"Sonic Chronicles" trademarked by Sega

[Green Gibbon!]

Wow, GG went through and edited out everything criticizing the Dragon Quest series. Real mature.

I edited out all the links and quotes to exterior articles, which is against the rules. If you can't say it yourself, don't say anything.

[CM August]

VIII was my personal favorite out of the entire series, and I quite enjoyed IX, to boot. VII has got to be some of the blandest shit I've ever put up with. What's up with the sudden gaybola outbreak in here?

I wasn't aware DQIX had been released.

[Cuckooguy]

I think Ritz is referring to Final Fantasy.

When it comes to the FFs I've played, my rating is 6>10>9>7>1>8. I think 6 is on my like scale, 10 is on my kind-of-like scale, and 9, 7, 1, and 8 are on my indifference scale.

[Zeta]

I think the greatest problems with both Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are completely opposite of each other.

With Final Fantasy, you've got completely different games with each installment of the series. This includes the setting, art, battle system, and themes of each game. Aside from a few hooks (similar menus, Chocobos, Moogles, Cid, the Highwind, some spells, and if you're lucky - Crystals as a magical power source and some concept of the lifestream) - each game is pretty much totally disconnected from every other game in the series. This goes beyond the story and into the graphical styles, level up system, and various other parts of the game. On the one hand, every title feels fairly original. On the other, what worked in one game very well might be thrown out in the next installment for a story element or gameplay feature that works like SHIT (Draw magic, Orb Grid - I'm looking at you, you bastards). There is also the incredibly annoying and stylized art, which works well for monsters and backgrounds but not for people. The entire cast constantly looks like they were kicked out of a gay bar for being too flamboyant. If you removed their pants, they'd be at home at the Folsom Street Fair. On the other hand, at least until 12 (where all the men look like the same effeminate fops), all of the party characters and major NPCs were fairly distinctive in each game.

On the other side, you've got Dragon Quest which is pretty much the SAME game made again and again. It's the most inovativeless RPG series known to man, and is pretty much the same thing again and again and again. I'm not even sure what to compare Dragon Quest to, since I can't think of a single other game series that has run so long without really doing anything new or interesting. Seriously, I'm 100% sure that if the 8th game had NOT been licensed out to level 5the series would still be using shitty, motionless sprites for all of its graphics, and that battles would still be static affairs against generic backgrounds. Level 5 had to at least make some attempt to drag the series kicking and screaming into the 21st century by adding voice acting, 3D graphics, and some semblance of animation for battles. And it's the same game, again and again and again, using the same old NES RPG tropes - even if they've worn out their welcome or were only put in the games in the first place to deal with various limitations of the console at the time. It remains popular because it continues to ape 8-bit RPG crap that feels nostalgic at the time and built up a good reputation on the NES. But the problem is that they're still NES games with a fresh coat of paint. 8 did a very good job of using voice acting, music, and cell-shaded graphics to try to make the world feel more interesting and the characters more appealing, but there's only so far Akira Toriyama can take you, because like many old-school anime and manga artists he's limited to about six faces, four body types, and using outrageous hair-dos and outfits to distinguish between different characters. Toriyama is basically limited to drawing Goku and Bulma for all eternity. And sadly, all of the great audio and dialogue can't fix two major flaws with the series. The main character never has any personality because its supposed to be you, but you don't actually get to make any choices (like not falling in love with a goddamn horse) that allows you to actually feel immersed like you actually ARE in the game. The story still railroads you as much as any FF, except the lack of personality in a main protagonist lacks any justification for the plot. But the biggest problem with the series is that it's still essentially a clunky old grindfest NES RPG with huge tracks of land where nothing happens and a plot of generic excuses for grinding and dungeon-crawling that somehow keeps on getting remade and re-loved by Japanese fans who consider it the epitome of JRPGs simply because the first NES games are good and they want to keep playing those old NES games under increasingly insufficient new coats of paint.

tl,dr:
Final Fantasy = Tries everything and anything, occasionally strikes gold, occasionally strikes absolute shit. Always creative to some extent, at least.
Dragon Quest = First three games in series were good for their times, the next five games were essentially the first three games remade again and again with as little change and creativity as the production team could get away with. Got very lucky by cementing the brand in Japanese culture early.

[Segaholic2]

TRICK QUESTION THEY'RE ALL GAY

[Kogen]

TRICK QUESTION THEY'RE ALL GAY

Japanese culture.

[Green Gibbon!]

tldr

[Dr. BUGMAN]

Man, when are they going to expand on the Soul Blazer series? That shit was good. fuck turn-base.

[j-man]

Picked up DQ on the cheap. It's pretty cool to play when you're stoned. I think the best word to describe it is "harmless". Another would be "boring", but I mean that with love. It's kind of funny to hear what people think of the voice acting. I actually found it really unsettling to hear the accents of my native land in a videogame.

Got to say my favourite Final Fantasy was IX. It just really seemed like what they ought to be doing with the series. VII gets special mention for being wonderfully unlike anything I've ever played.

So I've started actually using my Wii, and I've got 1000 points kicking around to spend on some VC stuff. Any recommendations for decent SNES RPGs? Fuck it, I'll emulate if I have to. I'm yearning for chilled 16-bit questage, man.

[Zeta]

So I've started actually using my Wii, and I've got 1000 points kicking around to spend on some VC stuff. Any recommendations for decent SNES RPGs? Fuck it, I'll emulate if I have to. I'm yearning for chilled 16-bit questage, man.

