JRPG Catch-All

I gave Alliance Alive demo a shot, its pretty decent, feels very similar to Legend of Legacy.

Just fought that goat boss in I Am Setsuna and man, was that a son of a grub. I feel like it was designed to determine if you figured out the systems or not, and I guess I haven't figured out the systems.

Perhaps it's a reliance on early Spritnite rather than replacing with some more recent stuff. You don't get new Spritnite slots as often as you can obtain it, and as a result spells that would have slown or stopped the goat weren't available to me. It's also interesting that a lot of the status effects or spells don't behave like you'd expect. Casting Bio? Awesome! You... drop the enemy's attack. Which was handy in that fight! But not as handy as it would have been if I swapped one or two of Aeterna's Spritnite with something impacting time.

It seems I'm nearing the game's end, but it's a bit longer in this part than I anticipated. I'm probably gonna do whatever optional stuff there is. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, but these bosses end up becoming major challenges given I can easily come up with ways to swiftly dispatch the foes.

ccesarano wrote:

Just fought that goat boss in I Am Setsuna and man, was that a son of a grub. I feel like it was designed to determine if you figured out the systems or not, and I guess I haven't figured out the systems.

Perhaps it's a reliance on early Spritnite rather than replacing with some more recent stuff. You don't get new Spritnite slots as often as you can obtain it, and as a result spells that would have slown or stopped the goat weren't available to me. It's also interesting that a lot of the status effects or spells don't behave like you'd expect. Casting Bio? Awesome! You... drop the enemy's attack. Which was handy in that fight! But not as handy as it would have been if I swapped one or two of Aeterna's Spritnite with something impacting time.

It seems I'm nearing the game's end, but it's a bit longer in this part than I anticipated. I'm probably gonna do whatever optional stuff there is. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, but these bosses end up becoming major challenges given I can easily come up with ways to swiftly dispatch the foes.

I don't remember hitting a wall in that game. Did you figure out the rhythmic timing on the battle system which makes absolutely no sense until you watch a video tutorial? I'm assuming you noticed me posting about that all over this forum in regards to I am Setsuna.

Yeah, I saw it and have been using Momentum. I might want to rewatch the video, but it's amusing because my friend recently beat it after a year-long gap at the final boss. He never figured out momentum and thus had a clearly more difficult time, I imagine. Regardless of additional damage and effects, finishing foes with momentum gets you bonus materials which are necessary to purchase things and get Spritnite. I cannot imagine how poor you'd be without momentum.

I've bought I Am Setsuna twice now. Put probably 5 hours into it on PC, haven't touched it on Switch. I think the Switch is the perfect place to start it up again though..

Octopath Traveler (yes that's the final name now) is out in July for the Switch:

Also, Japan's getting ports of SaGa Scarlet Grace and Phantasy Star Online 2 Cloud

Man, why can't we get a Phantasy Star Online game again?!?

Glad they're going with Octopath Traveler. I love that name.

SaGa Scarlet Grace is also coming to PS4/PC and smartphones. So that's effectively a localization confirmation as PC still hasn't caught on much in Japan.

Wasn't Scarlet Grace kind of a flop in Japan? Critically, I mean. I swear the overall response was meh.

If I recall correctly, the game's (lack of) budget shows, and it had significant performance issues on the Vita. It sounds like Kuwauzu's team has been working on some new content for the new version, so maybe this version will do better?

beeporama wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

Let's see how badly S-E can mess this up:

I'll pee myself if we get a really good port. I loved this game (both on PS1 and PSP). I don't know how contemporary audiences will feel about the very lenghty cutscenes, though; and they definitely need to (at minimum) include the quality of life improvements in the USA PS1 version.

Or, you know, they can just throw a ROM and bundled emulator on mobile devices and make me cry.

Correct!

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth is coming to mobile (in Japan).

I'd say the silver lining is that given their track record we'll see it re-released on PC/Switch/PS4 within a year. But, given their track record it won't be a good port either.

At the "right before the final dungeon" phase of I Am Setsuna, where I can go anywhere I want in the world and open all those locked chests. There are also special bosses/encounters around as well. Decided to try one and he TPK'ed my group immediately with a Tsunami. "Hrm," I think to myself. "Probably want to equip Water Shield spritnite and use a recipe/food before the battle that boosts resistance to water attacks". This is how you do in these games, right? So I'm looking and... I don't have the materials for the Spritnite. In fact, to make a long story short, you not only need to know which foes to hunt down (or at least, which species), but what sort of special kill in order to get certain drops.

Insert long groan here.

It stinks because I have a sense of how to munchkin my party somewhat to best take on the boss, but they make it such a chore to execute on that plan.

I have been close to buying I am Setsuna a few times when it has been $20 on PSN...but ccesarano, your write-ups have convinced me that I can safely put my wallet away. Thanks!

