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Suikoden Tactics North America release thread
- Thread starter U5230
- Start date
Drinky Crow
Banned
If it had rhythmic button pressing elements or a zany dancing salariman, our precious KobunHeat probably woulda given it a record 5.5/5!
When's this game out, anyhow? It totally flew under my radar.
When's this game out, anyhow? It totally flew under my radar.
Drinky Crow
Banned
Holy McFuck. Guess I'll be waiting for the bargain bin on this one.
ObFreeMAF: FREE MAF!
ObFreeMAF: FREE MAF!
Drinky Crow
Banned
More specifically, I'll be waiting until January. I'm way behind on my Xmas shopping, and I've already bought too many games recently.
MAF was banned by a couple of mods who either don't get him or do get him but get their little danders up nonetheless. It was an exercise in getting their buttons completely pushed despite the completely silly and transparent effort MAF put into it: he posted a few pics of Matthew Perry in random threads and mocked EviLore/sp0rks in IRC after bish arbitrarily deleted his MMMZ4/SotC thread. Geek pride prevailed, and MAF is out for six months. FREE MAF!
MAF was banned by a couple of mods who either don't get him or do get him but get their little danders up nonetheless. It was an exercise in getting their buttons completely pushed despite the completely silly and transparent effort MAF put into it: he posted a few pics of Matthew Perry in random threads and mocked EviLore/sp0rks in IRC after bish arbitrarily deleted his MMMZ4/SotC thread. Geek pride prevailed, and MAF is out for six months. FREE MAF!
Link1110
Member
There are a few good games coming out, but as far as I'm concerned, the big release period is over. 6 DS games I wanted coming out in a 3 week period, I still haven't got them all.
Week 1
Lunar
Trace Memory
Lost in Blue
Week 2
Castlevania
Trauma Center
Week 3
Phoenix Wright (They saved the best for last)
I'm almost through this (maybe 80% in) and I'd say its about 8/10.
Plus points are:
+Fantastic world (almost feels like a traditional rpg)
+Great presentation
+Nice Suikoden music
+Tons of recruitable characters
+New and unique battle system that feels like no other s-rpg to date
+Has most of Suikoden's strengths: Lots of neat characters/weapon upgrading/runes/specialized shops
+Gameplay is very addicting. Everytime I power the game on I end up doing 5+ hour sessions.
+Having support characters who can't attack but boost stats is pretty fun.
+Skill system is excellent and really enhances the battle system.
Negative points are:
-Story is fluff like Suikoden I/IV's plot. You realize this quickly and enjoy it for the world/gameplay not plot.
-Forces power leveling. Since in each map the bosses are 4 levels higher than the last one you'll get destroyed if you just play the story maps no matter how good your strategy is. Even if you surround a lvl.26 guy if your party is lvl.18 you'll be doing like 10hp per attack on a guy with 300hp while he does 300hp worth of attacks on your <300hp characters. To get around this you really need to power level for an hour or so between each story map if you want to keep up.
-Distribution of exp is crap. Even if you kill a guy 10 levels higher than you, you won't gain more than a single level and the majority of the exp is on kills not hits. So basically during story maps you're going to end up with some of your character 5-6 levels higher than other ones. The reason is that your strong characters are the ones out in front (because you can't afford to have your lower level guys dying permenantly from a single hit) doing counter-attacks and the ones who can do modest damage so they get the kills and get more exp. Meanwhile the weaker guys can't do much so they barely level. This is why you have to power level between maps and have the lower guys level up.
-You basically use items like mad in this game, so you have to restock everyone between each map which gets a bit tiring.
Middleground:
-With 64 playable characters, yet only 6-8 deployable in a normal map (though you can switch people out mid-battle) it's really not a plus or minus. I mean it's great that you have so much choice in what characters to use, but if you want to keep everyone at high enough levels to be able to swap in during a story battle you're going to have to level everyone SLOWLY and spend money you don't have upgrading their weapons and getting them defense equipment. So in truth most people will just have to decide on a group of characters by about 1/3rd in and stick to them.
Plus points are:
+Fantastic world (almost feels like a traditional rpg)
+Great presentation
+Nice Suikoden music
+Tons of recruitable characters
+New and unique battle system that feels like no other s-rpg to date
+Has most of Suikoden's strengths: Lots of neat characters/weapon upgrading/runes/specialized shops
+Gameplay is very addicting. Everytime I power the game on I end up doing 5+ hour sessions.
+Having support characters who can't attack but boost stats is pretty fun.
+Skill system is excellent and really enhances the battle system.
Negative points are:
-Story is fluff like Suikoden I/IV's plot. You realize this quickly and enjoy it for the world/gameplay not plot.
-Forces power leveling. Since in each map the bosses are 4 levels higher than the last one you'll get destroyed if you just play the story maps no matter how good your strategy is. Even if you surround a lvl.26 guy if your party is lvl.18 you'll be doing like 10hp per attack on a guy with 300hp while he does 300hp worth of attacks on your <300hp characters. To get around this you really need to power level for an hour or so between each story map if you want to keep up.
