@Pizzamorg That was really an insightful and well illustrative review of AC Shadows. I’ve not played the game (not sure when and if I will) but I found your analysis really intriguing. Partly because I’ve been curious to see feedback about the game, which kind of got lost in the shuffle between so many feudal Japan action RPGs in recent years, but mostly because a lot of your criticism extends to gaming beyond just AC Shadows and applies to so many RPGs, open world games, and even games of a more linear variety which seem to go just a little too long. And sometimes way too long.
Excessive bloat in games is something I’ve been thinking about and have discussed around here on one of the threads recently. I ended up making a goal for this year to try mainlining one of these longer games to experiment with doing my own form of editing out superfluous content.
I’m not sure at what point games became too overstuffed with meaningless side quests, loot, upgrades, and repeated map locations. Having been a gamer going back to PS1, I know that mainstream games weren’t always like this. If we use the Ubisoft universe as a guide, it was probably AC Origins where it started and then escalated to the tipping point of Valhalla. Origins is the last AC game I’ve played and I quite enjoyed it, but I did end up skipping some of the content towards the end of the game and finished the game with some of the supplemental map areas unexplored. Although I spent a lot of time enjoying ancient Egypt, I could start to sense the creep of needless content toward the end.
But I don’t know if the Origins-Odyssey-Valhalla crescendo of playtimes and side content is a symptom of a more ubiquitous illness plaguing all games, or whether the series is the epicenter from whence the virus originated. I always look to The Witcher 3 as the game that may have inspired the movement toward epic open world gaming with copious side quests and map markers. But we really had some other 100+ hour single player games that predated that, like Elder Scrolls games and the Bethesda stuff. Maybe Skyrim is to blame. Regardless, the issue seems to be that somewhere along the way developers lost the art of meaningful material in place of filler, perhaps attributing some of those mega-popular epic RPGs success to sheer amount of content rather than quality of content.
It’s not all bad though, and I do think some games get it right. Having just finished Baldur’s Gate 3, clocking at just over 300 hours, I thought it was fantastic. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t start to waver around the 200 hour mark, thinking that I was drowning in a never ending quest log. However, each time I went out of my way to complete some optional quest, I almost always felt some satisfaction with it, even if it was purely fringe dressing on the main course. It definitely had some of the issues you mentioned about diminishing returns on the loot and gear you acquire through a meticulous playthrough. Especially since you (or at least I) hit the level cap when you’re only 2/3 through the game, and so any improvement in your spec from there is just fine-tuning things, hoarding potions and scrolls, and getting better at the strategy of the game. The depth of gameplay really helped here, because there really is so much openness to how one can approach battle, so there’s not any boredom that kicks in when you can experiment with different playable characters, roles, spells, weapons, and tactics.
Nevertheless, some of what you’re saying about AC Shadows really spoke to me on a larger scale. For example, another game I really quite enjoyed last year was It Takes Two, and yet, I think it went just a little too long and even though the gameplay constantly changes to help stave off any boredom, the core story suffered from the lack of focus and dragging pace of the narrative.
Games that hit the perfect balance of content value are rare, but do exist. A lot of it boils down to personal preference, of course.
I have been trying to place for myself too where this fracture started. I do think for my own personal experience, it is a more recent thing. In my late teens, early 20s, gaming was just one hobby of many because I had so much more free time. Because of this, I rarely pushed to finish games I had grown bored of, in fact there was a point well up until probably my mid 20s where despite gaming all of my life, I finished a tiny fraction of the games I bought. It is probably why so many games from like 2007 hold as such important games in my life, is the two or three games I beat that one summer break from school might have been the most amount of games I had completed like a decade either side of that.
It was only really in 2019 I think when I got a gaming PC for the first time since I was a kid, I really pivoted to making gaming my sole hobby focus (helped along I am sure by having far less free time to experiment with having multiple) and suddenly when I was now seeing almost every game through to the end that I could, I was like... WOW games sure are long, huh?
But I do think your point around level caps is kind of the main issue for me too, weirdly enough. In the sense that a lot of the time I don't even necessarily think the length of games is as much the issue as is that the quality is not stretched along with it. Odyssey was able to sustain me for a 90 hour playthrough because the various systems underpinning the experience were designed for a game to be played for that length of time.
