JRPG Catch-All

I hadn't heard that rule of thumb, but it holds true for me, too. I liked VIII but found IX to be a bit dull. It tries too hard.

Yeah, just whenever discussions come up over the merits of the PS1 era Final Fantasys, it seems to hold true. I'm sure there are exceptions of course.

Who's that? A party member? An NPC? A summoning? A chocobo?! I have no memory of any Alexander ;).

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I hadn't heard that rule of thumb, but it holds true for me, too. I liked VIII but found IX to be a bit dull. It tries too hard.

The moment Alexander makes his appearance in FFIX any grievances were settled. That's the other half of what I loved. The big moments and the world. Every area was jam packed full of easter eggs and secrets.

I liked all three PS1 games, but thought VIII fell flat more often than the other two. It was the first time I'd found a main character to be mostly unlikable. And this is just a pet peeve, I find Selphie's character design horrid enough to mar the rest of the cast.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Who's that? A party member? An NPC? A summoning? A chocobo?! I have no memory of any Alexander ;).

Alexander was a summon in FF8 other than that I can't think of any.

Edit: Looked it up, guess he's in a lot of the FFs, only remember him from 8 though. Think giant castle.

I might go with Xenogears instead. Can't decide. Choices, choices.

I seem to recall getting locked up at some point in FF9. That might have been in a castle.

Another + for FFIX. I've been playing through it again on the PSP, and I'm enjoying it just as much as I originally did. I forgot a whole bunch, since I played it when I was probably 14 or so, but I enjoyed the relatively light-hearted world, and I find the characters are pretty enjoyable.
Vivi's very insecure because he's unsure of his origin. Steiner's a big huge lovable brute who loves stinky pickles (that's not dirty in any way), Freya's rather mysterious and has a very dramatic if not Shakesperian love story to be told. I also enjoyed that Zidane was not a relucant hero. He was a womanizer thief, but still wanted to help and do what's right.
Perhaps none of the characters were revolutionary, but I thought they were all very good takes on characters, and I thought they were all very interesting in their own ways.

One of the complaints I have is that combat sometimes pops up too often, being random, but that was a problem of the generation, not just this game. The combat is decent, if not sort of regular, but at least each character (they're definitely based on classes, but you don't have to worry about that), and each of them have specific skills that can help keep things interesting at least for a while.

I'm probably close to disk 3, and although it's on and off playing, since it's on the PSP and I just pick it up when I can, I'm still enjoying it just as much a the first playthrough.

garion333 wrote:

I might go with Xenogears instead. Can't decide. Choices, choices.

Can't go wrong between those two. It's a tough call. I personally like FFIX more, but I think I could more strongly recommend Xenogears because there's not a whole lot out there that's similar (in terms of game narrative). On the other hand, the back quarter of the game is a hot mess.

Citizen86 wrote:

Perhaps none of the characters were revolutionary

I BEG TO DIFFER.

IMAGE(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94/galactic_empire/ffpix/quina.jpg)

Blind_Evil wrote:
Citizen86 wrote:

Perhaps none of the characters were revolutionary

I BEG TO DIFFER.

IMAGE(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94/galactic_empire/ffpix/quina.jpg)

HOW COULD I FORGET THE FROG EATER??!?!!

Mr GT Chris wrote:
garion333 wrote:

I never played FFIX. Worth a go?

I thought it was terrible, my least favourite FF. Completely lacking in interesting characters or plot (I played through to the end and can barely remember a thing about it). Having said that, I'm in the minority on this one. Still, a rough rule of thumb seems to be that if you thought FF8 was a good or great entry in the series (I did) then you probably won't like FF9. And vice-versa.

God I hated FF8. I thought it was the absolute worst in the series. So I guess your theory is true for me.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

God I hated FF8. I thought it was the absolute worst in the series. So I guess your theory is true for me.

As far as mainline FFs go, it's my second favourite after 12.

walterqchocobo: I maxed out the frog eating, and found every chest on the main map. I didn't mess with the jumprope, though.

Also, while that's a magnificent shot, the reason we're talking about FFIX is someone asked if they should play it. I think posting that picture's pretty spoilery.

