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J T wrote:How is it that portables are better for RPGs. Don't you still have to hit save points, or is there a way to quick save? (I don't own any portables, so you'll have to excuse me ignorance).

It just seems to me that RPGs usually take forever and require long play sessions each time they are played, so I have never understood why they were so popular on portable systems where you have limited battery life and are presumably playing for short sessions.

Any halfway decent RPG on a portable system will have a quicksave slot. You can use that to save at any time (except for mid battle) but the file gets cleared when you load it (or load a regular save file) so you can't use it to save scum.

If left unchecked by responsibilities, I could play until I get tired and desire playing another game. One time, I played FF8 for about 8 hours, and then switched over to FF9 for a bit.

But long-term usually means playing until I hit a wall, which usually takes either a few days or weeks. Then I come back to it weeks or even months down the road. If I can't get past the wall, I put it away for a while. But when I get past it, the process repeats itself.

But a lot of time, when I'm gone for a long time, I end up forgetting what I was doing.

The only time that I really have the time to commit to a full-length console RPG these days is when I go on a break. I was able to finish Grandia 2 over Christmas break, for example. Right now, portable gaming is more my thing, but I suppose it kind of always has been.

If the Vita ends up getting a boatload of quality RPG's, I may just skip a generation of couch-consoles.. or at least put it off for a while. The combination of heaps of power + portability could be all I need. I have to wait until Fathers Day for the Vita though.

I play a few hours here and there and slog through them. Just gotta make sure there isn't too much of a break between sessions so that I don't forget what's going on in the story or where I'm supposed to go next.

I have way more RPGs that I'm partway through than ones that I've finished. I like the idea of RPGs in theory, but the way I play them they take a long time to complete. In the past, I'd play one a bunch, then get stuck on a boss or distracted by something else, just to add it to my backlog. My goal now is to stick with one RPG until it's done before going on to another one. I also purged my collection of all but the RPGs that I really want to play, and have attempted to resist buying more. That said, it could still be years before I complete them all, since I don't play RPGs that much these days. Someday, I hope to complete Shining Force II, which I started around 1995.

I'm kind of afraid to play RPGs.

I haven't actually finished one since Lunar, I think.

What I tend to do, is I'll get so engrossed in the game it'll be all I play. Then I'll get invested in the characters and I won't want to finish it. It's a very destructive cycle, in some ways.

J T wrote:How is it that portables are better for RPGs. Don't you still have to hit save points, or is there a way to quick save? (I don't own any portables, so you'll have to excuse me ignorance).

It just seems to me that RPGs usually take forever and require long play sessions each time they are played, so I have never understood why they were so popular on portable systems where you have limited battery life and are presumably playing for short sessions.

In my opinion, the RPGs on portable systems are much better than those released on the home consoles. It's been this way since around 2006 or so. The games are so easy to pick-up and play. Everything feels more compact and streamlined, you don't have to deal with constant cutscenes or quicktime events or drawn-out tutorials or other bullshit that bogs down the AAA titles. The 2D graphics and "old school" gameplay are nice too, of course. To use real-world examples, I simply find games like Dragon Quest IX and Radiant Historia to be way more fun to play than Final Fantasy XIII or White Knight Chronicles.

And yes, RPGs can be long but don't need to be played in marathon sessions. The battery life of a DS and PSP last for what?.... 4-5 hours? That's plenty, I can't remember the last time I was even able to play that much at once. Just charge the system at night and you're all set. For the record, the portable games tend to be a bit shorter anyway, clocking in at 25-40 hours instead of 40-65. Another reason I like them better.

And as others have said, it's very easy to pause and suspend your games on the handheld systems. I can stop playing at the drop of a dime, which is something you can't always do on a home console.

I also find that portable systems are a great way to play classic RPGs that I missed during my youth. I found Phantasy Star and Phantasy Star II to be much more palatable on a portable system (I played the GBA ports), and I think that Dragon Warrior III was improved immensely by both faster battles and a quick save feature. (The GBC port of Dragon Warrior III is also one of my favorite RPGs of all time.)

Moreover, a ton of great classics have been ported to portable systems. There are portable versions of the first six Final Fantasy games, and all but two Dragon Warrior games have been ported to portable systems. The GBA Phantasy Star Collection has provided me with a tremendous amount of entertainment, and I only played through the first two games in the series.

What I'm trying to say is portable systems are great for RPGs - especially classic JRPGs - and any fan of the genre should give them a shot.

prfsnl_gmr wrote:I also find that portable systems are a great way to play classic RPGs that I missed during my youth. I found Phantasy Star and Phantasy Star II to be much more palatable on a portable system (I played the GBA ports), and I think that Dragon Warrior III was improved immensely by both faster battles and a quick save feature. (The GBC port of Dragon Warrior III is also one of my favorite RPGs of all time.)

Moreover, a ton of great classics have been ported to portable systems. There are portable versions of the first six Final Fantasy games, and all but two Dragon Warrior games have been ported to portable systems. The GBA Phantasy Star Collection has provided me with a tremendous amount of entertainment, and I only played through the first two games in the series.

What I'm trying to say is portable systems are great for RPGs - especially classic JRPGs - and any fan of the genre should give them a shot.

Oh yeah! This too definitely. It kinda feels like the GBA picked up right where the SNES left off, with all the re-issues and new games with a similar "feel" to them.

You should play Phantasy Star III and finish off that GBA cart. Lotsa people don't like it, but I enjoyed it a bit more than II. It was certainly less tedious.

Overall that Phantasy Star Collection was solid, but the save bug in part I pissed me off a couple of times.