|
Post by Chronos on Jun 8, 2012 0:44:58 GMT -5
Anyone gonna get Gungnir in a few days? I've neglected to preorder it and am now a little worried that I won't be able to find it.
|
|
|
Post by Zabel Zarock on Jun 8, 2012 19:03:24 GMT -5
Thinking about grabbing it, gotta check to see if I need the analog stick for it, mine si messed up.
|
|
|
Post by Chronos on Jun 8, 2012 19:21:56 GMT -5
It shouldn't, seeing as how it looks similar to FFT/Tactics Ogre in terms of basic gameplay and they didn't require the stick. But I dunno. There's not a lot of info about the game in the places I usually look, heh.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2012 20:43:31 GMT -5
I was thinking about it, but the style doesn't really appeal to me. It definitely looks interesting, but not the type of game I'd enjoy playing.
|
|
|
Post by Chronos on Jun 9, 2012 22:44:44 GMT -5
Eh, it's kind of a crapshoot since Sting tends to throw lots of weird stuff in their games. I've heard that they focused on making Gungnir much more approachable and easier to play than Knights in the Nightmare, since there were a lot of people complaining about how bizarre and incomprehensible that game's gameplay was (which does have merit).
I'm personally a fan of Sting's special way of trying new things in RPGs but sometimes, like with KitN, they push it needlessly far and the game starts to become too obtuse for its own good.
|
|
|
Post by Zabel Zarock on Jun 11, 2012 10:27:04 GMT -5
How was KitN incomprehensible? Bizarre that I get but the gameplay was actually easy to follow if you did a bit of the tutorial.
|
|
|
Post by Chronos on Jun 11, 2012 12:22:00 GMT -5
Problem being that most people aren't going to sit through two to three hours or more of tutorials and early missions just for a grasp of basic gameplay mechanics. And even then some people still won't understand a lot of things, because it's initially very confusing and overwhelming. Not everyone has that sort of patience with their games, or even patience at all. And even if you do manage to sort all that out, it's fun with restarts if you miss key items or inadvertently position your characters so that they can't attack the enemy because you're trying to get said key items.
The game's so complex for the sake of complexity that it becomes a design flaw. I appreciate Sting's spirit of experimentation, but there is such a thing as trying to push the envelope too far.
|
|
|
Post by Zabel Zarock on Jun 11, 2012 18:19:21 GMT -5
It wasn't even close to being complex for the sake of complex or obtuse, and who spends three hours in the tutorial? yeah you gotta spend some time *30 minutes at max* but after that it's very clear how things work. And like you said it has restarts if you goof on position and SOMEHOW miss all the markers during prep that show you routes and everything.
Alot of the complaints about the game being complex and to hard to follow are just plain stupidity and laziness.
In other news picked up a copy of Shining Force EXA. Pretty fun though the framerate drops can be very annoying. Sucks We didn't get Shining Wind over here, game is locked at 60 FPS.
|
|
|
Post by Chronos on Jun 19, 2012 18:32:09 GMT -5
The Greatest Video Game Theme tourney over in Forum Games has me playing the Ace Attorney games again (well, concurrently with Suikoden III). Might not be an "RPG" series per se, but we've discussed text adventure games here before.
NOW IF ONLY I HAD THE WHOLE SERIES THEN, CAPCOM
edit: Oh, right. Now that I've got Ghost Trick I'll probably play it after them too.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2012 21:25:42 GMT -5
DAMN YOU CAPCOM!
You'll enjoy Ghost Trick (assuming you've not played it before). It's a little different than the Ace Attorney games obviously, but it has a lot of the same type of humor. The characters are all pretty great as well.
I've been thinking of doing a Suikoden series run, starting with the first and ending with V, undecided on adding in Tactics as well. One of my favorite parts of Suikoden is getting the Stars and watching HQ get built up, which Tactics sorely lacks.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2012 21:16:12 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Chronos on Jun 30, 2012 11:58:03 GMT -5
Very nice! That Wizard's Companion book sounds like it'll make the purchase, and it looks great to boot. I hope that stays the official boxart (including the big LE box) as well, the traditional FF logo/white background setup looks perfect for this game.
