What RPGs are you looking forward to?

Other Games
21

Should we really call that kind of games RPGs though?
They are more just turn based strategy games really, the only thing they have in common with RPGs it the exp points and such but that’s not the definition of an RPG.
To me Tactics Ogre, FFT, Vandal Hearts, FM and such games are not really RPGs.
While the Shining Force series IS since you still do everything you do in a proper RPG except the battles are expanded in a way that they become a turn based strategy…

Man FFT…brings back memories, that story is worthy of a novel imo. Even tho the english translation was chunky. And the battles are as good as any of the Tactics Ogre games :slight_smile: (it was made by the same team mind you, it’s basically a Tactics Ogre game except given a FF facelift for the items and spell names and such) But the story…damn, best that team has given us for sure. And you gotta love the art as well!

I tried the new GBA tactics Ogre game and it’s REALLY good by the way, the story seems very in depth as well except I got a little bored, but maybe it picks up pace later, I don’t know. Great game and much better than I thought it would be on GBA.
While on the other hand FFT advance just plain sucks… I was expecting a story worthy of being the succesor to FFT and what I get is a kiddy storyline that could be described in a couple lines…
It’s still a good game but I’d go for Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis if I were to chose between them since the story is a really importand part of games to me. I want to be involved, not be “Addicted” in the same way you get addicted to puzzle games even without a story… I need more than that :

Anyway…if anyone’s wondering what the games in my first reply here are then just ask and I’ll post links for them :slight_smile:

22

For me, I’m enjoying FF:TA much more than I did Tactics Ogre. While TO had a more interesting storyline, it wasn’t interesting enough to make up for the sort of vanilla gameplay. The items/jobs/etc. in TO just weren’t interesting enough. I think I switched jobs once in the game, and just kept those characters until the end.

With FF:TA, while the story is a bit… odd, to say the least, the gameplay is top notch. It has a pretty steep learning curve, but once you get into it, the gameplay is very well done (let’s face it… with a turn-based strategy game, there better be a lot of strategy to it, otherwise there’s not much else that’s gonna keep you interested in playing the same type of battle over and over and over again).

23

I have Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and i must say i’m a bit dissapointed. But perhaps i haven’t given it enough time. I’m about 5 hours in and so far thier seems to be no point to the game whatsoever. When does the story develop? Right now im just going around doing missions to earn money, exp, items, etc. The Law system is pretty cool except for when you can’t use the “fight” command. That is really lame. Probably the only other gripe i have with the game is that the Job system isn’t the same asin the original. The FFT job system was so well developed and well just awesome. I would play hours and hours of FFT just to Master as many classes as i could on my various characters (Calculators rule).

Now Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis was an excellent game. True it didn’t reall offer anything new since the last TO game but it was just quality through and through. Yes the Job system is limited but i don’t think that makes the game any worse then FFT. I’ve just always been partial to the Ogre Battle Saga for its great storytelling i suppose.

24

I haven’t heard of this game, who’s developing it?

25

It’s from an indie dev.
www.peroxide.dk/era

They are currently working hard to make a publisher demo so that they may get funding to make the full game.
It might look like MW in the screens but they are going to be giving it a more linear feel but also a tighter story. The battle system is likely to get elements from action games as well in order to avoid being boring like in MW.

You may download a very old tech demo from their site I believe.
It’s worth to get but don’t judge the game from it as it’s very very old (more than a year old) and the engine has had major updates since then (as seen in their screenshots)
However even in that old tech demo they got the atmosphere just right. I remember just enjoying a stroll through the forest (battle wasnt implemented in the tech demo) when in other games walking around is tedious.

Also they used to be an Ultima Remake project and the tech demo was made from that time so the small quest it includes is set in the Ultima universe. The game has dropped everything related to ultima atm since they are working to make it a retail game.
They have also switched to a third person view now whereas the demo was in first person.

Their forums are very good and you might find quite a few interesting reads in their tech forums since they discuss a lot of technical features :slight_smile:

26

[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]

AFAIK Jade Empire is going to use the same combat system as KOTOR.[/quote]

Care to explain that AFAIK?Jade Empire is gonna have a different copmbat system that’s for sure.

27

Actually Gehn, Jade Empire uses the Neverwinter Nights combat system which was modified for Knights of the Old Republic. The real time combat with all the dodging, blocking, and counter-attacks is a sight to behold even if the combat system itself is simple. Jade Empire also allows the player to enter into a slow motion mode, Matrix style.

BioWare is building the story of the game from the ground up instead of using an established universe. I can’t wait.

