I've seen most of Voyager, and it definitely doesn't measure up overall. I haven't seen all of Enterprise, either, but what I did see was better than Voyager, but I'll need to rewatch DS9 to decide if it's better than that. Probably not.
I can absolutely see arguments for TOS coming out above TNG, even if I prefer TNG. Both are fantastic in their own way.
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