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A while back, I was looking on Nicovideo for random racing game videos, and I came across a little gem that Square released on PSX in Japan and Japan only (sadly). It's called Racing Lagoon and it's subtitled as a "High Speed Driving RPG." Basically it has an overworld like FF7 where you drive around in your car, and the random encounters are, well, other cars. You blink your brights at them or get caught in theirs (sometimes cars will race around flashing their brights) and then you engage in a race which can range from standard street racing to mountain racing, even drag racing depending on the street you're on in the world map. The physics engine is heavily reliant on drifting using the handbrake, and you can actually win a lot of races with an underpowered car this way. When you win a race, the 3 core components of your car (engine, body, and chassis) gain experience points and then you can spend RP (Reward Points) that you win to take a part off your opponent's car. Any part, as long as you have the RP to get it. You can mix and match the various core parts of the car (to some extent, certain body types may require the car's chassis to be modified) AND the core parts have their own slots, which increase as you level them up via experience from winning races. All the cars are real cars with name changes to avoid licensing, for example the AE86 Corolla Levin you begin with is simply called "86-Lev." Numerous models show up in the game, from Silvias to Camaros to Porsches and Lamborghinis. The game story is pretty good, it starts off with two teams called Bay Lagoon Racing and Night Racers Honmoku having a race against each other then branches off into a story that covers the racing life in this fantasy version of Yokohoma, then you get to go to Hakone, C1/Wangan, and a few other places, each with their own unique world map and new opponents. The story does take a very dark turn later on, but most of it is tough to understand because it's in Japanese. You can play the game with very minimal Japanese knowledge, if you know what "Yes" and "No" are you're pretty good to go, you just miss out on the story. Despit a low rating from Famitsu the game apparently has some cult following in Japan and a lot of copies were sold. If you can play import PS1 games I'd say this is worth it. It's a very interesting racing/RPG hybrid of sorts. Oh, and the music is pretty drat cool.
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Sep 29, 2011 02:27
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The Ys Origin english patch is out. Haven't tried it yet myself, but here it is: http://www.figlidigaucci.eu/index.php Direct downloads: http://www.mediafire.com/?da6jmv7j4d59dv1 or http://www.megaupload.com/?d=94C11KV5 Edit: Oh yeah, you need to be running the special version of 1.1.0.0 that you get when you install the bonus disc. Otherwise the patch won't work apparently. Gwyrgyn Blood fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Sep 29, 2011 |
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Sep 29, 2011 03:06
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One Hand Clapping posted:I so want this Worth mentioning that this is out now. I played through the demo. Pretty good -- a little bit primitive and clearly an indie effort, but the mechanics and dungeon crawling is decent enough and the dialog is pretty good. May wait to see some reviews of the full thing or for a Steam release (and sale), since 22.95 feels a little steep for it. But seems like a fun game all around.
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Sep 29, 2011 03:28
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Dolphin Fetus posted:How's Dragon Quarter? I tried it years ago but came in wanting something like the traditional games but never gave it a chance but now I've heard really cool stuff about it..and the music seems really good. I love the atmosphere. I used to be kinda weirded out by it. But it is balls hard. This is my assessment of it: The Good - Fantastic art and music direction, it feels very Midgar - Innovative battle system reminiscent of Treasure Hunter G or Emerald Dragon - Interesting story, but I probably would've been more drawn in if I'd been more into the Breath of Fire series as opposed to "hey I want an RPG, I know BoF is reasonably good, it's $5" - Upon restarting the game, you'll get extra scenes depending on how far you made it before NG+ing The Bad - The game was designed to be played multiple times without reaching the endpoint (you'll be restarting a lot) - Your actions are limited by your D%, which instantly kills you when you reach 100% and penalizes you if you let yourself die like this without opting to convert your current position into a New Game Plus - Normal encounters can be tough, especially for a game with limited resources The Ugly - The endgame is balls-hard and will rape you, kill you, gently caress your eyesockets, immolate your remains, then gently caress your ashes before pissing on them - Because messing up requires you to restart, experimentation is highly discouraged - Compounding on this problem, you can't copy your save data, so you REALLY can't failed-experiment with anything without being forced to restart your entire game Like a lot of potentially great games, it's marred by hideously bad design decisions. If you can get it on the cheap and don't mind browsing a FAQ, then do it. If you're one of those people who dislike strategy guides (like me, they tend to make me less motivated to finish a game), you'll probably experience Adventure Island levels of frustration and stress. Fur20 fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Sep 29, 2011 |
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Sep 29, 2011 03:45
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Dolphin Fetus posted:How's Dragon Quarter? I tried it years ago but came in wanting something like the traditional games but never gave it a chance but now I've heard really cool stuff about it..and the music seems really good. It has an amazing soundtrack (from the guy who did Vagrant Story/FF Tactics) and the story really drew me in. I really wanted to know what was waiting for everyone at the end, and the gameplay really helps that feeling of oppression that it tries to go for. I beat it with only one, maybe two restarts, and that was only 1-2 hours in because I had no idea what the dragon powers did. Don't be afraid to use it, but only if you're 150% sure there's nothing else you can do.
