RPG Thread XX has over 100 hours of gameplay

I don't think Symphonia 2 was terrible. Probably my least favorite Tales game, but it was alright and not as horrible as I had heard. I played the PS3 HD upscale, and I don't remember there being many battle system bugs or anything like that. I did like the villain that called Marta "Mart-Mart" all the time; that was the high-point of the game, but otherwise it's rather forgettable.

I've played Wild Arms 1. Very old-school in many ways, but it did have a few things it did that I liked. I got Wild Arms 2 during a PSN sale a few years ago, but I still haven't gotten around to play it. I also own Wild Arms 3 for PS2, and the game's still shrink-wrapped. When I finally finish up the Suikoden series (only have Suikoden V left to go) I'm thinking of going thru the Wild Arms games.

I know Enchanted Arms is unrelated to the Wild Arms series, but I thought it was alright.

I've beaten Dragon Quest VII! Horray! I've now beaten all Dragon Quest games from 1-9. I thought 7 was pretty good. Not my favorite of the series, but nowhere near my least favorite; probably in the middle. If I had to rank the DQ series from favorite to least, it would go: 4, 5, 8, 6, 7, 3, 9, 2, 1  Anyone here playing DQ 11 yet?

 
No plans to import Dragon Quest XI and would rather wait. Crazy it sold over 2m copies between the PS4 & 3DS versions in Japan within just two days though. Asked my friend who lives in/around Tokyo there and he only really noticed the usual advertising but didn't really notice anybody taking off work Friday or anything out of the ordinary. I can't remember what his current job is since he went away from working for Coca-Cola Japan.

R. Kasahara said:
Emil is a pretty bad protagonist early on. He's such a limp noodle. However, I thought Marta, after she joins your party, was more insufferable in those early parts. Early Luke in Abyss might've annoyed me more than either of them, though.

I used guest characters in my party whenever possible, so I never encountered many issues with the monster allies. The worst bug I ran into was well into the game. During a story-related battle (can't remember which one), I opened the menu to tweak the party's Artes, then closed it to find that I couldn't manually control Emil. At all. Double-checked all my character control settings and they were all normal. Auto for Emil worked fine, but the controls were completely unresponsive when switching to Manual. Reloading and avoiding the Arte settings for that battle seemed to bypass it. Still, a surprisingly bad bug.

I didn't go into the game with high expectations, which definitely helped. It's mediocre at best.
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I didn't really have high expectations either. I usually don't for a Tales game. Just hope that it's more of the same for the most part. Marta was probably just as bad for me, though I don't remember her as clearly. Regardless, what stopped me playing were the issues with AI ally monsters getting stuck on each other (Which happened to me damn near every battle), among a couple other issues with battle. If I can't enjoy the battle system without getting frustrated, then there was no way I was going to attempt to power through it. It really made me hate monster allies in a Tales game though.

I played through the game on the original Wii version at launch. I would like to think the issues I had got patched on the WIi version or at the very least fixed on the later PS3 version.

And yeah, I hated Luke too. I still think he's bad overall. Sure he gets better, but when you're a total unlikable dipshit for over 75% of the game then you're not a good character. If he was a side character, I don't think the impact of his character would weigh nearly as much as him being the main character. It's kind of sad when you're cheering the game on for kicking him down in hopes he finally gets his shit in gear.

 
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Draekon said:
I played through the game on the original Wii version at launch. I would like to think the issues I had got patched on the WIi version or at the very least fixed on the later PS3 version.
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I played the Wii version as well. Didn't think to check for a patch/revision (patches never being much of a thing on the Wii to begin with), so I played it with all the bugs present.
 
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R. Kasahara said:
Just beat Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World and... it was all right? It's bad for a Tales game, certainly, and I have issues with some parts (the implementation of the monster recruitment system, the too-heavy use of guest party members, a bunch of typos, a few bugs), but it wasn't as awful as I'd heard. The story was half-decent, only truly becoming nonsensical at the end, and the skits and other little bits of character interaction were about as well-written as in the rest of the series. Seeing characters and places from the first Symphonia was nifty in a nostalgic way; Regal was especially awesome in this one considering that I didn't really care much for him before.

Then again, I'm not a super hardcore Tales fan, so maybe I'm being generous :razz:

Not sure what I'll play next; currently leaning towards either Nier or 3D Dot Game Heroes.
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3D Dot Game Heroes was well-executed, but I've played Mass Effect 3 and now FFX-2 without returning to 3D. I guess TellTale GoT counts as a game, too. Again, well made, but I mostly wanted to play Zelda when I'd shut off 3D.

I should mention, though, that editing your character's appearance so that it is the word 'poop' was one of the most satisfying experiences I've ever had in gaming. And possibly life.

