RPG Progress Report
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BoneSnapDeez
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- Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 1:08 pm
- Location: Maine
Re: RPG Progress Report
I think every one of us here has played the "rubbing mini game" from time to time.
Re: RPG Progress Report
Man, I last posted over two years ago. I've played a bunch of RPGs since then. Currently on Might & Magic X - Legacy.
Re: RPG Progress Report
I've been playing Octopath Traveler II. I enjoyed the first one quite a bit as a fun, retro throwback with a few nods to modern convenience. This one feels very similar, albeit with a few more nods to quality of life improvements. And it's nice too that there are now some cooperative story segments and a party-talk feature, so your team interacts once they're all gathered together. That was always an awkward part of the first game. Once you'd recruited everyone to your party they never interacted again in the narrative despite the fact that they were helping each other through dozens of combat encounters. Now the group feels a lot more like a cohesive party.
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Raging Justice
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Re: RPG Progress Report
I just beat the first boss of Sea of Stars. It wasn't super hard, but a bit tougher than I expected from a first boss fight. Technically, it's the second boss fight, but the first one feels more like a tutorial battle.
Sea of Stars has interesting battle mechanics. You can see enemies as opposed to random encounters, and it seems like approaching them undetected gives you a slight advantage, but I'm finding it a bit tricky to do. They move pretty quick. In combat, there are numbers on enemies which seem to indicate how many turns before they attack. On each turn, you can decide which of your characters acts first, not something I'm used to in a traditional jrpg. Enemies have weaknesses to certain attacks, and the two characters I have at the moment each seem to have attacks of a specific element. One has sun attacks, and the other has moon attacks. Also, when enemies try to do powerful attacks you have a certain number of turns to stop them. Interestingly, it can take more than one attack to interrupt them, and each attack required might be different. You might have to hit an enemy with a physical attack and a moon attack for example. Some of the boss's special attacks required four types of attack to interrupt it, and I've only got two characters thus far. So I couldn't stop those attacks in time. I'm hoping I can add other characters to my party later.
Sea of Stars plays a bit like a Mario rpg. You can time a button press to make your attacks stronger and you can time a button press to defend against an attack which reduces damage. Some attacks can require multiple timed button presses and that goes for defending too. Timing can be a bit tricky to learn. The tutorial encourages you not to stress over it too much. Though I did find that getting the timing for these down definitely played a role in how successful I was in that boss fight. There's an item you can use to make these easier, but I don't like using modifiers that make the game easier unless I'm really struggling, feels like cheating. You can collect more items like these that can modify the game in different ways. It seems like a way to add accessibility for people who find the game too challenging. I always welcome stuff like this in games, even if I'm a bit too proud to use them myself. I'm a big advocate for letting players decide for themselves how much challenge they want from a game.
There also seems to be some Mario style mini games for your special attacks, one being like the Ganon battle in Zelda Ocarina of Time where you bounce a projectible back and forth between you and your enemies to hit additional targets.
You even choose a stat to get bonus points in when you level up just like in Mario & Luigi RPGs
There's a combo meter that builds up during battle. Proper timed button presses for attacking and defending seems to fill it up faster. It feels up to three levels. You can do combo attacks using both of your characters (and possibly more assuming other people join my party later). Each one can use one to three combo bars depending on which one you use. One of the combos I unlocked is a healing ability that uses up two bars. So it's not just offensive stuff.
Also, using your special skills or magic drains MP, which you can only get back by doing physical attacks.
That's a lot of stuff to keep track of, makes the game feel really tactical. It's a little bit like Chrono Trigger+Mario rpgs+turn order elements from games like Grandia./Final Fantasy X.
Pretty interesting, the game looks and sounds like a 90s era rpg, very retro. Everything is in 2d and sort of reminds me of Final Fantasy III (number VI if you were playing the Japanese version) or Chrono Trigger. I like it. The story is pretty cool. Feel like it may tie into The Messenger in some way, the first game from this studio.
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Raging Justice
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- Joined: Sun May 30, 2021 2:11 pm
Re: RPG Progress Report
Four bosses down (or was it three?), having a good time despite some little gripes.
