• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Do you have audio editing experience and want to help out with the Famiboards Discussion Club Podcast? If so, we're looking for help and would love to have you on the team! Just let us know in the Podcast Thread if you are interested!

StarTopic RPGs |ST| Our Home Base For All Role Playing Game Discussions!

Close to dropping XB2 again. Feel the story still hasn't really started and I honestly think it might have the worst combat in a jrpg I've played, even after watching 90 minutes of video guides.

It's actually made me want to want replay XB1, I first played it in 2014 and I thought it was an incredibly good, top 10 level game but I wonder if my tastes have just completely changed. Maybe I'm just completely misremembering the tone and gameplay of the first title and letting nostalgia influence me.

I wouldn't say is nostalgia, the original Xenoblade is a way better game than 2, both in its gameplay, and writing, and for the most part the tone of that writing wasn't riddled with the worst attempts at levity around.
 
I wouldn't say is nostalgia, the original Xenoblade is a way better game than 2, both in its gameplay, and writing, and for the most part the tone of that writing wasn't riddled with the worst attempts at levity around.
G3gX0fX_d.webp
 
I wouldn't say is nostalgia, the original Xenoblade is a way better game than 2, both in its gameplay, and writing, and for the most part the tone of that writing wasn't riddled with the worst attempts at levity around.
I haven't posted too much more about it because it makes me feel like a bitter old man (might be accurate) but yeah the bolded gets to me. The humor isn't landing at all for me, it feels like it's trying to emulate shonen anime very directly but it's making it hard to take some of the characters seriously. I assume there will be more serious moments to contrast it later.

Fwiw I'm still playing because the combat got better after I used the DLC to get a bunch of core crystals for more blades, I don't think the combat is bad anymore (it is too slow) but I wish I had more flexibility and control over the blades I pull and use where. The gacha system is dragging it down but that's probably been argued to death by now I imagine.
 
I'm having a very merry RPG time, with my week night gaming time going to my NG+ Golden Route run on Triangle Strategy, and my weekend gaming time going to the remaster of the original Mass Effect. Two radically different, but very chatty RPGs.
 
I haven't posted too much more about it because it makes me feel like a bitter old man (might be accurate) but yeah the bolded gets to me. The humor isn't landing at all for me, it feels like it's trying to emulate shonen anime very directly but it's making it hard to take some of the characters seriously. I assume there will be more serious moments to contrast it later.

Fwiw I'm still playing because the combat got better after I used the DLC to get a bunch of core crystals for more blades, I don't think the combat is bad anymore (it is too slow) but I wish I had more flexibility and control over the blades I pull and use where. The gacha system is dragging it down but that's probably been argued to death by now I imagine.
XC2’s plot takes a long time to really get going, but the overdone levity moments you mentioned go WAY down after Chapter 4-5. Chapter 6 and 7 are really good and lead into the game really going places.

The combat, tone, and humor is noticeably worse in the first few chapters IMO. It’s like they didn’t want things to get too serious or too complicated too quickly, which I can understand but I think they overdid it.
 
The humor isn't landing at all for me, it feels like it's trying to emulate shonen anime very directly
Takahashi said this was actually a goal of his when developing 2. So it's sort of one of those "it's not a bug, it's a feature" things.

I assume there will be more serious moments to contrast it later.
This is very correct. There's a really hard turn eventually and the game goes straight to Serioustown.

XC2’s plot takes a long time to really get going, but the overdone levity moments you mentioned go WAY down after Chapter 4-5. Chapter 6 and 7 are really good and lead into the game really going places.
Seconding this.

@Leica:
IMO the exploration and world design try to carry the game through the first half, and then the second half is when the story/lore picks up and carries it the rest of the way. I personally don't like the combat very much so I see where you're coming from there, but the world and the story combine to make this one of my favorite series ever. It's good enough to actually overcome my disliking the battle system.. in a JRPG. 😅 If you can manage to stick through the relatively goofy first half then I hope you start to enjoy it!!
 
I went through Caligula 2 recently. W O W. What a redemption arc after how rough the first game was. The story, characters, themes, gameplay, music,, all of it SO much better. The non-binary party member is treated so well too. Seriously a must play.
 
