The RPG Thread

[Prpl_Mage]

Originally posted by Almeidaboo
You lose prpl_mage. FF 12 had the coolest secondary character which was Balthier. And I loved the battle system and the skill system too. I disliked the fact the the summons were absolutely useless.

Yeah... Balthier was cool... But how many lines did he have? Like 10? There was no character development in that game... There was more in FFIII(DS version). He would've been so much better in a game that actually had a story, people with reasons for their actions and real dungeons.(FFIII had more intressting ones and it was more or less just caves with switches.)

Yeah, licence board was fun but there was no challange in that game once you got berserk+haste+bubble+bravery+protect+shell+regen 'cuz it equals über Vaan...

I merely had a person with healing gambits and then Vaan fully boosted; I simply let him cut down the boring final boss and any other enemy that stood in my path... So boring...
I went back to play FFIX afterwards to get some satisfaction and battle after I finished XII with that awful ending... Once again:
FFIII had a better one and that one only involves flying all the characters back to their towns and speaking a bit.

[zuhane1]

Originally posted by blackskullwarlock
My personal pick is the trilogy of Baldur's Gate.

On console, I'd have to say Seiken Densetsu III or Final Fantasy VI. Close third is Chrono Trigger. SNES rpgs ruled.

TRILOGY!!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?! I thought they only made 2 games. Is it possible to get 1,2 and 3 on PS2 or Gamecube as I think they are amazing!!!

[Djanki]

No love for Fire Emblem? The Gameplay is deceptively simple, but it can go quite deep. And, there's enough story in there to fuel a thousand fanfics, but it doesn't smash you upside the head with it with the force of a far-too-long-lasting-even-though-it's-cool-summon-spell-of-thirteen-knights. The story is hidden in the Supports, and adds to the replay value. Great tunes, characters that you get attatched to (partly because their deaths are permanent)...why isn't this even nominated?

And what about Riviera: The Promised Land...?....Wait...that's a dating sim...okay...what of Shin Megami Tensei? A unique art style, unique storylines (humans become demons and eat other demons when the sun turned black!! ^_^), and ultimately dark tones set it apart from 'spikey-haired dude saves world with a sword' RPGs.

Why isn't anyone talking about Soul Blazer? Mixing Zelda with real-time RPGs is a bold idea, especially with the great storyline hidden within it.

And not mentioning the original Phantasy Star games makes me a sad panda. These games were the FOURTH reason to own a Sega Genesis--the other three were Sonic, Ecco the Dolphin, and Gunstar Heroes.

[aboutasoandthis]

 Originally Posted by Ganocide_of_a_Kingdom
 

There's nothing alike about KOTOR and FFXII.

Characters battle relatively real time, except that they both use numbers. You can also pause the action to enter in your commands. In a lot of ways it was like Kotor.

Everything else you said was awesome though. Great comparison between JRPG and WRPG.

 Originally Posted by Prpl_Mage
 

And I hate FFXII, worst final fantasy ever... It was worse than FFX-2(it actually had a quite fun battel system with the ordinary+upgrades.) and the characters where lame... I stick with the fact that anyone could've gotten together with anyone in the end... That's how bad the story and character development was.

 

Yeah... Balthier was cool... But how many lines did he have? Like 10? There was no character development in that game... There was more in FFIII(DS version). He would've been so much better in a game that actually had a story, people with reasons for their actions and real dungeons.(FFIII had more intressting ones and it was more or less just caves with switches.)

I'll admit the ending was bad, but I still loved XII to death. I thought the story was fantastic. Maybe that's my Matsuno fanboyism. You have to admit that it's a little unfair to compare a Matsuno storyline to a regular FF storyline. Usually his games are about politics and central themes. They almost never have real character development (Delita from Tactics is a big exception). Compared to his other stories, XII's was just as good imo.

[Prpl_Mage]

Originally posted by aboutasoandthis
I'll admit the ending was bad, but I still loved XII to death. I thought the story was fantastic. Maybe that's my Matsuno fanboyism. You have to admit that it's a little unfair to compare a Matsuno storyline to a regular FF storyline. Usually his games are about politics and central themes. They almost never have real character development (Delita from Tactics is a big exception). Compared to his other stories, XII's was just as good imo.

They barely did anything on the story. The part with politics is worth mentioning in FFT but not FFXII.

