Bleh. I talk about the Popolocrois games too much, I know... but I just wanted to bestow praise on a really unique RPG battle system that never made it to America.

I've recently started playing Popologue, the second game in the Popolocrois series, and the battle system is definitely one of the most original I've ever encountered, and there's soooo much meticulous detail used for it, it's unreal!

To start with, the dungeons in this game are randomly generated, but all landmarks (including treasure chests) remain in the same spots. Very nicely done, and it's actually WORKED INTO THE PLOT, amazingly!

Enemies randomly appear in the dungeon, but battles don't take place unless you touch one -- and then, any enemies on the screen at that time, wherever they happen to be, are your enemies for this battle.

But wait! If you should run from battle, the enemies don't vanish... no, no, they're still around, and they'll CHASE YOU DOWN!! (: And sometimes enemies will run from battle, too, and if you choose to, you can chase THEM down, too -- and they retain whatever damage was done to them before they ran!

As for the battle system itself, it's mostly cool, but with a little bit of annoying in it as well. You ARE Pietoro in this game... anyone else who's in your party is a hired mercenary. Hired mercenaries act with computer AI ONLY, though you can give them a "plan of attack" (i.e. don't use magic, hack with disregard for life and limb, etc.)... but each character has his/her own personality, and will often suggest an alteration in his/her plan of attack mid-battle. Lazier characters or characters who are "burned out" on battle will often suggest "Do nothing" in this case. (: And if you wear down your mercenaries too much, they'll start to rebel -- so you need to either give them vacation time or use tranquilizers on them!! (: And any mercenaries who are not currently in your party can be sent on scouting missions to anywhere you've been already to gather experience, gold, and treasure for you, which takes about 10 minutes real time.

And, according to the FAQ I got for the game, there is apparently an item you get later on (something of a mind control device) that finally lets you take control of ALL of your characters. (:

It's done pretty well, and I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before... it's such a shame this series will never see the light of day in the U.S.!

-Tom

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Well, I finished FFX a few days ago, and have started DQ7. Once I get done with that, I'll move on to Chrono Cross or Wild ARMS 2 and then the other of the two, and then... (Yep, I'm backlogged in games...)

Anyways, here's my notes on them:

FFX: This game starts out badly, but gets better the farther you go. Near the end, the plot twists wildly, and makes for a nice non-traditional ending... Many of the new features they include are actually really well done, with the Sphere board making growth a more organic process, and appealing to power gamers such as myself, while keeping you from obtaining said power without *really* working for it. (Yes, I shall obtain *all* the skills! Mwahahaha!)

However, the game is *way* too linear, until about 3/4 of the way through, and at that point most of the subquests and mini-games open up. But you wouldn't know it, in most cases... Some of the things you have to do to get the various super-weapons and extra summons are so completely inexplicable that you just never realise that you can get them unless you grab an FAQ. And if you don't, you won't realise that you'd better do certain things right the first time! I came *really* close to missing out on some neat stuff just because you don't know when you're going to finish a Trial...

Mini-'games' were mostly tortuous experiences. I really disliked Blitzball, and the Butterfly Collection, Cactuar Catch, and the mandatory Ice Spike area before the end boss suffer from lousy controls, bad camera, and/or getting snagged on path curves... Strangely, the most addictive thing for me was the mind-numbingly repetetive Monster Catching for the Arena. And if you want a challenge, that's the place to go. Don Tonberry is *evil,* far worse than any of the end bosses! And I *beat* him on my first try! Most of the Arena creations are *much* worse!

Battles are more strategic in general, with Wakka being the most crucial to success, with his high accuracy and long range abilities. Yuna's summons are arguably *too* powerful, as I can name several battles where I simply summoned Bahamut and killed a supposedly menacing boss in a single blow.

DQ7: I'm not even to the job section yet, but this game is sort of growing on me. Let's get the bad out of the way first...

Graphics: Okay, I'm not a stickler for graphics, but I get the feeling that the designers weren't even *trying.* Character sprites range between FF4 overworld quality and FF4 battle quality. FF6 sprites kick their butts. The menu was ripped straight from DQ1. Yes, the 8-bit Nintendo game that was most everyone's intro to console RPGs. The 3D maps are... servicable, as are the battle system graphics.

Game controls: Well, other than being non-configurable and set completely bass-ackwards compared to every other game in existence, I can't complain. Much.

