Lurker > Gamefreak1000

ConfusedTorchic posted...

don't play dragons dogma then

lack of proper fast travel really made the game a lot shittier feeling than it is

Understandable, but I actually like the way early game travel is handled, and wish more games had something like it.

Visibility is extremely poor at night, and there are more enemies about, so it's generally not advisable to traverse long distances in the dark. I enjoyed reaching a checkpoint and having to determine if I have enough daylight to reach my destination, or if I should rest until morning. Added to the sense of adventure. I also like how some roads are blocked by armed rogues during the day, but actually safer at night since they're at their own camp. Felt rewarding being more knowledgeable about the world, and helped plan a route.

But then you get the Eternal Ferry stone as soon as you reach Gran Soren and that element of the game kinda vanishes. It's still there when traveling to new areas, but it's not as prevalent. I also liked the port crystal system where you could set your own fast travel points anywhere you wanted, and it's especially handy on replays. I like placing one at the chest containing Salomet's Grimoire so I can clear the quest immediately with a quick back and forth. The system encourages you to be a bit picky with where you place your stones, but still offers huge skips without completely breaking the game.

How effective the escort route is depends heavily on what the TC wants, and what's holding him back in the first place. It's silly to act like getting an escort will magically solve all of their issues. Likewise, I think it's silly to act like getting an escort couldn't possibly help him at all.

You're paying for their time and company, and while sex is a big part of it, there's nothing stopping someone from using that time to practice talking to a woman, or practice expressing themselves sexually. Even going through the effort of propositioning to a woman can be a big step forward, especially if they've never done something like that before. The transactional nature of the entire thing, as well as the underlying sexual expectations, can alleviate a lot of the pressure they may be struggling with. The escort is also more likely to make the first move if someone like the TC is having difficulty asserting himself onto someone.

It can dispel some of the mystique around sex, and be a confidence booster. You have people in this very topic who've gone that route with no regrets, stating it helped them get over some of the hurdles they were dealing with beforehand. You also have someone in this topic who wishes they didn't do it and I believe that's equally valid. I know someone who reluctantly got an escort and felt unsatisfied after the whole ordeal, but also frustrated that they spent their entire life up to that point worrying about sex just to find out it wasn't all that great (which makes sense in this case). A few months later however, they got their first girlfriend, so it seems to have helped them get over whatever mental block they were having.

The TC hasn't commented one way or the other in the matter, so I'm not sure where they stand. If they're not interested in an escort, then I don't think suggesting they get one is gonna help all too much. If they are interested in it however, I think they should be encouraged to give it a shot, and telling them it won't help at all is probably bullshit.

There's a lot of possible reasons why TC is in this predicament, and how helpful getting an escort will be is up to them to decide. I find that most people who are adamant it won't help at all have never been in TCs situation, and have no real understanding of the struggles they face.

Not playable, no.

But FE7 has two bosses with both my first and last name.

What an incredible journey, quite possibly my favorite Square Enix RPG.

The game is extremely dense, arguably too dense. I decided very early on that I wanted to see everything this game had to offer, but I had no idea just how much that would actually be. I really started to feel the burn out around Cosmo Canyon, but as a whole I found the pacing actually better than Remake. Mainly because practically everything I was doing was optional content, and I was willingly choosing to comb through it. While I wouldnt have minded if some of the content was cut (Gongaga feels the most like filler), I was truly enjoying all the side quests, Queens Blood, and exploration. I did end up taking long breaks from the game, especially around chapter 12, but it always managed to suck me back in whenever I did commit to a play session.

There are so many memorable moments and scenes that really capture the tone of the original 90s JRPG, but taken to a whole new level. Gathering and organizing your squad for the Junon march was fun, and I liked the additional story beats with Yuffie and Rufus. The Queens Blood tournament on the ship being capped off by Red XIII in the Shinra outfit was a hilarious adaptation I wasnt expecting. Hojo being surrounded by ladies on the beach and the game labeling it Hojos Mojo was great. The Corel storyline and everything involving Barret was one of the key moments I was looking forward to in the remake, and it delivered excellently. The Gold Saucer felt like the big highlight of the game (similar to Remakes Wall Market), and both visits were a blast! Vehicles like the Buggy and Tiny Bronco felt way more realized compared to the OG game, and I liked how each region had a different chocobo gimmick for travel. I enjoyed the variety in the protorelic quests, as well as all the comedy surrounding Gilgamesh. The unique mini-games sprinkled throughout could be hit or miss, but there are more good ones than bad, and they add a lot of charm to the game.