New SH2 trailer:


I really want to like this game but haven't seen anything in any trailer that blows me away. As a matter of fact, the style is kind of off-putting to me. And that kinda pains me as a huge fan of the first game :(
 
I was excited to finally resume my Final Fantasy VI playthrough today after being away for a while. Since I had tons of free time today, I made awesome progress! I started today with just Celes and now I’m only missing Locke. I think the World of Ruin here is where I’m really feeling the difference between this playthrough and my last on GBA because I have significantly more RPG experience under my belt. I’m just blasting through all of these dungeons and side quests with confidence.

My dream team of Sabin, Cyan, Mog, and Gogo is finally here. I forgot exactly how cool Gogo is. Not only can Gogo mimic your previous action, you actually have to build the rest of Gogo’s command list. While you could do a basic Attack/Magic/Item layout, you can substitute all of those out if you wish. I chose to ditch Attack for Blitz since Sabin learned Bum Rush today which pierces through defense. Since Gogo can’t equip Espers, I gave Gogo the Growth Egg (double XP) to get their stat boosts as soon as possible.

I’m currently in Cyan’s super trippy nightmare and after that I think I just have the underwater castle, Locke’s mountain, and the cult tower left to conquer, as well the dragons to take out, before I start leveling up my unused teammates. I’ll definitely take on plenty of cactaurs and dinosaurs at that point, though I am interested in having a tougher final dungeon and boss so I’ll see how I’m feeling when I get there.
 
Finally started Ys VIII, which has been sitting in my physical backlog for years. I knew it wouldn't match the PS4/PC versions, but I'm mostly pleasantly surprised by its look. High resolution textures and high resolution output in general give it a cleaner look than something like Xenoblade, though less complicated. The one big drawback is the textures of the world are very shimmery with motion, both docked and undocked. Also disappointing that rather than being a proper open world it's more like FFXII with frequent loading between connected zones, but at least the load times are quick. I found it amusing that there's an option to turn off the loading screen tips to make things even quicker, but given they're already pretty quick and the tips are purely short bits of text I can't imagine it makes much difference.
 
Eventually, I want to right one of my wrongs and finally see for myself if I enjoy FF13. Will have to get my hands on a Series S first, though. I missed out on a lot of PS3/X360 era (J)RPGs and always wanted to change that.
 
New SH2 trailer:


I really want to like this game but haven't seen anything in any trailer that blows me away. As a matter of fact, the style is kind of off-putting to me. And that kinda pains me as a huge fan of the first game :(

I love the first game and I think this looks awesome. It looks AT LEAST as slick as Persona 5, character designs are stylish, and it takes place in Tokyo without being either a post apocalypse or high school double life shebang. Plus a female protagonist who speaks and looks as cool as Ringo does? Too good to pass up.
 
Decided to return to FF12 to do some post game, but ended up grinding a few levels instead of doing something productive.

The Gambit system still being so much fun after all those years is kind of illegal, ngl.
 
Finally started Ys VIII, which has been sitting in my physical backlog for years. I knew it wouldn't match the PS4/PC versions, but I'm mostly pleasantly surprised by its look. High resolution textures and high resolution output in general give it a cleaner look than something like Xenoblade, though less complicated. The one big drawback is the textures of the world are very shimmery with motion, both docked and undocked. Also disappointing that rather than being a proper open world it's more like FFXII with frequent loading between connected zones, but at least the load times are quick. I found it amusing that there's an option to turn off the loading screen tips to make things even quicker, but given they're already pretty quick and the tips are purely short bits of text I can't imagine it makes much difference.
YS VIII in the end is a Vita game (made by a small dev) so a lot of limitations are still shown even if it's not an issue at least for me
 
0
YALL

Been a while since I was convinced to buy a game based on the talent and one screenshot. What does the RPGfam think?


Updating on this, played the the demo and this is pretty much Furyuu's take on Secret of Mana, up to the stamina bar and ring menu.

