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I know that this thread is about already released games. However does anyone know if the developers of Afterfall and the developers of The Broken Hourglass are still working on their prospective games?
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May 2, 2011 20:40
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| # ? May 16, 2024 23:18 |
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Ice Blue posted:I've been replaying SMRPG a bit since my last post. The last time I did a serious run through the game was when I first got it back when it came out. I played it emulated a few times but dropped them pretty fast. Not sure if I'll get through it this time but having the Wii Classic controller helps. Yeah Super Mario RPG is a lot like Chrono Trigger in a lot of ways in that it works through a pretty traditional Japanese RPG formula with the intent to add as much variety as possible while making the game less tedious than typical games in the genre. Chrono Trigger accomplished making battles more fun with area of effect attacks that relied on lining up enemies correctly, and also by having most monsters have some kind of unique gimmick. Super Mario RPG's timed hit system accomplishes this, too, because not only do you have timed hits on weapons, but now you can learn the perfect way to defend every enemy's different attacks. It gives you a sense of progression besides the standard experience rewards, which I appreciated. More importantly, it made battles up through the mid-game individually more interesting because timing your defense properly meant saving resources since you had to heal less. Convenience-wise, you get a lot of opportunities to level up quickly by finding or buying the invincibility stars, which cuts a lot of time. Another cool twist was the slight stat progression control you had. I like that you can steer characters in slightly different directions, so Mario could focus on his jump techniques instead of attacking or Geno could attack more effectively with his weapons. Granted, in practice some characters were clearly better suited to some things than others so it didn't make a huge difference, but I think it counts for something.
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May 2, 2011 20:55
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One thing I noticed is the bonus stats per level weren't set at certain point gains. Sometimes you'll get +1 attack and +1 defense. Sometimes it'll be +2 attack +1 defense. So I always go for the one that gives the most gain on average. +HP I've seen as low at 3 and as high as 8. It'd be more strategic if the numbers were standardized but to me, it's smarter to go for the numbers with the biggest gains.
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May 2, 2011 21:03
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Ice Blue posted:It'd be more strategic if the numbers were standardized but to me, it's smarter to go for the numbers with the biggest gains. Isn't it not random, but accumulative payoff style? You'll get bigger gains from one bonus if you don't select it for a while, but you'll eventually alway get the minimums if you only choose HP. I tried playing that SMRPG New Techs + Higher Level Cap patch about a year ago. Its new skills are probably pretty cool, but the designers loving blew it by not only increasing TNL, but by reducing the EXP rewards. Plus they exchanged Mallow's Thunderbolt for Shocker, which made the grind even harder because you couldn't instantly one-and-out enemies. By the sewers, you were still getting 1EXP per encounter. Unbearable. Fur20 fucked around with this message at 22:40 on May 2, 2011 |
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May 2, 2011 22:37
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I tried that patch too and gave up in the Kero Sewers. Really a shame, SMRPG is such a great game but a bit too easy, a patch that'd actually make it reasonably challenging would be so nice to play. Instead he just made it ridiculously balls to the wall hard. Why are pretty much all game fan hacks so needlessly difficult? I think the only half decent ones I've played were for FFT and Super Metroid.
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May 2, 2011 23:25
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That is why I generally avoid difficulty patches created by the fanbase. They often end up creating something more frustrating than fun. I think a big cause might be fans with a lot knowledge of the game thinking their experience translates to talent in game design, which is usually not true.quote:Isn't it not random, but accumulative payoff style? You'll get bigger gains from one bonus if you don't select it for a while, but you'll eventually alway get the minimums if you only choose HP. Yeah, and while I might move between HP and Attack/Defense for Bowser, for example, I'm not really going to invest in his special attack, even if its gains are higher. Edit: Also the idea of a "Hard mode" patch for Super Mario RPG is pretty loving stupid. It's not like the battle system lends itself to a lot of strategic decisions like FFT's might, so what good does it do? One of the strengths of SMRPG's design is that it recognizes the shortcomings of its genre and makes its battles fun in spite of them by trying to steer itself away from a lot of that tedium. Why put that poo poo back in? It's like making a hard mode patch for Chrono Trigger. Nickoten fucked around with this message at 23:38 on May 2, 2011 |
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May 2, 2011 23:32
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Only dudes who care about an old rear end game enough to patch it themselves have played it enough to have it engraved irrevocably into their brains forever. The only way they can get it up anymore while playing is by making it stupid hard.
