RPG Thread XX has over 100 hours of gameplay

I hope V doesn't use the same Evil/Neutral/Good system because I feel like they're going to re-use the same things they did in Strange Journey, IV & Apocalypse where they assign a single NPC ally as good or bad. I'd also much rather see the focus be towards one story with it ending how they want it to end whether it's morally good or bad. Splitting it up makes it feel too ham-fisted.

That said, the new Fire Emblem is setting off some negative flags for me. I like the idea of visually adding in troops/squads that attack with the character. On the other hand from the footage I saw, they really need to better show off the background troops actually properly attacking. Some of the gameplay I saw was jarringly bad in that respect. Not to mention the name 'The Three Houses' sets off red flags like Fates did and Pokemon does. I don't want another game split up between more microtransactions and would rather have it be just a single linear story that's good than three that are sub-par. They really needed to be included in the base price if they go the way Fates did.

I was also surprised by the hub town exploration. I mean why? I don't really understand the point of it in this type of game other than to waste time to inflate the total game time or add in a bunch of typically worthless sidequests that have no real story to them. It would be nice to be proven wrong, however with how the last few new entries were I feel like more effort should be put towards other parts of the development process. I'd also like to see some better maps, both big and small.

Also hope that CrossCode releases in the next couple of months. I enjoyed what I played and have been waiting for it who knows how long at this point. It's too bad that it likely won't come to consoles/handhelds since it runs in HTML5 and not a single console or handheld supports HTML5, except for the Wii U. The entire game would have to be re-designed with a new engine if it ever went to other platforms.

 
Just playing a few RPGs.

Played a bunch of Darkest Dungeon. Hard as balls in the beginning, then it gets easier, then gets impossible towards the end. It was good tho. I hope there will be a sequel eventually.

Beat the second part of the .hack//G.U. collection. The formula is wearing thin after 2 games, and I hope they add some stuff for the third one, but I doubt it.

Played the Valkyria Chronicles 4 demo. Good stuff. Its good to see that its the same as the previous entries, but I really hope there's new things they've added beyond the demo.

Slowly working my way thru Octopath Traveler. Its a decent RPG, but I think it got over-hyped.

I've started Suikoden Tactics. It doesn't seem that great, but its okay. I'm still very early into it.

I'm really looking forward to Dragon Quest XI, and expect to put 100+ hours into it. Hopefully I can get thru it before Valkria Chronicles 4.

 
I've pretty much been waiting on Dragon Quest XI. I haven't been playing much of anything for the last month or two. I stopped playing Strange Journey because it was just too much like SMT IV and its sequel in too many ways that I felt like I was playing a slightly altered clone. Also stopped Octopath Traveler because I get bored when the narrative is poorly done. The story itself was fine, but the narration of it without characters interacting really just made me lose interest. Creates too much of a dissonance. I may go back to it at some point since I was at characters Chapter 4 if I remember correctly.

Saw Crotch playing Deadfire and made me think about playing it since I haven't picked it up since launch. I figured that the chances of me going back through the game after a full playthrough is slim and since the expansions will be done in December, I figure I'll wait for them to finish up.

I've played a bit of Darkest Dungeon here and there, but I don't think I could ever play through the entire game. I don't mind roguelikes, but ones where you lose parts of your party make it more difficult for me to get into playing them for more than a short burst here and there.

 
I'm nearly done with Deadfire now. Finishing up a few sidequests before moving to the final area.

It's a major improvement over the first Pillars, albeit one with its fair share things weighing it down yet. The DLC was a bit of a slog, too. A lot of interesting stuff in it, but it was just packed with nonthreatening enemies with tons of HP and healing abilities.

 
That seems to be a common theme with a lot of games unfortunately. Hopefully the other two expansions improve on that front.

I finished Dragon Quest XI, but will probably check out the postgame story that was hinted at during the final scenes prior to saving my game. The game is solid and has some heavy themes that are handled pretty well. A few of the jokes are executed poorly and felt out of place, but in general they weren't terrible. I think my biggest issue is still not enough quality of life additions even though there are a lot over older games. Namely the battle system. Christ it's still as slow as its ever been. Especially since I seem to recall DQIX being much quicker. They really needed a battle speed option or toggle. Thankfully I went through it on PC, so I used CheatEngine to map a controller button to switch between 3x speed and normal speed. I ended up falling victim to using it out of battle here and there towards the end because the game did feel like it was dragging a little, but I cut roughly 30 hours of game time off by using it which is pretty ridiculous. Though I think once or twice was putting the speed to 50 or 100x to change day to night rather than going to a nearby camp out of curiosity sake, but that should only count as a couple hours at most.

Overall I'd think I'd recommend it if you can tolerate slower battle systems. The game is pretty lengthy for sure.

 
Might as well update with my own RPG playing. The most recent ones I beat were Final Fantasy (via the NES Classic) and Alphadia Genesis (on Steam).

This was my first time playing Final Fantasy in any form, and although it hasn't aged well (speaking of slow battles...), it's reasonably accessible for an adventure game/RPG of its vintage-- I never once got hopelessly stuck. Also, it was neat to see the series' origins, and I especially liked how well Yoshitaka Amano's monster art was recreated in sprite form. I wrote a long post about the game here.

