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Author Topic: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.  (Read 693065 times)

Talaysen

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2800 on: June 10, 2009, 12:46:31 AM »
I will keep this in mind for later however, since I don't currently have any shops. Presumably things may have picked up on this front by then.

Making profit on some of the cheaper items unlocks some more expensive items, and there are some items that are just plot unlocked.  Also, keep an eye out for trade rumors, since abusing those can get you insane amounts of cash if done correctly.  I think those only show up later in the plot, too.

Dark Holy Elf

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2801 on: June 10, 2009, 12:57:05 AM »
While SH2 difficulty is generally a bad joke, the frigate did have better randoms than most. Still found them pretty easy though, so I'd be inclined to second the comments about checking for equip upgrades.

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2802 on: June 10, 2009, 04:31:24 AM »
FF9 Hatbot solo challenge continues…

Black Waltz 2:
Uh yeah…according to a FAQ after fast forwarding once, you can’t win this with Garnet alone. The moment she is, boss casts Sleep and it’s a Game Over >_>. So you have to break the rules regardless. Because of that, I just went all out and used the entire team. Still harder than you think since Steiner and Vivi had no time to get any abilities or power up, so they die in like a hit (2 for Steiner!), so it Garnet + Zidane vs. the world. Well, Black Waltz 2 anyway. A little while later though, boss goes down. You could finish it with Garnet by leveling up to level 15 and cast Shiva three times while healing yourself with Ethers between each cast. Levelling up Garnet is like the most painful thing ever. Its doable, but every battle is like 10 minutes and borderline life and death. So I just got it out of the way.

Black Waltz 3:
YES. No more Garnet. Hatbot rolled Zidane. You know what that means. Slicey Slicey.

I took some time to get some money here since I was low thanks to running around a lot with Garnet >_>. Thankfully, you only have Zidane for a short bit, so I just used that and solo gained moneys for buying stuff.

Hunter Festival:
Let Freya win this. You WANT the Coral Ring. 5000 gil is nice, but solo leveling solves Gil problems. You can’t forge a Coral Ring right now and you really want it since quite a few enemies on route to Burmecia use it.

On route to Gizamazuluke’s Grotto:
The field monsters take a sudden worse for the turn here. They become a lot worse. Although it doesn’t feel like it, since my last few hours were using Garnet with her 7 DAMAGE A TURN BUT BECOMES 12 DAMAGE UNDER TRANCE YESZ Rod. Hatbot rolls Freya. Awesome. However, the enemies are still no slouch as mentioned.

Bugs: 150 damage per Fire spell usually comes in packs of 3. Freya started at level 8, which gave her 400 HP or so. The good news is, she OHKO them with a base physical. So it was just rush rush rush and hope they don’t all go for the same attack on the first turn
Lizard/Scorpion hybrid: These things can heal. Not cool when you’re by yourself. Them healing usually means more damage taken, meaning more resources used. Oh, and they have Thundara as well. Hope you have that Coral Ring!
Hedgehog Pie: There damage is pretty good. Almost died to one of these. Change to back row and Jump them to death.

Gizamazuluke’s Grotto:
Bugs: Can Berserk. Still die to one physical though with Bug Killer
Skeletons: Have Thunder magic and can use Whirl Sword. Not a big problem
Black Mage Type A: Come in packs of two. Decently competent on damage (with two of them at least). Have Thunder damage as well as Ice Damage, later of which can be reduced with Silver Gloves.
Lamia: Hate. These things hit hard. And you can’t hit weakness on them. Backrow and start Jumping. Use Hi-Potions if needed if you can’t run. I recommended running over fighting since they are so not worth the effort. I tried blinding them with a tent but the game hates me since it failed everytime.

Gizamazuluke:
The first reset was complete and utter HAX. Anyways, strategy of use Tent and blind him works. Except he went through Blind the first time and killed me with his physical. Second time, better set up. With Bronze Helm to reduce Water damage initially + Back row to soften physicals. Tents until he is blind and silenced. Mop up time.

There’s a stock up point here with Steiner and Garnet. Buy lots and lots of Potions. Oh and also some Softs.

Burmecia:
Basilliks Can Petrify you. Freya doesn’t have access to Jelly yet, so use Softs as needed. One Jump is usually enough, although if your level is low, you may need an additional poke to win
Mimic: Pretty bad on damage. But they summon Magic Vices, which steal items. KILL
Magic Vices: Steals items and casts Magic Hammer. This might matter if I rolled Vivi. Thankfully I did not though. Freya initially lacks the damage to one shot them though, so its usually just better to run.
Black Mages: See above!
Ironite: Hit pretty hard with Flame or Thundara. Can’t block Flame, but Thundara can be reduced. After that, Jump + Dragon Killer physicals go to town.