I got a third party member named Garl. He's kind of annoying. You know that type of character who is super positive about literally everything all the time. The kind of person who would probably smile even if someone punched them in the face, or would trust a person that clearly is not trustworthy. Yeah, that is Garl, Mr. Happy all the time, loves everything and everyone, and is never down or critical of anything. Ugh. I know he's supposed to be loveable, but he's too eager and positive and I feel like that naivety is gonna cost the party at some point. He's the sort of guy who will blurt out a super hero's secret identity as soon as the they meet someone new. Like hey asshole, we don't even know if we can trust this person yet.
I reached a town where my party meets some pirates. There's some lame humor in this part of the game. It's that type of comedy where breaking the fourth wall and pointing out a bunch of gaming tropes and clichés (including many that Sea of Stars itself does) is supposed to be funny
"Hey, isn't funny how in every town you go to the blacksmith seems just a little bit more capable than the last one?"
"Hey, isn't funny how a merchant can have an item that costs a fortune even though they live in a shack"
"He, isn't funny how sometimes you'll meet an enemy character so strong they can knock your party members down to 1 hit point, but then just decides to kill you later?"
They even named the Captain of these pirates as something that sounds very much like, "Captain Cliché". I expect more clever writing from the makers of The Messenger. That game only had like one fourth wall break, and it was just a way to acknowledge Ninja Gaiden's influence on the game.
Still loving the game overall though. It really has that old school, 16-bit era rpg vibe down and honestly the story has been pretty good so far, with those pirate characters being the first time in the game the writing has put me off a little. Exploring and puzzle solving while on the field is fun too. There's a lot of moving around the environment. Jumping across gaps, grabbing ledges, jumping off waterfalls, tightrope walking. I feel like most jrpgs don't have you interact with the environment quite so much. That and the combat keeps me engaged.
There's also a cool mechanic called boosting. Sometimes when you attack any enemy some orbs come out. You can optionally have one of your party members absorb these on their turn. You can absorb up to 3 charges, depending on how many orbs are on the field. Also, if you initiate contact with the enemy on the field and catch them by surprise, your party gets a free hit on one of the enemies which almost always releases orbs. So right on your first turn you can absorb one charge. So what do these charges do? They increase the potency of your next action by a set percentage based on your magic attack stat. So you can bust out a better healing spell, or make your next attack more powerful. Also, having one or more charges will make your next physical attack have magic properties. Useful if you are facing an enemy resistant to physical attacks but don't want to actually use a spell. Also, your physical attack will essentially do two types of damage, useful for interrupting those powerful enemy attacks that require you to hit the enemy with different attack types.
I'm also finding that doing those timed button presses when attacking enemies is useful not only for increased damage, but because it'll make your character attack twice. Again, when dealing with interrupting powerful enemy attacks, it can be really helpful to be able to essential do two attacks in one character's turn.
The mechanics of this game are fun. Every fight feels like it requires your full attention, and bosses put up a decent fight until you not only figure out the right way to beat them, but the timing for defending against their attacks too. The last boss I fought was doing HEAVY damage forcing me to quickly learn the timing for defending against his attacks. Again, it feels a lot like Mario & Luigi rpgs, or that South Park Stick of Truth game. Sea of Stars is not a super hard game, but it does require you to think and pay attention. This isn't an rpg where you can just mash one button over and over again for attacking, and just bust out a healing spell or item from time to time. I mean, you can try and play it that way, but healing items are limited to whatever food you can cook or buy and there is an inventory limit of just 10. Also, you don't always have access to healing spells since the only way to get back magic points is by attacking enemies. So busting out spells and special attacks whenever you feel like it isn't smart.
Oh yeah, that cooking element I mentioned. You can pick up food items in the field like berries and mushrooms and stuff as you move through areas of the game. You can fish at some lakes too. Save points are usually by campfires. Here, you can rest (restoring your health and mp), as well as cook food items to help you in battle or heal you outside of battle.
Last, but not least, I have just discovered some sort of mini-game involving wheels and figurines. I wonder if this will be one of those types of games involving collecting stuff over the course of the adventure like a collectible card game (Xenosaga, Final Fantasy
, or like collecting players for blitzball like in Final Fantasy X. I'm intrigued.
Also of note for people who played The Messenger, there is yet again an NPC character with fun stories you can listen to, should you choose too (perfect for when you're at a campfire). Reminds me of this person:
I got a third party member named Garl. He's kind of annoying. You know that type of character who is super positive about literally everything all the time. The kind of person who would probably smile even if someone punched them in the face, or would trust a person that clearly is not trustworthy. Yeah, that is Garl, Mr. Happy all the time, loves everything and everyone, and is never down or critical of anything. Ugh. I know he's supposed to be loveable, but he's too eager and positive and I feel like that naivety is gonna cost the party at some point. He's the sort of guy who will blurt out a super hero's secret identity as soon as the they meet someone new. Like hey asshole, we don't even know if we can trust this person yet.