Alphadia Genesis was no Final Fantasy. It's rather generic and isn't even as good as some doujin JRPGs I've played. On the plus side, the story is fairly decent and the battle system's fun once the difficulty ramps up. No long post this time, but I did write a Steam review.

I also went to PAX West and tried out a few things, including Labyrinth of Refrain (which I later preordered) and Dragon Quest XI. Oh, and speaking of DQ...

https://twitter.com/R_Kasahara/status/1036079122408124416
 
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yay! congrats to me! I finally accomplished one of my long running gaming goals!!

started Xenoblade X up again late august... finally beat it last night!!

or rather I should say, finished the final story chapter... there's still a ton of post game >_<

and I'm gonna do some of it; the game is definitely a fun one,

but it's also a mess... way too many systems in place, apparently there's a level cap and the only way to beat a lot of the harder enemies is to play the metagame, which after 100 hours I still don't understand >_<

but more than that, the thing I hate about this game is grinding. It's a modern game that does still require grinding.

either grinding for EXP cuz you keep dying and there's literally no strategy you can do to win other than going up 5 levels,

grinding for affinity because a lot of side missions are locked behind character affinity requirements,

or grinding for money becoz Skells are expensive and once you buy one you still need to buy weapons, except you cant coz you spent all your money on the skell to begin with!!

regardless, I think I only have one post game mission I can take on right now without grinding, so I think I'll just do that one and call it a game.

but yay! glad to finally get this one done! now I still need to play Tokyo Mirage Sessions while my Wii U is still out lol. 

 
BaCk On My BuLlShIt

ofiZDfM.jpg


I fuckin' love how tiny this palisade is. Big enough for exactly one tent.

 
Finished up a bunch of RPGs the last few months.

Dragon Quest XI: Easily my RPG of 2018. Loved it, and it has become my favorite of the DQ series. It isn't perfect, but the story and characters are wonderfully portrayed, the graphics are beautiful, the music is spot-on, and the gameplay mechanics are intuitive and fulfilling. I've beaten the main quest in about 80 hours, and there's still tons more to do, which I'm slowly working on now. Great DQ game.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 and VC: Remaster: I played both of these simultaneously. I will say I still think the first game is the best, but 4 had some good changes in the right direction. The first one was more challenging, but I liked the variety in 4's missions. I really hope they either decide to continue the series with a 5, or at least remaster 3 so I can finally play it.

Suikoden Tactics: Not that great of a tactics game, nor a great Suikoden game, but it feels good to have finally completed all the mainline games in the series. I thought Tactics was decent, but it had a lot of flaws, the biggest being the story was bland and absolutely none of the characters were interesting. The gameplay was good, if a bit frustratingly difficult at times.

Tales of Zesteria: Probably the worst Tales game I've played, but overall not terrible. The story and characters were good, but the combat and game mechanics were way off. Absolutely the shortest Tales game I've ever played; I was ready for the final dungeon in just over 30 hours, but I did a bunch of sidequests and still beat it under 40 hours.

Except for finishing up some loose-ends in DQ XI, I'm gonna give RPGs a rest for the remainder of the year and work on getting thru some other non-RPG titles.

 
I haven't been playing too many RPGs lately myself, though I saw the announcement trailer for Lapis x Labyrinth earlier today and it totally looks like my jam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHQ_l_Je-WE

The last RPG I beat was Ambition of the Slimes. I wrote a review of it here; in short, it greatly emphasizes the "strategy" part of "strategy RPG", but if you can deal with that, and the accompanying difficulty, it's a fun and whimsical little game.

Krymner said:
Tales of Zesteria: Probably the worst Tales game I've played, but overall not terrible. The story and characters were good, but the combat and game mechanics were way off. Absolutely the shortest Tales game I've ever played; I was ready for the final dungeon in just over 30 hours, but I did a bunch of sidequests and still beat it under 40 hours.
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Huh, that is pretty short for Tales. Sounds like it ended up being about the right length, though, if it is as bad as you say.

 
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I honestly haven't really played anything for about two months until just last week. I've mostly just been reading things for the past two months. November was literally hell for me. I started up playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 with a friend on the PS4, so I'm slowly going through that at two hours a day maximum. So I don't expect to be done anytime soon.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire had its third and final expansion release today too. So hopefully I can pick that up at some point in the next month or so.

I've always been somewhat interested in Ambition of Slimes, but I never pulled the trigger to actually play it.

Krymner said:
Tales of Zesteria: Probably the worst Tales game I've played, but overall not terrible.
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I see you haven't played Tales of Symphonia 2 then. Though I agree that Zesteria isn't that good, but Tales of Berseria is a lot better despite being a prequel set in the same world. They've made a lot of changes in the wrong direction with their last four games or so. Particularly with how equipment is, which is rather annoying.

 
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R. Kasahara said:
Huh, that is pretty short for Tales. Sounds like it ended up being about the right length, though, if it is as bad as you say.
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I thought it was the perfect length for such a lackluster Tales game. If it were another 10+ hours long, it would have been a worse game, so I think the short length helped it.

