RPG Thread: SaGa Emeril Beyond

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evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

sixide posted:

I wouldn't say it's bad, but chances are you won't get your money's worth. The writing is some kind of cross between a bad Bond movie and Burn Notice, so you might find it okay. The gameplay is decent, but boss bottles feel like they were ripped out of a 1990s platformer. Level design varies between places that work really well and Time Crisis-esque rail shooter levels that completely suck.

It's the sort of game I'd recommend buying on discount and enjoy once through. It's not terribly long, but multiple playthroughs would be pretty boring even with different decisions and missions to do.

I've heard about a hundred different opinions on AP, all of them different. It has to do with how they learnt to play the game, and what they came in expecting, most of the time anyway.

Personally I loved the game once I fixed some of the issues I had with it /(mostly due to my own computer setup) , and I still look back at it fondly. Multiple playthroughs can be plenty awesome (though it's one of the few games where I'd say it's ok to cheat after a playthrough or three, to smooth out the exploratory experience and to experiment with the many hidden gems the game has).

I know a lot of people who came to this game not wanting to like it and whom are now gushing about it quite loudly. I'd give the recommendation to power through it at least halfway (and give it a rental if that's your thing), to help you decide if there's anything in there you'd want to enjoy. The AP thread is always open for questions if you're confused about anything

As for Gaia, yeah it was kinda depressing but frankly it was all the more fun for it. It made you feel like you were actually exposed to danger and hardship and made the story all the more compelling (though a few clich�s are indeed hinted at in some of the events of the story, most of the game is just rock-solid writing).

# ¿ Oct 2, 2010 11:41

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 11:41

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

It is certainly pretty sad that I can say I've played most of the games listed here, jrpgs not included. And now I'm jonesing for a new fix again

I've put Divinity 2 on hold for a moment since I am not in the mood for it at the moment, even though it is a quite fun game. I've played Alpha Protocol to death, and Dragon Age 2 is... well, awful.

Basically what I'd like is an rpg with if not a great story, then at least a great few ways of using the game's mechanisms or choices to affect outcomes, like the aforementioned Chalice in some areas.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2011 19:33

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

softcorps posted:

I recently stumbled upon what I consider a goldmine of indie RPGs and similar games. If it hasn't been mentioned yet, it bears repeating. DISCLAIMER: I can't vouch for the quality of the entire games, but the demos on their site impressed me enough that I paid money for the ones I'm mentioning below. I'll report back if they turn out to be huge piles of poo poo. All of these sites/games have free demos so check them out yourselves.

Deadly Sin 2 (video) is produced by Adorlea Software, who makes a bunch of RPGs that look like they're made with RPG Maker. I found most of these to be fairly amateurish, but I did find Deadly Sin 2 to be worthy of my money. The environments are highly polished with a great attention to detail, and the game itself could be described as having stylistic touches of Final Fantasy 4, Dragon Warrior, and Lufia 2, combined with the class/skill/stat systems of modern MMO RPGs (balancing equipment tradeoffs between armor/HP/evasion, skill trees, weapon/armor enhancements, etc), and having a combat system visually similar to the Phantasy Star series.

Even the in-game art, while still showing its amateur roots, is still quite good. I also felt that the dialogue, cutscenes, and environments weren't inane and boring like a lot of indie games' RPGs are. The video doesn't quite do the game justice, so play the demo. Do note that the demo cuts out after one hour of gameplay time so make good use of it!

Planet Stronghold (video) was the next game that really impressed me, by Winter Wolves Games. It's a turn-based RPG in a futuristic setting (guns instead of swords). Think of it as a Mass Effect-inspired theme driven by menus instead of physically walking around. There are similar skill checks, e.g. "Should I repair this sentry bot to take out the invading robots (Repair) or should I rig one of the torpedoes to take some of them out (Explosives)?" Combat reminds me a bit of SMT: Strange Journey. The demo cuts out at a specific point rather than giving you a time limit.

