If you can't slam with the best (aka RPG Thread XVIII), then jam with the rest!

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[quote name='Krymner']

What RPGs have been sitting in your backlog the longest?[/QUOTE]
I just downloaded demon's souls today. ^__^
 
I don't like talking about the RPGs I have in my backlog. I don't even like to look at them.

That's why they're all hidden away behind my current gen games.
 
Man I have a lot I didn't finish. Mostly DS games like Chrono Trigger, Mario and Luigi and others. That's due to my lovely son deleting my save data and I don't want to go back and play from the begining again.
 
[quote name='Krymner']Going thru my current-gen rpg backlog. It seems Disgaea 3 has been sitting on the shelf the longest, so I will give it a shot. Not played any of the other Disgaea games, but I started 3 not long after it came out, played a couple hours, then got distracted.

What RPGs have been sitting in your backlog the longest?[/QUOTE]

Probably Icewind Dale series. I dabbled a bit in ID1, but obviously never played Heart of Winter, and never got around to installing 2. Bought that shit in, what was it, like 2003? haha...

(Technically have some shitty ass PS1 RPG I bought for like a buck from a Circuit City clearance, got home and saw the reviews were ass, and wasn't worth my time to return it, but that doesn't count)
 
[quote name='panzerfaust']5 hours into FFV - how come no one ever talks about this one? it's super addicting.[/QUOTE]

Probably because it wasn't released in the US until after FFVIII came out, as well as FFT which had at least an equivalent implementation of the job system. Plus the plot seemed weaker than FFIV's plot which came before it, as well as the plot of FFT which had a similar progression system and came out before FFV in the US.
 
Not to mention the unbalanced job system. You get one of the best jobs right off the bat. Makes the game super easy.

However, it was pretty much the last colorful FF game for a while (before Square started shifting to realistic, darker sets), so that was something to enjoy.
 
[quote name='panzerfaust']5 hours into FFV - how come no one ever talks about this one? it's super addicting.[/QUOTE]
Because I've been the only person here who loves the game, apparently ^ :razz:
 
[quote name='j-cart']Seriously though, I have Planescape waiting for me...[/QUOTE]
It's already defeated Panzer and possibly Jekki. I think they both gave up somewhere around the Dead Nations, which is pretty early in.
 
[quote name='ID2006']Not to mention the unbalanced job system. You get one of the best jobs right off the bat. Makes the game super easy.
[/QUOTE]

..Black Mage?

Eh, well, I'm having a blast.

[quote name='The Crotch']It's already defeated Panzer and possibly Jekki. I think they both gave up somewhere around the Dead Nations, which is pretty early in.[/QUOTE]

Torment is currently being remade right? I'll play it then.
 
No. It's a pseudosequel with a different setting and characters. That is, it's Torment, but it ain't Planescape.[quote name='Indignate']Should I even play Planescape?[/QUOTE]
You already asked me for, like, half the plot, so probably not.
 
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[quote name='panzerfaust']..Black Mage?

Eh, well, I'm having a blast.[/QUOTE]

Red mage, actually. Max him out and you get one of the best skills in the game.

I had fun with FF5, but it isn't super memorable.
 
[quote name='Mr Unoriginal']Started playing Rogue Galaxy and damn this game is hard![/QUOTE]

I applaud you for not calling it Rouge Galaxy. :applause:
 
[quote name='ID2006']
I had fun with FF5, but it isn't super memorable.[/QUOTE]

My experience too. Such a disappointment when compared to IV and VI, but its the job system that carries it and makes it interesting. I did dislike the smaller cast of player characters the most I think. A more robust cast would have made it so much better.
 
[quote name='Krymner']I did dislike the smaller cast of player characters the most I think. A more robust cast would have made it so much better.[/QUOTE]
And this is part of what separates the IV/VI fans from the V fans.

I like its small playable cast, and wish more JRPGs had them. In terms of tone, it helps make FFV more intimate and focused.
 
I don't mind a small cast WHEN the characters are enjoyable. Legend of Legaia and Golden Sun are examples of fantastic games like that.

I've said before one of the reasons why I love FFIV is because it never lets you pick your party despite the amount of playable characters. It's also why I liked the beginning parts of FFXIII.

I wish more games did that.
 
[quote name='Indignate']It has its moments.

*youtube link*[/QUOTE]

You're right. That song is familiar, and I like it. Still, I wouldn't put it on my playlist. Actually, I think one of the most memorable parts is the intro theme that plays just before the game menu.

[quote name='Indignate']I don't mind a small cast WHEN the characters are enjoyable. Legend of Legaia and Golden Sun are examples of fantastic games like that.

I've said before one of the reasons why I love FFIV is because it never lets you pick your party despite the amount of playable characters. It's also why I liked the beginning parts of FFXIII.

I wish more games did that.[/QUOTE]

I half agree. I like games to switch between forced selection and occasionally letting the player decide, like FF6, and to a lesser extent Chrono Trigger, did.

