Oh of course, you didn't really expect there to be a shortage of these, right?
Sylx Tower/Forbidden Land Eureka/World of Darkness - Final Fantasy III
Nothing quite describes ending fatigue as much as this set of dungeons, particularly in this game's original Famicom release. These are the last few dungeons in the game, but you'll be dealing with not only their longevity, but the complete lack of savepoints. Luckily Forbidden Land Eureka is optional, and near the Sylx Tower entrance, but you might as well make an attempt to tackle it, because it has the best jobs and shops. But to get through the tower and the World of Darkness without a single point of saving is an issue, and then there's the rule of four with taking out bosses once you reach the World of Darkness. Lots of items and magic points are needed as well as lots of time.
The final lairs - Secret of the Stars
The above dungeon is bad enough for ending fatigue, but Secret of the Stars' endgame is downright insulting for an already bad game. It's cool, we go to a familiar location to beat the bad guy. Hey, remember those Kustera guys you may or may not be using? Hope they are up to snuff! We've got resurrected generals to kill again! It involves going through mazes and having both parties solve them! Why did they barely do this before the endgame I wonder? Each of these mazes is a slog with numerous encounters before the boss. Then you take the spiral of random encounters to the bad guy, oh wait he's not beatable yet cause it's an illusion! Time to backtrack to find the secret power to get past the illusion, and then...oh boy...GO ALL THE WAY DOWN THE SPIRAL AGAIN! Outright nauseous, and one of the worst things about this entire game.
Victory Road - Pokemon games
Why? Why would we need yet another cave area just to get to the league? There's next to nothing interesting in terms of Pokemon to catch, yet the twisting and turning Victory Roads of the series pull in the encounter rate with numerous high-level trainers as well as segments requiring the use of HMs. And yes, the requirement of HMs is more than enough to make me hate this crap. It's a blessing there's a free heal at the league at least. My biggest problem is it tries to be a "last challenge before the finish line" yet no one really wants this kind of thing in the first place.
Space Fortress - Robotrek
Prison floors, difficult random encounters, fatiguing bosses, generally long length with loads of backtracking, an easy case of ending fatigue right here. At least in the grand scope of the game this final dungeon isn't entirely memorable, but like every other final dungeon I just want it to end already.
Doraat - Suikoden V
Alright finally something that isn't ending fatigue, which luckily this game does well. You might wonder what this is doing here especially since it's a town anyways. Well, having been familiar with the first few Suikoden games having dungeons that are essentially one-time only (Toran Lake Fortress, North Window) I would imagine that the treasures in Doraat when you first infiltrate it would be gone. They still stay after liberation, but I never knew that at first. But the town layout has an outer wall that is laid out in a stupidly unorthodox way with chests well out of the way, then there's the street fork where the side paths are unusually long. All this compounded by the random encounters being Godwin soldiers, enemies that are always easy but the game will actually not let you run from them (it just flat out doesn't give you the option to).
Up next, dunno.
Showing posts with label General RPGs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General RPGs. Show all posts
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Hair length in RPGs
Four months since the last one of these, I return with this series. If it isn't obvious, two games are currently taking up a lot of my time, which really has hampered any sort of writing drive I have. But I'm gonna take a bit of time off to describe something that is not just common for RPGs, but anime as a whole.
Also known as the Cloud rule, "the more outrageous his hairstyle, the more important a male character is to the story". Which is easy to correlate for the character mentioned in question, but also Sephiroth as well. Animes clearly love to make a hairstyle unique for a main character, because unique stands out. Notice how it also says male characters, as most female hairstyles tend to not be outrageous in any way since there's so many options, while males usually have short bowl-cuts or other short, boring styles.
But then again, this is more of an anime cliche rather than an RPG cliche, and even then, there are still few examples. Not every man is gonna be sporting iconic Naruto spiky hair or the even spikier Yu-gi-oh do, which in many ways is already genetically impossible. Many males in anime generally have messy spiky hair or otherwise normal cuts, and the same holds true for most RPG protagonists (Ark from Terranigma, the guy from Robotrek). There's bound to be the long haired pretty boy villain (which is a different cliche altogether actually) like Sephiroth, Kuja, or Ghaleon, or the pony-tailed heroes like Fei from Xenogears, Justin from Grandia, or Ramza from FFT, but none of these hairstyles really are major stickouts. Fei's comes the closest out of those three, but even then, it's not a "high" style. Other examples would be blue-haired protagonists like Ryu from the Breath of Fire series or Vahn from Legend of Legaia, both of which have generally abnormal hair colors, though not necessarily as outrageous, just messy and in a weird color.
Bottom line is, messy or spiky hair will definitely stick out for many characters, but it's not truly the most important thing that should really define a character.
Also known as the Cloud rule, "the more outrageous his hairstyle, the more important a male character is to the story". Which is easy to correlate for the character mentioned in question, but also Sephiroth as well. Animes clearly love to make a hairstyle unique for a main character, because unique stands out. Notice how it also says male characters, as most female hairstyles tend to not be outrageous in any way since there's so many options, while males usually have short bowl-cuts or other short, boring styles.
But then again, this is more of an anime cliche rather than an RPG cliche, and even then, there are still few examples. Not every man is gonna be sporting iconic Naruto spiky hair or the even spikier Yu-gi-oh do, which in many ways is already genetically impossible. Many males in anime generally have messy spiky hair or otherwise normal cuts, and the same holds true for most RPG protagonists (Ark from Terranigma, the guy from Robotrek). There's bound to be the long haired pretty boy villain (which is a different cliche altogether actually) like Sephiroth, Kuja, or Ghaleon, or the pony-tailed heroes like Fei from Xenogears, Justin from Grandia, or Ramza from FFT, but none of these hairstyles really are major stickouts. Fei's comes the closest out of those three, but even then, it's not a "high" style. Other examples would be blue-haired protagonists like Ryu from the Breath of Fire series or Vahn from Legend of Legaia, both of which have generally abnormal hair colors, though not necessarily as outrageous, just messy and in a weird color.
Bottom line is, messy or spiky hair will definitely stick out for many characters, but it's not truly the most important thing that should really define a character.
Saturday, September 7, 2019
Villain or Dick? Part 2
Continuing my Villain or Dick series, yay.
Villain: Zeikfried - Wild ARMs
Known for: A demon leader along with Harken, Alhazad, and Berserk, later Boomerang, wants to awaken Mother.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: Well when you have ambitions to awaken a demon mother, well it should be obvious that you should know what your demon mother originally wanted. Where you want conquest, your mother wants total destruction. So then he turns on his demon mother in an ambitious way and rallies the main heroes against her so that he and his demon faction can conquer. Good, villainous villain here.
Villain: Odessa - Wild ARMs 2
Known for: An organization who wishes to rule Filgaia
Verdict: Judecca is a dick, but the rest are villains for many different reasons.
Explanation: Judecca is an assassin for the group, but has barely any regard for humans, as evidence by him killing a prison warden without much in reason. He basically doesn't have much going for him in villainy. Vinsfeld, the leader, is a textbook ambitious conquerer, with at least two other Cocytus members in love with him (although Antenora of these two is a vastly different villain for a different reason), while his other general Ptolomea is more of an actual general who looks after his men. So it stands reason that these members are mostly villains.
Villain: Prophets - Wild ARMs 3
Known for: Attempting to reshape Filgaia in their own image with help from metal demons.
Verdict: Dicks
Explanation: The problem with their ambitions is that they obviously don't care who suffers. Being corrupted because of Beatrice's actions causing the explosion that killed most of the Council of Seven actually may be the real reason they're dicks though. It's sad that this game is good, but we see too much dickery in the villains here, even Siegfried.
Villain: Composer - The World Ends With You
Known for: Being the all-powerful being that runs Shibuya, the setting of the game, alongside the Conductor
Verdict: Dick
Explanation: Not gonna spoil who the composer is in this game, but there is a stark difference between the Composer's goals and the Conductors. At least the Conductor, despite brainwashing nearly all of Shibuya, wants to preserve it, while the Composer wants to outright destroy it. Different ambitions, destruction is worse than conquest though.
Villain: Oersted - Live-A-Live
Known for: Shining knight who you play as in the second-to-last chapter and watch his story unfurl.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: I mean come on. You play as this guy and his companions, watch as a companion dies and another separated, come home, watch him accidentally kill a king, then ousted as a demon, then set off to find that girl for some redemption, betrayed by the best friend AND the girl. Sure, he destroys the medieval land, but in his case he just watched his heroism crumble and it's completely justifiable for any action he does.
Villain: Bishop Ladja - Dragon Quest V
Known for: Originally known as Gema, he is a notorious follower of Nimzo
Verdict: Dick
Explanation: Bear in mind I'm basing this off of Ladja, not Gema. Still though, with many of DQ5's signature scenes showing huge problems for the hero, no one can forget when he uses the protagonist as a shield to prevent Pankraz from attacking Ladja, then setting his corpse ablaze. What a dick.
Villain: Luc - Suikoden III
Known for: Wielder of True Wind Rune, playable character in first three games.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: This is a guy who you play as with minimal plot relevance for the most part in the first two games, but you get to understand his goals in the third. Although it would take the entire game with all stars recruited to really get the picture, this is a guy who's looking to prevent some sort of ultimate balance that would leave the planet lifeless. His plan of course comes into conflict with other true rune bearers, and he takes those runes as well, but his extremism had hope spots.
Villain: Graham Cray - Suikoden IV
Known for: Being the "Merchant of Death", former bearer of the Rune of Punishment who cut his hand off to escape it.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: The only explanation for him attempting to get the rune back is to reunite with his already dead son. Having to incite wars and conquer places was a part of his plan, but he wasn't entirely as hellbent as some dicks.
Villain: Zeikfried - Wild ARMs
Known for: A demon leader along with Harken, Alhazad, and Berserk, later Boomerang, wants to awaken Mother.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: Well when you have ambitions to awaken a demon mother, well it should be obvious that you should know what your demon mother originally wanted. Where you want conquest, your mother wants total destruction. So then he turns on his demon mother in an ambitious way and rallies the main heroes against her so that he and his demon faction can conquer. Good, villainous villain here.
Villain: Odessa - Wild ARMs 2
Known for: An organization who wishes to rule Filgaia
Verdict: Judecca is a dick, but the rest are villains for many different reasons.
Explanation: Judecca is an assassin for the group, but has barely any regard for humans, as evidence by him killing a prison warden without much in reason. He basically doesn't have much going for him in villainy. Vinsfeld, the leader, is a textbook ambitious conquerer, with at least two other Cocytus members in love with him (although Antenora of these two is a vastly different villain for a different reason), while his other general Ptolomea is more of an actual general who looks after his men. So it stands reason that these members are mostly villains.
Villain: Prophets - Wild ARMs 3
Known for: Attempting to reshape Filgaia in their own image with help from metal demons.
Verdict: Dicks
Explanation: The problem with their ambitions is that they obviously don't care who suffers. Being corrupted because of Beatrice's actions causing the explosion that killed most of the Council of Seven actually may be the real reason they're dicks though. It's sad that this game is good, but we see too much dickery in the villains here, even Siegfried.
Villain: Composer - The World Ends With You
Known for: Being the all-powerful being that runs Shibuya, the setting of the game, alongside the Conductor
Verdict: Dick
Explanation: Not gonna spoil who the composer is in this game, but there is a stark difference between the Composer's goals and the Conductors. At least the Conductor, despite brainwashing nearly all of Shibuya, wants to preserve it, while the Composer wants to outright destroy it. Different ambitions, destruction is worse than conquest though.
Villain: Oersted - Live-A-Live
Known for: Shining knight who you play as in the second-to-last chapter and watch his story unfurl.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: I mean come on. You play as this guy and his companions, watch as a companion dies and another separated, come home, watch him accidentally kill a king, then ousted as a demon, then set off to find that girl for some redemption, betrayed by the best friend AND the girl. Sure, he destroys the medieval land, but in his case he just watched his heroism crumble and it's completely justifiable for any action he does.
Villain: Bishop Ladja - Dragon Quest V
Known for: Originally known as Gema, he is a notorious follower of Nimzo
Verdict: Dick
Explanation: Bear in mind I'm basing this off of Ladja, not Gema. Still though, with many of DQ5's signature scenes showing huge problems for the hero, no one can forget when he uses the protagonist as a shield to prevent Pankraz from attacking Ladja, then setting his corpse ablaze. What a dick.
Villain: Luc - Suikoden III
Known for: Wielder of True Wind Rune, playable character in first three games.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: This is a guy who you play as with minimal plot relevance for the most part in the first two games, but you get to understand his goals in the third. Although it would take the entire game with all stars recruited to really get the picture, this is a guy who's looking to prevent some sort of ultimate balance that would leave the planet lifeless. His plan of course comes into conflict with other true rune bearers, and he takes those runes as well, but his extremism had hope spots.
Villain: Graham Cray - Suikoden IV
Known for: Being the "Merchant of Death", former bearer of the Rune of Punishment who cut his hand off to escape it.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: The only explanation for him attempting to get the rune back is to reunite with his already dead son. Having to incite wars and conquer places was a part of his plan, but he wasn't entirely as hellbent as some dicks.
Saturday, August 10, 2019
Villain or Dick?
Time for a new series:
It should be obvious to everyone. Villains are always in games, just so we can have heroes. Many RPG villains have this mantra of being a villain. But if you ask me, a villain has to do more than just kill a bunch of dudes. A villain has to be cunning, cruel, but also have proper ambitions and hopes so that they can seem legitimate. In other words, villains who are all about taking over are certainly villains, but those who are more leaning towards destruction and mindless slaughtering are really just dicks. So what this will be is a collection of villains and classifying them as either a villain, or a dick.
Villain: Ten Wise Men - Star Ocean 2
Known for: Being ten rebellious Nedians who use Advanced Heraldry against their enemies.
Verdict: Dicks
Explanation: This should be quite obvious. The Ten Wise Men, yes, all of them, are all about destroying the universe, obviously being the ones responsible for Expel's destruction. If their dickery doesn't explain that, then try the destruction of Ronixis' ship, where they toy with the power of their weaponry right in front of the heroes. You may think that any of these guys, particularly Indalecio, would have some motives to speak of, but no.
Villain: Loki - Valkyrie Profile
Known for: Asgardian who is the God of Mischief
Verdict: Dick (duh)
Explanation: Should this really need explaining? It's Loki. Whether you think of Tom Hiddleston's portrayal in the MCU, the awful blockbuster bomb in Son of the Mask, or this game's Loki, it's all the same. In Valkyrie Profile, he uses the Dragon Orb to destroy both Asgard and Midgard. That alone is nothing but dickery.
Villain: Luca Blight - Suikoden 2
Known for: Prince of Highland, warring bastard.
Verdict: Dick (but his motives show signs of just villainy)
Explanation: It pains my heart to say he's a dick, but he is. Luca slaughters villages, forces people to beg and act like pigs THEN kills them, and has no problems with slaughtering children. He's so much of a dick that those who have positions in Highland (read: Jowy, next on this list) have to scheme to get rid of him, because all he cares for is pain, blood, and suffering. Still, his backstory, how he couldn't have saved his mother from being raped, is a sign of plain villainy.