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May 2, 2011 23:35
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Lets gently caress Bro posted:I tried that patch too and gave up in the Kero Sewers. Really a shame, SMRPG is such a great game but a bit too easy, a patch that'd actually make it reasonably challenging would be so nice to play. Instead he just made it ridiculously balls to the wall hard. Why are pretty much all game fan hacks so needlessly difficult? I think the only half decent ones I've played were for FFT and Super Metroid. There's a new one that was released (SMRPG Revolution) which adjusted the difficulty in a proper way (that is, going through and balancing the game instead of just tripling everything's HP). It's quite well done, since timing your blocks and attacks is now instrumental to winning, rather than just being a convenience. Nickoten posted:Also the idea of a "Hard mode" patch for Super Mario RPG is pretty loving stupid. It's not like the battle system lends itself to a lot of strategic decisions like FFT's might, so what good does it do? It mostly serves to make the timed attack system a lot more integral to the actual game. I'd love to see someone combine SMRPG-style timed attacks with a more strategic battle system ala FFX.
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May 2, 2011 23:38
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SMRPG was my first RPG way back then, so I still have the habit of trying to do timed hits in every RPG I've ever played since then. Imagine my surprise when it worked in FF8.
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May 2, 2011 23:44
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You're already rewarded for learning the timing on defense by having the game made easier for you. I feel like requiring it would make the game a lot more punishing and tedious when you're in the process of figuring out the timing. And we're of course going to be in disagreement here, but I just don't think the timed hit system belongs in a strategic battle system. I kind of feel like it needs to be one or the other. In other words, I'm implying that the timed hits of SMRPG make its battle system fun without requiring that it be very strategic. On the other hand, having them in SMT 3's battle system would be pretty merciless. I'm sure there's some in-between where you can have something like that, but it would have to be a lot less precise than what SMRPG requires of you for defending attacks and taking 1 damage. If it was more akin to the timing on attacks (Which is pretty easy all around, except for some special attacks), that wouldn't be so bad.
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May 2, 2011 23:47
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I was thinking about KOTOR 2 and wondering how the restoration project was going, and to my surprise it was completed nearly 2 years ago. Has anyone played it? How much do the restored bits really add to the game?
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May 3, 2011 12:04
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So I'm pretty stuck on Secret of Mana since I can't seem to beat the gnome king boss (yeah, early on, I know). Grinding doesn't seem to have accomplished anything at all, so am I completely misunderstanding this, or is there no way to level up your weapons or spells except when the game gives you an upgrade thing after defeating a boss?
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May 3, 2011 12:33
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ChuckDHead posted:So I'm pretty stuck on Secret of Mana since I can't seem to beat the gnome king boss (yeah, early on, I know). Grinding doesn't seem to have accomplished anything at all, so am I completely misunderstanding this, or is there no way to level up your weapons or spells except when the game gives you an upgrade thing after defeating a boss? How many orbs you've gotten for a weapon determines how many levels it can gain, but you also need to have Watts refine them to get those benefits. Max spell level is based on how many seeds you've sealed so far.
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May 3, 2011 13:47
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iastudent posted:How many orbs you've gotten for a weapon determines how many levels it can gain, but you also need to have Watts refine them to get those benefits. Not only that, but you have to use the spells repeatedly to get them to go up, like weapons. If you check the weapons subscreen for the sprite/girl, you should be able to hit R and look at the stats for each elemental, which you probably only have undine right now (I think). The girls are stupid easy to power up. Go to Luka's palace (because you have your weapons out it gives you more EXP per shot), cast her buff spells on everyone, have Luka restore your power, rinse, lather, repeat. That's the grind-y way, anyway, and it only works for the girl. For the sprite, set the girl and the boy's action grid to defend and keep away, and run around one of the early areas nuking things with his offense spells and stay at cheap inns or use Luka's palace to restore your MP. You CAN use fairie walnuts, but those things are really expensive. And if you've only sealed one seed, your magic can only go to level one. Two seeds, level two, and so on and so forth.
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May 3, 2011 14:36
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Conduit for Sale! posted:I was thinking about KOTOR 2 and wondering how the restoration project was going, and to my surprise it was completed nearly 2 years ago. It makes the game feel closer to complete, and gives the ending actual closure. There isn't much of a reason to NOT play with it.
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May 3, 2011 14:54
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Conduit for Sale! posted:I was thinking about KOTOR 2 and wondering how the restoration project was going, and to my surprise it was completed nearly 2 years ago. It depends on which restoration project you are talking about. The first restoration project being done by Team Gizka fell apart and Dashus took his ball and went home. The second restoration project by the Deadly Stream Team is done. Plus they also did a build of the M4-78 droid planet. The DS restoration project nicely fleshes out the end of the game.