 
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OK, made it to around 12 hours into Nier, which is basically the first half of the game.

I can see why this game did not review so well, becoz it really is not fun to play lol.

Like, I spent the past year playing 4 of the most addicting JRPGs you could, Xenoblade X, SMT IV A, FFXV, and Persona 5, and those were the type of games I found myself putting in 20+ hours on a 3 day weekend.

Nier is a game that took me over 3 weeks to do 12. It just doesnt hook you and when I get home and find some free time I do not feel compelled to go play games.

I know this game is all about the story, and I'm definitely committed to seeing it through, but it'll probably take a while, but I do hope once I finish the second half it will hook me in a bit and I can proceed to keep beating the game for 100%.

No wonder when they made Automata that the whole point was to make the game fun lol; it allowed so many more ppl to appreciate it.

 
Draekon said:
You don't like the Suikoden series? Wat. My first question would be which games did you try? The second one is the one that's pretty much universally well liked. First one is mostly positively received. Third depends on who you ask. Fourth is considered boring as hell with the fifth coming back as somewhat of a redemption, but still not as good as its hayday.

I originally read Suikoden and skipped over your next sentence, so I was about to recommend the Trails series. Hah, yeah, probably not anymore now that I've caught myself.

As for Wild Arms, there was a remake of it on the PS2 called Wild Arms: Alter Code F. I liked the game a bit, but it felt a little grindy at times from what I remember. Personally I enjoyed the second game in the series the most and I think it's the most commonly liked one. Third I didn't care much for because of the beginning, followed by the world map scanning with all those stupid fossils. Though plenty of people seemed to like it. Fourth one was very meh, but playable. Fifth one was pretty decent and I enjoyed it. Although I suppose there was also a grid-based strategy game called Wild Arms XF that wasn't half bad.

I want to say Wild Arms is generally enjoyed because we don't get much in the way of Wild West themes, particularly from Japan. It did well with the theme and there were typically enjoyable puzzles in the games that relied on different characters abilities. The guns in the battle system were fun, it made use of the occasional interesting battle mechanic (such as casting fire, then ice to break an enemies shell). Characters weren't half bad and mostly likable. Plus back when it originally came out, people who enjoyed JRPGs then would tend to flock to them because relatively few actually got localized at the time.

I think you should figure out what you like about JRPGs from the ones you like and what you dislike about the ones you don't like. Someone may be able to recommend some for you.
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It looked like the stories for Suikoden would be good, but the controls for the games didn't click for me at all. The turn based style of RPG's where you don't have a chance to avoid attacks is why I've avoided the genre.

I'm more into the real time gameplay like Legend of Zelda, Soul Blazer, and Illusion of Gaia. The only reason I explored RPG's was from the time I played Super Mario RPG which is why Legend of Dragoon looked fun. I was also able to have fun trying Final Fantasy VII and of course Wild Arms. If movement is limited, chances are I won't like it.

Going through the PS3, here are the other RPG's I will check out via PS1 Classics:

Legend of Dragoon (played demo, was fun)

Chrono Cross

Chrono Trigger

Parasite Eve II (loved the first one)

Legend of Mana

Vagrant Story

Xenogears

Wild Arms 2

All the Final Fantasy games

 
luxuria said:
I Am Setsuna is on sale for the Switch. Those of you who have played - is it worth the $27?
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Although late, I don't really feel it's worth that. $20 at most really. The gameplay is fairly decent/fun and it looks nice if you like the aesthetic. However the areas are mostly boring and straight forward with the story being extremely short and predictable. As for the loot system, it's an abomination. There are ways to exploit it, but it's not particularly enjoyable for me. In their next game they seem to have gotten rid of it, though it's not out yet in Japan so I can't say for certain. Didn't care much for how their equipment bonus system worked either. Felt a bit too RNG for me.

Cage017 said:
It looked like the stories for Suikoden would be good, but the controls for the games didn't click for me at all. The turn based style of RPG's where you don't have a chance to avoid attacks is why I've avoided the genre.

I'm more into the real time gameplay like Legend of Zelda, Soul Blazer, and Illusion of Gaia. The only reason I explored RPG's was from the time I played Super Mario RPG which is why Legend of Dragoon looked fun. I was also able to have fun trying Final Fantasy VII and of course Wild Arms. If movement is limited, chances are I won't like it.
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So you seem to like more along the lines of Action-Adventure (Zelda) and Action RPGs (The other two). Of the ones you've listed I don't believe Chrono Cross, Legend of Mana and Vagrant Story have random battles. The rest do, of which I recall Legend of Dragoon and Xenogears having a fairly high encounter rate. Wild Arms 2 I think is a little less than those two. Though not a PS1 Classic, you may enjoy Final Fantasy XII (PS2/PS4 HD Remaster). It's not my cup of tea due to the gameplay but a lot of people love it. I feel like I'm more of an outlier with that game.

