The RPG Thread

xrg · Sep 23, 2015

xadion_sl said:
9 was one of the only games next to 6 where the bad guys actually kill/massacre and destroy large scale and are more than a theoretical threat to the planet etc. The scene in 9 where your party stands there watching helplessly again as bahumut up and destroys an entire civilization (that you just interacted with and got to know and feel for some) your just like "fffffuuuu"

9 is hard to get into and sadly does just kinda let you wonder into the end after the build up- but IMO it as a whole is a lot better than many of the other FF offerings- especially the one it followed.

The part you're talking about where Alexandria falls happens early on disc 3, and shortly after that is where I feel it loses a lot of momentum. You get a boat and start doing a bunch of forgettable tasks, then you get an airship and do more forgettable tasks, then you actually get the airship that took out Alexandria, and don't even do anything interesting with it except head to the finish line. It isn't terrible like the things Tetsuya Nomura comes up with, but there is a lot of filler in there.

Even small little flourishes, like the Moogle playing with the dog in Treno. It's just decoration of a save point, but it's very hard not to smile when you see it, and it adds so much richness to the world's atmosphere. By the end they have boring rainbow bubbles for save points, and several of them are even invisible for "lolz, challenge!"

I did like the ending though. The Melodies of Life song and Vivi's somber Blade Runner ordeal especially managed to hit me in the feelz.

I'd say 9 is currently my third favorite behind 4 and 6. I haven't played 6 since I was like 13 so when I replay it I may even change my mind. I seem to remember 6 having a similar problem of character development dropping off a cliff, and a lot of its gameplay mechanics aren't as solid as 9.

AladainAF · Sep 23, 2015

Turbo_sl said:
I actually really like !IF games, not for everyone but definitely change things up abit game to game but keep the general formula together. Cross Edge (?) was one of the best games I've ever played, fast action but some insane hard battles post game. So many different options as well.

Cross Edge was fantastic, loved it. Still play it occasionally.

turbo · Sep 24, 2015

AladainAF_sl said:
Cross Edge was fantastic, loved it. Still play it occasionally.

So sad that it never got more attention. I honestly would put it in my top 10 games of all time (keep in mind outside of NBA games I've played 99% RPG/JRPG/Strat type games for the last 25+ years

AladainAF · Sep 24, 2015

Yeah it just takes a very unique type of gamer to really appreciate a game like that. I really loved all the combos and such. I wanted to get that plat for the PS3 so bad lol. Maybe I will someday.

Crone · Sep 28, 2015

So my childhood was messed up because I never played any of the final Fantasy games. With a lot being on Android now which would people recommend.

I understand this question might have a lot of bias in the answers but which should I play first?

Pyros · Sep 28, 2015

4, 5 or 6. 6 is probably the more highly praised, with 4 as a very close second and 5 having never been released in the west until way later tends to be the hipster FF.

I don't think anything past 6 is playable on android, so not gonna discuss them, but assuming you have access, 7 is also often considered the best and is definitely a must play, though it has aged terribly(it's also being remade). 1 and 2 are very barebones since they're very old school, 3 I believe is interesting but is still fairly old school.

So overall I'd say 4/6 > 5/3 > 1/2, and 7 along with 4/6 if you can play that.

Rezz · Sep 28, 2015

Final Fantasy 4 is considered one of the high water marks of the series. 6 would generally be considered another. After that you have a lot of debate about quality/story/etc. The one thing that basically everyone will agree on is that 8 was shitty, and people who like it should have their opinions become instantly suspect. Otherwise play which ever one you want, because they are generally all reasonably decent games.

Noodleface · Sep 28, 2015

Crone you might want to check out the emulation thread where we just had some great discussions on making emulation boxes for our tvs out of raspberry pis. Small investment and you can play every game from your childhood that you missed. Cheaper than paying the ridiculous prices these cost on the play or apple store.

Siliconemelons · Sep 28, 2015

xrg_sl said:
The part you're talking about where Alexandria falls happens early on disc 3, and shortly after that is where I feel it loses a lot of momentum. You get a boat and start doing a bunch of forgettable tasks, then you get an airship and do more forgettable tasks, then you actually get the airship that took out Alexandria, and don't even do anything interesting with it except head to the finish line. It isn't terrible like the things Tetsuya Nomura comes up with, but there is a lot of filler in there.

