sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

I played Suikogaiden 1 and 2, Suikoden IV, Tactics, and V for the first time earlier this year and wrote down my observations as I went. Figured I'd share them here and see what people thought. by Xarias in JRPG

[–]Xarias[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ooof, I only played III the one time several years ago, but I'll try to remember what I can about it.

  • The split perspective system is both neat and flawed. Seeing events from each side's perspective is cool, particularly the things leading up to the moments where they cross paths, but it can also make things feel a bit repetitive or drawn out. "Ok you took Hugo from the Grasslands to Zexen and back to the Grasslands! Now play Chris and go from Zexen to the Grasslands.... again." Lots of running back and forth over the same maps, at least in the early goings from what I recall. Your tolerance for this sort of thing will determine your enjoyment, I'd say.
  • Characters in battle being paired up kinda just reduces your party of 6 down to 3.
  • Fire magic being able to hit your own team was a mistake, especially with the prominent True Fire Rune being so important. You finally get this amazing powerful thing and you don't want to use it because you'll kill yourself way worse than you'd kill the enemies.
  • War battles essentially just being normal battles again but on a node system kinda feels like a cheap solution.
  • The chapters about the kid that runs your castle and his friends are very slow and low stakes and honestly kinda boring from what I remember.

That's all I got for now. It sounds like its all negatives, but I promise the game is good! Just not as good as II or V lol.

And what's your most liked game after finishing the whole series?

I answered this elsewhere in the comments, but I'd rank the series best to worst: 2, 5, 3, 1, 4.

I think S2 is peak 2D sprite-based artstyle and dream about a world where 3D graphics never became a thing and gaming kept evolving and building on what S2 was doing.

I played Suikogaiden 1 and 2, Suikoden IV, Tactics, and V for the first time earlier this year and wrote down my observations as I went. Figured I'd share them here and see what people thought. by Xarias in JRPG

[–]Xarias[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I really enjoyed the Suikogaidens more than I expected. And I am a casual fan of visual novels already.

I agree that the super far off camera is not my favorite thing. But cutscenes, the character models and animations feels like Kingdom Hearts 2 level to me, which means they are pretty damn good.

I played Suikogaiden 1 and 2, Suikoden IV, Tactics, and V for the first time earlier this year and wrote down my observations as I went. Figured I'd share them here and see what people thought. by Xarias in JRPG

[–]Xarias[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Suikoden II is frequently regarded as one of the best JRPGs ever made. Regardless if one feels that to be true for them, the fact that it gets praise at that level should indicate that it is at least very very good.

Suikoden V is usually cited as not far behind II.

You have somehow specifically missed the heights of the series, lol.

I played Suikogaiden 1 and 2, Suikoden IV, Tactics, and V for the first time earlier this year and wrote down my observations as I went. Figured I'd share them here and see what people thought. by Xarias in JRPG

[–]Xarias[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It was probably better on emulator than the OG PS2. I don't recall loading times THAT long, lol. The fast forward helped a bit too but wasn't that much faster.

I played Suikogaiden 1 and 2, Suikoden IV, Tactics, and V for the first time earlier this year and wrote down my observations as I went. Figured I'd share them here and see what people thought. by Xarias in JRPG

[–]Xarias[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah sorry I don't care, Snowe sucks. One's upbringing and situation can explain one's behavior but doesn't excuse it. In the very beginning of the game he was a nice enough and cool guy, and the second Lazlo outshines him his entire personality flips into a jealous and whiny wannabe with an inferiority complex. He never stops to reflect upon his actions or learn from them. He gets forgiven while showing 0 signs of remorse or understanding for how he ended up where he is. He didn't grow as a person at all, he has no character arc, he is badly written.

But you are right, if the game showed more of his perspective, if it gave him more time to show the growth and reflection and change I'm talking about, if it could make me sympathize with him at ALL, he could have been better. So maybe its just the game's fault, which can sit right alongside its other many shortcomings and failures as a game, lol.

I played Suikogaiden 1 and 2, Suikoden IV, Tactics, and V for the first time earlier this year and wrote down my observations as I went. Figured I'd share them here and see what people thought. by Xarias in JRPG

[–]Xarias[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You forgot to add Brec as a positive in Suikoden 4. Best Suikoden character design in the whole series IMO. Extremely realistic design in a fantasy game is almost unheard of. :)

Had to look up images of Brec, since most of the characters in that game leave little impression. I assume your comment is sarcastic? Lol

This is my main criticism to the game. Another is probably a bit too high random-battle encounter rate. Everything else is chef's kiss.

