Lord Awesomeguy's RPG Reviews For Various Consoles-Spoilers!

A forum for non-Suikoden games.
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Lord Awesomeguy
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Lord Awesomeguy's RPG Reviews For Various Consoles-Spoilers!

Post by Lord Awesomeguy »

Feel free to add your reviews or comments! I should mention that while I am a Communication Studies major, I am not a professional writer. To those of you whose writing capabilities far exceed my own, I have this to say... WRITING THIS WASN'T EASY TO BACK OFF!!!... sorry! :lol:


Enjoy!

NES games

Dragon Warrior- What can I say? Classic... As long as you say no to that bastard the Dragon Lord. …I said yes…

Final Fantasy I
- harder than hell if you play it without cheating.. Good game though.

Final Fantasy III
- released in JP only. I downloaded an emulator version of it. Square really started taking some pretty cool steps with this one. I played all the way to the end and the rom file mysteriously vanished from my pc.

SNES


Final Fantasy IV (US II) This is the first rpg that really got me hooked on the FF series. Another classic. This one has a high replay value. My brother finished the entire thing in one day on an emulator…. Of course he and I also tried to eat 6 lbs of chocolate pudding once so ya..
Anyways, It is a fairly straight forward game, however if you are a fan of the series you should stop whatever you are doing and play it..

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
. Honestly, the coolest thing about this game was the soundtrack. There are some absolutely BAD ASS tunes on this game. If someone where to translate them to guitar, it would slay.

The game itself was unique with the battle system. It got kind of repetitive after a while to me. It was definitely a huge departure from the Final Fantasy series. I recommend playing other FF games before this one unless you want a change. I played through it recently and cleared out all of the monster fields.

Final Fantasy VI
(US III) Un freaking believable. Came out right around my birthday in 96 or 97. This game totally kicked my ass. I spent many, MANY hours playing it. Between the characters and the story, this game ruled. It had a great soundtrack too. I have a cd with most of the tunes on it that I listen to every now and then. I was OBSESSED with the moogles for one reason or another. This is would be a great game for anyone who is interested in the series to start playing. The graphics were really nice as well. I would love to see this one remade into a next gen console game.

Ogre Battle-I never managed to get all the way through it. I did not have the patience to build up all the stats, find all the secrets, and recruit all the characters. Maybe when I have 300 hours to kill I will start it up again. I used the Fireseal code and finished the game using that method but I never got all the way through normally. This game took up so much of my time that my schoolwork started to slip. I think my dad grounded my from playing it lol.

Chrono Trigger- Good game. The various endings pretty much always gave you something to do. I liked the artwork on the box and strategy guide. The menu screen artwork was cool too. The same people that did Dragon Ball Z did Chrono Trigger. It seemed to me that this game had a lot of things to keep you entertained with the 12-13 endings, various storylines, and plot twists. Another great game for any new RPG'r to start with.

The 7th Saga- Great SNES rpg. It was a little difficult at first, but when the game genie kicked in it was pretty cool… actually I think it is near impossible without cheating, especially when you fight Metal Pison. I got stuck right at the end of the game at a place I can not get out of. I found out that I was only 1 dungeon away from the end so I watched the ending on YouTube and felt strangely better about myself.

Legend of Zelda:LTTP- Great game. Played it a million times. I was talking to my wife about this the other day and how I used to play it so much when I was a kid. If you are a Zelda fan and you have not played this, you should stop whatever you are doing and play it! It was remade for Game Boy Advance. It is not terribly ground breaking, however if you are a fan of the series you must play it!

Lufia II- I have spent more time playing this than any other game because of that DAMN ANCIENT CAVE. Some of the puzzles were pretty difficult. Overall I loved this game. It was a bit more developed in the storyline that L1. It had a good soundtrack. It has a high replay value. It gets fun at the end because you can do some interesting things after you complete the game twice and go to the Ancient Cave..I will let you discover that for yourselves.

