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Tailwhoop
Oct 18, 2008

Luigi to Kobe's Mario.
So I picked up Resonance of Fate. It's hard. I felt the difficulty complaints were over exaggerated, but I'm having trouble with it. :( It's still relatively fun, though. Are there any pointers you any of you guys can give me? A lot of the games mechanics feel overwhelming such as weapon customization and the special hex grid pieces. And I'm still having trouble figuring out the tri-attack thing.

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Miijhal
Jul 10, 2011

I am so tired... I am so tired all the time...
Don't bother with Tri-attacks. Pick up a bunch of training grenades to level up everyone's item ability, and whenever you find yourself in a situation where you're struggling, blow everything up.

Also, when you get the chance, make sure one of your characters is dual-weilding machine guns. The only way you'll be able to beat enemies without scratch damage is by using high-end grenades, and you need those for boss battles.

Cityinthesea
Aug 7, 2009
don't bother with tri attacks until you get 5-6 completed hexes, you mean; it's pretty vital later on. I'm not 100% clear on weapon customization, just that you won't need to do anything real crazy until later, you want to increase... the two circular weapon stat percentages mainly (weapon charge speed and something else). Special hexes are colored ones I assume, they'll dole ones that are important to you at the beginning of the chapter, normally.

Rascyc
Jan 23, 2008

Dissatisfied Puppy
If anyone's interested in a new strategy rpg, Devil Survivor 2 is pretty fun and more of the same that was Devil Survivor 1.

Troffen
Aug 17, 2010

Cityinthesea posted:

don't bother with tri attacks until you get 5-6 completed hexes, you mean; it's pretty vital later on. I'm not 100% clear on weapon customization, just that you won't need to do anything real crazy until later, you want to increase... the two circular weapon stat percentages mainly (weapon charge speed and something else). Special hexes are colored ones I assume, they'll dole ones that are important to you at the beginning of the chapter, normally.

That's charge speed and charge acceleration, which you get from scopes and barrels respectively. You want to load your guns up with both when you can, as they'll let you get off more attacks each turn and charge up stronger attacks faster.

TheIllestVillain
Dec 27, 2011

Sal, Wyoming's not a country

Rascyc posted:

If anyone's interested in a new strategy rpg, Devil Survivor 2 is pretty fun and more of the same that was Devil Survivor 1.

I'm hoping they eased off a little on the difficulty, DS1 got so ridiculously hard at the end that i just gave up and watched the ending on youtube.

ImpAtom
May 24, 2007

TheIllestVillain posted:

I'm hoping they eased off a little on the difficulty, DS1 got so ridiculously hard at the end that i just gave up and watched the ending on youtube.

It's significantly easier.

Whack
Feb 14, 2008

Rascyc posted:

If anyone's interested in a new strategy rpg, Devil Survivor 2 is pretty fun and more of the same that was Devil Survivor 1.

Got real excited for this only to find out it's on a handheld.

Why do all the good RPGs have to come out on loving handhelds:argh:

Dr. Eldarion
Mar 21, 2001

Deal Dispatcher

Whack posted:

Why do all the good RPGs have to come out on loving handhelds:argh:
From a business perspective, I understand why they do it, but I'm so so so so irritated that they always do.

Rascyc
Jan 23, 2008

Dissatisfied Puppy

TheIllestVillain posted:

I'm hoping they eased off a little on the difficulty, DS1 got so ridiculously hard at the end that i just gave up and watched the ending on youtube.
The curve is a lot smoother now. The game isn't a total mindless pushover but most fights are reasonable and the bosses grow in challenge progressively.

I typically have to reset once per boss fight to tweak a tactic (like when I did a boss fight without any phantasm/flight demons and couldn't close two very troublesome demon portals) or because some key demons got RNG-danced while closing distance. Any fights that don't involve bosses are usually pretty average, and all the escort missions are really easy. Sometimes the "prevent the enemy from fleeing!" mission can be slightly problematic if you don't have a flight/demon speed/phantasm/switch power though.

I think the difficulty is in a pretty good spot but I haven't reached the last days yet to see if it pulls a DS 1. I could see some people getting really upset at the way the bosses are sometimes handled with a poo poo ton of immunities and having a range advantage. Having a good demon mix up is rewarded highly in this case.