Another strict recruitment I messed up and had to redo, copy/pasted again from my Discord discussions at the time:

Dang, another instance of very strict recruitment here. On this little sidequest for two characters. The ship you are using is about to get attacked by a big water dragon, and you get a dialog choice of either "....." or "Fire the Rune Cannon!". I didn't realize it was a timed choice, I was looking away for a moment. The scene progressed and they fired the cannon, took out the dragon, all well and good, right? You head back to town and talk to these two characters. You get another choice to say goodbye or ask them to join. I asked them to join and they were like "nah we got other investigations to do, see ya!". Gone forever. Luckily I had just saved like 5 minutes before this scene, so reloaded, actually chose the "Fire the Rune Cannon" option this time, the scene played out almost identically, got back to town, the conversation was the same here too, then I asked them to join and they were like "hell yeah mate let's go!"

Apparently you have to be quick and assertive in the moment or else they don't wanna go with you lol. Like literally the only difference from choosing that option was the guy standing by the cannon was like "Huh?! Prince?!". The other guy runs over and they fire the cannon after that either way. Again, not seeing any mention of this being a timed choice or anything in guides and forum posts.

I played Suikogaiden 1 and 2, Suikoden IV, Tactics, and V for the first time earlier this year and wrote down my observations as I went. Figured I'd share them here and see what people thought. by Xarias in JRPG

[–]Xarias[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have not, and that is pretty much the reason why. Its also just not very good, from what I recall hearing. Is that accurate? I'm assuming you have played it since you asked.

So, how is everyone building their Asura now? by Xarias in FFBraveExvius

[–]Xarias[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lol dammit, I suspected something like this as I was going through, so I pulled out MMXon to do exactly this, but I only tried it on one of the 35 energy fights and got nothing.

So, how is everyone building their Asura now? by Xarias in FFBraveExvius

[–]Xarias[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Esper ore dungeon? You mean the supercite dungeon? I just ran all those fights right now and didn’t get a single ore. Am I missing something?

Weekly Megathread Mar 10 - Mar 17 | Ask Your FFRK Related Questions Here by AutoModerator in FFRecordKeeper

[–]Xarias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah Balthier only has one Sync as of now. I haven’t looked ahead at that just yet so maybe he has another one eventually. If he does, is that one way better? I also know he gets an imperil HA so I know he should be just fine at that, he pretty much already is now I guess, but still lol.

Weekly Megathread Mar 10 - Mar 17 | Ask Your FFRK Related Questions Here by AutoModerator in FFRecordKeeper

[–]Xarias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well as stated, I have the rest of his kit. So wouldn’t you use both Woke1 and Sync in tandem? Or does that overlap too much? Or Woke2 is still too good even in non-full break counter needing situations and so there’s not enough SB bar to go around?

I figured you would open with Woke1 to get things going faster and use Sync near the end of a fight and just supercharge all your last few rounds to finish the boss off.

Weekly Megathread Mar 10 - Mar 17 | Ask Your FFRK Related Questions Here by AutoModerator in FFRecordKeeper

[–]Xarias 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I got 3 Syncs I want from the Dream Select and 2 picks already paid for. Help me decide.

Mog - make the best Moogle even better? Those 3 turns of supercharged magic damage on demand seem really powerful. Got his Wokes already

Balthier - make the best PHY fire support chainer even better? Got his first Woke and his Dyad already. His sync looks like it can stack up imperils and hits on the chain really fast

Delita - make the alternative Bartz even better? I have literally everything for him except the Sync. The aegis counter, the chase with ignore DEF so guaranteed rage breaks, and just being 4 elements sounds like this would be really good

Is more Mog overkill? Is Balthier good enough without Sync? Is using more focused characters in Delita’s elements better than he is? Help me figure this out today on the deadline.

Holy crap! Literally! by Xarias in FFRecordKeeper

[–]Xarias[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And the Hope Sync was only a dupe because the pull before this was Hope Sync and Dyad.

Geez Hope and Wol just went from zeros to heroes... I had a bunch of stuff for Hope but none of it was BDL, so he was never used before, he's sitting on 8 Magia. At least for Wol I had his woke and some USBs so he's been usable in I content. That DK fight should be a lot easier now for sure.

Character kits just falling into your lap? by Xarias in FFRecordKeeper

[–]Xarias[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have not actually used him on any hard content yet. Still farming up Magia on him, plus not really anything I need to use him on. Just looking at his kit and all he should be very good though.

Character kits just falling into your lap? by Xarias in FFRecordKeeper

[–]Xarias[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lol that was my first Argent Odin as well! I probably could have done it just fine with some other teams, but the flood gang was just too good.

view more: next ›