THAwVwb.jpg
hN6WHpB.jpg
6v9j7gA.jpg


I found the game actually decent, it obviously is low bduget in the graphics side as the fields and models are simpler than other games, but it does perform very good even with effects like snow. The important here is the battle system as you can customize your combo attack with different attacks that varies on strength and stamina they use (the demo had 2 for each character, but I'm assuming you get more). Also the characters can have more than one weapons. here's a video of a quick encounter



Overall it's a solid game so I will get it when / if they bring it to the west
 
Contemplating seeing if I can get focused on something this weekend but haven’t decided what
 
0
It's the weekend so I'll be heading back to Mass Effect after reaching chapter 11 in Triangle Strategy (I think? I might be further on than that).

Depends what else I do this weekend, but hopefully I'll be able to sink through plenty of side quests and do one of the bigger mission (X57, Feros, and Noveria all await).
 
0
I've been playing TearRing Saga: Yutona Eiyuu Senki recently, and it's a jolly good time.
...

1. The game has the Save Staff item.

2. There are two protagonists, Runan and Holmes. At various points in the game, you have the option to transfer items and units between their two armies. Runan follows the more tradition FE formula, mostly going straight from battle to battle, while Holmes has an open map where you can do skirmishes to grind experience between battles. I'm enjoying Runan's chapters more so far as some of Holmes' chapters feature annoying swamps.

3. Early in the game you get a sniper who is quite overpowered at that point. However, she refuses to kill any human enemies, so she'll only ever get them down to 1 HP and it's a fun little idea.

You know those memes where it's like, "Mom, can we get X?" "No, we have X at home." And then the X at home is way worse than what the child was asking for? Well TearRing Saga is the Fire Emblem at home, except it's really good and better than like half of the other Fire Emblem games. You should play it.

#TeamJanuary

I've heard of this before, but never in such detail. These are really cool ideas. I like the sniper especially! She seems like she'd be great for helping other characters gain levels. Where is TearRing Saga available? Is it only on PS1?

Eventually, I want to right one of my wrongs and finally see for myself if I enjoy FF13. Will have to get my hands on a Series S first, though. I missed out on a lot of PS3/X360 era (J)RPGs and always wanted to change that.
I've had the same thought lately.
 
Last edited:
Updating on this, played the the demo and this is pretty much Furyuu's take on Secret of Mana, up to the stamina bar and ring menu.

THAwVwb.jpg
hN6WHpB.jpg
6v9j7gA.jpg


I found the game actually decent, it obviously is low bduget in the graphics side as the fields and models are simpler than other games, but it does perform very good even with effects like snow. The important here is the battle system as you can customize your combo attack with different attacks that varies on strength and stamina they use (the demo had 2 for each character, but I'm assuming you get more). Also the characters can have more than one weapons. here's a video of a quick encounter



Overall it's a solid game so I will get it when / if they bring it to the west

Neat! Thanks for the report! I actually find the simple graphics kinda charming so this is right up my alley so far.
 
Neat! Thanks for the report! I actually find the simple graphics kinda charming so this is right up my alley so far.
Yeah, they weren't lying with this phrase in the press release:

"This is a straightforward fantasy RPG like never before—for those who were once children and have now grown up, and for the children of today—playable alone or with others."

because it did kinda gave me that feeling of nostalgia just with more QoL features
 
Before XenoBlade 3 arrives I wanted to tackle Xenoblade 2 (stuck at the lila fight)..
But also need to finish up SMT V. I get slaughtered by Khonsu Ra, thats pretty much the last thing to do before I can start the endgame. Is it worth to try and beat him?? Im in the low 90s and still don’t get a shot at getting him pasr 50% health. Thinking the endgame will be a walk in the park if I spend my last grimoires
 
0
Yeah, they weren't lying with this phrase in the press release:

"This is a straightforward fantasy RPG like never before—for those who were once children and have now grown up, and for the children of today—playable alone or with others."

because it did kinda gave me that feeling of nostalgia just with more QoL features
"Nostalgia with more QoL features" is my jam. 🤣
 
Just finished chapter 7. Gotta be honest. There were some frustrating parts in that chapter, like being forced to create/level up blades' mastery levels just to advance the story. I get it that it is part of the game and all, but I guess it just isn't my cup of tea. Luckily fast travel and Google allowed me to figure out my steps quickly.

