JRPGs

Rajaah

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My kingdom for a xenogears remaster. With all the stuff thst hit the cutting room floor.

I've got a big theory (that I've posted on here before) that Xenogears started out life as "Chrono Trigger 2" and got changed somewhere in development. Most of the same team worked on it, it's got a bunch of CT references like the save game sound, etc. Xenogears had six fully fleshed-out eras of history (well, five, the sixth was "the future") that were heavily alluded to during the game and covered in the supplemental materials to the game. CT also had six eras of history if you count '99. Both had an advanced lost civilization in one of the eras. The list goes on. I think they had some huge ideas for Xenogears that were simply impossible to fit into the game, especially on the limited budget they had, so they decided to have the whole game transpire in the present-day era (the 1000 A.D. equivalent) and focus on that, with the other eras coming into play via cutscenes/flashbacks and the characters from the other eras still being around via either immortality or reincarnation.

Would be really cool to see the last third of Xenogears get remade, since basically all of it was removed due to deadlines. Something like 8 dungeons were dropped entirely, a bunch of boss fights, and entire chapters of story were just glossed over with quick text paragraphs of the main character telling the audience what happened.
 

Aazrael

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Xenosaga was supposed to be six games. Originally the story (spread by EGM and other magazines) was that it was a retelling of the six historical eras of Xenogears Perfect Works (meaning Xenosaga Episode 5 would be a remake of Xenogears). Turned out the magazines were pulling all of this out of their ass and Xenosaga was actually some sort of retelling of Xenogears Episode 1 (the 10,000 years ago "humans in space" part of Perfect Works). However since Square owned the rights to Xenogears, they couldn't even do this, so it was more of a "spiritual reimagining" of XG Ep 1, with a few things altered to avoid a lawsuit (for example Xenosaga Ep 3 takes place in 4548 T.C. while Xenogears Ep 1 takes place in 4547 T.C. so they can't be related please don't sue).

The first Xenosaga sold very well due to all the Xenogears fans turning up, thinking it was a prequel. When it turned out to not be, and was a fairly subpar game compared to XG, a lot of those fans tuned out. XS2 was pretty bad and at that point the only people still playing it were strictly Xenosaga fans from what I saw, who spent a lot of time making fun of Xenogears fans on online message boards for trying to draw connections between XS and XG (which is all people ever wanted). Then the XG people just noped out entirely and left the XS people to sit around wallowing in their cyborg-on-scientist fanservice or whatever the fuck they were into. Xenosaga 3 sold even more poorly, which is a shame because it's the best of the 3 games and contains a TON of Xenogears references and fanservice, finally. They wrapped the story up with XS3 because after XS2's sales it was clear that people weren't interested in the planned six-game series.

So to answer your question, yeah, Xenosaga ended with Ep 3 and wrapped everything up real quick in the third act, which is pretty much just a long line of boss fights with every unresolved bad guy (pretty clear most of it was supposed to be over 3 remaining games). You didn't miss much with XS2. It's one of the worst RPGs I've ever played in a gameplay sense. The story's good, the settings are actually pretty amazing and it's one of the more atmospheric games on the system. Buuuut they ruined it by having an almost-incomprehensible battle system where every battle could essentially be won by entering commands in a certain order to trigger things like stagger, and otherwise you were just kinda confused most of the time. XS3 is worth playing if you want to revisit Xeno on PS2. Mostly if you liked Xenogears, since XS3 is like one big Xenogears homage. Two games too late, but yeah.

As for Dragon Quest, I'd play 1-3 in their original-ish forms (their SNES versions are as late as I'd go) before the remakes. Their original forms are full of surprises that'll largely be spoiled by the remakes. By the time the remakes drop you could easily play the majority of the series. The first 3 are all fairly short games and seeing their historical significance firsthand is a good time. Then later play the remakes in their (different) order. And yeah, DQ10 is inexplicably Japan-only, and an MMO. They made a single-player version of it that's more like the rest of the series, but didn't translate it or release it outside Japan because.... why? I have no goddamn clue.

