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Examples of good RPG games? (for those who are dissatisfied)

Started by VincentCraven, April 09, 2010, 08:40:57 am

VampragonLord

digimon world ONE!
i know, i know, ack digimon. But the first digimon world is actually quite good, the gameplay is fairly unique, and it was made BEFORE the show was, so it wasnt smashed with "zomg bandwagonmarketing"
15:05   slave: consensual slavery is the best thing ever~

Dome

Quote from: "VampragonLord"digimon world ONE!
i know, i know, ack digimon. But the first digimon world is actually quite good, the gameplay is fairly unique, and it was made BEFORE the show was, so it wasnt smashed with "zomg bandwagonmarketing"
It wasn't a bad game, but I hate that digimons always die and you have to start over with the training again and again and again

"Be wise today so you don't cry tomorrow"

VampragonLord

they keep [tamer level]% of their stats when they die.  it also helps if you rush the good training upgrades (training manual + vegimons vegies + the bug upgrades to your gym) it really makes it much easier when you start off with 100 in the main stat + like 14 per training session...
and the dying was a bit of an upset when you had just gotten your fav digimon or a really cool one, but you can always build up to something new, and the game just had so much to EXPLORE.  i think that was my favorite part.
you could train almost any stat, and just have decent weight/low care mistakes you would get something fairly strong. and if you really want it to live forever/shortcut the training (do not recommend this, though how you play is up to you) you could always give yourself an infinite supply of that melon that extends life + stat chips. It takes away the fun of training the digimon yourself, but if youre looking for very specific results/too attached to your digimon it IS a route you can take.
15:05   slave: consensual slavery is the best thing ever~

VincentCraven

Interesting...

I'd played Digimon World 3, and it was mediocre.  I'll have to take a look at world one.
I changed jobs and that has made all the difference.

Kagebunji

Definitly Star Ocean 2, but for PSP, voice casting and better in general. If you feel like it, play Star Ocean 1 for PSP too, great game, better from SO2 a bit IMO. And play on hardest difficulty avaible, rest is kinda too easy in both SO 1 and 2. Also, You should play Valkyrie Profile (both 1 and 2), VP:Silmeria has a great plot and gameplay, VP:Lenneth is a bit worse, since it is lacking some serious plot.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Kaijyuu

VP1 has a fine plot... if you get the A ending. Otherwise the "ending" is comprised of a few text boxes....

As for star ocean 2, I'd suggest downloading an "undub" for it. The localized voice acting sucks in general.
  • Modding version: PSX

philsov

Well that's somewhere around 80 points.

Keep the dub vincent!

Quote from: "VampragonLord"digimon world ONE!
i know, i know, ack digimon. But the first digimon world is actually quite good, the gameplay is fairly unique, and it was made BEFORE the show was, so it wasnt smashed with "zomg bandwagonmarketing"

2 was pretty good, too.  It was basically the exact same as Dragon Warrior Monsters, only its all digimon themed.
Just another rebel plotting rebellion.

Kagebunji

I do not agree Kaijyu, VA is far better in version for PSP, the one on PSx sucked(Opera *puke*). Yes, VP1's plot begins on ending A, but thereis nothing untill then.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

VincentCraven

Quote from: "Kagebunji"Definitly Star Ocean 2, but for PSP, voice casting and better in general. If you feel like it, play Star Ocean 1 for PSP too, great game, better from SO2 a bit IMO. And play on hardest difficulty avaible, rest is kinda too easy in both SO 1 and 2. Also, You should play Valkyrie Profile (both 1 and 2), VP:Silmeria has a great plot and gameplay, VP:Lenneth is a bit worse, since it is lacking some serious plot.

Quote from: "Kaijyuu"VP1 has a fine plot... if you get the A ending. Otherwise the "ending" is comprised of a few text boxes....

As for star ocean 2, I'd suggest downloading an "undub" for it. The localized voice acting sucks in general.

Quote from: "philsov"Well that's somewhere around 80 points.

Keep the dub vincent!

I'll probably end up getting dub cuz that sounds easier to get.  I don't have a PSP, so that's an interesting suggestion that I won't pursue.  I'll know for reference though that Kagebunji claims it's better on PSP.

On the other hand, maybe it's time I got a PSP too? Hmmm, nah probably not.
I changed jobs and that has made all the difference.

Kagebunji

If you like Kingdom hearts, then buy PSP, Birth by Sleep will be out in summer(probably), and there are some other games worth playing, Dissidia, Crisis Core, and more. But it is your call.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Edge

I recently wrote my top 10 rpg list on another site. http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=115883

I think a game you might want to check out is Terranigma. It was made by Square Enix and was one of the last SNES games. It is the 3rd game in the soul blazer series. The combat is not turn based, but you level up and have statistics of str/hp like a rpg. It has one of the deepest storylines ever in a game. The best part of the game is resurrecting the humans, and recreating towns and helping civilizations grow. It was never released in the US, but you should at least look at it if you have never heard of it. It starts a bit slow, but the game becomes pretty awesome.

