Square Enix General Discussion

[GenocideHeart]

The second disc of XG killed it for me. It was already pretty miss, what with me generally thinking Fei was Shinji with martial arts tacked on (ie, a spineless wimp) and Elly being an annoying Mary Sue, but the incredibly tedious second disc totally killed my interest in it.

I still finished it, since I'm a completist, but I didn't have fun.

 

[sigfried27]

The second disc of XG killed it for me. It was already pretty miss, what with me generally thinking Fei was Shinji with martial arts tacked on (ie, a spineless wimp) and Elly being an annoying Mary Sue, but the incredibly tedious second disc totally killed my interest in it.

I still finished it, since I'm a completist, but I didn't have fun

Honestly, I hadn't really thought of the characters that way, but you do make a good point.

With Fei, he does have a bit of Shinji complex, but wether you like that or not is different depending on the player. Some people may absolutely love characters like Shinji and Fei despite the constant self loathing and spinelessness.

Thinking back on it...Elly is a bit of a Mary Sue, though as my memory serves me (which isn't very well) It wasn't so bad untill the second disc. Once it hits the second disc, her power is a bit overplayed as well as her sudden kindness and love towards everything.

Yes, the second disc did lessen the appeal of the game significantly, as the few times that you weren't reading through the story, you were in some dungeon randomly thrown in, simply to get an omnigear. The only part of the second disc that I truly liked was the resolution of Fei's MPD...more so in the resolution of his past then in the reincarnation bits.

Anyways, it is still a matter of opinion. It is another game that I liked the beginning of the plot more then the resolution, but in general, I still liked the game.

 

[toraneko]

Square forced the XG creators to rush the second disk's part of the game. That's primarily why they split off and formed Monolith.

 

[EagleCeres]

* Seiken Densetsu 2 aka Secret of Mana

A more fun MULTIPLAYER action rpg I have not found... spent a full summer with my buddies maxing it out, beatting up rabbites and showing off level by level of weapon techs (does anyone else love how the glove techs velvet glove slaps Fighter Games?).

Very lush colors, backgrounds and foregrounds, a compelling storyline and heck you get to name your characters... (come on, who DOESNT want to call the Sprite Child "SHORTY" or something the like, eh?)

The Chibikko Hammer and Moogle belt makes for hours of pissing off your buddies non stop and the fact that the Tiger Bikini is one of the best armors for the girl just deserves ecchi kudos. Cant forget about WATTS the friendly dwarf smith and NEKO the best salescat that is WHEREVER YOU ARE! (best use of Deus Ex Machina evar!!!)

 

[Revanant Dragoon]

To jump in on the topic a little late, my favorite overall Square Enix game has got to be SO3. Although the end was a little weak in my opinion. It just kinda loses energy.

Am I the only one that it would have been a better ending if they pulled a double whammy plot-twist: have it turn out Fate's world (can't remember the name) actually wasn't a game, that Luther had managed to connect to another universe on accident when he created the game by unknowingly using symbology and only realizing it when it was far too late. Thus in order to keep the other world from discovering the way back to Luther's world, he started suppressing civilizations when they had progressed too far symbologically.

...Sorry, that idea's been itchin' my brain for a while now, and I had to get it out.

Anyway, game-play wise, KH2 is my favorite - even though the plot sucked balls. I'm going to refrain from commenting on Sora's Riku obsession, due to the fact that it's just too easy. However, they could have really had something with the fact that Sora basically had his Nobody grafted into him; you know, have Sora trying to fight off growing temptations towards the darkness, Jak/Dark Jak style.

And another little diversion: the first three Jak games were frickin' awesome, in my opinion. Hell, for no other reason than Dark Jak. :snigger: Playing as that crazy bastard is fuuuun.

Anyway, back on topic: the best plot-wise that I've played is probably KHI. It's a really well balanced game and enjoyable all-together. Donald and Goofy are a pain in the ass, though. But yeah, that's my take on it.

 

[Chaos Blade]

You know, I find it sad nobody mentioned the Romansing Saga games, thugh I only played 3 I gotta say it is amongst the few games I'd call RPG in consoleland.

Interesting story, if disjointed, tough, near impossible end boss (specially if you did not whacked of the 4ALs) and non linearility (then again, it is easy to get lost) best of all, the character leveling, two thumbs up

And a lot of main characters to choose (w/ slightly diferent stories for each... I'd really would have liked to know about Harrid's sdequest, I am sure it has to have another ending!)

 

[GenocideHeart]

You know, I find it sad nobody mentioned the Romansing Saga games, thugh I only played 3 I gotta say it is amongst the few games I'd call RPG in consoleland.

