|
BadAstronaut posted:I'm absolutely going to have to put DQ5 down for a bit because I'm getting destroyed by the final boss with my hero around level 36, and needing to put everything on hold while I grind up a few levels right at the end of the game is drat annoying. Trails in the Sky is just a wonderful little game. It has about the same tone (story-wise) as the original Grandia. There is just TONS of dialog. It's the type of game where NPCs have multiple dialogs and they change after nearly every event. The world feels very alive and the game puts a lot of energy into building that up. It has a slow start and the stakes feel very low for a while but it's so character driven you may not care. It has a suikoden style exp system where if you're lower level you get lots and if you're higher level you get very little. Combined with the ability to make monsters ignore you very early on, this means you never get bogged down in random battle hell. The combat system is fun though. It's grid based and positioning matters (though not til later). Characters take turns based on their speed so it's not "your side go, their side go". The music is awesome too.
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2014 12:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2024 03:06 |
|
|
EDIT: Nevermind, I'm dumb and can't read right.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2014 12:44
|
|
|
I haven't finished it yet but I have to believe Trails in the Sky is the better choice. You can even run it at 60FPS 
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2014 13:09
|
|
|
I definitely suggest trails as well. Symphonia is okay bit hasn't aged too well. Once you do play it I advise skipping dawn of the new world entirely. Edit: Symphonia is also long enough that it might be good to play while waiting for the second part of Trails.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2014 14:12
|
|
|
Coughing Hobo posted:I always go for the guilty verdict, because it just seems to make more sense. Why do they still throw you in jail if you're found not guilty? I know the chancellor's corrupt (and, y'know, literally a monster), but c'mon now, that's not how incarceration works. Even if you're not found guilty of kidnapping they still get you on the lesser charge of "aiding in the Princess' flight from the castle".
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2014 18:34
|
|
|
Scrap Dragon posted:Even if you're not found guilty of kidnapping they still get you on the lesser charge of "aiding in the Princess' flight from the castle". And the Chancellor lies and tells the warden you're to be executed anyway. The verdict does not change the flow of the story in any way.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2014 21:06
|
|
|
I must say that I am enjoying CT's story such as it is at the moment but I do kinda hope there is a bit more...urgency? We got the first warning about Lavos in 2300 but since then we've kinda just been dicking around trying to fix the Masamune. Guessing this will make Frog stop being al mopey and join our party. That's great and all but I guess I'm just waiting for the plot to kick into gear. Maybe when we actually meet this Magus fellow. Right now we're just getting drunk with Ayla and dancing and going to find who stole our Gate Key. I don't expect this to ever be a super-serious game but I'm sure ther ewill come a point when we have a bit more...direction? I'm looking forward to that.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 03:23
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:I must say that I am enjoying CT's story such as it is at the moment but I do kinda hope there is a bit more...urgency? We got the first warning about Lavos in 2300 but since then we've kinda just been dicking around trying to fix the Masamune. Guessing this will make Frog stop being al mopey and join our party. That's great and all but I guess I'm just waiting for the plot to kick into gear. Maybe when we actually meet this Magus fellow. Right now we're just getting drunk with Ayla and dancing and going to find who stole our Gate Key. I don't expect this to ever be a super-serious game but I'm sure ther ewill come a point when we have a bit more...direction? Haha, oh man, just you wait.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 03:24
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:I must say that I am enjoying CT's story such as it is at the moment but I do kinda hope there is a bit more...urgency? We got the first warning about Lavos in 2300 but since then we've kinda just been dicking around trying to fix the Masamune. Guessing this will make Frog stop being al mopey and join our party. That's great and all but I guess I'm just waiting for the plot to kick into gear. Maybe when we actually meet this Magus fellow. Right now we're just getting drunk with Ayla and dancing and going to find who stole our Gate Key. I don't expect this to ever be a super-serious game but I'm sure ther ewill come a point when we have a bit more...direction? I'm not sure how well you could rush a time traveler.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 03:25
|
|
|
Flytrap posted:I'm not sure how well you could rush a time traveler. Worked for Marty McFly!
