What Game Are You Currently Playing?

[thaddeus6th]

Lotte, assuming you meant XI rather than IX, I'd agree with most of that, although I did have to grind quite a bit in the post-game bit (it's entirely possible you're just more competent at the battle system than me. When I'd finished everyone except the final boss I ended up checking online and the quick win solution was something I would never have thought of).

It's a shame more Dragon Quest games haven't come out for consoles. I liked XI a lot, and VIII was great, but I haven't played any others.

 

[L.L.Lotte]

You are correct. I had the numerals back to front.

Calasmos was hard, but i didnt need to grind. I suspect I was always a bit ahead of the level curb.

As for the trick. Im assuming you mean the super sword of light. Yeah it's not surprising that people forget about using equipment as items.

 

[thaddeus6th]

There's that, but it was actually a different tactic involving magic offensive magic and... er... something, which I've forgotten.

I did my grinding beforehand, to get through the trials.

 

[Bugg]

Not every jrpg is like that, as you discovered with legend of Heroes. Of course almost all jrpgs are long games but to me thats a good thing.

It very much depends on the game, I think. I play a lot of JRPGs - it's my favourite genre - but finding the time to spend over 100 hours playing some of them is difficult, especially when some disrespect the player's time so much (Xenoblade Chronicles 2, I'm looking at you, much as I liked you). If you read further back up-thread you'll see how much I loved DQXI, so I completely agree on that one.

I think the main problem I have at the moment it too many games to choose from, and too little time to play them. I have Trails in the Sky SC (pc), Final Fantasy X (Switch, although I have previously played it on PS2 and pc), Cosmic Star Heroine (Switch) and Persona 4 Golden (Vita) at various stages of completion. I'm also itching to play Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology on 3DS.

But I'm mainly concentrating on Suikoden at the moment, which runs about 20 hours, and have Suikoden II lined up, which runs 50-60 hours, so I get to play two awesome games in the less time it would take to finish, say, Persona 4 Golden, which, to me, is a win-win situation.

It also doesn't help that I've recently been investigating emulation, as it was annoying me that so many JRPGs I want to play are not available in the UK.

 

[L.L.Lotte]

I think the main problem I have at the moment it too many games to choose from, and too little time to play them. I have Trails in the Sky SC (pc), Final Fantasy X (Switch, although I have previously played it on PS2 and pc), Cosmic Star Heroine (Switch) and Persona 4 Golden (Vita) at various stages of completion. I'm also itching to play Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology on 3DS.

It also doesn't help that I've recently been investigating emulation, as it was annoying me that so many JRPGs I want to play are not available in the UK.

I hear you on the lack of availability. I've been looking on Amazon and other websites at JRPGs and surprised at how many aren't sold in shops where I live. To satisfy the craving, I'll probably have to start importing them. At that point, I'd probably have to learn to read japanese kanji.

I too played Final Fantasy X on ps2 back when ps2 was a thing, and to this day, it is still my favourite Final Fantasy. The characters and story just resonated with me so well. But to some extent, I'm the minority in that situation -- I think most people found Tidus annoying and that put them off. I do remember putting about 200 hours into that game doing all the post-game content....

But being the odd one out has always been the case for me; Tales of Zesteria is also my favourite Tales Of game, especially when it's complemented with Tales of Beseria. Yet for some reason, the majority of Tales Of fans rate Zesteria pretty low compared to other games in the series, like Vesperia -- its rated higher by fans.

While Vesperia wasn't bad, I found the story was no where near as satisfying as Zesteria. It felt incomplete to me.




I'd say the game I'm looking to purchase next is Persona 5 Royal. While I played the original, and I'm annoyed that they left out all this content, forcing us all to buy a second copy, I loved the game so much that Atlus knows I, along with many others, will give them more money for the chance to play more Persona. The game had so much style. I will say though, that it falls clearly into the category of time sinks you're talking about You pretty much have to play the game through twice to experience all the content...

 

[thaddeus6th]

Just on Final Fantasy, X/X-2, and FFXII (the international swanky Zodiac edition) are both available for PS4 and they reckon the PS5 will be backwards compatible (so you'd probably be able to play them on that).

XII was the last FF game I bought. I liked it a lot, although it was apparent the story should've been more developed. A shame Vaan was inserted late as the main character (it was going to be Basch, a far more interesting chap, originally).

 

[Bugg]

I'd say the game I'm looking to purchase next is Persona 5 Royal. While I played the original, and I'm annoyed that they left out all this content, forcing us all to buy a second copy, I loved the game so much that Atlus knows I, along with many others, will give them more money for the chance to play more Persona. The game had so much style. I will say though, that it falls clearly into the category of time sinks you're talking about You pretty much have to play the game through twice to experience all the content...

Yes, very much so. I have actually started the game twice, the first time when it was released (about 40 hours into it), then again about three months ago with every intention of playing it all. Got about 20 hours in this time, then all the rumours of Persona 5 S being a Switch version made me stop, because I would have much more chance of finishing a long game like that if it was portable. Of course, P5S has turned out to be nothing of the sort, which is disappointing. I suppose now I should hold out for Royal, but it has got to the point where it might be a long time before I consider playing it again. Too much else to play.

 

[Vladd67]

I reached an emotional moment in Red Dead Redemption 2 yesterday. I’ve never really got invested in a video game character but I had to put the controller down, made a cup of coffee and thought twice before carrying on.

