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.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
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.
Friday, November 2, 2018
A look back at: Earthbound ZERO
The more I look back at Earthbound games, the more I realize just how UNPOPULAR everything that isn't Earthbound is. And yes, cult classics aren't really what are popular. Regardless, Ness, and then later Lucas, end up being in the Smash Bros series, with Ness from the very first game. And here I am playing the game involving Ninten. You know, these names are quite prophetic, Ness standing for NES in some ways, while Ninten, you can just go from there.
Earthbound ZERO of course is referring to a game known as Earthbound Beginnings, often also called Mother 1 due to being the first of its kind, the version I played is in fact called Earthbound ZERO due to its title, and the fact that putting this on also prevented copy protection from sticking its ugly head into people's business. And of course, the similarities to the Dragon Warrior franchise cannot be understated.
Honestly though, this game is basically an easier game than the Dragon Warrior games are, with the idea of a modern setting also offering something unseen at the time. Psychic abilities aren't the same as magic in this case, you run into modern enemies like primitive robots or aliens*. You have places in-game that really do resemble downtown areas.
Tidbits to note are the scattering of eight melodies to remember, the recruitable flying men characters who can only attack and can't be controlled at all (meaning they die permanently when killed), the actual inclusion of an enemy actually called a Mook (whereas the term is used for weak enemies, the Mooks in this game are quite powerful), some powerful robots, and a character-specific status ailment. These little tidbits are pretty nice touches if you ask me, although they aren't too amazing for the game as a whole. As a whole, yes, you still have to grind, but it's less arduous than Dragon Warrior, thank god. It's another RPG you can actually play through fairly quickly.
*Then again, this is semi-futuristic, since aliens and robots are more geared towards such settings. But it's not super futuristic or worse, a clash between fantasy kingdom and futuristic, so that's neat.
Sunday, October 21, 2018
A look back at: Treasure of the Rudras
Well I uh...
You know, it's either this title or Rudra no Hihou, which is where I looked at the guides from. Regardless, if it wasn't for the Mantra system in this game, this would've been another boring and generic turn-based RPG. This magic enscribing system, honestly, you don't see it anywhere else as far as I can tell, and it's the kind of system that actually manages to work very well. Yes, you can enscribe endgame magic in the very beginning, but unless you have a hell of an MP pool, and especially if you're playing as Sion, you ain't gonna be able to cast these spells in combat for a while unless you level up. Then again, there are still some powerful mantras if you cheat and look at a guide, meaning that the strong spells only cost a measly 1 MP and can still cause enough pain.
And then I give credit where credit is due. It's often boring always being in control of one protagonist on the field, as I have clearly stated in my last blog post. And Treasure of the Rudras offers three protagonists to follow, allowing to switch at any time. And then it comes together at the final scenario where Dune is the apparent party leader, but by then I'm not complaining since the final scenario is your average boss rush before the final boss. Making matters much better asides from switching at any time is that the scenarios intertwine at least twice before they all come together, and there's no rivalries between any of the characters aside from what Dune and Cid sometimes do to Sion and Surlent. Well what I mean is that there's no infighting between the character parties.
Looking back at the main plots of this game, well there's only one that is actually interesting to some degree. Sion fighting in a tournament? Yep seen that one before, but it does have a nice plot twist. Not to mention the floating continent business afterwards. Captain Taurus, a noble knight and semi-father figure being an evil cultist all along? Sure, okay. Riza's whole deal with being Chosen? Purifying the lands, skies, and oceans? That's something I'm pretty sure people have seen before, although because other characters are doing other things while Riza's doing hers, it's a strong example of this Chosen business, since these other characters are of course wondering who is healing their planet. That and the start of the game and the fact that everything's bathed in warm colors as if there hadn't been a single iota of blue skies for days adds to the bleak atmosphere being cured.
Surlent's scenario seems boring at onset, since he's doing research with an old guy. Who plays a JRPG to do research? And then he actually dies. Surlent is an unfortunate hero in this game as his research not only leads to his death, but even worse problems when he's tricked by actual bad guys into getting sealed so they can zombify the aboveworld (although they only reach one town). Like any other hero who screws up, he at least sets things right eventually. Though the branching point on trading with Sion for treasures can result in an almost even worse fate for Surlent as well. Very nice touches there.
This game definitely has loads of characters, though not everyone is explored. I would like to see some potential romance blossoming, obviously between Garlyle and Riza, or perhaps Sion and Foxy to an extent as well. We also don't see much about Pipin and Lolo's travels before they join their respective parties. And Sork? He had just one cutscene owing to his past with Captain Taurus. So we really could've used more out of him. The jadebearers naturally get the most out of all of this. I personally wish the epilogue could've been done better in that regard, considering how the four all should've went home to their friends they left behind. I guess they do that? It's not really seen. Still though, at least Riza convinces Dune not to repeat bad history.
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.
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
RPG: First name last name apex
If it isn't blatantly obvious to every single person who reads this blog, I've pretty much run out of ideas until I at least get to completing my next RPG. In the meantime, I have just been looking at that grand list and seeing just how accurate it can be. Well let's see: Good guys will only have first names, and bad guys will only have last names. Any bad guy who only has a first name will become a good guy at some point in the game. Good guys' last name may be mentioned in the manual but they will never be referred to in the story.
