All the good stuff? That just made me even more unlikely to buy the damn game. It sounds like crap at this point. Used to be, anything by Square was good, and I didn't have to worry about, but they've been going downhill lately.

As I said before, anything by Square was good, over half of the things by Enix were good. So, why does Square + Enix = crap?

There are no good RPGs anymore, nothing with a good story and good gameplay, nothing new that comes even close to the masterpiece that was FFVI. It makes me sad.

If anyone thinks they can prove me wrong, feel free to post games you liked. Most of the ones Penelope listed, I hated Except Lunar 1 and 2, of course Actually, that's not true, I haven't played a number of them. Penelope, what was your favourite out of the ones you listed? I need a descent game, now that I'm almost done FFIV again. Zeromus shall fall!

Eww, double post! :sob:

So, let me not waste it....

FFVI, Chrono Trigger, FF Tactics, and Xenogears were the four best RPGs ever made, in that order. Anyone disagree?

Swap Xeno for FFVII.

Hmm, I'd have to say the Shadowhearts Games were my favorites out of all of these for a good story.

Game play and story definately Star Ocean. It's great fun to play (*fangirl scream at Cliff* )...though, like I said, the end left me thinking "Wtf?".

But, if you want a fun story and a laugh then you should play Bard's Tale. Lacks in graphics, game mechanics, etc but it's fun to play and to watch the Bard and narator interact. I laughed so hard during that game. Cary Elwes( ) is the voice of the Bard. Y'know...Princess Bride, Saw, Liar Liar, Twister, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, etc. I think Tony Jay was the narrator.

Hated SO. Not sure why. Go ToP, and I hold SS2 is part RPG.

Well, other than attributing the slight fall of Square-Enix on the leave of several greats that started Squaresoft (Some going to Mistwalker, which is going to be the new age Square), I can say that most RPGs are taking the bait of graphics over quality, which is obviously subtracting from their fiction writers and their time spent on story design. Most fiction writers for games work on a contract basis (Unless it's a powerhouse series, like Final Fantasy) so this might be why most games just.. are one way or the other.

I don't think Square-Enix in particular is crap yet (Star Ocean 3 was in creation prior to the merger, Unlimted SaGa was just.. made to suck, although Romancing SaGa was pretty good, Radiata Stories.. eh.), but eh.. Square hasn't really done a full collaboration with Enix yet so I can't judge yet.

But yeah.. RPGs are low quality these days. The emphasis on graphics is killing the industry, but I guess you can attribute that to game systems being their own business and budgets being what they are.

Level 5, Mistwalker, future games of Square-Enix (I'm a firm believer Kingdom Hearts 2 and Final Fantasy 12 will change everyone's mind come next year), and the Tales series by Namco are the things to look out for.

Actually.. Konami's Suikoden series (Aside from 4) is pretty good too. This post probably has no real cohesion since I wrote it all at different times, but RPGs should pick up in the near future. They won't be perfect, but eh.. not much is in life.

Nah. The Head Producer got ill one time, and various other complications stalled the release. That and I think they want to start the new fiscal year out with a strong title.

And PS3 won't be out in the spring from what I heard.. not even in Japan.

http://rapidshare.de/files/7495866/Final_F..._1500k.wmv.html

It's a nice video with commentary that goes along with the previous link I posted yesterday. It includes some demo gameplay footage.

And yes, I'm doing homework off and on at the desk, (insert name here).

Suikoden 1-3 were really good - I'm sad to hear 4 sucked Wonder if 5 will be any good...

Star Ocean 2 was complete crap, and from what I've seen about 3, it's terrible too. All my friends who actually played it agree and warned me away from it, and they all said the gameplay was the worst part. It's pretty garbage, just like most games these days, as far as I can tell

Disgaea was good, actually. Absurdly easy to break (figure out tricks to become extremely powerful in) the game, but that went so perfectly with the style. And it was amusing Too bad every other game by them was garbage (La Pucelle Tactics, Phantom Brave), mainly because they tried to be serious, and though the writers can make good parodies, they can't write good stories

Morrowind was terrible - if I wanted to play a MMORPG, I'd play an MMORPG 99% of that game is walking from place to place. Soooo boring And the majority of the terrain was intentionally ugly too, which didn't make things any better


If people are looking for an rpg with a GOOD story, I highly highly recommend Planescape: Torment. By far my favorite computer rpg ever made, and the game was just... beautiful and awesome. Written by the same people who made Baldor's Gate, set in the higher planes of DnD planescape, specifically the city of Sigil. If you like the combat part of rpgs, this isn't the game for you. Not only is the combat trivial, every fight can be avoided except two It's all about the story, and the story is good.

