imo, FF games fail by being boring.
I am now googling about pie menus, which are a bit like rotary menus.
― caek, Monday, 22 September 2008 16:09 (fifteen years ago) link
tell me abt terranigma tom
― cankles, Monday, 22 September 2008 16:09 (fifteen years ago) link
actually nm, i forgot u liked xenogears - our tastes in games could never possibly mesh
― cankles, Monday, 22 September 2008 16:10 (fifteen years ago) link
fuck you! terranigma is good, it is nothing like xenogears
― TOMBOT, Monday, 22 September 2008 16:14 (fifteen years ago) link
also this ties in to my unifying theory of gaming that i decided upon while replaying FFT last year - turns out it's not v good btw - which is that the more intricate u attempt to make the gaming experience, the more u will just end up sabotaging ur own game (or at the very least, the more complex the battle system is in an RPG or rpg type game, the easier it is to 'break' the game). FFT is drowning in options, but it's also ridiculously easy to exploit and cheese your way through it. meanwhile take a look at the first zelda - there arent many ways to cheat at zelda, cheating is basically just playing it, cuz it's so simple.
― cankles, Monday, 22 September 2008 16:18 (fifteen years ago) link
hah - reading abt terranigma now - http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/quintet/quintet.htm - i guess it has something to do w/illusion of gaia????? that game was a big deal to me when i was a kid, i might be interested in this. sell me on it, my dude!
― cankles, Monday, 22 September 2008 16:22 (fifteen years ago) link
you start out on the inside of earth and all the quests/stages are basically you re-awakening the continents, the plants, the animals, the wind, the humans, then you get to go around and there's a fucked-up ghost town section plus you rescue christopher columbus and there's a big fire that fucks up chicago and on and on. it's a blast. my only problem was figuring out what I had to do at the very very very end, I had to read gamefaqs, something about giving a penguin a flower or some utter utter nonsense like that.
― TOMBOT, Monday, 22 September 2008 16:31 (fifteen years ago) link
and it's not turn based, it's really more like zelda in fact
― TOMBOT, Monday, 22 September 2008 16:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Soul Blazer/Illusion of Gaia/Terranigma is prob the darkest & creepiest SNES RPG trilogy
― Put big bows (or small) In you hair. (Curt1s Stephens), Monday, 22 September 2008 16:45 (fifteen years ago) link
ya, illusion of gaia was genuinely chilling & desolate - pretty unique game imo - i remember it having a weird, isolated atmosphere that made u feel like ur character was a ghost trapped amongst the living. most of the gameplay was puzzle solving and hitting blobby things with a flute, and for the ending they basically just kill you and your girlfriend (iirc)
― cankles, Monday, 22 September 2008 17:04 (fifteen years ago) link
secret of mana was v sad. listing to the soundtrack now makes me tear up: http://secretofmana.planets.gamespy.com/soundtrack.html
― caek, Monday, 22 September 2008 17:07 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah som bummed me the fuck out too - towards the end when you find out the blonde chick's boyfriend is dead or possessed or whatever, and then you fukkin KILL HIM. dang, that was heavy as hell for a 7 year old.
― cankles, Monday, 22 September 2008 17:09 (fifteen years ago) link
was his name dylock? i cant believe i remember that, i havent played this game in like 15 years
― cankles, Monday, 22 September 2008 17:11 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah cankles otm re: IoG. not being able to go back into earlier levels was kind of a bitch but also a reminder "you're not ever seeing home again"
― Put big bows (or small) In you hair. (Curt1s Stephens), Monday, 22 September 2008 17:11 (fifteen years ago) link
http://secretofmana.planets.gamespy.com/images/screenshots/screen112.jpg
crank dat mode 7!!
― cankles, Monday, 22 September 2008 17:14 (fifteen years ago) link
Phanna, Thanatos, etc.
All those villagers who just said "..."
― caek, Monday, 22 September 2008 17:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh man IoG. That's the only one of the trilogy I've played but Jesus it was possibly the most I ever "felt" for a video game. Main character with my name != help. That game was the loneliest feeling game EVER.
