JNF1985'S PROFILE

Currently Playing:

Final Fantasy 9 & Legionwood: Tale of the Two Swords

How are swords stronger than guns?

How are fists stronger than guns?

How can a sword, a lance, and a toy boomerang (being thrown by a kid who at best is a freshman in high school) bring down what is essentially one of the biggest flying tanks/helicopters I've ever seen with little effort?

Is there a reason behind me being fully healed after every battle?

If there is THREE of us fighting why do we lose if only ONE specific person dies. The other two its okay. But even if the other two are at full HP/MP if that 1 specific person (lets call them the "Leader" of the group) gets to 0 HP its game over.

Why does no one mention two supposedly different planets literally separated by the very fabric of space have the same "animals" just in different colors?

When the PCs are captured (as they always are eventually in a RPG) by the villain. Why don't they strip them of all weapons/armors/items/money and DESTROY ALL OF IT? (Only game to get close to doing this is Chrono Trigger where you have to at least find and fight to get it all back.)

And those are all that I can think of right now. If you did not realize by now but all of these except the last point are from FF 13, it being the last game I've finished and as such are the freshest in my mind.

I'm an introvert. Known it for as long as I've known the word existed, yet everyone thought it was weird therefore I was weird. Now reading this owl blog post and just gonna give it to all those people who said I was weird as homework. It describes me without having to say a word to anyone.

Although on a more serious note. I felt I've grown up and do talk a bit more in social settings and it does help all around. A 100% introvert is not really healthy IMO and they should try to reach the magical 80/20 number. (80% introvert/20% extrovert).

@ OP: You should definitely focus on less characters. The game with the most characters I've played is Chrono Cross at 50. Storyline wise only about what maybe 12 were significant and only about 5-10 characters NOT part of those 12 were okay to use in battles. So at most I felt something for less than half of the cast. Which is horrible.

The next largest cast was Final Fantasy 3 at 16. I cared for the whole cast except Gogo and Umaro. That is only 2 out of 16. Really believe the sweet spot is between 7 and 9 permanent characters depending on the max of in-battle characters and whether or not you can also change out the leader.

If you can give them the same love & care for all 50 as most of the FF 3 cast was given then go ahead. If you are going to give them Chrono Cross love. Then no.

That brings up another question. Are you talking about 50 permanent characters a la Crono Chross or 50 coming and going with only a few becoming permanent party members?

1. In the middle on this one. Save Anywhere does help but just having this doesn't help when you have a major boss battle you cannot beat and painted yourself into a corner. I suggest the saving system in Tactics Ogre. It has a hard save feature for when your in between battles but a temporary save when your in a battle and can start right back from it when you turn on the system again. This IMO works best.

In the case of RM games I would suggest to have Save Points so the player can know "MAJOR BOSS/CUTSCENE BEHIND THOSE DOORS" while the temporary save option will allow them to stop and then start again when they can.


2. I've played RPGs with Random Encounters and Visible Enemies. Visible Enemies work out if you can actually run from them. Alot of them make it damn near impossible. It does help although that you can clear a whole floor and then walk around without issue. But in reality most floors cannot be fully explored without leaving the area going up/down some staircase/ladder which then resets the monsters..so yea...damned if you do..damned if you don't. But I like RPGs with Random Encounters. Thats just me.


3. I would rather see alot more Tree Dialogues which actually affect the storyline and what happens and what you get in terms of missions, items etc. I've seen games have alot of "Choices" but in the end it just changes a bit the NPC's reaction. FAIL! Going to see if my game can incorporate at least some Tree Dialogues with Story Impact.


4. It depends on the sprites and how much they are reused. I hated this in FF 13 with the monsters and the music. Very little originiality and that gets me real angry considering how much money and manpower they had behind this.


5. This gets harder and harder as time passes since even when you create a "Unique" ability someone compares it to a more well known ability so people can understand it better.


6. This really depends on the game and what you are collecting. Although in part without an example I'm kinda left confused as to what you really mean by this. I've never seen a game where you collect stuff and it is not relevant.


7. This is kinda toss up. They are forced minigames in FF 7 which I liked and to me do not take away from the game. Yet God of War III has a small "puzzle" which was like Guitar Hero that I hated and felt took away from it. Also in FF 9 where you had to play their stupid card game THREE TIMES to make the plot move along. Got real annoyed there.


8. Avoiding grinding? The last RPG that I played which I had to grind was FF 13. All the other RPGs I've played I can go through with little to no grinding as long as I fully explore the dungeons/areas/towns and don't run away from any or little battles. I think this is more an issue with the player then the game itself.