If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. I always think of it when playing something like DQXI. They are giant company (going by market capitalization), Sony is ... just a mid-tier Entertainment company. The time with Sakaguchi leaving the same year, the conception of Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy was completed is ... well, it's hard to believe that any of this is any sort of coincidence. I enjoy Super Mario Bros. 3 cause I could be in control of the character, I could choose to beat the level as fast or slow as I want, take my time with what I do. Not for every company at all times, but as a rule of thumb, yeah. Oh, and all of those examples examples are taken from my personal game library, and is little more than a glorified sampling of my personal game library at that. Hell, I currently in the process of playing Operation Darkness on X360, one of Atlus' most obscure releases I think, and I really like how there Turn-Order and number of actions is determined not just by speed but also by weight: Thus if you bring more, say bazooka rockets, to a fight, you pack a lot of destructive punch, but the flip-side is, that some of your characters will get to act 3 times as often as others. In fact, that last is another notable improvement. I have both, and they actually transition to a fully Action-oriented combat system, more akin to what FFXIV or Phantasy Star Universe has than anything else, although I will admit that both the combat system and skill system of DQHII is much better. In a classic turn based system all enemies and allies get a turn (nominally, DQII introduced enemies that can get two actions back to back, and BoFIII introduced EX Turns for speedy characters, while both series have long had equipment weight affect character speed in battle) before anyone gets a second turn. And while I might catch flak for that, FFVII Remake seems mostly geared to it's audience from the late 90s, as far as demographic goes, while trials still feels to target teens to be quite frank. Yes, the first Neptunia was lacking in a LOT of ways, at first glance. I'll admit that I haven't been paying any attention to how things sit in that portion of the arena since though. @Priceless_Spork Depends, personally, I did not like it. As an over-the-road trucker my PS4 usually stays at home, while I'm gone for 2-3 weeks straight. Of course, that bug doesn't exist anymore because of how they've changed the combat system, so if he's still around he should theoretically be beatable with any team combination, so then it just comes down to who's story paths does he appear in if he's still around. I wanna see where FFVIIR goes next on PS5, but I also want to see where Square takes their other IPs. I know, but a game this grindy makes you imho think about these things. The real question though, is if it does have that degree of backwards compatibility for discs, will it also offer it for software bought from the Playstation Store, namely PS1 and PS2 Classics on the PS3/PSP/PS Vita? Now a lot more details about the world and characters of Final Fantasy … Eve: Valkyrie: Xbox One, PC. The only 'flaw' most people talked about was not being able to change their ID on it, and as I've been using the same handle for online for nearly 20 years now I never had a problem with that myself, but for some people I can understand their point. It's even worse for games. Grandia I and II aren't that difficult, for the most part. For everything else, he gets utterly crushed by OLED. It is that reliant on WKCI for the story to make any sense at all. Unfortunately, my mainboard, I pressume, the BIOS chip, is dying. Like I said before, it's basically the Demon Souls of the PSX era. Gavin loves a bit of couch co-op, especially when he gets to delegate roles, bark instructions and give much-appreciated performance feedback at the end. Of course it was going to be a lot bigger now. It isn't quite a niche game, but it isn't really mainstream either. in moments were you might have need it most. There are definitely some games that don't have an identity outside of just being similar to something else. @peanutbuttercup That's kinda B.S....so your Walmart doesn't want increased software sales...?? Just old enough for the affair to not get you in serious trouble, only minor trouble. But compared to my LG OLED, my trusty old Pana has only one benefit and that is motion resolution. You had to have Angela, casting Tier 1 spells, and utilize the in-game bug of opening and closing the ring menu to trigger the instant completion of casting a spell to deal enough damage fast enough. At least, that's how it was going in the Japanese market, I'm not sure regarding the others, though if things could've kept going well for it in Japan it would've managed to break into the others (which was ultimately Microsoft's strategy, and a good one to, if they could've executed it correctly, I seriously think a lifelong career politician