At some point you might want to give Grandia II (PS2/Dreamcast/PC) a try and potentially even Trails of Cold Steel (PS3/Vita/PC). The PC version of the latter has some Quality of Life improvements in its port such as Turbo Mode. I know the PC version of Grandia II is the best version but don't recall if it had any QoL improvements.

There's also Lunar and Lunar 2 from the PS1 era. It has random encounters and is pretty anime, but it's pretty well regarded. Don't think either are on PS1 Classics, although there is a PSP port of Lunar 2. I'll also mention two others, those being Star Ocean 2 and any of the Tales games. Both of those have very action oriented battle systems, but the earlier games still use random encounters. I don't believe those are apart of PS1 Classics in NA either, but Tales of Destiny II (Known as that in NA, but really named Tales of Eternia everywhere else) was also ported to the PSP and released in Europe. Import is possible, but there was a bug in early prints of the game that caused the game to lock after beating a certain boss.

All of the above are closer to classic RPGs. As for other ones you may want to try would be anything from the Ys series (1 & 2 Chronicles are very different than the rest) and Alundra. The first being very heavy on the Action RPG with the latter being a bit of an Action-Adventure. I'm sure there are others that belong here, but I'm drawing a blank.

 
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Started Nier a few days ago, still pretty early in. About to go looking for some kids' mom at the scrapyard/factory place.

Cage017 said:
It looked like the stories for Suikoden would be good, but the controls for the games didn't click for me at all. The turn based style of RPG's where you don't have a chance to avoid attacks is why I've avoided the genre.

I'm more into the real time gameplay like Legend of Zelda, Soul Blazer, and Illusion of Gaia. The only reason I explored RPG's was from the time I played Super Mario RPG which is why Legend of Dragoon looked fun. I was also able to have fun trying Final Fantasy VII and of course Wild Arms. If movement is limited, chances are I won't like it.
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Adding on to Draekon's reply:

Chrono Trigger doesn't have truly random battles, either, though it does like to do that "enemies pop up out of nowhere" thing every once in awhile. It's considered to be one of the best time travel-themed games ever, plus it's got a fun cast, great soundtrack, excellent battle system... I could go on. Chrono Cross is more divisive (I'm one of those people who mostly hates it), and its battle system is pretty different (I thought it was unnecessarily complicated), but it has one or two good points.

Seconding Grandia II. It has wonderful, engaging battles and is a great game in general.

Also seconding the Ys series, though it's going off the turn-based RPG path. It's my favorite action RPG series of all time and has been compared to Zelda by some people. Imagine Zelda with less of an emphasis on tools and more on magic. Expanding on Ys I&II: they are VERY old school-- you attack enemies by bumping into them, and there's not even any magic in I. Ys I is also old school difficult, especially its final boss. I like those two games a lot, but they're an acquired taste and mainly for Ys completionists.

(Also, re: Suikoden: It's all good! I tried one of them some time ago [Suikoden V] and it didn't click with me, either, though for different reasons.)
 
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R. Kasahara said:
In retrospect, I think I might've made a mistake in playing DDS 1 and 2 before Nocturne. The DDS games were my first experience with SMT, so Nocturne was kind of a letdown.

Huh. Never seen BttF 2 and I don't remember that part from the first movie. On the surface of things, they just seemed like poorly-delivered jokey lines *shrug*
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BTTF 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDevd7O2fq8

BTTF 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rze0XkDUqQ

Cage017 said:
It looked like the stories for Suikoden would be good, but the controls for the games didn't click for me at all. The turn based style of RPG's where you don't have a chance to avoid attacks is why I've avoided the genre.

I'm more into the real time gameplay like Legend of Zelda, Soul Blazer, and Illusion of Gaia. The only reason I explored RPG's was from the time I played Super Mario RPG which is why Legend of Dragoon looked fun. I was also able to have fun trying Final Fantasy VII and of course Wild Arms. If movement is limited, chances are I won't like it.

Going through the PS3, here are the other RPG's I will check out via PS1 Classics:

Legend of Dragoon (played demo, was fun)

Chrono Cross

Chrono Trigger

Parasite Eve II (loved the first one)

Legend of Mana

Vagrant Story

Xenogears

Wild Arms 2

All the Final Fantasy games
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Could I interest you in a little series named "Kingdom Hearts?" All the moment to moment gameplay/battles are active, DMC-lite even, KH2 is even better in this respect, though KH has more (better?) exploration aspects. The 'meta-story' gets up its own ass, but the general intra-plot of each of the games is easy enough to follow. Maybe a bit too easy as almost rom-com-y (boy meets girl, boy loses girl, etc.).

