I’ve played old Pokémon games a bunch of times.
For a while, FF9 was my favorite game of all time, and I would often go back to it when I wasn't feeling well or in a rough spot or something. I've played it probably 7-8 times at least. Just pure comfort food.
I only got into gaming fairly recently, and I have the bad habit of dropping older RPGs fairly quickly, to the point that I think the oldest one I've finished is...Tales of Vesperia? Though I did play the remaster there so that might not fully count
For me the oldest RPG I’ve enjoyed is Mother/EarthBound Beginnings. Even then it’s pretty rough at times and I don’t think I would have been able to stick with it without the savestates available in the modern versions. But it does have quite an expansive and distinctive world compared to most RPG’s at the time. I’ve never played Phantasy Star, though; I may need to check it out.
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Ha ha, yep. Although even for me, while I’ve played EarthBound and Mother 3 multiple times over the years and they are both among my favorite games, it was only a couple years ago that I finally played through the entirety of the original Mother. Those pre-SNES RPG’s can certainly be rough.Username checks out
That’s a pretty good read of it IMO. It was fun and the battle and job system is still a blast, but it’s fairly mixed in a lot of other ways. Most everything about it was good on the whole, but not as good as the first game. And yes visually it had kind of a mixed identity.
Yessss this is the best part. And while the game 'beginning now' is definitely an exaggeration, it's... not entirely incorrect, lol. I love the general vibe, atmosphere, and feel of that part of the game so much.
Check your paradigm configurations. That's most likely where you're having issues.
I did consider paradigms and team composition to be an issue, but not sure which direction is the best to go in that regard. Don't think I have found a sweet spot yet.
I think you're thinking correctly. You're obviously losing the DPS race. You may want to try SEN/SYN/SAB as an opener before switching off to a traditional COM/RAV/RAV or COM/RAV/MED.
Thanks for your input! I will definitely have to juggle some things around and see what happens.
You're welcome! And enjoy this part of the game, having to figure out paradigm selections and understand the flow of battle was deeply satisfying for me.
You can't really grind at all before you get to Pulse, due to the crystarium limits. One thing to keep in mind about Chapter 11 and onward is that this is now the endgame area - there are TONS of cieth stones and things that are going to be above your level, and the game is somewhat nonlinear now: Not in terms of the plot, but in how the zones feel. Think of it more like Xenoblade, where there will be super high-level enemies wandering around that you just can't beat for a while.
Figured out the part about high level enemies as soon as I bumped into a King Behemoth. But I was having trouble with Svarogs and some other monsters that were hard or impossible to avoid in tighter spots between the first five Cieth Stones. Like the big tomato bros, especially if they come in pairs or are backed up by annoying smaller monsters, so I thought I had to be doing something wrong.
Seconding this, although I think the first trip to Pulse upgrades still aren't really necessary? The stupid thing about the crafting simple is that it's mechanically very simple but the way they implemented is just obnoxiously cumbersome. It's always felt like something that was shoved in last minute or was mean to be replaced by something more robust but they ran out of time to implement it.
I like to think about Chapter 11+ as a sort of massive incremental improvement section - you slowly get stronger, letting you beat more hunts, which lets you get better drops and XP to get stronger and unlock harder hunts and way better accessories and such, repeat. But I would recommend following the plot at least to some degree for a while. One thing to keep in mind is that you're still limited by Crystarium expansions, and those are tied to the plot. There are multiple expansions still to come, so if you're nearing the end of the Crystarium limits, just go ahead and advance the plot. Also, the final chrystarium expansion happens when you beat the final boss, and that unlocks the true endgame. But that isn't really necessary for most things, just the super endgame hunts and a few things like that.
Oddly enough i liked the back half of the story better. And thought it was to slow at first. Personally i played it on casual to avoid grinding and the game was never to easy or to hard with no grinding until the final boss.
There are two reasons for me. One is the travel upwards the Mechonis, which takes too long imo. And there's also the major story event, where the High Entia transform into Telethia. You have to finish quite a few quests before that or they expire. That lengthens the game at this point not insignificant.
See i had no intention of doing many sidequests since 3 comes out soon and did not wanna burn out on that. I did ones as i came across them and such but otherwise skipped them as i wanted a straight shot through the game at a decent pace. i did a few of the heart2hearts too. i read awhile back doing the sidequests kills the pacing and trying to do them all is not advised.
I don't really have much to add here. You are right that doing all these mostly fetch and monster kill quests are detrimental to the story's pacing, but they let me travel through the world and enjoy the beautiful vistas and the music just a little longer.
I still haven't gotten around to that one yet, but I've heard (from friends who have played it and whose opinions I trust) it's a really good quality remaster, and it's of one of the less controversial entries in the series. So at 60% off that sounds like a good deal!
Thanks, yeah well for now only one is on switch so that’ll be what I mess with
I'd like to go back to the original BD at some point, I never finished it (got to Chapter 5 and fell off). But as you said, today I'm starting LaL and then next week is XC3, and then not long after that is Soul Hackers 2, so.... it'll be a little while, lol.
Yeah I’m definitely dropping everything once Xenoblade drops. I have Soul Hackers preordered also, but I’m not sure my priority level exactly on that one. Looks cool for sure. NIS Classics Vol 3 comes out right after that with Rhapsody which I always wanted to play regardless of quality and Trails From Zero is officially dropping in September. I played it two years ago, but I’m so excited to play it officially on Switch (going to be perfect on it). Very glad a lot of cool stuff is dropping soon, but it’s overwhelming lol.
Same here and I went digital on xbc3 even.
Same here. Not as old as Phantasy Star but shout outs to Earthbound Beginnings, Final Fantasy III, and Sweet Home.
Is Trails from Zero the first of the Crossbell games? I don't know enough of my Trails lore, but I seem to remember that being the case. I'd like to play that and go back to Sky before I eventually (maybe) finally play Cold Steel 3
It is, Zero is the first and Ao/Azure is the second.
Yeah as Dunban said above, Trails From Zero is the first of the two Crossbell games. It’s the fourth game in the series overall and is the most standalone game in the series besides the first Sky game and is thus a great entry point into the greater series. Cool thing too, it’s a complete game with no big cliffhanger, so while Azure is an amazing sequel, you still get a full experience here.
Did you get Vanilla or Royal?
Royal. I'm on Series S, you can't even get vanilla on Xbox store any more.
That’s good to hear, and makes me much more inclined to pick it up. I’ve played Sky for like… 5 hours? And beaten Cold Steel 1 and 2, that’s my only Trails experience. But I don’t remember feeling lost or missing anything in CS really, even if they do take place later.
While i do agree that Zero is a fine starting point, i would still suggest to play Sky beforehand because Zero offers a follow-up to one important storyline set up in Sky and features characters from that trilogy from the get go.
I think Vanille is the best medic in the game while Hope is the best ravager? Depending on what you’re using that party slot for the character can make a big difference.
Yeah, that is what I figured. I needed a potent healer.
