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Levantine posted:I'm about to get started on Dimensions - any tips or suggestions starting out? Plan your build before you spend JP. What dude above said about Red Mage Lv.3, and that goes double for Dark Knight Lv.7 on physical attackers and Red Mage Lv.20 on mages. Make someone in each party a Thief. This a) prevents back attacks and sneak attacks, and b) lets you Mug while grinding, pretty much ensuring that you will never have to buy sundries. Thief seems to do less damage, but its speed makes up the difference. Even though Thief's usefulness will fall by the wayside toward endgame, you have enough JP to master about four jobs per character and you'll only have four ability slots anyway. Dross fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Feb 22, 2013 |
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Feb 22, 2013 22:03
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I'd love to see an American development group try a console-styled RPG again, like what SquareSoft USA did with Evermore. It might not produce excellent games but it always provides interesting results. From what I've read, Evermore only came about because Square's head office sent word to their Washington branch to make a Secret of Mana game except "American". I don't see something like that happening nowadays for a number of reasons, but it would be cool if it did.
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Feb 22, 2013 22:24
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Why the hell did they bother giving me upgrade rocks in FF13 in any of the pre C11 chapters. I don't see how you could ever afford to upgrade a weapon without a hilarious amount of farming that would be a total waste of time. Anyway. Place is interesting. I'm suddenly using Sentinel on random battles for the first time out of necessity 
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Feb 22, 2013 22:50
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Eggie posted:I'd love to see an American development group try a console-styled RPG again, like what SquareSoft USA did with Evermore. It might not produce excellent games but it always provides interesting results. Zeboyd Games does this. They definitely appeal to the old 8 and 16 bit days of rpg sensibilities. I can tell this because I get tired of their retro style in a couple hours just like I do with every other old rpg except for earthbound and chrono trigger. I guess this makes me the only person in the world who was the "right age" to experience the old school rpg's and doesn't have any interest in revisiting those old games. Edit victrix posted:Why the hell did they bother giving me upgrade rocks in FF13 in any of the pre C11 chapters. I don't see how you could ever afford to upgrade a weapon without a hilarious amount of farming that would be a total waste of time. Each weapon has 3 stages if I remember right. Getting a weapon to the top of stage 2 is fairly cheap and will yield very noticeable results. Back when the game had first come out, everyone on another forum I used to read said to just save all your money until you got to Pulse and then you could upgrade 1 weapon on each character. Failboattootoot fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Feb 22, 2013 |
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Feb 22, 2013 22:52
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Failboattootoot posted:Zeboyd Games does this. They definitely appeal to the old 8 and 16 bit days of rpg sensibilities. I can tell this because I get tired of their retro style in a couple hours just like I do with every other old rpg except for earthbound and chrono trigger. I guess this makes me the only person in the world who was the "right age" to experience the old school rpg's and doesn't have any interest in revisiting those old games. On the other hand, Zeboyd Games includes modern concepts -- battle counts for each area, so random encounters can be negated for an area entirely with five minutes of grinding, super quick loadtimes/savetimes, lightning-quick battles, etc. They're retro, but so easy to get through that you don't really mind it.
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Feb 23, 2013 00:04
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Barudak posted:There is a grand total of 1 tough boss fight in the game. It is the chapter closer for when you get the Dancer. Do not ever use her to do anything, just keep passing her turn so that the second her special prompt is necessary you can do it. Failing to do so will result in a very, very fast party wipe unless you are supremely over leveled for that area. Or...just cast shell on your party!
