Console RPGs

[Nakilos]

Since I stopped playing WoW, it has given me some time to catch up on various games I either never finished or played, which is mostly console games. The only appeal to me on consoles is RPGs, so there isn't a whole lot of catching up to do. This is mostly various rants I have feel free to ignore it.

First off, Final Fantasy 10. I rather enjoyed it. While the game is pretty painfully easy, I liked the sphere grid, I enjoyed the story and the characters. I tried to do everything, get all the celestial weapons and max out stats (which surprisingly didn't take a ton of time). I got 4 characters stats maxed, decided to fight the only hard boss, won easily, then went and finished the game. Needless to say by that point, everything, including the last bosses, dies in one hit and your characters always take tons more turns than the enemies, so there is no risk of taking any damage, meager as it might be. It really reminded me of FF7, where KOTR wipes out anything and really trivializes the game. This made me fairly bummed out as there really was no reason to play as nothing was remotely challenging. More so my gripe is in FF type RPGs there is a tendancy for there to be some ways to make your party overpowered and completely trounced anything that comes your way. Obviously this is optional to the player and stuff like that usually only happens if you want to invest the time, but still, I'd rather at least have the last boss be *slightly* challenging.

On the other end of the RPG spectrum was Xenosaga 2. Compared to most RPGs, it was easily one of the most challenging games I've ever played. Holy shit, combat is *actually* strategic. Being inattentive can turn even trash monster battles into a game over screen. Sadly, the game was very short and linear. The voice acting was so painful, which sucked as MOMO had the most annoying voice yet was one of the better characters in many fights, and despite being in space (which is you know, massive), you are limited to very few locales. Quests are the epitome of tedium. Even with a great combat system, battles became incredibly tedious as even played well "easy" battles could take around 3 minutes. You don't get any equipment either, which is good and bad. While its nice to not have a game trivialized by some uber sword o beatdown, it wouldn't be a terrible thing to have changing animations for weapons, and besides while the skill upgrades are mostly useful in the combat system, there is really a minimal increase in power for individual characters. In the end its build stock, build boost, sword buffs, repeat. I beat the game, but couldn't bring myself to fight the epilogue optional bosses, because what is the point? More skills I don't really need and items I have no use for?

Anyway, point being I'm not finding much to look forward to for console RPGs. So many "rpgs" now are just adventure games with an exp bar. Even PC RPGs don't do it for me as the best you can hope for is a BG type game, the FF type RPG just doesn't seem to exist on the PC.

One last rant: can any console game implement a camera or decent NPC AI properly? I'm playing Kingdom Hearts presently, and both of those are so poorly done its actually impressive. I'm not sure I can sit through the entirety of it because of those 2 massive problems. This seems a common problem in many console games.

[Zehn - Vhex]

You mistyped http://www.myspace.com/ sir.

[Nakilos]

Sorry, I thought a forum about other games would have people interested in discussion about you know, games.

[James]

Did you just diss Kingdom Hearts? For fucking SHAME. Take that shit back.

[Zehn - Vhex]

You're just bitching about random shit. Say something of interest at least. Nobody gives a shit about ffx anymore, xenogears has like, 3 threads devoted to it, and Kingdom Hearts is the greatest game ever you fucking faggot.

[Severak]

Yeah Kingdom Heats, despite the awful fucking camera, was a kickass game for sure.

[Nakilos]

You're just bitching about random shit. Say something of interest at least. Nobody gives a shit about ffx anymore, xenogears has like, 3 threads devoted to it, and Kingdom Hearts is the greatest game ever you fucking faggot.

I made a comparison between FFX, which is standard RPG fare and the mold is rarely broken away from that formula. Xenosaga 2 broke that mold somewhat, but was still lacking.

Kingdom Hearts is mediocre at best. Yes the production value is great. They have quality voice acting for the content (hard to beat getting most of the original voices for classic animation), the graphics are great. Of course, the camera is retarded as shit and its a button masher. The AI for Donald and Goofy is *shit*. The best you can hope for is they toss potions with regularity, as Donald nukes his balls off on pussy mobs or just dies (and I realize you can set it so he doesn't nuke often, but then he just attacks poorly), and Goofy lacks the offense to really be anything but a heal/mp bot. Seriously, would it have been hard to make a command so the 2 tards at least attack your target, something that simple? I won't even get into the lack of customization in the game, yes its marketed as a game for kids, and compared to other games its easy to play and understand - for the barely literate and people who suck at games, this hits the mark. Besides, Haley Joel Osment (sp) is reason enough to turn your sound off for most of the game. That kid irritates the shit out of me.

The point of the discussion is a genre I've enjoyed in the past I find to be less than enjoyable for various reasons now. qq cry more and all that, it is a rant.

[Awanka]

Originally Posted by Nakilos

First off, Final Fantasy 10. I rather enjoyed it. While the game is pretty painfully easy, I liked the sphere grid, I enjoyed the story and the characters. I tried to do everything, get all the celestial weapons and max out stats (which surprisingly didn't take a ton of time).