 
I noticed I did not purchase Grandia from the Playstation Store. Any thoughts on Arc the Lad?

I started Kingdom Hearts but never finished it (made it to an Aladdin stage). It's fun, but I don't know if it's the kind of game I would replay. Guess I would have to finish it to find out.

Y's sounds familar. What platform is that on?

I have some Tales games on the  Xbox 360 but I'm in the mood to stay on retro consoles before trying anything on PS3 and up.

 
Cage017 said:
I noticed I did not purchase Grandia from the Playstation Store. Any thoughts on Arc the Lad?

I started Kingdom Hearts but never finished it (made it to an Aladdin stage). It's fun, but I don't know if it's the kind of game I would replay. Guess I would have to finish it to find out.

Y's sounds familar. What platform is that on?

I have some Tales games on the Xbox 360 but I'm in the mood to stay on retro consoles before trying anything on PS3 and up.
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The first Grandia I liked, but it's rather anime'ish in its presentation of characters and what not. Somewhat similar to how Lunar is. The battle system is still there that the series is known for, but not quite as good as the second games or later. Granted Grandia II is pretty corny/campy too, but I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more. Stories in characters in everything after the second Grandia just kind of shit themselves unfortunately.

Arc the Lad is a Strategy RPG or Tactics game. It's turn-based grid battle system which is very different than anything else listed thus far. The first one is so-so (and quite short), but it gives you background on those original characters that appear in the second game. Arc the Lad II is also turned based and I really liked that one. The story is pretty decent and had a fair amount of side stuff to do (It's a long game). The third one is a continuation of the first two and not bad, but the second one was the best one in my opinion. All three are on PS1 Classics, but it's not really necessary to play the first one if you're interested in the series. The latter two games are nothing like the original trilogy and don't really have anything to do with them. They were PS2 games and I don't really recommend touching them (Twilight of the Spirits & End of Darkness).

Ys (Pronounced Eese, like Geese but without the G) doesn't have an apostrophe actually. Though you generally have to say Y.S. just to have people know what you're talking about in a verbal discussion. We didn't get much in the way of Ys titles for quite some time, with a couple of them being remakes of the earlier titles. Its platforms are:

Ys Origin (PC, PS4, Vita)

Ys 1 & 2 Chronicles+ (PC, Wii VC, DS, PSP)

Ys: The Oath in Felghana [Remake of Ys III] (PC, PSP)

Ys: Memories of Celceta [Remake of Ys IV] (Vita)

Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand (Not in English)

Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim (PC, PSP, PS2)

Ys Seven (PC, PSP)

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (PC, PS4, Vita)

Ys Seven is releasing on PC this month and Ys VIII comes out in English on all three platforms next month. Adol is the main character in basically all of them except for Origins. Oh and before you touch a Ys game, let me warn you this is the starting premise of just about every single one involving Adol:

t6lCVtP.png

 
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Got Ending A of Nier late last week and started the second loop today. I'm a little surprised at how far back it placed me at the start of this loop, but at least it isn't too far.

I'm also wondering if there'll be any more fleshing out of the couple of hints I picked up on during the first loop that Nier is the continuation of Drakengard's Ending E. And more details about all the first-loop-endgame stuff too, of course; still kinda boggling over that revelation about Popola and Devola.

JEKKI said:
I know this game is all about the story, and I'm definitely committed to seeing it through, but it'll probably take a while, but I do hope once I finish the second half it will hook me in a bit and I can proceed to keep beating the game for 100%.
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Yeah, can't say that the actual game part of Nier is all that. The side stuff in particular ranges from dull to bad, though some of the requests are good for raising cash late in the game, and there's at least one which is worth doing for other reasons. Combat's okay, though the distance and force with which the main character is flung back whenever he gets hit with a physical attack is ridiculous. The story really is something, though, and I like the world-building and characters. Also, I need the soundtrack like burning.

Draekon said:
Oh and before you touch a Ys game, let me warn you this is the starting premise of just about every single one involving Adol:

t6lCVtP.png
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Adol really is the ultimate JRPG ladies man. It's kind of ridiculous :lol:

 
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Sorry for posting again so soon, but I have a quick question: is the Nier DLC worth picking up? And if so, is there an ideal time (in relation to the story/endings) when to play it?

 
I haven't played the DLC for either NieR game, but I believe none of them have any real story to them. Pretty much just arenas and costumes locked behind them. So if you do get them, I wouldn't think it matters when you actually buy/play them.

 
There isn't really much story to the DLC at all. No cutscenes at least, and not much exposition. Its about the MC's dead wife, and you get sucked into a dream-world like area where you fight some new shades in 15 rooms as the younger Nier from the RepliCant version of the game. That's about it game-play wise. You get some new costumes and weapons, and a couple of other little things. I would only recommend the DLC if you really, really like the game, because there's not much to it other than the challenge.

