What is wrong with me, or I like old games better than the games of today, wtf?

[walkertexasdruid]

Whenever I feel like playing an rpg, I go back to my PSOne and PSTwo games, and play Final Fantasy 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, Tactics, 10, 10-2, and Legend of Dragoon, Legaia, Grandia 2, Vagrant Story. I look at my PSThree games and think "meh". In fact the only PSThree games I play are Madden and NCAA Football. Is there something wrong with me, that I do not appreciate games like the Eldar Scrolls and Fallout as much as these older games? :ohdear:

[DarkDrgon]

It looks like you enjoy older Jrpgs more than modern wrpgs, seems normal to me. the problem is there are so few good jrpgs out there right now, especially on ps3

[Flarecobra]

Hey, I'm the same way. I don't see anything wrong with that. Mere personal preferance.

[synkr0nized]

The only thing wrong with you is that you seem to feel having an opinion is a sign that something is wrong with you. So I guess you are correct -- just not for the reason you thought.

[Azisien]

Gaming has certainly evolved quite a bit over the years. In many ways for the better, but in many ways for the worse. Let's make a list!

[BahamutFlare]

I always love the classics more than what is out now. I've replayed FF 4-6 so many times. Legend of Dragoon I just can't beat. I will try at some point again though! Also Star Ocean and Wild Arms. Shadow Hearts Covenant was fun.

I guess the PS3 has Star Ocean 4 which I liked. FFXIII I liked to play. Idc what anyone says the combat mechanics make the game fun for me to play. I think it's partially do to the lack of RPG's out there. And I think we have nostalgia with the PS1 and PS2 ones since we played them first. I know that's partially what brings me back to them.

[walkertexasdruid]

I am glad I am not the only one. As far as Legend of Dragoon goes, the final boss is very hard and it takes over two hours to beat him. The key is to have two offensive juggernaughts, Dart and Haschel for me, and someone who can do some healing, Rose for me. You also want to be stocked with equal parts angel's prayers (to bring you back to life) and magic potions (I forget what they are called, so you can coninually hammer away with the ultimate dragon cannon). Also when you get to its final form, it will turn one of your party members into a wierd creature. When it does, select the special command and you will heal the others in your party, and the affected character will eventually turn back to normal. Don't forget to equip Rose with the Dragon Buster Sword. With a little patience and luck you too can beat Legend of Dragoon. :D

[Solid Snake]

While I sometimes feel quite nostalgic for the SNES, Genesis, PS1 and/or PS2 eras, I've never had quite as severe a problem playing current-gen games. In fact, from Skyrim to Tales of Graces to FFXIII-2 to Sleeping Dogs to Assassin's Creed Revelations to Dragon's Dogma, nearly every game I've played and enjoyed lately is a current-gen game.

I used to be able to at least say that I genuinely missed past eras of JRPGs, but games like XIII-2 and Graces have 'fixed' that issue for me.

It's weird how I genuinely simultaneously believe that the SNES/PS1 eras were the 'height' of gaming, but I still can thoroughly enjoy modern games -- and in fact, I generally don't feel a compulsion to relive older titles. So, yeah, if you were to tell me that games like Xenogears, Suikoden 2, Chrono Trigger, older Final Fantasies, Planescape: Torment, Fallout 2, etc. were the best ever, I'd be inclined to agree with you. But, having played through many of those titles multiple times already, it's difficult to convince me that they're worth replaying again over playing a brand new title.

I guess I'm trying to say that I disagree with you, without actually really disagreeing with you. Phenomenal titles, perhaps even objectively the 'best' titles, were released in yesteryear, it's true. But I also feel like great titles are still released today, and I hate to see modern developers 'punished' merely for releasing their games in the wrong era. Titles like Sleeping Dogs or FFXIII-2 can hold their own with great titles from previous eras.

I guess it just irritates me somewhat when people attempt to behave like pseudo-HYYYYYYPPPPPSST-TURs and pretend that the mere year in which a game is released has a direct correlation to objective quality. It's cool to have your own personal preferences when it comes to games, but a vast number of 'nostalgic' critics out there these days seem to enjoy kneejerkingly lambasting how "games are crap these days." Those kinds of over-generalizations irritate me, because I feel like we can and should be able to judge games solely on their actual quality, and not on whether it was released in 1995 or 2012. It's almost like you're preventing yourself from actually analyzing what you may actually like or dislike in a title, because instead of looking into gameplay mechanics or narrative and arguing why a game may or may not be great, you're just looking at the year the game was published.

