Phantasy Star Universe

[Vasteel]

Blasphemy. Skies of Arcadia is the heat, haters.

[EightBit]

Blasphemy. Skies of Arcadia is the heat, haters.

I agree. But that certainly counts for shit on this board. Three times I've gone through it, and its just as sweet as the first. Lovely game.

[mollipen]

Blasphemy. Skies of Arcadia is the heat, haters.

I don't remember the exact year it was released, but it felt like an RPG from at least five years previous to that date. While most Japanese RPG companies still aren't trying hard enough to modernize their games, at least some of them are trying a little. Hell, Chrono Cross was a PSX game, and it had more work put into it than Skies did.

[Tracer]

Skies was sappy. Its combat uninventive and repetitive (very repetitive). If combat was fun, I wouldn't mind doing it maybe half as often as it did occur. However, even that remedies nothing when it comes to those useless but common encounters with jackshit monsters you could do little to and they just run awau after time. WTG Sega. Way to make the worst RPG ever. If you liked the story, Mother Goose has an epic for you waiting up her sleeve. If the characters were novel, well, there's no accounting for taste they say. But besides the ship battles, there wasn't a damn interesting thing in the whole game.


ANNND I really really wanted to like it. I really did. Sega, at one time I thought, could do no wrong. The game just flat out sucks.

[mollipen]

Like I said, it isn't like other companies are busting their asses to update the RPG genre, but at least some are trying to push progress along a bit, unlike Skies did.

For example, after BoF5 and Star Ocean 3, I pretty much refuse anymore to go back to playing RPGs with random encounters that appear out of nowhere, versus enemies I can see on the world map. If I'm going to play a random encounter RPG from this point on, it has to be brilliant.

[voltz]

Positioning in skies was a joke considering you had no real control over where you stand, it was just picked out at random.

[Diff-chan]

If Sonic Team is making this game, it has no chance.

[dave is ok]

The dupers are anxiously awaiting.

[Vasteel]

The random battle thing is really a case by case thing with me. But random battles are a fact in most RPGs I've liked-Phantasy Star, Shin Megami Tensei, Dragonquest, Azel et al. I can see where some people have a problem with them about half the time, but I think the majority of the problems people have from them come from games that aren't that hot regardless. Although I will admit the DC version of Skies overdid the random battles. But the Gamecube version smoothed things out nicely. I personally like not knowing whats around the corner in a game.
As far as the characters go-Skies crushes most rpgs. No bitchy, whiny characters with amnesia out to discover "who they really are" or such MTVesque angst-ridden drivel. And no two-bit bad pop philosophy in the story- just some kids determined to explore and make their mark on the world, and accepting no authority stopping them. Great stuff. And then there's the whole exploration element- pretty progressive as far as I'm concerned.
In any case, I just hope PSU really brings back some of the old PS mythos.

[mollipen]

The random battle thing is really a case by case thing with me. But random battles are a fact in most RPGs I've liked-Phantasy Star, Shin Megami Tensei, Dragonquest, Azel et al. I can see where some people have a problem with them about half the time, but I think the majority of the problems people have from them come from games that aren't that hot regardless.

Random battles were introduced to add illusionary "length" to the games. So many RPGs I can name off have random battles that are there only for that reason, and end up not only being pointless, but making no sense whatsoever. Even though I loved FFX, it was guilty of this, and here's an example: there was this road where regular folk were just lounging around, enjoying a day out in the sun. But... there were random encounters in that area. To walk back and forht between commoners who were just sitting there enjoying the day, you had to FIGHT CREATURES.

Saying, "Well, RPGs have always had random battles, so they're just there" isn't a valid argument. They were put there as a crutch for games that would otherwise be too short, and that needs to be fixed. When the game is about searching, exploring, or puzzle solving, keep battles out of the picture. When battles are brought in, make them there for a reason, and important. While FFX was dumb about random battles at times, they weren't terribly common, and there was more emphasis put onto boss battles. The best game so far, though, by a long shot, has been Chrono Cross. Enemies visible on the map screen, 95% of those fights were OPTIONAL, and all you needed to do for character leveling and progression was fight the boss fights.

Although I will admit the DC version of Skies overdid the random battles. But the Gamecube version smoothed things out nicely. I personally like not knowing whats around the corner in a game.

I enjoyed Skies on the DC, because back then it was really the only next-gen RPG around. I picked it up a few months back for the GC, and at this point, find it almost totally unplayable.

If Sonic Team is making this game, it has no chance.

Double-edged sword for me. I honestly loved PSO (well, until you've played through the small selection of stages to death), and saw a lot of great potential for the game. The problem, though, is that Sonic Team seems to know jack crap about what to actually do with that potential. They created a great starting point, and then threw pretty much all of the potential that was there away.