GameFAQs Contests
Aitch Emm's Top 10 Favorite Games with write-ups -- cuz its overdue
| Icehawk | Posted 3/29/2007 12:09:07 AM | message detail | #151 |
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You could always track them down... on... illegal sites >_>. --- BOOBIES |
| Liquid Wind | Posted 3/29/2007 12:10:06 AM | message detail | #152 |
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You could always track them down... on... illegal sites >_>. perhaps at some point in the future, my current comp would likely asplode with psx emulators. |
| ZFS | Posted 3/29/2007 12:10:56 AM | message detail | #153 |
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Yeah, despite what many thought at the time, most PS1 games did not
have good graphics at all. Few games on the system could even compare
to Super Mario 64, let alone something like NiGHTS Into Dreams. By the
way, the PS1 version of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six is one of the ugliest
games I have ever seen. SM64 was probably the one game that came away looking just as good as I remember it. The were other greats that have suffered some serious technical problems, though -- hello, Goldeneye. aw yeah, Luc shoutout Silly, tran man, you forgot the "a" !! --- An infinite world. Infinite possibilities. Infinite Undiscovery. |
| Liquid Wind | Posted 3/29/2007 12:13:30 AM | message detail | #154 |
| goldeneye, visually anyway, died to me the day I played Perfect Dark <___< so no surprise there for me...I still love PD these days though, although in retrospect, what the **** where they thinking with the dizziness? also dislike the shield visualization as opposed to the old body armor, but these are minor gripes |
| Lucid Faia | Posted 3/29/2007 12:15:18 AM | message detail | #155 |
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I played Perfect Dark before I played Goldeneye. Suffice to say, I never really got into Goldeneye. --- Rebel. Revolutionary. Disharmonious. UNMUTUAL. |
| Shadow Dino | Posted 3/29/2007 1:04:41 AM | message detail | #156 |
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Perfect Dark still gives me chuckles due to the Farsight Sniper. lol sniping through walls --- Bart, with $10,000, we'd be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things like...love! ~Homer J. Simpson |
| ZFS | Posted 3/29/2007 1:28:41 AM | message detail | #157 |
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5.) Suikoden II (PlayStation) DIE PIG! Luca ****ing Blight I'm not even going to pretend that there is a greater reason for wanting to play this game or for liking this game. With the sole exception of a certain God Emperor, Luca Blight is the greatest villain to appear in anything ever. Luca Blight is, quite frankly, better than you. Better than your favorite character. Better than your best friend's favorite character. Better than your mother's favorite character. Oh, I went there, pal. This write-up isn't going to be about Luca Blight, though, because that would be all sorts of fantastic and amazing spoilers for another write-up topic I have planned in the future. But you best be forewarned that Suikoden II is lucky to have Luca Blight in it, because it would totally only be at eighth right now if he weren't in there. aww yeah On a more serious note, Suikoden II is really something else. I remember having tried this out a couple of years back on an emulator, but eventually quitting before I could get far enough to actually rank it. It was fun then, but I never really got into the meat of the game to find out why everyone had loved it. Thankfully, after some Semi induced Suikoden hype, I tried this, and the rest of the series, out. Needless to say, I said "wow." The approach that the Suikoden series takes is distinctly different from pretty much any other RPG series that I have played. Most notably, the cast of the games are massive (not Chrono Cross "Lots of characters that suck" massive, either). Whereas most RPGs feature main casts of about five or six characters, Suikoden sports a whopping 108. The basic premise here is that there are 108 Stars of Destiny in the world who have the ability to impact history; you'll run into these colorful personalities during your journey through Suikoden's world and have the opportunity to recruitment into your own army. Now, I had some doubt on a developer being capable of creating 108 good characters. I was, however, pleasantly surprised to find that there are a good 30 - 40 per game that are great. Sure, they're not the deepest characters, but they're written to be more enjoyed for their personalities and little quirks