Lufia I- I have to get my hands on it sometime soon. I believe I was too young to appreciate this game when I first played it all the way through. The battles were tough at the begining but they got easier towards the end. I seem to remember the encounter rate being extremely high which got real old real fast. Apparently there is a way to beat Gades in the begining. I never tried it. The graphics were not the best but then again, what can you expect?

Earthbound- The most innovative snes game beside Donkey Kong and FF III IMO. I think this is number 4 on my all time greats list. It is indescribably cool! I felt like this game was pretty easy especially at the end when Ness... well I'll let you find out for yourself. This game had a certain "charm" that to this day, beckons me to play it over and over and over and over....It had a certain “modernism” to it that made it quirky, fun, and a blast to play.

Mario RPG
- kind of cheesy, however I would say this could have been much worse. There are a lot of things you can do (I think I got up to close to 60 super jumps). The graphics, sound, and gameplay were all pretty good, especially for being an SNES game. The characters were not much of a surprise, although some of the new characters were pretty cool. Again, for being an snes game and coming out when it did, this was a good one. Like Earthbound, it had a very cool charm that made it a great game. I liked the general layout of the areas you walked around and how it was 3-d.

Secret Of Mana
- What do you get when you combine two of your buddies, a multitap adaptor, a little magic casting elf looking thing, girl and dude with a sword? This game. This game was tough at times, but overall it was good. It really shines when you get 2 of your friends to control the other characters. You can go on a magic casting sword slashing rampage. Otherwise, it can get rather difficult. The other characters never do what you want them to, which gets frustrating. Like so many before it, overall this was a pretty good game. It spawned some pretty good sequels.


Secret Of Evermore
- Another game in the "secret of" series. I am sorry, but I really could not get into this one. Something about it just stopped me from enjoying it. The alchemy system was goofy, especially if you ran out of something you needed. There are so many ways to get stuck, and admitingly it happened to me more times than I would like to admit.
I never played it for more than 1 hour...

Seiken Densetsu III- I loved this game until my copy froze... repeatedly. I played it for a few weeks while I was laid up with an illness. I enjoyed it very much; however my contempt for the habitually freezing game overtook my joy.. and I quit playing it.

Tales of Phantasia- I have one dungeon left to finish (Daos's Castle) then I have done everything. That includes all of the Coliseum battles, all of the floors on the Moria Gallery, all of the Ninja Village/Treant's Forest stuff, and all of the secret treasures for that pirate dude.

The one thing that bothered me about this game was the ridiculously high encounter rate. Even with the item that lets you set the encounter rate to low (I have it but I forgot what it is called), you still run into a lot of baddies. Leveling up is easy, however it takes a year to get through a dungeon. I never had problems with not being able to buy stuff. In fact I bought the combo command item and still have more money than I will ever need.

The gameplay (battles, menus, etc) was not bad. Some of the battles were pretty tough (some of them were literally impossible.. like the Urchin in the Moria Gallery lower floors) and I got pretty bored running into the same bad guys over and over again but overall it was pretty good. There is a lot of vulgarity, sexual references, etc. Some might like that. I did not care for it.

Overall, the game was a typical RPG. If you have played any of the popular RPG's, you will recognize lots of names, places, items, etc, etc. They remade it for PS??? and took out a lot of the issues that bothered me.

Dragon Quest V
- You may want to get your Kleenex for this review. I will always remember this game for somber reasons. I named the main character's children after the children my wife and I were expecting...before we lost them during the pregnancy. The connection will always remain as a stirring reminder to me of the frailty of human life.

On the other hand, the game was a lot of fun! I cheated and found a way to duplicate my Medal count to as to obtain the strongest weapons early on. The Dragon Quest series in general offers an enjoyable experience brimming with musical nostalgia and entertaining quirks... and puff puffs too! DQV was no exception.


