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SpaceDrake posted:I might still prefer the PC versions (yes, the re-re-ported it to PC after the PSP release, it's currently like the last Falcom PC release ever) but the PSP versions are extremely good. Wait, they ported the PSP Chronicles version back to PC?
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Jul 15, 2011 03:03
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:Wait, they ported the PSP Chronicles version back to PC? Bam! Literally the next-to-last thing they put out (sides Zwei II) before apparently abandoning the PC as a platform at long last. Rinkles posted:I take it Trails didn't garner sufficient interest for it's own thread? Nah, not quite. A little too obscure, still, I think. I'm kind of wondering if SC will do so, however, since it's even better and the plot is a fair bit more engaging still than the first game.
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Jul 15, 2011 03:08
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SpaceDrake posted:Nah, not quite. A little too obscure, still, I think. I'm kind of wondering if SC will do so, however, since it's even better and the plot is a fair bit more engaging still than the first game. Well hopefully XSEED doesn't go bankrupt before they have the chance to release it. I hope the Falcom deal worked out for them, however risky it may have seemed.
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Jul 15, 2011 03:19
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Rinkles posted:Well hopefully XSEED doesn't go bankrupt before they have the chance to release it. I hope the Falcom deal worked out for them, however risky it may have seemed. I think XSEED is in pretty good shape. They seem to be pretty careful about which games they do and don't pick up. If they weren't they probably would have picked up Retro Game Challenge 2 just to please fans.
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Jul 15, 2011 04:57
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The Black Stones posted:I think XSEED is in pretty good shape. They seem to be pretty careful about which games they do and don't pick up. If they weren't they probably would have picked up Retro Game Challenge 2 just to please fans. Everything they've said publicly has indicated that the Falcom games have at least not lost them money; I doubt they've been a cause of bonuses and Ferraris for everyone, but it seems like the Falcom deal isn't a losing proposition for them, at least, and there's a decent chance word of mouth will give Trails and the Ys games a longer tail than usual. That said, I still think that if they want to make truly mad bank off the Falcom deal, PC distribution (especially Steam) is the one and only way to go. Especially with Trails SC being a two-UMD game and therefore unplaceable on the PSN.
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Jul 15, 2011 05:16
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I picked up Resonance of Fate at the good word of some people in this thread a while ago, and boy you guys are a bunch of bastards. I'm only an hour in and I can tell this game is going to consume my free time like an obese anime lover on cheetos. You can customize your guns, AND you get to play dress-up? Sign me the gently caress up!
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Jul 17, 2011 07:02
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Did anyone ever good mileage out of the Metal Saga game for the PS2?
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Jul 17, 2011 23:39
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Rascyc posted:Did anyone ever good mileage out of the Metal Saga game for the PS2? I've wanted to try it, but it hates HDLoader and my dvd drive is dead.
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Jul 17, 2011 23:42
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Rascyc posted:Did anyone ever good mileage out of the Metal Saga game for the PS2? Yes, but it appeals to my particular blend of sperglord and ADHD. There's no real overarching story to be found, as the story is really about the player character's journey to explore the world. You can jump between bounty hunting or scavenging or just exploring, depending on your whim. You don't always have to do a lot of quests in order to move on; most times, you just need to be strong enough to survive the next area's monsters. Once you have a selection of tanks and access to fancy parts, you can spend a fair bit of time customizing your vehicles. Or you could just wander about tank-less, though it would help to recruit a solider for that kind of playstyle. Speaking of recruiting, you can recruit dogs into your party. Dogs with giant cannons strapped to their backs. It's the kind of game that takes a lot of good ideas but doesn't really tie them together. To an extent, it's the player who develops their own narrative through the experience of the game, to the point of being able to unlock multiple endings. But if you're looking for a standard JRPG experience, it ain't this game.
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Jul 18, 2011 00:27
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:I think I've asked this before but was the Ys1&2 port on PSP any good or not?  The new soundtrack arrangement is pretty good but other than that there's not much reason to play Chronicles over Complete.After playing the PSP version of Felghana I was expecting Chronicles to be a near-perfect port of Complete, so I was pretty disappointed that it felt less smooth and polished. If you already own Complete, just stick with it and look up the new soundtrack on Youtube, unless you really really want to support English releases of Falcom games. Otherwise, I'd go with Chronicles just because it's a lot cheaper and easier to buy it from PSN than to order Complete from Falcom's site.