Spoiling:

The beginning was quite intresting but it got worse along the line as the dungeons where just dungeons, there was nothing cool or special about them.
FFXII was pretty much going across plains and into ruins while gathering the Dusk shard, dawn shard and twilight shard while seeing the dead prince that has nothing to do with the game... And then you get to  Giruvegan, goes through bullshit and meets some god people. And they say that she has been the chosen ect and that you need to go to the Rhidona cataract in order to break a new piece of the nethecite. But that's it. Those gods are not mentioned again. It could've just been a couple of chocoboos singing a song...
And then at the Rhidona cataract cid revives bahamut... Who is a nethercite and used in Vayne's battleship, large let down. And then Gabrant decieve him and you kill cid and finds out that he is Balthier's father... But nothing more about that either. And then the nethercite is exploding for some reason and everyone tries to stop it but only a black guy who sacrifices his life is able to...
And then, nothing special happens... At all.
Not untill you just go to the final dungeon that is like 3 maps and meet up with the game's last boss who were truly boring... And yay! Tthe place is x'ploding! And, the endign sucked...
FFIII was better...

[Roland_Deschain2]

All I'm saying is I prefer WRPG battle systems, particularly KOTOR and BG (Not Dark Alliance, that was crap), which are based on DnD, the father of all RPGs.
Also, they don't feel compelled to pump out sequel after sequel. Final fantasy started getting old around eight, it's never quite picked up.
As for story, KoTOR had a brilliant narrative. Shame your vision was clouded by JRPGs, the Dark Side of gaming....
And Oblivion gets better if you get mods to remove level-scaling and make the game harder. It makes it more interesting and challenging. Also, doesn't every FF game have a one-shot spell? I've yet to see one in any WRPG....

[thepsynergist]

Rudora no Hihou, or Treasure of the Rudras.  I loved the mantra system, plus the music was okay.

[Roland_Deschain2]

Baldur's Gate>KoTOR>Mass Effect>Everything Else.

BioWare>Everyone else.

That is all.

[aboutasoandthis]

 

Usually his games are about politics and central themes..

You skipped this part. FFXII was a slight illusion to America's involvement in the Middle East and Matsuno's personal opinion about it. Archades and Rozzaria both have their sights set on Rabanastre, not only because it's an excellent military location, but also because it is the chosen city by the gods. The empires had the intention to remove the god's influence over the world, in addition to switching a monarchy for a more democratic government. This would give the people of Rabanastre a new sense of freedom. While their intentions were noble, Archades ultimately destroyed an entire nation. The story was very focused on the concept of freedom.

Yes the dungeons were boring (especially compared to IX), but the game's story had to make sense on paper. XII had to sacrifice the over-the-top scenarios and melodramatic plots for a more logical story. XII would've made a very nice book, and that's one of the biggest criticisms to game storylines. That's a big accomplishment. Eventually we'll get more literature-styled stories that will be more exciting or have more character development. You just have to give it time because XII was one of the first.

 More Spoiling:

The gods had the power to mind-control anyone who came in contact with the nethicite. They decided to give it to Rabanastre since they were so powerful in the beginning. They hated everyone else, especially Rozzaria and Archades for learning to use technology. Venat, one of the gods, decided to go hero and help rid the world from the evil influence of the gods. He met Cid who came up with a nice idea to do so. Cid decided to build a giant machine that could use nethicite to take over Rabanastre. He would use up all of the world's nethicite with his machines, leaving the gods no way to take over the world. Rabanastre's royal famiy secretly had the most magicite, as well as the favor of the gods, so they needed to attack there first. This eventually led to a war, the king being killed, poverty in the country, yadda yadda yadda.

[Shady Ultima]

Originally posted by Almeidaboo
Best Strategy: FFT tied with Front Mission.
[/B]

I disagree, the Fire Emblem series is way better than FFT, but I also don't like any Final Fantasy pretty much.

Originally posted by zuhane1
1. Final Fantasy 10 - Undescribable. Just buy it and get swept away. It is so perfect, it makes you wish you could escape real life and live there. It is flawless and hosts about 70 hours of gameplay, much more if you're gonna master it. Voice acting, stunning visuals, it's perfect. 8,000/10.

I disagree, my friend said it was good. I borrowed it, and got bored a half hour in. I kept playing it, and it never got better.

And the voice acting was HORRID, especially Yuna. My impression of her works better when you hear it, but it's like this.
"I" (wait a minute) "Know" (another minute) "You"
She stops after EVERY WORD, and has to wait, it's REALLY annoying, and that was one of the things that turned me off. Aside from that, it had Square's trademark horridly boring battle system, retarded characters, and very poor 'levelling' system. I actually consider this game the WORST game I've played in my entire life. My rating - 8,000/10... or worse.

Originally posted by Almeidaboo
Not just about Drag, but about anyone that fails to acknoledge that FF7 was great just for the sake of doing it.
[/B]

What if I say that FF7 was terrible, because I found it extremely boring and repetitive? That game had very few points I really enjoyed, the best part being the motorcycle part.