The game acts as both an adaptation of the original FF7, and a sequel to FF7 Remake. I was pleasantly surprised at the sheer amount of Remake cameos that showed up throughout the game. It made me thankful I replayed Remake before starting Rebirth, as I wouldnt have appreciated all these characters otherwise. After seeing even Jules show up, I KNEW that ole Don Corno would be in the game somewhere, and I was hype for his appearance at the saucer (and Im looking forward to his role in Wutai for game 3).

While I do wish Cid and Vincent were playable, they were more involved in the story than I thought theyd be, and I enjoyed what Vincent added to the Nibel region. The rest of the cast received notable gameplay improvements from Remake, and the flexible party throughout the game was very welcome. I also enjoyed how the game used the larger cast to split the party into groups during various segments, encouraging you to use everyone in some capacity. Cloud and Barret were my main team, with the 3rd slot being flex depending on the region (Red XIII for Cosmo Canyon, Tifa for Nibelheim, Aerith for Temple of the Ancients, etc.)

The character writing and banter between the group is top notch. One issue I have with the OG FF7 is that if a character isnt in your party, they practically dont exist. Thats not at all the case in Remake/Rebirth, and these two games make me a huge fan of the characters in a way the OG could not. Barret in particular I found great in Rebirth, and Aerith continues to be an extremely likable character who also shines in this game.

Speaking of Aerith, Im overall satisfied with what they did with her in regards to the ending, even if the final stretch of the game itself is a bit lacking. I didnt care much for the final boss gauntlet, or the story getting so off the rails and confusing by the end (though honestly I kinda expected this after Remakes ending). Im simply happy the game remained relatively faithful and killed her off. This was the ending I expected from the beginning, and I would have been irritated if they went with the save her route. The ambiguity surrounding her death is a bit odd, and I do think the lack of water burial is a missed opportunity, but I do like how it plays into Clouds deteriorating mental state. Him being the only one who can see her is probably the best compromise I could ask for, and Im eager to see how this plays into the 3rd game since it appears hes refusing to accept her death. With that in mind, skipping the water burial to feed into his delusions makes some sense, and well probably see it once he finally grieves her death in the 3rd game (which likely will be a key part in repairing his psyche in this version of the story).

Zacks storyline I found a bit of a let down. Upon first beating Remake four years ago, I was not at all happy with Zack being alive. After playing through Crisis Core however, I warmed up to the idea since I liked his character. For someone on the cover, hes really not involved much at all in the main story, but thats not exactly a bad thing. I just wish they did more with it, as the payoff at the end of the game felt a bit lacking.

Overall, I can definitely understand many of the complaints people have with the game, but theres too much good content for me to be soured by the ending. While the destination could have been handled better, I found the journey there to be incredible! Rebirth has a real sense of adventure, and its the most fun Ive had with an RPG in a long time.

By the end of the year I plan to go through it again on Hard mode and finish collecting the small amount of things I missed. Remakes hard mode gave me a true appreciation for the game's combat system and elevated my opinion on the game. Rebirth offers an even more in-depth battle system that Im excited to utilize, and I can't wait to see how a level 70 party performs! For now though, Im taking a very long break from the game. Ill be focusing on FF14 and 16 and will only return to Rebirth once Im done with those.

Never finished the anime, but I've read the manga a couple times and I really enjoy it. Still have absolutely no idea how GO is played.

DocileOrangeCup posted...

Is there just the one OP?

There's a few, and they're all great imo

Touch posted...

Huh. Didn't know HxH was from the same creator as YYH. That's cool.

And yeah I get that the last season was more of a maturing for Yusuke Hiei and Kurama. It just...felt weird lol. They set up these demon kings to be so scary and dangerous. Makuro to be this ruthless tyrant. And in the end every one of them were actually pretty reasonable.

I feel you. I was really digging the demon politics in the first half, and the possibility of Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei becoming enemies. The tournament was a swerve, but coulda been cool. I do like Yusuke vs Yomi, but I agree it feels off. The pacing is wack and a lot of the setup is just dropped.

On rewatches though, it's easier for me to appreciate what the arc provides, and I focus less on all the missed opportunities. I still think it's the weakest arc, but I don't dislike it anymore.

HxH is pretty cool, and I think the anime ends on a much stronger note than YYH.

Three Kings arc is definitely a disappointment, but I've come to terms with it over the years. Togashi was hard burning out by that point, and the manga off-screen's even more of the arc. The anime team did a pretty solid job considering what little they had to work with.

The biggest reason I think YYH holds up to this day is the characters, and while the plot of the three kings arc was shafted, I think it does a great job resolving the characters inner conflicts (which is ACTUALLY what that arc is about). This is also why I'm ok with Kuwabara being side lined. At the beginning of the arc, Yusuke, Hiei, and Kurama were struggling with what to do with themselves, but Kuwabara didn't need to go on this journey of self discovery because he already knows EXACTLY what he wants. While the other three are fighting, Kuwabara matures and realizes faster than any of them that there's more to life than combat. It's definitely a bit unorthodox for a shonen fighting series, but I respect it. I think it highlights how sometimes when you're growing up that your closet friends can take a different path from you, but that doesn't mean it has to be the end of the friendship.

