jpfriction
(He, Him)
I played it briefly back in the day but found the battles to be a bit of a slog, pretty common for a PS1 rpg. I should give it another shake with access to fast forward.
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I had a good feeling! Celebrating 40 Years and 108 JRPGs of Destiny
- Thread starter Lokii
- Start date
BoFIV stands apart among its series, its genre, even most media in general, in that its dragons are seldom limited to the kind of winged reptilians that are associated with the term. They are the divinities of its world and thus encompass and embody much of the biodiversity found therein, free of limitations of convention. As true-to-form as the overarching Breath of Fire game template is, there's also a joy in each game in the series stretching its wings for novel creative texture with increasing intensity as the games rolled along.
To me, BoF4 is the pinnacle of the franchise, perhaps of Capcom RPGs in general, and probably my platonic ideal of 32-bit RPGs as well. BoF5 is super interesting and radical and I love it, but I've always wished Capcom took the formula they had with BoF4 and iterated on that. I can't help but imagine how different things in the RPG landscape would have been had BoF4 come out a year or two before, instead of at the end of the 32-bit cycle when popular attention for the PS1 was completely overshadowed by the PS2.
I had BoF IV up at #11, and honestly it might’ve been higher if I hadn’t forgotten so much of it - I devoured it near the time it came out and my memory is hazy. I absolutely remember the insanely gorgeous and expressive spritework though, and also remember being captivated by the characters and story, with probably one of the best “villain’s perspective” segments in gaming. Definitely an all-timer of the particular game-shape that most closely defines “JRPG” for most of our generation.
BoF4 is another I've wanted to try ever since it came out, but never got the chance. I know it just came out on Steam, maybe I should finally pick it up. I should really be keeping track of such instances from this list, there have been so many already...
I don't know what it says about me that I've never been able to finish a PS1 Breath of Fire game. I'm positive I played 4 when it came out, but for some reason 3 and 4 I never ended up playing all the way through. Anyway I just love everything about the aesthetics in Breath of Fire 4. The UI, sprites, camera angles, animations, it's all fucking great. I'm just imagining a new BoF game with reasonable production values and a UI that's as good as Persona 5...
Well it is on sale until the 15th.
Yes. And there's also a sale at GOG but it ends in a day or so.
FelixSH
(He/Him)
This one was not on my list, but mainly because I haven't played it in 20 years. I'm sure, I would still love it. The one time I played it, I tried to get everything out of it, including all the enemy skills. Even then, my motivation to grind to insane levels for the superboss was not enough, but I filled out the fishing book, and got all the fish. Including whales. You can catch whales in this game, with a lure.
The dragon system was a letdown, after the great one from BoF III, but aside from that, I know that I enjoyed it a ton. Amazing spritework, even better than III (though I prefer the brighter colors of that one). I vaguely remember an interesting story with cool themes, but not enough to say anything about it.
Time to replay it, I guess!
The dragon system was a letdown, after the great one from BoF III, but aside from that, I know that I enjoyed it a ton. Amazing spritework, even better than III (though I prefer the brighter colors of that one). I vaguely remember an interesting story with cool themes, but not enough to say anything about it.
Time to replay it, I guess!
Yes, the fishing here was A+, as was the customary village management minigame. Like Felix, my memories of this one are unfortunately pretty hazy, but I do know that I had a great time with it and 100%-ed it. There was a good robot buddy and I remember enjoying hunting for treasure chests by rotating the camera.
Would you mind dropping that in a spoiler? It's been so long since I've played BoF4 that I hardly remember anything about it.
So, Ershin looks like a robot, but is actually a suit of armor inhabited by the spirit of the world-crossing demi-goddess Deis who shows up throughout the series. In the bad ending, Ryu joins Fou-Lu in conquering the world, and the rest of the party turns on him and fights a last-ditch battle… except Ershin, who just defends the whole time, presumably because Deis with her knowledge and experience knows at this point it’s futile and this world/timeline is just fucked.
76. Pokemon Sun & Moon
Game Freak, 2016: 3DS Points: 219 Votes: 6
I’m not a huge Pokemon guy and a lot of the series’ nuance is as mysterious to me as Mimikyu’s true form. Smoon was the last one I played, and for a guy who was never really drawn in by the earlier titles, I appreciated the many ways it freshened up the proceedings and parted ways with tradition. Friends, let me tell you, not being a slave to hidden machines is a godsend.
Looking back now, it's clear Smoon was the first foray into the series’ modern, or experimental, era. Xy may have been the game that transitioned the mainline titles into 3D and a more representational expression of the Pokemon setting, but it still followed the old tried and true Pokemon modes. In contrast, Smoon is as fresh as a tropical breeze. As far as Pokemon games go, it’s a radical departure, abandoning many tried and true, and tired, holdovers from previous generations. Not only discarding QoL-interrupting elements like the aforementioned HM juggling but also things as fundamental as the grid-based environments and the gym-quest structure.