could've done a better job). The voice work was absolutely crucial to that end, of that I am 100% sure. Therefore, I do not think that visuals really deter me by themselves. Yeah, if cost wasn't an issue they could launch something that would blow the PS4Pro so out of the water you'd wonder how it ever managed to compete, but who is going to buy a console that costs in the neighborhood of $3000? Pushing out the Dreamcast, preparing to support that, most likely took all their ressources (and them some ^^). Oyamada: For me personally it was all the additional interactions between the main characters that we added. Oh, and don't forget to reinforce your 5th Wall if you ever do give it a try with Re:Birth. Maybe due to having played the games, I cannot say really. No dice on PSN before midnight, at least one of us would definitely drop out of the game and/or PSN party chat randomly. It works pretty well on Vita though. Like I said it's basically Hellsing, with some Hellboy inspired characters thrown in for good measure like Cordelia Blake aka Liz. I will say this, just looking before that point, let's say Resident Evil, and also what Square did with FF after VII, I can see how many folks never really placed high value on voice acting, or really much cared for it. Fairy Fencer F, another AAA title by Idea Factory (primary developers of the Neptunia games, though this one is a lot more serious than the Neptunia series), and originally a PS3 exclusive, that has only seen a PS4 expanded port that then got ported to Switch. Metro 2033 is a survival horror first-person shooter video game, based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. You had decisions that affected your Force Alignment in SW:TOR, though they didn't do more than minorly impact the story beyond some interesting dialog occuring, which you don't have in FFXIV, but the 'rails' in FFXIV are smoother, so the lack of dialog choices doesn't feel like you're being limited as much. Honestly, I think I tried almost all Tales and that feeling has been 100% consistent. Also, Persona 4 Golden (which I do have as well, though I've mostly played the original) does give some of the characters a much more 'peppy' vibe, as you put it. Kingdom Hearts at least manages to pull a decent reason for a short-term massive loss of power, with long passages of not fighting leading to an obvious loss of ability and skill. THey bought so many new studios .... we have to wait and see. Summons are also broken. But it's just a bit too whacky for my taste, and definitely to grindy. Determination is also a skill needed to earn two of the most valuable Specialty Skills (which are learned by leveling regular skills with SP), as they combine to give you a Super Specialty Skill (similar to Specialty Skills, except these are a full party effort) named Effort that can increase how many SP you get per level. Although interesting combat does help, there is a reason I've taken to watching shows while playing most games. Hope you have a good day! I sure won't. If Sega had held off on retiring the Saturn until at least a few months after the Dreamcast launched, and the Dreamcast offered backwards compatibility with Saturn games, they might still be a contender in the platform side of things instead of just being a 3rd Party Developer now. I'd certainly enjoy seeing a Legend of Mana remake, though the original game was great as it was, and interestingly all of the Western released games that triggered special unlocks if you had save data for them have either been ported to the Switch or have a sequel on it.........so intriguing. The story might have been very well set within one part of the Zoids setting (there are a LOT of sub-parts and spin-offs to that setting, almost as bad as Gundam actually), the gameplay has absolutely nothing to do with what makes Zoids, Zoids. That's why there has been a lot of talk about expanding on subscription type services like Playstation Plus, to help Sony generate revenue past the point of heavy market saturation while the tech develops to be able to make a successor practical. But also like a posterchild for what I said above. I do not mind sprites in general, I think I might have mentioned that I looked at the original Seiken Densetsu 3, and I find it visually more charming than Trials to be honest. Voice Acting was not entirely new at this point, but to me, I would argue, it kinda was at least at that scale and in this quality. Every week there were dozens of releases, but a the vast majority of it was shuffleware, plain and simple. However, other sources close to Sony indicate that developers can request up to an additional gigabyte of "flexible memory", and use it to boost elements of the game - but only if the background OS can spare it. But midway into last gen I realized the PS4 was a much better bet and sold my one and got the pro. Honestly, if they just put it in a different setting, without the Zoids, and had you utilizing some sort