I absolutely detest RPG reviewers.

stonebeard wrote: I was toying with the idea of getting Baulder's Gate (1 or 2...meh) and/or the likes of Fire Emblem. Any suggestions, or reinforcements of those I've already said, since I've payed neither?

Baldur's Gate II, for the overall superb quality. The gameplay's not savagely tough, but not pathetically easy either, the characters, plotline and setting work very well. The first is essentially similar, but has more, less fleshed out, characters + dialogue, and more areas where there isn't much going on. In Baldur's Gate II, every bit of space is used well.

Fallout (1), for the atmosphere and choices. I didn't find it *that* hard (still not a walk in the park) once my character got decent at hitting things and loads of action points, but could definitely be harder if you limited yourself. The atmosphere and environment is amazing, and you have many, many options. Not that easy to start with, but great once you get into it, and perhaps the most similar option to what you could get with other players.

Planescape, for atmosphere, some difficulty, really unique characters, and a stunning soundtrack. I love that game. Not exactly cheap by comparison to the others here though.

Those are, to this day, the three best games I've ever played.

Yeah, I thought XII was pretty boring, from what I saw. But I am kind of offended by Japan, so I primarily found it offensively Japanese.

Edited by Salvo_ - March 30 2008 at 18:22

I love III/VI but couldn't get into VII as easily.  Firstly, I prefer the more fantasy setting and secondly, the loading times on PSX are downright appalling, even when playing Origins (the original SNES games repackaged and updated slightly).  I think it's 8 or possibly 9 I've played too (the medieval setting) and I quite liked that too.

I've not played an later FFs though.

XII was the first one I was able to really get into since VI...  the more serious/political storyline, combined with the first worthwhile battle/character system in the series, really made it a winner for me.

I think a lot of people approach it expecting it to be another no-thought-required-let's-enjoy-the-story Final Fantasy, and are shocked to discover quite the opposite...  aside from the linear story progression, it's extremely open-ended, especially in terms of character development and questing

...going to work now. 

Chrono Trigger rocks, but I don't think I'd like it as much as Final Fantasy 4 or 6 if I played it now, it's too easy and the story isn't as deep.  I'd buy an RPG now, maybe Vagrant Story or Chrono Cross for PS1, but they're too time-consuming, reading is better.

And by the way, FF12 was pretty lame.  The last "new" RPG I bought and might ever buy, really a shame considering the world, battle system, and graphics had such awesome potential.  Unfortunately, the story was very static and boring, the characters really had no development, and it required to much mindless leveling up (which would be great if it led to something half-interesting happening, but it didn't).  A lot of people diss FFX, but that was really a great game and much better than XII.  Some of the Xbox 360 rpgs look pretty good, as does FFXIII, but I'm not going to bother with this current gen.  I might get a Wii some day, but I'd rather spend money on turntable carts, music, or books. :)


Edited by Bluesaga - March 30 2008 at 13:12

I am presuming that's the SNES original, Jake?

I wouldn't say it was a Roguelike, actually.

Grab yourself a copy of NetHack for free and see how you get on with it.

If you're going to play Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal, I'd suggest playing Baldur's Gate: Wizards of the Coast first, because the stories follow on.

With BG, you should definitely play it using BG Tutu, which improves many aspects of the game and allows you to play it better in Windows.  I love this particular mod, because it allows other great mods to be played, such as extra characters, different rules and all sorts.  Plus you can transfer your character to BG 2.

Planescape: Torment also has some major updates that have been made unofficially that need to be downloads, because it makes the game play much better.  This includes a few quests that weren't in the original game, plus 99% of bugfixes removed.

stonebeard wrote: I have Vista, will they still play?   I haven't had any problems with much, but are they compatible?

laplace wrote: ^those are roguelikes =) Angband's my favourite of the text batch. my favourite roleplaying game remains Ultima Underworld. It's not a console game so it has little repeated content or grind value, and there are relatively few "towns" (since the whole game takes place underground) and even better, the dialogue isn't stupid. The music was actually relevant to the game unlike swathes of jRPGS - I love light-jazz town music soundtracks but how did we ever become convinced that they fit such desperate situations as you find in FF, Grandia, et al? Earthbound's my favourite console RPG if it comes to that. But I prefer the first-person PC games like UU, Morrowind, etc. Maybe it's time I went back and played System Shock... ----- I think part of the problem is that professional reviewers write for each other rather than for an audience, so in music journalism you tend to see swathes of ridiculous adjectives that in no way describe the music to anybody else, while in film reviewing what you mostly see is a plot synopsis written in the most thoughtful and eloquent way possible. In a professional reviewer's assessment of a game the most important element seems to be the wow factor. maybe if journalism wasn't a vocation we'd have people in reviewing roles who actually like the product ;P

Earthbound just might be the strangest game I have ever played. 

You probably won't have any problems.  If you do, I think you can set the program to "compatibility mode" or something to make it run as if you were using XP.