JRPG
Chrono Trigger · Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride · Dragon Quest XI S · Final Fantasy IV · Final Fantasy VI · Final Fantasy VII Remake · Final Fantasy VII Rebirth · Metaphor ReFantazio · Persona 5 Royal · Kingdom Hearts · Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door · Sea of Stars
I only played this recently but I understand why it's a classic. Innovative, ahead of its time, and so fun. Lovable and memorable characters too. It does a lot with so little.
This is a fun and very sweet game that is good but not quite very good. A few things keep it from being as high as it could be, but really I think it's just overambitious for what it could have done. Some of it feels a little half baked.
A wonderfully cozy game for the first two acts and then goes off the rails. Really enjoyed this for the first 40something hours and then kind of enjoyed it after.
Bounced off this so hard. The mechanics are just so boring. I need a little more meat on that bone. Lesson learned: stop playing Final Fantasies before 7.
Played but not finished, ultimately boring mechanics and I think the storytelling is hurt by the medium. Too cramped, not enough space on the cartridge to let things breathe.
Tremendous.
Most of the way through this, I just lost momentum due to the open world stuff. I want to revisit and plan to just chase the open world stuff that actually sparks joy instead of trying to be a completionist about it. The upgrades to the combat system are really fun though, and having more of the cast is great.
So good, right up until the last minute. Excellent combat, good characters, a villain I loved to hate.
A tremendous game with a shockingly addictive loop, but unfortunately struggles to stick the landing on its own messages and themes.
A classic JRPG that's light, fun, and satisfying.
Bounced off this. It’s beautiful and a wonderful homage but it doesn’t feel like there’s enough there. I might come back to this, it’s really not that long.
The thoughts I have about Persona 5 Royal could probably fill a gigantic book. At first, a couple days ago, I thought my opinion was that this was not a very good game. It was a fine game, but it wasn't very good. I then realized that has to be silly. I wouldn't be closing in on nearly 90 hours of gameplay here if it wasn't very good. I've bounced out of "better" games in far less time. So what does it do well?
read →The drama seems totally unearned here. It has a lot of emotional whiplash and there's a lot of build up out of nowhere. It's also silly which really undercuts it. The cast is too big and the cuts from person to person prevent you from building any kind of relationship with anyone.
The game is really easy and the combat is pretty boring so far (I think mostly because it's too easy for any amount of nuance or strategy to matter.)
I think a lot of these gripes are absolutely me playing it 30 years after release, the genre and games in general have evolved significantly. Still though, it makes me less sympathetic to a lot of arguments I've seen that VI is actually the best in the series and VII is overrated. I think setting quality of story aside (whatever that means, I guess some measure of plot without considering execution of it), VII is a much more emotionally resonant story.
This game is pretty boring and basic and yet I still am interested in it after like eight hours? No idea what it is. I think it's short enough with just enough visible over the metaphorical narrative hill and minimal friction to get there to be like "okay let's go see what's over there." I have no idea if it'll pull me through the entire runtime, it's very long, but I said that about P5R.
This game feels so...welcoming and cozy at times. The sector 7 slums section really just feels like hanging out with friends getting to know each other after a long time which, it is. I also think Tifa's theme feels so warm.
I think the music is definitely doing so much work in this game. Aerith's theme is also so good and comforting. I also don't understand what the church is for. Does Midgar have Jesus? The combat is fun though I consistently feel like I'm just scratching the surface of competency with it.
I thought I was getting close to burning out on this but kept going. I dunno what it is. It's just...fun.
Still cranking through at a good pace. It's really fun. I feel like I haven't quite gotten combat mastery but it's just a fun game.
One thing I dislike about these kinds of games is the ludo narrative dissonance of having to look for items in every nook and cranny. Quick, they're going to drop the plate! Okay, hold on while I look everywhere.
I think Vince is let off the hook pretty easy for being pretty heinous.
Holy shit the mermaid?
Got into the first section I think is kind of slow and laggy, the barrage of side quests after the sector 7 plate drops. It's just a weird moment to stall the game out before it really starts to accelerate into the end game.
Didn't finish the pull ups thing. I'm proud of me? I struggled because I was like I should do it now. And then I was like well, I could come back and do it after! I realized though that I would never do it, and not doing it meant I wouldn't get the achievement.
