What are the Hottest New RPGs?

[ArtBane]

Tactics was great of course. The best JRPG I played this year is definitely Persona 3. The whole highschool sim/dungeon crawler gameplay meshed real well. If people missed it Odin Sphere is a great play too. Probably the most beautiful 2d experience you will ever have. If you have a Wii you might as well get Super Paper Mario but it probably is the weakest of the series. I get the feeling they didn't try as hard with that one. And of course there is Mass Effect. People will harp on its technical flaws but that should not dissuade you from playing this amazing sci-fi experience. That pretty much sums up all the RPGs I played this year.

 

[Myrai]

I'm a big fan of Eternal Sonata. It does have it's flaws (Ending to Chapter 3 or 4, I found myself screaming 'Just shut up and die!'), but it's pros completely outweigh.

Amazing graphics
Fun battle systems
City design is excellent (Still in love with Baroque City)
Interesting Story
Excellent sound

The best RPG I personally have played this year.

 

[arcthemonkey]

'Just shut up and die!'

My thoughts exactly.


Oh, and did anyone notice that there was nothing particularly profound or even good about the plot of Mass Effect. I mean, seriously. The twist was silly. In fact, the twist ruined the the story for me. Completely cheapened the Protheans (who I was totally convinced were behind it all, until the ruined everything) and made the villain completely uninteresting.

Gosh, the more I think about that game, the more disappointed I am. Once I found out there was really only one ending, and only like 2 profound ways you can change any major scenes, I gave up on playing through it again. Maybe the will do better on Mass Effect 2.

But Odin Sphere! Yes! I would have liked that game even more if it hadn't been so unforgivingly hard.

 

[Cruelty]

mass effect has ALIEN TRIBADISM

pics or it didn't happen

 

[Marcus]

But Odin Sphere! Yes! I would have liked that game even more if it hadn't been so unforgivingly hard.

Don't you mean if it wasn't so horribly generic?

It's like they spent the entire budget on grade A voice actors, an expert composer, and an entire animation team and then grouped together a bunch of random high school kids with no programming experience to actually build the game.

When I bought it, I thought it was going to be an action/rpg/platformer like Sorcerian or Faxanadu. Instead I got a boring beat-em-up with moderately interesting boss battles. They didn't even BOTHER to change the fucking background scenery!

Grim Grimoire was the better of the two "2D crazy Japanese" games even if it wasn't an RPG. I still recommend that everyone purchase Odin Sphere because A) it's Atlus and they always print their games in limited quantities and B) it's pretty and will definitely make you think twice about 2D animation in games.

 

[Anonymous]

pics or it didn't happen

Spoiler: all sfw but really big

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u215/Surgleh/54kq69y.jpg[/img]
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u215 ... cpucs6.jpg[/img]
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u215 ... ewp92a.jpg[/img]
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u215 ... 0k35g8.jpg[/img]

 

[Marcus]

For anyone who cares, the blue alien race in Mass Effect are asexual and their forms are always female. They can reproduce regardless if their partner is male or female from another race.

 

[Anonymous]

it's still a pretty solid selling point for fifteen-year-olds.

 

[Skyla Doragono]

That... is highly fucked up. I have to buy it now.

 

[Marcus]

Buy Mass Effect because it's a good game. The few 2 second long sex scenes should just be gravy.

 

[arcthemonkey]

I thought all the Asari looks the same, and were all really average looking.

I was actually ACCIDENTLY a lesbian when I played through as a woman. Pshh.

 

[Marcus]

All the Asari look the same because they take the form of blue women... it's genetics.  If a certain race of humans had naturally dominant genes then we'd all look the same too.

 

[Fallofthetyrant]

Mass Effect...
Bioware, Unreal Engine 3, 'nuff said.

I think the only weak spot of this game was the learning curve and sometimes the A.I.

