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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:Persona 3 and 4 are about monster collection/summoning, but indirectly so. You collect/fuse "personas" who basically grant your main character special skills/stat boosts. The combat is still thoughtful and uses a variant of the Press Turn system, but it's overall on the easier side of things, especially the handheld versions of the games, which are kind of super easy, now. Still, there are some pretty epic and awesome boss fights, and switching personas on the fly during battle feels really tactical and fun. The most noteworthy thing about these games are not the combat, though, but everything on the side. They added an elaborate "metagame" of sorts on top of the dungeon crawling, where you're a high school student in the real world, making friendships, doing teenager stuff, etc. It's like a weird social sim of sorts, and while it may not be to everyone's tastes, it does a fantastic job of expanding the personalities of the characters and making you feel real attached to them, and they also tie it all into the actual dungeon crawling parts of the games in smart ways. And it makes for a sense of pacing that will have you playing the game for WAY longer stretches than you initially wanted to. Also worth mentioning: if you have a Vita for some reason, Persona 4: the Golden is an improved version of Persona 4 and is also exceptional. It does a lot to improve on some of the flaws of the PS2 version (and just generally looks great on the Vita's screen.)
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Dec 5, 2012 22:40
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:Take this with a grain of salt because I haven't played it, but everything about the Vita version of the game makes it seem like it's substantially less challenging than the original, which already wasn't a super hard game or anything. If the person is specifically seeking a challenge, then maybe P4 Golden isn't the best game to play. You can up the game's difficulty, but doing so doesn't change any of the things that make it easier, and only adds to the enemy's health and damage, only serving to make the fights take longer. I have played the game, and it's true, the game is much easier than it was before. However, it also has Hard mode from the original and a new Very Hard difficulty. On Hard you deal less damage and take more (difficulty doesn't affect health totals for anyone or anything.) On Very Hard you also earn less EXP and Money, which are two of the major reasons the game is easier anyways. The other major reason for the decreased difficulty is due to the new Shuffle Time changes, skill cards, and the ability to directly choose the abilities your new Persona inherits in fusion, all of which allow you to power up your Persona much easier (to the point where some crazy people are just using the original Izanagi throughout the whole game.) Also: you get to restart on the floor you die on in all difficulties except Very Hard (and a custom difficulty you can create in NG+ if you so choose.) I don't think it's too easy on Normal, seeing as I played the PS2 version of the game and basically knew what to do anyways, but if you're concerned about the game being too easy, feel free to try out Hard mode. It should balance the game's difficulty without being too obscenely hard (given the aforementioned abilities). EDIT: In short, I stand by my suggestion, and think it's still challenging enough to be worth playing, especially if you don't get as lucky as I did (I got extremely lucky skill changes in fusion, giving me Megido at like level 18 and Victory Cry in the early 50s.)
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Dec 5, 2012 23:47
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THE AWESOME GHOST posted:The game gives you more chances to break it, but if you're not grinding golden hands in between dungeons or getting lucky with shuffle time/random skill change to get overpowered skills early on it's challenging even on normal. I played P4 once already and I had a very tough time in Golden until I leveled from 48-60 in one dungeon trip. I disagree. In my experience, doing absolutely no excess grinding (except one trip to the castle again fairly early on because I needed a few thousand yen to pay for an SP heal), I got overlevel very quickly. I didn't go out of my way to grind on Golden Hands, I just killed them when I ran into them. That was enough to be level 87 against the boss of the December dungeon and to make the True End final boss absolutely trivial.
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Dec 6, 2012 07:41
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Maybe I just have a weird interpretation of what "anime influenced" means, but I'm going to have to suggest Shadow Hearts. It doesn't seem particularly animeish, and it still one of if not my favorite game just because of how different it is. I need to replay that game.
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Dec 15, 2012 00:11
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Cardiovorax posted:Shadow Hearts is anime as gently caress. It's also really good, though, and has probably one of the best turn-based combat systems I've ever seen. Care to explain that? Like I said, I probably have a different perspective on what "anime influenced" means than most of you guys.
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Dec 15, 2012 00:16
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Cardiovorax posted:Eh, it's just the general feel of it, you know? Lots of "epic adventure journey" kind of stuff and "this isn't even my final form!" situations. Defenseless healer-classed schoolgirls in miniskirt uniforms. That kind of thing. v Mm, I can see that. I just focus more on the fact that it's really dark and full of horror elements/creatures. Incidentally, this is also one of the main reasons I was so disappointed with Shadow Hearts: Covenant.
