Gamers Thread

[no country for old wainds]

am i the only one who adores the VII aesthetic? obviously certain aspects of it like the character models are clunky as fuck but the overall visual style is incredibly satisfying for me. one of the many reasons i'm not especially excited about the remake.

i probs like barrett the best too, he's funny and involved in most of the best bits as pompey said, he just exudes personality. i love the section with dyne as well as midgar (which is indeed the best part of the game). i'm not that enamoured with red as a character but everything that happens at his home is really fun IMO

encounter rate is definitely a problem in some of the older FF games IIRC, although i was probably more impatient back when i played most of them. chrono trigger is better in that regard i think, but that was just an impeccably designed game in general i guess.

 

[Carpe Mortem]

Finally finished dragon fall the other night. Also heard HBS is releasing a non-shadowrun game while they still have Hong Kong on the back burner? Fucking lame.

In other gamer news I'm working out the logistics of a FANCY switch system for my 6 consoles. Something cost efficient but still as easy as changing the channel. Don't talk to me about emulators.

 

[rms]

encounter rate is definitely a problem in some of the older FF games IIRC, although i was probably more impatient back when i played most of them. chrono trigger is better in that regard i think, but that was just an impeccably designed game in general i guess.

A man after my own heart <3

tied with Legend of Legaia for personal favorite

 

[Omni]

I played V up until roughly the part where you grow up. I dropped it because I got frustrated by the sudden increase in encounter rate. In retrospect I regret doing so because in every other regard it seemed like a fantastic game. I have to give it another shot sometime.

I would recommend the Android/iOS port of Dragon Quest V to anyone who wanted to pick up the game. It's very convenient to play it on a mobile device or tablet. It's a full port of the Nintendo DS version. Same goes for the Android/iOS versions of IV and VI. Obviously that means I would recommend the DS versions too, but they are hard to find.

The ports of Dragon Quest I and II are somewhat subpar in comparison to the port of III. The third game was lovingly redone and uses the classic graphics from the original remake during the SNES/SFC era.

I would not recommend the mobile port of Dragon Quest VIII as it doesn't play well. Porting a PS2 game to mobile devices was not a good idea.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Anything wrong with the SNES version?

 

[Omni]

No, not really. I think that the original games are all totally playable and awesome. The remake is just the only officially localized version and I think that it looks good and is easy to play.

Unlike most games that get remade, Dragon Quest games are always pretty faithful to the canon. They generally fix technical limitations and artifacts of earlier eras like encounter rates and obviously try to make them look a bit nicer. They don't mess with the classic battle system or anything.


The same core team has worked on everything in the series with the goal of consistency and not alienating older fans. It's probably the most consistent game series that I've played.

 

[Manic Ferocity]

am i the only one who adores the VII aesthetic? obviously certain aspects of it like the character models are clunky as fuck but the overall visual style is incredibly satisfying for me. one of the many reasons i'm not especially excited about the remake.

i probs like barrett the best too, he's funny and involved in most of the best bits as pompey said, he just exudes personality. i love the section with dyne as well as midgar (which is indeed the best part of the game). i'm not that enamoured with red as a character but everything that happens at his home is really fun IMO

encounter rate is definitely a problem in some of the older FF games IIRC, although i was probably more impatient back when i played most of them. chrono trigger is better in that regard i think, but that was just an impeccably designed game in general i guess.

Yeah, Barret gets a lot of character development. Dyne was probably my favorite NPC and I kind of wish he stuck around longer. Maybe they'll go a bit more into his back story in the remake. Red XIII's back story is more interesting than he is as a character. I enjoyed grandpa Bugenhagen's quirky "earthliness".

As for the visual style, I LOVE the background environment art style -- especially in Midgar. It suits the dark and depressing tone of the plot. The characters are super blocky, but that's not the reason I think it's dated. I just don't find the combat as engaging as I once did and materia isn't as engrossing of a system as some people claim it is imo.

IV-VI and IX are my favorite in the series, personally. V is seriously underrated and the job change system is among the best in the entire series. The story is a little weak, but forgivable since it just seems like a spruced up version of the first couple of games.

Chrono Trigger is a flawless game and one of the few turn-based RPGs that manages to make grinding "fun". The final boss actually takes a decent amount of strategy to beat and there isn't really any way to cheese him -- unlike most FF titles.

 

[Manic Ferocity]

No, not really. I think that the original games are all totally playable and awesome. The remake is just the only officially localized version and I think that it looks good and is easy to play.

Unlike most games that get remade, Dragon Quest games are always pretty faithful to the canon. They generally fix technical limitations and artifacts of earlier eras like encounter rates and obviously try to make them look a bit nicer. They don't mess with the classic battle system or anything.


The same core team has worked on everything in the series with the goal of consistency and not alienating older fans. It's probably the most consistent game series that I've played.

I got up to Dragon Quest III on mobile before stopping. I tried to enjoy it on a nostalgic basis (like I did with the first two) but it just seems like a hopeless grind fest. It's also way too easy to get lost which isn't helped by the inconsistent online guides I've tried to use.

 

[rms]

FF9, I gotta disagree there. Childlish all around and the weakest of the 'modern' FF games. I'd probably go 8 -> 10 -> 7 -> 9

 

[Phylactery]

8 is one of my favourites overall, I love it. I find it's one of the more controversial ones as it has a lot of haters, though.