Did you get all the celestial weapons, and powered them up?

[NoStem]

tl dr. 10 chars

[Iannis]

i've always avoided FF X like a plague on earth. FF IX was alright, I suppose. Except monkey-boy was such a flaming homosexual it actually put me in pain to have to cheer for him as the hero. If there was an "I Win" magic power I don't remember it.

[Ham n Cheese]

Stop being a dick Zehn. He's trying to discuss RPG Console games and you've pretty much put a stop to the thread having any sort of meaningful discussion with your worthless flames.

Shin Megumi Tenshi (/digital devil saga too) are supposed to be really good.

[FoghornDeadhorn]

Originally Posted by James

Did you just diss Kingdom Hearts? For fucking SHAME. Take that shit back.

Fuck Kingdom Hearts.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php...02-10-07&res=l

The Key Blade can kiss my ass.

Mon, October 07 2002 - 11:06 AM
by: Gabe

Yes it's true, I think Kingdom Hearts is complete shit. I purchased it because Kara is a big Disney fan and I was hoping it would be something we could play together. Early in the game Kara got frustrated with the jumping and passed the controller off to me. At first I tried to enjoy it, but that just wasn't going to happen. So then I looked at it like a job. I knew it wasn't going to be fun but I had to finish this game. That lasted for about five or six hours. Eventually it was everything I could do not to break the game in half and throw it in the garbage.

They should change the name from Kingdom Hearts to "Lame jumping puzzles with worlds most fucked up camera hearts." At least that way people would know what they were getting into. After playing it most of the day on Saturday I finally told Kara that I couldn't do it anymore. I told her that each minute I spent hopping from one stupid thing to another as the camera swung wildly around behind me was like nails on a chalkboard. She asked if I might give it a try again later and I explained that I would rather die. Oh God, and the Gummi ship. Whose brilliant idea was the fucking Gummi ship!?

"You know Bob, I don't think our game is shitty enough yet. Instead of just having the player wait while the next poorly conceived level loads, why not make them play a half assed space shooter?"

"I love it! Let's go get wrecked."

My recommendation is that Square stick to making the same game over and over again rather than branching out into unfamiliar genres.

I've quoted this before and I'll quote it again. It is almost exactly my experience with it except it was the chillins, and they ask me to play it to this VERY DAY, I don't even pretend any more, I just explain that I hate the game and I don't want to play it any more.

I told her that each minute I spent hopping from one stupid thing to another as the camera swung wildly around behind me was like nails on a chalkboard. She asked if I might give it a try again later and I explained that I would rather die.

I laugh every time I read this.

[Lost Ranger]

Kingdom Hearts was one of the very few games out there that honestly gave me motion sickness. The way the Camera moved had me so dizzy I thought I was going to puke. I also grew tired with the "Jumping Puzzle" thing and I didnt even get very far. It seemed everything you did required you to jump for some reason.


I dont know what console you have but if your looking to pass some hours I recommend Grandia. I have enjoyed the series so far and from what I have seen of Grandia 3 its going to own. If your into ROMs Id recommend pretty much any of the FF games before VII as well. Except for Mystic Quest because I have yet to find a game gayer then that one.

As for PC RPGs I suggest Gothic 1&2, Fable, and Sudeki. You will find Fable and Sudeki fairly short, but both are good for 10ish hours of game play. The Gothic games are classics and if you havnt tried those yet then get your ass to the store and get them both hehe. Other then that you can try things like Morrowind (which IMO is shit) but some people swear by it.

[BruuceWarduck]

You prolly didnt kill nemesis in FFX. FFX has the record for me on the most amount of hours Ive put in an RPG I think in a single game at like 150. I didnt use a guide until I got to monster arena tho.

Theres a shitload of very hard shit after you beat Xenosaga2. Like 75% of the game is after done after you beat it. I wasnt expecting a long game after Xenosaga1, but I still have yet to kill the hardest boss and Im clocked at 60something hours.

Kingdom Hearts was fucking awesome. I really didnt notice anything bad camera angle wise as I was playing. Now that its mentioned I recall like 1 time inside the whale that I think I had a camera problem..other than that I dunno. Why dont you stop being a pussy and play that shit on Hard Mode, and pick the Sword or Wand and drop the sheild. Shits tough. Gabe is a faggot and penny arcade isnt fucking funny like ever. Fuck you.

Ive been playing FF9 this week. I just got to Terra. I didnt remember it being this fun and apparently theres a decent amount of sideshit Ive never done before. chocobos!

Other than that I dunno. Theres about 5 threads about RPGs and shit. TRY USING SEARCH FRIEND

[Cybsled]

Was Nemesis the boss at the end of that secret cave area?

If so, he was a fucking chump. Yuna basically solo'd him...like every other boss ;p Holy shit was she overpowered once you got her ultimate weapon. Just spam multi-cast holys, summons that do 100s of thousands of points of damage, plus she can frickin heal and res ;p