I think of a recent example like Dragon Age Veilguard, where for the last 20 or so hours effectively you run out of long term progression entirely and at least for my tastes, when a game becomes static in that way, you've effectively lost me. Valhalla tried to solve this same issue by making the largest skill tree known to mankind, but this isn't the solution either. Veilguard's skill tree probably needed to be three times as big as it was, but if they achieve that with '+1 percent crit damage' nodes, you've actually just compounded the problem, you haven't fixed it.
And that is I guess the weird thing about these conversations, is I have almost the opposite problem to many. I actually think the live service looter rpgification of a lot of genres is actually a positive for my tastes. You take pretty much any game and slap a loot system onto it, my interest in that game has automatically gone up, and you've probably tempted me to try something I wouldn't have otherwise tried. I love fashion end game in loot games, playing around with transmog to make the perfect look.
But Shadows and Valhalla both failed to me at different levels, because while the loot systems got me in the door, the loot lacked the evolution and transformation to hold me until the final hours, when all the other shaky parts around it began to crumble and fall apart.
@Pizzamorg I found myself really getting into the fashion options in the late game for BG3, so I can understand where you’re coming from there. It was especially enjoyable because I had a party of around 10 characters and all armor, all camp attire (the casual clothes you wear at camp, if you’ve not played it), and all undergarments are wearable by all characters. Then on top of that there’s late game dyes for clothing you can find and basically change the color schemes of your outfits too. So the combinations are nearly endless and are a nice distraction when there’s no more leveling up to do.
Sometimes the fashion looting doesn’t work out though, and many games I’ve played with copious outfitting collectibles don’t hold my interest enough to inspire me to pour over the countryside looting chests and dead bodies. Jedi Survior comes to mind. Loved the game, but the cosmetic rewards for the side activities and exploration weren’t enough to motivate after I had my 10th saber casing and 15th hair style. I collected all the suits in the Spider-Man games but only wore like 3 of them. Loot that gives extra skills or defense definitely holds my interest more, and so I definitely agree on the idea of the loot needing to be transformative or somehow to evolve, whether it be in the gameplay department or creativity department.
And that’s a good point about the absolute runtime not being the issue per se but whether the game was built to go that long. The Souls games are good about this — they tend to be on the longer side (I can’t remember my exact game time with DS2 last year but I believe it was north of 100 hours) but you always feel like you’re leveling up, either literally with skill points, or tactically with new challenges from the late game enemies and the constant spectacle of the art design. The games are really good about having copious weapons, all of which feel different to use, and your build and leveling choices make tangible differences to how the game feels to play, so you really feel invested deep into the game.
(I will have to post these impressions in a double post as it seems I've hit the character limit!)
Star Ocean: First Departure R Rating: 8/10
Three friends who, while searching for the cure to a new disease, come into contact with a space-faring federation that is locked in a war with another galactic power. Using advanced technologies and time travel, the group attempts to uncover the cause of the war and to find a cure for their planet.
***
In a world where remakes have now become an undeniable reality for many a classic franchise, Star Ocean: First Departure R stands out from the crowd. Whereas the current trend for remakes is to fully update a game to modern standards, the philosophy behind this one clearly came from a different day and age. First having been released for the PlayStation Portable back in 2007 and only re-released later in 2017, it focuses solely on putting a new coat of paint on already existing systems. It wasn't about providing endless quality of life features or bringing it into a completely different style, but simply about making it more accessible for players who might be used to more advanced graphics. It inherits the pixel art roots, the lack of tutorialisation, and the rudimentary saving system all from its predecessor, refusing to compromise on the vision of the developers of the original Famicom entry. The question then becomes: is it for better, for worse or the perfect in-between? I'd argue it leans the most towards the last option, while still acknowledging certain small improvements would've benefited the game greatly.