MotU
Mar 6, 2007

It was like she was evicting walking garbage.
Pillbug

ImpAtom posted:

It's significantly easier.

I wouldn't say that at all. There are less bullshit "protect NPC" missions, but bosses do a lot more damage and some of them can be very difficult if you go in with a not-optimized setup. The last boss in DS2 is harder that any of the ending paths in DS1, in my opinion.

Fights end up being very front loaded by the end of the 5th day, where either you will 1 round KO the opposing group or it will do the same to you, depending on luck/initiative.

That being said I only had to reset maybe 3 times in all, but the last boss made me spend a decent amount of time forming a perfect "gently caress you" team and if I didn't do that I probably would have had a ton more resets.

Also a tip for the final days: Reflect Phys is pretty much a must have on all your demons you can get it on. A ton of enemies use multi-hit attacks and a lot of them have Pierce. Fortunately Rangda comes with it innate and is usable in a ton of fusions so you can sprad it around. If you get a Phys Set Add-on, I would recommend saving it as well in case you want to stick a good Physical Skill on a Str Demon as well as Reflect Phys on a demon that it is annoying to get it on.

MotU fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Mar 4, 2012

ImpAtom
May 24, 2007

MotU posted:

The last boss in DS2 is harder that any of the ending paths in DS1, in my opinion.

By the time I got to the last boss, I had a character who was invincible to everything but one element and he was strong to that, so I admit I didn't really have much trouble with it. In general, I felt like it was much easier to build your character's defenses to the point where enemies doing more damage didn't matter because they couldn't damage me. I had a Titania, Purple Mirror, Oberon and various other demons who all resisted or reflected everything aside from Almighty. I just carried along defensive spells and used my Add-Ons occasionally and the end result was an unkillable demon army.

MotU
Mar 6, 2007

It was like she was evicting walking garbage.
Pillbug

ImpAtom posted:

By the time I got to the last boss, I had a character who was invincible to everything but one element and he was strong to that, so I admit I didn't really have much trouble with it. In general, I felt like it was much easier to build your character's defenses to the point where enemies doing more damage didn't matter because they couldn't damage me. I had a Titania, Purple Mirror, Oberon and various other demons who all resisted or reflected everything aside from Almighty. I just carried along defensive spells and used my Add-Ons occasionally and the end result was an unkillable demon army.

Yeah I had all the same as well when I beat him, but I lacked an Avian/Wilder/Genma so the path up to him was a death zone pretty much due to the map attack. The first time I had a Genma but no Reflect Physical on the team, so it was pretty much instant death in another way.

The fact that you pretty much need partial or full invincibility I think shows that DS2 is harder than DS1 where strategy in DS1 involved "man, Holy Dance is a great skill to have"

DS2's balance I feel is a lot more in line with what I want to see in a strategy game, but I wouldn't recommend it to people who had issues or troubles with DS1. There's less bullshit, but more difficulty and I feel DS1's bullshit took a lot less effort to overcome than DS2's difficulty, but both are surmountable with a bit of planning and forethought.

Brainbread
Apr 7, 2008

Hi!

I'm wondering if anyone knows of a Harvest Moon-esque RPG where I don't have to spend all of my time worrying about what everyone else thinks of me?

I found that mechanic to be obnoxious.

Alternatively, a non-Final fantasy RPG with a satisfying job system, or strong customization of what your party members can be specialized into.

MotU
Mar 6, 2007

It was like she was evicting walking garbage.
Pillbug

Brainbread posted:

Hi!

I'm wondering if anyone knows of a Harvest Moon-esque RPG where I don't have to spend all of my time worrying about what everyone else thinks of me?

I found that mechanic to be obnoxious.

Alternatively, a non-Final fantasy RPG with a satisfying job system, or strong customization of what your party members can be specialized into.