That's okay. Who cares?
Unsure if I'll redo the Yuffie dlc. I feel like I can sneak in finishing a game before Star Wars Zero Company comes out? I'm not saying I'll get it, but it's the first thing I'm very interested in.
I'm not sure the shinra building needed to take longer
The structure of the game is pretty good now that I can fully see it. It's like an old season (as in like 24 episodes) of television. You have your monster of the week episodes and that are their own self contained little story but it still feeds into a slow burn ur-plot. I assume it'll mostly keep that structure until we get to the equivalent of a multi part season finale.
I wrapped up the northern section of the medals academy, beating up a giant bird for an orb. It isn't lost on me that my first Dragon Quest game has me collecting a bunch of spheres that were scattered around the world to collect with characters designed by Toriyama. Where have I seen that before? Hmmmmm.
I appreciate that this game is easy enough that I just feel like I can ignore a lot of little things. I just got this magic key, and am I going to go back and hunt down all the spots from before? Heck no. If I see it I'll get it.
Preliminary party member thoughts:
Erik seems generic as a character but since he started dual wielding he does good damage and is a go to single target guy.
Jade is kind of a slightly more useful Erik in that she has more stuff to hit wide and it feels like she has abilities that hit more specific classes of units, but in bosses I like Erik's toolset better. I think I might slightly prefer her as a trashmobs/exploration person just because she can do some aoe.
Sylvando has kind of improved into a good all-rounder. He's using whips so he's good at cheaply dealing with mobs, he has some support and a bit of healing that's useful.
I can't talk about the twins without talking about Rab, who is basically my magic user of choice. He's well rounded enough to toss a heal when needed or damage when he's got a free turn.
I also think, realistically, that the difficulty of this game is so low that it doesn't matter who you use at all? I know there are ways to make it harder but I'm concerned that it'll just make combat more LONGER and more damage spongey without making it more interesting since the combat system appears to be very basic here, or at least it doesn't tell you how it's not basic. (Are there resistances? Weaknesses?)
I used cheat engine to change the flag on it, damn thing also installed some garbage on it I didn't realize. This should be a crime. Punishable by death.
Hojo is the fucking worst. "She came of her own free will, what is she your property?" He's just some sort of bad faith internet troll and he sucks so hard.
It's been a minute but the back half of the Shinra building, I think basically after you get Aerith back is when it really starts kicking into high gear. The first time, the Sephiroth being here, everything with the whispers really led to this tension of I don't know exactly what's going on here, but it was exciting to feel like that.
It's like the decision for adaptations not to follow too closely so fans of the thing can also be along for the ride. I think that's a really risky decision, you can turn those fans away, but done well you can really breathe new life into it and I think that's what this succeeds at.
Okay, so the draconian change is significant and does make combat more interesting than the prior faceroll. I did the Royal Library dungeon, apparently out of sequence, and it was tough. I basically ran on empty MP wise, I had a fight with a mimic too that REALLY put the hurt on me.
I'm not sure I'll end up keeping it though just because it takes so much longer and it does actively make me kind of want to play it less. Like I had the option for it, or Castlevania earlier and I was just like uhhh, Castlevania, I don't want to slog through it more. And again, it is more interesting, but I think it might be something like 50% more interesting for 100% more slog. Not a good trade off.
DQXIS doesn't have to be a challenging game to be good though. It can just be kind of warm and fun and welcoming, like a good Pokemon game. Another thing I do like about it is that I don't feel the need to really do everything. The Tickington stuff just...didn't really resonate with me and I don't feel compelled to do every side quest. This is something where I can comfortably just follow the critical path and be okay with it.
Battered and bruised, I've fought my way through his final dungeon and beaten all the traps to make it here. Beyond this door lies Louis for the final confrontation before time expires. I steel my party for the coming battle, burning precious, rare consumables to patch wounds and replenish mana. Now ready for the worst, I enter the final stage.
read →Yeah I turned off the Draconian Quest. Got absolutely bogged down just dealing with trash mobs in the hekswood. Also the fact that the Draconian Quest thing just stays up there the whole time is so annoying.