I went with Xenogears. All the love for its story is what put me over the edge. That and while the familiarity a FF game entails is appealing, the (apparent) lack of a really good, central story to FFIX drove me away. For now. I'm intrigued by FFIX's characters and I actually find myself digging the CG art style for cutscenes. But, I'm venturing into unknown territory with Xenogears and that's probably going to hold my attention longer. I think.

I thought "save the crystals from the evil empire" wasn't a terrible hook for the story. Even if that was the 4th go around for it (and that's by design).

shoptroll wrote:

I thought "save the crystals from the evil empire" wasn't a terrible hook for the story. Even if that was the 4th go around for it (and that's by design).

Vanilla saving the world quest can't quite compare to the allure of "Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung combined with religion"-inspired plots considering I have degrees in Philosophy and Psychology.

Citizen86 wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:
Citizen86 wrote:

Perhaps none of the characters were revolutionary

I BEG TO DIFFER.

IMAGE(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94/galactic_empire/ffpix/quina.jpg)

HOW COULD I FORGET THE FROG EATER??!?!!

Did anyone spend time in the swamps leveling up his frog eating? I loved FFIX but some of those mini-games (I'm looking at you, jump rope contest) were really annoying. Fortunately, nearly all of them are optional.

Oh, and Alexander is the bomb.

garion333 wrote:

Vanilla saving the world quest can't quite compare to the allure of "Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung combined with religion"-inspired plots considering I have degrees in Philosophy and Psychology. ;)

Checkmate. You win.

garion333 wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

I thought "save the crystals from the evil empire" wasn't a terrible hook for the story. Even if that was the 4th go around for it (and that's by design).

Vanilla saving the world quest can't quite compare to the allure of "Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung combined with religion"-inspired plots considering I have degrees in Philosophy and Psychology. ;)

The only ding on Xenogears is the slow-ass, non-speed-up-able text speed. Otherwise, love it. Some of my favourite special moves in battle.

In my search to determine whether or not to play FFIX or Xenogears I came across a few articles that might interest other people. This is the sort of writing about games I wish we had more of. It's not Kill Screen, but it's more interesting than reviews.

http://m.joystiq.com/2012/01/06/in-d...

http://bitmob.com/articles/xenogears...

http://bitmob.com/articles/the-many-...

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?publ... (about Xenoblade Chronicles, but found it interesting nonetheless)

http://m.kotaku.com/5854162/xenogear...

Especially this: http://xenoverse.xenotensei.com/arti...

I love Xenogears! I just recently found it at a used game shop and repurchased it after losing my copy years ago. I'm about 20 hours into the game and the music, cut scenes and battle system are all still very good even by today's standards. The story can be really good in spots but extremely convoluted. And man oh man those PS1 era graphics don't hold up well at all.

Proof..
Of the men..
Of the sea!

Ferret wrote:

Oh hello.

www.atlus.com/etrian4/

Hot damn! Now that's the birthday present I needed.

Ferret wrote:

Oh hello.

www.atlus.com/etrian4/

Pre-order confirmed

Leanback:

Mr GT Chris wrote:

The general consensus among Japanese Tales fans seems to be this order:

Tales of Xillia PS3 - not localised yet
Tales of Graces F PS3
Tales of Vesperia 360
Tales of the Abyss PS2/3DS

Funnily enough, the series seems to keep getting better and better. I haven't played Graces F yet myself but am greatly looking forward to it. Loved Vesperia.

Tales of Phantasia (SNES)

best Tales game.

I've started playing FFIX and I'm loving it so far. I gave Xenogears the old college try, but was sidelined by my mom visiting, the crappy graphics (they didn't age well at all) and now the death of my grandmother. I figured the lighter tone of FFIX seemed a better fit tonally and it really is. It's cheesy for sure, but I'm truly enjoying the silly world.

Sorry about your grandma. Happy to hear you are enjoying FFIX. Like I said, one of my favorites.

Citizen86 wrote:

Sorry about your grandma. Happy to hear you are enjoying FFIX. Like I said, one of my favorites.

Same here. Sorry for your loss garion

Xenoblade on the Wii is a great JRPG. I'm way too slow trying to take on the monster challenges with only Shulk. I know he gets to use the super weapon but still I wish I could change out his crappy first blade for something else.