The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

[Yygdrasil]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

If the story's premise is still Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet there may be no hope for it anyway.

I just had a fleeting mental image of BBQ as a heavyset, bushy-eyebrowed hipster girl in a blue dress flash through my mind. Weird.

[Armando]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

You can love the classics and still move on.

No, you're going to have to explain that one to me. If you like a genre, there is no "moving on." Explain to me how a new game with all the qualities that made an old game good would not appeal to you.

Also, I think that fact that FFXIII-2 sold less, that KH3D sold less is proof the fanbase is weary and want something fresh.

Or maybe they've saturated their brand name with so many spin-offs. Or maybe the people burnt by XIII don't want to give XIII-2 a chance. Or maybe people now associate the -2 suffix with jumping the shark because of X-2.

[Raydeus]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

No, you're going to have to explain that one to me. If you like a genre, there is no "moving on." Explain to me how a new game with all the qualities that made an old game good would not appeal to you.
Or maybe they've saturated their brand name with so many spin-offs. Or maybe the people burnt by XIII don't want to give XIII-2 a chance. Or maybe people now associate the -2 suffix with jumping the shark because of X-2.

1) You are still too young to see that point clearly. Give it 10 years or so and you'll see for yourself.

2) X-2 was great... if you played the Japanese version. The NA version was one of the best examples of "Meaning Lost in Translation" I can think of, but if you actually played the game there's no way you would've missed all the good gameplay features it had in addition to the fan service and fun story. But again, it was such an inside joke NA translators just went into cultural shock mode and turned a pretty good idol-ish game into (as I've said many times before) "Hooker Barbie and Friends go to Spira".

[Malacite]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

FF13 Lightning Returns might do it, I dunno - not getting my hopes up on that one but who knows with the next gen systems.

So far, their excuse has been that it's just too demanding to make it work with the new hardware because of the high level of detail that's possible now (or some crap like that).

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

No, you're going to have to explain that one to me. If you like a genre, there is no "moving on." Explain to me how a new game with all the qualities that made an old game good would not appeal to you.

The only problem with going back to a system like FFVI or FFX is I know that system inside and out. Its the same problem some people have with New Super Mario Bros. Its a nice trip down memory lane, but these are things I've been doing for two decades now. I know all the 1up tricks, how to get to warp zones. I think its fair to argue 2D Mario doesn't have to raise the bar, but 3D Mario can't play it safe after three NSMBs and slightly raising the stakes with SMG2. Nintendo has to find the next level for Mario after NSMBU or people are going to get snippy about them resting on past successes.

If SE could refresh the rules with some classic gameplay, I'd be interested, but they're too content to play it safe.

[Armando]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

The only problem with going back to a system like FFVI or FFX is I know that system inside and out.

Agreed. But when I say the same qualities, I don't mean the same implementation. I'm talking about something like "A system where you can change jobs and mix and match abilities" or "A system where you can add trinkets to your armor augment your character's stats and abilities." Games can have different implementations of those ideas and pull you back in with the same idea without cloning a previous attempt.

My point is that JRPGs are still a thing. They haven't become obsolete, people still enjoy them. If people stopped playing Final Fantasy games, it's because Square did something wrong, not that the genre is old and busted.

If SE could refresh the rules with some classic gameplay, I'd be interested, but they're too content to play it safe.

Also agreed. But I think that's also been the story of almost every JRPG ever. People take notice when a JRPG has good gameplay, but 9/10 times you can coast on a good story and leave the gameplay lacking. Story-driven games are double-edged like that.

[cidbahamut]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

No, seriously no.

Actually yes.

Stockholm syndrome + nostalgia goggles = ZOMGBESTSTORYEVAR!!!eleventy1!!mew!

It was a half decent story with absolutely fucking terrible execution.

[Raydeus]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

The only terrible thing about the execution was that it required a party and didn't give you any other alternative whatsoever to complete the content until they removed the level cap (which was in itself the most halfassed way to "open" content in the history of laziness)

But everything else was ZOMGTHEBESTSTORYEXPANSIONEVAR!!!111!!



Now, if you didn't like it all I can say is I'm glad I'm not you.

[Malacite]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

No, you're going to have to explain that one to me. If you like a genre, there is no "moving on." Explain to me how a new game with all the qualities that made an old game good would not appeal to you.
Or maybe they've saturated their brand name with so many spin-offs. Or maybe the people burnt by XIII don't want to give XIII-2 a chance. Or maybe people now associate the -2 suffix with jumping the shark because of X-2.

13-2 was still miles ahead of X-2.

At least Sarah & Noel were fairly new faces, and no one really underwent a total 180 personality change (Yuna) that made no sense at all. Hell even the plot was better, stupid as it got towards the end. I actually LIKE Sarah & Noel for the record, and I thought the game was mostly well made. It just kinda fell apart towards the end, falling into the usual traps of time-travel stories and of course, the horrendous DLC.

EDIT: I'm not so sure about the "play it safe" - Lightning Returns is looking like a fairly ambitious project, and I personally loved that presentation. It showed that SE still has a soul, that they are willing to try new concepts. They just need to put a bit more effort into the writing. 13's world is a legitimately interesting one, just it wasn't very well scripted. 13-2 was a bit better, but not enough (Noel's timeline was a really nice touch).