that make each of them unique over their depth and complexity (although some of them do have that element to them). The "main" characters, which can easily be made up of about 10 - 15 characters (both PC and NPC), do actually get developed and fleshed out, though. The other thing about Suikoden games is that all of them are connected through a well thought out timeline. This isn't one of those deals like Zelda where the games are very loosely connected to one another; instead, each puts you in a different region (in Suikoden II's case, it's the Dunan Republic) of Suikoden's large world. This sets up for some pretty cool things like characters returning who were in the last game, or characters who appeared two games ago coming back older and more matured since you last saw them. Neat stuff, I think. Now that I've set you guys up (I don't think there's a big group of people here who have played the Suikoden series, so it's worth it to throw out some general Suikoden quirks), I can get into game-specifics. Suikoden's best aspect is probably its ability to tell a well-written and mature storyline, moreso than other RPGs. Each getting a little more complex and interesting than the last, Suikoden II is where the series, I think, really started to get good with its storytelling. |
| ZFS | Posted 3/29/2007 1:31:45 AM | message detail | #158 |
| Suikoden II starts off with two best friends in a
Highland military camp in the dead of night. They're anxious to get
back to their homes to see their families, and everything seems to be
going well, with only a night's rest separating them from seeing their
loved ones. However, in the midst of their beauty sleep, the encampment
is set ablaze and everyone is going nuts. When Riou and Jowy (the two
main characters) run into their Captain, he tells them that they're
being ambushed by the City-State and that they need to run and escape
to the east -- little did they know their Captain was leading them, and
all of their war buddies, to their death. With some quick spidey
sense-esque hax, Jowy tells Riou that he thinks this is a trap and that
they should head back. Sure, enough when they do, they run into their
Captain, who happens to be talking with the Highland's Prince, Luca
Blight. It turns out this was all a setup to make it appear as though
the City-State broke the peace treaty, and would allow Highland to go
to war along with the backing of its people, thinking that their
children were slaughtered by the backstabbing City-State. That, in a nutshell, is how the game starts off. I thought it was a perfect way to kick the game off, because the betrayal you think happens there is only the beginning of something much, much larger. What I love about this is there is a big "shade of grey" dealing with a lot of these characters. Characters that are "evil" could only be labeled such due to point-of-view. If you look at it from a different perspective, one side could seem like a hero for his actions, or at least his intentions. There is no "I want to rule the world and kill people and become a god" and whatnot (Luca kind of fits the "rule the world" and "kill people" part, but he's more complicated than you might think). On the gameplay front, Suikoden II does a number of things that I like. The first is the anti-grind element this has to it. Think the exact opposite of Dragon Quest. You never, ever have to spend time leveling up on the world map or in a dungeon or whatever. I remember when I first beat an enemy in a new area and gained a crapload of levels all at once. While it doesn't have FFVIII's bit about enemies leveling up with you, you pretty much will always be on par with any boss or enemy, which then requires that you just use some strategy (note: Suikoden games are not hard at all, so...). That, my friends, is made of lots and lots of win. The other, for me, is sort of a mixed bag of "good" and "bad." The good is that the battle system allows for six characters; the bad is that I can never form a satisfactory party because I like so many of the characters (;_;). I'm sure there's someone out there who can relate to that who has played Suikoden II. There are so many good characters, but just not enough space. I don't think I ever ran into that problem in any other RPG, either. The cast of characters in Suikoden II is just so awesome and so abundant that only (heh heh) six spots just won't do! |
| ZFS | Posted 3/29/2007 1:33:55 AM | message detail | #159 |
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There is, however, something that I must document here: Viktor? He
sucks. Mind you, this isn't as bad as Suiko1 "im in your party, takin