Beatrix:
Need to be at least level 18 for this. Shock! Deals 700+ damage. I fought this at level 16 and got OHKO’d >_>. Leveled up to 20, which was a bit overkill, but made the fight very easy. Just stall. You can theoretically deal enough damage, but every physical requires a Heal since you risk getting killed off by Shock otherwise. Oh and Coral Ring absorb Thunder Slash and backrow to soften physicals.

And with that, Disc 1 is done.
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Meeplelard

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2803 on: June 10, 2009, 06:24:42 AM »
Grandia Xtreme: Just beat Mother Crustaceon.

...that was a stupid fight.  Mostly cause it could randomly whip out big AoE MT damage that CANCELS EVERYONE, and it has 2 parts that are completely competent (wait, AoE damage and it actually is significant?) and half its moves cancel otherwise, one of them is FASTER THAN ANYTHING YOU HAVE.  Worst part is, every time you lose, you have to redo the last part of the dungeon over again, which is tedious and boring.

That fight wouldn't have been so bad, actually...if it was fought later, when you have stuff like MT healing, more resources, etc.  As it stands, it was just stupid.

Oh well, that's another dungeon down, which sounds like immense progress in a game like this <.<

Also, hate how PCs outside of your team don't level up at all.  It means after the early game, you have to stick with one team.  I hope I can get away with a different team for the next part of the game, just so I can see my options, and choose from there but...ugh.  Having so many options THIS early can be a bad thing, since it means if someone falls behind, they can REALLY fall behind (contrast to games where you normally get more options as the game goes on, typically, those who are underleveled if you want to use them can be caught up significantly faster.)
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[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> Sonic Chaos
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Yakumo

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2804 on: June 10, 2009, 06:29:17 AM »
I don't recall having that many problems with that boss, but it might be related to the team you're using or something.  I'm fairly sure there's early MT healing on one of the characters' skillsets for example.

That said, I found personally that I could catch someone up fairly easily if I needed to as long as I only switched one character at a time, but I really only even did that much due to the occasional forced character.

SnowFire

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2805 on: June 10, 2009, 07:06:10 AM »
Yeah, Myam has MT healing IIRC and was kinda invaluable the first half of the game for that.  Eventually his damage just became painfully bad, and I traded him in for Carmyne, IIRC, since you have better magic by then.

I don't recall levelling up a new party member being THAT bad, but it's been awhile.  I know that I never even bothered with the small, smashy types like Brandon because the Grandia system brutally punishes slowness.  I think I used Jaid for the first dungeon or two, then canned him in favor of Lutina as soon as I got her for the same crime of lassitude.

Djinn, re GX vs. G3 plot: I have go disagree here.  Grandia 3 has a skeleton of a possibly interesting story because it tries, at least.  It fails miserably, but it tries, and I'm sure good fanfic could be written or something.  At least Grandia 3 has some rudimentary world-building and the first 10 hours with Yuki/Miranda/Alfonso.  Grandia X doesn't really try at all, and the characterization is generally fail as well.  Elemental disorder bad!  Beat up!  The villain is pretty meh as well, and randomly handing out mass mind control to him and then not doing anything with it?  Yeah whatever.  The most I can say is that the aesthetics of the Light and Dark dungeons were pretty good, which vaguely counts as plot because it suggests a long-vanished civilization which isn't really gone into either.

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2806 on: June 10, 2009, 07:18:33 AM »
Djinn, re GX vs. G3 plot: I have go disagree here.  Grandia 3 has a skeleton of a possibly interesting story because it tries, at least.  It fails miserably, but it tries, and I'm sure good fanfic could be written or something.  At least Grandia 3 has some rudimentary world-building and the first 10 hours with Yuki/Miranda/Alfonso.  Grandia X doesn't really try at all, and the characterization is generally fail as well.  Elemental disorder bad!  Beat up!  The villain is pretty meh as well, and randomly handing out mass mind control to him and then not doing anything with it?  Yeah whatever.  The most I can say is that the aesthetics of the Light and Dark dungeons were pretty good, which vaguely counts as plot because it suggests a long-vanished civilization which isn't really gone into either.

