Good read Schala. As a fellow fan of the mechanics/gameplay side of RPGs that post was so much more informative than... well...
Why is Ni no Kuni so revered, anyway? Around the time it came out most people only seemed hyped about the visuals and connection with Studio Ghibli. I wasn't able to get a bead on why people liked it other than that and it being a different mood than a lot of JRPGs.
Good read Schala. As a fellow fan of the mechanics/gameplay side of RPGs that post was so much more informative than... well...
Why is Ni no Kuni so revered, anyway? Around the time it came out most people only seemed hyped about the visuals and connection with Studio Ghibli. I wasn't able to get a bead on why people liked it other than that and it being a different mood than a lot of JRPGs.
I guess so... maybe if they stopped discounting games like Ys, Fire Emblem, Etrian Odyssey, Mario and Luigi, etc. as "real" JRPGs, they would see that JRPGs aren't dead and don't need a savior, though.
Mario and Luigi: Dream Team will save JRPGs with it's wonderful spritework, catchy Yoko Shimomura music, hillirious localization, compelling mix of 3d overworld and 2d dream world sequences, and fun interactive battles! You can even level up and wear gear, which in a post-Sticker Star world, is all it takes to get me happy about Mario RPGs.
Mario and Luigi: Dream Team will save JRPGs with it's wonderful spritework, catchy Yoko Shimomura music, hillirious localization, compelling mix of 3d overworld and 2d dream world sequences, and fun interactive battles! You can even level up and wear gear, which in a post-Sticker Star world, is all it takes to get me happy about Mario RPGs.
I feel bad for not being that excited for Dream Team (bros) as a big fan of Superstar Saga.
While Bowser's Inside Story was a big step up from the incredibly disappointing Partners in Time it still carried a few issues with it, those being...
- The overworld map doesn't feel entirely cohesive nor are the locations particularly interesting.
- Sections inside Bowser could often begin to drag
- Some special moves still take too long to pull off
- Repeated minigames
Dream Team's trailers have shown me even longer special moves complete with gyro gimmickry and the inside Luigi's dreams stuff looks to be very much the inside Bowser's guts equivalent for this game. Now granted the game still looks pretty good and the dream stuff already looks more fun than Bowser's belly.
But I still just want something more like Superstar Saga, where the battles are fast and where the new world presented to the player is one that isn't the mushroom kingdom in some other form (good thing dream team is back out of the mushroom kingdom).
Superstar Saga had the advantage of the bros moves actually being new, at this point the novelty of spinning the brothers over a gap or hammering the other bro into the floor just isn't the same anymore.
I'd actually put Superstar Saga in the bottom half of Mario RPGs, with BiS right at the top, so BiS 2 has me unreasonably excited. As long as we don't have to do that damn nasal minigame again, argh
soooo FFXIV. I can't say I've ever played an MMO that's hooked me quite as quickly, I'm having at least 20x times more fun with the beta in a day than I had with 1.0 in it's entirety. Helps that I'm playing it on a thing that can run it this time.
Mario and Luigi: Dream Team will save JRPGs with it's wonderful spritework, catchy Yoko Shimomura music, hillirious localization, compelling mix of 3d overworld and 2d dream world sequences, and fun interactive battles! You can even level up and wear gear, which in a post-Sticker Star world, is all it takes to get me happy about Mario RPGs.
soooo FFXIV. I can't say I've ever played an MMO that's hooked me quite as quickly, I'm having at least 20x times more fun with the beta in a day than I had with 1.0 in it's entirety. Helps that I'm playing it on a thing that can run it this time.
Nah, I'm on Behemoth with some buds, Hyperrion for the actual real server once phase 4 starts. Though I'm a legacy member, so I can just make characters wherever the fuck I want. :v
Nah, I'm on Behemoth with some buds, Hyperrion for the actual real server once phase 4 starts. Though I'm a legacy member, so I can just make characters wherever the fuck I want. :v
So I spent my evening playing Deadly Premonition and i'm still not sure what I think of it, it's unusually compelling for something with such abysmal gameplay, as odd as it feels to say I get the impression that a lot of care went into this on some level, just not for the actual gameplay if that makes sense, nothing surrounding this game makes sense, the coffee I made for Lightning Lord earlier told me so.
Nuts to the paper, it's tea and tome for me this morning (I don't read the paper anyway, its miserable).
