RPG Progress Report

[BoneSnapDeez]

Muramasa Rebirth

First two bosses are down. About 2 hours in. Game is a bit (okay, more than a bit) repetitive but I like it.

I wanted to squeeze in a short-ish game before Planescape and I think this will work.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I'm in Hell - both in real life (in-laws are visiting) and in Muramasa.

Enemies are getting pretty tough now.

[Fragems]

Started up Lunar: Silver Star Harmony the other day. Just finished the first dragon trail and am about to embark on a journey to sell his sh... I mean diamond. Spent about 2 hours in the game so far doing a little grinding. The animated cut scenes are great and the combat is solid. Difficulty is a little low so far though can't wait for it to ramp up once I get out of the tutorial area.

Also started Spectral Souls: Resurrection of the Ethereal Empires for the PSP and quickly gave up on it. My advice is avoid it. It is by far the shitiest game I currently own for the PSP. Even at $3 CIB I am thoroughly revolted at the steaming mess that is this game .

Things that are wrong with this game:
1. It is a sequel to a Japanese game which never graced U.S. soil as far as i can tell. IT DOES NOT SAY THIS ANYWHERE ON THE BOX THOUGH .
2. The story is complex and a 2 minute cinematic with way to fast text is supposed to catch you up on the story of the first game.
3. Translation is horrible.
4. It has the worst load times I have ever seen in a game . The animations for each attack have to be loaded :X.
5. A horrible tutorial that doesn't explain the "unique"(sh#$) combat system.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Also started Spectral Souls: Resurrection of the Ethereal Empires for the PSP and quickly gave up on it. My advice is avoid it.

My advice would be to avoid anything developed by Idea Factory.

[TheSSNintendo]

Still playing Breath of Fire, and I'm in Mogu's dream right now. My least favorite part of the game, mainly because of that one tower that has the switches.

[Violent By Design]

Started up Lunar: Silver Star Harmony the other day. Just finished the first dragon trail and am about to embark on a journey to sell his sh... I mean diamond. Spent about 2 hours in the game so far doing a little grinding. The animated cut scenes are great and the combat is solid. Difficulty is a little low so far though can't wait for it to ramp up once I get out of the tutorial area.

I'm almost done with the PSX version, wasn't aware they added a tutorial in the PSP version. I found the game to supply a lot of tough fights which was a little surprising, not sure if it will be the same in the PSP version.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Momohime's story is finished in Muramasa. That's enough for now.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I just tried out Dragon Age Origins on PS3. Bought it for $5 on a whim, knowing it's one of the most well-loved RPGs this generation.

It's terrible so far.

Details and complaining:

I think I've spent about an hour with it. In that time, I created my character. Lots of options for face and short hairstyles, but no way to change your character's shape or body type. Whatever, don't care. I picked a female human rogue.

Game opened with a boring in-engine cutscene with a stuttering frame rate. Why are the cutscenes stuttering! There was something about someone important arriving at a castle, an old man calling me "pup," and how his hair is getting grayer. Then I got asked to find my brother upstairs in his room. Got interrupted by a guy complaining about someone else complaining about a dog.

More banal nonsense and lame cutscenes - these are so woodenly animated. I'd prefer a visual novel with no animation at all.

I was pretty excited when I got to fight some enemy soldiers, but the combat is soooo, so sloppy. There's an attack button, but no block button. My rouge's attacks are unbelievably slow. I could swing a 25-pound dumbbell faster, let alone a 3-pound dagger.

The game seems to autoselect an opponent, so if there's more than one near you, you might turn around and attack the wrong one. That takes so long, you'll eat one or two hits from your intended targets. It's worse with bows

Didn't matter, though. I was just trying the game out on normal, and so far I haven't figured out how to die.

It does have on-the-fly character switching like Star Ocean or Tales, but unlike those games it's played from a third-person perspective and is totally disorienting. I really like playing as the war dog, because he's a war dog, but the archer is no fun at all. Aiming your bow involves "locking on" to one enemy at a time, cycling between them with the D-pad. It's exactly as horrible as it sounds.

From what I've played, the opening is a huge step back from Baldur's Gate and the combat a huge step back from Phantasy Star Portable. Does this game get better? A lot better?

[isiolia]

From what I've played, the opening is a huge step back from Baldur's Gate and the combat a huge step back from Phantasy Star Portable. Does this game get better? A lot better?

Well, you picked up the worst version of the game. The console versions are a notch lower difficulty by default, and can't use the more zoomed out overhead view akin to the Infinity Engine games. On the PC, it felt very similar to NWN2. You're normally hitting space to pause, set up commands, etc and then executing, like in those.

Some of it, like the fairly fugly graphics, just are what they are.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I didn't care too much for most of these hyped-up 7th gen WRPGs, but DAO was a solid game.

I can't imagine playing it on PS3, though. Seems like it was designed for the PC and ended up with a couple of half-assed console ports.