EDIT: Hahaha someone auto-changed 'HYYYYYYPPPPPSST-TURs' so every time you type it, it comes out ridiculous

[Azisien]

I'm sure the principle of rose-tinted glasses has something to do with it. Hundreds/thousands of video games come out every year, most are average, garbage, or forgettable. The true gems tend to stand out, especially the further away you get from their release. This was true in 1997 as it is today.

The economic scale of video games is much larger today, but I think that only means total titles released per year may be higher. The proportion of crap/average/good/great/best games is probably about the same.

[Doc ock rokc]

Nothing wrong with being nostalgic every once and a while. I Really really miss "Crazy" Fps shooters. Where the entire plot was "Kill that Fucker over there" and they handed you a dozen of the weirdest tools to do it. You know like Unreal Tournament and stuff. There is a few still around but Its all overshadowed by Call of Honor 3: Modern Warfighter©

I also miss 2d platformers...but there is quite a few around here that have been released lately.

What I really want is a good metroidvania game...I tried out Hell yeah and it was alright...but I hope for some more.

[walkertexasdruid]

The last game that I really enjoyed was Dragon Age, and that is fairly recent. And FF 13 is pretty good, aside from the fact that every three steps takes you into another movie clip. I have not played Skyrim yet, I am waiting for it to become a $19 Game of the Year eddition, though Oblivion is a pretty fun game. I did not want to come off as a snob, in fact I am worried that I am becoming "out of touch" with the current gaming world.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Some games are classics, therefore should be replayed endlessly for years on end. In fact I haven't gone back and played Deus Ex again this year, I should probably get on that at some point. I think the last older games I played were the Soul Reavers, but I realised part way throguh that whilst the first is awesome, the sequel was pretty crappy, so I've never managed to finish the entire series.

I also have way too many new games to get around to playing right now, like Borderlands 2, Transformers; Fall of Cybertron, Darksiders 2, Dust 514 and the upcoming Dishonoured. I also really need a new pc so I can play Guild Wars 2. Older games can wait for now, they're not going anywhere.

[walkertexasdruid]

Can anyone tell me how Dragon Age 2 stacked up against the first game?

[Bells]

i would even go ahead and say that if you like RPG's... if you like J RPG specially... you will ALWAYS prefer PS2 to PS3. There is just no fair away to compare it. The PS2 era had such an avalanche of series and unique games and stories that the PS3 simply has no chance to surpass.

There are some good RPGs on the PS3... for instance, Valkyria Chronicles is awesome (if i can relate the PSP version to the PS3 version, gameplay-wise) and there are quite a few others... but when you look back at PS1 and PS2, what's the proportion of new ips and unique styles for an RPG? 10 to 1?

There is just no way ...

[Krylo]

I am glad I am not the only one. As far as Legend of Dragoon goes, the final boss is very hard and it takes over two hours to beat him. The key is to have two offensive juggernaughts, Dart and Haschel for me, and someone who can do some healing, Rose for me. You also want to be stocked with equal parts angel's prayers (to bring you back to life) and magic potions (I forget what they are called, so you can coninually hammer away with the ultimate dragon cannon). Also when you get to its final form, it will turn one of your party members into a wierd creature. When it does, select the special command and you will heal the others in your party, and the affected character will eventually turn back to normal. Don't forget to equip Rose with the Dragon Buster Sword. With a little patience and luck you too can beat Legend of Dragoon. :D

What?

Dart and Haschel offensive power houses?

Rose as healer?

Man, okay, listen, the way the combo system, or whatever it's called, in that game works means that all characters, with their normal equipment (no accessories) end up doing exactly the same damage given equal levels if you can pull it off.

This means that Meru hits just as hard as Kongol.

And Dart.

And Haschel.

Now, the combo system does this by giving Meru the highest multipliplier to her damage if you finish her highest damage ability. Rose has second highest.

These characters are also the fastest characters.

This means multiple things:

Firstly, if you equip an accessory that is +10 damage to Meru or Rose it is actually worth more damage to them than it is to any other characters. Meru is best with this. I prefer speed increasing items on Rose to bring her up to Meru's speed, and the dragon buster on Rose.