up your spaces" Viktor, but this guy feels a strong need to always tag
along when he's not invited. I'm sorry, Viktor, but you flail that
weapon around and have no sense of accuracy or evasion. Why, oh why, do
you feel the strange need to take up precious party space for plot
reasons when you're not even needed
for said plot reasons? It confounds me -- and I noticed some Viktor
love in my Suikoden ranking topic, so it needed to be called out !! With that off my chest, another thing I enjoyed about Suikoden II was getting a castle. I was blown away to find out that you get a base of operations that is a massive castle-esque structure. Even cooler, when you recruit more people to your army, the bigger the castle grows to compensate for that. By the end of the game, you end up with pretty much a bustling town of sorts. All of the PCs you've recruited roam around, have some drinks at the bar, admire the scenery or whatever. It was one of the aspects I loved in another RPG, Skies of Arcadia, but I think Suikoden II pulled it off the best. Few things are as awesome as Suikoden II manages to be. While I don't think it's the best RPG, or even the best Suikoden game, I do think it's one of the greats. It's an RPG that has the perfect combination of gameplay, storyline, and characters. Each aspect is enjoyable for different reasons. It's one of those unique, old school RPGs that, while simple on the surface, has got plenty of depth that can make it hang with the best of them. If this write-up seemed like it avoid specifics, there was a reason for that. I wanted to not have to put a spoiler tag on this so that the people who are reading and haven't played won't feel a need to avoid this one, because there needs to be more people out there who have played Suikoden, yo! Inequality of Win Luca Blight > Lucia > Jowy > Sierra Mikain > Leon Silverberg > Clive > Neclord > Flik > Riou > Shu > Georg Prime (he joined my party at level 99 aw yeah) --- An infinite world. Infinite possibilities. Infinite Undiscovery. |
| ZFS | Posted 3/29/2007 1:41:59 AM | message detail | #160 |
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And more of these... 71.) Metal Slug 2 (Neo-Geo) 72.) King of Fighters 2003 (Arcade) 73.) Soul Calibur II (PlayStation 2) 74.) Radical Dreamers (Super Nintendo) 75.) The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Nintendo 64) 76.) Donkey Kong Country (Super Nintendo) 77.) Jet Force Gemini (Nintendo 64) 78.) Ninja Gaiden (Nintendo) 79.) Ikaruga (Arcade) 80.) Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (Nintendo --- An infinite world. Infinite possibilities. Infinite Undiscovery. |
| CantFaketheFunk | Posted 3/29/2007 1:48:43 AM | message detail | #161 |
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There are much better videogame villains/characters/whatevers than Luca Blight. Not that he isn't pretty cool, but he's not the best. Also, the lack of any sort of Blizzard whatsoever = INSTANT FAIL. --- Jayne [Shadow Syndicate]: Level 60 Troll Mage, Mug'Thol Level 3X Gnome Warrior, Skullcrusher |
| meisnewbie | Posted 3/29/2007 1:51:34 AM | message detail | #162 |
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my favorite freeware game ever, cave story, is retro as hell and I love Have you finished Hell yet? Say yes! Say Yes! 79.) Ikaruga (Arcade) Boo. 71.) Metal Slug 2 (Neo-Geo) Boo for not having 3 above this. --- Eh? Easy Mode? How Disgusting! Only Elementary School Kids play on Easy Mode. |
| ZFS | Posted 3/29/2007 2:37:14 AM | message detail | #163 |
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There are much better videogame villains/characters/whatevers than Luca Blight. I can really only think of one, maybe. Also, the lack of any sort of Blizzard whatsoever = INSTANT FAIL. I consider that to be a whole lot of "WIN," myself! :P --- An infinite world. Infinite possibilities. Infinite Undiscovery. |
| meisnewbie | Posted 3/29/2007 2:39:32 AM | message detail | #164 |
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HM can't seriously think that 2 is better than 3. --- Eh? Easy Mode? How Disgusting! Only Elementary School Kids play on Easy Mode. |
| Shoenin_Kakashi | Posted 3/29/2007 2:40:12 AM | message detail | #165 |
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You put 2 instead of X? X is 2 only better. --- "A Bundy never wins, but a Bundy never quits" -Al Bundy Number of Times Ive No-Sold Attacks in 2007: 4 |
| ZFS | Posted 3/29/2007 2:41:51 AM | message detail | #166 |
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Epic Showdown between General Morden and the Aliens > > > MS3. --- An infinite world. Infinite possibilities. Infinite Undiscovery. |
