RPG Thread: SaGa Emeril Beyond

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The 7th Guest: Dec 17, 2003

My review of VC2: HA HAHA! HA HAHAHA!

# ? Aug 14, 2015 07:10

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 23:47

Nakar: Sep 2, 2002; Ultima Ratio Regum

ImpAtom posted:

Someone put out a mod for the PC version that supposedly fixes that lovely design but I haven't given it a shot yet. It'd do a lot for the game if you could fix it.

Hadn't heard about this, do you have a link to it on Steam or wherever it is? I wasn't aware you even could mod it like that.

Neddy Seagoon posted:

VC was at least consistent and knew what it was from start to finish - a squad of misfits in anime WWII. VC2 decided it wanted to focus on high school life. With heinous daily genocidal purges on the Academy's figurative doorstep as the rebels were starting to win the civil war, but that isn't important right now because what is is we need to get a classmate to admit they love a girl/guy (and repeat for about half the class in various flavors). Or, my favorite; the protagonist shooting himself to make his classmate get over the mental trauma of watching her parents killed.

I liked the part in VC1 where a nuke (aka big tiddy nazi anime laser lady) went off and blew up a huge chunk of Gallia's army and nobody really cared all that much because the officers in command there were jerks and the war could be won by a deus ex machina involving all the anime superweapons the bad guy boss kept trying to come up with instead of just using his WW2-era tanks and soldiers which were perfectly capable of doing the exact same thing. Or when that other guy showed up to push the bad guy down a really deep hole he happened to be standing next to in an act of ~redemptive suicide~ instead of just capping the dude in the head or arresting him or something. Or the incredibly badly-telegraphed ~tragic death~ that happens in the most bullshit of circumstances to the point that it's actually comical, and you don't even care that much because the character (who has no battle dialogue or presence anyway) is immediately replaced by an actual non-character who is exactly as useful. Or the incredibly hamfisted sorta-Jews who were discriminated against, except the writers couldn't come up with any actual cultural traits they had so literally every character who is racist against them just looks like a gigantic frothing dickbag (and in all but one case is in fact proven to be exactly that).

VC1 was melodramatic as hell. That doesn't excuse VC2 being bad but ripping 2 for being awful when 1 is also incredibly badly written strikes me as disingenuous. I can't speak for the writing in 3 though so maybe they figured it out.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 07:17

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

VCs would be better if the entire cast were replaced by customizable tanks. Then it would be a Seek & Destroy spin-off but without wiring a chanisaw to the end of your barrel.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 07:19

cheetah7071: Oct 20, 2010; honk honk; College Slice

Yeah but anime WWII is a cool idea.
Yet Another High School Anime isn't.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 07:20

cheetah7071: Oct 20, 2010; honk honk; College Slice

SelenicMartian posted:

VCs would be better if the entire cast were replaced by customizable tanks. Then it would be a Seek & Destroy spin-off but without wiring a chanisaw to the end of your barrel.

Every game should have resonance of fate-style weapon customization.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 07:21

Nakar: Sep 2, 2002; Ultima Ratio Regum

If they fixed the balance on the tank part customization thing and let you field multiple tanks and a handful of infantry VC could be a pretty goddamn good multiplayer skirmish thing. I am surprised something like this was not thought up for the Vita or something.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 07:26

Neddy Seagoon: Oct 12, 2012; "Hi Everybody!"

Nakar posted:

VC1 was melodramatic as hell. That doesn't excuse VC2 being bad but ripping 2 for being awful when 1 is also incredibly badly written strikes me as disingenuous. I can't speak for the writing in 3 though so maybe they figured it out.

VC's as melodramatic as poo poo because it took a stab at a serious war story. That's not gonna be a pleasant trip by any measure, and the writers at least respected that even if it got really hamfisted. VC2's writers chucked that notion out the window for as much generic anime as they could fit on a UMD on top of deliberately going as :aatrek:

as they could with the game's Valkyria character.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 07:37

Nakar: Sep 2, 2002; Ultima Ratio Regum

Neddy Seagoon posted:

VC's as melodramatic as poo poo because it took a stab at a serious war story. That's not gonna be a pleasant trip by any measure, and the writers at least respected that even if it got really hamfisted.

