What RPG are you playing right now?

[prfsnl_gmr]

That's wonderful, Prfsnl. I hope you guys play many more games together.

Thanks! We are having a great time, and playing through something together like this is really a great bonding experience.

[Exhuminator]

a great bonding experience.

Indeed it is. My own daughter is about to be 17, and she's been exposed to video games since she was 3 years old (starting with this IIRC). We've played a lot of games together over the years. For example this past weekend we spent a couple hours with Injustice: Gods Among Us on 360. (She kicks ass with Deathstroke.) Yes indeed playing games with your offspring's pretty awesome.

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To keep this thread relevant, I messed around a bit with Legacy of Ys: Books I & II for DS last night, playing Ys II specifically. Now we all know Ys is awesome in general, and I think certain versions of Ys II are surely good. But I wasn't feeling it with the DS version. It seems a shoddy remake overall. While I appreciate the second screen map, I think I'll stick with this version the next time I play Ys II. It's clearly superior.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Awwwwwww you guys are cute.

My daughter has "played" some games with me, which means she just holds an unplugged controller and mashes buttons. She is also 1 year old.

Exhuminator, I thought your own daughter was 2 or 3 for some reason.

And surely you know the best version is Ys II is the TurboGrafx one.

[Exhuminator]

Exhuminator, I thought your own daughter was 2 or 3 for some reason.

Ha ha nahway man just got done signing her up for the ACT and SAT.

And surely you know the best version is Ys II is the TurboGrafx one.

Do you say that from nostalgia or are you being for real? I mean the Chronicles versions have such fantastic production values after all, seriously!

[BoneSnapDeez]

No nostalgia. I didn't get the game until 2011. I'd say it's considered the definitive version. It blows the others away.

Chronicles - whether it be on PC or PSP - is probably #2 though.

[Exhuminator]

I'd say it's considered the definitive version. It blows the others away.

But why does it blow the other versions away? As in tangible reasons? I'm not even being pedantic here, total serious face. I'm assuming you are talking about the Turbo Grafx CD version of Ys Books I & II in this case. How is this version better than the Chronicles one?

[BoneSnapDeez]

A brief list...

- First and foremost, the music. The redbook audio is redonkulously good. I'd rank this as one of the best OSTs ever, right up with FFVI and Chrono Trigger. If I heard this back in 1989 it would have blown my balls off. It's so much better than the old chiptune 8-bit tracks or the newer ones, which sound more orchestrated. Here's a teaser:


- Graphics. This is a matter of taste I suppose, but I like the clean colorful 16-bit graphics of this version. They ooze retro charm and I prefer this style to the more "detailed" later versions.

- The anime. This may sound silly, but I love the character portraits so much in the Turbo version. It's the classic pixelated 80s anime, very reminiscent of PC-88 games in a way.

- The blending of the two different games. In most versions of I & II you choose your game from a menu. Here they are blended together into one long game. Your level from Book I carries into Book II. Compare this to other versions of Ys I where you're forced to hit the level cap halfway through the game, rendering combat in Darm Tower completely pointless.

- Challenge. Some older versions of the games - like Ys I on Famicom - are hard to the point where they feel broken. In the PSP port of I & II Adol cuts through enemies like butter. The TurboGrafx version feels the most balanced and most grinding is handled simply by exploring the world thoroughly.

I suppose in summation I could say that - compared to the Turbo CD version - the older ports of Ys I & II feel "too primitive" while the newer ones are "too refined." The Turbo is the sweet spot. It's just such a powerful game. I think those who have played it "get" what I'm talkin' about.

[dunpeal2064]

I made it to disc 4 in Panzer Dragoon Saga... and quickly got stuck. Like, really stuck. I searched on my own for about 2 hours, another hour with the gf as co-pilot trying to help, and then went to the FAQs... and still am stuck.

Got to the Forest of Zoah, where there are a bunch of nasties that you can't fight, so you go down into the forest to destroy their roots. Killed all 8 roots, went back up, and nothing changed. According to guides, I should be able to pass now, and then fight these monsters before entering the battleship, but it doesn't happen. I even went as far as to watch a video playthrough, thinking I may have missed a root, but no. Either the trigger didn't happen to progress the game forward, or I am missing some small detail that I didn't notice in the guides or video.