Rune Factory 3 is literally Harvest Moon with combat and done pretty well. You don't have to spend *all* of your time worry about what people think of you, and a lot of it is woven into the main gameplay via quests and stuff. You do have to give gifts and things like Harvest Moon games, but I never felt the pressure like I did in the GBA/DS Harvest Moon games of having to keep up an entire town's happiness. I also don't think people's opinion of you drops in RF3 if you ignore them for a bit, but I could be misremembering

casual poster
Jun 29, 2009

So casual.

MockingQuantum posted:

I like games that treat random encounters like a war of attrition, requiring you to conserve resources because you know there's gonna be a major boss smackdown at the end. I can't think of any games like this, but I know they exist, and I remember dungeons being tense and enjoyable because of it.

Not sure if you worded this wrong or I'm just not understanding it, but aren't mostly all RPG's like this? Once you get into a dungeon you have to conserve your MP or whatever until you get to a savepoint or the boss? I can distinctly remember saying "can't use meteor, need to save it for the boss!" in a few games (FF games atleast).
Or do you mean ones that don't even have the option of a save point? Like the last dungeon in FF4 (gently caress that place). But even in that case, you could drink some potions and be all good.

HondaCivet
Oct 16, 2005

And then it falls
And then I fall
And then I know


So I finally grabbed FFT (the PSP port) the other day and I'm really bad at it for some reason, can anyone help? Pretty much all my non-storyline guys are useless. The chemist can't ever hit anyone with a Phoenix Down. I made a girl into an archer but she has the same range as a squire or knight. Maybe it's because she doesn't have a loving bow but I can't buy one for her at any of the shops. It just seems like I'm always just slightly outnumbered and outgunned by whatever the baddies are on the map. I've played plenty of other SRPGs like Fire Emblem, Disgaea, etc. but I just can't seem to "get" this game. Are most of the important mechanics hidden or something?

MockingQuantum
Jan 20, 2012



casual poster posted:

Not sure if you worded this wrong or I'm just not understanding it, but aren't mostly all RPG's like this? Once you get into a dungeon you have to conserve your MP or whatever until you get to a savepoint or the boss? I can distinctly remember saying "can't use meteor, need to save it for the boss!" in a few games (FF games atleast).
Or do you mean ones that don't even have the option of a save point? Like the last dungeon in FF4 (gently caress that place). But even in that case, you could drink some potions and be all good.

Naa, I guess it was just a roundabout way of saying that I'm okay with random battles when the difficulty/frequency of them is balanced well, as opposed to a random battle every two steps or randoms that are laughably easy to get through. Most games in this vein that I couldn't stand had random battles that became trivial time-wasters, as opposed to at least challenging.

Re-reading the post, though, I realize I did basically say, "I like turn-based RPGs that don't suck."

Paperhouse
Dec 31, 2008

I think
your hair
looks much
better
pushed
over to
one side

HondaCivet posted:

So I finally grabbed FFT (the PSP port) the other day and I'm really bad at it for some reason, can anyone help? Pretty much all my non-storyline guys are useless. The chemist can't ever hit anyone with a Phoenix Down. I made a girl into an archer but she has the same range as a squire or knight. Maybe it's because she doesn't have a loving bow but I can't buy one for her at any of the shops. It just seems like I'm always just slightly outnumbered and outgunned by whatever the baddies are on the map. I've played plenty of other SRPGs like Fire Emblem, Disgaea, etc. but I just can't seem to "get" this game. Are most of the important mechanics hidden or something?
Archers are pretty terrible, I wouldn't really bother with them. I'd go with Monks and Knights at the beginning I think. Also if I remember rightly, the game is sort of annoyingly difficult in places near the start, then it soon levels out and is mostly much easier. It may take a little grinding or trying battles in different ways at first.

MockingQuantum
Jan 20, 2012



HondaCivet posted:

So I finally grabbed FFT (the PSP port) the other day and I'm really bad at it for some reason, can anyone help? Pretty much all my non-storyline guys are useless. The chemist can't ever hit anyone with a Phoenix Down. I made a girl into an archer but she has the same range as a squire or knight. Maybe it's because she doesn't have a loving bow but I can't buy one for her at any of the shops. It just seems like I'm always just slightly outnumbered and outgunned by whatever the baddies are on the map. I've played plenty of other SRPGs like Fire Emblem, Disgaea, etc. but I just can't seem to "get" this game. Are most of the important mechanics hidden or something?

