WHAT MAKES STEREOTYPICAL JRPGS TERRIBLE?

Well, FF2 (and yes, I mean FF2, not FF4) did have an okay-ish story, but was marred by an unbelievably unbalanced battling/leveling system. Levels didn't disappear, they changed to weapons and spells, as well as HP and MP. I could certainly see the FF2 of today having more fans, since they fixed things up a bit in the remakes.

I can't help but think we should have an FF2 topic in Game Discussion.

Ugh. Shopping! That bloody routine where you get to a new town and you know where you're supposed to go for the story, but first you have to spend 10 minutes or more traipsing around all the shops buying the exact same stuff you've got already except now it's bronze instead of iron. There's no strategy to it, it's totally unsatisfying, all it really does is eat up time before you go to the next dungeon. The only time equipment is even slightly interesting is when you're hunting for everyone's ultimate weapon at the end, in hidden areas and option dungeons and stuff. Every so often you get fun stuff like elemental swords and weapons that only work on undead, where you have to choose which is most appropriate, but 9 times out of 10 shopping for equipment is just boooooooo-ring!

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Ugh. Shopping! That bloody routine where you get to a new town and you know where you're supposed to go for the story, but first you have to spend 10 minutes or more traipsing around all the shops buying the exact same stuff you've got already except now it's bronze instead of iron. There's no strategy to it, it's totally unsatisfying, all it really does is eat up time before you go to the next dungeon. The only time equipment is even slightly interesting is when you're hunting for everyone's ultimate weapon at the end, in hidden areas and option dungeons and stuff. Every so often you get fun stuff like elemental swords and weapons that only work on undead, where you have to choose which is most appropriate, but 9 times out of 10 shopping for equipment is just boooooooo-ring!

Almost any RPG does that including Oblivion, it's not jRPG specific.

Final Fantasy VI is a good example of a game that did shopping correctly.

The reason it sucks in newer games is because it's an afterthought to things like story and graphics.

All the Dragon Quest games are good for shopping as well, but FFVI is a more mainstream example of it done right.

Canuck, I'm certainly not disagreeing with you, but could you provide some explanation as to why FFVI did so well with its shopping?

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Canuck, I'm certainly not disagreeing with you, but could you provide some explanation as to why FFVI did so well with its shopping?

Yeah... I'd like to know as well. I'm playing FF6 right now, and the shopping doesn't seem too special...

Shopping in Dragon Quest games are a PAIN. And so is giving items to your wife in your shop in Chapter 3 of DQIV. Ugh. "I HAVE 99 CAUTERY SWORDS WOMAN! STOP FUCKING TAKING THEM ONE AT A FUCKING TIME!"

I'm only just starting Chapter 4, so I have Hero, Taloon, Meena and Brey (or whatever his name is now).

I remember back in the NES days I played primarily with a party of Hero, Alena, Ragnar, Taloon, with sometimes switching out for Mara if I wanted to do magic damage. Alena had the Stiletto Earrings (attack x2!) and Ragnar had the Metal Babble Sword. Taloon was tripping and telling jokes like a madman.

EDIT:
Why do I remember this?