Five is going to rock. Um.. what else..

I'm not sure, but Magna Carta might be nice for PS2 (Coming out Tuesday), but I'll rent it from my job and let you all know in a little bit. After teasing myself with Final Fantasy 12 videos and gameplay I'll have to definitely play (Buying Dragon Quest in the process). Even if you played Wild ARMs (The first), I hear the remake has totally reworked some dungeons and such so.. might be something to look at.

Otherwise I couldn't really recommend you anything though. Meh.. Namco's new Tales games need to hit the U.S., Kingdom Hearts 2 needs to come out, and.. I don't know. I really wanted to play Disgaea and the other Nippon Ichi games, but I hear a lot of them aren't as good in comparison to the others (Like Makai Kingdom) so now I'm confused what I should actually buy.

I might have to check out Planescape though. I'm really needing something to play lately between Biology studying and jobs.

The last GOOD rpg's were the SNES/GENESIS era (aka the Golden Age of Gaming) and if you want to disagree, lets run the numbers of sheer amount of awesome RPG's for those systems.

SNES pumped out all of the good ones. Suikoden 1-3, Final Fantasy I-VI, ******Chrono Trigger********, and so many other kick arse games.


I myself spent last weekend going through and getting every ending to Chrono Trigger, even the nigh on impossible Deep Ocean Palace fight.

That ending's boring, I like the slideshow ending which you get like, right before it

Suikoden 1-2 were PS1, and Suikoden 3 was PS2 *peer Kalo*



Hmm, Wild Arms 1 was fun when it game out, I remember loving it. I should go find the remake or whatever, or maybe Wild Arms 2-3, if they were any good.

And yeah, Kidhendrix, check out Planescape, if you can find it I found it for $10 used in a store once, I nearly had a heart attack And let me know if Magna Carta is any good! :needsanewgame:

http://www.rpgfan.com/previews/magnacarta-tob/index.html

Just so you have a preview of the game. Seems like it'll be decent and like.. everyone has a nice voice actor from the English site.

And the Wild ARMs one: http://www.rpgfan.com/previews/waacf/waacf.html (Remake is out Tuesday. If you didn't live upstate I'd get you a discount since I just started a part time at Gamestop for extra cash)

--------

For those of you interested in changing the world of video games (through a career in the field):
http://www.videogametimes.com/

I had planned on writing something else, but.. I forget.

Wild ARMs 3 was pretty good IMO...but on reflection I think it might just have been because it was a new setting to me and...stuff. I dunno, I hear a lot of people say it's bad, I can't say WHY it was good when I played, soo.



YES: PST rocked. BG2 did as well...ToB was kind of overkill though maybe, but the storyline just appealed to me sooo muuuch, I love epic things like that, especially with as much damn VARIETY as they had.

OMGs freakin' Suikoden 4 was one of the worst games i've played. The encounter rate is horribly high (think four steps for every battle) combined with a ship that barely moves the only slightly interesting thing was the idea of collecting those people which started to annoy me when i realised how much leveling and money it would cost.

OH and Freakin' token based magic (a pet peeve because its an odd restriction)

...The evil angry demony aura dissipates

So what did everyone else think?
Oh and ugh i wish there was a way to present game ideas to companies i'm sure there are many rpg fans that would be happy to flood them with every little idea that pops into their heads. :evil giggle:

Bah, that game was -amazing-. Also, there are ways to get around from place to place (mark/recall, teleporters, the ring you get after killing Almalexia). As for a lot of it being ugly, what about the gorgeous snow landscapes of the north? The sprawling city and underground of the capital city? The plains and shorelines, the sand-blasted landscapes? Amazing game. Oblivion will rock more though, go watch the short movies at www.theelderscrolls.com, they will show you how they're redefining the genre.

Best way to do that is to actually be in the business, unfortunately. Being a game tester and working your way up to Quality Assurance in these companies (To eventually designer if you stick around long ago) is the best way to get your voice heard, especially when you can go back during a bug report and say "Don't you think there are too many random battles?" or "These controls are a little sticky!" Other than that.. I don't know if the QA departments of games branch out into the public.

Soo.. move to your nearest gaming capital in your country. Most game testers can hold part time status to keep you in school, although there are a few that are full-time positions. If it doesn't say "Game Tester" in the job title look for the more professional "Quality Assurance."

Too bad I have to finish up Uni still.

Edit: Examples of QA jobs needed might be found at this site:

http://www.namco.com/corporate/careers/

I loved Suikoden 4... after I got the hang of that damn ship...


I tried Chrono Trigger and I hated it...