Last Celebration posted:

I guess this is an okay place to ask since it’s about a JRPG: does anyone remember if there’s any side quest cutoffs in Xenoblade besides The Big One in the lategame? I beat it when it first released in the states so I’m not worried about spoilers, I just can’t remember if the whole Colony 6 reconstruction ruins the side quests on Bionis’ Leg with the refugees.

Commander Keene posted:

Any quests that are missable/can expire have the clock symbol next to them, IIRC.

Microcline posted:

The move to colony 6 times out most of the refugee camp quests

ImpAtom posted:

I am now picturing it being narrated by Michelangelo at his most 90s surfer dude.

"You WRECKED that guy! Totally tubular, dude!"

Feels Villeneuve posted:

The Turtles should say things like "OHH! check out this broad" and stuff like that imo

Junpei posted:

it's mostly Mikey who's like that, and also in the 2003 series Raph has the thickest Jersey accent known to man

Kild posted:

Feels Villeneuve posted:

Has anyone ever discussed how hosed up it is that the Turtles are in new york but talk like Californian surfer dude stereotypes? What in the rear end were they thinking

Cleretic posted:

Okay, just finished Grandia 2. I admit I've got a soft spot for this era of JRPG when they're not being arbitrarily bullshit, it just has my ideal level of tone and seriousness, and mechanics that exist well enough to sink your teeth into without either getting too weirdly complicated, or feeling like they streamlined away useful parts.

Mechanically... honestly I'm genuinely wondering why we don't just point to this as THE game to emulate for 'active turn-based', it's a really engaging system that's got a lot of clever nuance while remaining fairly simple to understand (I think I actually said 'oh you clever loving bitch' at the first boss who just stalls on the turn gauge instead of immediately going into move prep), and I feel like we'd only be able to do it even better with an example to learn from; I kinda feel like the game itself wasn't super aware of how its own system works, given the final boss was easy pretty much entirely because it's not built to actually make use of the system it's in. But there's plenty of boss fights that really flex all the different ways a fight could be difficult here, it's really just the finale that fumbled it.

For the story... I kinda got the feeling that the actual plot started picking up in interesting ideas just as the actual character writing started falling apart. Learning the overall truth about Granas and Valmar, through several layers, is actually super interesting and feels like sort of a precursor to a lot of later RPG plots that try to do similar; in particular I started noticing a lot of similarities to Zodiark and Hydaelyn in FFXIV, but there's definitely a lot of others like it. You can see where standards raised in the time since Grandia 2's release, because a lot of those concepts are kinda skeletal and unexplored where similar stories now would dig deeper, but that's not really a fault of Grandia 2 itself; it's doing what it's setting out to do, it's just not setting out to do as much. But just as this stuff was getting more interesting, Ryudo becomes a far less compelling character in a way that feels less like character development and more like the writers just wanting to make him an archetypal hero without quite doing the work to get him there. Zera also felt underbaked, but that might just be hindsight; he's exactly the character that would be given a specific and sympathetic reason to feel the way he does if the game were made now, and they just don't bother doing that; he's not an unrepentant rear end in a top hat monster, there's clearly some internality, there's just not really a 'why' to him. And also Elena just pulls some out-of-nowhere powers and revelations at the end, but that was just kind of a 'sure, why not'.

Also I kind of assumed that Skye was some secret super-important figure that'd be key to the whole story... but no, apparently in this universe some birds just talk and are super wise, and that's all.

Endorph posted:

a lot of games sort of fumble the 'rear end in a top hat becomes a nice guy' type of character development because theyre too afraid to make the character actually unpleasant at the start, so it feels less like theyve become a better, more likable person and more like most of their personality got removed. grandia 2's definitely a case of this.

ImpAtom posted:

It's honestly a tough road to walk in general. First impressions tend to strongly color how people view a character and starting someone off as a jerk means that it is what people are most likely to remember especially because a lot of people like... don't finish games, especially long-rear end RPGs.

I'm guilty of it myself in that I respect what Tales of the Abyss did but I find Luke's initial presentation so grating and annoying that I had a hard time caring once he got better. That isn't really a writing problem so much as it didn't walk that particular tightrope to me, so I can understand why games overcompensate.

(Cloud owns but Cloud's jerkass moments are almost instantly tempered by Tifa or Aerith making fun of him.)

Endorph posted:

i think luke in abyss worked because while he was grating and annoying you could see parts of him still being a decent guy in there without it being overemphasized. like him freaking out when he actually kills a person instead of just a monster.

and clouds barely a jerk honestly, hes a bit standoffish and tryhard but he never goes out of his way to really antagonize anyone.

Last Celebration posted:

I have to give TWEWY props in general for waiting until the postgame dungeon to explain why your protagonist starts off so misanthropic and hostile to everyone, it was a real bold choice.

Endorph posted:

a lot of games sort of fumble the 'rear end in a top hat becomes a nice guy' type of character development because theyre too afraid to make the character actually unpleasant at the start, so it feels less like theyve become a better, more likable person and more like most of their personality got removed. grandia 2's definitely a case of this.

Electric Phantasm posted:

Yeah I can't even remember the reasons for Neku being the way he is, but I do remember his character growth during the main story in way that stuck with me.

Vargatron posted:

I should replay Grandia 2. For the life of me I can't remember much of it despite beating it.

FireWorksWell posted:

It only really gets expanded on in Another Day but iirc the big reason was that one day he was supposed to hang out with his best friend and said friend was killed on his way over, so he started to shut himself off from people.

Annath posted:

Question: do the versions of the Trails in the Sky games on Steam have the orchestral soundtrack/other improvements that the Evolution versions on Vita have? I know the Vita versions are described as being "quite reworked" from the originals, so I'm wondering what the differences are.

I actually have Evo 1-3 on my Vita, but if the Steam versions are basically the same I don't mind buying them there just to play them on my Steam Deck.

Annath posted:

Question: do the versions of the Trails in the Sky games on Steam have the orchestral soundtrack/other improvements that the Evolution versions on Vita have? I know the Vita versions are described as being "quite reworked" from the originals, so I'm wondering what the differences are.

I actually have Evo 1-3 on my Vita, but if the Steam versions are basically the same I don't mind buying them there just to play them on my Steam Deck.

Annath posted:

Question: do the versions of the Trails in the Sky games on Steam have the orchestral soundtrack/other improvements that the Evolution versions on Vita have? I know the Vita versions are described as being "quite reworked" from the originals, so I'm wondering what the differences are.

I actually have Evo 1-3 on my Vita, but if the Steam versions are basically the same I don't mind buying them there just to play them on my Steam Deck.