| Liquid Wind | Posted 3/29/2007 2:42:37 AM | message detail | #167 |
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*cave story spoilers* Have you finished Hell yet? Say yes! Say Yes! haven't even been there, unfortunately. you need to save curly in the core for that correct? I've been unable to locate the tow rope, it hasn't been where it was supposed to be on any of my playthroughs(bottom right corner of the core? *anywhere* in the core? because I've searched all over >_<). |
| meisnewbie | Posted 3/29/2007 2:51:34 AM | message detail | #168 |
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From ZFS Epic Showdown between General Morden and the Aliens > > > MS3. --- An infinite world. Infinite possibilities. Infinite Undiscovery. More like Epic killing of Aliens via Semi Shmup thingie > MS2 Uh Liquid? http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/saves.php Just get one of the save files that start you out just before entering the area where you fight the Guardian. (Since that is the only significant change between doing the Hell run and the Normal run. Hell is Hell by the way. --- Eh? Easy Mode? How Disgusting! Only Elementary School Kids play on Easy Mode. |
| Liquid Wind | Posted 3/29/2007 2:55:14 AM | message detail | #169 |
| too lazy/wanted to do it myself <_< do you know if there is some other pre-requisite or am I oblivious or |
| meisnewbie | Posted 3/29/2007 2:59:48 AM | message detail | #170 |
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Hm, I haven't played it in a while but... 1) Get Curly's und- WAIT WAIT WAIT. You need to skip the Jump booster .8 if you want the Tow Rope. It's the booster thing that you get when the Professor falls onto the ground. You have to jump over to the other side and ignore the professor instead of getting the Booster then. Does that help? --- Eh? Easy Mode? How Disgusting! Only Elementary School Kids play on Easy Mode. |
| Liquid Wind | Posted 3/29/2007 3:01:42 AM | message detail | #171 |
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ya, that'd explain it. I only briefly had looked it up in the FAQs so I
wasn't aware of any earlier actions I needed to take. now I have an
excuse to play it again :):):) (once I get a new usb controller anyway, I broke my old one because I'm an idiot) |
| meisnewbie | Posted 3/29/2007 3:03:10 AM | message detail | #172 |
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Real men have to struggle with Keyboards <_< Which reminds me to get one and try Hell/Touhou again. Machine Gun, Snake or Spur? --- Eh? Easy Mode? How Disgusting! Only Elementary School Kids play on Easy Mode. |
| Liquid Wind | Posted 3/29/2007 3:03:54 AM | message detail | #173 |
| I like the machine gun, especially if you don't have the booster! |
| CantFaketheFunk | Posted 3/29/2007 3:06:40 AM | message detail | #174 |
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There are much better videogame villains/characters/whatevers than Luca Blight. I can really only think of one, maybe. Also, the lack of any sort of Blizzard whatsoever = INSTANT FAIL. I consider that to be a whole lot of "WIN," myself! :P I can think of a bunch, really. Well, a handful if we're just going on villains, but much more htan that if we take characters in general into account. And no, lacking Blizzard means FAILURE. this entire list is faaaar too Japancentric anyway :P --- Jayne [Shadow Syndicate]: Level 60 Troll Mage, Mug'Thol Level 3X Gnome Warrior, Skullcrusher |
| meisnewbie | Posted 3/29/2007 3:09:18 AM | message detail | #175 |
| [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster] |
| meisnewbie | Posted 3/29/2007 3:10:48 AM | message detail | #176 |
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Suffice to say, Magical Amber is superior to every single character mentioned thus far. --- Eh? Easy Mode? How Disgusting! Only Elementary School Kids play on Easy Mode. |
| ZFS | Posted 3/29/2007 3:12:27 AM | message detail | #177 |
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I can think of a bunch, really. Well, a handful if we're just going
on villains, but much more htan that if we take characters in general
into account. In general, the list of one expands to a list of about three or four! And no, lacking Blizzard means FAILURE. this entire list is faaaar too Japancentric anyway 'Tis no fault of mine that all of the great games in the industry are primarily made in Japan! --- An infinite world. Infinite possibilities. Infinite Undiscovery. |
| Shoenin_Kakashi | Posted 3/29/2007 3:18:44 AM | message detail | #178 |