Secondly, Meru and Rose will be doing their damage roughly twice as often as the rest of your party.

Now, add onto this that Meru has the highest (natural) magical defense in the game, high as Kongol's physical, meaning she's basically immune to magic attacks.

. . .And there's the Armor of Legend which has the highest physical defense in the game and is equippable by anyone. It's expensive so you probably only are going to get one, but do so. Give it to Meru.

Meru is now fast enough to hit twice as often as Dart or Haschel, does more damage per round than either of them, is immune to magic and physical damage, and, if, for some UNHOLY reason you feel the need to put her into Dragoon form, also has the best magic damage.

Rose is Meru-lite, able to do all that but not quite as well. Though Rose has less need for the Armor of Legend.

Using Rose and Meru this way makes the final boss into more of a half hour than a two hour ordeal, and makes the entire game incredibly easy.

Can anyone tell me how Dragon Age 2 stacked up against the first game?

As some one who legitimately likes DA2: Poorly.

It was rushed out the door. They had to reuse dungeon maps, didn't get around to properly balancing combat, instead relying on waves in every single fight, the city stays static over the entire time you're there, which is yeaaaars, because they didn't have time to properly do THAT either, the ending feels off/unfinished probably because they didn't have enough time to finish it, and it tells an entirely different KIND of story.

That said, I rather enjoyed the story it tells. It's not about being a big hero saving the world from a looming threat, though. It's about being thrown into situations spinning wildly out of your (and anyone else's) control and trying to make it through, regardless. The Champion of Kirkwall isn't a hero because s/he set out to be a hero. Hawke's a hero because s/he had no other choice in the matter.

There's also lots of great character writing, with SnarkHawke being just amazing, and the DLCs are fantastic and avoid all the problems of the actual game.

The core game mechanics are much improved as well.

[Krylo]

As for my feelings on the actual topic: See Snake-post. Maybe not EXACTLY how I feel, but very close to it.

[greed]

I honestly prefer modern games myself. Partly because I actually have the money to buy them and play them when they're new, whereas when I was a kid I usually got stuff way afterwards when it was in the $5 bin.

Oh and if you liked FF13 you really should get FF13-2. Also Tales of Graces F if you're hankering for JRPGs. Also Atelier Meruru.

Honestly it's been a pretty decent year for JRPGs thinking on it.

[Magus]

Rose-tinted glasses only go so far. I like older games too but I have to admit that the visceral thrill of stabbing two guys simultaneously with wrist daggers is something that could not be accomplished on the SNES, nor that as iconic or revolutionary as Grand Theft Auto III was that Grand Theft Auto IV didn't blow it away.

The state of JRPGs is pretty terrible, though...unless you had an XBOX and could play Lost Odyssey because I heard that one was pretty good.

[Krylo]

Lost Odyssey was, indeed, pretty good.

[Ramary]

My feelings on old games vs new ones are case by case really. There are some cases in which franchises got better with the times, for example, I think Mario is way better in 3D, and all the 2D ones coming out lately makes me disappointed. However I think the the problem is less games were better back then, it is more that the current game industry is fairly shitty on so many aspects. My problem is that games today could be so much fucking better, but they are not. We have better graphics and design (mostly) but the creative spark is missing.

There are also some franchises that I have issues with not doing anything different. My personal bugbear is Zelda. My favortiest game ever in the universe is Majora's Mask, which if you did not play it, it is wildly different in certain gameplay elements (you are essentially in a time loop) and tone (It is soul crushing at times) to the other Zeldas. But considering how Nintendo is barely messing with the formula now it is getting extremely boring for me, I have not really enjoyed a Zelda to a huge degree since Windwaker ( Twilight Princess was alright, the portable games have been fun with the exception of Phantom Hourglass which can fuck right off, and Skyward Sword I just could not get into at all).

"Appealing to a wider market" is also getting too common, since it waters down certain games, or outright changes them.

I am sick of every fucking mainstream game hand holding me like I am 5. If jumping out a window is gonna kill me, I don't care, I still want to do it.

Why does every fucking game need to be or have mutiplayer? What if I hate other people?

The general bullshit of online passes, shitty DRM, how gamestop turned used games into a racket, pre-order obsession (AKA BUY OUR GAME BEFORE WORD OF MOUTH REVEALS THAT IT IS CRAP) etc etc.