To a point, yes. Your character's statistics have a lot of bearing on what classes they'll be effective with. The two most important ones are Brave and Faith. Brave affects reaction abilities, Faith affects magic use, though I don't remember exactly how. You will have characters that will just never be effective as certain classes. The availability of equipment opens up pretty slowly-- you WILL have to pace your class development accordingly (don't get too attached to the idea of samurai for a good chunk of the game). The chemist issue? Not sure on that one, though I think that may relate to faith as well.

As far as general strategy goes, you have to play FFT a lot more conservatively than other SRPGs, at least until you develop your characters pretty well. Hang back if you're not in a strategic position, pay attention to Wait Times on actions (mages frequently get killed before casting spells if you're not careful), and keep everyone well equipped and ALIVE. Losing a character is permanent and often crippling if they're past level 5, since new recruits start at lvl 1.

Rascyc
Jan 23, 2008

Dissatisfied Puppy
You should power level a little bit before Dorter. You don't have to but I think everyone who first plays FFT ever gets crushed in Dorter if you didn't bother to learn the bravery/faith/sign system (and nobody is going to blame you if you never do, it's a really stupid system).

Power leveling = starting a battle in that first plains map, kill everything but one guy, and then just spam cheer or some non-violent ability on your squires. Finish the battle to learn JP Up and make some class changes and then decide if you want to rinse/repeat the process for the next class.

HondaCivet
Oct 16, 2005

And then it falls
And then I fall
And then I know


Paperhouse posted:

Archers are pretty terrible, I wouldn't really bother with them. I'd go with Monks and Knights at the beginning I think. Also if I remember rightly, the game is sort of annoyingly difficult in places near the start, then it soon levels out and is mostly much easier. It may take a little grinding or trying battles in different ways at first.

Er, is it Tactics Ogre where they are super overpowered? How come games either make archers totally useless or OP anyway?

Anyway, I might just start over since I'm only a few maps in . . . Any advice? When I'm recruiting dudes, what stats do I want for what class?

Rinkles
Oct 24, 2010

What I'm getting at is...
Do you feel the same way?

HondaCivet posted:

Er, is it Tactics Ogre where they are super overpowered?

Yes.

MockingQuantum
Jan 20, 2012



HondaCivet posted:

Er, is it Tactics Ogre where they are super overpowered? How come games either make archers totally useless or OP anyway?

Anyway, I might just start over since I'm only a few maps in . . . Any advice? When I'm recruiting dudes, what stats do I want for what class?

I don't remember archers in TO being particularly amazing, but it's possible. I've known people who have gotten a lot of mileage out of the archer's Charge abilities, though it's sort of putting all your eggs into one basket, strategically speaking.

Yeah, ignore the zodiac nonsense, it never really has a huge bearing.

There's actually a way to progressively raise characters Brave stat, though it's time consuming. Magic users want higher faith, as it will improve hit rate and effectiveness of spells, but be warned that it works both ways-- they'll get hit just as hard by magic. Low faith, conversely, will make magic less effective, which can be good in knights and monks.

Yes, level before Dorter. Also, Monks are key to early game survival. They have good stat growth and and AWESOME skill set that will work well as a secondary skill set for just about every class. No mp cost for self-healing and revives? How can you go wrong?

Baku
Aug 20, 2005

by Fluffdaddy

HondaCivet posted:

Er, is it Tactics Ogre where they are super overpowered? How come games either make archers totally useless or OP anyway?

Range is generally a powerful advantage in combat so ranged type characters have to be limited in some way or to some degree lest they totally outpace melee characters. Usually the way this is done for mages is giving them limited resources and making them very easy to kill, so designers like to do different stuff with archers to make them feel different.

From there, they tend to either not limit them enough or limit them with too-crippling a penalty to damage or something so that they end up either being amazing or worthless. It's sort of like stealth and lifesteal abilities, something inherently tricky to do right where making them a little too bad or too good can ruin or overpower a class.

Rascyc
Jan 23, 2008

Dissatisfied Puppy
Archers are merely okay in the original Tactics Ogre. Archers are incredibly overpowered in the Tactics Ogre PSP version.

