Breath of Fire 4- I think BoF4 is very good! As Alex said, it's has a turn based battle system, three active front row characters and three in the back who can basically cheer for the front line once in a while for support. Characters all have their own AP recovery rate which is only active while they're in the back row which you can swap around any time between battle rounds. This can be fun because though you may have characters with super magic power but low max AP, they might have super AP regeneration too. There are six characters, all very balanced with their own variety of skills, strong and weak stats, so it's fun to mix up your party to try different combinations. The game has a very fun combo system in which if you can chain attack skills according to their properties in an order, you can deal some massive bonus damage accompanied with status effects and sometimes even causing a completely new combo spell graphic. Most characters only specialize in two or three elements, so again, it's fun to switch up your combination. Like BoF3, you can teach characters skills from monsters and switch what you've learned around too.
Though the game's color palette is a bit washed out, it's very beautifully animated. The music is nice with an ethnic feel. The battle music is subtle, yet can be a bit empowering. I really liked the characters and thought the story was very interesting and surprisingly pretty twisted and dark at some points.
I admit the dragon changing system isn't as good as BoF3's since you can't make your own dragon through gene manipulation, especially considering that graphically, the only visual difference between Ryu's dragon forms are his dragon breaths which are more like summons. As much as I liked where the story was going, the ending felt very abrupt as though the creators were tight on time and had to tie things up prematurely. The ending feels disappointing and you get almost nothing to do as bonus material after you beat it too. If you're going to play this game, do it for the journey. ^^;
Grandia-Good long game with a fun journey with some pretty good characters. The battle system was o-kay for me, Grandia 2's definitely felt more tight making it a lot more fun in comparison, not to say Grandia's isn't good. I'm a bit unsure what to think about it overall though because I kinda grinded a little too much which made the whole game feel super easy. >.<
I don't think the English dubbing is too bad; I actually thought it was charming for the most part, but I admit it kinda ruined the ending. >.<
Character-wise, I think Justin really stands out among many JRPG heroes. He's fun but has his other moments too. I think the main theme to the game is the sense of adventure. There is a main overlaying plot, but it doesn't really have a sense of urgency until near the end. The story was interesting and fun, but I never felt super attached to the characters, though Justin's pretty cool. =) Oh yeah, no random encounters. XD
Legend of Dragoon-Very good long game; great interesting story and very fun timed hit combat. There must have been a LOT of thought put into creating the game's systems. It has a number of simple rules that give you a very good sense of control, thus letting you strategize. Guarding for example will ALWAYS decrease received damage by exactly half (rounded up or down 1 for odd numbers. -Don't remember '_') and will make you immune to incoming status ailments. I think they guard immediately too. Having so much planning ability was fun! You also have a variety of characters with interesting extreme strengths, weaknesses, and elemental affinities! XD
The music is okay; it has its own flavor, but not excellent; the game does have some pretty catchy/cool battle themes though. I admit too that due to the music, the potentially dramatic and touching moments seem to fall very short. '_'
The English dubbing is HORRENDOUS! The battle grunts and special move cries aren't too bad, but e-gad, the cinematics! Thank goodness they're rare. @_@
Legend of Mana-This game is not like others of the series; it's more like a side scrolling beat'm up fantasy RPG. You create a character, do quests for reoccurring NPC's, doing so gives you artifacts that will create plots of land (areas that you can explore) which then you can place adjacent to other plots of land on a grid-like overworld map. Character stat growth and handling depends on what weapon you wear as you level up. You get two base attacks, quick weak ones and strong slower ones (holding down forward while doing a strong will launch enemies). I felt there was very little reason to use weak attacks since there's very little downtime between strong hits; you can just launch->chase->launch->chase to attack. It got very repetitious. '_'
You will randomly learn super attack skills for weapons you are equipped with. Though they can look really cool, I don't like the supers in this game because your characters stick in the ground charging for five or so seconds before it actually executes. Monsters still run around the map as you're doing this so good luck hitting the monster if your super has a point blank range.
The game sports 2player co-op play, but it really sucks because the second player isn't allowed to learn any new skills, not only that, but quests constantly require you to take an NPC guest around (which can be controlled by the 2nd player) which afterwards you have to return to a specific place for the 2nd player to reload their character again.
I didn't beat it, but my brother did, I got pretty far but lost interest. o_< The game however is very beautiful visually and has an amazing soundtrack! ^^;
Suikoden-Really nice game with a simple and quick battle system. Battles are quick because after entering all of your commands, more than one character can attack enemies at a time.~
You can collect 108 characters, characters differ from each other mainly through base stats, the type of weapon they wield, and sometimes a rune that they poses. You can apply runes that give spells associated to an element, a theme, or a special move to characters. Some characters have runes that only they can wear. Some characters have combo attacks with other characters they are associated to. Though you can have 108 characters, switching up your party with characters you've never used isn't a problem. You gain experience based on the level of the enemy so characters can catch up really fast; it's possible to gain 15 levels after one battle! A part of the fun is collecting cool characters and incorporating them into your party. XD
Not all characters that join you are battle characters. You end up getting a castle and a lot of them give you special services, like mini games, a jukebox, text box window changes, etc.
The music is amazing, definitely one of Bear and my favorite soundtracks of all time!!
I really like the cast of main characters, it's one of the few games that gave me an emotional tug.
Suikoden is very good game (though a little short), but what makes this a must-play-game is to set you up for Suikoden 2 which is a SERIOUS-MUST-PLAY! Suikoden 2 takes place a few years after S1 so they end up accentuating each other.
Vagrant Story-I have very little experience with this one. o_< It's made by the Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre crew so if it might not be a bad leap of faith. XD
Wild Arms-I'm disappointed to hear you guys referring him to play Alter Code F over the original!
Though I agree the polygon battles aren't too pretty, it has a solid battle system and is also a beautiful sprite based game outside of battles. Many things were changed for the PS2 remake; they're pretty much two very different games with the same overall plot.
I feel a little reluctant talking about Alter Code F since I've only played it for a few hours, but from what I DID play, I found it a huge turn off. I have so many issues with this game. I don't feel like writing about it right now though. >.<
-anyhow, I think most of what I have to say about Wild Arms is pretty much summed up . ^^;
by Tehwilburforce » Thu May 23, 2013 1:51 pm 