Interesting story, if disjointed, tough, near impossible end boss (specially if you did not whacked of the 4ALs) and non linearility (then again, it is easy to get lost) best of all, the character leveling, two thumbs up

And a lot of main characters to choose (w/ slightly diferent stories for each... I'd really would have liked to know about Harrid's sdequest, I am sure it has to have another ending!)

RS3 was great, if a bit on the easy side when using Sara. Commander Mode > the boss.

Also, the Pirate Black was just badass. And I find it funny that a LOBSTER brings about Armageddon. XD

(Boston the Lobster gives you the formation needed to cast Armageddon)

 

[Chaos Blade]

Yep, black was one of my fab characters, and Katrina's quest was more than interesting (another interesting fact, almost all the characters are "adults" as oposed to the snot nossed kids that tend to tar RPGs)

 

[nuclear death frog]

and NEKO the best salescat that is WHEREVER YOU ARE! (best use of Deus Ex Machina evar!!!)

Neko is a ripoff; he charges twice what anyone else charges for the items you can actually buy elsewhere. And he gets away with it because for healing items there's only one other seller of Royal Jams (full HP heal) in the game: Tasnica. And no other sellers for the Vestguard, Needle Helm, and Gauntlets which are just about mandatory for the Pure Land. An SoM-LLG guide (Low Level Game) writer figured out away to get around the armor issue with Lucid Barrier, but if it hadn't been for that an SoM-LLG would probably be nigh-impossible to finish.


For those who don't know, an LLG is basically a game where you acquire as little experience as possible by running from all random encounters and fighting only bosses. The writer of the perfect SoM-LLG guide estimated that it was probably possible to finish at no lower than about Lv42.

For reference, the perfect Final Fantasy VI LLG has an average finishing level of 7, and a Natural Magic LLG with a level average of 8. Natural Magic means only Terra, Celes, Gogo, and Gau use Magic; Gau through Rages and Gogo through altering his commands.

 

[GenocideHeart]

The funny thing is, Final Fantasy 8 was MADE to be a LLG. Leveling up in that game is detrimental to your health, most of the time, as enemies get stronger faster than you do.

EDIT: This is particularly noticeable with the T-Rexaur. If you're at Level 100, a T-Rexaur will have 120,000 HP (more than the final boss!), and usually OHKO whoever it hits.

It's possible to blaze through the game at very low levels (think 6 or 7) by Junctioning, anyway.

Granted, if in the final fight Griever blows your HP junctions away, you are SCREWED. You'll eat Apocalypse for 6000 or so damage, and die.

 

[sigfried27]

Yeah, FF8 didn't require any leveling because of that. All that you really needed in the game was a bunch of Curaga's to junction to HP and you were set for quite a while. I didn't think that junctioning was that great of an idea for the game, but then again, I didn't like a lot of things about the format of the game, particularly the draw system and limited number of command slots...

Am I the only one that it would have been a better ending if they pulled a double whammy plot-twist: have it turn out Fate's world (can't remember the name) actually wasn't a game, that Luther had managed to connect to another universe on accident when he created the game by unknowingly using symbology and only realizing it when it was far too late. Thus in order to keep the other world from discovering the way back to Luther's world, he started suppressing civilizations when they had progressed too far symbologically.

All those discussions with GH where I tried to avoid actually mentioning the plot twist, and someone else just goes and says it. *sigh*

Honestly though, I would have prefered if they had stayed more with the genetic altering angle and other things along those lines. Hell, Fayt's destruction gene was basically just used to destroy a battleship, and then cause Fayt to have a little pity party. After that, it was basically ignored. Maria's and Sophia's genetic alterations also just seemed randomly thrown in to give an excuse to how some aspects of the plot twist work. I wish that they would have stayed with the whole genetic altering and being used aspect of things, but nooooo, they just had to try that plot twist...but I am not going into that a third time.

 

[AWJ]

You know, I find it sad nobody mentioned the Romansing Saga games, thugh I only played 3 I gotta say it is amongst the few games I'd call RPG in consoleland.

Have you played the PS2 Romancing SaGa? It's a full remake of the first SNES RS game (though only the scenario is the same; the game mechanics, which were very primitive [not to mention very, very buggy] in the original, are completely redesigned) If you liked RS3, the PS2 RS is very much more of the same. Like RS3 it gives you a choice of eight main characters (four guys and four gals) plus tons of optional party members.

