I need a game to leave me in awe and instill some sort of emotion in me. The last time I felt this was probably playing Okami, and before that maybe Kingdom Hearts II. My fellow VGC-ers I ask of you to recommend me a game that wil absolutely blow me away. I'm thinking of starting up a game to work on over the next few weeks after work and such. I was thinking maybe FF8 or FF12 as I have them but haven't really played them yet, or replaying Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories since I never really beat that either. I just want something engrossing and amazing. I have all systems except PSP and Xbox 360. Help me out!
Xenogears or Valkyrie Profile on PC (Since no PSP and PS1 is a ***** to find.) Follow up VP with VP2.
Fallout 1 & 2 on the PC.
I was gonna say Bioshock, but you don't have a 360...sooo, idk :(
Immediately after reading the thread title I thought of Okami... so I guess my second choice would be Shadow of the Colossus.
Also, second'd for Valkyrie Profile 2. Can't speak for the first, but I'm playing the second and so far it's awesome.
RPG games like Willow, Tales of the Abyss, Baten Kaitos, etc, are usually the type of games that grab me emotionally.
Metal Gear Solid. Any of them will do, but chronologically the third one should be played first. :)
Majora's Mask.
Oblivion. It kept me entertained for over 300 hours and you don't quite realise how much it grabs you until you stop playing it. Plus, it fits what you describe. Lasting impression, amazing, engrossing, an RPG.
Assuming you haven't played it, of course.
Terranigma. Faggot.
Final Fantasy Tactics.
Belay that order, get Fire Emblem.
Tactics is pretty much Fire Emblem with all the things that were ****ty about Fire Emblem weeded out. Like PERMANENT CHARACTER DEATH.
They're totally different beasts. Not fair to compare them. FE's are great games, and tactics is in a class of its own.
[quote=The X;858820]Tactics is pretty much Fire Emblem with all the things that were ****ty about Fire Emblem weeded out. Like PERMANENT CHARACTER DEATH.
It's not that difficult, quit sucking so much.
I figure Fire Emblem's got the better narrative and the PERMANENT CHARACTER DEATH will get you more attached to your characters. But then I'm basing the style of narrative to how missions work in FFTA, which is probably COMPLETELY different to regular FFT (if anyone would link me a document detailing the differences id be very grateful). But since the guy asked for emotion I reckon FE's got the edge here. In RD there's this "moral dilemma" moment that pisses over Bioshock's "kill Ryan" scene so much it's not even funny, as well as several missions that you'll plainly not want to fight making every kill reluctant.
[quote=Speedfreak;858825]It's not that difficult, quit sucking so much.
It doesn't matter if it's difficult or not, it's just a stupid concept. What does everyone do when their character dies? They restart from their last save. It's laughably pointless and doesn't add much gravity.
The narrative of Fire Emblem games varies wildly. Some of them have plots worth merit, while some of them are kinda lame RECLAIM THE SACRED ARTIFACTS stuff with your typical estranged prince and evil-turned-good guys.
[quote=The X;858832]It doesn't matter if it's difficult or not, it's just a stupid concept. What does everyone do when their character dies? They restart from their last save. It's laughably pointless and doesn't add much gravity.
You haven't really explained why having to restart when a character dies is even a bad thing. You have basically just said "when you fail a critical objective you lose, and that's stupid". If you let characters come back the next mission the game becomes ridiculously easy; bump up the difficulty to compensate and you're back to square one, except now you don't give a shit about your characters and boss fights aren't remotely as tactical (since you'd just be throwing bodies at it until it died). If you're upset with the way you can lose when it's not that difficult then I wonder what other method would make you happy. I dread a FFTA situation where I lose because "my characters numbers weren't high enough".
On Metal Gear Solid, I'd say the best thing to do would be to play 3 after 1 and 2. Just because it takes place before the rest doesn't necessarily mean it should be played first.
And, uh, though you're likely to have played them already, another good one might be the entire Paper Mario series.
Sword of Mana/Final Fantasy Adventure.