Villain: Jowy Atreides - Suikoden 2
Known for: Hero's best friend, turned traitor, wielder of Black Sword Rune
Verdict: Villain (but has dickish actions throughout the game)
Explanation: It's amazing how Jowy stands in full contrast to Luca Blight. He gets through some tough crap but ends up in the Highland ranks, devising a villainous but bloodless strategy to take over Greenhill. He also never wants to fight Riou directly, due to them being friends, always wishing for the surrender. But, he did kill to get to the high ranks, is okay with Muse citizens being sacrificed, and has even indirectly been responsible for several deaths including Luca's.
Villain: Krelian - Xenogears
Known for: Long haired pretty boy who does stuff in Solaris and looks at most humans as weak.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: As convoluted as Xenogears is, Krelian qualifies as a villain easily. He's not one to be a pawn, but he definitely has some control over things, like the Gazel Ministry and Solaris. The lowest creatures are made into food, which is amazingly dickish, but you never see Krelian bothering with it. Also since Krelian is from the past, we also see his motives, he is in fact stricken hard by the death of Sophia, and aimed to create a God himself. A truly villainous ambition, one that did sacrifice many, but one that is just villainous.
Villain: Id - Xenogears
Known for: Being Fei's alternate persona, Demon of Elru
Verdict: Dick
Explanation: I'm probably not gonna get to every single villain in Xenogears, but Id's nothing but an obvious dick since all he is is someone who destroys things and that's all he ever does. He drops submarines on gears, destroys city foundations, and makes Ramsus cry back home or whatever. Heck, he has no real motives, at least until you reach the part where you last meet Grahf.
Villain: Miang Hawwa - Xenogears
Known for: Ramsus' secretary, but also one of three consistently resurrecting personas in the game
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: Hard to classify really. Near the late game Miang is definitely with Krelian all the way through, but as her previous incarnations have apparently done, they've all been villainous and there's no questioning of it. Whether it involves Zeboim's sinking or experimenting on a young Fei, they are villainous and ambitious. Miang's not one to just kill people though.
Villain: Ghaleon - Lunar Silver Star Story Complete
Known for: Being a magical sorcerer, former friend of Dragonmaster Dyne. Also shows up in Eternal Blue as a fake Dragonmaster.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: In Ghaleon's case, he's a fallen hero, one that quite obviously didn't like the outcome of his journey and what Dyne has done, so he turned to villainy because of it. He basically stayed safe until he meets Luna, then imprisons each of the four dragons and awakens Althena. Not an ounce of dickery in him. Heck, even in Eternal Blue when he seems to show signs of dickery he never goes full force.
Villain: Delita Hyral - Final Fantasy Tactics
Known for: Former best friend, later fighting for the side of Goltana.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: Delita is a lot like Jowy, they're both former friends who don't wish to fight who they are closest to, yet they do so many things that are villainous, but with proper motives. Delita does in fact kill quite a few people himself, including the aforementioned Goltana, but is still somehow seen as the hero because he managed to gain publicity for keeping the peace.
Villain: Vormav Tingel - Final Fantasy Tactics
Known for: Being possessed by Hashmalam, major villain.
Verdict: Dick (villainous motives though)
Explanation: Part of me really wants to consider this guy a villain, but the problem is, he's obviously possessed by a demon, who clearly is out for the blood and lust of battle. I also remember Izlude, his son, and how he killed his own son during his rage at Riovanes Castle. It should be obvious he's not as villainous as he is more dickish.
Villain: Ultimecia - Final Fantasy 8
Known for: Ultimate sorceress
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: Not much can really be said about Ultimecia. She wants to compress time and space and become a god. Par for the course for much of Squaresoft's villains usually. And compressing time and space is a tad different than just killing people. Her usage of possessing others also qualifies.
Villain Sephiroth - Final Fantasy 7
Known for: Flipping his lid over a book
Verdict: Villain, although he does insane dickish things though.
Explanation: To be frank, I really wanted to think of Sephiroth as nothing more than a dick. All he really did when he became a villain is read a god damn book, and that drove him nuts. But even though he ends up killing or slashing people over his whole origin story, he's got a motive, to really just become the destined one to lead the entire world. And of course, wanting to be a god.
Villain: Kefka - Final Fantasy 6
Known for: Clown general of an evil empire
Verdict: Dick
Explanation: While seemingly just a joke to the empire, he does poison the water in Doma, leading to everyone's deaths there. Big dick move. Then he kills Gestahl and disturbs the statues, completely destroying the World of Balance and managing to become a god himself. Powerful, maniacal ambitions, but still obviously dickish.
Villain: Zemus - Final Fantasy 4
Known for: Lunarian
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: Not much to explore here. Zemus really just wanted to awaken the rest of the Lunarians and take over Earth. At least he's not willing to destroy it.
Villain: Pokey - Earthbound
Known for: Ness's next door neighbor, porky man, rich father
Verdict: Dick
Explanation: Everyone already knows it by now, Pokey just becomes a villain for no real reason. What could it be? Jealousy? Just to be better than Ness at everything? To spit in his face all the time? Hell, he even manages to become a gateway for Giygas himself somehow.
Villain: Gades, Amon, Erim, Daos - Lufia games
Known for: Four sinistrals.
Verdict: Except Erim, dicks. Erim is a villain
Explanation: I mean, they are the sinistrals of Destruction, Chaos, Death, and Terror. For Gades, he's got no issues with tearing cities down. Amon does it worse in another town. You may think Daos is a bit less like his peers but not so much, since he can remote-control people and make them do amazingly powerful things, but not in ways you'd like to see. Erim, as seen in the intro of Lufia 2, is interested to know if humanity can guide itself, and is usually in the guise of a friendly character (Iris) or playable character (Lufia, Seena) just to be sure of what is to be done.
Villain: Lloyd - Legend of Dragoon
Known for: Killing Lavitz, arena champion, Wingly
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: He is seen as a villain with "heroic intentions" despite standing against the dragoons. He will do every conceivable mean necessary to reach the goal that his superior sets out to do. But then he realizes his superior's intentions were not what he wanted, and fights back in order to try and right his wrongs.
Villain: Songi - Legend of Legaia
Known for: Being Gala's rival, siccing Juggernaut
Verdict: Dick
Explanation: All of Legaia's villains are honestly dicks. Jette, Cort, Songi. Doesn't really matter which one I put to be honest. Siccing Juggernaut on a village is just a true dick move, with no really decent motivation as to why he would do this. He is such a dick he kills another villain, Zora, just cause some secrets were revealed.
It should be obvious to everyone. Villains are always in games, just so we can have heroes. Many RPG villains have this mantra of being a villain. But if you ask me, a villain has to do more than just kill a bunch of dudes. A villain has to be cunning, cruel, but also have proper ambitions and hopes so that they can seem legitimate. In other words, villains who are all about taking over are certainly villains, but those who are more leaning towards destruction and mindless slaughtering are really just dicks. So what this will be is a collection of villains and classifying them as either a villain, or a dick.
Villain: Ten Wise Men - Star Ocean 2
Known for: Being ten rebellious Nedians who use Advanced Heraldry against their enemies.
Verdict: Dicks
Explanation: This should be quite obvious. The Ten Wise Men, yes, all of them, are all about destroying the universe, obviously being the ones responsible for Expel's destruction. If their dickery doesn't explain that, then try the destruction of Ronixis' ship, where they toy with the power of their weaponry right in front of the heroes. You may think that any of these guys, particularly Indalecio, would have some motives to speak of, but no.
Villain: Loki - Valkyrie Profile
Known for: Asgardian who is the God of Mischief
Verdict: Dick (duh)
Explanation: Should this really need explaining? It's Loki. Whether you think of Tom Hiddleston's portrayal in the MCU, the awful blockbuster bomb in Son of the Mask, or this game's Loki, it's all the same. In Valkyrie Profile, he uses the Dragon Orb to destroy both Asgard and Midgard. That alone is nothing but dickery.
Villain: Luca Blight - Suikoden 2
Known for: Prince of Highland, warring bastard.
Verdict: Dick (but his motives show signs of just villainy)
Explanation: It pains my heart to say he's a dick, but he is. Luca slaughters villages, forces people to beg and act like pigs THEN kills them, and has no problems with slaughtering children. He's so much of a dick that those who have positions in Highland (read: Jowy, next on this list) have to scheme to get rid of him, because all he cares for is pain, blood, and suffering. Still, his backstory, how he couldn't have saved his mother from being raped, is a sign of plain villainy.
Villain: Jowy Atreides - Suikoden 2
Known for: Hero's best friend, turned traitor, wielder of Black Sword Rune
Verdict: Villain (but has dickish actions throughout the game)
Explanation: It's amazing how Jowy stands in full contrast to Luca Blight. He gets through some tough crap but ends up in the Highland ranks, devising a villainous but bloodless strategy to take over Greenhill. He also never wants to fight Riou directly, due to them being friends, always wishing for the surrender. But, he did kill to get to the high ranks, is okay with Muse citizens being sacrificed, and has even indirectly been responsible for several deaths including Luca's.
Villain: Krelian - Xenogears
Known for: Long haired pretty boy who does stuff in Solaris and looks at most humans as weak.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: As convoluted as Xenogears is, Krelian qualifies as a villain easily. He's not one to be a pawn, but he definitely has some control over things, like the Gazel Ministry and Solaris. The lowest creatures are made into food, which is amazingly dickish, but you never see Krelian bothering with it. Also since Krelian is from the past, we also see his motives, he is in fact stricken hard by the death of Sophia, and aimed to create a God himself. A truly villainous ambition, one that did sacrifice many, but one that is just villainous.
Villain: Id - Xenogears
Known for: Being Fei's alternate persona, Demon of Elru
Verdict: Dick
Explanation: I'm probably not gonna get to every single villain in Xenogears, but Id's nothing but an obvious dick since all he is is someone who destroys things and that's all he ever does. He drops submarines on gears, destroys city foundations, and makes Ramsus cry back home or whatever. Heck, he has no real motives, at least until you reach the part where you last meet Grahf.
Villain: Miang Hawwa - Xenogears
Known for: Ramsus' secretary, but also one of three consistently resurrecting personas in the game
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: Hard to classify really. Near the late game Miang is definitely with Krelian all the way through, but as her previous incarnations have apparently done, they've all been villainous and there's no questioning of it. Whether it involves Zeboim's sinking or experimenting on a young Fei, they are villainous and ambitious. Miang's not one to just kill people though.
Villain: Ghaleon - Lunar Silver Star Story Complete
Known for: Being a magical sorcerer, former friend of Dragonmaster Dyne. Also shows up in Eternal Blue as a fake Dragonmaster.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: In Ghaleon's case, he's a fallen hero, one that quite obviously didn't like the outcome of his journey and what Dyne has done, so he turned to villainy because of it. He basically stayed safe until he meets Luna, then imprisons each of the four dragons and awakens Althena. Not an ounce of dickery in him. Heck, even in Eternal Blue when he seems to show signs of dickery he never goes full force.
Villain: Delita Hyral - Final Fantasy Tactics
Known for: Former best friend, later fighting for the side of Goltana.
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: Delita is a lot like Jowy, they're both former friends who don't wish to fight who they are closest to, yet they do so many things that are villainous, but with proper motives. Delita does in fact kill quite a few people himself, including the aforementioned Goltana, but is still somehow seen as the hero because he managed to gain publicity for keeping the peace.
Villain: Vormav Tingel - Final Fantasy Tactics
Known for: Being possessed by Hashmalam, major villain.
Verdict: Dick (villainous motives though)
Explanation: Part of me really wants to consider this guy a villain, but the problem is, he's obviously possessed by a demon, who clearly is out for the blood and lust of battle. I also remember Izlude, his son, and how he killed his own son during his rage at Riovanes Castle. It should be obvious he's not as villainous as he is more dickish.
Villain: Ultimecia - Final Fantasy 8
Known for: Ultimate sorceress
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: Not much can really be said about Ultimecia. She wants to compress time and space and become a god. Par for the course for much of Squaresoft's villains usually. And compressing time and space is a tad different than just killing people. Her usage of possessing others also qualifies.
Villain Sephiroth - Final Fantasy 7
Known for: Flipping his lid over a book
Verdict: Villain, although he does insane dickish things though.
Explanation: To be frank, I really wanted to think of Sephiroth as nothing more than a dick. All he really did when he became a villain is read a god damn book, and that drove him nuts. But even though he ends up killing or slashing people over his whole origin story, he's got a motive, to really just become the destined one to lead the entire world. And of course, wanting to be a god.
Villain: Kefka - Final Fantasy 6
Known for: Clown general of an evil empire
Verdict: Dick
Explanation: While seemingly just a joke to the empire, he does poison the water in Doma, leading to everyone's deaths there. Big dick move. Then he kills Gestahl and disturbs the statues, completely destroying the World of Balance and managing to become a god himself. Powerful, maniacal ambitions, but still obviously dickish.
Villain: Zemus - Final Fantasy 4
Known for: Lunarian
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: Not much to explore here. Zemus really just wanted to awaken the rest of the Lunarians and take over Earth. At least he's not willing to destroy it.
Villain: Pokey - Earthbound
Known for: Ness's next door neighbor, porky man, rich father
Verdict: Dick
Explanation: Everyone already knows it by now, Pokey just becomes a villain for no real reason. What could it be? Jealousy? Just to be better than Ness at everything? To spit in his face all the time? Hell, he even manages to become a gateway for Giygas himself somehow.
Villain: Gades, Amon, Erim, Daos - Lufia games
Known for: Four sinistrals.
Verdict: Except Erim, dicks. Erim is a villain
Explanation: I mean, they are the sinistrals of Destruction, Chaos, Death, and Terror. For Gades, he's got no issues with tearing cities down. Amon does it worse in another town. You may think Daos is a bit less like his peers but not so much, since he can remote-control people and make them do amazingly powerful things, but not in ways you'd like to see. Erim, as seen in the intro of Lufia 2, is interested to know if humanity can guide itself, and is usually in the guise of a friendly character (Iris) or playable character (Lufia, Seena) just to be sure of what is to be done.
Villain: Lloyd - Legend of Dragoon
Known for: Killing Lavitz, arena champion, Wingly
Verdict: Villain
Explanation: He is seen as a villain with "heroic intentions" despite standing against the dragoons. He will do every conceivable mean necessary to reach the goal that his superior sets out to do. But then he realizes his superior's intentions were not what he wanted, and fights back in order to try and right his wrongs.
Villain: Songi - Legend of Legaia
Known for: Being Gala's rival, siccing Juggernaut
Verdict: Dick
Explanation: All of Legaia's villains are honestly dicks. Jette, Cort, Songi. Doesn't really matter which one I put to be honest. Siccing Juggernaut on a village is just a true dick move, with no really decent motivation as to why he would do this. He is such a dick he kills another villain, Zora, just cause some secrets were revealed.