Oh, and "someone" has to get off their lazy ass and finish translating Romancing SaGa 2 sometime--it's by far the most polished and "complete" of the three 16-bit games in the series (apart from the primitive and oddly Kunio-like graphics)

 

[Revanant Dragoon]

All those discussions with GH where I tried to avoid actually mentioning the plot twist, and someone else just goes and says it. *sigh*

Err...Sorry?

 

[sigfried27]

Nah, I don't really care that much, I just like being overdramatic. SO3 is getting a bit aged, so many people here have probably either already played it or don't plan on playing it.

 

[Zenithos]

I'm quite surprised nobody mentioned Front Mission 3. Now THAT was one of the best Square Enix RPGs I've ever played. First of all, MECHAS! YAY!

*coughs* And off course, the battle system was really engaging. The special abilities gave it that unique edge. And to top it all off, the wanzer customization. I don't think that needs any elaboration.

I actually replayed both versions, Emma and Alyssa, twice. Heh.

Also, the out-battle parts were really nice too. The internet, especially when it came to hacking, was really fascinating. Not to mention you can unlock the most powerful playable wanzer in the game through a hack site too.

I just couldn't help but feel dissapointed over Front Mission 4, really. I don't know why, but it really doesn't have that same feel FM3 had. Not to mention they took out the internet system completely.

Oh well....

 

[Mereo Flere]

Actually, I got bored of Front Mission 3 after you finally caught up to Alyssa. Couldn't stand the characters, really. Still, for what I played, it was fun.

...FM4 though felt even more mind numbing, but...I honestly should try to play it, see if I haven't given it enough of a chance yet.

 

[GenocideHeart]

I'm quite surprised nobody mentioned Front Mission 3. Now THAT was one of the best Square Enix RPGs I've ever played. First of all, MECHAS! YAY!

*coughs* And off course, the battle system was really engaging. The special abilities gave it that unique edge. And to top it all off, the wanzer customization. I don't think that needs any elaboration.

I actually replayed both versions, Emma and Alyssa, twice. Heh.

Also, the out-battle parts were really nice too. The internet, especially when it came to hacking, was really fascinating. Not to mention you can unlock the most powerful playable wanzer in the game through a hack site too.

I just couldn't help but feel dissapointed over Front Mission 4, really. I don't know why, but it really doesn't have that same feel FM3 had. Not to mention they took out the internet system completely.

Oh well....

Here is a fun FM3 fact. Miho Shinjo, despite starting with a shotgun and a melee weapon, does NOT have specialization in those. Her forte is sniping. Give her a single-shot rifle and watch the heads roll.

That said, I liked the first Front Mission best. Driscoll was the best villain ever - you truly hated the guy for his actions.

 

[Chaos Blade]

Agreed, Driscoll was jut plain hateable...though the final batle was kinda meh. Too easy.

As for FM3, there were lots of things I did not like, for instance the magic healing in between missions (sure, you had that one in FM, but at the time you wer part of a merc company, you could pretend having some grease monkeys riding with the supply train or something) though what really killed my FM3 game was the main character bitching about the civies in one of the urban missions (oh, no they (te enemy) hasn't evacuated the civilians, they might get killed.... idiot, what the hell you think war is?)

 

[GenocideHeart]

Agreed, Driscoll was jut plain hateable...though the final batle was kinda meh. Too easy.

As for FM3, there were lots of things I did not like, for instance the magic healing in between missions (sure, you had that one in FM, but at the time you wer part of a merc company, you could pretend having some grease monkeys riding with the supply train or something) though what really killed my FM3 game was the main character bitching about the civies in one of the urban missions (oh, no they (te enemy) hasn't evacuated the civilians, they might get killed.... idiot, what the hell you think war is?)

Give Kazuki a break. He was a TEST PILOT for Wanzers, not an actual frontline soldier, last I checked. It'd be understandable if his view on war was idealized, especially given how little information his superiors gave him.

It should also be noted that the team's Wanzers were carried in trucks, and Kazuki and Ryogo might have known how to fix them. I know for a fact that Emma did, so at least that part is covered.

 

[Chaos Blade]

I know, but I meant things like the first missiosn that seem to be right one after another, no pause, (or the embassy raid, or that assault on the old silo....) that kinda killed the suspension of disbelief (that and t would have made it hard as hell too, but...)

As for Kazuki, yoeah, he's a kid, but what bugged me is that he had the gall to tell the revels what he thought and nobody treated him like an idiot (and that being said, idealized or not, I just despied the idea of a mission that had you evacuate civvies, again, hurts suspension of disvelief(

 

[Rift120]

Well figured I'd give my 2-cents on various Square and squareenix games I've played.

My favorite Final Fantasy: VI. I love the charcters, plot twists, and quite frankly Kefka is a fun fruitcake of a villian. every charcter had unique and useful abilities, and leveling was fun.