Draekon said:
I see you haven't played Tales of Symphonia 2 then. Though I agree that Zesteria isn't that good, but Tales of Berseria is a lot better despite being a prequel set in the same world. They've made a lot of changes in the wrong direction with their last four games or so. Particularly with how equipment is, which is rather annoying.
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I actually didn't hate ToS 2, but yeah, I guess you're right, its probably worse than Zesteria. However, ToS 2 did have better villains; Zesteria's villains were so bland (unlike ToS 2's Alice, who was the true star of that game). The whole equipment stuff with the skills was just more complicated than it needed to be. I mean, if you gotta have 30 skits just to explain how equipment skills work, its probably too convoluted, eh?

I've heard a lot of good stuff about Berseria, and I'm looking forward to playing it eventually, but I think I may play Vesperia next when the remaster is released next month. Never played the 360 one, and I've always heard how its one of the greatest Tales of games.

 
I was given :ps4: Battle Chasers: Nightwar as a Christmas gift, so I started that up and am pleasantly surprised by how good it is. It is a solid turn-based RPG, with excellent graphics, good music, and some good ideas on the combat system. I remember back in the late 90's when the Battle Chaser comic was out and how it took forever between issues, then the artist finally just shelved it, ending it after less than 10 issues without finishing the story, and I never thought much about it since this game. It has inspired me to dig it out of my old comic collection and reread it...maybe someday in 2019 I'll get around to that.

So, what RPG's are everyone looking forward to in 2019?

My personal picks are the new Fire Emblem, and SMT V for the Switch, but the Tales of Vesperia remaster will be the next big RPG title I tackle. Not much of a Kingdom Hearts fan, but I know a lot of folks are really looking forward to that one. I'm also hoping that Wastelands 3 will be good.

 
I played Battle Chasers a bit and yeah, it's a pretty decent game. Put it down for co-op with a friend on something else and never went back to it though. Never seen the comic for it either. I (mostly) had X-Men comics growing up.

2019 titles? Let's see...

[customspoiler='The Outer Worlds']
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGLTgt0EEqc[/customspoiler]

[customspoiler='Town (Working Title)']
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzTTj53kfmU[/customspoiler]

Nioh 2

Shin Megami Tensei V

Cyberpunk 2077 (Probably not 2019)

I do have some interest in Wasteland 3, Psychonauts 2, Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Fire Emblem as well. I backed Bloodstained, so I'll see how that turns out too. More on the side of random Indie games, I'm somewhat interested in Wargroove that's an ode to Advance Wars as well as Indivisible if it ever gets released. It'd be nice if Beyond Good & Evil 2 released in 2019 as well, but it's probably more Action-Adventure than RPG.

I have no interest in Kingdom Hearts 3 either. I didn't care for the Disney aspects in the second that bugged me too much to continue playing. I felt like that aspect took a nosedive in quality compared to the first one. I'll also be ignoring anything developed by Bioware, Bethesda or any Bethesda engine. Sad that Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is Switch only, so I may not get it as I don't want to pay for Online that I'd only use for a week or two at most.

 
Krymner said:
So, what RPG's are everyone looking forward to in 2019?
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Right now, just Etrian Odyssey Nexus, the Grandia remaster, Shin Megami Tensei V, and Lapis x Labyrinth interest me. Etrian will be a preorder or day one purchase for me, as usual, and I'll probably wait and see on the rest.

Oh, and Ys IX was announced recently, though not for a platform I currently own (PS4), so I'm hoping a PC version of that comes about. I'm a few Yses behind, though. Also still waiting on Barkley 2 :razz:
 
Right now in 2019 I am really looking forward to The Other Worlds and if somehow Cyberpunk happens to come out, that. I will probably get Town and SMT V just to have in the collection but eh, got too much in the backlog to really focus on them. As this point RPG's are either buy if I think they may be a limited quantity thing, come with day one physical bonuses (steelbook, soundtrack etc) or wait for a sale unless I play one day one playing them.

I really want to go back to DQ XI, was enjoying what I played before I stopped but between RE 2 Remake and Anthem (assuming it's actually good), I don't want to stop midgame 45-50 hours in just to switch games and not come back to DQ XI (only have about 10 hours if that).

 
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also playing Skies of Arcadia for the first time (using the free verison of redream and works like a charm), just met Ramirez. when villains go into another dimension for their attack you know it's about to hurt:

skies-of-arcadia-ramirez-attack.gif


 
Skies of Arcadia was awesome. Those ship battles were great.

I'm only about 10 hours into Tales of Vesperia. Still not sold on it being the greatest Tales game, but its been good so far. I really like the characters, especially Patty.

 
Finally finished Battlechasers: Nightwar, just as I hear its now being ported to mobile. Its a great RPG, very well-done and I hope there's a sequel one day. Especially since the ending leaves it open for one. As for the ending itself, I was a little disappointed by the last boss being way too easy, IMO. I took the time to complete all the side-quests, found all the fish, crafted all the most powerful weapons, and reached the level-cap for all the characters. I'll need to beat the game in New Game+, and kill 2 more of some vampire-type monsters to complete the beastiary, in order to get the plantinum trophy, so maybe I'll get around to doing that one day.

Now, I can get back to Tales of Vesperia. I'm about a quarter of the way thru that, so I'm gonna push thru and try and get it beaten by the end of April if possible.

I still haven't decided if I want to double-dip on the re-releases of Tales of Cold Steel 1 & 2 coming in the next few months for PS4. I loved the games and want to support the developers, but I don't think I'll ever have the time to replay these time-eating beasts. 

