11/30- 12:00PM EST
Welcome! I'll be taking a few weeks off
after this Q&A to begin Fatherhood
Quest, which of course means that one
Mike Moehnke had to get in at least one more
epic letter before the holidays. I should be
back in 3 weeks or so (likely somewhat
tired). While awaiting the baby, I'm going
to continue cracking away at Elminage
but given its status as a classic dungeon
crawler it will likely take me into the new
year to finish it. Anyway, Alex Fuller
a.k.a. SeverinMira will be running Q&A
in the mean time. You can e-mail him at severinmira@rpgamer.com
and tweet him at @severinmira.
Now then, on to the letters!
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Hey Wheels,
Why is Final Fantasy VI your
favorite RPG?
Your buddy from the great north,
Trent Seely
Wheels
Well,
that is a fantastic question
that I thankfully have some good
answers for. For me Final
Fantasy VI is so great
because it's the complete
package. The music is by far one
of, if not the best soundtrack
produced by Nobuo Uematsu. It
has a bit of everything! There's
fantastic battle themes from the
regular theme to the final boss
theme. It has some brilliant
somber pieces. Heck, it even has
a nice silly piece in the moogle
theme. Then there's the sprites.
The sprites in Final Fantasy
VI just have so many
different animations that give
them an amazing amount of
character. Using the same
sprites in and out of battle
gives the game a very consistent
look. The story is also
incredible, and gives us one of
video gaming's best villains in
Kefka. His laugh is instantly
recognizable to anyone who's
played the game. The cast of
characters is large and
memorable, and each has their
own use in combat. There's also
the great pacing, brilliant
second half of the game where
you explore the destroyed world
while reuniting the party, and
the epic ending that gives each
character a bit of closure.
There's little to not like about
this game. Will something ever
top it on my list? Maybe, but I
doubt I will ever get sick of
replaying Final Fantasy VI.
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Hey Wheels!
Sorry I took a bit longer to write than I
thought I would. I’m studying Web Page
Design right now in college (Going back
after a 10 year hiatus!) and time tends to
get away from me, you know?
Wheels
No
worries! I know how time
consuming classes can be having
just finished up a master's
degree not too long ago. Good to
hear you're back in school. Keep
at it!
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You asked me last time to chime in with my
thoughts on Paper Mario: Sticker Star
once I’d gotten it and played some of
it. Well, I confess that I’m not very
far in the game yet, but overall I do like
it. It’s fun and quirky, and that’s
always a plus, as I like my games to be
unique. Stickers are a nice twist,
even though the inventory management is
driving me nuts. I miss the RPG
elements that they took out badly. I
love my equipment, stats, and XP! At first I
was quite skeptical, almost to the point of
regretting buying the game, but I’m letting
it grow on me and I’m really starting to
appreciate it for what it is: a fun,
whimsical, nonsensical romp through the
Mushroom Kingdom
Wheels
Yeah,
for the RPG lovers like us Sticker
Star can be a bit
off-putting at first. With
gameplay very similar to the
first two games it can be a bit
shocking to find out about the
lack of equipment, levels, and
other typical RPG features. If
you stick with it though, you
realize it is just a good
classic Paper Mario,
with newer and more powerful
stickers being available
replacing level gains and what
not. Sure, it focuses more on
the adventure elements of the
series, but the turn based
combat is still a blast, if
occasionally frustrating when
you can't figure out where to go
(like when I couldn't figure out
how to get to a location due to
not realizing there were
invisible blocks to hit). It's
all good, goofy fun in the end
despite some issues. Maybe not
technically an RPG, but if you
get too caught up in that you
kind of miss the forest for the
trees. I love the sticker
mechanic and haven't had the
inventory management issues
other people seem to have. My
advice is to not worry about it
and ignore most stickers in
locations unless you're running
low. It gets much, much
frustrating when you have more
pages to store them.
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I’ve also picked up my Persona 4 Golden.
Man. That game looks great on the
Vita. I’m diggin’ the nostalgia
vibe. I never get tired of
Inaba. One of the new social links you
can form though...I don’t really get why you
can. Do you know which one I mean?