-Distribution of exp is crap. Even if you kill a guy 10 levels higher than you, you won't gain more than a single level and the majority of the exp is on kills not hits. So basically during story maps you're going to end up with some of your character 5-6 levels higher than other ones. The reason is that your strong characters are the ones out in front (because you can't afford to have your lower level guys dying permenantly from a single hit) doing counter-attacks and the ones who can do modest damage so they get the kills and get more exp. Meanwhile the weaker guys can't do much so they barely level. This is why you have to power level between maps and have the lower guys level up.
-You basically use items like mad in this game, so you have to restock everyone between each map which gets a bit tiring.
Middleground:
-With 64 playable characters, yet only 6-8 deployable in a normal map (though you can switch people out mid-battle) it's really not a plus or minus. I mean it's great that you have so much choice in what characters to use, but if you want to keep everyone at high enough levels to be able to swap in during a story battle you're going to have to level everyone SLOWLY and spend money you don't have upgrading their weapons and getting them defense equipment. So in truth most people will just have to decide on a group of characters by about 1/3rd in and stick to them.
Drinky Crow
Banned
Wait, Suikoden 2 and 3 *didn't* have fluff plots? Did we play the same games?
I have this canned elitist rant I could go into, but I expect you're all anticipating it. Still, WTF: the distinction in quality between two abritrary generic anime fantasy plots with silly character names and furry races is utterly lost on me.
I have this canned elitist rant I could go into, but I expect you're all anticipating it. Still, WTF: the distinction in quality between two abritrary generic anime fantasy plots with silly character names and furry races is utterly lost on me.
Himuro said:
I was gonna get it anyways, but as a quick decison and from the scores it sounds about average. There's just more games higher up on my list and since this doesn't seem to be getting raving, incredible scores (7/10, 3 out of 5) I can safely surmise that this can be put on the back burner compared to the plethora of other games I want to play. On top of that I still have a bad taste in my mouth from Suikoden IV.
Drinky Crow
Banned
Yeah, when it's executed in an utterly facile and one-dimensional fashion. To me, there's no fuckin' difference; they're both amateurish crap to whack the start button through.
Drinky Crow
Banned
I could, but it would be longwinded and a poor substitute for a several years of reading well-written fiction as opposed to only the very dregs of genre crap.
Like I said, there's nothing worthy about the plot of ANY Suikoden. I under stand that some of you dig the simple relationships which when coupled with the character art elicit that weird sort of fascination that typifies the anime fanboy condition. Fine. That still doesn't excuse the idea that there's juvenile fiction with deeper themes and more original plots than the average anime fantasy exercise, and especially moreso than the cliche-addled tripe that provides the central impetus for the goofy Suikoden universe.
Like I said, there's nothing worthy about the plot of ANY Suikoden. I under stand that some of you dig the simple relationships which when coupled with the character art elicit that weird sort of fascination that typifies the anime fanboy condition. Fine. That still doesn't excuse the idea that there's juvenile fiction with deeper themes and more original plots than the average anime fantasy exercise, and especially moreso than the cliche-addled tripe that provides the central impetus for the goofy Suikoden universe.
Drinky Crow
Banned
Fanboys can never be destroyed; they can only be contained. Strike at them and they only grow stronger.
On the subject of storylines, a very talented writter once told me "there are no new storylines, just new window dressing."
I don't critisize a game's storyline for being another "teen saves the world from the forces of evil". I critisize a storyline when its "spikey haired teen with big sword saves the world from forces of evil while realizing his true destiny." Thats puke.
I find it hard to be too critical of Suiko 3's storyline myself. The designers took an interesting approach with the tri-whatchamacalit dealy where you play as three different characters with interlinked storylines. That was a great way to introduce the cast and get the region well developed in the player's mind. I don't much care for some of the actual writting, or Suikoden's continued problem of having a very murky backstory for every game, but Suiko 3's storyline at least tried something different to get the player interested. Gameplay though was another problem all together.
I don't critisize a game's storyline for being another "teen saves the world from the forces of evil". I critisize a storyline when its "spikey haired teen with big sword saves the world from forces of evil while realizing his true destiny." Thats puke.
I find it hard to be too critical of Suiko 3's storyline myself. The designers took an interesting approach with the tri-whatchamacalit dealy where you play as three different characters with interlinked storylines. That was a great way to introduce the cast and get the region well developed in the player's mind. I don't much care for some of the actual writting, or Suikoden's continued problem of having a very murky backstory for every game, but Suiko 3's storyline at least tried something different to get the player interested. Gameplay though was another problem all together.
evilromero
Member
And larger.Drinky Crow said:
II had a good plot because the story of the main two characters was constructed quite well. It also had a badass villian which helps.
III had sorta an interesting plot that was executed terribly and accompanied by an awful actual 'game'.
Plus I don't really think it matters if the plot is good or not in Rhapsodia/Suikoden Tactics. The game is about the gameplay and characters.
III had sorta an interesting plot that was executed terribly and accompanied by an awful actual 'game'.
Plus I don't really think it matters if the plot is good or not in Rhapsodia/Suikoden Tactics. The game is about the gameplay and characters.
Drinky Crow
Banned
evilromero, :lol -- can't believe I missed that obvious gag.
Drinky Crow
Banned
erefen, Vagrant Story ain't bad. Nocturne is kinda cool thematically, if underdeveloped.