The greatest games - A Personal list of Neocracker~

[NeoCracker]

Damn you, here is a very brief method of telling you why you are wrong.

1) Yes I exaggerated the Redcoats being unprepared, yet still they were at a disadvantage since the rebels new the land better for the gorilla tactics, and the whole 'not wanting to destory infrastructure' still stands. Both things not applying to Vanderkaum.

2) Maria's arc is not that long. Her arc starts when you learn she doesn't want to fight, and ends 10-20 minutes later when she does fight. And Esmaralda doesn't need to be there. The Story of Kim is told through his Flashbacks, not the existance
of Esmeralda. Really had Krellian not given you Esmaralda back, would anything really be different?

3) Ramsus forshadowing Vanderkaum being an ignorant idiot doesn't excuse his stupidity. Fei being told Vanderkaum was arrogant and old school does not only not indicate just HOW smurfing stupid Vanderkaum is, it doesn't excuse the stupidity of his plan. And I laugh at the very thought you enjoyed 'Vanderkaums story' of being an idiot.

4) Even though I don't think you can justify the plan being good, I won't disagree about Fei here.

5) I will add a quick and lackluster payoff for Gahrf at games end to list of troutty pay offs. And the Death of The Council, who your party never even gets to meet. Or the virus nanomachines of Krellian getting released into the world with you never getting the chance to see the effects. And this isn't so much a lack of pay off, but a pay off to events that never happened with Elly saying 'There was no one with more love in his heart then Krellian'. Was it Elly who said it? It was one of the two.

And I swear to god I'm ignoring any post of yours that even mentions Xenogears again from this point out.

[Wolf Kanno]

And I swear to god I'm ignoring any post of yours that even mentions Xenogears again from this point out.

We'll see if you keep your promise.

1) Yes I exaggerated the Redcoats being unprepared, yet still they were at a disadvantage since the rebels new the land better for the gorilla tactics, and the whole 'not wanting to destory infrastructure' still stands. Both things not applying to Vanderkaum.

The Colonist didn't want infrastructure damaged either which is why they often let the British take over towns and just had the forces retreat, so this wasn't so much a weakness exclusive to the Redcoats, secondly, not knowing the lay of the land is also an over-exxaggeration, many of the British troops had been stationed in the Colonies for some time, and would know the territory as well as the Colonist in some parts.

2) Maria's arc is not that long. Her arc starts when you learn she doesn't want to fight, and ends 10-20 minutes later when she does fight. And Esmaralda doesn't need to be there. The Story of Kim is told through his Flashbacks, not the existence
of Esmeralda. Really had Krellian not given you Esmaralda back, would anything really be different?

Maria's Arc begins when she's introduced to the party at the top of the Tower of Babil, you learn about who she is and meet her in the city where she speaks about the old war and whatnot, Maria's Arc is the Shevat arc because she's one of the dominate figures.

His story is Esmerelda's existence, she is a nano-colony created as a means to restore the genetic ravages that humanity has wrought upon themselves, she takes the form of the daughter that Kim and Elly could not have, so not only is she the hope of the future of humanity but she even appears in the guise of a child symbolizing the hope of an era with abysmal birth rates. Had Krelian just had her disposed of, there would have been no incentive to finish Kim's story and to explore the Zeboim Era. Kim's flashbacks would have fallen flat and the player would have whined that Esmerelda wasn't expanded upon. The whole thing is set-up for her to be important. I'm struggling to figure out what you really wanted out of her.

3) Ramsus foreshadowing Vanderkaum being an ignorant idiot doesn't excuse his stupidity. Fei being told Vanderkaum was arrogant and old school does not only not indicate just HOW smurfing stupid Vanderkaum is, it doesn't excuse the stupidity of his plan. And I laugh at the very thought you enjoyed 'Vanderkaums story' of being an idiot.

Its a story of desperation and hubris, and I felt the writers did a good job of making you both pity Vanderkaum and just shake your head at him. Your inability to appreciate the type of story it is because you feel fictional characters must aspire to your ideal of humanity is your own problem.

4) Even though I don't think you can justify the plan being good, I won't disagree about Fei here.

Victory for me. Though I didn't say Fei's plan was good, and even the game points out that the other characters felt Fei was being a bit stupid but the game also has the Fridge Brilliance of Fei being partnered up with guys used to working with reckless leaders who don't think things through, so I would assume that Maitreya and his forces have a lot to do with Fei not getting killed.

