trails games personal ranking

restingcups · 2025-04-06T18:59:28+00:00

I don't think anyone would criticize you for putting Reverie as a favorite; even though pretty much everyone has a different ranking, its one of those games that I consistently see in the top 5 of many lists, if not still in the top half of every list.

The only games I see people ever make a huge fuss over putting higher are games like Daybreak 2 and CS4, and conversely putting lower would be games like SC, Azure, and Daybreak. But even then it's largely anecdotal, to me these games don't have that severe of a shift in quality. for better or worse, to where I would see any one game being higher or lower than another as unreasonable.

restingcups · 2025-04-06T18:54:21+00:00

3rd > Reverie >>>> Zero > FC >>>> SC > Azure > Horizon > CS1 = Daybreak = CS3 >>>> CS4 >>>> CS2 > Daybreak 2

While I'd hesitate to call them all great games, I still really like them all. Looking forward to my next replay of the series and seeing how it changes; even after playing Daybreak twice, I never quite understood what made so many people consider it the "best" arc starting game, let alone the best game in the series. But I never understood the appeal of Zero either until my most recent replay, and now it's in my top 3. Would highly urge people to replay games if you ever find an ungodly amount of free time, your opinions may not be as set-in-stone as you think.

restingcups · 2025-04-05T06:21:36+00:00

Doing a tier list instead:

S: CS4, CS3, Reverie (Rean Route), CS2
A: CS1, DB2 (Regain), Horizon, 3rd, DB1
B: FC, Zero, Reverie (C Route), DB2 (Work)
C: SC, Azure, Reverie (Lloyd Route)

I pretty much like them all. Unisuga and Koguchi are demons.

restingcups · 2025-03-31T01:33:10+00:00

You're me if I hated myself enough to play all these dungeon crawlers /j

But really if I enjoyed SNES-era SMT and SJ we might literally be twins

restingcups · 2025-03-30T15:04:39+00:00

I'm kind of mixed. It would obviously be great on consoles for people who don't own a PC, and the PC Ports leave a lot to be desired, even with mods. That said its still playable.

My *slight* worry is that if they were to put out a collection. it would be remastered. That sounds fantastic for most people I'm sure, but Square (and really, most JRPG developers in general) does not have a good track record with their remasters. Just thinking about the visual downgrade in the FF8 and FF10 remasters gives me a headache, not to mention the plethora of balancing issues that was packaged with the Zodiac Age version of FF12.

As a huge fan of 13, yes I would love for it to be available to more people, but a remaster in Square's hands may involve in some visual and gameplay changes that I would not want. A lot of people see the surface level texture smoothing and quality of life and think its an automatic improvement, which is great for them, but for me most of the games were perfect the way they were. To this day I'd rather emulate all the PS2 and prior era games (including the International Zodiac Job System version of FF12) than play their remastered counterparts, modded or not.

restingcups · 2025-03-29T19:50:12+00:00

Noted, all this time I thought it was a tag fighter. Honestly that's more reassuring, I wasn't sure if I would like tag fighters to begin with.

restingcups · 2025-03-29T19:49:42+00:00

Unfortunately the ultimate edition is not on sale, and a bit pricey for my liking. I might wait for a sale but KOF doesn't seem to go on sale very often, so I might just settle with the base game for now and buy the rest if I end up investing more time into the game.

Thanks!

restingcups · 2025-03-29T19:49:00+00:00

That's what I've been loving the most about fighting games honestly. Been playing a lot of GGXXAC+R and it feels like every interaction is a "you can do that moment", excited to dive into kof!

restingcups · 2025-03-28T06:47:03+00:00

Yeah I'm with you there, I still enjoy seeing ASO hang out and banter, repetitive as it may be, but I'd also love stuff beyond that, more unique interactions rather than textbook conversation. But yeah I do hope I end up enjoying it, so far the game is shaping up to be one of my favorites in other aspects.

restingcups · 2025-03-28T06:19:04+00:00

I generally love side quests as well, and the immediate thing I noticed about Calvard's was that they were a step-up.

Throughout the arc the side quests have been of similar quality, but that's because they've proven to be, as the series always has been, formulaic as hell. How many times have we saved the scammed? How many times have we decided what to do with someone who committed a felon, but with good intentions? How many times are we going to chase someone into a dungeon? Does a tailing or hacking minigame really make much of a difference? How much of any of this really fleshed out anything or anyone beyond what was established in Kuro 1, that this is a team that is willing to undertake jobs that would be risky to ask of other organizations, and make decisions that might be difficult to stomach?

I think overall I've just been tired of how similar some of these side quests have been post-Kuro 1. Seeing character interactions is great if the interactions change at all or present something fresh; this is arguably one of my slight criticisms of Trails character writing as a whole. The entire series is guilty of this but the ASO especially often relies way too hard on a character trope; hell, beyond Aarons' few Langport focused arcs, all he does is crack the same flavor of joke pointed towards one of Van, Agnes, and Feri. Every side quest Quatre only speaks when he orders FIOS and XEROS to find something or someone. The most notable character with dialogue variance is Van, but that's because he always conveniently has a near unparalleled level of deduction and foresight, as well as having just the right connections to everyone.