28

Personally I’m looking forward to replaying Saga, Shenmues I & II, KOTOR, PotC and Shining Force III this year.

29

You mean Shining Force 3 Scenario 1 (1/3 of the whole game)?

Check out Amazon.co.uk for a cheap copy of Skies of Arcadia too. No RPG fan should be deprived of this wonderful experience.

30

What do you think? =(

31

[quote=“Shadow”]

What do you think? =([/quote]

Well you could always learn Japanese and enjoy nothing less than the complete package. It shouldn’t prove too difficult for one as smart as you. :slight_smile:

The truth is Shining Force 3 Scenario 1 only scratched the surface of the complete storyline. You’d be amazed by how many changes you can set in motion just by playing the first scenario. For instance, if you don’t harm/kill the mind-controlled General Spirial (called Spirited in the Japanese versions) in the second to final battle in Shining Force 3 Scenario 1, she’ll show up and join forces with the main character of Shining Force 3 Scenario 3.

Personally, I will not touch Shining Force 3 Scenario 1 again, as gaining a mere glimpse into the whole story is too damn frustrating. The other two scenarios are good but without the underlying story pushing you forwards, nothing motivates you to fight. Imagine reaching the final boss and not having the slightest clue as to what is going on.

Play Skies of Arcadia instead.

32

Buy it for me and I shall !

33

Didn’t you already buy Skies of Arcadia Skiad?

34

No. Pay attention.

35

Tactics Ogre was a well-made game, for sure, but it lacked inspiration. The story was fairly straight-forward generic fantasy stuff that didn’t challenge anything. The writing was a straight-up translation of the Japanese, which didn’t help. The gameplay was, to be honest, repetitive, since I used the same character classes for about 2/3 of the entire game with no change other than equipment. And the enemy AI wasn’t necessarily mind-blowing, either.

With FFTA, however, I find that, sure, the story is forgettable… But in a portable game, I want something that I can pick up and play for 20 minutes to an hour, put down for a few days, and go back to without having to read a FAQ just to remember where I was. It has a very in-depth job system that, once you get several hours into it, really gets interesting. Most tactics games with job systems really have you pigeon hole your characters into specific roles. i.e. If you start a character off as a black mage, he’s going to be a mage-type for the rest of the game. But, in FFTA, it encourages you to mix up your character classes, because that’s the only way you can unlock some of the more advanced classes (true, the race of the character determines the general type of classes available).

The thing I’m finding is that, well, most game stories aren’t all that good. They’re all the same: needlessly convoluted (a sign that the writer doesn’t really know what they’re doing, so they add more complexities into the story to hide the fact that the story doesn’t have a coherent direction), they have needless exposition (another sign that a writer doesn’t know what he’s doing… most people don’t talk in paragraphs when a sentence or two would suffice), and really don’t have a story to tell beyond the immediate actions that are going on. Take stories from Pixar, for example. They contain what are called “universal human constants.” These constants speak to an emotion, situation, etc. that anyone from any culture can identify with. And the entire story revolves around that constant. That is why it makes such good storytelling. It’s not just about the story itself, but speaks to broader terms. Which is why Shakespeare is still relevant, even though he died hundreds of years ago.

So, for me, unless the story sweeps me off my feet and whisks me away to some magical place like PDS, or is told as sublimely as Ico, then it all sorta looks the same to me.

36

Are there as many classes as in the original FFT? I’m thinking about picking this game (ffta) up again and playing a few rounds. Perhaps my initial dissapointment was that i wasnt playing a carbon copy of the original FFT, but i’d like to think not. I understand what you mean about the story and atmosphere, but if there is not even a hint of story whats the point? For example at the early stages of FFTA why should i care about going out and doing missions for my clan? Whats the point. I suppose i need a driving force behind my game, especially if its an RPG. If its not an RPG then a simple “kill all badguys” will suffice.

Have you played Disgaea by chance? Initially i enjoyed the game a lot for its silly care free atmosphere, but later on in the game the battle system bored me (way to easy) and the story was just so completley stupid that i just stopped playing. Although i do admit it was humorous, perhaps a bit to goofy for me. Same thing happened to me in Front Mission 3, the story bored me so i quit playing. Although in both cases i found the actual gameplay in to be just “ok” so i’m sure that combined with a lackluster story stopped me from playing.

Oh and one more side note, you are right about most storys these days. Tactics Ogre is in fact a prime example. The story in the PSX/SNES version is simply convoluted that its absolutely ridiculous. You honestly do need a FAQ to straighten out who is allied with who, etc. I found the same thing happening in Ogre Battle 64.