FFVII-I got this for my PC and enjoyed....up until the point the game FRIED my computer... never really got back to playing it after that.....

FFVIII and IX- played both and got bored with both... really after VII I htink the FF games started a downhill trend. FFIX was superior to VIII tho in my opnion.

haven't played any other FF games except Tactics Advanced, which I found enjoyable if childish.

Chrono Cross: HATE....I HATE THIS GAME.... I suppose on its own its a rather average game, but as a sequel to Chrono Trigger? total failure. Far to many charcters, with little to no backstory or things that make them stand out (Oh look I stand here and suddenly a masked wrestler appears...WTF?). They completely destroyed the combo move system from CT. I quit the game before i scaled the castle because I was bored and anoyed at the fight system, but out of morbid curioisty I looked up future plot points. These jokers were supposedly able to kill off Chrono, Marle, and Lucca? I can suspend a lot of disblief, but these weaklings? lets review Chrono Trigger= Win, Chrono Cross= well at elast it had a nice opening theme.....

Hate this game so much I created an addventure thread (which I really must et around to continuing) for the SOLE purpose of eradicating CC from a timeline...

Xenogears- very fun game, but agree 2nd CD was way to forced. Also am fond of Citan the Stoner gags....

Star Ocean 3- not as much HATE as CC, but not very fond of it either. Story wise its okay and had some great charcters (although... some of the VA's make me scratch my head). Control wise.... DIE.... SO2 had a perfectly useful system especially with the shoulder buttons for special moves, not this 'press a button to hard to execute special move' crap. Half the time I was either pressing the button to hard and doing a special move or not pressing hard enough ARGH! :headbanger:

Do NOT get me started on that freaking useless 'sidestep' move either (I quit using it in the opening tutorial and my combat capabilities improved 200%!). And the charcter AI was nothing ot write home about either. I actually had a moment ina fight where my partner was busy in the corner doing a little sidestepdance for several minutes with HIS BACK TO THE ENEMY.....

Of course what killed the game for me was the %&#$^&* Item creation system, which was OBVIOUSLY only about 80-90% finished when the game shipped... Note to gameprogrammers, playigna random roulette trying ot create items I HAVE ALREADY SUCCESSFULY MADE, makes Rift120 reach for blunt instrument sof PAIN....

DQ8- nice, but I prefer my RPGs to be slightly more structered... still a good game

Really its reached the point where I don't really trust the Square brand name anymore (and that makes me sad) and wait for reviews of the game from people Online I know of to decide if I want to get it...

Grandia I & II= :wub: I can easily see why Grandia 1 was considered a rival to the FF series... and quite frankly the scene in the ghost pirate ship pipe (well scene is abit loose as the entire screen was black at the time) stillr ates among my favorite RPG moments of all time

Justin: Hey whats this, its soft...and squishy...*Squeeze, squeeze*

Feena: :huh!: HENTAI!

Grandia III has gotten good praise so I will probably check it out once i"m don with Atelier IRis 2...

As for Squareenix as a whole... they need to go back to their routes prior to VIII, when storytelling was paramount...and none of this ridiciolous overreliance on 'new gameplay features'. (Look if I wanted a combat system like a MMORPG, I'D BUY A MMORPG NOT A FINAL FANTASY GAME....)

Also return to dramatically over the top villians like Kefka!

Edit: Forgot a few Gameboy games

Final Fantasy Legend series:

1. FUn, but God is Amish?. Also the Post apocolyptic world was a pain to get around, at least at first.

2. My favorite of the series, so many worlds, so many enemies, one (&%*$#&(*&^$# Of a final boss...

3. Fun but to easy....

 

[GenocideHeart]

Grandia I & II= :wub: I can easily see why Grandia 1 was considered a rival to the FF series... and quite frankly the scene in the ghost pirate ship pipe (well scene is abit loose as the entire screen was black at the time) stillr ates among my favorite RPG moments of all time

Justin: Hey whats this, its soft...and squishy...*Squeeze, squeeze*

Feena: :huh!: HENTAI!

Grandia 1 and 2 are the superior Grandia games, with 3 being still good, but nowhere near as good as the first two.

However, I recommend not mentioning them in this thread. They are pre-merger ENIX ONLY games. Square had exactly zilch to do with them, which is a good thing, as they lately have a tendency to ruin everything they lay hands on.

By the way, Grandia 2 is incredibly similar to FFX plotwise... but unlike FFX, G2 is actually good, not a bunch of crap with nice graphics. Goes to show the one who gained from the merger is Square, not Enix. <_<

 

[SotF]

I enjoyed FFIX quite a bit because it felt interesting and had some awesome cutscenes.