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Dec 15, 2012 00:25
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v Maybe it's just me.
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:I haven't played the first SH game, but Shadow Hearts 2 was really drat anime. It's the sense of humor, method of storytelling, the dialog, the character designs, and so on are all pretty heavily anime influenced. SH3 is even more anime. Shadow Hearts 1 is very different from Shadow Hearts 2 (this is ignoring Koudelka, of course. I haven't played that.)
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Dec 15, 2012 00:30
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Cardiovorax posted:I thought Covenant was a really good sequel, honestly. It took all the things that I liked about SH1 and refined them without ruining the feel of it. It's also way more fun to actually play because it also fixed the more annoying issues with the original Judgment Ring system. The thing is, it toning down the weird scariness and loving with Yuri's character as much as it did just made it more generic and boring. I couldn't get into any of the villains (particularly because the game couldn't decide on who the real villain is until the last hour of the game, and the way that was handled just confused and angered me), and I couldn't get into a lot of the protagonists, either. Maybe it's because I absolutely adored the first game, but seeing Yuri look and act like he did while having Keith's brother behave like he did just...it all pissed me off. Basically, I liked the system improvements, and I liked a lot of the new stuff in there, but the stuff that connected it to the first game pretty much all pissed me off, to the point where the best thing the game did (in my opinion) is write itself out of existence in one of its endings. FEdit: Maybe I should replay the game at some point, but I doubt I'll like it any more than I did the first time. And for clarification, I did actually like Keith's brother, I just think his connection to Keith was infuriating. If he was just a completely unrelated character he would be fine. King of Solomon fucked around with this message at 00:46 on Dec 15, 2012 |
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Dec 15, 2012 00:43
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Cardiovorax posted:I guess it's just a difference in taste. I really liked the changes in Yuri's character because it seemed like they flowed naturally from who he was at the end of SH1. I consider his character development really the main "point" of the series, which is why I didn't like SH3 (which didn't feature him) as much. The Yuri you start with is a very different person from who he ends up being. It made sense to me that the second game would focus on how he deals with things, now that he's a changed man. Yeah, like I said, I actually did like Joachim, I just don't think he should have been Joachim Valentine, if that makes sense. In any case, I acknowledge my distaste is probably a minority perspective anyways.
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Dec 15, 2012 00:55
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WYA posted:I want to get into Persona 4. My friend gave me a copy along with his ps2, what should I know about this game having very little jrpg experience? I like very difficult games though, hopefully this will fulfill Save very frequently, you will get hosed by instant kills. Buffs are actually useful in this game. Fuse basically whenever you can, just remember to register your Persona before doing so (you can bring them back for a fee.) The protagonist's growth is entirely directed around the Persona he has on-hand, and Persona EXP growth is very slow; basically just keep a Persona around if you really want one of its skills. When it comes to social links, try to keep a Persona of the right arcana in the MC's active pool when hanging out with someone (e.g., bring Jack Frost when hanging out with Yosuke, his link will increase faster that way.) Don't try to max every link your first run, you'll need a guide or, far more likely, just fail.
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Dec 19, 2012 02:24
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WYA posted:I have no idea what you just said but I imagine I'll find out once I pop this sucker in. Is it true that its the best rpg of the ps2 generation? Debatable. Many people will suggest that Nocturne (another game from the same developer) is better. Most of that will make more sense once you get into the first dungeon. EDIT: Also I added a couple lines to my previous post, more useful advice.
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Dec 19, 2012 02:27
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GreenBuckanneer posted:Not sure why I'd scream at you, mostly I've tried the xenosagas and final fantasies and dragon quests and such, and was looking for maybe something not nearly as popular but still enjoyable. I'll give these a look. You probably already know this, but if you're going to try Shadow Hearts 2, do actually play Shadow Hearts first.
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Dec 30, 2012 21:49
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voltron lion force posted:Is it the updated PSP or the original PS2 version? I've been meaning to try a Persona game and I sure as hell ain't buying a Vita to play 4. Original PS2.