Thursday, June 6, 2019
My Sporcle Character Quizzes
This will be a short post, but I recently got a Sporcle account and decided to make some quizzes on known JRPG characters. Playlist link is below. Characters are sorted by alphabetical name and span many games, some of which I have not actually played yet.
https://www.sporcle.com/playlists/numetalmaniak/classic-jrpg-party-members
https://www.sporcle.com/playlists/numetalmaniak/classic-jrpg-party-members
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
RPG characters, their jobs, and how it connects to the real world
Raise your hand if you've ever had so much trouble just finding a place to work. I often wonder about most blog writers and blog readers, since many of them have trouble just trying to get a living in life. You probably get bossed by parents to find a real job, one that if you get it, will end up doing tasks for the rest of your life just to keep a steady amount of cash. That cash, of course, is gonna be expended on expenses, think about actually living at any type of shelter, the food you eat, the electricity, the air conditioning. To often be denied that ability to live is a boon for people, since some workplaces decide to change their mind on things post-haste and think of "a better candidate" when we all know that there's no such thing as "a better candidate" in almost every case. I've been living that kind of life for almost seven years at this point.
It got me to wonder about many different RPG characters, protagonist or otherwise. In every RPG game there's obviously a currency to gain money with, and lots of money to gain, most of it through just defeating enemies in battle. Now, the real-world equivalent to that is poaching (in case of monsters) or robbing (in case of humans), both of which are illegal acts in the real world. Now look at the majority of protagonists. Their jobs are pretty much moot. Most are usual adventurers or the cliche "save the world" merry bandits with no daytime job, a number are amnesiacs who won't really be doing much else besides being heroes, others just so happen to be soldiers or descendants of soldier-y people (Cloud, Cless, etc). But they all function the same way, beat up enemies in order to get money all the way until you finally beat the big bad and save everything.
It just makes me wonder, if they had any real job, they're practically not relevant as heroes, since they're pretty much forced to do the mundane while the heroes are the only ones actually doing anything. And in the cases of those who actually have such mundane jobs (Taloon/Torneko in Dragon Quest 4, Bowman in Star Ocean 2, bonus points for these two since they both have families and are married) they end up quitting their job because they found some bigger fish to catch.* Almost every other character who has some kind of employment and is not connected to royalty of any kind is usually self-employed.
Just look at the majority of Suikoden's cast members. Barely any look like they have any sort of supervisor, and end up in your entourage basically doing the same thing they've always done. Shopkeeps, entertainers, blacksmiths, innkeepers, detectives, these guys all seem self-employed and remain that way. I'm then reminded of several scenes of characters with no debts to pay (Rikimaru, L.C.Chan, Annallee, Hoi), those too poor to apparently afford anything yet try to make the most out of usually unlawful actions that get them in some small trouble, probably because they ran out of decent options. There's even a hard-to-find scene where if your characters are too poor to pay 200 bits to an innkeeper in Suikoden I (the scene involves Vincent), your characters end up working in the kitchen then. Even the early game of Suikoden II, where Pohl forces you to do menial tasks for the mercenary bosses (both of whom are self-employed themselves). As menial as it is, the fact of the matter is that I definitely can connect with a number of characters in this game. Everyone's poor to some extent, but some not only are poor, but almost are never gonna end up where they want to go and possibly get screwed overall. It's bad if no employer wants to hire you, everyone's so concerned about the most nitpicky of skills that it completely voids all chances unless you really really impress someone.
By the way, I'm obviously referring to work that seems to be what people do in real life. No way am I referring to the "jobs" in Final Fantasy games. Those are just character classes. Do they get paid for what they do? I mean, besides killing monsters of course.
*A bit iffy in those two I described though, since despite the calling of adventure, they still practically are the ones who exemplify the characteristics of the jobs they were employed to. Torneko in particular sets off to be the best arms merchant, even if it involves adventure. Bowman's case depends partly on what ending you decide to get for him.
It got me to wonder about many different RPG characters, protagonist or otherwise. In every RPG game there's obviously a currency to gain money with, and lots of money to gain, most of it through just defeating enemies in battle. Now, the real-world equivalent to that is poaching (in case of monsters) or robbing (in case of humans), both of which are illegal acts in the real world. Now look at the majority of protagonists. Their jobs are pretty much moot. Most are usual adventurers or the cliche "save the world" merry bandits with no daytime job, a number are amnesiacs who won't really be doing much else besides being heroes, others just so happen to be soldiers or descendants of soldier-y people (Cloud, Cless, etc). But they all function the same way, beat up enemies in order to get money all the way until you finally beat the big bad and save everything.
It just makes me wonder, if they had any real job, they're practically not relevant as heroes, since they're pretty much forced to do the mundane while the heroes are the only ones actually doing anything. And in the cases of those who actually have such mundane jobs (Taloon/Torneko in Dragon Quest 4, Bowman in Star Ocean 2, bonus points for these two since they both have families and are married) they end up quitting their job because they found some bigger fish to catch.* Almost every other character who has some kind of employment and is not connected to royalty of any kind is usually self-employed.
Just look at the majority of Suikoden's cast members. Barely any look like they have any sort of supervisor, and end up in your entourage basically doing the same thing they've always done. Shopkeeps, entertainers, blacksmiths, innkeepers, detectives, these guys all seem self-employed and remain that way. I'm then reminded of several scenes of characters with no debts to pay (Rikimaru, L.C.Chan, Annallee, Hoi), those too poor to apparently afford anything yet try to make the most out of usually unlawful actions that get them in some small trouble, probably because they ran out of decent options. There's even a hard-to-find scene where if your characters are too poor to pay 200 bits to an innkeeper in Suikoden I (the scene involves Vincent), your characters end up working in the kitchen then. Even the early game of Suikoden II, where Pohl forces you to do menial tasks for the mercenary bosses (both of whom are self-employed themselves). As menial as it is, the fact of the matter is that I definitely can connect with a number of characters in this game. Everyone's poor to some extent, but some not only are poor, but almost are never gonna end up where they want to go and possibly get screwed overall. It's bad if no employer wants to hire you, everyone's so concerned about the most nitpicky of skills that it completely voids all chances unless you really really impress someone.
By the way, I'm obviously referring to work that seems to be what people do in real life. No way am I referring to the "jobs" in Final Fantasy games. Those are just character classes. Do they get paid for what they do? I mean, besides killing monsters of course.
*A bit iffy in those two I described though, since despite the calling of adventure, they still practically are the ones who exemplify the characteristics of the jobs they were employed to. Torneko in particular sets off to be the best arms merchant, even if it involves adventure. Bowman's case depends partly on what ending you decide to get for him.
Sunday, May 19, 2019
RPG characters: Does being rich and famous in the beginning matter?
Too much outside work as well as the urge to play numerous game mods and other RPGs have been clogging up quite a bit of time, but whatever the case may be, I'm not gonna retire this blog any time soon. Nor will I stop analyzing the cliches of console role-playing games. Continuing now with Poor Little Rich Hero, which states that "If the hero comes from a rich and powerful family, it will have fallen on hard times and be broke and destitute by the time the game actually starts."
This cliche is also known as the Meis rule, named after the protagonist from Thousand Arms, born into the wealthy and meaningfully named Triumph family, but having his hometown ransacked and him being practically broke. Oddly enough, just because he's the actual poster child for this cliche, doesn't really entail him as the prime example of this, and Meis is certainly an oddity among RPG protagonists on the account that his family was actually rich. There's actually very few who are like Meis, the other major example I can think of would be Tir McDohl from Suikoden I, who has the largest home in Gregminster and a powerful general for a father. Tir's probably the best example of this, especially considering where he ends up going when the plot really gets going. I guess Rhys from Phantasy Star 3 counts too? If you're the child of a powerful king and you're defiant, I guess that's an example of hard times, and that's literal in Rhys' case. Some of the SaGa Frontier protagonists might be good enough for this cliche too. Emelia had a house AND a boyfriend, but lost both and her clean criminal record. Asellus' family was probably rich but she ended up dying never basking in wealth, while Red's intro shows him and his dad in a car until the freak accident kills the father and ultimately separates Red from his family. Star Ocean 2's Claude might as well count too, considering who his father is.
Other protagonists, whether they be Crono, Serge, Vahn, Cornet, Ark, these are examples of more humble protagonists, since they follow the example of a simple villager who ends up going on an adventure without a whole lot of finances to even start with. So this cliche ends up being fairly uncommon and somehow more tied in with what kind of person the protagonist actually grew up from. If the protagonist came from a mighty and/or prominent kind of person, they'd naturally be that kind of person as they grow up until fate dictates them to rags at that point in time when the RPG wishes for them to be adventurers.
This cliche is also known as the Meis rule, named after the protagonist from Thousand Arms, born into the wealthy and meaningfully named Triumph family, but having his hometown ransacked and him being practically broke. Oddly enough, just because he's the actual poster child for this cliche, doesn't really entail him as the prime example of this, and Meis is certainly an oddity among RPG protagonists on the account that his family was actually rich. There's actually very few who are like Meis, the other major example I can think of would be Tir McDohl from Suikoden I, who has the largest home in Gregminster and a powerful general for a father. Tir's probably the best example of this, especially considering where he ends up going when the plot really gets going. I guess Rhys from Phantasy Star 3 counts too? If you're the child of a powerful king and you're defiant, I guess that's an example of hard times, and that's literal in Rhys' case. Some of the SaGa Frontier protagonists might be good enough for this cliche too. Emelia had a house AND a boyfriend, but lost both and her clean criminal record. Asellus' family was probably rich but she ended up dying never basking in wealth, while Red's intro shows him and his dad in a car until the freak accident kills the father and ultimately separates Red from his family. Star Ocean 2's Claude might as well count too, considering who his father is.
Other protagonists, whether they be Crono, Serge, Vahn, Cornet, Ark, these are examples of more humble protagonists, since they follow the example of a simple villager who ends up going on an adventure without a whole lot of finances to even start with. So this cliche ends up being fairly uncommon and somehow more tied in with what kind of person the protagonist actually grew up from. If the protagonist came from a mighty and/or prominent kind of person, they'd naturally be that kind of person as they grow up until fate dictates them to rags at that point in time when the RPG wishes for them to be adventurers.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Cussing in RPGs
Well, there's not much I've been able to do as of late, so let's have a little rant on something. Cussing in RPGs! Oh no, get the parental advisory stickers and the ESRB ratings! Not once have I made my blog to showcase some actual cussing in any kind, so this will be a bit interesting.
There's nothing really important about cussing to be honest. The majority of games I play have it in spades without overdoing it, and that's completely fine. Some games are of course geared for younger audiences (Rhapsody, any Mario RPG) and get rid of it altogether while pulling off funny little alternatives to cuss words. The majority of games though are T-rated, offering off the occasional "damn" every time something awry happens, and it doesn't matter if it's hero or villain who says it. It just makes sense whenever its used.
Of course, some characters are more vulgar than others, and what better way to show that than to look at Final Fantasy VII's own Barret and Cid, two of the most foul-mouthed individuals, to the point where they're censored with symbols sometimes. Not all the time though, as the word "shit" is uncensored in a few scenes, surprising when you consider how often these two guys cuss. Another game that throws the word "shit" uncensored just so happens to be Soul Nomad & The World Eaters, with almost 40 sayings, almost all of them made by the incredibly hammy Gig. You ought to be surprised these games somehow hold on to a T-rating despite the excessive swearing. In other cases, the word "shit" ends up being shown uncensored exactly one-time, the kind of thing that PG-13 movies would allow if and only if it's used rarely. Some games that do this are Final Fantasy Tactics (after beating Dycedarg), Valkyrie Profile (Badrach's recruitment cutscene), and Thousand Arms (Bandiger, and this is a game that gives audible censor beeps when someone cusses too).
Now every game I mentioned so far has an international release, whether PAL or North American. For the Japanese-to-English-translated RPGs, it seems that the cuss words are a lot more common. Well, not a lot more, as it still is used sparingly, but it's a little more noticable. Dual Orb and Langrisser II have "shit" being used several times by characters throughout the game, of course at appropriate times, but you just can't help but notice it. Then there's the DeJap translations of both Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean:
Hooray, first time I put images on this blog, these I saved when I played these games. Note that the usage of cussing is a little more liberal in these two translations, especially in the second image as well as the Tales of Phantasia boat scene which is a little more than just the "fucks like a tiger" line Klarth puts up. Not to mention that last image, which also is from ToP, where a little kid NPC is the one to cuss. Yikes. Personally I'm more comfortable when you are fairly stagnant on the cussing, do it sparingly, do not overbear it, and definitely don't goof with the translation all that much. I get that edgy teenagers are okay with this, and I am too, and that's how it should be. Hey look everyone, this blog stopped being PG-rated! Oops.
There's nothing really important about cussing to be honest. The majority of games I play have it in spades without overdoing it, and that's completely fine. Some games are of course geared for younger audiences (Rhapsody, any Mario RPG) and get rid of it altogether while pulling off funny little alternatives to cuss words. The majority of games though are T-rated, offering off the occasional "damn" every time something awry happens, and it doesn't matter if it's hero or villain who says it. It just makes sense whenever its used.
Of course, some characters are more vulgar than others, and what better way to show that than to look at Final Fantasy VII's own Barret and Cid, two of the most foul-mouthed individuals, to the point where they're censored with symbols sometimes. Not all the time though, as the word "shit" is uncensored in a few scenes, surprising when you consider how often these two guys cuss. Another game that throws the word "shit" uncensored just so happens to be Soul Nomad & The World Eaters, with almost 40 sayings, almost all of them made by the incredibly hammy Gig. You ought to be surprised these games somehow hold on to a T-rating despite the excessive swearing. In other cases, the word "shit" ends up being shown uncensored exactly one-time, the kind of thing that PG-13 movies would allow if and only if it's used rarely. Some games that do this are Final Fantasy Tactics (after beating Dycedarg), Valkyrie Profile (Badrach's recruitment cutscene), and Thousand Arms (Bandiger, and this is a game that gives audible censor beeps when someone cusses too).
Now every game I mentioned so far has an international release, whether PAL or North American. For the Japanese-to-English-translated RPGs, it seems that the cuss words are a lot more common. Well, not a lot more, as it still is used sparingly, but it's a little more noticable. Dual Orb and Langrisser II have "shit" being used several times by characters throughout the game, of course at appropriate times, but you just can't help but notice it. Then there's the DeJap translations of both Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean:
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Terrible RPG Dungeons: Part 6
Can't stop talking about these, can I? Returning to the Playstation because why not.
Swamp - SaGa Frontier
Currently, I'm playing through this game, but one sidequest that is featured in just about every protagonist's quest is the Arcane quest. One card, the Grail card, is one of the cards needed in that quest, and it's in the Yorkland Swamp. Problem is, in order to get it, you gotta get the schmuck bait. This basically means get drunk from liquor stores until they give the go to so you can head into the swamp. Only you head in there drunk, naturally, impeding your movement. You also got these eyes in places which are monsters, and they are usually a tier above the monsters that would normally appear at your current stat level (reminder this is a SaGa game so no real level ups). Every time you run into an encounter, everyone in the party is hit with a random status ailment, even with proper protection, making fights much harder than usual. The worst is the Kraken enemy which is especially tough, hits multiple times, and can use Maelstrom. To be fair, the Arcane quest is worth it, because training a mage to get Tower is worthwhile, but for those in SaGa Frontier trying to get this, do yourself a favor and get the Grail card first, and as early as possible, that way you won't have too hard a time.
