Question about when Suikoden III and IV were released...

[Finch]

As far as the RPG's I listed, I think I enjoy them mainly for their fun factor than story. Most RPG's these days are too busy trying to present some epic storyline with boring characters that we have already seen a thousand times before, and they forget that games are suposed to be fun. Wild Arms 4 and the Shadow Hearts series actually add some amount of fun to this stale genre. Most of this fun factor is simply because the Hex Battle System in Wild Arms 4 and the Judgement Ring in the Shadow Hearts series are the two most enjoyable battle systems I have seen.

This is the truth. It took just a little while to snap, but the battle system in WA4 is the best there is.
However...
I think WA4 would have been better if it was just "Save the Indian princess from rootin' tootin' desparados!" instead of "Hey, anime cliches while we try to be deep and stuff". There were some cool characters, i just wish they hadn't been so serious about the whole thing.

[Diff-chan]

How can you suck at ANY JRPG... there is never any challenge. They are all linear. It's easy to become vastly overpowered. Save spots are plentiful. There is no challenge, ever. Sucking at a JRPG? There. Is. No. Way.

[magnifiedplaid]

How can you suck at ANY JRPG... there is never any challenge. They are all linear. It's easy to become vastly overpowered. Save spots are plentiful. There is no challenge, ever. Sucking at a JRPG? There. Is. No. Way.

Yeah, there are usually not too many ways that you can suck at a JRPG. The only way I can see sucking at one is if there is some weird quirk with the fighting system. For example, Baten Kaitos is my favorite RPG on the Gamecube. However, to be honest, the battle system in that game seemed like almost pure luck at times. I got my ass handed to me a few times by some of the bosses on that game just because I wasn't getting lucky enough to draw the right cards out of my deck. Sure, you can easily stack the card deck in your favor in Baten Kaitos, but some of the battles in that game really just came down to being lucky enough to get the right numbered cards to perform combos that do a good amount of damage.

This is the truth. It took just a little while to snap, but the battle system in WA4 is the best there is.
However...
I think WA4 would have been better if it was just "Save the Indian princess from rootin' tootin' desparados!" instead of "Hey, anime cliches while we try to be deep and stuff". There were some cool characters, i just wish they hadn't been so serious about the whole thing.

Yeah, I agree with this too. The story line in Wild Arms 4 became a little bit too bizarre for its own good at points. It would have been even better if the game stuck to a simpler wild west themed story throughout the game.

[Finch]

Magna Carta is a game that's really easy to suck at.
The SMT series requires you pay attention, so that too.

[Opaque]

How can you suck at ANY JRPG... there is never any challenge. They are all linear. It's easy to become vastly overpowered. Save spots are plentiful. There is no challenge, ever. Sucking at a JRPG? There. Is. No. Way.

Diff makes a good point; the main story line of any JRPG I've played only requires you to put in some time leveling to beat anything they throw out you.

Yeah, maybe some have optional bosses which require clever play and skill, but I've yet to come across one which had anything which couldn't be destroyed if you leveled enough.

[Finch]

What did i just say? Magna Carta and SMT.

[Opaque]

I don't believe you.

Can you level in those games? If so do you need to be max to beat the final boss? If the answers to those questions are yes and no respectively I bet anyone can be good at them.

[Finch]

Magna Carta has an obnoxious/awesome timing system thing that pulls in a few factors from the surrounding environment and immunities and whatenot. Everyone hates it but me, and even i have a hard time playing it.

SMT (as of late anyway) requires that you constantly come up with new strategies to fight or you won't get anywhere. You could level all you want and still be screwed at some point in the game because of the experience distribution or you don't have the proper skills to advance. If you try to blindly shove your way through the game, you're going to lose anyway, no matter what level you're on or what skills you have. Sometimes the enemy doesn't have a weakness, just something the monster isn't completely immune to.

Wild Arms 4 is usually pretty easy, but the developers could've really tightened up the difficulty if they wanted to. If it was any tougher, i would've said that too.

And it seems like there's something i'm forgetting...

[rezo]

Suikoden 3 is solid.

Hours spent leveling up all of the time is the punishment the designers put in for the people who suck enough at their games to require it maybe.

[nocturne]

well i have very short attention span and if i get to a hard part in a game ill usually just stop playing it for a while.

i thought suikoden vs battle system was unbalanced and i think suiko 3s parter battle system is wied.

i mean i suck is not a the right word. i just suck at suikoden games, i plyed dragon quest fine and im playing FF7 fine.


i hate grinding more than anything in the world in jrpgs.