I don't like the Xenosaga games (*hides quickly*). They have everything that I dislike in some RPGs rolled into one. You're effectively running to the next 15-minute cutscene in dungeons that completely and utterly overstay their welcome with some of the slower combat animations imaginable. The URTV plot in XS2 was good, but I feel like the games overall just spent a lot of time
wasting my time.
I was late to the party with Xenogears, too, and I didn't like it either for the most part. Second disc criticisms aside... when you're platforming, you should not get into a random encounter as you're jumping. Like, ever. You mess up your jump, and then you're back to square one. Sure, if you're playing the game for merely the plot and haven't really experienced Gnosticism to its fullest extent in academia or independent research, it's probably one of the better games for you, but I'm not merely playing it for its narrative. In short, Xenogears is perhaps a very ambivalent game. The plot seems okay, but the storytelling is flawed. The combo system could have probably been patched up a little more. The Gear battles seem to be there for the sake of providing some variety. Basically, it could have been much better than it already is. When I played it with its PSN release, I couldn't help but to feel like the game was half-baked at best. Perhaps it's one of those "you had to have been there" sort of games.
The best Xeno-prefix game is Xenoblade, no question. It's not the bestest most amazing game I've played, but it's fairly solid with a lot of stuff for the player to do (even if it suffers from "quests for the sake of quests" syndrome and other issues--like any other game, it's by no means perfect; like Noi said, the combat could use some tinkering). It's a good game, one of the better Wii RPGs, and I would argue that if you're into playing RPGs, you should probably give it a try at least. Don't feel bad if you don't like it, though, because the game does some stuff that people may not like very much.
Of course, I've come to realize that my opinions tend to be minority opinions at times. So don't let what I think serve as a deterrent.
If only you had the time/money to play XIV. Yoshida and Co.'s work has single handedly convinced me that there are more than just Toriyama-level hacks working at SE. The world building in it is pretty much like the older games, with the boon of having a localization team that clearly have fun with the job.
Yeah, it's kinda too bad. I mean, if I get a PS4 update and can beat the game within a month in the summer or something during the free trial period, then maybe. ARR just came out at a bad time for me.
Trophy list in english this early? Guess the game is already localized but there pushing it back because they fear it would bomb this holiday. Also lol at
.
It's a single trophy/cheevo list for all territories and the language would probably change depending on your console's language. The same thing happened with FF13 and FF13-2, and thus the trophies are not stackable (ie: you cannot buy a version of the game from another region and platinum it again).
When I bought FF13 in 2009, prior to the English release, the list was already in English because my console's language is set to English.
Yeah, I agree. Even right down to the NPCs and the gameplay design (even the tutorials), FF7 is incredibly goofy and plays itself out as though it took bits and pieces from the previous games in terms of shifting tone.
Something I appreciate about FF7's dungeons, though, is that while they're incredibly short and don't force the player to spend a lot of time in them (the Shinra Tower, Great Glacier, Gaea's Cliff, Temple of the Ancients Northern Cave would probably refute that), they don't waste a lot of time in trying to get the player across to the next area. They don't have much in terms of design (ie: climb this, get this, etc), but they're relatively alright. The best dungeons in the game have probably got to be the Shinra Tower (oh, for lots and lots of reasons; I think it's perhaps my favourite dungeon in the game because it does some different stuff), Gaea's Cliff, the Great Glacier, and the Ancient Forest. They're puzzley, but don't necessarily wear out their welcome + they have good background assets.
And they're not all the same, either. They have different gimmicks to them, without the need to resorting to "this is a switch puzzle, this is another block puzzle, etc". They're kinda fun. Again, this goes hand-in-hand with what you said about FF7 having some variation.
But I kind of wanted to afford those same accolades to the other PS1 games. FF8 has a lot of great dungeon design ideas, perhaps having some of the better dungeon designs in the PS1-era at times (The Castle, Tomb of the Unknown King, Galbadia Garden, Balamb Garden (I said I liked the Shinra Tower, so me liking the two Garden dungeons isn't out of bounds), etc), even if the dungeon amount isn't as huge or focused. While that game tried to take itself a little more seriously, it still had goofy Zell begging for hot dogs while being hyperactive, Irvine trying to unsuccessfully flirt with any female that moved, Selphie keeping a diary about her exploits with the team while chronicling Laguna's travel journals, making a music festival that you could just easily turn into an irish jig, Dr. Odine wearing whatever the hell he's wearing, and a bunch of other stuff. The game still managed to balance levity with seriousness, even if the main characters didn't always do it. The supporting cast and NPCs still managed to try to breathe some life into the settings.
Additionally, it should be noted that FF8 contrasted a lot with FF6 and FF7 in terms of its art assets. In comparison, it used a lot of lighter colours to those games. Lots of light blues, pinks, whites, greens, etc (and you can easily tell this when you go to Galbadia Garden/D-District Prison/Missile Base where it's completely opposite in tone with respect to all of the other areas in the game). It was lively in comparison to the dour colours of the previous two games. It sometimes created a bit of a dissonance with the plot and tone, but I felt like the balance was relatively even.
And Final Fantasy IX should probably be well-spoken for. A lot of its dungeons are puzzle-based, and some being direct references to other games (Mt. Gulug, Ice Cavern (though loosely)). But to me, FFIX was more homely. It's probably no secret that FFIX is my favourite, so I could probably go on about it.
And it truly is better to start branching out. A few friends of mine started doing that a few years ago since they were so used to playing Square-developed stuff, and it's probably for the best that they did. Sometimes diversifying your repertoire is a good thing.