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Feb 19, 2013 22:31
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ImpAtom posted:SH1 was an early PS2 RPG and it shows. SH2 is better in almost every way but is improved somewhat if you went through SH1 first. (Up to and including them literally giving away SH1 with SH2 when it was first released.) SH2 does a great job of refining the gameplay mechanics an absolute shitload while simultaneously taking a massive poo poo on absolutely everything that made Shadow Hearts a good game. EDIT: The best thing SH2's story does is (ending spoilers)write itself out of existence. I realize my opinion is in the minority, and I'm okay with that. I just really did not like SH2. Which is a shame, because SH1 is still one of my favorite games. King of Solomon fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Mar 1, 2013 |
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Mar 1, 2013 20:01
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Syrg Sapphire posted:I would recommend only sticking with the first Disgaea though, because it's got two things going for it the others don't: I would disagree. In fact, the only one I'd suggest skipping is 2 (I can't explain why I didn't like 2, really, I just didn't) and I'd strongly recommend playing 4, which is in my opinion the best in the series overall, not just mechanically. Playing Disgaea 1 is a good idea, though; they're currently developing a direct sequel to it (Disgaea as a series has largely- but not completely- disconnected storylines.)
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Mar 6, 2013 05:28
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Syrg Sapphire posted:I cannot speak to 4, I washed my hands of them by that point. I just know that as they went on there was a lot less effort put into them (holy poo poo Disgaea 3) and a lot more moments that made me feel very, very skeezy. And I'm not exactly the first in line to the "kill all animes" party. Most people in the Disgaea thread do agree that Disgaea 3's story isn't particularly good, yeah. It's mostly worth playing right now because the mechanics are pretty good (and it's on the Vita, now, which is a good place for that series.) I can't speak to Disgaea D2's story because we know very little about it at this point, but it looks like an absolute blast to play.
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Mar 6, 2013 05:33
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S-Alpha posted:See, I'm the opposite. I think 2 is probably my favorite game in the series, at least with regards to characters and plot. I loved everyone in that game, and it's probably the one I've put the most amount of time into. 4 is also great, because it has a really good cast, even if its story isn't my kinda thing, and it's definitely the best mechanically. 1 and 3 are my least favorites, because I think I only have one or two characters between them who I really liked, and the rest were either annoying or just plain awful. There was just the one trailer for it that someone posted in the Disgaea thread.
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Mar 6, 2013 05:56
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Admiral H. Curtiss posted:A lot of people, as you can see here, always say that Disgaea 1 is the best plotwise, but I totally disagree with that. The plot is very cluttered, only four or so of the chapters actually have anything to do with the actual plot, the rest just being filler. Not bad filler for the most part, but still filler that doesn't really move the story along in any way. This is noticeably better in later games, not completely gone mind, but a much better ratio of total chapters to relevant chapters. Aside from your opinion about D2 (which again, I didn't like for some reason; maybe the tone wasn't what I wanted at the time, I don't know, it really has been a while), I basically completely agree with this.
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Mar 6, 2013 20:17
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I wasn't a kid when I played FF4 (I think I was in high school at the time?) and I thought it was great at the time. Haven't played it since, though.
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Jun 13, 2013 11:41
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BadAstronaut posted:Meh. I just think there are better role-playing game experiences to be had between my PSP, DS and GBA than what I've had in the 6 hours I've put into FF4. I'd say 6 hours gives you a pretty good sample of the game to get a definitive yay or nay, wouldn't you agree? If you don't enjoy it, stop playing. No one's forcing you, and you're absolutely right; six hours is more than enough to say you gave it a fair shot.
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Jun 13, 2013 12:06
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I generally keep the protagonists around, too. Though in the case of Xenoblade, I eventually wound up putting Shulk under AI control while I ran around as Melia. She's quite good in combat, but the AI doesn't really do her any favors.
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Jun 19, 2013 19:58
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I'd say they are, yeah. .hack//IMOQ has a pretty cool story, somewhat weak characters, and extremely boring gameplay. .hack//G.U. made the games actually playable and has better characters, but an overall weaker story that just loving tanks in quality about halfway through the third game.
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Jul 3, 2013 18:55
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Renoistic posted:I recruited the third character in Ni no Kuni and then just... stopped playing. The fights are dreadfully dull, the story didn't seem to go anywhere, and it's almost impossible to avoid fighting if an enemy has seen you. The AI is beyond stupid and most boss fights are just the MC versus the boss because the AI doesn't seem to want to live. That's pretty much exactly what happened with me, actually. At this point I really don't see myself getting back to it, because as entertaining as the writing and localization is, the prospect of actually playing the game is kinda disgusting. I'm interested to see what other people have to say.