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Lawl at the thought of Slug 2 being more Epic than 3 --- "A Bundy never wins, but a Bundy never quits" -Al Bundy Number of Times Ive No-Sold Attacks in 2007: 4 |
| meisnewbie | Posted 3/29/2007 3:21:16 AM | message detail | #179 |
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As much as I hate to say it, but HM's right about more games being made in Japan. (Except for the fact that Blizzard is awesome and HM should die for not having Starcraft up there) Really, the only RTS even in contention with Starcraft has mostly been said to be TA or Sup Com. --- Eh? Easy Mode? How Disgusting! Only Elementary School Kids play on Easy Mode. |
| Shoenin_Kakashi | Posted 3/29/2007 3:22:20 AM | message detail | #180 |
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I thought C&C was near SC tier also? --- "A Bundy never wins, but a Bundy never quits" -Al Bundy Number of Times Ive No-Sold Attacks in 2007: 4 |
| meisnewbie | Posted 3/29/2007 3:24:49 AM | message detail | #181 |
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C&C suffers from "lol balance" and the game boiling down to "TANK RUSH" in almost every single installment -_- Although C&C FMVs make Starcraft cy and the Single player missions are better for C&C (Tanya DESTROYING EVERYTHING > Zeratul) --- Eh? Easy Mode? How Disgusting! Only Elementary School Kids play on Easy Mode. |
| Shoenin_Kakashi | Posted 3/29/2007 3:28:46 AM | message detail | #182 |
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Lies, Tanya is able to get 1 shoted by a Doggie >_> Zeratul 1 Shots Hydralisks <_< --- "A Bundy never wins, but a Bundy never quits" -Al Bundy Number of Times Ive No-Sold Attacks in 2007: 4 |
| Tiedus | Posted 3/29/2007 4:01:58 AM | message detail | #183 |
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Tanya > Lots. --- Listen to my story. This may be our last chance. -- Tidus |
| LeonhartForever | Posted 3/29/2007 9:03:25 AM | message detail | #184 |
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Yeah, it's all pretty corny in retrospect, but that's probably the
only time that advertising has really made me want to go get a game. no way. you are the king of being suckered by hype. Hey, he wasn't the only one who wanted to buy the game because of the ads! There are much better videogame villains/characters/whatevers than Luca Blight. I can really only think of one, maybe. The best villain around is something of a revolutionary, if you catch my drift. --- "I'm only here to see how the story plays out. Any self-respecting leading man would do the same." - Balthier |
| Mumei | Posted 3/29/2007 9:08:11 AM | message detail | #185 |
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The best villain around is something of a revolutionary, if you catch my drift. ... Some MGS character, no doubt. Anyway, these are superb. --- "I believe that words uttered in passion contain a greater living truth than do those words which express thoughts rationally conceived" - Sensei |
| LeonhartForever | Posted 3/29/2007 9:09:20 AM | message detail | #186 |
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Ah, so you ARE well aware that MGS produces the best video game characters! Bravo! --- "I'm only here to see how the story plays out. Any self-respecting leading man would do the same." - Balthier |
| Applekidjosh | Posted 3/29/2007 9:36:33 AM | message detail | #187 |
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HM, I'm sure you know, but there's a hack for the PC version of FF7 that uses the battle models as the field models. And you like Sierra? I've always loved Sierra. ^5 I assume you like Lucia mostly for her influence in other games? She doesn't... do much in Suikoden II >_> --- Applekidjosh at work AKJ. The Cream of Super Robot Wars fanboyism. |
| neonreaper | Posted 3/29/2007 9:59:10 AM | message detail | #188 |
| Interesting about Suikoden II - they have that
many good characters? Yet in Suikoden III they can't even make ONE good
character. :( --- Stonehenge, where the demons dwell Where the banshees live and they do live well |
| Mumei | Posted 3/29/2007 10:05:32 AM | message detail | #189 |
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Ah, so you ARE well aware that MGS produces the best video game characters! Bravo! I'm only aware of your fanboyism. << And Balthier's better. --- "I believe that words uttered in passion contain a greater living truth than do those words which express thoughts rationally conceived" - Sensei |
| Drakeryn | Posted 3/29/2007 11:47:25 AM | message detail | #190 |