I personally think Planet Stronghold has some pretty decent writing for its characters. Some of it is a slight campy but overall it's not the kind of stuff you'll be cringing at like you would with say... Star Ocean 4. It's actually surprisingly natural. You can choose to play as a male or female, and both male and female main/supporting characters seem to play strong roles. There are homosexual romance options, for those who prefer it. It's a bit "pricy" at $25 for an indie game, but so far I'm enjoying it a lot more than some of the other higher production crap I've been paying $40+ for.

Both of the above-mentioned sites seem to be in some indie game web partnership, along with Tycoon Games, so some of these overlap. Aldorlea seems to specialize in the RPG Maker type of RPGs, while the other two groups seem to specialize in dating/life type sims.

Some dating/life sims of interest include one (Card Sweethearts) where the main game mechanic is... Texas Hold-Em Poker, which apparently I'm quite bad at. Bionic Heart revolves around an AI android robot, and sounds like it touches themes of what constitutes life and intelligence. The entire game looks like it's voiced over, although it's only so-so. I suppose you can always turn it off though.

There's even a game called Love and Order where you play as a young female secretary starting up in a small Montreal law office, and seems aimed exclusively at women (or men who don't mind playing as one). And on a final note, Heileen 2 is a visual novel game on sale for about $5 for a limited time.

It's also worth mentioning that all of the games I've tried give you the option of saving at almost any time. The Winter Wolves games even let you save mid-turn in combat, for what it's worth...

Short version:
http://www.aldorlea.org/deadlysin2.php (video)
http://www.winterwolves.com/planetstronghold.htm (video)

http://www.winterwolves.com/pc_games.htm
http://www.aldorlea.org/allgames.php
http://www.tycoongames.eu/adventures/index.php

Planet Stronghold is a good enough game, but sadly it is way short. Looking back on it, if the price tag was about ten bucks less, or possibly just five, I would recommend it completely. As it is, it is still good though.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2011 16:35

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

CommissarMega posted:

How short are we talking? I paid $10 (worth every penny) for Spirit Engine 2, and that took around 6 hours, more or less.

Well, if that kinda time is what you're going by, it might be worth your time. It doesn't really get worse or anything down the line, but keeps the same level of quality. I can't say for sure how long the game was since I don't remember. Just the feeling I got when I finished it was that it should've been longer.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2011 08:59

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

CommissarMega posted:

Yeah, you're screwed on the menus (and in the game as well), but you can turn on subtitles.

That said, control issues aside, it seems like a fairly solid JRPG so far.

Right then. Guess I'll be posting in here, asking for silly answers to stupid questions soon enough

Sorry man, my memory is awful and it isn't like the game was my favorite one ever or anything. It was good and I don't regret buying it, but I'm a cheap bastard that wishes money got me 500 hours per dollar

# ¿ Oct 28, 2011 22:20

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Fewd posted:

This is awesome.

It sucked that they went to do that one Exile remake after Avadon 1 instead of going straight for this game because Avadon felt much more interesting after playing nothing but tons of Exiles / Avernums. I mean goddamn Jeff, let those Exiles rest already.

They're stating fall 2013 for both Mac and PC, wonder if that'll hold. Hasn't it usually been more like fall for Mac and early next year for PC?

It's too bad I killed Redbeard so that one reveal picture wouldn't make sense! Then again, considering how hard that ended up being he'll probably just say it was non-canon or something.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2013 13:29

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

PurplieNurplie posted:

One thing that I've noticed playing a lot of different RPGs, whether they be western, eastern, whatever, is that any main character/avatar/whatever is criminally inexperienced, whether it be because of amnesia or just being new to their environment.

Obviously, this is for the benefit of the player, as often in your first time playing an RPG you feel the same way as the character in question, adding to your immersion.

What I'm looking for, however, is an RPG where whatever character you play as or use the most often is the opposite; very experienced in whatever world or setting you're in. Think Final Fantasy X if you played as Auron instead of Tidus, or Planescape: Torment where you played as Morte instead of TNO.

Anyone have any recommendations?

I don't know, the Betrayal at Krondor game had you fighting mostly as either a powerful mage or a veteran of wars with the stats to match. I suppose that fits?

