Too bad it can't block anything.

Yeah, seriously. What a hunk of CRAP. D: I don't think the bead version is any better.

I saw the Big Key you posted the other day, but didn't comment on it, though it did make me nostalgic. This was the last game I ever played without the help of the net, or some other guide. It makes me nostalgic to think about it.

Yep, it's all about the nostalgia. It's what I live for. :)

Glad you got that feeling. It's a good one.

It's a nice feeling sometimes, though it does make one feel old. Quick Q, have you ever done items from other series? In particular, Final Fantasy 3/6j? Not many items that were visible there, but one that always stood out to me was the Atma Weapon. Glowing blue blade, charged with the life of the hero! Also something I picked up on my own, that blade was a very unbalanced piece of Equipment. Give it to Terra, give her an offering, and get her to over 5000 HP, and boom, you win game, no Economizers or magic grind necessary. 4 hits of 9999 every time she attacked.

I've done the cast of characters from that game, but I have yet to do any items from it. :(

FF6 is my favorite in the series. Just an awesome game.

Indeed. No Emo characters to be found, anyone depressed had real reason to be, and even those who had reason to be depressed were sometimes happy go lucky. Locke for instance lost his Girlfriend, and spent the game trying to bring her back to life, but never seemed to get down about it, preferring to think of it as an adventure, with a glorious reward at the end, and even when that reward rang hollow, he still had happiness, as he got to see her that one last time. Sure, the villain was a clown, but he had more motivation than Seph, Ultimacia, and Seymour combined(Kuja had pretty good motivation and may have been a transexual). Then there's the duel worlds, which were awesome, and a final boss who wasn't a pushover compared to the side quest bosses, in fact, Kefka could still challenge even a high level party, so long as you didn't use the Atma Weapon trick, or Economizers.

Kefka. Destroyed. The. World.

I mean, really..how many games really let the bad guy succeed? Kefka was truly evil..driven to succeed. Ruthless, cruel, and insane. It was awesome. The game had real emotional depth. The characters weren't just cardboard cutouts. You had moments like the Opera Scene or the whole thing with Cid and Celes on that island..heartbreaking stuff.

So many great moments in that game. It was a solid 2D RPG..doesn't rely on anything flashy to tell the story. It's a shame there isn't more out there.

Sadly, 7 sold much better(It was also advertised more, and released more widely, but try explaining that to a marketing exec), and it became the mold for future games. Again, my biggest gripe with other games really is that final boss. They're built up as these world changing beings, and while some can look the part, few after FF6 would ever actually give the guy the muscle to back it up. Kefka felt during the battle like he really could destroy you with a thought, he was just so insane he couldn't focus long enough to do it, and sometimes you'd blow through all 16 party members beating him, if he used that 1 HP move, and then kept following it up with hit all attacks.

Fast forward a few years, and FFX had a final boss you couldn't lose to. Literally. It is to sigh. Still, at least Shin Megami Tensi games tend to make the last boss the hardest, usually by adding in special bosses if you meet certain conditions. For instance, Nocturne featured a special ending boss if you beat the bonus dungeon before a certain point, one that popped up right after the regular final boss, giving you no recovery time, and he was by far harder than anything else in the game. Or Persona 4, which feature an entire dungeon that you can only access if you really know the game(Or read a FAQ or walkthru), and has a boss you can't kill at first, but if you just defend, it will kill you. Sadly, these games are...very Japanese, taking place as they do in Japan. I want something like FF, or Wild Arms, something more western, with villains who are actually evil for good reason, rather than just being the villain.

SMT games are some crazy shit. I was into Persona 3 for a while, and that game was just fucked up. I loved it. Really adult in some aspects, which I genuinely appreciated. RPGs need a lot more swearing in them. Hell, RPGs just need to be more gruff in general. Gimme blood, violence, swearing, alcohol, drugs, sex. That shit would sell. I want a character that's some fat slob who gets dragged into shit against his will and winds up getting the job done, only because he has to. That would be awesome. I'm tired of all these thin white male prissy guys wearing clothes that are impossible, having awful hair and awful voice actors that hold swords that are 589345 times bigger than they are.

Gimme Joe Schmoe walking around with a 9mm swearing and putting holes in things? I'd play that. Also, I'm not talking about a GTA style game. It would just be awesome to play a version of FF like that.