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Pfft, Jowy >> Luca Blight. The best villain around is something of a revolutionary, if you catch my drift. Yes indeed! --- We're not foolish because we're tools. It's because we're men. - Albedo |
| THEJackSparrow | Posted 3/29/2007 11:48:47 AM | message detail | #191 |
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Not Wiegraf, savvy? Although he's up near the top. --- "Four of you have tried to kill me in the past. One of you succeeded." |
| Mumei | Posted 3/29/2007 1:07:42 PM | message detail | #192 |
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The best villain around isn't from a video game at all. --- "I believe that words uttered in passion contain a greater living truth than do those words which express thoughts rationally conceived" - Sensei |
| Applekidjosh | Posted 3/29/2007 1:09:27 PM | message detail | #193 |
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The best villain around? Tom Nook, that crook. --- Applekidjosh at work AKJ. The Cream of Super Robot Wars fanboyism. |
| ZFS | Posted 3/29/2007 4:02:07 PM | message detail | #194 |
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The best villain around is something of a revolutionary, if you catch my drift. Six shots! Anyway, these are superb. Why, thank ya! I assume you like Lucia mostly for her influence in other games? She doesn't... do much in Suikoden II >_> Lucia's character remained intact from Suikoden II and Suikoden III, albeit she's older, wiser, and more mature in Suiko3 (she aged gracefully, too), so I wouldn't say she didn't do anything. Okay, so maybe it was just that KUH-RAZY hair. >_> Pfft, Jowy >> Luca Blight. Pssh. Jowy is a little backstabber all around !! --- An infinite world. Infinite possibilities. Infinite Undiscovery. |
| Drakeryn | Posted 3/29/2007 4:10:08 PM | message detail | #195 |
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That's what makes him awesome. Brilliant, cunning, masterful at
manipulation and political intrigue. He was a nuanced character,
incredibly ruthless yet driven by his own sense of twisted idealism. Better than I AM SUBLIME! I AM THE TRUE FACE OF EVIL!! I LAUGH MORE IN ONE SCENE THAN TIDUS AND YUNA IN THE WHOLE OF FFX COMBINED!! --- We're not foolish because we're tools. It's because we're men. - Albedo |
| Lady Ashe | Posted 3/29/2007 4:12:40 PM | message detail | #196 |
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That's because when they do laugh, it's for the sake of a truly deep
and meaningfully scene. When Luca laughs, it's because he's insane and
as such doesn't really have any depth of character. =D ~~~ Ashe. The Cream of Final Fantasy Fanboyism. http://www.board8wiki.com/Lady_Ashe |
| ZFS | Posted 3/29/2007 5:11:56 PM | message detail | #197 |
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4.) Valkyrie Profile (PlayStation) I invoke the power of the Glacial Blade! Finishing Strike! Icicle Disaster! I have to say that there is a lot of mixed emotion that comes with this game -- and that's probably why I like it so much. Right from the get go, Valkyrie Profile was taunting me with all sorts of nasty problems. The sound was screwy, the graphics were glitchy, and the game had a horrible tendency to freeze up for no reason. Haven't guessed why yet? Yeah, I was emulating this beauty. Against all the warnings Semi had given me about how no one can seem to get Valkyrie Profile working on an emulator, I used my ancient emulator technology hax and eventually got everything going smoothly. I consider myself a genius without compare for it, too! One of the first things I noticed about Valkyrie Profile was how different it was from most other games (notably, RPGs), or at least the approach it took in comparison. For starters, the basic premise is that you play as a Goddess named Lenneth. You're called upon by the All-Father Odin for the upcoming war between the apocalyptic battle between Aesir and Vanir -- a battle of gods -- to gather the souls of dead warriors, called "Einherjar,"who are worthy for serving him and bringing victory to Aesir. I really loved how tri-Ace executed that, too. Every time you go to recruit these Einherjar, you'll get a scene of what led up to their death. Some of these are actually very touching because they involve loved ones of the characters, maybe someone contemplating suicide, or one who has come to the realization that was he/she was doing was wrong and ends up dying on the battlefield. While most of these are rather minor characters, even while being PCs, these scenes manage to flesh them out a bit and make you care a little more about recruiting them. Of course, in