Summer Game Challenge 2013 - Begin when ready!

[Retrogamer0001]

I like how passionate you are about the game but I can't bring myself to agree with you.

The Light World / Dark World thing had been done already in Link to the Past, where it was handled masterfully, and although it isn't quite the same thing in FF3, I never felt inspired. Finding my party again felt like work to me (after all, I had already scoured the land looking for them to begin with!) and I don't feel that it added anything but tedium to the game. I don't know if Square was having trouble continuing the storyline past the fifteen hour mark, but it surely failed to do so.

The encounter rate, like I said, is much worse than any fourth-generation game I've played. Have you played the game recently? You should pop it in on SNES and give it a go, just to see what I mean.

If the designers had made the game and "story" a bit more linear, I think I would have enjoyed it more. I also think going through the game with only three characters would be insanely difficult (but definitely awesome to see).

Like I said, I think it's a decent game, but not deserving of its reputation.

[BoneSnapDeez]

The encounter rate, like I said, is much worse than any fourth-generation game I've played. Have you played the game recently? You should pop it in on SNES and give it a go, just to see what I mean.

I play it a couple times every year.

About the encounter rate, I typically don't mind frequent random battles in 4th gen console games as there's no load times (well except for Sega/Turbo CD games). I find the random battles in games like Final Fantasy VII and Skies of Arcadia to be much more frustrating because they take so long. FFVI may have a high encounter rate, but at least the battles are typically fast as hell.

I do prefer the random battles of FFVI to the scripted battles of Chrono Trigger I must say.

Earthbound and The 7th Saga have the best enemy encounter methods of any JRPGs I've ever seen - surprised they haven't been ripped off more often.

[Violent By Design]

Shining Force II - Genesis - SRPG - Beaten!


I finally got around to booting up my old file and finishing this classic.

This is an improvement over the first one, which is one of my favorite Genesis games. It's more expansive and while it is longer (which is usually a bad thing for me), it flows well enough that it doesn't feel like a 30 hour game.

The fights often start off slow because the maps are huge and you have to wait for the camera to pan to guys across the field. Once your guys start getting close and into the thick of action, it becomes pretty fun though. A lot of the tactics usually come from trying to get the weaker characters fed by getting them last hits on weaken foes.

The plot and dialogue are in the same vain as the first one, extremely simple and cliche. I don't mind simplicity, but it is hard to take a game that can't come up with better names than the "Jewel of evil" and what not. The way characters talk to each other is pretty unrealistic and it comes off as if it was written by a 10 year old. Still, the gameplay is the main draw of the game, so this isn't that big of a deal. The story has some twist and turns, if I was a kid I'd probably be moved by it, but as an adult my standards are little to high to really be phased by the deaths or betrayals that happen.

The graphics are pretty nice, largely the same as the first one though which is a good thing.


I think the best thing about Shining Force II is that it does a good job at delivering some memorable fights. Fighting the Kraken, the Colossus, the Chess pieces and the most of the Greater Devils is pretty satisfying.

The difficulty I think is pretty good. You can easily exploit the game by re-doing battles, but that doesn't really make it much different than most RPGs. Assuming your guys are not underleveled, the enemies will be strong enough to hurt your characters pretty bad if they are not well developed (ie promoting at the right time).

All in all, a very satisfying experience. There are enough characters that have their own niches that gives the opportunity to make some cool teams. Challenging enough opponents even if the AI is kinda dumb, the game is linear for progressing the plot but has a ton of secrets in terms of unlocking characters and gear. It's one of the finest games of its generation I'd say.

I'd give Shining Force II a 8/10.

My opinion on some of the characters

Also, fuck Kiwi. I wasted so much time and resources training that guy to eventually just say fuck it.

Even though you get them at the end of the game I used Lemon and Zynk, and I have no regrets because they're bad ass.

I found Mythril but forgot the item that unlocks the Dwarves cave, so I said fuck it and just beat the game with the normal shit.

