What are you playing?

[mad bum]

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

The low-poly count would make this game perfect for 4k resolution. Akira would have muscles sharp as blades.

[rabidtictac]

I'm almost done with star ocean: first departure. I really liked it, although I prefer the original sprite work from the SNES version by a country mile. But the characters aren't annoying, the engine is still fun even if it's just SO2 and the world is just the right size. It's big enough to support a 20 hour game, but small enough that you can remember where everything is without consulting a guide or any map other than the simple one the game provides.

The game uses a lot of very logical design too. You travel from continent to continent via the shipping lanes and that never changes. You never get any fast travel because the world is pretty small. Every coastal town has boats and those boats can take you to other towns on adjoining continents. The final large town has a shipping network that can connect you to every other major coastal trade hub. In practice, it's like taking the bus and coastal towns are like the bus stops. It's easy to look at the points on your map and instantly know where a coastal town is that would have a boat for you. Pretty much the whole game is like that. The dungeons can be tricky sometimes, but they're all fairly small and this greatly reduces the frustration factor. The game does have random battles, but the size of the dungeons balances this nicely.

My final party was Roddick, Ashlay, Illia, Erys, Ioshua, Pericci, Ronyx and Millie. Ashlay is a fucking beast and Erys/Ioshua are op as fuck black mages with healing.

I've played a fair bit of star ocean 2 but I'd forgotten how shitty the characters are tbh. Claude is a massive bitch boy who never shuts the fuck up and I hate how hard the game pushes the Rena/Claude romance. Characters in general have less plot relevance than Star Ocean 1 and are less personally affected by the story of the game. Star Ocean 2 also has a LOT of characters that you are locked out of if you don't go recruit them within a very specific time frame. SO1 has a couple, but the game does a good job of providing you access to alternative characters with low recruit requirements.

[Guest]

Makes sense that it'd be good. It was originally made during a time when Square wasn't such a shit company as they are today.

[rabidtictac]

I've been on an rpg playing kick. Got all the gang back together in arc the lad 2. That game is surprisingly kind for a strategy RPG. If you die, you just restart on the map that killed you. Considering save points can be sparse at times, being able to restart any map is a blessing. Tosh is super OP in arc the lad 2. I can finally build a proper team that includes only good characters. No more shitty ice wolf or annoying Chongara monsters.

[Guest]

Makes sense that it'd be good. It was originally made during a time when Square wasn't such a shit company as they are today.

SO1 wasn't made by square Dingus.

[AngrySpoonySnob]

pirated pc tales of vesperia since ive already got it on x360 and the current price is insane.

Might get lost in this one for a while

[Guest]

pirated pc tales of vesperia since ive already got it on x360 and the current price is insane.

Might get lost in this one for a while

It's legitimately the last decent Tales game. Everything after that is dogshit.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

SO1 wasn't made by square Dingus.

True, it's be Tri-Ace, the guys behind cult classics like Valkyrie Profile and... FF13-2? That's so not a fitting punishment.

Also, anyone have any opinion on Star Ocean 3 (aka Till the End of Time)? That game was fucking rough for me. Ugly graphics, weird achievements (including two for each boss that heavily encourage you to make a separate save before each boss), no real skill system, and a prime example of my "favorite" issue with these types of real-time action JRPGs: I never managed to find a camera setting that felt right.

[rabidtictac]

Even in the ps2 era, SO3 looked like shit. It's a very artistically barren game. Compare SO3 visuals to valkyrie profile silmeria on the same console.