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May 3, 2011 15:35
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dis astranagant posted:To be fair, comparing any action rpg to YsF is going to leave you disappointed. I can't think of anything besides other Ys games that have gameplay anywhere near that good Posted a while back but Xanadu NEXT is pretty close to YsF in terms of quality--it has great action-rpg gameplay with the occasional puzzle thrown into the mix. It's also made by Falcom though so there you go. With the exception of their stupidly high price tags pretty much all Falcom RPGs are awesome. (Though that's something endemic to non-porn Japanese PC games I guess)
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May 3, 2011 16:50
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Genpei Turtle posted:Posted a while back but Xanadu NEXT is pretty close to YsF in terms of quality--it has great action-rpg gameplay with the occasional puzzle thrown into the mix. It's also made by Falcom though so there you go. With the exception of their stupidly high price tags pretty much all Falcom RPGs are awesome. (Though that's something endemic to non-porn Japanese PC games I guess) I went to look this up just now and while it does look awesome, not sure if it's worth tracking down a N-Gage of all things to play on.
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May 3, 2011 16:56
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iastudent posted:I went to look this up just now and while it does look awesome, not sure if it's worth tracking down a N-Gage of all things to play on. It's also a PC game. Not sure if there was ever an English patch for it or not though.
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May 3, 2011 17:18
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:It's also a PC game. Not sure if there was ever an English patch for it or not though. Hah, I never knew it came out for N-Gage. Still, as Japanese RPGs go, even without a patch it's probably perfectly playable if you can't read Japanese. The story is kind of incidental anyway. For the most part it's kind of like a Metroidvania in that areas of the game open up as you find items that will get you there, rather than being plot-constrained. And most of the abilities have icons that make it pretty obvious what they do. (big pile of gold for "increased gold from enemies," sword piercing dude through the back for "extra damage from backstabs" etc)
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May 3, 2011 18:18
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Has anybody here played Folklore? It's pretty cheap, but I'd like to get some opinions on it before I consider buying it.
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May 5, 2011 20:02
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It got old after a while but wasnt too bad. Very pretty game, the story blends 3 different narrative styles. theres the CG for big events, walking around the town during the day adventure game style looking for clues and talking to the people in town. and a sort of animated comic book style for story scenes that didnt get the cg treatment which are actually kind of cool. The actual fairy realm opens up at night and you can go in and visit the worlds youve progressed through. As for the gameplay you equip the enemies you defeat one for each face button(so four enemies) to use their attacks (some do defensive things too) You beat down an enemy until its soul kind of floats free from its body and then latch on and wrench your controller up in the air to yank it out. Thats right. it uses sixaxis motion controls so be aware of that. While its an interesting mechanic for a while whipping your arms around like an idiot during a boss fight can get obnoxious. The two different characters have that sort of divergent but intertwined story thing going on. They both encounter the same type of enemies but use them in different ways. It can get a bit grindy too if you want to level up your attacks. There was apparently a whole bunch of dlc for it too..I should finish it one of these days.
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May 5, 2011 20:18
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The grindy nature probably can't be understated. It's really grindy at times if you want to power up attacks and each attack has several stages of power up with a single different condition for each power up stage. And there's a lot of attacks and you regularly need to switch out attacks. I believe the biggest complaint about it at the time was the load time involved in bringing up the menu to select different attacks/map them out but I personally didn't have much issue with this.
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May 5, 2011 20:42
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Also, the 2 characters play just differently enough that if you've been playing as Mr. Reporter for a while you'll have a hard time wanting to play as Miss Rooted-to-the-loving-Ground-During-Ever-Move
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May 5, 2011 23:17
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Rascyc posted:The grindy nature probably can't be understated. It's really grindy at times if you want to power up attacks and each attack has several stages of power up with a single different condition for each power up stage. And there's a lot of attacks and you regularly need to switch out attacks. Is powering up most of your attacks necessary to beat the game, or is it something I can avoid if I want? I hate grinding, so if it's that bad I'll probably just pass on it.
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May 5, 2011 23:45
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Cake Attack posted:Is powering up most of your attacks necessary to beat the game, or is it something I can avoid if I want? I hate grinding, so if it's that bad I'll probably just pass on it. You'll want to level them up a bit, but you'll fairly quickly find some keepers you can stick with for the most part. You definitely don't want to fight chapter bosses without your good attacks leveled up as high as you can. You can easily get away with finding an attack you like of each element and sticking with it, though your taste in them is likely to change as the game goes on.
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May 6, 2011 01:34
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dis astranagant posted:You'll want to level them up a bit, but you'll fairly quickly find some keepers you can stick with for the most part. You definitely don't want to fight chapter bosses without your good attacks leveled up as high as you can. You can easily get away with finding an attack you like of each element and sticking with it, though your taste in them is likely to change as the game goes on. Alright, good to know. Thanks for the opinions everybody; the game's cheap enough that I think I'll probably end up getting it.
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May 6, 2011 02:18
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Cake Attack posted:Alright, good to know. Thanks for the opinions everybody; the game's cheap enough that I think I'll probably end up getting it. I wouldn't bother with the dlc, but it's a fun game in spite of its flaws.