On to chapter 8!
I agree with you, that wasn’t so fun. I also didn’t like most characters, or the story. But visiting those worlds was worth it.

Edit

I hope 3 is better than 2. So far I feel the xenoblade games keep getting a bit worse every time.
 
0
Towards the end of chapter 9. Hopefully tonight when I get home I can finally beat Jin. Dude has been giving me a run for my money. Need to get over that hill.

All of my characters are 62~64. I'm hoping that will carry me to the end.
 
Close to dropping XB2 again. Feel the story still hasn't really started and I honestly think it might have the worst combat in a jrpg I've played, even after watching 90 minutes of video guides.

It's actually made me want to want replay XB1, I first played it in 2014 and I thought it was an incredibly good, top 10 level game but I wonder if my tastes have just completely changed. Maybe I'm just completely misremembering the tone and gameplay of the first title and letting nostalgia influence me.

I can't stand the game at all. Exploration is such a massive downgrade from previous games and the combat, even with the expansion sliders, is WAAAYYY too slow and takes forever. I can't fucking stand it.

For example, in previous games in the series you could one shot normal enemies that were 10 levels below you. In Xenoblade 2, even with the best available equipment and doing the battle mechanics perfectly, it still takes forever. It's. So. Boring. I have no idea why they made everything so damn slow.

I honestly could not make it even halfway through the game.
 
So I am not quite sure why, but I found myself thinking about mainline Final Fantasy a lot lately. 12 is my favourite out of those I played, together with 6, and followed by 9.

I could not get into 7 and 10 despite me giving them multiple shots. With 7, I am not quite sure why, but after the game opens up, it doesn't manage to hold my interest for much longer. With 10, it's the corniness. And Blitzball. The battle system is one of the best I have played, but alas.

As for 8, I never gave it a shot. The enemy scaling always was a turn-off for me, since I enjoy grinding for levels in RPGs. I never got around to play any of the classic FFs other than 6, so I hope the Pixel Remasters make their way to consoles sooner rather than later. Similarly, I missed out on 13, because gaming took a backseat for me during the PS3 era. I do want to play it at some point.

Different story altogether with 15, since I was initially excited for it, but decided not to get it after having played the Demo, because I could not get into the combat. My excitement levels for 16 are non-existent after that.
 
If you can get past the linearity and roadblocks the game puts in front of you with FF13 and just sort of accept that you'll have to deal with that for a while until it FINALLY opens up and lets you explore a bit more and use the battle system to its full extent, then IMO it's a pretty fun game. The story is confusing because it puts a lot of the relevent information into text entries that it makes you ready instead of spelling it out, too. But the battles system is really good IMO, as is the music and it's still a very pretty game even today.
 
Different story altogether with 15, since I was initially excited for it, but decided not to get it after having played the Demo, because I could not get into the combat. My excitement levels for 16 are non-existent after that.

This is my experience exactly. I'm so thankful that I discovered Dragon Quest in the last couple of years.
 
Yeah, Dragon Quest and Team Asano games prove that traditional JRPGs still have a place. The same is true for SMT.

Now that I've played all of the DQ games that I have access to (no switch yet, so no DQ11), I think I'll probably have to check out SMT.
 
I've heard of this before, but never in such detail. These are really cool ideas. I like the sniper especially! She seems like she'd be great for helping other characters gain levels. Where is TearRing Saga available? Is it only on PS1?
Yes, it is sadly only on PS1, and only in Japanese, so might need to use the fan translation to play it.

I beat the game earlier today, and I absolutely loved it. A 10/10 game and if I were ranking it among all the Fire Emblem games, I would put it third overall. (And it does deserve to be ranked alongside them as it is essentially a Fire Emblem game. It's so blatant that of course Nintendo sued over it.) Also, chapter 34 is one of my favorite maps in any Fire Emblem game. I had my entire army working on individual goals and it was sort of like a miniature Genealogy of the Holy War map where you have to capture a bunch of castles, except instead of castles it's forts with infinitely respawning enemies that you have to block up or else you'll be overwhelmed on your way to the boss. Loved it, which is saying something because infinitely respawning enemies is usually a recipe for tedium and annoyance.