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Feb 23, 2013 00:11
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Head Hit Keyboard posted:You could bring in a character from another save file in LoM. Doesn't really help you when the game forces allies on you, but it's there. Yeah, I guess, and I prolly forgot about this, but honestly my point was just that everybody's fond memories of Secret of Mana involve playing it with their friends or their brother or whatever. Every single game that followed it, including Evermore and the beloved SD3, diminished those multiplayer capabilities by either reducing the number of players to 2 if not 1 or making the other players also-rans who had to share space with NPCs or whatever. In the most modern games it's a stupid obsession with narrative poo poo nobody gives a gently caress about trumping gameplay, like in Sword of Mana. In Evermore and SD3 it's totally inexplicable, in fact in SD3 the patch to enable 3-players was incredibly easy and involved flipping one byte or something and works flawlessly except in one single specific earlygame cutscene. There was already a "3" for player portraits in the UI and everything, they just disabled it because they were too lazy to debug a single scene or thought nobody cared about multiplayer. In fact, I think you can apply that to the entire Saga and Mana series especially post 16-bit. It's like they just kept churning out the stupid games they wanted to make instead of paying a bit of attention to what people liked about the ones they'd already made or what people wanted to actually play. They kept iterating on everything for the worst. EDIT: Sword of Mana is, the more I think about it, the worst possible example I can think of of a game I've played through where the developers' obsession with their uninteresting story and characters directly hurts the gameplay and constantly shits on the flow of the game and generally makes the game inarguably worse than if the characters never spoke at all like Gauntlet Legends or something. There are a lot of other modern JRPGs with burdensome amounts of tedious or extraneous story-watching, like Persona 4, but at least that game has the decency to make the story and characters remotely interesting. Baku fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Feb 23, 2013 |
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Feb 23, 2013 00:53
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SoM was made at a time when there was very, very little 'cultural dialogue' between east and west about video games - what was popular here may well have had little or no impact in japan. Couple that with the clear insanity of the lead SoM dev proven later in the series and, well, there you go. This still happens today to some extent. Look at all the local mobile PSP and DS games that are loving useless vestigal features in america because we don't have ten billion people on a train every day who can share local gameplay. Pokemon is the only notable exception, because it took root in our schools, and allowed the game to be played 'as intended' in the west. It's sort of like how Call of Duty would never be made for japanese gaming preferences any more than Monster Hunter would be made for western ones.
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Feb 23, 2013 01:02
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FF8 should have swapped the relative amounts of time spent playing as Squall and Laguna.
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Feb 23, 2013 01:06
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Ross posted:FF8 should have swapped the relative amounts of time spent playing as Squall and Laguna. And then Julia comes on to him and he's like "uh no thanks" and runs out of the hotel room.
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Feb 23, 2013 02:20
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I just started Dimensions on my Nexus 10 and I'm getting sort of choppy audio. The Prelude at the title screen seems to crack or pop every few seconds. I'm new to tablets so is that a thing? Google hasn't really helped me out.
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Feb 23, 2013 02:22
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Levantine posted:I just started Dimensions on my Nexus 10 and I'm getting sort of choppy audio. The Prelude at the title screen seems to crack or pop every few seconds. I'm new to tablets so is that a thing? Google hasn't really helped me out.
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Feb 23, 2013 02:26
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Every time I want to go back and try Secret of Evermore, I remember how I struggled with the Verminator as a kid and immediately write the game off again. I'll also fight anybody who says Legend of Mana is a bad game because Nostalgic Song owns and made that game worth it. 
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Feb 23, 2013 03:07
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I'm just amazed that Secret of Mana for the Super Famicom is only around 1-5 bucks compared to the 50-60 bucks for the SNES version. Legend of Mana goes for double the insane prices than the SNES game too. I just don't get why Square doesn't release them in some sort of compilation or something.
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Feb 23, 2013 03:21
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Vanderdeath posted:I'll also fight anybody who says Legend of Mana is a bad game because the entire soundtrack owns and made that game worth it. Fixed. I don't even like the game that much, but I own the soundtrack because it's just that good.e: Also you linked the wrong song, this is Nostalgic Song
Silly Voodoo fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Feb 23, 2013 |
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Feb 23, 2013 03:30
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The White Dragon posted:This is just a thing with Dimensions, and only on some devices (including my Droid DNA). I've found very few bits about this problem and no solutions, so I have the feeling it'll never get addressed. The better the device, the shittier the performance? Sounds like typical Squaresoft spaghetti code.