Virgil Palace (Riki's quest only) - SaGa Frontier
As if right on cue, another SaGa Frontier dungeon. I've finished all the quests so far save Emelia's and Riki definitely has it the worst. Tanzer is pretty darn tough, but the real clincher in Riki's story? Virgil Palace, in Mosperiburg. Here's the deal, Virgil challenges you to eight trials, some easy, some gimmicky, and some blatant and annoying. Most of the enemies fought here are of the highest tier too, such as the Snowfolk in the Pacman maze section and the Dullahans in the graveyard part. Now those are actually some of the easier ones, along with the barrel hunt, the mini-tournament, the bowling alley-of-sorts, and the sort-of straightforward one. The high/low game show is weird but usually doable, and that leads us to two of the more annoying ones. I can't tell what's worse, the stupid spike room where deviating from the female's path puts you into encounters all the time (and she really loves to randomly move) or the magma slimes which completely take LP and are too fast (btw Riki in monster forms usually doesn't go past 7 LP, so good luck keeping him alive). And then you fight Virgil himself, in which you gotta utilize combinations to impress him up to a score of 10, otherwise he's just bound to curbstomp you. There's certainly challenges in SaGa Frontier, but Riki's easily the hardest one of all because of this one place.
Rockaxe Castle - Suikoden II
Look I like the Suikoden series but some of their dungeons can get on my nerves. Among them is Rockaxe Castle, the site of an important part of the story and a battle with Gorudo. Here though, the encounter rate is much higher than the rest, and in a way it's a bit boring if you've decided to bring some powerful members every step of the way. I think the reason I put it here as a terrible dungeon is, after the memorable event and battle inside, there's still treasure past the bridge where the event occurred. The Thunder Rune and Mother Earth Rune are rare but amazing runes here, but having to automatically leave after the event occurs, plus going through a monster-heavy dungeon all to get the rest of the treasures. It's tedious for a completionist like myself. Luckily the cockatrice enemies in this dungeon can actually drop additional Thunder Runes, and I was actually very lucky to get another one while going through here.
Honorable mention goes to L'Renouille Castle, an obvious ending fatigue dungeon which likes to give fixed soldier encounters.
Neclord's Castle - Suikoden
Again, the problem with this one is that it's long, packed with plenty of strong enemies, and while worth it in the end for an iconic battle against Neclord I again must go back through this blasted castle to get the optional stuff. It's more rewarding though, mostly because you can recruit Pesmerga as well as find a hidden Rage Rune. But still, there's so much to go through just for backtracking purposes, and an Escape Talisman doesn't work here either.
Honorable mention goes to Moravia Castle, which has a large bit of backtracking and tough enemies . The good news here is that there's no boss to fight in this one, but I still need to return to get...a useless recruit.
Darm Tower - Ys.
And now for our non-Playstation RPG, Ys. at least for the Famicom release barely had a helpful guide, and the confusing Darm Tower only caused me to be more frustrated than I would have wanted. My guide just kept telling me to go to some place that I know I couldn't reach yet for whatever reason. Add to that the enemy types which are still progressively tough, even when at the max level and absolute best equipment, and can still kick your ass, and there's just loads of frustration to do. A number of mini-quests here don't have a lot of hints to them. Lost all the silver equipment? You need them back, as Dark Fact ends up being impossible to kill unless the full set is equipped, and making it worse is that there's better equipment found in the dungeon, sometimes earlier than the silver equipment. What about that seemingly useless Evil Ring that kills you if you put it on? Need it for one small room in the tower. Then there's the mirror maze. Perhaps what really sucked was having to go back to Luta just to get the Blue Amulet, another instance of having no hints whatsoever. I'm so glad that despite it's difficulty, this game is short enough, but it's so rough and confusing that I don't want to touch it again.
Swamp - SaGa Frontier
Currently, I'm playing through this game, but one sidequest that is featured in just about every protagonist's quest is the Arcane quest. One card, the Grail card, is one of the cards needed in that quest, and it's in the Yorkland Swamp. Problem is, in order to get it, you gotta get the schmuck bait. This basically means get drunk from liquor stores until they give the go to so you can head into the swamp. Only you head in there drunk, naturally, impeding your movement. You also got these eyes in places which are monsters, and they are usually a tier above the monsters that would normally appear at your current stat level (reminder this is a SaGa game so no real level ups). Every time you run into an encounter, everyone in the party is hit with a random status ailment, even with proper protection, making fights much harder than usual. The worst is the Kraken enemy which is especially tough, hits multiple times, and can use Maelstrom. To be fair, the Arcane quest is worth it, because training a mage to get Tower is worthwhile, but for those in SaGa Frontier trying to get this, do yourself a favor and get the Grail card first, and as early as possible, that way you won't have too hard a time.
Virgil Palace (Riki's quest only) - SaGa Frontier
As if right on cue, another SaGa Frontier dungeon. I've finished all the quests so far save Emelia's and Riki definitely has it the worst. Tanzer is pretty darn tough, but the real clincher in Riki's story? Virgil Palace, in Mosperiburg. Here's the deal, Virgil challenges you to eight trials, some easy, some gimmicky, and some blatant and annoying. Most of the enemies fought here are of the highest tier too, such as the Snowfolk in the Pacman maze section and the Dullahans in the graveyard part. Now those are actually some of the easier ones, along with the barrel hunt, the mini-tournament, the bowling alley-of-sorts, and the sort-of straightforward one. The high/low game show is weird but usually doable, and that leads us to two of the more annoying ones. I can't tell what's worse, the stupid spike room where deviating from the female's path puts you into encounters all the time (and she really loves to randomly move) or the magma slimes which completely take LP and are too fast (btw Riki in monster forms usually doesn't go past 7 LP, so good luck keeping him alive). And then you fight Virgil himself, in which you gotta utilize combinations to impress him up to a score of 10, otherwise he's just bound to curbstomp you. There's certainly challenges in SaGa Frontier, but Riki's easily the hardest one of all because of this one place.
Rockaxe Castle - Suikoden II
Look I like the Suikoden series but some of their dungeons can get on my nerves. Among them is Rockaxe Castle, the site of an important part of the story and a battle with Gorudo. Here though, the encounter rate is much higher than the rest, and in a way it's a bit boring if you've decided to bring some powerful members every step of the way. I think the reason I put it here as a terrible dungeon is, after the memorable event and battle inside, there's still treasure past the bridge where the event occurred. The Thunder Rune and Mother Earth Rune are rare but amazing runes here, but having to automatically leave after the event occurs, plus going through a monster-heavy dungeon all to get the rest of the treasures. It's tedious for a completionist like myself. Luckily the cockatrice enemies in this dungeon can actually drop additional Thunder Runes, and I was actually very lucky to get another one while going through here.
Honorable mention goes to L'Renouille Castle, an obvious ending fatigue dungeon which likes to give fixed soldier encounters.
Neclord's Castle - Suikoden
Again, the problem with this one is that it's long, packed with plenty of strong enemies, and while worth it in the end for an iconic battle against Neclord I again must go back through this blasted castle to get the optional stuff. It's more rewarding though, mostly because you can recruit Pesmerga as well as find a hidden Rage Rune. But still, there's so much to go through just for backtracking purposes, and an Escape Talisman doesn't work here either.
Honorable mention goes to Moravia Castle, which has a large bit of backtracking and tough enemies . The good news here is that there's no boss to fight in this one, but I still need to return to get...a useless recruit.
Darm Tower - Ys.
And now for our non-Playstation RPG, Ys. at least for the Famicom release barely had a helpful guide, and the confusing Darm Tower only caused me to be more frustrated than I would have wanted. My guide just kept telling me to go to some place that I know I couldn't reach yet for whatever reason. Add to that the enemy types which are still progressively tough, even when at the max level and absolute best equipment, and can still kick your ass, and there's just loads of frustration to do. A number of mini-quests here don't have a lot of hints to them. Lost all the silver equipment? You need them back, as Dark Fact ends up being impossible to kill unless the full set is equipped, and making it worse is that there's better equipment found in the dungeon, sometimes earlier than the silver equipment. What about that seemingly useless Evil Ring that kills you if you put it on? Need it for one small room in the tower. Then there's the mirror maze. Perhaps what really sucked was having to go back to Luta just to get the Blue Amulet, another instance of having no hints whatsoever. I'm so glad that despite it's difficulty, this game is short enough, but it's so rough and confusing that I don't want to touch it again.
Saturday, April 20, 2019
RPGs: Balancing recurring characters in sequels
I have been very unorthodox with keeping this blog active. There's often not a whole lot to go by with it, but whatever the case may be, I still need to keep this active, so here we go, reviving this little blog series as I go along. This particular RPG cliche is as follows: "Whenever there is a sequel to an RPG that features the same main character as the previous game, that character will always start with beginner skills. Everything that they learned in the previous game will be gone, as will all their ultra-powerful weapons and equipment."
Yes, this one is as annoying as it sounds. The cliche is also called the Yuna Rule, as this character is a main character in Final Fantasy X and then later on in its direct sequel (perhaps the first time Final Fantasy finally decided to have some continuity with things). Of course, I sure haven't played those games yet, but I can think of others that certainly fit the bill. I've only played the first Ys., but reading a bit of story about the other games, it looks like Adol is gonna be the main character for the other ones as well. You can also look at the Mario & Luigi games. Whatever happened to those hand powers that the bros had in Superstar Saga once you got to Partners in Time? Did they just fizzle away or something? What about Disgaea's crew? I haven't played that series yet, but it looks like the main cast, despite spanning several games, isn't all too overpowered for the next sequel.
Suikoden II is a very interesting case of this, with a load of characters coming back to participate in the Dunan Unification wars. Of the ones that do come back, it's possible to train them in Suikoden, augmenting their stats, but that's about it. With a few exceptions*, these characters will have abandoned the endgame gear they had. Particularly blatant with Viktor and Flik, the first two returning faces you get to play with, and hey, looks like Viktor did dump the Star Dragon Sword by then (he'll get it back anyways though).
And then there's Growlanser II, my god, if only the first game had a proper translation so I can see what its about. But you can see that Carmaine, Xenos, and Ernest are major characters in that game, and are then playable in II, where did all their stuff go?
The only excuse for this particular cliche is gameplay balance, obviously it would be too unfair for the opponents to actually have to fight the overpowered guys from the previous game's ending. At the same token, imagine having a new protagonist with the overpowered guys, but the enemies are also overpowered. It's a tough one to compensate. It's a little better to reason with than a presumed super-powerful gladiator who joins a party only to be rather mediocre.
*Humphrey if you equip him with a Windspun Armor at the end of the game will have it (and he can't take it off), as well as McDohl himself with some pieces of equipment (can't remember which ones).
Yes, this one is as annoying as it sounds. The cliche is also called the Yuna Rule, as this character is a main character in Final Fantasy X and then later on in its direct sequel (perhaps the first time Final Fantasy finally decided to have some continuity with things). Of course, I sure haven't played those games yet, but I can think of others that certainly fit the bill. I've only played the first Ys., but reading a bit of story about the other games, it looks like Adol is gonna be the main character for the other ones as well. You can also look at the Mario & Luigi games. Whatever happened to those hand powers that the bros had in Superstar Saga once you got to Partners in Time? Did they just fizzle away or something? What about Disgaea's crew? I haven't played that series yet, but it looks like the main cast, despite spanning several games, isn't all too overpowered for the next sequel.
Suikoden II is a very interesting case of this, with a load of characters coming back to participate in the Dunan Unification wars. Of the ones that do come back, it's possible to train them in Suikoden, augmenting their stats, but that's about it. With a few exceptions*, these characters will have abandoned the endgame gear they had. Particularly blatant with Viktor and Flik, the first two returning faces you get to play with, and hey, looks like Viktor did dump the Star Dragon Sword by then (he'll get it back anyways though).
And then there's Growlanser II, my god, if only the first game had a proper translation so I can see what its about. But you can see that Carmaine, Xenos, and Ernest are major characters in that game, and are then playable in II, where did all their stuff go?
The only excuse for this particular cliche is gameplay balance, obviously it would be too unfair for the opponents to actually have to fight the overpowered guys from the previous game's ending. At the same token, imagine having a new protagonist with the overpowered guys, but the enemies are also overpowered. It's a tough one to compensate. It's a little better to reason with than a presumed super-powerful gladiator who joins a party only to be rather mediocre.
*Humphrey if you equip him with a Windspun Armor at the end of the game will have it (and he can't take it off), as well as McDohl himself with some pieces of equipment (can't remember which ones).
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Terrible RPG Dungeons: Part 5
Wow, I have been incredibly inactive as of late. Been doing a lot of revisiting of non-RPG games as well as playing several mods. Also trying to find new means of work overall. But regardless, I still got a good memory on a number of really bad dungeons. Let's look at the SNES platform.
Infinity - Breath of Fire 2
Everyone who has played BoF2 knows why this is on here. It's long, filled with numerous passageways and dead-ends, areas that require Sten's field ability (he's not that bad of a character, but he's just plain average overall), and worst of all, an encounter rate up the ass. You can't even make eight steps anywhere in the dungeon without triggering an encounter. It's probably worse in the SNES version, which doesn't have a much-needed dash ability. And of course, the enemies are deviously strong, many different kinds exist that will force you to constantly strategize. While the fights against Barubary and Deathevan truly are epics, just getting to them will fatigue players. It's even worse for those who wish to keep shaman transformations, because not only do you have to keep everyone alive as much as possible, there's a certain part where you will get Anfini, and that will reset the transformations, meaning you have to go all the way back to Township then. Dologany is a much-needed rest stop of course, but the dungeon is long on both sides, and undeniably grueling to conquer.
Fanatic's Tower - Final Fantasy VI
Stairs, stairs, stairs, stairs, stairs, stairs, this is seriously some lazy ass design for a tower. You may as well call this a lighthouse given just how the dungeon is nothing but stairs. The enemies are also quite unoriginal, being Lvl X (X is any number from 1 to 9) Magic. Then again, unoriginal only refers to the names, as the enemies themselves will have very powerful magic to cast, some of them already having annoying properties like being inherently reflective. And you can't just fight enemies, as the tower relegates you to only using magic. You're almost better off wearing the Moogle Charm and skipping all the way to the top, only to fight the Magimaster, an insanely tough mage who uses Ultima as his curtain call. Many ways to fight him, it actually may be best to just Rasp his MP while giving him Berserk status.
