[General Discussion] Your Opinion On Yasumi Matsuno

Originally Posted by Megavolt

I agree with you on Nomura, of course. The Kitase/Nomura combo have done nothing but recycle the anime-inspired style of FFVII, and yet none of their subsequent worlds have been able to achieve what Midgar did, which in itself is a microcosm of what Matsuno is able to achieve time and time again. Nomura does nothing but pander to the lowest common denominator with his overstylized, emo, anime-derivative stuff. FFXIII doesn't pique my interest at all. If other people get excited at seeing Shiva turn into a motorbike, that's their thing.

HEY...THAT'S NOT NICE!

Er, I mean, yeah that's pretty much it.

I think I'd like Matsuno as an anime director much moreso than a game director. I might be at odds with FFT's gameplay, but I liked the way the story progressed.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I've heard mixed reviews on them, but I pretty much stayed away from SRPG gameplay until I got into Nippon Ichi. Now, SRPG's are just such devastating timesinks, I rarely play them (I even forgot there was a Disgaea 2 the other day).

FFT wasn't bad and I enjoyed it from scenario to scenario, but I found it extremely limiting and the time consumption didn't seem to add up to success later in the game. Then there was the bullshit at the end of Chapter 3...

There's nowhere I can't reach.

And what other significant SRPG's were around between FFT and Disgaea (actually, I started at La Pucelle, then did Disgaea)? Yeah, hardly any. Fire Emblem was out in that timeframe as well though and Ogre Battle 64 was out of the question (no N64).

Also, I prefer the humor of Nippon Ichi (although Pucelle gets pretty serious at one point in the storyline and the ending is less than cheers and beers) to the deep, political struggle of FFT in any case.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

So, uh, what exactly is wrong with Nippon Ichi? FM3 didn't interest me at all (both the aesthetics and the fact I wasn't in love with the SRPG gameplay when it came out) and I barely count the other two as being available (I don't think they had translations and having a computer that ran SNES ROMs at any decent speed was a pipedream until a few years ago).

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Well, like I said, I didn't see SRPG's in a positive light until after La Pucelle (I had zero expectations going into it), so the mere existence of such games doesn't really mean much. Shining Force had the unfortunate fate of being released on the Genesis and I was firmly on the SNES side of that war and Shining Force III was released in very miniscule amounts, eluding my hard earned money with relative ease. I actually did own Dragonforce at one point ($35 during a Saturn liquidation!), but like Tactics, I found it gratingly repetitive and unrewarding the more hours I sunk into it (although it WAS a blast for the first...20 hours or so).

I was speaking idiomatically.

Chapter 3 where Ramza is caught in that fight by himself and you can't backtrack to gain EXP or abilities...Yeah, THAT pissed me off (then the "rush to the NPC" map afterwards was cute as well) Then, after RESTARTING to make SURE I have auto X potions for Ramza in that sequential mess, I started getting fucking mauled in Chapter 4, officially putting the game on the chop block. So it got much worse...I greatly enjoyed much of Chapters 1-3...The last couple maps of 3 and what I saw of 4 were what killed the game for me. Then there was the sobering fact of how much time went into playing it...

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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Kartia, Hoshigami, Front Mission, Ring of Red, Growlanser, Shining Force III, Advance Wars, Dragon Force... off the top of my head. Games largely from 1996 to 2002.

I covered most of those in my other reply. Growlanser was not available in the US (Generations came out in 2004 and is a very sweet package). I didn't mention Kartia or Hoshigami intentionally. I forgot Advance Wars (now that's one I've been putting off forever) and Ring of Red never looked too impressive. Like I said...The EXISTENCE of the games isn't the issue, but my own interest is.

Ironically though, I did play the first 5 chapters or so of Sakura Wars 2 before the Japanese text started to get on my nerves. I rather enjoyed it.

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I wouldn't say there's anything inherently wrong with them. What little I've been able to play seemed to focus more on anime stylings than actual gameplay.

Funny...The gameplay clicked for me around the second or third map and didn't really let up in La Pucelle. The boss fight in the second-to-last chapter was downright exhilarating and I love the way you line up the colored blocks on the maps. I personally liked that one more than Disgaea.

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Gratingly repetitive and unrewarding would be a good way to describe most old school console RPGs. :-P

And a lot of modern ones as well, which is why I play so few of them...What's your point? At least old school RPG's play extremely fast.

My point with Dragonforce is it LOOKS exciting and is for the start, then it dawns on how repetitive and random it is (guys leaving your army for no reason, for example), so the reward of capturing more territory is kind of lost. 20 hours into it, I just couldn't take anymore of the same old, same old...

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This I can understand. The fight in Riovannes castle is a bitch for the unprepared. There's a pretty easy solution for it that most people missed. Like I mentioned above, Ramza's starting class is pretty solid. It has a Speed Up ability. Just use that in the one on one fights and you'll make toast of Gafgarion and Belias.

I like my solution: Design the game right, so I don't have to restart because I can't get out and level the fuck up/change abilities and I don't have to use a strategy guide to warn me the (potentially) hardest battle in the game is coming up!

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Rotorblade

FFTactics certainly isn't the only game to put you in these fucked up situations... nor does it force you to only use one save file.

It's THE most extreme, easily. I mean, if you're careless in a game and you forget to heal or run out of potions or you're underleveled, that's one thing. That's fixable. But no way to save or get away to power-up...no way to win unless you're fully and totally prepared...Never anything that bad, unless it was an optional boss (see: Emerald Weapon). And Tactics is a time-consuming MF to begin with, so that only magnifies the issue.

Uh, yeah...More than one save file...I'll get right on it...Aw shit, back in the days of PS1, I only had 15 blocks of memory and I had to ration them between other games. Tsk, tsk, sorry Tactics. I'm not giving you another FUCKING BLOCK ON MY CARD!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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Honestly, though. We can't be angry at a game because it forces us to try a different strategy from time to time, can we? :-P

Nah, only when it forces a restart of a game I'm 30+ hours into. ;p

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Eh. Keeping multiple save files was pretty much a necessity back in the day.

Nope.

Jam it back in, in the dark.