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Post by 1upsuper on Jul 14, 2021 2:14:04 GMT -5
In other words, is there a game series that you are interested in, but you just can't seem to pick a spot to dive in? Or perhaps you're waiting for a port or a remaster or a reboot, whether announced for real or dreamed up by you?
I've read through this website's Front Mission article series probably two or three times, but I've never played the games. I like tactical RPGs, I like Yoshitaka Amano art, and I like that grim, anime mecha vibe the series has going on. But for some reason I just haven't taken the plunge. Every time I read the articles I'm reminded that Square Enix actually did localize the DS port of the first game, but I never end up buying it.
Come to think of it, I actually have the same problem with another mecha series: Armored Core. I don't know if that's a series where I should start at the beginning, or if the gameplay of each subsequent game is strictly better and so it's alright to just start later down the chronology.
Maybe this thread could inspire someone to break free of that choice paralysis, quit waiting, and play something. Or maybe I'm the only one with this problem!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2021 2:35:05 GMT -5
Phoenix Wright/Ace Attorney. OK, I played through the first one so it doesn't 100% qualify. I never got into the series in the DS days and would be happy to be able to pick up a nice rerelease at some point. I'm a physical edition kind of guy though and being European and this being Capcom those don't exactly go hand in hand.
Edit: I also played the Professor Layton/Phoenix Wright crossover game, I'd forgotten. Though I think it leans more Layton.
Also as a big Nintendo guy you can count their series I never touched on one hand, but why I never tried Wave Race I'm not sure. The appeal is certainly there, yet, I know I'd be all in if this series made a comeback.
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Post by dsparil on Jul 14, 2021 9:35:04 GMT -5
Armored Core - I feel the same way about AC. I have some miscellaneous smattering of the PS2 games I picked up used for cheap and played some of the PSX game emulated, but it's proven impenetrable overall. I mainly wasn't expecting them to be shooters. Nexus revamps the controls to be like a standard dual analog shooter, but the earlier games have clunky King's Field style controls. I wouldn't be surprised if the PSX games even run on the same engine.
Front Mission - I'm not a FM expert, but 3 is the best place to start and the only one I've actually finished. It is the "black sheep" of the series due to mechanical simplifications, but that makes it the easiest game to get into. Then the rest in order although I haven't played 5 at all. FM3 is ridiculously overpriced used, but 4 is very normal and reasonably priced.
Wave Race - I have somehow not played a single second of any of the Wave Race games! It was nice when Nintendo had multiple different racing games.
For me, the big one is the FFXIII trilogy. I'd like to see some kind of Switch release even though I'd probably hate them anyway, but I'll never know. I think the ridiculously bloated size of them is a huge factor. What's even in the first game that justifies a 60GB install size for the Windows port? It makes the 30GB and 22GB of the other parts seem svelte by comparison!
I've played all the Ultima games to various degrees, but it's hard to get through as a complete series. Akalabeth just isn't a fun game although that one gets a pass. The original trilogy plus V and VI have nice FM Towns ports which I only just now found out have English language options so I might actually go through them at some point. FM Towns emulation seems rough these days though. IV also has the excellent SMS port so that one is fine.
The final "trilogy" (since it's really four games) need real remakes. The VII pair have supposedly excellent worlds (maybe less so for Serpent Isle), but the combat is terrible and the reason I've barely played the Black Gate and skipped SI entirely. VIII and IX are infamously bad and deservedly so. You can kinda tell what Origin was going for with VIII, but there's so much cut content due to deadlines that the plot is inscrutable at times. The cuts go so far that Origin made an expansion to the game that was completed but never released. Again, the core gameplay is not that great either. IX's troubled development is too involved to even summarize. After patching, it actually plays okay for a late 90s PC action-RPG, but the released version has a story and adherence to continuity that are beyond awful. The real intention for IX was basically thrown out because of backlash after VIII. The Bob White led version people pine for still would have been compromised in its own way because of that. It'd be interesting to see what that totally lost version would have even been.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Jul 14, 2021 16:49:57 GMT -5
Oh jeez, loads. A lot of this isn't because I'm waiting for something or am hesitant to check them out; I just forget they exist. If I put my mind to it, I could grab at least one game from any of the series featured behind this spoilered paragraph legally or otherwise within minutes - or I have one of them already and just can't be bothered playing them: King's Field, Metal Gear Solid, Monkey Island 1 & 2, Ace Combat, Dino Crisis, Tobal/Ergheiz, Lunar, Grandia, Legacy of Kain, Mega Man Battle Network/Star Force, Need for Speed (the pre-Underground games), Parasite Eve, Ridge Racer, Suikoden, Wild Arms, the Tingle DS adventure games, Burnout, Ys, No More Heroes, The Silver Case, Metroid Prime, Scribblenauts, American McGee's Alice, Max Payne, Splatterhouse, Skate, the Mana series Unfortunately, I don't because I'm an absent-minded sausage. However, there are also games I'd love to check out but can't because I either don't own their systems or can't get a copy due to being expensive/rare/more powerful than my PC can run or emulate, such as Drakengard, Katamari, Otogi, Onimusha, Shadow Hearts, Yakuza, Evergrace/Forever Kingdom, Way of the Samurai, and Boku no Natsuyasumi
Horror is a genre full of legendary games, but I get too easily overwhelmed which then impacts my ability to play them and results in loads of deaths and what not. This mainly applies to games with a fair bit of action like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Echo Night, Dementium, Moon, Dead Space, and Condemned.
