What Game Did You Love When You First Played It but Can't Play Anymore?
- Thread starter ThatNickGuy
- Start date
All I need is Taaaactiiiiics ...
Which is funny considering the potential grinding in FFT if you want to build your party properly for the late-game/sidequests.
Thinking on it, FFVI was probably the first FF to really push grinding if you wanted to be powerful. With FFV you had two Jobs per character at most to worry about, plus character level. FFVI you had to have nearly the entire party at a reasonable level for the final dungeon, plus Mog/Gau needing special attention for their skills, plus the Esper system, PLUS sidequests for weapons/bonus characters/etc.
I never really thought about how fucking huge FFVI is until now.
Thinking on it, FFVI was probably the first FF to really push grinding if you wanted to be powerful. With FFV you had two Jobs per character at most to worry about, plus character level. FFVI you had to have nearly the entire party at a reasonable level for the final dungeon, plus Mog/Gau needing special attention for their skills, plus the Esper system, PLUS sidequests for weapons/bonus characters/etc.
I never really thought about how fucking huge FFVI is until now.
7 isn't much better. Grinding out Limit Breaks, then getting each Level 4 Limit Break, plus their special weapons... plus any end game materia you wanted. It's just that leveling curve was much smoother in 7 than in 6.
Yeah I figure VI was the first to really start the trend of the more heavy-handed grinding. Limits in VII are still, to me, absolutely the worst thing, almost as annoying as Draw but definitely as boring to grind.
I think the most punishing, though, is IX's ability-through-equipment, in that you had to purposely gimp yourself in old gear if you didn't sit and grind out abilities before upgrading, as you had no idea when you'd see abilities repeat on newer equipment.
Oh yeah, that could fuck off. I hated that. Not as much as Draw from FFVIII, but yeah.
I wonder, has anyone tried beating the game with the absolute minimal amount of characters? Basically, how many you have by the time you get the airship?
I've thought about that. I'd be really interested in seeing how the ending went.
It's three: Celes, Edgar, and Setzer. Yes, it's doable... mostly because Setzer is broken with Offering/Genji glove/Fixed Dice/Dice, but also because Edgar's tools are broken as fuck. But you have to grind massively.
figmentPez
Staff member
Back in the days of the 286 processor I used to love a game I remember as Space Quest. Why can't I play it now? Because I can't even find that it exists, because it's not that Space Quest. It wasn't by Sierra.
Here's all that I remember about it:
It was all first person perspective, with 4 color CGA graphics.
You had to kill a guard to get a gun.
Use the gun to kill the guy with a laser sword
Use the lazer sword to kill a big alien/dragon thing
Before teleporting from the space station to the planet below, winning the game, you had to use the bathroom or you'd explode when teleporting.
Here's all that I remember about it:
It was all first person perspective, with 4 color CGA graphics.
You had to kill a guard to get a gun.
Use the gun to kill the guy with a laser sword
Use the lazer sword to kill a big alien/dragon thing
Before teleporting from the space station to the planet below, winning the game, you had to use the bathroom or you'd explode when teleporting.
More grinding?
Godzilla: Monster of Monsters for the NES. I played this as often as I could when we got the NES. It was the first game I ever beat, and I was so damn proud of myself. I'm even more proud of little me because I tried watching a Let's Play of that game last year and it was just a slog. Bosses cheat, you have to fight them again every planet, the levels repeat, and you have to do them twice, with both Godzilla and Mothra. There's certainly nostalgia there when I look at it or hear the music, but as with Final Fantasy, I don't think I'd have the patience to go through it all again.
I don't mind doing things repeatedly if I'm having fun doing so. I never really found the traditional Final Fantasy battles fun; they were just an obstacle between me and experiencing the story. With Tactics, every battle goes different and I can do all sorts of silly, fun things. I loved going to some of the higher plane battles with all my characters having Ignore Height, than just leaping way up to the top and raining arrows and magic on enemies that couldn't reach us.
That said, it's long overdue for an update, and I doubt I'd feel like doing all the side quests again if I played it now. And that game was big-time guilty of needing a guide, to the point that the guide was insufficient. There were so many hidden weapons, items, armor, on maps you could only visit once. Really, Deep Dungeon and the secret characters were easy. There wasn't a point where you couldn't go do them once they became available, but if you missed a chance to steal a certain boss's weapon? Too bad, it's gone forever, and it was really good too.
That...sounds really familiar. You're right, I don't think it was Space Quest, but that sounds REALLY familiar.
Right but no FF past IV really needed grinding. IV only needed it if you wanted to slap around the minibosses guarding the items in the last dungeon, and really in V you could swap everyone's job once or twice and be set. VI didn't need it, but you'd miss out on a lot of the game if you just blew through it (also the broken as fuck Invis/XZone made the game basically ezmode).
Ah, the joys of the Genji equipment.
This kinda saddens me to say, but Just Cause 2.
I'm a huge fan of the game. Seriously, every time it went on sale on Steam, I'd post messages here gushing about how awesome it is, and how everybody should get it, and it'll replace your need for sex and/or porn for the foreseeable future.
