What are you playing?

Rajaah said:

If you're only gonna play one, play AC4. It's pretty awesome.

If you've got room for 2-3, play AC2 and its sequels. The Ezio trilogy really is a memorable experience and now there's a remaster so it won't look awful by modern standards. Brotherhood is a great game and direct sequel to AC2, while Revelations is kinda iffy and mid but it combines the AC1 and AC2 storylines with you playing as both protagonists and going to the Middle-East.

If you like the series enough to keep going after that, almost the whole thing is worthwhile. Most of them are short and fly by. I'd do AC4 after the Ezio trilogy, then AC3 after that. Why? Because AC4 is actually a prequel to AC3, and AC3 starts with you playing as the son of the AC4 protagonist. After those AC Rogue is a very solid game with more pirate action. AC Unity gets slammed a lot but it's decent, covers the French Revolution, has a protagonist who tries to re-create Ezio's swagger and the single sexiest and most likeable female in the series IMO (not playable unfortunately). AC Syndicate is a step up from Unity and didn't get enough credit, solid game that's even better if you love London. After that the series switches to less AC and more open world adventure games, so they start doubling in length. Origins is a good time because of the Ancient Egypt setting and when it comes down to it, it might be the next one I strongly recommend after AC2 and 4. Basically doubles the length of earlier games. Then AC Odyssey has Ancient Greece and can be a lot of fun, skip the DLCs though. I'd skip Origins' DLCs too. Odyssey doubles the length of Origins and goes on too long, so only go on to that if you have the time. Finally there's AC Valhalla which doubles Odyssey's length and is boring AF unless you love Vikings. Like, really love Vikings. Not worth it. None of the spinoffs were worthwhile either IIRC.

Click to expand...

Rajaah said:

This month I finally finished Ghost of Tsushima, then blasted through Mortal Shell. The world's shortest Souls game.

Attempt #6 or so to get into Uncharted 4 fell flat and I put it down again. Kind of funny how I powered through Uncharted 1-3 in like a couple weeks back in 2015, just loved the hell out of it, then basically immediately fell off with 4 and have never progressed it much over the years. Somehow I'm just passed the halfway point. I remember 1-3 being action-packed games, but 4 is a climbing simulator with grandiose puzzles every other level. Where's the action? Game just makes me sleepy, or worse yet, annoyed.

Now that that's dropped (again), not sure what to get into next but I want to get heavily into something. I feel like it's Nioh's time and if all things were equal that's what I'm taking on next. It's gonna be tough, and take up a lot of time, though. Also an option is the next CRPG on the list, which would certainly be a lot easier and less taxing, but again a big ask on time. With Armored Core 6 in ten days I don't want to have to drop something midway for that. A third option is Armored Core 1 which I wanted to replay before AC6. Even though it's what I want to play the least of the 3 options, it's probably the best thing to fit into the timeframe available.

joz123 I tried so hard to get into the Xenoblade series 'cause Xenogears is a top 5 of all time game for me and I liked the Xenosaga trilogy a lot. XB1 didn't really light my world on fire like it did with everyone else, got to the end though. XB2 I couldn't stay into long enough to get very far, maybe 6 hours in. Just did nothing for me even though it seemed to have all the parts (Xenogears similarities) for me to like it. XB3 I've heard mixed things on. Maybe I should give XBX a whirl since it's a bit different and has mechs. Wish I was into XB2 as much as a few friends were, they acted like it was the second coming of Xenogears and I just...felt nothing with it, IDK.

Click to expand...

Rajaah said:

This month I finally finished Ghost of Tsushima, then blasted through Mortal Shell. The world's shortest Souls game.

Attempt #6 or so to get into Uncharted 4 fell flat and I put it down again. Kind of funny how I powered through Uncharted 1-3 in like a couple weeks back in 2015, just loved the hell out of it, then basically immediately fell off with 4 and have never progressed it much over the years. Somehow I'm just passed the halfway point. I remember 1-3 being action-packed games, but 4 is a climbing simulator with grandiose puzzles every other level. Where's the action? Game just makes me sleepy, or worse yet, annoyed.

Now that that's dropped (again), not sure what to get into next but I want to get heavily into something. I feel like it's Nioh's time and if all things were equal that's what I'm taking on next. It's gonna be tough, and take up a lot of time, though. Also an option is the next CRPG on the list, which would certainly be a lot easier and less taxing, but again a big ask on time. With Armored Core 6 in ten days I don't want to have to drop something midway for that. A third option is Armored Core 1 which I wanted to replay before AC6. Even though it's what I want to play the least of the 3 options, it's probably the best thing to fit into the timeframe available.

joz123 I tried so hard to get into the Xenoblade series 'cause Xenogears is a top 5 of all time game for me and I liked the Xenosaga trilogy a lot. XB1 didn't really light my world on fire like it did with everyone else, got to the end though. XB2 I couldn't stay into long enough to get very far, maybe 6 hours in. Just did nothing for me even though it seemed to have all the parts (Xenogears similarities) for me to like it. XB3 I've heard mixed things on. Maybe I should give XBX a whirl since it's a bit different and has mechs. Wish I was into XB2 as much as a few friends were, they acted like it was the second coming of Xenogears and I just...felt nothing with it, IDK.

