Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@Ralizah Aha! Glad to hear you're able to see it in a new light! I do agree about inherent problems in NSMB as a whole, but glad to hear you're able to see what I was saying about U (still looking forward to having it handheld soon!)

I still don't get what you dislike about SMW...but maybe you'll come around to that one too someday I do agree that in 1993, after I loved SMB3 and beat it like 8 times (which was a feat back then since the game had no save battery....you had to do the whole thing in one shot...I'd leave the TV on all day long....and those TVs really couldn't take that ) the cape felt...weird. Somehow Mario sprouting a ringtail and thus being able to fly seemed normal but wearing a cape and riding a dinosaur seemed weird. "How could Nintendo betray me like this?!?" But I loved it almost immediately after.

@BusyTressa That's why FFXIII simplified the game system to "Press A", and FFXV just went "well, screw this RPG thing, let's just do whatever Hideki Kamiya's doing but add EXP and angsty teens."

@darkfenrir @Ralizah It's weird, I actually really like Dragon Quest's art style, but hate Dragon Ball's art style. (And seriously can the dude ever do something without the word Dragon in it? )

@readerragfihs Hah, I'm used to dissing FF games....I just happen to love 9. If we want to turn "unpopular opinions" into "holy crusade against heathens" I could talk FFVII.........

Yeah, I do agree on long loading times, though I haven't seen an FF game yet other than maybe XV that doesn't have unbearably long loads. XII-Zodiac, X, XIII....they're all terrible. I do agree about unwinnable story bosses wasting healing, and I REALLY agree with Triple Triad.

For me, especially with FF (let's face it, who plays FF for the gameplay? FF gameplay has NEVER been particularly good in ANY iteration. It's all about the adventure, the pacing, the "feel" for me. IX has the characters, locations, pacing, feel without ever feeling bogged down in minutia the way VII, VIII, or X gets you can kind of sit back and enjoy the trip. And the story is concise and coherent. Unlike the beloved VII which never comes close to making sense after they FREAKING TAKE YOUR HEALER YOU LEVELED UP 1/3 THROUGH THE GAME. That's like taking away your starter Pokemon at the 4th gym.

It's a mixture of lovable characters, memorable, unique locations/events/scenes, a great exploration journey. The story never takes itself too seriously, unlike most of the FF's from VII onward, and the story doesn't get lost in its own lore and/or careen into incomprehensible nonsense only the producer can vaguely make sense of. It's a stragight forward self contained adventure journey with interesting people to interesting places where interesting things happen, and wonky gameplay elements rarely get in the way of enjoying it. Comparatively VII has great for the time gameplay that didn't age well, and one of the worst story arcs in the history of gaming (that still makes no sense even with all the pre-sequel-fics.) X is pretentious beyond imagining (and still loses its way in story telling into the incomprehensible.) VIII is just....weird...and forgettable. XII is actually good but plays like a Bioware game more than FF, XIII is...I mean do we even need to go there? The pretentiousness of X, with the nonsensical storytelling of VII, and all the epicness of Quake 2. (III-2 & LR actually fix most of that though...) And XV is basically an open world action game.

I guess IX took a lot of what was good about 1-6, added the narrative/character elements people loved about VII and moved FF back to...you know...fantasy...rather than weird sci-fi for no real reason.

I agree entirely with you and @EvilLucario though. FF is a story telling adventure. The gameplay is bland at best (actuall FFXIII has horrendous story, but some of the series' best gameplay later on.)

But, for RPGs, while I don't want gameplay to be boring or frustrating, I almost don't care about gameplay. It's about the journey. Games like SaGa and even to a leser degree Octopath bore me...it's just about battle grinding non-stop which is not particularly fun at all....the RPG is about the trip from A to B then to C...turn based battles, as their own end, are flat out boring, like playing cards. They can be addictive if they don't drag on too long. And all RPG bosses drag on too long (Octopath....) I'd rather grind more trash mobs and have fewer dmg sponge bosses. Etrian is well made but an utter snooze fest to me. Though I do love DQ, far more than FF, as well, as it balances excellent gameplay and excellent adventure journeys and characters.

@NEStalgia That naming sense is probably stuck to him forever now (and who doesn't want Dragons everywhere in their title of game anyway, it adds a lot of coolness /s)

But yeah, I've always wanted to pick up stuff like Blue Dragon or something, but the moment I saw that art style I just went "uuuuuuuugh" and really don't want to because if I'm going to stare at something, at least it needs to be something I like! _(:"3

@NEStalgia I agree with Octopath, found it too grindy, the storys were ok, but I couldn't even pass the first of the Second Chapters because all my characters except my main were too low, and I don't really have the patience nowadays to grind out EXP as I used to.

