Playstation 1 RPGs

[MeshGearFox]

I like how in LoL, if you did a low attack on a flying monster or a high attack on a short monster, the, uh, attack wouldn't hit. Which is something that Shadow Hearts: Covenant did. But not Xenogears. In Xenogears it felt like you could, for the most part, just mash whichever combo had the most X button presses in it and win without issue. No real... strategy. And I recall magic being of REALLY questionable usefulness for a lot of the game.

I wasn't really a fan of any of the BoF games except Dragon Quarter. 1 and 2, and especially 2, I found really broken -- I have issues with spells that are hard coded to just not work, and BoF2 had a lot of these. BoF4 on the other hand... I think they addressed the issue of purposely useless spells, but actual in-battle strategy was still pretty limited because there was always a definite /best/ spell and not a lot of reason to vary from it (Unless I'm thinking BoF2, again). There was a combo system but I remember it being sort of fiddly to work with. And the characters' on-map skills were not terribly interesting. Neither were the puzzles.

And the game also had this weird tendency to throw obnoxious-as-hell minigames at you like BEING A WAITRESS or NAUTILUS RIDING.

idk. I think I remember liking BoF4's combat, but everything else about it felt sort of gutted. I should give it another go sometime. I can't like objectively find a reason for not liking it.

Basically status attacks and debuffs actually worked in the Wild Arms games and I appreciated that. WA2 loses some points in this sense because it's considerably easier than the first so there's less of a need to. WA:ACF loses points in a lot of areas*.

* New characters, but they can only be used consistently in the post game content. Every town has been halved in size. Replaced armor with WA2's personal skill system except it isn't really any better balanced than WA2's and a lot more CENTRAL so the imbalance is more annoying. Translation is somehow worse (and glitches out at times so characters just barf text table artifacts at you). Force Skills were basically removed. Half the magic spells were removed (and they were generally useful spells, so...). A lot of Jack's sword skills were removed. I recall the area maps being considerably more static and there being fewer puzzles.

[Aeolus]

BoF1 was basically DQIV but instead of the good for the time plot, wagon mechanic, and spotty AI teammates it sported demi-humans, transformations, and map skills.

BoF2 was backtrack central and desperately needed both a less arduous experience curve and an earlier means of warping/quick travel. It also needed a final dungeon that wasn't designed by Satan himself. Liked the character designs at least. :shobon:

BoF3 was probably where the series finally came into its own with observable enemy skills and masters. Still needed better dungeon design but the plot and gene splicing made up for it somewhat.

I think I may just end up getting the psp versions of breath of fire 3 and V Profile. I hear they are both pretty faithful

Played VP last year and got Breath of Fire III in the mail two days ago.  VP is out of this world (use a guide, though, maaaay help since in-game is terrible at telling you things) and Breath of FIre III is classic and (along with Kartia) was my first PSX games.  ...you never forget your first,

VP is definitely on the list. Love the style and heard the story is well done. And what is up with Kartia? That sure looks like Terra on the cover.

One thing to remember about VP is that the difficulty setting doesn't work like it does in other games where enemies get harder to kill but instead limits you on how much game you get to play.

[Agent D.]

The difficulty also makes your characters more sucky, don't forget that. Still, better to play on hard, more to do.

[Dice]

^^ Pretty much this -- I don't think I could go back to a "normal" difficulty run.  Some aficionados of the game swear that it's easier to get through the on Hard since the rewards are MUCH better than the extra effort you need to put into the higher difficulty.  Plus the game is good with exploiting tricks (the one dungeon with the crystalized broad is the ONLY place to level grind since you can make enemies respawn without wasting periods).

I don't know about any others here feeling the same way, but the exclusive Hard Mode dungeons are some of the most memorable dungeon experiences I've had the pleasure to play.

And I want Lawfer's weird anime/realism hybrid babies.

*sigh*  What the fuck ya up to these days, TriAce??  I miss you...