 
I've been playing Disgaea 4 lately. It's quite good, and the story is already my second-favorite in the series (so far), after the first game's. Was hoping to beat it before my cross-country move early next month, but I haven't been sleeping well for the past week or so and don't have the energy for it :cold:

We're going to be bringing our Switch for the drive back to the East Coast, and picked up Diablo III (and some other games) to play when we're not on the road. I wasn't sure about buying Diablo III again, but after finding out that Adventure Mode can be played in that version without going through the campaign (again), I was fine with it.

 
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I still haven't really been doing much. I did beat Divinity: Original Sin 2 in co-op with a friend and a couple misc co-op indie games, but that's mostly it. I do wish Skies of Arcadia got a good remake or some kind of halfway decent spiritual successor though.

I think right now I'm really waiting on the fan translation of Trails to Zero to be complete so I can go through that and then run through Trails to Azure in a poorly translated state so I can be ready for when Trails of Cold Steel III releases later this year. Don't think I'll get Cold Steel 1 & 2 on the PS4 for a while since I've already bought it three times previously. Sometime down the road I hopefully will though.

Other than that I suppose I really want to play Cadence of Hyrule that was announced for the Switch as I liked Crypt of the NecroDancer quite a lot. I haven't got around to playing my copy of Valkyria Chronicles 4 yet either, nor my playthrough of Pillars of Eternity 2 which I'm undecided if I play normal or turn-based now.

 
Finally defeated Tales of Vesperia: DE. It was a good game. I really liked the characters (especially Yuri and Patty) and the story was good. I doubt I would classify it as my favorite of the series (still think Symphonia/Xillia/Graces F were better IMHO), but its certainly not as bad as Symphonia 2 or Zestiria. Solid "Tales of" RPG, so if you like others in the series, you'll enjoy it, no doubt.  I really rushed thru it and didn't do any sidequests or search for the best weapons or whatever, so I might go back thru this game in the New Game+ mode someday.

I guess now I'll get back to .hack//G.U. Last Recode. I've played the first two "episodes" so now I'm on to the third game. The first two were around 20-ish hours to beat, so I'm hoping the last one is around there too. From what I've heard, the fourth "episode" is mostly cut scenes? Not sure, but it wasn't released in the US until this collection, so I doubt its very long, I would guess.

 
Unless the ported version of Vesperia tracked sidequests, they were extremely elusive for a lot of them. Near impossible to figure out without a guide or talking to everybody at every chance you get. It was pretty ridiculous to be honest. When it came out I really enjoyed it though. Not sure how it would stand up now more than a decade later

I don't really have any clue about .hack//G.U. unfortunately. It was one I never played on the PS2 and while I own Last Recode, I haven't put in enough time to be knowledgeable about it really.

My PS+ sub ran out recently. I thought I had that going until 2021 though, weird. I'll have to look into that to make sure I'm right I suppose. Since I'm barely buying anything at the moment, there's not much as I've been occupied with a bunch of other miscellaneous things. Granted I have more than enough backlog to keep me going until next year. My desire to play games has dwindled a bit too.

 
I appreciated Vesperia's classic Tales formula, but the combat became tedious towards the end. You are right about those sidequests; they are impossible to find without a guide, so I didn't even try. I stumbled into a couple, like the snowboarding mini-game which was kinda neat, but the greater majority of them I missed because I just followed the story. If I ever do a replay, I'll be sure to follow a guide, but I don't see me replaying it for a long time; maybe when it gets a remaster on the PS7.

I would recommend playing .hack//G.U. in pieces, playing other games in-between episodes, because its not that deep of a game. I'm sure if I had tried to plow straight thru the whole thing I'd be dreadfully bored of it a long time ago. The combat never really evolves and characters barely gain any new abilities when leveling up. It seems like its more of a visual novel in a lot of ways with simple dungeon crawls and simple combat just to get you to the next story bit. Its interesting, and has some good ideas that aren't always executed as good as they could be, but its structure is stuck in the early 2000's internet and MMO-era.

 
I've tried giving World of Final Fantasy Maxima a chance, but its just not something I can see myself playing. The main characters aren't that interesting, quite annoying actually, and the chibi-pokemon-ish gameplay with the whole head-stacking stuff just isn't doing it for me.

I'm currently trying to give Dark Rose Valkyrie a chance, but I don't know about this game either. Even after all the thousands of tutorial screens, I'm still not convinced the battle system is worth drudging thru the VN harem sim part of the game. I'll give it some more time, but I think its going to continue to disappoint.

 
Yeah, I borrowed World of Final Fantasy from a friend and couldn't get into it as well. Granted I can't really get into Pokemon, but I don't exactly dislike the gameplay type.

As for Dark Rose Valkyrie, I grabbed it cheap and tried it. It's the usual Compile Heart type of game that I feel isn't very well designed and rather grindy. Like World of Final Fantasy, I dropped playing through it without having sunk too much time into it. Outside of Neptunia games which have a lot of the same/similar flaws, I don't very much like Compile Heart games.

 
I've never been a fan of the Compile Heart games either, but thought I'd give this one a chance. I also got it for rather cheap and I'm glad I didn't pay much for it.