Genesis

Shining Force I- Here we go. This is when we start getting into some great games. I love turn based RPG's. With all the chapters, character, and battles, it was like on big friggin chess match. I played SFII before I played this, so I could have done without the graphics. Overall, great game. The soundtrack drove me nuts. You have to listen to the SAME battle music through the ENTIRE game, even when you fight the end boss. What really pissed me off is when you fight the Chimera-type enemies in the latter fights of the game. Their evade rate was so high that it made things very difficult. Also, the battles you fight in mountanous or forrest terrains were very long and frustrating because of the field effects, especially the one before you fight Misheela. Still, this was a great game!

Shining Force II- Tied with Ogre Battle for my fav all time. It had the best graphics, sound, story, and characters while still maintaining the turn-based format. Plus there was a way to control the bad guys if you did not want to fight a certain battle. It was almost too easy. I played it on Ouch mode a few months back and used a code to gain a certain amount of levels quickly. My plan was to wait until level 40 to promote my characters so as to max out their stats. I figured that would level out the insane degree of difficulty that ouch mode brings towards the end of the game. I made it to the battle right after you get out of Pacalon, stopped playing, went back to play it and the file was gone..

Phantasy Star IV
- I have played this game many times as well. Pretty unique. Great Graphics. Easily the best of the Phantasy Star series. I enjoyed it very much. I am going to try and play it again with my recent acquisition of Sega Ages. Apparently, there may be a way for me to play it in hd.
This was my first experience with the PS series. I spent a lot of time fighting Dark Force and Zio. I later realized that if you spend a little extra time leveling up, the game is a lot easier. It has some cool graphics for a sega game. It took me a while to discover all the secrets. I will probably spend a little more time trying to get items like the defeat axe from the chaosbringers in the end. I will then try to beat the game without using Raja..

PSone

Suikoden I- 108 characters can't be wrong. This game was really good. I failed to recruit all the dwarfs, so gremio died at the end... I played through it again and recruited everyone. Though I may have wasted hours of my life, I recruited everyone dammit. It definitely set the standard for future Suikoden games. Its a great place to start for any of you who are interested in the series. You can load data from Suiko I to Suiko II to receive level bonuses for certain characters. I seem to recall this being the only way to get certain characters in Suiko II (transering a saved data file with all 108 stars to Suiko II) so if you are going to play through all the games, I suggest starting with Suiko I. From what I can tell, this game is set before Suiko 2/3 but after Suiko 4, Tactics, and 5.

Vandal Hearts- Another killer turn based rpg with an amazing story. I have played through this many times, each time better than the last. Some of the battles were pretty tricky if you wanted to turn Ash into a Vandalier. I liked how there was blood, swearing, etc. I am not morbid or anything but it just helped make the game cool. It had a great soundtrack imo. There is not as much travelling or moving around as other games. You are in battle, go to a cutscene after the battle or go to the map, go to a town, to battle, etc, etc. There is no free roaming which made it difficult if you missed any of the Toroah items.

I loved it! I played it again recently and it was a lot of fun. I kept telling myself I was not going to use a certain spell once I got ash into a Vandalier (which also happened at the Kane battle. I believe the fight is about the 4th to the last fight of the game). I got tired and ended up using the spell to end the fight quickly.

Legend Of Dragoon
- Not terribly unique, but it had a good story and the gameplay was good. The graphics were a little too pixelated for me. It had some great AMV's. I liked the battle system. I could NEVER figure out how to counter the red boxes but once I did, the game was a lot of fun. I NEARLY got stuck when fighting the monster you are supposed to put to sleep with the Satchel at the beginning of the game but I figured out a way to kill him. And there was much rejoicing.

Final Fantasy VII- The reason I bought playstation. End of story. Widely regarded as the greatest rpg ever. I have been waiting anxiously for Advent Children to come out. If you have not played it, go do so immediately.

* Edit, Advent Children made me cry. Like many other FFVII fans, I was waiting for this to come out forever.

Final Fantasy VIII- One of my all time top favorites. The story was the best out of any game I have played.. EVER. I can not say how much I enjoyed this game. The story, the soundtrack, the battle system, everything... except for playing cards. It got difficult sometimes. There was a way to turn the Seifer card into 100 of an item that made you invincible for an entire battle. If you do this at the end of the game when you are in Ultimecia's castle, the game was very easy.