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Aug 10, 2013 11:57
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Ineffiable posted:I can see why so many people feel this way about NnK. The first hour is filled with wonder as you slowly discover this world. You have an odd yet charming companion with a Welsh accent. After you hit fairyland (which is like maybe the third town/dungeon in the game, and to me the most unique part of the game) shortly after that you'll slowly realize that this whole world is a generic fantasy world and pretty dull. It doesn't help that this is right about when the gameplay systems really start to fall apart. You get your first actual party member, and you learn how to capture monsters...and it turns out ally AI is trash, the capture mechanic wasn't implemented very well, and getting new monsters up to speed is very, very grindy, which is made worse by the game's combat system (that, by this point, you're probably getting really sick of.)
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Aug 10, 2013 12:13
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Million Ghosts posted:A guy I know was telling me about Shadow Hearts way back in the day, saying you had to kill Francis Bacon or some other crazy thing like that. If the first 2 are good I should probably give those a shot. Yes you should. Shadow Hearts is still one of my absolute favorite games, and while I will heap crazy amounts of poo poo on Covenant, that's largely because it took the things I loved about the first game and either poo poo on them or toned them down in one way or another. It's still actually a pretty drat good JRPG.
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Sep 11, 2013 05:57
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Ibram Gaunt posted:If they had just tuned down the wacky poo poo a bit Covenant would probably be one of my favorite jrpgs of all time. The original had such a balance that I don't think any other rpg I've played has been able to nail. Yeah, they simultaneously toned down the horror aspects of the game (which was my favorite part of the first game) and ramped up the silly aspects. It was pretty unforgivable.
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Sep 11, 2013 06:08
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Nah man. The sidequests in Xenoblade aren't even as good as typical JRPG bullshit. It's loving typical MMORPG bullshit, which is an order of magnitude worse (and there are way too many of them.) gently caress Xenoblade's sidequests.
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Sep 18, 2013 21:55
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:The lovely "kill x monsters" mmo quests are at least instantly redeemed upon completion so you don't have to track down a dozen NPCs. I never bothered to do all of them, I just grab all the ones I see and then complete them as I move forward in the story. If they're out of the way or whatever, I never did them. It never felt overbearing or especially bad to me. Just extra rewards for doing stuff you'd otherwise by doing anyways. There are some actually pretty good side quests with their own plot lines that aren't bad. The problem is, in order to get the extra skill trees and the like, you have to do most of those sidequests. The actual plot sidequests are hidden behind a seemingly endless stream of MMORPG bullshit.
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Sep 18, 2013 22:22
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Amppelix posted:Say you want Shulk's extra skill tree quest in Colony 9. How do you get the quest? Why, raise Colony 9's affinity! How do you do that? Do all of the sidequests. For doing sidequests, you are rewarded with more sidequests, and only reason you are doing any of this is for the ulti-sidequest, Colony 6, which I'm pretty sure requires something approaching 100% completion to itself complete. Yeah, that would be the main problem with the game's sidequests. I loved Xenoblade, but man those sidequests seriously drag the game down. I'm glad I won't have to deal with any of that bullshit when I inevitably run through NG+.
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Sep 18, 2013 22:29
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Zereth posted:Chain attacks when controlling the caster (Melia? Haven't played in a while) are great, too. The AI in Xenoblade is generally pretty good, but man it has no idea how to control Melia. The difference between her utility when controlled by the AI and the player is night and day (if memory serves.) She's also really fun to play, for that matter.
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Sep 18, 2013 23:41
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Friendly Factory posted:The story in Disgaea games are trash, so start with whatever. I suggest 3 only because it's the most recent one I've played. Disgaea 4 has a perfectly fine story.  ...Which is why I wouldn't suggest checking it out first.
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Oct 3, 2013 00:02
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Kild posted:Is that the one where they only talk about sardines? They definitely talk about sardines a lot.
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Oct 3, 2013 00:14
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:I'm now really curious about Ar Tonelico. I really don't like Gust's games. I played a dozen or so hours of the first Eternal Mana game they released and got really bored at how dull and generic it was. I've seen videos of and read about a few of their other games and they all seemed equally dull as dirt. I never got their appeal. And now I hear the Ar Tonelico series is really creepy? What is going on there? Ar Tonelico is a pretty interesting JRPG with really good music, pretty good characters (one of the primary mechanics is learning new spells based on character development), and endless innuendo. Just...constant, unending innuendo. The second game brought the sexualization further with a bathing mechanic, and the third one brought it even further by having your spellcasters power up by losing clothing.