Also found out I sequence broke some after getting totally lost? There was just nothing to do in the library nor the hekswood, so I googled it. Apparently you have to visit the Queen first? Went around and did the things I needed to do. It wasn't bad, went much faster without the Draconian Quest.
The decision to have the Sephiroth reveal at the Shinra building in Hojo's lab and then the long pointless party switching phs stuff is mind boggling to me. Like there's so much narrative momentum and excitement and then we're just going to waste time dicking around? I literally was like "you know what? I did this once already. I could be done with the game."
I persevered though and got to the glowy Jenova blood trail so now it's really all downhill from here.
Okay I really liked the ice city arc and I don't know why. Maybe it's because Krystalinda can get it. But even considering my time wasting out of sequence here I found myself looking fondly at it after we left. Maybe it's the fact that there's just some odd stuff and this place doesn't feel done. The Krystalinda/Queen thing doesn't seem done (the queen is a doofus the witch literally just tried to imprison you again and yet you'll trust her?) There was also the frozen dragon in the fjord on your way out that's definitely going to come up again.
Also poor Rab just randomly getting embarrassed for no reason.
One thing that always trips me up is that Cloud is supposed to be some elite Mako infused SOLDIER and then randos like the Turks or Rufus Shinra can go toe to toe with him no problem.
I do like the boss rush nature of the endgame.
Fuck me I died at the motorcycle boss and had to put the game down and puts you all the way at the start of chapter 18 that's so fucking annoying. Why?
Alright, I've beaten it now. Didn't mean to, just didn't realize there was literally no saving after you step through the glowy portal.
I think this game is a rare jrpg that earned it's insane epicness. It makes sense to fight fate here, much more than it made sense for high schoolers to fight the god of control. It seems that by cashing the checks it wrote all those years ago. We understand why these characters have to fight fate and why here, this time, it's appropriate.
I really like this game overall though. I'm not even someone who's that nostalgic for the original. I played it once in high school and thought it was fine!
Probably won't roll directly into Rebirth after? Before I didn't think so for sure, but the ending is so epic it just makes you want to keep going. Might just do Jedi Fallen Order. I might wrap up a few things in Remake too. I have a couple more battle intel to turn in, I could knock out a few achievements. But I'm not really an achievement hunter guy? I dunno, I'll sleep on it.
We continue ever onward. I assume there's some big act 2 turnaround about to happen at this big ol' tree. I'm banking the pep of my people for the big lottery pep power. I love that thing, getting the huge payout feels awesome.
Poor Hendrik. I'm very here for Sylvando Quest so far. So apparently I'm roughly a third of the way through now? Stunning how much game there is here.
I played a bit of this to get through Jade's vignette and a bit into Erik's. You know, I'm not sure I need vignettes for EVERYONE but maybe it'll payoff at some point?
I'm thinking I'm not going to end up adding anything, I have quite a bit of DQXIS to get through still and I'd like to get that done before Zero Company comes out.
I've finished the vignettes, I was really afraid there'd be one for every character which would have felt like a bit much.
I appreciated the comic nature of the fisherman pulling my character out in full plate and just assuming I'm another fisherman stealing bait off his line, and the surprising warmth and care of the character.
That's the recurring theme within dqxis, warmth and hope in darkness and while it does bludgeon you over the head with it and that's anything but an original story, I think it wears that with such earnestness that it still feels good.
Okay we're back in the main thrust of the story here finally. The king thing was mildly confusing at first since I thought he just...wasn't real or had died or whatever.
I don't understand why I'm so deferential to Hendrik or why he's such a dick! I really expected a contrite "hey I really fucked up but I'm here for you to help right this wrong and my part in it." I also don't get why the king is just the guy in charge either. Shouldn't everyone be looking to help ME instead of giving me orders?
I guess my silent ass couldn't tell them what to do anyways. I really think this game suffers from the devotion to the concept of a silent protagonist. It just makes them so weird and agencyless. don't think there is any value to that in this game. Just make him a regular person.
Hendrik is also the worst robo party member. Dude just hit them, stop buffing and stuff. I do find a perverse joy in looting all this stuff in front of him. Your king's shit is my shit now.
Okay, a bit of contrition from Hendrik. Thank you for acknowledging you suck and I did nothing to deserve it.
The fuck is this shit King? Hendrik saved us all? That dude was just in the vicinity while heroism and history happened. I see now why other guy went to the dark side.
