THE BORE

General => Video Game Bored => Topic started by: MrAngryFace on November 07, 2006, 12:32:57 PM

Title: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: MrAngryFace on November 07, 2006, 12:32:57 PM: (http://spiritether.net/blog/images/ffxii.jpg)
I fell on a doorknob...

I echo the sentiments of many other FFXII owners by saying that while i've dumped hours into the game and continue to play it, I dont actually like it and I am under the impression that IT doesnt like ME.

I've said much of this before here on this forum, but my opinion just hasnt changed. FFXII treats me to an RPG with a story, setting, and cast that is so groundbreaking in terms of quality. However it also treats me to one of the most borked battle 'systems' ive ever had the displeasure of using. If I am not fighting the gambit system to get people to do what I want, im turning it off to keep a character from chasing a mob in retreat into another group of mobs. That's really just the tip of the damn iceburg and I could elaborate but I think I will just ask that you check out this thread:

Yeahhh..I still dont like the FFXII battle system.
http://www.evilbore.com/forum/index.php?topic=1941.0

That about covers everything I have to say on that issue. I am about 11 hours in and the story has been pretty good. I still think im not actually PLAYING the game that much aside from my woeful encounters with Rat-Maze like dungeons full of boring enemies. When im not in a dungeon im in a big town full of useless people that dont say anything interesting except stupid shit thats supposed to build atmosphere when in reality it just makes me angry I stopped to talk to someone with so little to say. The map for each town is helpful at least and basically if im not in town shops buying stuff im making Vaan go from Point A to Point B in a Rat-Maze like city. GET THAT CHEESE.

The characters are fun at least, and admirable. Ashe isnt some stupid waif girl that cant defend herself, the main character isnt brooding, and there arent stupid forced love triangles that 'tug at the heartstrings'

Its pretty clear to me that when it comes to the Final Fantasy Series vs Review Scores, a reckoning will occur at 13. I mean you have 12, a game that has most fans admitting a love/hate relationship but it still gets 9.0's and up. FF13 will be a complete cash cow milking of the series. if they dont step up the gameplay and provide an ALL AROUND awesome experience, I think there's going to be some major problems.

I spose I can just wait for Valkyrie Profile 3 ;)

(http://www.generationmp3.com/generationds/images/jeux/childmana2.jpg)
Bow and Arrow FTW?

First off, my early impressions are here:

So did anyone get CHILDREN OF MANA!?! COME ON!
http://www.evilbore.com/forum/index.php?topic=1893.0

I would like to add to all of that a few more impressions:

The bosses are easy. The first boss is hard because unless you attack from below him, attacking from any other angle will probably allow him to land a hit just cause he's so big. The bosses afterwards have just been really easy.

This doesn't spell doom for the title, far from it. The dungeon crawl formula is fun even 12 hours in, and as you level up the number and size of gems you can use at once to augment your powers to godlike status only improves. Gems are clearly the focus of the game, however, as they cost the most to invest into. Weapons types offer up a very linear progression depending on your class type, so again, gems are what its all about.

Of the four weapons you get the Bow is easily the most AWESOME. Range shot, auto-aim (to a degree) and the string strum stun (say that three times fast lolz) can put an enemy on their ass long enough to unleash the mighty powar of SWORD! Of the various spirits I think the Dark/Shade spirit whatever his name is my favorte. The darkness explosion is potent enough, but the defense version of the spirits power allows you to become invisible, which gives the player a major edge against the enemies.

The number of enemies on screen steadily increases as you progress and some of the missions you can get are downright hard. Sometimes cutting your way through a mob of enemies has a dynasty warriors type feel as they fly from your sword in all directions :)

The game retails at 30 dollars flat right now so its a pretty good buy, especially since aside from pokemon mystery dungeon (pmd), there isnt another really good dungeon crawler on the DS. Also, this game is WAY prettier than PMD and has more variety.

(http://media.spelfeber.se/2006/powerstone.jpg)
LOAD TIMES NOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A quick link to a previous thread discussing load times and Powerstone Collection on the PSP:

http://www.evilbore.com/forum/index.php?topic=1907.0

ANYWAY, It's not a bad port, but it IS just that, a port. While the load times for the original Powerstone are cry worthy I still prefer it to the sequel. I think even way back when I played the sequel on the Dreamcast I thought the new characters were pretty lame. I never really liked most of the stages in the sequal either as they had a bizzare smash brothers feel which IMO wasn't as suitable as the stage set of the original.

Controls are great, analog nub works as it should. 60 FPS, visuals are sharp and clear, sound is reproduced faithfully. Really it just comes down to the load time of the original game. WHY is it longer. PS2 LOADS MORE PER MATCH, WHY IS THE ORIGINAL SO SLOW.

