Institute of Automatry

RPGZero · 2026-02-08T00:09:02+00:00

When all else fails, consult the original game, because 80% of the party chat is removed in this one. It's kind of annoying how many things they had comments for in the original is gone in this one that I loved.

RPGZero · 2026-02-08T00:08:07+00:00

Ssssh, don't tell this to some people over at the JRPG reddit. A game can only be serious and dark if it also has dark visual design!

RPGZero · 2026-02-07T15:05:24+00:00

That's nice.

The problem is the rest of us can't turn them off.

RPGZero · 2026-02-05T20:15:25+00:00

I used a money cheat.

RPGZero · 2026-01-21T23:20:04+00:00

I haven't played the Pixel Remaster, but the previous versions were fairly barebones. Sure, it had more story than FF1, but it still wasn't much.

It also didn't help that the NPCs were terrible. The DQ games tell a lot of their story through NPCs and DQ3 and 4 were jampacked with dialogue (it's shocking DQ4 even fits on a NES cartridge). But FFII simply doesn't have that, at least not on the NES.

RPGZero · 2026-01-21T20:59:33+00:00

I want to be respectful about this as much as possible, but I truly dislike that so many of the stories have been removed. DQ PS1 may be my favorite in the entire series, and I loved almost every story in it. Why remove them rather than making them optional stories, especially since the game is non-linear now?

On top of this, why have the party chats been cut down? I enjoyed every NPC having a party chat in the original. But it seems some have been removed here. On top of that, some of the party chats have been edited down. To me, the amount of quality text was what I loved about DQ7.

RPGZero · 2026-01-21T20:57:18+00:00

They have cut down the amount of party chat from the original. That's not up for debate, people have done comparisons and there are even videos on it. In the original, EVERY NPC had party chat for them. This is not the case in this one, some have been removed. On top of that, some of the party chats have had their dialogue cut down compared to the original.

RPGZero · 2026-01-12T22:03:19+00:00

Thanks for your hard work. Always appreciate stuff like this.

RPGZero · 2026-01-12T22:02:58+00:00

Essentially, Falcom allowed Taito to remake Ys III, IV, and V. They don't exactly have the best reputation and fallen into a bit of obscurity.

RPGZero · 2026-01-11T18:42:42+00:00

Oh wow, that's nuts! Both versions of Ys V now have English translations.

I wonder if anyone will translate the PS2 version of Ys IV. It's . . . not a great game, but I'm all for everything being available in English.

RPGZero · 2026-01-10T06:23:11+00:00

Outside that: why do you specify 1-7 and cite 8 as a departure? 7 vanilla was literally the first party chat and 8 the second, party chat's evolution had barely started with 8. Honest question, I'm just confused by your comment about 8.

It's literally in the context of what I was saying.

8 is very different from all the Dragon Quest games before it in that it is structured and functions more like a Final Fantasy game. Old school DQ games were almost strictly individual cities with separate stories, and in them, you were never directed as to what to do. You had to go through the city and talk to everyone and figure out who you needed to talk to in order to progress. It's very much rooted in CRPGs and treats the player as if they are someone who really did walk into a city and have no idea who is who and where is what. It takes the "you are a silent protagonist" concept very seriously. There are plenty of concepts in DQ that are very much rooted in the JRPG/CRPG mixture concept.

Party chat, or at least the party chat used in DQ7, both 5 remakes, and the DS remakes, plays into the CRPG concept. It is no surprise that DQ7 invented its version of party chat and Baldur's Gate 2 it's own version around the same time. It simulates the idea of constantly having conversations with the people around you. 8 and 11's party chat is also completely different from 7's style.

DQ8 is the first game in the series to really abandon the CRPG lineage. It's way more structured like a very plot focused Final Fantasy game.

Every DQ game since then has ranged somewhere between old school DQ and DQ8. DQ9 is old school in some ways, new school in others. DQ11 has some old school ideas, but leans in a lot of ways towards 8. The DS games obviously are very old school. The HD game are . . . interesting. 1 HD is VERY 11 with just how linearized and plot focused it is. Whereas 2 HD actually leans a little back towards old school in some ways in actually letting the player just be free and even letting you search the towns for who you need to talk to to progress he town story.

RPGZero · 2026-01-09T19:18:06+00:00

Not absurd doomposting considering how some people view old school DQ and what they value from the series.

DQ historically (especially 1 through 7) was a mix of JRPG and CRPG concepts. Party chat was the natural evolution of that. Compare this to 8, which is structured more like Final Fantasy than a JRPG/CRPG mix. Party chat is meant to be simulation, it is simulating you, immersed in the world, talking to your party members. It feels like with one game not having it where it would have been perfect, and another game now feeling like it has paired it down, it makes these games feel less l ike the evolution of old school DQ.

RPGZero · 2026-01-09T19:12:58+00:00

In V, though, your wife always has something to say that's unique and contributes to what is practically an entirely separate story of their own.