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Oct 9, 2013 05:07
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Skwirl posted:If you like SRPGs The Wii Fire Emblem is pretty good. I would avoid playing Radiant Dawn until you've played nearly every other Fire Emblem. Because Fire Emblem is a great series, and Radiant Dawn is a bad game.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:40
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Levantine posted:This is dumb and false. It's a mess but it's a beautiful mess. It tries a lot and not all of it works and the game may be too big for its own good but it's not even close to a bad game. It's a terrible mess, more like. It tries a lot of things, and the things that fail manage to fail so hard that it tanks the quality of the entire game. Like split armies. Split armies led to the existence of the Dawn Brigade. gently caress the Dawn Brigade.
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Feb 3, 2014 21:15
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Levantine posted:We will just have to agree to disagree on that point. I love the Dawn Brigade stages - I think they are some of the best and most varied in the game. No, they are not as beefy as the Greil Mercs (well some of them, and only til later in the game), but that an intentional thematic choice and I appreciate the game had the balls to roll with it. Thematically it's appropriate. From a purely gameplay perspective it is intensely frustrating to be stuck using an army almost exclusively composed of very bad units. If it was a better game, it would have mixed things up better so that the armies were, if nothing else, reasonably balanced. It's even worse because the hardest maps in the game are the earliest maps, so the difficulty is all out of wack. The fact that it's a sequel to PoR, which was an exceptional game, doesn't help. quote:The split army thing was nice, in my opinion, because it allowed you to play with all the huge number of recruits in an organic fashion before choosing your final party unlike many FE games that just flood your reserves with units you wont use since you get them too late or whatever. The Dawn Brigade is especially helpful for this - every body is needed. Yeah, again, this would be fine if the army balance was better. It wasn't, so it drags the game way down. quote:The other thing I like about RD is that it's the last Fire Emblem to have honest to god terrain. Not just forest tile, rock tile, etc, but actual varied levels to maps with stairways and chokepoints and walls to defend and all sorts of stuff. I love Awakening for a lot of reasons but I think it lacks a lot of that detail. No disagreement there. Another thing I actually like about RD (and wish they'd bring back) is the third class tier. Third tier units were really powerful and an absolute blast to use, it's a shame it's more or less restricted to this one game. EDIT: Regardless of the quality of the game as a whole, he really shouldn't play it until he has more experience with Fire Emblem games. King of Solomon fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Feb 3, 2014 |
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Feb 3, 2014 21:37
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Endorph posted:The chapters where you had a ridiculously weak army were the best part of FE10. There was actual strategy and tactics in that poo poo, not just running forward and hitting attack like a lot of FE games devolve into by the mid-to-late game. That still happened, just for different reasons than usual.
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Feb 4, 2014 04:38
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There are also the occasional "survive for X turns" or "protect X NPC for Y turns" maps. I'm pretty sure there's at least one of those in every game, but I'm not actually positive.
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Feb 5, 2014 00:39
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CVagts posted:How do these PS3 RPGs stack up: Tales of Xillia, Dragon's Crown, Tales of Graces f, Ni No Kuni, Disgaea 3, Disgaea 4. Got a PS3 and I'm looking for an RPG to sink my teeth into. Ni no Kuni is pretty and has fantastic VA, but its gameplay is tedious as gently caress and it seems to stack all of the quality at the beginning and the end. Get it for a steep discount and play on easy or don't bother. Disgaea 4 is the best in the series, but Disgaea has a pretty specific niche; it's an SRPG that encourages you to break it over your knee (though this is by no means necessary until the postgame) and its writing tends to prioritize comedy over plot, though D4 in particular has a very good balance of both. I really enjoy the game, anyway. Disgaea 3 is still fun, but nowhere near as good. Haven't played either Tales game or Dragon's Crown.
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May 8, 2014 00:04
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Baltazar Robotnik posted:I probably wouldn't have gone that far, but I personally can't overstate how bad a taste Ni no Kuni left in my mouth by mid-game. It's so shallow and monotonous after the 3-hour mark or so. As charming as Ni no Kuni's story is, the gameplay got so obnoxious to engage with that I couldn't finish it. I probably didn't even get half way through, to be honest. Ni no Kuni is a pretty bad game.
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Jun 23, 2014 05:08
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