― THERE IS NO VULCAN DEATH GRIP (Will M.), Monday, 22 September 2008 17:44 (fifteen years ago) link
did anyone play phantasy star II?? i think that was the only turn-based RPG i was really obsessed with
― s1ocki, Monday, 22 September 2008 18:33 (fifteen years ago) link
That game was the loneliest feeling game EVER.
definitely do not dip your toe in Terranigma, then. there's a bit in the desert with a girl which is pretty much the most terrifying experience I've ever had in a game. And the castle with the evil queen is also mad creepy.
― El Tomboto, Monday, 22 September 2008 20:25 (fifteen years ago) link
lol I sound like I have a problem with women.
― El Tomboto, Monday, 22 September 2008 20:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Ku ku ku...
― Put big bows (or small) In you hair. (Curt1s Stephens), Monday, 22 September 2008 20:38 (fifteen years ago) link
opening post of this is still some sort of masterpiece
― s1ocki, Monday, 22 September 2008 20:42 (fifteen years ago) link
everybody otm re illusion of gaia (illusion of time over here). i think the isolation cankles touches on stems from the fact that enemies didn't (or very rarely) re-spawned, so you'd end up killing everything and going through all these empty dungeons looking for missed items
it had a perfect difficulty curve as well, and some pretty tough bosses (the huge king and queen boss immediately springs to mind as a boss that took more than one go to defeat). i think the fact that you couldn't cheat with faeries made it more of a challenge than something like zelda, there's plenty of one-energy-bar-left-edge-of-seat victories and overall i think it was pretty stingy with life replenishment (though of course the fact that zelda and secret of mana were free roaming work in their favour). it felt a lot more arcadey than your usual non-turn based snes rpg.
and who can forget that cute little piggy.
― rio (r1o natsume), Monday, 22 September 2008 22:22 (fifteen years ago) link
i should really get 'round to terranigma, the premise sounds great.
any secret of evermore heads up in this?
― rio (r1o natsume), Monday, 22 September 2008 22:23 (fifteen years ago) link
the one that roasts itself on an open flame to save you xpost
― Put big bows (or small) In you hair. (Curt1s Stephens), Monday, 22 September 2008 22:24 (fifteen years ago) link
xpost I have said many times on ILX that Secret of Evermore >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Secret of Mana
****SPOILERZ****
here's the boss i was on about (turns out they're vampires!)
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/djm5ypqWJKM&hl=fr&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/djm5ypqWJKM&hl=fr&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
― rio (r1o natsume), Monday, 22 September 2008 22:27 (fifteen years ago) link
oh
― rio (r1o natsume), Monday, 22 September 2008 22:28 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/v/djm5ypqWJKM&hl=fr&fs=1
― logged in (cozwn), Monday, 22 September 2008 22:31 (fifteen years ago) link
oh tht didn't work either
― logged in (cozwn), Monday, 22 September 2008 22:34 (fifteen years ago) link
i mean fuck that boss battle was like something out of super probotector or something, except harder because you don't have a gun
― rio (r1o natsume), Monday, 22 September 2008 22:37 (fifteen years ago) link
the fact that all the dungeons were real, recognizable places like angkor wat and the great wall of china added to the eeriness too, bcz the world that yr character lived in was like some kind of seperate bubble world that had no discernable relation to reality, and it's really jarring for the game to superimpose that onto actual history & geography - it was like in old movies when they were shooting ppl in a car and the background was a shitty lookin projection
― cankles, Tuesday, 23 September 2008 02:06 (fifteen years ago) link
and then at the end when they're plunked down into modern times (i think?), that is some fourth wall breakin ass shit imo
― cankles, Tuesday, 23 September 2008 02:07 (fifteen years ago) link
the section in the subway car in secret of mana
― caek, Tuesday, 23 September 2008 10:31 (fifteen years ago) link
I played an hour of Chrono Trigger last night, jsut like GZeus did, only I haven't played my copy for like >10 years. Getting back into it was fucked up, because I've never really "memorized" a game like that, apparently. "SPINAL FUNCTION" indeed. I remembered where every treasure chest was, etc.
If you ask me, the things that made that game the best of its genre are:
- Battles are fast. The sheer lack of a "battle screen" (instead, the charactes just pull their weapons out and get to it) saves about 6 seconds per battle vs., say, FF3. It also stops the flow from being interrupted.