Final Fantasy IX- Another great FF game. I played through to disc 3, then our copy stopped working. I've watched my brother play through it a few times. I remember how much FUN he had beating Ozma...I thought the leveling/customization elements of the game were well thought out and unique.

Final Fantasy Tactics- This game was a real piece of work. FINALLY.. a turn based final fantasy rpg. I do not think I could ask for more. Plus it had a great story, great characters, and the gameplay was awesome. Some of the battles were so friggin hard no matter how high you leveled up, like the Gafgarion battle. Any battle you have to fight for more than 4 hours is tough. I don’t think I could bring myself to play all the way through it.


Chrono Cross
- I can not remember if this game was released for PS1 or 2, but I played it on PS2. Great sequel. The soundtrack was awesome. The story between those two games makes me more confused than a bisexual at an orgy. It is deep, though the game is pretty cool. It had some good graphics. The battle system was ok but overall I liked the game.

Suikoden II- Although I never played it all the way through, it was a great game. I missed a character in the begining, got pissed, and never played it again. I read it's plot summary on the internet, and from what I could tell it seemed like a pretty good game.

PS2

Final Fantasy X- Another amazing FF game. It had a lot of great features that I had not previously seen in FF games. Any guy who has played that game can not honestly say they didn't think the female characters were cute.. It was also the first FF game where you could easily do more than 9999 damage in a single hit.. well besides using the Eden gf in FF8. I liked being able to hit for 99,999 damage. Creating the best weapons and armor for each character was difficult, which made it enjoyable. The end boss was a complete pushover, which disapointed me. Catching 10 of every monster was difficult. I had more fun fighting the Colesium bosses than the final boss.

I bought the sequel, Final Fantasy X-2, however I could not bring myself to play all the way through it and I read the story on the internet.

Final Fantasy XII
- I lost interest 70 hours into the game after getting the Zodiac Spear, Tournesol, and Masamune. In my opinion, this game is a suitable farewell for the FF series and the PS2 and I have a short attention span. I have mixed feelings about the battle system. I did not particularly care for the story. I enjoyed the vast amount of "stuff to do", for lack of a better phrase. I know of gamers who've spent hundreds of hours playing through it. While spending an exorbitant amount of time playing RPG's is nothing new, FFXII was offered ample opportunities to explore. I've heard it cost $35 million dollars to make? I enjoyed the soundtrack and FMV's. I did not care for the lack of story/character development. It was neat to see another FF game in the same world as Final Fantasy Tactics. Those in the know may recognize the connections between FFXII and other games in the series. I've a sneaking suspicion that FFXII is connected to FFIV in some way; though I am probably wrong.

Kingdom Hearts
- Another great game. It had a pretty solid soundtrack. I really liked how it brought it characters from places like disney movies and final fantasy games. It made KH interesting. The battle system was somewhat difficult but for those of you who prefer a real-time fight, KH delivers. Like a midget at a urinal, you constantly have to stay on your toes. The sequel should be amazing.

Kingdom Hearts II
- A great sequel. I had a great soundtrack too!. I found the gameplay to be much improved over its prequel. There’s not much to say about this game other than it is, overall, an excellent game. Go out and play it NOW!...please.

Suikoden III- There are some pretty sweet turn based battles. Getting all 108 SOD, playing all the mini-games, and building your castle was fun. I did not like how I had to walk everywhere but once you get Viki or if you play as Chris it makes getting places easier. I finished the game accidentally one. I planned on saving before the final battle but I ended up choosing the fight the last battle option. I had a pretty solid party, however Hugo and Fubar were the only living characters at the end of the fight. It was ugly but hey... a challenge is usually a good thing right? Actually a Fubar-mounted Hugo pretty much took care of the final boss on their own.

At the risk of sounding a editorial... actually this whole darn review is editorial so what am I saying?...This game has a lot of sentimental value to me. I played it a lot at my wife's house when we were dating. She would be gone or occupied and I would stay at her place for several hours while playing this game. I remember distinctly remember taking breaks from college physics to finish Luc's chapter. I believe my "forget to save and instead choose to fight the final boss" mishap occurred while playing at her place.




