Rediscovering JRPG

[JemyM]

I had planned to run FF6 last summer but failed to get the time. I will make another attempt this summer. I decided I had to play FF6 after playing FF7-FF12 and kept hearing people telling me "you missed the best one".

 

[Rithrandil]

FF6 as the best one? blech :C

FFIV all the way. The first half of FF6 is REALLY good, but then in the world of ruin it turns into Pokemon.

 

[Arhu]

Lots of those old SNES games age extremely well, since they didn't have to rely on 3D too much. Pixel art at its finest and pure gameplay. Sadly, even pixel art was censored sometimes. Pretty much all of the JRPGs and adventures released for it were worth playing … Chrono Trigger, Illusion of Gaia 1+2, Secret of Mana, Legend of Zelda, Tales of Phantasia, just to name a few others. I never cared so much about such games again after they made the move to new console generations and 3D.

 

[JDR13]

FF6 as the best one? blech :C.

Character and story wise, I think FF IV and VI are the 2 best games in the series, but it's subjective as to which one is better. FF V is very good as well.

 

[txa1265]

Character and story wise, I think FF IV and VI are the 2 best games in the series, but it's subjective as to which one is better. FF V is very good as well.

I agree - like 4 and 6 best ... have now played 1 - 8 (well, not done with 8 yet) and need to break out a GBA to replay 6 ... have 4 for the DS.

 

[Rithrandil]

My issue with FF6 is that the narrative in the World of Ruin kind of disappears and you're just running around grabbing stuff. I *really* like the first half of the game, though.

 

[zakhal]

Lots of those old SNES games age extremely well, since they didn't have to rely on 3D too much. Pixel art at its finest and pure gameplay. Sadly, even pixel art was censored sometimes. Pretty much all of the JRPGs and adventures released for it were worth playing … Chrono Trigger, Illusion of Gaia 1+2, Secret of Mana, Legend of Zelda, Tales of Phantasia, just to name a few others. I never cared so much about such games again after they made the move to new console generations and 3D.

Yeah and anti-alias works nice with pixel-art so you can easily use higher resos. Ive played most of the early final fantasies (and chrono trigger) through on 32" hdtv.

 

[JemyM]

For some reason texture filtering fails when running FF6 in ePSXe. Annoying.

 

[Arhu]

Soundtrack discussion moved to Catchy Game Soundtrack Nostalgia! in General Non-RPG.

 

[bkrueger]

Soundtrack discussion moved to Catchy Game Soundtrack Nostalgia! in General Non-RPG.

Since when is thread highjacking not allowed here anymore? :lol:

 

[txa1265]

Since when is thread highjacking not allowed here anymore? :lol:

I know ... I was confuzzled ... have to go to that thread and discuss chocolate theme parks or something ...

 

[Arhu]

It isn't not allowed … but the new thread absolutely needed to be born and stand on its own. It's the dawn of a new era! I'm telling you! Or should I say … of an old one ...

 

[Relayer]

Character and story wise, I think FF IV and VI are the 2 best games in the series, but it's subjective as to which one is better. FF V is very good as well.

I agree, those three titles > the PSOne trio (VII, VIII, IX) and FF V is under appreciated.

My personal fave would be IV.

Currently playing Lost Odyssey on the 360 (produced by FF creator and director of the first 5 games, Hironobu Sakaguchi with a soundtrack by famed FF composer Nobuo Uematsu) and it's giving me a bit more of a feeling of those earlier FF games than X & XII.

Only negative so far is that it's a bit slow - very dialogue and cut scene heavy (actually comes on 4 discs, installs to a whopping 24 GB, ridiculous - most of it cut scenes I'm sure!). Why oh why can't RPG designers focus more on gameplay and less on cinematics? Even though Lost Odyssey has the pedigree and definitely feels old school in terms of its turn based gameplay, there is just way too much time spent watching a cut scene or reading dialogue.

 

[JemyM]

IV on ds or snes (called 2 I think)? I have considered grabbing a DS for the remakes.

 

[txa1265]

IV on ds or snes (called 2 I think)? I have considered grabbing a DS for the remakes.

That depends on your tolerance of small screens ... some of the better RPG's of the last 5 years have been on the DS yet many here will not play due to screen size.

Personally I like the improvements of IV on the DS and think it works really well.

 

[Anderson]

Currently playing Lost Odyssey on the 360 (produced by FF creator and director of the first 5 games, Hironobu Sakaguchi with a soundtrack by famed FF composer Nobuo Uematsu) and it's giving me a bit more of a feeling of those earlier FF games than X & XII.

Only negative so far is that it's a bit slow - very dialogue and cut scene heavy (actually comes on 4 discs, installs to a whopping 24 GB, ridiculous - most of it cut scenes I'm sure!). [...]

Let us know how you like it, as you go along. LO was the first JRPG I was able to get into, although I'd tried half a dozen before (mostly on the PS2). I think my liking it was more a matter of timing than a quality of the game itself -- although it did help that LO had more adult themes, characters, presentation, etc., than the JRPGs I'd played before.

 

[JemyM]

That depends on your tolerance of small screens … some of the better RPG's of the last 5 years have been on the DS yet many here will not play due to screen size.

Personally I like the improvements of IV on the DS and think it works really well.

The DS emulator actually gets better and better, but I don't trust it enough to play a game long like a jRPG. Besides, I spend 4 hours daily on bus so having a DS in my pocket might be a good thing.

 

[JDR13]

Let us know how you like it, as you go along. LO was the first JRPG I was able to get into, although I'd tried half a dozen before (mostly on the PS2). I think my liking it was more a matter of timing than a quality of the game itself — although it did help that LO had more adult themes, characters, presentation, etc., than the JRPGs I'd played before.

It must be hard to be a console RPG player who doesn't like JRPGs. Prior to the Xbox/PS2, there were almost no Western style RPGs for console systems.

 

[Relayer]

IV on ds or snes (called 2 I think)? I have considered grabbing a DS for the remakes.

DEFINITELY grab the DS remake, it's wonderful.

It keeps the general feel of the original but the updated visuals and VOICED cut scenes really do make this game easily comparable to any modern JRPG as far as storytelling depth is concerned. It just makes it all the more dramatic and absorbing. And they polished up the script as well.

Also, the DS remake keeps the high difficulty level of the original Japanese release - if I'm not mistaken the US version was an easier version - I like a little challenge in a game, otherwise it's just an interactive novel

 

[Relayer]

Let us know how you like it, as you go along. LO was the first JRPG I was able to get into, although I'd tried half a dozen before (mostly on the PS2). I think my liking it was more a matter of timing than a quality of the game itself — although it did help that LO had more adult themes, characters, presentation, etc., than the JRPGs I'd played before.

I'm actually liking it a lot… and the cut scenes ARE very well done.

I also love that so far the random battles are spaced very far apart - was actually surprised at that, I think if you're going to have random battles at all, this is the way to do it.

Battle system is traditional turn based with no gimmicks - I also like that

And the visuals… WOW! I've had an HD TV for a while but just got my 360 last week and the sharpness and high resolution are blowing me away It's amazing to think that in another few years we'll probably have even more advanced consoles… just how much better can these games look?

Anderson, if you haven't you should definitely give Persona 4 and Rogue Galaxy on the PS2 a try, they're excellent games. Also picked up Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2 for the PS2 recently and that is also a good game (so far).