[quote]I figure Fire Emblem's got the better narrative and the PERMANENT CHARACTER DEATH will get you more attached to your characters.
Only makes me hate them more, because it's always the same character that dies every ****ing time.
[quote]If you let characters come back the next mission the game becomes ridiculously easy
Hah, play Rondo of Swords. No permanent character death, and it's still bucketloads harder than FE.
Wasn't that game bad? And didn't it have completely different mechanics to Fire Emblem?
Whatever, I don't see the sense in scrapping them because a bunch of casuals don't like having to think. Fire Emblem is a strategy game, if the same thing keeps happening then your strategy sucks. Either bench the bad character (there ARE bad characters), give them bonus EXP (if they're worth it), improve their weapons or change your overall attack plan to put them in a less dangerous position. Fiona kept dying on Radiant Dawn because she's terrible, so for some missions I wouldn't use her even if it meant having an empty spot on the battlefield. Another time I literally just used her to block a climbable wall, she never attacked or got attacked the entire battle. I enjoy the permanent deaths because it makes my units actually worth something, it makes me actually think about winning instead of winging it from the start. It's the reason I'm a lot worse at Advance Wars, it's difficult to value a tank when I know I can build another next turn, so I get careless.
To reiterate, what's better about finding a different reason for having to restart a mission? Why is restarting because a character/unit that you value died an inherently worse reason for restarting than failing to meet objective X?
[quote=Linko_16;858883][COLOR=indigo]And, uh, though you're likely to have played them already, another good one might be the entire Paper Mario series.[/COLOR]
Paper Mario is engrossing and amazing? Thousand Year Door would have to be the best game ever to redeem the other two monstrosities.
When one of your characters dies in Fire Emblem, do you just let it happen or do you start over?
earthbound imo :X or ico.
Final Fantasy Tactics... It's so funny that these suggestions happen to be games that I've come across recently. I got it from a friend for 5$ so perhaps ill start that. I really liked Tactics Advance.
Linko, I played all the Paper Mario's, and Speed I definitely don't think that the first for n64 was a monstrosity. And Fire Emblem is definitely a series that I've wanted to get into for a long time, and I haven't played any of them so does anyone recommend a good starting point?
And G-Sides: I would LOVE to play Ico as I've heard SO many great things about it and I really liked Shadow of the Colossus however I don't know where'd I'd be able to pick it up. I haven't played Earthbound in 5 years and even then I didn't beat it so that's definitely another option. Maybe I'll even play FF1 and try to get past Astos for the first time ever.
Vamp, can you give me the premise of Oblivion because it seems to have matched my description pretty well.
Keep the suggestions coming. More epic, engrossing games!
Tactics is much better than Tactics Advance, you'll be pleased to hear.
[quote]Maybe I'll even play FF1 and try to get past Astos for the first time ever.
Hell yeah do it. Love that game.
And I shall reiterate SWORD OF MANA.
Pikmin 2. You'll laugh, you'll cry when you spend time with those cute wickle flower animals in one the best puzzle action strategy games ever. They're so gosh darn cute!
Pikmin 2 was a pretty great game. Will we ever see a follow up, though? It's one game that would actual be boosted by Wii control...
[quote=The X;858923]When one of your characters dies in Fire Emblem, do you just let it happen or do you start over?
I usually scream "DODGE! ****ING DODGE!" at the TV using the attack animations and celebrate profusely if they survive. If it's a character I don't really care about and it's a particularly hard mission that I'm very close to finishing I might let them die. But otherwise if one dies it's a restart. In fact, that's the only thing that ever causes a restart.
[quote=Vampiro V. Empire;858940]What? Keeping your team alive isn't an objective, you can still win without them.
Keeping your men alive is generally the highest priority of any commander. It makes sense that in a strategy game "keep your units alive" isn't specifically stated, because it's so obvious.
[quote=Vampiro V. Empire;858940]And tactics comes from keeping your team conscious for that battle because when two or more go down in a battle you're asking for trouble and even worse in a boss battle. I mean, no matter how much thought you put into a battle you can't always predict a member of your team dying and you're not going to let all that work go to waste so you're forced to restart.
