BodkinDQ

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@Cashews Loving the talk of punk rock- my favorite music genre. It's a coin toss as to who is more influential to the punk scene and the wide spectrum of rock be it the Sex Pistols or Ramones. Both bands made punk on different sides of the pond and rocked way hard. Everything is owed so much to those 2, and I stand by them both as making great music and that they did. Hardcore is great too, love some Minor Threat~

To coincide with what you're saying, it's fine if an artist or game isn't your cup of tea, but to deny impact, influence, and greatness, just cos something isn't your cup of tea doesn't mean something is bad. Example, I can't stand the COD games, but I'm aware they're a juggernaut that a lot of people love. I don't like it, but I understand it's placement in gaming.

@Cashews As a general rule I agree that rpgs are objectively niche and I'll admit that even as a fan. But that's why I didn't go off mentioning a lot of my favorites, cos even while some are popular, they aren't top 10 popular. That's why I mentioned the ones I did, cos all of them have made a huge splash in not just rpgs territory, but gaming in general. In particular Chrono Trigger I would think would have a top ten space...

...glad I'm not the only one who thought not seeing some Mario representation in the top 10 was a head scratcher. Just can't take the list seriously with that in mind.

Most of the games in the top ten aren't my cup of tea at all...

Would've thought I would've saw the likes of golden age rpgs like Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, or FF VI or modern classics like Persona 5 Royal or Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age- Definitive Edition. Love these kinds of games, that top ten I just can't get behind.

Not seeing Mario games in the top ten is ludicrous though. Platforming is my next favorite genre after SRPG/JRPGs, and these games remain hugely relevant to this day. Sitting outside of the top ten... Mama mia.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp Absolutely love the game so far. For whatever reason the intro theme song and some of the characters are giving me major Naruto vibes, love it!

Plan to get these when funds are a little better off, preferably on sale. I know for sure I want to play FF3 at least, I feel it's a very underrated gem of a game.

Just finished Chained Echoes and am currently enjoying the heck out of Advance Wars.

@JohnnyMind I agree. I feel like Sacred Stones (one of my favs) will definitely eventually be ported to NSO. Japan already has Binding Blade verified as coming to NSO. I'm saddened, cos I doubt yet again we'll get to play the OG game, but with official translation.

From what I read of Intelligent Systems their remakes are to go under the moniker, "Echoes" like Shadows of Valentia did. They did say they're really wanting to do an Echoes version of Binding Blade, cos fans really like Roy and wanna see his game. I dunno if Genealogy and Thracia will come first or Binding, but I'm excited to know it's coming eventually.

My favorite video game series of all time, very happy for this anniversary.

Wasn't fond of the guaranteed forced (on 1st playthrough) tutorial that seemed slightly condescending since FE 7 was the first game released in the west and dragged on for many prologue chapters. Very fun game still, but my favorite FE game from the GBA era was Sacred Stones. Phenomenal game I hope gets ported to the switch as well as an actual official translation of Binding Blade.

@JohnnyMind Awesome tastes my friend! She expands more in support conversations, even so much as to reveal her true name and what her final mission as an assassin was. Glad you like her!

Another one I quite liked was Veyle. Cute af and another tragic backstory. Well, I hope you enjoy the rest of the game bud and that there are plenty of characters for you to enjoy.

@JohnnyMind You've always been a very pleasant person to chat with, so pardon the curiosity, but who's your favorite character so far?

Also keep in mind that the poll was done in February sometime in Japan. This means that the game hadn't been out but a week or 2, so most people probably hadn't beat the game yet, which explains the early unit bias to some degree...

...also Japanese love self inserts. A few of the early game characters are actually that popular, but the late game characters have a solid fan base now. Would like to see this poll done again after most people have played it. Would like the see other region's versions to see the differences in tastes as well.