There's something distinctly wrong with writing a war story to be overly melodramatic, because war doesn't need melodrama to be emotionally impactful on account of being war. The melodrama exists because the game's writers were incapable of portraying anything resembling actual war which is why all the bombed-out towns are mysteriously clean and empty of any people and all the other fights take place in verdant forests, rolling grassy fields, and deserts filled with ancient anime ruins. To say nothing of trying to act all serious about the costs of war except your own soldiers will recover from anything as long as an enemy doesn't finish them off and Alicia literally has to get shot to become an almighty battle goddess. So you know, war is hell, unless you're a magic anime laser girl, but let's rip on VC2 for its tone-deafness.

It's stupid, and attempting to distinguish one stupid badly-written script from another slightly more stupid and badly-written script is pointless. Using that criticism as a way to dismiss the entire game is also intensely unfair when VC1 is not subject to the same treatment. There are legitimate gameplay flaws for which both can be criticized but neither is "terrible."

# ? Aug 14, 2015 07:48

cheetah7071: Oct 20, 2010; honk honk; College Slice

I like the setting/mood in VC1 more than VC2 by a huge margin. I don't think that's an uncommon opinion, or hypocritical. VC1 isn't a great work of literature or anything but it didn't make me actively hate it.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 07:53

HGH: Dec 20, 2011

Nakar posted:

Hadn't heard about this, do you have a link to it on Steam or wherever it is? I wasn't aware you even could mod it like that.

Yeah I posted about it in the Steam Thread. Here:

quote:

So fun fact, a rebalance mod JUST came out for Valkyria Chronicles, so all you peeps complaining can have fun now.

Here's a link.

quote:

This rebalance mod increases the diversity of strategies (upping the types of weapons and changing out bad potentials, for instance) and removes some of the easy-mode exploits (rushing like a madman with defense orders) in the game. It's a pretty monumental set of changes.

quote:

Two months ago, I decided to mod the PC version of Valkyria Chronicles and my mod is at last complete.

This mod for Valkyria Chronicles is a rebalance mod for the main game and the DLCs.
This mod is made for a fresh new game (directly choosing New Game at the title screen).

In the archive, you will find the following files:
My VC Mod - this is the mod itself, copy/paste all the files into your "Valkyria Chronicles" directory which should be located in "Program Files/Steam/SteamApps/common".
Reset Extra DLCs - Contains a file named "sysdata.dat" which you can copy into your savedata folder to reset the Extra DLCs to their "New" state (as if you never played "Behind her Blue Flame" and "Enter the Edy Detachment" DLCs); This is completely optional, however.
Files Backup - These are the original files, if you want to revert back to the original version of the game.
README - Please read.

quote:

And here are the patch notes, they're pretty extensive.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 07:55

Rascyc: Jan 23, 2008; Dissatisfied Puppy

ImpAtom posted:

I was really prepared to like VC1. I literally bought a PS3 for it. It's a shame they just hosed it up so much.

No, the fact that the scoring system is so heavily weighted towards speed means you really can't. Even if you don't do Scout Rush, you're effectively doing the same thing as Scout Rush but less effectively.

Someone put out a mod for the PC version that supposedly fixes that lovely design but I haven't given it a shot yet. It'd do a lot for the game if you could fix it.

Naw I got mostly Bs and Cs and a bunch of royal weapons when I played through and I didn't even know scout rushing was a thing until I got more involved in forums. I want to say the cut off for royal weapons is C rank and anything above is just exp/money which in turn makes the game even easier.

I had a lot of fun playing VC1 blind and just doing whatever. I'm not saying the game is good by any stretch but there's a fun game to be had there if you don't go all nuts over rush rush rush (unless you like that then by all means).

HGH posted:

Yeah I posted about it in the Steam Thread. Here:
Here's a link.

Dang, might have to give this a go after the fall season of games. Thanks.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 08:00

Nakar: Sep 2, 2002; Ultima Ratio Regum

cheetah7071 posted:

I like the setting/mood in VC1 more than VC2 by a huge margin. I don't think that's an uncommon opinion, or hypocritical. VC1 isn't a great work of literature or anything but it didn't make me actively hate it.