Doesn't sound like there was much to celebrate in there aside from the audio visual side, at least from that viewpoint. Is it odd that I never actually thought the visuals looked that good? when the game was first revealed I just didn't feel that it really did justice to the whole Ghibli visual angle, not that it looks bad, I just always thought something using visuals as one of its main selling points would have a bit more to it, looks more like shades of Ghibli to me.
It looks much better in motion. With that said, though, I think the backgrounds look much better than the character models. The only character model I felt that had personality in a Wind Waker-esque manner was Drippy's because of his cute idle animations. Outside of that, I don't think the various NPCs or Oliver himself exhibited a lot of nice little idle animations or expressions that other games done in a similar manner did (I'm mostly referring to TWW, though).
Played through the first game just to make sure I did. It was a bitch having to walk through that forest every time just to get him but I did it every time because it was worth it.
And I think I realized what bother me about the good ending,
Nanami faking her death was stupid, if she wanted out she could have just told the kid. She kept forcing herself in my party when I kept trying to make her stay home anyway! She made the poor kid think he had nothing to come home too after all this was over. Poor show Nanami.
Tir's my faaaavourite. Way better than the GS2 protagonist statistics-wise. But yeah, it sucked having to walk through the forest every single freaking time to get him. But man, I love using him.
You really need to get the (50% of the game spoilers)
Tinto Bad Ending
. I think I wrote about it in this post, but man, when I found out I could do that, I was pretty floored. So gooood. I got the bad ending the first time I played through the game, so that's why I don't think that bad of the good ending. In the end, the good ending was something that I'd genuinely wanted.
What's funny is that the original document was 4500+ words but I had to take out a few paragraphs to account for GAF's irritating character limit. I didn't even touch on a few things I'd wanted to, but I think I said most of what I had to say in therrrrrreeeee.
Good read Schala. As a fellow fan of the mechanics/gameplay side of RPGs that post was so much more informative than... well...
Why is Ni no Kuni so revered, anyway? Around the time it came out most people only seemed hyped about the visuals and connection with Studio Ghibli. I wasn't able to get a bead on why people liked it other than that and it being a different mood than a lot of JRPGs.
Ni No Kuni just happens to be packed full of content (most of which I dislike), it looks very nice, and it has a world map. It's reminds people of older RPGs, or at least the volume of content that older RPGs used to have, but the problem is that there are games--as you've said--that have actually done this this generation, and they did it even better. Because of how it looks and feels, people can overlook the gameplay deficiencies that the game has. It looks pretty, but it's just so darn shallow in terms of its gameplay mechanics. It tries to do so much but it falls flat on its face by virtue of how poorly-designed it is.
Again, I just think people wanted something reminiscent of older RPGs, and in terms of its themes and lack of melodrama, Ni no Kuni kinda does that. Helps that it has a world map and good visual design, too.
Tir's my faaaavourite. Way better than the GS2 protagonist statistics-wise. But yeah, it sucked having to walk through the forest every single freaking time to get him. But man, I love using him.
You really need to get the (50% of the game spoilers)
Tinto Bad Ending
. I think I wrote about it in this post, but man, when I found out I could do that, I was pretty floored. So gooood. I got the bad ending the first time I played through the game, so that's why I don't think that bad of the good ending. In the end, the good ending was something that I'd genuinely wanted.
Damn, that's a pretty fleshed out alternate ending.
I don't like the idea of Riou being Shinji Ikari though, but that ending is kind of great considering it's a kid acting like a kid and saying screw all you guys for making me fight a war I shouldn't have to fight.
Speaking of what is up with Suiko folks and making kids the leaders of armies? Then they have the nerve to try to make them leaders of countries after. HELL NO. That's why they run away every time.
Both tracks are great but I kind of like the EU/JP one a little more ever since I did that playthrough of the 2011 Taxman port.
I will say that the US one definitely has the superior jingles and boss themes. And some of the songs are kind of neck and neck (Collision Chaos both US and JP sound just as good).
I usually hate buying a copy of a game I already have, but when the game is $30, and said game is SNES Chrono Trigger, I can't say no. Picked up a boxed Super Game Boy with the big ass box and the guide for it for a relatively decent price, too. Dunno what it is about retro magazines/guides that make me feel like I'm 5 again.
I usually hate buying a copy of a game I already have, but when the game is $30, and said game is SNES Chrono Trigger, I can't say no. Picked up a boxed Super Game Boy with the big ass box and the guide for it for a relatively decent price, too. Dunno what it is about retro magazines/guides that make me feel like I'm 5 again.