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 03:31
|
|
|
it picks up. the prehistory arc is garbage but as soon as you get back to the middle ages it gets cool
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 04:35
|
|
|
Yeah the first time you go to 65M BC is probably my least favorite part of the game, which is kind of like saying it's the smallest slice of the best pizza you've ever eaten.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 05:01
|
|
|
Watching someone play Chrono Trigger for the first time is so bizarre, but interesting.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 06:11
|
|
|
Dross posted:Yeah the first time you go to 65M BC is probably my least favorite part of the game, which is kind of like saying it's the smallest slice of the best pizza you've ever eaten. Endorph fucked around with this message at 06:22 on Aug 28, 2014 |
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 06:19
|
|
|
In an effort to go out less and save money for an engagement ring I've begun to dig into my pile of classic games. I was giving some serious thought to playing through Grandia II or Skies of Arcadia again when I noticed Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete sitting in a box. I had forgotten I even owned this game, I couldn't even tell you for sure when I bought it. The best I can figure is that I must have played it somewhere between 2002 and 2004 and then stuffed it away. The only thing I do remember about it was that I got to the final boss and could not defeat it- Gamefaqs said I needed to be three levels higher than I was. Unfortunately I didn't have any save files that took be back before the "point of no return" aside from one, but that was literally 16 hours before the final boss fight. Needless to say, this was pretty discouraging so I gave up. Fast forward ten years and I'm playing the game again. It's a lot more charming than I remember, and the Working Design humor is everywhere. Jokes that went over my head completely ten years ago now get a chuckle out of me. The graphics are lame and the anime cutscenes are outdated as hell, but this is a game that equals more than the sum of its parts. The battle system isn't particularly interesting, the story seems very average and childish, and traveling between towns takes you through large, uninteresting, unexplorable, empty regions of the map. All that being said, I find myself pretty determined to right a wrong from literally a decade ago. I have Legend of Dragoon sitting on my shelf, but I gave that game three or four tries before calling it quits. Lunar:SSSC feels somehow fresher and less taxing on my nerves. One thing that I find perplexing is how the game handles the character Ramus. I nerfed him by leveling my other characters relentlessly in the first few dungeons. I noticed that when Ramus was leveling his stats were staying the same, but it wasn't until my healer was dealing more damage that I realized I had broken his character. Come to find out you're supposed to be done with him around level 11, but I got him up to a level 14 or so before he left my party. It seems like an odd decision to make from a game play standpoint, one of your only characters gets weaker as the game goes on. Maybe the developers were trying to reinforce the fact that Ramus is not much of an adventurer, but still...he's 1/3 of your party and is useless by the end. Edit- The fact that I can't remember ANYTHING about this game that I spent 30+ hours playing, combined with the fact that I played it 10 years ago, makes me feel REALLY old.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 06:55
|
|
|
theblackw0lf posted:Playing through Lunar Silver Star Story (PS1 version) and I absolutely love how your party members will respond to what even minor NPC characters say, which is actually pretty unusual in most RPGs I've played. Usually either the NPC will say something and there will be no response at all, or any response just comes from the main player character. Sorry for the double post, but I just wanted to say that I didn't actually think there would be another person in this thread who had played this game any time recently. I thought I was going to be special. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 07:06
|
|
|
Vanguard Bandits: sick enough for a $10 PSN purchase?
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 07:16
|
|
|
I love Vanguard Bandits. I'm a little biased, but I think it's great.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 07:37
|
|
|
Million Ghosts posted:Vanguard Bandits: sick enough for a $10 PSN purchase? Vanguard Bandits is worth $10. It's a slow game and it had a lot of obtuse mechanics which you'll want to FAQ, especially when it comes to unlocking the alternate plot routes or special attacks.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 07:39
|
|
|
Sounds like it's so much up my alley it lives in a box there. Sweet.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 07:44
|
|
|
Million Ghosts posted:Sounds like it's so much up my alley it lives in a box there. Sweet. Just remember that Devlin is a bro and Barlow is as useless as he is fat #teamdevlin
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 07:52
|
|
|
you have to give devlin three compliments every mission or else his feelings get hurt and he turns into a dracula
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 07:54
|
|
|
GulagDolls posted:you have to give devlin three compliments every mission or else his feelings get hurt and he turns into a dracula yeah but his ultimate move is him kicking robots so hard they burst into flames your move 
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 07:58
|
|
|
i love devlin and wasn't arguing against him, just stating a fact!!
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 07:58
|
|
|
The Timely Howard posted:Just remember that Devlin is a bro and Barlow is as useless as he is fat I wanted Barlow to have a special attack so bad. There's just so much weird poo poo in Bandits. The game actually lists stat requirements for the Crimson ATAC, but as far as I know, you can't actually get the Crimson. There are a few tracks in the Japanese version that don't get used in the English release (the English version just fades-to-black after the post-combat quotes while the JP version has a quick STAGE CLEAR indicator, and there are supposed to be three tracks that play on the title screen, but the US version only shuffles between two  ). Shame it's so niche and the only strategy guide for it was done in-house, I don't doubt there are a couple weird things to dig up in it even now.
Fur20 fucked around with this message at 08:23 on Aug 28, 2014 |
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 08:09
|
|
|
The White Dragon posted:Devlin is a motherfucker i know! it's fantastic Honestly though, I haven't played the game in well over a decade but I remember having an incredible amount of fun with it. I went through all three routes and found the Working Designs localization unironically hilarious at times (Andrew is crude, but basically a rad fella). I also left the battle animations on throughout the entire game because seeing the Ultragunner blow poo poo up was just too sweet (and I recall the fights loading quite quickly as well). Pretty fab game, IMO
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 08:48
|
|
|
Vanguard Bandits is definitely worth playing if you like SRPGs; the story is kinda weak but Working Designs' writing sells it well enough, and the game is just really fun to play. Its biggest issue is how underdeveloped and unbalanced some of its mechanics are; there's just no reason to use water or earth stones unless the character in question has a special that requires them.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 09:12
|
|
|
Water Stones are too good if you build speedy support characters. Pump Reyna's AGI and keep your party's FP at 0 forever. Earth is nice to put on one or two guys because it's the only thing other than Ultragunner that can actually restore your HP, plus Earthquake is like a poor man's Turbulence and actually does quite nice damage. On the other hand, Fireball is really the only worthwhile attack in Fire's repertoire (Logan's special attack excepted since it's basically Dionne's ultimate except with a crazy high hit rate, but I doubt you can actually get it). All its stuff hits really hard, sure, but its accuracy is poo poo and Blazing Phoenix is just silly. v Turbulence is good, but that 30FP price will put you in an unfortunate position in... three late-game missions come to mind, and none of them are the final chapters 
Fur20 fucked around with this message at 09:27 on Aug 28, 2014 |
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 09:21
|
|
|
yeah but...um...turbulence...