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Sep 29, 2011 03:56
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Is it me or does Dragon Quarter sound like a roguelike?
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Sep 29, 2011 04:15
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Brannock posted:Is it me or does Dragon Quarter sound like a roguelike? Basically a mappable Roguelike with gently caress You In The rear end JRPG Boss Syndrome, yeah.
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Sep 29, 2011 04:24
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drat, you guys got me excited about replaying Breath of Fire 3. And there is a PSP version? Sold. Is there any reason not to get the PSP version?
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Sep 29, 2011 04:25
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Cao Ni Ma posted:Its completely backwards from just about every other BoF. The silent protagonist role is switched around, you aren't a dragon, the setting is straight up steampunk, you do not want to use dragon powers unless you are forced to and its also pretty short. It encourages same run re-runs but in the end it doesn't feel as meaty as BoF4. Its different, but its still pretty good. I think the Dragon in 5 is the one that really captures the "dragons will destroy the world!!!" thing that they hit on, most notably in BoF3. I really liked how it wasn't something you pop in every boss fight but a last-ditch trump card. Normally you'll never use it but when your back is against the wall it is an absolute "gently caress YOU GUYS, I'M GONNA LIVE!" moment.
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Sep 29, 2011 04:26
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Defiance Industries posted:I think the Dragon in 5 is the one that really captures the "dragons will destroy the world!!!" thing that they hit on, most notably in BoF3. I really liked how it wasn't something you pop in every boss fight but a last-ditch trump card. Normally you'll never use it but when your back is against the wall it is an absolute "gently caress YOU GUYS, I'M GONNA LIVE!" moment. I have no idea what you're talking about, I cheesed every boss fight with D-Dive and the Square attack. Except a wrench got thrown into my plans when normal enemies started needing it and I hadn't evaded them, so I actually had just barely enough conserving as hard as I could for the last four (five?) boss gauntlet. You know, the ones that absorb 1000+ damage per turn unless you Dragon Form them. The thing about the final boss being completely immune unless you attack him in Dragon Form is bullshit. Actually, pretty much any mechanic where you have limited resources but the enemies--and the key word here is easily--easily have infinite resources that you have to expend your limited resources to break is kinda bullshit. Fur20 fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Sep 29, 2011 |
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Sep 29, 2011 04:27
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I think that if you could finish that last stretch without it the end wouldn't be as good. The whole point is to have Ryu running up the d-counter and then using it again against Chetyr until it tops out.
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Sep 29, 2011 04:32
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The White Dragon posted:I have no idea what you're talking about, I cheesed every boss fight with D-Dive and the Square attack. It is admittedly, bullshit, but because of the party XP carryover its not hard to beat the game on your second pass through. Save all your bonus XP, go until you can't keep up with enemies, beat them all with the dragon then start a new cycle with the saved XP and you should get to the final boss fairly easily. A shame though that if you want all the scenes you have to basically grind cycles before you get the D-ratio the game wants.
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Sep 29, 2011 04:36
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Barudak posted:Save all your bonus XP, go until you can't keep up with enemies, beat them all with the dragon then start a new cycle with the saved XP and you should get to the final boss fairly easily. I think that's what really killed the game design aspect for me: once you reach that point where you can seriously see the end, you feel sick at the thought of having to restart just to get back to that point, albeit more prepared. It's a long walk, and unlucky things can happen. Even though you're super-strong in NG+ in, say, Chrono Trigger, it's a long way to some of those endings, and that's really off-putting, especially when you don't have a turbo button.
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Sep 29, 2011 04:41
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If the prospect of restarting is really unpleasant to you I'd recommend abusing the gently caress out of the fake treasure box enemies in the ice cave area. They give money based on the number of attacks it takes to kill them or something and if you know what you're doing you can rack up a ton of cash. The games a lot easier if you have almost infinite healing items.
