/vr/ - Retro Games

Play it and find out.

>>10707302
I can't. I'm scared.

>>10707301
Only the PSX ones, you can ignore the boring and slow snezz games

SNES: bland
PS1: kino
PS2: what the fuck
Mobile: ...

>>10707451
>>10707426
I like the SNES games. 2 especially does a lot of cool stuff and has good visuals + music.

>>10707301
I was enjoying BOF3 until the game decided to piss all over any interest and sense of grandeur in the plot by making me travel the corners of the map looking for ingredients to a fucking cake. I couldn't drop it quick enough.

They’re pretty average imo. Nicely produced with great character designs but pretty much any other major RPG for their respective systems beats the pants off them. The SNES ones feel sort of 8 bit to me. Grindy with high encounter rates. The series has its fans though.

3 > 2 > 4 > 1 > 5

>>10707451
There is no mobile entry, delusional fool.

>>10707301
3 is a good "classic" jrpg. kinda grindy at times, but has more soul than something like dragon quest.
If you like it, then check out 2 or 4.

>>10707302
>t. autist

Unless you are a fan of Dragon Quest style JRPGs you most likely won't enjoy the first 2 games since they crib HEAVILY from DQ. (Albeit with better battle systems)

BOF1: Straight up DQ with the twist that each character has a special gimmick inside and/or outside battle.
Two of which are busted: one character turns into a dragon and another fuses with other party members to make OP monsters.
The most plain and vanilla Evil Empire/God plot that was tired and clichéd even for the time.
Battle is also a slog unless you use the aforementioned OP party members, at which point it's mindlessly easy.
There's even a common shop item that completely eliminates ALL random encounters once you get tired of battling.
It has some charm and a few novel gimmicks for the time but nothing worth checking out today unless you really enjoy a comfy DQ-lite style of RPG.

BOF2: A big step up and possibly the most underrated RPG on the SNES.
The plot is Evil Religion/Church controls the world before the PS1 Era made it clichéd.
Characters still have gimmicks but the dragon was massively nerfed for the sake of challenge. Some people believe it was TOO nerfed and that it takes the fun of the dragon gimmick which central to other games of the series.
The plot gets very serious towards the end, but most of the game has a lot of goofy charm and side quests.
IMO it has some of the best written characters and plot points in the series but the original localization was atrocious. There quite a few translation patches that are much improved.
Said patches also drastically cut down on the slog of grinding by increasing EXP and gold drops.
Even the official Capcom GBA re-release does this! (Although it didn't change the terrible translation)
So yes, originally the game was very much an old school DQ style grandest, and the final dungeon is one of the most tedious slugfests you'll see outside out of an Atlus RPG.
The battle system is pretty fun but definitely play it with patches and a guide.

People really fucking hated this game, huh? Too hard?

>>10707984
>You HAVE to spoonfeed me
>Play it? Who has time for that? I just want to coomsoom the superficial details and move on to the next series

3 and 4 are the definition of
"soul"

>>10707948
>>10707978
These. BoF3 is definitely worth trying. 2 and 4 if you liked 3 are probably good. This game also singlehandedly made me pick up bass as an instrument since its battle theme makes great use of it. A lot of the soundtrack does.

breasts of fire

BOF3: Far and away the most popular of the series, but that's because it was released at the right time and place (in the golden Era of JRPGs: on the PSX right after FF7).
A very different feel in tone and style from the rest of the series: it's much lighter and casual.
No evil empire or church, no immediate threats to the world, just a goddess that is mostly evil but presented as shades-of-grey. But 90% of the game is just gradually exploring the world and doing side quest after side quest, but it doesn't become tedious until the end (when it starts giving you scavenger hunts across the world).
Possible the best gameplay system of the series due to the Master system which let's you customize your party's stat growths and skills.
Unfortunately none of this is explained well by the game, so you need a FAQ or guide to get the most out of it.
Not much grinding needed, although there are tons secrets and side quests that you can sink time into if you want.
Game play is much more balanced. Dragon system is much more powerful but at the same time it doesn't trivialize the game either.
In terms of game play it may be the best, but the light plot and blander characters compared to BoF2 are a bit of a turn-off to me personally, though it's still worth experiencing.