Star Ocean is by far one of the most recognisable series for JRPG fans looking for a sci-fi fix. For a genre inundated by fantasy tropes and rather similar set-ups, it differentiates itself by injecting a healthy dose of science fiction. I only call it a healthy dose of science fiction, because while the title might suggest a space opera adventure, it falls into the same trappings of those other games it appears different from at first glance. For the first 90 minutes or so, there will be an almost ridiculous amount of world-building dropped onto you. You'll start to get an idea of how this intergalactic civilization operates, how underdeveloped planets are treated as well as the main driving force of the narrative. For anyone expecting an interesting sci-fi take on the genre back in 1996, it's an incredibly promising start. There's still plenty of tropes at play for anyone familiar with the genre as a whole, but it remixes them all neatly into something that feels fresh. Presumably regrettable for some, that's exactly the portion of the game you'll have to get most of your fill out of, as it then quickly diverts into a fantasy adventure for most of its runtime before returning to its main appeal very late into the game. I can't say I had much of an issue with the bait-and-switch, but it's worth noting for anyone intrigued by the franchise.
While the set-up of the narrative is rather interesting, it ends up being a fairly by-the-numbers adventure. There's some fun, but small plot twists to be experienced throughout, though nothing that's bound to blow your socks off. Amongst existing fans of the franchise, there's a reason this one in particular isn't heralded as the peak of storytelling as much as some future entries. I can happily attribute the narrative all kinds of positive attributes, not least of all charming and engaging, but most accurate of all: it's good. Nothing more and nothing less. The real praise comes down to its characters and the systems with which it employs them. Each one of them gets interesting personal arcs with lovable personalities. Some will tie into the plot way more than others, while some late-game additions seemingly have to rely purely on their charms, but it's well-executed on all fronts and serves the narrative perfectly fine. I think each of them is a memorable addition to the pantheon of JRPG characters I've gotten to interact with, and they are exactly where the writers hit their stride. If you go into this game expecting a character-driven adventure, you'll have a much better time than if you were simply focused on its plot devices.
The voice acting they implemented for the first edition of the remake holds up to this day. There's a good reason why each of the characters present here who appear in later games have held onto their voice actors. The likability the actors manage to deliver, even sometimes with limited lines, is impressive. But where the game really lets its characters and voice actors shine are the Private Actions. You might know similar systems such as the Social Links Atlus games are known for or the Heart-to-Hearts the Xenoblade games will regularly present you with. Any time you come near a town on the overworld (after a usually long trudge through relentless random encounters), a not-so-little pop-up will appear on your screen signalising you the right button to enter the specific town's Private Action mode. What it means outside of game-specific terms, is essentially just your character entering the town individually with the rest of your party dispersed throughout it rather than entering it as one unit. Once in the town, solely in control of your protagonist, you'll be able to find your fellow travelers sitting around ready with short scenes for you to watch and play out that develop either their own character or the relationships between them. Impressively, the game boasts a grand total of 107 Private Actions. Of course, not all are equally interesting or of note, but I never came across a single one I regretted spending the time to see play out.
Even more interestingly, they play heavily into the game's hidden affection system. As you might expect from many a RPG nowadays, you can build your personal relationships with them or the ones they have with each other by viewing their scenes and making the odd dialogue choice. As I said, it's a hidden system that never once is explained to the player or even hinted at existing at all. If you're not aware of it, then fantastic! You can naturally make your way through the game without having to worry about the pros and cons of certain dialogue or (lack of) triggers, which does make it feel like a more authentic experience. You'll receive different cutscenes at the very end of the game based on the way these characters have interacted with you and each other, which doesn't necessarily lead to any disastrous results if you managed to ''play wrong'', but will undoubtedly give you a somewhat more melancholy ending if so. There's no truly bad ending, but as far as the fans are concerned, there is a true one. You can stop worrying about it now, because you'll most likely never get that exact outcome upon your first playthrough. There's one specific reason for that, and that's the way the game handles its character recruitment.
