Argentum Vir said:
emigre said:
To be honest I'm finding JRPGs increasingly tedious. Generic and mediocre story, terrible characters and very blah gameplay. And quite frankly I don't have the time or the patience to deal with these games anymore. I spent forty hours on the latest Star Ocean game and it was such an average game. The story was shit, the characters were shit and the gameplay felt okish. I think maybe I'm just getting burnt out on JRPGs bar a few exceptions like the SMT series.
I find myself playing more action and TPS and I just find them much more fun than the majority of JRPGs. I had blast playing Uncharted 2 compared to the lackluster Star Ocean.
There are very few great RPGs on the Xbox. Fallout is what I would consider to a great RPG series, Dragon Age as well. However, most are shit.
Not true, Mass Effect (1&2) are both top-notch. Then you of course got Oblivion, which I regard one of the best games ever made. Fable 2 and FF XIII aren't that bad either. Fable 3 and Eternal Sonata are decent too.
Fable 3 did not impress me. The Mass Effect series I have not played yet, but I have heard similar praise. Oblivion is a bit outdated, but still good. Fable 2I have not played, and Eternal Sonata I have not even heard of. The we have Two Worlds II coming out soon, lemme quote FAST's assessment:
QUOTE(FAST6191 @ Nov 10 2010, 10:53 AM)
I put a few hours in (read I thought I will just check it works- next thing it is 4 hours on. While that is nothing major for a half decent RPG this was in the middle of the day when I had stuff to be doing).
I have probably used this description on more than one occasion but this is Fable- good version.
The intro is handled fairly well but I have seen better (we are not talking amnesia but they go to the same parties), it seems that while you need not know about the original game it would not hurt. After that though the story works well and benefits from the more mature tone (serious punishment for constructing a sentence like that will be doled out later).
Spells- you combine cards to make them (tempered by your level in magic)
Weapons- widely varying picked up off the floor. Not Borderlands level but generous dungeon crawler.
Crafting- somewhat reminiscent of Summon Night: Swordcraft story. You break items and other weapons for parts and upgrade weapons with various materials, add stones/gems (we have all seen this sort of thing before).
Stats- maybe not roguelike/Contact level but definitely up there with dungeon crawlers like Diablo.
Combat- right now swordplay is a little bit clunky (whether that will improve with level I do not know) but it is among the best of the genre. Archery and combat magic are first rate (archery at least is similar to that you might see in a Zelda game rather than a straight up western RPG). Rather nicely you do have an assassinate option.
Controls- minor platforming elements, a nod to stealth (this seems to be more of a gameplay style than a you will do this now)
My only real gripe is they leave the take all button as the main button rather than kicking it to a different one so I occasionally ended up taking the whole of my storage chest.
Voice acting is decent but someone could have explained the idea of room noise. Music is good if not that memorable.
Level design- maybe not quite Might and Magic or Elder scrolls grade but some open world (to the level where it does not impact on story as much) and some nice story/corridor type sections.
In short- if the game carries on like this and this does not become the RPG of the season I will be shocked. Similarly if it does hold up and you need a reason to either return to the genre or have something to demonstrate to someone you want to break into the genre this would probably be the one to do it on.