>>10707992
>Too hard?
Yes.

>>10708261
It missed the mainstream roguelike boom by a decade or so

>>10708023
What I think sells BoF3 more than just the timing is that the game’s aesthetics are just incredible. The animations are dramatic, smooth, and flashy. The music flows very nicely with the gameplay sound effects. The game just broadly felt high quality for the period. Even something goofy like its fishing mini game had polish to it with its own satisfying narrator.

I think many gamers in general overlook and undervalue sound quality when it comes to how the sound effects and music blend. I think it’s one of those great intangible reasons people really like BoF3. It just plays out in a satisfying way.

>>10707995
bro, i already know you have autism, you don't have to prove it to me.
just keep in mind that other people are individuals too and likely have knowledge that differs from your own. asking other people about their experiences and understanding is a good way to enhance your own knowledge.

>>10707995
>spoonfeed
Hopefully you can make friends one day, anon

>>10707301
4 is one of the best rpgs ever. does not get the credit it deserves

How hard is 3? Is it easier or harder than 2? Cause I'd consider 2 like middle of the road in a good way/

>>10708310
Probably because it didn’t sell well due to being one of those super late generational releases just like MMX3 and Thracia 776. Even worse, I’m pretty sure it was one of those games that took forever to get working on emulators. It had some kind of bug in the opening cutscene in the desert that caused it to crash, so it took way longer to be playable IIRC.

>>10708015
The bunny boobies

>>10707301
BOF3 and BOF4 are absolute classics and no one can change my mind on it. The art design alone makes them worth playing, comfyness level 1000

>>10707301
Only 3 and 4 are worth playing. The first one is terrible on top of generic and 2 is just ok.

>>10707992
Too shitty.

>>10708335
Combat difficulty isn't that hard, but actually progressing the story is the most Kings Quest like gotcha bullshit I've ever encountered in a JRPG. All instructions are actually flat out wrong, you have to nag NPCs repeatedly in ways never seen in any other game, you spend hours delving into dungeons only to find out you didn't bring the right party member with you, and don't even get me started on that fucking desert or the 'time to punch every tree in the game' segment...

The first two are typical SNES JRPGs (boring). 3 and 4 are really good. I have not played other entries.

>>10707301
Only 3 and 4

>>10708484
>(boring)
Shit taste

>>10707301
It is the worst of the best. Looks good and has distinctive characters but the game itself is average as fuck, at least that was my impression of the snes games.

>>10707948
>>10708000
4 > powergap > 3 > the rest

>>10707984
God forbid someone do something for themselves.

>>10708296
It's a fucking game, not a major undertaking. If OP is that unsure he can read a FAQ to get an idea of how the game works or watch a video of the game being played.

>>10707995
>Play it? Who has time for that?
Why are you saying this sarcastically? Yes, to a normal person it IS a waste of time to invest 10+ hours into a jarpig to find out of it's good or not. Not everyone lives in a basement with zero responsibilities or hobbies or friends. Some people value their time instead of playing every game on earth hoping they'll be good.

>>10707426
4 is worse than 2 and only better than 1 for aesthetic reasons

>>10710435
>4 is worse than
nope

>>10710428
Yeah you're not wrong, they're almost like the "Tales of" of turn-based rpgs.

>>10710428
the ps1 games are a completely different beast, the snes games can't be compared

>>10710438
the gameplay is complete trash

there is nothing redeemable about it, it plays like it was made by people who hate rpgs. you are either blinded by nostalgia or you vastly overvalue style

>>10710470
cope

>>10710476
this guy was literally the only good thing about 4.
cope.

>>10707301
skip everything prior to the psx

also skip everything after the psx

also skip the psx

I remember the SNES ones really dragging out the battles around endgame. Like constant random encounters that just took way too long. Thank god for fast forward.

>>10707451
This.
But I'll take the "what the fuck?" of DQ as a plus. It's such a unique and different game, I personally loved it.

>>10710551
>unique
About the only way you can get a more generic JRPG experience is by playing Dragon Quest.