By the way, I took that sniper all the way to the final chapter with me.
 
I can't stand the game at all. Exploration is such a massive downgrade from previous games and the combat, even with the expansion sliders, is WAAAYYY too slow and takes forever. I can't fucking stand it.

For example, in previous games in the series you could one shot normal enemies that were 10 levels below you. In Xenoblade 2, even with the best available equipment and doing the battle mechanics perfectly, it still takes forever. It's. So. Boring. I have no idea why they made everything so damn slow.

I honestly could not make it even halfway through the game.
I just got through chapter 4 which was possibly one of the lowest points I've ever seen in a jrpg but chapter 5 seems better so far. The combat and world is a massive downgrade from the first game though but I'm just barely invested enough in the overarching plot that I'll slowly keep trucking on. Doesn't help it's one of the grindiest games I've played too, they really went all out with the offline MMO thing in this one.
 
0
Wondering if a Xenovblade X re-release might be in the cards. Don't want to connect my Wii U just to play that.
 
Wondering if a Xenovblade X re-release might be in the cards. Don't want to connect my Wii U just to play that.
My Wii U just bit the dust while I was trying to load XBX the other night so.. yeah, I hate to say it but that would be nice. 😅
 
My Wii U just bit the dust while I was trying to load XBX the other night so.. yeah, I hate to say it but that would be nice. 😅
Ouch! How long had you been playing XBX? I can’t imagine restarting on a new save, so I wouldn’t buy a Switch port myself.

I’ve loaded up an old save from Phantasy Star IV. I love that game.
 
0
Im pretty far in nocturne just finished the Amala network the second time. And i like the design its a dungeon crawler in third person like the older games i enjoy it more than 4.
 
FINALLY, I beat chapter 9 in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Those two bosses were miserable, especially with Mr. Let me keep healing. Granted I'm probably slightly under-equipped lol, but still.

I'll start chapter 10 tomorrow.
 
After about 40 hours I fully finished my Final Fantasy VI replay! At a top level, wow, FFVI is still a masterpiece. While my playthrough diverged at Kefka’s Tower, which I’ll discuss below, I’m overall even more impressed how amazing this game is. The customization to make this game yours is truly astounding to this day and I love the characters, story, and battle system as well. For the majority of this playthrough, I enjoyed keeping the experience as tight as possible, bouncing from one challenge to the next, which made it my most satisfying playthrough yet. For this last stretch, the underwater castle and Locke’s Mountain were definitely my favorite gameplay parts as you have a tough group of monsters and a cool two team challenge to overcome respectively. The cult tower, which I used the Moogle Charm to mostly skip, gave me some grief with the boss as I didn’t notice twice he casts Ultima when he dies (whoops). Once I had Life 3 ready to go, I easily overcame him. For the ending, I do love the final confrontation with Kefka and the credits where everyone gets to have a few more character moments before waving goodbye. I also have to give a huge shout out to the final boss theme, Dancing Mad, which is forever awesome.

I mentioned in the first paragraph, I did make a decision that significantly diverged my playthrough and has given me plenty of other thoughts to sort through alongside that top level love. Once I completed everything in the World of Ruin and I felt my twelve person party was good enough, I made a separate save at the 33 hour mark. Everyone was between level 40-50 except for Gogo who had the Experience Egg and they all knew a decent amount of spells so I knew I was ready to take on Kefka. However, it had always been tradition for me to level Sabin, Cyan, and Mog to level 99 and max their stats in the dinosaur forest. My older brother who introduced me to gaming used to level his favorite characters to 99 in that forest as a way to extend his time with the game, so I always did so as well. Since I wasn’t ready then for my playthrough to end without it, I decided to take my main save in that direction. I’ve mentioned in plenty of other posts I don’t enjoy grinding so I basically never do it, but Final Fantasy VI is an exception because of this tradition. I did have fun taking out dinosaurs for a while (especially the terrifying Brachiosaurs) but it inevitably did drag as I found myself more against it in principal and I didn’t break it up across multiple days like I used to in the past. I threw on some music and ultimately powered through in two sittings, which was a decent excuse to enjoy music I guess. Amazingly, I had five(!) Economizers drop during this time so I had four level 99s (Gogo was the first one) and five characters who had 1 MP cost including Mog with dual casting. Needless to say, I completely obliterated Kefka and Kefka’s Tower.

