I’ve never been much into role playing games, or pretty much most video games that aren’t sports related, but I remember really liking FF7 when it came out for PS1 10 years ago. It was one of the only games I actually finished and didn’t give up on, and it was a good time killer for me. I’d like to know if there are any similar games out there for the Xbox.
The only RPG I’ve played so far is Oblivion, and I’m not a big fan of it. I’m not sure if I just haven’t figured it out, or if it may be too complicated or something, but I just don’t really like it.
Any suggestions of games I should check out? Of the Xbox games out there, which are probably the closest to FF7?
If you are looking for a JRPG which it sounds like you are, you can, if you are on XBox Live, look for a demo of Blue Dragon, which I thoroughly did not enjoy and passed on the game. On the other hand, the other JRPG that came out at nearly the same time is Eternal Sonata where the combat can get repetitive, but the story enjoyable (you live in Chopin’s dreams as he is on his death bed).
Check out Mass Effect. I’m playing it right now. It’s the best RPG on 360. Great story and awsome conversation control. Extremely cinematic. Combat is much different than FF7 though, but RPG combat has evolved greatly since FF7 came out, unless you want to keep playing the same stale JRPGs. For some reason Japanese gamers do NOT like change in their games. Most JRPGs use the same tired battle system and same tired stories that have been used for years. Hell, for a prime example of their reluctance to change check out Dynasty Warriors 1 through 78. Besides the graphics they are IDENTICAL.
Dynasty Warriors has its roots in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which were great friggin’ games. They only release those games in Chinese or Japanese now, much to my dismay.
I’ll put a vote in FOR Blue Dragon. I hate anime crap, but somehow I can look past it because it’s just done so damned well. The little details and everything are just done so well. The game itself is great. It’s all the best things of Final Fantasy all distilled in that game. I never owned a Playstation, so I wasn’t playing all the Final Fantasy games that landed on that console, but Blue Dragon hits the right spot for me.
My husband’s currently playing it. He likes it a lot, but has complained that it’s an action/FPS game with an RPG story and controls stuck on top. So it might not float the OP’s boat.
for someone who has played only the one FFVII, i don’t think evolution or staleness is a concern. in fact, i would recommend getting one of the PS (if you want tons of JRPGs to play) and playing all the old FF games but for the OP stipulating an xbox.
What with PS3 out now and all, you could probably pick up a PS2 and all the FF games and Kingdom Hearts I and II used for a relatively low expenditure. You’d be looking at months of FF-y enjoyment. IME, the FF family of games are just similar enough to each other that they should all appeal to you without being so much alike that they’re repetitive.
Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata are the only JRPGs that I can think of for either Xbox or Xbox 360. If you’re just after an RPG though, there are some good choices. It looks like the major Xbox 360 ones have been mentioned.
On the original Xbox you could check out Fable. It was massively overhyped in its day but it’s still a solid title. It’s actually available for purchase through Xbox Live now.
Then you have Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) 1 and 2. They’re RPGs set in the Star Wars universe. KotOR 1 is phenomenal but very different from FFVII’s style.
I love the story, but damn. They somehow made the inventory management and combat menus worse than Knight of the Old Republic. Another irritation is the dialog menus, sometimes the selection menu appears at the end of a conversation line, sometimes in the middle before the character is done speaking. The end result is that if you try and skip through conversations, you inevitably will hit selections you didn’t intend or were the opposite of what you wanted.
But it is definitely awesome enough to outshine the interface clunkiness. I giggle with glee every time I use the ‘singularity’ power.
The “alignment” dialogue options are always located on the same place on the dialogue wheel. Paragon options are always top right, and renegade options bottom right. If you’re just trying to get through the dialogue as quickly as possible, hold your thumbstick in whichever direction and jam on the A button. You shouldn’t ever select something that’s the opposite of what you want.
True if you are strictly “paragonning” your way through a replay. But there are also left-hand side options that unlock important background info unrelated to the primary paragon/renegade choices, all of your charm/intimidate options also appear on the left side. I speed-read the subtitles most of the time, so it’s especially annoying on some conversations where I’ll accidentally end a conversation when I’m just trying to skip to the next menu, forcing a reload to an earlier save to start the dialog again.
Oh, and you couldn’t romance Tali, who has the cutest voice in the history of gaming.