I think someone's doing a translated Switch ROM of the single-player version of DQ10 and if that sees the light of day it's gonna rocket to the top of my list of things to play.

Another note on Xenosaga. It's got some insane music. Fatal Fight comes to mind (one of the final boss themes in XS3)


Cool!

Yeah I might revisit the Xenosaga on my SD emulator someday. I think there was a problem getting a hold of them in Europe (PAL) so thats one reason I could not finish them before I upgraded to PS3. It's really great that so many emulators exist today that work for retro gaming so I can revisit the stuff I missed.

Regarding DQ, I think I will do the SNES versions of 1-3 when I get around to them. Need to finish Chained Echoes first though. Mainly due to the remakes being tripple A cost. Not interested in paying that for a "remaster" or whatever they call it. As I got a hold of a DSi XL I will then do the NDS versions of the rest and the ones thats on 3DS I will do on PS1/2 emulator.

I got a little sidetracked with the DSi XL, after jailbreaking it and filling it up with a rom collection I got sucked into Phoenix Wright!
 

Rajaah

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That said, my favorite PS2 JRPG is still Shadow Hearts: Covenant by a mile, and that game had some rather extreme QTE-like stuff in its battle system, though you could tone down the difficulty of the rings by also gimping your damage. Still a fantastic game despite that. A remaster of SH:C is probably out of the question, but there is a spiritual successor being made by Machida and a bunch of other Shadow Hearts devs and artists that I have really high hopes for. It's called Penny Blood and is due out next year.
I didn't enjoy Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but 1 and 2 are some of my all time favs. 2 in particular

Shadow Hearts Covenant and Xenoblade 2 are both things that have been near the top of my "RPGs to play" list for years and years and I just haven't gotten to 'em.

How's Xenoblade 3?

At this point things have to be astronomically good for me to make time for them.
 

Noodleface

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Shadow Hearts Covenant and Xenoblade 2 are both things that have been near the top of my "RPGs to play" list for years and years and I just haven't gotten to 'em.

How's Xenoblade 3?

At this point things have to be astronomically good for me to make time for them.
I thought 3 was "good" but 1 and 2 were just so much better.

3 introduced a class system that I really hated. The story gets fuckin weird too
 
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Aazrael

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Yea I got fond memories of FF8, I probably blocked out most of the bad parts. The only thing I remember getting annoyed by was the Draw System and trying to keep 99 of everything.

Is Xenoblade just a fantasy rpg with no connection to the other Xeno-stuff?
 
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Juvarisx

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Yea I got fond memories of FF8, I probably blocked out most of the bad parts. The only thing I remember getting annoyed by was the Draw System and trying to keep 99 of everything.

Is Xenoblade just a fantasy rpg with no connection to the other Xeno-stuff?

If Final Fantasy 8 was called ANYTHING else people would hail it as a "hidden gem" or something. It has a banging soundtrack, amazing graphics for 1999, lots of secrets, cool summons, a fun side game and the abilit yto make it as hard or as easy as you want with the draw system. Its by no means perfect but its fun. Its main issue is around the same general time period you have FF7, FF Tactics, FF9 and FFX all come out within the same 4 years so it got drowned out by superior games and its rep took a major hit with that.
 
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Hateyou

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If Final Fantasy 8 was called ANYTHING else people would hail it as a "hidden gem" or something. It has a banging soundtrack, amazing graphics for 1999, lots of secrets, cool summons, a fun side game and the abilit yto make it as hard or as easy as you want with the draw system. Its by no means perfect but its fun. Its main issue is around the same general time period you have FF7, FF Tactics, FF9 and FFX all come out within the same 4 years so it got drowned out by superior games and its rep took a major hit with that.
IMG_4029.jpeg
 
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Rude

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If Final Fantasy 8 was called ANYTHING else people would hail it as a "hidden gem" or something. It has a banging soundtrack, amazing graphics for 1999, lots of secrets, cool summons, a fun side game and the abilit yto make it as hard or as easy as you want with the draw system. Its by no means perfect but its fun. Its main issue is around the same general time period you have FF7, FF Tactics, FF9 and FFX all come out within the same 4 years so it got drowned out by superior games and its rep took a major hit with that.
My favorite part of Final Fantasy 8 was when everyone was at Edea's orphanage, realized they were all orphans together but then forgot because Guardian Forces give them Alzheimer's. Irvine, having not used GFs as long, reminds the party of this. Then they immediately determine their memories aren't worth maintaining and press on.