HondaCivet posted:

Er, is it Tactics Ogre where they are super overpowered? How come games either make archers totally useless or OP anyway?

Anyway, I might just start over since I'm only a few maps in . . . Any advice? When I'm recruiting dudes, what stats do I want for what class?
If you want the game to play more traditionally, recruit high bravery/high faith characters. High in the sane case is 60+.

The zodiac mini game is really tedious to play and you'll have to spend awhile at the recruiting office to get it to click right if you are interested. If you want to make your life easier, make Ramza a Capricorn or Taurus because the game likes to throw Virgo bosses at you.

If you want to know the logic behind the zodiac system refer to:

http://lparchive.org/Final-Fantasy-Tactics/Update%2001/

... and page down until you see a zodiac graph and just read the text following the graph. If you don't want to read it don't worry about it, it's not worth mastering on a first playthrough. It does actually have an impact on the game but FFT is generally an easy enough game that you can ignore this aspect of the game and be completely fine. When you are breaking the game or using some hard patches though, you want to start caring.

Rinkles
Oct 24, 2010

What I'm getting at is...
Do you feel the same way?

TehGherkin posted:

Hey goons,

I'm about to play me some Arcanum, having never actually completed it, and I wondered what mods/patches/etc were good/required, I've got one unofficial patch by Drog Black-Tooth or something, but I'm sure there were others last time I checked, anyone know?

In case this is still relevant: you definitely do not need any mods, but certain character types can be made easier. If you're going with melee or magic, or any combination involving one of the two, all combat will be trivial once you hit levels 15-20, and there's little challenge before that. A gunslinger will face a steeper up hill battle, but provided you build your character fairly wisely and understand the system rules it isn't that difficult - and companions go a long way in helping. Magic and melee unquestionably trump firearms - in part because their damage modifiers increase with your stats (Strength and Willpower), whilst guns are tied to Perception which only improves your to-hit chance - but each route is viable.

Problems arise when you poorly distribute your character points. A jack of all trades in Arcanum (and there are so many pools to put your points into) is a useless character. And this applies doubly so for gun slingers. I had a miserable time with one of the first characters I made because I was spreading myself too thin. As the manual helpfully says, don't put points into things just because they sound cool - loosely plan out the progression you'll take. Even if at the end (max level 50) you can be an adept at several disciplines/skills and what not, towards the beginning you really should choose only a couple to specialize in before trying different things. In particular choose a single combat skill and pump it up with at least two points within the first few levels (unless you're building a pacifist, but I'd recommend against that as a first playthrough). With zero points invested into melee, you will literally do more damage to yourself than to an enemy by swinging a sword at it.

Oh, and if you are going to try a gunslinger, put some points into explosives. Dumping molotov cocktails evens any odds the game might otherwise have against you.

Also, as a finally tip, if you're going for a aptitude-neutral character (leaning neither towards the technical or magickal), specialize in neutral abilities rather than mixing and matching from both sides - otherwise abilities from neither side of the divide will work very well.

Going back to the subject of mods. Most of the one's that try to rebalance the weapons, nerf some of the spells (the "Harm" spell is pretty insane) and boost certain guns. It's your choice, but I believe it'd probably be better to play just with Drog's patch and only if it becomes insufferable after a few hours restart with one of the mods. But again, as long as you plan ahead and specialize you should have no problems. Mages get a cakewalk, but to me that's what makes that character type boring. With a techy you'll be constantly searching for schematics, juggling resources (how many bullets can I afford, how much should I take so as to not be over encumbered, and will that be enough?), and in general the stuff you can build gives you much more options in how to deal with the world. But there's also a lot of fun stuff you can do with mages (invisibility, teleportation, disintegration), so ultimately just follow your heart (but remember: SPECIALIZE!)

Hope you are/will be having fun. I'm hesitant to call it a truly great game - though it has the makings of one - but it is one of the few Fallout-likes out there.

Paper Jam Dipper
Jul 14, 2007

by XyloJW

Wendell posted:

Enjoying FFXII-2 is okay, but comparing it to Chrono Trigger just comes across as desperate fanboy apologism.