Even small little flourishes, like the Moogle playing with the dog in Treno. It's just decoration of a save point, but it's very hard not to smile when you see it, and it adds so much richness to the world's atmosphere. By the end they have boring rainbow bubbles for save points, and several of them are even invisible for "lolz, challenge!"

I did like the ending though. The Melodies of Life song and Vivi's somber Blade Runner ordeal especially managed to hit me in the feelz.

I'd say 9 is currently my third favorite behind 4 and 6. I haven't played 6 since I was like 13 so when I replay it I may even change my mind. I seem to remember 6 having a similar problem of character development dropping off a cliff, and a lot of its gameplay mechanics aren't as solid as 9.

do we need spoilers? anywho... yeah its after Alexandria gets smoked...your cast is like "WTF did that REALLY just happen?" you do stuff... your out at this floating island city/continent and then they just up and summon bahumut again to annihilate the entire place and your cast is just like "the hell!...seriously" its either before or after your forced loss encounter with "really, I am the bad guy." guy. and yeah after that you get the typical FF falloff into "finish or wonder" mode

Siliconemelons · Sep 28, 2015

As for RPG's in general.

I consider Lunar The Silver Star Story Complete (PSX) to be the definitive edition of the cadre of remakes and also a ground setting game to the entire JRPG genre. Lunar is imo the epitome of classic high fantasy JRPG, much like Tolkien...I am not saying it is on the same level of like LOTR etc...but my point is- Tolkien set the bar for what a high fantasy novel and series is to be, there have been many that emulate it, follow it etc.. some works worse, some arguably better but it is always agreed it is the classic that sets the stage and has every trope or standard faire done well or done first. Lunar: TSSS imo does that for the JRPG.

Wild Arms (1/remake) are a great romp and a fun game to go through - 3 was fun also, playing through 2 atm then will seek out 4. It is fun to play them in order as the plots are not (as far as I can tell) linked, but the "world" is the same just different era/vision etc. and it has been for me fun to see the things that do carry from one game to the next - mostly 1->3

To me FF games are in flavors - FF2 and 4 are the same flavor of empire takeover and resistance. FF3 and FF5 are all convoluted anime plots but LOOK JOB SYSTEM. FF6 and 7 are eco centric titles where the source of your magic/etc. comes from a live source and the bad empire that exploits that. FF8,9 and 10 are love stories.

Noodleface · Sep 28, 2015

Lunar TSSSC is one of my top 10 RPGs of all time for sure.

Ritley · Sep 28, 2015

Lunar is great. Lunar 2 was alright, but definitely not as good.

Oh, and FF7 is out on iOS, so it might be on android too. Final fantasy tactics too, definitely a must play

turbo · Sep 28, 2015

Disgaea 5 needs to freaking come out already! I made the extremely hard decision to hang up my Smite MOBA ranked hat and will have a big void to fill as that was about the only video game I played outside of rare games. Ironically I took a new awesome job that actually gives me a lot more money and 20+ less hours a week of work then before AND I get to work out of the house most the time....but alas to easy to fall into the treadmill of playing games and not enjoying the other areas of life. I was stuck in a shit hole for a few years so it don't matter but now that I am in Denver I have to enjoy it!

That being said.....anyone got any good ideas on abit more tactic/strategy rpg's to fill the void abit? I just can't get into single character rpg's, I like building teams etc but the linear rpg's without options have out grown me. One of the best ever was Tactics Ogre; you had so many options as far as classes to pick from, you could even 'feed' extra exp to people in fights by having them get the most kills etc if I remember. Games now days just seem to have the mirage of choice where usually it just doesn't matter. I want a game where I have options of classes and even when I make that I can still say man I want my XXX to be the bad ass carry for my team so I am focusing my money to upgrade his gear and give him extra stat cards blah blah. That's where I get the most enjoyment from, this shit on the rails now days just drives me insane.

I think tactic ogre's even had stat cards dropped from some defeated enemies that you could pick up with whoever you wanted. I wish they had abit better gear selection/special weapons but it was still one of the best games of all time.