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Jul 18, 2011 03:11
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Rascyc posted:Did anyone ever good mileage out of the Metal Saga game for the PS2? I liked it, but I had a serious problem with the difficulty spikes. I recall quitting when in some town an apparently random NPC was actually a murderous hobo superboss that destroyed all of my tanks (and characters) with knives.
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Jul 18, 2011 10:04
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Has anyone here played the two Eschalon games? It looks like a late 80's, early 90's western hardcore RPG. Is it any good (story-, atmosphere-wise), or does it focus on grinding/dungeon crawling too much? Tarquinn fucked around with this message at 12:01 on Jul 18, 2011 |
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Jul 18, 2011 11:59
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Tarquinn posted:Has anyone here played the two Eschalon games? They are okay if you're starved for new cRPGs to play, but 1. the walking speed is very slow, 2. the setting/writing/area design are pretty uninspired, and 3. the combat design is a tad too simplistic and, frankly, boring, of the hit-the-enemy (with aimed or strong strikes)-until-it-goes-down variety. It's like a really slow clickfest, a Diablo-like in slow-mo. Plus AI isn't exactly bright. If you do play it, go for a spellcaster, it's a bit (just a bit) more fun. And if you're looking for quality non-combat content, well, Eschalon barely offers any, so you're better off looking elsewhere imho. CrookedB fucked around with this message at 12:14 on Jul 18, 2011 |
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Jul 18, 2011 12:11
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CrookedB posted:They are okay if you're starved for new cRPGs to play, but 1. the walking speed is very slow, 2. the setting/writing/area design are pretty uninspired, and 3. the combat design is a tad too simplistic and, frankly, boring, of the hit-the-enemy (with aimed or strong strikes)-until-it-goes-down variety. It's like a really slow clickfest, a Diablo-like in slow-mo. Plus AI isn't exactly bright. If you do play it, go for a spellcaster, it's a bit (just a bit) more fun. Thanks a lot for this. Your last sentence pretty much killed the game for me. 
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Jul 18, 2011 13:06
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I have a quick question about characters and their item requests in The Last Remnant. I have recruited Baulson and he has several of all of the items he requests. What do characters use them for? Upgrading their weapons? How do I get him to use them? Does he just not have enough of one of them?
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Jul 18, 2011 16:48
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Xenix posted:I have a quick question about characters and their item requests in The Last Remnant. I have recruited Baulson and he has several of all of the items he requests. What do characters use them for? Upgrading their weapons? How do I get him to use them? Does he just not have enough of one of them? It's for upgrading weapons. If he's not asking for any more then he probably has enough. However, you need to hit a minimum BR level before they'll upgrade. So basically, go worry about everyone else's stuff in the mean time.
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Jul 18, 2011 16:52
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Xenix posted:I have a quick question about characters and their item requests in The Last Remnant. I have recruited Baulson and he has several of all of the items he requests. What do characters use them for? Upgrading their weapons? How do I get him to use them? Does he just not have enough of one of them? Yes, they're used to upgrade their weapons. When you enter a city and they have enough of the required items, they'll automatically upgrade their weapons. You'll want to check the wiki for how many of each item they need since the game doesn't tell you. EDIT: ^^^^ Forgot about the BR requirements.
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Jul 18, 2011 16:53
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Another Last Remnant question: Everyone seems to have one unique stat (For Rush it's Bravery and for Emma it's Love), what do these actually do? I've been looking around online forever and it's like no one has any idea.
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Jul 18, 2011 19:27
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Nobody has any idea. [e]Although lots of guesses. [e2]This is really the best summary I can give you, had to dig it up from my old notes that is mostly based on GFaqs topics and such. This comes from sunzi who basically sits on the LR gfaq forums and answers every single question. Anyway: "That's the UP, which affects a bunch of different things during battle, most importantly is the union chemistry. The higher the UP, the more influence that unit will have over the rest of the union. It also affects their reassessment chances, but it won't affect their reassessment type. Some are more likely to do things that are aggressive, while others are more likely to make defensive decisions. Quite the black box, really... So figuring out what it does seems to come down to player experience." Rascyc fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Jul 18, 2011 |
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Jul 18, 2011 19:36
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Someone sell me on Baten Kaitos. I can get a copy off Amazon for practically nothing but all I know about it is that it's a turn based RPG with cards and has some sweet sounding music.
