RPG Progress Report

[Segata]

XCX combat is mostly the same but they removed the topple. There is no healer. Just a QTE that heals the party when you meet certain conditions. It is more streamlined however and you are encouraged to target specific parts of an enemy. It has a few extra mechanics like Soul Voice,Overcharging (no not your cell bill ) and more. Then there is the Skells, oh boy is that awesome It's just so so so much better. As much as I love Xenoblade..the combat is kinda clunky. IMO XCX surpasses XC in mechanics and world. I think they both have great OST's but XC is better. XC also has a better story and characters. XCX story is kinda flat. XCX focus is more on exploring and fighting bosses. (has some great ones)

[Xeogred]

The worst thing I hate is that you can't change party leader while in combat.

Are you sure? Thought you could.

How is the mecha combat in Xenoblade X? The lack of useable mecha was a big complaint I had for Xenoblade, so it was cool to see that in X. Except... there are other issues I have with X. Seems to be even more truly open world (not my thing anymore) and somehow even less on the story than Xenoblade, not sure how but it is. Literally never see anyone talk about the story as the years go by.

[Exhuminator]

Are you sure? Thought you could.

Nope. You can only change party leaders while not actively engaged in combat.

[pierrot]

Soul Voice

Xenoblade has FFXI Bards in it?

enraptured

Dammit, you stole my adjective.

Thesaurus-- thesaurus-- thesaurus--. (This is me theoretically thumbing through a thesaurus.)
I am over the moon, replaying Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. There simply aren't enough stories in media with this kind of thoughtfulness. No silly pandering, no trite, useless dialogue, no overt pretenses, or shallow exposition. There's no need for more than three characters, because each one is so beautifully crafted, in both personality, and combat role. Lin (descendant of Linpoo?) is my freaking idol, and the way she interacts with Ryu is so pregnant with meaning. She's almost like a spirit guide, and their conversations give me chills. I love that Nina is mute, and always says so much without words. The dynamics between the three are so perfect, and even though it's one guy an two girls, there's no love-triangle element. Hallelujah.

I've been thinking about the game for most of the day, which is something I haven't really experienced since-- college, maybe? It's not like I wasn't already intimately familiar with the game, but it has been a while since I played it, and I might be getting sucked into it even more than when I first got it.

Last night I hit the second, really pivotal, boss fight in the game. It's a three phase, royal rumble, with the player characters trapped in the center. It was way easier than I remember it being, but it was still a real test. There's a boss fight coming up that I remember being a right bitch, though. It's unfortunate that I haven't really calibrated the ElgatoHD for picture, because this game looks fantastic with actually proper picture settings.

Oh, and when I get to listen to a soundtrack that is actually the best part of an already unreasonably great game-- yeah, it's a pretty good time.

[Xeogred]

Hmm, I bet now I'm thinking of FFXII.

That is the worst idea ever for an ARPG. But at least the other characters are playable, unlike FFXV... and if your party leader dies I think I remember you can at least get revived? Unlike FFXIII...

[Sarge]

I've still been chipping away at Dragon Quest VII off and on. I'm up to the point where I've just gotten Mervyn on my team. Time to get him up to snuff. Beyond that, I've got a bajillion games vying for my time... or at least it feels that way. This is what always happens when I go on a buying spree. Gonna be interesting to see which ones fall off my plate and which ones stick.

Ys VIII has gotten a little better from that rough start. Still not sure I'm completely feeling it, but it feels like the crafting elements are integrated a little more thoroughly, which actually helps the game instead of hurts it. It doesn't feel superfluous like it did in Celceta.

[Xeogred]

How many hours Sarge? Probably 100 left from what I hear about DQ7.

Alright pierrot, I know you have some crazy opinions on RPG's and say it yourself haha, but do you like BoF4? I love it but nobody ever really brings it up. If so I'm now curious to see what you think of it compared to BoF5 and vice versa. I personally don't like BoF1-2 at all and didn't finish 3 because it was so slow and uninteresting. But it really sounds like I need to give BoF5 a shot now.