But FFVII had a massive storyline, and true the healer gets killed (if you didnt know that where in the world have you been? Ah, too young to remeber it coming out probalbly), but because of the versatility of materia anoyne can be the healer. I can't wait for that game to come to the switch.

FFVIII was even worse than that, after leveling up one of your characters learning her back story, all the heart ache, because she wasnt from the orfanage you cant take her through to the final battle, WTF!!! Her limits and weapons were the best out of all of them, and the stupid getting paid every so often which depended on you answering questions about the game. Gah i found that game a mess.

I also loved FFIX all the fantasy stuff and the steam punk flying machines were great. The kind of cartoony style was amazing and another on the list to get when it comes out.

@NEStalgia Yeah, I'll probably give World another chance later in the year. I'll get to the end, come hell or high water, and judge it definitely from that point. I have a bad habit of just dropping games I'm not enjoying right away, which is why it took me years to actually get back to Twilight Princess HD (and NSMBU, for that matter).

The cape was hard for me to control, and it looks odd. I like the squirrel suit, though. It feels like a fusion of the cape and the tanooki suit.

Ghost houses are still frustrating.

The bosses are better than in other NSMB games, but they still suck compared to DKC and YWW bosses.

I've totally bypassed two of the worlds so far. It's interesting how interconnected the map is.

Chrono Trigger.

The gameplay is the reason I and many other people loved FFXII. It's easily one of the best games in the series in that regard.

Funny story: I never used Aerith and resented when the game made me use her at the Temple of the Ancients. The game isn't hard enough to require a dedicated healer, and I'd prefer to have someone who can dish out damage instead.

Also, I ship Cloud x Tifa big time.

So when THAT happened... let's just say that I wasn't devastated.

Yeah I am extremely excited to try FFXII actually. The combat looks pretty good, and if it's like some altered version of Xenoblade's combat (at least from what I heard), I'm all for it. If it hits me on a gameplay level, it can easily be my favorite Final Fantasy.

@Ralizah Finally, you are making sense. Tifa is the best in FFVII :^]

@Bunkerneath Octopath almost got it perfectly. Trash mobs were a joy to fight. But there was little exploration and a lot of "bee-line through a few paths to a boss"....that's the style of that team...they do the same with Bravely....and I dislike it, but at least it's their style. I would still have loved it but the boss battles took forever with the regenerating damage sponge bosses and it's tendency to move in waves of "attack the grunts, attack the boss, store up and recover, repeat". Brevity in boss battles would have made the game beautifully paced but I grew tired of girding for those fights into chapter 3 and lost interest in favor of WoFF, depressingly enough.

@Ralizah The cape looks odd, but it's actually very functional. The gliding, and lift/flying abilities. Especially once you start opening Switches and thus filling in dotted lines to form ramps for vertical wall runs etc....the cape is pretty utilitarian and expands the gameplay. I just missed "furry" Mario versus boring cape guy at first.

Chrono Trigger.
True. But 'dat Dragon Tank.....

FFXII: Yeah, I haven't played through tons of it, but the gameplay definitely feels more on target. FFXIII gameplay is excellent though. IT gets overlooked because the story is so bad, the characters so annoying, and the early game so boring. But the battle system is arguably fantastic. Much as I've hated 13 until recently, I always gave it credit for the battle system.

Aerith: LOL! I never thought cloud x Tifa, it was always Aerith in my mind. And the producer's That reminds me of an old meme about "Tifa did it". I also just learned not to ever, ever google "tifa" and "aerith" in the same search.

I always lean on my healers in every RPG. I learned the habit with Peach in SMRPG.

@NEStalgia 13's battle system is probably my favorite in terms of all the FF's (next to being allowed to swap out party members in X). The paradigms really made you think on your toes alot of the time, which is why I find it hilarious that people insist that "the game plays itself".

@NEStalgia Since apparently I love things that are bad :^[ looks like eventually I'll have to plop down some money for FFXIII on Steam to see what you're talking about. A friend of mine also said the same thing actually, so maybe there is truth to it all.

Also Peach in Mario RPG is literally the most disgusting party member I have ever seen in an RPG. With her on your team, you will never die. It's literally an impossibility to die with her in your team.

@EvilLucario They made some pretty huge changes to the license board system in The Zodiac Age, so I'm excited to see how it'll impact the gameplay. Considering the eventual depth of the gambit system and the cool monster hunting side-quests, I could definitely see you enjoying FFXII more than other games in the series.

And yeah, Tifa is a great character. People like to overemphasize her... um... natural assets, but she's also a fantastic fighter (really dig her final limit break) and a dedicated friend. She saw Cloud through situations that Aerith wouldn't even be able to comprehend!

