one-handed gaming
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 - 7:11am
Ha, I see where your mind went...
Last night I broke my "humereal head" in an accident. This connects arm to shoulder; arm now in sling and can't move. One-hand typing slow, so post sound like caveman text message. 
I love JRPGs and this is a good time to clear one off the pile. Turn-based combat, minimal movement, hopefully only need one hand. Strongly considering:
Ar Tonelico
Final Fantasy X
Lost Odyssey
Xenogears
Xenosaga
If none suitable, might replay FF6 or Lunar. I think Dead Or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball also designed to accommodate one-hand play for other reasons.
Any advice on suitability level of various options? Do not like most casual (story-free) gaming, and laptop is logistical problem, so that's out.
Certis wrote:
I don't care if you're anonymous on the rest of the Internet and therefor feel bulletproof. Here, you're accountable and I expect you to behave like you're looking someone in the eye when you say something to them.
I once broke my "humereal head" during an extended and vigorous session of one-handed gaming.
NOTE: Not a doodle bug.
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Suikoden 2 is the only acceptable answer.
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I don't have it, I'm afraid. Believe it or not, I played the first one (got all 108 stars) and started S2, but quit about ten hours in because I didn't like it. Which by conventional wisdom means I have no taste, I know...
Certis wrote:
I vote for FF-X. It's got a good story (if you can get past the somewhat annoying main character) as well as one of the best characters in a FF game ever: Auron.
Also, the battles are turn based, with none of this real-time stuff that can be annoying if you only have one hand to play with. Parts of it are kinda grindy but the ending is awesome.
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I'd vote for Lost Odyssey, just because it's more recent and has one of the better stories I've come across in a long, long time wandering the JRPG world. The dreams, in particular, require almost no action on your part. The combat is slightly active, though you only need one hand to do it; but it has to be your right hand (uses the right trigger as a "release"). You didn't mention which hand you're lacking right now, so I dunno if you can reach the right trigger with your left hand, but it's worth a shot.
EDIT: Xenogears or the first Xenosaga would also be acceptable; just skip Xenosaga 2 unless you're much more patient and forgiving than I.
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Buncha webgames are purely mouse-driven; those might work pretty well.
SallyNasty, on inappropriate Godwinning wrote:
I'm finishing up Lost Odyssey right now, and it has been great. The past few nights it has kept me up til 2 in the morning. I kee p telling myself that I'm just going to go kill the final boss, but then i get sidetracked. That actually is one of the games few flaws. It is extremely linear until you get to the fourth disk and then you can start working on all these side quests. I think they could have thrown some in the middle as well.
Also, install the game to your hard drive. I lost at least 5-10 hours from the game just dying on me. Last night, took 10 minutes to install and now it runs way faster, and I don't have to worry about it dying on me anymore.
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I have this for the PSOne... it worked ok. Got it for RPGs, but never really stuck with it as a real alternative to the normal controller.
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The bone is the Humerus. I imagine you snapped it at the neck. You must have been hit pretty bloody hard for that to happen!
Jonman wrote:
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Earthbound. You can easily play it with nothing more than the L button, the D-pad, and the Select button.
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Thanks, this helps. I have use of my right arm/hand. (Fortunately I'm right handed too.) I wouldn't be able to use joystick and shoulder buttons together, but if I just need one at a time w/o rapid switching, would be good.
Top of that, yeah. Spilled a scooter when going through an intersection and someone coming the opposite direction started turning left in front of me. Only going about 25 mph and wearing leather, but falling several feet to cement at that speed will do it I guess. My head was inches from her bumper when I slid to a stop which gives me perspective how much worse it couyld have been.
Yeah, if only they'd put out a U.S. port... I never got into emulation and fansubs.
Certis wrote:
Earthbound on SNES was brought to America. You should be able to find it floating around at used game shops. It even came packed with a strategy guide to help guide our feeble American minds around the mastery of Japanese RPGs.
Living in a nightmare hellride.
Earthbound is out in the US. Has been for years. It's on the SNES, and can be had for about $30 on Ebay. Unless I've been put into a drug-induced haze whenever I turn on my Super Nintendo.
MOTHER 3 is the one you are thinking of, and while it can be played with the same one-handed configuration you would have to go the English patch plus ROM path. It's worth it, though.
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I think he means he cracked the ball in the ball and socket joint, at the end of the humerus. Also needing a bloody hard hit to do so.
