JRPG Catch-All

Farscry wrote:

Since you've never played a 3d Zelda game, then Ocarina on the 3DS is a great one to start with DSG. If you get seriously stuck (as in, not sure what to do next to advance the game along) don't be afraid to consult GameFAQs. There are some parts of the game that are pretty darn vague, even by Zelda standards. ;)

+1 so hard. After OoT the franchise starts to get noticeably more hand-holdy. There are definitely some elements in OoT that the game will not explain and I was real idiot playing through the first time by refusing to check GameFAQs and just sat there getting increasingly frustrated with it.

DSGamer wrote:
Farscry wrote:

Since you've never played a 3d Zelda game, then Ocarina on the 3DS is a great one to start with DSG. If you get seriously stuck (as in, not sure what to do next to advance the game along) don't be afraid to consult GameFAQs. There are some parts of the game that are pretty darn vague, even by Zelda standards. ;)

Cool. Actually I want to get stuck. Part of the joy of embracing Dark Souls has been remembering how fun it was when games weren't so linear. When you had to figure out how to do things and there wasn't so much exposition. I like game worlds that feel a bit lonely and "lived in", if that makes sense. As if they'd go on without you and aren't there simply for you to go from A to B to C to D, etc.

Oh, I agree with you, and it's one of the things I love about the earlier Zelda games. It's just that Ocarina has a few moments that are genuinely too obtuse. The rest of the time it hits the "delightfully obtuse" mark just fine!

If you're a Suikoden fan then Suikoden Tiekreis on DS is a rather good Suikoden game and shouldn't be missed.

Duplicate post.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

If you're a Suikoden fan then Suikoden Tiekreis on DS is a rather good Suikoden game and shouldn't be missed.

Ehh.. I thought it was pretty awful, actually. Not Suikoden 4 awful, but not particularly enjoyable.

I liked it quite a lot. It felt pretty fresh after the horrible 4 and mediocre 5. Graphically it looks quite nice for a 3D game on DS, using painted backdrops with 3D characters. The combat is probably the weak point but in the same way that combat was the weak point in Suikoden 2. It's very simplistic but always over quickly. The new setting and story was interesting I thought.

Ferret wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

New trailer for Shin Megami Tensei IV:

me want.

Me too!

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'm doing my part by buying Code of Princess.

Me too!

Thank you for bringing that trailer for SMT IV up. I feel like they had been teasing some of those themes separately before, but finally showed them working together. I'm excited.

I was digging through my DS case looking for something else and found my copy of Steal Princess and realized I'd never actually played the thing. Anyone here have anything they can share about it?

(yes, I know that it's called a platformer, but if that's the case, then so is Disgaia)

I beat Trails in the Sky. Excited(about finishing) and sad that Second Chapter isn't out. I think its my favorite JRPG on the PSP. It was so good. If they released it on Steam I would replay it even with my limited time. X-Seed please release it. I bought it twice.

The face that Second Chapter isn't out makes me sad. The PSN release of Second Chapter in Japan gives me some hope. Also there was suppose to be a mobile port in English but my ipod/ipad are pretty old so I might not get to play it on that.

momgamer wrote:

I was digging through my DS case looking for something else and found my copy of Steal Princess and realized I'd never actually played the thing. Anyone here have anything they can share about it?

(yes, I know that it's called a platformer, but if that's the case, then so is Disgaia)

I'm not sure how I missed this one. It looks interesting to me.

Farscry wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'm doing my part by buying Code of Princess.

I need to find out more about this one. It keeps showing up on my Amazon recommended-for-you list. ;)

Damn you Clocky, now I've got another preorder on Amazon.

I think I'm burning out on Tales of the Abyss on the 3DS. More than the hectic combats, in which I never feel like I have control, I'm bothered by the fact that I still more or less have no clue what's going on in the story. So these guys are trying to prevent a war by toting around this high priest, but he keeps getting kidnapped by a group of super-powered soldiers, who are using him to nefarious purpose, but each time he's rescued by the heroes, the bad guys are just like, "OK, you can have him." Also, these bad guys are part of the same knightly order as two of the main characters, but apparently it's a pretty dysfunctional family because they never once sit down and talk about it.

And on top of *that*, there's an extremely weird cosmology based around some fantasy version of particle/wave theory? And it's a small thing, but I can't stop hearing the high priest's title (which they say a lot) as "Phone Master".

I do really like the endearing bat-sh*t crazy anime-ness of it all, but I'm just not able to get any momentum going. I started a new game on Rocket Slime last night, and I think that signals the end for this one. Too bad. Are there other Tales games I might look at (preferably portable)? I have great memories of Phantasia and Destiny, but maybe the series has moved on in a direction that's not for me. Minarchist's comment about frenetic combat makes me think that this may just be the case.