(Hint: it’s not a resident of the room). I
don’t want to spoil anything but I just
wanna talk about it more with somebody
because it confuses me! Argh
frustration!
Wheels
I've
been enjoying that as well!
Quite a lot in fact as I've
already put in over twenty hours
in a week. The additions are
great, making a brilliant RPG
that much better. I'm going to
go ahead and say that I honestly
wish Atlus had done this on
PS3/Xbox 360. Not because I
don't want this amazing, one of
the best of all time RPGs on the
go, but because I want as many
people as possible to play this
game and that's just not going
to happen on the Vita. Oh well,
maybe they'll at least port it
to PS3 at some point so other
folks can enjoy it? Anyway I'm
getting sidetracked. I'm
guessing you're talking about
the "Joker" S-Link? If so I've
actually only just started that
so I'm not sure where it's
going. I was just as shocked
that this was one of the new
ones. Anyway, hit me up via
e-mail or twitter and we can
have a spoiler-filled discussion
when I get further along!
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It’s always a pleasure to write to you
Wheels! I have to go now, as finals
are fast approaching and I have some coding
to finish up. Maybe a little more time
at Junes wouldn’t hurt though...Nah gotta
study. Later, my friend!
Valim (Who’s knowledge just increased!)
Wheels
Haha,
good luck trying to stay away
from Persona 4 Golden!
This game is insanely addictive
Anyway, please write back in
after your finals! I would love
to discuss Persona 4
some more. Good luck on those
finals!
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P4G GOTY 2012 Y/Y????????
-fbm
Wheels
There
is no doubt that Persona 4
Golden is my game of the
year! I can't get enough of this
game. I hope after this next
year gives us news of Persona
5. It's been four years
and after seeing how great this
entry can be I am very excited
to see what Atlus does next.
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The Goggles They Do Nothing
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Mr. Brass Wheels, is it?
I know you're just dying to have some
content, and I'll oblige!
Wheels
I AM BENDER,
PLEASE INSERT GIRDER
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Have you been playing Code of Princess
at all? As a fellow Guardian
Heroes veteran, I know it had to spark
at least some interest in you!
I can't claim its dialogue has the same
goofy charm as Sega's silly translation back
in 1996, but it pretty much delivers in
terms of combat.
Wheels
I have played it! I pre-ordered it
as soon as I found out that it
shared some developers with Guardian
Heroes. Granted the game isn't
perfect (and you're right it isn't
quite as silly), but the combat is
an absolute blast and it is filled
to the brim with extra content to
enjoy. It even has full online play
which is a nice touch. It's not
quite as deep as I was hoping it
would be, but all that matters is
that it's a fun game. I hope they
get to make more games like this.
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Sidebar: did you play Advance Guardian
Heroes at all? Despite not
thinking it was all that great, and that its
sound quality provided one of the worst
cases of the GBA mangling audio, I still
played through it perhaps a dozen
times. I can't really explain why
except that its method of gaining new
characters through the points not used to
beef up your current one addicted me for
quite some time.
Wheels
I did actually pick that up at some
point (and even have a sealed copy I
found somewhere for insanely cheap)
and I did not care for it much. I
remember there was some point early
on in the game I kept getting stuck
at. I could never really get into it
and the audio did not help! Maybe
I'll give it another try at some
point.
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Tales of the Abyss still
baffles me with its completely unnecessary
and artificial length extension.
Honestly, I thought it was going to do a
little epilogue for awhile (remember Lunar:
Eternal Blue's? Boy, that was
rare even now) and instead got saddled with
the villains magically reviving so that I
had to kill them all over again. On the
other hand, I must be a Motoi Sakuraba fan,
because his score for that game held my
interest all the way through.
Wheels
Yes, this was Abyss'
greatest failing. I don't know what
the developers were thinking when
they decided to artificially
lengthen the game when it felt like
it should be at the end. Still, it
speaks to how much I liked the
characters and gameplay that I stuck
with it until the end. We RPGamers
love long RPGs but not when that
length isn't justified. The
soundtrack is quite fantastic; some
fresh Motoi Sakuraba tunes helped
with the final bits of the game.