Bowe is a beast compared to Max in the first one. He's waaay stronger, I remember Max in Shining Force one wasn't all that hot, not weak but certainly not the strongest like Max is (or second strongest since Peter becomes unbeatable).

That makes five games that I've beaten. With Spyro and Lunar nearly beat. Seems like I won't make the deadline before August especially with school starting. Summer doesn't officially end until the end of September though.

[CFFJR]

So how late are you guys planning to go with this? September 1st?

I'll have to crunch to finish anything else, and the only ones I have any hope of completing at this point are Chrono Cross and Panzer Dragoon. The first could probably be done in one sitting, but I'm not confident about the latter.

I've barely started Deus Ex and Shadowrun, and thus there's no hope. I also still have the whole second year for Harvest Moon GBC, which at this point in the game has turned towards tedium unfortunately.

I want to at least beat Cross.

[dsheinem]

So how late are you guys planning to go with this? September 1st?

the Autumnal Equinox

[CFFJR]

So how late are you guys planning to go with this? September 1st?

the Autumnal Equinox

Fair enough. That gives a lot more time.

Though I admit I had to google to find out the date that falls on.

[noiseredux]

So how late are you guys planning to go with this? September 1st?

mid-June, apparently.

[Violent By Design]

Final Fantasy I: Dawn of Souls - Beaten!


This is one of the many games I've beaten earlier, but I've always forgot to mention what I thought of the game. (I didn't play FF2 btw).

I've always loved FF1, never played it enough to get a good grasp of it, but just the concept was always awesome. I was hyped to play the remake on my iPhone which I believe is a port of the PSP version, I mean the art work just made it seem so attracting.

I was bummed out when I found out that the gameplay was dumbed down and made easier. I can understand FF1 being seen as archaic, but the magic system and trying to survive dungeons had novelty to it. The remake to FF is really really easy, to the point where you're just over flooded with useless items and money (money was one of the tougher things to come by in the NES one).

My part was one Warrior, 2 Red Mages and 1 White Mage. Even though 3/4 of them were mages, my party was pretty much all physical. I saw little reason to use any black magic other than attack damage boost for bosses (haste+temper was the go too strategy).

There are two minor things that happened so frequently that it kinda built up into a big con for the game. One, why the hell are the damn NPC's always walking in such narrow places? There are so many times I've wanted to walk to a spot and I have to wait for the damn NPC to move several spots over. Two, the items you find in treasure boxes are ridiculously random. Not random as in they're generated every time, but random as in why would anyone want outdated gear at that point in the game? I mean the gear you get is literally 2 or 3 tiers worse than what you would have, and you find these crappy items really often.

There are a few dungeons at the start where you need to grind, but other than that you basically slice and dice through most guys. If you have white magic like I did, then it's pretty easy to sustain yourself when exploring the world.

The boss fight against Chaos was pretty fun. 1 or 2 of the other bosses gave a good fight too, but Chaos I remember thinking I might lose, and I'd have to do the whole thing over again. Him healing for 9999 is quite intimidating.

The remake added some random dungeons which you need to grind a shitload in order to complete. I thought one of these dungeons was part of the game, and I was basically grinding against bosses that were several levels stronger than what I was supposed to be at. I ended up being one of the dungeons while underleveled which was a nice feather in my cap, but I opted not to do anymore.


The game is fine for its time, and it does a decent job at adding sense of adventure. Overall though, the gameplay is a little too bare bone, and you're really just going through a bunch of filler until you fight Chaos, who isn't exactly connected to the most stellar plot. I'd like to replay the NES one because I think it probably has more novelty, but this is a decent remake that probably makes the RPG more accessible. I did enjoy this more than Dragon Warrior 1, which I more or less dropped this summer since there were more abilities, classes and variables.

Overall, I can't say the game is really worth playing, but it wasn't like it was torture. I'd maybe give it a 5/10.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Now you can play Final Fantasy II. It's on the same cartridge!

[Violent By Design]

Now you can play Final Fantasy II. It's on the same cartridge!

I played it on iPhone so it wasn't bundled! I'd likely replay it on NES (or emulate it on NES) than play the sequel.