Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

[pierrot]

like what?

My god, where to even start--. What have you already played on the Dreamcast?

[Jmustang1968]

I've said it before, and I guess I'll say it again; the Dreamcast is great depending on which gaming genres you enjoy. If you enjoy arcade-y action titles, the Dreamcast is excellent, as its library mostly skews that way. The Dreamcast certainly doesn't have the same scope of genre fulfillment that the GameCube, Xbox, and PS2 accomplished. Then again, those platforms also survived longer, thus accumulated a larger library.

This is my problem with the console, I typically do not care for those games much. I also dislike the controller.

[BoneSnapDeez]

As a JRPG nut, I'd argue that three of the best - perhaps the three best - post 90's JRPGs were Dreamcast games: Skies of Arcadia, Phantasy Star Online, Grandia II. And yes, I'd take the Dreamcast originals over any subsequent ports.

[Sarge]

I agree with what Bone says on the JRPG front. Especially Grandia II and Skies. Although you might be better off playing Skies on the 'cube.

Exhuminator is also correct that there are a lot of arcade-style games on there. If they don't float your boat, you're not going enjoy a lot of games on there. There are more RPGs than the Neo Geo, though!

[Tanooki]

Ok I'm going to have to kind of third what Bone said and Sarge backed. Grandia II is fantastic as are the other two. Skies and Phantasy Star Online are fantastic, but they also got some upgraded/cleaned up conversions for the Gamecube that make them even a little bit nicer (SKies in particular being less aggressive on encounters and a whole new sidequest and character to the team - Piastol.)

Grandia II though finally did get a PC based conversion with a slight bump in quality smoothing out some stuff too, always seems to hit each quarterly sale on GoG. It's normally $20 but easily had for $10 or less on those sales and I'd recommend it strongly. I originally had them all on Dreamcast and these conversions allow the three to live in on style.

It is fair to say that Dreamcast in its 2 years of rough life it had, it had a strong outing, but it also was crap for certain genres and the controller was a love/hate thing. I hated the controller but dealt with it. The d-pad would poke your thumb being set so far out and so pointy on the corners, and the L/R triggers have some super pushy springs that wear and tear your hands down on games that use it a lot (like Crazy Taxi and other racers.) It also sucked to hell for arcade fighters too which is partly why the joysticks were so popular.

[Gunstar Green]

I agree that if you took the quality of every Mega Man release ever, averaged it all out, you'd end up with like a 5/10 overall. However, the occasional highs are really high in this series. Mega Man 2, Mega Man X, and Mega Man Legends alone are at least 9/10s. I really love the Mega Man Zero and ZX games, personally.

I think I said this on some old Mega Man thread already but regardless the Mega Man Zero games are all solid titles, the most consistent the franchise has ever been in my opinion, and the ZX games are two of the best 2D action games on the DS. They don't get nearly as much love as they deserve.

Hmm, that's a good subject. Defend your picks for worst mainstream (whatever you consider mainstream) console of all time. I'll have to ruminate on that one.

For me personally it's the N64. I can count the number of games I've really liked on it on one hand. I can't think of any "defense" for this other than it's just not my thing and never has been. As I think I already mentioned in the games that haven't aged well thread I have a hard time revisiting the 5th generation consoles in general and the N64 just happens to be my least favorite of that bunch.

I've said it before, and I guess I'll say it again; the Dreamcast is great depending on which gaming genres you enjoy. If you enjoy arcade-y action titles, the Dreamcast is excellent, as its library mostly skews that way. The Dreamcast certainly doesn't have the same scope of genre fulfillment that the GameCube, Xbox, and PS2 accomplished. Then again, those platforms also survived longer, thus accumulated a larger library.

That's where I sit on the Dreamcast as well. It was the last mainstream console that really had that "arcade at home" ideology which may have worked against it in all honesty but it's what I loved about it.

The Dreamcast is like Mega Man in that I love them both but recognize why they're not for everyone.

[Exhuminator]

the ZX games are two of the best 2D action games on the DS. They don't get nearly as much love as they deserve.

Thank you.

[Segata]

Square and Enix have made and published some absolute classics and masterpieces like DQ, FFVI, Chrono Trigger and more. That said I feel they are greatly overrated in the RPG space when Falcom exists. Hell Monolith Soft I feel in the past 16 years or even the last 7 has far outclassed Square Enix in RPGs since 2001. Oh and Tak the director of the Xeno series started out at Falcom. Falcom is masters at the craft and has shot out a lot of talent that went elsewhere to create fantastic RPGs. Square often gets the credit for the genre that Falcom deserves.

[BoneSnapDeez]

They've done different things historically. Falcom's been the ARPG masters, but Square and Enix have brought much superior turn-based games. Falcom's traditional turn-based JRPG series, The Legend of Heroes, is decent but has yet to feature a truly phenomenal installment. Hell, a few of the earlier series entries feel downright interchangeable.

I dunno if outclassing Square Enix since '01 is much of an accomplishment.

[Segata]

I honestly would take Persona turn-based over ATB at this point. I truly feel Grandia's system in the 90s was better. Of course, turn base doesn't have a single form. Dragon Age Origin is turn base. The Ys bump system is semi-turn-based. Xenoblade games are turn-based. Your stats determine you timing on attacks. Witch Xenoblade it's stats timing and position. Ys its position and stats. It's still action in the end but it's a bit of a hybrid.