(caution: pretty long post… reply to bits of my post if you don’t feel like reading all this)
Hello everyone - wasn’t sure where to exactly post this (I imagined there would be a forum for… RPG classics?), but since it’s about japanese RPG’s in general I’ll just post it here. Feel free to move me tho.
Well, as veteran western-style PC RPG player I never thought much of japanese RPG’s, totally ignored the Final Fantasy hype ect. Closest thing I ever got to a japanese RPG is Zelda (Link’s Awakening) on the Gameboy I guess ^_^.
But since the supply of decent (PC) RPG’s has been drying up for some time, I decided some time ago (must’ve been more then a year now o_O) to try out some japanese RPG’s… I remember loving FF7 to death, not sure if that was the first one though (think the first one was Chrono Trigger).
That’s the main problem with me and japanese RPG’s, I find it hard to remember what game was about what. Especially with the SNES era type of RPG’s. I played two SNES ROM’s a while back, one was Tales of Phantasia (keywords that made me remember - Ninja Town, Dhalos, buying/selling paintings…) I remember that one was really great (had a real time combat system right?)
Now, I’m 99% sure I played the original Star Ocean too (for SNES)… but could someone PLEASE give me a brief description of the story line (for ToP and for Star Ocean…)?
I think ToP was about this character who’s home town in destroyed in the beginning… something about time travelling? Something with Ninja Towns and cat girls? Or was that Star Ocean? Are those games related?
Back to the present - there are alot of Tales of… and Star Ocean games out there. How are those connected? And how are those(plot wise) connected to the first games (ToP and SO)? One story, or seperate stories, or seperated stories AND worlds? (Probably has to do with Time though)
Currently I’m playing Final Fantasy 8 for the first time (and loving it to tears), can’t tell why I feel so immersed with the characters (stereotypes…) and the plot isn’t exactly great too (could guess most of the stuff before it was “revealed”)… still a really really great game IMHO (at the beginning of disc 3).
Now, for the last part of my post (phew… finally ^^), I’m already looking forward to the next RPG. Probably Final Fantasy 9, but I’m also thinking of the Suikoden series (which some people seem to adore). I’d like to play the first one first (makes sense to me), but most people seem to be more excited with part 2 and 3 of the series. Should I play part one or just skip it? (and is Part 3 for the PS2 or for the PSX? Only got a PSOne… )
If you got all the way to this part - congrats and thanks for reading. Please give me your input/game suggestions/comments/whatever.
-Shinrisen