Agreed. I would mind a lot less the “Kingdom Heats-ification” of FF is there was a AAA turn-based successor still out there. As it stands, the biggest “proper” JRPG left is Persona, and much as I like it, it’s clearly a step below FF in scope. Even when they dabble in turn based stuff on the SE side they are stuck on mid-sized throwback games.
DQ 11 is also one of the only video games I’ve personally been hooked on the writing for, too. There are a few very emotional moments, both in the main story and side stories. Also, the rhyming mermaids start feeling corny but really grew on me.
I still have such a hard time believing in this claim. You play as a voiceless boy from a village who’s prophecized to be the Chosen One, and go to defeat a Dark Lord. I don’t mind that Zelda uses such a generic story since it’s all about the exploration and gameplay; but I really can’t put up with the idea of having that basic of a setup in a writing-heavy genre.
Yeah, that’s a good pull, but I’d place DQ closer to Persona than FF in terms of… I don’t know, triple-A-ness? I think objectively that may not be true, DQ XI is pretty large and feature-rich, and DQ VIII was definitely as big as FFXII, short of having fewer CG cutscenes… but I guess the whimsy and more fairy tale-style visuals and narrative knocks it down to that mid-size for me? This may be entirely subjective, I don’t know.
I just want to be able to make certain kinds of stats-based discoveries in combat, the kind of thing you can’t do in the fast pace of an action game. Like:
This enemy deals a super-poison that takes 300 HP a turn, and it’s taking too long to cure it each time. But, people can only have one poison effect. So if I use my own 2 HP poison effect on myself, then he can’t poison me anymore!
My characters are all decked with weapons that do superb damage when they’re on low HP. Most of the boss’s attacks deal status effects, and he only deals damage a few times. So, I’ll just leave them there, keep one person with status resistances and revive them as needed. Each time they get KO’d, it will cure the status effects.
My characters get fully healed when they level up. For this next battle, not only will I not bother restoring ahead, but I’ll burn through all my MP on super-attacks since I’m about to get it all back.
Being able to make determinations like that feel like “cheating” but are quite often things the developers hope for players to discover - at least, as long as an RPG genuinely has enough cool systems interacting, and not just “Find the highest-damaging attack, spam that”.
Agreed. I would mind a lot less the “Kingdom Heats-ification” of FF is there was a AAA turn-based successor still out there. As it stands, the biggest “proper” JRPG left is Persona, and much as I like it, it’s clearly a step below FF in scope. Even when they dabble in turn based stuff on the SE side they are stuck on mid-sized throwback games.
Does Dragon Quest not work for this? Still turn based even now in the most recent game in the series. Looking forward to the next one.
DQ 11 is also one of the only video games I’ve personally been hooked on the writing for, too. There are a few very emotional moments, both in the main story and side stories. Also, the rhyming mermaids start feeling corny but really grew on me.
Legend of Heroes is another.
I still have such a hard time believing in this claim. You play as a voiceless boy from a village who’s prophecized to be the Chosen One, and go to defeat a Dark Lord. I don’t mind that Zelda uses such a generic story since it’s all about the exploration and gameplay; but I really can’t put up with the idea of having that basic of a setup in a writing-heavy genre.
Yeah, that’s a good pull, but I’d place DQ closer to Persona than FF in terms of… I don’t know, triple-A-ness? I think objectively that may not be true, DQ XI is pretty large and feature-rich, and DQ VIII was definitely as big as FFXII, short of having fewer CG cutscenes… but I guess the whimsy and more fairy tale-style visuals and narrative knocks it down to that mid-size for me? This may be entirely subjective, I don’t know.
I just want to be able to make certain kinds of stats-based discoveries in combat, the kind of thing you can’t do in the fast pace of an action game. Like:
Being able to make determinations like that feel like “cheating” but are quite often things the developers hope for players to discover - at least, as long as an RPG genuinely has enough cool systems interacting, and not just “Find the highest-damaging attack, spam that”.