*shrugs* I guess that's just a matter of taste. Bland & Coherent > Potentially Interesting yet Unintelligible and Full of Plotholes to me. The first is archetypal, the second is unfinished. Although, in GX/G3's case, they both lack so much polish that they're probably about the same level. I guess I'm partial to GX because at least it didn't even pretend like its story mattered.

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2807 on: June 10, 2009, 08:54:03 AM »
Quote
It fails miserably, but it tries, and I'm sure good fanfic could be written or something.

This sentence made me vomit.

You are comparing generic excuse for dungeon crawl versus pure fucking shit.  G3 plot is a couple of teens running around being completely ineffectual at the very things that they are supposed to be doing while they are supported by 2 cardboard cutouts.  Then there is the support cast of being just as ineffective as the mains.

Let's look at the cast in detail.

Yuki is a pilot.  He has 3 (4?) plains in the entire game.  There is not a SINGLE one of these that he does not crash.  This is his character.

Bitcharse is a bad Garnet knock off (wow, how can you have a bad knock off of a dull as fuck character?  Make them even more useless!).  She spends the entire game trying to save the Gods from her brother.  Every single one she meets either commits suicide upon trying to have a conversation with her or is killed by her brother in what we can only assume is assisted suicide to get away from Bitcharse.  And then she saves the world with the power of love.  Please let me die.

Cardboard Guy, he is into fighting and dragons.  Original.

Cardboard Girl, her boyfriend is fighting Bitcharse's brother.  She follows you just to stalk him or something.  She throws cards at things and they don't even explode.  Worst Gambit rip off ever.

Sword guy, Teleports around and fights Bitcharse's.  Has swords.  Says fucking nothing.  Does even less.  Shit.

Yuki's mum, gets layed.  Probably the high point of the game plotwise.

Creepy Fisherman.  Robs you.  Gambles away your winnings on what he knows to be a rigged game.  Dickhead.  Wins gambling with peanuts.  Fail.

CORNELL, punches stuff.  Gets punched.  Vanishes from the plot.  Best character in the game.

Scythe Chick, has a scythe.  Gets turned to glass.  Not as good as Samuel L Jackson at that role.  Not called Ms Glass.  Just dumb.  Oh and wants to have sex with Bitcharse' brother.

Bitcharse' brother.  No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of.

Evil Gaia clone.  Spits at mirrors, apparently he is pretty ugly.  Has no plot.  Has a Chinese guy though, that is kind of cool.

XORN.  Just... XORN.

Failfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfail.
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Captain K.

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2808 on: June 10, 2009, 12:08:14 PM »
The mother crustacean is probably the hardest boss in the game.  It gets worse when you revisit dungeons.

If you're going to stick with one party, make sure you include Titto.  He's the only character that can steal, and some of the stuff he steals is absolutely borken.

TranceHime

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2809 on: June 10, 2009, 01:35:11 PM »
TacticsLayer:

You know you stupid game you could have TOLD me you could use the Dojo for training. Stupid game.

Also the wiki tells me that stat growths are not fixed. This fact greatly upsets me. For what it's worth though I've been consistently been getting nice stat boosts, so I'm not complaining. Incidentally, it seems the game hands you the game-best speedster in the game insanely early and the next-best one even earlier so >_>
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19:36:14 (Sanae) o.o
19:39:11 (Sanae) I'd love to dupe a second trancehime.

OblivionKnight

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2810 on: June 10, 2009, 02:36:27 PM »
Grandia Xtreme: Just beat Mother Crustaceon.

...that was a stupid fight.  Mostly cause it could randomly whip out big AoE MT damage that CANCELS EVERYONE, and it has 2 parts that are completely competent (wait, AoE damage and it actually is significant?) and half its moves cancel otherwise, one of them is FASTER THAN ANYTHING YOU HAVE.  Worst part is, every time you lose, you have to redo the last part of the dungeon over again, which is tedious and boring.

That fight wouldn't have been so bad, actually...if it was fought later, when you have stuff like MT healing, more resources, etc.  As it stands, it was just stupid.

Oh well, that's another dungeon down, which sounds like immense progress in a game like this <.<

Also, hate how PCs outside of your team don't level up at all.  It means after the early game, you have to stick with one team.  I hope I can get away with a different team for the next part of the game, just so I can see my options, and choose from there but...ugh.  Having so many options THIS early can be a bad thing, since it means if someone falls behind, they can REALLY fall behind (contrast to games where you normally get more options as the game goes on, typically, those who are underleveled if you want to use them can be caught up significantly faster.)