Modern games seem highly allergic to letting you miss any content. ''Missable'' content almost feels like it has become a dirty term in and of itself. The way publishers have actively curated feelings of FOMO throughout the current landscape no doubt plays into it, but this game does not abide by those expectations. You will miss content. You'll have to accept it. I happily accepted it... less so because I was aware of the extent of it and chose to, but more so because the game will not inform you about it. It will never dangle characters in front of you to show you what you're missing out on. Instead, it will simply have them not exist or never offer to join your party. You might not even have heard of certain recruitable characters under the right conditions, or never known others were able to join your party in the first place. It makes the whole system feel a lot less game-like, and more like a narrative that is organically writing itself. It's something I think a lot of games could learn a lot from. I believe it takes much confidence to know you don't need to tease the player with potential characters, because you know that whatever variation of the story is to play out, you've written it tightly enough that the player will enjoy it no matter what and not grieve their losses. Of your full party of eight, four will always eventually be recruited, while the other four will be recruited out of a possible nine different characters. I'm sure there's a preferred, canon constellation of party members that serves the narrative best, but I never once felt like I was robbed of any superior experience.
I've quickly mentioned it before, but it is important to note that this game will not attempt to tutorialise you about anything. It's ripped straight from the times where you were expected to be able to consult your physical guide, except there has been no replacement for a re-release where this is no longer the case. It will throw you into the deep end with no lifeline whatsoever. As mentioned before as well, the lack of quality of life improvements make this an especially tough nut to crack. The systems are as complicated as ever, and anyone first exposed to them will not be able to grasp the full extent of them without going outside of the game for explanations. It's the one case where I feel like this remake really lets itself down, because I don't think any game should expect you to have to go out of your way to understand the basics. It might not have been as much of an issue if these systems weren't necessary to complete it, but unless you want to grind an awful lot to power your way through, you're going to have to engage with them at some point or risk being slaughtered by difficulty spikes. It's not like the game feels especially complicated once you've learned the way it operates, but it feels incredibly overwhelming at first. I'm not asking for it to hold my hand throughout, but to at least make me understand what I'm getting myself into.
The fact that I'm expected to rely on outside sources to get a feeling for the flow of the game is a mark against it, but would be less problematic if these outside sources weren't all over the place. I ran into plenty of unanswered questions, unclear answers or conflicting information throughout my time. I can't fault voluntary contributors for that however, as their constant assistance shouldn't be necessary to begin with. One other quality of life feature I feel should've been included (and has been for the sequel's recent remake), is for the game to give me an indication for when new Private Actions are available in towns. I'm not asking for a checklist, but at least for it to make it clear when exploring a town, passing by every party member, is a waste of time. I chose to rely on an outside source here once again that made it clear to me when certain Private Actions would unlock and where, so I could avoid the hours of unnecessary travel. It ran into the exact same issues however, where not all sources were agreed upon the unlock requirements and I'd still end up wasting time occasionally. These kinds of moments are frustrating and entirely unnecessary. This lack of information is the only area where I feel the game owed it to itself to improve upon the player experience.
I have absolutely no complaints about the visual upgrade the developers clearly focused on most of all. For a game that came out almost two decades ago now, the pixel art feels timeless. It might not be the highest of resolutions, but the backdrops still feel painterly and the character models and animations full of personality. There may be a lot of reused NPC models, but the characters that matter most stand out enough that it never felt like a problem. It's an incredibly pleasant game to look at, which makes all the backtracking (without fast-travel for most of it) all the more easy to stomach. One of the more noticeable things visually about this re-release particularly is that they went through the effort of redrawing the character portraits for whenever they have dialogue. The new portraits look great, but the one non-issue is that they were based on the original Famicom character models as opposed to the new PSP character models. This results in the portraits not fully aligning with the characters you see posturing through the world. One of the most obvious examples here is Ronyx, who has black hair in his model yet purple hair in his portrait. I really like the portrait's artwork, but it's impossible not to notice the difference. Again however, it's a non-issue and easy to get used to, but an interesting observation nonetheless.
