Will I be blown away? Is this game a transcendental experience like nothing else on this planet? Is it so phenomenal that I'll never desire to play anything else ever again? I'm actually a bit hesitant to play it, as I know I'll be let down if it doesn't live up to my lofty expectations.
I played through it earlier this year, and I loved it. It is easily one of my favorite RPGs. It has a great battle system and excellent atmosphere (similar to Ico and Shadow of the Collossus, two of my other favorite games). The music is spectacular, and the graphics - while dated - have held up reasonably well. Moreover - by taking a less-is-more approach, it has a better storyline than any RPG of its generation. The story also lends itself to mythology and speculation much the way the three original Star Wars movies did before George Lucas took the magic out of them.
That said, it was not difficult, and I only died once or twice the entire time that I was playing it. The excellent battle system always makes you feel like your character is in danger, however; so, the fact that my character did not die much did not detract from the gameplay.
In short, it is one of my favorite games of all time, and I think that you will enjoy it very much.
No, it's not a trancendental gaming experience. IMO, it's way over hyped. It's a nice game, but not exceptional, even for the time. To be honest, it's linear, it's combat system is really simple, there's practically no inventory to manage. If you like exploration, you're going to be disappointed. If you like strategy, you're going to be disappointed. I don't think it introduces any tropes or mechanics that hadn't been done already in PC games.
I won't say it's a bad game, because it's not. I found it nice light entertainment, but there's absolutely no reason to play it twice.
We are prepared to live in the plain and die in the plain!
Basically I felt that although the production values were through the roof by Sega Saturn standards, the gameplay was shallow, graphics were poor, and the story was weird and hard to root for.
Well...I liked it...then again, the fact that I did not have to manage inventory and that I could play through the entire game in less than 20 hours was a huge plus for me.
With regard to random encounters, I agree that some of the battles did not require much strategy. When you encountered a boss, however, you really had to know how the battle system worked to overcome it. The battle scoring system also made the game more interesting. Sure, you could use brute force to get through most battles, but you had to be somewhat cunning to avoid damage altogether and defeat all of the enemies as quickly as possible. (Again, this is especially true with the bosses.)
I will agree that the game was a bit too linear, but I think that it helped with its pacing. One of my RPG pet peeves, however, are games with an "urgent" storyline that encourage you to spend as much time goofing off as possible before completing the main quest. ("Hey! Isn't that meteor about to touch down and wipe out all life on the planet?!" "Yeah..." "Shouldn't we do somethign about that?? Like, right now?!" "I guess..." "What?!" "I dunno...spend 10 hours of game time breeding and racing Chocobos?")
Thanks for the comments everyone. I don't have this yet (coming in the mail), hopefully be here next week! Probably won't get to playing it until 2012 though.
prfsnl_gmr wrote:Well...I liked it...then again, the fact that I did not have to manage inventory and that I could play through the entire game in less than 20 hours was a huge plus for me.
RPGs are about personalizing your experience by customizing your character. Inventory choices are a major way you do that. The lack of any sort of economy is a big downside.
And game length? If it was a great game it would have left you wanting more. I finished Persona 3 after over 100 hours and I still want more. The only reason I'm not playing Persona 4 right now is that I want to wait a bit to savor it better.
We are prepared to live in the plain and die in the plain!