I could attempt more atypical games like the D "trilogy" (D/Enemy Zero/D2) or Clock Tower, especially as they're more experimental in design and control scheme. However, I got stuck in my attempts playing D and Clock Tower on the PS1 and didn't know how to progress, so that's put me off a little bit.
Anything directed by Yasumi Matsuno - Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy XII, Tactics Ogre/Ogre Battle, and Crimson Shroud mainly. Conceptually, these games sound wonderful or deeply interesting, but what I've heard about the gameplay mechanics of each sounds like it would be grueling (Vagrant) or just not my thing (everything else).
Devil May Cry - Tried 1 and 3, but I stink HARD at those ones. I'd play them on Easy if they didn't force you to use a simplified control scheme that effectively makes for a totally different pair of games. I got a good ways into 4, though this was a long time ago and I got stuck during the Dante part of the game, so I'd like to give it another try.
Sam & Max - My main beef is that (Hit the Road aside) these are Telltale games, and will probably run like crap because their Telltale Engine always ran like crap. I know there's been a re-released port of the first series, but I've been too badly burnt to trust the technical quality without seeing it for myself. If there's a demo on the Switch, I might try it out?
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Jul 14, 2021 19:09:06 GMT -5
I'm always kind of torn between wanting everything to get ported to Switch and playing stuff on their original console/generation. But there are a couple. Persona is a big one. I just don't have anything to play these on. That's probably one of the biggest reasons I haven't gotten started yet on certain series, as I don't own any non-Nintendo systems (except for a laptop) after the PS2/XBox. And for some reason they just don't put Persona games on Switch. Persona 3 is on PC but I barely have any space on my laptop, so that's not ideal. Speaking of Persona, the larger Megami Tensei series is another one. I'm planning on getting SMTV, as that seems like a good opportunity to get into it (SMTIII remake came out recently but I feel it's better to play the original version). Honestly, SMT is just a series that I haven't gotten into yet because they're RPGs and the RPGs are usually long(-ish) and won't work well if you don't play them for a while and forget what you were doing. Same reason I haven't gotten into Ultima, Wizardry, Final Fantasy beyond the first one, Suikoden, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, SaGa, Xenoblade, or enter almost any RPG series here. Dark Souls was a big one for a while, until the original, ehm, excuse me, the 'remaster' got released on Switch. I still have no means to play any other Soulsborne, but I haven't beaten DS yet, and at least I have a start now. Honestly, it's mostly just time and money for most franchises, not really lack of rereleases or anything like that, so I don't think that really applies to this thread. Like, I've been meaning to get into Metal Gear, but I'd have to import the original from NA and I'm kind of half thinking about getting a third party PS1 controller, so I've just been putting that off for the last three years. Phoenix Wright/Ace Attorney. OK, I played through the first one so it doesn't 100% qualify. I never got into the series in the DS days and would be happy to be able to pick up a nice rerelease at some point. I'm a physical edition kind of guy though and being European and this being Capcom those don't exactly go hand in hand. At least the DS games are all physical and not any worse than newer releases (I personally think they look best on DS though that might be nostalgia too). Also they're not that expensive I believe.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2021 0:27:37 GMT -5
Phoenix Wright/Ace Attorney. OK, I played through the first one so it doesn't 100% qualify. I never got into the series in the DS days and would be happy to be able to pick up a nice rerelease at some point. I'm a physical edition kind of guy though and being European and this being Capcom those don't exactly go hand in hand. At least the DS games are all physical and not any worse than newer releases (I personally think they look best on DS though that might be nostalgia too). Also they're not that expensive I believe. They're dirt cheap (probably not something I should say on the internet - que high demand and skyrocketing prices for Ace Attorney), I just want to have them in a nice collection. My games room shelves are seriously struggling for space so, perhaps when I eventually get around to a clear out. Also, I don't think being the sites #1 Devil World fan is a title you'll get much contention for. You can feel secure in holding on to your tagline. --- I also have been interested in Armoured Core as my next venture into FromSoft's back catalogue. I just haven't quite gotten around to picking it up (which of course means playing it could be years beyond that). On Front Mission 3 - dsparil mentioned the high prices. I wanted to point out that the PAL version is priced quite reasonably if that's an option. That said, that was my only attempt to get into the series and, despite finding the combat engaging and games world interesting, everything just moves at a snails pace. I imagine