Damn, that's a pretty fleshed out alternate ending.
I don't like the idea of Riou being Shinji Ikari though, but that ending is kind of great considering it's a kid acting like a kid and saying screw all you guys for making me fight a war I shouldn't have to fight.
Speaking of what is up with Suiko folks and making kids the leaders of armies? Then they have the nerve to try to make them leaders of countries after. HELL NO. That's why they run away every time.
The runes tend to choose younger folks to do their bidding, and I think it's partially because it's easier to coerce them (because most of the time, the runes are the ones who manipulate the characters; that's why Jowy and Riou always had to fight as the sword and shield opposed to each other). You'll see in the next game that the age group of the true rune bearers are more spread out (ex: you get a teen, a 20-something (and one of the best females in gaming, mind you), and an older man.
Anyway, I love how the games handle stuff like that. The writing's just really darn good in those cases.
Both tracks are great but I kind of like the EU/JP one a little more ever since I did that playthrough of the 2011 Taxman port.
I will say that the US one definitely has the superior jingles and boss themes. And some of the songs are kind of neck and neck (Collision Chaos both US and JP sound just as good).
I feel the same. But I like the JP boss theme a lot.
Though I do feel like the US soundtrack has the better special stage theme. I feel like because it's super-chill, it's easier for me to get through special stages without much distraction.
...now that I think about it, I think that's why some people prefer the NA soundtrack more.
I usually hate buying a copy of a game I already have, but when the game is $30, and said game is SNES Chrono Trigger, I can't say no. Picked up a boxed Super Game Boy with the big ass box and the guide for it for a relatively decent price, too. Dunno what it is about retro magazines/guides that make me feel like I'm 5 again.
I have a Super Game Boy. It's great. Hope you like it because it's much easier to play Game Boy games without having to deal with light glares and stuff. GBC games are a different case, though, as you can probably notice.
But man am I jealous of that copy of Chrono Trigger you have if it's CIB. I was thinking of buying the Super Famicom version of that since I saw it cheap. I did get my copy of DKC3 but I'm not home so I can't take a pic of all three CIB games! :O
I can't decide which Special Stage theme I like most. The JP/EU version is totally best for the menu though.
In speaking of CIBs, I've been hunting down CIB copies of GBA games not too long ago. Even bought some box & manual copies of games I already own just so my GB games can be not loose. When I get the money I might hunt down CIB copies of Pokemon Leaf Green and Emerald.
The runes tend to choose younger folks to do their bidding, and I think it's partially because it's easier to coerce them (because most of the time, the runes are the ones who manipulate the characters; that's why Jowy and Riou always had to fight as the sword and shield opposed to each other). You'll see in the next game that the age group of the true rune bearers are more spread out (ex: you get a teen, a 20-something (and one of the best females in gaming, mind you), and an older man.
Anyway, I love how the games handle stuff like that. The writing's just really darn good in those cases.
I feel the same. But I like the JP boss theme a lot.
Though I do feel like the US soundtrack has the better special stage theme. I feel like because it's super-chill, it's easier for me to get through special stages without much distraction.
...now that I think about it, I think that's why some people prefer the NA soundtrack more.
But man am I jealous of that copy of Chrono Trigger you have if it's CIB. I was thinking of buying the Super Famicom version of that since I saw it cheap. I did get my copy of DKC3 but I'm not home so I can't take a pic of all three CIB games! :O
Nah, it's not CIB. I guess the place I got if from just didn't know the value of it. The label's in pretty good condition, which was the reason I bought it; the label from my childhood copy is pretty much gone, and in it's place is a cut out piece of paper taped to the place on the cart where the label would be with "Chrono Trigger" written in marker and a poorly drawn doodle of Crono. (I was 9, sue me.)
Yeah, CIB copies of the SFC version are pretty cheap. I might just get it one of these days just for the sake of collecting.
In speaking of CIBs, I've been hunting down CIB copies of GBA games not too long ago. Even bought some box & manual copies of games I already own just so my GB games can be not loose. When I get the money I might hunt down CIB copies of Pokemon Leaf Green and Emerald.
That's a good idea, especially considering getting loose copies of any of the GBA Pokemon games online are a gamble since a lot of them are bootlegs.
Back when Nintendo still sold DS cases with the little notch inside to hold GBA games on their online store, I bought a bunch and used them to store some of my loose GB/GBA games. Even printed the covers so I knew which was which.