On a final note of something I would've expected had I looked into the game more beforehand, is that the combat was nothing like I expected. I went in fully assuming that I would be playing a typical turn-based JRPG system. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a real-time combat arena any time you went into an encounter, where your characters freely move around, attacking enemies from whatever spots work best. Combat moves are directional, either melee or range-based, and your positioning is crucial to avoid taking high damage or getting surrounded. At first, I was so shell-shocked by this system that I didn't realise I had to move. I went a few combat encounters with my protagonist standing still while the others fought, just waiting for a pop-up to come telling me I can do a move. I've been so conditioned to expect a certain kind of combat, especially from an old-school JRPG, that this system was out of the question in my mind. Ultimately, I think it works incredibly well, even if the AI and your character occasionally struggles to land a hit. Whenever you choose any attack, your character seemingly is locked into it and will endlessly run behind the enemy if they happen to move away from you. It resulted in a few occasions where I was running around the arena for what felt like dozens of seconds not doing any damage. It was frustrating, but not often enough of an occurrence that I would count it against the system as a whole.
While that active part of the gameplay mostly spoke for itself, the lack of tutorialisation struck again when it came to what you need to prepare for any difficult battle. The skill point system is highly overwhelming with a bunch of different skills you can gradually unlock through currency... with a bunch of other skills you need to combine others for on top. If you then are in a good place where you feel like you've leveled up, think again. The difficulty is based a lot more on your equipment than it is on your leveling, which solely seems to provide a nice boost to your health and action points. If you want to get better gear, be prepared to dive deep into the systems where a rather complicated and ill-explained version of upgrading your items unravels. Think you have a high enough level to craft something good? Think again! You need better items from specific spots to craft with, other skills unlocked to boost your chances of a great drop, and don't forget to play some orchestral music with your party while crafting if you want to create anything worthwhile. If you want to play an orchestra and highly improve your chances however, take your time to buy a bunch of instruments, write songs through different skills and ultimately pull it all together in one long-winded road towards powerful gear. I don't mind there being a bunch of pre-requisites to unlocking good gear as the game might feel unbalanced otherwise, but when nothing about these skills and how they interact are taught to you, you'll once again have to heavily rely on lacking discussion boards.
***
Verdict: In the end, Star Ocean: First Departure R brings a lot of good and a lot of "I wish they could've improved this." Whatever your hang-ups or your praise might be however, there's no denying that the foundation laid in the original version makes for a highly enjoyable and charming remake. Even all of the criticism combined can't get in the way of what's a shorter, but memorable JRPG romp thanks to the strength of its characters and art style. There's plenty there to keep you engaged, and once you do take on the responsibility of getting a hang of it, it becomes a lot easier to stomach the unclear in the process. Most importantly, it's a game that knows not to outstay its welcome. Where plenty of games aim for having you spend your entire lifetime with them, this one understands that the meat on its bones is not enough to sustain a century-long playtime and benefits from that acknowledgement in the process. The twists and turns, the charming characters and the solid narrative all work together perfectly to pace the adventure correctly and get to the ending feeling satisfied, but not exhausted. It leaves me wanting more, and I have no doubt that with my future experiences with this franchise, the kinks will only be slowly worked out. I have high expectations for what comes next having enjoyed what is only a first iteration of it... and by all accounts, I will not be disappointed.
@Tjuz No worries. The type of reviews that overflow the word limit for individual posts are EXACTLY the sort of content this thread is meant to host.
Great review! It definitely hits on the highs and lows of these more old-fashioned JRPGs... wonky systems and subpar tutorialization, but also tighter pacing and writing, and, crucially, charming characterizations that hit on a variety of different tones and moods. One thing I love about older JRPGs is that, no matter how serious they got, they also rarely avoided the opportunity to be silly at times, and I think that's a quality that's sorely missing in the current industry. I also feel like the pixel art creates enough distance from realism for these shifts to not be jarring (imagine Sabin suplexing the phantom train in PS5 graphics!)
Interesting approach to an affinity system. I liked the social links in Persona quite a bit, as well as the systems in Fire Emblem (especially Three Houses, with its heavy Persona influence), but will confess that Xenoblade 1 drove me crazy with the affinity stuff. I'm curious to see where I'll land when I eventually play this.
True enough about the lack of pure sci-fi settings in JRPGs, even today. Although I do think pure fantasy settings, like in Lunar and Dragon Quest, also became rarer, with the science-fantasy model picking up in the 16 bit era. I think that's actually part of what gives DQ its own sort of unique appeal today: you don't need to worry about the story collapsing into sci-fi tropes.