 

[William Delman]

I’m still invested in Hearthstone to a degree that probably isn’t healthy. New expansion is pretty good though.

 

[L.L.Lotte]

Just on Final Fantasy, X/X-2, and FFXII (the international swanky Zodiac edition) are both available for PS4 and they reckon the PS5 will be backwards compatible (so you'd probably be able to play them on that).

XII was the last FF game I bought. I liked it a lot, although it was apparent the story should've been more developed. A shame Vaan was inserted late as the main character (it was going to be Basch, a far more interesting chap, originally).

Yes, FFXII was seriously underdeveloped. I think they rushed it because the ps2 was at the end of its age and they didn't want to carry it over to the next gen console and have to start over reprogramming it. Programming efficiently for the PS3 was pretty hard to learn by all accounts...

They of course followed up with a sequel, on the DS, which probably wrapped up the stories that were left hanging... I wouldn't know though, never got the chance to play it. It's a different genre of game though.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I've also heard that the game itself took far longer to make and the original chap in charge left, which is why the interesting political/religious-rocks angle is a bit less developed than it should be. That and Vaan's insertion as lead character is a shame, although I do really like the battle system. I've heard the same thing about the PS3.

I didn't know there was a sequel to FFXII. But then, I don't have a DS, so...

 

[Bugg]

I got FFXII for Switch. No idea when I'll get around to playing it but it looks like they've done a very good job with the port.

I think I'm nearing the end of Suikoden. I have one of the 108 stars left to recruit. Great game, and the sequel is by all accounts one of the best JRPGs ever, so looking forward to that - but I doubt I'll go straight to it. I just finally managed to get my hands on a UK copy of Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, which has been ridiculously hard to find, so that will probably be my next handheld endeavour. That, or Tactics Ogre.

 

[MaxiPower]

Rocketleague and revisiting FInal Fantasy X now its been released on the Xbox one. Eagerly awaiting news on the remake of 7 at E3... hopefully

 

[Dozmonic]

I’m still invested in Hearthstone to a degree that probably isn’t healthy. New expansion is pretty good though.

I never played HS much because people always said it was pay-to-win. But with the ability to turn WoW gold into tokens and that into HS packs, it's something I've considered. I just haven't taken the plunge yet. There's always that period of being terribad that you can only face when you're ready for it

 

[William Delman]

I never played HS much because people always said it was pay-to-win. But with the ability to turn WoW gold into tokens and that into HS packs, it's something I've considered. I just haven't taken the plunge yet. There's always that period of being terribad that you can only face when you're ready for it

Yeah, it's totally pay to win, but considering what most people pay for games and/or subscriptions these days I honestly don't think it's that bad. The real issue is the time sink if you play on the ladder (competitive play). It's very easy to burn a few hours and end up getting nowhere because of the way the ranking system works (and win rates for good players and decks usually hover around 60%). Of course, there are also times when I catch fire and jump three ranks in a less time than it takes to do a load of laundry, so...

Regardless, it's not the cheapest game on the market, but in the end I do think it's one of the better games out there for people who can't regularly afford to burn hours on their dalliances.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I'm a modern chap, so I'm playing FFXII Zodiac Age. The original game is the last FF I played (XIII was online and the XIV stuff with Lightning didn't seem my cup of tea. More 'modern' combat gameplay put me off rather than enticed me. Did consider XV but declined on a similar basis).

Got to say the Gambit system holds up nicely, and Balthier remains a cool cat.

 

[Bugg]

I'm playing FFX on Switch at the moment and starting to rather enjoy it. I can't remember where I got up to on previously playthroughs back in the day before I'd had enough of it. It's clunky as hell by today's standards in a lot of respects (character movement, dialogue and voice acting) but the combat is still great fun. I still hate Blitzball with a fiery passion, though.

I finished Phantasy Star last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've got the other games (well, II to IV) on the Mega Drive Classics Collection for Switch so will play those soon. I finished Suikoden, too, which was fantastic so I'll definitely play the second game soon and see if it's as good as its reputation suggests.

I've also been playing Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology on 3DS, which is brilliant, but I bought a couple of Monster Hunter games on the cheap this week and made the mistake of loading up Monster Hunter Stories last night, just to check it worked, and got instantly hooked. I think it may take over for the foreseeable future, cos it's just adorable

 

[Toby Frost]

I've been playing Vermintide recently, which is basically Left For Dead in the Warhammer setting, with Skaven (that's rat-men) instead of zombies. Despite some extra bells and whistles, it's pretty mindless, but it works well and the graphics look excellent (my excuse is that I'm researching how to make model buildings). The Skaven all sound like Gollum when angry, and the characters are suitably over the top (the wizard, who sounds like an angry grand dame of the theatre, is my current person). Decent stuff. The only bad thing is that you can't play it offline, even if you're on your own.

 

[L.L.Lotte]

I finished Phantasy Star last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've got the other games (well, II to IV) on the Mega Drive Classics Collection for Switch so will play those soon.

Phantasy Star IV is the series at its finest. Pity it all went downhill after that... the series did not make a graceful transition to 3D.

 

[Bugg]

Phantasy Star IV is the series at its finest. Pity it all went downhill after that... the series did not make a graceful transition to 3D.

Yeah, so I've heard. I probably won't play III, not soon anyway, but I'll play II and IV for sure. I've no idea why I didn't play these games on original release as I had both a Mega Drive and the attachment that allowed it to play Master System games. Probably gives an indication how my tastes in genres has changed since then.