Sunken Worus Tower - Final Fantasy V
What do you know? Another timed dungeon? Makes sense since you're underwater, but geez, you have to speedrun this one just to get to...Gogo? Having a Thief or the Dash ability is required for this one, hands down. Run, run, run until you get to the boss, and you've got two choices. Wait while the clock is ticking (you better have enough) and he'll forfeit and give you the win, or actually fight the guy. To me, the latter just seems impossible. Being a mimic, he's obviously gonna do what you do to him, but better. Again though, you're timed, and that always sucks.
Reptite Lair - Chrono Trigger
This one's only a bit problematic in honesty. The issue of course, since I'm a completionist at heart, is getting the treasures. Gotta wait for these drill enemies to get in just the right position, then drill down so I can hopefully get what is at the bottom. Nizbel can also be a wake-up call boss. This isn't that bad, but I find the treasure hunting to be a little tedious.
Mare Tower - Breath of Fire
Having fun trying to actually defeat Mote? How about getting to him? It's already bad enough that this is supposedly a "nightmare" dungeon, meaning anything out of the ordinary sure will happen here. And that would be the spinning room. While it's already bad enough in making you seem dizzy (honestly that shouldn't happen), the disorientation will always occur. You're gonna need to figure out which of the spins results in a simple 90 degree counter-clockwise rotation, or a random spin, or none at all, and there's a minimum of seven tiles needed to actually cross to the finish. Mote ain't a picnic either, his pixelated appearance and apparent invulnerability sure would fool players here.
Up next, well, I dunno yet.
Infinity - Breath of Fire 2
Everyone who has played BoF2 knows why this is on here. It's long, filled with numerous passageways and dead-ends, areas that require Sten's field ability (he's not that bad of a character, but he's just plain average overall), and worst of all, an encounter rate up the ass. You can't even make eight steps anywhere in the dungeon without triggering an encounter. It's probably worse in the SNES version, which doesn't have a much-needed dash ability. And of course, the enemies are deviously strong, many different kinds exist that will force you to constantly strategize. While the fights against Barubary and Deathevan truly are epics, just getting to them will fatigue players. It's even worse for those who wish to keep shaman transformations, because not only do you have to keep everyone alive as much as possible, there's a certain part where you will get Anfini, and that will reset the transformations, meaning you have to go all the way back to Township then. Dologany is a much-needed rest stop of course, but the dungeon is long on both sides, and undeniably grueling to conquer.
Fanatic's Tower - Final Fantasy VI
Stairs, stairs, stairs, stairs, stairs, stairs, this is seriously some lazy ass design for a tower. You may as well call this a lighthouse given just how the dungeon is nothing but stairs. The enemies are also quite unoriginal, being Lvl X (X is any number from 1 to 9) Magic. Then again, unoriginal only refers to the names, as the enemies themselves will have very powerful magic to cast, some of them already having annoying properties like being inherently reflective. And you can't just fight enemies, as the tower relegates you to only using magic. You're almost better off wearing the Moogle Charm and skipping all the way to the top, only to fight the Magimaster, an insanely tough mage who uses Ultima as his curtain call. Many ways to fight him, it actually may be best to just Rasp his MP while giving him Berserk status.
Sunken Worus Tower - Final Fantasy V
What do you know? Another timed dungeon? Makes sense since you're underwater, but geez, you have to speedrun this one just to get to...Gogo? Having a Thief or the Dash ability is required for this one, hands down. Run, run, run until you get to the boss, and you've got two choices. Wait while the clock is ticking (you better have enough) and he'll forfeit and give you the win, or actually fight the guy. To me, the latter just seems impossible. Being a mimic, he's obviously gonna do what you do to him, but better. Again though, you're timed, and that always sucks.
Reptite Lair - Chrono Trigger
This one's only a bit problematic in honesty. The issue of course, since I'm a completionist at heart, is getting the treasures. Gotta wait for these drill enemies to get in just the right position, then drill down so I can hopefully get what is at the bottom. Nizbel can also be a wake-up call boss. This isn't that bad, but I find the treasure hunting to be a little tedious.
Mare Tower - Breath of Fire
Having fun trying to actually defeat Mote? How about getting to him? It's already bad enough that this is supposedly a "nightmare" dungeon, meaning anything out of the ordinary sure will happen here. And that would be the spinning room. While it's already bad enough in making you seem dizzy (honestly that shouldn't happen), the disorientation will always occur. You're gonna need to figure out which of the spins results in a simple 90 degree counter-clockwise rotation, or a random spin, or none at all, and there's a minimum of seven tiles needed to actually cross to the finish. Mote ain't a picnic either, his pixelated appearance and apparent invulnerability sure would fool players here.
Up next, well, I dunno yet.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Terrible RPG Battle Music: Part 1
Well I'm bored. Let's look at some music from RPG battles that is, well, bad. I may or may not create a second one, but let's see which RPG battle music is really bad.
Breath of Fire 2 - Hide n' Seek (Roach battle)
Ugh, you do NOT do this for a battle theme. Especially not one with roaches. This theme works for hunting, but not battling. Let's just put it at that. Breath of Fire 2 had absolutely amazing battle themes, and should be remembered for the good ones.
Final Fantasy 3 - Boss battle
For the most part, the battle themes of the entire Final Fantasy series is always good, and even some of the zanier themes are pretty badass. Can't say that I agree when I listen to FF3's boss battle theme. Like the previous one, the issue is that it's a very happy-go-lucky and zany theme that doesn't really fit for some of the nastier-seeming battles. Remember, if it sounds like it belongs in a carnival, it doesn't fit with an actual boss theme.
Chrono Cross - Main battle theme
Thankfully, this one doesn't sound like it could be carnival music, but it just sounds all over the place still. The instrumentation definitely felt overdone, and while I like the violin part and wish that that part of the battle theme would stick, the rest sort of makes me annoyed. It makes me want to go to the Bend of Time and fight random battles there just because the dungeon music is far more listenable than the main battle theme.
Phantasy Star 3 - Basically any battle theme
Hard to pinpoint which battle theme is the least fun, but when you've got music like in Phantasy Star 3, which seems to be incredibly dissonant with how battle themes should sound, you really just can't tell which battle theme is the worst. The time you get sucked into a random battle, it sounds like a racing game soundtrack, and then there's a few other ones, like one which usually happens upon an ambush that, well I don't know or care how it sounds other than it just sounding awful. What's with the one track that sounds like it could be a mix of techno and church music? Ugly. Just ugly.
Dual Orb II - Battle theme
I mean, this is the ONLY battle theme in the entire game, and that hurts this one real bad. On the surface, Dual Orb II's battle theme is, at its very best, just generic as hell. Not really shabby but not really amazingly exciting. It's just, with all the damn grinding I had to do, with all the battles I had to do, and the fact that they didn't even have unique battle music for any of the bosses not even the final boss, it just got on my nerves real quick. And of course that's all I got there.
Breath of Fire 2 - Hide n' Seek (Roach battle)
Ugh, you do NOT do this for a battle theme. Especially not one with roaches. This theme works for hunting, but not battling. Let's just put it at that. Breath of Fire 2 had absolutely amazing battle themes, and should be remembered for the good ones.
Final Fantasy 3 - Boss battle
For the most part, the battle themes of the entire Final Fantasy series is always good, and even some of the zanier themes are pretty badass. Can't say that I agree when I listen to FF3's boss battle theme. Like the previous one, the issue is that it's a very happy-go-lucky and zany theme that doesn't really fit for some of the nastier-seeming battles. Remember, if it sounds like it belongs in a carnival, it doesn't fit with an actual boss theme.
Chrono Cross - Main battle theme
Thankfully, this one doesn't sound like it could be carnival music, but it just sounds all over the place still. The instrumentation definitely felt overdone, and while I like the violin part and wish that that part of the battle theme would stick, the rest sort of makes me annoyed. It makes me want to go to the Bend of Time and fight random battles there just because the dungeon music is far more listenable than the main battle theme.
Phantasy Star 3 - Basically any battle theme
Hard to pinpoint which battle theme is the least fun, but when you've got music like in Phantasy Star 3, which seems to be incredibly dissonant with how battle themes should sound, you really just can't tell which battle theme is the worst. The time you get sucked into a random battle, it sounds like a racing game soundtrack, and then there's a few other ones, like one which usually happens upon an ambush that, well I don't know or care how it sounds other than it just sounding awful. What's with the one track that sounds like it could be a mix of techno and church music? Ugly. Just ugly.
Dual Orb II - Battle theme
I mean, this is the ONLY battle theme in the entire game, and that hurts this one real bad. On the surface, Dual Orb II's battle theme is, at its very best, just generic as hell. Not really shabby but not really amazingly exciting. It's just, with all the damn grinding I had to do, with all the battles I had to do, and the fact that they didn't even have unique battle music for any of the bosses not even the final boss, it just got on my nerves real quick. And of course that's all I got there.
Monday, January 21, 2019
RPGs: Combining fantasy with high tech
You can obviously tell I'm running out of ideas, since I barely if ever update this blog for more than 10 days. Might as well keep running down the list. At our 10th, we reach the Luddite (George Lucas) Rule: Speaking of which, technology is inherently evil and is the exclusive province of the Bad Guys. They're the ones with the robots, factories, cyberpunk megalopolises and floating battle stations, while the Good Guys live in small villages in peaceful harmony with nature. (Although somehow your guns and/or heavily armed airships are exempted from this.)
Well, it's actually quite common, as most JRPGs I played tend to straddle the line between both fantasy and sci-fi. Most Final Fantasies end up doing this. Dual Orb 2 ends up doing this to a tee, while Chrono Trigger and a few other games are completely all over the place. Meanwhile, stuff that blacksmiths create from a fiery forge, as well as medicinal herbs being bought at stores that look like they're not gonna last more than a year in such poor villages are among the things that the good guys end up going to more often. The bad guys, which include all those evil empires, tend to have the biggest technological advancements. Look at Valua in Skies of Arcadia or the Empire in Final Fantasy 6, then compare it to the much more poorer locales everywhere else in those games. Or an even better example, the Kingdom of Zeal and the incredibly poor and famished lands below in Chrono Trigger.
Yep, this is an RPG cliche I see far too often that it makes perfect sense that it's considered one. Even Phantasy Star, an otherwise mostly sci-fi game, has shades of this, with the third game almost seeming like complete fantasy at first but showing some big robots later. And the second game actually replaces biological organisms with robots as the main enemies at the halfway point. Again, it's the ones with the most technology that end up always being the biggest of the bad.
And yeah, your own weapons and airships definitely are exempt from the "inherent evil", most likely because the people who create them (like the numerous Cid's in early Final Fantasy titles) are always good guys, making technology great, unhackable, whatever. Wild Arms tries to oust characters with guns as bad, but given that they stay with the players all the way through and don't do anything outrageous like turn on their users, the guns also are exempt. I can't think of any other examples of technology that's perceived evil but is used for good, but it would also be exempt. So yeah, this is a cliche I pretty much agree with. Especially since it's worded so well.
Well, it's actually quite common, as most JRPGs I played tend to straddle the line between both fantasy and sci-fi. Most Final Fantasies end up doing this. Dual Orb 2 ends up doing this to a tee, while Chrono Trigger and a few other games are completely all over the place. Meanwhile, stuff that blacksmiths create from a fiery forge, as well as medicinal herbs being bought at stores that look like they're not gonna last more than a year in such poor villages are among the things that the good guys end up going to more often. The bad guys, which include all those evil empires, tend to have the biggest technological advancements. Look at Valua in Skies of Arcadia or the Empire in Final Fantasy 6, then compare it to the much more poorer locales everywhere else in those games. Or an even better example, the Kingdom of Zeal and the incredibly poor and famished lands below in Chrono Trigger.
Yep, this is an RPG cliche I see far too often that it makes perfect sense that it's considered one. Even Phantasy Star, an otherwise mostly sci-fi game, has shades of this, with the third game almost seeming like complete fantasy at first but showing some big robots later. And the second game actually replaces biological organisms with robots as the main enemies at the halfway point. Again, it's the ones with the most technology that end up always being the biggest of the bad.
And yeah, your own weapons and airships definitely are exempt from the "inherent evil", most likely because the people who create them (like the numerous Cid's in early Final Fantasy titles) are always good guys, making technology great, unhackable, whatever. Wild Arms tries to oust characters with guns as bad, but given that they stay with the players all the way through and don't do anything outrageous like turn on their users, the guns also are exempt. I can't think of any other examples of technology that's perceived evil but is used for good, but it would also be exempt. So yeah, this is a cliche I pretty much agree with. Especially since it's worded so well.
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Dungeon archetypes in RPGs.
Been sick of my life for the past few days. Let's see if I'm sick of the next cliche on our analyzing tour which will probably span into next year because I'm so unmotivated.
"There's always a fire dungeon, an ice dungeon, a sewer maze, a misty forest, a derelict ghost ship, a mine, a glowing crystal maze, an ancient temple full of traps, a magic floating castle, and a technological dungeon."
This certainly qualifies for a boatload of games. Wanna list some examples?
Fire dungeon: Mt. Zublo in Breath of Fire 3, Thor Volcano in Treasure of the Rudras, Thwomp Volcano in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.
Ice dungeon: Jokes End in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, White Dragon Cave in both Lunar titles, Great Glacier in Final Fantasy VII.
Sewer Maze: Nortune D Block Sewers in Xenogears, Sewer Access in Chrono Trigger, Viper Manor Sewers in Chrono Cross.
Misty Forest: many forests in Legend of Legaia, Guardia Forest in Chrono Trigger, Misty Forest in Grandia
Derelict Ghost Ship: The one from Legend of Dragoon, the Ghost Ship from Dragon Warrior 3, the Ghost Ship from Grandia.
A mine: The mines from Brave Fencer Musashi, Moon Stone Mountain in Skies of Arcadia, Tinto Mines in Suikoden II.
A glowing crystal maze: Abandoned Laine Village in Grandia, Lunar Subterranae in Final Fantasy IV, Crystal Tower in Final Fantasy III.
An ancient temple full of traps: Temple of Memory in Wild Arms, Ankor Wat (sp?) in Illusion of Gaia, Tombs of Amenti in Valkyrie Profile.
A magic floating castle: Doom Island in the Lufia series, Beauty Castle in Rhapsody, Floating Castle in Legend of Legaia.
A technological dungeon: Factory in Breath of Fire 3, Geno Dome in Chrono Trigger, The Grindery in Lunar 1.
So three examples of each. Obviously, not every game has these compulsories, and it's not a bad cliche in the slightest to have any of these. Perhaps the bigger focus would be on how the compulsories can have adverse effects on the battles, such as in Odin Sphere with the fire and ice locations requiring specifically crafted potions that way you won't suffer draining damage wherever.
"There's always a fire dungeon, an ice dungeon, a sewer maze, a misty forest, a derelict ghost ship, a mine, a glowing crystal maze, an ancient temple full of traps, a magic floating castle, and a technological dungeon."
This certainly qualifies for a boatload of games. Wanna list some examples?
Fire dungeon: Mt. Zublo in Breath of Fire 3, Thor Volcano in Treasure of the Rudras, Thwomp Volcano in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.