 

[rocsflight]

I haven't played the recent Square games, but my issue with Square is that from what I have seen, and in retrospect I can see this starting with Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, they seemed to stop making games and started making user input movies. From when I have watched them, they seem to have too many cutscenes and too many attacks that take forever.

On a sidenote, has anyone ever played Radical Dreamers?

 

[Lumias]

Well let's go through the Square soft/Square Enix games I've played

FF1- If I had it for the GBA, I'd have probably gotten further then Garland, but the game doesn't have much story and sitting down to play it on tv when I have so many other games means it got shunted to the side.

FF2- basically same as FF1 except where I stopped.

FF4-Fun and I like the tortured Dark Knight role Cecil has to go through and his and Rosa(i think that's her name) seems less juvenile then most of square's romantic sub-plots. Never got to finish as my copy of it went missing under suspicous circumstances

FF5-Half an hour into the game and the main character has already gotten a lap dance and stared pervertedly at a sleeping half naked girl. So far I love it.

FF6-Haven't played far enoough in to have much of an opinion on it yet.

FF7- First true RPG I played (the first RPG i ever actually played was Mario RPG)
loved it, I loved the battle system, I loved the storyline, I loved some of the characters, and I loved to hate the villian after he kills of my favorite character, she was the only true magic user of the bunch and I always had her in my party damn it, and then BAM.

FF8- I HATE HATE HATE this game. Not because the characters are bland, or the battle system sucks, or that the twist is meh, or that the Romance sub-plot was non-exsistant until Squall suddenly loved her, or that Rinoa is most likely Ultimecia and everything you do is just sending the world into a damnable continuing loop.

It's that everytime I get near the end of the game myself, the damn game gets broken some usually taking my system and or memory card with it. This fucking game is cursed. it took my original Playstation to hell with it and two memory cards with all my save data. This happened by my nephew wanting to see if a Playstation would float in the bath tub.

I eventually get a new system a shiny new ps1 a couple memory cards and a new copy of FF8. I get near the end of the game BOOM, power surge through the house as I'm saving not only did it eat my current save for some reason it corrupted every save on the card. I'm pissed I leave. I come back later, my nephew's are throwing my disc 3 and 4 of FF8 around like frisbees. The bottoms were nothing but one huge scratch.

Get near then end again, My brother comes flying in the room chasing his son (my nephew) trips and falls on the PS1 breaking it and the game.

Eventually someone bought me another copy of FF8, but I haven't touched the cursed game.

FF9- I loved this game it was fun, not as serious as 7 or as depressing, but I still liked it, The ending annoyed me with the super mega happy ending crap, but I was expecting it. I loved the conflict between Queen Brahme and Garnet.

FFX-Tidus was too whiny, but the game was still fun the storyline was decent and I loved that the ending wasn't super bright, it acknowledged that sacrifces had and were made. I did however despise Wakka.

FF12- Fun so far, but nothing great.

FFT-If any FF game was gonna knock FF7 out my favorite FF game it's this one. I loved the battle system, I only wished characters like Agrias had more of an impact on the story after their arc was over. I also wish they gave you more recruitment room, or let you send unique charcters on job's because if you get all the unique's you have very little room for job capable characters.

FFX-2- Burn it with Fire.

FFT Advance-Not to bad at first, but the laws just killed the game, and as you progress more laws get placed on each battle, I had one battle to where if I took any offensive action against any of my enemies I was looking at the maximum level penalty for the character who attacked.

Grandia 2- Not very far in yet, but i love what i've played so far.

Radiata Stories- I Love this game, I guess I'm one of the few people who liked both paths, the ending on the human side was definitely the darker of the two. But the thing with Ganz and Gawain on the Non-human side I think was added so they couldn't be accused of super mega happy ending. Still the recruiting on the Human path was a bit more fun and I love the concept behind the fireworks date even if I fell it could have been executed better, and the very mild change to the ending it causes. And the optional dungeon at the end of the game was fun.

Chrono Cross- Meh, kinda wtf, but not horrible, Never played Chrono Trigger though so I don't know how badly it screwed up events from that game.


11111111111

On a side note has Atlus made an Ogre Battle since Ogre Battle 64

On another side note, I believe Namco's (I think it's Namco I should know this) "Tales of ..." series are better then the Final Fantasy series.

The only Wild Arms game I played was 4. I enjoyed, but it wasn't the best game ever. Loved the ending, it could be said it's a happy ending without going into ultra cheesy happy ending.