Yunaka is my favorite obviously. She's become my favorite video game character of all time. I love the happy go lucky facade she puts on, but has that edge underneath it all that comes out on the battlefield, cos of her troubled past as an assassin. The tragic backstory, the trying to change her plight, (or stars if you will 🤩) her exceptional skills as an assassin and fighter rather that be in story/lore or in actual combat/gameplay, her compendium of knowledge when it comes to weapons, penchant for acting, ESPECIALLY voice acting, or the fact she takes over as the strategist temporarily on the chapter you get her, just so much to like. I love her from a combat and gameplay perspective, as well as design, personality, and her brilliant voice actress Laura Post.

I've already written an essay on her, but I could go more~

Warms the heart to see not only the passion he has for these games, but the fan acknowledgement and appreciation he has for them. Nice to see a down to earth developer.

Had that sucker pre-downloaded for a week now. No one does SRPGs like Intelligent Systems. Fire Emblem and Advance Wars are my cup of tea in every sense of the word. Finishing up a game right now, but Advance Wars Re-Boot is my next goal to tackle in my backlog. Hype!

Once I finish Chained Echoes, Advance Wars is next.

Intelligent Systems really nail the SRPG formula with their Fire Emblem and Advance Wars series. Only SRPGs not made by them that are comparatively great in my opinion is the Atlus made Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor series, which were fantastic. Otherwise Intelligent Systems are the kings of SRPGs in my opinion. Hyped~

Just finished my 3rd playthrough of Fire Emblem Engage doing a Maddening run. I love this game and wanted to test my steel as a tactician. I'm happy to say I rose to the occasion quite nicely.

I'll be going back to my Chained Echoes playthrough and shortly after will be playing Advance Wars, which I pre ordered.

@SpoonySpoons Very open minded takes on Engage I love it! FFIV is one of my fav FF games, but had never made that comparison, but I can see it! Playing absolute gems of games with Engage and FFX is what you're doing, I envy the experiences you're about to have back to back. I hope you greatly enjoy em!

@JohnnyMind Hey buddy!

I'm thrilled you're playing and enjoying Engage. How fast or slow you play doesn't matter as long as you enjoy the experience. I typically only play one game at a time, but I was in the middle of my Chained Echoes playthrough when Engage DLC dropped and I told people that was when I'd do a Maddening run, so man of my word and enjoying my 3rd run of the game.

@SpoonySpoons Dude, both of those are 2 of my favorite games of all time. Engage is already one of my all time favs. Masterclass strategic combat and amazing, addicting general gameplay. Games just don't get better than it does in my mind. God tier SRPG.

As for FFX, it was my gateway into JRPGs. Game is an absolute masterpiece. Prepare to have the heart strings pulled and gotta love that innovative, awesome CTB battle system.

On my 3rd playthrough of Fire Emblem Engage, this time on Maddening difficulty.

I usually just play games on normal difficulty, but Engage is so fricken good I wanted to test my steel. I'm already on chapter 12 and having a blast. I've adapted quite nicely to the difficulty~

Dragon Quest series holds a special place in my RPG heart. XI S was magical, hope XII continues shines just as bright as it did or as bright as V or III did.

Hyped, can't wait to play the classics again. Looking forward to playing FF III in particular.

Hard to talk about this without spoilers, but man this Xenologue has been fun. Alcryst with his temperament has definitely been cool and intimidating. Nil and Nel are pretty interesting, especially given spoiler circumstances for Nel. New classes seem fun, can definitely see some cool implements for them strategy wise.

Yo Nintendo Life, DLC Wave 4 is available for download now. Been available for about 20 mins.

@AstroTheGamosian I'm painfully aware... Still would be an exciting take.

@JohnnyMind (the games) Exactly what I had in mind, glad you got a laugh~

@AstroTheGamosian Oddly enough, I was kind of thinking the same thing. Like, what if this entire time Mario was actually the antagonist that won, but told his side of the story changing details to make him appear the hero? In Odyssey Bowser being set to marry Peach, but here comes Mario to ruin everything. Again. I think Nintendo should run with an alternate reality like this or like the film you mentioned tbh.