>>10710552
BoF had autobattle though.

>>10710560
>autobattle
if your rpg has autobattle then its a failure of a game

>>10710434
Here we go against with this modern "I have no time and it is precious!" mentality. No, you don't have less time than anyone before you. No, your time isn't more precious than anyone else's before you. Yet nobody before you was so obsessed with "wasted time". It's a fad, everyone acts like this so you think you must too. Get over it.

Yes, it's okay to spend a few hours on a game to find out if you're going to like it. Yes, there will probably be another game out there you would have liked more. That's okay too. Get over it. You don't even realize the irony of spending time discussing whether you're going to like the game rather than playing it to find out. If you have taste (by that I mean, granted you don't borrow "your" taste from other people) nobody will be able to know if you're going to like the game except yourself.

How do you sleep at night knowing about all this precious time during which you're doing nothing? Maybe if you didn't spend 5 hours a day on social media you'd actually have time to play.

BOF4 is superb.
BOF2 and 3 are good.
BOF1 is alright.
BOF5 I haven't played, the fanbase for it is super-obnoxious and take joy in shitting on the rest of the series though.

Besides them being made by Capcom and them having a large amount of anthro character party members they're mostly just a bunch of fairly by-the-books grindy JRPG adventures. IIRC 2's story is actually one of the very first that's all about taking down the local new religion and fighting God at the end.

>>10710562
>he didn't intentionally inflict his entire party with berserk status in Final Fantasy just so he didn't have to do anything during the battles

>>10710609
Heh, I know.

>>10710609
its a good tactic in some games, either because it gives a huge boost to damage or in ff4's case the atb is so fucked you end up attacking twice as often just because you don't have to input a command

I played first one and it is so fucking sloooow. I was bored out of my mind and playing that game felt like an eternity. I have up in the underwater zone.

>>10707301
Dragon Quarter is the only one that really matters.

>>10710730
forgot a doesn't there

That monk rhythm quest in 2 is still the most bullshit things ever in vidya

>>10711029
I've played 2 like 3 times and have no idea what you're talking about.

>>10710730
it's unreal how it's been memoryholed by the fanbase

>>10711161
>>10710730
Because it's crap and no one likes shitty time limits in long ass RPGs

>>10707992
It uses collectable and expendable save tokens. It can eat shit

>>10711509
>>10711527
all I'm hearing is weakness

Playing the first one. Got to the fishman village and found out I'm only like halfway through the game. It's fun but damn it's long and with how basic it is that makes it kind of drag. Still I've heard 3 is really good so i want to power through 1 and 2 so i can find out for myself.

>>10711149
I only played it once and I know what he's talking about even though it's only a vague memory since I played BoF2 like 20 years ago. There's some monk cave or something and it has some weird part where you have to make SUPER precise button presses to mimic tones some monk dude makes and I also remember it being bullshit. It doesn't show you the timing, it just has some beeps happen in a row and wants you to replicate it precisely or something.

what I remember of 3 is that the soundtrack is good, the translation is wacky, and the game itself is kind of a drag to play.

>>10711538
1 is genuinely not a good game. Very dated. 2 adds some fun stuff to it and is definitely playable even though it isn't really that special. 3 is when it opens up. You don't have to play the first 2. They don't add anything to the series.

>>10711540
Literally have no idea what you're talking about and I swear I've played and beaten this several times. Maybe it's an obscure mini-game I missed or something?

>>10708338
BODACIOUS BOUNCING BUNNY ballistics.
Seriously, her cannon kicks ass if you take the time to fix her accuracy stat.

>>10711540
You sure you're not thinking of the first game? Maybe FF6 or something else?

>>10711551
>>10711149

>>10711549
I'm the type of autist that almost always wants to play release order to get to the game in the series i actually want to play. Hell i want to see what's up with yakuza 7 but insist on still playing 3-6 even though i know it's not even the same combat system anymore, having already played 0-2.

>>10711538
BoF 1 feels like an 8-bit RPG with a 16-bit coat of paint. It's like Capcom woke up one day in 1993 and said "Hey, everyone's making their own Dragon Quest, why don't we?"