Still haven't gotten around to Ghost Trick yet, and I'll probably put the Ace Attorney games off until later. I've been reading a lot of comics, and it's left me a bit unmotivated to play a lot of games.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2012 19:26:46 GMT -5
Just finished up Suikoden in my Suikoden Series marathon. Thought I'd do pros and cons for each game, for the hell of it.
Pros + The writers packed a lot of story into the game + The characters are almost all awesome + The war battle system in this game is my favorite in the series + It sets the stage for the rest of the original three games in sometimes subtle ways + The game is short enough where it isn't a huge time investment to play it
Cons - Krin is terrible and you have to use him and it sucks - The flip side of the game being short is that the country the game takes place in could have so much more depth if the game was a little longer. - Some of the story feels rushed, particularly the sequence with the Elves/Dwarfs/Kobolds
The game is really easy to play and is a great introduction to the series but the depth of the subsequent games make this one feel a little empty at times.
One thing I really love with Suikoden is the women aren't just relegated to support and magic roles. Valeria is one of my favorite characters in any game because of how badass her and the Falcon Rune are. I also took along Kasumi and Tengaar in my final party to change things up a bit (I usually use Clive and one of the elves) and they were both really good as well. Kasumi with the Shrike Rune is basically a weaker Valeria, but with some power boosting accessories the damage isn't much less, plus she's really fast so she's good for emergency item use. Tengaar is awesome with magic but her normal attack isn't too bad either. With a critical hit she was lopping off 500+ HP from the final boss.
I guess my point is that I don't always want a party full of dudes, and Suikoden has some really cool female characters.
|
|
|
Post by Chronos on Jul 7, 2012 20:57:10 GMT -5
I love how useful women are in the series as well. I'm playing through Suikoden V and I could easily have (and have had before) an all-female party besides the Prince for the final battle.
Hell, in the later parts of the game, even; the three most broken magic users in the game (Jeane, Eresh, Zerase) and the most versatile character (Miakis) are all female. Faylen and Sagiri are both incredible long-range attackers, and Isabel is a shockingly good tank. Hazuki is almost as good as dodge/parry-everything Richard since she takes hits much better to compensate for her slightly lower evasion. The only thing Richard really has on her is that ridiculous Swallow Rune, the most broken non-magical rune in the game.
Suikoden V also has the problem of forcing a bad character on you with Zweig constantly strong-arming his way into your party, haha. He's several leagues more useful than Krin, of course, but compared to the other Stars in V he's very lacking.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2012 21:28:15 GMT -5
I usually end up taking a lot of women in my parties too. I think in SII I had all-female aside from the hero, with Valeria and Oulan up front. Oulan with a Fury Rune to go with the Angry Dragon Rune was awesome.
Can't remember who I used in SIII. I didn't like a lot of the characters in that one, mostly on the inclusion of the ducks, lizards, and characters who die no matter what. I liked the standard demi-human groups and SIII started a trend of including new and more irritating groups with each game - the Nay-Kobolds in SIV and the Beavers in SV. Hated Yuber's redesign also.
SIV I think I used Hero, Mitsuba, Jeane, and Ted. I remember Mitsuba being ridiculously strong but I could be mistaken.
Can't remember exactly in SV either, outside of Prince, Miakis, and Jeane. I do enjoy Isabel and Matthias (all of the Maximillians, really) and I'm sure I used Shigure/Sagiri and Killey a lot also. I hated Zweig, but you're right, he is better than Krin. At least with Zweig you could ignore him until the end, and even then you could just let him die and have the other characters kill everything.
Forgot to mention, just saw that Index has released Shin Megami Tensei II for iOS devices, to go with the first one. Still Japanese only and I think it even says in the description it will never be translated.
|
|
|
Post by El Cokehead del Knife Fight on Jul 7, 2012 22:08:07 GMT -5
Yeah, the Suikoden series is really good for female characters. Sure there isn't a female characters as outright broken as Georg or Richard in V but Isabelle is honestly close to as good in combat as Georg except without his crippling lack of Magic Defense. As Chronos said, Hazuki is a parrying machine and, although not quite as good in that regard as Belcoot or Richard but she can get more hits a turn than Belcoot and can take more damage than Richard.