Next dungeon I think you're required to use Jaid, then Myam the dungeon after that, just so you know.  Like K said, Titto's great - loads of skill book slots, decent speed, and the stealing is badass.  Myam is also pretty good, as one of her skills is a MT heal.  Not particularly powerful (basically an Alheal effect), but still helpful.  Jaid really depends on how much you play with the mana eggs.  I love Carmyne - Holy Breath is faaaaabulous, and she has probably the best equipment draw in the game.  Brandol has Victory Cry, which is an excellent support skill, and like Titto, lots of skill book slots.  Ulk...never used him too much, as his support skill isn't that good, but he's similar to Brandol otherwise.  There's an 8th character, and she's...similar to Evann stat-wise, except faster, and her skills are...unique (odd AoEs, multiple hits over single powerful ones). 

I think the party I stuck with was Carmyne, Jaid, Brandol.  Any party is pretty good, and the best character will be the one you find an uber weapon for >_>
« Last Edit: June 10, 2009, 02:38:10 PM by OblivionKnight »
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[19:27] <%Grefter-game> Touchdown and Alderaan explodes in the victory

DjinnAndTonic

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2811 on: June 10, 2009, 04:02:46 PM »
Quote
It fails miserably, but it tries, and I'm sure good fanfic could be written or something.

This sentence made me vomit.

You are comparing generic excuse for dungeon crawl versus pure fucking shit.  G3 plot is a couple of teens running around being completely ineffectual at the very things that they are supposed to be doing while they are supported by 2 cardboard cutouts.  Then there is the support cast of being just as ineffective as the mains.

Let's look at the cast in detail.

Yuki is a pilot.  He has 3 (4?) plains in the entire game.  There is not a SINGLE one of these that he does not crash.  This is his character.

Bitcharse is a bad Garnet knock off (wow, how can you have a bad knock off of a dull as fuck character?  Make them even more useless!).  She spends the entire game trying to save the Gods from her brother.  Every single one she meets either commits suicide upon trying to have a conversation with her or is killed by her brother in what we can only assume is assisted suicide to get away from Bitcharse.  And then she saves the world with the power of love.  Please let me die.

Cardboard Guy, he is into fighting and dragons.  Original.

Cardboard Girl, her boyfriend is fighting Bitcharse's brother.  She follows you just to stalk him or something.  She throws cards at things and they don't even explode.  Worst Gambit rip off ever.

Sword guy, Teleports around and fights Bitcharse's.  Has swords.  Says fucking nothing.  Does even less.  Shit.

Yuki's mum, gets layed.  Probably the high point of the game plotwise.

Creepy Fisherman.  Robs you.  Gambles away your winnings on what he knows to be a rigged game.  Dickhead.  Wins gambling with peanuts.  Fail.

CORNELL, punches stuff.  Gets punched.  Vanishes from the plot.  Best character in the game.

Scythe Chick, has a scythe.  Gets turned to glass.  Not as good as Samuel L Jackson at that role.  Not called Ms Glass.  Just dumb.  Oh and wants to have sex with Bitcharse' brother.

Bitcharse' brother.  No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of.

Evil Gaia clone.  Spits at mirrors, apparently he is pretty ugly.  Has no plot.  Has a Chinese guy though, that is kind of cool.

XORN.  Just... XORN.

Failfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfail.

Grefter, you forgot HECT!


Anthony Edward Stark

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2812 on: June 10, 2009, 05:22:39 PM »
So I spent a lot of time in a car. I didn't have to drive, so I ended up playing my GBA. And I fucking LOST FFVI Advance when I moved. The thing I keep my GBA and various games in was open and I have no idea where that shit is. Got stuck playing Fire Emblem, which for all its faults DOES consume a lot of time.

SnowFire

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2813 on: June 10, 2009, 07:18:25 PM »
To be clear Grandia 3 plot is horrible horrible fail.  It's just that it's mildly ambitious horrible fail, and if, while keeping the same broad outline of the game, I was allowed to rewrite all the dialogue after you meet Gryph the game might be moderately salvageable.  Believe it or not this is a point in its favor.  (Yeah damning with faint praise.)

Grandia X isn't even a good dungeon-crawler plot.  The game doesn't spend much time on it, thankfully, but it's still baaaad.  Hell, we were talking about Diablo II before, D2 is an example of not completely awful dungeon-crawler plot.  There are evil demons corrupting people, you & an old guy & an angel must stop them.  Not much but pretty cinematics and it works.  GX is much worse.  And games can have bad overall plots but save themselves with fun characters interacting and dialogue, but GX doesn't do that either.

