Exhuminator wrote:Nice. I appreciate that detailed information, though I'm afraid you misunderstood my use of the asterisk (my fault too). I meant having you provide some opinions on all the games you beat:
Yeah, looking back I think you intended it to be indicating which ones you thought were awesome that I beat or something.
Chrono Trigger - The only things worth mentioning here are the monster arena (pretty pointless) and the bonus dungeon and ending (help tie things to the Chrono Cross storyline). The bonus dungeon I don't recall as being bastardly hard like some Square ports.
Dragon Quest IV-VI - Very nice updates of the original games. They stick with the modern trend of giving various regions phonetic accents that end up giving some flavor to the world, instead of it being one giant homogeneous fantasy land. IV you'll notice the ability to command your party.
Dragon Quest IX - I aliken this to Dragon Quest III; a series of small events on your slow march to a final goal, complete with early access to a job system. Has a very extensive postgame in terms of quests and grottos, though you probably won't want to spend much time with that if you have a bunch of other games.
Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 1-2 - Compared to the first two DQM games on the GBC this one makes it easier to generate powerful monsters due to you getting to select the movesets that get passed down. This also means you can breed earlier. DQMJ1 is kind of a pain at times, though, because of how the areas are linked; an end game area might require you to visit three areas in a row, taking the boat from each one, rather than going from a central hub.
Etrian Odyssey III - Builds on the first two games by completely changing all the classes (while there's lots fulfilling a similar general role they play differently from the originals) and adding a subclass system that gives you additional customization. Has three endings, two of which are based around following the story branch in the middle to the end and the third around rejecting your story near the end; each branch gives you a unique class (that carries to NG+). I'm still only midway through the sixth stratum and need to get around to finishing that.
Final Fantasy III - Adds some story and characterization (you get four characters rather than four blank slates) but really messes with the balance. There's now more reason to use early jobs (fighter does more damage than knight) but since they can only handle a few units on screen at a time they end up buffing monsters to compensate. Some bosses get really nasty as a result, and the splitting monsters are pathetic now.
Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon - Definitely shows its age. Aside from adding in the weapon triangle the main mechanics are unchanged.
Fire Emblem Shin Monshō no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyū - What I said above.
Golden Sun Dark Dawn - Ends on a cliffhanger as bad as the original Golden Sun. Core gameplay is pretty much unchanged.
Infinite Space - This one is pretty unique. There's an interesting space story being told and the ship customization is a whole lot of fun. Combat starts off a bit dull but gets more interesting over time as you unlock more capabilities like a spinal cannon and fighters. But at its core it's rock paper scissors based. Boarding is straight rock paper scissors but one of the options also punishes them for running, so it's the best. Regular fights are the standard VG combat RPS where you have basic attack, strong attack that overpowers basic, and defensive move that doesn't dodge basic. Strong attack costs more energy too, so the balance is thrown off even more.
Izuna 1-2 - Solid roguelikes. Izuna 1 is harder; 2 gives you the ability to go in with two characters who don't share health and can do a combo attack and many of the characters have inherent bonuses. Level persists through deaths, gear is lost unless tagged with a saver rune, and the rune system lets you customize your gear a bit.
Lufia Curse of the Sinistrals - Honestly a bit of a disappointment. It goes full action RPG with a single character on screen at a time, each character has a move useful for solving in-field puzzles, and it strips out the fat of the storyline. It also makes some major changes to some of the details, like the game starting with Maxim and Lexis (who's your mission control).
Luminous Arc - FFT-style SRPG that doesn't have anything hugely exploitable in combat, making fights a slog. Almost all the characters are women but it doesn't play up fanservice any. I don't remember the story.
Mario & Luigi games - Bowser's Inside Story is the best of the two. But Partners in Time is solid. It's nice that each M&L changes up the fight mechanics a little so you have to do a little relearning, so you don't get bored if you play multiple games.
Pokémon - If you have to pick one go with HG/SS; it has the most content by having both Johto and Kanto. I honestly didn't care for B/W's world, and the "all 150 are new!" ends up feeling gimmicky because they still want all the same Pokémon tropes in their mons.
Radiant Historia - Love this game so much. The game starts with splitting a timeline into two alternate histories and you bounce between the two to set right what once went wrong. There's also a bunch of side times where you do things like trigger a bad ending early. The combat starts off interesting but then you get Aht and becomes boring and easy (except for that bonus scorpion boss who takes up the entire grid).
Tales of Innocence - Miscategorized this; it's supposed to be in the played category. The dungeon design sucks and many of the monsters are more painful to fight than they should be.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