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May 6, 2011 02:27
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A friend of mine is joining the army so he's selling all of his old ps2 games off, and among them are the Xenosaga games. I always hear pretty...odd things about them to say the least, but he'll sell em all to me for about 10 dollars. They worth it?
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May 6, 2011 04:15
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Ibram Gaunt posted:A friend of mine is joining the army so he's selling all of his old ps2 games off, and among them are the Xenosaga games. I always hear pretty...odd things about them to say the least, but he'll sell em all to me for about 10 dollars. They worth it? For 10bux, maybe. Depends on your tolerance for hour long cutscenes and Nietzsche references.
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May 6, 2011 04:30
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Ibram Gaunt posted:A friend of mine is joining the army so he's selling all of his old ps2 games off, and among them are the Xenosaga games. I always hear pretty...odd things about them to say the least, but he'll sell em all to me for about 10 dollars. They worth it? Sure why not. They can be fun as long as you realize that they're made by people who probably saw Neon Genesis Evangelion and thought, "This is great, but it's not nearly convoluted enough, and it doesn't have enough random Christian imagery." I found their ridiculousness enjoyable but I can see how most people would be put off by them. Just don't play 2. Even if end up liking the first one, for the love of god don't play Xenosaga 2. It has some of the worst gameplay I've ever experienced in a JRPG and the story has little to no bearing on the main plot of the series. It's basically a 20 hour side quest. If you end up liking 1, go straight to 3, which in my opinion isn't just the best of the 3 but a pretty decent if not good game in its own right.
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May 6, 2011 04:34
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Xenosaga makes me sad that we never got more Xenogears.
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May 6, 2011 04:45
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Ice Blue posted:Xenosaga makes me sad that we never got more Xenogears. Likewise, Xenogears Disc 2 makes me sad that we never got more Xenogears.
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May 6, 2011 05:13
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Xenogears Perfect Works Artbook makes me sad we never got more. Xenosaga just drove it home that it'll likely never happen. Man if only Square Enix did a publishing deal with Monolith to do a Xenogears remake and continue the franchise, that'd be so awesome. Problem is the height of the popularity of the genre has come and gone. It'll never be the same.
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May 6, 2011 05:16
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a medical mystery posted:Likewise, Xenogears Disc 2 makes me sad that we never got more Xenogears. I really wanted to see the process of seeing a transforming ferris wheel into a giant robot.
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May 6, 2011 05:16
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Conduit for Sale! posted:Just don't play 2. Even if end up liking the first one, for the love of god don't play Xenosaga 2. My experiences with 2 ended with getting to the bottom of a dungeon only to have a self destruct system activate and give me 30 minutes to escape. 30 minutes that count down whether your walking. whether your in menu. whether youre in battle. with battles that happen every few steps... and a battle system that requires painstaking rounds of setup to defeat even trash enemies. I quit the game and sold it the next day. It cant be emphasized enough how bad xenosaga 2 is. I thought 1 was alot of fun if you dont take it too seriously. I never played 3 because of my experiences with 2. If you do play one, either play it with a walkthrough or for the love of god TAKE YOUR TIME with it. dont just rush for the next cutscene, there are plenty of those to be found and youll be sick of them. explore everywhere, talk to everyone, enjoy the gameplay and the rpgness of it. make sure all of your characters have all of their skills. There are a million missable things. Putting a little prep into finding them and making sure you have your skills is the difference between slogging through the game and actually possibly enjoying it.
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May 6, 2011 14:19
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I hated Xenosaga 2 but 3 was a lot of fun and they did a decent job of wrapping the story up. It's a shame they edited out the blood through because it makes a couple of scenes look really stupid.
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May 6, 2011 14:33
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Shion loving infuriated me in Xenosaga 1 (the only one I've played), with her constant "Kos-Mos, are you okay!" "Oh no, Kos-Mos, look out!!" "Kos-Mos, I love you, please don't be a badass!!" She's a loving indestructable god robot, stop your god drat nagging.
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May 6, 2011 14:46
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If you don't like the series, you can sell it on ebay for more than ten bucks, so why not try it? It's a series I immensely enjoy, but I'm also kind of a sucker for Tetsuya Takahashi's stories.Wendell posted:Shion loving infuriated me in Xenosaga 1 You didn't play the other two games, did you?
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May 6, 2011 15:18
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Wendell posted:Shion loving infuriated me in Xenosaga 1 (the only one I've played), with her constant "Kos-Mos, are you okay!" "Oh no, Kos-Mos, look out!!" "Kos-Mos, I love you, please don't be a badass!!" She's an UNSTABLE indestructable robot god. I think Id ask if she was doing alright pretty often too just to make sure she doesnt flip her poo poo and decide to destroy the universe.
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May 6, 2011 16:09
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