- You can avoid battles when you want to. You can't avoid them ALL, but you can avoid enough of them that it's awesome.
- This one's vital: the game feels split into "episodes," BUT doesn't sacifice flow to do so. Like, I played for 58 minutes last night. At the end of 30 mins, fake-Leene-Marle had disappeared-- in the first 30 minutes, you wake up, clsoe your curtains, meet your cat and mom, get an allowance, go to a fair, meet marle, meet lucca, lose marle, find marle and lose marle again. 30 minutes!!! if that doesn't get your attention get one (1) ritalin. in the next 30 mins, i met frog, saved real-leene, and got back to the castle.
in between that speedy pacing re: battles and perfectly metered episodic feel, you've got a game that is fun to play at all times. There's always something to do and there's always at least a mild sense of urgency and there's always new environments to explore (this game gets away with the "vastly different environments" thing really nicely) and the characters are better than other SNES jRPGs and and and and and am I GZeus now?
― THERE IS NO VULCAN DEATH GRIP (Will M.), Tuesday, 23 September 2008 16:15 (fifteen years ago) link
THAT'S INSANE.
― s1ocki, Tuesday, 23 September 2008 16:41 (fifteen years ago) link
The artful gamer guy seems to think that Pier Solar is potentially Chrono Trigger good... anybody wanna play the ROM and let me know?http://www.piersolar.com/
― forksclovetofu, Wednesday, 24 September 2008 16:24 (fifteen years ago) link
Are they actually releasing a ROM of it?
― THERE IS NO VULCAN DEATH GRIP (Will M.), Wednesday, 24 September 2008 18:27 (fifteen years ago) link
There's a pre-release free rom on that site.
― forksclovetofu, Wednesday, 24 September 2008 19:31 (fifteen years ago) link
u guys ever walked through the Chrono Trigger beta ROM w/Game Genie hax? v. interesting stuff, missing levels and whatnot.
― Put big bows (or small) In you hair. (Curt1s Stephens), Wednesday, 24 September 2008 19:35 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.thejhohcableshow.com/pix/1185830937099.pnghttp://www.thejhohcableshow.com/pix/1185830937099.pnghttp://www.thejhohcableshow.com/pix/1185830937099.png
― ಥ﹏ಥ (cankles), Wednesday, 29 October 2008 05:43 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.thejhohcableshow.com/pix/1185830937099.png
― ℵℜℜℜℜℜℜℜℜℜ℘! (Curt1s Stephens), Wednesday, 29 October 2008 06:19 (fifteen years ago) link
oh shit, chrono trigger ds comes out this week?
― some know what you dude last summer (Jordan), Thursday, 20 November 2008 21:02 (fifteen years ago) link
Next week (supposedly Nov. 25th). I'm looking forward to it, as I've never played Chrono Trigger before.
― Jeff LeVine, Thursday, 20 November 2008 21:06 (fifteen years ago) link
oh awesome
― s1ocki, Friday, 21 November 2008 03:43 (fifteen years ago) link
Just got this for DS. Starting to play for the first time on the plane ride home for Thanksgiving tomorrow. At this point the expectations are pretty damn high.
― forksclovetofu, Thursday, 27 November 2008 00:00 (fifteen years ago) link
im playing this now.
pretty good!
― s1ocki, Thursday, 8 January 2009 16:35 (fifteen years ago) link
i mean... im kinda struggling with my feelings on the whole snes-era rpg genre... besides phantasy star 2 i never really played these...
― s1ocki, Thursday, 8 January 2009 16:36 (fifteen years ago) link
heh... sounds like it might be too... DEEP for u...
― ゙(゚、 。 7 (cankles), Thursday, 8 January 2009 16:50 (fifteen years ago) link
It's one of my all-time favorites! Try not to let the nostalgia/hype faze you - either you'll enjoy it or you won't, in the end.
You're starting with probably the most distilled essence of the SNES DQ/FF formulas at the end of an era, so if you're not already into that genre, it may turn out not to be your thing, especially over a decade later. (I'm not sure I'd put Phantasy Star near the Square/Enix/SNES style of RPGs) In some ways it was great because of the lessons it picked up from Secret of Mana, FF 4-6, the DQs, etc.
― Nhex, Thursday, 8 January 2009 16:52 (fifteen years ago) link