But you understand that's a completely invalid reason to dismiss the gameplay, in the same sense any of these stupid things I've noted about VC1 are invalid. "The ranking system is bad" is perfectly on point and applies to both games; "the certification system is a bad grind" is a flaw unique to 2 and a reason 2 isn't as good a game as the first (though 2 also fixes things 1 did poorly). The hypocrisy would be citing story stuff as if it's a gameplay flaw but giving the first game a pass on the same thing. If you just happened to think the early missions were boring you're probably right, as I recall VC2 taking longer to get going on maps of any depth or complexity since it had many more missions than VC1. But it wasn't really so drastically different from VC1 in terms of gameplay that I think it's at all reasonable to call it "terrible" unless you also think VC1 was terrible. Which most people do not, as far as I know.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 08:03

cheetah7071: Oct 20, 2010; honk honk; College Slice

I actively liked VC1 and actively disliked VC2, both in story and overall impressions. If you think that's hypocritical them whatever.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 08:07

Rascyc: Jan 23, 2008; Dissatisfied Puppy

Nakar posted:

But you understand that's a completely invalid reason to dismiss the gameplay, in the same sense any of these stupid things I've noted about VC1 are invalid. "The ranking system is bad" is perfectly on point and applies to both games; "the certification system is a bad grind" is a flaw unique to 2 and a reason 2 isn't as good a game as the first (though 2 also fixes things 1 did poorly). The hypocrisy would be citing story stuff as if it's a gameplay flaw but giving the first game a pass on the same thing. If you just happened to think the early missions were boring you're probably right, as I recall VC2 taking longer to get going on maps of any depth or complexity since it had many more missions than VC1. But it wasn't really so drastically different from VC1 in terms of gameplay that I think it's at all reasonable to call it "terrible" unless you also think VC1 was terrible. Which most people do not, as far as I know.

Uhhhh we're playing anime games, why are you surprised someone discards a game for something subjective like overall aesthetic or setting?

# ? Aug 14, 2015 08:09

Nakar: Sep 2, 2002; Ultima Ratio Regum

Rascyc posted:

Uhhhh we're playing anime games, why are you surprised someone discards a game for something subjective like overall aesthetic or setting?

If we declared an RPG, especially a JRPG, to be "terrible" on the basis of not liking the aesthetic or setting then there probably wouldn't be any such thing as good games and we're back to what Endorph was mocking us for a few pages ago. And after playing JRPGs for like 25+ years I'm capable of ignoring a terrible story or dumb aesthetic if I enjoy the gameplay enough. I mean, why else is anyone still playing Tales games?

# ? Aug 14, 2015 08:18

Neddy Seagoon: Oct 12, 2012; "Hi Everybody!"

Nakar posted:

But you understand that's a completely invalid reason to dismiss the gameplay, in the same sense any of these stupid things I've noted about VC1 are invalid. "The ranking system is bad" is perfectly on point and applies to both games; "the certification system is a bad grind" is a flaw unique to 2 and a reason 2 isn't as good a game as the first (though 2 also fixes things 1 did poorly). The hypocrisy would be citing story stuff as if it's a gameplay flaw but giving the first game a pass on the same thing. If you just happened to think the early missions were boring you're probably right, as I recall VC2 taking longer to get going on maps of any depth or complexity since it had many more missions than VC1. But it wasn't really so drastically different from VC1 in terms of gameplay that I think it's at all reasonable to call it "terrible" unless you also think VC1 was terrible. Which most people do not, as far as I know.

The difference is that VC1 knew what it wanted to be. Even at the dumb parts like Alicia getting shot, there is a mote of sense to it - Valkyria only awaken when they are in mortal peril, and holy poo poo was Selvaria ruining everyone's day at that point. The only dumb thing was not telling Alicia a goddamn thing about any of it beforehand.

VC2 gets poo poo on in comparison because it really is nothing more than a kitchen sink of bad cliches and fetish/fanservice pandering slapped together without rhyme or reason. Its even worse when you see the artbook descriptions by the game's design staff of every single character - each and every one of them IS deliberately designed as fetish material.

VC has it's cliches as well, but they're in service to a larger coherent whole than just crammed in because they are a thing that makes for an easy plotpoint in a vacuum. That's why your "if game A is bad them game B is bad" thing isnt flying.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 08:19

Nakar: Sep 2, 2002; Ultima Ratio Regum

Neddy Seagoon posted:

VC has it's cliches as well, but they're in service to a larger coherent whole than just crammed in because they are a thing that makes for an easy plotpoint in a vacuum. That's why your "if game A is bad them game B is bad" thing isnt flying.

It flies perfectly well, you're just giving the first game a pass because you think it's coherent. It's not. It too is a "kitchen sink of bad cliches," just different ones to which you lack the same visceral reaction. VC1 is more or less a checklist of points of emotional manipulativeness masquerading as a plot sequence, but which is also perfectly content to pull justifications out of its rear end to move things along when the latest melodramatic upswell is faltering, all the while hoping you don't notice how clean and sterile this supposedly huge war is. A fact you called out VC2 for, then excused the first game for "trying" (and failing) to do properly. But the developers for VC2 were by their admission in one of the interviews trying, they had an idea in mind, a theme, a point, they just hosed it up even worse than the writers for the first game did.