That's why you work in redunancy into your strategy. I admit there are a few bullshit moments where something unpredictable happens, the game is not without it's flaws, but it's something you get used to. For example, in the GBA game I left my merchant tent open to attack for all of a mission, and just as I got to the boss 3 enemies spawned next to it and started killing it. The thing is the entire mission I had a surplus of troops, so when I retried I left them to guard the base. For the rest of the game my base was always covered, and I always countered any surprise attacks. The way to fix that, I figure, is to have much shorter missions whenever the designer wants to teach you something, so instead of losing an hour you lose maybe 10 minutes. Making the characters immortal would lose more than it gains considering the alternatives, the way morale is a genuine resource in FE is something I very much appreciate, though I can understand how it would feel like a kick in the balls to someone else.
[quote=Vampiro V. Empire;858940]When characters can permanently die you're forced to worry about keeping everyone alive rather than focus on the actual battle and the tactics involved to win it, so it drastically takes away from the fun AND limits possible strategies. Baiting or throwing someone out there to horribly weaken an enemy but possibly get knocked out is out of the question. Which is more than a little lame.
I hate to break it to you, but stategies for pretty much anything are always limited. In real-life wars there's very often only one optimal strategy, and usually wanting to keep every man alive is the ideal by which tactics are created. I've played too many "strategy" games where the importance of units is diminished, and as a result tactics are almost nonexistant. While the freedom of the gameplay might take a hit, the satisfaction of discovering the ultimate solution to a battle more than makes up for it.
[quote=Vampiro V. Empire;858940] Who gives up a battle because one person dies?
You've pretty much hit the problem that I have with the series (and with a LOT of games, actually). Looking after your men should be as important as it is in Fire Emblem, but I'd love it if they found a way to let me live with their deaths (i.e. my mistakes). Having to sacrifice them for the good of the army could give the game a great deal of emotional power, and it's an important core mechanic of Chess. But unlike Chess there are battles to fight after the current one, so you can't afford to lose a single man. FFT doesn't solve the problem, it sidesteps it entirely. Perhaps it results in a less frustrating game for many, but I honestly don't think it can deliver the emotional weight that FEs evil mechanics can. Combining the best of both worlds is a conundrum I intend on solving, especially since it could be applied to so many other kinds of game.
Perhaps I should recommend it with a disclaimer. Warning: may cause frustration, apathy and ultimately surrender. NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.
Eh, Never been a fan of FE, but if you're into strategy and such it's a great choice. I doubt it'll grab you much though, or instill you with anything more than a normal RPG.
I'd suggest a Tales of game, they generally have a lot of character drama and always have a grand, emotional ending.
Sword of Mana's a bit choppy. The gameplay is good, but it really shines in plot, soundtrack (really good for something that sounds so... GBAish), and character customization.
Mario games... No emotion, don't bother. They're fun and engrossing, but not at all deep, including the Paper Mario ones.
Not really knowledgable about MGS, but the mood and emotion is far different that the traditional RPG you might be looking for.
Expanding on Iris' post, definitely pick up Tales of Phantasia. Actually, ROM it with the DeJap translation for the best experience. =)
The gameplay is a bit more difficult and lacks some of the advancements since it's the first Tales game, but storywise it's probably better. Also, it has a ton in common with Symphonia and even more with The new ToS that'll be coming out later this year.
hmm
Shin megami tensei Nocturne
Shin megami tensei Persona 3
Ar tonelico
[quote=Vampiro V. Empire;859193]I'm going to assume the rest of your post expands upon the whole men thing and figure you've missed the entirety of my point.
Irony!
[quote=Kamek;859167]Fire Emblem i'll definitely give a shot to as well. I'll try the GBA one. I hope it doesn't have Ike in it because I hate that cheap bastard in brawl.
But he's a thoroughly likable character. :( The GBA game has Roy's (from Melee) father in it.