Pretty bummed, this game was pretty decent. It lost some of its charm once I got a little further in, but I still would have liked to finish it up.



So, since that happened, I ended up starting Tales of Vesperia a couple days ago. Never really got into a Tales game, though I've tried many times, but this one is quite good. Still takes way too long to get interesting, and the "tutorial" section of this game makes FFXIII's look short, but once it gets going, its damn fun. Setting up the right Arts to get 30-hit chains and refill your Over Limit to stun into another 30-hit chain is very fun, and learning all the different Skills is great. its like FFIX, but I actually have to pick skills instead of just equipping all the good ones.

Some cray stuff that just happened in the story:

Yuri just murdered a dude, cold-blood. I mean, this guy deserved it big time, and it was what I wanted to happen, but I really didn't expect him to just walk out and slice the dude up before pushing him off a bridge. Brutal.

I think I'm about 16 hours in right now, which is the furthest I've made it in a Tales game, and I can't wait to sit down with it again!

[Exhuminator]

You list some compelling reasons Bone, enough that I would considering playing the TGCD versions after the Chronicles versions. I still have a hard time believing the TGCD versions are necessarily better, but I can understand how they are good and unique in their own way. No doubt the OSTs are amazing. Ys III's OST on TGCD blew my face off.

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Okay, so I've been playing Deep Labyrinth on DS. Now hold on, hear me out here. I know this dungeon crawler is much maligned, receiving multitudinous negative reviews from the (bourgeois) critics of yesteryear. And on one hand, I can understand why they felt that way. But before I explain, have a look at these images:

Now, you might notice some differences between those two images. Namely that the first box art looks a bit more youth oriented than the second. Well here's the deal. Deep Labyrinth on DS is a port of a cell phone game, and the original game's story reflects the more mature box art above. However, when this game was ported to DS, the original story was named "Chapter 2" within the game, and a new story was created and called "Chapter 1". The youth oriented box art above reflects Chapter 1.

Now, the reason this matters, is because Chapter 1 has a ridiculous Saturday morning cartoon plot, with silly characters and goofy enemies, and practically zero difficulty. Because 99% of reviewers blindly chose Chapter 1 by default when they reviewed Deep Labyrinth, they were lead to believe that Chapter 1 was what this game actually is. Fortunately, that's not the case. The wacky Chapter 1 is only half of this game, and it's the weaker half in my experience. Chapter 2 however, has a totally different story, more unruly environments, and is actually challenging. Above all else, Chapter 2 is the real game, the original "Deep Labyrinth" cell phone game beefed up that is. And Chapter 2's plot is the one reflected on the box art of the USA version of this game.

So I've got about 2 hours into Chapter 2 (after 30 minutes of mucking with Chapter 1), and you know what? I actually enjoy this dungeon crawler. It's about the closest thing to having King's Field on the DS I've found. Now, it's not as good as King's Field (nothing is), but this game is certainly more entertaining than the dismissive reviews I've read for it would lead one to believe. The best aspect is certainly Yasunori Mitsuda's OST, really, really good stuff (Sample 1 / Sample 2). Combat is fun with stylus-to-sword controls and a magic system based on drawing runes. (For example you could draw a fire rune and then a sword rune and then your sword catches on fire.) And the exploration of the dungeon thus far has been a lot of addictive fun for me. One weird thing is enemies in this game will sometimes talk to you as you fight them, offering existential thoughts on the oppressive nature of the dungeon itself.

Now I'm not saying Deep Labyrinth is absolutely amazing or anything like that. The frame rate is pretty rough and the controls are not as smooth as they could be. But I am saying that if you enjoy first person dungeon crawlers and own a DS, give Chapter 2 of Deep Labyrinth a try. You may be surprised that the longer you play the more engrossing it becomes.

[Jmustang1968]

I think I still prefer the PSP Ys I & II over the TGCD. I actually favor the music and graphics on the newer release.