It doesn't fit into the main story at all, so you can play it whenever, but it is difficult, so I'd recommend having a high level.

 
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Thanks guys; will skip. I was only interested in the DLC if they added significantly to the story (the description mentioning the MC's wife got me intrigued).

 
awwww yeay! Had a 3 day weekend during labor day a week ago; didnt play any Nier lol (focused on 100% puyo puyo tetris story mode). So I made up for it this week!

beat the game on friday evening; then powered thru NG+ to get the second ending today.

What I like about the Ending B route is the game doesnt adjust the difficulty; so it's a breeze to get thru as you feel kinda OP, which definitely helps coz the game still isnt fun. 

story's cool I guess. Shouldnt be too much work getting the last 2 endings so hopefully by next weekend I'll have this game complete!

other observations from this game:

everytime dude jumps or rolls or lands, the sound effect sounds like an approaching dog jingling their collar.

The menu sound effects are straight out of Silent Hill.

lastly, the main character is freakin Sojiro. Like the voice actor didnt even bother to act in a different voice; they're literally the same sounding person! So people who played Nier before P5 are probably like yo that guy is Nier!

 
JEKKI said:
lastly, the main character is freakin Sojiro. Like the voice actor didnt even bother to act in a different voice; they're literally the same sounding person! So people who played Nier before P5 are probably like yo that guy is Nier!
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Huh, I actually never noticed. My husband did recognize Weiss' voice actor right away as the guy who plays Illidan in World of Warcraft (and he also apparently voices Akihiko in Persona 3).

I have one ending left to go here; shouldn't take too long. Have really loved this whole experience, in a weird way.
 
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Ys VIII feels a lot like Ys Seven which I did not really enjoy. But at least the dodge roll is no longer faster than the run speed. That's a major step forward.

 
OK, spent my time this weekend getting thru playthru #3 of Nier.

Ending B was OK coz you can just power thru the game, but ending C makes the game terrible again because there's a item collection requirement to achieve, which causes the game to force you into sidequests. Not a fun time at all :(

fortunately, I've made it thru and am now at the final save point!

Not sure if I will beat it again tonite, but should easily have the game completed this week!!

I'm also glad that there's no need to play the game again; you can get the last 2 endings by just reloading the final save point so that's a relief!

 
My own Nier update: played through the final ending on Friday (and ended up buying and playing the Recycled Vessel DLC after all, haha whoops); ordered the OST, Piano Collections, and artbook; got that first item today and ripped it; and somewhere in all that, finished rereading The Dark Id's Drakengard LP and am ready to tear into the Nier one. Nier is easily (and inexplicably) my favorite game played this year.

Next up RPG-wise will be... probably nothing until Etrian Odyssey V comes out.
 
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awwwwwww yeeeeeaaaaayyyyy Nier is done!

Cool game; but dang it took me 2 months to beat it! (started mid July). In other words, Nier is as long as Persona 5 is!!!

Now I really wanna play Automatic, but unfortunately that will not be for a while :(

So I'm finally free to start my next game / RPG - Yakuza 0!!!

except... there's a small handful of indie games I wanna play thru first, and one of those games is the famous Undertale.

other 2 I wanna play are Axiom Verge and Freedom Planet, so the next 30 hours should definitely be much more fun than the last 30 have been lol.

Still... Nier, worth experiencing and very happy that I did. I will now watch random youtube vids to help understand the story and world more lol. 

 
I'm finally near the end of SMT: Digital Devil Saga 1. I could make a run on the final tower dungeon, but apparently there's several side-quest things I can do, so I guess I'll work on those and grind my characters some of the more high-level skills I know I'll probably need. I'm gonna try and focus on this game, since I've only really been playing it an hour or two on the weekends for the last few months. Try and get it knocked out and move on to the next backlogged RPG.

 
And now I've beaten DDS1.

Honestly, I think it is harder in many ways than Nocturne. I had a lot more cheap deaths in DDS than Nocturne, and mostly against common enemies as opposed to bosses. Not to say bosses were easy. Some where frustrating, but the final boss wasn't too hard at all. I think a lot of the difficulty comes down to having a 3-man team (versus the 4 you get in Nocturne). It took me about 50-hours on my play-thru, and I'd say about 10-12 of those hours doing nothing but grinding for skills to beat the next boss. Certainly a weird-ass story.

But I'm done for now with DDS, and need a break from the grind, so I won't jump into DDS 2 just yet.

I think next I'm going to finally tackle the last game in the Suikoden main series, and complete my play of all 5 of them that I began a couple years ago. I hear 5 is one of the best, so I'm looking forward to it.