Can't wait to make my mage in Disgaea be the bad ass mother fucker carrying the team! I focus all my efforts on the item world to get his gear to rock etc.....definitely love these games!

Kriptini · Sep 28, 2015

Turbo_sl said:
Disgaea 5 needs to freaking come out already! I made the extremely hard decision to hang up my Smite MOBA ranked hat and will have a big void to fill as that was about the only video game I played outside of rare games. Ironically I took a new awesome job that actually gives me a lot more money and 20+ less hours a week of work then before AND I get to work out of the house most the time....but alas to easy to fall into the treadmill of playing games and not enjoying the other areas of life. I was stuck in a shit hole for a few years so it don't matter but now that I am in Denver I have to enjoy it!

That being said.....anyone got any good ideas on abit more tactic/strategy rpg's to fill the void abit? I just can't get into single character rpg's, I like building teams etc but the linear rpg's without options have out grown me. One of the best ever was Tactics Ogre; you had so many options as far as classes to pick from, you could even 'feed' extra exp to people in fights by having them get the most kills etc if I remember. Games now days just seem to have the mirage of choice where usually it just doesn't matter. I want a game where I have options of classes and even when I make that I can still say man I want my XXX to be the bad ass carry for my team so I am focusing my money to upgrade his gear and give him extra stat cards blah blah. That's where I get the most enjoyment from, this shit on the rails now days just drives me insane.

I think tactic ogre's even had stat cards dropped from some defeated enemies that you could pick up with whoever you wanted. I wish they had abit better gear selection/special weapons but it was still one of the best games of all time.

Can't wait to make my mage in Disgaea be the bad ass mother fucker carrying the team! I focus all my efforts on the item world to get his gear to rock etc.....definitely love these games!

Have you played Final Fantasy Tactics A2? If you have a DS, I highly recommend it. There are a lot of different options for unit customization, plus multiclassing.

Hateyou · Sep 28, 2015

Turbo_sl said:
Disgaea 5 needs to freaking come out already! I made the extremely hard decision to hang up my Smite MOBA ranked hat and will have a big void to fill as that was about the only video game I played outside of rare games. Ironically I took a new awesome job that actually gives me a lot more money and 20+ less hours a week of work then before AND I get to work out of the house most the time....but alas to easy to fall into the treadmill of playing games and not enjoying the other areas of life. I was stuck in a shit hole for a few years so it don't matter but now that I am in Denver I have to enjoy it!

That being said.....anyone got any good ideas on abit more tactic/strategy rpg's to fill the void abit? I just can't get into single character rpg's, I like building teams etc but the linear rpg's without options have out grown me. One of the best ever was Tactics Ogre; you had so many options as far as classes to pick from, you could even 'feed' extra exp to people in fights by having them get the most kills etc if I remember. Games now days just seem to have the mirage of choice where usually it just doesn't matter. I want a game where I have options of classes and even when I make that I can still say man I want my XXX to be the bad ass carry for my team so I am focusing my money to upgrade his gear and give him extra stat cards blah blah. That's where I get the most enjoyment from, this shit on the rails now days just drives me insane.

I think tactic ogre's even had stat cards dropped from some defeated enemies that you could pick up with whoever you wanted. I wish they had abit better gear selection/special weapons but it was still one of the best games of all time.

Can't wait to make my mage in Disgaea be the bad ass mother fucker carrying the team! I focus all my efforts on the item world to get his gear to rock etc.....definitely love these games!

If you have a PC, Xcom is the best tactics game in recent memory. Blackguards tactics battle system is really good but the interface and story are lacking. Sequel supposed to be better but I never got it.

Less tactics-like but great turn based games recently would be divinity original sin, aarklash legacy, and wasteland 2...all great games.

If you just want something tactics-like to fill the void for a week while waiting I'd say aarklash since it's short, or Xcom because Xcom.

turbo · Sep 28, 2015

Hateyou;1246060 said:
If you have a PC, Xcom is the best tactics game in recent memory. Blackguards tactics battle system is really good but the interface and story are lacking. Sequel supposed to be better but I never got it.

