Starmen.Net

Have you played Mario RPG? That’s a pretty solid RPG game, and the story’s alright (though not too involved). It’s got a lot to explore as well, with secret bosses, hidden treasure boxes, and plenty of quirky characters to get to know. Not sure if it’s available on the VC, but if it is, it’s definitely worth it to grab.

Also, a great game that might be hard to get ahold of with plenty of what I think you’re lookin’ for is Terranigma. Unfortunately, it never got released stateside, but it’s got Action-RPG gameplay, plenty of places to explore, and a unique storyline that has you developing the world around you. It’s not hard to pick up and has some decently challenging parts as well, and some of the music is among my favorite on the SNES.

LittleBigPlanet
I can recommend this game to any playstation owner
In fact, LBP3 came out today for PS4 and PS3.

I want to get into the Final Fantasy series, but I don’t know which game to start with.

Any suggestions?

Now you’re a man!
A man, man, man!

Is the game hard? If so, I might have to look for a easy patch on RomHacking.net. 2manly4u

I’ve only played FFI and V, and I recommend them both. I is less overwhelming than V, I think.

I played the former on GBA, the latter on SNES (with a translation patch, because the GBA version is hideous IMO). I have not gone farther than V, though I should start on VI sometime…

That depends on a lot of things. Your familiarity with jrpgs, your party, and if you do any side content. The NES game is harder and shorter, the GBA game is easier but longer with side content.

This fits more in the action/adventure section, but the Sly Cooper games are fantastic. I think you can get all three on PS3 under The Sly Collection. Again, not RPGs, but pretty actiony. First one takes a bit of getting in to, but 2 and 3 are amazing.

Wow this topic grew over night.

@MasterPislice – I’ve played LBP with friends, but I was never all that impressed with it. Unless there’s something I’m missing about single player.

@Marietta – I’ve beaten the first two and played through half of the third Paper Mario before it mysteriously disappeared into the void. They were good, but I felt like RPG was better.

@PSI Robot – It looks like you have your answer, but I’ve played FF 4 (DS), parts of 5, 6-13 (minus 11). 6 and 7 are my two favorites of the bunch so I’d recommend one of those. I had no idea you could get 1 on gba. I may need to get that on my phone shortly…

@refusalskills – Isn’t Sly kind of like a Spyro/Crash Bandicoot type platformer or am I wrong in that?

riderryuken:

@Marietta – I’ve beaten the first two and played through half of the third Paper Mario before it mysteriously disappeared into the void. They were good, but I felt like RPG was better.

If you haven’t played the Mario & Luigi games, then I definitely recommend those! Superstar Saga in particular, which is the first one for the GBA, and is my absolute favorite in the series (I should play it again soon, in fact…). The other three are for DS/3DS and are very good as well but they get more and more hand-holdy as more come out, I feel. But they’re still very good games.

Xenoblade Chronicles. Xenoblade freakin’ Chronicles is in my opinion the best thing humanity has ever created. A game not many have played, but almost everyone who played it adores it. It’s strength especially lies in it’s story and characters, with the story evolving from your simple revenge story to something much, much bigger. It will take you about 70-100 hours, depending on how you play it.

Next up, the characters. What’s the first thing you think of when you think of Shulk? If it’s the “I’m really feeling it!” line, you probably haven’t played Xenoblade. XB’s characters pretty much are the strongest characters in video games ever. Some of them went through literal hell and still pushed on. Especially Shulk. He’s so much more than that guy in Smash that most people know him as. Heck, even Riki, that plushball in Shulk’s final smash has a surprisingly deep character!

The gameplay definitively won’t disappoint either. The battles have a lot of depth, with the game’s chain attack, visions and break/topple/daze feature. Beating one of the game’s immensive monsters feels totally cool and rewarding. The best part of the gameplay is the overworld exploration, though. XB’s overworld may be the thing that defines XB the most. Basically, it’s freakin’ huge. There are so many places to explore and seeing the entire thing can take you about 30-50 hours.

And last but not least, the graphics and sound. The graphics are pretty impressive for the wii, but it’s the soundtrack where it’s really at. The game really knows how to create an atmosphere with it’s soundtrack. I still remember the first scene where Confrontation with the Enemy played and it’s honestly my favorite moment in any video game ever.