The only fair comparison to CT in the last 10 years for me is Radiant Historia. That game is pretty much Chrono Trigger 2.

Xenix
Feb 21, 2003

casual poster posted:

Not sure if you worded this wrong or I'm just not understanding it, but aren't mostly all RPG's like this?

Some more modern RPGs aren't. Xenoblade, for instance, has you regen HP outside of battles relatively rapidly.

MockingQuantum
Jan 20, 2012



Has anyone played SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked? I really want to play the first Devil Survivor, and I have a 3DS, so I feel like I should take advantage of the extra content, but I'm pretty sure there were 12 copies of the game ever made. New ones are going on Amazon for $58 minimum, and the nearest copy I can find in any chains is 60 miles away.

Should I even worry about it that much, or just try to find a regular DS copy of the game?

Sakurazuka
Jan 24, 2004

NANI?

MockingQuantum posted:

Has anyone played SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked? I really want to play the first Devil Survivor, and I have a 3DS, so I feel like I should take advantage of the extra content, but I'm pretty sure there were 12 copies of the game ever made. New ones are going on Amazon for $58 minimum, and the nearest copy I can find in any chains is 60 miles away.

Should I even worry about it that much, or just try to find a regular DS copy of the game?

The 3DS version is in stock here https://www.videogamesplus.ca/product_info.php?products_id=18413&osCsid=82743d26f02f2c4bc30ad97974ab3ba7 they're pretty reliable, I get all my US imports from them and have never had a problem.

Nickoten
Oct 16, 2005

Now there'll be some quiet in this town.

Lone Rogue posted:

The only fair comparison to CT in the last 10 years for me is Radiant Historia. That game is pretty much Chrono Trigger 2.

I don't even understand why people make this comparison. Outside of time travel what do the two have in common?

homeless snail
Mar 14, 2007

MockingQuantum posted:

Has anyone played SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked? I really want to play the first Devil Survivor, and I have a 3DS, so I feel like I should take advantage of the extra content, but I'm pretty sure there were 12 copies of the game ever made. New ones are going on Amazon for $58 minimum, and the nearest copy I can find in any chains is 60 miles away.

Should I even worry about it that much, or just try to find a regular DS copy of the game?
The new content and the voice acting are great, but its not nearly substantial enough to be worth paying twice as much for. Don't worry about it.

Polite Tim
Sep 3, 2007
'insert witty Family Guy/ Futurama/ Simpsons/ Little fucking Britian etc quote here'

Nickoten posted:

I don't even understand why people make this comparison. Outside of time travel what do the two have in common?

In RH the time travel is a more a game mechanic than anything else, right? Whereas games like CT and FFXIII-2 have time travel as a major plot points (XIII-2 obnoxiously so)

XIII-2 and CT do have similarities, and it doesn't have to be fanboy apoligism, because they're both pretty good games. CT has a more coherent plot and no bullshit DLC though, I think we can all agree that's a good thing

ImpAtom
May 24, 2007

Nickoten posted:

I don't even understand why people make this comparison. Outside of time travel what do the two have in common?

I think because it draws comparisons to Chrono Cross, which was also a game about travelling through dimensions and being the only person capable of doing so and RH puts a lot more effort into it than Chrono Cross did, whereas in Chrono Cross the two-dimensions gimmick was basically sidelined for a huge chunk of the game. When people say "It's like a sequel to Chrono Trigger," what they're saying "It's like I wanted Chrono Cross to be."


Polite Tim posted:

In RH the time travel is a more a game mechanic than anything else, right? Whereas games like CT and FFXIII-2 have time travel as a major plot points (XIII-2 obnoxiously so)

No, time travel is a pretty important plot mechanic too, it's just balanced with dimension travel.

Polite Tim
Sep 3, 2007
'insert witty Family Guy/ Futurama/ Simpsons/ Little fucking Britian etc quote here'

ImpAtom posted:

No, time travel is a pretty important plot mechanic too, it's just balanced with dimension travel.