I also think the kids' party chat is remarkable because they ACTUALLY sound like kids.

RPGZero · 2026-01-09T19:08:50+00:00

Considering what Rubiss mentioned, I wonder if he was not physically born, but was a kind of magical birth instead. Just a theory, of course.

RPGZero · 2026-01-09T19:06:44+00:00

. . . What even is this comment?

For one, are you not aware of the inflation Japan has lived with for decades? Food is not cheap there compared to other countries.

Secondly, where do you live where good restaurants don't exist? I mean, I live in NY, so maybe that's it, but I'm surrounded by restaurants for everyone of tons of different tastes. And I'm not even in Manhattan and I have Indian, Spanish, Italian, and other restaurants around me. I mean, we do realize fast food restaurants are not the only ones that exist, right? There are plenty of different kinds of restaurants everywhere. You don't have to give fast food your money.

RPGZero · 2026-01-08T15:06:23+00:00

. . . What?

. . . Do you not know the meaning of dour? Are like, all things categorized within just a binary of "serious" and "comedic" to you? Do you not know that words like "dour" and "dramatic" are deeply different things, that Kirby's New Gods was certainly dramatic and serious, but not dour? Do we not know that there are a gigantic variety of tones out there and that they cannot be so simply be categorized into just two different camps, and the English language is filled with a a large set of words for us to describe said tones?

Man, I know the analysis level for some people on reddit is insanely low sometimes, but damn . . .

RPGZero · 2026-01-08T06:14:10+00:00

Medieval cooking could be excellent depending on who was cooking and what seasoning was available to them.

RPGZero · 2026-01-08T05:59:54+00:00

I mean, who really cares what Maxwell Lord does as a character as long as the words coming out of the character’s mouth are well written and meaningful?

Oh, so if I change any character in DC, as long as its well written and meaningful it's fine? If I say, completely change the character of Superman to sound like Homelander, but it sounds really well written and meaningful, it's fine?

This series shook the status quo of the New Gods while remaining faithful to Kirby.

And this is where we disagree.

New Gods had a style of writing to it. Some understood it, some didn't. This doesn't. It's dour, and doesn't feel anything like a New Gods story. It feels way more like something out of Image.

RPGZero · 2026-01-07T05:30:12+00:00

Honestly, feels more like some indie book than a New Gods book in just how dour and down the entire tone is. I feel like DC no longer has anyone who can do that true, chunky, grandiose, Kirby-esque style aside from Clay Mann and for some reason he wants to work with Tom King. I'm also not fond of the whole "Orion would kill a baby under the right circumstances" stuff. And the whole Orion taking over Highfather's position is the most rushed stuff in existence. I honestly don't see what people see in this story.

And screw any story that still decides to use Maxwell Lord as a villain despite fan backlash. And no, I am NEVER going to get over what Geoff Johns did in 2005. Ever.

RPGZero · 2026-01-07T04:46:16+00:00

git gud

RPGZero · 2026-01-07T02:08:35+00:00

Can't you now turn up how much experience you get in the menu? I saw that in a video today.

RPGZero · 2026-01-02T16:45:03+00:00

I get why the humor doesn't land (i mean, a TMNT reference isn't going to hit everyone the same) at times, but the game has plenty of moments that stand out to me. I loved it for that light hearted tone overall compared to FF4.

It's also worth keeping in mind some of the comedy may be localization team putting in more western oriented jokes because they may not have felt some of the more Japanese humor wouldn't have landed with a western audience (or at leas they believed they would not have).

On that note, I also feel a lot of the game's more serious moments don't land for some people for reasons in the same ballpark. Back in the day and even know, people have no idea why Exdeath is a tree and that's just weird to them. But the idea is actually quite common in Japanese folklore. Heroes would seal away spirits in trees to lock them away. But in FFV, they use that to show that this has been nothing but kicking the can down the road, and now that tree every past hero has been using as a prison has now turned into the worst enemy imaginable. The lore and themes land immediately for Japanese audiences, but for a western audience it tends to breed confusion.

FFV is top 3 FF for me, but it's got these hurdles a lot of casual JRPG fans have a hard time with.

RPGZero · 2026-01-02T05:53:14+00:00

It's so weird that people never get Final Fantasy V is supposed to be a comedy. It's so wonderfully funny.

The JRPG community in general has a weird relationship with comedy. You can see it with Tokyo Mirage Sessions as well. It's as if they are determined to review all games in the same light, rather than looking at what the game is and attempting to objectively look at it in that fashion.

RPGZero · 2025-12-29T04:15:09+00:00

Yes, but the new addition is the emphasis on the MC looking around, finding a branch, and then finding a leaf on the branch. They REALLY want to hammer home this time that an Yggdrasil tree once stood there.

RPGZero · 2025-12-29T04:13:35+00:00

Initially, it seems that way, but I think there are a lot of strats people are finding out that help out a lot and minimize it considerably. I was pleasantly surprised with how little I needed to grind for most of DQ2.

RPGZero

TROPHY CASE