Click to expand...

Rajaah said:

Looking at a few screenshots, they look like Fire Emblem + traditional RPG. Not sure if that's correct

I'm convinced that when it came to RPGs at least, Sega Genesis had way less than SNES did, but what it did have punched above their weight for sure.

Click to expand...

Daidraco said:

Phantasy Star

Spoiler

I bought all of the Phantasy Star series, even OG Phantasy Star 1. Phantasy Star 1 is basic trash and I got it only out of my love for the later ones. The idea was there in that game, but you could tell they were still piecing things together and the grind is the larger portion of the game. Phantasy Star 2 started to define the loop, having the map unlock to experience new tiers of content, but again, the grind was still heavy. Phantasy Star 3 seemed to almost be made by an entirely different developer or something. The art changed, and .. I remember it being kind of off-putting at first. But then after I got into it, and hooked, and started journeying around the different biomes - I thought it was a good entry into the series. I remember being a kid and when I found out that basically all the biomes were on one big ship in space, my mind was blown. Fucking nerd. Phantasy Star 4 was by far, the best entry into the series and did a great job telling the story, the gameplay, exploration and more. Hands down the Phantasy Star that every needs to play before any of the others. The Phantasy Star shit thats came out over the last 10-15 years? Associated by name only cause most of it sucks and wishes it was Star Ocean or something.

You can tell how much the early Phantasy Stars are loved because they still have fan sites dedicated to them that have zero advertising. Thats some dedication right there.

Shining Force

Spoiler

Shining Force 1 and Shining Force 2.. other than just cleaning up a bunch of stuff - theyre both pretty similar and still to this day, great games. Yea, Shining Force and Fire Emblem are similar, but the number one objection from me is that OG Fire Emblem's art and animations are just like.. 10 steps below Shining Forces. At least, thats "my" opinion. I liked the story of Shining Force, I like that characters mature as they level up and gain new abilities. One Lancer may be dog shit the entire time hes low level, but if you keep using his gay ass - he'll get a Pegasus (super gay, now!) and he dominates the fucking battle field. Enough movement range combined with attack range to always be in the perfect spot. Then you have the units that you dont even know you can get that'll join you. Or you can piece parts of random shit together to make units. You can collect random easter egg shit to make weapons, abilities etc. I mean, they have like an arsenal of shit from other popular games and ... man, theyre just fantastic RPG's with tactical combat and theyre great.

Same thing with early Shining Force. Bunch of websites with no ads on them still existing with full walk throughs.

This is another game Ive been meaning to emulate, or just dig out the Sega and play again. Was fantastic as a kid, but I dont know how it holds up now that Im older.

edit:.... damn. Start reminiscing about these games and I can almost remember the smells and places I was in, like it was yesterday, as a kid.

Click to expand...

Tide27 said:

Was Crystalis on Sega? I thought it was on NES

Click to expand...

Rajaah said:

T Tide27 He said NES bruv



Yeah for real. Not having a family helps a lot with having time to check out so many things I missed when I was younger, but I'd trade one for the other easily if I could go back and do it over again.



Crystalis holds up from everything I've heard. There's a GBC version as well that some people liked, but as far as I can tell the NES version is considerably better so stick to that. Fun Fact: Crystalis is the one major NES RPG left that I wanted to finish and haven't, alongside a few action games like Journey to Silius, Kid Icarus, and Totally Rad that basically comprise the last of my "NES backlog" that started in the 90's. I've only played the first hour or so of Crystalis myself.

For people who never played it, a funny thing about Crystalis is that it takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity had to start from scratch after a nuclear war that took place in 1997 (same year as Terminator...people were really scared of the late 90's back then eh).

I'll play it if you do a replay.

Phantasy Star 4 really is all that, and even though normally I'm really stuck on playing things in order (sometimes to a fault, like when I refused to play Skyrim until I went back and played Arena and Daggerfall), Phantasy Star is one series where I'd absolutely tell someone new to it to just start with 4. I'd say PS4 hangs in there with the best SNES RPGs. I liked PS1 the most of the first three, maybe I just liked the retro aesthetic a lot back then (played them all in 2006). PS3 seemed kind of bad, but I probably shortchanged it a bit. The "generations" idea where your main character in the second and third acts depended on who you romanced previously, was pretty interesting. Dragon Quest V also did this, as did Romancing SaGa II (without the romance, ironically). PS2 was probably the most similar to PS4 and a generally good time, hardest in the series by a lot though. There were also two Phantasy Stars on the Game Gear, if one wants to step outside of the Genesis paradigm. From what I heard they're both good, just short, and have fan-translations now. Someone would have to be pretty bored, or a huge PS fanatic, to run those though.

On that note, how's Shining Force CD? That's the only other one besides 1+2 that I could easily emulate. Then again HLTB has these games at 30 hours so 1+2 is probably more than enough for me to handle already.

Click to expand...