Been playing a lot of Persona Q on my lunch break at work. Its been so long since I played Persona 3 (about 10 years!), and I've forgotten all about the cast in that game, so I started off using the Persona 4 cast, since I replayed P4Golden not too long ago. I'm really liking it so far. The guts of the game is pure Etrian Odyssey, but its the character interactions that make it so entertaining. Working my way thru the second dungeon now, and its convinced me to buy Persona Q2 once it comes out in a couple months. Interacting with all the Persona 3 cast makes me wish for an HD remaster of the game. Add in the FES content and the Female MC stuff from the PSP version, and it would be awesome. I always liked the darker story elements of P3 compared to the others Persona titles.

 
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Ahh shit, Baldur's Gate 3 was announced by Larian Studios. They're the ones who made Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2. They're one of two devs that I have at least some competence in to pull this off. Here comes the Illithid invasion. Mine Flayer spawning set to maximum disgust. No seriously, it's super disturbing and they somewhat showcase it in the announcement trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcP0WdH7rTs

 
Now that moving's (mostly) done, I finally dove back into Disgaea 4; got through Episode 8, and am nearly done with Episode 9. However, I've hit something of a wall. Although the standard enemies on what I assume is the last map of Ep. 9 are manageable, the boss is ridiculously tough, with all of their stats in the thousands. They're so powerful, they can one-shot my strongest party member, who is currently at Lv. 91, iirc. On top of that, they regularly dodge roughly half (or more) of the attacks I throw at them. I've attempted it three times so far, the latter two after rounds of grinding and character tweaking. However, it looks like I'm going to have to do a lot more Item World grinding to get past it.

It's especially frustrating since I've been enjoying the story in this one more than Disgaea 3 (even though it's gone off the rails somewhat in Ep. 9). Disgaea 3 was also on the easier side, though, and I beat it without many trips to the Item World. That difficulty seems to have been ratcheted up a bit for Disgaea 4; I've already spent more hours with it than the entirety of Disgaea 3.

Draekon said:
Ahh shit, Baldur's Gate 3 was announced by Larian Studios. They're the ones who made Divinity: Original Sin 1 &amp; 2. They're one of two devs that I have at least some competence in to pull this off.
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Guessing the other studio would be Obsidian?

Anyway, it's neat news for WRPG fans, especially given how long it's been since Baldur's Gate II.
 
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Yeah, depending on how you go about moving forward in Disgaea games you can hit walls pretty easily. I personally never finished 3 &amp; 4 as I didn't really care much for the way the story went with them. Ended up dropping them and not really enjoying them. Out of all the ones I've played, I feel like I've enjoyed 2 the most, then 1 and finally 5. Based on other opinions I've read, I seem to be an outlier with regards to preferences in the series. Though I think I may have only liked 5 for the battle mechanics being much more smooth than I remember with past Disgaea games. I have difficulty playing grid-based SRPG games that are functionally slow now-a-days.

R. Kasahara said:
Guessing the other studio would be Obsidian?

Anyway, it's neat news for WRPG fans, especially given how long it's been since Baldur's Gate II.
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Yeah, but they're now owned by Microsoft so it likely wouldn't happen. I'm hoping they kinda go the route of Pillars of Eternity 2 where they had two modes. The real-time with pause and the old time-y turn-based that the genre was known for. Mostly since they're teasing that they're planning to do something never before seen or something to that effect.

Honestly surprised that Wizards of the Coast is actually green-lighting this though.

 
The only Disgaea game I've played is 3, and I never beat it. Got a little past halfway and got stuck on a boss fight, needed to grind a bit, and just never went back to it. It was an okay game, but it hasn't ever left me wanting to play any of the other titles.

I have re-started another game that I got stuck in a few years back and giving it another go. Hooked up my Wii U, and have dove back into Xenoblade Chronicles 1 again. Last time, I got about 10 hours into it and was stuck on some giant mech boss that you had to use chain attacks to take it down, and that's when I realized I was painfully too low level and needed to grind. Anyway, getting my feet back into it has made me realize the depth this game has.

I've also been throwing my lunch breaks at work to playing Persona Q. I'm at the end of the second labyrinth, and I really like it. Although, they really cranked up the "annoying flirtatious womanizing Teddie" bits and I wish they hadn't used that joke so much since its getting old now. Other than that, the interactions between the P3 and P4 crews have been great to watch.

My most-hyped-for game out of E3 is Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I've never been a huge FE fan, only dabbled in a few of the games here and there, but the Treehouse segment I watched for it made it look so great, with a ton of depth. Really looking forward to it the most. The FFVII remake is looking more hopeful. I'm also glad FFVIII is finally getting the remaster treatment. Still not enough Sword & Shield info to determine which of the two I want to get. I was really hoping for a Mana Collection physical copy, but I'll eventually pick it up digital I guess.

 
Krymner said:
The only Disgaea game I've played is 3, and I never beat it. Got a little past halfway and got stuck on a boss fight, needed to grind a bit, and just never went back to it. It was an okay game, but it hasn't ever left me wanting to play any of the other titles.

I have re-started another game that I got stuck in a few years back and giving it another go. Hooked up my Wii U, and have dove back into Xenoblade Chronicles 1 again. Last time, I got about 10 hours into it and was stuck on some giant mech boss that you had to use chain attacks to take it down, and that's when I realized I was painfully too low level and needed to grind. Anyway, getting my feet back into it has made me realize the depth this game has.