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Feb 23, 2013 09:17
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The White Dragon posted:This is just a thing with Dimensions, and only on some devices (including my Droid DNA). I've found very few bits about this problem and no solutions, so I have the feeling it'll never get addressed. How annoying. Does the sound distortion still occur with headphones? They don't have some support I can contact, do they?
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Feb 23, 2013 13:49
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The White Dragon posted:This would have the fun side effect of dreaming that you're Squall while driving back to Deling City and Laguna telling Kiros and Ward how dreamt that he was his son, and that his son was going to be a horrible shitbag. Yeah but Laguna's such a nice guy that he'd put it down to Squall having a bad week or something then nail Julia.
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Feb 23, 2013 13:53
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Azure_Horizon posted:The whole Time Kompression idea was reasonable? The ending of FF8 is "everything is fine because." Everything's fine because Squall's dead, as he should be because he's a terrible character from a terrible game. Dross posted:I'm pretty sure a 2-player patch exists, but yeah leaving it out of the release version was an egregious mistake. It does, although having your dog controlled by a person and not the AI just has to trivialize a lot of fights because of how strong it gets, but the lack of co-op was my only major issue with the game. The alchemy costs sucked but I only used it for the occasional heals and buffs so it didn't bother me. Levantine posted:I'm about to get started on Dimensions - any tips or suggestions starting out? Some characters have bonuses to their stats that make them "better" for some class types (I think sol gets vit/str?) but it doesn't really matter in the long run, go with what you like. Getting everyone to level 3 in red mage for the +hp passive is handy, and having 1 light and 1 dark warrior focus on red mage to master it is very useful for their final ability. Red Mage also gets Celes's Rune blade skill, and a FF5-style Magic Blade ability which can be handy, if for no other reason than using it to have near-infinite MP for that character so they can be a heal battery during and after fights.
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Feb 23, 2013 19:02
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Levantine posted:How annoying. Does the sound distortion still occur with headphones? They don't have some support I can contact, do they? 
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Feb 23, 2013 19:41
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The videogame conspiracy theory that I will believe till the day I die is that secret of evermore had a darker story at one point and they lightened it up last minute. Particularly it seems really frigging obvious the "evil clones" stuff is something they shoehorned in last second to tone down the murders and suicides and stuff. It even feels like you can see it with the bosses, all the bosses that were in early magazine screenshots (mostly the early in the game ones) are all super friggin creepy then later ones are more light and secret of mana style.
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Feb 23, 2013 20:03
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Evil Fluffy posted:Red Mage also gets Celes's Rune blade skill, and a FF5-style Magic Blade ability which can be handy, if for no other reason than using it to have near-infinite MP for that character so they can be a heal battery during and after fights. Magic Blade loving owns because the elemental Slashes deal 150% physical damage, and Stoning Slash works a lot of the time (and even in cases where it doesn't, you still get a full-power physical attack out of it). Osmotic Slash ensures you will never run out of MP unless you're being a dumbass, and the way Curative Slash interacts with the battle system is just plain funny. Put it on a Paladin or Ninja and you're pretty well golden.
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Feb 23, 2013 20:47
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:The videogame conspiracy theory that I will believe till the day I die is that secret of evermore had a darker story at one point and they lightened it up last minute. Particularly it seems really frigging obvious the "evil clones" stuff is something they shoehorned in last second to tone down the murders and suicides and stuff. It even feels like you can see it with the bosses, all the bosses that were in early magazine screenshots (mostly the early in the game ones) are all super friggin creepy then later ones are more light and secret of mana style. I actually went looking for that supposed magazine article that had the "How can you live with what you've done? Those poor children..." screenshot one afternoon, assuming it came from Nintendo Power since it reminded me more of their visual layout than anyone else's. At the time I couldn't find a good archive of old Nintendo Power issues online, though.
