Top 3 Most Wanted Games

[Kaname]

[noodles]

[Maxine MagicFox]

I saw a commercial earlier today for FF13

I love the graphics and it looks fun but then I remember this rant

http://megatokyo.com/strip/1257#rant1020 (the on to the right) and the game absolutely scares me :\

Especially when I know my reputation for having NEVER EVER finished a Final Fantasy game. <_<;

[Twat]

I want Harvest Moon 64 on VC. That was like the best game in the series.

[ZetaBladeX13]

[Vapour Trail]

[scy]

I used to like Dom too ... a lot of the points raised are a little silly (I chuckled at the story bit since I thought it was pretty obvious I'M HERE TO SAVE MY FIANCEE plot for what the fuck Snow was doing since, I dunno, that was like his third line in the game).

ps, that was also a spoiler for the manual ohgod.

I'd like to note the in/en medias res aspect of FFXIII is also more-or-less addressed in the manual; it even notes that the start of the game is after thirteen days of fates intertwining (no, seriously, that's quoted from the manual) so on one-hand, yes, starting in the "middle" leaves some confusion but as far as I can tell, the thirteen days prior is how everyone got to where day thirteen (fourteen?) starts and is really just backstory. Character development that opens up as the "real" plot progresses.

Actual spoiler for first flashback:
[spoiler]The first one you get after finding Serah is Snow recalling him proposing to Serah. While neat and all, the significance of this to anything beyond "Snow's a hopeless romantice and Serah is tortured over being an l'Cie" is minimal.[/spoiler]

And ... just some stuff on that rant.
[spoiler]Incidentally, I do believe that entire issue is ADDRESSED IN THE INTRO CHAPTER. Lightning is there to rescue Serah (who you find out by Chapter 2 is a l'Cie hence why she's where she is). Sazh is ... okay, he's on the fucking train with his awesome hair I don't know why yet but I assume the same rationale as Hope (nearby when the fal'Cie found) and Vanille (assumedly the same). The only unaccounted character is Fang (well, her background states her a part of Sanctum/the military so she's "accounted for" for the intro).

This is not fucking complex folks. Shit, it's in the fucking manual.

The Crystarium thing I'll concede since it was initially "what the fuck is this zen garden FUCK 3 DIMENSIONS" but ... I dunno. It wasn't hard to figure "where you were at" since you can branch off any glowing node as far as I can tell. Unsure currently since I just got access to it so I have all of like 4 things to pick up which are all linear as fuck (sans Lightning who has two branches! YAY!). I'll return to this when I have more paths and points to spend.

Also, no issue with the losing of set-up Paradigms since, again, just got there but that does sound fucking ridiculous to have to set them up again and again.

I do concede they throw shit at you pretty fast (Cocoon [the "city/continent" above the world], fal'Cie ["protectors" of mankind, barring the Pulse fal'Cie]. l'Cie [those tasked by fal'Cie with a duty], Pulse [the world/lower world], and so-on) but, you grasp them rather fast imo. Pulse fal'Cie are some powerful entity that "corrupts" humans and turns them into l'Cie; if the l'Cie fail, they become zombies (Cieth) and if they succeed they gain eternal life as a crystal. There's the first hour of the game for you and every important term you'll need to fucking know.

Also, those were all from three lines of the goddamn story intro in the manual except I think the Cieth/crystal bit.[/spoiler]

[Maxine MagicFox]

[scy]

[Maxine MagicFox]

[Sampson]

[Kimiko]

Well, all Final Fantasys I've played so far have at times been annoying for the random battles. Battle - two steps - battle - one step - battle - three steps - battle - .. Then at other times you want those battles (for XP or drops), and you have to run around for a minute between battles. Urgh.

[Twat]

[scy]

I'm going with definition of excessive battles (though I did forget IV: After Years though I haven't played it since failure to care/use the Wii); VII was far from excessive and I've replayed that recently (along with IV-VI). EO (or Class of Heroes, since you're playing that recently) had a fair share of random encounters too so I fail to see the complaint.

I think you're overlooking the compared to other games part; they're well in line with other RPGs (barring those with field enemies ala Chrono Trigger). Regardless, FFXIII has field enemies so you can just avoid it if you care that much.

As for monotony ... probably. It is turn-based after all. Plus they're all rather easy games so it was just mash a button to win (though EO and CoH are pretty much the same too barring certain encounters / certain group compositions). Though, I'd rather "mash A for victory" for excessive encounters than spending 15-20s per fight choosing appropriate attacks with less encounters (10 encounters in 30s with 5s per fight is less than 5 encounters in 30s with 20s per fight, for example).

[spoiler]World Destruction is the most recent "traditional" encounter RPG I've played (like, a week ago) and that was relatively excessive. To the point I was overleveled without attempting to do so. It was a bit more annoying there due to the sheer amount of running around though; going from A to B to actually reach the destination was pretty low on encounters. The side quest/all treasures made it more annoying.

Edit: Oh yeah, Mega Man Battle Network games (well, just 5) too recently and the encounter rate for those coupled with terrible battle rewards (or maybe I'm failing hardcore at something here) and lengthy fights if bad chip draws was rather annoying. Not terribly excessive, I suppose, but with the time per fight and the lack of decent rewards (wheee, more shittychipsI'llneveruseorminimalmoneys) it wore thin. Not to the point of "FUCK THIS GAME" but to the point of at least "fuck, another fight."

Been watching/keeping Let's Plays in the background helps too when you can see how often they cut out fights (assuming they're nice enough to cut out random encounters~) to adequately gauge them. Quite frankly, they're _not_ that bad; 20-30 encounters in an entire dungeon is hardly ridiculous and even that number is a bit high (not counting areas with naturally higher encounter rates like the end of the Floating Continent or the Phoenix Cave ... or fucking Zozo for FFVI).[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Also, gross exaggerations / remembering the negative more has skewed things a bit. I know there are times you have "FUCKING RANDOM BATTLES WHAT THE HELL" but for the most part, it is a relatively decent amount of steps before an encounter. It is, after all, randomly generated and "1 then 3 then 2" is a possible random generation (much like 1 then 3 then 21 is).

Though I do like the immediate memory failing choice [/spoiler]

[Twat]

Eh. I like having to put in some sort of input into the battles, or else I lose interest. Can literally play Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure while blindfolded. :[