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Shikalin wrote:I finished Lunar: Silver Star Harmony the other day. I found it to be much easier than the other versions of the game. Perhaps even a little too easy. There really is almost no grinding involved and almost all of the battles are a breeze. Other than that I really enjoyed it and it has some great visuals and music to backup the gameplay.

Just started this the other day. I learned an important lesson last night.. to always save my game progress when I arrive at a new town, or buy new items. Last night I got to the place where the fat kid was trading the dragon diamond, and the guy ran off. Went to go find him, and died. Now I get to go find the map AGAIN, and fight the ship monster AGAIN... not that they were hard, just the fact that I have to do it over AGAIN.

MrPopo wrote:

Gamerforlife wrote:You know this game reminds me a lot of FFX in its structure so far. Combat feels a LOT like FFX 2, which was one of the few things I enjoyed about FF X 2. I'm glad I went out and purchased this

My feelings is they took elements from X, X-2, and XII and refined them. From X they got the seamless and more linear world but then they managed to structure the storyline in such a way that you don't mind it nearly as much. They also crafted a better sphere grid. With X-2 they got the in-battle class changing, the restricted class abilities and the chaining, but here it all flows well. With XII they got chapter 11 (though it was just as good in XII) and they utilized the class system to allow for allies to be automated without just having the three super chars you could pull off with the License Board + Gambits in XII.

An evolution and some early reviews made it sound like a step backwards. Irony

We should probably stop hogging the topic with FF13 talk LOL. Great game though

Man, I love FF13's combat system. I went against what I said before and I'm actually five staring EVERY fight. This means sometimes I have to respawn a battle if I get a low ranking or hit the in fight restart feature if I think a battle is taking too long. On the negative side, this means it's taking me longer to get through the game. On the positive side, I feel I'm learning every nuance of combat by forcing myself to redo each fight until I get it right and I'm starting to feel a real "flow" to combat now.

I can't recall an FF combat system that is so fast paced and requires you to really think on your feet like the one in this installment does. Combat in FF games is usually slow, methodical. Not the case here and combat LOOKS more action packed now too, which is what I think the developers were going for. There is constant movement and rarely ever a lull in the on screen action. I like it.

Right now I'm playing Okage: The Shadow King (on PS2).

I'm on to Dragon Age Awakening now. It's not bad, more of the same as the main game, but I have run into one glaring bug that prevented me from satisfactorily completing either quest in a "Do quest A or quest B" choice.

Just started playing Shining Force Feather and so far it doesn't seem bad. Like so many others, I had hoped for a localization but gave up.

After Neo and Exa, not to mention we didn't get Shining Winds in the US, I had given up hope on my beloved Shining series

Im actually about to finish the story mode for Phantasy Star Universe. I'll admit the story is not that deep but it does interest me just enough and the combat is fun so it ties well together.

I might end up checking around for a private server if none exists it was a fun ride anyway

Okay, for the record, FF13's rank system is crap. Half the battles in the game are IMPOSSIBLE to five star with getting a preemptive strike or buffing up your party prior to battle. So basically, they implemented a system that is more an indicator of how CHEAP a player is than it is of their SKILL.

I know most people don't care, but I'm so sick of developers throwing in half assed rank systems into their games. If you're not gonna do it right, don't do it all. I can stand half ass gameplay elements.

Still a fantastic game though, once you forgot about the joke ranking system. It's just a shame their is no reward for trying to play skillfully since the 5 star rank requirements are literally impossible sometimes without cheating the system in some way. This is probably my number one pet peeve with many modern games. No incentive to play well or skillfully. With such a brilliant combat system, I wish the rank system were better.

Gamerforlife wrote:Still a fantastic game though, once you forgot about the joke ranking system. It's just a shame their is no reward for trying to play skillfully since the 5 star rank requirements are literally impossible sometimes without cheating the system in some way. This is probably my number one pet peeve with many modern games. No incentive to play well or skillfully. With such a brilliant combat system, I wish the rank system were better.

If you want even more suckage, the rank algorithm involves comparing your stats and number of ATB bars against the opponent's level and health. So there are instances where it makes more sense to use a weaker weapon in order to hit a 5 star.

I'm 2 hours into Infinite Space.