[Maxximum]

Word of warning, Legaia is brutally hard and one of the very few games where you have constant money problems. Oh, and it also has random encounter monsters that permanently lower your stats. Its a great game, but don't expect the regular jRPG cakewalk.

[MeshGearFox]

VP is also boring as fuck on anything except hard because you don't actually need to be good at it to play it.

Um... you sort of need a faq to get the best ending in VP from my understanding.

[Champlooz]

I feel like these games aren't getting enough love in this thread:

Star Ocean 2
Wild Arms 1
Grandia

But I kinda love most of the PS1 RPGs.  Definitly the best era for RPGs, IMO even a little better than the SNES.

[Maxximum]

I feel like these games aren't getting enough love in this thread:

Star Ocean 2
Wild Arms 1 <- ?!?!
Grandia

But I kinda love most of the PS1 RPGs.  Definitly the best era for RPGs, IMO even a little better than the SNES.

Really? Its been mentioned at least once on every page of this thread and made it onto the OPs list. How much more attention do you want it to get?

[Pmayo]

It is pretty amazing, all of diffrent Rpgs I have been recomended. RPGs where big money then, so studios where just churning them out, was an exciting time to be a fan. A bad music analogy but, in the 60's The Beatles  (and many other bands) made being experimental and challenging big buisness, so you had all these cool little weird albums coming out, from a ton of bands, and they actually sold well, encouraging more creativity.

Have other games employed the "cut out content on lower difficulty levels" thing? I vaugly remember being upset with a few other games because I could not actually play the whole thing on the difficulty setting I was playing on. I could also totally be making this up.

Also thanks for the advice. When I do get to VP, I will be sure to start on hard.

Just bought Suikoden. Cant wait to finally start getting into this series.

[Champlooz]

I feel like these games aren't getting enough love in this thread:

Star Ocean 2
Wild Arms 1 <- ?!?!
Grandia

But I kinda love most of the PS1 RPGs.  Definitly the best era for RPGs, IMO even a little better than the SNES.

Really? Its been mentioned at least once on every page of this thread and made it onto the OPs list. How much more attention do you want it to get?

Okay, that one maybe got mentioned a lot, but still not enough!! :D It also had one of the best soundtracks of all the PS1 games, imo.

[Agent D.]

Word of warning, Legaia is brutally hard and one of the very few games where you have constant money problems. Oh, and it also has random encounter monsters that permanently lower your stats. Its a great game, but don't expect the regular jRPG cakewalk.

Which Legaia, cuz if you mean the first....I must call shenanigans. LoL isn't difficult by any standards.

[Maxximum]

Which Legaia, cuz if you mean the first....I must call shenanigans. LoL isn't difficult by any standards.

Its been a while, but I do mean the first one. These are the problems I recall having with it, and that was when I used to grind jRPGs like crazy.

[Pmayo]

Which Legaia, cuz if you mean the first....I must call shenanigans. LoL isn't difficult by any standards.

Its been a while, but I do mean the first one. These are the problems I recall having with it, and that was when I used to grind jRPGs like crazy.

It's funny, when I was younger, grinding never seemed like an issue at all, I do not even remember doing it, though I am sure I did, since I got through stuff from the Nes and Snes days. But now it seems like such a chore.

[MeshGearFox]

LoL isn't difficult if you grind. However, I sort of lost the patience for grinding a long time ago.

Surprisingly, a lot of games I recall being grindy actually aren't. I was just dumb and couldn't figure out the mechanics and had to grind to get past everything.

[Agent D.]

I'll say one thing about LoL, grinding wasn't boring, but the big problem came from keeping your items and equipment up to date. Money was always a bit short for me, and my armor was always a bit outdated. But fighting in the game was enjoyable, so I never minded hanging back and smacking a few extra mobs for some bankroll. It was even more fun running to areas you shouldn't be at yet for better enemies and more exp/money.

I wanted to toss another psx rpg out for suggestion...though some may dislike it. Beyond the Beyond. I enjoyed it, though it was pretty damn hard at times. It's been years since I played it though, so I may be a bit fuzzy on my memory of it though.