I've also been throwing my lunch breaks at work to playing Persona Q. I'm at the end of the second labyrinth, and I really like it. Although, they really cranked up the "annoying flirtatious womanizing Teddie" bits and I wish they hadn't used that joke so much since its getting old now. Other than that, the interactions between the P3 and P4 crews have been great to watch.

My most-hyped-for game out of E3 is Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I've never been a huge FE fan, only dabbled in a few of the games here and there, but the Treehouse segment I watched for it made it look so great, with a ton of depth. Really looking forward to it the most. The FFVII remake is looking more hopeful. I'm also glad FFVIII is finally getting the remaster treatment. Still not enough Sword &amp; Shield info to determine which of the two I want to get. I was really hoping for a Mana Collection physical copy, but I'll eventually pick it up digital I guess.
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There is a physical copy of Collection of Mana:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/collection-of-mana-nintendo-switch/6352162.p?skuId=6352162

 
Beat Disgaea 4 last month; it was good but grindy.

More recently, I got to the end of the main story in Etrian Mystery Dungeon today. This was a weird game for me, especially considering that I like both franchises that are being mashed together here. However, it's a fairly average Mystery Dungeon, and a sub-par Etrian Odyssey.

On the Mystery Dungeon side: the basics were good, though managing four party members at once could get a little tricky at times. Also, I wasn't sold on the whole Fort system, which locks certain aspects of the dungeons in place, until their main purpose becomes clear later on:
in this game, FOEs, called DOEs, can move between floors, and Forts are there to make sure they don't escape and wreak havok on the town.
Speaking of which, because of certain gimmicks used when encountering FOEs/DOEs, these battles were often a bit harder than the actual bosses, in a more noticeable way than in mainline Etrian. After defeating the final boss, I was like, "that's it?"

On the Etrian side: I usually do pretty much all of the sidequests in the mainline games, but didn't bother here, since gathering points, like everything else, are randomized, making sidequests that involve them that much harder. More importantly, there was way more story in this game than there normally is in a mainline Etrian, and a lot more flavor text and other bits (like customer chatter at the restaurant) that don't contribute much (if anything) to the core plot. Throw in a brief and unnecessarily convoluted bit of drama at the end, and it's far from the tightly-plotted sort of tale I've come to expect from these games. I feel there was a lot more that could be said about certain townspeople than my own party, which feels weird for an Etrian game.

So overall, it was decent, but nowhere near as good as any of the core Etrians, or the better Mystery Dungeons (or Mystery Dungeon clones).
 
The next RPG I'm planning on playing is the 3DS version of Dragon Quest VII. Hoping to start it later this month. Oh, but I should also finally play Shin Megami Tensei IV. Decisions, decisions...

One final note: being a Barkley 2 backer, I downloaded the Janky Demo, but don't know if and/or when I'll dive into it. In case you haven't kept up with that game's development, it's pretty much stalled indefinitely.
 
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Sad to hear about Barkley 2's stall, but at the pace the game was going, I'm not really all that surprised. How long's it been in development? About 7 years?

DQ VII and SMT IV are both good, I thought. I never beat DQ VII back in the day on PS1 (only rented it a couple times and never owned it), but I appreciated all the upgraded visuals and gameplay elements the 3DS version offered. SMT IV can be a bit grindy at times, but I would definitely recommend a guide since there were plenty of times when I was completely lost. I need to get around to SMT IV: Apocalypse one day.

I'm about halfway thru the fourth dungeon in Persona Q. The small team of players I'm leveling up is around the early 50's. Playing it only during my lunch break at work is taking awhile.

Meanwhile, I've been in love with Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The last FE game I played was back on the Gamecube, so its been awhile since I skipped the  Wii/DS/3DS games. I plan on doing at least three (maybe 4) playthrus of the game, just to see what happens in the other houses. So far, its my RPG of the year.  Great story, a lot of depth in the gameplay, and its so well-built how everything ties together.

 
Took a little break from Fire Emblem to finally finish up the 4th and final volume in dotHACK//G.U. Last Recode. My final thoughts on the game are that I would rate it just a little above mediocre; its just barely a good game. To me, the whole game is basic and shallow in gameplay, but the story and character growth help push the game up from below average into something just barely worth playing. There is little depth to any of its systems but what is there is competent enough to get the job done, however I just shake my head at the missed opportunities. My one recommendation for anyone wanting to play this collection is to space out the episodes like I did, otherwise, you're going to get burned out on the repetitive gameplay. I played all four volumes over the course of a year-and-a-half, and I'm glad I took time off from each. All 4 of the individual episodes are relatively short; I think the first episode was the longest, taking me about 24 hours (but then I did spend more time than I should have grinding, which made the rest of the episode very very easy, so I don't recommend doing that). Episode 2 took me a little less than 20 hours, episode 3 about 17, and the final episode is very short, clocking in under 3 hours. All in all, its a decent title as long as you don't expect anything great. If you're nostalgic about MMOs from the early 2000's, then you should fit right in. Damn I miss City of Heroes.