of quadrupedal tank (think Tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, or really the 'big brother' to the Tachikoma you get to see in one episode) I'd actually love the game, as it does an excellent job on every other aspect, it's just the crappy use of the Zoids setting that turns me off of it. I think I typically only repeat maps 3 or 4 times, mostly in the relatively early game, and then mostly for money to get ALL of the new gear upgrades. Stay safe out there, the news coming out of the states are still very scary. Still, FFVIIR has it's issues as it stands, we already talked about the texture resolution and streaming have even severe issues. The Four Kings Casino and Slots; Four Kings Casino PS4 - EU Version; Four Kings Casino PS4 - US Version And what do you mean American movies are doing it a lot 'these days', it started way back in the early-90's (maybe even the late-80's). Honestly, Clover Studio's entire line-up deserves a spot on this list, but God Hand was particularly terrific.Released in the same year as Ōkami, this beat 'em up marked the end of the road for the developer.Putting aside IGN's infamous review, God Hand tends to be considered among the PlayStation 2's greatest games. Just my thoughts though, I really loved FFVIIR. I hated hope, and really msot of the cast, the story was arcane non-sense with so much lore-name-dropping, that a couple of hours of wiki-reading-up, was necessary not to rage quit the world building (in a SquareEnix game, I mind you, consider that fact for a moment if you will) ... but the combat was neat. They just pretend it does not exist. The fight was actually somewhat easier than in the original, what with being in Tier 2 classes, and I'd even forgotten to make use of the 2 new ability slots I had to equip more abilities before the boss fight. Zero I played a bit, I think, and yeah ... did not repel me ^^ Still, cheap and fan service'y are things that keep poping into my mind. Personally, like I laid out, I did not like it at all. So yeah, the changes bring with it new problems, that did not exist before. I actually missed that he had already bought SO The Last Hope, so now I have 3 copies (360 and 2x PS4 ). @retro_player_77 I'd say so, as far as the literaly "remaking" goes, based on the demo, I'd also say though, that Final Fantasy VII Remake is the technical superior game, vastly better voice acting and pacing, much, much stronger beginning and alot more engaging combat. Still, it's fascination stuff that at least back then was pretty unthinkable in our sanitized TV landscape, that seemed actively designed to make people complacent. As the visual appeal of the combat heavily matters to you the fact that the dynamic camera of FFX doesn't have two or three randomly chosen patterns for showing what is happening, but instead is nearly constantly moving around and shifting focus, both near and far, to follow the action gives the combat in it a significantly higher degree of visual appeal. It took me weeks to find the perfect keyboard/mouse setup to fit all of them within reach. Ancient technologies spread over the galaxy leave a sword of Damocles hanging over you. But yeah, the concepts that could have been realized certainly sound interesting, but the actual game, as you descibred it all, sounds just as bad as I had gathered, As for dates, yeah, I guess, no disagreement from me. In some respects it is easier to get into the game now, but in some respects it is harder. They release a couple of dozens of old PS2 games - and sell them to you again, with 00000 legacy support for old cusomters, while also leaving literally 1000s of classic games in the dust. Then again, getting a weekly 34-hour reset keeps me with plenty of hours for running hard the rest of the week (within the Hours of Service rules in the US), and depending on the loads I've been running my boss doesn't normally mind me getting a weekly reset in anyhow (actually, aside from running reefer he has almost always gotten me either Saturday or Sunday as a 'reset' day, and once things finally start to pick-up post COVID-19 I'll be running motor oil loads again, so it might not even require an argument to get it). And it cost them dearly as well, as it should. In fact, as soon as they announced it would be a 3-part game they explicitly stated that the first part would be just Midgar so that they could expand on it and allow you to explore a lot more of the city. If that was Microsoft "meddling", possible for sure, it worked out fine as far as I am concered at least either way. Pokemon? to show you what 4K gaming actually looks like we needed to build our own platform I am very intrigued by what they mentioned regarding new post-game content, including an additional class change. Microsoft had no hand in those decisions. Mainly because the game doesn't just not click with me, something about it (and not just the combat) actively repels me. Eagle Flight: PC, PS4. I could imagine a