Lurker > heroicmario

You must have accidentally sniffed up the wrong armpit when you were crawling up one of those burly monsters!

I just lost my vision for a second.

Metroid Prime 2 was a bold choice, 2006 me.

Oh man, all these posts are taking me back. I wish I could lay eyes on that Cloud nonsense. I should have edited that into a FF wiki page. Who would challenge me and take it down?

Yes!! This is what I needed. Good stuff.

transience posted...

here's some silly fun. so, those of you that know me well know that I love stats of really useless things, so of course I have exhaustive cataloging of my old games lists. here are the games that have made every one of my lists since 2003 (actually early 2004, but I call it 2003 to make reading it easier).

https://i.imgur.com/49I4Q1S.png

check out ffx, which has dropped a few places every single year I've done this but yet somehow still sits in the top 50.

(if anyone for whatever stupid reason happens to have my 2012 list, please let me know! there are some weird archivers around here.)

Also, if someone has the last list *I* made, I would be down for seeing that as well!

Leonhart4 posted...

I guess I need to start working on my list when I get home tomorrow

Im down for this.

I should get a list going.

transience posted...

:)

here's my DQ takes in tiers

great: 8, 11
good: 3, 1, 4
okay: 6, 5
ehh: 7, 9
bad: 2

You know, this is okay, I think. My very unique and specific feelings about DQ7 aside, this is solid. Im always here for someone else extolling the virtues of DQ1.

I would happily do the classic move of following you up, but have you seen what youve done to the this place at large? Haha. Are people truly ready to hear a take about the what a real deal means to a man called Rusty?

transience posted...

when it comes to really popular games that I thought sucked, I've always gone with the 1-2 punch of FF8 and Mario 64. I also somewhat dislike (but not hate) Wind Waker, Mario Kart 64, Little Big Planet and most Sonic games. I guess this is the time where I say that I don't really like Dragon Quest 5 all that much either despite all the love for it amongst the fanbase.

I reacted to this.

You changed some tiers on me, but here it is!

1) Chrono Trigger
2) Dragon Warrior Monsters
3) Hacknet
4) Monument Valley
5) Metroid Fusion
6) Slay the Spire
7) Persona 3 Portable
8) Final Fantasy 9
9Ace Attorney
10) N++
11) Binding of Isaac

Wow, this top 3! I did not expect this sort of shakeup since I last saw this list, but I love it! Celeste is one I still need to finish, super good, tho!

Well... now that I think I think about, I say saved, but Abrams went out and found Zombie Palpatine in the aftermath of no Snoke, so what do I know!

If anything, I thought Kylo appeared and came off as more redeemable after TLJ rather than less so. His scenes with Rey didnt suggest someone beyond the point of no return, in my eyes, and his backstory made him a sympathetic figure. The way Ive always seen it, Vader was so much worse than Kylo ever was, and yet! To be fair to your point, tho, it could just as well have went with Kylo pivoting fully dark in TROS. That wasnt my reador hopebut I could have seen it happening all the same. TLJ left a lot open for the final movie to work with, however they wanted to play it.

Mr Lasastryke posted...

abrams probably planned kylo = sequel trilogy's vader, snoke = sequel trilogy's emperor but johnson screwed that up

Johnson saved us from that, if anything! But I know people have strong feelings about this in both directions.

Zero Missions heavier gravity and physics work so well with the tight level structure. Like, its one of a handful of examples of such good game feel. I think Super Metroid is better overall, but only after you understand what it demands. ZM is so much more intuitive, and thats something I always give it over SM.

KamikazePotato posted...

Kylo being redeemed is bad writing. I'll leave it at that.

Mmm, I would say how they redeemed him was not great, but the choice to have him be redeemed is fine. It speaks more broadly to the problems with J.J. Abrams direction for the movie, but the sacrifice and death at the end is such a retread of the OT that it isnt interesting, or even earned. The groundwork for Kylos redemption was set up the whole time, but instead of continuing to explore his increasingly erratic behavior *because* of his internal struggle, and how haunted he continues to be for killing Han, we double back to rebuild ol faithful again, and then do the Darth Vader thing of working for the Emperor but not really to try to recruit Rey for half the movie. But then we get the DS2 stuff, which is great, its good, I like the symbolic death of Kylo here, BUT THEN nothing else happens to sell or give that an interesting, satisfying conclusion afterward. His last line in the movie is ow, which is like... what!

I dont know, Ive racked by brain trying to understand the choices that went into the conclusion of their own character in the final stretch and how unsatisfying it was and Im at a loss to explain it!

iiicon posted...

yeah there's an english translation for terry's wonderland

i did import a japanese 3ds and grabbed theatrhythm and 11, although the reason i bought a japanese 3ds was to play monster hunter generations

Oh... oh no. The one on Switch? You know, I wouldnt even sweat it. You can never be too sure with Capcom.

