RPGs you still haven't finished

[Wistrik]

Heh, Ultima ]I['s "Marks and Cards" ... I remember my friend got all the marks and cards, then realized that he had to get the marks on ALL the characters in the party ... boy did that suck!

Poor guy. I had a habit of searching for NPCs to talk to, and it paid off. Rarely did I waste a trip. After the first game most of the replayability was gone, except to see how quickly one could finish the game (fewest turns) and to find the ultimate party. After all, the Exotic arms and armor were always in the same spot, and there was no quest/level check to prevent you from getting them early in the game. All that was needed was to acquire a ship and then sail to the island and start digging. Ultima IV fixed that; one had to be a full avatar in order to gain access to the mystic arms and armor.

 

I really enjoyed the underworld in Ultima 5. It gave me the feeling of being trapped and alone (I soloed most of the game), so it was always a great feeling to finally return to the surface. Blink spells made underworld travel a breeze.

[jaguars4ever]

Was I the only one who got like 20 hours into the game before realizing that Larsa was actually a guy?

[Tigranes]

Same. Especially since Lamont was a pseudonym.

 

Actually, my problem was that I forgot completely about the subtitles option, and got frustrated when I couldn't understand the Judges, Fran, the afro guy - eventually fixed it, and it was no big loss since the plot was so crappily executed, but helped me miss the Larsa bits.

 

Finished the game with my friend's characters just so I could see the ending. I felt that the game was cheated by its own makers; the plot could really have been something special. Dr Cid was an interesting character; Vayn Solidor was totally crap. Vayn's dialogue was stupid and artificial, he had no motivation, no will, no action. If they played upon the "history of man" thing more, and really highlighted the Vayn/Cid faction's great desire to wrest the control of history and destiny from the Gods, if they gave a bit more screen-time to the Undying Ones themselves, if they played more upon the Judges' view of Vayn/Cid's quest, and inserted a healthy bit of moral dilemma (especially progressing more from the very basic Ashe/Revenge thing)... why, it could have been quite a memorable and emotional story. As it is, all those excellent elements are omitted and the player is chasing Item of Power X for no tangible reaso for half the game. It really hurts and the ending appears like some amateur parody of Star Wars or some such movie, and has no real weight.

 

Balthier, however, is cool.

[Tale]

Larsa has some bishōnen, but his voice gave it away properly.

[kalimeeri]

Balthier, however, is cool.

 

He was, until they pulled out the same old angsty hackneyed crap about his family that they used for every other character in the game. It wasn't even funny any more.

 

 

 

I may never beat Final Fantasy XII. I can't bring myself to do it. (Play Magazine, November 2006)

 

Amen.

[Tigranes]

Oh, him being a Judge crap? I sorta ignored it. I mean, I played 90% of the battles by clicking Attack, letting Gambits do it and using the computer. EUIII has a lot of 'down-time' waiting for stuff so that's how I got through it - besides which it wasn't a bad game, just a mediocre one.

 

The ending in the end isn't really worth it - FF has become way too similar to Asian soap drama since 10, well, arguably, since 9. But then elements of melodrama had always been present.

 

Did anybody else think Mist was just a silly watered-down reincarnation of the lifestream?