# ¿ May 2, 2013 19:59

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Can't seem to find this in the thread, but someone was "inspired" by Quest for Glory and made a game called Heroinne's Quest which is actually oddly good so far. At least I am having fun sneaking around the local bar boozing up the captain of the local guard for his keys, while training my stealth skill.

http://www.crystalshard.net/hq.htm

# ¿ Dec 27, 2013 12:29

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Wendell posted:

Thanks for posting this, I'm downloading without even watching the video. The concept, and price, are enough for me!

Edit: I'm liking this a lot. The writing isn't quite up to par with the actual Quest for Glory games, but it's trying. I appreciate the fact that they've kept true to the amount of flavour text found in the games that inspired them, because I just tried talking to a wall and a flag and each had unique responses. I also really like the graphics, they got the old QfG style down pretty well. The voice acting is fairly good, especially for a free game, and unlike the Blackwell games (which you have to pay for!) the lead doesn't sound like an obnoxious nerd.

Yeah, the game is a bit rough around the edges in some places, but the VA is not as bad as you might find in other indie adventure games, and they have the QfG thing down to a near science. Now all I have to figure out is how to get into the thieves' lodge via that weird alphabet on furniture puzzle

# ¿ Dec 27, 2013 20:54

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

MPLS to NOLA posted:

same

letters: gtsladenor I don't think I'm missing any

I've tried the obvious stuff 'steal' 'den' 'door' (though I suspect that it doesn't want you to repeat letters) and the only answers I can think of that uses all the letters are weird nonsense stuff like 'lords agent' and 'god rentals'

It's not really holding your hand on this one, like it's not clear how to finalize your entry. The reset lever? Using the door itself?

I kind of just want to tell the obvious guildmaster guy how I know where it is and hope he gives me a hint but that doesn't seem...thiefy

edit: ok I acted on the leverage tip and popped the lock. There's a balance beam and a dartboard and a bunch of quest notices and I want in there but it's not going to be that easy. Maybe there's other stuff I need to do first??

edit 2: 'later dongs'

I THINK the proper term to use is either lodge or lode or somesuch. I had to use magic to figure out which bits to poke at, namely the sixth sense spell you can get from a book in the library if you have magic trained . But that's not required to actually push the letters and get the right answers, so it might be ok to just cheese that.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2013 20:30

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

TheIllestVillain posted:

Anybody have any thoughts on Arcanum? I've been on a bit of an isometric CRPG binge lately and was thinking of pickup it up.

Oh people would probably have a lot of thoughts on it. A very ambitious game that has lots of interesting things to do, though combat is very heavily skewed towards certain overpowered abilities and can get a bit annoying instead of interesting. I enjoyed it when it came out certainly, but it hasn't aged very well in terms of interface. Worth it at the price being asked though.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2014 08:30

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Bleusilences posted:

I liked the fake internet in Front Mission 3 .

Fake internet is the best thing in any game it is in. I've mentioned this before, but Jagged Alliance 2 and Pizza Tycoon were much better games because of it.

# ¿ May 3, 2014 12:03

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Mr. Maltose posted:

SoM's real biggest flaw is that Secret of Evermore is ten thousand times better.

I don't know man, I remember Secret of Mana more fondly. Possibly because I played SoE later in my life. Still absolutely loved both though and I'd recommend anyone play them the first chance they get.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2014 15:17

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Endorph posted:

Dragon Age: Inquisition is pretty good if you want a western option (and your PC can handle it). Origins is meh and 2 is awful, but Inquisition is good.

Bit of a mix-up to me. 2 is indeed awful, but Origins had a tighter focus than Inquisition. I'd just go Origins then Inquisition with imported choices if the first game was fun enough for you. Especially since it is quite a bit cheaper.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2015 12:11

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

CommissarMega posted:

Let me put it this way- for me at least, Inquisition was as good as DA2 was terrible. That being said, the open world thing can grate, and if you didn't like that sort of thing in Skyrim (I didn't), you'll definitely not like it here. That said, the sidequests, companion quests, and storyline are very well done, especially by New Bioware's standards.

Sort of. There's about a 19 to 20 ratio of open world crap to actual good content, but the good really is stellar when allowed to shine.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2015 16:02

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

ImpAtom posted:

CotP is a prequel. Basically nothing in it is a callback to the previous games outside of the goofy bonus dungeon.