[Kailea]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

@_@ OK, best game I wanted to play but never did? Uh.... hmm. Probably either Xenoblade Chronicles or Resonance of Fate. Been wanting to play both games for a long time now (The Last Story too). Not one shop near me even carries xenoblade anymore though.

Not sure if you looked/knew or not, but Xenoblade was only sold at GameStops, it was an exclusive release with them, as it was part of the deal for it's release. As much as people hate GS, if it was not for them, Xenoblade would not have a US release ;p

[Malacite]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

yeah and none of them carry it now either.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

My point is that JRPGs are still a thing. They haven't become obsolete, people still enjoy them. If people stopped playing Final Fantasy games, it's because Square did something wrong, not that the genre is old and busted. Also agreed. But I think that's also been the story of almost every JRPG ever. People take notice when a JRPG has good gameplay, but 9/10 times you can coast on a good story and leave the gameplay lacking. Story-driven games are double-edged like that.

There are Japanese developers that challenge the idea of what an RPG can be. From Software, Mistwalker, Monolith Soft and Atlus are doing all the things SE isn't. They are studios not afraid to refresh part of a formula after a couple of games.

A big piece of what made the best RPGs and even action/adventure games is setting and how that setting is navigated.

Chrono Trigger, Zelda, Dark Souls, Portal, Persona 4, Xenoblade and The Last Story all treat setting like a character to itself. Aperture Science is loaded with so many characteristic both spoken and unspoken, humorous and melancholy and give you these interesting tools to navigate it. Chrono Trigger gives you a world with different periods, you can navigation and recruit allies from, even alter history. Majora's Maks's Termina is a world that will die in three days and everything is built around that.

Most FF games understand this, even FFX-2, but FFXIII made Cocoon an annoying backdrop to walk through and not a wonderous place I was excited to be in. FFXIII-2 got closer with its time travel hook, but still didn't really give us people to make the place what it needed to be.

If LRFFXIII is "world-driven" as they say, hopefully they're thinking more like those other games I mentioned and not just real world clock and Facebook integration. Dark Souls is a social game, too, but it keeps all its communication as ghostly etchings on a floor when it's hints from other player, whose ghosts you can even see. Lordran is a cursed realm and time is shattered there, so these other players occasional ping into your game as apparitions, though at times they can be summoned as brief allies.

But these encounters are brief and once over only serve to remind you how alone you really are. It's a masterful use of modern technology woven into the game's oppressive and dreadful atmosphere. It does online what Metroid did offline for years.

[Malacite]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

So I managed to find 2 places that have a copy of Xenoblade... only 1's in Rockland (77 km) and the other Cornwall (93 km) - yay @.@


Ebay's outta the question - people want waaaaaay too much frigging money. I did find a copy of Resonance of Fate though for about $27 including the shipping & taxes. It woulda only cost me $20 at EB, or $30 off XBL, but I like having a physical copy and well, again the only EB near me that has a copy is still pretty far away and I figure by the time I get a ride over there and back, the gas will kinda negate the savings so F it.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

There are Japanese developers that challenge the idea of what an RPG can be. From Software, Mistwalker, Monolith Soft and Atlus are doing all the things SE isn't. They are studios not afraid to refresh part of a formula after a couple of games.

A big piece of what made the best RPGs and even action/adventure games is setting and how that setting is navigated.

Chrono Trigger, Zelda, Dark Souls, Portal, Persona 4, Xenoblade and The Last Story all treat setting like a character to itself. Aperture Science is loaded with so many characteristic both spoken and unspoken, humorous and melancholy and give you these interesting tools to navigate it. Chrono Trigger gives you a world with different periods, you can navigation and recruit allies from, even alter history. Majora's Maks's Termina is a world that will die in three days and everything is built around that.

Most FF games understand this, even FFX-2, but FFXIII made Cocoon an annoying backdrop to walk through and not a wonderous place I was excited to be in. FFXIII-2 got closer with its time travel hook, but still didn't really give us people to make the place what it needed to be.

If LRFFXIII is "world-driven" as they say, hopefully they're thinking more like those other games I mentioned and not just real world clock and Facebook integration. Dark Souls is a social game, too, but it keeps all its communication as ghostly etchings on a floor when it's hints from other player, whose ghosts you can even see. Lordran is a cursed realm and time is shattered there, so these other players occasional ping into your game as apparitions, though at times they can be summoned as brief allies.

But these encounters are brief and once over only serve to remind you how alone you really are. It's a masterful use of modern technology woven into the game's oppressive and dreadful atmosphere. It does online what Metroid did offline for years.

tl:dr

I assume he said something along the lines of "Like the same games as I like or else I'm just going to keep talking about them until you all get sick of arguing, give up and let me think I won through the use of my seemingly witty vocabulary and game industry buzz words"

Am I close?

- - - Updated - - -

Resonance of Fate.

Are you looking to own? Because I could always let you just borrow my copy of either one if you promise to send them back when you're done. If you're looking to own, I'll check the shops here in Salem. We have about 4 used game shops that may or may not have a copy in stock. Let me know, either way. Great games.

[Malacite]

Re: The best games you never played or the worst you forced yourself through...

Own, and I already bought RoF off Ebay.

I do want Xenoblade though, and Last Story - holding off on buying TLS for a little bit as most stores still have plenty of copies and I can only play so many RPGs at once lol. And you already said you'd help me out with Rosetta Stone for JP - still waiting on that