Well, I wanted to argue on the first name mechanic for good guys, because practically every Final Fantasy hero from 4 onwards has both a first and a last name, but it plays the cliche straight most of the time since the last name is not mentioned. I mean, where can you hear Harvey when referring to Cecil or Joanna Farell for Rosa. Heck, Rydia doesn't even have a last name. What about Strife? Never hear Cloud called that, and hey, villains usually refer to some characters only by last names, just watch how Harry Potter is always called Potter by villainous characters (or Snape in general) and Harry by good characters. I think the only Final Fantasy character to be referred by both first AND last name would be Irvine in Final Fantasy 8, but it's really only in one cutscene and doesn't even show for the rest of the game.
But the gray area of this particular cliche would have to be the bad guys with only last names. It's honestly hard to tell since many of the villains have either both a first or last name (Luca Blight and Graham Cray from the Suikoden series, Zieg Feld from Legend of Dragoon), or will just have one name where it can be hard to tell if it's a first or last name (Lavos, Loki, Ghaleon, Zophar, Indalecio, Kefka, Sephiroth, Ultimecia). Not a whole lot of games I know of pull off the bad guy with only last name straight, heck some of those villains tend to already have a title anyways, like Emperor Barbarossa from Suikoden, or the King of the same name from Valkyrie Profile (and on that note, I mention Loki and two villains from other Suikoden games, so it's not even consistent with the series they're in).
So not a lot of games I can think of pull this trope off fully. I'd say Brave Fencer Musashi might actually be the closest, since we do have a villain with only a last name (Flatski), as well as one with a first and last (Col. Capriccola, who turns out to be Jon) who switches sides. Although we do have members of Leader's Force who go by first names, then two other members of Thirstquencher which seem to have titles and last names. Plus there's Growlanser 2's Arieta and 3's Vincent and Orpheus, although the circumstances for those are all very different. Meanwhile, Gevas and possibly Wolfgang* in 2 and Clive, Randolf, and Zion in 3 definitely don't have last names, so for a series that has every playable and several non-playable characters with full names, it's quite good at pulling this off pretty well.
Eh, names in RPGs tend to be second nature and no one really pays much attention to the nitty gritty names most of the time, unless a plot twist naturally occurs. But still, names don't mean THAT much.
*He's mostly a villain in Growlanser 2, he never gets out of that phase at all and I'm pretty sure Wolfgang isn't a last name. Then again, since you can side with his more democratic ideals, it's hard to say.
Well, I wanted to argue on the first name mechanic for good guys, because practically every Final Fantasy hero from 4 onwards has both a first and a last name, but it plays the cliche straight most of the time since the last name is not mentioned. I mean, where can you hear Harvey when referring to Cecil or Joanna Farell for Rosa. Heck, Rydia doesn't even have a last name. What about Strife? Never hear Cloud called that, and hey, villains usually refer to some characters only by last names, just watch how Harry Potter is always called Potter by villainous characters (or Snape in general) and Harry by good characters. I think the only Final Fantasy character to be referred by both first AND last name would be Irvine in Final Fantasy 8, but it's really only in one cutscene and doesn't even show for the rest of the game.
But the gray area of this particular cliche would have to be the bad guys with only last names. It's honestly hard to tell since many of the villains have either both a first or last name (Luca Blight and Graham Cray from the Suikoden series, Zieg Feld from Legend of Dragoon), or will just have one name where it can be hard to tell if it's a first or last name (Lavos, Loki, Ghaleon, Zophar, Indalecio, Kefka, Sephiroth, Ultimecia). Not a whole lot of games I know of pull off the bad guy with only last name straight, heck some of those villains tend to already have a title anyways, like Emperor Barbarossa from Suikoden, or the King of the same name from Valkyrie Profile (and on that note, I mention Loki and two villains from other Suikoden games, so it's not even consistent with the series they're in).
So not a lot of games I can think of pull this trope off fully. I'd say Brave Fencer Musashi might actually be the closest, since we do have a villain with only a last name (Flatski), as well as one with a first and last (Col. Capriccola, who turns out to be Jon) who switches sides. Although we do have members of Leader's Force who go by first names, then two other members of Thirstquencher which seem to have titles and last names. Plus there's Growlanser 2's Arieta and 3's Vincent and Orpheus, although the circumstances for those are all very different. Meanwhile, Gevas and possibly Wolfgang* in 2 and Clive, Randolf, and Zion in 3 definitely don't have last names, so for a series that has every playable and several non-playable characters with full names, it's quite good at pulling this off pretty well.
Eh, names in RPGs tend to be second nature and no one really pays much attention to the nitty gritty names most of the time, unless a plot twist naturally occurs. But still, names don't mean THAT much.
*He's mostly a villain in Growlanser 2, he never gets out of that phase at all and I'm pretty sure Wolfgang isn't a last name. Then again, since you can side with his more democratic ideals, it's hard to say.
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