Oulan is a straight out beast in II based on the fact that she has really high stats in what matter for a S range fighter (Sky high health, attack and above average defense as well as being able to wear good armor). IIRC the last time I beat the Beast Rune, I had a party that had her, Sierra, Tengaar, Bob and Valeria; That's two hard hitters at short range, a pretty good mix between magic and physical strength, a werewolf and probably the third or fourth best mage in the game.
And at least Zweig isn't as bad as Krin or Gremio. He's a painfully average character but he isn't rubbish like those two. Also thank god for the support system which lets you chuck crap characters into so that you don't have deadweight in battle.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2012 23:19:56 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure Isabel had crap Magic Defense also. At least, I remember the Sun Rune one-shotting her with magic every time I took her to the final fight.
I've been trying to go through with characters I never used often in previous playthroughs, which was kind of hard to do with Suikoden because you're usually stuck with 3 or 4 other people at any given time, leaving only 1 or 2 slots open. Even when you get back to Gregminster you only get 3 open spaces. Now that you mention Tengaar, I'm pretty sure I used her in SII, but I've never used Bob or Sierra, so I might give them a try.
Gremio was a good person to dump the Prosperity Rune on so you could rack up a lot of money before you get access to Gaspar's unlimited vault and poor dice skills but yeah, beyond that he didn't really have much going for him.
I'd prefer if it was Killey that kept forcing himself into your party all the time in SV, cause at least he's awesome, though not as beastly as he was in SII.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2012 15:14:33 GMT -5
Just wrapped up Suikoden II.
Pros + Better at almost everything than Suikoden + Just like the first, the characters are pretty much all awesome + The side quests, though few, are pretty fun + Expands a lot on the mythology, history, and geography of the Suikoden world
Cons - The game is really buggy. Poor translation at points, sometimes things are untranslated, sometimes characters say lines intended for other characters, the recipe glitch, etc.
Aside from those quirks, the game is just awesome. My only regret in purchasing it is that I didn't do it when the game first came out. It ended up as the last Suikoden I played.
I stuck with Oulan and Meg from my first playthrough's final party. I thought about using the three-rune characters as I managed to pick up a couple sets of the Double-Strike/Double-Beat/Fury set-up but I didn't want to break the game completely. Oulan was going to be a must anyway, just like Valeria in SI. She is a badass, her rune is awesome, and with a Kindness Rune embedded on her weapon, a Fury Rune, and Power equipment she was beastly. I took Meg because of her great Lightning affinity, along with an Exertion Rune on her weapon so after a few turns the Trick Rune did an assload of damage.
For the rest I went with Wakaba to add another physical attacker, set-up like Oulan with a Fury Rune and a Kindness Rune embedded. I took along Nina for her high fire affinity, giving her a Rage Rune and a Flowing Rune in case I needed more healing than the Bright Shield Rune could provide. She kicked all sorts of ass with Rage. I took Karen along as well, though it could have been anyone with a good Resurrection affinity. She didn't really do too much in the battle, mostly was just there for backup.
The Beast Rune went down in only a few turns with that set-up. I suppose I could have used another strong physical attacker like Georg or Pesmerga, or another hard-hitting mage like Luc or Mazus and made it a bit easier, since Karen was pretty much dead weight.
|
|
|
Post by Chronos on Jul 20, 2012 20:29:26 GMT -5
Back to FES. It's a much better experience than last time I tried it.
And it's depressing that my fusion impulses have reignited on hard mode, where everything takes 4x the normal cost to summon. I did end up making a great Skadi, Alilat (with heart item!), Michael, and Trumpeter, though my wallet took a beating. And I'm going to make a Saturnus, but later.
|
|
|
Post by Koda, Master Crunchyroller on Jul 20, 2012 21:14:24 GMT -5
Speaking of FES, I bought that on my PS3 a few weeks back. Don't know when I'll get around to it, though.
|
|