Also, her slap-off with Scarlett is the best thing ever. <3

@PikPi Yeah, I think the "you can beat the game by pressing A" thinking comes from people that played just long enough until they broke their displays trying to punch Hope in the face....so about the first 5+ hours, before finally giving up and screaming. For that first section the game basically forces you to just mash Auto-Battle non-stop and do little else. Most people probably quit by then and never got to the actual high tension, fast paced battles and never found out the battles get really good.

@EvilLucario LOL! I think that's a must Yeah battles are fantastic, it's just tied together by a dismal story and pacing with annoying characters. It's worth noting that XIII-2 and Lightening returns are actually very good. 2 Fixes most of the pacing problems, and 3 has an all new battle system that's more actiony but still ATB and very good...everyone just hates them and never tried them because of their (justified) hatred of XIII

Peach: So? I don't play RPGs to "make them difficult as possible", I play to use the available systems to make it easy as possible. That's why you're a hero, you're more powerful than the enemy...that's the point of leveling up and gaining godly powers! Artificially avoiding using the abilities the game makes you earn to make it harder for nor reason but to punish yourself doesn't make sense...the whole point of the RPG is to get strong

@Ralizah: Tifa: otherwise known as "Aerith's replacement"

Tifa was there before Aerith.

So she's the original Aerith.

@NEStalgia Well as apparently a masochist, I do love challenge runs. I enjoyed my time doing a level 1 Crono run of Chrono Trigger (but I couldn't be bothered for FF) and will eventually try Dark Souls/Bloodborne at level 1/4 respectively, but yeah. RPGs can be fun both having a power trip and limiting yourself.

@ReaderRagfihs The problem with Gau is that you can grind the Veldt for hours bothering to learn the proper Rage and get the right equipment... or just easily grind Economizers/Souls of Thamasa and just spam dual-cast Ultima spells. Gau CAN be way more OP than the rest, but you need to put in a lot more effort and understand how the Veldt works. Not exactly the case with Ultima spam. Or Quick. Or just raise your Magic block to 128. Or whatever.

Granted Gau does have easy Rages like the Stray Cat, but for other good Rages you need to really grind.

@NEStalgia Aerith tried to muscle in on Tifa's territory and got a sword through the gut for her trouble.

She was there before Aerith, and she was there after. Aerith was a passing part of Cloud's life. Tifa is there for the long haul.

FE/Hyrule Warriors are not as good as other licensed Musō games.

to be fair, neither does Ocarina of Time since it was surpassed basically every time Nintendo made a 3D Zelda. :V

@kkslider5552000 If I could give a thumps up strong enough to show how much I agree with this, my thumbs would break away from my hands and end up flying directly to the sun.

FFVII, despite its niggles, was a true blockbuster. It showed that JRPGs could do huge numbers outside of Japan and, more broadly, demonstrated to a huge worldwide audience the potential of video games to tell ambitious, intelligent, complex, and emotional stories. To this day, it's a unique and ambitious video game whose unique cocktail of elements has never been successfully replicated.

OoT was huge at the time, and is rightfully acclaimed, but several sequels to it have iterated and improved upon almost every aspect of its game design.

Mario 64 is severely overrated. Don't @ me.

@ReaderRagfihs BotW to be completely honest with you. I generally do not like Zelda, and it's very telling of my tastes that my two favorite Zelda games ever are BotW and Zelda II, with OoT as a fairly distant #3 and everything else really lumped into one group of meh.

I honestly can't tell you why since by all accounts I should like Zelda, but I just don't. I tried LttP but I got bored after 6 dungeons in the Dark World and never finished. I tried Wind Waker HD but could barely beat the Temple of the Gods before getting bored. Admittedly I never tried Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, or the Oracle games so I can't really say. I despised Zelda 1... Majora's Mask, Link's Awakening, Minish Cap, and Link Between Worlds similarly didn't exactly grab my attention... something about Zelda couldn't grab me until BotW where suddenly I enjoyed that game so much. It's not in my top 5 games of 2017, but it's still damn good enough to captivate me, a non-Zelda fan.

I tried multiple times before AND after Zelda II and BotW and even OoT (because I at least did enjoy that game a bit) to try getting into Zelda and it just never clicks and it makes me confused because on paper I SHOULD love Zelda due to what it offers, but I just don't.

@ReaderRagfihs Soul Reaver, Okami and Okamiden
Zelda like, not actual Zelda games but I think those were better and Soul Reaver came just a year after Ocarina of Time with superb narrative and voice acting.

Wind Waker is my personal favourite. Right now I'm playing Majora's Mask for the first time and I'm liking it more than Ocarina already. Don't get me wrong, I do like Ocarina but it simply feels basic in comparison to the other 3D entries, and it's nomal that it does since it's the first 3D entry. I think Twilight Princess might be the weakest 3D entry though... It might have been my hype but I found that game to be a chore at many times and not live up to all the waiting.