If you want more, consider reading the final volume of the manga. The three kings arc ends 2 chapters in, and the last 6 chapters + ending are notably different than the anime.

Welp, made a new account and started playing again. The game is just as bad as I remember it lmao. Maybe a bit worse, it feels quite slow due to the walking speed, tiny stamina pool, and limited inventory space.

That said, there's a nostalgic charm to it, and the slow pace of the game really does make it a good "second monitor" idle game. I can throw on a podcast and grind during the duration while barely paying attention to the game. It's unlikely I'll sub (rather just pay for a month of FFXIV if I'm gonna do that) but I think I'll explore all the f2p content at least.

How's f2p these days? Haven't played since middle school, and I'm feeling an urge to make a new account and go through the quests again.

I actually ended up replaying all 3 very recently.

Birthright is pretty mediocre. It's a slow enemy-phase game with most maps being rout, and higher difficulties just sending waves of low quality enemies at you. The story is very bare basic, but the least offensive of the trilogy. It's also very diluted, intentionally introducing plot points that it ignores so that it can be covered in another game. From a purely gameplay perspective, I think it's better than Awakening at least.

Conquest is pretty good. Varied map design, rewards player-phase aggression, and difficulty comes in the form of giving enemies some threatening skills, which is the most interesting way to handle the difficulty compared to the other two. I think conquest strikes a great balance between being somewhat limited like old Fire Emblem games, while still having a lot of flexibility with it's class system. Story is very stupid with the plot constantly bending over backwards to make Corrin not the bad guy. Overall the best game of the bunch.

Revelation is rough. Maps are extremely gimmicky (some hits, some miss), unit balance is absolutely awful, and it provides a very unsatisfying conclusion to the joke of a story. Difficulty design is stat based, so rather than fight a bunch of low quality enemies like Birthright, you instead fight a few very strong enemies (which are about on par with your own units). I think this is a little more interesting than Birthright, but it ultimately encourages just funneling all your kills and resources into a select few units (primarily Corrin) and low manning the game.

Mechanically the games are very well designed, especially compared to the dogshit pair-up mechanics in Awakening. The problem is it lacks charm. Awakening wishes it had the map and mechanical design of Fates, and Fates wishes it had the story, world, and characters to lure you in like Awakening.

philsov posted...

It had a few novel gimmicks, most notably the "everyone needs to be tiny" sections, and other parts which forced your party to conform to the dungeon like Mystic Knights in the Cave of Splitting Enemies, Scholars right at the moment when you need them to peep, or "everyone be a dragoon and jump together to avoid AoE murder" boss.

I like the concept of this, but I feel like the "job sickness" mechanic ruins the execution. I'd feel more inclined to try out alternate jobs to adjust my strategy if I wasn't punished every time I switched. I hear the pixel remaster fixes this though, so I may try that version someday.

Robot2600 posted...

"too grindy" is such an lol response, imo

that's the entire point. jrpgs are easy as fuck. i like them grindy.

This is such an lol response, imo.

You literally said earlier in this topic you don't have time to play the games on steam, but somehow wasting hours of time grinding is a good thing?

The best RPGs are the ones with a deep enough battle system that smart play and important decisions can allow you to overcome challenges without having to grind. Unfortunately, FF3 doesn't really have that. The final gauntlet in the game is extremely unsatisfying because you either have the pure stats you need to survive and win, or you don't and you've wasted a ton of time scaling the final dungeon and now you have to waste more time killing mobs. Even switching jobs to try something else requires you to needlessly grind a bit.

saspa posted...

But they're describing events which took place that we the player don't know about either right?

It's been awhile, but it sounds like it's referencing "A New Day" which is a short post-game story added to the Switch version of TWEWY.

Nice

Not very surprising honestly. Remake came out near the end of the PS4's lifespan, right when lockdown was picking up and people were forced to stay home. It was also a highly anticipated game and people were eager to see how they adapted FF7.

Rebirth being PS5 exclusive is going to cut into a lot of it's sales, alongside a lot of the other stuff mentioned here (like it being a sequel, and some people not enjoying the first game). I am surprised it apparently sold less than XVI, but I don't expect that to be the case in the long run. I think part of it just has to do with the amount of RPGs released within the first quarter of the year. Granblue Fantasy Relink, Persona 3 Reload, Dragons Dogma 2, Unicorn Overlord and even FFXIV on Xbox all came out around Rebirth's release date. While I personally prioritized Rebirth over those, I have friends who are doing the opposite.