order to recruit these, you need a special power that only a Valkyrie can offer! And I found Lenneth's "power"-- the ability to hear the sounds of a person's last minutes alive -- pretty crazy. She may be a bit cold naturally, but I can't imagine hearing the cries of the dead being...enjoyable, to say the least. At any rate, this rather fresh approach (I know I haven't played a game with this sort of quirk to it) was rather intriguing. This lent itself well to creating a living, breathing world that had the appearance of operating even whilst you were just flying around doing nothing. I love games that manage to pull that off. And that leads into the next thing that blew my mind about Valkyrie Profile -- you can ****ing fly. Who needs to walk around on the world map between each town fighting random battles? Not Lenneth, that's for sure. A simple press of a button sends her soaring across the sky; this makes for quick access to the game's dungeons and towns, limits the amount of world map time, and makes for an absolute blast when you first see it. I know it hooked me. |
| ZFS | Posted 3/29/2007 5:13:48 PM | message detail | #198 |
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But the ability to fly and whatnot comes at a certain price. The game
is split into eight chapters, of which you have 28 periods within that
chapter to complete what you need to. Basically, you have a limited
amount of time to spend doing stuff. That may sound bad, but it's
really not. How it works is that every time you enter into a
town/dungeon, a certain amount of periods are taken up. The general
rule of thumb is that towns take up 1 period and dungeons take up 2
periods. After you've done enough to take up 28 periods, the chapter
ends and you head back to Aesir to meet with Freya, who sort of works
as a Second-In-Command and servant to Odin. She'll give you a rundown
on their war status and how you're doing in recruiting Einherjar. Now, generally, I think tri-Ace is pretty inept at making dungeons, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the ones featured in Valkyrie Profile were...good. Usually, in what I have concluded must be the abuse some powerful drugs, tri-Ace throws together some the most awful, generic, downright stupid dungeons imaginable. Lots of rooms that look the same, convoluted nonsense, events to progress the story hidden away in obscure locations -- all of this is the norm (anyone play SO3? There ya go. Kirsla Training Facility is a nightmare.) Of course, that doesn't mean they didn't go and screw up once or twice in VP, causing me tremendous amounts of grief in the process. An example would be the Citadel of Flame. As you might figure, its name implies there is going to be fire all strewn about the dungeon. No problems so far. Little did I expect, however, that this dungeon was going to feature hellfire raining from the skies en masse at to rain on my little joy parade. This may not sound bad, but it is. My God, it is. Every time you get hit by so much as one fireball, you get knocked back and injured, reducing your health. Imagine you've nearly made it across and this demon of a flame comes out of nowhere, smacks you in the face, sends you flying backward into more flames rocking your world and eventually pushes you back to the beginning of where it all began, forcing you to do that all over again. Yeah -- thank you, tri-Ace. But, no, that's not all. We're not finished here. There's a place called the Celestial Castle that's not a particularly difficult place except for one abortion of an area. Since you all know about you have to complete everything in 28 periods, you should know that time is of the essence. So what do this thing throw at you? The ability to fall from the castle due to gaps that require platforming and swinging across chains to progress. That's not the worst of it, turns out the treasure chests are set up perfectly so that when you open them, they explode and send you flying a few feet -- AND RIGHT OFF THE LEVEL BACK TO THE WORLD MAP. I don't know who thought that was a good idea, but I think they need to smacked with a frying pan. Sure, you could say that I brought that upon myself by trying to be hardcore and go immediately for hard mode, but the point stands. Tri-Ace is made up of a bunch of sadists and they're trying to turn the players of their games into masochists. Congratulations, tri-Ace, you got me into your web of pain and torture. :( |
| ZFS | Posted 3/29/2007 5:15:15 PM | message detail | #199 |
| There is some good that came from these dungeons,
though, and their rather different approach was to thank for that.