Less tactics

Thanks for the feedback. I think I did FFT:A2 when it came along time ago (or was there 2 follow up games to FFT? Seemed abit kiddy compared to FFT but had some good systems).

I tried Blackguard and it was kind of meh for me; 2 started out with some good potential but honestly the environmental aspects drove me to quit. I like a few influencing factors in combat but I don't like for my combat to be 2nd to running to pull some lever or stupid shit. It BG2 was actually challenging which was awesome at least.

XCOM I had for Playstation and really enjoyed when it first came out. I didn't try on PC but heard there was some awesome expansion pack or player made version (long war?), I see XCOM2 is coming out down the road so maybe that might be a good fix to try on the PC side, man I used to fucking whip my remote controller across the room when I magically missed 5 of 6 shots with 90% accuracy.....fucking cheating god damn aliens.

I am going to give DO:S a try again when they do the re-release or whatever here soon. Something about it I just didn't like much but I didn't get hardly into it so I'm sure it will get better. Wasteland 2 I lasted like < 2 hours before I realized I have such narrow tolerences and anything sci-fi or post apoc just isn't much interest to me (XCOM being the exception). Aarklash I think I played and really enjoyed, i'll have to go look if I finally finished that but I liked you had some options on skills etc.

Unrelated; anyone kick into the Kickstarter for Unsung Story? It is PSvita (possible PS4 port?) by one of the creators of FFT I believe. Only 1 of 2 KS I have ever put money into....they are going to be delayed by at least a year but I'm still looking forward to it. There is going to be pvp arena battles etc and they said they are balancing classes around that lol......even though its first and foremost a single player tactics game. I heard FFT creator and said TAKE MY 200 dollars, give me goodness. Only other KS I put cash into was HEX since might and magic CTG was my first card game and I enjoyed it greatly. Turned a 500 dollar KS investiment I think into 2000 after I realized I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as M&M.

Any other suggestions? I'll be back from travels Wednesday night and downloading XCOM if nothing else comes up! (Playing Fairy Fencer on my work laptop when I travel; actually kind of a fun game from Idea factory I think.)

Siliconemelons · Sep 28, 2015

Turbo_sl said:
...I have such narrow tolerences and anything sci-fi or post apoc...

re: KS games... only backed IGAs CV remake thing... ordered ps4 copy...it may arrive before I get a ps4 :-(

Kriptini · Sep 28, 2015

Turbo;1246112 said:
Hateyou_sl said:

Thanks for the feedback. I think I did FFT:A2 when it came along time ago (or was there 2 follow up games to FFT? Seemed abit kiddy compared to FFT but had some good systems).

Click to expand...

Yeah, there are two sequels to FFT.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: The story is pretty good, but the law system sucks. Lots of cool side missions, but you can brick and get stuck if you don't complete them in a certain order (though this doesn't happen until way late in the postgame if you decided to do it). Still a very fun game though.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift: I like this one better than Advance, even though the story isn't as good. More classes, more races, a revamped non-suck law system, facing effects damage rather than accuracy, MP starts at 0 in a battle but regens twice as fast, and a lot of other cool improvements over the other one. Also has a pretty cool endgame dungeon for hardcore players.

Siliconemelons · Sep 28, 2015

Kriptini;1246129 said:
Turbo_sl said:

Yeah, there are two sequels to FFT.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: The story is pretty good, but the law system sucks. Lots of cool side missions, but you can brick and get stuck if you don't complete them in a certain order (though this doesn't happen until way late in the postgame if you decided to do it). Still a very fun game though.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift: I like this one better than Advance, even though the story isn't as good. More classes, more races, a revamped non-suck law system, facing effects damage rather than accuracy, MP starts at 0 in a battle but regens twice as fast, and a lot of other cool improvements over the other one. Also has a pretty cool endgame dungeon for hardcore players.

Click to expand...

forgot what FFT:A I played but the justification of battle mechanic in the story/plot was quite annoying and barfty. my PSP needs to work...gatta finish FFT!

Sinzar · Sep 28, 2015

I enjoy strategies and hadn't played any Xcom games before. Looked on steam and there's like 6+ different xcoms. Any particular one I should try first?

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