/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.459094]

Disclaimer: the opinions in this post are just that. opinions. if you disagree with me about what makes a game great that's fine. you should post about what game you think is great and why rather than trying to tell me I'm wrong. Also I'm mainly just referring to RPG's where characters and story line (often) take center stage.

>TL;DR: The below is what I think makes an action-RPG go from meh that was fun to OMG FUCKING AWESOME. Tell me what you think it is that takes a game to that next level of awesomeness.


So I just started playing Dragon Quest V and I'm getting some major Chrono Trigger vibes. Putting aside the obvious facts
>same artist
>same developer

I'd like to draw some other similarities which I think make help make these (and many other) games GREAT.

>A dynamic story.
I'm an hour or so into DQV and I have received only the merest hint regarding the plot. In other words events are unfolding in a natural way. It may be natural for you to get told who the bad guy is right at the start if you are legitimately privy to such information but that doesn't mean its not boring as fuck IMHO.

>Just the right amount of personalty.
Crono and DQ5 protagonist have very broadly outlined personality traits and you are left to fill in the blanks yourself. At the start of CT Crono is established as a swordsman and a horny teenager. DQ5 offers even less but I'm sure more will be unveiled about the protag. At the start it is established that you are a plucky young kid with a strong bond to your dad who's a total bro. You have some cosmetic options which allow you to be a trouble maker but you are unquestionably a good person. The more defined a character is the harder it is for them to grow and the less likely the player will find something they like about them.

Continued.

[Anonymous No.459107]

>>459094
>Scenery
This is pretty self explanatory. Visually appealing and varying scenes as to not get boring. This includes suitable music. I have never ever met someone who enjoys the god damned sewer level in any game.

For me, if an action-RPG can do all 3 of these things well it will prove to be an immersive and enjoyable experience.

Tell me what YOU think separates the good from the great.

On a side note I can't stand any Final Fantasy games as they all fail on the second point, but please don't fill this thread with shit posting about how wrong I am. I'm not saying they are bad. They just don't do it for me.

[Anonymous No.459206]

That's usually how nearly every Dragon Quest game is. Blank-slate main hero for other characters to play off of, and a sparse story that's all in the details while you travel the world.

[Anonymous No.459214]

>>459107

I keep seeing the same 1024x768 wallpaper size of this image. does a higher quality scan of it simply not exist? where is it from?

[Ark No.459218]

I got all of Gau's rages in FFVI (no small task), 99 of every item in Chrono Trigger (for no reason) as well as max stats and leveling, and even (not /vr/) Every item in Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness and all 6 of the GBA/DS Castlevania games, which takes forever. I believe I maxed out every weapon type for every character in Secret of Mana as well.

But, I gave up halfway through DQ5. The "catch em all" just got too taxing. I enjoyed it though. But I don't know if I can bring myself to finish a Dragon Quest game after that attempt.

[Anonymous No.459239]

>>459218
>But, I gave up halfway through DQ5. The "catch em all" just got too taxing.

Are you talking about recruiting monsters into your party? That was entirely optional.

[Anonymous No.459241]

>>459214
Google image search. Set to show whatever it is Google considers to be a "large" image.

[Anonymous No.459259]

>>459218
Are you saying you did this because you were immersed in the game that much and you just enjoy it or what? are these games examples of games you think of being absolutely fucking awesome?

>>459239
pretty much everything he mentioned is optional lol.

[Ark No.459284]

>>459239
>Optional
If you can't tell from my previous post, I have pretty bad OCD with some types of games. I can usually just ignore it for most genres, but it is hard for really good SNES era RPGs. Completionist I guess.

My next goal is to play some better versions of FFI-III (better than the NES versions anyways). I've got GBA/DS/PSP/PS1 versions of them lined up....
>help

[Anonymous No.459286]

>>459206
Well I'm starting to understand why these games are so well loved.

[Ark No.459308]

>>459259
Sort of, because I wanted the story to go on (well, usually...). So I would delay it by fiddling around with sidequests and grinding.

But also, I kind of regret not finishing DQ5, so was more replying to OP with my experience of it.

[OP No.459352]

>>459308
That's cool. BTW I am the OP. This was kinda what Pokemon was like for me as a kid (and still a little bit now). It was the first game I really spent 100's of hours just never getting tired of running around, trainan, tradan, battlan, R/B was good but G/S/C took weeks out of my life. Didn't mind the gotta catch em all because I genuinely wanted to keep playing. Also for me it fits the 3/3 I mentioned above.

