[quote="Kaze no Mirai"]Oblivion dragged on a bit too much, and Shivering Isles didn't help much. Seemed a bit too "meh" almost as if they felt obligated to release the expansion.[/quote]


I enjoy it more then morrowind. It's a bit more fast passed. Even though they took lots of things out. The map seems a bit small. I am at level 19 I could grow more if I was to sleep, but seeing as I'm a vampire I can't <.< I just finished playing it. I still say one of the best RPG games out there. More indept then pokemon and not as slow.

I guess me and Metal are the only ones that dislike Pokemon on this board.

...do you really want to be grouped in with him?

STAY AWAY FROM THE DARK SIDE OF THE FORCE, ROSTMAN.

Pokemon was a good game when it first came out. Don't get me wrong I use to love the pokemon games. After pokemon ruby It began to get so dull and same old same old . I had to capture the pokemon I previously had all over again. It got irritating. I ended up selling pokemon ruby and fire red to my cousin for 20$ each.

I still have pokemon xd i beat it. It was easy and blah can't catch the pokemon I WANTED.

final fantasy 7- 10
chrono cross/trigger
skies of arcadia
parasite eve
pokemon versions

[quote="taifu"]parasite eve[/quote]

I've always been meaning to try that one. Especially since Tetsuya Nomura did the character designs.

persona 1-3 (including Fez)
Xenosaga 1,3 (2 was annoying imo)
Final Fantasy 1-12 (11 was boreing tho).
Tales of Abyss (very awesome)
And All of the Growlanser series.
Diesaga (psp)
Legend Of Dragoon (god i want them to make a new one lol)

And thats all i have next to me i would look in my stash but meh

My bro bought a ps2 couple weeks ago, but recently i purchased 2 memory cards for it. I have been playing kingdom hearts. It's WOW. Great RPG. It's really cool and stuff. I am enjoying it so far. Beat the wonderland episode this morning. Will play somemore later. Thank Goodness it came before my classes started. Otherwise i wouldn't have time to play it. Gonna try to squeeze some time to play it more later tonight.

So I've been playing Phantasy Star II off and on for a few months (GBA Phantasy Star Collection) and I just got to the Esper Mansion, with my next objective to find the legendary weapons. I tried for a bit to not use maps or use guides to find out what I'm missing and where I need to go next, as I wanted to somewhat preserve feel of playing the game circa 1990 (Made maps for a few of the first places, and everything), but I ultimately caved after the game started to repeatedly knuckleball me in the dick.

So I knew I had to go across the ocean, and that'd require a vehicle. The only logical choice was this junkyard place by the shore. I couldn't find shit for shit, so I looked up a guide.

"Walk around the outside of the building at the entrance, and as you travel across the darkspace outside of the room, you'll come across the path that leads further in to the Jet Ski."

The "walk-outside-the-boundries" trick, those bitches. Chances are I'd have quit the game right there had I been a child playing this circa 1990.

After I accidentally conquered Mt. Uzo in one try (multiple paths leading to fake trees and only one with the item I need), I got creamed by the Climatrol dungeon. Rather than slave away at making a map involving SO MANY warp tiles, I figured it was better to just print a map from PS Cave and mark all the warps so I could preplan my route. Had I been a teen playing this after enjoying Phantasy Star IV circa 1999, and being interested in the series roots, I may have raged about it being such a miserably cruel and unfair piece-of-shit arriving at Climatrol for the first time, and may have quit entirely; JUST missing the shocking character death, predating the then shocking Aeris death by almost a decade.

But I got through, and I was now tasked with "Find the control tower so you can open up the dams", with my only clue back at my hometown being "It's hidden somewhere in Motavia". Wonderful, thanks. After blindly wandering the planet, I finally chanced upon it when I found it in the rocket town, and what really made me rage was that I must've walked past it several times.

And the horror... Warp tiles, an ocean of warp tiles. I got angry. I said to myself, “I can do this, it will be better if I can solve this dungeon on my own, it will be it’s own reward, just as originally intended.” So I began my quest.

Warp…Warp…Warp…Warp…Warp…Dead end. Warp…Warp…Warp…Warp…Warp…Back to start.

I would chip away at it, writing down the notes, narrowing down the options, stopping and playing again later. Every wrong answer gets me closer to right one. I was feeling better. I was having fun. And then, it appeared as though I had found an end that wasn’t quite as dead as I had grown accustomed to. I walked across the more roomy sections and crossed a little bridge. Suddenly, I came upon a piano.

Progress! Finally finding something after all that nothing! I approached the piano and pushed the action button.

“It’s a piano and there appears to be some sheet music. Play the piano?”

“YES! SURELY IT IS A MECHANISM TO OPEN A HIDDEN DOOR! I’LL BE ABLE TO PROCEED IN THE STORY!!!”

“Yes”




WHOOOOOOOSH

PARTY WARPS OUT

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUCK

There is a tech called Musik that I had to learn from a piano teacher who is himself hidden in one of the Motavian towns. Not only that, but you have to stand in front of the piano and use the tech. Reading this in a walkthrough made me realize that this entire game HATES YOU and WANTS YOU TO FAIL. FUCK THIS GAME. FUCK PLAYING UNAIDED. FUCK PRESERVING THE ORIGINAL EXPERIENCE. IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YEAR IT IS, GAMES HAVE NO BUSINESS PULLING THIS BULLSHIT ON YOU. THEY HAD SOME NERVE MAKING PEOPLE PUT UP WITH THIS SHIT AFTER DROPPING FUCKING $80 ON THIS SADISTIC GAME.