Suikoden IV
:

What can I say? Another great suikoden game. It has its pro's and con's so I will do my best to share them with you.

Cons

- Not a lot as far as character development goes. You just kind of start off as the hero and progress through the game without learning much about him other than he has the Rune of Punishment. There are some returning characters from other Suikoden games that you learn a little about but for the most part, I would have liked to see more protagonist development.
- Very short. I spent maybe 30 hours on it. I COULD have added another 10-15 hours playing mini games, leveling, etc but I decided not to.
- Very easy. I died maybe once or twice.
- Story in general could have been more developed. Who is Troy?.. I think that's his name anyway. I feel his character lacked the development I typically seek in an antagonist, be he minor or major. We know Troy was generally considered a bad guy until certain points in the game, but we never knew why. Or we did and I missed it. Wouldn't be the first time it happened. :lol:

- Very high encounter rate. Combine that with the fact that you have to sail your slow ship virtually everywhere until you get Viki and it can get frustrating.

Pro's

- I liked being able to insta-kill enemies instead of releasing them with the Slash Rune. I liked how if you leveled your characters to 99 (not hard to do with the training center and a fortune rune) you can insta-kill every enemy besides bosses. It makes getting extra potch and experience easy. I believe that if you combine the little things that Suiko 4 had with the story and depth of Suiko 3, you would have an even better game.
- Lots of mini games. I could spend many hours playing Ritapon. The mini games are great. I loved the mushroom vs. mint battle.
- Great battle system. The battle system was different from the first three installements. Though you could only use 4 characters instead of 6, I found the new battle system to be pretty cool. I loved combo magic.
- I loved how Konami made the move from Castle base to a Ship base. The Naval Battles were pretty slick as well.
- New game + mode. You get too keep any non-rare armor, runes, and all your potch. You also have the map fully laid out instead of having to travel places first. I will probably take up a new game plus once our plasma screen gets here..
- Progressive Scan Playability. Nothing huge here but it is definitely cool.
- 108 stars. I got all of them. Snowe kicks but towards the end of the game, especially with his combo attack and the Hero.
- I loved the soundtrack. This may sound goofy, but they did a lot of great stuff with a harp, accordion, and cello.

Overall, I would say its a great game. Its not as thoroughly developed as the other Suikoden games but it was still pretty good. I liked the fact that it was so short because I did not have to spend a lot of time on it. On the other hand, it felt like it was over as soon as it began.


Suikoden Tactics
- My favorite PS2 game to date. I nearly creamed my jeans when I discovered this beauty. Not only was it a sequel to IV, adding some depth and additional story, but it was a turn based RPG. These types of games make me happier than a pig in mud. The soundtrack was also really nice. In fact, I exhanged my copy to the store in which it was purchased for another copy that came with the soundtrack. I proceeded to listen to the soundtrack in my car profusely.

I believe this game provided the right amount of challenge. It wasn't too hard but I did not find myself breezing through it like Bo Jackson running over people in Tecmo Bowl. The battle system requires offers a refreshing experience too!

If games were like Spinal Tap Marshall Amps, this one would go to eleven!

Suikoden V- See my other thread about memorable games for this one. My play-through will always be overshadowed by personal events that occurred asynchronously in my life. From my wife giving birth to our child to my parents divorcing/my sister being forced to move away, Suikoden V delivered a bittersweet pizza that pulled on my heartstrings but also offered an excellent gameplay experience. Kudos to Konami for bringing back the six-person party capability.

The game was good. I feel there's not much I can say that hasn't already been said. Anyone who is a fan of Suiko or RPG's should definitely invest some time into it. Great graphics, enjoyable gameplay, an appropriate amount of play time, and a pleasant story made Suiko V a winner...winner winner Chicken Dinner!