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Oh, one more thing: did you get a FFIX
flashback when Luke does something pretty
much identical to what Dagger did?
Wheels
I did (note: I never left her name
as Dagger that I can recall)! I
think Dagger's moment is better of
course but Luke's character growth
through the story is interesting.
Once you realize his past him being
an annoying brat for so long makes
sense.
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Oh, even one more thing: Jade is my favorite
character from the game. He's only old
by the standards of JRPG cliche, but his
cynicism is exactly what I love to hear.
Wheels
The game simply would not have been
the same without Jade. I have to
give major props to whoever did his
English voice as well. He did a
marvelous job.
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Something's wrong... there have been no more
reports from you about progress in Super
Robot Taisen: Original Generation!
Precisely where did you leave off in your
playthrough? It was obviously before
the showdown with Bian Zoldark in his
intimidating Valsione, but was it before
Ryoto joined your team?
Wheels
Yeah, that kind of fell by the
wayside by the end of the summer.
I'll try and get back to it soon (I
forget exactly where I was at) as I
am in the mood for some tactical
goodness. Keep pestering me about
it!
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I hope you weren't planning on maxing all
your robots and pilot statistics out with
one play, because it can't be done.
Gotta go with New Game + repeatedly to
accrue more and more cash when starting if
you really want to do that. Four plays
of Original Generation 2 still left
me with tons of things to do, and I started
with about $4 million for #4.
Wheels
I did not plan that! I'm not one for
completionist stuff like that, so I
what sweat maxing everything out.
Maybe I'll feel different after one
playthrough.
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Dearie me, you've been without a connection
challenge for too long. Let's fix that
by linking Moby Dick (1930) to Summon
Night 4!
Wheels
I have a great idea. Let's save this
for Alex's Q&A stint! That will
be fun.
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Prognosticate! Will Project X Zone
cross the Pacific?
Wheels
Though my predicting abilities took
a hit with the second DS Fire
Emblem not getting localized,
I'll still take a stab at this. I
don't think there's any chance of it
coming out in the US. I just don't
think any of the three publishers
involved in the project have any
interest in trying to push a
cross-over tactical game in the
west. I think it could do decently,
but I would expect us to miss it.
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Okay, for a quick Shadow Hearts
nugget, look at this picture and see if it
reminds you of anything. Does that
seem at all reminiscent of a certain Fox
animated superhero from the arthropod
family? Or am I just seeing things?
Wheels
I'm not sure, it doesn't seem to
ring any bells for me.
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What that has to do with the actual game is
that the protagonist gains the ability to
fuse in battle with various creatures,
costing him nothing and gaining access to
different abilities and elemental affinities
depending on the fusion. He can only
have three choices per battle, which sucks,
but it makes him quite versatile.
Wheels
Sounds similar to switching between
Personas, insaley similar in fact
given that you also get the
elemental affinities. Generally you
have access to more Personas but
this still sounds very similar.
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Another character has an ability to make a
heavy pan drop out of the sky onto the
enemy's head, complete with Looney Tunes
sound effect. This is definitely a
unique game. Ah yes, when we talk about Shadow
Hearts the Judgment Ring must be
mentioned. You don't have awful
reflexes, so it shouldn't be a problem for
you to consistently hit a spinning mark to
perform battle actions. Here's the
thing, though: if you screw up (and it'll
happen every now and then) you don't do
anything that turn. Gotta hit the
Judgment Ring right if you want to pull
anything at all off, from a physical attack
to using an item. Since I don't play
defensively (for a reason I'll mention
shortly) I don't know if this is required to
successfully defend, but it might be.
Wheels
That sounds pretty funny! The Shadow
Hearts series didn't seem the
type to include a lot of humor. The
judgement ring always sounded like
the selling point of the series for
me, and I'm still interested because
of it. I just wish the games weren't
so damn expensive.