I think Monolith Soft has historically done best with this: Xenogears, all of the Xenosaga games, and Xenoblade Chronicles X all feel like almost pure sci-fi (with some fantastical elements, but nothing that would push them into the science-fantasy realm). And while it's science-fantasy, I did enjoy the much heavier sci-fi influence on Xenoblade Chronicles 3 compared to the previous two.
If you've never played the Phantasy Star games, they also tend to lean a little more heavily into the sci-fi side of things. Particular II and IV.
I expect you'll probably enjoy the remake of Star Ocean 2, considering the remake has been highly praised, and it's regarded as one of the best entries in the series.
@Th3solution I love a good game that can give me plenty to do, but I think the points made about bloat are perhaps tied to other forms of media and how users/watchers/gamers expect to be able to consume content. We have huge franchises of shows especially, that have spin-off seasons for characters or time periods in-universe (big examples being Game of Thrones and Star Wars). Perhaps this is catering to the "we always need more and can't let our favourite thing end" flavours of media output & consumption.
That's not an argument for it being always bad or always good, just noticing a trend that may or may not be attractive to certain types of people... we're all different!
'It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life." - Captain Picard
@Tjuz Wow, a really great review! I’m glad that you seemed to enjoy Star Ocean, despite some of its quirks and old school trappings.
You bring up some interesting contrasts between retro and modern RPGs, and games in general. I suspect Star Ocean wasn’t far removed from the era when games came with an instruction booklet that one had to read in order to understand its systems and setting. I wonder if a manual for this game would have explained some of the things you had to search around online for, or if it would have alerted the player to the unspoken effects of the background affection system. In my limited experience, those little tutorial books were not very comprehensive, but they usually contained some critical information in the day and age of not having very good internet resources to refer to. I even remember large full-sized strategy guides that you could buy as a supplement to those RPGs back then. I’m not sure if Star Ocean First Departure goes back quite that far, but it sounds like it still has some of the cryptic elements from that bygone era.
And I hadn’t thought of it quite in the way you describe, but I do agree that the modern game design seems averse to have missable content. Games mostly have maps and menus with checklists and frequent tutorials which permeate the experience all the way through. I think the death of game manuals began not only with evolution to include the tutorial during gameplay, but also with the introduction of loading screens where they started dropping instructions to the player during that downtime. Interestingly, now that loading screens are becoming a thing of the past, design has had to improvise again. Modern games I’m playing now have the option to stick around on the loading screen if wanted because otherwise they flash by so fast that you don’t have time to read them. Most of the tutorials are now imbedded in menus, and optional battle arenas.
But it seems clear, some of the purpose of hidden content and cryptic systems back then was to make the games replayable. In an era when there were a lot fewer options, it was nice to have a game you could play through a few times and get some slightly different wrinkles during the playthrough. Many games still do have multiple endings and optional missable content, but not quite in the same way. I’m not sure exactly how to describe it, but there’s definitely a difference. Maybe it simply has to do with the wealth of reference material we have now with online walkthroughs, YouTube tutorials and guides, and trophy checklists, as opposed to retro games where there simply was no way to find out some of the missable bits except for just brute forcing multiple playthroughs and obsessively checking everything in the game.
Personally, I’ve become spoiled by today’s game design and doubt that I would have the patience to teach myself the critical gameplay elements as you’ve described. The exception is the Souls games, and their retro style of throwing the player into the world and expecting them to figure it out does being another level of satisfaction that modern games lack. However, I think the difference is that there’s large volumes of organized and exhaustive reference guides online which makes them feel more manageable.
So do you have plans to proceed with the series straight away? Or even make another run through this one? Or has it whet your appetite for more retro JRPGs? (I feel a Final Fantasy attempt incoming…😅)
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Tjuz, not a lot to say on the title itself as it isn't one really on my radar, but I still thought it was a great piece of writing I am very jealous I didn't write myself 😂
Thank you all for the kind words! Truly appreciate it.