There are a lot of clever puzzles that make use of Lenneth's abilities.
See, Lenneth is capable of jumping, making ice crystals (weight on
switches, redirecting beams, allowing for extra height to jump, etc.),
and getting pre-emptive strikes on enemies by slashing her sword.
That's right -- no random battles in VP; the enemies are on the screen.
Anyone who I've talked to probably knows that I really don't care about
random encounters in RPGs. Yes, I can deal with them, but if the
alternative is adding generic little monster sprites to the dungeon or
field, I'm on my knees thanking a higher power. Thankfully, the higher
power was present here and I was on my knees. But, if flying, recruiting souls of the dead, and being able to jump (GASP) weren't breaks from the norm enough, Valkyrie Profile also had a pretty damn awesome (and rather unique) battle system. I had my doubts on it at first, since I was thinking it was something more akin to the Tales series; instead, it's takes the usual turn-based RPG and adds in a little twist. Every character is assigned to certain button. Lenneth to Square, Arngrim to X, Lawfer to Triangle, and Mystina to O (note: these are just some of the characters I had in my party, merely examples). Each turn, you press that button and make the characters attack, creating for some vicious combos which charge up a gauge that allows for an "ultimate" attack of sorts. This makes battles much faster and more enjoyable than usual RPG fare. And trying to chain together different combinations with your characters is good fun. But even with all of that, I think my favorite part about the game was the verbal ownage that Lenneth dishes out right before each and every boss fight. Semi will try to lie and say some bosses no sell it -- but no one no sells Lenneth. She provides a verbal assault on those vile souls who torment human life each and every time -- and I love it. Unfortunately, there isn't a FAQ where I can go look up her awesome lines, but some of them are brilliant. My favorite had to have been, "Unclean thing! Defiler of life! [Insert some discussion here]. Enough talk. Your time is over, narcissistic lover of undead flesh!" Lenneth is just so awesome. I think that verbal ownage is amplified a bit more than usual due to Lenneth's VA being Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy from Pokemon, too. I don't know why Enix decided it was a good idea to go after the Pokemon anime crew, but they did. If the idea of Nurse Joy delivering that verbal beat down wasn't tantalizing enough, imagine Brock, Meowth, Jesse, James, Gary Oak, and others lending their supreme voice talents to this game. Believe me, the voice acting is terrible save for a few (Lenneth, Freya, Lucian, Lezard, and Mystina), but trying to spot which Pokemon character the VA did becomes a whole different kind of entertainment in itself. ...Anyway, uh, yeah. Valkyrie Profile is one of those RPGs that I can enjoy not because it provides a deep and meaningful storyline, but more for its depth and complexity on the gameplay front. It's one of those of mixed emotions -- happy, sad; I need to go get a brownie to combat this boss, and everything in between. It's an absolutely brilliant game and I loved almost every second of it (lol citadel of flame). A rather unique and enjoyable take on turn-based combat with tri-Ace's own artistic liberties on Norse mythology made for a winning combination. --- An infinite world. Infinite possibilities. Infinite Undiscovery. |
| THEJackSparrow | Posted 3/29/2007 5:29:43 PM | message detail | #200 |
|
...Well, that was unexpected. --- "Four of you have tried to kill me in the past. One of you succeeded." |