We also apparently have self-esteem issues. Since every time someone from other media works on a game we treat it as a big deal, like our art form is so shitty that even this jerk who only makes movies can clearly do it better.

Games using DLC poorly is crappy and common too. Like having way too much worthless DLC (Saints Row) or taking vital plot bits out for DLC (ME3).

I could go on, but I will stop.

Yet I still don't really go back to old games. Like Snake, I still rather play new games, I can only replay Majora's Mask so many times.

Although if the current industry ever does just turn into COMPLETE shit, I have a backlog of old PC games I never got around to.

[walkertexasdruid]

I am also a fan of Castlevania. How did the most recent game on the PS3 (and I think 360) stack up against my favs, Super Castlevania 4, Symphony of the Night, and Lamant of Innocence?

[Azisien]

Harmony of Despair? It's an awesome multiplayer game. I had a ton of fun with it.

[BahamutFlare]

I actually bought Harmony of Despair just a couple weeks ago. Never heard of it until right now. And I love it. Everybody in multiplayer is so much better than I am with DPS, but I'm sure at some point, I'll get there.

My biggest praise with it is the difficulty. Lament of Innocence was hard on it's highest difficulty. HoD is also pretty difficult on it's hard mode. I usually breeze through every Castlevania and most games in general. But just wow. I felt like I actually needed to find better items and become more powerful to continue on.

With Legend of Dragoon, my difficulty lies in the item management. I don't like the status effecting items and have a hard time dealing with knowing how many healing, reviving, and status items. I only made it to the third disc, so I have no idea what I'm going to be up against. I just went through trying to find as much stuff on my own playing at my own pace.

[Locke cole]

There are some pretty good JRPGs thave have come out recently. Xenoblade is the standout title.

Arc Rise Fantasia is... weirdly decent. Like, the story is sort of "poor man's Tales of", down to a coliseum with an inexplicable exhibition match against previous heroes from the series it's in, and the voice acting flits between mediocre and atrocious, and it takes some time for the battle system to hit its stride (it's one of those "alright, another hour has passed, here's another piece of the battle system" things), but when it's firing on all cylinders, it's really good. It's an interesting experiment, and the battle system is kinda deep for a turn-based game.

[Ecks]

i might be alone in this, but i feel skyward sword was a fantastic addition to the series. and despite the handholding (dammit fi stop reminding me of navi) i found it a lot more challenging. particularly if you bothered to attempt hero mode (holy fuck was that a thrill). to the person who said "could not get into it" could you clarify a bit? what was it that turned you off?

as far as other modern vs. classic/retro stuff is concerned, i still sit in the middle of the spectrum. i would love to be able to have the best of both worlds. i enjoyed skyrim, arkham city, ACR, and SS (as i mentioned above) but i still go back and play stuff i fondly remember like pokemon red, mario sunshine, ocarina of time, jak and daxter (jak II and 3 as well).

i don't think it's a bad thing to be into the older stuff these days, a lot of games that come out don't deliver on their promises or are so laden down with overhyped and overmarketed bullshit that just looking at a game case can make you go "oh boy, it's that fucking modern warcraft shit again, think i'll keep my $60 for a dvd box set"

when you look at the box art (or whathaveyou) for a beloved classic you go "damn, a childhood well spent!" or some such nonsense, i dunno, i don't know what you guys did in your youth and adolescence

[Locke cole]

Man, I love Skyward Sword. I liked it more than Twilight Princess (the sense of urgency doesn't pop halfway through the game), and I dunno if I can ever go back to a 3D Zelda game without a sprint function. Except for Majora's Mask, of course.

[Ramary]

to the person who said "could not get into it" could you clarify a bit? what was it that turned you off?


It felt bland to me, I don't know. Plus the sword controls never worked right for me, and I was not liking that first temple you go into. This was on top of that horrendously slow start that seems to be in every Zelda game now. I don't mind "everything is normal" starts if done well, like Half-Life, but every Zelda seems to do it lately and they never do it well since it takes too fucking long for stuff to pick up.

EDIT: In addition, Fi stopping me every 5 seconds to point out the obvious is terrible. At least most of Navi's things were optional.

[Magus]

I am also a fan of Castlevania. How did the most recent game on the PS3 (and I think 360) stack up against my favs, Super Castlevania 4, Symphony of the Night, and Lamant of Innocence?