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Feb 23, 2013 23:31
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Zombies' Downfall posted:I actually went looking for that supposed magazine article that had the "How can you live with what you've done? Those poor children..." screenshot one afternoon, assuming it came from Nintendo Power since it reminded me more of their visual layout than anyone else's. At the time I couldn't find a good archive of old Nintendo Power issues online, though. Here is the blog post that I think originated it all: http://rainwoodworks.blogspot.com/2010/09/secret-of-evermore-was-one-of-my.html It's one of my favorite stories because the game does feel pretty dark in a lot of ways. It feels very credible that the story was just waiting to go off the rails but some editor reined it in. EDIT: and the short story blog that spawned that as well: http://whoisedkann.blogspot.com/2010/11/first-piece-of-evidence-review-of-noise.html
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Feb 23, 2013 23:54
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I'm kind of surprised about the SoE stuff. Considering people have contacted developers about it I'm surprised nobody's contacted Kann as well. That the story got changed would make sense. It has plenty of groundwork to be a rather dark game but it never really went there.
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Feb 24, 2013 07:20
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Thanks so much for putting together such a detailed post! Regarding your Kingdom Hearts section: Was Kingdom Hearts 3 officially announced for the next-gen fleet of systems, or was that an educated guess? I'm very excited right now.
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Feb 24, 2013 07:27
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I can't see how anyone can watch the Fake Queen jumping from the balcony and think it was ever meant to be a ~serious dark suicide for a dark game~ instead of a cheap Looney Toons gag.
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Feb 24, 2013 09:10
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Evil Fluffy posted:I'm kind of surprised about the SoE stuff. Considering people have contacted developers about it I'm surprised nobody's contacted Kann as well. This is because (the supposed Secret of Evermore writer) Ed Kann is not a person that exists. fronz fucked around with this message at 10:47 on Feb 24, 2013 |
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Feb 24, 2013 10:44
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satchbag posted:Thanks so much for putting together such a detailed post! Regarding your Kingdom Hearts section: Kingdom Hearts 3 is going to begin development once Final Fantasy Vesus XIII is done. Expect it on the PS5.
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Feb 24, 2013 11:53
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Evil Fluffy posted:I'm kind of surprised about the SoE stuff. Considering people have contacted developers about it I'm surprised nobody's contacted Kann as well. Its something that tried to get its legs in the Video Game Urban Legends threads but too many folks thought the way you do and realized it didn't have that veneer of veracity. Still, it's a fun read! EDIT: I'm having fun with Dimensions but is it me or does the battle speed feel very fast? I'm probably not quite as fast with a touch interface so that might be why.
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Feb 24, 2013 14:52
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You can turn down battle speed in FFD. The default level seems a little quicker than normal RPGs but it might just be due to using the touchscreen which doesn't quite feel right after so many years of using a controller.
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Feb 24, 2013 15:59
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It's having to scroll the command window that causes me to waste time in battle in FFD.
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Feb 24, 2013 16:58
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Is there a way to adjust screen sensitivity in FFD? On my old HTC Evo it was really easy to play, but on my Nexus 4 I have to really press hard to get anything to register on the on screen menus. Weirdly enough, the on screen d-pad works just fine, swipes work just fine. I just can't get button presses to register consistently 
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Feb 24, 2013 17:02
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I'm nearing the end of FF13 and I have to say - this game is so backloaded its not even funny. I made it through the first part of the game by completely tossing aside any assumptions or preconceptions, gritting my teeth through the stuff that was boring or I really didn't like, and... the payoff was actually worth it. I don't know what the hell they were thinking with the way they structured this game, but they hid a gem of a combat engine behind 20+ hours of training wheels. Anyway. I'll finish it off and post some final thoughts before I move on to 13-2, but I wish someone had pushed me to get over the hump on this game a long time ago!