I reached a town where my party meets some pirates. There's some lame humor in this part of the game. It's that type of comedy where breaking the fourth wall and pointing out a bunch of gaming tropes and clichés (including many that Sea of Stars itself does) is supposed to be funny
"Hey, isn't funny how in every town you go to the blacksmith seems just a little bit more capable than the last one?"
"Hey, isn't funny how a merchant can have an item that costs a fortune even though they live in a shack"
"He, isn't funny how sometimes you'll meet an enemy character so strong they can knock your party members down to 1 hit point, but then just decides to kill you later?"
They even named the Captain of these pirates as something that sounds very much like, "Captain Cliché". I expect more clever writing from the makers of The Messenger. That game only had like one fourth wall break, and it was just a way to acknowledge Ninja Gaiden's influence on the game.
Still loving the game overall though. It really has that old school, 16-bit era rpg vibe down and honestly the story has been pretty good so far, with those pirate characters being the first time in the game the writing has put me off a little. Exploring and puzzle solving while on the field is fun too. There's a lot of moving around the environment. Jumping across gaps, grabbing ledges, jumping off waterfalls, tightrope walking. I feel like most jrpgs don't have you interact with the environment quite so much. That and the combat keeps me engaged.
There's also a cool mechanic called boosting. Sometimes when you attack any enemy some orbs come out. You can optionally have one of your party members absorb these on their turn. You can absorb up to 3 charges, depending on how many orbs are on the field. Also, if you initiate contact with the enemy on the field and catch them by surprise, your party gets a free hit on one of the enemies which almost always releases orbs. So right on your first turn you can absorb one charge. So what do these charges do? They increase the potency of your next action by a set percentage based on your magic attack stat. So you can bust out a better healing spell, or make your next attack more powerful. Also, having one or more charges will make your next physical attack have magic properties. Useful if you are facing an enemy resistant to physical attacks but don't want to actually use a spell. Also, your physical attack will essentially do two types of damage, useful for interrupting those powerful enemy attacks that require you to hit the enemy with different attack types.
I'm also finding that doing those timed button presses when attacking enemies is useful not only for increased damage, but because it'll make your character attack twice. Again, when dealing with interrupting powerful enemy attacks, it can be really helpful to be able to essential do two attacks in one character's turn.
The mechanics of this game are fun. Every fight feels like it requires your full attention, and bosses put up a decent fight until you not only figure out the right way to beat them, but the timing for defending against their attacks too. The last boss I fought was doing HEAVY damage forcing me to quickly learn the timing for defending against his attacks. Again, it feels a lot like Mario & Luigi rpgs, or that South Park Stick of Truth game. Sea of Stars is not a super hard game, but it does require you to think and pay attention. This isn't an rpg where you can just mash one button over and over again for attacking, and just bust out a healing spell or item from time to time. I mean, you can try and play it that way, but healing items are limited to whatever food you can cook or buy and there is an inventory limit of just 10. Also, you don't always have access to healing spells since the only way to get back magic points is by attacking enemies. So busting out spells and special attacks whenever you feel like it isn't smart.
Oh yeah, that cooking element I mentioned. You can pick up food items in the field like berries and mushrooms and stuff as you move through areas of the game. You can fish at some lakes too. Save points are usually by campfires. Here, you can rest (restoring your health and mp), as well as cook food items to help you in battle or heal you outside of battle.