@Duffman92 🙃 Reptiles deserve love too~

She paints the facade of damsel in distress, but ladies and gentlemen as you can see here 2 things springeth to mind:

1. She definitely doesn't need help with skills like that, which leads to the next point-

2. Clearly has a thing for Bowser. Why do you think she gets "captured" so much? Mario is the villain here folks, he don't believe in reptilian love~

Genuinely looking forward to Advance Wars.

Intelligent Systems are my favorite SRPG maker cos of the amazing games in the Fire Emblem and Advance Wars series. It'll be a treat to boot Advance Wars up right after doing my 3rd playthrough/maddening run of FE Engage.

1. XI S
2. V
3. III

The rest of the series I have no definitive order but man, XI S was such a blast to play, an absolute gem of a game. Made me remember why I enjoy gaming and rpgs so much. V and III deserve all the love they get as well. Can't wake for 2D HD remake of Seeds of Salvation. III has a special place in my heart.

@Ashunera84
Totally agreed. If DLC is drip feed slow like usual, I very likely won't pick the game back up just to buy and play DLC. Engage is still fresh, so I'll gladly keep playing and finish the DLC. Rapid fire DLC like this should be the standard in my opinion.

VERY eager to play this. Engage has been a blast to play and the DLC is no exception. Planning for my 3rd playthrough, but wanna see the new story DLC first.

Fanservice was never my cup of tea anyways. I'd rather more focus be put into gameplay and story than distracting things like sexiness, leave that for gacha waifu simulators. Atelier does have fanservice, but it seems modest compared to a lot of current gen games.

That website gonna be huge~

Best indie should've been Chained Echoes, just sayin~

As for Xenoblade 3 getting being the best rpg of 2022, congratulations to it. I personally can't get into the Xenoblade series, but I do understand the appeal.

2022 had so many awesome rpgs. Legends Arceus totally revamped Pokemon and it is just ludicrously enjoyable to play. Legends Arceus should've been nominated over Scarlet/Violet. Also finally getting Persona 5 Royal was a huge asset to the switch and outside of Nintendo, Elden Ring was a smash hit. 2022 was great for rpgs, how does one pick?

Chained Echoes.

This game is surprisingly both nostalgic and innovative. Best indy RPG I've played in a long time. Just got to the part where I can really start world exploration. Very good game so far. Gameplay, combat, and story hitting on all the right notes for me.

SNES is one of my favorite gaming machines of all time, but they haven't released a game I wanna play on it since Earthbound. I greatly enjoyed that, would love Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI to follow suit for the golden age of rpgs, but high doubts of them coming to the SNES player.

First time in a long time I don't have a game that I'm in the middle of.

I'm waiting for the 4th wave of DLC for Fire Emblem Engage to release. I wanna play that, then do a 3rd playthrough.

Also am in a hurry up and wait situation with Chained Echoes. I really wanna play it, but I'm waiting for it to go on sale. Looks fantastic.

Got Octopath Traveler 2 and will eventually play it, but the past quite a few months has fatigued me in the best possible way, releasing game after game I really wanna play. Gonna take a breather before I tackle another long RPG. Prolly just goof around with wherever my nose leads me for now.

Wow, sounds like a really good update in general. Was just expecting DLC, but seems there's more to do now and I'm always looking for a reason to keep playing this game. Looking forward to the skill inheritance update and the item exchange, plus the DLC maps and potential skills to inherit from them. Wonder what all the new inheritable skills are?

Oh well, downloading update now, guess I'll see in a min.

@Bizzyb Glad you didn't take offense, words don't always translate well in writing vs actual speech and some people may think of it as trying to start something, so thank you for keeping an open mind, man!

Anywho, keeping in mind with what I wrote earlier, I've been playing this series for over a decade. Over the past quite a few years, most notably since Fates, the FE fan base has changed immensely. You'll find a lot of old farts like me still prefer the combat focused entries. FE doesn't usually focus much on story, and I'll be objective here, even as much as I don't care for 3H it did have heavy focus on story and a lot of people really liked it.