[quote=Bebop;859355]I can't really think how Wii control will improve it, surely it would just be a waggle affair to fling Pikmin, but I'd love to be proven wrong. Pikmin 2 was so different than Pikmin 1 yet with enough familiar terriorty, so if they do make a third I would expect the same.A pointer interface would make selecting Pikmin a lot easier.
Ike's a badass. I'll kill you.
Killer7 for the gamecube is a fairly good game to play. It keeps you around because of the bizarre things that keep happening in the world around the Killer7 group. It always drew me and my friend back to it so we could make it to the end and understand the story.
No More Heros for the wii is one you should also check out. I haven't played this game personally yet so I can't fully recommend it but I have heard that it was a lot of fun from quite a few people.
I believe I heard Bioshock is coming to the ps3 or its out or something to that effect. If this is true and you have a ps3 then I highly recommend this game to you. Its one of the few first person shooters that actually had a story you could A) Get into it because it existed and B) Acutally made you give a d amn about other things then shooting people in the face and watching enemies rag doll.
[quote=Vampiro V. Empire;859621]No, just pointless. I skimmed it for "men" and it came up a couple times. Therefore pointless to read.
It's ironic because I ended up agreeing with you. Grats on making an idiot of yourself twice in a row.
Even more pointless to read then. Next time just say "yes, I concede, you are correct" so I don't have to ignore what looks to be a ****ing huge rant.
killer7 won't grab you, it'll totally alienate you for hours until you begin to get a slight grip on things, only for it to be stolen away.
not enough shootan rite?
that's all it is. shootan on rails
[quote=Vampiro V. Empire;859654]Even more pointless to read then. Next time just say "yes, I concede, you are correct" so I don't have to ignore what looks to be a ****ing huge rant.
I like to explain my thoughts and discuss things. That is the point of a forum. I think what you are looking for is a long list of polls.
Long list? "You are right" should be enough.
In Killer 7 you have control about where you want to go at the junction points, and you can re-trace your steps at any point, even if your speed isn't analouge, so I wouldn't say it was tied to an axis.
giving you a choice of paths doesn't stop it from being tied to an axis, you just get to choose which way you want to continue. And retracing your steps as in going back the same way you went on the same axis? Yeah. It's a rail game. Can't believe you're disagreeing with me on this.
I guess so. It just didn't feel like a rails game when I played it. Then again I wasn'r really sure what was going on when I was playing it.
When I had a similar dilemma I remember exactly what the doctor ordered; Michael Jordon Chaos in the Windy City.
moonwalker for the genesis also captivated my heart at a young age. it may still work for you kamek.
Ikaruga will grab you.
BY THE BALLS.
I remember playing the Japanese Version for Dreamcast and my brother being on the verge of tears for sucking so badly at it. That game was pretty fun though.
SPOILERS:
Well ladies and gents of VGC, after two months of playing through the MGS series at the suggestion of so many of you, I've finally finished 4 tonight.
omggg
Wow. I absolutely loved it. I can't even pick out a best game in the MGS series because they were ALL so good to me. I don't even understand how people don't like 2. I remember when it first came out it catching a lot of flak from everyone but I enjoyed all of it. I liked the shift of focus from the character from Snake to Raiden. It gave the series a different look to it.
I liked two but I LOVED three. Three was just amazing. The environments were great and I found it a lot harder than 2. The boss battles were epic, and Young Ocelot was pretty **** cool although he was owned by Naked Snake quite a few times. I loved Ocelots character. 4 really made everything just come together. The flashbacks were really great and I liked the return to Shadow Moses. I loved the interactions between Otacon and Snake. I wish there were more Ocelot parts and not "Liquid Ocelot" parts but I was happy to see Ocelot come through at the end and give off that infamous line and hand gesture. It was so great. Just the dialogue and everything else about it was always alluding to earlier parts in the series. I really liked the Otacon/Naiomi cutscene. I thought it was pretty cute and I really like Otacon's character. I really liked that scene in 2 right after Emma dies and Raiden Snake and Otacon walk off to continue their mission.