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Apparently the Sanity Point statistic
carries over to the following two games,
also. It's pretty simple: every round
in combat drops your SP by one, and if they
hit zero your character goes Berserk and
cannot be controlled any longer. Not
much of an issue for random enemies, but
bosses tend to have enough HP that SP
replenishment will be required if you don't
want to lose someone to madness. As for the
history of the first game, I really didn't
think the Austro Hungarian Empire was so
backward that citizens of Prague would be
casually dismissive of 'some Asian village'
being destroyed. I also didn't know
Shanghai was pretty much obliterated in
1913, did you? Nor did I know Prague
is actually about where Munich is located on
a map (having been to both, I probably would
have noticed). Maybe I just wasn't
paying attention? Yeah, that's gotta
be it.
Wheels
I'm guessing they didn't quite do
enough research when creating the
game? Strange. When you use a real
world setting you'd think you'd want
to be accurate, right?
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I keep bringing up Level-5 despite not
really having much experience with the
company. Is Rogue Galaxy
something I should seek out? Aside
from it and Dragon Quest VIII and Ni no Kuni
I'm running a blank on other output of the
company that isn't called Dark Cloud, though
a quick Google search would doubtless
refresh my memory. Or I could leave it
to you. Yeah, I think I'll do that.
Wheels
Well, as for the worthwhile output
you've got most of their big titles
there. Above all other games Dragon
Quest VIII is undoubtedly
Level-5's finest work and is a
must-play. Rogue Galaxy is
an interesting little Action RPG
that is worth checking out as well.
It can get repetitive and boring at
times but not enough to derail the
game completely. Avoid the White
Knight series at all costs. If
you ever get a PSP the SRPG Jeanne
d'Arc is another one of their
best games. Finally there's always
the Layton series but I
sadly have no knowledge of their
quality.
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Can you find a way to put Humphrey Bogart
into an RPG? Probably! Let's
hear it!
Wheels
Rat Pack the RPG, in which
you play as the various famous
members of that group in a fictional
historical setting where they
entertain by day and go on Oceans
11 type heists by night.
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Suikoden II. I didn't care for
the new army battles, finding them
time-consuming and usually concerned only
with waiting out a required number of turns
until the fight automatically ended.
The translation does lack a lot, but at
least I understood it almost all the time,
which is more than I can say for many Square
games of the same era. Having said
those things, I enjoyed it much more than
the first. Did having ZcDohl (so named
because of the localization bugs and my
naming the hero in the first game Zorro) on
my team warrant spending time with the
original game? Not necessarily, but he
did make pounding down everyone in Highland
Castle a joke.
Wheels
Well, at the very least I like the
ability to import a save and get a
bonus if you completed everything in
the first game. It might not be
much, but it keeps the feeling that
you yourself have made changes to
the game world. I agree with you on
the new army battles, they were a
bit lame. Still they provided what
they needed to in terms of
emphasizing big story moments. If
Konami ever finds it in its black
heart to remake this game I hope
they completely redo the army
battles.
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Did you choose Kasumi or Valeria? My
not doing something quite right, just before
fighting with Jowy one last time (watch me
avoid spoilers for something that actually
caught me by surprise!) made me glad to have
an earlier save to see how both
worked. Not that either has a huge
effect, but Valeria survived a lot better
for me.
Wheels
I went with Kasumi. I forget the
reason why, but that's who I went
with. I never went back and did it
with Valeria so I'll have to try
that on a future playthrough!
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Apple sure changed between games, didn't
she? From being essentially a
groupie-wannabe, she turns into a
strategist. Must've been an eventful
time in her life.
Wheels
She had ... OTHER aspects change as
well but yeah things did change in
the three years between the two
games. Listen to the upcoming RPG
Backtrack to hear me make a really
awful pun about Apple.
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Oh yes, those damn glitches occasionally
didn't make me happy. Annallee had a
surprisingly affecting plight, and then
she's become mute when it comes time to
listen to her sing. Stupid Konami
localizers, that was supposed to be a moving
moment.
Wheels
Though they don't break the game in
any way, I'm still annoyed these
issues are in the game. I wonder if
they are the reason that Suikoden
II hasn't showed up on PSN.
Then again I'm not sure it even made
it onto the Japanese PSN!
