Appreciating the unappreciated

[NeoFighter5]

. . .first of all, can any one tell me if i spelled those words right?. . .that's right, im too lazy to check off a dictionary so im making you do it. . .if you feel like it. . .

ON SUBJECT:

. . .ever notice some ppl only like certain types of games?. . .may be you are one such person?. . .anyways i just wanted to say that if you ever feel like playing any other game that is not, say, a jrpg (more on this later), a shooter, or a racer, you have to open up so you can enjoy it. . .for example, i get the feeling that most of you here are mostly rpg gamers. . .there are many great games out there that are not rpgs and do not have deep plot lines like ff or kh, so you have to first tell your self "im not playing this game cuz it has a great story, but to enjoy its other elements". . .

say you want to try out halo (an avarage game in my opinion). . .you should know that 1) its story is very brief and shallow and 2) its strength is based on other aspects, namely game play and multiplayer. . .

say that instead of halo you want to try out a game like forza motorsport or gt4. . .those are pretty hardcore racing games (yet high profile games in their genre), so unless you are patient (or a car enthusiast) you wont like it. . .if you want a fun, more causual racer a better choice would be something like need for speed or the burnout series. . .all of those games are clearly not story-based (on most cases), so if you want to try them out you have to know where the fun of the game is. . .

. . .let me give you an example of a game that you might have actually played already: the mario games. . .dont look for story on this games, cuz there really is none. . .yet the damn gameplay is so much fun you wont miss sad scenes, crappy humor, or annoying characters. . .another similar game is Shadow of the Colossus. . .the story is so very simple you could very well forget about it half way through the game. . .the charm of this game is on fighting one big boss after another. . .you will be too busy having fun to notice there is no story involved. . .

now, so far it sounds like im talking to all you who cared only about the story line. . .but there are those ppl who dont care about story lines. . .if there happens to be one of you here, here's my advice: lay back and enjoy the ride. . .games like ff are very diff. from games like midnight club in that the focus of the former is to tell a good story and give players a chance to take part in it or even help shape its outcome, whereas the later mostly just gives an excuse to allow players to race, shoot/kill, or fight and have fun while your at it. . .when you play a game like ff7 think of it like a movie that you help move along or shape, where you help beat the bad/good guys instead of just watching the hero/heroine do it. . .so, again, enjoy the ride. . .

finally, it seems ppl who play jrpg's forget abou the western rpg's (this is what i have noticed from ppl in ff and kh forums). . .i bring this up cuz i dont understand why. . .i have played my share of ff games and even taken a shot at kh (which no matter what i try, i just cant stomach. . .a sad thing given that i own all three games), but i dont see a great difference from, say, mass effect and gran theft auto and oblivion. . .granted, lesbian sex, hidden porn and the more mature settings are not common ocurrance in the jrpg's but the elements of a basic rpg game are there. . .so why the hate?. . .

. . .anyways i hope this encourages you to try your hand at other games that may be you have been wanting to play for some time and havent cuz they are not your style, or to try some of those hated shooters you all know you want to love deep inside. . .and there is always a first time for everything (positive) anyways, right?. . .

[Kaoru Hitachiin]

Yeah... I notice that mostly with some of the more juvenile FF fans... (not to mean any offense to anyone) Y'know... The types who worship FFX and onwards (and throw in FFVII, which they didn't even know about until Advent Children) and shun the classics FFs which they have never even attempted to play.

These are the same people who play no RPGs outside of the FF series and proclaim the series as 'the best RPGs EVAR'! To which I disagree and claim that Shin Megami Tensei and Fallout are better.

I, myself, stick mostly with RPGs (Japanese AND Western) and THE BEST FPS's. However, I'm also a fan of Burnout, Dance Dance Revolution, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Guitar Hero, and Mad Maestro.

[Terminal Est]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Hitachiin

Yeah... I notice that mostly with some of the more juvenile FF fans... (not to mean any offense to anyone) Y'know... The types who worship FFX and onwards (and throw in FFVII, which they didn't even know about until Advent Children) and shun the classics FFs which they have never even attempted to play.