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Jul 18, 2011 22:08
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It has a very interesting gameplay system and a wonderful world that is beautifully animated, complete with hand-drawn backgrounds. Unfortunately it is terribly marred by horrendous voice acting and don't believe anyone who tells you the echo was done to better simulate the player as the "fairy" perspective - it's poo poo and the Japanese version doesn't do it for a reason. The original Baten Kaitos is one game I wish I could undub and play through, it'd probably be one of my favorite RPGs if I could. Its sequel is also a fantastic game with corrected VA (it's actually pretty good!) Unfortunately it was overshadowed completely by other RPG releases and being on the Gamecube certainly did not help! The sequel is actually a prequel in the Baten Kaitos timeline, so you can go ahead and rock out to it if you just want to play one of the two.
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Jul 18, 2011 22:29
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iastudent posted:Someone sell me on Baten Kaitos. I can get a copy off Amazon for practically nothing but all I know about it is that it's a turn based RPG with cards and has some sweet sounding music. 1. It's ridiculously pretty. 2. The story can sometimes get boring but it isn't insulting (least I can't recall where it is) 3. Card system is a welcome change.
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Jul 18, 2011 23:07
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Baten Kaitos Short version: Deck building Quick-paced turn-based battles that reward attention to detail Items change over time Wordy version: You have to make a deck for each character with cards representing attacks, guards, healing items, etc. The battles are turned based with time limits. On the enemy's turn, you can select one guard card for every attack they use to reduce the damage you take. Every card has one to four numbers on its corners, and when you play a card, you select one of its numbers. Choosing all of the same number or numbers in sequence gives you a slight damage bonus. Many items will change over time, becoming stronger or weaker, or changing function entirely. For example, a green bunch of bananas that can be used for a weak attack will ripen and become a healing item, then rot and be an attack item again.
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Jul 18, 2011 23:51
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Well, I got my copy ordered so hopefully I'll be able to give this a go soon. Was starting to think I didn't have much reason to keep my Wii around till I started looking into this game.
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Jul 19, 2011 00:21
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Rascyc posted:Its sequel is also a fantastic game with corrected VA (it's actually pretty good!) Unfortunately it was overshadowed completely by other RPG releases and being on the Gamecube certainly did not help! The sequel is actually a prequel in the Baten Kaitos timeline, so you can go ahead and rock out to it if you just want to play one of the two. Wait, is the VA actually worthwhile in BK:Origins? Cause I might give it a shot if true. Also, I distinctly remember Baten Kaitos having an option buried in the menus to turn off voice acting, which I used for however long I was playing the game until I had to return it to Blockbuster.
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Jul 19, 2011 03:35
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SatansBestBuddy posted:Wait, is the VA actually worthwhile in BK:Origins? It's not great voice acting, but it's definitely listenable and doesn't do the awful effects that the original game did.
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Jul 19, 2011 04:30
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SatansBestBuddy posted:Also, I distinctly remember Baten Kaitos having an option buried in the menus to turn off voice acting, which I used for however long I was playing the game until I had to return it to Blockbuster. It's like they consciously went out of their way to find the shittiest sounding, overacted voices, and record them via cans and strings inside of a gas tank for the added echo. Which is boggling, because the original trailer with English voices actually had good voice acting!
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Jul 19, 2011 04:34
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I wanted to like Baten Kaitos, but the game didn't like me. At some point in the story, you get sent to a dungeon with no way back and only a red save point, which means you can't level up (you level at blue savepoints). The game doesn't give you any warning of this. Guess what happened when I went in underleveled? The boss was completely impossible to beat. Haven't had much drive to play it ever since.
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Jul 19, 2011 09:42
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Amppelix posted:I wanted to like Baten Kaitos, but the game didn't like me. At some point in the story, you get sent to a dungeon with no way back and only a red save point, which means you can't level up (you level at blue savepoints). The game doesn't give you any warning of this. Guess what happened when I went in underleveled? The boss was completely impossible to beat. Haven't had much drive to play it ever since.
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Jul 19, 2011 10:03
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Baiten Kaitos was a pretty good game, but gently caress me it was paced for a snail. The dialogue takes forever to scroll through, the attack animations are twice as long as they should be, and MC runs like a dopey motherfucker in the overworld so it takes a long time to get anywhere. The only thing fast about it was the startup time for battles. I remember the game only taking 2 or 3 seconds to get from the overworld to the player choosing cards. Origins fixed this somewhat. The battles went much quicker and the dialogue was a little more snappy. I don't remember which game I preferred. They're both gorgeous and sound great, voice acting aside, and the battle systems are pretty much two sides to the same coin.