Anyway, back to Fire Emblem, I guess. Hopefully I'll get it finished in the next couple weeks, but with Astral Chain coming, that might get me sidetracked a bit.

 
Finished up several RPGs this month!

Fire Emblem: Three Houses was good. I haven't played a FE game since the Gamecube one, and this one was so much better. All in all, however, I am a bit disappointed in the way the game plays out. You always know some big battle is gonna happen at the end of the month, so there's never any surprise, and the build-up towards the climax isn't very suspenseful at all. The missions and side-quests that you can do in the middle of the month are plain boring for the most part. I do want to experience the story from the perspective of another house (I played Black Eagle), but until the DLC comes out and adds a bit more variety, I'll set it aside for now.

Phantasy Star has been in my backlog for years, and I'm glad I finally crossed it out. I played the Sega Ages version on the Switch, completely in hand-held mode, and it was great nostalgic old-school fun. I remember back in the early 90's reading a walkthru of the game in some magazine and wishing I had a Sega Master System to play it because it sounded so epic. Over the years, I've tried it out via emulation but never committed to beating it, and when the Sega collection came out on the PS3, I tried it out again but still never got very far. Finally, I've pushed thru and beaten it. Its easier than I thought it would be, and not very long either. Good old-school JRPG.

I just beat Persona Q today at last. I've been playing it exclusively on my lunch break at work since May, and 5 months later, I can finally say it is over. Not as long as a traditional Persona game, and I'm very glad of it, because it was getting kinda grindy towards the end. There's nothing to this game but dungeon crawling, Etrian Odyssey-style, but its the character interactions that kept me going. The dungeons themselves are kinda boring (EO had much better/more challenging/interesting dungeons) but if you love the characters from P3&4, then they're the reason to play this game, not the dungeon crawl.

Now that Persona Q is done, I'm gonna finally get around to Bravely Second. As for console RPGs, I haven't decided yet which one to play next. I'm still working my way thru Zelda: Link's Awakening now, and playing a bit of Spider-Man on PS4, so I may just go idle on RPGs until Trails of Cold Steel 3 lands later in October.

 
Phantasy Star is in my backlog as well; it's one of the last things I picked up from the Wii Shop before it closed. Also should get around to Persona Q sometime, though it's a shame to hear that the dungeons aren't as interesting as Etrian's. By the sounds of it, they probably aren't even as good as SMT: Strange Journey's, right?

As for me, once again I started up a completely different game than the ones I had originally been contemplating. Yep, instead of DQVII or SMTIV, I started Pandora's Tower. It's very Zelda-esque in its dungeon traversal and boss battles, but there's a traditional leveling up system so I guess it still counts as an RPG. The Wii Remote + Nunchuck controls are pretty good, though in between this and the Shadow Warrior remake (which I beat yesterday), my right hand is worn out. It also looks and feels like a PS2 game, with slightly better graphics in a few spots.

The story is pretty grimdark, and fairly well told, especially considering that it's all done through three characters (there's a fourth that doesn't do much) and a bunch of documents. The young woman you're trying to save from her curse, Elena, is a super domesticated JRPG cliche, as is Aeron, a Hero Who Doesn't Talk Much. The last two characters are a creepy old nomadic merchant, Mavda, and her companion, a skeletal old man who "talks" in unintelligible murmurs.

Have no idea what I'm going to play after I wrap this up-- I'm probably about 70-75% done now-- but it has to be something short enough that I can get through it before Pokemon Sword/Shield come out in November. I'd been thinking Project X Zone, but that might be too long.

 
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I've been wanting to play Pandora's Tower for awhile. It's in the backlog, and I'll try to get around to it maybe next year.

I've put about 10-hours into Bravely Second, and I have to say, its kinda boring. Its pretty much exactly like the first game, only with a much less-interesting story. I really hate that you have to choose between which job classes you acquire, the new main character is bland, the new french character has a personality (and accent) that has no consistency, and the villains are too cliche`. Its missing the charm of the first game.

On the console side of things, I'd intended to be playing Trails of Cold Steel 3, but a couple weeks before it came out I started Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on a whim, and I find it too good to set aside. I'm about 30 hours in now, and I've been very impressed. I honestly did not think I would like it as much as I am.

Guess I'll push back Cold Steel 3 until after I'm done. I think I'm gonna pass on Pokemon Sword/Shield at launch -- I may get it after the first of the year, but I'm not a huge fan of the franchise, so I can wait awhile.

 
Bah, that's a shame about Bravely Second. And it's yet another game sitting in my backlog. I'm starting to think that my backlog goal for next year should involve beating a lot of my currently unplayed JRPGs.

The only RPG I've been playing lately is Into the Breach, which is a pretty ingenious combo of strategy RPG and roguelike. It's also less stressful than FTL, the devs' previous game, was, especially since there's an option to get an ending after completing half of the available areas. Anyway, it's very good, and easy to recommend for those who enjoyed FTL.

Pokemon Shield should be here on Friday. I'm officially in Spoiler Avoidance Mode for that one, but have long been aware of all the controversies about the National Dex (which I personally don't care about), battle animations, and whatnot. I'm just hoping it'll run fine in handheld mode, since I can't imagine playing a mainline Pokemon any other way.
 