This is why it's perilous to ignore the matter of the game-as-a-game.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 08:27

Tae: Oct 24, 2010; Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!

The high school setting ultimately has nothing to do with why VC2 is poo poo. Nor has anyone mentioned the worst loving possible aspect of the game which was the class promotion system, which made Tactics Ogre's crafting system a convenience in comparison.

You HAVE to have a character get certain kills/base captures to be the MVP of a mission, or kill specific units on a specific map on a specific month.

Except it's complete RNG even if you fulfill all that! And you need like at least 5 of these! And you need the materials all over again if you need ever want to switch sub-classes!

Now apply this to almost every single custom item and ace weapon plan! Yes, you buy blueprints to get lists of crafting items. BTW, blueprints are ALSO RNG.

Hahahahahahha :suicide:

Seriously, anyone that says VC2 is bad mainly because of the high school setting is wrong. It goes loving retarded bonkers stupid even if it was a pure war story.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 08:44

victrix: Oct 30, 2007

Nakar posted:

it's perilous to ignore the matter of the game-as-a-game.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 08:46

Sakurazuka: Jan 24, 2004; NANI?

Nakar posted:

If we declared an RPG, especially a JRPG, to be "terrible" on the basis of not liking the aesthetic or setting then there probably wouldn't be any such thing as good games and we're back to what Endorph was mocking us for a few pages ago. And after playing JRPGs for like 25+ years I'm capable of ignoring a terrible story or dumb aesthetic if I enjoy the gameplay enough. I mean, why else is anyone still playing Tales games?

I love the dumb characters and stories in Tales games.
I've only been playing JRPG's for 20 years though so maybe that's it.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 08:53

Rascyc: Jan 23, 2008; Dissatisfied Puppy

Nakar posted:

If we declared an RPG, especially a JRPG, to be "terrible" on the basis of not liking the aesthetic or setting then there probably wouldn't be any such thing as good games and we're back to what Endorph was mocking us for a few pages ago. And after playing JRPGs for like 25+ years I'm capable of ignoring a terrible story or dumb aesthetic if I enjoy the gameplay enough. I mean, why else is anyone still playing Tales games?

Which he was correct to mock, hah.

Everyone has an opinion and people's opinions usually weight different aspects of a game differently than each other. It's why an industry like game reviews can have so many reviewers operating at any given time. Like I, as a consumer, assign different subjective values when different people comment on a game. If someone like ImpAtom says a game is objective good, I'll probably agree because I've gathered we have similar tastes. If I see someone calling something like Criminal Girls objectively good (which, I will point out there are entire swathes of these people out there who do from my brief foray into reddit gently caress) then I will not pay attention.

But I mean I wouldn't be up in arms about what qualifies as an objective evaluation of a game. There's just way too many people's PoVs to consider.

P.S. This is why I never want to be in the games industry. I am a doomsayer.

Rascyc fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Aug 14, 2015

# ? Aug 14, 2015 08:54

Golden Goat: Aug 2, 2012

I remember seeing VC2 and going to a friend "Oh apparently VC is really good we should try it" cause it had multiplayer also.
Cue me apologizing that I didn't know it would be a high school anime game after he gets it.

Finished off South Park and man the last fight of that game just felt like it went on forever. I've now to decide between finishing Dark Souls 2 or Tactics Ogre.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 10:14

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

For whatever reason I became obsessed with VC3, I wound up putting in like 130 hours into it to max out everyone in my squad. I think it's a lot of fun and works pretty well as a portable iteration of VC1.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm much rather talk about VC3 being good than VC2 being bad.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 11:46

chairface: Oct 28, 2007; No matter what you believe, I don't believe in you.

a couple pages back, but good, I didn't miss out on ways to break Ogre Battle. I knew well about Princesses and Liches. Never tried the wyvern-mage group to mop leaderless groups, I always stuck a low sky ghost unit for that and made sure I killed clerics instead of running Leader on everyone.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 12:31

Levantine: Feb 14, 2005; GUNDAM!!!

HGH posted:

Yeah I posted about it in the Steam Thread. Here:
Here's a link.

This sounds pretty cool. Did he remove the turn limit too? It sounds like moving forward is more of a task with that patch, but if there's no time limit then I can play exactly how I want without stressing about it. I like the Tank changes too.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 13:06

WaltherFeng: May 15, 2013; 50 thousand people used to live here. Now, it's the Mushroom Kingdom.