 
I finished Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth (Sequel to Mask of Deception) a few weeks ago. I love the game and the translation is pretty decent. Highly recommend it, so long as you don't mind a lot of talking/reading. With it being a visual novel first, you can go something like four hours in between a single battle only to have another two hours of dialogue until the next battle. The story was good, significantly better than most of what we get these days with JRPGs by far. The only downside for new players would be not having played the original 2002 game that was never officially localized, only fan translated. Alternatively you could watch the anime based on it that aired back in 2006 I believe. It's very connected to the two games, which makes it all the more difficult for people to get into when I recommend watching the series prior to playing it. I also did a bit of a writeup here, but in retrospect probably left out a couple things.

Also finally went through Breath of the Wild very recently too. Honestly I don't think it's even close for a game of the year contender from how people constantly rave about it like it's hot shit. I liked it, but it just did so many things poorly that I can't really give it more than a 7 out of 10. If they decide to use the open world formula again, they refine it and fix a lot of the areas they are sorely lacking in.

I really want to play Divinity: Original Sin 2, but I think I'd rather play it in co-op with someone. Though if I do pick it back up, I will likely restart even though I've probably put two hours in. I think I'd go with a premade character this time with their own story.

Besides that, I'm slowly working through Golf Story on the Switch. Weird little RPG that is pretty decent, but has already frozen on me once due to glitching out a golf ball in a 10 hole putting area. Maybe try out Mario + Rabbids now that I have a Switch to play on top of that.

 
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Near the end of Suikoden V and hope to have it beat by this weekend. It is WAY better than IV, but man, those loading screens.....

 
wazuuuuuup! I'm back! It's 1AM, apparently neogaf is dead forever, and I just beat Undertale!

I think the game forces the neutral ending on you during first play thru? Regardless I went thru the game blind and didnt kill anyone (except for the first major boss coz I didnt know you could spare them... just found out just now reading some faqs).

but yah, real good game, tho tough to play at first due to the same reasons I never got hooked to Earthbound (slow-paceyness of it).

But I finished it and would love to go back and explore the depth and endings of the game, but instead I'm just gonna buy the physical version and dive in all over again later. Good game so definitely worth it. 

 
Not an RPG, but RPG-adjacent: I started Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue yesterday. It's a free metroidvania to promote SMT: Strange Journey's 3DS rerelease in Japan. Pretty well made and fun game so far, and a bit more substantial than I thought it would be. It's available here until Dec. 24, and a dialogue translation patch can be found here.

Got Etrian Odyssey V in, but don't know when I'll be able to start it. I'm fairly busy right now and with that sort of game, I'd want to have enough free time to really sink my teeth into it.

JEKKI said:
I think the game forces the neutral ending on you during first play thru? Regardless I went thru the game blind and didnt kill anyone (except for the first major boss coz I didnt know you could spare them... just found out just now reading some faqs).
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AFAIK, it doesn't, but you have to do certain things to avoid the Neutral ending if you've spared everyone (and if you've killed even just once, boss or not, you're getting Neutral).

Anyway, congrats on beating it! I liked it quite a bit more than Earthbound, for various reasons.
 
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Dang, I still need to get around to Undertale, and I would love to get EO V, but I feel like I'm drowning in my RPG backlog already. Maybe if I quit my job, I'll have more time to play....

 
^ And SMT IV has two games. Hopefully V won't have anything like the final dungeon of IV Apocalypse though. That dungeon was terrible.

I'm playing Etrian Odyssey V on the side here and there. Currently a little into the second stratum. Also playing through a little bit of Valkyrie Revolution that a friend lent me prior to Mario Odyssey's release this Friday. Man that game is bad and deserves all the bad reviews it gets.

 
I considered picking up Valkyrie Revolution when it first dropped to $15 on Amazon, but I just couldn't pull the trigger. Instead, I watched some videos of it, and after seeing it in action, I think that was overpaying.

I got thru most of the first SMT IV, but never got Apocalypse. Your average grind-fest that SMT is known for, with cheap deaths a'plenty. I skipped a ton of the sidequest stuff and made a run for the end game.

I thought the SMT game announced for Switch would probably be V, but I was really hoping for Persona 5 Golden.

 
Finally finished with Suikoden V. Very good JRPG. Almost the best in the series in many ways, but I really did not like how they did the major battles. Turn based was better. Far too often, I'd be trying to move one group out of the way, then flung to the other end of the battlefield for a far-away battle, and then the group I was trying to move away would get clobbered because I couldn't scroll back and move it in time. Just really annoying. Other than that, it was wonderful.

But that finally completes my playthru of the five main Suikoden games! It's a great series, and I recommend them to any fan of the genre. If I had to rank the five, I would probably go: 3>2=5>1>4. I put 2 and 5 together, because I cannot decide which is the best because I liked 2's story and major battles better, but I liked 5's characters and gameplay system (magic, skills, battle formations, etc).

