Looking for Good RPGs

Symmetry · Post by **Symmetry** » 2004-05-16 02:00am

For PC, my fovorites have been Morrowind and Arcanum. I'd also recomend Crono Trigger, Xenogears, FFIV, and FFVI for Playstation and SNES.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-05-16 02:03am

It has nothing to do with FATE. It has to do with all the environmentalist, anti-human crap that they beat you over the head with for the entire first half of the game, the Dragon Gods, the idea of humans being "the offspring of Lavos" and "alien matter as far as this planet is concerned," and all the various other races like the Dwarves and demihumans, most of which didn't even exist in Chrono Trigger (but we can't be concerned with maintaining continuity, not if it gets in the way of our agenda) that "evolved in harmony with the planet."

Chrono Trigger didn't have any of this garbage (except for the Fiona subquest, but that was done rather tastefully) and it had no place in the Chrono multiverse, in my opinion.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2004-05-16 02:10am

Joe wrote:It has nothing to do with FATE. It has to do with all the environmentalist, anti-human crap that they beat you over the head with for the entire first half of the game, the Dragon Gods, the idea of humans being "the offspring of Lavos" and "alien matter as far as this planet is concerned," and all the various other races like the Dwarves and demihumans, most of which didn't even exist in Chrono Trigger (but we can't be concerned with maintaining continuity, not if it gets in the way of our agenda) that "evolved in harmony with the planet."

Hmmm...it's funny but I never really saw it that way. Oh sure, the stuff with the displaced Demi-humans was a little much, but I'd say that the rest of it was all a matter of interpretation. Remember that all the different parties seemed to have different opinions on the subject, and there weren't any truly evil characters in the story (not the Porre Army, not General Viper, not Fargo) aside from Lynx who didn't represent any of that.

To be honest, I just didn't pick up on much preaching that didn't seem geared towards each individual characters worldview. There was no "right" or "wrong" and every time you tried to make judgements on the subject, the plot would throw you for a loop. For example, remember that the biggest anti-human environmentalists seem to be the Dragons and their human order and we both know what their agenda turns out to be.

Chrono Trigger didn't have any of this garbage (except for the Fiona subquest, but that was done rather tastefully) and it had no place in the Chrono multiverse, in my opinion.

There was also the future that had become controlled by robots which were the creation of man. Remember Lucca's speech about robots not being capable of violence unless man programs them?

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-05-16 02:24am

Hmmm...it's funny but I never really saw it that way. Oh sure, the stuff with the displaced Demi-humans was a little much, but I'd say that the rest of it was all a matter of interpretation. Remember that all the different parties seemed to have different opinions on the subject, and there weren't any truly evil characters in the story (not the Porre Army, not General Viper, not Fargo) aside from Lynx who didn't represent any of that.

The human brain evolved at an accelerated rate due to exposure to Lavos, the fact that the humans of 65,000,000 BCE were NOT stupid apes as stated in the game - they were simply primitive - notwithstanding, and also the fact that Lavos hit right in the center of the Reptite civilization, likely miles away from any humans who could receive the exposure notwithstanding. That doesn't leave much open for interpretation if you ask me; humans are basically the product of an evil alien species, and the game is very blatant about getting this across.

There was also the future that had become controlled by robots which were the creation of man. Remember Lucca's speech about robots not being capable of violence unless man programs them?

That isn't really what I had in mind.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2004-05-16 02:48am

Joe wrote: The human brain evolved at an accelerated rate due to exposure to Lavos, the fact that the humans of 65,000,000 BCE were NOT stupid apes as stated in the game - they were simply primitive - notwithstanding, and also the fact that Lavos hit right in the center of the Reptite civilization, likely miles away from any humans who could receive the exposure notwithstanding. That doesn't leave much open for interpretation if you ask me; humans are basically the product of an evil alien species, and the game is very blatant about getting this across.

I never picked up a "humans are the product of an evil alien race, thus they are evil" vibe from the game. Oh sure, the Reptites might have seen it that way, but what the hell did they know?

SAMAS · Post by **SAMAS** » 2004-05-16 08:42am

I'm very ashamed at the lot of you.

Two pages, and not one mention of Disgaea or La Pucelle: Tactics?

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-05-16 10:43am

SAMAS wrote:I'm very ashamed at the lot of you.

Two pages, and not one mention of Disgaea or La Pucelle: Tactics?

I haven't gotten around to playing either of those yet. Money.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2004-05-16 12:46pm

I always found the hippie stuff hard to take seriously. You slaughter the damn hippies.

Post by **Dalton** » 2004-05-16 02:16pm

I didn't like Chrono Cross because I hated the battle and magic systems.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-05-16 04:54pm

my main gripe with chrono cross is there were too many damned characters. they couldn't focus enough on a single group or a few of them to get anything resembling a solid storyline out. fairly decent game for the most part, it was just too . . .i dunno. it just didn't click in the same way CT did.