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 09:23
|
|
|
Fighting your entire party at the end of the bad route on that game ruined me for like a week when I first played it. I found a copy for like 20 bucks at my local trade in comic shop the other week, without case. I think I might end up buying it, but digital copy for half the price sounds way better now that I started typing all this out...
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 14:02
|
|
|
Speaking of weird possibly bad SRPGs, has anyone played Eternal Poison? I grabbed a copy when it was like 3 dollars at gamestop because they were clearing out their PS2 stock, along with a thousand other random PS2 RPGs. It's been sitting in a paper sleeve for like a year because I'll get to it eventually, but I'm curious if anyone wants to sing its praises.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 14:07
|
|
|
Endorph posted:Speaking of weird possibly bad SRPGs, has anyone played Eternal Poison? I grabbed a copy when it was like 3 dollars at gamestop because they were clearing out their PS2 stock, along with a thousand other random PS2 RPGs. It's been sitting in a paper sleeve for like a year because I'll get to it eventually, but I'm curious if anyone wants to sing its praises. Never played it, but Feinne did an LP of it if that'll help.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 14:17
|
|
|
Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Never played it, but Feinne did an LP of it if that'll help.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 14:24
|
|
|
Endorph posted:I was mostly just asking for opinions, not a walkthrough/guide, and Feinne's OP doesn't give any opinions. I think that was meant more of a "check this LP out and see if it suits your taste" comment.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 15:47
|
|
|
RadicalR posted:I think that was meant more of a "check this LP out and see if it suits your taste" comment. Yeah. Reading/watching LP's has sometimes told me all I need to know about whether I want to play this game or not. Sometimes it only takes a couple updates for me to decide.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 15:56
|
|
|
SpitztheGreat posted:Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete "Greater than the sum of its parts" is EXACTLY how I'd describe this game. Even with that its probably not an A tier RPG but its definitely charming on some level, at least. I haven't played it in a really, REALLY long time but I can still remember snatches of lyrics from the opening and boat songs, and I also remember being somewhat impressed by its imaginativeness. They threw a whole lot of relatively unimaginative stuff in, at least. Dragons, a floating city, the loving MOON, Ghaleon being a dick, creepy dragon-energy sucking machines, a talking cat-thing.... I could go on but won't. To top it all off, the characters were decently interesting and likable. The battle system still borderline sucked but at least the game had a little flavor compared to many of its contemporaries. The hook of being able to become the kickass boss of all dragons was fuckin' decent too. As a kid, at least, that kept my interest all the way through till poo poo Gets Real. I vaguely remember the dragon pimp powers feeling legit once you finally got them as well, but that's overshadowed by memory of the pain that is the last boss. So, yeah. This post might sound like someone trying to rationalize a lovely ex but I pretty much liked it at the time. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 16:57
|
|
|
Endorph posted:Speaking of weird possibly bad SRPGs, has anyone played Eternal Poison? I grabbed a copy when it was like 3 dollars at gamestop because they were clearing out their PS2 stock, along with a thousand other random PS2 RPGs. It's been sitting in a paper sleeve for like a year because I'll get to it eventually, but I'm curious if anyone wants to sing its praises. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svUXht2Z4Ss&t=280s
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 18:34
|
|
|
Rascyc posted:I really enjoyed it for its off-beat setting. I don't remember much of its mechanics over the years. I do remember you will want to turn off combat animations ASAP unless you can stomach 5 second load times for each attack, complete with blinding white load screens! I think that's what swore me off it was the weird transition to 3d attack scene. I think it would have been a much better game if attacks executed on the map instead. I also recall it becoming kind of grindy later on, or at least very difficult. The soundtrack was nice though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 18:39
|
|
|
I was coming off Brigandine so I was perfectly used to having no combat animatins, heh. Honestly there were very few PS2-era SRPGs where I'd leave the combat animations if possible, mostly due to load times. Another niche SRPG I have but never finished was Stella Deus.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 18:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2024 03:06 |
|
|
Rascyc posted:I was coming off Brigandine so I was perfectly used to having no combat animatins, heh. Honestly there were very few PS2-era SRPGs where I'd leave the combat animations if possible, mostly due to load times. Stella Deus was very pretty but SO repetitive. I beat it and I mostly just felt relief at the end. It's a game borne out of the era of grindy crafting systems and that just burns me out. Crafting took so much goddamn time and was so uninteresting. Another nice soundtrack though. Love Hitoshi Sakimoto.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2014 19:02
|
|