The little vignettes are apparently only in the S version and I cannot imagine how fucking random Sylvando's whole deal feels without that extra information.
This game goes ON. Damn. It feels like most of the runtime of act 2 is going to just be getting the band back together.
Rab does some noble shit and they can't stop shaming him for his girlie mags God damn.
My biggest issue with this game remains the music. The music is good, there's just not enough of it. I just like cannot give this game my full attention because it gets on my nerves.
I'm not certain by what right Irwin is king but I'm not sure whether I'm more offended that Eleanor should be queen and the realm is sexist, or if I should be mad at me for saying just because Irwin doesn't have the right to rule due to his birthright.
It's interesting to me how bloodless this game is. Like some dark shit happens, like betrayal and such but the blades always come out clean. It's also just tonally so weird in general. We get some whiplash from the tragic end of King Irwin to the GLOOMIVORE.
Erik's memory loss seemed so random and unnecessary. Like we could have just not had that plot beat at all?
Mia says she hasn't been Mia for a long time but she was a gold statue until the world tree fell which seems like it wasn't actually that long ago. Maybe she was thinking inside the gold statue in which case I would say she's SHOCKINGLY SANE. Impressively so.
I also feel like Erik got on board with sororicide very quickly. Like of course at the end he can't do it but he spent almost zero time being like "there must be another solution."
Okay I liked this arc but I feel like I got general whiplash from it. Mia was very evil "for a long time" and then was not very evil. They didn't really make it seem like "oh no she was under a spell" it was just she didn't...want to die? Which I guess fair. We also just found out about this sister, and what happened to her, and then that was undone off screen. And Erik being so gung ho for murder and then actually no.
Serena really gets the shortest fucking preamble to join. Everyone else was off doing shit and she's just kind of...around.
This is my second time having beaten FFVII Remake and I just really like this game a lot. I don't even have a particular ton of nostalgia for the original, but this game grows it out of you. It's done with such love and care for the old game, it feels like FFVII came alive. The characters look and sound the way you imagined they would when you played it originally, the soundtrack bigger, fuller, meeting the grandness of the story. The game makes you understand why people fell in love with it so long ago and why it holds such a singular place in Final Fantasy and gaming canon.
read →Man Serena is just the most non-character. For a while it was her and Erik but Serena is the most plain toast person in this cast. Maybe Henrik too I suppose. At least give Serena the protector reveal instead of Veronica? Part of my cynicism is that I don't believe Veronica will stay dead, if she does that's a real change for Serena.
I really like how the game commits to "talk to pink dot on map get a thing pointing to what to do next."
Oooookay so maybe Veronica is dead. Serena just getting her entire playbook seems definitive.
This dragon absolutely beat the shit out of me in the volcano. The town was so easy. I started to think this was a battle you're MEANT to lose.
Beat that dragon and it was a total walkover this time. I think just having Rab and Serena in the starting lineup helped. I just needed that healing throughput. Also felt like the dragon focused people else and spread the damage around.
Any time these characters do a charge up I just absolutely want them to go Super Saiyan.
What the fuck is Gyldygga doing here restraining the team?! Mia is a liar?!
Alright we've rolled credits but as I understand it there's quite a bit left!
Act 3 spoilers: Going back in time to undo shit is just the height of hubris and "I read the script." Like why would you gamble all of the success for a chance at bringing one person who knowingly sacrificed herself FOR THE WIN?
Narratively this is also just such a weird fucking choice. It undoes all the character growth that was had by these people, some of who had huge changes, like Serena and Hendrik.
I guess metanarratively it's the character doing a NG+.
I dunno. This is the first time I've felt like the game might be losing me. Narratively this seems like a weird decision, and mechanically I have to deal with these characters being crap again and having to unlock shit again?
And at this point why not just go back in time to the night Dundrasil fell and stop THAT? I guess that would be TOOOOO crazy.
I think it's weird this game expects me to care about Gemma. I really thought she would be the first party member.
Alright, advanced the plot some. Tried to get this thing for Serena's harp and got my ass beat by this Crystalotl thing. Gonna have to do some grinding!
Well, I'm not going to finish this before Zero Company, but that's fine. I'm pushing the critical path a bit more after doing some exploring and grabbing some more recipes and such.