I also really like when a game has a storyline that splits the cast apart and allows you to play through each path to a point before they converge later.
 
[quote name='ID2006']I also really like when a game has a storyline that splits the cast apart and allows you to play through each path to a point before they converge later.[/QUOTE]

Best and worst moment of FFVIII
 
I enjoy large casts of characters in books, movies and TV shows like the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars/Trek, and Game of Thrones. When done correctly, it usually leads to a stronger story, better drama, and a more involved experience. But often in RPGs a large cast is just filler. Take Chrono Cross, for example. There's a large number of characters to recruit, but very few have any relevence to the story at all, unlike the characters from Chrono Trigger who stay active within the story for the whole game.

Not to say I don't enjoy a more intimate smaller cast. Again, it just depends on how its handled. Games like DQ VIII handled their small cast very well I thought.
 
If you didn't like V's cast, I mean, sure I'll hear you out, but asking for more characters would really bog down the job system.

IV had more characters so as to give you constantly changing party compositions throughout the game, and I thought that was the most interesting part. You'll have a bard in one dungeon and two mages in the next, which kept things fresh. V has a job system for you to play with different classes at any moment, however, so naturally you don't want to overwhelm the player with 6-8 playable personalities if the jobs already offer a slew of options to begin with. I can't imagine trying to allocate points properly between party split ups and new character introductions in a game like FFV, that would be a nightmare.

And I'm not saying V's idea is better than IV's, just that they both have their own goals and limitations in mind. Adding characters to V is like adding towns and a world map to XIII. It's a big no no.
 
I disagree, but I see your point. I'm just saying Final Fantasy Tactics and its portable sequels handled complicated job systems with large casts very well, so it is possible to have both.

My opinion is FFV had a very weak story with a small cast of forgettable characters, and a larger cast could have made it much more interesting if handled correctly.
 
FFT was an SRPG, lol. I don't even know where to start with that comparison. I'm not saying you can't have jobs plus a large cast, just that with FFV's take on jobs, it certainly makes sense to have only a few characters.

I'm sure if FFV took place on grid based battlefields, they'd find a way to add in some more soldiers.
 
[quote name='panzerfaust']FFT was an SRPG, lol. I don't even know where to start with that comparison. I'm not saying you can't have jobs plus a large cast, just that with FFV's take on jobs, it certainly makes sense to have only a few characters.

I'm sure if FFV took place on grid based battlefields, they'd find a way to add in some more soldiers.[/QUOTE]
Yup.

The aesthetic "feeling" of the game aside, panzer makes a good point in that a small cast is better suited to a flexible job system than a large one in a non-SRPG JRPG. FFX-2 is another example of such a system in action, with even less PCs than FFV.

[quote name='The Crotch']I'm willing to bet that 90% of FFT players used the same characters.[/QUOTE]
Disgaea and similar Nippon Ichi SRPGs as well. For example, aside from Laharl/Etna/Flonne, I used Thursday a ton in the first game.
 
[quote name='Krymner']My opinion is FFV had a very weak story with a small cast of forgettable characters[/QUOTE]

One was a pirate chick who pretended to be a guy.

Totally.
 
[quote name='Indignate']One was a pirate chick who pretended to be a guy.

Totally.[/QUOTE]
Who had a sea serpent best friend and
was also the long-lost sister of the pink-haired princess in your party.

Say what you will about the other characters, but Faris is pretty hard to forget.
 
I totally forgot those two other things.

I remember nothing about anyone else except for Bartz cuz his name is also Butz and his best friend is a Chocobo.

There's two worlds that were split up and they get merged back into one.

That old guy dies and gets replaced by this granddaughter.

There's another dimention where Exdeath summons all the bad guys from or it's where he's from or both or something.

That's all I remember.
 
I'm 100% behind making fun of V's characters, I just can't do it and pretend IV's were anymore compelling. That's such a strange position to take.
 
[quote name='blueshinra']The aesthetic "feeling" of the game aside, panzer makes a good point in that a small cast is better suited to a flexible job system than a large one in a non-SRPG JRPG. FFX-2 is another example of such a system in action, with even less PCs than FFV.[/QUOTE]

That was actually one thing that I hated about FF12 (among other things...), it gave you a decent amount of characters to use, and maybe it would have worked if it felt like you were specializing them to be something and making them your own, but since you could put all the good stuff on everyone once you knew how the license board was laid out it felt like the characters were totally interchangeable (and the fact some of them had so little to do with the story also didn't give them much presence).
 
Could you elaborate? If you specialize one member for a certain role, he won't have enough points left to be equally proficient in all of the other roles. It's been a while since I played but I don't remember the game being that generous.
 
[quote name='panzerfaust']I'm 100% behind making fun of V's characters, I just can't do it and pretend IV's were anymore compelling. That's such a strange position to take.[/QUOTE]

Let's be honest, very few FF characters are actually compelling.