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Sep 29, 2011 04:47
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Barudak posted:It is admittedly, bullshit, but because of the party XP carryover its not hard to beat the game on your second pass through. It's pretty easy to beat it on your first playthough if you don't spam D-skills until you really need them. You actually have a lot of leniency for usage of it, especially once you figure out charge->charge->strong is the way to go. It's kind of dumb that the D-Breath is so horribly inefficient though. The White Dragon posted:- Because messing up requires you to restart, experimentation is highly discouraged This isn't true at all. If you mess up badly you can just Restore, which has virtually no penalty (other than losing the items you had in your inventory, which you can get around by storing them in the Ant town). And that just puts you back at the last save point. There are several points which highly encourage you to experiment and restore (the branching sections near the end game come to mind). Game isn't really that hard honestly. The White Dragon posted:Except a wrench got thrown into my plans when normal enemies started needing it and I hadn't evaded them, so I actually had just barely enough conserving as hard as I could for the last four (five?) boss gauntlet. You know, the ones that absorb 1000+ damage per turn unless you Dragon Form them. The thing about the final boss being completely immune unless you attack him in Dragon Form is bullshit. You can beat all of those bosses on your first playthrough without Dragon Form, but it's pretty hard. It's been a long time but as I recall it involves a lot of abuse of Charge, and of course the push/pull and sign mechanics as usual. Again you can make it a lot easier on yourself by doing one path, grabbing all the items and skills and blasting the bosses with the D-skills, then restoring and doing the other paths with a better setup. Gwyrgyn Blood fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Sep 29, 2011 |
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Sep 29, 2011 04:50
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:This isn't true at all. If you mess up badly you can just Restore, which has virtually no penalty (other than losing the items you had in your inventory, which you can get around by storing them in the Ant town). Maybe I'm just being unfair, but my personal experience with Restore was really, really bad. I had the most important things on hand and accidentally restored. Big mistake that led to big problems, the least of which was "I was in the final dungeon but refused to restart because it's the final dungeon with no healing items and no save tokens." One save file plus a temp save is a really, really lovely thing to do to a player unless you explicitly states, "THIS GAME IS A ROGUELIKE MEANT TO gently caress YOU IN THE rear end" like Dungeons of Dredmor. Or, y'know, when you know you're getting into a gently caress-you-in-the-rear end game like Nethack or whatever. Fur20 fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Sep 29, 2011 |
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Sep 29, 2011 05:02
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The White Dragon posted:One save file plus a temp save is a really, really lovely thing to do to a player unless you explicitly states, "THIS GAME IS A ROGUELIKE MEANT TO gently caress YOU IN THE rear end" like Dungeons of Dredmor. Or, y'know, when you know you're getting into a gently caress-you-in-the-rear end game like Nethack or whatever. Yeah I agree about this, and the fact that they called it Breath of Fire was a REALLY bad idea. A better tutorial in the game would have helped a lot as well. I'm very biased towards the game because I like how weird and unique it is. Those types of games tend to be some of my favorites (hence why I like Romancing SaGa and The Last Remnant so much).
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Sep 29, 2011 05:11
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:I'm very biased towards the game because I like how weird and unique it is. Those types of games tend to be some of my favorites (hence why I like Romancing SaGa and The Last Remnant so much). Y'know why I like Romancing SaGa? Kenji Ito. He is the badassest battle theme composer I have ever heard.
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Sep 29, 2011 05:39
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I never had issues with the final map enemies in Dragon Quarter because I learned early on you can skip turns to build up AP and combo near indefinitely. That led to a strategy of that and then stacking like 9 traps on top of each other so when the enemies advanced, they instantly died, damage shield or not. If anything made it through then my other two had AP up the rear end to unload on what was left.
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Sep 29, 2011 12:46
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Ragequit posted:drat, you guys got me excited about replaying Breath of Fire 3. And there is a PSP version? Sold. Is there any reason not to get the PSP version? Capcom somehow managed to increase load times compared to the PSX version despite me ripping the game to a stick. 
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Sep 29, 2011 13:02
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Nevermind.
Jesto fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Oct 1, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2011 13:36
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Healbot posted:Capcom somehow managed to increase load times compared to the PSX version despite me ripping the game to a stick. Well I certainly didn't want to hear that. Is it terrible (read: Every battle action, every time the menu is brought up, etc.)? I may just deal with it to have the nice resolution.
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Sep 29, 2011 14:03
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Are there any good SRPGs/JRPGs for the PC? And how is Mount & Blade like?