Glad to hear someone else liked Lament of Innocence. It was enormously underrated, and fixed most of the problems that had arisen with 3D Castlevania games (problems reintroduced in Curse of Darkness, unfortunately). I haven't had a chance to play Lords of Shadow yet, though, although Harmony of Despair is supposed to be pretty good, I've heard great things about it, and not just from people here, BUT it's basically a multiplayer game, so keep that in mind.

[walkertexasdruid]

My sister said she is getting me Valkyria Chronicles for Christmas, is this something I should be looking forward to?

[greed]

It's a good game, whose only real problem is a couple of utterly bullshit difficulty spikes. Other than that it's really quite fun and pretty unique.

[Solid Snake]

My sister said she is getting me Valkyria Chronicles for Christmas, is this something I should be looking forward to?

YES.

[Ramary]

My sister said she is getting me Valkyria Chronicles for Christmas, is this something I should be looking forward to?

Some people love it, some hate it. You will not know till you play it.

[Solid Snake]

Some people love it, some hate it. You will not know till you play it.

Some people hate Valkyria Chronicles?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

!?!?!?!?!?!

[Doc ock rokc]

Some people hate Valkyria Chronicles?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

!?!?!?!?!?!

*Raises hand*

I don't hate it but I suck at it so bad that I don't like it...

[walkertexasdruid]

I wish I still had my nes and snes from time to time. I miss the Super Mario Bros.1,2,3, World. I miss Zelda 1,2, a Link to the Past. Does anyone remember Crystalis, that was a cool game too, it was like zelda meets final fantasy, and it had pretty interesting story with a pretty different twist a the end.

[Magus]

I wish I still had my nes and snes from time to time. I miss the Super Mario Bros.1,2,3, World. I miss Zelda 1,2, a Link to the Past. Does anyone remember Crystalis, that was a cool game too, it was like zelda meets final fantasy, and it had pretty interesting story with a pretty different twist a the end.

I fell out of love with my NES about 2002 or so when I was playing through Crystalis and my save was mysteriously deleted. Yes, I did the Hold Reset-Push Power thing religiously (still not sure if that ever actually did jack shit, I kind of think they made it up to screw with our heads or, like how the "Close Doors" button on elevators are not actually hooked up to anything, or maybe so they could use it as an excuse and pretend it was user error that made saves mysteriously disappear...but anyway...). It's been emulators all the way since then for RPGs on there, I can tell you...

[Krylo]

I fell out of love with my NES about 2002 or so when I was playing through Crystalis and my save was mysteriously deleted. Yes, I did the Hold Reset-Push Power thing religiously (still not sure if that ever actually did jack shit, I kind of think they made it up to screw with our heads or, like how the "Close Doors" button on elevators are not actually hooked up to anything, or maybe so they could use it as an excuse and pretend it was user error that made saves mysteriously disappear...but anyway...). It's been emulators all the way since then for RPGs on there, I can tell you...

Cartridges have a small battery in them. When it dies so does its ability to contain saves when it's not turned on.

You can replace them, and can find tutorials online (http://www.the9thkey.com/games/Nesbatt.htm), but yeah, as we come up on 2012, SNES and NES carts are more for looking at than using, unless you don't require saves on a particular game.

[Ryong]

Some people hate Valkyria Chronicles?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

!?!?!?!?!?!

Sorry.

If we're talking about retro-ish games, does anyone here have a PSP to play Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky? It's a fantastic RPG with great characters, a nice plot and a combat system that's kind of like a SRPG but not really.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Personally I feel alot of the gaming industry's problems is more due to the state of the economy.


Now adays, most folks just don't have the money to spend $60+ on a new game. And most comapnies don't want to take a huge risk a new ip in a market where if it doesn't sale, that company is in deep shit due to dev costs. Same goes with trying something new. If it flops, you just lost several million/billion dollars.

And since a good persentation can improve and sometimes garantee a product's sale. Graphics are going to be priority number 1 for some of these companies.

IMO I think a lot of the unique gems this gen and next are going to come from the Indi crowd. Since atleast there, gameplay is usually priority number 1.

Because let's face it, our economy ain't getting any better anytime soon, at least not in our life times.

[walkertexasdruid]

I usually wait until a game is under thirty dollars before I buy it.