>>10711803
> It's like Capcom woke up one day in 1993 and said "Hey, everyone's making their own Dragon Quest, why don't we?"

Actually they already did that in 89. Twice.

>>10707301
I remember it being long, boring, and not liking any of the characters except for Nina. My friend absolutely loved it for some reason though. He wasn't really a friend though, more of a frenemy. The Bowman character was alright. He had some special overworld ability that was interesting. Hunting or something.

>>10711509
The time limit barely applies as long as you realize that the devs spend the entire game trying to find ways to tempt you into making bad choices. It's actually pretty interesting how there are several "smart" ways to play Dragon Quarter at any given time, yet the developers make it super easy for you to make the dumbass choices instead.
The game expects you to fight dirty - to utilize the traps/bait well, to get every possible first strike EX turn and deny foes the chance to move, while doing your utmost not to let the same happen to you.
What I really like is the 3v3 mirror match battle in the early game against the dudes who unleash the poison gas upon the town. The whole battle is meant to see whether you can do to the enemy the very same thing you don't want to have happen to you, rather than freaking out and falling right into their hands. It's still not an easy fight regardless of how well you perform, but it's designed to separate those who can remain calm under mounting pressure from the low-Ds who crumble under the slightest hint of stress.

I've only played BoF2 and 3. I've beaten 2 and it is just average. It's not worth playing unless you're a SNES RPG nut. Breath of Fire 3 seems to love wasting your time. I dropped it at the dock I'm which you had to train a man so he became strong enough to win his love interest over some muscle head brute. It's just one tedious task after the next and skimming this thread I quit while I was still ahead.

I only ever beaten 4, but I thought it was great, probably my favorite JRPG ever. Just wish the endgame didn’t feel so rushed.

I’ll have to give 3 another shot at some point. I remember getting flittered at an embarrassingly early point in the game.

>>10711871
The first entry is very basic, and is let down by the awful translation job.
The second game is far more substantial and is the one people remember fondly whether that's on SNES or GBA, but they still suffer an awful translation job.

Playing the SNES version with a ROM hack for re-done translation and improved fonts is strongly recommended.

yall niggas is crazy.
2 is great.
3 felt like it had a little less going on. no shaman fusions so they give you dragon genes instead.
4 even less than that.

don't forget BoF1 is literally Capcom and Squaresoft's lovechild. i'm also pretty sure it was Capcom's first RPG, and that shows.
2 improved basically everything.

>>10712067
I'm glad I never played BoF2 as a kid because if I saw Katt's tight butt repeatedly during battle as like an 11 year old coomer, I probably would have developed some kind of furry fetish.

>>10711947
You're really a dumb fucker aren't you?
>OMG IF YOU KNOW THE GAME INSIDE AND OUT THEN IT'S NOT A BIG DEAL!
I swear retards just lose all perspective. Anyways the game fucking bombed and straight up murdered the series so obviously it was trash.

>>10712148
You can 1CC the game blind just by playing smart and realizing what the devs are up to, which shouldn't take long considering that they start trying to fuck you in the ass more or less from the word "go."
You got filtered. Admit it. You're just a typical low-D.

>>10712159
See? You can't even help yourself but be a tard

>>10712108
Katt and Nina 2's designs are so perfect that the game gives you upgraded sexier versions as a power up and literally nobody cares about them.

>>10712148
Dragon Quarter shows that all the fanbase wants out of the series is jarpig slop

>>10712078
Square was only involved in the release of the north american version.
They had nothing to do with the original release.

>>10712148
>Pleb on the defensive

>>10712508
Well you're awfully afraid of him. You're white as a ghost and backing off even as a distinguished black man in a suit.

>>10707301
1 on snes is a waste of time. Want the good weapons? prepare to grind a flea market. Want a good story? it's bland as fucm.

>>10707301
The first game is very unbalanced in the player's favor and drags on for 10 hours longer than it needs to.
The second game is very unbalanced in the enemies' favor and has a wonky translation.
I can't speak on any of the others because I dropped the second game about 8-10 hours in.

>>10713691
2 pisses me off because the standard AP restoring item you can buy in shops lowers your health for some reason and the dragon spells are hugely nerfed now.