I preferred Persona 4 myself. 3 was good for what it was, but it was depressing as hell. It's honestly, impossible for me to replay it, I tried. It's just so....dark and dank. It really sucks that nothing you do can help any of the S. Links improve their lives, and in fact, all you're doing is driving them towards the darkness. And then the ending...gods above.

P 4, meanwhile, the S. Links end naturally. Not all happy and light, but none depressingly dark either, they just keep going, the player and character forming a real bond. The story too, despite being about murders, is brighter too, mostly because they showed the characters actually trying to think their way through things, rather than 3's which just kind of blundered around. And then there's the lack of the gun toting mad man/Jesus freak thing. I always wondered why they never brought the robot out when he appeared. She has 2 guns in her arms, more than enough to take his pistol on, and is in fact, shown to be capable of wrecking cars and stuff, and moving faster than the human eye can follow. Why doesn't she just smack him in the back of the head and knock him out or something? Oh well.

Still, fun games from MegaTen for the most part

I actually never got to the end of P3. I actually enjoyed the darkness and depression of it. It was something I have yet to really see in RPGs as a whole. Seeing such young characters in such a fucked up kind of situation, dealing with what they were..was just awesome to me, in a kind of morbid way.

There's no hope, ever. Sure, they win at the end, but even winning doesn't bring hope. If you liked it though, the dark and depression, go read Robin Hobbs, he writes fantasy fiction books. My gods, they are depressing as hell.

I can understand how it's a bit odd. I'm really not normally into such things..the only reason I enjoyed it so much is because it was such a different take on the genre. I get rather annoyed with prissy emo stuff. This was just..different. I don't really want to thrust myself into that kind of universe if I can at all avoid it. I have enough RL stuff that'll make me feel like junk. No need to drag video games down with me. :D

I see, still, they are well written books, I would still recommend them. And have you tried Nocturne, or Digital Devil Saga yet? The latter is a 2 part game, but both are excellent. A little lighter on the story than Persona, but both quite good.

Nah..I have this really bad habit with RPGs that's been bothering me. I get about 40% into a game, then I stop playing it. It's been like this since I was young. Ugh. Right now I'm actually playing Saint's Row 2, and having a blast with it. That should hold my attention for a while.

That's a good game too, actually a few times better than 1, as it basically improves on everything that 1 got wrong, and makes it awesome, especially boss fights, as there are some in 2, while 1....well it tied to have some, didn't quite do it, but it tried. Can't wait for 3, the DLC packs give a good sense of where the series is going next. Hoping for some SciFi weapons next time though.

Yeah, I borrowed 1, played it for a bit, enjoyed it, then bought 2 for $17. Definitely a vast improvement in every aspect. It's honestly the first in that kind of genre that I've really played. I never got into the newer GTA games, just because I hadn't really had the chance to play them. This one seems a bit..looser than GTA. Takes itself a bit less seriously (not that GTA was a seriousfest to begin with).

I enjoyed GTA 3, as it had a nice mix of seriousness mixed with the fun, but then the other two PS2 games were....rather dark. I mean, it's never a happy story, the whole inner city thing, but at least 3 had time to insert some fun. 4, I played for 20 mins, got bored with the story, hated the characters, and found driving to be rather shitty. Saint's Row 1 was an awesome improvement, taking risks that GTA would never do, including the whole running around naked, and then the variations on the jobs, which in GTA were almost all just drive from point a to point b as quick as you could. SR's on the other hand, blow shit up, drive away from a pursuer for several mins so the guy in the back seat can...well, be with a lady of the evening. Game 2 made it even better, mostly by adding air vehicles. Only the Heli's are worth a damn, as fighters crash to easy, but still, it was nice to fly, and here's hoping for some better stuff in Saint's Row 3

On a totally unrelated note, I love how I've had this discussion with you on my tiniest sprite here. Awesome. :)

I'm really liking a lot of the aspects of SR2. There's so much stuff to do! The driving is MUCH improved, the graphics are great..the activities are varied and a lot of fun. I'm hoping there are more weapons than the first game, as that's been my only real complaint. I also wish I could carry more than one type of pistol, etc. I'm enjoying it though. I love the music, I love the humor, I love the language. It's great.