Worst RPGS I've played are definately FFVII, FFVIII and FFX, the SNES Final Fantasy games were good, but after SNES, they've all sucked, and I won't even bother to play anymore. I FORCED myself to finish 7, even though it took... 4 months, because I'd stop for weeks at a time because I hated it. Square has good stories, but the gameplay is always dull.

Square's best game so far was the KH series, because the battle system was actually fun, instead of just 'Hit A over and over and over until the enemy is dead, repeat in every battle, no movement necessary, and no real strategy'

My favourite RPGS have different battle systems. Tales of Symphonia was amazing because of it's battle system. It had a deep (although sometimes cliche) story, but the battle system didn't get old after the second battle of the game, like Final Fantasy.

Also love the KH series, and the Zelda series.

[Roland_Deschain2]

Meh, I liked KH quite a bit, despite the overall cartooney-ness. It was a well-executed game and the battle system controlled well enough. The heartless and nobodies made a much better set of enemies than standard fantasy/scifi cliches like dragons, aliens, ghosts and the like. I just wish Square'd make a game based on the KH system and premise, but targeted towards older gamers like myself.

Also: Aren't you being a bit harsh on FF10? I played it, it SUCKED royally, but my friend had said it was good, but a negative score? At least it had decent graphics for it's time. 2-3/10 would be a bit better.
And does Zelda count as an RPG? I always called it an action-adventure game...

[Moosetroop11]

Oddly, I never got bored of FF7 or FFX's battle system. I'm not sure why, because there wasn't much to them, but they kept me entertained throughout. Which is impressive because I played FF7 through three times and watched my brother play through it five times >.>

Fire emblem is amazing when you're playing it but I find it doesn't stick in my memory as much as other games.

The KOTOR games were awesome. I haven't really got much negative stuff to say about them, apart from the fact that every NPC died exactly the same hilarious way by falling onto their knees and half of the civilians spoke in ridiculous english accents XD

Star Ocean 3... Was actually pretty cool until the plot twist near the end. It was one of those games that created a specific, entirely new emotion to go with it which I only feel when playing it. I think it was something to do with the music.

And I really don't think Balthier was the most awesome character ever... He was shown in a very good light because the rest of the characters were god awful. I'm not sure that they can do any worse than Vaan, the complimentary hottie in white had no personality and Penelo served no purpose whatsoever. Balthier was cool but Setzer walks all over him.

[Razor]

Final Fantasy VII: The best one that I've played. I mean almost everything about this game was right. The random encounters somehow weren't painful, the materia system was great and I'd say Midgar was probably one of the best things ever. And after you finally get past it you're still nowhere near done.

Final Fantasy VIII: Biggest disappointment, having just played FF7 I was expecting more than emo man in draw world. I probably should give it another go though.

Final Fantasy IX: I need to replay this. It was quite interesting until that part where I got stuck and without a walkthrough.

Final Fantasy X: It was good I guess. Had some nice music, was a bit confusing (so he was a dream from a 1000 years ago? what) and had some unbearable qualities (laughing scene, inclusion of wakka as a character) but it was entertaining. Not really worth a second go through though, even with the alternate sphere grid.

Final Fantasy XI: Hardly a Final Fantasy. They should have called it FF Online

Final Fantasy XII: Haven't played it, heard a lot of good things about it.

[HackersTotalMassLaser]

Originally posted by Razor
Final Fantasy VII: The best one that I've played. I mean almost everything about this game was right. The random encounters somehow weren't painful, the materia system was great and I'd say Midgar was probably one of the best things ever. And after you finally get past it you're still nowhere near done.

Final Fantasy VIII: Biggest disappointment, having just played FF7 I was expecting more than emo man in draw world. I probably should give it another go though.

This is were I stopped reading. It was with strong effort I read the FF7 desc and then FF8's. TO me, they were both emo.

[Shady Ultima]

Originally posted by Roland_Deschain2
Also: Aren't you being a bit harsh on FF10? I played it, it SUCKED royally, but my friend had said it was good, but a negative score? At least it had decent graphics for it's time. 2-3/10 would be a bit better.
And does Zelda count as an RPG? I always called it an action-adventure game...

Roland, I'm 20, I would consider myself an older gamer. KH looks cartoony, but it has a pretty dark story.

Actually, I think I'm letting FFX off easily. It had decent graphics, but I would have preferred stick figures it the battle system was better and the voice acting was even half decent. In an RPG, the battle system is very important... when you can sit there just tapping A, and then have to wait, that bores me to tears. So, no, I think FFX is one of the worst games ever made. It was the first game that I started playing and lost interest in because it was boring. And of course, Yuna was terrible.