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.

necroyeti wrote:

I think I'm burning out on Tales of the Abyss on the 3DS. More than the hectic combats, in which I never feel like I have control, I'm bothered by the fact that I still more or less have no clue what's going on in the story.

Same thing happened with me - I thought it was a well made Tales game, I put maybe 10-12 hours into it, but it simply never got it's hooks into me and I ended up selling it.

Tales of Symphonia did the same thing to me; I got halfway through the game (as in, I reached the actual halfway point in the story when the

Spoiler:

inevitable cliched betrayal

happens) and then I simply got bored and lost interest. By that time I had around 25-ish hours into the game.

Cool, well, if anyone wants to trade it for something, let me know!

necroyeti wrote:

Cool, well, if anyone wants to trade it for something, let me know!

Ooh, ooh, pick me! I'm shedding games like crazy and would love to pick that up. Probably don't have much in the 3DS front, unless you want Devil Survivor 2 (which is totes awesome, but is not technically a 3DS game). But lots of other stuff.

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.

No Symphonia? I call shens. Maybe people they're polling are too young to have appreciated it at the time. I'm enjoying my time with Graces ƒ so far, but at this point I'd still rank it 3rd behind Symphonia and Vesperia. We'll see.

Minarchist wrote:
necroyeti wrote:

Cool, well, if anyone wants to trade it for something, let me know!

Ooh, ooh, pick me! I'm shedding games like crazy and would love to pick that up. Probably don't have much in the 3DS front, unless you want Devil Survivor 2 (which is totes awesome, but is not technically a 3DS game). But lots of other stuff.

Anything for a fellow Tennessean!

Will take it to PM/IRC.

Minarchist wrote:

No Symphonia? I call shens. Maybe people they're polling are too young to have appreciated it at the time. I'm enjoying my time with Graces ƒ so far, but at this point I'd still rank it 3rd behind Symphonia and Vesperia. We'll see.

Yeah, Symphonia would probably be 5th according to Japanese folks, should have included it. Hearts on the DS (never localised) is meant to be decent also but most of the older ones don't hold up. I liked Symphonia a lot. I never got far with Abyss because of the terrible PS2 slowdown. Vesperia is my favourite from the games I've played so far.

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 better come here so I can play Kingdom Hearts Final Mix in glorious not-Japanese.

Not that I have anything against Japanese except consulting a printed-out translation of the menus all the times kind of dampens my enjoyment.

Demyx wrote:

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 better come here so I can play Kingdom Hearts Final Mix in glorious not-Japanese.

I'm surprised they didn't simultaneously announce that for Wii U, although there might be some sort of exclusivity agreement thing going on.

Yeah, though I'm bummed it's not going to have KH2 in it.

momgamer wrote:

Yeah, though I'm bummed it's not going to have KH2 in it.

I'm assuming they're waiting to see if this one sells and then they'll make a KH2.5 with KH2, Birth by Sleep, and probably one/both of Re:Coded and 3D.

Demyx wrote:

KH2, Birth by Sleep, and probably one/both of Re:Coded and 3D.

I'd expect Re:Coded and they'll probably just do only the cutscenes like they're supposedly doing for 358/2.

Although I would've liked to see 358/2 proper included if only for couch co-op.

Ok, I think I missed something. What the heck is Kingdom Hearts 1.5?

I tried playing through Kingdom Hearts (the original on the PS2) twice, and just couldn't stick with it. First time, I got really bored/frustrated once I hit that town with all the shadow dudes (yes, the one after the "tutorial" opening island story bit). The second time, I got through the Alice in Wonderland portion, but not without getting raging frustrated with the controls and often-vague (to my memory; it's been a few years so I may be entirely imagining this part) objectives.

[edit]Which sucks, because I love the Final Fantasy + Disney hybrid idea.

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 is the newly announced HD re-release of Kingdom Hearts (the original), Re:Chain of Memories, and 358/2 (maybe cutscene only in the last case, I'm not clear on that point?)

Maybe I'll give the game a third shot...

It's so odd how I can have so much trouble enjoying a game that I want to like very much.

Farscry wrote:

It's so odd how I can have so much trouble enjoying a game that I want to like very much. :D

The platforming and camera on the older games are incredibly janky which I think can be off-putting. They've gotten better in recent entries with artificially blocking routes that aren't to the current objective which would probably help.

Minarchist might be the only one who cares about this, but Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory (known as Neptunia V in Japan) is confirmed for NA and Europe. The thing that has me interested is that Neptune is sent to an area that's set back in the 80's, which sounds like a good place for them to take the series.