racketboy.com

hashiriya1 wrote:Playing Phantasy Star now.

I beat that on the GBA Phantasy Star Collection some years ago. Used a walkthrough from RPG Classics to get through the game.

Ack wrote:So I'm debating why I will end up playing next. I picked up Alpha Protocol some time back but never tried it. It was cheap, SEGA had their name on it, and there was no sign of the word "Sonic" anywhere in the title, so I figured I had a chance of it being a decent modern game. So is it worth checking out, or should I play through some of the others in my ever expanding backlog?

I really liked Alpha Protocol. The dialog system is interesting; it uses the ME-style quick word to describe your response style, but the game automatically choses your response once the person you're talking to stops speaking, so the conversation sounds natural, instead of the dialog, pause for a while, dialgo of most RPGs. The combat is similar to ME2 but the missions are more Deus Exy in that they tend to reward exploration and stealth, rather than guns blazing. It's not perfect, but it's fun. My only word of warning is that if you max out Pistols or Stealth the game turns into easy mode, as both of them have game-breakingly powerful skills in their upper tiers.

I'm not entirely sure of all the differences, but I feel as if Final Fantasy IV Advance is very different from the SNES incarnation, and not in a good way. I appreciate that it is going to the hardtype, but the random encounters feel off (first really noticed in Cave of Summons), something else feels not right.

o.pwuaioc wrote:I'm not entirely sure of all the differences, but I feel as if Final Fantasy IV Advance is very different from the SNES incarnation, and not in a good way. I appreciate that it is going to the hardtype, but the random encounters feel off (first really noticed in Cave of Summons), something else feels not right.

There's a bug in the US release with the ATB that causes all the monsters to get turns at half speed. That's probably what feels off, and it's incredibly noticable when you get to the Demon Wall (and by noticable I mean he's easier to defeat than the Mist Dragon).

Yeah, I couldn't bring myself to finish the GBA version when I played it a few years go, admittedly I'm pretty sure the PSP version has the same exact issue. Both were nowhere near as challenging as my first full run on the PSX Chronicles true hard type version.

noiseredux wrote:

hashiriya1 wrote:Playing Phantasy Star now.

Phantasy Star II.

Phantasy Star IV.

@Ack: I'll recommend Alpha Protocol myself. It's pretty buggy, but what games of its type aren't? So that never bothered me, too much. The dialogue system was pretty cool and the game seemed really varied, it certainly did a gray line are kind of thing 10x better than Mass Effect ever did.

Xeogred wrote:Phantasy Star IV.

I meant, "I'm playing Phantasy Star II now."

noiseredux wrote:

Xeogred wrote:Phantasy Star IV.

I meant, "I'm playing Phantasy Star II now."

Instead of Baldur's Gate?

over the weekend anyway. Like I mentioned in the TR thread, I'm not trying to be stubborn. But I did just receive a ton of games for the holiday. And spent a lot of $ post-holiday on new games. All of which are ones I really want to play. A JRPG like PSII is something I can just pick up and play and not have to learn new things like re-rolls etc... Plus, I already owned the game. Plus I know I enjoy JRPG's. I just can't justify spending more $ out of our budget this month (even if it's only $10) on a game that I want to play far less than the pile of games I just got as gifts (including PSII).

On a side-note, I'm fairly certain at this point that I prefer the Phantasy Star series to the Final Fantasy series. Seriously.

noiseredux wrote:On a side-note, I'm fairly certain at this point that I prefer the Phantasy Star series to the Final Fantasy series. Seriously.

Spoken like someone who has never played Final Fantasy VI.

Seriously though, after Phantasy Star II try part III. It doesn't deserve all the hate it gets.

I love the Phantasy Star series, though I find that walkthroughs and maps are absolutely essential - unless you have the patience of a monk.

I figured that's what you meant noise, I just thought it was funny since I started up Phantasy Star IV myself recently and am playing that myself now.

I just skipped to it... lol, but I'll check out the others sometime. They all look great and the sci-fi is a plus to me.