Ice dungeon: Jokes End in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, White Dragon Cave in both Lunar titles, Great Glacier in Final Fantasy VII.
Sewer Maze: Nortune D Block Sewers in Xenogears, Sewer Access in Chrono Trigger, Viper Manor Sewers in Chrono Cross.
Misty Forest: many forests in Legend of Legaia, Guardia Forest in Chrono Trigger, Misty Forest in Grandia
Derelict Ghost Ship: The one from Legend of Dragoon, the Ghost Ship from Dragon Warrior 3, the Ghost Ship from Grandia.
A mine: The mines from Brave Fencer Musashi, Moon Stone Mountain in Skies of Arcadia, Tinto Mines in Suikoden II.
A glowing crystal maze: Abandoned Laine Village in Grandia, Lunar Subterranae in Final Fantasy IV, Crystal Tower in Final Fantasy III.
An ancient temple full of traps: Temple of Memory in Wild Arms, Ankor Wat (sp?) in Illusion of Gaia, Tombs of Amenti in Valkyrie Profile.
A magic floating castle: Doom Island in the Lufia series, Beauty Castle in Rhapsody, Floating Castle in Legend of Legaia.
A technological dungeon: Factory in Breath of Fire 3, Geno Dome in Chrono Trigger, The Grindery in Lunar 1.
So three examples of each. Obviously, not every game has these compulsories, and it's not a bad cliche in the slightest to have any of these. Perhaps the bigger focus would be on how the compulsories can have adverse effects on the battles, such as in Odin Sphere with the fire and ice locations requiring specifically crafted potions that way you won't suffer draining damage wherever.
Saturday, December 15, 2018
RPGs: What's the deal with nominal importance?
Haven't done one of these in a while it seems. Regardless, here's a look at the RPG Nominal rule: Any character who actually has a name is important in some way and must be sought out. However, if you are referred to as a part of a possessive noun ("Crono's Mom") then you are superfluous.
This one is kind of silly because most people who play console RPGs never pay any attention to character names unless they are party members or villains. Especially since the vast majority of NPCs aren't really named anyways. In some games where you have loads of recruits, like the entire Suikoden series or even Skies of Arcadia, there's gonna be quite a few names to remember for recruitment. Suikoden makes it easier because the characters all have portraits.
Another reason it's silly has to do with some RPGs having many characters with names but aren't important at all. Grady from the first Suikoden for example is named, but doesn't have a portrait. Interestingly enough, he has actual artwork, which makes him completely one-of-a-kind in the Suikoverse. But apart from that, he's a completely minor character who plays next to no part once you are done with the beginning of the game. In Skies of Arcadia, every individual shopowner has a name as well as the type of shop they run, but do you think "Lor's Ship Parts" is gonna stick with you the entire way? I don't, he's not recruitable and doesn't have any sort of interest apart from being a shopkeep. The more recent Wild Arms games I played (in my case Alter Code F and 3) actually name every single NPC. While it gives these NPCs a large amount of personality, in the end these names are likely forgotten after awhile.
Let's get to the second part of this cliche, the superfluousness of the ones who are referred to as possessive nouns. With the number of superfluous named NPCs mentioned, as well as this rule correlating with the Single Parent Rule, it's quite surprising how many parents of protagonists don't have true names. It's quite confusing in the game I'm playing right now. Why does Vyse have a mother without a name and a father who DOES have a name?* Neither of Alex's parents in Lunar: Silver Star have names. The same with Cornet's grandfather (Rhapsody), so they're all superfluous and fit this trope. Meanwhile, Cornet's mother, along with Annette's father in Growlanser 3, have names but don't do much. To me, having a name doesn't make you any more superfluous than anyone else if you're an NPC in a game.
*Said father also ends up superfluous after the beginning events of Skies of Arcadia are done as well. You don't see Dyne doing a whole lot afterwards, and he doesn't join your crew either. Okay, he does join your air pirate fleet group at the end, but what else does he do that's really important?
This one is kind of silly because most people who play console RPGs never pay any attention to character names unless they are party members or villains. Especially since the vast majority of NPCs aren't really named anyways. In some games where you have loads of recruits, like the entire Suikoden series or even Skies of Arcadia, there's gonna be quite a few names to remember for recruitment. Suikoden makes it easier because the characters all have portraits.
Another reason it's silly has to do with some RPGs having many characters with names but aren't important at all. Grady from the first Suikoden for example is named, but doesn't have a portrait. Interestingly enough, he has actual artwork, which makes him completely one-of-a-kind in the Suikoverse. But apart from that, he's a completely minor character who plays next to no part once you are done with the beginning of the game. In Skies of Arcadia, every individual shopowner has a name as well as the type of shop they run, but do you think "Lor's Ship Parts" is gonna stick with you the entire way? I don't, he's not recruitable and doesn't have any sort of interest apart from being a shopkeep. The more recent Wild Arms games I played (in my case Alter Code F and 3) actually name every single NPC. While it gives these NPCs a large amount of personality, in the end these names are likely forgotten after awhile.
Let's get to the second part of this cliche, the superfluousness of the ones who are referred to as possessive nouns. With the number of superfluous named NPCs mentioned, as well as this rule correlating with the Single Parent Rule, it's quite surprising how many parents of protagonists don't have true names. It's quite confusing in the game I'm playing right now. Why does Vyse have a mother without a name and a father who DOES have a name?* Neither of Alex's parents in Lunar: Silver Star have names. The same with Cornet's grandfather (Rhapsody), so they're all superfluous and fit this trope. Meanwhile, Cornet's mother, along with Annette's father in Growlanser 3, have names but don't do much. To me, having a name doesn't make you any more superfluous than anyone else if you're an NPC in a game.
*Said father also ends up superfluous after the beginning events of Skies of Arcadia are done as well. You don't see Dyne doing a whole lot afterwards, and he doesn't join your crew either. Okay, he does join your air pirate fleet group at the end, but what else does he do that's really important?
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Terrible RPG Dungeons: Part 4
Oh boy, more of these! And more Playstation guffawing, why not.
Steamwood - Brave Fencer Musashi
Repetition gets real boring after a while. How much fun would you have doing the same thing over and over? Even some fun things can be hard to enjoy after repeating them for so long. And speaking of, how many iterations can you handle? Steamwood isn't really a dungeon per se, but in Brave Fencer Musashi, you go through this machine not once, but twice. And it's a royal pain in the ass both times. Twice in this game the place runs out of control, and it's up to you to prevent it from exploding. Here's the issue, you've got to shut off valves in numerical order, and there's an annoying minigame in order to shut off each one. It gets progressively harder of course. And let's not forget the jumping as well as the waiting for lifts, oh did I forget that this is a timed dungeon? It is. The second time around, you have to find valve handles on the floor and bring them to their respective valves. Real nasty stuff.
Desert of Death - Breath of Fire III
Again, it's questionable to put something that isn't really a dungeon in this post, but screw it. The Desert of Death is an entirely new mechanic in a game with way too many required-to-get-through mechanics and minigames in it already. Basically you're walking the desert at night, cause it's too hot in the day, then you also have to worry about several other things. Miss out on drinking water from helpings, and characters have the Max HP reduced status. There's several tough monsters that show up in random battles at inopportune times, which screws with the final caveat, navigation. You gotta use the stars to get to the Oasis, and while you can deviate and get some rare and awesome equipment, they are much easier to fish for. Perhaps the thing that really puts this on here is that Horis, you're apparent guide, gives you very misleading directions. Screw him and screw this desert.
Ice Cave - Dragon Warrior III
Well, looks like I ran out of Playstation dungeons that are crap. Oh well. There's not a whole lot of terrible ones (even the worst Valkyrie Profile ones have some decent and enjoyable challenges to them). Onwards to Dragon Warrior III. The Ice Cave is a post-game dungeon, so it probably shouldn't be on this list. But it is because in all honesty, who really is arsed to get every single monster medal ever just to enter the main floors of this dungeon? The biggest issue with monster medals is that they are random drops, not common ones either, and you only get one each time. It's always a bronze the first time, once you get two bronzes, there's an even slimmer chance to get silver, and a considerably more slimmer chance to get gold. You need to get EVERY BRONZE MEDAL just to get past the first floor, and EVERY SILVER MEDAL to get to the end. It's ridiculous for the obvious reason that it's much more likely to wind up at Level 99 for fighting so long, or possibly beating the main game around ten times. The Ice Cave's biggest prize is the best sword in the game, but it's one of those "why bother" moments overall, since you'll steamroll the end bosses regardless.
Abyss - Wild ARMs 3
Randomized dungeons usually aren't too bad. You get a lot of replayability out of them, as well as explore every nook and cranny to make it all worthwhile. The Abyss makes a return in the Wild Arms franchise at 3, whereas it was a simple dungeon before and in its remake, it's a 100-floor complex filled with some of the nastiest monsters and no save points to offer. Wild ARMs 3's Abyss functions in the same way, except it is all randomized. In a way, this dungeon isn't entirely randomized the first time, because a guardian idol is required at one point and it's in the Abyss. There's even a considerable amount of mid-bosses in this one too. What you need to conquer the Abyss is A LOT of preparation, and that is A LOT. All the healing items you can muster, all of the good skills like status prevention and fire prevention (for Ragu), all the time you need to actually get through the whole dungeon, and some luck as well to avoid nasty attacks like Kirlian Buster or attacks that steal and flee at the same turn, kamikaze attacks from Brants, doppelgangers, the list goes on as the enemy list also goes on. Never go here unprepared.
Elemental Chambers - Suikoden Tactics
The Obel Ruins is a nice place to train your characters, you can just fight on the first floor, hope you get the pattern that respawns enemies, switch out characters who hit a good level, and that's about all there's to it. When entering it, obviously you can't leave until you hit the exit, and the enemies scale according to your current level, getting progressively harder the further you head inwards. On the fifth floor you gotta deal with some nasty golem enemies, and they have a ranged attack that can really hurt characters out of terrain. You know, I just sort of described every floor that isn't an elemental chamber. Getting to these things is the hard part. First off, finish floor 5 and eliminate the poison, then return there and finish that room again (you have to defeat all enemies on floor 5). Depending on what day it is, you go to the respective elemental chamber for some really difficult enemies. The elemental dragons are of course the nastiest, especially in the Mother Earth Chamber, but it applies in every chamber since they have a full set of magic, tough HP, and proper strategies. Big issue? Sidequest items for lots of neat stuff, especially if you're trying to get Dragon Meat or Dragon Fins. Simeon's little sidequest has you going into the Mother Earth Chamber especially, and this one might just be the hardest because despite its openness, there's a swarm of strong enemies right off the bat. For the sidequests, these may not be all that worth it.
Up next, I'm done with Playstation stuff! Let's try another platform.
Steamwood - Brave Fencer Musashi
Repetition gets real boring after a while. How much fun would you have doing the same thing over and over? Even some fun things can be hard to enjoy after repeating them for so long. And speaking of, how many iterations can you handle? Steamwood isn't really a dungeon per se, but in Brave Fencer Musashi, you go through this machine not once, but twice. And it's a royal pain in the ass both times. Twice in this game the place runs out of control, and it's up to you to prevent it from exploding. Here's the issue, you've got to shut off valves in numerical order, and there's an annoying minigame in order to shut off each one. It gets progressively harder of course. And let's not forget the jumping as well as the waiting for lifts, oh did I forget that this is a timed dungeon? It is. The second time around, you have to find valve handles on the floor and bring them to their respective valves. Real nasty stuff.
Desert of Death - Breath of Fire III
Again, it's questionable to put something that isn't really a dungeon in this post, but screw it. The Desert of Death is an entirely new mechanic in a game with way too many required-to-get-through mechanics and minigames in it already. Basically you're walking the desert at night, cause it's too hot in the day, then you also have to worry about several other things. Miss out on drinking water from helpings, and characters have the Max HP reduced status. There's several tough monsters that show up in random battles at inopportune times, which screws with the final caveat, navigation. You gotta use the stars to get to the Oasis, and while you can deviate and get some rare and awesome equipment, they are much easier to fish for. Perhaps the thing that really puts this on here is that Horis, you're apparent guide, gives you very misleading directions. Screw him and screw this desert.
Ice Cave - Dragon Warrior III
Well, looks like I ran out of Playstation dungeons that are crap. Oh well. There's not a whole lot of terrible ones (even the worst Valkyrie Profile ones have some decent and enjoyable challenges to them). Onwards to Dragon Warrior III. The Ice Cave is a post-game dungeon, so it probably shouldn't be on this list. But it is because in all honesty, who really is arsed to get every single monster medal ever just to enter the main floors of this dungeon? The biggest issue with monster medals is that they are random drops, not common ones either, and you only get one each time. It's always a bronze the first time, once you get two bronzes, there's an even slimmer chance to get silver, and a considerably more slimmer chance to get gold. You need to get EVERY BRONZE MEDAL just to get past the first floor, and EVERY SILVER MEDAL to get to the end. It's ridiculous for the obvious reason that it's much more likely to wind up at Level 99 for fighting so long, or possibly beating the main game around ten times. The Ice Cave's biggest prize is the best sword in the game, but it's one of those "why bother" moments overall, since you'll steamroll the end bosses regardless.
Abyss - Wild ARMs 3
Randomized dungeons usually aren't too bad. You get a lot of replayability out of them, as well as explore every nook and cranny to make it all worthwhile. The Abyss makes a return in the Wild Arms franchise at 3, whereas it was a simple dungeon before and in its remake, it's a 100-floor complex filled with some of the nastiest monsters and no save points to offer. Wild ARMs 3's Abyss functions in the same way, except it is all randomized. In a way, this dungeon isn't entirely randomized the first time, because a guardian idol is required at one point and it's in the Abyss. There's even a considerable amount of mid-bosses in this one too. What you need to conquer the Abyss is A LOT of preparation, and that is A LOT. All the healing items you can muster, all of the good skills like status prevention and fire prevention (for Ragu), all the time you need to actually get through the whole dungeon, and some luck as well to avoid nasty attacks like Kirlian Buster or attacks that steal and flee at the same turn, kamikaze attacks from Brants, doppelgangers, the list goes on as the enemy list also goes on. Never go here unprepared.
Elemental Chambers - Suikoden Tactics
The Obel Ruins is a nice place to train your characters, you can just fight on the first floor, hope you get the pattern that respawns enemies, switch out characters who hit a good level, and that's about all there's to it. When entering it, obviously you can't leave until you hit the exit, and the enemies scale according to your current level, getting progressively harder the further you head inwards. On the fifth floor you gotta deal with some nasty golem enemies, and they have a ranged attack that can really hurt characters out of terrain. You know, I just sort of described every floor that isn't an elemental chamber. Getting to these things is the hard part. First off, finish floor 5 and eliminate the poison, then return there and finish that room again (you have to defeat all enemies on floor 5). Depending on what day it is, you go to the respective elemental chamber for some really difficult enemies. The elemental dragons are of course the nastiest, especially in the Mother Earth Chamber, but it applies in every chamber since they have a full set of magic, tough HP, and proper strategies. Big issue? Sidequest items for lots of neat stuff, especially if you're trying to get Dragon Meat or Dragon Fins. Simeon's little sidequest has you going into the Mother Earth Chamber especially, and this one might just be the hardest because despite its openness, there's a swarm of strong enemies right off the bat. For the sidequests, these may not be all that worth it.