Good SNES RPG/Adventure games currently available on the Euro Virtual Console:

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Legend of the Mystical Ninja (takes a weird taste, though)
Secret of Mana

Slim pickings.

In general?

Breath of Fire series is decent. I mean, it's not great. It really is similar in a lot of ways to Dragon Quest, but the characters are a lot more creatively designed and each has their own overworld ability (of course, whether this is a useful ability varies) It's a little more puzzle-oriented and party members are sort of treated like Zelda's items as well as fighters. The overworld is a little more polished than the SNES Final Fantasies and the main gameplay gimmick throughout all the games is transforming during battle into dragons or other beasts or temporarily fusing party members together into huge hulking monstrosities.
Chrono Trigger, obviously.
Any of the early Shin Megami Tensei games, if you want a Satanic version of Pokemon where you collect mythological figures to fight the Christian God.
Earthbound.
Illusion of Gaia is fun for Zelda lite.
Lufia's kind of meh, but OK.
I've heard Romancing Sa-Ga is good, but never played it.
Live a Live if you want something really weird and unique.
Tales of Phantasia
The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang was pretty funny.
Secret of Evermore is OK.
I had an uncle who loved the Ys titles, but I thought they were pretty boring.

[Zeta]

Oh, and if you can, try and get a translation of Seiken Densetsu 3/Secret of Mana 2. It's basically a Secret of Mana with three interchangeable plots and six interchangeable characters. Sort of like what you'd get if you put Secret of Mana into a blender with a Choose Your Own Adventure title.

[CM August]

Seiken Densetsu 3 rules. Why I still have its resident Big Bad, the Dragon Emperor as my user icon after all these years!

[j-man]

Okay, so it's a toss-up between Secret of Mana and Breath of Fire II right now. I owned BoFIII for a while actually (until my arsehole brother moved out and took it with him) and I remember it as a solid and entertaining with a ton of interesting ideas and character designs. If BoFII is anything like its sequel, I'm in. I heard Secret of Mana is a Zelda-style slash 'em up, with no turn based battles, so I dunno how that works out. Basically I want FFVI but I dunno if they'll ever put it on VC since it's out for GBA, albiet at ridiculously elevated prices. LttP I already have on GBA, Mystical Ninja is leaning a bit too far towards action/adventure I think.

So the only reason I specified VC is to have something chilled to play on my TV, and the only reason I specified SNES is... because I'm an idiot, I guess. Any good Mega Drive RPGs? I don't know much about them, I kind of got into the RPG game when I got a PSone. The only thing I played that came close was Crusader of Centy, and that was fuckin' awesome.

[Zeta]

I heard Secret of Mana is a Zelda-style slash 'em up, with no turn based battles, so I dunno how that works out.

You know how Kingdom Hearts plays? Kingdom Hearts is basically the Secret of Mana series' gameplay with the setting and design sucked out of the world and replaced with Disney and Final Fantasy stuff.

I owned BoFIII for a while actually (until my arsehole brother moved out and took it with him) and I remember it as a solid and entertaining with a ton of interesting ideas and character designs. If BoFII is anything like its sequel, I'm in.

The only major differences are you can have four characters in your party in II and you can't learn enemy attacks like in III. Also, the dragon forms are much less extensive, but every character can "evolve" Pokemon-style by fusing with NPCs hidden around the overworld.

[Zeta]

For Mega Drive, you might want to try:
* Beyond Oasis/The Story of Thor, which is very action oriented, but the summon monsters make it similar to Crusader of Centy,
* The Shining series.
* Phantasy Star

[j-man]

Nice one, cheers mate.

[Shadow Hog]

You forgot Super Mario RPG. IIRC that finally came out in Europe via the VC. Correct me if I'm wrong there.

Also, it's not really an RPG (unless you consider the town-building segments to be some kind of quasi-RPG), but I was suddenly reminded of how badass ActRaiser was.

[Zeta]

SMRPG is just one of those games you expect everyone to have played by now.

[Shadow Hog]

And Chrono Trigger/Link to the Past aren't? :P

[j-man]

I've got to admit, I haven't played SMRPG. Something about it just kind of puts me off. And yeah, I don't really know much about Chrono Trigger. Sorry. I guess I'll churn through BoFII until something better comes on the VC.

[Zeta]

I've got to admit, I haven't played SMRPG. Something about it just kind of puts me off. And yeah, I don't really know much about Chrono Trigger. Sorry. I guess I'll churn through BoFII until something better comes on the VC.

Chrono Trigger is what you'd get if you mixed the Back to the Future Trilogy where there are three kids with swords instead of Marty and they fight Cthullu by using a time machine to travel into the worlds of the Matrix, the Flintstones, a Disney princess movie, and Nausicaa. And Professor Brown is a cute chick with glasses and purple hair.

[Baba O'Riley]

I liked VIII, but the plot, not exactly high lit as it is, falls apart after the first disk.

That's putting it pretty damn mildly.

[Zeta]

8 started out on thin ice and pretty much implodes into a black hole of nonsensical drivel about time travel and sorceresses and love stories and moons and eating time and reincarnation and memory loss and orphanages and colleges for mercenaries and giant moon platforms and catfronpeople and playing cards and contrivances after the first 20 minutes alone.

[P.P.A.]

SMRPG is just one of those games you expect everyone to have played by now.

But I'm European and have an aversion against emulation. :(

[Ngangbius]

It's the most inovativeless RPG series known to man

You mean Pokemon?