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@Ralizah Totally agree that all the controlled silliness is a lovely "surprise" for me in the last years going back to these older JRPGs. Like you said, it's really not something that I'm used to as someone who has mostly played games from the PS3 generation and on, and it's been a delight! One of the best examples that had me smiling throughout in this one was one short series of Private Actions. In one town, you can get a scene with one of the characters (Ilia) telling another (Millie) the story of Cinderella. The brutal version of it however, and Millie as well as your protagonist are totally grossed out by it. If you then later go back to a previous town, you can get a second Private Action contingent on that first one where your protagonist falls asleep and has a nightmare where he's the starring role in Cinderella. All the other characters in your party show up within the nightmare as the various characters with your protagonist going insane by the horror of it all. It was incredibly charming.
I'll admit that the Private Actions lean more towards the Heart-to-Hearts with them being short scenes of characterisation rather than extended series of one arc as with the Social Links. They're both easier and harder to trigger than the Heart-to-Hearts though, since you either have to visit all towns at all times to see if new ones pop up or follow a guide to see when new ones unlock and where to go for them. I did the latter as to not drive myself crazy, and that might ruin your experience if you were not a fan of how the Affinity system in Xenoblade locked them behind specific conditions too. As hinted at, they also don't have the quality of life that game's definitive edition brought where the game actively lets you know where to go for them and when, which is a shame. I assume plenty of people would either just miss them or not bother because of it. I believe in the second game's remake they do implement that feature, so I'm looking forward to interacting with the system in a less frustrating way!
You're right that there's still a lot of science-fantasy mix today. I suppose I just find it a shame there's nothing that's purely sci-fi, and that even in the ones who blend the genres, they usually lean more towards the fantasy tropes. I love fantasy all the same, but I'm ultimately a sci-fi kinda gal. I've never really looked into the Phantasy Star series, but it sounds like it might be up my alley! Doing so now gives me a whole range of confusingly titled games... but I guess that's par of the course for many a JRPG series. I'll just have to look into them more deeply for where is a good place to start that I might still be able to stomach graphically/mechanically. Definitely excited for Star Ocean: The Second Story R. I'm keeping a close eye for whenever it next gets a good sale.
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@Th3solution Yeah, there was some assuming on my part with the whole manual tangent, as I wasn't actually around for that era of gaming myself. I would've expected them to be more useful than how you experienced them at least! This remake might not have had that breadth of physical documentation, but I imagine the original release might have with it being a 90s game. I was largely just very surprised by how confusing and little the online documentation by fans was for this remake. I know Star Ocean isn't a Final Fantasy or a Persona level franchise, but I thought it was still in the upper echelon in terms of its fanbase. To then run into issues with finding accurate guides was somewhat confusing to me. I feel like I've had easier times finding reliable help for much smaller games!
You bring up a good point with how loading screens also used to double as tutorialisation to some degree. I'll be the first to admit I mostly ignored those hints, but even if I wasn't actively scrolling through them, I'm sure they helped me pick up mechanics here and there by simple suggestion. I guess the way Resident Evil does it (as you mentioned) where you have to actively interact to go into the gameplay from the loading screen is a solid in-between, but there must still be better ways to replace that vital part of the learning process. It's a tough balancing act, as I think constant pop-ups or bloated HUDs are hardly improving the experience either. Even if a lot more discussion is being had around games online nowadays and answers are easier to find than ever, we shouldn't have to rely on anything outside of the game to teach us the ropes.
It wasn't something I had considered while writing, but you're totally right in that replayability was a big part of that design philosophy. I wonder how much people even realised at the time that there were so many different options with worthwhile differences though, since the game itself doesn't once hint at the fact you might be missing any companions. Maybe that was something that was in the guidebook to make sure people knew to replay it! I think that's where the differnce in missable content lies when you compare the presence of it in modern vs. retro gaming. Like you said, whether it's a bunch of missing trophies, endless horde of busywork markers or actual dialogue in the game telling you "you can't do this"... they just have to let you know that there's content you're missing. I can't speak for all retro gaming of course, but I imagine much of it was more of the school of design that Star Ocean followed where you had none of that and it was just a simple act of discovery if you loved the game enough to engage with it for multiple playthroughs.