I really liked the last boss battle in 4 and how it took everything back throughout the series. I was really surprised at the end when Ocelot said it wasn't really Liquid inside him, but the psycho therapy and nanomachines that made him like that so Snake could go after him etc etc etc. I thought it reinforced Ocelot's nobility.
My absolute favorite Boss battle though would have to be the last battle in 3. Well the second to last battle because I had no idea when that game wold have ended. It just kept going you never knew what would happen next. When I saw Ocelot shoot Snake's eye that's when I realized it was Big Boss etc and I smiled a pretty big smile. Anyway, the final battle in the field of white flowers was just PERFECT. It was the absolute most amazing way to end that game. I wish the ending to 4 was a little more aesthetic in that sense but I liked it a lot nonetheless.
I really was glad Raiden survived and reconciled with Rose. I thought Rose was a huge ***** but the end made almost everyone seem redeemable.
All in all, a-freaking-mazing series.
Now any more suggestions? Sorry for that long incoherent rant. I'm just kind of excited.
...:cool:
It's nice we made a fan out of you. :)
maian 2.0
Spore! That game grabbed me pretty hard.
Get an Xbox and then Tales of Vesperia.
[quote=Big Boss;879986][FONT=trebuchet ms][COLOR=yellowgreen]You could play a couple of hours of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, so your expectations are once again lowered, and then you can immediately play other games.[/COLOR][/FONT]paging doctor snap to the burn ward
paging doctor snap
Try Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Superior stealthan, inferior story.
Who gives a **** about story with the stealth is awesome.
I couldn't follow the story anyway. Something about the Japanese stealing nukes and the... who cares, I just snapped a guy's neck while hanging upside down on a pole, yeeeeeeeeeeeeeah
It's actually more convoluted than an MGS plot. All I really remember is Japan sets up an army in Pandora Tomorrow, China and Korea get ****ed, America allies itself with Japan, then America is attacked by a hacker in CT, Sam hunts the dude down, Japan gets attacked, a war is started and a nuke gets involved.
Can't remember all the other complicated ****.
Ikaruga.
Exceptional gameplay, graphics, music, sound design and narrative. It's a very boring, back-of-the-box descrption but it's the truth.
[quote=Big Boss;879986][FONT=trebuchet ms][COLOR=yellowgreen] You could play a couple of hours of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, so your expectations are once again lowered, and then you can immediately play other games. I do remember recommending Okami on the PS2 somewhere. It will grab you.[/COLOR][/FONT]
Ten bucks says both games are mediocre for the exact same reasons, how about it?
Ikaruga, that was pretty painful but fun! I remember having the Japanese version on my lovely Dreamcast.
I got Okami the second it was released and thought it was in my personal top 15 (maybe higher) of games I've ever played. I played TP right after that and I liked it a lot, but after Okami everything else seemed dull. In fact, in the past few years, the only games I remember really grabbing me were Kingdom Hearts, Wind Waker, KH2, Okami, FF12 for a bit and the MGS series. Nothing else seemed to instill that wow this game is awesome epic and engrossing feeling in me. The last time I was really excited for a game (checked the trailers screens etc religiously) was KH2. I hope there are some more awesome games out there, (someone recommended Tales of Symphonia, maybe I'll load that up come December when I have a break from school) or some awesome games coming up. I'm looking forward to the new KH games but I dunno about anything else.
How's Phantom Hourglass by the way is that any good?
Also, Rayden, MGS5? Has there been talk of this? Isn't Kojima always saying he wants to move on to something different. I can't see how MGS would continue after the end of 4 unless they introduce a new protagonist.
Buy a 360.
Open more possibilities.
Buy Bioshock.
Phantom Hourglass is great if you pretend it's not Zelda or don't get angry because it's different to other Zeldas. The backtracking dungeon is insanely fun.
Gonna throw Terranigma out there, too.
[quote=Speedfreak;880958] The backtracking dungeon is insanely fun.bizarro universe
Nope, liked it. It started off intimidating, then towards the end of the game you'd pull out your Home Alone-style hand-drawn map of tricks and traps and rule the place. If MGS is basically Pac-Man, that dungeon was basically Pac-Man CE.