Last, but not least, I have just discovered some sort of mini-game involving wheels and figurines. I wonder if this will be one of those types of games involving collecting stuff over the course of the adventure like a collectible card game (Xenosaga, Final Fantasy
, or like collecting players for blitzball like in Final Fantasy X. I'm intrigued. Also of note for people who played The Messenger, there is yet again an NPC character with fun stories you can listen to, should you choose too (perfect for when you're at a campfire). Reminds me of this person:
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Raging Justice
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- Joined: Sun May 30, 2021 2:11 pm
Re: RPG Progress Report
Alright. My final progress report. I'm not going to finish Sea of Stars. I have reached a point in the game now where it just feels boring. Every battle I'm stuck using the SAME combat abilities. Nothing about the combat ever really changes once you get all the mechanics down. It's not like there is ever a type of enemy that changes things up, or challenges you in a different way, and it seems like I'm going to be stuck with the same three characters as every new person I meet just becomes an NPC that travels with your party. I wish I could level grind and get stronger, so that I could fly through the boring battles faster. Yet, XP rewards in this game are small. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it just scales the enemies to your level anyway...like most modern RPGs. I'm also sick of how hard it is to sneak up on enemies compared to titles like Grandia or Chrono Trigger or the Legend of Heroes games. Everything in Sea of Stars has started to feel very forced and heavy handed, like I have no real options. You play the game a certain way and that's that. Deal with it. There's relic items that can make the game much easier if you just want to breeze through it for the story, but I just don't want to use them. Accessibility for players of lower skill is nice, but The fact that I'm even considering using them just due to how much of a boring slog the game has become is a problem.
The puzzles in every dungeon area are fairly simple. I keep waiting to see if they get more interesting. They don't. The story is decent enough, but the gameplay has stopped holding my interest and I'm not the type of person who will keep playing a game with bland gameplay even if the story is Shakespeare. Gameplay is more important than anything in a video game.
Another game to add to the growing list of titles I've started and abandoned (I can't even remember the last video game I've finished), and another game that doesn't live up to all of the glowing reviews. The Messenger had more soul and creativity than this game. Sea of Stars is a generic, mediocre, rpg. You could skip this and go play one of the fifty thousand Kemco rpgs that are probably just like this.
Ugh, time to do some more movie watching. After months of not gaming I got back into it with Sea of Stars after all the hype and glowing reviews, and now I feel bored with gaming again.
The puzzles in every dungeon area are fairly simple. I keep waiting to see if they get more interesting. They don't. The story is decent enough, but the gameplay has stopped holding my interest and I'm not the type of person who will keep playing a game with bland gameplay even if the story is Shakespeare. Gameplay is more important than anything in a video game.
Another game to add to the growing list of titles I've started and abandoned (I can't even remember the last video game I've finished), and another game that doesn't live up to all of the glowing reviews. The Messenger had more soul and creativity than this game. Sea of Stars is a generic, mediocre, rpg. You could skip this and go play one of the fifty thousand Kemco rpgs that are probably just like this.
Ugh, time to do some more movie watching. After months of not gaming I got back into it with Sea of Stars after all the hype and glowing reviews, and now I feel bored with gaming again.
Re: RPG Progress Report
Raging Justice wrote:It's that type of comedy where breaking the fourth wall and pointing out a bunch of gaming tropes and clichés (including many that Sea of Stars itself does) is supposed to be funny
"Hey, isn't funny how in every town you go to the blacksmith seems just a little bit more capable than the last one?"
"Hey, isn't funny how a merchant can have an item that costs a fortune even though they live in a shack"
"He, isn't funny how sometimes you'll meet an enemy character so strong they can knock your party members down to 1 hit point, but then just decides to kill you later?"
I am also not a fan of this type of humor, especially coming from an outsider/newcomer. The only counter-example I can think of off the top of my head is the novel "Redshirts" by John Scalzi, and that's only because the trope commentary was actually really signficant in the story and integral to the plot. And Scalzi actually had some relevant prior writing credentials.
Systems: TI-99/4a, Commodore Vic-20, Atari 2600, NES, SMS, GB, Neo Geo MVS (Big Red 4-slot), Genesis, SNES, 3DO, PS1, N64, DC, PS2, GBA, GCN, NDSi, Wii
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TheSSNintendo
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Re: RPG Progress Report
I'm temporarily stepping away from Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I'm right near the end of the game, but I keep losing to Moebius Y - the next to last boss of the game.
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SpaceBooger
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Re: RPG Progress Report
I'm playing FF12 The Zodiac Age.
I'm 25 hours into it and still don't feel like I have the hang of it, but I'm still motivated and playing.
I play every morning before work for about 30 min, mostly grinding, and then log a couple of hours on the weekend.
I just left the village that Fran left and am searching for her friend. So I'm not to far in. Just got the esper and a second license board for each character.
I'm 25 hours into it and still don't feel like I have the hang of it, but I'm still motivated and playing.
I play every morning before work for about 30 min, mostly grinding, and then log a couple of hours on the weekend.
I just left the village that Fran left and am searching for her friend. So I'm not to far in. Just got the esper and a second license board for each character.
