Lunar Threads

Final Fantasy VII

All my game time has been going to Valkyria Chronicles 4 since it came out last week. Partly because I'm that fond of the series, partly because I want to finish it relatively soon.

428: Shibuya Scramble. It's pretty good. :3

Ophilia
Cyrus
Tressa
Olberic
Primrose
Alfyn
Therion
H'aanit

Traveler.

I finished the Revolutionary Girl Utena Sega Saturn game. For a game based on an anime, it was really good, had a lot of feel good and funny moments. It even goes into messing-with-your-mind territory near the end, and gives some backstory for the Black Rose arc not seen in the anime. Creator Kunihiko Ikuhara was involved in production, which certainly helped. I would recommend watching the anime first.

Nearing the end of replaying Final Fantasy VI (SNES), I'm also restarted Final Fantasy IX (PS1) after a long hiatus. Planning to finally finish Cosmic Star Heroine (PS4) and continue Lunar: Eternal Blue (SCD, I've already finished the PS1 version.)

Shinto-Cetra wrote: Nearing the end of replaying Final Fantasy VI (SNES), I'm also restarted Final Fantasy IX (PS1) after a long hiatus. Planning to finally finish Cosmic Star Heroine (PS4) and continue Lunar: Eternal Blue (SCD, I've already finished the PS1 version.)

I've also been slowly playing through FF9 and had it on hold for essentially the entire summer. I'm hoping to pick it up again this coming week. I think I'm pretty close to the end at this point.

I absolutely love FF9! One of my favorites from the series

Just beat FF7 for the first time. Loved it.

Playing Tales of Phantasia and Lunacy. Lunacy was on Sega Saturn and a perfect game to get into the Halloween spirit. Similar to Mansion of Hidden Souls.

Phantasia was good! I remember playing that on ZSNES when I was 14

I beat Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride last night. Between the post game dungeon and wanting to do Bianca and Nera playthroughs, I don't expect to be done playing any time soon, but I'm certainly at a point where I feel comfortable rendering a verdict. To get right to the point, I don't know exactly where I would rank this on my list of favorite games of all time (it's hard for me to make fine distinctions) but it's definitely in the Top 10 and a strong contender for the Top 5. More (spoiler-free) detailed thoughts follow.

The gameplay was everything fans had billed it as. No fancy gimmicks, no complicated systems, just standard turn-based RPG combat executed to near perfection. I really appreciate economy of design, and this game showed how much depth there actually is to supposedly simple RPG gameplay when you focus on getting all the little things right. The genuine enemy variety was impressive, pretty much every encounter in a given dungeon would call for a different approach in dealing with it, dungeons were well designed and did a good job of testing endurance and forcing real choices (just using your strongest moves on every tough encounter is a perfectly viable strategy in many RPGs, in DQV you'd wear down your resources quickly if you did that). I also loved the meaningful variety in items and equipment. You can completely change how a given character works by changing their equipment around, and the strongest equipment isn't necessarily the best choice for a given situation (and you'll be unlikely to afford to buy everything you want anyway, so again you're forced to make real choices). There were also some pretty intense boss battles and it really paid off to think about how best to deal with their attack patterns (and is there anything more satisfying in an RPG than beating a boss with only one party member still standing, and barely at that?) DQ seems to have something of a reputation for being grindy, but I never felt the need to grind, especially since the game made it pretty easy to exit a dungeon midway through to go back to town and heal up. I can only think of two instances where I specifically sought out battles, and in both cases it was because I needed just a little more cash to buy a weapon I wanted. My only real complaint about the gameplay was that there was one stretch of the game that dragged a bit (I guess I'd call it late mid-game/early late-game) where the battles weren't challenging me and, to make matters worse, the encounter rate in the dungeons seemed to be especially high. Fortunately things picked up again after that for the end game stretch.

I really can't say enough good about the story. Most of the time I prefer RPG heroes who talk, but this was one of the most, if not the most, effective uses of a silent protagonist I've seen in an RPG. I really felt more of a connection with the main character than with the vast majority of RPG heroes because it really felt like I was experiencing his life through the years: moments of great sorrow, of great joy, and everything in between. I think had he talked and been given a predetermined personality, it would have detracted from the experience. But beyond that Dragon Quest V isn't so much the story of the hero as it is the story of his family, and I thought it was really well done. RPGs often explore themes centered around love, but the focus tends to be around romantic love and more specifically, young romantic love. That's here, of course, particularly in the marriage sequence, but it's comparatively downplayed for a more broad exploration of the love that exists within a family: parents sacrificing for their children, children carrying on the legacy of their parents and grandparents, spouses who know each other on a deep level, and more. I also think the story made very effective use of parallels between events across generations to reinforce its themes. I also really loved the option to talk to your party members, I thought it was a great way to flesh out the characters without relying so much on cutscenes or setting aside time specifically for interacting with party members. It kept the pace brisk and fit in nicely with DQV's quieter storytelling style. I even found myself at times revisiting towns I'd been to before just to see what certain party members would have to say. Speaking of cutscenes, there were relatively few but I found them all the more effective because they were saved for the most important/emotional story events.

