The RPG Thread

I'm not a hipster, and I knew going into FF13 (like everyone who has played the titles leading up to it should have) that it was going to lean more heavily towards AI controlled secondary characters, and the battle system would lean more heavily towards a system that ran with that. I did not know, however, that the story would be pretty retarded. Thankfully, even though I can understand that the storyline is absolutely batshit loco, the gameplay requires substantially more strategic thinking (and on the fly thinking) than every FF minus FF12 IZJS before it. So combat was substantially more interesting in the fights that actually required strategy, ie, boss battles.

I'm not going to defend the story, or the 12 hour tutorial bullshit in the slightest for 13. Nor am I going to defend the time travel retardation (even if it did make something resembling sense, albeit in an already retarded storyline) in 13-2. But they have substantially better gameplay than almost every previous FF, with the only game doing turn-based right since FF3(not VI) being FFX (not X-2, because that is back to atb crap) as third place.

I won't go so far as to say it's in the top 5 of the series, because imo it isn't. But it has leaps and bounds better actual gameplay during combat and character progression than easily half of the series, including such fan favorites as FF4/6/7. Those had incredibly basic gameplay mechanics and either no/mindless character progression. Well, and 8, but 8 is one of the worst games in both story -and- gameplay.

I bought the 13 games because they were fun to play. Story definitely took a backseat in those, though.

So you grew a beard and gave them your money?

Noodlemod_sl said:

I watched Undertale on twitch and it looked like hipster bullshit

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Throughout this entire thread, there have been 2-3 of us who have been consistently saying, "Don't look up anything about Undertale or watch anyone play it, if you don't want to buy it on vague details then either play the demo or pirate it."

So congratulations, you ruined the game for yourself.

In fact, let's do this:

If you have any interest in Undertale whatsoever, PM me and I will provide you a link on how to "acquire" it.It's an amazing game and I really think that all RPG fans should give it a shot. If you end up liking it, you can do the "responsible" thing (we're all adults here), and if you don't, whatever.

Well, the chrono thing is annoying too just because you have to keep going into a menu to activate it, so the trainer was a helpful tip.

But yeah, mostly find annoyance in the "can I continue this quest or not?" time of day stuff.

Do you like Earthbound y/n?

Then get Undertale. Seriously, aside from absolutely anything else at all about the game it is ahugelove letter to Earthbound.

Itzena_sl said:

Do you like Earthbound y/n?

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I hated Earthbound and still really liked Undertale. Earthbound is really slow in comparison.

Got all my christmas shopping done in one massive Amazon transaction and bought myself Stella Glow (at 30 I feel too embarassed asking for video games for xmas - I'm single so it'd have to be from parents...no thanks). Not sure how much I'll enjoy it but that game is virtually assured of maintaining or increasing its value over time.

<---- jelly

I got a giftcard for Ebgames/gamestop from my secret santa at work. I guess that cat is now out of the bag.

To be fair, gamers are the easiest people in the world to get gifts for. What do you get for people who don't game? A book? Everyone I know that reads on a regular basis has a Kindle. Amazon gift card it is, I guess.

Rezz_sl said:

I bought the 13 games because they were fun to play. Story definitely took a backseat in those, though.

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Pretty much how I feel about it. The only difference is that I don't think FF writing has ever attempted to rise above the level of "mediocre anime," with the sole exceptions being Tactics (original, not that kiddie shit they dumped onto handhelds) and XII. The gameplay and graphics are all I care about at this point, and it's a nice bonus if I happen to like the characters even if the story they're in is retarded. If I wanted story I'd play go a SMT game instead.

Which RPGs do you feel have better story, Vorph?

The Ancient_sl said:

Which RPGs do you feel have better story, Vorph?

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Uhh, based on a quick glance through my emu folders and PS3 games -- almost any Shin Megami Tensei, Tactics Ogre LUCT, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, Valkyrie Profile 1 & 2, Vagrant Story, Nier, Drakengard 3, Radiant Historia, and based on what I've played of it so far, Bravely Default. In memory of Sean I'm supposed to say Xenogears here too, but I've never actually played the damn game.

I'd also like to list Resonance of Fate, since it's probably my favorite JRPG of all time, but that story that was utter fucking nonsense.

The battle system in XIII was fantastic. In XIII-2 it was still pretty good. But in Lightning Returns it fell apart since you only had one character for 90% of the game.

XIII was also the best of the series. XIII-2 was just too convoluted and confusing. Mixing Final Fantasy and Time Travel is never a good idea. I ended up buying the Strategy Guide just because shit was so easy to miss and for awhile I had no idea what the fuck I was supposed to be doing or where the fuck I was supposed to be going. Lighting Returns was the worst though. Lightning just isn't very likable so putting an entire game on her shoulders was asking a LOT of us. Even though each of the 3 parts was relatively self-contained it didn't help that you had three games of more and more convoluted lore building up to Lighting Returns. Their whole Crystal Chronicle or whatever they call it just doesn't work for me.