PSX Recommendations

Neo Yi · Post by **Neo Yi** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 9:21 pm

FFVII through IX (give them all a little try if you can, they're all so different you may find out you like VIII more than VII for example, though it isn't likely)

I admit, I still slightly perfer FF7 over FF8 gameplay-wise, but I no longer dislike FF8 as much as I can tolerate it at least since I now understand how the battle system works (which made me feel even more stupider then I am since it took me till the beginning of Disk 4 to actually get it), but it's still my least fave FF game. I do give it credit in that it isn't as whored out as FF7, a game I'm getting rather sick of looking at. I'm already annoyed seeing Cloud's face plastered in a just about any FF related article I read online or in magazines these days. I GET IT SQUARE, he's POPULAR, now stop shoving him up my ass.

FFIX, at the current moment, is still my current favorite for reasons of my own.
~Neo

Senbei · Post by **Senbei** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 10:05 pm

You know this discussion is winding down when Final Fantasy is finally mentioned. ^_^

Like Crash and Spyro, I'm taking FF for granted. Not playing the series would make the experience less genuine. And FFVII is mandatory, especially since it keeps popping up as "#1 game of all time!!" on GameFAQs.
Still, I'm gonna take it slow. I'll get to Final Fantasy when I get to it. In the meantime, I want to stop and smell the roses.

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:54 am

And FFVII is mandatory, especially since it keeps popping up as "#1 game of all time!!" on GameFAQs.

That's because for many people on GameFAQs it is their first Final Fantasy. FFVII is overrated.

Through you should try Chrono Cross at least once. From many of the message boards I lurked on people either love the game and consider it one of the best PS1 RPG or dislike it greatly and call it a disgrace to the original Chrono Trigger. You could be either or.

j-man · Post by **j-man** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 7:33 am

I dunno, Dino Crisis 2 was alright, but it's kind of a one-shot game. Loses it's appeal after one play-through for me.

I can see where you're coming from, there. As a fan of Sega arcade button-mashers I never really got bored with running around and shooting dinosaurs with a ridiculous arsenal (hehe, arsenal). There's some good unlockables like the Dino Colosseum, which is a laugh for a while, and having infinite ammo is fun for a few goes. I guess I like it so much because it was such a step-up from the original Dino Crisis for me, which always just seemed like a poor-man's Resident Evil with about 4 raptors and a T-Rex thrown in willy-nilly (hehe, willy).

Post by **Squirrelknight** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:38 am

Ngangbius wrote: Through you should try Chrono Cross at least once. From many of the message boards I lurked on people either love the game and consider it one of the best PS1 RPG or dislike it greatly and call it a disgrace to the original Chrono Trigger. You could be either or.

I fall into the camp that hates Chrono Cross. No memorable characters and an insanely convoluted storyline ruin an otherwise decent playing RPG with a fantastic soundtrack.

It's worth buying for a few bucks, if only because the buying the soundtrack is more expensive than buying the game. Though, on the other hand, you're gonna have to play through it to hear the music :P.

Senbei · Post by **Senbei** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 1:26 pm

Squirrelknight wrote:I fall into the camp that hates Chrono Cross. No memorable characters and an insanely convoluted storyline ruin an otherwise decent playing RPG with a fantastic soundtrack.

It's worth buying for a few bucks, if only because the buying the soundtrack is more expensive than buying the game. Though, on the other hand, you're gonna have to play through it to hear the music :P.

Seriously? I'm not very far into the game at all, but the battle music is SO REPETATIVE, and nothing really seems to stand out ... apart from the opening sequence, which was top-notch all around.
Like I said, I'm not far into Chrono Cross, so I can't decide whether I like or dislike it. So far, the battle system seems rather bland and the environments are very hard to manuver around in since everything is so small that I can't see what I'm doing. Nonetheless, those same environments are certainly pretty, and there exists a good amount of exploration, which I'm happy with.

I've played Chrono Trigger almost to the end, but I got so bored that I dropped it. I cannot stand the silent protagonist approach; it takes so much away from the story when the main character has no personality.

Protodude · Post by **Protodude** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:41 pm

Has anyone here played Incredible Crisis? I thought it looked cool, but I wasn't sure what gameplay was like. Is it just a bunch of minigames?

Ritz · Post by **Ritz** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:44 pm

Pretty much, yeah.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:51 pm

Has anyone here played Incredible Crisis? I thought it looked cool, but I wasn't sure what gameplay was like. Is it just a bunch of minigames?

That's exactly what it is. It's got a funny quirky theme, the minigames are based around all these outrageous disasters that keep happening to this plain-Jane Japanese family. The games are cute, but there are way too many of the "push this button as rapidly as you can" type, which I despise. I never made it past Taneo's set. It's a cute game if you can get it for very cheap.

The Japanese arcade version, Tondemo Crisis, runs in mame. It's too slow to play through, but it should give you an idea of what it's about.