I'd prefer a badly done techno remix of Handel's Messiah by a high-schooler than a badly played "Jingle Bells."  The first will be more interesting fail.  But that's just me.

(Though, as a random comment, but on the topic of games with ambitious plots that fail in execution...  Phantasy Star 3 has to be the ultimate winner of this award.  You have here an epic tale of prejudice between cultures overcome by love, ancient legends misinterpreted, and interstellar exile.  And you get to control three generations of a family and their loyal robots!  The plot outline to this game is authentically good.  And...  whether through cartridge memory limitations, or something...  that is literally all you get: a plot *outline*.  The characters in the first generation have, what, maybe 6 lines of dialogue each?  Lyle might have 8?  And that's the "best" generation!  They should totally remake that game, except, you know, with some dialogue and motivations and interparty chatter.  And also with a good battle system and dungeons not designed by random scrawling. But I disgress.  The solid plot premise is still something that is a credit to the game, even if it lies woefully unfulfilled.)

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2814 on: June 10, 2009, 07:39:08 PM »
Phantasy Star 3's plot struck me less as ambitious and more as taken from a book of cliches and awkwardly pasted together by clueless writers, but maybe that's just me.

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2815 on: June 10, 2009, 08:07:23 PM »
I'm not sure how being set on a generation ship adrift in the cosmos comes right from the big book of RPG cliches. Snowfire pretty aptly sums up how I've always felt about the game: it's a collection of horribly executed neat ideas.

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2816 on: June 10, 2009, 08:12:22 PM »
Cross Edge: Tooled around with randoms around the first Prinny Fight and threw up my hands. Not going to be able to do that without annoying myself/reading up massively on the game. So, disliking both those options, I restarted on Normal. I'll save Hard for a replay. So far, things are going smooth. Murdering things and should be back up to where I was in no time.

Estiah: This is more fun that it should be. Harkan is at level 6 and I just realized I can leave the city. Arianna is at 4 and will realize similar things. And started a new toon for shits and giggles.


Random Consonant

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2817 on: June 10, 2009, 08:26:50 PM »
I'm not sure how being set on a generation ship adrift in the cosmos comes right from the big book of RPG cliches. Snowfire pretty aptly sums up how I've always felt about the game: it's a collection of horribly executed neat ideas.

I was thinking more along the lines of the whole racial rivalry, misinterpreted legends, and ancient evil that screws with everying thing.  The fact that they did it IN SPACE impresses me not.

Meeplelard

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2818 on: June 10, 2009, 09:14:49 PM »
Well, thing is? When PS3 came out, those "Cliches" weren't cliches quite yet.  The Racial thing hasn't been done to death yet, misinterpreted legends thing was still fairly fresh, etc.  The ideas AT THE TIME were not yet cliches, at least, relative to the genre and media we're dealing with.

The problem is really what Snowfire said.  All the IDEAS and concepts for a great epic plot are there.  The issue is, as he said, all we got was essentially just an outline.  There's no real depth, no real development of the characters, what have you.

As far as plot goes, PS3 is pretty much the best example of how execution matters far more than the idea itself.   I mean, for an opposite example for me would be Fou-lu, whose one of my favorite villains ever, despite being the "Human fails!" archetype that I so despise, entirely cause he's handled in a manner that essentially makes this style of villain work.

So yeah, Execution is probably the #1 factor to doing...well, anything.  How good your ideas are at a core don't matter, what matters is how its handled.  Original ideas, of course, do often help, and aren't a bad thing, but without at least half decent execution, they're completely wasted.  Meanwhile, a trite cliche with excellent presentation tends to work as well. 

This applies to gameplay too.  As Elfboy once put it, FF2 and Fire Emblem are like polar opposites.  FF2 had some really neat ideas, and they could have been really cool...but the game is so badly polished, they end up being horrible.  FE, meanwhile, is so simple and sounds really "blech"...but the game is well made so that it ends up being a lot more fun in practice than it is on paper.
(Note I'm referring to FF2 Original; remakes fixed a lot of its flaws, the portable versions in particular, so that this doesn't quite apply as much.)
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> so Snow...
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> Sonic Chaos
[21:39] <+Hello-NewAgeHipsterDojimaDee> That's -brilliant-.

[17:02] <+Tengu_Man> Raven is a better comic relief PC than A

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2819 on: June 10, 2009, 09:35:07 PM »
MK- Up to Chapter 4 Week 3. Week 2's mission was kind of annoying. Oh well. Pamela and Flay are fun, but they're still playing catchup. Almost done with that though. Pamela's voice... totally not what I expected, but it's a pleasant surprise. They needed to organize the synth menu a bit better...