 

[Achantion]

new ? (does 1 yea counts as new ?)
mhhh well , i like star ocean till end of time (we had to wait 7 years before those japs would release it in europa .. :'()
els ..
the port remake of FF1 and 2

 

[Luminier]

new ? (does 1 yea counts as new ?)
mhhh well , i like star ocean till end of time (we had to wait 7 years before those japs would release it in europa .. :'()
els ..
the port remake of FF1 and 2

Uh, those aren't really new... like, at all. Wait, are they new in Belgium? Naw, they couldn't be that far behind with their releases.

Also... why don't you say 'Japanese', instead of 'Japs'. 'Japs' has many negative connotations, and can, and will be taken as a slur.

 

[Diedrupo]

I finally got a chance to play Mass Effect. Holy shit, i've logged 8 hours into the game over just 2 days.

This game is AMAZING. It perfectly merges cinematic storytelling with Elder Scrolls-style sandbox nonlinearity. I actually feel like i'm really there, playing the role of Shepard, instead of just watching him. This is definately one of the best RPGs I've ever played (I'd even put it up there among Wasteland and Fallout 1 & 2 as among the best sci-fi RPGs).

I don't even really pay that much attention to the battle mechanics, I just have so much fun exploring the new worlds and cities and blasting shit. Yeah the NPCs seem to be recycled too often, but I really don't give a shit when the game is just so fun.

Oh, and did anyone notice that there was nothing particularly profound or even good about the plot of Mass Effect. I mean, seriously. The twist was silly. In fact, the twist ruined the the story for me. Completely cheapened the Protheans (who I was totally convinced were behind it all, until the ruined everything) and made the villain completely uninteresting.

That's a silly reason to dislike the game though. It's not the content of the story that matters, it's how the game tells its story, and Mass Effect's game mechanics far outweigh any story or graphical flaws.

 

[Shifter]

I loved Mass effect.  It is flawed someone, the combat was a bit clunky..though it didn't bother me that much.  The AI was beyond stupid...the texture loading was nice that it cut loading times..but it got annoying sometimes.  Most notably in the comm room after the Primary missions..the chairs and walls textures never loaded once...which seemed weird since those were big scenes and all.  The planets..were all too similar and lacking life (which is fine on some planets where there would be no life) but still..more work needed to be done there..a lot more.  All the side missions on planets used the EXACT (this is not a joke or understatement) same maps.  Every Ship you landed on and boarded was the same map...with different decor/layout of crates and such..maybe a door locked on one that isn't on another.  Same for any underground building on the planets..same map just diffrerent layout.  That was pretty damn lame to me..however the story and writing and the conversation system was so impressive..was almost like really talking.  Loved the game and look forward to a much more improved part 2 and 3.

Eternal Sonata also gets my vote..I had the same OMG DIE ALREADY! Syndrome..and this game is the easiest RPG I've ever played..but still..very nice.

 

[Sic Semper Tyranosaurus]

pics or it didn't happen

Spoiler: all sfw but really big

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u215/Surgleh/54kq69y.jpg[/img]
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u215 ... cpucs6.jpg[/img]
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u215 ... ewp92a.jpg[/img]
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u215 ... 0k35g8.jpg[/img]

My younger brother is getting Mass Effect for Christmas, and it's tradition to play with our new toys in the living room with the family present, even if it means toting to SexBox and the Nintendo GameWii downstairs.

What I'm saying is this: Please tell me this happens within the first hour of the game so I can enjoy the sight of my extended family watching hot alien lesbians getting it on.

 

[Shifter]

pics or it didn't happen

Spoiler: all sfw but really big

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u215/Surgleh/54kq69y.jpg[/img]
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u215 ... cpucs6.jpg[/img]
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u215 ... ewp92a.jpg[/img]
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u215 ... 0k35g8.jpg[/img]

My younger brother is getting Mass Effect for Christmas, and it's tradition to play with our new toys in the living room with the family present, even if it means toting to SexBox and the Nintendo GameWii downstairs.

What I'm saying is this: Please tell me this happens within the first hour of the game so I can enjoy the sight of my extended family watching hot alien lesbians getting it on.

Spoiler

No..very end of the game, only before you go on the final mission to stop Saren.

 

[Lisker]

I'm waiting for those star ocean 1 and 2 remakes on the PSP, I already got the legend of eternia and Valkyrie profile ports.