scenario, where really on-point art, framing&direciton and music might be able to deliver an emotional punch and a level of relateability compareable to strong voice acting, but that is mostly academic. In fact, I'm fairly certain that I'm in the minority as I'm a fan of both (as well as Dragon Quest, Breath of Fire, Star Ocean, Xenosaga, Shadow Hearts, Kingdom Hearts, and really most JRPGs for that matter). First off, PSN Hack! As for Operation Darkness, you must be definitely thinking about a different game. Hell, if it had taken just another 6 months before Sakaguchi cut ties it probably would've seen several Japanese developers (including NIS, as they were one of the ones actively in negotiations) trapped in a contract the same as Square Enix was, with no way they could afford to back out. Oh, there are definitely things they do better, and for those who are in the right fields there is literally nothing better to have, but for the rest of us there are a lot of far more cost-effective options available. It's like the opposite of Sekiro, where you know pretty quickly how is done "correctly" ... it's just the doing that is rather hard, with those tiny i-frames and parry windows and combat animations purposefully delayed to trick you into triggering those just mere frames to early. than is currently needed for HQ it would feel like it was still properly balanced. No, Neptunia wasn't meant to be a parody, but rather done more in the vein of a satire on the gaming industry as a whole, or at least the Japanese portion of it. It's pretty much less typo-agnostic than google was 2 whole decades ago. Everything is just super dark, dull and lifeless - worst of all the image suddenly appears so flat, that you wonder what "3D" actually meant all those years. @Tasuki nope. They were a bit more challenging than most enemies in the demo, as they could shrug off stun effects without being armored (makes sense since they are undead, and you even get a boat full of them at one point in the story...), but they also show the potential for the combat difficulty to scale up, and it becoming important learning how to dodge well. But before I get completely sidetracked into reminsicing about TOR and how broken Ilum was at launch (a friend of my got banned for two days, because he headed straight for Ilum and farmed the planet right after launch, before ANYONE else was there ^^), I'll stop digressing ^^ What you say about the controller is a relief though. In fact, I'm fairly certain it was said somewhere else that the Trials of Mana remake is intended partly as an effort to give old fans a new look at it without drastically changing it (or at least, not as drastic as FFVIIR) as well as appeal to a new, younger audience. Now, Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland and Atelier Totori: The Adventuer of Arland are both rather questionable, as they are from the time that the Atelier series drifted away from being heavy in RPG mechanics, but they were originally exclusive to PS3 and PS Vita (they have since been ported to the Switch, along with the third game in the Arland Trilogy). I am never overtaxed though, because I can pause the game at any time and plan my next moves. Oh and on Trials again, still, as you say, the fact does not quite change that it is - at least thematically and I'd argue artistically - geared towards a younger audience, or if you will, towards nostalgia of older players. subscription fee of $5. They were not a japanese invention at all. @Razmoudah I share accounts with my best friend on all my platforms, so we can access each others games. The problem I see in the whole action-combat appraoch we are talking about here, like with Trials, is the point of reference. Who even reads up on this stuff besides like nerds like us? I've thought about that issue for FFVIIR as well. But I think it will be good. It just felt very generic and cookie-cutter jRPG stuff. Most games now and days are all about the action. How difficult was it to find the right voices for characters players have known and loved for 25 years? I personally quite literally couldn't care less about the whole 4K argument, partially because I don't really have the space for a 48+" TV, to make sure the text is actually legible at the distances I normally sit from my TV, and some games are a pain as is anyhow, or for the custom sound system just so that I can keep my Audio Balancing feature for when I'm watching streaming video (Netflix is horrid about loud scenes leaving you half deaf while quite scenes are barely audible before having your ear drums assaulted, I wouldn't watch much streaming video from Netflix without it). Infinite Freedom. In fact, the point where Persona 3 starts to properly show its SMT roots is the point in Persona 4 where the team starts to get a clue as to just how bad the situation really is, and becomes even more driven to stop the villain (even if they won't find the real villain until shortly before