Queen's Blood rocks

saspa posted...

But that being said I am absolutely loving Neo's story so far. This is how you do a sequel, by introducing new characters that you actually like (Fret and Rindo are definitely a likable pair) and slowly revealing more and more of the story, more references to the original, old and new characters alike, and having them all tie into the story.

Yeah. I didn't look up anything about the game before getting it, so I wasn't sure how connected it would actually be to the original TWEWY. Considering they came out 14 years apart and the sequel features a new cast, I wasn't expecting much.

The first week is pretty self-contained, focusing primarily on the new characters and setting. From week 2 onwards though, it definitely starts building off of the the first game, and the story becomes a lot more interesting. I was pleasantly surprised at how "faithful" of a sequel it was. The OST and overall tone capture the TWEWY vibe really well.

saspa posted...

At first I thought that was Neku, but it turned out to be Beat! Love that bait-and-switch, I was like no way that could be Neku and he lose against some random girl and I was right.

I was pretty hype about that too lol. I figured the mysterious hooded guy wasn't actually Neku, but I wasn't expecting Beat at all. It's nice to see him again, and I really enjoy how much he bounces off the new kids (Fret especially).

solosnake posted...

damn, in the original game, from kalm to crossing the swamp is like an hour

Yeah, because in the original game there was fuck all to do in Kalm and the area surrounding it.

Rebirth's Chapter 2 is still pretty brisk if you ignore all the optional content and beeline the story. There's just actual reason to explore the overworld now.

Jeff_AKA_Snoopy posted...

I've been finding that dodging on the whole is not nearly as beneficial as it is in Soulsborne games. Am I dodging poorly or is the game more designed around block and parry when playing as Cloud/Tifa?

Dodging is good for repositioning and can be effective, but blocking is generally better. Especially if you use the steadfast block materia.

Haven't gotten the Parry materia yet in Rebirth, but it made dodging more viable in Remake so that's something to consider.

Ser_Jaker posted...

I'm 30 hours in and I've just arrived at Costa Del Sol

Yeah, I'm around 30 hours and I just finished that.

The game is definitely longer than I expected, especially compared to Remake, but I'm enjoying the journey. The over world stuff runs a bit long (though that's entirely self-inflicted since I'm doing everything), but I think the pacing of the linear segments is better than the first game.

CheshireSimper posted...

...just scale progress as if it were one game. That's all. Just think "i'm making multiple games that follow a single progression, let's scale things such that by the end of the last game you are roughly where we expect players to max out".

lmao imagine spending the entirety of Remake with Fire, Cure, and all the other tier 1 spells. Imagine finally getting Thundara in Rebirth only to be stuck there for the rest of the game. Imagine actually thinking this is a better system then the ones we have.

It's really obvious which of the people in this topic have actually played the games they're talking about.

cuttin_in_farm posted...

I feel like SE is banking heavily in people getting the games immediately. This experience will feel jarring and bad if you play the games back to back.

As someone who replayed Remake on hard mode with maxed out characters before starting Rebirth, I really don't find this to be a big issue.

Rebirth's combat is more polished compared to Remake, and while I did lose access to most of my materia and abilities from the first game (with Tifa taking the most notable hit), Rebirth adds a lot of new mechanics to make up for it. Synergy abilities are pretty strong, characters have new moves (like Cloud's ranged attacks), and you even have entirely new party members to play with (Red XIII). This also comes with party flexibility, which wasn't a feature in the first game.

You're also not starting at the very base level, with Cloud, Barret, and Aerith retaining some of their core abilities for the start of the game. Not to mention the balance changes. Barret in particular feels very strong in this game from what I've played, and his new bonus round ability helps with that. I'm only on chapter 4, but my level 25 Barret in Rebirth feels more fun and more effective than my level 50 maxed out Barret in remake. It would feel jarring to go back to remake at this point.

Torgo posted...

Ah... was it their 7th or 8th death at that point?

You see where I'm going with this, right?

I don't, since Vegeta already fought and lost hard to fat Buu (he went so far as to blow himself up and it didn't accomplish anything). If given the chance, he'd prioritize protecting his family over getting his ass kicked again.

Goku also got his shot at Buu and know what he's capable of. If anything, Goku and Gotenks could act as play mates for Buu. As long as they don't kill Hercule or the dog, it should be fine.

Goku and Vegeta were already dead by that point, and Gotenks had already fought (and lost) against fat Buu.

Piccolo was watching the entire thing from Kami's lookout, and knew Hercule had turned Buu. While it wouldn't have made for the most exciting conclusion, there's no reason to believe the Z fighters would escalate the situation further. It would have ended there if not for the two gunmen.

Yeah. I'm double dipping too. Love Vanillaware.

I need to finish my replay of the first game, went with magic vocations this time