[Anonymous No.459371]

I honestly don't mind sparse story or little character development in the form of text when you are actually doing things in the game. You don't need to be told how great your character is if the game just lets you go into a den of thieves and shuts them down. It is telling you of the adventures of the character while letting you play without massive amounts of text.

I generally like JRPG's that tend to not be text dumps and a lot of the text is up to you go after (like talking to towns people).

Hell sometimes I like it when I am not given a ton of information about my character, like in one of the games I played I was sick and tired of looking for the ice sword and the paladin that bought it wouldn't lend it to me so I killed him in cold blood to give it as an offering to monsters that were once created by a dark god but rebelled against him.

I didn't need text dumps for that, often times it took less than a minutes to get informed of that which was nice, but it was me as the player going around and doing such things. This can apply to linear RPG's as well of course.

[Anonymous No.459380]

>>459241

that's just an upscaled version of the image you posted but with a bunch of filters run over it to make it look of higher quality

[Anonymous No.459437]

>>459107
In Lufia 2, in the first few castles you go into, there are two thieves who steal the king's crown and go into the dungeon underneath the castle. You can tell that this dungeon is actually a sewer too, but I really loved that sewer. I liked the puzzles down there.

[OP No.459826]

>>459437
And I just remembered that CT had 2 sewers levels. They weren't my favorite part of the game but at least it actually made sense to be in a drab and depressing area. The level design was spot but so was the amount of time I actually had to look at it.

[OP No.459837]

>>459826
Spot on ***

[Anonymous No.459884]

Holy shit, I had never noticed how young Bianca and Tabitha are exactly the same.

[OP No.459910]

>>459884
>Akira Toriyama in charge of illustrating more than 7 peoples faces.

[Anonymous No.459935]

>>459910
>7 people
Even that's a stretch.
Chrono Trigger only had five humans in the main cast and he couldn't even give THEM distinct faces.

[Anonymous No.459952]

>>459910
If you're going to use ragefaces from Reddit, at least use them properly.

[OP No.459985]

>>459952
Sorry I didn't realize there was an edict to posting images with replies. I just got that image from google image search. fucking wanker

[OP No.459997]

>>459985
but fuck me I cant spell for shit right now.

Etiquette***

[Anonymous No.460015]

>>459910

toriyama can actually draw very diverse faces, read early dragon ball. he got pressured into doing the same thing because it's what sold. crono looks like gohan because people will instantly go 'hey that dude looks like gohan' and play the game

[Anonymous No.460019]

Chrono Trigger and DQ5 weren't made by the same developer.

[Anonymous No.460030]

>>460019

yes they were. square enix noob <_<

[OP No.460038]

>>460015
That's possible but still. this work existed 4 years before dragon ball.

[Anonymous No.460063]

>>460015
Even in early stuff like Dr. Slump and Dragonball it was present in his females.
Though you're right that all his males looking like Goku and Vegeta is a more recent development.

[Anonymous No.460071]

>>460030
DQ5 was Enix before Squeenix, noob.

[Anonymous No.460076]

>>460015

DB era toriyama is his prime, i think.

[Anonymous No.460081]

>>460071

that was the joke

[Anonymous No.460126]

>>459218
>>459239
I'm pretty sure you can't catch every single monster type in the game because there's a limit to how many you can store with that old guy. Eventually he fills up and you have to start releasing them if you want different ones. Also it's possible to catch multiple types of the same monster.

Not sure if that makes your OCD worse or better.

[Anonymous No.460136]

>>460081
good joke. [/sarcasm]

>>460076
I agree. All the vehicles and background scenery were much more detailed and interesting. It's incredible how sparse and shitty in general the art of DBZ got in the later years. Like, it started to look like Deviantart crap or something.

I do like the Chrono Trigger character designs (I had boner for Marle), but that's just probably nostalgia for the game itself.

[Anonymous No.460167]

What's the best translation/version of DQ5? I've never played it.

[OP No.460172]

>>460167
I'm playing on the DS. The animation is fucking awesome.

[Anonymous No.460286]

>>460167
People give the DQ remakes on the DS shit for wonky translations, but they're your best choices (imo) for getting into those particular entries.