IT’S GOING DOWN.

From that point onwards, I printed out every single map. I looked up every strategy, every piece of equipment. I travel in straight lines from now on. Groovin’ to the Dezoris overworld theme, Rolf, Rudo, Anna and Kain will not be made fools of in any of the final dungeons. The Legendary Arms will be mine in due time. Darkforce and Mother Brain will eat my shit.

Yeah, the Phantasy Star games were notoriously difficult for their time.


Phantasy Star II was easily voted in for being the biggest bitch of those though.

Hey crowdy, did you ever play Alundra? I knew you liked Landstalker.

Ahh, I rented Alundra once but didn't get very far. I was like, "Hey, this game is really cool...Shit I'm stuck. " And took it back. That was a long time ago, though.

I beat the first two Dezo dungeons and got the first four pieces, but it's really wierd how Amy is the only one who can wear the Neicape and Neicrown. I want Anna to have them, but she won't take them. I guess they are too frilly or flashy for a [i]warrior[/i] woman to want to use. Anna's two slashers are very useful on groups of average-low defense monsters, and since it hits whole groups, it's a multiplier for total damage. The problem with Anna is that with her best armors, her stats aren't very good. With the Neicrown and Neicape plus two Laconian Emels, Amy's defense went from weakling to immovable object; She now has the highest defense stat in my whole party, with 310+ points. This Mx. Dragon monster used it's normal attack on her and it does 11-17 damage. Everyone else, 40-60 easy. Even though Amy has barely 100 HP, maybe I should move Anna to the back and bring Amy up to take some hits...

It's like the game decides for you which party you should use just by equipment distribution. Kain was great for the middle of the game, but now he's way outclassed by Amy defensively. I think I read that his machine damaging techs work on the final boss, so I'll be happy to put him back in the party just for spamming Nagaj for 150+ dmg in the last fight.

LOL Hugh and Shir, holy balls, they are shit tier characters. Finish the whole game with those losers and you're a pro.

[quote="Cloudy_One"]Finish the whole game, losers, and you're a pro.[/quote]

An accurate summary.

Wow. Someone gave me the Phantasy Star collection, I wasn't very interested in it and didn't get very far. Now I'm kinda glad I didn't bother.

[quote="terra"]Wow. Someone gave me the Phantasy Star collection, I wasn't very interested in it and didn't get very far. Now I'm kinda glad I didn't bother.[/quote]

Don't get me wrong, Phantasy Star II and IV are AMAZING; II is just ridiculously difficult. IV is managably difficult though.

[b]Terra, play IV.[/b] It is totally accessible and fun, mainly because you always know where you are supposed to go next, and if the enemies are too strong, you can always level up a few times and continue. II is so brutal from the start because it just DROPS you into this world with only the most vague cues, if any, to go on. The dungeons are full-blown MAZES with dead-ends at every fork. That, coupled with the problem of even knowing you are supposed to be looking for a particular dungeon and where to go to find it, make II so bewildering and inaccesible.

I would say Phantasy Star II has the gravity to be a memorable adventure, and definitely deserves its place in history. That doesn't make it the most fun game, however. IV is EASILY the most fun of the original series, with only a few really difficult dungeons to look out for. (Air Castle comes to mind.) Also, IV is much, much longer than II; II has only a handful of story sequences throughout the entire game, and they are spread far between the dungeons. I found the story pacing to be uniquely bizarre, especially after the merciless grind of the control tower and dams. Once you open the final dam, literally the moment you flip the switch, all hell breaks loose plotwise. It was interesting, to say the least.

A few strategies for IV:

The Macro system is awesome, and their are hidden macros that lead to combination attacks. Early on, you can use awesome Macro combos like Triblaster and Blizzard/Fire Storm to wipe out tough enemies. You should probably set up macros for healing and defense as well.

Rune should not have a staff equiped, period. His Defense and HP are too low. Give him extra defense with two shields, and have him use his magic as his primary attack. If he runs low on magic, he can be the healer. With a staff, he gets squashed like a bug, and you'll have to drag his stiff body across the map to rez him alot. He doesn't contribute much physical attack power anyways.

Once you get to Alys's hometown, you can take on a job to fight a Giant Sandworm. He is an intensly powerful monster, but defeating him gets you huge exp. and money. Not much later, you can fight giant sandworms later that you can take on for lots of experience very quickly. You need to be prepared first, though.

IV gets the stamp of approval for FUN. II gets a giant raspberry blown on it's asscheeks for being infuriatingly underdeveloped. It's a shame IV isn't on the GBA collection, I guess maybe too much space, but I don't know, maybe they could have fit it on there. I recommend it if you can find it.

Sega Genesis definitely had some fantasic games to rival the SNES with. Phantasy Star IV, Jungle Strike, World's Greatest Heavyweights, Vectorman, Road Rash II/III, Sonic the Hedgehog series, I heard Rocket Knight Adventures is good too, etc. I found myself vexed that Gametrailers had a top twenty countdown of Genesis games and failed to mention any of the Strike games or Road Rash games, and they chose Phantasy Star II over IV. Ick, Golden Axe and Altered Beast making the list.