CommissarMega fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Sep 29, 2011 |
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Sep 29, 2011 14:09
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CommissarMega posted:Are there any good SRPGs/JRPGs for the PC? And how is Mount & Blade like?
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Sep 29, 2011 15:25
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Unfortunately, I have already played EF 
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Sep 29, 2011 15:35
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Theres a market for rpgs on the pc but it seems like no one bothers. I don't understand 
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Sep 29, 2011 16:19
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Nevermind.
Jesto fucked around with this message at 15:32 on Oct 1, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2011 16:24
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:The Ys Origin english patch is out. Haven't tried it yet myself, but here it is: Speaking of Ys, Falcom recently announced Woodland of Celceta, a remake of Ys IV: Mask of the Sun. Apparently it uses an improved version of the Ys 7 combat engine. Official Trailer     
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Sep 29, 2011 16:26
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GreenBuckanneer posted:Theres a market for rpgs on the pc but it seems like no one bothers. I don't understand I'm assuming you just mean jRPGs there because there are tons of western RPGs on the PC. The reason there aren't many jRPGs on the PC is because nobody in Japan buys PC games. Though very oddly, the new Phantasy Star Online game is PC only. CommissarMega posted:Are there any good SRPGs/JRPGs for the PC? And how is Mount & Blade like? Jagged Alliance 2 is an SRPG. I guess you could argue that King's Bounty is as well. There are a number of hybrid strategy+rpg games for PC but most of them seem to lean mostly strategy with a little bit of role playing. Mount & Blade is really good, and I believe there's a demo of Warband out there you can try to see if you like it or not. iastudent posted:Speaking of Ys, Falcom recently announced Woodland of Celceta, a remake of Ys IV: Mask of the Sun. Apparently it uses an improved version of the Ys 7 combat engine. That's VERY good news. Ys4 has sort of existed outside of canon for a while and wasn't all that great to begin with, so a remake is a really good idea.
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Sep 29, 2011 16:28
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iastudent posted:Speaking of Ys, Falcom recently announced Woodland of Celceta, a remake of Ys IV: Mask of the Sun. Apparently it uses an improved version of the Ys 7 combat engine. Just chiming in here to say, for anyone who didn't know already -- Ys 7 on PSP is awesome. The graphics and animation are great, the combat is super fast-paced and fun, and the music ROCKS. You can get it on PSN for $20 and it is absolutely worth every cent. Because of how much fun I've been having with that title, I'm definitely on board for this remake! Probably should finish 7 first though. Oh, and Oath of Felghana.
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Sep 29, 2011 16:50
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Atelier Totori is in my hands. From the look of the manual, it appears to be much the same kind of game that Rorona was - most of the various mechanics look to work exactly the same, with the added bonus of a Skies of Arcadia style world map + Discovery system. So you're an alchemist who is also travelling the world in search of ruins and monuments while also doing a million jobs for people so they like you in the dating sim aspect of the game. Want to pack any more in there, Gust? e: aaaaag gathering and fighting takes time now Stelas fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Sep 29, 2011 |
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Sep 29, 2011 18:32
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Stelas posted:Atelier Totori is in my hands. From the look of the manual, it appears to be much the same kind of game that Rorona was - most of the various mechanics look to work exactly the same, with the added bonus of a Skies of Arcadia style world map + Discovery system. So you're an alchemist who is also travelling the world in search of ruins and monuments while also doing a million jobs for people so they like you in the dating sim aspect of the game. Want to pack any more in there, Gust? Don't ask or Meruru will be a detective or exorcist or something on top of all of that. Mind me asking where you got your copy? The supply problems have made it hard to find.
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Sep 29, 2011 18:51
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Jesto posted:... This is legal, isn't it? It's probably a bit more legal if you own the actual disc and rip the ISO yourself or something so you don't work your old discs, but even that's a bit sketchy because I don't think video games follow the same "personal copy" law that computer software and home video does.
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Sep 29, 2011 19:10
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HondaCivet posted:Mind me asking where you got your copy? The supply problems have made it hard to find. I'm in the UK, so I assume the state-side supply problems simply didn't affect whoever's printing discs over here. It's out tomorrow, but the site I use tends to mail stuff out on Tuesdays, using a 2-day delivery service.
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Sep 29, 2011 19:33
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The White Dragon posted:It's probably a bit more legal if you own the actual disc and rip the ISO yourself or something so you don't work your old discs, but even that's a bit sketchy because I don't think video games follow the same "personal copy" law that computer software and home video does.