Pacing/Plot: It takes a couple of hours before you run into any monsters or real quests. Until then, it's 'Kiefer leaves the party,' so go home, sleep, find Kiefer, and he rejoins. Repeat ad nauseum.

Reading the manual's description of the Job system is what really made me want to play, tho'. Customization looks really cool, and I can't wait to get a hold of a monster's heart and learn it's class!

Battles are much more difficult than most RPGs, which could be considered a good thing. Currently, if one of my characters dies in battle, I just reset the game, since it's costly to revive them, and I'm basically assured of death, because if four can't hack it, how can three? I got killed by a treasure chest last night... 3 guys in one battle died! In-battle ressurection is *not* available from the beginning, unlike FFX, where I got Phoenix Downs from monmsters on the first island.

Why the heck am I reviewing these? Well, I kinda consider them both to be fairly decent games, tho' not the best I've ever played... But neither is really engaging at the beginning. I know I was disinclined to give either a fair shake...
FFX's subplots are fairly entertaining, even though the main plot is "Ya ha ha! Huge end boss is screwing everything over! Kill him!"
Tidus' later revelation is fairly akin to a certain revelation in Okage, although distinctly different, at the same time. DQ7 looks pretty much like "Ya ha ha!Huge end boss has already screwed everyone over! Go back in time to fix stuff and kill him!" but is still pretty intersting for the middle part. I've just begun the town-building stuff.

-GMW-

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What's so bad about DWVII's battle system graphics? Some of them almost look like paintings to me(and they're actually 3d and can rotate)

..And the job system is great. I've already gotten to the "intermediate" jobs. I can't wait to get to the "advanced" ones like Godhand or Hero ;)

-rpgking

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Out of clutter, find simplicity. -Einstein

Final Fantasy X: what depth? I admit I didn't finish the game, but that's because I COULDN'T... I refuse to play any games in which I have to FORCE myself to play them in hopes that they get better. And FF10 turned me off right away. The battle system is cool, there's no doubt about that... but the characters suck (Tidus is an idiot, Yuna is a ditz, Lulu is just mean, Auron is needlessly mysterious, and I just didn't really CARE for any of the others, though at least Wakka seemed to have SOME semblance of a personality)... the story was utterly inane and boring to me... the soundtrack is among the least impressive in the series (WHY, *WHY* did they choose to split the soundtrack among 3 composers, two of whom weren't very good to begin with?), and the graphics, while very detailed, are distractingly low-resolution IMHO.

Basically, I just couldn't bear to play it any longer. The characters bugged the crap out of me and the story didn't intrigue me at all. It may get better, it may not get better, but frankly, I don't care: part of the charm of any story is in its storytelling, and FF10 is NOT a well-told story -- because well-told stories have GOOD BEGINNINGS, which FF10 is severely lacking in.

As for Dragon Warrior VII, I admit I didn't give the game a fighting chance... I got stuck in the first town. Yes, that's right... I couldn't figure out how to progress past the VERY FIRST TOWN. My stupid father in the game keeps telling me to go "clean the deck or something", and I've talked to EVERYONE in the town, and done virtually EVERYTHING I can think of (multiple times over!), and still the plot refuses to advance. After an hour and a half of this, I just plain gave up. (:

-Tom

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OK, I can understand most of that...

Sorry to say, but in FFX, the characters don't get much better. At the end, you have a little more knowledge of what drives them, but there isn't much change. But your main point, that it needs to have a good beginning for you to be interested in the end, stands.

And mind you, I'm not saying that it was the best game in the series, or the most fun. I still like 9 and Tactics the best, for their fun sidequests/interesting characters, and high level of strategy, respectively. 7, 6, and 4 fall in there somewhere, and X is much more fun than 8, despite having less fun games and sidequests. I just wouldn't go so far as to call it godawful, and find certain facets of it to be very well-designed.

As for DQ7, it speeds up a *lot* once you get out of the first area, at least up to the Clockmech area, which is where I'm at currently. To get past that spot in DQ7, you need to enter the ship and find Maribel. (she's behind a bunch of barrels, trying to stow away)
Once that's done, you can head off the ship and let it leave.

One of the problems in the game is that a *lot* of areas are like that. 'Find someone, talk to them, find someone else, etc, etc, etc.' in order to advance the plot. Usually, it's more distinct in it's advice, tho'. :)

-GMW-

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