Up next, I'm done with Playstation stuff! Let's try another platform.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Terrible RPG Dungeons: Part 3
Hah, I've been doing lots of these haven't I? Well, get ready for another one. Yes, more Playstation crap as well. Read the first Terrible RPG Dungeons post for the main premise of these things.
Abandoned Mines B2 - Vagrant Story
I gotta give credit where credit is due. Vagrant Story is an excellent game. It's got to be one of the hardest action RPG games, with emphasis on difficult combat and puzzles. The game's areas are divided up into rooms each with different names and such, and usually each and every area is connected in certain ways. In the Abandoned Mines B2 section of the game, you first fight an Air Elemental boss, then after that is done is the Treaty Room, where it is highly recommended to save. Once you enter Way of Lost Children, that's when it starts. You have three minutes to race through an entire conundrum of rooms, filled with many baddies, some of which are dead end rooms that may contain treasure. The music is completely appropriate for this entire section, getting the adrenaline pumping. It's too bad this is terrible because combat in this game is rather slow and you could very well just be taken aback by encounters that get in the way. Oh and to top it off? An Earth Elemental resides in the second-to-last room and must be defeated, which will take up a lot of time. Miss the door and it's back to the Treaty Room. This belongs here because it is a timed dungeon.
Deus - Xenogears
Hah, and you thought I was done with Xenogears' most terrible dungeons. News flash, I'm not. To be fair, these two are out of the top five worst, but they are still bad. Deus, like many other final dungeons, is extremely fatiguing and you wish it would end already. The enemies inside are actually not too difficult, mostly boring to fight (this is a gear dungeon by the way). You get a map much like in Shevat Corridors or Nortune D Block Sewers, indicating that this is gonna be a long and arduous one. But due to its enemies not being that bad, well, the dungeon thankfully isn't that bad in comparison. But it's still a long and boring trek all the way down. The payoff for this of course is a nice and innovative boss rush, though.
Anima Dungeon #2 - Xenogears
A fun fact about the two Xenogears dungeons here, they are Disc 2 dungeons, while all of the ones on the previous post were actually Disc 1 dungeons. That shows just how annoying those dungeons really are! Anyways, Anima Dungeon #2 like Deus isn't terrible because of its enemies, which are really easy. It's terrible because of it's puzzles, specifically the first one, involving rocks falling. One in particular is a very loathsome pixel hunt. Then you got a neat little spike ceiling fakeout before another valve puzzle, the latter isn't really fun at all but better than pixel hunting. Oh, and the boss for this one...yeah if you want to get that Trader Card, he's definitely one of the harder ones.
Centra Ruins - Final Fantasy VIII
And lo and behold, another timed dungeon. This one is home to a fan-favorite summon, Odin. Naturally he's gonna give you a timer to beat him, but not only do you have a timer to beat him, but the same timer is needed to get to him. See where this is headed? Well, you don't have to get him of course, the dungeon is optional, but getting to him is gonna require at least 7 out of the 20 minutes or so to reach him, and that's assuming you have Enc-None junctioned, which honestly it should be. He's only got his signature Zantetsuken, which will instantly give you a game over should the timer run out. But he's not the real problem with this dungeon. The real problem is the Tonberry King, as well as slaying 20 Tonberries just to get him. A real nasty procedure, taking out huge tanks of one Tonberry at a time, especially if a timer runs out and especially if one gets too close or uses the Everyone's Grudge counter move. This sidequest was amazingly arduous and just made me hate Centra Ruins forever.
The Great Glacier - Final Fantasy VII
Whether or not you're willing to consider The Great Glacier a true dungeon or not, I don't care. This is a pretty bad place, but usually just for completionists. The gimmick is of course, it's freezing outside, and after a set number of steps, 544 to be exact, Cloud passes out. Luckily, he does so and gets rescued by a cabin-dweller living at the base of the next dungeon, so some will get the incentive to just move on. That's cool. But what about trekking through and getting everything? There's quite a few good things to get in the glacier, like an Elixir, a materia for the summon Alexander, a Safety Bit, and a few other good Materia. It's just that this is an RPG dungeon that forces you to take multiple trips. I'd rather be doing that on my own volition instead, damn you.
Up next, possibly more Playstation crap? I'm done with Xenogears dungeons by the way.
Abandoned Mines B2 - Vagrant Story
I gotta give credit where credit is due. Vagrant Story is an excellent game. It's got to be one of the hardest action RPG games, with emphasis on difficult combat and puzzles. The game's areas are divided up into rooms each with different names and such, and usually each and every area is connected in certain ways. In the Abandoned Mines B2 section of the game, you first fight an Air Elemental boss, then after that is done is the Treaty Room, where it is highly recommended to save. Once you enter Way of Lost Children, that's when it starts. You have three minutes to race through an entire conundrum of rooms, filled with many baddies, some of which are dead end rooms that may contain treasure. The music is completely appropriate for this entire section, getting the adrenaline pumping. It's too bad this is terrible because combat in this game is rather slow and you could very well just be taken aback by encounters that get in the way. Oh and to top it off? An Earth Elemental resides in the second-to-last room and must be defeated, which will take up a lot of time. Miss the door and it's back to the Treaty Room. This belongs here because it is a timed dungeon.
Deus - Xenogears
Hah, and you thought I was done with Xenogears' most terrible dungeons. News flash, I'm not. To be fair, these two are out of the top five worst, but they are still bad. Deus, like many other final dungeons, is extremely fatiguing and you wish it would end already. The enemies inside are actually not too difficult, mostly boring to fight (this is a gear dungeon by the way). You get a map much like in Shevat Corridors or Nortune D Block Sewers, indicating that this is gonna be a long and arduous one. But due to its enemies not being that bad, well, the dungeon thankfully isn't that bad in comparison. But it's still a long and boring trek all the way down. The payoff for this of course is a nice and innovative boss rush, though.
Anima Dungeon #2 - Xenogears
A fun fact about the two Xenogears dungeons here, they are Disc 2 dungeons, while all of the ones on the previous post were actually Disc 1 dungeons. That shows just how annoying those dungeons really are! Anyways, Anima Dungeon #2 like Deus isn't terrible because of its enemies, which are really easy. It's terrible because of it's puzzles, specifically the first one, involving rocks falling. One in particular is a very loathsome pixel hunt. Then you got a neat little spike ceiling fakeout before another valve puzzle, the latter isn't really fun at all but better than pixel hunting. Oh, and the boss for this one...yeah if you want to get that Trader Card, he's definitely one of the harder ones.
Centra Ruins - Final Fantasy VIII
And lo and behold, another timed dungeon. This one is home to a fan-favorite summon, Odin. Naturally he's gonna give you a timer to beat him, but not only do you have a timer to beat him, but the same timer is needed to get to him. See where this is headed? Well, you don't have to get him of course, the dungeon is optional, but getting to him is gonna require at least 7 out of the 20 minutes or so to reach him, and that's assuming you have Enc-None junctioned, which honestly it should be. He's only got his signature Zantetsuken, which will instantly give you a game over should the timer run out. But he's not the real problem with this dungeon. The real problem is the Tonberry King, as well as slaying 20 Tonberries just to get him. A real nasty procedure, taking out huge tanks of one Tonberry at a time, especially if a timer runs out and especially if one gets too close or uses the Everyone's Grudge counter move. This sidequest was amazingly arduous and just made me hate Centra Ruins forever.
The Great Glacier - Final Fantasy VII
Whether or not you're willing to consider The Great Glacier a true dungeon or not, I don't care. This is a pretty bad place, but usually just for completionists. The gimmick is of course, it's freezing outside, and after a set number of steps, 544 to be exact, Cloud passes out. Luckily, he does so and gets rescued by a cabin-dweller living at the base of the next dungeon, so some will get the incentive to just move on. That's cool. But what about trekking through and getting everything? There's quite a few good things to get in the glacier, like an Elixir, a materia for the summon Alexander, a Safety Bit, and a few other good Materia. It's just that this is an RPG dungeon that forces you to take multiple trips. I'd rather be doing that on my own volition instead, damn you.
Up next, possibly more Playstation crap? I'm done with Xenogears dungeons by the way.
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Terrible RPG Dungeons: Part 2
Hmm, I thought of five awful dungeons, but they are all in the same game. A game that ends up being rather overrated in the grand scheme of Playstation RPGs, but is honestly not all that good from a point of view I played on. I honestly should've titled this post terrible RPG Dungeons: Part Deus. See that last word? It's from Xenogears. Therefore, I will go over five awful dungeons in Xenogears. Of course, I can't say I hate this game, because it does have fantastic moments, but there's a lot of bad outweighing the good, especially in dungeons, so here they are below.
Zeboim
This isn't entirely that bad of a dungeon, but thanks to Xenogears' overall encounter rate, this mostly long dungeon feels pretty darn sluggish. It's got a few unique enemies to its name, like the Shellbelle, which puts everyone to sleep at first, rather annoying, as well as Phobia, which absorbs all attacks, meaning that you have to heal it to kill it, an out-of-the-box tactic. So what are some other reasons it's here besides it being long and arduous? Hmm, how about a boss fight at the end which isn't that tough, but backtracking all the way to the surface? Yeah, that's pretty boring. And then you fight Id at the entrance, and he's easily another of the toughest bosses in the game by far. Just yikes.
Solaris/Krelian's Lab
I guess I'll put these two together. The good news is that much of the stuff involving Solaris is pretty darn epic. But there's still plenty of bad things too. I mean, the stealth segments are unique, but stupidly annoying since unlike other games, even when the cube's back is turned, they can still spot someone on the same path they are on. There's much more waiting when that's involved. Going through Solaris once you're on the run means you'll fight nothing but Security cubes later on, and all they do is change their defenses, which means either physical or magic works, but not both, making you constantly strategize. Upon reaching Krelian's lab there's a few more interesting enemies, like the self-destructing Wels, a palette swap of Phobia, and the Bloody Bros, all of which qualify as "Demonic Spider" type enemies due to their overall natures. Yeah, I'm not a fan of this one, nor the elongated cutscenes either.
Babel Tower
Oh come on, you know this one would be on here. It's also the only Gear dungeon mentioned in this post. Babel Tower emphasizes verticality, especially in its early moments. You'll be jumping quite a lot, even rope swinging. The random encounters will make life hell though, as they can take precedence over jumping and can make you fall all the way to the bottom. It works so strangely here, and your camera angle can't be changed sometimes either. Somehow, when the game loads a random encounter, it allows movement, but not jumping. So you end up kinda silly just running off. But it certainly was enough to make Babel Tower a rather pissy dungeon. On the plus side, the enemies aren't tough, and the bosses are a nice but not too annoying challenge.
Shevat Corridors
Oh boy, THIS in front of Babel Tower? Hell, this is in front of a lot of other dungeons. This is easily the second worst Xenogears dungeon. It's sheer monotony in what you'll be dealing with, nothing but stairs, stairs, and more stairs as you descend during an emergency. Add to it that Maria is a party member, and she's absolutely nothing special on foot at all (apart from calling Siebzein in battle for god-knows-what reason). Really though, we've mentioned the random encounter rate, but ALL THREE enemy types you encounter here can be annoying enough. Gimmicks are probably the least and most annoying simultaneously. They can't be taken down by ether attacks, and they only take 1 HP of damage overall. Add up six weak attacks, and each one goes down though, so that's good enough. Tears will increase their attack should their partners be killed in battle. Finally, the Forbiddens are nothing to scoff at and should be killed quickly, as they can break free and unleash Mighty Blow, a percent-based attack that does the exact damage that they have so far lost, which can be deadly. Add all these things up, and you will see exactly why Shevat Corridors belongs on the worst RPG dungeons ever.
Nortune D-Block Sewers
And so we come to the worst of the Xenogears dungeons. Yeah, sewer dungeons are really REALLY bad in RPGs, and there's only one here. We're lucky there's only one, though. There's a map which helps quite a bit, since this'll be the longest and most tedious part of the game. You've got Rico, which is the big but slow guy, except slowness is an absolute boon in this game and makes him almost useless. The enemies like to give you annoying statuses, one of them likes to leave a character at 1 HP and run away. There's even sewer drains that hurt you if you touch them. Yeah, you can jump over them and all, but god, this dungeon is misery enough. And then there's Redrum, yes, an often memorable boss with more HP than two previous gear bosses combined and a whole slew of attacks, from a hit-all move, to poison and confusion, and his signature Murder, which is more than just a standard insta-kill but one that heals him the characters entire Max HP value. This guy was really bad news for many players, and making it worse, Bloody later on, as well as the Bloody Bros I mentioned in the Krelian's lab all use the same tactics. For these reasons, the monotony, Redrum, the annoying enemies and traps, and the actual fact that this whole thing is just one long subquest delaying the awesome battling mechanic, this dungeon tops the worst out of all the Xenogears dungeons.
Up next on Terrible RPG Dungeons, probably more Playstation crap.
Zeboim
This isn't entirely that bad of a dungeon, but thanks to Xenogears' overall encounter rate, this mostly long dungeon feels pretty darn sluggish. It's got a few unique enemies to its name, like the Shellbelle, which puts everyone to sleep at first, rather annoying, as well as Phobia, which absorbs all attacks, meaning that you have to heal it to kill it, an out-of-the-box tactic. So what are some other reasons it's here besides it being long and arduous? Hmm, how about a boss fight at the end which isn't that tough, but backtracking all the way to the surface? Yeah, that's pretty boring. And then you fight Id at the entrance, and he's easily another of the toughest bosses in the game by far. Just yikes.
Solaris/Krelian's Lab
I guess I'll put these two together. The good news is that much of the stuff involving Solaris is pretty darn epic. But there's still plenty of bad things too. I mean, the stealth segments are unique, but stupidly annoying since unlike other games, even when the cube's back is turned, they can still spot someone on the same path they are on. There's much more waiting when that's involved. Going through Solaris once you're on the run means you'll fight nothing but Security cubes later on, and all they do is change their defenses, which means either physical or magic works, but not both, making you constantly strategize. Upon reaching Krelian's lab there's a few more interesting enemies, like the self-destructing Wels, a palette swap of Phobia, and the Bloody Bros, all of which qualify as "Demonic Spider" type enemies due to their overall natures. Yeah, I'm not a fan of this one, nor the elongated cutscenes either.
Babel Tower
Oh come on, you know this one would be on here. It's also the only Gear dungeon mentioned in this post. Babel Tower emphasizes verticality, especially in its early moments. You'll be jumping quite a lot, even rope swinging. The random encounters will make life hell though, as they can take precedence over jumping and can make you fall all the way to the bottom. It works so strangely here, and your camera angle can't be changed sometimes either. Somehow, when the game loads a random encounter, it allows movement, but not jumping. So you end up kinda silly just running off. But it certainly was enough to make Babel Tower a rather pissy dungeon. On the plus side, the enemies aren't tough, and the bosses are a nice but not too annoying challenge.