Recently I fired it up again, and... well... I got bored. Basically all you do in the game is fly/drive around and blow shit up. That's the purpose of your character in the game, indeed the very plot of the game is that you need to blow shit up. The map is massive, but all you do in that huge area is blow shit up.
It's a one trick pony. Granted, it does that trick quite well, but still... after so many other open-world games where there are greater varieties of things to do, Just Cause 2 seems boring in comparison.
I'm a huge fan of the game. Seriously, every time it went on sale on Steam, I'd post messages here gushing about how awesome it is, and how everybody should get it, and it'll replace your need for sex and/or porn for the foreseeable future.
Recently I fired it up again, and... well... I got bored. Basically all you do in the game is fly/drive around and blow shit up. That's the purpose of your character in the game, indeed the very plot of the game is that you need to blow shit up. The map is massive, but all you do in that huge area is blow shit up.
It's a one trick pony. Granted, it does that trick quite well, but still... after so many other open-world games where there are greater varieties of things to do, Just Cause 2 seems boring in comparison.
In before....
Well, you did have to grind the fuck out of your chocobo breeding to get KOTR, so there's that.
For me, there comes a point in most recent final fantasy games where the sidequests for the really awesome stuff become too much work, and I stop playing, and I never finish the game. "Hey, you need to beat this monster in the arena that can OHKO every party member that isn't totally optimized. And you have to do it 10 times, to get an item that's not available in any other way, to use in crafting this other thing you'll need for doing something else."
Y'know, I don't usually replay my games, there's always new ones coming out after all, but relatively recently, I re-started Breath of Fire 3 and after a while, I just... couldn't. Couldn't really tell you why, it just stopped being fun. It kinda sucks, because I loved that game when I played it through the first time... 
My issue was the game having some of those Point of No Return saves without warning. The one I always remember was the arena, where you have to solo fight a lot and if you weren't prepared you were basically fucked without some lucky dodges.Y'know, I don't usually replay my games, there's always new ones coming out after all, but relatively recently, I re-started Breath of Fire 3 and after a while, I just... couldn't. Couldn't really tell you why, it just stopped being fun. It kinda sucks, because I loved that game when I played it through the first time...
Rare enough to find a game enjoyable the first time, right?
fade
Staff member
I am a man of exquisite taste.Rare enough to find a game enjoyable the first time, right?
fade
Staff member
I say! This book appears to be written in ancient hieroglyphics.
You're holding it upside down.
Ahem. So I am.
I guess we can count out Fade ever playing Left 4 Dead 2 with us again--he's already played it.
And on that note, I'll add Left 4 Dead 1 to the list. I played a ton of it before, but Left 4 Dead 2 introduced so many improvements, and then absorbed all of L4D1's characters and maps, that there's just nothing to return to in the original game.
And on that note, I'll add Left 4 Dead 1 to the list. I played a ton of it before, but Left 4 Dead 2 introduced so many improvements, and then absorbed all of L4D1's characters and maps, that there's just nothing to return to in the original game.
Dave
Staff member
There are two games that come to mind, neither of which I can find. Well, I sort of found one a few years ago, but it didn't look the same as my memory.
The first was called Empire. It was a pre-civ strategy game with a small amount of units - tanks (the only one that could capture a city), planes (20 spaces total flight, if you ended a turn without landing in a city it crashed), destroyers, cruisers, submarines, carriers, and battleships. Basically you played against an AI or another player at the same computer - before the time of online play - captured cities and tried to cover the map. It was a fun time-waster and one of the first if not the first turn-based strategy game for the PC. Used to play this for hours. You could rename all of your ships or planes and the fights were epic. Myself and two friends would play the fights for hours taking turns on the same computer.
The second game I just plain can't remember the name of. It was a space turn-based strategy on the Amiga. Much like the old Space Trader game on the BBS boards (or even HalSpace Traders here), but it was not a trading game, just a conquest game. But this one was actually graphical...well, sort of. It was an Amiga, so the graphics weren't that great. The gameplay was simplistic and the interface was as well. But when I say this was turn-based that doesn't really show the whole story.
Say you have 4 people playing against each other. You take turns entering the commands for your units. Once everyone is done, you execute the round and everyone's turn goes at once! So say you own planet #1 and another guy owns planet #2 and they are close. You decide to send your entire fleet to attack #2...but your friend send his entire fleet to attack #1. At the end of the turn, both planets are attacked and undefended (only defense is having ships in orbit) and is essence just change hands. Or you send 1/2 your fleet to attack #2 and he sends nobody to attack. Suddenly 1/2 your fleet is demolished by his superior force and now #1 is not very well defended.
Now let's add in another wrinkle. These attacks don't just happen. You can attack any planet on the map from any other planet. So you send out scouts that will surely perish, but they'll radio back the number of defenders (if any) at a planet. Scouts can NOT see each other. This is an important point. So you scout a planet, find it undefended, and send a fleet. Oops. Turns out someone else was scouting the planet and sent a BIGGER fleet. EVEN BETTER is that when you go from one planet to another it takes a certain number of turns to get there depending on distance. So that planet you are scouting that has no defenses? Well, you can send your whole fleet there - arriving in 5 turns - and on the third turn a fleet shows up, destroys your scout, and lets you know that you just sent your fleet to certain doom...and there's nothing you can do about it.