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Feb 24, 2013 20:14
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Blind the Thief posted:I always got the impression that Irvine was lying to Squall because it is way more convenient in that moment to blow it off than to try and explain that he was trying to shoot the woman that raised him. The way I see it there are two options: 1) his "this always happens" line is untrue because otherwise he wouldn't have been chosen for the job, or 2) he was only chosen by the headmaster of Galbadia as some sort of conspiracy plot to pit him with Squall and the gang. The problem with this, unless you have a game built around the presentation of mystery and hearsay, the writer still needs to get across to the audience a character is lying if they're lying, even if it's a clumsy way. It's the danger of ~headcanons~ covering up iffy writing, especially for important things. I find it ironic that FF7 managed to be full of "confusing" mystery for a jrpg simply by something pretty loving basic from a story telling perspective: revoking the jrpg trope that every character/NPC in the world knows everything the minute you do and that the audience EXPECTS that cliche. The characters are just realistically uninformed and very rarely actually lie. It doesn't even pull the "brushing off something that's being really obviously broadcast as the truth" or "simply present everything *everyone* says as vaguely as possible" some later games do as a way to prevent mystery.
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Feb 25, 2013 06:28
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penguinmambo posted:I find it ironic that FF7 managed to be full of "confusing" mystery for a jrpg You're seriously overthinking it. FFVII was confusing because it was confusing. They hid important plot elements in easily-missed locations and everything was translated by Japanese people instead of native English speakers.
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Feb 25, 2013 07:12
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Levantine posted:Here is the blog post that I think originated it all: http://rainwoodworks.blogspot.com/2010/09/secret-of-evermore-was-one-of-my.html Yeah, that blog post basically does everything right to start a videogame urban myth. There's no element of the supernatural, the story is completely plausible both because games like JRPGs always have a ton of poo poo on the cutting room floor and because Evermore is legitimately a weird muddy dark game compared to the SD series, and it just comes out and postulates a thing without belaboring the point or turning it into a big ongoing drama. In fact, I still think it's plausible that the whole thing is a fictional story based on a real weird preview screenshot. Even the best-written of the game related urban legends and horror stories from that thread, like Pale Luna, have a bigger scent of bullshit to them. I'd love a retro games podcast that could actually get key development figures behind games like Secret of Evermore and Mystic Quest that are sort of unappreciated also-rans, and pick their brains about game mechanics and story and stuff. Baku fucked around with this message at 07:25 on Feb 25, 2013 |
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Feb 25, 2013 07:20
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Vanderdeath posted:I'll also fight anybody who says Legend of Mana is a bad game I'm right there with you, dude. Legend of Mana is honestly one of my favorite games from a storytelling, music, and art-direction perspective. Everything about that game is thought-out enough to be engrossing. The NPCs are interesting and make you like them, and the encyclopedia somehow avoids the modern RPG encyclopedia problem and is purely supplemental (and can indeed enhance your thoughts of NPCs that you already care about). I dunno, it's just a great game. I liked it a lot more than SoM and Seiken Densetsu 3.
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Feb 25, 2013 09:42
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Blind the Thief posted:I'm right there with you, dude. Legend of Mana is honestly one of my favorite games from a storytelling, music, and art-direction perspective. Everything about that game is thought-out enough to be engrossing. The NPCs are interesting and make you like them, and the encyclopedia somehow avoids the modern RPG encyclopedia problem and is purely supplemental (and can indeed enhance your thoughts of NPCs that you already care about). I dunno, it's just a great game. I liked it a lot more than SoM and Seiken Densetsu 3. To me, Legend of Mana is the definitive Mana game, and one of the definitive games in the fantasy genre. It's whimsical to a fault, and absolutely thrives in the fantastical unlike pretty much any other game out there.
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Feb 25, 2013 09:52
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Wow, I always thought it was kinda the black sheep of the Mana series. Love some of the songs on the OST, game was too randomly-generated to keep my attention. Seems like that was a premature judgement.
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Feb 25, 2013 10:19
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