Together RPG - Schedule & Discussion

[AppleQueso]

How about we make the schedule on a game-by-game basis? For example:

-Ys I - January

-Chrono Trigger - Feb/March

-Persona 3 - April/May/June

Etc.

This sounds like a really good solution, considering how much length can actually vary from game to game. Though it'll make actually deciding on a calendar a bit complicated.

[Opa Opa]

I think it'll be a tad bit easier to manage than a strict monthly/quarter-year time limit.

Could you beat Persona 3 in a month? No (unless you don't plan on eating/sleeping/going to work). Could you beat P3 in a quarter year? Yeah, but you'd probably have a month (maybe 2 if you rush through it) of not participating.

[o.pwuaioc]

No Saturn exclusives (assuming that the trope about Saturn emulation being finicky is true)

I thought SSF was the top of the top as far as emulators go, and that it is almost console perfect.

PS2/GC/Xbox games are acceptable. 2005-2006 should be the limit on how new the games can be. The same goes for CRPGs, as every one has a computer powerful enough to run games from that era.

Ack disagreed with me, but I think a case can be made for the older generations, rather than the newer stuff. One, anything newer is less likely to have multiple ports, and PS2/Xbox/GCN emulation is not perfect. Not everyone does have a computer that can emulate PS2, and Xbox emulation, I thought, was spotty at best, unless things have changed in the past couple years. But even then many machines won't be able to handle it. The Inspiron 1525 I purchased in 2008 could stuttered trying to play PS2 and even DS games. It was unbearable. Literally unplayable.

There are benefits to doing the older classics, too. Pre-DC stuff would mean a narrower focus, and those huge 8/16/32 bit backlogs could be cleaned up a lot faster.

I'll play along whichever we choose, but I think it makes better sense to focus on the older, more available stuff.

Earthbound

Anything but that!!

[Menegrothx]

Oh yeah, Arx Fatalis would make a good choiche when it comes to first person WRPG dungeon crawlers. It even got a Xbox port, although I've read that the spell casting system was simplified on that version.

PS2/GC/Xbox games are acceptable. 2005-2006 should be the limit on how new the games can be. The same goes for CRPGs, as every one has a computer powerful enough to run games from that era.

Ack disagreed with me, but I think a case can be made for the older generations, rather than the newer stuff. One, anything newer is less likely to have multiple ports, and PS2/Xbox/GCN emulation is not perfect. Not everyone does have a computer that can emulate PS2, and Xbox emulation, I thought, was spotty at best, unless things have changed in the past couple years. But even then many machines won't be able to handle it. The Inspiron 1525 I purchased in 2008 could stuttered trying to play PS2 and even DS games. It was unbearable. Literally unplayable.

Yeah but I think it's safe to assume every one has a PS2 and either Xbox or 360 and Wii or Gamecube (backwards compatibility). Last generation RPGs are rarely that expensive. SNES, Genesis, PS1, Saturn, Dreamcast etc RPGs on the other hand are often so expensive that if we choose to play one, many people would probably have to emulate. SNES, PS1 and even Dreamcast emulation should work fine on every one's computer, so it's not a problem. And like I said, most PS2-era rpgs are affordable, so no need for emulation there.

Good thing about CRPGs is that thanks to Steam, GOG and abandonware, most games are 10 dollars max, most are in the 0-5 dollar range. And physical DVD case copies are rarely any more expensive than downloadable games, only big box games with cloth maps and other goodies come anywhere close to SNES and more rare Genesis, Saturn and PS1 RPGs in price.


But yeah, for the most part I agree that we should focus on pre-2001 stuff. 2000 and 2001 saw the release of many good CRPGs (Baldur's Gate 2, Arcanum, Icewind Dale...) and that was when games were being released for Dreamcast, so I don't think we should totally rule out everything made during the 2000s. Oh and many of the best PS1/N64 RPGs were released 2000/2001. As long as we play Vampire: The Masquerade (2004) I'm satisfied

[BoneSnapDeez]

I think a week or two should be enough for a 20-30 hour game.

Seriously?! I get in maybe 7 hrs/week of gaming. I can maybe finish a 30 hour game in a month - same goes for most of us who have kids and full-time jobs.

Why on earth? There's nothing special about that game. Games that should be picked first should be excellent, games that either did something special or atleast have excellent writing/characters/story/combat system. I don't see any reason to pick cookie cutter games if you haven't played first the games that are actually important. If you have to pick a Western first person dungeon crawler, it should either be Dungeon Master or Ultima Underworld 1/2. Or maybe some really early game from the early 1980s if you want to really study the history of RPGs, but I doubt most people are willing to do that. Either way I think we should first focus on WRPGs (and JRPGs, for that matter) that have great stories and writing (like the ones I listed) before playing any dungeon crawlers.

Eh, difference of opinion I guess. I don't see anything wrong with Eye of the Beholder and there's already been much "buzz" about it on the boards here.

[Jmustang1968]

Some good discussions. I think there is a general consensus to go 2-3 months per game. We can decide lengths based on the expected game length.

Now, lets do nominations!

List a game per group (obviously some games can overlap and belong to multiple groups.

JRPG
SRPG
Action RPG
Western RPG

Then a wild card or 2

I will pool them together in a few days and start up a poll.

[Stark]

Some good discussions. I think there is a general consensus to go 2-3 months per game. We can decide lengths based on the expected game length.

Now, lets do nominations!

List a game per group (obviously some games can overlap and belong to multiple groups.

JRPG
SRPG
Action RPG
Western RPG

Then a wild card or 2

I will pool them together in a few days and start up a poll.

Are you thinking we'll do a half year starting in June?

[Jmustang1968]

Some good discussions. I think there is a general consensus to go 2-3 months per game. We can decide lengths based on the expected game length.

Now, lets do nominations!

List a game per group (obviously some games can overlap and belong to multiple groups.

JRPG
SRPG
Action RPG
Western RPG

Then a wild card or 2

I will pool them together in a few days and start up a poll.

Are you thinking we'll do a half year starting in June?

Why not? If we wait til 2014 this will fizzle. We could even start in a week or 2. Just gotta make a schedule.

[o.pwuaioc]

Meh, don't care for the JRPG/WRPG distinction, but I guess it works for starting off:

JRPG: Final Fantasy V (SFC, PS, GBA, PSN, VC, iOS, Android)
SRPG: Final Fantasy Tactics (PS, PSN, PSP?, iOS?)
ARPG: Crystalis (NES, GBC)
WRPG: Eye of the Beholder (MS-DOS, Amiga, Sega CD, SNES)

[Stark]

Are you thinking we'll do a half year starting in June?

Why not? If we wait til 2014 this will fizzle. We could even start in a week or 2. Just gotta make a schedule.

No reason why not, just clarifying. I'll come up with some titles.