Overall I still don't really know how I feel about the third act, or the concept of it. It just kind of tosses away the big moments of the first two acts and presents a new villain that I have zero attachment or caring about. It feels reminiscent of P5R, we went from Shido to the God of Control who I didn't care about. Heck, at least the God of Control was a twist on something and not totally random.
Like Veronica's death and Serena's transformation meant something and it felt interesting and impactful and now we're just back to plain toast Serena. Heck, I would have liked it if Veronica stayed big as the seer changed her, but now she's back to being a kid.
I'm going through this thing where Sylvando reconciles with his dad again and it's like...this feels less impactful than it did the first time, both because I've seen it and also because the build up to that was more.
The more I think about it, the more likely it is that zero company coming out is not going to just mean that I play Dragon Quest in parallel. It might just be a break from it
Did this Sylvando/Hendrik quest. Well tried to. I got to these bosses that you're supposed to take down with their pet power and then accidentally killed one so I had to restart. Then I didn't accidentally kill one and I switched in Hendrik and found out that I didn't have the pet power learned because you have to have a specific set of unlocks in both of their skill trees to do it. Which I don't think it told me, maybe I missed it. That's very annoying. I just assumed that as part of this quest they were given the pet power and would be able to unleash it.
Went to do the Crystalotl and it beat the shit out of me. Damn.
I started this because I needed another game to play on the bike. You know, something slower paced. Easy to start and stop. The art is interesting so far. I had a moment of triumph where I refused to buy a new sword for Crono because I could just feel in my bones I was going to get a newer, better one for free and then I did!
I think DQXIS is done. I thought about farming to be able to beat the Crystalotl and was just like...no, I'm good on that. What I might do is cheat heavily, give myself a bunch of free levels and then just finish out the game? But also I suppose I could just watch the ending on Youtube or something? I dunno. It's definitely done For Now. Maybe I'll come back.
I was really concerned if I'd like this because I bounced off FFVI so hard but that seems like much less of a concern here. Lucca and Marle seem like much more interesting characters and they're not portrayed so... seriously. The entire thing doesn't take itself seriously, it's clearly trying to be funny. And to be fair, FFVI was funny, but it just gave some severe whiplash, melodrama to absurdity and back again.
The combat is also better. Timing (I get it) being an aspect beyond just atb is really good!
Started this today, Lily's been asking to watch me play it. I got it on steam sale a bit ago, I've never played it.
The intro is the most early 2000s ass thing of all time. The character designs, the music, the cool twilight lettering.
The disney characters look so lovely and Sora looks like a fucking nightmare.
Game is sooooo basic and soooooo slowly paced.
I dislike how old school jrpgs expect you to have all the time in the world to just talk to everyone until you happen to talk to the right person to advance the plot.
Other than that standard old school game lack of handholding I'm really enjoying it right now.
I do wish it was easier to look through all the techs, it's a lot of scrolling through.
I have been playing through a lot of this game. It's pretty fun. I might be playing it too quickly to properly digest all of the reasons why I like it. I've been trying to be more mindful and not write as many notes during.
Some gripes. I really think that the UI is a little bit in my way. Having the stuff on the second screen is better than having it on the main screen. I tried classic settings because I felt like I couldn't pay attention to what was happening on the screen because I was trying to pick my character's stuff at the same time. I was just missing stuff that was going on there so I thought classic would help me do both. It's so cramped.
The dinosaur dungeon takes too long and there are just too many fucking fights. This thing literally broke me until I realized that I could save scum because what would happen is you fall through the floor and then you have to refight the things that you just fought. It's like, why? It's like, oh I can just reload the save state before I do all the button pressing and then I won't fall through the floor.
This has killed every other game for me today though. I did feel a pang to play a little bit of Metroid Dread but I was like, let's just keep grinding on this.
Thoughts about characters? Well I like most of them. They all have their own charm and I think that's partially just because there are fewer of them. (I'm gonna keep comparing this to Final Fantasy VI just because they're both super great SNES JRPGs and VI is the one I played recently and bounced off hard.) But part of the issue that I had with Six is that there are so many party members that I'm supposed to care about and then they just keep going in and out of the party. It's just hard to build an attachment and I find that very frustrating about JRPGs.