As anyone who actually bothered to read all this can tell, I absolutely loved this game, and now I'm excited to make a deep dive into the Dragon Quest series. It really makes me wish I hadn't dismissed it for so many years.

WD RPG WD wrote:Just beat FF7 for the first time. Loved it.

I'm glad people are still getting into the original FF7. It's sadly gotten labeled as overrated in recent years, but this is the fault of the Complication (misspelling intentional) and some segments of the the fanbase IMO. The game deals with ecology and class warfare in ways few RPGs (at least ones I've played) do.

Also I forgot to mention in my previous post, but a friend and I completed two games that (GASP) were not command based RPGs! Gokujo Parodius and Sexy Parodius, both for the SEGA Saturn. Very random and entertaining space/arcade shooters, the latter was a bit more difficult though.

I found my way back to the mass effect trilogy yet again. Played through the series over the summer and now I'm back to my old ME3 multiplayer addiction.

Shinto-Cetra wrote:

WD RPG WD wrote:Just beat FF7 for the first time. Loved it.

I'm glad people are still getting into the original FF7. It's sadly gotten labeled as overrated in recent years, but this is the fault of the Complication (misspelling intentional) and some segments of the the fanbase IMO. The game deals with ecology and class warfare in ways few RPGs (at least ones I've played) do.

Also I forgot to mention in my previous post, but a friend and I completed two games that (GASP) were not command based RPGs! Gokujo Parodius and Sexy Parodius, both for the SEGA Saturn. Very random and entertaining space/arcade shooters, the latter was a bit more difficult though.

I'm 38 and back in those days I was too busy telling the world that Playstation sucked and that I was playing better RPGs on the Saturn...

Now that FF7 is being remade, I felt now was a good time to see what the hype was about. I looked at it as the piece of art that it is and not through the eyes of a biased teenager. I had quite a few moments where I said to myself "so that's where this comes from"..

The only thing I hated about the game was the sound of Clouds wheelchair.. He creeped me out during that scene.

I finished Valkyria Chronicles 4 very thoroughly, including all available DLC (two more to come in November). Even more emotionally wrenching than 1 and 2. Not sure what I'll play next. I have plenty of unfinished games...

I;m now playing Warriors Orochi 4! I'm loving it!

Finally finished my 3rd play-through of Final Fantasy VI. The ending still makes me tear up. My last playthrough years ago I overleveled, and almost everyone knew Ultima, and fighting Kefka was kind of a joke. This time I leveled just the right amount.

Waiting impatiently for the Valkyria Chronicles 4 DLC, I found that I hadn't gotten every single thing in the playthrough I did of Valkyria 1 a couple years ago, so I played a little of that. More different from 4 than I remembered.

But aha! The expert level skirmishes are now available. Now I gotta get up and switch discs again...

Final Fantasy VII

Just going through dating all characters you can really. XD

MaroonChan wrote:Final Fantasy VII

Just going through dating all characters you can really. XD

That's dedication, I salute you. How many have you dated so far? I've only done Aeris so far, though if I even play FF7 a third time, I might do Tifa. They're kinda tied for my pairing with Cloud (Yuffie just annoys me, and Barret is cool but not in that way lol.)

Final Fantasy IX, Saiyuki, and Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete on PSone, also Lunar: Eternal Blue on SCD via OpenEmu in my case.

Shinto-Cetra wrote:I finished the Revolutionary Girl Utena Sega Saturn game. For a game based on an anime, it was really good, had a lot of feel good and funny moments. It even goes into messing-with-your-mind territory near the end, and gives some backstory for the Black Rose arc not seen in the anime. Creator Kunihiko Ikuhara was involved in production, which certainly helped. I would recommend watching the anime first.

Ah, I have a soft spot for this game. I played through all the paths and I made a little website for it back in the day. Seems hard to believe that there's an English patch after all this time, but considering the enduring popularity of the show it really is a natural.