3H brought in a whole new fandom who do put focus on story, so I can see where your perspective would come from.

@Bizzyb FE didn't always have much story. (Play FE Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and you'll see what I mean) Candidly speaking, FE has never been really known for strong story telling and most characters in the series are one note tropes. (This coming from me, who would argue that Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance had great stories, but this is general consensus amongst the fan base) The gameplay has almost always been the focal point up until 3H, which tried to have more focus on story and the tedious micromanagement that was the monastery.

Respectfully speaking, I much prefer the gameplay and combat focus of Engage, cos 3H for me had so much forced downtime at the monastery. 3H even got rid of the weapon triangle, which has been a focal point of the series since Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War. I've been playing this series for over a decade now and I think there's an unpleasant divide amongst the fan base: older fans tend to lean towards Engage for being more like traditional FE and being innovative enough to add to the battle system without becoming overly convoluted. New fans tend to like 3H more, cos while FE has had social sims aspects for awhile now, 3H put heavy emphasis on it til it was a focal point of the game. 3H fits more in modern molds to conform with other social sim games like say Persona 5.

I agree with @mrMike assessments, and I mean no disrespect to you of course. The series just kind of changes over time then bounces back to it's roots.

I'm excited for all the DLC to get released, cos I wanna do a 3rd playthrough. The combat, maps, gameplay loop, and general focus on strategic elements in Engage has brought me back to my favorite series after how disappointing 3H was to me. I rarely beat games twice these days let alone 3, if that tells you how much fun Engage is. Pretty game too.

Dragon Quest XI S in the top ten makes me happy. What a fun game that reminded of why I enjoying gaming so much to begin with. An adventure I think I may eventually do another playthrough of. Enjoyed the gameplay, combat, story, graphics, and exploration. Beautiful game deserving it's recognition.

Gonna give a shout out to Fire Emblem Engage for getting me back into my favorite series. 3H wasn't my cup of tea cos the monastery segments were such a bore. I like more focus on combat, strategy, and gameplay and Engage just wow'd me big time in all those departments. I feel completely sucked into the role of a tactician in the game and thoroughly enjoy the strategic combat and the more interesting characters like Yunaka (obviously) or Veyle. Think this game deserves more love. When the rest of the DLC is released, I'm planning on a 3rd playthrough. I rarely beat games twice these days, let alone 3 if that tells you anything.

At launch in 2017 there wasn't much I wanted to play. In 2022 I had and (still have) a huge backlog of games that came out that year that were great games that I wanted to play. 2022 best year IMHO.

@Chocobo_Shepherd Exactly. When I first heard about the update I was expecting compatibility with S/V trading, especially as you said, it was supposed to be early 2023.

I have shinies from Legends Arceus and Shield I've saved for this game. Oh well, S/V have been disappointing for me anyways, enjoyed the aforementioned titles more.

Would've preferred transfer Pokemon compatibility with Scarlet and Violet.

@Dr_Corndog Noooooooo! 😆

Wait... There's a soundtrack?! All I ever heard was bicycle music!

I got so addicted to Fire Emblem Heroes (gacha) that I studied the AI extensively and studied builds to the point I could wipe out abyssal maps my first try and reach the highest tier in aether raids. The game was so full of whales and I had to save orbs for months the get fully merged characters. Fact of the matter is people who spend 1000's of $$$ on JPEG's of their favorite waifu/husbando for max merges were always going to have the advantage, so I leveled the playing field by being a master of character builds and AI manipulation...

...I lost so much time from playing real games cos of that crap. On one hand I regret it, on another hand that tactical adaptation has translated quite nicely to real games. It made me realize I wasn't a good as I thought I was before I played FEH. Boot camp indeed. (Glad I beat the gacha addiction though.)

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light. Yes, the OG FE English translated on Switch. Finally got around to playing it years after I purchased the boxed set. It's old, archaic, clunky, and still manages to be fun. Been a fan of this series since the GBA era, so naturally I would play the humble beginnings of it all.