the end). Rich has been a games journalist since the days of 16-bit and specialises in technical analysis. It's just that there are certainly Specialty Skills, and Super Specialty Skills, that makes adventuring easier in the game, as well as being necessary to get the majority of the ultimate gear (there is a LOT of crafting available, and it is the only means of getting it), as well as helping to speed up the leveling process (actually making it possible to be over-powered when you fight a boss without doing a mind-numbing amount of grinding first). Imo they should have just remade all the sprites and world in HD and worked out any old bugs and I would've been happy. Of course, you can just turn the voice overs off and read the text yourself, since they all just overlapped with preexisting dialog boxes. Don't get me wrong, if you've level 50 for one of the Tank jobs (Paladin or Warrior), and then do the quest to either unlike the other base one or one of the expansion ones (Dark Knight and Gunbreaker), you'll actually have access to all of the Role Abilities (Rampart, Low Blow, Provoke, Interject, Reprisal, Arm's Length, and Shirk, learned at levels 8, 12, 15, 18, 22, 32, and 48 respectively). Pretty much the exact same type of combat feels entirely different if you compare it to the other games mentioend. I actually have the collection on my wish list, as I only ever played Grandia III and remember kinda liking the combat. That was not the case in the original and a clear improvement. Sony has one of the richest software libraries of any Platform Holder for anything ever. And maybe even more importantly, the gameplay is shaken up so significantly and modernized in such smart and engaging ways (90% of it actually works thankfully), that it feels less like a remake of an almost quarter century old game, and more like the next Final Fantasy. Also Barret ... a bit over the top for sure, but a couple of hours in, I did not longer care, because I had become a believer. The results can be pretty amazing actually. I will say this clearly: Personally, for me these are changes for the better all-around and I am perfectly confident, that the system will shine much more in the more open areas I fully except to be playable in Episode 2. Grandia I uses sprites for characters, but 3D models for environments. So, while the combat in Final Fantasy VII Remake is up to one's taste, I really cannot accept the comparison drawn to XV. The story, plot development, usage of voiceovers, and nearly everything else though, that was awesome in Grandia I, to the point that it is definitely one of my all-time top games. I don't have anyone to play with online, and sadly most MMORPGs really need a friend or three to group up with to get the full enjoyment out of playing them. On the other hand, we also made sure that people coming to Trials of Mana for the first time will not feel it is out of place as a modern game. As for the story-telling in it............I gladly choose it over FFXIII, and I actually rank FFXIII above I through III, while I rank XV below them. The other DQ I really played was DQVIII, which stil think highly off all in all, so no, I do not really notice those changes playing the demo at least. GoW also has some pretty good writing going on imho and strong voice acting ("Boy! Personally, I've been fairly mixed regarding the movies, as there are so many small details that keep falling by the wayside, or else are changed from the last time they 'rebooted' the settings. Unless this is a Rock Springs, Wyoming run it means that our oil contract is going back into effect, and that translates into soon I'll hopefully be able to try for a raise, as hopefully the truck is about to be making about an extra $2000 or more a week than it was before the COVID-19 lockdowns. Haha, oh man, you are like the first person I can recall, that ever brought this up. I was talking about the X1 actually. I own all of them except V and Nexus on 3DS, but never really got toooo deep into either one. We started out having them try to get closer to the right images for their characters through trial and error, without even having the game at hand to work from. Yeah, my secondary boss texted me this morning that next week I've got oil loads again (they're usually scheduled about a week in advance, so I'm not surprised about the degree of warning). @Ulysses Well, if done right, I think voice acting can ADD a lot to a game's ability to draw you in and bring it's characters to live. Given your experience with Trials then, which character would you suggest to take for a spin? Now you must go out into the stars to conquer or perish. Yes, they've taken a VERY long time with the first part of FFVIIR, but because of just how long-lived the Playstation consoles are, and the fact that a fair portion of the base game engine development for the rest of FFVIIR is done (all they really need to do is some refinements and expansions upon it) each successive