For the most part people stay. You get to keep at least your core three: Chrono, Marle, and Lucca. Then Robo stays as soon as you get him too. Alya and Frog dip in and out but it doesn't feel like forever between it. I do really wish you could play with the fourth party member although I wouldn't be able to juggle the ATB effectively at that point.
Maybe I should try the wait mode or a slower game speed but that seems also worse in it's own way (making combats take longer).
One thing I do love about these older games is that you can finish them a lot faster, as we've seen with the Metroids and this game. I am finishing games more quickly than I can write post-mortems about it though.
I found out that Crono's name only doesn't have the H in it because of character limitations. I don't know what's dumber: that they wanted to name him Crono, that they couldn't name him Crono because of the limitation, or that they were unwilling to fix the limitation.
Like his name as is isn't so good or anything but it's at least less on the nose. You could imagine it being a character's name in the universe as opposed to the one with the H or it's just like, "Oh it's time boy. I named my child Time."
I do feel like it is bogging me down with too many little fights. That would be my biggest complaint so far.
Got through the ocean palace, lost a Crono, gained a Magus. All quite standard.
Oh I see. We're doing a fetch quest through time.
Moving through the side quests here. MAYBE WE COULD JUST CHECK THE BASEMENT FOR THE RAINBOW SHELL?! The chancellor could have tried harder here.
I think if this game has a miss, it's that there's not more of stuff like the campfire scene leading into Lucca's side time travel journey. That scene is so dread inspiring and I up entered the password the first time because I didn't understand exactly what it wanted me to do. I reloaded the save to go do it again, which I think is a testament to how powerful that is. Obviously she would go back and redo that moment if she could in the exact same way. I would go back and redo that moment if I could and it's not even real and it's not even my mom.
Too many fights here in the end game dungeon. I've also definitely settled on Crono, Robo, and Ayla as my main 3.
I do like how Lavos just seems to be some kind of entity. It's not a dark demon with goals. It's just some kind of...animal that wants to become the "perfect life" or whatever?
Also it's Cell?
If we're so worried about Robo not being made in the future he could just hang out here. Frog too!
I got what the wiki says is ending 1B. It's a very good ending.
This game holds up. I think compared to it's contemporaries and even now, it does a good job at a lot of things. This has to be the best turn based combat on the SNES, it and Super Mario RPG. The characters exude personality and are easy to keep straight. They each have very clear lanes that communicate a lot very quickly, which is really important in this era.
Well immediately on to the next one. We're doing the Switch Pixel Remaster!
It was called a bomb ring Cecil what did you EXPECT?
Already I can tell this has some of the speed issues of VI. Like we get to the point very quickly!
If this game loses me it'll be because the random encounter density is too high. There's an option to turn them off which I may flip on and off. I wish I could just tune it instead of it being so binary.
I do feel myself uncompelled to play this at all. I'm not totally sure why. It's just not grabbing me. I don't feel frustrated with it or anything. Uncompelled.
I think it could be a lack of hand holding and direction? Also it's not compelling me visually.
I don't know. I'll have to reflect on it more.
This game is so cute and cozy with this art style, this might be the correct way for these games to be.
I also thought the first person perspective for fights was weird, but now I kind of dig it. It's very cute.
I don't know why I like this more than FFIV but I do. It seems basically similar to it, with a similar shallow depth of combat.
It's probably because it's actually challenging?
This game is annoying. Screw the bombs, and this needle attack that just destroys people? It's really vexing how they don't tell you anything (standard for the time I assume) like what is Yang good at? Is there a point to kick? What does pray do? Why is it so much better than Edward's heal?
Additionally, what is the point of the antlion fight? It's just so easy. Why are we wasting my time with this interactive cutscene.
The game does a really bad job of expectation setting too. Cecil hits hard, everyone else sucks.
Also some annoying qol stuff, I'm used to Phoenix down just auto targeting or at least being unusable on your up characters. Nope. Wasted one and a turn that way. Also tents don't get people back up. That's how I would describe this half hour. Annoying.
Yeah, I'm just out on this. I think I've learned a lot here about what makes me tick. This game is just too thin mechanically and the story isn't enough to pull me through.