The Prime Necromancer · Post by **The Prime Necromancer** » 2004-05-17 12:54am

I really enjoyed Lunar: Silver Star Story and Eternal Blue. I'm also playing Final Fantasy Tactics right now and finding it quite enjoyable. And I also recommend Super Mario RPG, especially if you're just breaking into the genre.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2004-05-17 02:38am

FF Tactics rocked. Only good post 16-bit FF game.

Daltonator · Post by **Daltonator** » 2004-05-17 03:51am

Darth_Zod wrote:my main gripe with chrono cross is there were too many damned characters. they couldn't focus enough on a single group or a few of them to get anything resembling a solid storyline out. fairly decent game for the most part, it was just too . . .i dunno. it just didn't click in the same way CT did.

Yeah, there's something a little annoying about having to choose from thirty characters. And now that I remember it, the weapons and armor upgrade system sucked too. Chrono Trigger had a nice, small, select group with their own strengths and weaknesses.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2004-05-17 04:19am

I think Chrono Cross is somewhat like FFVIII; those that love it, love it and those that hate it, really really hate it. Interestingly enough, both games were critically acclaimed (Chrono Cross is one of four games to get a perfect 10 from Gamespot in eight years of reviews) yet a good number of the fans hated them.

For me, I don't mind when a game decides to buck the trend and go off the beaten path in gameplay design as long as its fun. I really liked the battle system in CC and I also liked the 30+ characters because although they could have been a disaster, Square went in and filled in a backstory for every single one of them. They all have sidequests and purposes to the story, and if you want you can just look at them as playable NPC's since that's really what they are. Despite having so many characters, the story concentrates on a relative handful (Serge, Kid, The Divas, General Viper, Leene and Harle) and gives a satisfactory amount of material for them.

Besides, an RPG for me has always been about the story and I was positively floored by the plot developments in CC. Maybe it was the fact that I was so happy to see the plot elements of CT furthered or maybe it was because I loved the sci-fi undertones of the story, but it just clicked with me.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2004-05-17 04:31am

Sacred is a good Diablo /Semi RPG game.

www.sacred-game.com

Not to much RPG but a good timewaster anyway.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-05-17 11:23am

The Kernel wrote:
For me, I don't mind when a game decides to buck the trend and go off the beaten path in gameplay design as long as its fun. I really liked the battle system in CC and I also liked the 30+ characters because although they could have been a disaster, Square went in and filled in a backstory for every single one of them. They all have sidequests and purposes to the story, and if you want you can just look at them as playable NPC's since that's really what they are. Despite having so many characters, the story concentrates on a relative handful (Serge, Kid, The Divas, General Viper, Leene and Harle) and gives a satisfactory amount of material for them.

thing is though they could have taken out HALF of those characters and it wouldn't have had any noticeable impact on the game itself. If anything removing so many superfluous characters would have been good, as that would have given them the ability to concentrate on developing the main characters more instead of just adding pointless fillers. after they did their necessary part they could have simply been left alone as npcs, which at the least would have made more sense.

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2004-05-17 11:52am

SirNitram wrote:I always found the hippie stuff hard to take seriously. You slaughter the damn hippies.

You do, in Earthbound.

[/Earthbound fanwanking]

Symmetry · Post by **Symmetry** » 2004-05-17 12:21pm

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:FF Tactics rocked. Only good post 16-bit FF game.

I'll do you the honor of assuming you haven't played Xenogears.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-05-17 12:34pm

Symmetry wrote:
Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:FF Tactics rocked. Only good post 16-bit FF game.
I'll do you the honor of assuming you haven't played Xenogears.

xenogears was not an FF game.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2004-05-17 01:18pm

I'd also question it on the grounds of not actually being as good as people say it is.

It's far too verbose, the quality of english is terrible, it's not finished, and the battle system, whilst better than 'press X to win' is just a case of 'use my best deathblow again and again' with occasional bouts of using different combos to learn new ones against enemies that are too wimpy to fight back.

Oh, and Fei is a tit, he's the arch whiny toosspot hero, he can out-mope Squall without trying, hell he gives Shinji Ikari a run for his money.

The best thing about it is the Gear fights and dungeons, because they have the fuel management aspect, and you can't just overlevel to make fights a cakewalk becuase gears are hard-limited to the available parts.

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2004-05-20 01:10pm

Knights of the Old Republic is good .A Star Wars RPG where if Jr Jar shows up,and he doesnt, you can learn force choke and have fun with him .

Connor MacLeod · Post by **Connor MacLeod** » 2004-05-20 04:10pm

Skies of Arcadia legends. Its like Final Fantasy with cute pirate chicks, humor, and airship battles. Fun as hell and one of hte best RPGs for Gamecube.

I also liked Kingdom Hearts for PS2, if you don't mind the Zelda-esque combat style and 3rd person perspective (and the Disneyesque theme - but its very reminiscient of a FF game despite all that.)

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-05-21 06:17pm

I just started playing Anachronox again, and I have to say it's a riot. You definitely don't want to miss that one.

The environment is completely 3D, and the battles are a bit like Final Fantasy (meter fills up, you do a beat move, etc). It's a bit old as it was made using the Quake 2 engine.