On thing I did realize about the entire series was that they were really kinda easy. I never had that much trouble with any of the bosses or having party wipes, and in most major battles I dominated the other side. I did follow guides to make sure I recruited all 108 star characters, and some of those I would probably have missed on my own, but overall, they were cake walks.

All in all, great series. I'll keep an eye out for a copy of Suikoden Tactics, but its not something I'll hunt down just to have.

Now, I'm headed back into the Legend of Heroes series, and start Trails of Cold Steel 2.

 
Spent the past couple weekends playing Road Not Taken. It's a combination roguelike and puzzle game, and a damn good one at that.

The basic premise is that you're a ranger whose job is to rescue kids when they get lost picking berries in the winter. This may sound cutesy, and it is to a certain extent, but things go to some rather dark places the more you learn about the world. You have to complete fifteen winters' worth of rescuing kids to beat the game.

In each year, you go into the forest and match the objects in each room to progress (for example, matching four bear statues to unlock the next path) and/or make new items (match three bears, and they will turn into a bear statue). Some rooms are carefully crafted puzzles, but most seem to be randomly generated. There are over a hundred types of items and at least as many combinations, the latter of which can be learned through the villagers or by good ol' trial and error. And speaking of the villagers, there's other benefits to befriending them, such as special items and health boosts.

It doesn't take long to beat, though there's a good amount of replayabilty, thanks in part to some flexible difficulty options. Can't recommend this game enough, especially if you're looking for something a little different from the average roguelike.

 
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I was semi-interested in the game, but it never interested me enough to buy it. I think Europe received it in August through PS+, but not the US. So I still don't own it since I rarely ever buy PC bundles.

Played and beat Summon Night 6. Really disappointed in the game. Story went in circles for 80% of the game with very little to no actual story development and the translation, while readable, is very typical Vic Ireland. If you interested in a Summon Night game, play 5 instead. It's significantly better in my opinion, but still suffers from some similar things.

Since you mentioned Road Not Taken, I'll bring up A Hat in Time. I beat that a month or so ago and it was pretty damn good. Highly recommend the game if you enjoy 3D platformers. The game has a lot of personality to it and despite not sticking to one thing particularly long, it does what it does fairly well while being fun. Unfortunately the only real downside to it is that it's not particularly polished. I completed the game with all time pieces at around 10 to 11 hours.

Etrian Odyssey V is still slowly being played. I typically play those very slowly over the course of a few months. Haven't really made much progress since the last post. My main games currently are Demon Gaze II (It's alright) and the new Horizon expansion. I'm going to try and get through those so I can play Xenoblade Chronicles 2 when it comes out next week. I also need to give the Pillars of Eternity 2 beta a quick try soon as well as the SpellForce 3 Beta today before it expires.

EDIT: Oh, I also played Zwei on the PC when it released at Halloween. That was a pretty good game too for an older Falcom game. Characters are pretty sassy and the voice overs, while weird at times, were pretty good too.

 
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I'm kinda glad this is the last main EO game. I hit a bit of a wall on floor 24, and have been stuck there for a long time. I can't upgrade gear because of how expensive everything is. Even fighting FOEs or bosses would take a dozen kills to get one piece of gear. Obviously 20 pieces of gear would be an extremely long grind.

XP scaling seem to be the same thing. It seems to go up exponentially in this game, making grinding a retired character or a new character up be an extremely long chore.

They're obviously pushing people to buy the DLC to get xp and money easily, which is putting me off.

 
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Draekon said:
Since you mentioned Road Not Taken, I'll bring up A Hat in Time.
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Well, I thought Road Not Taken would fit in the scope of this thread, being a roguelike ;) A Hat in Time looks pretty interesting, but I'm very picky about 3D platformers. If it's something along the lines of the Klonoa or Sly Cooper series, or the first Jak, I may check it out.

And I still have to start Etrian V >.< Maybe after Thanksgiving; I should have a bit more free time then!
 
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Yeah, Etrian Odyssey always had a little grind to it but it seems to be a bit more with the latest entry.

R. Kasahara said:
Well, I thought Road Not Taken would fit in the scope of this thread, being a roguelike ;) A Hat in Time looks pretty interesting, but I'm very picky about 3D platformers. If it's something along the lines of the Klonoa or Sly Cooper series, or the first Jak, I may check it out.
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It's probably closer to Mario 64/Sunshine in how the levels are designed than it is those. You switch hats that each have an ability to perform whatever you need done. Each level is quite different and having to replay them for different time pieces can sometimes drastically change everything. So you aren't always replaying the same exact area or even doing the same thing.