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I don't really know WHY Neclord had to come
back, but at least he's gone for good after
this game. Maybe so Sierra could be
introduced?
Wheels
I would imagine so. He's kind of an
odd inclusion in the game's story,
and I feel like he's a bit out of
place. That said, there's some good
moments involving him so at the most
it is a very minor complaint.
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Also, Lucia comes close to setting a record
(not among JRPGs as a whole, but maybe
within the Suikoden series) of
being whaled to a pulp and getting up with
no lasting harm done. Counting army
fights, I think I beat her senseless six
times, yet she didn't show a bit of
wear. Ai yi yi.
Wheels
A testament to one of the issues
with RPGs: people seemingly left
mostly unharmed after battles using
sharp weapons and devastating magic.
It works with the story but when you
really think about it, it's very
wonky. Kind of diminishes the final
Luca fight when you think you
actually spend more time beating up
Lucia and she never seems much worse
for wear.
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Now, you for some reason haven't played Suikoden
III, or so I am given to
understand. This makes discussing
things both in text and verbally in the near
future very difficult. I'm going to
anyway, though.
Wheels
I haven't because I just haven't
gotten around to it yet. It has long
been on my to play list and once I
finish my current playthrough of II
it is highly likely I will quickly
move on to III. I may jump
to V but we shall see!
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Viki shows up comparatively late in the
game. That sucks for one main reason:
it takes longer to walk around in 3D than
with a 2D overworld. It makes her
eventual appearance very welcome though.
Wheels
Well at least she does show up. I
can't imagine how slow it would be
if she never showed up at all. Does
she still misfire teleports? The
first time that happened to me in II
I didn't even realize it had. I just
thought I selected the wrong
location!
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When you do finally play the game, see if
Hugo's rage comes across as senseless or
not. I understand it, sure, but it
made him seem rather like the 12 year old he
is and less like someone I want to be the
Flame Champion. His mom is Lucia, and
she definitely seems to have cooled down her
temper in the 15 years between games.
Wheels
I will let you know, is it a problem
with the story itself, or the
localization do you think?
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One definite plus in this game is the skill
system, which I loved. You won't get
Emily until fairly late in the game, but her
abilities using the skill system often let
her attack seven or eight times per
turn. That's definitely someone I want
on my team.
Gosh, I can't talk too much more without
probably making you bury your head in the
sand. Go play it, won't you?
Wheels
I will! I promise. You'll probably
see me tweet about it once I finally
fire it up. You don't have to do
much convincing to get me to play
some Suikoden.
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Have we ever discussed Skies of Arcadia
and it being awesome? If not, here's a
fine opportunity to do it!
Didn't it seem like the purple and yellow
Moon Stones came a lot easier than the
massive struggles required to net Red, Green
and Blue?
Wheels
I think we may have, but seeing as I
haven't played it quite yet I still
wouldn't know. I have GameCube
version ready and waiting whenever I
get the urge to play it. I've said
I'm saving it for a rainy day.
Perhaps another 7th Dragon
being announced that's unlikely to
come here will convince me to fire
up a classic Sega RPG?
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More fun with connection challenges!
Link L'Atalante to Lunar Magic
School!
Wheels
Get ready for this one Alex!
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Having never experienced Baldur's Gate
II, should I be enticed by this
retooled version coming out very soon?
Wheels
I have and Baldur's Gate II
remains my vote for best PC RPG of
all time. That game has an
incredible story, great voice
acting, some of my favorite D&D
locations, and even avoids the
pitfalls of many Dungeons and
Dragons based games by
starting you at a higher level.
Sure, you can import your character
from the first game, but with extra
classes available you may be happier
making a new character. Truly it is
BioWare's finest work. Please do not
skip this game. I might even suggest
skipping the first game! More D&D
based games need to realize that low
level adventures don't translate
well to the video game world.