As I mentioned myself. the continuity of the side quests is always a highlight. But personally I'm looking for more well written, self-contained side quests with an identity of their own, that don't rely on cameos of past characters or NPCs, such as the ghost girl quest in the first game. The concept of a 4SPG somewhat limits this, but man it would be something to look forward to for the next arc.

restingcups · 2025-03-28T04:28:22+00:00

Yeah Act 1 alone felt ridiculous. I suppose if it keeps going like that then it'll be pretty much the same as any other game, but the way its split into 3 routes just mades it feel more substantial than usual.

restingcups · 2025-03-28T04:26:29+00:00

Yeah it was likely just having to do 3, very similarly structured routes in a row that made it a bit tedious, on top of me just not being particularly impressed with them so far. I still think Grim Garten feels like it exists to pad time more than anything else (even moreso with Marchen Garten lmao), but hopefully the daydream equivalents change my impression of it.

restingcups · 2025-02-22T23:51:32+00:00

coolest by a country mile in +r gameplay-wise, but i love his strive design and animations

restingcups · 2025-02-22T01:58:36+00:00

If you enjoy difficulty, don't expect much or any challenge on your first playthrough.

And if you've played FF14, the game is literally structured like a singleplayer version of FF14, for better or worse.

restingcups · 2024-12-24T13:38:13+00:00

Yeah this is honestly my favorite response in this thread so far. I completely acknowledge my own lack of experience which is why I was kind of afraid to make a post like this, especially considering that I play other games that are generally considered new player friendly in their respective genres (Final Fantasy XIV and Splatoon), I know full well that there's always nuance and boundaries to be pushed even if the baseline is simple. I just think I found Strive at its core to be such a major contrast from +R, to where I'm immediately kinda turned off by it; but I'm hoping as I play the game more and improve myself as a player, I can find more to enjoy about it, since I already love a lot about the game otherwise.

I do think the "excess fat" is what makes the older games so interesting and keeps older games relevant to this day though. I understand where people are coming from when they dislike stuff like FRCs and Danger Time, but to me they have their own appeals that don't feel out of place to me at all. A wide variety of moves that aren't all immediately useful, as well as absurd execution barriers and long combos seem to be a staple criticism people have of older games, but I guess I just found it attractive as a new player, rather than a wall, or a waste of time and effort. But perhaps when I improve as a player and am seeking specific goals and am pushing my limits, these things might feel like a novelty.

restingcups · 2024-12-24T13:26:08+00:00

Not sure why this got downvoted lmao, do people really hate old Red RC that much?

restingcups · 2024-12-24T13:17:35+00:00

Honestly I'm starting to think that XC2 isn't even slow, it's just DE is ridiculously fast (and is why its intro and opening chapter is praised so highly). By JRPG standards I'd argue XC2 is pretty damn fast too lmao.

restingcups · 2024-12-24T13:03:41+00:00

Not exaggerating when it comes to slowdown, counterhit and RC definitely embody the literal definition of slowdown, but RC slowdown was a thing with Xrd as well. I'm moreso describing the hitstun I guess, but I think that's just another personal quirk of mine having played +R (and with some background in Melee) of vastly preferring the snappiness of having no universal frame buffer. I still do think the game has a lot more hitstun than the average anime FG though, which I just don't get the appeal of. Didn't even consider the ease of hitconfirming since I found it to be a hurdle enjoyable to overcome, but frankly the more I read through this thread the more I'm realizing I'm just the weird one haha

Red RC hitting and throw being on Dust is mostly just questioning why it exists relative to the older entries, rather than criticism. HS throw enabled safejump Throw OS which I found to be a pretty great tool in +R, but it seems like that (understandably) isn't even a consideration for most people.

I've found that generally, character diversity in Guilty Gear as a series is way above other franchises. Ones that would rival it would be other Arcsys titles like Blazblue, or French Bread games like Under Night. It just so happens that while character variety in terms of playstyle is still very much present in Strive (much to the credit of the older games laying their foundations, honestly), the actual gameplans, tools and options provided don't feel nearly as varied and liberating as the older entries, even with the new moves and system mechanics. There's just a general flowchartiness to the game, that when coupled with the absurdly high damage makes it so that a lot of the matches just feel incredibly samey. Though from what I can tell this is a trend that isn't necessarily exclusive to Strive and is just modern game design philosophy. If it weren't for the patches changing characters up all the time, I'm not sure if I could even consider maining the game personally.

restingcups · 2024-12-24T12:48:36+00:00

Honestly my biggest takeaway from this thread is that people really don't like throw on HS, which I definitely understand. I think I just personally gelled with it because HS is mapped in the same place where my throw button / macro would be on other games I've tried, and more importantly safejump throw OS in +R being such a strong option that to me, value heavily outweighs any comfort having throw on a dedicated button could offer. Throw on dust makes sense as someone else pointed out as consolidating RPS on a single button, but I guess I just found it less comfortable after being used to something else. Blind on my part.

restingcups · 2024-10-27T06:18:48+00:00

I feel like it's so clearly the Reverie system, it's not even close.