So that five-six hour stretch wasn’t very fun, but it was a choice I made so I don’t hold it against the game at all. In doing it, I definitely reaffirmed my feelings on avoiding grinding in games. I love doing thorough playthroughs, not maxing out stats just to do it. I had the time and opportunity to do it though at this moment so I went for it, but I wonder if I’ll ever have both again. Since it is a longer game, I don’t replay FFVI frequently and also Square hasn’t widely released the original version of FFVI in over a decade. I wonder if all of my hardware will fail before they release it again if they ever do at all. And so to close the book on Dinosaur Forest and relive FFVI fully on a personal level I definitely had to do it for this playthrough one last time. I still have my earlier save which I’m 50/50 on returning to. On one hand it’s both full closure and it won’t take that long, but I do feel already satisfied seeing how well the non lvl 99 characters did in Kefka’s Tower.

So yeah, I was surprisingly left with a very bittersweet feeling at the end of this playthrough on top renewed and increased love of Final Fantasy VI. I definitely had too much time to think about it during the Dinosaur Forest grind lol. I’ll post again when I pick my next RPG. Most likely I’ll be replaying Paper Mario The Thousand Door.
 
Replaying KotOR in anticipation of the upcoming release of KotOR2's port. Have not played it in years, but my memory of it is still rather vivid, since I used to play it a ton.

Can't recall a whole lot of KotOR2 tbh, so I look forward to play that one again.
 
0
Just finished my replay of Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition. Took me 61 hours to see the credits. In the final chapter I turned the difficulty down to casual because despite having completed almost 300 sidequests, I was under leveled for everything once Chapter 17 really got going aka once you revisit the Bionis Interior. Every enemy was gold, I kept missing attacks, and I was just ready to finish the game and move onto Future Connected which I haven't played at all.

I had a fun time, it took me maybe three weeks to get back through it. It's my least favorite of the Xenoblade games. I don't feel the story and events are as complex as Xenoblade 2. Not necessarily a bad thing, it just doesn't lead to me wanting to go back because OG Xenoblade's story is pretty straightforward. The most compelling characters and concepts aren't introduced until late game imo, I would've loved a Torna style expansion about them because I was way more fascinated with the Machina and the key players there. The exploration is great and I like some of the sidequests that help shed some history on the world, but I feel like I'd rather just jump into an old save and take in the sights than retread the story path through this game. The lows in Xenoblade 2 and X are much lower than the lows here, but I guess it's just a thing where the first game has been surpassed by the sequels in my opinion. And that's okay! I just think that when I peel away all the issues with Xenoblade 2 there's still way more for me to chew on there than here. Also as far as embarrassing character designs and movement they're definitely still here, made worse by Definitive Edition's new graphics.

Anyway it's still a great game. It's one of the best on Switch and deserves all the popularity. I also would like to get it on 3DS before the eshop dies because I am so curious as to what it'd be like to play it on there. Truthfully I don't see myself ever replaying this game again but if I were to, it'd be to experience it that way. I can't imagine jumping from the Distant Fingertip on 3DS and I'd love to try.

Onto Future Connected then I'll be ready for 3 in <9 weeks! The summer of Xenoblade is upon us.
 
Finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2 last night! Clocked at ~59 hours. It took me just under three weeks total. Sometimes it scares me how fast I can beat these big games.

For the most part, the game was a breeze (yes I played on easy mode, don't hate me). The only real trouble that I had was the last two bosses of chapter 9. Both of them took quite a while with some trial and error. I feel like if I did a better job of farming some better cores, I would have probably breezed right past them. That is probably one area where I wished that I spent more time on, trying to collect more cores.