[quote name='icebeast']That was actually one thing that I hated about FF12 (among other things...), it gave you a decent amount of characters to use, and maybe it would have worked if it felt like you were specializing them to be something and making them your own, but since you could put all the good stuff on everyone once you knew how the license board was laid out it felt like the characters were totally interchangeable (and the fact some of them had so little to do with the story also didn't give them much presence).[/QUOTE]

I fuckin hate this system so much. In any RPG.

For as much as I dislike FFX, it at least didn't let you start doing this until much later in the game.

But it was a precursor.
 
A lot of it was just the powerful healing spells if I remember right, you could totally bypass tons of stuff and go right for them if you knew where they were. Also, some parts of the license board were so terrible that if you went down that way you would realize how awful they were and that you should really almost never get any skills in that direction (i.e. a lot of stuff in the technik section). I'm fairly sure what I just described is why the international version of the game reverted to more of a job system.
 
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[quote name='Indignate']Let's be honest, very few FF characters are actually compelling.[/QUOTE]

I agree.

[quote name='icebeast']A lot of it was just the powerful healing spells if I remember right, you could totally bypass tons of stuff and go right for them if you knew where they were. Also, some parts of the license board were so terrible that if you went down that way you would realize how awful they were and that you should really almost never get any skills in that direction (i.e. a lot of stuff in the technik section). I'm fairly sure what I just described is why the international version of the game reverted to more of a job system.[/QUOTE]

Of the many ways you can break FFXII wide open, rushing high level white magic is pretty inefficient.
 
[quote name='panzerfaust']I'm 100% behind making fun of V's characters, I just can't do it and pretend IV's were anymore compelling. That's such a strange position to take.[/QUOTE]
Not V, but on a related note, I used to think Squall was super emo until I played FFIV, which featured Cecil, aka the Final Fantasy series' All-Time Reigning King of Emo.

[quote name='icebeast']A lot of it was just the powerful healing spells if I remember right, you could totally bypass tons of stuff and go right for them if you knew where they were.[/QUOTE]
That's what my husband and I did with Ashe when we played. We kinda had to, though, given how tough certain hunts were, plus there was still the matter of finding specific stat boosts that would let you really take advantage of having all those great spells.
 
[quote name='Indignate']I fuckin hate this system so much. In any RPG.

For as much as I dislike FFX, it at least didn't let you start doing this until much later in the game.

But it was a precursor.[/QUOTE]

In all honesty FFVII and FFVIII were very similar too (and from the start of the game), basically none of the characters felt like they were specialized in anything outside of their limit breaks, since their customization was all up to you. But with that said I thought the characters were better developed from a story perspective than FF12 (but I mean FF12 isn't as character focused).

[quote name='blueshinra']Not V, but on a related note, I used to think Squall was super emo until I played FFIV, which featured Cecil, aka the Final Fantasy series' All-Time Reigning King of Emo.[/QUOTE]

But Cecil is super cute at least. :hot: Also, unlike Squall (at least from what I've seen of FFVIII, never made it that far in the game) Cecil actually was involved in the murder and genocide a bunch of people and has a right to think he really screwed up his life.
 
[quote name='icebeast']But Cecil is super cute at least. :hot:[/QUOTE]
Cuter than Squall? No way!

[quote name='icebeast']Also, unlike Squall (at least from what I've seen of FFVIII, never made it that far in the game) Cecil actually was involved in the murder and genocide a bunch of people and has a right to think he really screwed up his life.[/QUOTE]
You've got a point, there.
 
[quote name='Indignate']Let's be honest, very few FF characters are actually compelling.[/QUOTE]


Now, I just know you're not talking about Umaro.
 
[quote name='Indignate']I remember nothing about anyone else except for Bartz cuz his name is also Butz and his best friend is a Chocobo.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='Krymner']I do remember "Exdeath". Terrible villian name.[/QUOTE]

lol I forgot about these.
 
[quote name='panzerfaust']Could you elaborate? If you specialize one member for a certain role, he won't have enough points left to be equally proficient in all of the other roles. It's been a while since I played but I don't remember the game being that generous.[/QUOTE]

Halfway through FF12 you unlock the full license board, so everyone has everything plus a bunch of useless license points.
 
The backlog talk made me dig into mine. Played about an hour of Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter and decided it's rubbish (or at least now for me) :( Then decided to replay Digital Devil Saga 1 so I can finally get around to play DDS2. Since I'm starting from scratch anyway I'm using PCSX2 and man, PS2 games look nice, even better than the upscaling the PS3 does.
 
I could never get into BoF: DQ either. The whole save system turned me off.

I decided to keep Disgaea 3 back in the backlog and started Resonance of Fate instead. The battle system is .... interesting. But I think I have the hang of it. The whole game is just so unlike other RPGs. I finished the prelude and still unsure exactly whats going on story-wise, but the combat is stylish enough to keep me interested for now.
 
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