Alright, we made it out of the childhood act. God damn this game gets dark as hell. They are not pulling any punches with the "boy it must suck to be a child slave for ten years." It's so random and feels out of place with the brightness of the look.
We got to the monster recruiting part and it’s still fun. My biggest issue so far is just the aimlessness of it. Just point me at things better. I feel like I just need the outline of a walkthrough. Go here, talk to this dude next. The game is just willing to let you flounder for a while until you get to the right spot. I ain’t got time for that!
If you want to destroy my sweater story, Pull this (plot) thread as I walk away. -- Weezer Me
read →I found a slime knight! And now we're investigating the happenings at Harry's old house.
How on earth was I supposed to know to go get Maria to get in the tower? It's also very annoying that the monsters don't listen to you. I get that they eventually will but it sucks. Also this old ass man wouldn't let me take the portal back to Coburg at night for no apparent reason?
Extremely frustrating fifteen minutes of gameplay.
I finished the prince's quest extremely glad I never wasted any seeds on this mofo and then got my cat back.
Also got through picking my wife. After consulting THE INTERNET I went with Debora. Kind of crazy that the ds exclusive wife is considered the best written and the best mechanically? If I replay again I'll pick Bianca.
I listened to a podcast recently, Triple Click, and they had the concept of a canon that they would come back to: ten games that are an example of what they like in games so someone could understand their perspective. I thought this was a fun idea! Another thing I liked was that this was a living document, it was meant for you to come back and update it to show how you've changed.
read →Debora kind of sucks right now but Mr. Briscoletti is awesome as hell. So much love from that dude.
Enjoying this overall. I don't think it's as good as DQXIS but how could it be? It's just missing a ton of QOL stuff and improvements learned over the decades since. I also miss the big skill tree in XIS a lot. The progression is definitely lacking in this game and yet it still remains fun.
I think the choice to have basically no party members just monsters for long stretches is highly questionable. It's also a little frustrating that the recruit rate is so random. I feel like this game would be so much easier with one of those cureslimes and I spent a good hot minute trying to get one.
Also thank the lord I'm playing this emulated, the ability to fast forward is so nice.
God damn some dramatic stuff happens in this game. Got the kids though.
The kids after being weak, ineffective, and an overall drain on resources are now coming into their own and pulling their own weight.
I almost quit this game tonight. I finished up the Zenithian thing, needed to leave to find the gold orb and had to go back through Diggery Pokery. Like come on man, let me evac, is that not what this spell is for? I did not want to walk back through this mine cart nonsense. Legit almost decided I've seen enough!
Alright, I had to grind to get both parts of this dragon eye. I did turn on a cheat to do 4x exp gain because I find grinding offensive to my valuable time. We're close to the end here and well, I'm ready to be over it.
DQXIS was definitely more captivating. The mechanics here are a little thin. I thought the monster recruitment might be more interesting but it just isn't because you ride with Slime Knight so long and the rest are just okay, and then the kids come in and they're better than everyone else.
I also think this game is pretty good story wise but like it's gated through optional party talk. Sometimes I'll be playing and then I realize I should just be checking in with the kids or the wife or whatever.
Which is another weird strength/issue with this game! There are stretches (pretty long) where there's nobody to talk to and check in. That chat is awesome but they just don't let you do it.
Two more bosses down, we're pretty close to the end here. Found my wife statue, not entirely sure why she can't just be unrocked like me. Overall I'd say I'm pretty disappointed in how long it takes to get the wife back especially because it was billed as such a huge, monumental choice.
The monsters that change your party tactics need to be removed from the game. It's a cute thing the first time but it's purely a time waster.
We beat this too. Okay, so meeting your mom and then losing her didn't land as well for me. I think there is an issue where the story isn't as resonant due to lack of voice over and real cinematics. The wife also has shockingly little to say.
Speaking of, I consistently feel like this game could/should run twice as fast most of the time. The sage's stone is essentially broken.
The victory lap here is much too manual.
I think this is primarily a let down of expectations and in hindsight it never could have capitalized. The ds is just not going to be able to execute on it. There are great ideas here but the end result falls short.
Chrono Trigger is a great game but while playing it I can see the seams. This feels like a game where there just wants to be more time and room to let the beats hit and show the characters. The campfire scene is so good and I wish there was more stuff like that in here.
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