I already read, that people think 2023 was not the stronges year for this genre. But maybe you have still something that surprises you in a positive way or you play and older game again?
I already read, that people think 2023 was not the stronges year for this genre. But maybe you have still something that surprises you in a positive way or you play and older game again?
Sea of Stars. A lot has been said recently on this game, don’t feel I need to say more. Thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. Well worth the price and hours spent to me.
Oriental Blue: Ao no Tengai. This game was very interesting. Released in Japan only for the GBA, I had to find a fan-translated version. It has a lot of interesting mechanics, like a gem-slotting mechanic on all of your weapons and armour to vastly improve them, and other things going for it. It doesn’t hold your hand, and you can accomplish some things in different orders. That can be frustrating for some, but I enjoyed the freedom and felt it allowed me to explore more.
Truthfully there were points where it was a bit confusing, but I don’t hold that against the game. I’d recommend any JRPG fan to give this one a try.
Final Fantasy IV. Speaking of giving things a try, I’ve tried to play FFIV several times over the years. People really recommend the game, and I honestly can’t see why. This latest attempt I made it just over an hour in before calling it quits. The amount of random battles is annoying, and how specific some of those battles needs to be is annoying. For example, you’ll run into a pack of 6 zombies. Magic is the only thing to hurt them, and fire is the magic that’ll do the most damage. So one of your characters can’t do anything but 1 damage, since they just have physical attacks. Your other character doesn’t have fire magic, so it takes them at least 2 attacks to down a zombie, using 10 of your 50-70mp for one enemy, and the other character can down them in 1 with their fire and being slightly higher level. And thats just one example. It’s just… the combat feels poorly designed to me, and like something I want to just get through, not enjoy my time with.
However, I’ve been playing Final Fantasy VI now, and I’ve made it much further in. This one is a lot more enjoyable (so far).
I love FF4, but I think at this point it’s more historically important than anything. Random battles in general aren’t always popular and it’s very much a prototype for later JRPG design. The reason for encounters like that is FF4 was the first time Square made an RPG where the player character roles were set in stone. They felt they could make encounters more targeted towards a certain character class, or make them puzzly in general. I think it’s mostly fine (the encounter design creates a contrast between going up and going down a certain mountain that I think is pretty cool), but it can also be kind of a disaster. Looking at you, Magnetic Cavern. It doesn’t help that the 2D versions are among the easiest JRPGs ever made, so it’s less of a challenge thing and more going through the motions.
FF6 is great for getting more of the party involved, though. One of my overall favorites in the genre.
I definitely understand it’s a game that pioneered a lot of concepts, so I don’t necessarily blame it or think it’s bad, but future games improved a lot on it to make it manageable. I don’t have a problem with random battles, either. But these ones were definitely testing my patience. Thank you for the little history lesson! If I make it through FF6 I’m interested to try the 3D ones for the first time.