Now I haven’t even talked about things like the quest system, collectables, heart to hearts, the Colony 6 Reconstruction, ether mining and all that, but I can tell you that Xenoblade is in my eyes the best game ever made and that it’s worth the 70$.

I can tell you that Xenoblade is in my eyes the best game ever made and that it’s worth the 70$.

gamingmaster846:

Have there been any sequels to Advance Wars?

LOVE Advance Wars.

Advance Wars is part of a larger Wars series, normally called Famicom Wars. I’m not sure about translations but they might be worth checking out if you want to see the evolution of the series. A lot of familiar elements were only introduced in Advance Wars, however, such as CO powers iirc.

The most recent Advance Wars game was Days of Ruin, released on the DS a number of years ago now. It has the same strategic gameplay but it is a much grittier tone and artstyle from what I remember so there’s that.

Advance Wars itself was followed up by Black Hole Rising (GBA) and Dual Strike (DS) so if you haven’t played those they are probably your best bet.

There’s also an action game series that retains some strategic elements, Battallion Wars. I found Battallion Wars really dull, personally, but you might want to give it a look. Not a straight strategy game though so it will feel different.

It’d be a good online title for the WiiU as well.

To make a general recommendation I want to recommend Guacamelee!, one of my top games of 2013. It debuted on the PS3 (PSN) but is on a number of platforms now.

People usually call it “Luchador Metroid” and that’s not far from the mark. It has interesting areas with solid platforming, and the combat is great. It’s a beat ’em up but it has a decent pace so it is never beleaguered, Juan feels strong and pulverizing enemies is really satisfying – combos especially.

It has a refreshing aesthetic, a lot of humour and a lot of referential material. It works well solo or two player, Hard mode does keep you on your toes, enemy designs are really neat. My only caveat is that it’s a bit on the short side.

Well, if you’re a company trying to put up a port for sale on PSN, and there’s already an english version, at the very least make a patch for the Japanese ISO with the official english translation. I know it’s a lot of work, but you’re releasing a product, not a cash-grab.

I was pissed off that I bought a japanese game with no indication otherwise. Except for the tiny, one line at the very end of the game details on the PSN (“This is a Japanese import title.”) which should honestly be the first thing on the details. This just smacked of a company trying to get something for nothing via swindling.

Wow. Good to know. I was thinking of buying it, too.

I know there was one mentioned above, but do you guys happen to know of any non-Metroid/Castlevania Metroidvania games?

There’s also Lyle in Cube Sector. It’s pretty basic in concept: it’s a Metroidvania WITH CUBES. It’s pretty cool, though.

Thanks for suggesting FFI to me guys, I started today and I’m looooooving it!

So I’ve recently filled the one gap in my ‘gaming resume’ for the Final Fantasy series and can now say I’ve played all from 1-9. I know you’re already playin’ FFI, but here’s my ranked list of FF games in case 1 gets you hooked.

1) FF6 – Typically the top of everyone’s list for a reason. A great story, amazing spritework, tons of characters with unique abilities, and one of the best translations around. The magic system is fun to learn and the world is rich, challenging, and every-changing. A great game all-around.

2) FF9 – I know some people didn’t like it, but this game felt like a mix between the newer PSX-era games and the older NES ones. The characters are fun, the storyline kinda typical but alright, and the skill/magic system is pretty neat (you learn based on weapons equipped). The card game’s kinda fun, but not as addictive as FF8’s. Lots to do if you go after all sidequests.

3) FF7 – Though a bit overrated in my eyes, it’s got solid gameplay and a lot of fun things to do. The storyline’s meh and borderline confusing (bad translation, maybe?), but materia is fun to manage and grow with and the world’s pretty well defined. Dunno why it spawned so many sequels and products — likely because people loved this as a first shot into 3-D. It’s worth tryin’ if you can, though.

4) FF2 – I’m sure few would rank this game so high, but I loved FF2. The leveling system kept things tough and prevented you from grinding. The characters are kinda shallow, but they’re alright and allow for customization. The magic system (at least in the remake I played) was fun and is one of the few I didn’t reserve all MP for healing with (due to Osmose actually being useful). I had a blast playin’ this, and if you get the GBA remake, there’s an extra dungeon and bestiary list to fill out as well.