I wish SE could carve out a sustainable, profitable fanbase to make bringing over all the smaller DQ games worthwhile.

Are we talking the 3DS remake? Am I remembering wrong, or do you not have quite a few imported 3DS DQs? Maybe that was Theatrhythm? I cant remember, but I know it was something!

Sounds right. Maybe I import more DQ games along the way.

Im trying to envision a world where I was into DQM instead of Pokemon Red/Blue.

The highest compliment I can give Breath of the Wild is that to this day its still a game I think about. When Im playing other games, when I want something relaxing to play, when I think about the idea of adventure and exploration in games. I think you nailed it about the hill. BOTW engages a part of video games, I think, has been a bit lost over timethe joy of discovery, irrespective of reward. If I spend 30 minutes getting to that hill, and theres nothing there but a nice view or somewhere I havent seen before, thats okay. Im not disappointed that it didnt lead to some sweet gear, even if I think it might every time. Just the best.

Mega Man 2 is the Chrono Trigger of platformers for me. Its such an endlessly playable and fun time! Im surprised it isnt higher.

Kylo was great, but they just didnt stick the landing in TROS. He was the entire emotional pull of the sequel trilogy, which makes it all the more bizarre that they treated him as completely frivolous in the last 10 minutes of the movie. The power of two heals the one, but Ill tell you whatit doesnt take two to beat the one!

I wish I had played AM2R when it was everywhere. I would have no idea how to even get there now, if its even possible, but it sounds so good. Much better than Metroid 2, at least! Truth be told, the M2 remake on the 3DS didnt even resonate super strongly with me either. It might be that game!

V is undoubtedly one of the best indie games of the past decade, right there with Hollow Knight and Celeste for me.

Chrono Trigger, for my money, is the best playing RPG to this day. Just a tour de force of incredible pacing and sequences that keep it engaging the whole way through. Definitely a game that is more than the sum of its parts. I wish they would give us something more recent than the DS version to play. Its a perfect Switch experience.

Duty and Resolve MXCII

It played Palpatines message that was referenced in the scrawl. Apparently, they couldnt figure out how to work it into the movie without messing with the pacing, so Fortnite.

Ponchos are truly the worst, I feel that, I have not worn a single one of them, because they all look so bad! I wish he had entirely different outfits to collect, not just ponchos or color changes of his default.

I dont remember much about Outland, but I do know it had a great game feel. Thats so key for platformer, and if nothing else, if you can nail that, Im down.

All of what you said is undeniably true, in addition to being pretty unpolished technically, but it all just hits the right notes in my head. The platforming is so simple and basic, and yet its so satisfying to do every time. Fallen Order is a deeply flawed game, but its my favorite Dark Souls adjacent game Ive played. Maybe thats owed to the Star Wars trappings. I would love to see Jedi 2 be a bit more ambitious in its design, lose Cal, and clean up all the technical shortcomings. Still top 3 of the year, tho!

This is my Suikoden 2.

1) A New Hope
2) The Last Jedi
3) Return of the Jedi
4) The Force Awakens
5) The Empire Strikes Back
6) Solo
7) The Rise of Skywalker
8) Rogue One
9) Revenge of the Sith
10) The Clone Wars
11) The Phantom Menace

TROS is a strange movie to talk about. My thoughts after seeing twice have been that it is an incredibly *watchable* movielightning pacing, fun action, some humorbut if you hold it up to any scrutiny at all, the whole thing comes crashing down. Star Wars movies have always meant to be fun romps, but TROS takes that to such a degree that you cant even take away any sort of message or morsel of deeper meaning from it all, because its sort of unconcerned with being anything else but a ride. The worst thing it did was make Rey a conduit for twists and audience winking instead of building on the great stuff The Last Jedi laid out. Well, that, or totally failing to land the idea of the Force Dyad in the last battle by just making Kylo sort of irrelevant? God, its so frustrating when you even just scratch the surface of anything they did!

But its still better than any of the prequelsand TFA and TLJ were legitimately great!

My first experience with Ikaruga was buying it for, like, $15 on GameCube at GameStop. I had no idea what I was getting into, but man, what a video ass video game. I never finished it, but that was okay!

DQ11 is so good. I got started on it, and made a good dent in the story, but never got around to finishing it. I need to get back after I finish a couple of games Im playing now. I put DQ11 right there with Xenoblade for the best RPG this decade.

iiicon posted...

i mean in the sense that it's a pretty good game still worth playing through, not the spectacle of it

i think it compares pretty favourably to the rpgs released the year it came out too - things like vesperia, valkyria, crisis core, twewy, p4. the only one i'd definitely take ahead of it is p3 fes

This was truly a dark era for JRPGs. You know what, though, Ill give some kudos to Crisis Core for committing so hard to its story that it created a whole gameplay mechanic around selling that ending. Not a good game, but you know.

iiicon posted...

i play ff14 almost exclusively for the story so really it's only committing about 60 hours for an rpg every 2 years

the problem is we're now 4 campaigns in so it's a big ask for new people

This is actually an interesting way of framing it. When you consider it that way, its not so bad. But yeah, when its 250 hours worth of content to go through it becomes so daunting. Can you skip all that early stuff at all?

transcience posted...