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 5:14 pm

Senbei wrote:
I've played Chrono Trigger almost to the end, but I got so bored that I dropped it. I cannot stand the silent protagonist approach; it takes so much away from the story when the main character has no personality.

I'm guessing you haven't played a Legend of Zelda game or you have played it and got of of it for that very same reason.

After playing so many video games with lead characters that either have godawful voices, godawful personalities, or worse both, I'm starting to apprieciate characters like Link, Adol, and Chrono.

Senbei · Post by **Senbei** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 7:38 pm

Well, Legend of Zelda is different because Link isn't confronted with in-depth conversation with his party members every other dungeon. He's by himself, so most of the game is based on gameplay anyway, rather than a multi-faceted storyline. In Chrono Trigger, on the other hand (and in most other silent protagonist games), the dialogue tries to include the hero in the conversation by having OTHER characters speak for him. How many times did Garet speak for Isaac in Golden Sun?

Brr. Golden Sun. It was very annoying to me that Isaac did not speak in the first game, but could in the second, and vice versa for Felix. It made every other character have to speak ten additional lines each to make up for the heroes' missing dialogue, adding to already drawn out cutscenes.

j-man · Post by **j-man** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 6:38 am

Protodude wrote:Has anyone here played Incredible Crisis?

Oui. It was fun for a while, but I got stuck on some level with guys in wolf masks playing trumpets and I haven't played it since. That was, like, 3 years ago.

plasticwingsband · Post by **plasticwingsband** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 11:28 am

j-man wrote:(hehe, arsenal)

In England I shall be ARSEMAN.

VGJustice · Post by **VGJustice** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 5:56 pm

-> j-man: I very much agree with what you said on Dino Crisis 2. That's why I bought it.

Back to the present, I bought Chrono Cross as well, and I have one major issue with the game. I just don't like about 90% of the characters. It felt like most of them were just thrown in for the sake of bringing up the rostor total. It has a good story, at least for a while, but it drops off so much at the end. And, I think that the "silent protagonist" is generally a mask for a "poor writer". Yes, that applies to Golden Sun as well.

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 6:31 pm

And, I think that the "silent protagonist" is generally a mask for a "poor writer". Yes, that applies to Golden Sun as well.

Then how do you explain Mother 2/Earthbound?

Cuckooguy · Post by **Cuckooguy** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 7:09 pm

Chrono Cross is decent until around the time Kid gets poisoned (OMG SPOILERZ!!!). After that, the story seems to fall apart and then you have no clue what the heck is going on.

Same with FFVII, actually. After Midgar, the story stops making any sense.

I liked FFX moreso than FFVII-FFIX (I'm not a fan of any of the PSX FFs), because I actually understood the story from beginning to end (even if it is poorly written, but at least a step up from the previous three games in terms of coherency). The battle system has also taken a step up in FFX, which was also cool. But anyway, the only FF I seem to like is FFVI.

Senbei · Post by **Senbei** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 10:22 pm

Ngangbius wrote:
And, I think that the "silent protagonist" is generally a mask for a "poor writer". Yes, that applies to Golden Sun as well.
Then how do you explain Mother 2/Earthbound?

Well, not all silent hero games necessarily have poor story or conversation. Take Record of Lodoss War -- the main character never utters a word, but the supporting characters' dialogue is written well enough that the story flows well.

Compare that, however, with Breath of Fire, in which the supporting characters speak such one-sided conversations that it's hard to understand what your character was supposed to have "said." Subsequently, BoF has such a poor storyline, half the time you don't know what you're supposed to be doing.

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 10:37 pm

Play Tales of Symphonia for a decent RPG where the protagonist isn't a silent puppet meant to stand in for the player. It does take a long time to finish, though.

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 11:10 pm

But Lloyd is an idiot.

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 1:48 am

Yeah, but that's better than being mute, I think.

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 2:23 am

No it's not. =(

I mean ask yourself this: is Tidus really more tolerable than Chrono?

CM August · Post by **CM August** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 2:28 am

I thought Lloyd was fine, but then again I had switched the voices off.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 3:24 am

I thought Lloyd was cool. Stupid name, but I liked the character. He was just a goofy little boy, like Justin from Grandia. It might be a guy thing - you would have to have been a 12 year old boy at some point in your life to understand.

plasticwingsband · Post by **plasticwingsband** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 3:40 am

Yeah. And I didn't think his va was bad, either

Senbei · Post by **Senbei** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 8:22 am

Take Ryudo of Grandia II as another example. Although the only cussword he seems capable of uttering is "DAMMIT!!" which rather limits dialogue variety during times of anxiety, he's a round character who is genuinely sarcastic and pessimistic on the outside, but uses this shell to protect the emotions he feels inside about past tragedies. Ultimately, his pessimism makes him the perfect candidate to fight the church because he never bought into the religion anyway.

He also interacts with each party member in a personal way, confiding with Skye as the only trustworthy person in his life, and treating the others each in a slightly different way. Were he mute, it would hard to make such connections. Can you imagine the whiny Millennia having more unnecessary dialogue to make up for Ryudo's?