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As for my 2019 RPG year-end review, I would say it was a good year for the genre. I only played a few newly released RPGs (Tales of Vesperia DE, Fire Emblem 3 Houses), and crossed a few off the backlog (Battlechasers, .HACK//G.U., Phantasy Star 1, Persona Q, Xenoblade Chronicles 2). There's also a couple RPGs that I picked up and put down without finishing (Xenoblade Chronicles 1, Dark Rose Valkyrie).

Of all the RPGs I played this year, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was my personal favorite. Its so much better than I thought it would be, and I'm looking forward to a New Game+ replay sometime in the future. My biggest disappointment was Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It's a good game, just not as deep combat-wise as I was hoping, and the bits in-between the fights could sometimes get boring. (IMHO, the X-Com strategy games were better SRPGs.) My biggest surprise of the year was Battlechasers: Night War, since I did not expect that game to be as good as it turned out.

Going into next year, I'm currently still playing Bravely Second. The story gets a little better as it unfolds, but it still isn't as good as the first, and I still hate having to pick acquiring one job asterisk over another. I'm holding out hope that there's a way in the post-game to get all the jobs.

One of my 2020 New Year's resolutions is to play more backlogged RPGs, especially from my PS2 collection. I still need to start SMT: Digital Devil Saga 2, and I now have the entire Wild Arms collection to play thru. Lots to keep me busy. As for new games, I'm looking forward to disappearing into Persona 5 Royal, then there's the Xenoblade Chronicles 1 remake, and am still optimistic about the FF VII remake. There's a few other RPGs I'm watching out for (Tales of Arise, Cyberpunk, Darkest Dungeon 2, etc) and I hope to be surprised with other new RPGs.

 
Krymner said:
One of my 2020 New Year's resolutions is to play more backlogged RPGs, especially from my PS2 collection.
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That's my backlog priority as well-- except for the PS2 part. Most of my backlogged RPGs are on 3DS, PS3, Switch, and PC.

I didn't play very many RPGs this year, so I'm hoping to make them more of a priority in 2020. Right now I'm nearing the end of Pokemon Shield, and am achievement hunting in Into the Breach. As for next year, there isn't much on my radar-- there's still RPGs from this year I'm interested in but haven't picked up yet, mainly Heroland and DQXI for Switch. I have an import physical copy of Mistover on preorder, but as far as other upcoming RPGs on my radar, there's pretty much nothing at the moment.

Hope you all have a great New Year!
 
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Wrapped up Breath of Fire IV, my first BoF. Overall great game, maybe some tediously designed random encounters every now and then.

Really liked the soundtrack, this boss theme went so hard: https://streamable.com/piaje

 
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BoF IV was great. I'm slowly re-playing thru BoF 1 on the Switch when I'm bored. Haven't played it in a very, very long time, and I've always loved the classic SNES ones.

So, what's everyone here's opinion on the FF VII Demo? I really liked it, for what it is. It reminds me of XV in some ways, but I find the combat better than XV. The music is kick-ass, the voice acting seems good, and the enhanced story seems interesting. I'm really interested in seeing how materia works, and the leveling system. Getting close to release, so I'm getting excited.

 
P5 Royal got me into an RPG kick again and since platinuming that I've been slamming RPGs mainly for trophies.  Working on DQ11S for a general playthrough and then going back for trophies on PS4 version and started Trials of Mana today.  I thought Charlotte's voice acting would destroy my ears after seeing the initial reveals but its not too terrible.

Not sure if you'd classify Valkyria Chronicles as a JRPG but I completed that the other night because Gamestop sent me Remastered instead of VC4 and even though I knew the story from previous playthroughs I ended up tearing up a little at some of the more heavy moments.

 
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Finally beat Final Fantasy VII Remake. Much better than I expected it to be, and I thought the ending was appropriate. The action-based combat took me a little while to acclimate to, but once I had it down, I didn't have much problem. My biggest complaint would have to be the camera. I really wish you could zoom it out away from you more during certain boss fights so you can see around you better. Other than that, it was a great action-RPG. Looking forward to the next part, but I doubt we'll see it for at least 2-3 years.

Now, I'm starting a series that's been in my backlog for awhile. Wild Arms. I played the first PS1 game several years ago, right after it came out on the PS3's "virtual console" and that's the only one I've ever played. Since I've already played WA1, I'm going to start with Alter Code: F, since it is essentially a remake of Wild Arms 1.

 
Have you try going to the systems > options > camera and changing it?

I thought FFVII Remake was fantastic. They did a really great job on the soundtrack. I want to try FFXIV now after playing FFVII Remake. Don't know if I should wait for the PS5 version or not.

 
blueweltall said:
Have you try going to the systems &gt; options &gt; camera and changing it?

I thought FFVII Remake was fantastic. They did a really great job on the soundtrack. I want to try FFXIV now after playing FFVII Remake. Don't know if I should wait for the PS5 version or not.
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PS5 will be able to play all games on PS4. A dedicated PS5 version wouldn't change or upgrade much because the game is held back by the limitations of the weakest hardware it is on to prevent any platform from gaining an edge over the other. You won't see a dedicated next gen edition of the game until 2023 when 7.0 is released.

 
That's true, I really didn't think of that. Will probably just pick up the collection if it goes on sale this Black Friday. I heard a lot of good things about Shadowbringers.

 
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