Things That Bother You About Gaming

[gunswordfist]

If you enjoy the genre, the SNES and PS1 eras are probably the best with quite a lot of quality and quantity.

That's what I've been hearing.

While we're on the subject of Xenogears:

The supposed events behind the scenes of this game are some of the most notorious in videogame history. As the stories go, halfway through the game's development, Square Soft took a big chunk of the development team out of working the game to work on Final Fantasy VIII. This explains the game's extremely linear and narration-heavy second disc. Many fans speculate the game would have been even more of an epic classic had the development team not been castrated this way.

Damn, I hear that Xenogears was the original concept for FF VII (or vice versa?) yesterday and now this.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The guys behind Xenogears were major NGE fans. You can see where it tries to ape the show many times throughout.

The difference is the stuff it copies is the least interesting stuff from the show. The fun stuff (which is what a video game should probably be focusing on) has been entirely excised for lazy philosophy and poor game design.

Xenogears gets a lot of passes from people for stuff that other games get knocked relentlessly for.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Be sure to check out Vagrant Story, Alundra, and Tales of Phantasia as well!

Forgot about those. Also the first Tales of Destiny is pretty good, too.

Also, Arc the Lad 1 and 2. One long story, and great strategy RPG gameplay.

[gunswordfist]

The guys behind Xenogears were major NGE fans. You can see where it tries to ape the show many times throughout.

The difference is the stuff it copies is the least interesting stuff from the show. The fun stuff (which is what a video game should probably be focusing on) has been entirely excised for lazy philosophy and poor game design.

Xenogears gets a lot of passes from people for stuff that other games get knocked relentlessly for.

That's all I needed to hear! this game will never be played by this soul!

[Rynnec]

The way you guys are slamming on kinda makes me want to play it for myself.

[gunswordfist]

You must hate yourself.

Be sure to check out Vagrant Story, Alundra, and Tales of Phantasia as well!

Forgot about those. Also the first Tales of Destiny is pretty good, too.

Also, Arc the Lad 1 and 2. One long story, and great strategy RPG gameplay.

Well do! Didn't even know Arc was a SRPG.

[talonmalon333]

It's a legitimately good game, I'm not disputing that. But Cloud doesn't really work for me as a protagonist, and I think it falls prey to a lot of the same problems people complain about in the later Final Fantasy games but overlook in the SNES and PS1 era.

What problems are you thinking of in particular ?

[Foggle]

The protagonist's main personality trait is angst, the story is convoluted by lore that doesn't make immediate sense, the character designs are bizarre and garish, etc. None of these elements necessarily make something bad in my book, but they're always listed as reasons why people think the later games suck, yet are never applied to 7 despite it being no different in that regard.

[gunswordfist]

I don't think I'll ever not like FF7's character designs.

[Foggle]

Even in the lesser games, FF has consistently great character designs IMO. They're usually weird and kind of dumb, but also very charming.

[Rynnec]

I think the character designs are one of FF7's strong points. Vincent, Sephiroth, and Tifa in particular look really cool to me.

[talonmalon333]

I think the character designs are one of FF7's strong points. Vincent, Sephiroth, and Tifa in particular look really cool to me.

I agree. My problem started with VIII when every character just looked a bit too perfect, and now every game looks the same.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

What about IX? I'm not a huge FF fan, but I found the more classic style of character designs more appealing in that game. A lot of fans don't seem to like the more "cartoony" style, but I found it to be fresh, unique, and well-done, myself.

[Foggle]

I agree. My problem started with VIII when every character just looked a bit too perfect, and now every game looks the same.

I do not agree with this at all.

What about IX? I'm not a huge FF fan, but I found the more classic style of character designs more appealing in that game. A lot of fans don't seem to like the more "cartoony" style, but I found it to be fresh, unique, and well-done, myself.

I love FF9's character design, personally.

[talonmalon333]

What about IX? I'm not a huge FF fan, but I found the more classic style of character designs more appealing in that game. A lot of fans don't seem to like the more "cartoony" style, but I found it to be fresh, unique, and well-done, myself.

I agree. I think those strengths let that game's graphics hold up a lot better. Shame we never saw it again.

I agree. My problem started with VIII when every character just looked a bit too perfect, and now every game looks the same.

I do not agree with this at all.

Every mainline numerical game, then.