Shining Force NEO- I have played entirely through this game, beating all the legion hives as well as the tomb of the king at around level 200. Some of the legion hives were tough, and tomb of the king was VERY difficult once you get down to floor 35 or so, however all in all the game was wonderful. It took me about 50 hours to complete, the story was pretty good, the gameplay was good, the graphics and sound were good, and the characters were pretty good. The voices were kind of goofy/cheesy and the ending was somewhat dissapointing, however all in all this game was wonderful! My main beef was the humility that resulted from countless hours of dying.

Dragon Quest VIII
- My game froze roughly thirteen hours into it. I learned that the amount of time necessary to make the game enjoyable, for those who simply MUST complete everything in a video game, was great. So great, in fact, that I doubt I will ever have enough to time finish the game. It was fun to play the DQ on a (at the time) next gen console. I feel those looking for a good RPG experience should look no further than DQ VIII.

Game Boy Advance

I played through the remakes of Final Fantasy I, IV and VI, and Shining Force I. It was more than refreshing to once again be consumed in these classic games while at the same time enjoying the tasteful, yet challenging additions. I also played through the Super Mario RPG game (I forget what its called). While I can't say it was the greatest accomplishment in the last 25 years of my life, it was enjoyable. It is late and I am tired; too tired, at least to write an in-depth review of each of the five aforementioned games.


***Note to self, I need to add reviews for Soulblazer and Illusion of Gaia. I'd do it now but I am tired and my wife is giving me the "wrap it up" signal.***
Coach McGuirk: "This sausage is probably eighteen years old... This sausage could vote. It could go to war and die for its country."
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BadPotato
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Re: Lord Awesomeguy's RPG Reviews For Various Consoles-Spoilers!

Post by BadPotato »

Lord Awesomeguy wrote: Final Fantasy IX- Another great FF game. I played through to disc 3, then our copy stopped working. I've watched my brother play through it a few times. I remember how much FUN he had beating Ozma...I thought the leveling/customization elements of the game were well thought out and unique.
oh man it stop working on my system too, I think this was about some wathever hard mini-game card and right after there were a cinematic cut scene that freezed up exactly at the same moment everytime... Also this was probably the last cinematic before the CD4... not fair at all.
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Blutiger Engel
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Re: Lord Awesomeguy's RPG Reviews For Various Consoles-Spoilers!

Post by Blutiger Engel »

Final Fantasy III was released in the US recently. It's a remake on the DS. Not sure how similar of different it is compared to the Japanese original that was never released here, but it should pretty much be the same thing.

I agree with you about Earthbound and Super Mario RPG. Those games got me into the genre when I was younger (never played the other ones like the original FFs or Chrono Trigger on SNES, didn't know they existed back then). I wish I could still play Earthbound but no one has an SNES anymore :(

You should really try to beat FF Tactics and Suikoden II. Both of them are totally worth it. The Gafgarion battle shouldn't take four hours; not sure what you're doing wrong, lol.

I feel the same way about FFXII. It's like an MMO with all the grinding but without the online friends to joke around with- boring. I only got about halfway through twice and I keep abandoning it around the same point in the game.

I feel the same about SuikoIV with all of it's flaws as well- I honestly had no clue what Troy's significance was in the game. Still loved it for Snowe, though. But as for the slow ship sailing, if you hold down R1 it goes faster (and you can hold R1 when you're walking on foot, too, and you run crazy fast, it's kinda funny and saves even more time).
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Re: Lord Awesomeguy's RPG Reviews For Various Consoles-Spoilers!

Post by Noraibah »

He wrote way too many reviews for his own good if you ask me.Only the Hikikomori in Japan would play that many games.....(They do not go out much or go to school so they just stay at home playing with video games all day).I am not saying that 'Lord Awesomeguy' is one.Heh heh..
I love this forum............to death.I think dying is normal.Just ignore me!
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Re: Lord Awesomeguy's RPG Reviews For Various Consoles-Spoilers!

Post by Captain Tenneal »

With the exception of 3 or 4 games, I've played all of those, though I've probably only completed less than half of them. Really brought back some memories of those games.
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