[MrPopo]

I've still been chipping away at Dragon Quest VII off and on. I'm up to the point where I've just gotten Mervyn on my team.

Mervyn? They called him Mervyn? Was his base class also changed to the Sheriff of Rottingham?

[Exhuminator]

But it really sounds like I need to give BoF5 a shot now.

I haven't played it myself. But this excerpt from Wikipedia explains why:

"Rather than experiencing the entire game in a single play-through, Dragon Quarter is designed to encourage the player to play through the title multiple times in order to experience the whole story.[4] Using the Scenario Overlay (SOL) System, certain plot points and areas of the game are only accessible if the player's D-Ratio number is high enough. When players begin the game, their D-Ratio is represented as the fraction 1/8192, and can only be raised by continually restarting the game and using the SOL: Restore function, which allows them to begin a brand-new game while carrying over all accumulated items, equipment, and skills found up until that point.[4] Progress is saved to the PlayStation 2's memory card using limited Save Tokens found during gameplay. Players may also suspend their game as many times as they wish by creating a temporary save at certain areas in the game, which are deleted as soon as they are loaded.

When a player reaches a certain point in the game, they obtain the ability to use powerful dragon abilities and receive a D-Counter at the top of the screen represented as a percentage.[6] When the D-Counter reaches 100 percent, the game ends and the player is sent back to their last permanent save. The meter raises continually as the player uses these abilities in or out of battle and can only be lowered by restarting using SOL: Restore."

The idea of continuously replaying parts of a game I've already played through before is not appealing. Doubly so do I not find the idea of rereading/re-listening to dialogue and cutscenes I've already seen. It's hard to believe this Scenario Overlay system is nothing more than a cheap way to artificially extend the length of play. And the "limited save tokens" doesn't sound great, a nasty way to increase tension and force longer play sessions. On top of all that, if you dare to use your dragon powers, they slowly kill you and the only way to lower the D-Counter is to restart the game. Now I'm not saying BoF5 is a bad JRPG. I've never played it personally, so I can't say that. But I can say that on paper, some of BoF5's game design looks to be the opposite of fun. Some of these concepts seem overly punitive without the player's best interests in mind.

[Xeogred]

lol, yeah. Not sure what to say on all that. Like I mentioned earlier though my PS2 backlog is pretty steep so I don't know if I'd get to it anytime soon... my biggest physical backlog right now.

PS2
Dragon Quest VIII
Unlimited Saga
Valkryie Profile 2
Persona 4
Shadow Hearts
Shadow Hearts Covenant
SMT Nocturne
SMT Digital Devil Saga 1
SMT Digital Devil Saga 2
Arc the Lad Twilight of the Spirits

PSX
Saga Frontier
Saga Frontier 2
Threads of Fate
Brave Fencer Musashi
Wild Arms
Wild Arms 2

I think my biggest priorities are Shadow Hearts Covenant (the first seemed cool, but I hear Covenant is excellent), Valkyrie Profile 2, and Arc the Lad Twilight. I don't really think Persona is going to do it for me, but I still want to give SMT stuff a shot.

I don't think any of those Saga games will have much stopping power, so yeah I'm not sure why I own three of them. Same with Wild Arms, I watched a friend play those back in the day and it was really fun to watch. But my gut tells me they might be kind of generic now, I think others on the board have confirmed that in threads before. Kind of like Breath of Fire 1-2, they're just "okay" when I've probably got way better options. No clue on Threads of Fate or Musashi, maybe they're cool ARPG's. At the very least I need to dive into these to move them from my backlog shelf to the played shelf.

On my Amazon wishlist
Legend of Legaia
Thousand Arms
Koudelka
The Ganstream Saga
Shadow Madness
Valkyrie Profile (gold bricks required)
PS2 Wild Arm's
Radiata Stories
Dark Cloud 2
Suikoden 4
Suikoden Tactics
White Knight Chronicles II
Resoance of Fate
Star Ocean The Last Hope International
SMT Devil Summoner 1-2
Arc Rise Fantasia