.hack

[ferricide]

I've clocked in 90 hrs or so though part 3, so that makes 30 hrs/game. Yeah, that's short, isn't it.

i have no idea how you can continue to play them optionally knowing the next games in the series are exactly the same. as i go through the series i do fewer and fewer sidequests and just gun harder and harder to get through the main story, because that's the only really interesting thing left.

it's a fine gameplay system that could have successfully carried a 40 hour RPG, provided the developers comitted to feeding in new and interesting content that you'd expect across that game. i still maintain that for $200 you actually somehow get *less* new content then you might on a single, regular RPG.

and you can bust through each of the volumes in 15 hours if you try, which i do, which is short.

[CountZero]

What makes it NOT an RPG? You are effectively saying that Strat RPG's are not RPG's in the traditional sense. But it's just like the hamburger. You can call it whatever you want, but regardless it's still the same ingredients stuffed between two slices of bread.

There's nothing in the game that suggests it's an RPG. It's a strategy game with units that can level up.

If any game game that includes leveling up is an RPG in your book, that certainly widens the range of games that one would include under that title.

[RedCoKid]

i have no idea how you can continue to play them optionally knowing the next games in the series are exactly the same.

Sometime between watching the TV series every Sat night, hunting for keywords in the DVDs, completing the side quests for special items, data draining enemies when they get on my nerves, reading & replying to fake email and message board posts, contacting the fake characters to see if they wanna play w/ me, etc... I got addicted. I can't explain it any better; I love this mediocre game.

[Roufuss]

There's nothing in the game that suggests it's an RPG. It's a strategy game with units that can level up.

If any game game that includes leveling up is an RPG in your book, that certainly widens the range of games that one would include under that title.

So what the hell, please tell me how FFX-2 is an RPG then? Since by that logic, it's just "a game with a shitty battle system with three people I level up"

[CountZero]

So what the hell, please tell me how FFX-2 is an RPG then? Since by that logic, it's just "a game with a shitty battle system with three people I level up"

Judgements about the quality of the game aside, FFX-2 is an "RPG" because it shares many characteristics with other games that have traditionally been called RPG's.

When I said I wanted an "RPG" I meant games that follow the Suikoden-Final Fantasy-Xenosaga formula, not games that follow the Tactics forumula.

I agree that the term Role Playing Game doesn't have much to do with most J-RPG's when you consider the term in its literal sense. Semantics are fun...but Disgaea does not fit into the genre we're discussing when we talk about .Hack and Final Fantasy X-2.

[ferricide]

So what the hell, please tell me how FFX-2 is an RPG then? Since by that logic, it's just "a game with a shitty battle system with three people I level up"

fuck's sake, dumb argument aside, if you cannot see the difference between disgaea (tactics) and FFX-2 (RPG) you're beyond our help.

in fact, i'm assuming you can and just want to argue the point. whether you consider these genre distinctions arbitrary or stupid or what-have-you is irrelevant due to the simple fact that they are genuinely useful. i don't like tactics games so i'm avoiding disgaea, and i'm quite happy for the distinction because it sums up a sub-genre of games i'm happy to typically avoid. they're not for me! but i do like what is routinely called and considered to be "RPGs".. there's a lot of latitude within this distinction but it's hardly a meaningless one.

booooooooooyakasha.