It just comes down to a quick and dirty port, but again, I can see the game for what it is, and thats Powerstone on the go, in a complete package, for 30 dollars.

This thread was brought to you by .HACK//GU, an offline online-adventure even a PKer could love.
(http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/1163/goodpkrs9.jpg)
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: CajoleJuice on November 07, 2006, 12:40:16 PM: No Guitar Hero II, no sale.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: MrAngryFace on November 07, 2006, 12:40:49 PM: I would need to own it before I could comment, buddy.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: rocketman on November 07, 2006, 12:41:38 PM: You do nothing but play sissy games. MrSissyFace, imo
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: MrAngryFace on November 07, 2006, 12:42:48 PM: You guys really DO deserve a gaming forum with these great replies.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: CajoleJuice on November 07, 2006, 12:44:12 PM: I voted "No" on the gaming forum.

GUITAR HERO II
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: The Fake Shemp on November 07, 2006, 12:46:20 PM: Children of Mana will be mine!
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: rocketman on November 07, 2006, 12:46:45 PM: Quote from: Willco on November 07, 2006, 12:46:20 PM
Children of Mana will be mine!

Child molestor.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: The Fake Shemp on November 07, 2006, 12:48:30 PM: They're not real children, rocketman
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: Van Cruncheon on November 07, 2006, 12:51:46 PM: I haven't put much time into FF12 -- I dumped it on the back burner if favor of VP2 and NWN2. I haven't gotten into the Gambit system at all, really, but the whole "we can't make the AI work; do it yourself" angle pisses me off. If you can't make the AI work, WHY GO TO REAL TIME.

Anyway, VP2 is awesome as discussed previously, and NWN2 is a lot better than my initial impressions made it out to be. Glad I stuck with it, because it's turned into a great Baldur's Gate-esque experience, wacky party members and all.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: TVC15 on November 07, 2006, 01:06:03 PM: The load times are killing Powerstone Collection for me. Yes, Powerstone 2 loads a bit faster, but it's not as good as the first one, and the tiny screen makes it a pain in the ass to play. When you get into a match, you get a good two minutes of game, but I swear to god I could fall asleep during those load times.

I really wish they would've continued this series.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: MrAngryFace on November 07, 2006, 01:08:34 PM: First One > Second One. Load times in the second one are FINE. Load times in the first one are SHIT AND I DONT KNOW WHY!!!@@@@

Its still a lot of fun, and im usually playing PSP while I watch tv so load times dont bother me nearly as much as if I were playing it in dead silence ;)
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: TVC15 on November 07, 2006, 01:15:29 PM: Quote from: MrAngryFace on November 07, 2006, 01:08:34 PM
First One > Second One. Load times in the second one are FINE. Load times in the first one are SHIT AND I DONT KNOW WHY!!!@@@@

Its still a lot of fun, and im usually playing PSP while I watch tv so load times dont bother me nearly as much as if I were playing it in dead silence ;)

Yeah, I usually play portables when I'm in bed, right before sleepy time. Also, In PS2, when a stage starts, is there sometimes no music for you? It happened to me last night.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: cubicle47b on November 07, 2006, 01:19:28 PM: I'm only playing FFXII right now. I quickly became addicted to it and still find Children of Mana uninspiring so it's getting all the attention. I'm not sure why this is because both games are pretty mindless dungeon crawlers with good production values.

My new complaint about XII is the dungeons are too large if you're the type who likes to explore everything. I'm horribly overleveled because I like uncovering the whole map and that sucks. It doesn't help that I used the strategy guide to tell me how to get the Demon Bane and now Basch is an absolute monster that hits for 650-700 at level 21. My new "strategy" for boss fights is to cast berserk on Basch and rofl.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: MrAngryFace on November 07, 2006, 01:24:14 PM: There's A LOT of backtracking in FFXII. I was really pissed last night how on the:

spoiler (click to show/hide)
airship 10 hours in
[close]

the dungeon had me running from one side of the map to another just for switch flipping. Basch is a monster, but Wild Arms 4 had a character like him. Raquel. She totally broke the game she was so powerful lol.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: Phoenix Dark on November 07, 2006, 01:28:04 PM: I got Zelda: LTTP instead of Children of Mana lolz. So far it's pretty good, but I can't help but feel it's not as magical as Link's Awakening. I haven't gotten far in the game though (just past the frst dungeon).

