Forum - View topicThe X Button - Status Check Part 2
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DRWii
 Posts: 642 |
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Didn't the creators of "Star Ocean" already say outright that "Last Hope" would be the last game in the series?
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Siegel Clyne
Posts: 201 |
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Thanks for the heads-up on the iPhone/iPod touch Street Fighter IV app.
It's about the third or fourth different way I've done at least a little donation to the victims of Japan's terrible earthquake and tsunami. In addition on iTunes, from now to March 20, 2011, "100% of Sega's proceeds from Sonic the Hedgehog iOS titles will be donated to the Red Cross disaster relief efforts in Japan..." |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14896 |
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Seems many of these games are being relegated to the PSP.
No wonder they're not catching on elsewhere. 
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belvadeer
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First, I just want to offer my condolences to those who lost loved ones in the recent mayhem. I hope these goodwill efforts continue until they can get back on their feet again.
Wow every series I ever played and wanted to comment about all right here. I must speak my words! SaGa: SaGa has had a weird and somewhat baffling history here. Other than the moronic name changes for the earliest entries, it wasn't until Frontier that I got introduced to such a unique playing experience. LP, discouraged grinding, minimal money drops, emphasis on sidequests, I was interested to say the least. When I learned there had been other SaGas before Frontier, I noticed they all relied on the unique factors mentioned. So I stayed on until the second Frontier came out, which threw the tradition of the series out the window with linear gameplay and very few sidequests, pretty much dropping back into familiar JRPG standards. Suffice it to say, it was harder to finish (evil, evil final boss  ) but still fun. Unlimited is what ultimately brought the series to a standstill. It was so unbalanced and stupid yet I managed to make the most of it. Then the big news hit when they announced the remake of the first Romancing SaGa coming here. That one was amazing and I can only hope they consider remaking 2 and 3 at some point. They still like their SaGa games over there, I'm not so sure about the U.S.
Lufia: Ah nostalgia how you bite my tookus! Lufia was an amazing RPG series I couldn't stop obsessing over (though truthfully I never played The Legend Returns). The 2nd game especially held a special place in my heart. I recall how I spent hours coming up with new ways to enjoy my many playthroughs as a kid. I don't own a DS so I never got to continue onto that remake but I heard it was drastically altered in a way that changed the story to a light comedy. That thought nauseates me deeply. I'm glad at least the original game is being released on VC. I probably can never play Lufia 2 again though. I can't vouch for Ruins of Lore, it was awful, glitchy and didn't have anything "Lufia" going for it other than its name (had nothing to do with the Sinistrals). Breath of Fire: Ah now this is a series for a dragon nut like me. So I wonder what happened. Oh right, Dragon Quarter, the series' worst entry to date. A shame Ryu and friends don't just get cameos in other RPGs. Heck, I imagine they'd have fit right in with Namco x Capcom and Cross Edge. Marvel vs Capcom could have definitely been a great chance for Capcom to bring back the awesomeness of morphing a blue haired teenager into a massive badass dragon or even watch one of his companions be ruthless in the ring (Garr and Scias both come to mind), but sadly they just don't care about BoF anymore. Suikoden: Now here's a unique series whose first two games captivated me. While the 3rd game tried to be new, it was mediocre at best. 4 was an absolute trainwreck of the worst kind. It was so bad I quickly sold it off. 5 thankfully revived what I remembered made me love the series to begin with. A shame Tierkreis was so lackluster. Heck we never got the Suikogaidens here. At least the numerous races kept the game fresh (though 4's Nay-Kobolds were so generically sappy I don't count them; come on, cat people, seriously?). Star Ocean: This space opera is done, people need to understand that. The creator of the series declared that Last Hope was the final entry. It was an ugly game that sat on the popularity laurels of its predecessors. Personally I was glad to finally put it down. I didn't even bother with Gabriel and Iseria like I traditionally do; that's how bad the game was for me. The character designs and wholly unremarkable English dub (the Japanese voices were generic as hell so no seiyu purist comments here please) put off people, not to mention ruining Item Creation further with only being able to do it on your ship. The story and lack of actual party recruitment options were similarly bad. About the only thing there was to enjoy was the chaotic combat. I personally find First Departure much better than Last Hope, simplistic as it is. Special note: Valkyrie Profile is still the better series. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants a VP Hrist to be planned. Wild Arms: Now this has been a great series so far. Mixing the Wild West with swords, sorcery, monsters, demons, alien spaceships, nanotechnology and a wasteland planet made for a great bunch of RPGs. I never once disliked this series (except for 2's awkward translation issues) and I always found myself replaying them constantly. XF wasn't too bad; a bit different but not badly executed in the least. I hope a WA6 is on its way. I need more Wild West craziness (especially after seeing Rango recently )!