Its biggest innovation, though, is its inspired Hawaiian setting and the concept of regional variants. These aren’t just fun new designs of favorite old ‘mons, but intricately tie into the setting’s historical context and the game’s themes of tradition vs. invasion. Consider the humble yungoos, the Loitering Pokemon. This mongoose-styled monster’s pokedex entries read “with its sharp fangs, it will bite anything. It did not originally live in Alola but was imported from another region” and “it wanders around in a never-ending search for food. At dusk, it collapses from exhaustion and falls asleep on the spot.” And indeed in the late 1800s mongooses were introduced to Hawaii as a solution to the rat population that was so destructive to the islands’ sugarcane industry. However, mongooses are diurnal and don’t hunt during the night when rats are active. Not only did they not solve the rat problem but became an invasive species that to this day threaten native endangered species and are known to attack people. Yungoos‘s ‘Loitering’ moniker now takes on a whole new meaning. And so Alola’s rats have also seen a change. The Alolan rattata is a nocturnal creature, a dusky menace that slinks about at night with no fear of its would-be predators.
This is one of many ways Smoon plays with regional variations to enrich and comment on its setting. The idea of invasion permeates many parts of the game from the minute to the grand, pulling from the history of Hawaii as a place which people arrive at, incorporate themselves, and then witness the arrival of new peoples with new ideas. The quest of Smoon sees the player visiting religiously significant shrines in place of gyms, but the larger story revolves around an invasive group of scientists, who want to preserve Alola, but not nurture it. Then there are the ultrabeasts, literal dimensional aliens that invade the pokedex with strange forms, even by this series’ standards. Even the player character themselves is an invader of the region, moving to Alola at the start unlike the typical Pokemon protagonist who is a native citizen of their region. On the contrasting side of all this is the natural beauty of Alola itself and a celebration of its diverse ecology. And interwoven in this expression of vitality is an idea of family and communion and goodwill that pairs nicely with Pokemon’s traditional sense of bonding and companionship.
What I like about Smoon is that it doesn’t really come down on one side or the other. Communing with Alolan nature is important but so is engaging with the people of the islands, the modernized parts of its culture, the tourists, trainers, and industries. Like Hawaii, Alola is a place where to exist in it is to meet both sides of its culture. After all, ohana means ‘gotta catch ‘em all.’
Thanks. I remembered the first part of that spoiler but not the second.
I assume this won't be the last pokegame on the list. I'll be curious to see how many of them show up.
Also, if we're making Sun & Moon and all these poke-pair games one entry, I'm curious how we would handle the duology Zelda GBC games
Also, if we're making Sun & Moon and all these poke-pair games one entry, I'm curious how we would handle the duology Zelda GBC games
FelixSH
(He/Him)
I would assume, Zelda will not show up, because most people don't consider it a jrpg. Even if I'm wrong, those two are among the lesser played Zeldas - they would have likely already appeared. My guess, at least.
Regarding Pokemon: I loved gen 1 and gen 2, but then fell off. Sun and Moon looked fun, but I think it's not really my thing anymore. But tropical settings are always nice, and I heard about some side quest about a bunch of women with Evolis, who are now old and remember their past, or something? Sounded very touching.
But yeah, can't say anything specifically about Sun and Moon, but if I would play another Pokemon game, it would likely be this one. Just the setting, but also the changes in mechanics (I don't know what they did instead of gyms, but I vaguely remember it sounding interesting). Not needing a HM-slave sounds nice, too.
Regarding Pokemon: I loved gen 1 and gen 2, but then fell off. Sun and Moon looked fun, but I think it's not really my thing anymore. But tropical settings are always nice, and I heard about some side quest about a bunch of women with Evolis, who are now old and remember their past, or something? Sounded very touching.
But yeah, can't say anything specifically about Sun and Moon, but if I would play another Pokemon game, it would likely be this one. Just the setting, but also the changes in mechanics (I don't know what they did instead of gyms, but I vaguely remember it sounding interesting). Not needing a HM-slave sounds nice, too.
I also don't think it'll be relevant, but those are two totally different games that just released at the same time. They have different maps, characters, enemies, items, etc.
The Ultra Beasts on their own would have me rate Generation VII highly, but it's really an embarrassment of riches with such mons as trans sea lion, Vic Viper-but-bug, freaky water spider, predator echinoderm, haunted sand castle, horny harem lizard and others to make it bountifully creative.
i bought moon because i enjoyed xy a lot but it was a victim of Various Circumstances like "i no longer spent 6-8 hours a week riding buses and chilling between classes," and eventually my 3ds was stolen (not with this cartridge in it) and i never came back to it. i do still have the cart though and maybe eventually i'll actually play it. i also liked a lot of the pokemon designs from this generation
Sarge
hardcore retro gamin'
I voted for one unequivocally ARPG Zelda - The Adventure of Link. The others ride that line between ARPG and action-adventure, but for a list like this I left them in the AA bucket. I also didn't put Symphony of the Night even if ostensibly it could be considered an ARPG. (That would have been #2 on my list otherwise.)
The Oracle games would definitely need to each have an entry if they were to show up - two entirely different games, as opposed to the Pokemon formula.
The Oracle games would definitely need to each have an entry if they were to show up - two entirely different games, as opposed to the Pokemon formula.
If I played any post-DS Pokémon game, it would probably be Smoon (I really love that portmanteau btw).
They are companion games that were meant to be played together. There is even a kind of save file transfer system that lets you play the other game as a sequel to the first one you played, and playing them in this way is how you get the true ending to both. It's obviously not a 1:1 exact same situation as pokemon, but I still think you can do a compare and contrast. I was just curious if people would consider them, for the sake of lists like these, to be a singular thing, or if grouping them together was appropriate.
Regulus
Sir Knightbot
I've always wondered if Vikavolt being slow as hell was a nod to the default speed in the Gradius series... gotta use