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2820 on: June 10, 2009, 11:15:38 PM »
I am not prepared to give PS3 the benefit of the doubt on it's main themes being cliche even at the time.  PS3 wasn't absolute dawn of the genre stuff like PS1.  Like if there was say a Romance of Three Kingdoms game out, bam, PS3 plot is done already almost (but not in space).  RoTK is a pretty fucking old series.

But anyway, PS3 brings up a good point though.  It is a basic plot outline.  G3 suffers from similar flaws and it is on 2 fucking DVDs.  Fail.
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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2821 on: June 10, 2009, 11:41:25 PM »
Quote
Well, thing is? When PS3 came out, those "Cliches" weren't cliches quite yet.  The Racial thing hasn't been done to death yet, misinterpreted legends thing was still fairly fresh, etc.  The ideas AT THE TIME were not yet cliches, at least, relative to the genre and media we're dealing with.

JRPGs were fairly new, yeah, and they didn't use every fictional trope known to man yet, but ultimately, they're still fiction and rely on fictional tropes that have been kicking around since god-knows how long just like every other work of fiction.  The newness of the genre or medium doesn't mean tropes used in a bland, predictible, and soulless fashion aren't cliches and PS3 uses tropes in a bland, predictible, soulless fashion.  Yes, PS3 is a plot outline, I don't think anyone will argue otherwise, but I don't see how anyone can see it as anything more than an outline for a cliche storm.  Then again, I'm in the "lol RPG plot" camp, so whatever.
« Last Edit: June 10, 2009, 11:53:10 PM by Random Consonant »

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2822 on: June 11, 2009, 12:01:20 AM »
Also it seems that the "assume people basically agree with me" filter may have been on too strong, since Djinn said that GX was "bland but competent" in plot, which I'd disagree with.  If you respect GX's plot more then the calculus does change somewhat; comparing a competent, simple, unambitious plot to an incompetent yet somewhat ambitious plot is harder.  However, comparing incompetent and unambitious vs. incompetent and ambitious is easy for me.  (Then again, maybe I'm bitter that I did the 100-floor bonus dungeon and the final plot reveal is both lame and nonexistent.)

Of course G3, even a well-written version with sympathetic characters, would probably only be above-averageish at best.  PS3 got the nod because a well-written version of that plot outline could potentially rule; certainly the "generations" idea doesn't get done in video games often enough, if nothing else.  Also, a clash between cultures that hate each other for poor reasons, yet love blooms between them anyway, is older than dirt; I mean, that's the plot to Romeo & Juliet.  But it's a very fruitful archetype, so whatever.  The legalistic misinterpretation of maxims also rings true to real life.  (Ninja'd by RC: That's a whole different debate, but PS3's outline might have been good on the "it's a video game" curve if nothing else.  More broadly, while...  wait a second, this gets into a "VG plots" debate, so never mind.  Maybe another time.)

PS3 was on the mind because people in chat linked to a LP of it on the SomethingAwful forums recently, and I read through it.  It's pretty good, and quite a fast read due to the paucity of the script - much faster than playing the game, certainly.

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2823 on: June 11, 2009, 01:45:24 AM »
I don't really think of GX plot as 'competent', for the record. The term I would use is 'inoffensive'. Sort of like ShF plot. It has a basic function that enables the gameplay, and doesn't try to be anything more than that. While that's not what I like about RPG stories, I can certainly respect making a game from the point of view that 'the story isn't important'. GX (and even ShF) are about playing with the battle systems. They could have been enhanced by good stories, but that wasn't the intention. I understand that point of view. That's not 'failing' that's just concentrating on something else.

G3's story just fails. It is offensive. It had potential to be good and it ruined it. That's far worse to me than just giving me a bunch of archetypes and saying 'play around with this battle system!'

Sort of like the XS effect. And Eternal Sonata. Only less preachy and with a much better battle system than either.

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Re: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.
« Reply #2824 on: June 11, 2009, 01:59:15 AM »
L4D- Got my first expert clear on no mercy. It was Laggy/myself/Otter/Yakko. (Yakko had comp issues and missed the finale.) Ended up killing the first tank without setting it on fire thanks to me somehow dodging it for long enough.
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<Meeple> knownig Square-enix, they'll just give us a 2nd Kain
<Ciato> he would be so kawaii as a chibi...