Shevat Corridors
Oh boy, THIS in front of Babel Tower? Hell, this is in front of a lot of other dungeons. This is easily the second worst Xenogears dungeon. It's sheer monotony in what you'll be dealing with, nothing but stairs, stairs, and more stairs as you descend during an emergency. Add to it that Maria is a party member, and she's absolutely nothing special on foot at all (apart from calling Siebzein in battle for god-knows-what reason). Really though, we've mentioned the random encounter rate, but ALL THREE enemy types you encounter here can be annoying enough. Gimmicks are probably the least and most annoying simultaneously. They can't be taken down by ether attacks, and they only take 1 HP of damage overall. Add up six weak attacks, and each one goes down though, so that's good enough. Tears will increase their attack should their partners be killed in battle. Finally, the Forbiddens are nothing to scoff at and should be killed quickly, as they can break free and unleash Mighty Blow, a percent-based attack that does the exact damage that they have so far lost, which can be deadly. Add all these things up, and you will see exactly why Shevat Corridors belongs on the worst RPG dungeons ever.
Nortune D-Block Sewers
And so we come to the worst of the Xenogears dungeons. Yeah, sewer dungeons are really REALLY bad in RPGs, and there's only one here. We're lucky there's only one, though. There's a map which helps quite a bit, since this'll be the longest and most tedious part of the game. You've got Rico, which is the big but slow guy, except slowness is an absolute boon in this game and makes him almost useless. The enemies like to give you annoying statuses, one of them likes to leave a character at 1 HP and run away. There's even sewer drains that hurt you if you touch them. Yeah, you can jump over them and all, but god, this dungeon is misery enough. And then there's Redrum, yes, an often memorable boss with more HP than two previous gear bosses combined and a whole slew of attacks, from a hit-all move, to poison and confusion, and his signature Murder, which is more than just a standard insta-kill but one that heals him the characters entire Max HP value. This guy was really bad news for many players, and making it worse, Bloody later on, as well as the Bloody Bros I mentioned in the Krelian's lab all use the same tactics. For these reasons, the monotony, Redrum, the annoying enemies and traps, and the actual fact that this whole thing is just one long subquest delaying the awesome battling mechanic, this dungeon tops the worst out of all the Xenogears dungeons.
Up next on Terrible RPG Dungeons, probably more Playstation crap.
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Terrible RPG dungeons: Part 1
After having a lapse of activity and almost no new ideas to think of, I am now starting to think of good things to write about. How about RPG dungeons that are terrible? I guess that would work. Saw a few videos encompassing 8-bit and 16-bit RPG dungeons, might as well offer my thoughts on some of them. I'll do 5 per post, and will just select randomly. Yes, there are multiple parts to this, but why not. Anyways, let's see what we got here for terrible RPG dungeons. For this first part, I will look at terrible dungeons in Playstation and Playstation 2 titles.
Almost every dungeon in Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure
I really don't want to generalize. I really don't. Since Rhapsody is already an easy game, the dungeons are expected to be just as easy. That's not the problem. The problem is all the dungeons look incredibly boring and uninspiring. The caves all have one type of color and the exact same designs; simple passageways with some forks in the road here and there. The temple/castle like dungeons are pretty much the same way, even the final dungeon for crying out loud. They look slightly nicer than the caves, but that's pretty much all there is to them. The forest you go to at the beginning is probably the only exception to this one, since it has signs and other places connecting it. However, the rest of Rhapsody's dungeons look like they came straight from a dungeon randomizer from the looks of things. Unlike Growlanser 3 or Lufia 3, games that actually randomize their dungeons, Rhapsody's dungeons are NOT randomized. There really doesn't look like a lot of thought was placed in making these dungeons at all.
TerraTower - Chrono Cross
I mean, the game itself isn't TOO much of a slog, but there were certainly people that didn't really like TerraTower because it's almost completely a slog all the way through. You can't compare this final dungeon to the Black Omen, oh no. The encounters here are usually not tough, but more of a nuisance overall, and the enemies do actually chase you unlike most other ones. Furthermore, the tower has a whole lot of text dumps that most players really don't care for. Then of course, it's got boss rushes, where you fight six bosses before the final one and each of them have basic respective elements to use, meaning your strategies can overwhelm them at this point. There are some vague hints as to how to do the final boss correctly using the ChronoCross, but how many of us really did that on their first go?
The Law City of Zenebatos - The Legend of Dragoon
The premise is excellent, an ancient city where it's possible to change and make laws at a whim. It's got a legislation center, automated guards running around catching intruders and sending them to jail. The center of course is how you make the laws, but the complicated steps are sure to bore players. It's a lot of back and forthing, ensuring you first get a law maker from the legislation center, sneak past the guards, then getting a law output, then a law launcher. There's also a portion where you have to actually wait in line, at least this one can be changed via law, but still. You of course are required to do the law process at least twice, but a few other ones can be done to remove the guards, the random encounters (which are of course rather tough by the way), or to stop the waiting in line, or to remove all the shops which is something you probably will end up doing accidentally if you don't watch it. And the boss group you fight in Zenebatos sure pulls some annoying strings, a fast enemy with petrification abilities, an equally annoying one with an instakill maneuver, and both of whom have strong hit-all attacks. Just icing on the cake for one of the worst. Luckily, The Legend of Dragoon doesn't have a whole lot of awful ones besides this one.
Fort El-Eal - Suikoden 4
Like TerraTower, Fort El-Eal is a case of a final dungeon where players are likely to have ending fatigue. Or not, you really decide. Heck, Suikoden 4 barely had dungeons overall, and this being the final one at least makes it somewhat memorable. Helping matters is the fact that you get to play a dispatch party with Elenor in the lead to fight off Graham Cray himself, which is fun, while Lazlo's group has to fight the Giant Tree, which is lame. Despite the parties splitting up, it actually looks like you have to go through the dungeon twice, with the main party going even further. One of the things that ruins this further dungeon trek is that stupidly long staircase. Yeah, like anybody wants to climb up a large set of steps, especially giving the high random encounter rate this game has.
North Cavern - Suikoden 3
This is here mostly because of one enemy. Bone Soldiers. These things are tanks sporting 600 HP, which at the first time I fought them in Chris's chapter 2 my characters surely did not have that amount. The Bone Soldiers are not incredibly overpowering, since all they do is attack and that's basically it. They don't have special effects to inflict characters with and don't really have anything magical. But this cave had plenty of them, and up to six can be fighting in one group. Battles will likely take a long time to win because you are trying to snuff out up to 3600 HP total from a large group of durable bones. This was so problematic for me when I played Chris's chapter 2, especially since I didn't hone in skills for most of my characters at the time. I had a much easier time with Geddoe's chapter 2 and Hugo's chapter 3, but that's because they have more magically-oriented characters and better-skilled parties, a lesson I learned the hard way after getting repeatedly beaten in Chris's chapter 2. As for the North Cavern itself? It's straightforward, but it does have an annoying spiral section in the middle which takes too much time. It is also usually not too important in storylines most of the time, and is usually there for treasure boss fighting at the very end.
Almost every dungeon in Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure
I really don't want to generalize. I really don't. Since Rhapsody is already an easy game, the dungeons are expected to be just as easy. That's not the problem. The problem is all the dungeons look incredibly boring and uninspiring. The caves all have one type of color and the exact same designs; simple passageways with some forks in the road here and there. The temple/castle like dungeons are pretty much the same way, even the final dungeon for crying out loud. They look slightly nicer than the caves, but that's pretty much all there is to them. The forest you go to at the beginning is probably the only exception to this one, since it has signs and other places connecting it. However, the rest of Rhapsody's dungeons look like they came straight from a dungeon randomizer from the looks of things. Unlike Growlanser 3 or Lufia 3, games that actually randomize their dungeons, Rhapsody's dungeons are NOT randomized. There really doesn't look like a lot of thought was placed in making these dungeons at all.
TerraTower - Chrono Cross
I mean, the game itself isn't TOO much of a slog, but there were certainly people that didn't really like TerraTower because it's almost completely a slog all the way through. You can't compare this final dungeon to the Black Omen, oh no. The encounters here are usually not tough, but more of a nuisance overall, and the enemies do actually chase you unlike most other ones. Furthermore, the tower has a whole lot of text dumps that most players really don't care for. Then of course, it's got boss rushes, where you fight six bosses before the final one and each of them have basic respective elements to use, meaning your strategies can overwhelm them at this point. There are some vague hints as to how to do the final boss correctly using the ChronoCross, but how many of us really did that on their first go?
The Law City of Zenebatos - The Legend of Dragoon
The premise is excellent, an ancient city where it's possible to change and make laws at a whim. It's got a legislation center, automated guards running around catching intruders and sending them to jail. The center of course is how you make the laws, but the complicated steps are sure to bore players. It's a lot of back and forthing, ensuring you first get a law maker from the legislation center, sneak past the guards, then getting a law output, then a law launcher. There's also a portion where you have to actually wait in line, at least this one can be changed via law, but still. You of course are required to do the law process at least twice, but a few other ones can be done to remove the guards, the random encounters (which are of course rather tough by the way), or to stop the waiting in line, or to remove all the shops which is something you probably will end up doing accidentally if you don't watch it. And the boss group you fight in Zenebatos sure pulls some annoying strings, a fast enemy with petrification abilities, an equally annoying one with an instakill maneuver, and both of whom have strong hit-all attacks. Just icing on the cake for one of the worst. Luckily, The Legend of Dragoon doesn't have a whole lot of awful ones besides this one.
Fort El-Eal - Suikoden 4
Like TerraTower, Fort El-Eal is a case of a final dungeon where players are likely to have ending fatigue. Or not, you really decide. Heck, Suikoden 4 barely had dungeons overall, and this being the final one at least makes it somewhat memorable. Helping matters is the fact that you get to play a dispatch party with Elenor in the lead to fight off Graham Cray himself, which is fun, while Lazlo's group has to fight the Giant Tree, which is lame. Despite the parties splitting up, it actually looks like you have to go through the dungeon twice, with the main party going even further. One of the things that ruins this further dungeon trek is that stupidly long staircase. Yeah, like anybody wants to climb up a large set of steps, especially giving the high random encounter rate this game has.
North Cavern - Suikoden 3
This is here mostly because of one enemy. Bone Soldiers. These things are tanks sporting 600 HP, which at the first time I fought them in Chris's chapter 2 my characters surely did not have that amount. The Bone Soldiers are not incredibly overpowering, since all they do is attack and that's basically it. They don't have special effects to inflict characters with and don't really have anything magical. But this cave had plenty of them, and up to six can be fighting in one group. Battles will likely take a long time to win because you are trying to snuff out up to 3600 HP total from a large group of durable bones. This was so problematic for me when I played Chris's chapter 2, especially since I didn't hone in skills for most of my characters at the time. I had a much easier time with Geddoe's chapter 2 and Hugo's chapter 3, but that's because they have more magically-oriented characters and better-skilled parties, a lesson I learned the hard way after getting repeatedly beaten in Chris's chapter 2. As for the North Cavern itself? It's straightforward, but it does have an annoying spiral section in the middle which takes too much time. It is also usually not too important in storylines most of the time, and is usually there for treasure boss fighting at the very end.
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
My thoughts on: Designated Heroes
You know my overall activity has horrifically waned now that I'm currently going through RPGs at the moment, as more than enough of my life is rather busy to really prevent me to write on a lot of things. So one thing came to mind, and that's the obvious fact that a great chunk of the JRPGs I've played always has that one designated hero, the one guy that cannot be dropped from the active party or perhaps cannot die in combat without a game over. I don't remember if this was on the grand list, but whether or not it is, I couldn't honestly care, since it's another common trope.
So yeah, that one character is always the hero, the chosen one, but what's relevant to this post is how he cannot officially be dropped from the active party. Why is it that I have to control just this one character on the field? Characters like Legend of Legaia's Vahn, as well as the famous Cloud and Squall. There are a few exceptions to this rule, like when you control Noa for the first time in LoL, or as Tifa and later Cid in FF7, or as practically anyone on a short time period in FF8's first two discs. Yet in those cases, you cannot drop the character you are playing as either. Like in the jail in FF8, your lead character in that case is Zell, who cannot be swapped (then again, this prison scene puts only a few characters in the jail until the rest of the group comes back, but Zell remains the leader until you at least get Squall back).
And then I wonder about navigation on the overworld and wonder, am I gonna get bored looking at the same character that basically encompasses the whole party? And I say yes. Games where you control just Cloud (or Tifa or Cid in their short stints as leader) or Ratix from Star Ocean on the world map with no other party members following isn't all that appealing. What about those games where the party members basically follow one another? Like in the Chrono games or the Breath of Fire games? I like these, but better these games since you can actually reorder them so certain characters are in front. Of course, this could be because of field abilities, like Breath of Fire and Wild Arms* games show. And that's awesome. I think the Phantasy Star games do this too, albeit without field abilities or nifty-ness, but you can reorder your party and they are even the "all in a row" instead of "everyone in one" type of deal.
But most games will likely have you with one character as your lead, regardless of the party setup. It's a bit boring to nitpick on such thing, but it's something I felt like venting about. This post probably wasn't worth it.
*well this one isn't the "all in a row" party setup, but you can change your lead character for the tools needed to do things on the field or dungeons, and that's pretty cool.
So yeah, that one character is always the hero, the chosen one, but what's relevant to this post is how he cannot officially be dropped from the active party. Why is it that I have to control just this one character on the field? Characters like Legend of Legaia's Vahn, as well as the famous Cloud and Squall. There are a few exceptions to this rule, like when you control Noa for the first time in LoL, or as Tifa and later Cid in FF7, or as practically anyone on a short time period in FF8's first two discs. Yet in those cases, you cannot drop the character you are playing as either. Like in the jail in FF8, your lead character in that case is Zell, who cannot be swapped (then again, this prison scene puts only a few characters in the jail until the rest of the group comes back, but Zell remains the leader until you at least get Squall back).
And then I wonder about navigation on the overworld and wonder, am I gonna get bored looking at the same character that basically encompasses the whole party? And I say yes. Games where you control just Cloud (or Tifa or Cid in their short stints as leader) or Ratix from Star Ocean on the world map with no other party members following isn't all that appealing. What about those games where the party members basically follow one another? Like in the Chrono games or the Breath of Fire games? I like these, but better these games since you can actually reorder them so certain characters are in front. Of course, this could be because of field abilities, like Breath of Fire and Wild Arms* games show. And that's awesome. I think the Phantasy Star games do this too, albeit without field abilities or nifty-ness, but you can reorder your party and they are even the "all in a row" instead of "everyone in one" type of deal.
But most games will likely have you with one character as your lead, regardless of the party setup. It's a bit boring to nitpick on such thing, but it's something I felt like venting about. This post probably wasn't worth it.
*well this one isn't the "all in a row" party setup, but you can change your lead character for the tools needed to do things on the field or dungeons, and that's pretty cool.
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