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Raging Justice
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Re: RPG Progress Report
So ironically after my previous post about Sea of Stars, I reached a point in the game that addresses most of the complaints I made. Like I literally was right at the point in the game where things finally get shaken up a bit and before realizing that, I made that post. LOL
It's almost like they knew at what point in the game players might start getting a little bored, or maybe this game is just teaching me a lesson in patience. Anyway, I got an awesome new party member, along with the ability to swap them in and out at any time Final Fantasy X style. Plus, my other characters FINALLY unlocked some new moves and combos (one of those combos is a very obvious nod to Chrono Trigger). The combat that was starting to feel a bit bland and repetitive, has started getting kind of fun again. I also got a new item that gave me a new way to traverse the environment (it's also a bit of a nod to The Messenger), and the environmental puzzles in general have started getting slightly more interesting. The story feels like it is about to reach an important milestone. Without spoiling too much, I'm getting close to fighting "The Dweller of Woe", something the game has been building up to. Though it seems I may have to fight one or two bosses first. One of them is some sort of "botanical horror", which is yet another thing that makes me think of The Messenger. I actually kind of love fighting some mini bosses along the way to the main boss as it makes you wonder just how badass the main boss will be.
I think I know what rpg I might play after I finish Sea of Stars. In that brief period of time where I thought I was going to stop playing Sea of Stars, I tried Chained Echos, and it was pretty cool. In fact, I've seen online debates comparing the two games and trying to determine which one is better.
Yeah, one of the pirate characters keeps doing this. She keeps mentioning fourth wall stuff like bosses and hit points, and keeps mentioning video game tropes. The other characters just don't really react to it, but I guess the people playing the game are supposed to find it amusing. It's like she's trying to be Deadpool, but it's done in such an unsubtle and not very clever way. The pirate crew is actually fairly likable, except for her. The captain is pretty awesome, and I won't say more for spoiler reasons.
It's almost like they knew at what point in the game players might start getting a little bored, or maybe this game is just teaching me a lesson in patience. Anyway, I got an awesome new party member, along with the ability to swap them in and out at any time Final Fantasy X style. Plus, my other characters FINALLY unlocked some new moves and combos (one of those combos is a very obvious nod to Chrono Trigger). The combat that was starting to feel a bit bland and repetitive, has started getting kind of fun again. I also got a new item that gave me a new way to traverse the environment (it's also a bit of a nod to The Messenger), and the environmental puzzles in general have started getting slightly more interesting. The story feels like it is about to reach an important milestone. Without spoiling too much, I'm getting close to fighting "The Dweller of Woe", something the game has been building up to. Though it seems I may have to fight one or two bosses first. One of them is some sort of "botanical horror", which is yet another thing that makes me think of The Messenger. I actually kind of love fighting some mini bosses along the way to the main boss as it makes you wonder just how badass the main boss will be.
I think I know what rpg I might play after I finish Sea of Stars. In that brief period of time where I thought I was going to stop playing Sea of Stars, I tried Chained Echos, and it was pretty cool. In fact, I've seen online debates comparing the two games and trying to determine which one is better.
Limewater wrote:Raging Justice wrote:It's that type of comedy where breaking the fourth wall and pointing out a bunch of gaming tropes and clichés (including many that Sea of Stars itself does) is supposed to be funny
"Hey, isn't funny how in every town you go to the blacksmith seems just a little bit more capable than the last one?"
"Hey, isn't funny how a merchant can have an item that costs a fortune even though they live in a shack"
"He, isn't funny how sometimes you'll meet an enemy character so strong they can knock your party members down to 1 hit point, but then just decides to kill you later?"
I am also not a fan of this type of humor, especially coming from an outsider/newcomer. The only counter-example I can think of off the top of my head is the novel "Redshirts" by John Scalzi, and that's only because the trope commentary was actually really signficant in the story and integral to the plot. And Scalzi actually had some relevant prior writing credentials.
Yeah, one of the pirate characters keeps doing this. She keeps mentioning fourth wall stuff like bosses and hit points, and keeps mentioning video game tropes. The other characters just don't really react to it, but I guess the people playing the game are supposed to find it amusing. It's like she's trying to be Deadpool, but it's done in such an unsubtle and not very clever way. The pirate crew is actually fairly likable, except for her. The captain is pretty awesome, and I won't say more for spoiler reasons.