The game is very challenging though. I haven't died yet, but the dungeons have some amazing booby traps unlike anything I've seen in previous Zelda titles.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: MrAngryFace on November 07, 2006, 01:41:23 PM: I actually didnt like LTTP and found the Seasons games superior in terms of dungeon designs.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: Phoenix Dark on November 07, 2006, 01:49:06 PM: Seasons/Oracles are amazing games. They were extremely challenging at the time and offered a lot of awesome features. The various animals in the game rocked, as did the dungeon design. To this day, that underwater Vora dungeon is still one of the best 2D areas I've ever seen in a game.

It was funny though because I bought Oracles and my brother bought Seasons. I'd let him play my version and vice versa, but in traditional brother fashion whenver I got pissed with him I'd take my game back, and vice versa. I'd steal it from his room so much that he wound up hiding it in his underwear drawer :lol
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: MrAngryFace on November 07, 2006, 02:15:47 PM: BEST ZELDA GAMES! MADE BY CAPCOM! LOLLLLZ
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: MrAngryFace on November 07, 2006, 02:23:47 PM: Early next year?
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: MrAngryFace on November 07, 2006, 02:59:21 PM: I noticed the 360 version controller isnt going wireless either. I think there is some truth to the response time of the wireless controllers being insufficient.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: Disposable White Guy on November 07, 2006, 03:04:41 PM: Quote from: Drinky Crow on November 07, 2006, 12:51:46 PM
I haven't put much time into FF12 -- I dumped it on the back burner if favor of VP2 and NWN2. I haven't gotten into the Gambit system at all, really, but the whole "we can't make the AI work; do it yourself" angle pisses me off. If you can't make the AI work, WHY GO TO REAL TIME.

After playing it for a few hours, yeah.

Yeah... :-\

The AI of my partymembers reminds me of playing Guild Wars with people too busy TYPING OUT TRIPCODE IN CAPSLOCK than focusing on what needs to be done.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: The Miles Trahan Burger Experiment on November 07, 2006, 04:06:12 PM: Love the new avy, MAF.

Jim Lee makes my pants tight. :-*
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: Van Cruncheon on November 07, 2006, 08:38:18 PM: :hyper Final Fantasy V :hyper
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: MrAngryFace on November 07, 2006, 10:43:05 PM: I picked up Guitar Hero II, its pretty fun despite the covers being MEH lolz :)
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: MrAngryFace on November 09, 2006, 12:14:54 PM: Shameless self-promotion:

MAF's MUSICAL EXTRAVAGANZAAAAAAAAAAA
http://www.evilbore.com/forum/index.php?topic=2052.0
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: wave-E on November 10, 2006, 03:30:56 PM: Hrmm. I'm not sure why you're struggling so with the battle system. Complex gambits really aren't necessary, yet they can be rewarding when you build something later in the game that's silky smooth, but even then, for boss fights I'm going to turn everything but attack leader and attack nearest off. Leave those two on for most of the game and do anything else you want manually; even on the fastest active battle speed you'll have plenty of time.

I love that I don't mash x every fight as it's not like I'm sitting around watching my guys fight. I'm casting and stealing constantly.

That having been said, the license board is really fucking limited. The character builds are somewhere between vii and viii's depth (viii being pretty much depthless). I think part of my problem is that I came in thinking about the depth of other Matsuno titles. The depth seems tied to the weapons, which are all pretty awesome. All seem useful and interesting with different builds.

I'm also not sold on the story, but maybe that's because I've spent a larger portion of my time doing hunts, which I love. I love that there's always something challenging to do. I can always find an area where mobs have 15 levels on me, and I love running into an esper or a more difficult than expected mark.

I'm loving it...but only a week to beat it...ugg.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: MrAngryFace on November 10, 2006, 03:36:29 PM: VP2's battle system > FFXIIs
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: wave-E on November 10, 2006, 03:42:26 PM: I couldn't ever get my hands on the first so I'm holding off on VP2 whilst so many other must haves are coming out. I do really want to play it, but it can wait till after zelda at least.
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: bork on November 11, 2006, 01:30:21 AM: My gaming week has been INSANE! :o

Monday- Received Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories and Killzone Liberation for PSP.

Thursday- Received Gears Of War for 360.

Saturday- Got Ridge Racer 7, Resistance, Sega Golf Club, and Genji for PS3.

I'm loving Vice City Stories and Gears Of War is AWESOME! I played co-op with a buddy last night and we went through the entire game on casual difficulty. PS3 is today (see my thread), and I'm about to put in Resistance and see how it stacks up against Gears. Only tried Killzone briefly; seems fun!
Title: Re: MAF's Weekly Gaming Forum - FFXII, Children of Mana, Powerstone Collection
Post by: MrAngryFace on November 11, 2006, 11:55:49 AM: Wave: VP2 is a prequel and a better game IMO, starting with VP2 is the way to go.