The Slowly-Dying Death of RPG's.

[Special K 0]

Four Swords is vastly better if you have the money to blow on 4 GBA's and link cables. FF:CC is garbage.

 

Don't forget Warsong (Langrisser) for the Genesis. That's game's the shit. (strat RPG)

[Special K 0]

Also in no way is the dominance of systems with good RPG's a conincedence. FF and DQ are HUGE system-sellers in Japan, and all developers will gravitate towards the systems with the biggest installed base. Look at the DC. It did well here, but did very poorly in Japan due to the lack of quality RPGs. N64 did poorly in Japan too, and many developers moved to the system with the big installed base (and the freedom of CD games.)

[Guest CronoT]

Four Swords is vastly better if you have the money to blow on 4 GBA's and link cables. FF:CC is garbage.

Also on FF: CC, some dumb/poor fucker always ends up having to carry the lamp. Through the whole stage....

 

Squeenix probably thought it would improve the co-operation of the players. All it did was to solidify who's the bitch in the group.

[Lightning Flik 0]

Usually the one with the lamp was a magic user or healer. Most often the healer. Thankfully, I was a tank so I could freely move around without giving a damn.

[Jingus 0]

Other than that, the Shining Forces were quite good. There are a few good action rpg's like Landstalker, Shadowrun, and Beyond the Oasis that are worth a look into.

Oh, don't suggest Shadowrun at ME, I'm king shit expert at Shadowrun. Any Shadowrun questions? Right here.

 

So... which Phantasy Star games are worth buying, again?

[AndrewTS 0]

Other than that, the Shining Forces were quite good.  There are a few good action rpg's like Landstalker, Shadowrun, and Beyond the Oasis that are worth a look into.

Oh, don't suggest Shadowrun at ME, I'm king shit expert at Shadowrun. Any Shadowrun questions? Right here.

 

So... which Phantasy Star games are worth buying, again?

IV is usually considered the best.

 

II is really good, but wait for the remake. You can't tell how good the equipment you're buying is or even if it is better than what you have unless you buy it. The Phantasy Star Collection includes a list of shops' inventory with that information, but you need to find it complete for that or look it up in a FAQ, and it's still a pain in the BUTT to do it that way. I'm sure the remake will be correcting that.

 

I'll leave III up to somebody who has played it, but I hear its the worst of the series and follows several generations throughout the game.

 

The collection of Phantasy Star remakes apparently will be I, II, and IV--even Sega thinks III sucks.

[{''({o..o})''} 0]

Yeah, I was happy that I found a copy of Phantasy Star 3 until I played it. Doesn't really deserve much more of a critic than that.

[Jingus 0]

I'm not talking about remakes or ROMS or any damn thing other than a Genesis game that I can plug into my Genesis machine and play with my Genesis controller. Why do you guys keep forgetting that?! I have a working Sega Genesis with no RPGs other than Shadowrun. So, if I were perusing Ebay and saw Phantasy Star 1, 2, or 4, it would be worth my while to bid on it. Correct?

[Lightning Flik 0]

Yes Jingus. 1, 2 and 4 would be worth the bit.

[Special K 0]

III was developed by a completely different team, right?

 

Phantasy Star IV is a wonderful game.

 

I would definitely wait for an update of II. It's just too frustrating to play nowadays.

 

Warsong! Strat RPG. Difficult, and excellent. I'd say it's better than the recent GBA Fire Emblem.

[AndrewTS 0]

However, people are suggesting compilations because it would be cheaper that way. Phantasy Star IV, just the cart by itself, would run you 20-30 bucks.

 

I and II vary, but getting the Genesis Phantas Star 1, 2, and 4 might run you about 50-60 bucks total if you're lucky.

 

Warsong! Strat RPG. Difficult, and excellent. I'd say it's better than the recent GBA Fire Emblem.

 

Warsong is the only rendition of the Langriesser series to make it Stateside. I think it's either L1 or L2. It's perhaps the rarest Genesis game out there, alongside Herzog Zwei and M.U.S.H.A. I believe.

