Well! I’m surprised at the response I got! And more surprised that a lot of people jumped on the train to have me review PSX games, heh.
Lemme respond to these. So far, the only game suggestions I’ve ruled out are Star Ocean/Tales games, Beyond the Beyond, and Wild Arms 2.
Beyond the Beyond
I already hate Golden Sun, which is supposed to be their SUPER GOOD RPG series. I’ve heard that enemies you can fight at the very beginning of BtB can wipe you out if you don’t stop and grind. Maybe when I’m ready to commit suicide, the last game I’ll ever review is this one.
Alundra
This is one I’ve been interested in for a while. It’s funny, though; Alundra is a hit-or-miss game, but much more people seem to like it. In my experience on people discussing this game, about 95% of people love it, and 5% just hate it. I’m morbidly curious, mostly because with my luck I’m bound to be in the 5%.
Legend of Legaia
Holy crap, I forgot all about that game. I tried it once a long time ago and it seemed pretty good. Never really got started though. Good suggestion!
Wild Arms 1
I’ve been thinking about this one for a looooooong time. It’s the same thing as with Mass Effect; I’m reluctant to play it, but I can’t put my finger on why.
Wild Arms 2
I don’t know if I’d ever want to play this again, unless it got a re-release. The puzzles were cool, but the story was just such poorly-translated gibberish that I would frequently put it down for months at a time before I finally finished it. Also, the game was a bit on the stupidly easy side. I honestly think I would have found the gameplay forgivable if the story was comprehensible. This is why I’m secretly hoping for a re-release.
Mega Man Legends
I actually can’t remember why I didn’t like this game. It wasn’t terrible or anything, and I new it was an action RPG. Just something about it irked me, but it’s been so long I can’t remember what. Nontheless, I already own it, so it would be pretty easy for me to pick up and try again. I’ll think about it.
Star Ocean and Tales series in general
I seriously hate both of these. The story and writing is, to me, the epitome of generic anime-inspired JRPG crap; I can barely stand it. The combat is just downright mashy, and it’s even stupider that you can get away with it; I beat the final boss sequence in Tales of Destiny without even getting hit. To be honest, it was so hectic that I’m not even sure the last boss even attacked. This has the potential to make things comically easy, or frustratingly hard.
My problem with Star Ocean 2 was pretty much all those things, but I think what finally made me put it somewhere where I’d never find it again was this: There was a storyline event where all the characters split up, so I was left with just the main character (fyi, I chose Rena). Well, she was petrified when I walked into town. So, I went to the item shop, bought an item that cured petrify status, used it on her…and she died. Right then and there, in the middle of town. Fuck. That. Forget it!
The Tales series seems to be getting better with its combat, at least. Tales of the Abyss still felt pretty mashy, but it was the least so of every one I’d played (Phantasia, Destiny, Eternia, Symphonia, Legendia). I’m moderately interested in Tales of Vesperia, but I don’t think I want to try playing it without someone else.
Vagrant Story
I lost my copy of this game quite some time ago. I’ll think about finding it again, but if you want the abridged version of my review: I don’t remember the story. I liked the controls. The game seems hard at first, but becomes manageable when you learn to handle Risk Points (Points that go up as you do cool attacks; higher Risk = you take more damage). Overall I liked it. The combat reminds me of Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, but in real time.
Spoony Bard’s asking about Nintendo RPGs
To be honest, I just don’t know a lot of them. I didn’t like ToS, and I do own all three Paper Mario games. If you’re interested, I wrote a Super Paper Mario review years ago. I might do Paper Mario over the summer, but the Gamecube one is just too long; I might wait a while to replay that one. The only other Nintendo RPG I own from the post-SNES era (excepting handhelds) is Quest 64, which I found to be a lot better than most people say. It’s still not that good, though, lol!
Persona
Actually, I’ve been looking for Persona 4 for quite some time. If I found that, I probably would be trying it out right now; I’d been meaning to wait til summer to try it, but from the looks of things, I won’t find it.
Lunar SSSC
I might replay that. Here’s the abridged version: Fun, cute characters and interaction. Combat is a little slow, but I really enjoy the concept. Game is a bit grindey. I like the game.
Parasite Eve
Actually yeah, I really want to play this again, too.
SRT
You mean super robot wars, right? Hell. No. That aesthetic just makes me want to puke. I don’t think I could give it a fair review.
The Granstream Saga
I heard this was like a spiritual successor to the Heaven & Earth trilogy. …I also heard it was bad. …MAYBE.
Growlanser
This is really appealing to me, but I don’t know where I’d find it. Also, I’m not entirely sure if the text translation of Growlanser was ever finished. I did a review of Langrisser 5 because there was a complete text translation of the game (conversely, I never reviewed Langrisser 4, because only the first half of the game was translated).
Final Fantasy PSX games
It will be YEARS before anyone can ever convince me to play FF8 or 9 again. I wouldn’t mind playing FF7 or Tactics again, but I’ve lost my copy of FF7.
SaGa Frontier 2
… … …Actually. I’ve probably played this game enough times that I can review it cold, without even having to play through it again. Maybe I will just write a review of this. But, nontheless, I’m looking for a new game to play, too.
With the overwhelming majority of requests for PSX games, I think maybe I’ll make a summer out of playing these games. What I would really like to know about all these games you’ve suggested, is about how long it takes to get through each game without excessive grinding or doing any sidequests.
