General RPGs Thread [minus FF]

[Liam]

There has been a few times where I've fancied asking a question about the series, and have enjoyed Tales of Graces F enough to buy Xilia and Symphonia Chronicles. Thought I might as well have a thread to put any and all my questions/musings since I know some people have played the games.

So first and foremost - Lineage and Legacies - is it worth playing after completing the game? I would probably play it through if I had more game playing time, but is there anything I'm really missing by skipping it and moving onto Xilia or Symphonia?

Also, which would people suggest is the better next game to play; Symphonia or Xilia?

[Ruki]

I've never played any of the Tales games, but my friends have talked about Xilia a bunch.

[Liam]

I'll be honest, I had about a twenty minute bash on Xilia a few weeks ago. Weirdly enough, I felt the touches that modernised it relative to Graces left me slightly cold. Sure I'd get used to them eventually, but lacked the cartoonish charm I enjoyed.

[Liam]

Asked Stoker to change the title of the thread to allow for discussion on non-FF RPGs.

In my purchasing over the years of stuff from the PSN store, I've ended up with:

Vagrant Story

Legend of Dragoon

Grandia

Was just looking for some opinions - anyone else played them? Any good? I know I probably should play the things I buy, but just never got around to it >_>

[ZJ Penn]

I remember getting Vagrant Story as a youth and being desperate for my birthday party to end so I could play it I remember it all of a sudden getting really tough but that might just hsve been age. I remember the art style being good.

I have Grandia too but could never get into it.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Captain New JaPenn

[Liam]

I just sank an hour into Vagrant Story. Quite enjoyable so far. Bit different, but seems like it should be fun.

[Draevyn]

Asked Stoker to change the title of the thread to allow for discussion on non-FF RPGs.

In my purchasing over the years of stuff from the PSN store, I've ended up with:

Vagrant Story

Legend of Dragoon

Grandia

Was just looking for some opinions - anyone else played them? Any good? I know I probably should play the things I buy, but just never got around to it >_>

Legend of Dragoon was okay. It was hard and sometimes felt like it wasn't worth it. Visually it was pretty nice.

[Robsturgh]

Vagrant Story is really quite uniquely fantastic, it does suffer from a lack of tutorial and explanation of its systems, which can really fuck you over later in the game when it gets fuckoff hard.

Been replaying Baten Kaitos recently, music and gameplay are great but the voiceacting sounds so bad, both in audio quality and the acting itself.

[Draevyn]

I know it's been said that JRPG's are a thing of the past so I'm trying to get past my reliance on that type. But, have there been any good RPG releases for PS4? Something with a decent story?

[Ruki]

Persona 5 next year will be that RPG

[Maxx]

Suikoden 2, everyone go play it, best game ever.

[Liam]

I've played one of the Suikoden games, though I think it was number 1.

What are the difficulties I might encounter as I go further in Vagrant Story? Or, at least what might I need to focus on early doors so as not to get buttfucked later on?

[Bobfoc]

Suikoden 2, everyone go play it, best game ever.

I'm hoping it will come to PSN sooner rather than later. There have been rumours about its impending arrival for a while now, and physical copies of the game are terribly expensive.

[Robsturgh]

I've played one of the Suikoden games, though I think it was number 1.

What are the difficulties I might encounter as I go further in Vagrant Story? Or, at least what might I need to focus on early doors so as not to get buttfucked later on?

From my experience and poor memory it comes from affinities. Without going in to too much detail; if you use a good piercing weapon that you've used all of your materials to upgrade to super duper strength, and you suddenly come up against someone who is really resistant to piercing weapons, you are in for a bad time. This is made more complicated by the fact that weapons gain affinity the more they are used on certain creatures, for example if you use one spear against undead all of the time it becomes better at killing undead - the counter to this is it starts to become less effective against the opposite race (humans).

It's quite a bit more nuanced than that actually, but that's the general idea. The problem, as you can imagine, is when the enemies start getting stronger (and they really do.) you need armor and weapons that have been built to be strong against that race, as well as weapon types (Piercing, blunt, etc.) that they aren't strong against, and sometimes that just isn't possible, which makes certain fights really challenging.

That's boiled it down to sound a little more basic than it actually is; the system is actually really fluid and the changes happen gradually and it's such a good game and it's on the PSN you say and well that's great thanks ive now lost my week.

[Maxx]

Suikoden 2, everyone go play it, best game ever.

I'm hoping it will come to PSN sooner rather than later. There have been rumours about its impending arrival for a while now, and physical copies of the game are terribly expensive.

Emulate!

[MalaCloudy Black]

You should get the Disgaea games, Liam. Some of my favorite RPGs.

Also I had Grandia on a PlayStation demo disc. I wore that demo disc out playing Grandia so much. Never got a go at the proper game, but god did I love it in the demo. I've played Grandia II & III and really liked those, though.

[Liam]

I've played several Disgaea games. Always feel you need to plough time into them to make them really worthwhile, time I never really seem to have anymore.

[Ruki]

Someone motivate me to go back to Bravely Default. I am level 75ish and on chapter 5...but can't be motivated to

re-beat the bosses