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Jul 20, 2011 19:13
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SatansBestBuddy posted:Also, I distinctly remember Baten Kaitos having an option buried in the menus to turn off voice acting, which I used for however long I was playing the game until I had to return it to Blockbuster. If memory serves, you have to switch to Surround sound in the game's options, which eliminates the echo for some reason  It's definitely a worthwhile title but being on the Gamecube and having terrible voice acting hurt its appeal. The game is absolutely gorgeous (maybe the best looking Gamecube title), has a really great soundtrack (as a brass player I find it almost  -worthy) and the combat system is one of the most fun I can think of.
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Jul 20, 2011 20:27
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C-Euro posted:If memory serves, you have to switch to Surround sound in the game's options, which eliminates the echo for some reason I can confirm this. I guess they didn't properly QA the game and unless you select Surround the game is still trying to play on more than 2 channels, which just get echoed/oversampled on a stereo system. Set it to surround and the extra channels get lost, but since voice was going to play on all speakers anyway... well, no echo. I don't think there is enough positional audio for the change to otherwise have any negative impact, and at least not enough, or frequently enough for it to matter.
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Jul 20, 2011 20:56
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I played through Trails in the Sky thanks to the praise it got in this thread, and it was actually a pretty fun game. I was worried for a bit, because the early game was kinda slow and dull. Once I got to the later chapters though, I had a hard time putting the game down. It was a mixed bag, but I'm glad I played it. Assuming the later games are more like the second half of this game, I'll be buying the sequel as soon as it comes out. The sequel is getting localized, right? 
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Jul 21, 2011 01:16
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U-DO Burger posted:I played through Trails in the Sky thanks to the praise it got in this thread, and it was actually a pretty fun game. I was worried for a bit, because the early game was kinda slow and dull. Once I got to the later chapters though, I had a hard time putting the game down. It was a mixed bag, but I'm glad I played it. Assuming the later games are more like the second half of this game, I'll be buying the sequel as soon as it comes out. XSEED has said they'll bring over the sequel and the pseudo-expansion-pack (voice for both was recorded alongside Trails in the Sky), so hopefully we will. It's more a question of what format they'll come over as, since it's possible UMD production could cease by the end of the year. I've got The Hope, though, since XSEED seems pretty invested in the project.
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Jul 21, 2011 01:27
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SpaceDrake posted:XSEED has said they'll bring over the sequel and the pseudo-expansion-pack (voice for both was recorded alongside Trails in the Sky), so hopefully we will. It's more a question of what format they'll come over as, since it's possible UMD production could cease by the end of the year. I've got The Hope, though, since XSEED seems pretty invested in the project. What, really? That just seems like a punch in the face to publishers that are sticking to releasing games on the PSP.
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Jul 21, 2011 01:47
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I'm a few hours into chapter 2, and it's mostly been a pleasant experience so far. A slow burn that I pick up and play at few hour intervals - whereas I usually marathon RPGs. The writing is charming, and I appreciate how just about every NPC has something new to say (in a given area) after just about every bit of plot progression. There are a number of jRPG tropes, both in the mechanics and storytelling, I would have preferred them to have avoided, but little things like infinite retries and no random encounters go a long way. I'm actually quite surprised at how much fun the battle system is. The videos I saw of it beforehand discouraged me almost to the point of not buying the game but it's really quite good (though I think there's a missed opportunity in the battle order manipulation, which could've been more involved - though maybe it does later on). In one or two fights the key to victory involved almost puzzle-like strategizing (one of the monsters up for extermination in particular) which is what I get the most enjoyment out of in jRPGs (out of the few non-SMT ones I've played). One small gripe I've had is how many side quests seem to arbitrarily expire as the plot progresses. This has moved me to finishing up quests the second they're on offer (if possible), which has also led to some exhilarating optional boss battles where I'm clearly underleveled (that said the game seems on the easy side in general) so perhaps something of that sort was the motivation. SpaceDrake, you mentioned before that the first chapter translation was somewhat botched on XSEED's part. The beginning of the chapter may have seemed a bit halfhearted but I think that might mostly be confirmation bias. Could you elaborate on what you meant? That said, the prologue for me has noticeably been the best written so far. Lastly, I wonder if XSEED would be willing to consider distribution through Steam, ala SpaceDrake's efforts. Although I suspect much of the traditional jRPG customer base (in America) is PC gaming averse. But that might be confusing cause with effect.