 

EDIT: Gamefaqs says it's the first game.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Do you have a Master System Jingus? Just get the GBA comp if you want the first 3 games. II is an excellent game but it's extremely old school with all the tedius aspects. IV is excellent but good luck finding it.

[Special K 0]

Really? I had a rental place that had it. Must've spent $60 until I finally beat the dame game. I believe it's Langrisser 1. You can also get a ROM of Der Langrisser (Langrisser 2?) for SNES which is another excellent game.

 

I heard that Growlanser was 'loosely tied' to Langrisser? Any idea what that's about, or is it just a bunch of the same developers?

[AndrewTS 0]

Do you have a Master System Jingus? Just get the GBA comp if you want the first 3 games. II is an excellent game but it's extremely old school with all the tedius aspects. IV is excellent but good luck finding it.

Finding IV is easy online. Check half.com right now; they've got them in the 20-30 range right now.

 

Oh, and I had completely forgotten that the Genesis Phantasy Star apparently only came out in Japan. To play PS1 in English either you need to go the compilation route or try the Master System version.

[AndrewTS 0]

Really? I had a rental place that had it. Must've spent $60 until I finally beat the dame game. I believe it's Langrisser 1. You can also get a ROM of Der Langrisser (Langrisser 2?) for SNES which is another excellent game.

I've been scouring used game, rental store, and bargain bins for games for about 8 years, and I've seen only *one* copy of Warsong ever. I've seen maybe a dozen Phantasy Star IVs.

 

So, search Ebay frequently, set it to search titles and descriptions, and try to snipe it if you find it.

 

Der Langrisser was an updated Langrisser 2, so it was a souped-up Megadrive-to-SFC port.

 

It also appeared on the PC-FX--with added loading times. Yay!

 

Oh, speaking of Der Langrisser-- http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...ssPageName=WDVW

 

I'm not too big on strat games, so feel free to bid on it if you want.

[Lightning Flik 0]

Special K, can you send me this fully translated version of Der Langrisser? Kthx.

[AndrewTS 0]

Special K, can you send me this fully translated version of Der Langrisser? Kthx.

He didn't say it was fully translated, but I suppose it could have been a fan-translated one.

 

Any 411 on a Growlanser/Langrisser connection, Flik?

 

I remember lots of people showing love for the Vandal Hearts games, but nowadays I hear nothing. Plenty of OMG BETTER THAN FFT!!! at the time. I recently discovered a sequel exists, but haven't played it. Had borrowed VH1 briefly--solid engine but lower production values than FFT, unsurprisingly.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

VH2 is decent. Though it's turn based and you and an enemy move at the same time so you have to anticipate what they'll do.

[Lightning Flik 0]

About the only thing I know of is its drawn by the same artist, Satoshi Urushihara (of Transformers, Plastic Little, and Legend of Lemnar fame).

 

I'll look into the connection between Growlanser and Langrisser.

 

Info on Langrisser:

Langrisser is about the holy sword Langrisser which only the "Hikari no Matsue" (descendents of light) can use. It spawned 5 games and also was very similar to Growlanser in the Simulation/Strategy games. The first game was actually brought over as "Warsong" by the now defunct company of Treco. Because it didn't do well, these games are Japanese only. Although that'll probably change soon.

[Special K 0]

I actually think Der Langrisser WAS an official translation, only released in Europe.

 

This is the real reason people liked Vandal Hearts:

Three second blood geysers any time you killed someone! It's an inoffensive strat RPG. Anyone who says it even compares to FFT is on crack.

I thought Vandal Hearts II sucked.

[AndrewTS 0]

About the only thing I know of is its drawn by the same artist, Satoshi Urushihara (of Transformers, Plastic Little, and Legend of Lemnar fame).

 

Wow, talk about vastly different works.

 

While we're at it, the real reason anyone liked Plastic Little:

 

 

Bare breasts and softcore lesbian anime porn galore.

[Lightning Flik 0]

As far as I can tell Langrisser and Growlanser are seperate games. Unless there's something on a Japanese site (since I don't know kanji, and hence can't read) I don't see anything similar besides artist.

[Special K 0]

I'm on crack. It's a fantrans, and one of the story branches doesn't work. I PM'd you nonetheless, Flik.