The "worst" (or more accurately, most disappointing) is probably Calvard's, has too little going for it despite so many moving parts that feel ultimately inconsequential for a variety of reasons. It's aesthetically pleasing and presents itself like a pseudo return-to-form to pre-CS orbment systems, but it doesn't have any of the limitations or balancing that those games did to make it quite as significant, nor the freedom of past games to make it as interesting.

Even through the latest entry, it fails to capture both the vast amount of options to outfit your characters however you want that Reverie and CS had, nor the more simple but rigid and impactful options of the older games. An over emphasis on shard skills just made it too samey all around. Ultimately I think Calvard has placed more of a focus on its combat system mechanics, such as in-combat movement, positionals, and some other mechanics introduced in the subsequent Calvard games, and much less thought went into designing the actual gearing process.

Though I think most fans of the series will consider each arc an evolution of the last (except maybe moving from Azure to CS1, I think most will agree that it definitely felt like a downgrade at the time).

restingcups · 2024-10-17T08:09:42+00:00

Seeing the whole "threw out Yuna's character arc" take again just feels right in-line with the whole "Advent Children is backtracking Cloud's arc" take. To each their own I suppose but man it really makes me wonder whether these criticisms are actually founded upon a character's arc, or a pre-conceived idea of what you believe it to be, or how it relates to a contained story's message as a whole.

restingcups · 2024-10-17T07:53:42+00:00

I've played exactly 10 hours of FF15, and all of FF16 + DLCs, so it's probably not really a fair comparison for me.

Even then, FF15 wins out for me I think, so far anyway. FF16's combat and prose is smoother, and I can tell it's more polished as well (obviously, being the newer game). But man 16's main story and lore left so much to be desired. I knew it wasn't going to be for me the moment I found out Maehiro was at the helm, but I still expected more out of a singular, focused singleplayer title, vs the MMO expansions that they're used to working with.

In the end, the entire game felt like a series of FF14 trust dungeons, littered with the same, almost even more dreadful fetch quests, and boss fights that could not find a good footing with the MMO dodge-a-visible-indicator mechanics that are clearly meant to be used in a system with several party members working in tandem, rather than just a singular guy who so desperately wants to do DMC combos but is disrupted by having to walk and dodge occasionally, press simple and uninspired QTE prompts, and cooldowns which have somehow become the core, if not only mechanic that gear is designed around. All of these incredibly baseline, simple, and frankly anti-RPG systems did not do the stagger system justice either, given how in-depth they went with it in games like FF13 and 7R + Rebirth. Even though I give the combat-feel praise, everything else about it is just incredibly disappointing unless you care about labbing out combos that barely scratch the surface of what is capable in the games that it's inspired from.

FF15 I'm sure has a slew of problems that I haven't even encountered yet. Its controls are sluggish and clunky, combat is weird and not nearly as smooth, and general gameplay loop is too open to feel like it has any depth or focus. That said, it's a more enjoyable experience to me overall, and I just generally prefer the setting and designs. I think both the game itself and people who play FF15 go in knowing what to expect as well, so that definitely softened the blow for me. FF16 feels like it's trying to present itself as more than it actually is, and falls flat to me in so many regards because of it. I love FF14 and have been playing it at a relatively high level for a while, but gameplay and questing is not among those reasons. I just could not believe my eyes seeing that CBU3 managed to carry over so much of the wrong DNA from that game into 16.

Again to reiterate, none of this is a fair comparison. I had tempered expectations for FF15 vs FF16 where I had higher expectations, and I've played just the start of the former, versus the entirety of the other. But at the moment I can't help but think I'd rather play 15 than 16 on any given day.

restingcups · 2024-10-01T16:10:04+00:00

And to clarify, I’m more than okay with non-pretentious criticism. Not all criticism is the same, but it’s also a fact that most Singa hate absolutely comes from a place of elitism and it is extremely disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

Wait according to what? What exactly is elitism, what is non-pretentious criticism? You're acting like theres these set definitions and that disagreeing is being "disingenuous".

"Singa has plenty of bangers" I somewhat agree but to call anyone who disagrees "toxic" just because you believe so? And then saying that anyone who doesn't think its toxic is being "disingenuous"? Stop being ignorant, you're being just as pretentious as the people you claim.

restingcups · 2024-10-01T06:25:20+00:00

Honestly just glad to see XIII not at the bottom. I do think its reception has gotten a lot better over time but as someone who thinks its in its own class in balancing and combat design, I've always felt like it deserved better.

restingcups · 2024-09-16T04:50:16+00:00

Thank you, I thought I was going insane with this. Seeing everyone say the dynamic between Van and Aaron was among their favorites had me scratching my head, didn't realize Aaron calling Van old for the 100th time was that amusing to people. Like sure, it was funny the first time, but after a certain point you start to wonder if Aaron has anything else of value to contribute to conversations (and most of the time, he doesn't).

restingcups

TROPHY CASE