Now that makes me feel awful because I'm actually enjoying the game quite a bit. It's just the Goat Boss was a shock, and I want to make it clear this isn't mandatory content I'm running at the game's end. My buddy was able to beat this game without using Momentum at all, and if you can beat the game that way then it's really not demanding you master its mechanics or systems.

I'd say it's poor at explaining itself, but otherwise I'm having a good time. I wouldn't be doing optional content at all if I found it miserable, I'd jump right to the final dungeon.

Then again, if I'm going to argue in favor of the wallet, I'm not sure this game really offers enough to make it a "must play" for fans of JRPGs. It's a fun throwback, and I find its narrative pretty nice, but it's not like the Bravely games whose mechanics feel like a real evolution of that old school style. The mechanics feel like a slight modification to give it a new twist.

I'd say $20 is the perfect price for the experience – and why I think I'm gonna wait for a sale on Lost Sphear after all ($30 or bust) – and Switch is the perfect type of platform for it. However, I have to confess that if you choose to put your $20 elsewhere or prioritize another game over it, I don't quite blame you.

Not a surprise: A new Neptunia game has been announced.

Somewhat of a surprise: It's a 2D action game.

A surprise: It's being produced in Quebec.

In my never-ending quest to become TuffaloBuffalo's favorite video game podcast, my latest episode is a deep dive on I Am Setsuna for those interested.

ccesarano wrote:

In my never-ending quest to become TuffaloBuffalo's favorite video game podcast, my latest episode is a deep dive on I Am Setsuna for those interested.

Yay! That'll be a fun one. I liked a lot of things about I Am Setsuna, but yeah, it can be a mixed bag.

ccesarano wrote:

In my never-ending quest to become TuffaloBuffalo's favorite video game podcast, my latest episode is a deep dive on I Am Setsuna for those interested.

Very cool! I wish I had picked up on your 'cast sooner, Ccesarano. It's a lot of fun. I'm loading this episode up as I type this.

Did you check out Lost Sphear, too? From what I read around the interwebs, it seems to be lumped into a similar category as I Am Setsuna. I'd be curious to hear your take on it.

He played it and posted about it several pages back.

MrMetonymy wrote:

Did you check out Lost Sphear, too? From what I read around the interwebs, it seems to be lumped into a similar category as I Am Setsuna. I'd be curious to hear your take on it.

Vector wrote:

He played it and posted about it several pages back.

To be specific, I played the demo. After having played I Am Setsuna I am 100% on board with Lost Sphear, but am not sure I'm 100% on board with the $50 price tag. I'm waiting for a sale on Switch first. The second it hits about $30 I'll be grabbing it.

ccesarano wrote:
MrMetonymy wrote:

Did you check out Lost Sphear, too? From what I read around the interwebs, it seems to be lumped into a similar category as I Am Setsuna. I'd be curious to hear your take on it.

Vector wrote:

He played it and posted about it several pages back.

To be specific, I played the demo. After having played I Am Setsuna I am 100% on board with Lost Sphear, but am not sure I'm 100% on board with the $50 price tag. I'm waiting for a sale on Switch first. The second it hits about $30 I'll be grabbing it.

Lost Sphear is on sale this week for $35.

Aristophan wrote:

Lost Sphear is on sale this week for $35.

And with Gold Points that's $30 plus tax.

Whelp, guess I know what I'm playing next. Too bad it's not on sale on PS4, otherwise Steve and I could play it side-by-side.

And Setsuna for $20. I was just asking about them in the Switch thread.

ccesarano wrote:
Aristophan wrote:

Lost Sphear is on sale this week for $35.

And with Gold Points that's $30 plus tax.

Whelp, guess I know what I'm playing next. Too bad it's not on sale on PS4, otherwise Steve and I could play it side-by-side.

Happy to enable!

Stele wrote:

And Setsuna for $20. I was just asking about them in the Switch thread.

Well if you don't feel like listening to a podcast (with spoilers, admittedly) I got a blog post on narrative themes and a blog post on mechanics and then an earlier blog post on presentation and nostalgia.

That should pretty thoroughly cover my thoughts on the game.

ccesarano wrote:
Stele wrote:

And Setsuna for $20. I was just asking about them in the Switch thread.

Well if you don't feel like listening to a podcast (with spoilers, admittedly) I got a blog post on narrative themes and a blog post on mechanics and then an earlier blog post on presentation and nostalgia.

That should pretty thoroughly cover my thoughts on the game.

I've only read the earliest post, but really dig some of the contextualizing you do in re the music.

Ys VIII gets a June 26th release date on Switch.

All right rant time about DQ: Builders. Chapter 2. You let me fulfill the requirement of building an infirmary but you never tell me it has to be in the city limits so I can heal sick people? Really? I restart the chapter 3 times and look up answers on the internet and not a single person mentions that little fact?