The battles were fun. My only real gripe was having to run from one side to another every time a potion dropped somewhere on the map. I know that you can set a support character to retrieve them, but their A.I seemed to betray me. Once I equipped Nina, those healing abilities were beautiful. The exploration was nice, especially in a time where a lot of traveling in RPGs is done on rails. The field skills totally sucked, but I already said my peace on that.

Now for the comparison. In most ways, I'm probably giving XC1 the edge. The exploration of XC2 in some parts was phenomenal, but I think I enjoyed the set pieces of XC1 more. It felt more grand traveling across the bionis and mechonis worlds. Story-wise, I am giving it to XC1. The enemies and plot twists were much more exciting Prison Island and Fiora's return are what really sparked the second half for me. I will giving the leveling/difficulty in XC2 the advantage though. There were way too many difficulty spikes late in the first game that slowed my playthrough down big time. At some point, I would like to replay 1 on the Switch since my original playthrough was on the Wii, but that will probably be a couple years out.

Since XC3 comes out in ~two months time, I will plan on playing Future Connected between now and then. I did just pick up Torna recently, but I'll probably save that for down the road.

Otherwise, I will probably be taking a break from JRPGs for a while. With Live a Live and XC3 coming in late July, I'm going to play some shorter games for now. I've already slayed a few big games this year so I'm good for a small break.
 
I started my next RPG the day after finishing my Final Fantasy VI replay, I’m doing a Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door replay! It’s been well over a decade since I last played it and with a fresh replay of the original Paper Mario recently behind me I had no trouble getting right into it. The day I started I had a lot of free time and knocked out the prologue, chapter 1 and chapter 2. These were always my least favorite chapters from memory, but I found them thankfully tighter than I remembered. More than that though, right away I remembered why this has always been my favorite Paper Mario game. First is the awesome setting of Rogueport that takes Mario well out of his comfort zone. Nearly every character there is either odd, grumpy, or up to no good and I want to meet all of these characters and explore every nook and cranny of that town (which is both more compact and more dense than I remember). Where the first game leaned hard into familiar Mario aesthetics, here we get mostly unique locales after Petalburg. The sewers beneath Rogueport for example are the ruins of a forgotten town and the Boggly Woods have this really slick look of blackened trees, white flowers, and cold neon purple and cyan ground. The writing and scenarios in this game are easily the most interesting of the Paper Mario games thanks to all of these unique characters, locales, and scenarios. There’s tons of great humor in the game as well, especially in regards to Luigi’s offscreen adventures.

There’s a lot of awesome improvements to the battle system too. Partners have health bars to manage now, there’s a risky perfect counter button, and I believe there are no caps for stats beyond hitting level 30. The biggest improvement is the introduction of the stage. A crowd gathers to watch all of your fights and you have to keep them entertained to maintain and grow the crowd and kick out troublemakers. Not only is it fun to trigger stylish actions like back flips, a bigger crowd means your special attack bars recharge faster. The stage is also amusingly a hazard at times as it collapses on you or blasts smoke around.

Yesterday I cleared Chapter 3, the Glitz Pit, which is one of my favorite chapters. It’s basically a series of arena battles where you have special conditions to meet each fight, but there’s tons of personality in the writing and plenty of wild surprises and developments that I don’t want to spoil. I was hoping to get a Green Yoshi, my favorite color, this chapter, but I did get a Black Yoshi, which is pretty cool. After I clear some side quests (which are relatively more interesting in this game) I’ll be heading into Chapter 4, one of my other favorite chapters where you get my favorite partner, Vivian!
 
I finished SMTV some days ago. Overall, it's easily one of my favorite games in the last few years and I have nothing but praise for most of what it does. At the same time, it being modelled so closely after Nocturne and not at all IV (I can't speak much about the original, II, or if...) makes it a somewhat frustrating entry for my taste in terms of what it decided to focus on. To put it another way, I really like what it is, and I hope SMTVI is the exact opposite of it.

My main takeaway, however, is that it didn't manage to scratch the dungeon-crawling itch I was feeling, so I've decided to start Persona Q. I've never played an EO-style game, but mapping the dungeon has been a very charming experience so far!
 
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf thread if you're interested

 


Back
Top Bottom