 
I was hoping the VC announcement was either VC4 or a remaster of the PSP games and not another crap-bomb like Valkyrie Revolution. Looks like a promising sequel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGL5EzrHm_U

 
I'm really hoping it takes after the first Valkyria Chronicles game and none of the other Valkyria games. The series took a dip in quality after the first one going with the common Japan factor where they try and put school shit in and make the story overly childish by focusing too much on typical shounen flub. Then you have revolution where tanks don't exist as you know them from Chronicles and are instead bipedal walkers/metal gear. So dumb.

 
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Draekon said:
Yeah, Etrian Odyssey always had a little grind to it but it seems to be a bit more with the latest entry.
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It was a breeze til around floor 23-24 (including most FOEs). Then there's an abundance of AOE squirrels that get pre-emptive attacks, which means by the time you can act, you're down to 20% hp.

Once I hit level 60, they became much easier for whatever reason. So I'm guessing there's a soft cap.

 
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happy thanksgiving!! ppl be talking like nobody cares about Steam sales, and here I am having spent $30 on steam this weekend >_<

did pick up 2 RPGz - Xanadu Next and Deus Ex the new one, which I'll need a new PC to play lol, but it was cheap!!

side note, the PS4 I bought during black friday last year actually came with DeusEx! but I sold it coz I'd prefer mouse & keyboard to play.

but yah, more for the forever backlog, and speaking of this looks hype!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hb0KmH2WBQ

I actually did buy a Switch about a month ago, having fun with Mario much to the detriment of my backlog, and I'm still committed to beating Xenoblade X, but at least I do own the console to play X2 when I'm ready to!

and thanks to the switch, also get to be hype for SMTV and Project Octopus Trainer!

 
^ People mostly complain about Steam sales because they have too large a library already. Not to mention all these bundles puts devaluation on their perspective and towards smaller indie titles. Though it isn't entirely untrue that Steam sales used to be a bit better a ways back where you'd regularly see more prominent games receiving larger discounts more frequently during these sales.

Xanadu NEXT is great though and should be playable without a new PC. I definitely recommend running through it as it's a fun little game. I'll be playing through Xenoblade Chronicles 2 when it releases and then after that Tokyo Xanadu eX+. Though I'm going into the latter with low to medium expectations.

 
After taking a month away from the game, I finally went back and finished off Trails of Cold Steel 2. It's the exact opposite of ToCS 1 as far as pacing. In the first one, the beginning drags on for too long before everything gets going. In the sequel, it starts off really good, but then the ending drags on longer than it should. Pacing issues aside, I enjoyed the sequel's story more than the first one, and the new additions to the combat system are neat. I'm looking forward to the third one, and they're working on a fourth, so its great that the story continues.

Going to work on Valkyria Chronicles 2 now, I think. I'm really hyped for the fourth one, since the gameplay of it I've seen looks really good.

Hands down, my RPG of 2017 is Persona 5. NieR Automata is the runner-up.

My favorite backlogged RPG I played this year is Suikoden V.

Overall, I'm proud of the RPGs I finished this year.

Suikoden IV and V

Trails of Cold Steel 1 and 2

Persona 5

NieR Automata

Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Age

Final Fantasy Type-0

Digital Devil Saga 1

Dragon Quest VII

Ten RPGS? Not bad for a year. I seriously doubt I'll get thru that many in 2018, but if I can beat 6-8, I'll be happy.

I've still got a ton of games in my backlog. In 2018, I especially want to beat:

Final Fantasy XV  (I got thru just over half of it...need to go back and finish it off and do the DLC)

Digital Devil Saga 2

Xenoblade Chronicles (The first Wii game)

A Tales game (I didn't play a single Tales game in 2017. I have Abyss, Legendia, Zesteria, and Berseria all in the backlog)

With those four, and some new ones coming out in 2018, like Ni No Kuni 2, that should keep me busy for awhile.

 
happy Xenoblade 2sday!!

even tho it aint tuesday!

and even tho Xeno 2 has been out for a while!!

and even tho it's actually new years day!

I dont care, becoz I gotta tell yallz about how I'm so hype for a game that I wont even play until probably 2019, but at least I can spend my year looking at the shiny collector's edition box I got up on my shelf!

I did however 100% mario odyssey last week tho, so my Switch is now unhooked from my TV and my WiiU is back, so hoping I can get back to XCX soon... maybe this month too, but I'm always juggling multiple games now it seems :p

I've totally overlooked the release of Episode Ignis btw, so probably gonna do some FFXV soon.

also want to move Nier Automatic up to the top of the backlog becoz GOTY discussions are reaully pushing it up to the priority spots!

after that, not sure if I have any other RPG goals for the new year, but Ys VIII for sure and hopefully I can also dive into Trails SC. 

 
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