the extra speed from the NTSC version is highly beneficial for that game. Apollo Chungus - The first Telltale Sam & Max game is full of moon logic in my opinion. Really one that you have to sit with a guide to get through. Perhaps I'm projecting a little bit, since my brain gets stuck in using strict logic, so it can be a little difficult for me to see what others will have issues figuring out. Anyway, I didn't care for it. It is interesting also that different sorts of games can overwhelm different people. For me what really does it are games where there is too much choice - that gives me some stress/anxiety. As such I've stayed away from the entire CRPG/WRPG genre, since choice is one of the primary drivers of those sorts of games. There are certainly games that catch my attention, and I find the artwork in some of those isometric games just gorgeous; I just don't think I'd enjoy them as an experience. Anyway, probably a good thing. We can't possibly expect to keep up with every kind of game out there, so imposing some sort of limits isn't a bad idea. That brings me to a couple more I thought of: The Xenogears/Xenosaga games. Having discovered MonolithSoft and specifically their Xeno series through their work with Nintendo and loving their games I of course hold interest in going back to see what came before. The lack of PAL release has kept me away though. Of course importing PS1 games (or emulating them) isn't a problem so I could play Xenogears. I do use this lack of availability in my region as another way of drawing a line as to which titles I pick up or play though. It just helps me to manage my own choices and my backlog. I would be on board with a modern port though I'm sure. Edit: Oh, and a way to play System Shock 2 with a controller please. Not so much interested in the original but the second game appeals to me a great deal.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Jul 15, 2021 18:22:45 GMT -5
DS games do take up a lot of space for how tiny the carts are... Also, I don't think being the sites #1 Devil World fan is a title you'll get much contention for. You can feel secure in holding on to your tagline. I welcome any contenders.
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Post by Snake on Jul 16, 2021 13:36:29 GMT -5
If you want an easy Front Mission to jump into, I would recommend Front Mission: Gun Hazard on Super Famicom/SNES. It's basically an action RPG game, with mechanics similar to Metal Warriors. The plot is interesting enough, Yoshitaka Amano character designs, and it's great fun.
I never played beyond Front Mission 1/1st. As a strategy game, it was really time consuming. I felt like I spent have the game buying parts and configuring robots/wanzers. The soundtrack is a great one from Yoko Shimomura, following her work from Street Fighter 2 and Live-A-Live, before she'd go on to do Parasite Eve, Legend of Mana, and Kingdom Hearts.
Series that I've been stocking up on is Ys, and Legend of Heroes. I simply just haven't had the time to play. I've played up to Ys 4:Mask of the Sun, but haven't played the PC-Engine version of Ys 4. I do have Ys 5, 6, 8, 9, and Origins. So I still need to look for a copy of Ys 7.
Recently, since last year, I picked up Trails of Cold Steel 1, 2, 3, and 4 for PS4. Good thing I grabbed them when I did, since they seemed to have been climbing in price.
Also, there's Ico, Shadow of Colossus, and the Last Guardian. Again, no time. I did start on Shadow of Colossus a bit, but quickly lost patience riding the damn horse, trying to follow the light of the sword. I wandered aimlessly for 20 minutes, then shut it off.
Recently picked up Kingdom Hearts All-In-One, for $20, which claims to have TEN Kingdom Hearts experiences. Don't know when I'll be able to dive into that.
And... there's also Drakengard and Nier. I have Drakengard 1 and 3, but haven't touched either. And still need to get a copy of the new Nier Replicant Vers 1.22474 etc etc.
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Post by ZenithianHero on Jul 18, 2021 19:29:48 GMT -5
I solved a big one with Yakuza, which I fell out of interest when Y5 was Japan only. Then on PS4 the series blew up in popularity. I have all the mainline entries but the latest one now. Currently playing from Y0 and going down the line. Although tempted to use the recap for Kiwami 1 and Yakuza 3. I know the gist of those entries the most and replay those another time.
Atelier conveniently has all the modern entries ported around but they are expensive and digital. At least it is there.
Probably just drop Legend of Heroes series. I was there for the first Sky on PSP but the localization timing and efforts meant had to migrate to the PC versions. I had Cold Steel on Vita but didn't play. Probably restart the series on PS4, but I heard Cold Steel 3/4 recommends playing other LoH entries to appreciate it. Steam Deck can mean I can enjoy the Sky games in a more comfortable way if I ever buy one down the line.
I also bought that Kingdom Hearts All-In-One cheap, during Black Friday. A series I didn't bother to keep up with because it was split up among different platforms and was getting tired of seeing interquels and spinoffs before III existed. Well, with the collection I can give it another go but that is a big commitment there.
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