I find 10 to be pretty overrated, it's still good but the linearity of it makes it one of my least favourites. Also Tidus is extremely irritating and one of the worst characters in the series.

Have you not played 12? I actually like it quite a bit and would take it over 10.

 

[rms]

I think the last one I played was 12 and found it miserable. I remember being in some gigantic open zone and thinking the game had no point. Don't think ive played a RPG since

 

[arg]

i hated the draw/junction system of 8. what a fucking grindfest.

i love the battle system of 12. better than the materia one. each character has a timer (pretty fast) until they can perform their next move based on stats. you can switch who you directly control anytime and position them around the battlefield, and you can program the ai (pretty smart) of those you're not currently controlling

 

[Vegard Pompey]

8 is fucking bizarre. It'll always have nostalgic appeal for me but both the story and the mechanics are completely nonsensical. There are just so many weird ideas in that game. You have this strange character development system where you can 'junction' magic to stats to increase them, whatever that means. And gaining levels is pointless (and makes the game harder because enemies scale with you) because who needs levels when you can just 'refine' tents into 'curagas' and 'junction' them to your HP and have 3000 HP halfway through disc one? You have a cast of extremely one-dimensional playable characters (happy-go-lucky girl, ADD guy, womanizer, etc.) who it turns out all went to the same orphanage together but they forgot because magic. You have a rival character who is built up to be really important in the opening FMV yet has almost no purpose in the story whatsoever, he just shows up a couple times to fight you. And then there are the parts where your party randomly goes comatose and you get to temporarily play as some other characters who are extremely tangentially related to the main plot. Nothing about that game makes any sense to me. I still like it mostly because of how eccentric it is but I'm always baffled whenever someone calls it the best FF game.

I love 10's battle system and the character development system is probably the closest the series ever came to letting you customize characters without making them completely interchangeable. Sadly the game is oppressively linear and the story is shit.

Playing through 12 right now, not for the first time but I've never finished it before. I love it, definitely in my top 3 FFs. Not super invested in the story but it's just so relaxing to explore its huge and gorgeous world while letting the gambits do all the work. Using the international version which adds a job system to make the characters more distinct.

 

[Phylactery]

I agree about the whole orphanage thing in 8, that part was ridiculous. I enjoy the rest of the story though and I really like Ultamecia's Castle at the end. You can make yourself extremely overpowered early with the junction system if you know what you're doing, but I think the system itself is fine.

Can't say I agree with you about 10. You can make every character have the exact same abilities and stats with the Sphere Grid. The only differences are their Overdrives and Yuna being the only really unique one as only she can summon Aeons.

 

[rms]

I don't get why Junction is bad. It's a farming system that makes any character how you want them to be. Want Rinoa to be a dmg character? Give her STR mana (or resources, I forget what its called). Sure there's an optimal for each character, but you won't really know that unless you're reading playthroughs/youtube vids etc.

I don't really remember leveling as necessary or required but draw-farming was, unless you were quick enough to realize the refine possibilities which aren't explained and kind of take the fun away from the game imo.

I'd say Squall is a much more complex character than you're giving him credit and the rest are kind of side stories to him, because he's what the story revolves around. His learning, his understanding.

Seifer as the rival and the actual story is more complex than what you're remembering but I don't want to spoil it for you. The Boggs storyline, the 'magic,' and so on, I think you forgot what it all meant.

 

[Omni]

I got up to Dragon Quest III on mobile before stopping. I tried to enjoy it on a nostalgic basis (like I did with the first two) but it just seems like a hopeless grind fest. It's also way too easy to get lost which isn't helped by the inconsistent online guides I've tried to use.

I actually find III to be one of the easier games in the series to navigate. There are a lot of NPCs who give you advice and tell you where you should be going next. Visiting the towns during the day and at night also lets you do and see a lot more and talk to people who might not be around at other times of day.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Can't say I agree with you about 10. You can make every character have the exact same abilities and stats with the Sphere Grid. The only differences are their Overdrives and Yuna being the only really unique one as only she can summon Aeons.

Well, I didn't say the game succeeded entirely, I said it was the closest the franchise ever came to doing so. While you will *eventually* complete everyone's sphere grid, it takes a very long time to do so and until you do each character's starting location matters a lot. And even when you do, the overdrives are far more distinct than the limit breaks in previous games.

I don't get why Junction is bad. It's a farming system that makes any character how you want them to be. Want Rinoa to be a dmg character? Give her STR mana (or resources, I forget what its called). Sure there's an optimal for each character, but you won't really know that unless you're reading playthroughs/youtube vids etc

There's no reason to not just give everyone magics that increase STR, though.

Seifer as the rival and the actual story is more complex than what you're remembering but I don't want to spoil it for you. The Boggs storyline, the 'magic,' and so on, I think you forgot what it all meant.

I remember the story pretty well and I remember it being a convoluted clusterfuck of stupid that didn't add up to anything. Feel free to tell me "what it all meant" or link me to someone else's analysis if you don't feel like typing it out.

 

[rms]

I haven't sat through this one so it could be a waste of time i'm sorry if it is haha but basically the rifts between time, space and identity are intertwined and were definitely something I didn't comprehend when I was a young lad. Replayed it last year I think

You gotta have healers, and speed/vit/etc. Magic was useful in many fights

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I get it, I'm just saying there's no point in specializing when you can just make everyone an everything

 

[rms]

If I remember right, only certain GF's allowed you to junction certain abilities so it was not possible to unlock every 'ability' to be junction'd.