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Indeed. Fractures of the surgical neck of the humerus are more common, but his description of coming off of a scooter at 25mph would certainly provide enough force to crack the humeral head if that's what he landed on.
But I'll quit the medical thread-jack. Trauma just interests me.
Jonman wrote:
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Ahhhhhh, OK, thanks, I weas confused. Money's tight temporarily but I'll have to bear that in mind.
Humeral head, I was told.
You're not alone. Lots of folks got excited when a trauma came in after me. I'm selfishly glad I didn't give them anything more interesting.
Certis wrote:
All of the Telltale games are great with just a mouse, or 1 hand. Sam and Max, StrongBad, Bone. Head over to Gog.com for Fallout 1, 2, tactics.
The countless adventure games on Gametap, Gog, Steam are just click based.
Many strategy games work well one handed, just the mouse. Turn based fare is better, for obvious reasons. But Civ, Gal Civ would work.
Any Wii game that is Wiimote only, Wii Sports, Trauma Center.
Singing in Rockband or Guitar Hero is one handed. Which I like bacause I don't have to put my beer down.
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So you essentially pulled a Big Ben, eh?
TempestBlayze wrote:
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We will all now unload our emotional trauma on you.
Certis wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:
<+katisu> Q-Stone is an internet genius
My penis is bumpy, coldstream what can it be? I can send a pic PM me....
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Tempest says: "A team hat doe snot communicate and talk to each other about what the next move will be is going to lose."
Hey, you didn't get that from me. I'd say Mex should be your primary suspect.
Jonman wrote:
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It's going to take some work to get it to go no matter what you choose. Here's some recent experience I had with two weeks in a sling due to straining the inner joint of my collarbone and a bunch of interstitial muscles.
Caveat: This assumes you can use the hand on the busted wing to help hold or at least steady the controller.
-- FFX will work pretty well, but you're going to have trouble with some of the Overdrives. Auron's was pretty much right out, but most of the rest are just hit-X-when-swingy-thing-is-in-a-target and you should be fine.
-- The target rings on Lost Oddysey are kind of a nightmare one-handed. It's the right trigger, but it can be awkward trying to hold the controller with that one hand and do it at the same time. You can play that way, but without those Kaim and whats-her-name are much less effective.
You could try FFXII. I had no trouble with it even in boss fights, but I was far enough along in the game that I had access to some very useful Gambits and enough slots I could set everyone up and then play armchair quarterback and just concentrate on Technicks and emergency healing. And getting lost.
I didn't try it, but another option might be Persona 4. Not a lot of micromanagement, and not a lot of complication to the control button schema.
Maybe this issue is best debated amongst the people who need to get off my lawn. - JoeBedurndurn
I haven't played the others you listed except Lost Odyssey. It's a fantastic jrpg. I actually just started playing through it again because I never finished it.
Also, maybe you could find some stylus controlled DS games, like Zelda: The Phantom hour glass. I'm pretty sure that is controlled just using the touch screen.
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Just another addition about Lost Odyssey. The nice thing abotu the combat is that you won't need to use the ring until after you accept your last Combat choice. Keeping that in mind you could easily get your hand ready to use the combat ring after you accept the last spell casters attack.
Xbox Live Gamertag - Yoreel
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Heh, very similar. Helmet = good.
Thanks, this is the type of advice I needed. I appreciate "this game is good" but mostly want advice RE which is most one-handed friendly from games I already own. Thanks too Yoreel, everyone.
I will try setting the controller on a sofa arm or my leg. Can't easily use other hand at this angle.
FWIW, Persona 4 is an example of "right out." In the dungeon, need to use a button to swing weapon while using joystick to get initiative.
Nobody has mentioned Ar Tonelico, probably because no adult wants to play it.
Certis wrote:
FWIW, started Lost Odyssey. Ring attacks not bad with one big hand; just have to shift grip after selecting final attack. However, stealth section (requiring holding X or B button while moving) sucked. Set controller on leg, held button with pinky and moved clumsily with pointer finger. Got through after a dozen screwups. Hopefully no more of that crap, it's what I wanted to avoid with a traditonal RPG.
Anybody have an unused preorder code for the game?
Certis wrote:
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Shows what a sad dork I am, half hunt-and-pecking all these posts.
Certis wrote:
It's no JRPG, it's not turn-based either, but Strange Attractors has a nifty one-button-control approach.