The Witcher games get more polished as they go on. Witcher 2 is way more polished than 1 but still a bit janky in places.

If you mean things like the collectable porn cards, no, those get played down after the first one.

Now all we have are gwent cards, which are a lot worse. In that you can't stop playing them

# ¿ Aug 9, 2015 21:58

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Terper posted:

I just beat the first boss, and yeah, it's good.

So for those who don't know, Celestian Tales is a Kickstarted game. The graphics at display here are fairly outdated, check the Steam page for more.
Their pitch:

The game is split into three parts, and the release we have here is the first.

So at the start of the story you choose one character to be your main character, and then after a 5 minute prologue, you meet up with the rest of the possible main characters and they join the party. You're all sent to a place to become squires, as you train to become knights, for different reasons. I decided, per Linnaeus request, to play as Lucienne, though I decided to go through all the other prologues as well, since they all do happen and will clear up their motivations, and I'd recommend you do the same.

Though all the characters travel together, you only have three in battle at a time, and can switch between them out of combat, though your main character has to be in it. The entire party grows in level at the same time, so no need to worry about someone lagging behind. It's a fairly traditional turn-based battle system - your main resources are your HP, which works as it always does, and Stamina.

Every character starts with a set amount of Stamina, which then increases by 1 when you Attack, and by 2 when you Defend. You expend Stamina to use your skills, which are what you'd expect; Lucienne, the tank, has skills that draws aggro and reduces damage taken, Reynard the big axe dude can deal buttloads of damage at the expense of your hitrate and defense, stuff like that. You seem to gain new skills quickly as you level up, so far every new level up has given three characters at a time one new skill each. You can slot up to four active skills, which you use in battle, and two passive skills, per character. You heal up fully at the end of every battle, and enemies are visible on the map.

The graphics are fine, though there's no proper shading in the environment, so it's hard to tell how the cities are layered and where you can walk.

The elf speaks in third person, stay away.

Just beat the game. It is very short, as RPGs like these go. Not too shabby, overall though. Sometimes the conversations were kind of cringey, in the sense it was pretty obviously a setup for morality-talk and banter, and sometimes the setup was a bit clumsy. There were parts of the story that may as well have been cut or extended, since they were mostly just detours in the plot. The combat wasn't all that deep, and they apparently ran out of skills to give you around lvl 24 or something. Sometimes stuff happened in ways that felt very forced, which I suppose is a JRPG trope.

Still, what I liked was the many characters and their stories, and how they got fleshed out if you chose them as your main. Playing as the Explorer, for instance, I chose to grab that evil tome leftover by a crazed necromancer, for study, and found out my brother was the guy who'd secretly sired the heir to the Levantine's throne.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2015 19:35

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

dmboogie posted:

Haven't gotten further in Celestian Tales than going through all the prologues (except the elf girl's, because I can't stand characters who refer to themselves in the third person) but I have to say I did not expect one of the player characters to flat out murder an unarmed man and steal his identity in his first five minutes of screentime.

Isaac, right? Pretty much figured that was what he was about. Quite interested in seeing how his story turns out at the end.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2015 09:09

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

SelenicMartian posted:

...

I... uh...
Pick your favourite typos.

They're Grrrrrrrasses.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2016 19:13

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Libluini posted:

As I'm playing it right now, Might and Magic VII has a turn-based mode. Being able to stop time and switch from real-time to turn-based combat has saved my rear end countless times.

Also, Wizardry 8. I like it for the way you have to think about positioning: If there are a lot of enemies around, you'll get surrounded if you don't think ahead with how your party stands around. Dying to lowly bugs because they quite literally bite your rear end is an embarrassing lesson taught by this game.

I've never once switched to turn-based oddly enough in MM7, even as I'm also playing it now. Then again I keep constantly dying.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2017 22:02

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Sakurazuka posted:

I thought PoE2 was already out..

