What RPG are you playing right now?

[Menegrothx]

Finished Persona 3 after 72 hours, moving on to Icewind Dale 2. I feel like I should get into Ultima Underworld too, but the Quest for Glory for glory trilogy (4th game isnt as good as the rest, right?) caught my attention. Those games look awesome

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I dunno, man. I'm all for character development and that's always a focus in the novels I write, but episode 1 seemed to forget about its own story. If the plot is going nowhere for the sake of detailing the people central to that plot, it's a problem.

BTW, I'm writing my own android story, although it's quite different than this. What do you think about "people" who are obviously less than human?

[Xeogred]

There's a LOT of characterization in Xenosaga, but I'd say there's more in Xenogears and even Xenoblade. Xenosaga is more philosophical/political with its main focus. If that even makes sense.

You still have only seen one third of the story, and like I said I'd say the second two games focus way more on the characters and better things. But yeah. The trilogy is ambitious indeed. Hopefully you like it, I know like one Xenosaga fan in the universe that I can talk to... lol.

On that note hopefully you've played Xenogears already? It'll make Xenosaga III that much more awesome with all its parallels.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Well, I just finished episode ii.Instead of playing it (pretty boring anyway) I'm watching the HD widescreen movie versions now. Running in PCSX2, real widescreen, not stretched. Anyway.

Loving the new graphic style. Everyone looks better and MOMO is more relatable with a properly sized head. KOS-MOS looks more solidly built, but what's with her new voice sounding like a teenage girl? Shion seems to get a new personality along with her new voice...instead of stubborn, intelligent and considerate she's stubborn, dumb, and selfish.

I agree that this series is ambitious, but in my opinion the execution was pretty bad. It had a lot of fantastic ideas and characters to work with but it threw most of them out, and there's still so much going on that all seems like nonsense, even if it does make sense after some thought. The Nietzche and casual blasphemy are going nowhere too.

I really like the ideas, and I really like KOS-MOS, but I have to put the first two into the same category as Kingdom Hearts. What a mess. I'm pretty disappointed really.

I'll give the third one a chance though.

[Xeogred]

Forgot to mention that about some voice actor changes. In KOS-MOS' case I just... assume since she's and android she can change it up for whatever reason, haha. Most of the original VA's return in III thankfully. Hopefully that one goes well with you.

[MrPopo]

Well, I finally got back into Baldur's Gate. I just got past the mine and now I feel like my party isn't a total bunch of weaklings.

[Ack]

Well, I finally got back into Baldur's Gate. I just got past the mine and now I feel like my party isn't a total bunch of weaklings.

Who are you using as your party?

[MrPopo]

Well, I finally got back into Baldur's Gate. I just got past the mine and now I feel like my party isn't a total bunch of weaklings.

Who are you using as your party?

At the moment it's a Kensai PC (not going to dual to mage), Branwen, Jaheira, Minsc, Imoen, and Dynahar. I'm going to replace someone with Viconia when she's available, but I haven't decided yet.

[Zing]

I'm a few hours into Legend of Mana. I don't even know if I would classify it as an RPG. You have a character, but there isn't much "role" to it. The game is enjoyable, but there is no clear objective. You just wander around knocking on doors asking for something to do to pass the time.

The combat is as simple as I suspected from my earlier attempts at this game. You have "abilities", such as jump, lunge, somersault, etc. However, they don't really do anything, since you can't do them in combination with an attack. Since your attacks stun the enemies, the best tactic is to just attack repeatedly. Jumping around, or doing a defensive lunge is completely unnecessary. It just takes time that could be used attacking. I also don't yet see the point in having different weapons. They all attack in pretty much the same fashion, and all benefit from just attacking repeatedly. Long range weapons aren't any better than short range, because the AI is worse than retarded.

This is the same terrible level of AI as in the first game (Final Fantasy Adventure). The AI simply steps around randomly, and attacks if an enemy happens to be near. This game would greatly benefit from a second player. Unfortunately, you don't always get an NPC for the second player to control. However, I do now have a pair of mages living in my house that I can take with me at any time, so that problem is partially alleviated. My six-year-old daughter really enjoyed controlling Niccolo on his quest. I'm looking forward to playing with her again.

One thing I don't understand is why the game defaults with the analog control on, but the controls are clearly not designed for analog. The player only moves in eight directions, and the analog stick doesn't allow you to run. You still have to press a separate button to run.

Overall, it's a nifty game with a lot of atmosphere. It manages to feel alive. My only real complaint is that I am four hours in and there is no hint of magic or crafting so far. It seems the game slowly introduces the side concepts such as animal and produce raising. I assume I will stumble across something that allows me to craft and use magic sometime soon.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I'm a few hours into Legend of Mana.

I loved the Secret of Mana; so, I purchased this when it was released. I was more than a little disappointed, however.

I recall it being a very pretty - but deeply flawed and somewhat dull - game (and certainly not a masterpiece on the level of its 16-bit predecessor). In any event, I traded it pretty shortly after completing it. (Now that I am collecting - rather than just playing - games, I do wish that I had held on to it.)