Dokurider

Quote from: "VampragonLord"digimon world ONE!
i know, i know, ack digimon. But the first digimon world is actually quite good, the gameplay is fairly unique, and it was made BEFORE the show was, so it wasnt smashed with "zomg bandwagonmarketing"

Oh, thank god I'm not the only one that thought that was a good game. I put hundreds of hours into that game.

SilvasRuin

Favorite RPG I've played is Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete on the PSX.
- Every character's backstory was thoroughly explored.
- Cliches abound in any RPG, but only one portion of the plot felt overly cheesy and/or forced to me.
- It had everything that was good about Lunar 1.
- All five characters were useful.  Each one of them played a role that was significantly different from the others.  The closest to redundancy is the "second" swordsman type character, but considering the main character feels a bit more like a red mage than a straight up warrior, I don't feel the overlap is too bad.
- A strong and balanced mix of drama and humor.
- Very well developed world lore.
- Best genre savvy Xanatos Gambit I have ever seen.


Favorite recent game is a tough choice, partially because there have been very few.  Most recent is Wild ARMs XF.
- The story is fairly predictable.  The only time it caught me off-guard was when I figured out the twist half-way through the game and the characters never did... even in the epilogue.  Basically I couldn't care much less about it's story.  Most of the characters seem to be perpetually stupid anyways.
- Positioning mattered.  Frankly this amazes me as the field was made of hexagons instead of squares.  Somehow they managed to keep the player able to hide the squishy characters behind the front lines if necessary.
- Grinding was rarely necessary and had an enemy you could fight to make it relatively painless.
- Almost every Job/Class/Profession had its uses and advantages.  Same goes for the abilities.  Secutor Equip or whatever it was called is especially valuable because they have the highest raw attack power weapons in the game and is the only way to enable equipping shields.  The closest to useless were Excavator (only good for extreme movement), High Templar (poor stat multipliers, spread too thin, but good skills), and Extremists or whatever they were called.  Only three nearly useless is pretty danged good.  If I didn't have a habit of sticking with the story relevant characters, I would have had a hard choice on which jobs to use.
- The game had great balance.  The enemies generally weren't pushovers.  Many missions had certain methods to turn the tide in your favor if you took the right approach, but it didn't exactly cheapen the experience to do so.  Often the gimmicks made each fight feel more fresh and innovative.  Sadly this ended around the last chapter.  The game became too easy.
- Many of the story character exclusive jobs were fun to use.  That said, Tony isn't worth using anymore as soon as you become able to recruit more characters, the main character's gun sucks and her stats are an example of why "Jack of all trades" sucks in such games, the last story character you get has such dismal speed as to be a liability, and Ragnar has one passive ability that only he can have that allows you to make him virtually immortal.


A bit less recent favorite of mine is Lost Odyssey.
- Deep story.
- Optional side-stories you can read that are deep with philosophy or emotion.
- A strong variety in characters.
- An innovative way to approach the traditional row mechanic that requires significantly more strategy.
- Mages are the way mages always should have been.  They need the support of protective tanks to survive, and their spells, while costly, are actually powerful enough to be worthy of the concept.  Seriously, swinging around a sword should never be as effective as conjuring a massive explosion in your enemy's face.
- Random encounters weren't just a sea of mooks you had to trudge through while dispatching with your weakest attacks.  Unless you power-leveled, you had to take them seriously to survive.  They were also quite rare compared to most of the genre.  Less annoyance and more significance?  Yes please.
- Bosses required critical thinking to beat.  Most were survivable before knowing what you were going up against, but you had to figure out their weak point, vulnerability, or whatever countered them most effectively quickly or risk a game over.  That said, if you did lose, there was usually some way you could go back and prepare a bit to make the battle easier.
- The game gave you a few really awesome and customizable characters in the form of the immortals, but if you tried relying exclusively on these toys, you would wind up screwed.  The immortals' best method of learning abilities was by learning them by fighting beside the mortals that had those abilities.  You get the abilities on the mortals by leveling them up.  While there are several points in the story where your party is dictated to you, the latter parts of the game gave you the choice... yet it still required that you keep shuffling characters around so you could continue to improve the immortals.  Basically this "soft cap" on how long you could effectively use a core party helped vary things up and keep the game from growing stale.

Meow_von_Lazerstein

Suikoden 1&2
Growlanser Generations
Arc the Lad Collection
Xenogears