There's a lot of material out for it, though it mostly shows how much faster development is this time around what with the engine being in the state it is and them having a solid bit of groundwork done. They apparently still have a ton of balancing to do, which was expected, but a lot of visual stuff is already being ironed out and nearing completion.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2017 17:54

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Andrast posted:

this Pathfinder game doesn't sound very good

It is an extremely mixed bag. My main issue with it is that, with most RPGs, there's a way to figure out how to progress your character to the point they need to be to meet a challenge, and you eventually hit a "flow" where you have a party that can beat most of the challenges, you know how to beat them more or less with only a few retries at most, and you don't feel like you hit walls of difficulty you don't know how to climb, with a bit of grinding.

In this game however, you are forced for long stretches to just keep pushing against the same challenges. With some of them, you even have to leave and come back, not because they're all that much harder, but they're juuuust out of reach, despite having solved many of the encounters before them in that same map, either easily or with average effort. And they're not side content, but part of the main quest.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2018 19:27

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Feels Villeneuve posted:

as someone interested in workers rights, i am concerned that yoshi-p forced the developers of ff16 to watch season 8 of Game of Thrones

Forty scriptwriters watching as a bunch of castles get set on fire by a mad witch/queen and realizing someone copied their homework.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2023 21:58

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Feels Villeneuve posted:

GOT would have been improved if it simply had rat people in it

You know if Jon Snow rode back home on a Chocobo to save four crystals it might make more sense than what we got.

Anyway my main issue with intrigue in Final Fantasy is that the games are barely coherent since 13 and trying to add complex court shenanigans is just going to confuse people.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2023 22:34

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Sea of Stars so far is fine. It isn't up there with the greats yet, but it has some neat bits and I don't feel like I've wasted my time playing it.

I mean the bit with the 4th-wall-breaking pirate person is just awful and doesn't feel like it needed to be there, but other than that it's been a good enough time. I especially like the Wheels minigame because it reminds me of the Arcomage card game from Might and Magic.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2023 20:37

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

HopperUK posted:

Chained Echoes is on gamepass! this is huge

Still only had a chance to play it for a minute, too many dang games

# ¿ Sep 7, 2023 21:38

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Runa posted:

I don't really enjoy any 40k stories except those where, at least on some level, you can feel the writers get the satire and don't try to bury it in fash cosplay. I honestly dislike 40k about as much as I do D&D5e, which is actually quite a lot.

So, basically, what I'm saying is I rather like Rogue Trader in roughly the same way I enjoy Ciaphas Cain books.

I like that they dared to do some really crazy ending stuff too, though there's probably no way it is ever going to be canon.

Act now, my child.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2023 22:15

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

goblin week posted:

Yes, but from where?

First base

# ¿ Jan 15, 2024 19:03

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Sakurazuka posted:

I used ZSNES because I could get it and a couple of ROMs on a floppy disc

Me and a buddy used to look forward to new releases of that, even though we generally either didn't see or understand any of the changes we got.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2024 21:54

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

The Colonel posted:

XERD NO DENSETSU is incredible. extremely mechanically barebones gameboy rpg but it has really good spritework and music and it opens with a whole extended bit where you have to get a passport to get through the mountains, but when you go to the priest to receive it he's like "i'm sorry. a strange man took it." so when you find the guy who stole it at an inn in the town up north and beat him up you have a conversation that goes like

him: "ugh... please let me go! i need this passport to meet my lover! i treasure her! she is my life!"
you: "i can't trust your words..."
him: "fine... then i'll just kill myself right here!"
you: "gah! fine, i'll take you along with me!"

and this is how you get your second party member.

Supposedly it's a parody or at least mainly comedic kinda game. Interesting, given the detail and effort put into parts of it.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2024 05:37

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Feels Villeneuve posted:

My favorite square rpg? that's right. deus ex human revolution

Too bad about what happened there with the studio.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2024 14:47

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

I'm not sure what RPG I would consider the worst, because I probably just forgot about whatever it was.

I remember the old Lionheart game being pretty bad near the end and being disappointed in that, but I'm not sure of it's the absolute worst. I know the Inquisitor RPG (not Warhammer or Dragon Age) left me bored as all hell and that stuck with me for a while, even if I can barely remember what it was about.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2024 13:34

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 11:41

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

The last Mana game I played for any extended time was Trials, and I never beat it. I know it got mentioned earlier but was there actually one that was near as good as Secret in terms of plot and music?

# ¿ Apr 15, 2024 08:57

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