part should be able to be released with only a fraction of the development time (depending on how much they expand or pad things, as you did point out). God of War III; but that one heavily relies on existing knowledge of previous stuff to really make any sense and give you a sense of closure. And yeah, I hear you on both their role on FMVs (which to be fair, were always a thing on PC, just think like Diablo, which released in the same year as FFVII as well, plus a year later on PSX. Sony also failed to provide an adquate service, in my view, even to this day - at least compared to Xbox Live. I would not recommend a 4K TV to anyone btw, on the merit of 4K. The market is smaller, tastes are harder to pin down, so outside of some very big studios with strong name/brad recognition like Square with FF, it is ... lacking in prudence, let's say, to make a game that is operates on a truly epic scale as well as one that is in any significant way experimental, be it mechnical or narrative-wise. I agree about The Last Hope. Still, at least you are getting to enjoy the originally legally, instead of having to play a fan-translate ROM image on a SNES emulator or import a Japanese SNES and the game cartridge, like the west was restricted to for over 20 years. Like here in the west, to few people would have cared, to make an entire platform a failure. Yes, the demo covers the beginning of the game up through the first boss fight, and you can carry the save over to the full game, but that just means they won't be making any changes to the core game engine or game mechanics. It's the way to start an epic adventure, as you are instantly getting the sense, that stuff is happening, things matter and your actions have meaning. Yeah, the Saturn did have a lack of 3rd party support, but then again Sega had always been a bit questionable in that department. So with that translation a 9 would be an 8, and a 4 would be a -1. Really excited for this! In fact, if they manage to make a go of it I'm more jealous of the relationship they have than anything else. I'm very familiar with the original, and from what I've seen in the demo I like 99% of the changes. There is no ATB gauge, there is zero just (besides like 100 gil) associated with healing, you have unlimited access to even elixirs (up to 99 per fight ....) .... Buffs or Debuffs, timing, positioning, spell "equipment", none of this matters one single lick. Consumers do not really care about how Microsoft might or might not have interfered (and I am the first to critize MS for their flatout horrenouds handling or not only their own studiso but esp. The Role Abilities replaced similar abilities that were learned by the jobs within the respective Roles, and some abilities, like Provoke, were only learned by one but were very useful for others. I feel they nailed 90% of it. The game was also very strong in terms of it's use of buffs and debuffs.Those were integral parts of your tactic ... if they weren't you were in trouble, and this goes beyond haste for sure. All of this is meaningless so, as taking damage has zero bearing on your success. Obviously though, the DVD format was a restriction on 360, that PS3 not shared, true enough, some concession had to be made and Microsoft had a vested interest in coming out of those looking as good as possible. However, it did not look like a modern game and the immersion into the world was fairly weak. Instead you have to find the 'new' ability under the Role Abilities portion of the Abilities window to set it again and be able to use it once more. It did not in the beginning, but they worked tirelessly on it. I still think the whole idea of Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy is in large part to adress that issue: It gave them room to massively reuse assets and development tools for multiple consecutive releases, plus it had the added benefit of not having to reinvent the world either at every turn, and it gave them an excuse to expand deeply into the cheap and quick-turn-around side of the mobile games business, all under one convenient roof. In the remake you level faster, enough so that even without trying to do any extra monster hunting for experience I was level 19 by the time I reached the 4th boss, and you do get your first view of a Mana Stone (specifically the Wind Stone) just before that boss fight. Now, Sakaguchi has been a small fish for long enough that he wouldn't be able to cause such an effect, though the older companies, and those whose workers who have been in the industry for a good while, would still pay heed, they just wouldn't follow his lead. 15 years later, they have a game that looks as good, sometimes better, but more crucial it captures the game's flashy action without loosing VII original variety and depth (not that it was ever theee most deepest system out there). It shares the same aesthetic as Final Fantasy XII, which in turn, is set in the same universe as Vagrant Stoy basically.