These are the same people who play no RPGs outside of the FF series and proclaim the series as 'the best RPGs EVAR'! To which I disagree and claim that Shin Megami Tensei and Fallout are better.

Spoken like a god.

I know nothing of Fallout, but I love the Shin Megami series, and allow me to throw the Shadow Hearts series in there as under appreciated and overshadowed by sucky overrated crap.

[trish01chiu]

that is true..

some gamers stick to the games they played and announce it as "the best game ever.." and will not try the other games and say "lol i dont want to play that game.. <insert game here> is better" eventhough they have not played it yet..

gamers should open up to other games as well.. coz you might discover that there are other games that are better than the games you played....

[Kaoru Hitachiin]

Originally Posted by trish01chiu

that is true..

some gamers stick to the games they played and announce it as "the best game ever.." and will not try the other games and say "lol i dont want to play that game.. <insert game here> is better" eventhough they have not played it yet..

gamers should open up to other games as well.. coz you might discover that there are other games that are better than the games you played....

True. I haven't even played Fallout and SMT until these past two years. But what I have learned from them is that just because a series isn't too well-known (Fallout, for example, hadn't gotten mainstream attention until Fallout 3 was announced under Bethesda) it doesn't mean it's not good. As for individual RPG titles, people should also check out Planescape: Torment and Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura.

Just a little tidbit about Fallout... As a kid, I saw my friend's dad playing Fallout Tactics, and it looked rather interesting... However, being too young, I couldn't play it. I was just recently able to acquire Fallout 1 & 2 after years of craving to play them. And they didn't disappoint.

[JET73L]

Fallout 2: on of the few PC games I used to consistently like when
i played it (disc eventually broke)
Shin Megami: Have not played. Wanty to.
Shadow Hearts: Loved the one I played the demo of.
FFX: Liked it. My favorite FF, but probably just because it was the first PS2 and Final Fantasy game I played, there are better games.
FFXII: i didn't much like it. It was a good game, quite likable, cool if annoying battle system, I just hated having to get through the beginning enough that I'd rather level up 1/2-1.5 levels at a time than restart or level grind more than two or three marathons.

I do hate when people say "I'm won't play _______ because _____ __ is better," whether they've played both games or not. And I am careful to say "_____ Is probably the best game I have played," or "... the best game amongst (group or genre), in my opinion."

[Terminal Est]

There was this cool game I was playing for a while...Zookeeper. A Tetris like game, where you line up three or more of the same animals to make some points. Inevitably, you can make combos and chains, which is key to getting a good score.
You also get a special slot like roulette thing, which deletes one kind of every animal on the screen, depending on which one you stopped on. Very random and rare, but useful.
And as well, the points you get rise with every board; board 1, 10-p, board 2, 20-p and so forth.
However, the screen never ever clears, once you cancel some animals, different ones appear right away, and you have to clear a certain number of specific animals, they tell you which ones and how many at the start of every new level, before moving on to the next board, which makes it different. The key is to NOT clear the demanded animals, and keep making points with other ones...however you have a time bar, and if it drains, you die. It fills up every time you clear something, and once it is at max, you points augment, so there is some challenge, and strategy, if you wish for a good score.

It gets extremely hard in the later levels, as the time bar drains faster and there are less possible combinations.

And it has no story; you are a petty zookeeper, and once you are Game Over, a judge sends you to prison for life for sucking at your job.

Japanese people are weird, but this is a very cute and addicting game. I do not know if it is unappreciated, but we do have a nifty DS version here. This is a very old arcade game, apparently. Only complaint is, the sound is very aggravating.

[Zotar]

sounds an awfull lot like Bejeweled.

[Terminal Est]

Bejeweled is fun too; depending on which version, anyway...I like the "round" version, the original one gets damn tiresome-and you can only die once there are no more combinations, nowhere near as intricate as Zookeeper.

[Zotar]

I wouldn't know.

Sister Termie, could you link us to this game of which you speak? ( If it is downloadable that is.)