Now take this and put 4-6 people playing the same game in a universe with over 100 planets. You get some idea as to the chaos of this game. It was absolutely amazing when it got going. It's the kind of game I've been searching for for forums. X number of people play and can put in their moves. The computer automatically executes everyone's moves at midnight. So at first you can make one or two moves per day but after a time you can play all day making moves. And if you miss a day nothing is really hurt because your fleet is either in transit or guarding a planet. Oh, and planets you own generate a # of ships based on it's production rating. So if you are off for a long time your planets just get better and better guarded.
Those are the two games I'd love to be able to play again. I bet you can figure out which one I'd rather see first.
The first was called Empire. It was a pre-civ strategy game with a small amount of units - tanks (the only one that could capture a city), planes (20 spaces total flight, if you ended a turn without landing in a city it crashed), destroyers, cruisers, submarines, carriers, and battleships. Basically you played against an AI or another player at the same computer - before the time of online play - captured cities and tried to cover the map. It was a fun time-waster and one of the first if not the first turn-based strategy game for the PC. Used to play this for hours. You could rename all of your ships or planes and the fights were epic. Myself and two friends would play the fights for hours taking turns on the same computer.
The second game I just plain can't remember the name of. It was a space turn-based strategy on the Amiga. Much like the old Space Trader game on the BBS boards (or even HalSpace Traders here), but it was not a trading game, just a conquest game. But this one was actually graphical...well, sort of. It was an Amiga, so the graphics weren't that great. The gameplay was simplistic and the interface was as well. But when I say this was turn-based that doesn't really show the whole story.
Say you have 4 people playing against each other. You take turns entering the commands for your units. Once everyone is done, you execute the round and everyone's turn goes at once! So say you own planet #1 and another guy owns planet #2 and they are close. You decide to send your entire fleet to attack #2...but your friend send his entire fleet to attack #1. At the end of the turn, both planets are attacked and undefended (only defense is having ships in orbit) and is essence just change hands. Or you send 1/2 your fleet to attack #2 and he sends nobody to attack. Suddenly 1/2 your fleet is demolished by his superior force and now #1 is not very well defended.
Now let's add in another wrinkle. These attacks don't just happen. You can attack any planet on the map from any other planet. So you send out scouts that will surely perish, but they'll radio back the number of defenders (if any) at a planet. Scouts can NOT see each other. This is an important point. So you scout a planet, find it undefended, and send a fleet. Oops. Turns out someone else was scouting the planet and sent a BIGGER fleet. EVEN BETTER is that when you go from one planet to another it takes a certain number of turns to get there depending on distance. So that planet you are scouting that has no defenses? Well, you can send your whole fleet there - arriving in 5 turns - and on the third turn a fleet shows up, destroys your scout, and lets you know that you just sent your fleet to certain doom...and there's nothing you can do about it.
Now take this and put 4-6 people playing the same game in a universe with over 100 planets. You get some idea as to the chaos of this game. It was absolutely amazing when it got going. It's the kind of game I've been searching for for forums. X number of people play and can put in their moves. The computer automatically executes everyone's moves at midnight. So at first you can make one or two moves per day but after a time you can play all day making moves. And if you miss a day nothing is really hurt because your fleet is either in transit or guarding a planet. Oh, and planets you own generate a # of ships based on it's production rating. So if you are off for a long time your planets just get better and better guarded.
Those are the two games I'd love to be able to play again. I bet you can figure out which one I'd rather see first.
I played SOOOO much M.U.L.E. And Koronis Rift. I'd love to see Koronis Rift made into a functional modern game.
GasBandit
Staff member
Camera pans to Gas Bandit, age 5, playing M.U.L.E., learning basic economics.
"A distant relative passed away and left you a vast fortune, but after taxes, only $100 remained."
A LIBERTARIAN IS BORN
Do you actually have to pay taxes and shit in MULE? I thought you were so far into the frontier you were basically your own government.
Yes and no - you could receive various boons now and then, and the flavor text for why it wasn't more was often "taxes" or "bribes" or the like. "Your family has decided to help invest in your efforts, but after so many people along the way take a cut, you only receive $45". And I think you could get interest-free loans? Like you'd get an amount of money, but you'd have to make it back in x amount of turns or lose?
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, the only government is the "house" during auctions, and while it doesn't charge taxes, it does sort of act as price controls.
No loans that I remember, but he's right about the flavor text. Instead of randomly finding $50, it would say "Your MULE mech won "best of show" at the colony fair, awarding you a prize of $50." The one I got ALL THE TIME was the one of the distant relative passing away, but only getting the small amount that was left over after taxes.
Also, if you were lucky, you could catch the mountain wampus for extra cash.
WTF