So, Lost Odyssey, is the writing terrible? I haven't played a proper RPG in ages and I completely ignored this one when it came out. These days I just can't stand a huge game if the narrative isn't interesting.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 13:15

Levantine: Feb 14, 2005; GUNDAM!!!

WaltherFeng posted:

So, Lost Odyssey, is the writing terrible? I haven't played a proper RPG in ages and I completely ignored this one when it came out. These days I just can't stand a huge game if the narrative isn't interesting.

No, the writing isn't terrible. There are optional bits where the writing is phenomenal, but the basic game is written pretty well. It's not the best written JRPG but it's also certainly not the worst. I have a soft spot for it in general, though. It's worth playing just for the Jensen character though. Almost all of his lines are completely ad libbed and it's great.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 13:31

Golden Goat: Aug 2, 2012

For Lost Odyssey the pacing in the second disc slows to a crawl until it hits the end of the disc, then it's pretty crazy up until the final disc.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 13:37

Cake Attack: Mar 26, 2010

Nakar posted:

If we declared an RPG, especially a JRPG, to be "terrible" on the basis of not liking the aesthetic or setting then there probably wouldn't be any such thing as good games and we're back to what Endorph was mocking us for a few pages ago. And after playing JRPGs for like 25+ years I'm capable of ignoring a terrible story or dumb aesthetic if I enjoy the gameplay enough. I mean, why else is anyone still playing Tales games?

many jrpgs have cool aesthetic and setting

# ? Aug 14, 2015 14:13

Phantasium: Dec 27, 2012

Should I feel bad for liking this Ryu design?

http://www.siliconera.com/2015/08/14/breath-of-fire-6-introduces-its-series-recurring-character-ryu/

I mean, aside from feeling bad about BoF6 in general.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 14:13

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Why does he have a chicken breast for a shoulder?

"Ryu is the protagonist�s older brother"
The least BoF of all BoF games.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 14:17

Crabtree: Oct 17, 2012; ARRRGH! Get that wallet out!
Everybody: Lowtax in a Pickle!
Pickle! Pickle! Pickle! Pickle!; Dinosaur Gum

What else could be done to make this as not Breath of Fire as possible?

# ? Aug 14, 2015 15:30

Phantasium: Dec 27, 2012

Crabtree posted:

What else could be done to make this as not Breath of Fire as possible?

They should have just made him look like Street Fighter Ryu.

"What, you said you wanted Ryu in the game what's wrong?"

# ? Aug 14, 2015 15:31

Selenephos: Jul 9, 2010

Where'd this sudden backlash against Valkyria Chronicles 1 come from anyway? When it first came out, it surprised everyone by how decent it was and was somewhat of a cult hit that got popular more by word of mouth. Then as soon as Valkyria Chronicles 2 came out, it's as if everyone starting saying Valkyria Chronicles was never good and it was the same drat people who praised the game when it first came out!

I mean, Valkyria Chronicles isn't the most balanced SRPG nor the most well written, but some of you talk like it's a loving Idea Factory game or something.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 15:33

ImpAtom: May 24, 2007

Rascyc posted:

Naw I got mostly Bs and Cs and a bunch of royal weapons when I played through and I didn't even know scout rushing was a thing until I got more involved in forums. I want to say the cut off for royal weapons is C rank and anything above is just exp/money which in turn makes the game even easier.

You can't really say "You get the same rankings" while also saying you got Bs and Cs.

Mr. Fortitude posted:

Where'd this sudden backlash against Valkyria Chronicles 1 come from anyway?

I don't know about sudden backlash but I felt this way before VC2 even came out. As I said I literally bought a PS3 because Valkyria Chronicles looked so absurdly my jam and in most ways it is, but the scoring system really soured the enjoyment I got out of the game.

People go "well, ignore it" and that isn't even really an option because the scoring system is designed to encourage aggression and forward movement. Without it turtling (which isn't a tremendously interesting mechanic on its own) becomes far more powerful and the pacing of the game takes a big hit. You can see a similar problem with the new XCOM game which is why they added Meld canisters into the game to try to encourage players to be more openly aggressive. The idea of rewarding speed and aggression isn't a bad one, it just suffers because the way the game is designed.

Like "you need to be fast and aggressive" works if your goal is killing all enemies or if there is something keeping you moving at a specific pace or something beyond having to kill a single target or having to capture a flag. The best stages in VC are those which have more lengthy goals, but they're relatively few and far between.

ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Aug 14, 2015

# ? Aug 14, 2015 15:37

Vermain: Sep 5, 2006

The White Dragon posted:

i thought treasure hunter g was ok

It and Bahamut Lagoon are both pretty good games. I liked THG's "movement zone" concept a lot, actually; did any other SRPGs really do something similar?

Phantasium posted:

Should I feel bad for liking this Ryu design?

http://www.siliconera.com/2015/08/14/breath-of-fire-6-introduces-its-series-recurring-character-ryu/

I mean, aside from feeling bad about BoF6 in general.

The design ain't bad, but that Nina is, uh... they could've done better.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 15:39

Selenephos: Jul 9, 2010

ImpAtom posted:

I don't know about sudden backlash but I felt this way before VC2 even came out. As I said I literally bought a PS3 because Valkyria Chronicles looked so absurdly my jam and in most ways it is, but the scoring system really soured the enjoyment I got out of the game.

People go "well, ignore it" and that isn't even really an option because the scoring system is designed to encourage aggression and forward movement. Without it turtling (which isn't a tremendously interesting mechanic on its own) becomes far more powerful and the pacing of the game takes a big hit. You can see a similar problem with the new XCOM game which is why they added Meld canisters into the game to try to encourage players to be more openly aggressive. The idea of rewarding speed and aggression isn't a bad one, it just suffers because the way the game is designed.

Like "you need to be fast and aggressive" works if your goal is killing all enemies or if there is something keeping you moving at a specific pace or something beyond having to kill a single target or having to capture a flag. The best stages in VC are those which have more lengthy goals, but they're relatively few and far between.

Oh, no I understand that though I personally like the game pushing you to always be on the offensive instead of turtling but the ranking system could have been better thought out. I just don't think the flaws of the game are bad enough to make it a bad game or even a mediocre one but it's becoming a common sentiment all of a sudden.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 15:48

Tae: Oct 24, 2010; Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!

Mr. Fortitude posted:

Oh, no I understand that though I personally like the game pushing you to always be on the offensive instead of turtling but the ranking system could have been better thought out. I just don't think the flaws of the game are bad enough to make it a bad game or even a mediocre one but it's becoming a common sentiment all of a sudden.

Because the PC version came out, which allowed everyone to play it

# ? Aug 14, 2015 15:50

some bust on that guy: Jan 21, 2006; This avatar was paid for by the Silent Majority.

WaltherFeng posted:

So, Lost Odyssey, is the writing terrible? I haven't played a proper RPG in ages and I completely ignored this one when it came out. These days I just can't stand a huge game if the narrative isn't interesting.

If you would like proof that LO has great writing, you can look up Hanna's Departure on youtube. It's from the first town and the first few hours so it's not a huge spoiler.

That said, I began to get really sick of the battles at the beginning of the 2nd disc. They take a while. The voice acting saying the same lines at the beginning and end of each battle drives me crazy. I'm having the same issue with the one hour I played of Valkyrie Profile recently. Only in VP it's worse because they say a sentence after every battle move. I don't know how I can take a whole game with those voices.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 16:05

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 23:47

Nakar: Sep 2, 2002; Ultima Ratio Regum

WaltherFeng posted:

So, Lost Odyssey, is the writing terrible? I haven't played a proper RPG in ages and I completely ignored this one when it came out. These days I just can't stand a huge game if the narrative isn't interesting.

The writing isn't "bad" in LO so much as extremely workmanlike. Sakaguchi paints his fantasy epics in broad strokes and if you're familiar with stuff like FF4 then you kind of can see how that goes. There's conflict between nations but the reasons aren't overly complex, the heroes have quirks and development moments but not a tremendous amount of depth, and the villain is kind of a ham and manifests plot-complicating powers whenever he feels like it (Remember Golbez's random autonomous hand? Basically that, several times). I didn't like the way it was written and I didn't hate it. The script itself is... there. Whether you'd find it "interesting" is harder to say.

There's one pretty decent character on the English voice track, but it's entirely the work of the actor. People have mixed opinions on whether the dreams are better-written, and while they probably are, many of them also don't do a lot to change how you feel about the story or characters. You could very possibly ignore them all and derive about the same enjoyment from the main story (or not).

Cake Attack posted:

many jrpgs have cool aesthetic and setting

However, many also do not. But some of those are still pretty good games, and some that have a cool setting are not too good.

# ? Aug 14, 2015 16:15

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