MMOs terrify me because I still think of them like wow and everquest and I cant have that in my life. I need a game that I can take a break from and not feel like Im missing out.

This is why the trend thats been happening the last couple years of publishers making so many live games kinda sucks for me. Every game demands that you stick with it consistently, and if you dont, it feels like youre behind or missing out, and maybe have to play that much more to get back into the swing of things to catch up with everyone else.

If I were to whip up a list of, I dont know, top 50 video games? I think Lost Odyssey would still track for me. The worst thing may be what you mentionedbattle pacingbut its such a pillar of a game from that generation for me.

I have a questioncan we get bonus thoughts on the excellence that was Lost Odyssey? Maybe my favorite game we played separate but together, haha.

Mm, yeah, I know what you mean about loot games. Those can be really fun (Destiny) right up until the point where youve exhausted the major content, and then shifts into this hours long grind to get multiples of the same gear but maybe it increases your damage by fractions of percent. Thats partially what has always turned me off MMOsthe time investment and what it asks relative to what you get out of it.

Gotta update my tier rankings here. Were getting to the home stretch!

1) Hacknet
2) Monument Valley
3) Persona 4 Golden
4) Slay the Spire
5) Final Fantasy 9
6) Binding of Isaac

I liked Bleed when I played it a year or so ago, but man, Im not sure these hit as all-time games for me. They feel a bit like empty calories, you know? Fun in the moment, then just forgotten right after.

Im surprised SH1 has held so strong, but I think between the two (SH1/2), it has a unique vibe to it that makes it stand out as something a bit more special. Like you mentioned, I think those PS1-era RPGs hold better than PS2.

Dicey Dungeons! Thats a game I so want to be on Switch. It seems like the perfect game to play in bed.

SF5 is probably on my shortlist for most disappointing follow up ever. I sunk hundreds of hours into SF4 in a way that I have with few others, and to know they just totally goofed what should have been an easy shot with SF5 is just so upsetting. On the other hand, what a way to validate the significance of SF4. I see what you mean about where it could land anywhere on the list.

iiicon posted...

i think in particular the aesthetics and setting are your brand of FF, and then when shadowbringers hits it plays with the formula and expectations in ways you'd really be into

just gotta stop playing other games for a couple months to get there!

See, this sounds so good. Let these guys work on FF16!

iiicon posted...

i did a top 20 in response to hm doing one last year. i think his was top 25 maybe? here's where i landed

Your gaming list has always been weirdly aspirational for me. Its like, I admire how diverse yet cohesive it all is? You can see the through line of how all these games connect back to tell a story of your taste in games. I always try to start this way and end up falling way short in my own top lists in that regard. It just looks so good laid out, haha.

Ive heard so many good things about the story content in FF14that sentiment that it is a top FF game is enticing. I wish it were distilled down into a consumable single player experience separate of the MMO trappings.

Shadow Hearts 2 is a perfect example. I loved it to pieces a decade ago, but now? Mmm, tough, its tough. I just know if I played it today I wouldnt enjoy it or see it through in the same way, but what memories! I feel like that can be half the battle when making a list is where you land on this stuff.

Mario Odyssey is a gift. It might lack some of the direction of a Galaxy or 3D World, but talk about a game where its just fun to run around and do jumps and flips. Still probably a top 10 game for me.

iiicon posted...

hm play ff14

Austin Walkers FF14 journey is about as close as I could get to delving into that monster. It sounds fascinating, but that 100 hour until good content commitment!
transience posted...

well, I played all of 'em this year so it's just how much I like each at this point in time. I try not to make it too complicated. I do think replayability is a big factor since what's the point of thinking highly of a game if it's not fun to pick up and play again? I don't worry about objective quality that much.

No, totally, Im with youobjective quality is irrelevant in a personal top 100 list. Its just, like, when you know you used to like a game, but you have no real desire to play it again, or maybe you do and it hasnt held up, but the memories are still good. Or vice versa. It can be a tough one for me!

Youre not wrong! I kind of feel like we have similar thoughts about FF as a whole these days, maybe a little difference of order preference, but the real elite section (1-20) might have one FF game? Two at most? Im curious how you feel about this, actually. When you rank games, does it ever factor in how much you would want to revisit the game? Or, like, how nice it sounds to play it again, even if you dont?

So, Im looking at these recaps, and Im thinking, how would I rank these tiers. Turns out thats harder than I thought, but I did it. I did the inequality thing.

Hacknet > Monument Valley > Persona 4 Golden > Final Fantasy 9 > Binding of Isaac