This was peak storytelling and was only upended when the faggot who takes selfies in FF15 tells you he's an actual monster, his DNA opens a door in the final dungeon, then it's not discussed any further.
 

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If Final Fantasy 8 was called ANYTHING else people would hail it as a "hidden gem" or something. It has a banging soundtrack, amazing graphics for 1999, lots of secrets, cool summons, a fun side game and the abilit yto make it as hard or as easy as you want with the draw system. Its by no means perfect but its fun. Its main issue is around the same general time period you have FF7, FF Tactics, FF9 and FFX all come out within the same 4 years so it got drowned out by superior games and its rep took a major hit with that.
The big thing that doesnt hold up is the dialogue (translation?) Is nonsensical and retarded. They could have stuck the landing but ...i guess hired a retard to do some step of it.
 

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i guess i should clarify. i think that the story/setting/plot arc (vaguely) could have been great. but they rush some things, draw some things out. make characters say retarded things, strip out some of the RPG/squad building elements from it. and then make the characters say goofy stuff constantly instead of furthering the plot/setting.

they had all the parts of a great game but some one some where along the line made some retarded decisions and /or rushed elements...and i'm convinced that the game was mangled in translation for some extra retardation on top.
 

Caeden

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I skipped 13 and 15. Also missed 12 but am going to rectify that. I thought 15 looked fucking awful.
 

elidib

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It looks worse than it actually is. the combat is less button mashing ADHD spam than videos make it look, because you can literally just hold down one button and breeze through everything.
 

Siliconemelons

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It looks worse than it actually is. the combat is less button mashing ADHD spam than videos make it look, because you can literally just hold down one button and breeze through everything.

How is this better than “old style ATB that is boring easy and not fun”
 
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Rude

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I skipped 13 and 15. Also missed 12 but am going to rectify that. I thought 15 looked fucking awful.
Play Zodiac Age with 2x or 4x speed outside of cities, otherwise it's unbearable.

I'm mixed on the 13 trilogy. The first game was easily the worst, but the entire trilogy was mediocre.

15 is peak faggotry. If you ever have thoughts of playing just remember one of your faggot k pops is a bottom who has offensive abilities with his fucking camera.
 
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Rajaah

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Yea I got fond memories of FF8, I probably blocked out most of the bad parts. The only thing I remember getting annoyed by was the Draw System and trying to keep 99 of everything.

Is Xenoblade just a fantasy rpg with no connection to the other Xeno-stuff?

Xenoblade's a totally different thing yeah. No connection whatsoever to Xenogears or Xenosaga, not even thematic. Exception being Xenoblade Chronicles X, which is a completely different game from the other three and has some nods to Xenogears (most obviously, the giant mech suits). Considering the villain of XCX resembles Emperor Cain from XG, I liked to tell myself that it was a reimagining of Xenogears Episode II after Xenosaga was XG1 reimagined. It sorta works as that...a little bit. Right down to the crashed ship. But not really.

Otherwise the Xenoblades are their own thing and I've never been that interested in them. I like that XB2 brings back the guy who did most of the Xenogears soundtrack, so I'm interested in that one.

FF8 gets a lot of flack but it's a pretty memorable game. Moody and atmospheric and really felt "grown-up" for its era. Was a real experience playing it on the first week of high school and identifying a bit with the characters and their environment.
 
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Noodleface

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Yea I got fond memories of FF8, I probably blocked out most of the bad parts. The only thing I remember getting annoyed by was the Draw System and trying to keep 99 of everything.

Is Xenoblade just a fantasy rpg with no connection to the other Xeno-stuff?
I thought it's the same universe, but I never played the other xeno games. It has a heavy mech presence and feels more sci-fi/fantasy RPG than strictly fantasy.