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I enjoyed Sword of Vermilion
initially, only to despise it with the heat
of the sun by the time it came to an end far
later than the developers would have done if
using all of their brains. From braindead
regular battles that I ran from consistently
near the end because I had reached the
maximum level and could profit NOTHING by
fighting, to idiotic boss battles that did
look good for 1989 but allowed you all the
controls of the worst fighting games circa
the period (you can duck and attack, all
while facing in one direction! That's it!)
the combat sure made me unhappy. It's not
like a Genesis RPG in 1989 with bad combat
would be countered by any other aspect,
either (Phantasy Star II got hard,
but at least its battles were interesting).
You probably sampled it at some point,
didn't you? Let the bad feelings out so
everyone can empathize and assure you it
will never happen again.
Wheels
I sampled it seeing as how it's
shown up on classic Sega
collections, but didn't play it
anywhere near as much as you did. I
got out while the getting was good!
I'm not sure what they were thinking
with that game. It just is not very
good! Looking at some bad Sega games
I'm sometimes amazed at all the
great games they were able to
produce.
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Are we up to Dragon Age in its third
incarnation already? Do we count any
of the expansions or whatever they were to
the first game as separate titles? I
really don't know, I haven't played the
things. It could happen sometime
though.
Wheels
No, we wouldn't count any the
expansions as separate, none of them
were quite that elaborate. Honestly
the series should really only be at
the second entry by this point. As
much as I liked Dragon Age 2,
it lacked a lot of the depth and
choices that made the first game so
fantastic. I don't quite get why EA
and BioWare rushed it out so
quickly. Surely they could have just
done some more expansions to the
first game while taking their time
with the follow up. At the least I
am glad to see they seem to be
taking their time with the third
title. I hope it ends up being far
better.
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Is there a reason you've skipped Etrian
Odyssey 2 thus far? I haven't
played any of the series since my desire for
old-school dungeon hacks was sapped by The
Dark Spire. That may be
different now, but at the time I was in no
mood to sample even something more
modernistic than an early Wizardry
derivative.
Wheels
There's no big reason at all
actually. I had just finished up the
first game before the third entry
came out so I decided to jump right
to that one since it had a brand new
setting and new classes while Etrian
Odyssey 2 still closely
resembles the first game. You really
should try the series as it is night
and day between Etrian Odyssey
and Wizardry clones. The Etrian
Odyssey games do a great job
taking the conventions of the old
dungeon crawlers and applying them
to a more modern template. The games
are no cake walk obviously, but
unlike many similar games the
difficulty comes from actual
gameplay challenges, and not archaic
interfaces and mechanics. I highly
recommend the series!
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I'm going to assume you read my Paper
Mario: Sticker Star review, because my
words are awesome and deserve to be
experienced by everyone possible.
Apparently my stance, ebullient early-on,
did not match your own as I progressed
further. Is your experience as
uniformly positive after proceeding deeper
into the game as it was at the first rush?
Wheels
It is still more positive than
yours, though at times I've gotten
annoyed when I can't figure out
where to go. Some of those times it
has been my own fault, but at others
I just needed a little bit of help
and a certain stick companion had
nothing to offer me. I'm still
having a good time and haven't
gotten sick of the battles yet. As
much as liked Super Paper Mario
it is good to have a classic styled
Paper Mario to play again. I
doubt I'll enjoy it as much as Thousand
Year Door but that is an
insanely difficult game to top.
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Uhhh - this probably takes me back to the
days when Matt dreaded my letter
length. Should give you plenty of
material, though!
JuMeSyn
Wheels
Thank you sir! I always enjoy
responding to one of these long
letters so never fear about sending
them in. Let me know if you give the
Etrian series a try!
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See you all in a few weeks, and make sure to
pester
Alex with questions (I sure will)!
-Wheels
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What I can't wait for:
1. Soul
Hackers
2. Etrian
Odyssey IV
3. Monster
Hunter 3 Ultimate
4. Atelier
Totori Vita
5. Ni
No Kuni
On my Playlist:
1. Green Day
2. Queen
3. Less Than Jake
Hot Topics:
1. What is the Dragon Quest spin-off?
2. Will we ever see a 7th Dragon game in
English?
3. What is the best Tales game?
4. If THQ goes under will anyone save
Darksiders?
5. What RPG series would you like to see a
non-RPG made out of?
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