5) FF5 – This feels like a complete upgrade to FF3. The job system allows you to learn skills and personalize your team pretty well. It’s fun to do, but my complaint is that you really have to keep learning skills constantly and only really get to play your characters with interesting skill combos at the end of the game when you’re not set to a specific class to farm AP/skills. Still, it was fun and a solid SNES RPG game. The story was silly at times, too, and kinda cookie-cutter, so don’t look for the best story here.

6) FF8 – The latest game I’d played. I appreciate the game leveling alongside you, meaning you never have to grind. I actually got to the last disk at around L:20 or so. The story’s kinda unique to start with, then goes ridiculous pretty fast. There’s an odd duality between the main party and some other characters that’s treated in segments that don’t really align very well IMO. The junctioning system is pretty cool and I liked how it worked. That said, many hate it and find FF8 to be the worst for that reason. At the least, it has a totally rockin’ card game you can play to score some cool stuff early and upgrade items/magic for interesting character growth.

7) FF4 – A lot of people love this game, but I didn’t really find it that notable. I will say I’ve only played it once a long while ago and should probably replay it, but I remember the story being kinda interesting, but kinda nonsensical at the same time. The characters were better developed than most other older titles, and I loved having to fight monsters to earn the right to summon them. I hated buying arrows for bow-users, though, and think elemental weapons made or broke battles…then again, I played the US version, which is notorious for being super-simplified. As a final comment, I found it weird that you constantly seem to gain and lose characters throughout the game. You may like that, though, but I found it kind of offputting.

8) FF3 – It was okay. It was the first to have a job system, but the story was pretty shoddy and the world wasn’t as vibrant as it could have been. Feels too much like the other games/other fantasy RPGs and like it didn’t really have something unique going for it.

9) FF1 – Fun, but rough and very rigid. Also, full of bugs. The world is large and not that exciting comparatively, and there are few characters that are noteworthy. The fighting is annoying with the inability to auto-target another foe if another character kills what you were targeting (though that of itself can be a neat challenge too). Lots of grinding is needed and magic is so limited that you’ll wonder why you have a White Mage outside of boss battles. For its time, though, it was a great and unique game. I just don’t think it aged well. If you play the remake on the GBA, it’s MUCH more playable and less grindy.

They’re all good games, in the end, and obviously your mileage will vary.

Is Rayman Origins still worth buying even though I already have Legends?

Here’s why you should get Xenoblade Chronicles, what with the price:

With $60, you can buy a game you’d play for 30 hours total to get 100%

For $70 you can buy a game you’d play for 120 hours total to get 100%

I think that’s good enough.

So as of now I decided to get Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for the Wii U as it was only 16 dollars at GameStop. It will provide a distraction until I can find something more suitable.

Everyone should play Xenoblade:

• Though it does cost more than usual Wii/3DS games, the amount of playtime and fun you get out of it is surely worth it.

• The world is bigger than all of the Zelda overworlds combined. Not an over-exaggeration, and may be an under exaggeration.

• The music is phenomenal. Some of you might’ve already heard some of the soundtracks from SSB.

• The controls are easy to use

• Battling may seem weird at first, but is better than most RPG battling phases!

• A LOT of quests. A LOT

• Storyline is one of my favorites in this game. You’ll get attached to the characters quick

• Though the graphics aren’t the best, graphics aren’t a key role in making a game great, now is it?

• COMING OUT FOR 3DS SOON, TOO. GET IT FOR THAT

• Lots of moves in the battles.

• Cutscenes = Movie in a game.

EDIT: I realize I’ve already posted in this topic about Xenoblade, but you all need to get it.

PsychoKineticBeats:

• The music is phenomenal. Some of you might’ve already heard some of the soundtracks from SSB.

Recently got Xenoblade because of this alone because wow it really is from what I’ve heard so far.

Though to be honest, your list is kind of turning me off to it because I don’t like an overabundance of quests. I just want to get through with the story. :U I’m impatient like that.

But I’m still giving it a try over the weekend.

Also without getting into any spoilers or anything what is the consensus on X? I’ve read it’s a spiritual sequel so I won’t need to have played the first one, but do you guys think it will be as good?

I think they’re talking about Xenoblade Chronicles X, which was known as just “X” for a while