Grandia: Yeah after the failure that was III, I don't expect any future Grandia games. That online game is crap because it's an MMO, one of the worst moves ever. Grandia 1 and 2 were better received than Xtreme and III (though Xtreme gets praise for having no load times whatsoever). This series is dead. We didn't even get the Digital Museum special or Parallel Trippers. Atelier: I'm relieved we've kept this series going at least. True we got Iris since it was more combat driven (I'm quite certain the alchemy tasks of Marie and Elie would have been too boring for the average American gamer brain of pre-2000) than the previous girls but at least it allowed us to get up to Rorona. Sadly, Marie and Vio's first appearances here were courtesy of zany crossover RPGs. I just hope we get Totori and that new girl that was just announced. Mana Khemia 1 was great but 2 was so moronic. Shadow Hearts: Another great series that suffered shut down. I know the third game was considered the silliest of Shadow Hearts but it was still dark and creepy enough. Creative series like these get the axe once people lose interest. The casts of these games were among the most memorable in RPG history. A shame about Arms Heart not being well received. Xenosaga: I had such fond memories of the first game, hated the second one to death and finished the last with a sad face. Honestly what went wrong with this series? Why did people hate the first one so much? Anime style characters? Lol, what did you 2002 dummies expect, character designs by Marvel? It's a JRPG, hello. Too many cutscenes? It's called expository. Just because you fell asleep in reading class doesn't mean you have to whine about too many words being spoken. Regardless of my bitterness toward those who essentially wrecked the series and forced Monolith to churn out that abomination of a second game, the series died in the vacuum of space long ago. Poor KOS-MOS has been reduced to Tales cameos now (last time I saw her was in Hearts) while Shion and MOMO got bit parts with her in NxC (along with Allen who got like one scene during their prologue). What about chaos, Ziggy, Jr. and Jin? Farewell Xenosaga, I really wanted to see six episodes. Duodecim: I think I might get this one. I'm debating still though. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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It's a real shame the whole Xenosaga project fell apart. I absolutely loved episode one. I so wish it had been better recieved and the series had continued on along the same path. It could have been absolutely epic.
As for Shadow Hearts, I got half way through the first one before losing interest. I liked the darker tone and unconventional setting. However, I felt like the game never really found a style of it's own. It's just sort of an odd hodgepodge and nor does it quite manage to effectively blend all this together into something that works (a la Soul Calibur). That, and also, graphically speaking, the game just looks like ass. I despise Star Ocean though. I picked up the third one expecting to at least get something free of the usual fantasy cliches. It's not even that it's a terrible game. It's just so misleading though.
Well, let's all hope it's another Resonance of Fate. That game was awesome even if it was also in dire need of some revisions. Of course, I'm skeptical that it did well enough to merit a sequel. |
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sepherest
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I have been hoping for ages that Suikoden I or II would someday get a remake or appear on the PSN in the US, since it seems we'll never get the psp versions as they did badly in Japan. Those two games are absolutely amazing, so it's unfortunate nothing has come up. V isn't that bad either, but I think II really stands out the most for the series. If it wasn't for the funky english translation the game would've been perfect.
I'm also kind of bummed Shadow Hearts died off, but honestly I don't mind it. I think it had a good run and there isn't really much they could do with it since they wrapped up the main stories. Unless they wanted to make a spin-off about the Valentine family or something... As for Saga, maybe they just don't want to release them here anymore because of what happened with the ps2 games, like Unlimited. They weren't received very well compared to the old games, so maybe they just think the games have a bad view here. I wouldn't mind seeing more of them, though. I loved Frontier and the games have all always had beautiful artwork. |
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Gasero
 Posts: 939 Location: USA |
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I love the battle system in the Grandia games. It's like a mini version of a turn based strategy game. My favorite part is planning out how to delay the enemy attacks. Fond memories.