>>10712513
>distinguished
>The man who can tell you that C comes after B but not before B comes after A

how is BoF1 in terms of difficulty? Which popular SNES RPG is it close to in that regards (FF4 not-easytype; DQ5, FF6 etc)?

>>10711594
is this like oracle of seasons?

>>10712108
>>10712067
Back then there was some anon obsessed with this pussycat. Sometimes I miss those times. I wonder if he killed himself.

>>10714226
It starts off moderate difficulty, a bit tougher than most Square SNES games and peaks at the Gremlin fight, who is a lot tougher than anything else at that point in the game. The fight is so tough I've seen people claim it's glitched. He's the 5th or 6th boss I think
After that though you get the first Dragon transformation which is very powerful and the game becomes much easier after that. If you keep up on getting the Dragon transformations and Karn's fusions, the game stays pretty easy. The most annoying part of the game is the high encounter rate but you can buy a cheap item at almost any store that will eliminate encounters for a bit.

>>10713709
Those were essentially over-reactive nerfs to address the easy difficulty of the 1st game (which indeed was only hard up to the Gremlin fight)

I started playing it, and even though I don't have a problem with high encounter rates (in BOF it's not that high too), I think the issue with BOF encounters is that they lack variety. Even though the enemy variety within each area is good, the problem is that encounter setups lack a random factor: you'll always be facing the exact same enemy setups. This is one thing DQ and FF games get right (at least early ones, once they switched to 3D it was different because there was less enemies per fight): the encounter setups are not completely "set" and have a high degree of randomness to them.

Like in this area I'm getting this precise encounter setup 40% of the time, and in the previous area it was one worm, one spider, one worm, 40% of the time as well.

>>10714414
>>10716703
It's not helped that there's equipment that raises the encounter rate by 16 times but the game doesn't tell you this.

>>10711594
If I recall correctly you only get one chance to do this lol

>>10716710
Early in the game the battling is more monotonous, once you get more skills and companions it gets better. But if you get sick of the encounter rate buy some items that let you reduce or eliminate some of the random econcouters, don't remember which one it does or I might be confusing it with 2.
Don't worry about being underleveled, you can catch up pretty quick in a new area.

>>10707992
KINO

>>10707992
Looks like a gritty Gainax reboot
Oh wait, so was Mega Man Zero!

>>10708015
Golden Week soon...

>>10710470
>it plays like it was made by people who hate rpgs.
but enough about Cross, P5, and FFVIIR

>>10710730
Hot girl

>>10711545
It's been a few years since I last played it, but the only parts I remember being genuinely annoyed with were the bit where you're supposed to toughen up the wimp in the port town and the Desert of Death.

>>10717026
WHAT? What is it?

3 is peak BoF, everything about it is just so damn good.

>>10712067
>no shaman fusions
Shaman fusions were trash in 2 because they'd be gone five minutes later after getting one in the next dumbass cutscene

>>10718739
still feels like a step down when only Ryu can transform

>>10718593
The Gown. The original joke is that in Japan it's a Miniskirt. So it attracts monsters when Nina (or Deis) wears it.

aesthetically i enjoyed 3 but it shits the bed when it comes to pacing, lots of bullshit like >>10711963 said, had a real sour taste in my mouth when it was all over

>>10711963
Exact same thing happened to me, I am at that same part and I cannot muster the desire to play the game just to play matchmaker for a little wimp, I have zero investment in these characters I just met and know practically nothing about but am forced by the game to do it anyway as the only way to progress.
Shit like this should be a sidequest, but the problem with BoF3 is that if feels like they came up with a main quest and a bunch of sidesquests but then decided to integrate it all together, instead of letting the player choose to do them they made them mandatory which is what kills the pacing of the game.
At this point the game has completely forgotten about Teepo and Rei.
I dropped it for now and have been playing Chrono Cross instead for the past few weeks, after I finish Cross I might go back and finish BoF3.

>>10707301
I remember seeing advertisements for the first two's GBA ports in a Nintendo Power mag when I was 8. I haven't played it myself, but it's a jarpig so it probably sucks.