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Jul 21, 2011 02:14
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Rinkles posted:One small gripe I've had is how many side quests seem to arbitrarily expire as the plot progresses. This has moved me to finishing up quests the second they're on offer (if possible), which has also led to some exhilarating optional boss battles where I'm clearly underleveled (that said the game seems on the easy side in general) so perhaps something of that sort was the motivation. This is why chapter 4 is the best chapter. The side-quests are all replaced by optional mini-dungeons where you can grind and get some cool items. Don't have to worry about anything expiring. I don't know anything about the sequels, but I hope side-quests in those games are done more in the style of chapter 4. I always enjoyed the monster-in-a-box battles, as they were about on par with the boss battles, if not harder at times. It was thanks to all those battles that I was forced to strategize, experiment, and learn just how useful the Taunt skill can be.
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Jul 21, 2011 02:25
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Rinkles posted:One small gripe I've had is how many side quests seem to arbitrarily expire as the plot progresses. This has moved me to finishing up quests the second they're on offer (if possible), which has also led to some exhilarating optional boss battles where I'm clearly underleveled (that said the game seems on the easy side in general) so perhaps something of that sort was the motivation. I felt the same regarding the Bose dialog. I don't recall anything particularly out of the ordinary either and actually thought it was a bit better than later parts when it came to random dialog with townspeople/etc (you actually can have conversation with most near everyone it seems). Probably my biggest gripe about the Trails mechanics is that magic is probably just too good.
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Jul 21, 2011 06:19
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Rascyc posted:Probably my biggest gripe about the Trails mechanics is that magic is probably just too good. Yeah I was just thinking that especially with the amount of EP some characters have. I've been careful with spending EP but with the abundance of rest spots, ease of evading battle and disproportionate (it seems) growth of EP bars with levels (cheap arts remain effective) there isn't really a need to. And about the side quest thing, too late for me since I let a single mission expire back in the prologue and realized only an hour or so later.
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Jul 21, 2011 07:17
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The Black Stones posted:What, really? That just seems like a punch in the face to publishers that are sticking to releasing games on the PSP. Well, it's still speculative, really, but the fact remains that the PSP market is just in the loving tank at this point. Especially with the Vita coming out, and with UMD software of all kinds simply not selling at all, it just makes sense for Sony to cease production of UMDs sooner rather than later. If it doesn't happen at the start of 2012, I'd be willing to put actual cash money on it happening by the end of the year. They'll probably continue to produce UMDs for the Japanese market for a little while longer (since the PSP is still reasonably healthy there), but it wouldn't surprise me to see the Americas and Europe get cut off entirely. Rinkles posted:SpaceDrake, you mentioned before that the first chapter translation was somewhat botched on XSEED's part. The beginning of the chapter may have seemed a bit halfhearted but I think that might mostly be confirmation bias. Could you elaborate on what you meant? That said, the prologue for me has noticeably been the best written so far. Well, it's partially that it's just clearly not as good as the prologue (as I think I mentioned a little while back or elsewhere, Internet Suspicion is that Bose is where the game's initial translator cracked and ended up leaving the project), and partly because it's certain characters that really suffer compared to ~*the original Japanese*~. Mayor Maybelle, Schera, and especially Anelace if you find her are all somewhat more flat than they really should be (especially poor Anelace, good grief, she doesn't even sound like she does later in the game in Chapter 4; thankfully the Bose chats with her are completely optional). Estelle and Joshua still come out of it well enough, though, and the Bose townsfolk are pretty cool too. Like I said, it isn't really badly translated for the most part so much as it's just weaker than the rest of the game... which really doesn't help what was already the game's slowest section. quote:Lastly, I wonder if XSEED would be willing to consider distribution through Steam, ala SpaceDrake's efforts. Although I suspect much of the traditional jRPG customer base (in America) is PC gaming averse. But that might be confusing cause with effect. Well, I've definitely been bugging XSEED about it in my capacity as a Fellow Industry Dude since as far as I can see there's actually frothing demand for JRPGs on the PC platform. As XSEED's said publicly, though, Falcom is busy as hell with the fifth (completely amazing-looking) Trails game in Japan which is due to land at the end of September, and they're also working on some kind of Vita thing, so it's mostly a matter of getting coding resources freed up to bring the PC versions up to par for a U.S. release, I think. We'll see if that happens.
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Jul 21, 2011 11:39
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