Knowing the chances of another game in that series are slim, I have locked up my copies of Grandia games in hopes that one day I will be able to emulate them well (PS2 emulation kinda difficult for me). |
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Hardgear
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Dude, I LOVED the combat system in the 2nd game. So much so that when I saw how dumbed down it became for the 3rd game I almost thought about stopping playing it. Once you get the hang of it and start doing 13-attack elemental combos on an enemy still up in the air from the first attack, that feeling of awesome is rarely matched. The Xenosaga 2 combat system, and how it was received, is what I always point to when people whine that JRPG battle systems are all bland and not innovative. The reason is whenever they try something truly awesome, those same people then whine that it is overcomplicated and unplayable.... |
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AiddonValentine
 Posts: 2359 |
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Yes, they admitted that they wrote themselves into a corner with 3 so they decided to just end the series instead of milk its name for no reason. If anything they'll probably just continue the Valkyrie Profile series. As for Xenosaga, I can probably name why that series failed: the lack of Masato Kato. He wasn't around for 'Saga, but was one of the writers on Gears which was infinitely more focused and interesting. Heck, the only Monolith Soft I actually really LIKED was Baten Kaitos AND THAT WAS WRITTEN BY KATO. And just by the Parasite Eve PSN releases. Seriously, 3rd Birthday SUCKS, it's an insult to the creators of the games and even to Sena who wrote the novel the series was a sequel to. Motomu Toriyama once again proves that he's a no-talent hack. |
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Wyvern
 Posts: 1606 |
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The Shadow Hearts titles are what got me back into RPGs after a long hiatus. I still hold them as my second favorite franchise after Persona. They've got a fun battle system that keeps you on your toes, amazing writing, really fun characters, and a wonderfully absurd setting that doesn't even pretend to be historically accurate (the first game has Mata Hari joining your party and her special attacks all involve calling people on cellphones. In 1913.)
I miss the franchise, but I'm okay with it having ended where it did. Story-wise, there wasn't much more to do. Koudelka basically serves as a prologue, with SH 1 and 2 telling the main story (and what a story it is.) SH 3 is a great game, but has very little plot connection to the others; its plot basically ties up a loose end from SH 2's story. There's something to be said for leaving the stage at the right time, and the Shadow Hearts games did this, even if it wasn't completely intentional. I'd love to see a compilation of all four games for the PS3, though this is probably impossible. |
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Paul Soth
 Posts: 142 Location: Columbus, Oh |
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You're awesome. |
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ultimafullmetal
 Posts: 70 Location: Fredericksburg, Ohio |
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I absolutely adore Parasite Eve 1&2. Looking forward to The 3rd Birthday.
Only played Saga Frontier, but I really liked the multiple character aspect. Breath of Fire 3&4 are both good, although I have yet to finish either one. I've only played Suikoden 3 and 5, but I enjoyed them both, especially 5. Star Ocean 2 is great, 3 is OK, 4 was just bad. Never beat the original Wild Arms due to memory card deletion, but I did beat Wild Arms 3&4. 3 was better. I absolutely love love love Grandia 1-3 ( 2 the most), and it really sucks that they are working on a Online version that's already failed before it's done. I'd prefer a 360/PS3 Grandia 4 myself. Shadow Hearts: Covenant is one of the best games on PS2. It's just plain amazing. Xenosaga lost my interest at 2, it was so bad. To bad I've still never played Xenogears all the way through. |
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Sarukah
 Posts: 160 |
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You actually missed the cellphone game, Pied Piper, which had its battle system and the entire backstory for Ziggy. |
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gerbilx
Posts: 138 |
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I totally agree with this. I don't actually know of any SH fans that are upset about the fact that they wont be getting new games, because the series perfectly and definitively concluded. I must also say that while I'm not pining for any more Breath of Fire games, I really, really disagree with your assessment of the first two. Those were some of the most fun, engrossing, and emotional tales I've ever had the pleasure to experience. |
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nhat
Posts: 922 |
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The 2nd one was the pinnacle of the series. That had everything a good RPG should have and more. I wish Capcom makes a remake of that someday. |
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