As for it being a portable game, i do agree that the game should be geared with a pick up and play emphasis. And what i have played of FFTA seems to be geared towards that.

And i’ll take this time to mention that ICO=Best Game Ever. A definite must play game. Its the only game i own two copies of (well ok i got the 2nd copy for around $7 but thats besides the point).

Well i’m off to give FFTA a whirl, so maybe i’ll give some revised impression later (if my opinion does infact change)

37

Actually, I don’t think the classes are the same as the original, seeing as how there are all new races with some unique classes.

However, I guess with FFTA, I was just looking for a character-building game that I could play on and off while I traveled (do a lot of traveling for business). Or, something I could play from time to time while lying in bed, trying to get some sleep. The story itself is pretty simple and straight forward, which is why I think it works for a portable game. I don’t have to remember all the details of the game that were required by the original FFT. It’s the story of a boy who is trying to get home, but makes do with the new world around him. Simple enough. Now let me kill badguys and buy weapons and learn new skills. But, it does take a little while to get into. My first couple hours playing the game were tedious. But, once I got momentum, it grew more and more fun.

As far as overly-complicated stories, and I’m most likely going to get flamed for this, but I think the biggest culprits are Metal Gear Solid 2 and Xenogears. MGS1 was amazing in what it did for the stealth genre (wasn’t the first, though many think it was). It added a lot of movie-quality elements to it, and integrated puzzle solving in a way that made it believable. But, for MGS2, the story just got plain stupid. It was like watching a mixture of Tom Clancy meets John Carpenter in the worst, worst way possible. Xenogears? Started off fantastic. Was one of the first serious sci-fi games I’d seen that had some stuff beyond the usual fluff. But, then it overstepped its boundaries, and then on the second disk, turned into a text adventure. Simply inexusable (though, I hear Square pulled funding halfway through the project, so that’s all they had time to do…)

The beautiful thing about Ico is that there are only 15 or so lines of dialogue. Now, not all stories can do that, but Ico is one that pulls it off so well that it’s damn near poetic. It’s the first game with a story, that I’ve seen, that couldn’t be told in any other medium. It was the first game that I’d ever seen where the bulk of the story was told through interaction, rather than exposition (holding Yorda’s hand was the biggest factor in this that it forced you to have to care about the other character’s well-being). They didn’t cloud the story with needless scenes of melodrama, but rather, trusted in that the player would fill in all the blanks with their own imagination.

38

The story in MGS2 was absolutely ridiculous. The storytelling in that title was horrendous too. It seemed like i watched more cutscenes then i actually did playing the game. I also really didn’t like the fact that you didn’t get to play as snake, but thats only a minor gripe. Don’t get me wrong though i did enjoy MGS2 while i played it. The actual gameplay was really solid, its just unfortunate the game was actually hindered by the story. Hopefully thats been corrected in the upcoming MGS3.

As for ICO, i loved every minute of that game. There was something just so great about loading up your game and seeing ICO and Yorda awake from sleeping while holding hands and sitting on the couch. Like you said thats something you can’t really convey with a few lines of text. The feeling you get whilst playing is great too - the sense that your life doesn’t matter so much as does another. My heart always skipped a beat everytime Yorda had to make a jump, especially when ICO would have to catch her. Sure i knew she would make the jump, but there was always that little bit of uncertainty.

The enemies in ICO are also some of the downright scariest creatures i have ever encountered in a game. Just scary black shadow/demon creatures trying to suck Yorda into the abyss. I always felt a bit of depsair when one of those winged ones would pick Yorda up and carry her across the room, then you realize you have to rescue her from even more shadow creatures. Those were some of the most intense battles i’ve ever fought in a game, struggling to fight off the creatures attacking you as yorda is ever so slowly sucked into the abyss.

Ahh how i do enjoy that game.

39

I agree about MGS and MGS2 ! I can’t believe some ppl say MGS2 is better! Can’t wait to revisit MGS on the gamecube :slight_smile: (though I don’t own one I’ll try n find a way to play the game heh)
Haven’t played the other games so I can’t comment on them.

40

Aitrus - I totally agree about your comments on Ico. It’s the little details that made it work so well: how you had to catch Yorda sometimes when she jumped, how you would “awaken” next to her when loading a game, how the game made you actually worry about her every time you had to leave her alone… All done through interaction, not through cutscenes.

The key there was the fact that you had to interact with her. You had to take control of the situation and bring her along with you. It was a fantastic gameplay addition, and made all the difference in the world.