I totally get your attachment to current gaming's tutorialisation too. It's probably the only reason why I experienced this as as much of a negative as I did. If I was used to the former train of thought where you didn't expect it from a game to begin with, it'd be a game like any other on that front. I'm not even sure why I pushed through it in this particular scenario as someone who regularly vents to their friends about how the need for outside wikis in games like Terraria or Minecraft is actually ridiculous. Here I am enjoying a game that put me through the exact same trouble (even if to a lesser degree)! I suppose the game got me engaged enough before throwing me into the deep end that I just learned to look past that frustration and engage with it on its own terms. Souls-likes aren't a genre I've given my time to so far (mostly because I am terrified of high difficulty), but I wonder how its readily available documentation might shape my opinions vs. this one where it was a struggle to even learn about the systems outside of it.
I won't continue straight away, but I can't imagine it's too long before I dip my toes into the franchise again. I mostly avoid going back-to-back, even on games I truly love, simply because I'm scared of the possible burn-out. I'm assuming that if I want another truly retro fix at some point, the Pixel remasters for the Final Fantasy series would be a great place to look! Even if the shorter length of this one is what appealed to me in terms of playing it when I did... which I don't think is something I can expect from that series. I doubt it'll be long before you hear me knocking at your door with some Final Fantasy commentary no matter what, retro or otherwise.
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@Pizzamorg Again, that's really kind of you. Thank you! And hey, I know you have just as many interesting observations to make about the games you're passionate about (judging by your previous posts!)
I tried Eternal Life of Goldman demo on PC and it looks incredible! If the price is not too steep, I'll there Day 1. This will be the talk of the town when it's released.
I just kinda... wish I had more to say? But I just sorta… don’t.
In 2021, Stories 2 absolutely took over my whole world, man. I played over 100 hours of that on PC. I started another playthrough on Switch. I just don't usually do that with single player games, but that game it just sunk it's teeth into me so deep.
It took the core Monster Hunter formula I love, and translated it faithfully into other things I love, turn based party RPGs and monster catchers. Like it was basically my dream game, and by and large delivered in every way I could have ever hoped for.
Monster Hunter Stories 3 then, is in my mind, about as close to an objectively better game as a sequel can be. It took all of the best parts of the previous games, and refined them and polished them into basically their ultimate forms. It is hard to imagine how I could have loved 2 so much now I have beaten 3, thinking back to all of 2’s brutal difficulty spikes, and just how much friction was baked into so many systems there. 3 really feels like it went after every pain point in 2, maybe some you didn't even realise were pain points at the time, and fixes them.
There is just so much QOL and improvement of things everywhere, it cannot be understated. But I also wonder if maybe that is also sorta the problem with this one? Maybe it is too focused on the "mistakes" of the past, and isn't looking forward enough?
It is technically a true sequel, new setting, characters, story, mechanics etc but when I think about it, it is probably closer to those like JRPG re-releases or something, where they just release the same game again, but restore a bunch of cut content and refine the game feel and visuals and sell you it again at full price. Like it is reductive I suppose in a way to call it that, cause 3 is more than that, but honestly maybe it isn't enough more than that. Maybe it is too close to a Monster Hunter Stories 2 Royal than it is a Monster Hunter Stories 3. Maybe being in a no man's land between the 2 is a problem regardless of how close it leans to either or.
Maybe the problem is 2 already delivered me almost anything I could ever want from this concept, so that if you are going to just offer me more, and not something truly different, then actually I am already still full from my Stories 2 feast. And I get that sounds kinda strange, especially as trying new things can have disastrous results, but I am just trying to find any reason in my brain why I just never loved this.
Maybe it is just because you can beat it in around 40 hours, and there is zero content after the credit rolls (although you can go back to grind the game out and take on side content that sorta feels like it is designed to be played after you face the final campaign boss, but isn’t organised in that way), so it just doesn't have enough runway to take over your life like 2 did.
All I know, is there is just something missing here for me, and I don’t know what it is. I should love this game, it should take over my whole world like 2 did. But instead the credits rolled and I’m just sorta done.
It is an objectively great game that I think is still somehow just sorta okay.
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