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Sep 29, 2011 20:02
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Stelas posted:I'm in the UK, so I assume the state-side supply problems simply didn't affect whoever's printing discs over here. It's out tomorrow, but the site I use tends to mail stuff out on Tuesdays, using a 2-day delivery service. D'oh, forgot that you're in the UK. Well you're probably one of the first goons to get a copy so let us know what you think once you dig in.
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Sep 29, 2011 20:40
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Typhus733 posted:While they're already on your list I cannot recommend New Vegas enough. I didn't really dig 3 too much but I have sunk unending hours into F:NV with no regret. And if you dig a more arcade-y/action-y game Divinity 2 isn't bad at all while still retaining some fun RPG styling. Yeah this is one of the games I'm looking forward to most! May wait for a Steam sale, or may just pull the trigger now... Also, whoever recommended Arx Fatalis, do you think it still holds up today? Since it is from 2002, does it work well on Windows 7?
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Sep 29, 2011 20:43
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:The Ys Origin english patch is out. Haven't tried it yet myself, but here it is: You can buy/find the game on your own, but I found a link to the 1.1.0.0 patch disc, which doesn't appear to be legitimately available in America, here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/zcmww5 Just copy the files into your Ys directory after the game is installed. If this is  let me know and I'll take it down, but it's just a little patch (that enables a fan translation) so I don't think it is.
Lets Fuck Bro fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Sep 29, 2011 |
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Sep 29, 2011 20:55
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Stelas posted:Atelier Totori is in my hands. From the look of the manual, it appears to be much the same kind of game that Rorona was - most of the various mechanics look to work exactly the same, with the added bonus of a Skies of Arcadia style world map + Discovery system. So you're an alchemist who is also travelling the world in search of ruins and monuments while also doing a million jobs for people so they like you in the dating sim aspect of the game. Want to pack any more in there, Gust? Rorona was a great little RPG, but the time limit on some things was bullshit, and having everything come from HP was just a chore in itself and only having on assistant halfway through the game was annoying. From what i've read Totori fixes a LOT of these problems so i'll be picking this one up as soon as i've got through all the other loving games coming out in the next two months.
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Sep 29, 2011 21:08
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HondaCivet posted:D'oh, forgot that you're in the UK. Well you're probably one of the first goons to get a copy so let us know what you think once you dig in. Kneejerk reactions, roughly in order of play: - aaa even the starter dungeon is two days away - aaaa battling too much will burn through a day without moving location - aaaaa gathering uses it up too! Sometimes at the rate of half a day per spot! - aaaaaa I'm pretty sure if you're the sort to enjoy OCD completion and maximizing the use of your time, you'll probably get flustered really fast because I know I am. Some parts of the game are much more streamlined. You can see how many potential effects an item has ahead of time, and you can even tell how to vary ingredients and qualities to unlock those effects. You can turn in quests direct from the container, and rather than the big list of stuff in your box, you can now search and filter it in various ways. Quests actively give better rewards based on the quality of item you hand in, which is nice as it prevents the Rorona effect of just buying stuff straight from the shop. Battles are prettier, at least, though I haven't gotten to any major earthshaking changes yet. On the other hand... Totori moves slower than Rorona and doesn't yet have a way to quick-jump around town. I'm assuming I'll get one later - I'm currently in a small village, not Arland proper - but it's still a hassle right now. The container can be searched and shows up as nice graphics rather than a list, but for someone like me who likes to keep stock of everything he's got, the lack of a simple list with quantity against it is a little annoying. And the way you spend days like goddamn water inside a dungeon is going to bug the gently caress out of me - it doesn't look like moving around inside a dungeon costs you anymore, but I'm not kidding when I say a single gathering point took off 70-80% of a day on the time bar you get. Also the shy coachdriver is a little creepy. It's definitely better than Rorona so far, and I assume the panic over spending time will wear off as I get used to the game and get helpers and whatnot. Just expect to have to adjust a bit. Edit: It's worth noting I also don't have a time limit right now, and the manual doesn't mention gaining one, but there is a days and years counter. What you do have is a definite personal goal rather than just 'survive three years', which is heaps better in my opinion. Edit 2: Looks like a single area within a dungeon is a single blip on the world map, so you can travel to individual sections rather than trudge through a bigger dungeon. World map keeps full track of items and monsters in an area, and shows if you're missing any. Stelas fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Sep 29, 2011 |
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Sep 29, 2011 21:12
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