I haven't actually played it, so I stand corrected

Unrelated, why are world maps disappearing from RPGs? I've seen some footage of Ni no Kuni that show's a world map, and I guess the Tales games still have them, but other than that most games seem to have abandoned them, which is a shame, as it was an elegant way of producing a vast looking world without sacrificing visuals

Plus I loved games like Skies of Arcadia or FF8 that had a bunch of hidden poo poo around the world (FF8's alien side quest was so obscure you could only happen on it by chance)

Strangely enough Just Cause 2 was the last game that made me feel excited about exploring a huge open world, when I found a lonely tower in a field of cherry blossoms with a wubble gun at the top

Levantine
Feb 14, 2005

GUNDAM!!!

Polite Tim posted:

I haven't actually played it, so I stand corrected

Unrelated, why are world maps disappearing from RPGs? I've seen some footage of Ni no Kuni that show's a world map, and I guess the Tales games still have them, but other than that most games seem to have abandoned them, which is a shame, as it was an elegant way of producing a vast looking world without sacrificing visuals

Plus I loved games like Skies of Arcadia or FF8 that had a bunch of hidden poo poo around the world (FF8's alien side quest was so obscure you could only happen on it by chance)

Strangely enough Just Cause 2 was the last game that made me feel excited about exploring a huge open world, when I found a lonely tower in a field of cherry blossoms with a wubble gun at the top

I'm with you on that. I think that Dragon Quest 8 nailed the world map harder than any 3D RPG of any generation. The world felt to scale and keeping the camera low behind the character really made it seem like you were neck deep in it. I wish DQ9 had done that (even though it was still a great game).

Nickoten
Oct 16, 2005

Now there'll be some quiet in this town.

ImpAtom posted:

I think because it draws comparisons to Chrono Cross, which was also a game about travelling through dimensions and being the only person capable of doing so and RH puts a lot more effort into it than Chrono Cross did, whereas in Chrono Cross the two-dimensions gimmick was basically sidelined for a huge chunk of the game. When people say "It's like a sequel to Chrono Trigger," what they're saying "It's like I wanted Chrono Cross to be."


No, time travel is a pretty important plot mechanic too, it's just balanced with dimension travel.

See, I agree with this. It seems more like a higher quality Chrono Cross, which in a lot of ways completely diverged from Chrono Trigger in really major ways from a design perspective (And that's not necessarily a bad thing of course). I don't see it as being similar to Chrono Trigger, but I DO see it as being similar to (and probably better than) Chrono Cross.

Paperhouse
Dec 31, 2008

I think
your hair
looks much
better
pushed
over to
one side

Polite Tim posted:

I haven't actually played it, so I stand corrected

Unrelated, why are world maps disappearing from RPGs? I've seen some footage of Ni no Kuni that show's a world map, and I guess the Tales games still have them, but other than that most games seem to have abandoned them, which is a shame, as it was an elegant way of producing a vast looking world without sacrificing visuals

Plus I loved games like Skies of Arcadia or FF8 that had a bunch of hidden poo poo around the world (FF8's alien side quest was so obscure you could only happen on it by chance)
FF Type-0 has a world map, I haven't played it but the footage of it looks amazing. Like FF8/9 exploring except there's more detail to it.

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Amppelix
Aug 6, 2010

Polite Tim posted:

Strangely enough Just Cause 2 was the last game that made me feel excited about exploring a huge open world, when I found a lonely tower in a field of cherry blossoms with a wubble gun at the top

Have you played Xenoblade? If not do so, because that's the best loving game in years for exploring a beautiful world packed with things to find, (some of) the places you visit are absolutely humongous. For example: every area in the game has a few secret spots (the game designates them as such and gives you a little ding) that are seriously hard to find and the payoff is usually just some exp and maybe a rare item, but by god is it satisfying to stumble upon one and most of them are really impressive spots like a cave behind the waterfall, an outcropping over a sheer cliff, or a quiet little spring hidden among the trees. That doesn't sound impressive but the whole thing somehow comes together to make it so.

I don't know if I managed to sell you on this since it's really hard to convey feelings over words but you could also watch this for an example of the environments (the good part is about six minutes in): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOLyqhQDqwc
Almost everything you see, you can get to.

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