5) I will add a quick and lackluster payoff for Gahrf at games end to list of troutty pay offs. And the Death of The Council, who your party never even gets to meet. Or the virus nanomachines of Krellian getting released into the world with you never getting the chance to see the effects. And this isn't so much a lack of pay off, but a pay off to events that never happened with Elly saying 'There was no one with more love in his heart then Krellian'. Was it Elly who said it? It was one of the two.

I felt Grahf had a pretty good payoff, by the time of his final showdown, you finally know all about him and Grahf isn't facing the meek little Fei anymore but rather the Unified Contact Fei who understood where Grahf was coming from. Grahf realizing his mistakes and realizing that Fei may actually stand a chance of ending all of this nonsense allowed Grahf to try redemption at the last moment and I felt it was a fitting end to him, because Grahf is one of the more powerful stories of the game and I felt it kept the bittersweet quality of his tale.

Fei does meet the Council, and just because a villain shows up doesn't mean he's faced, Revolver Ocelot, Emperor Gestahl, Tseng of the Turks, President ShinRa, and Yuna from BoFIV (who doesn't even get the smackdown he deserved) are just a few major players in their game whom the party never faces off with and only meet.

The Council themselves explains what happened to Cain's acolytes, and represent the question of whether its our physical frailty and finite lives that truly make us compassionate and moral. The Council pretty much explains why Solaris is getting away with all of their inhumane experiments because they themselves say they are no longer restricted by human frailty and its why its so damn awesome watching Krelian prove them wrong as he destroys them. I would say I am pretty damn happy with their fate and would say you're asking for a piece of closure that goes against who and what they represent. They didn't deserve a more spectacular end and the fact I could dislike them enough to say that says the team did a great job writing them.

As for the Nanomachines, you do see the effect, the game transforms most of humanity into wells who in turn transform into the Sereph used by Deus to recontruct its body. Pretty much every random encounter gear battle in Disk 2 is you witnessing the effects of the virus and the game only mentions what it does about a half-dozen times in the second disk. Hell, when you go off to face the Sufal Mass in the remnants of the Solaris Soylent Green system is them showing you what the virus does.

As for Elly's line, I blame this on you not understanding what Krelian's goal was, which I only find amusing because its not terribly different in logic to what Wilhelm was doing in Xenosaga and you can't help but praise that bastard and if we're going to talk about characters with poor pay off and lots of build-up Wilhelm is really more of a poster child of this than some of the Xenogears cast.

Basically, Krelians goal was to end all suffering by forcing humanity to merge with Deus and allow the the Wave Existence to pull them all into the higher dimension where it resides, basically forced spiritual evolution to become one with God, which is a Gnostic concept. Krelian is basically trying to help humanity which is why he helped Solaris but he tweaked the plan to benefit everyone and not just Deus. He pulled a Gendo Ikari, but instead of doing it all for his own self-interest, Krelian was actually looking out for humanity. The final confrontation with Krelian was basically Fei and Elly telling Krelian that he can't just decide for all people and while suffering is not something people like, its still a part of living and humanity has the strength to overcome it. Its all honestly a very nice message if you ask me.


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To comment on non-Xenogears/Tales of topics.

I'm still surprised FFV is so low on the list, not surprised with FFIV, FFTactics also threw me for a loop but you rarely talk about it so I guess I shouldn't be surprised and I will agree the War of the Lions version is the best. Your comments on DQVIII seem about right.

[NeoCracker]

Well, considering I know nothing about your post past the first line, I think I'm keeping pretty damn close to that promise!

Were it not for the fact I'd rather not have two pages of posts one one smurfing game people stopped talking about in this thread quite some time ago I'd continue the conversaton.

33. Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinestrals (SNES)
      I both love and am frustrated by this franchise. The writing in Lufia 2 is wonderful (I don't have the first game listed, I will say it has not aged nearly as well, and would actually end up really low on the list, but higher then I placed Legends of Lore). It comes from the bad position of the company going under and getting bought out by people who didn't feel it was nescessary to explain who the smurf Arek the Absolute was. Pay no attention to the fact he may well be the single most important person behind the events of the franchise, yet we know virtually nothing about him. Yeah, Imma move on before I make an even worse case for this game.

      Regardless of lack of explanation of Arek, you do get the full story presented in Lufia 2. A struggle between the Sinestrals and man about who it is that truly deserves to rule the planet. One of the only games where you actually end up having a kid (There are a few others mind you. ). This game is pretty much full of amazing characters, even the least interesting of which are more intriguing then a lot of games at the time. It's easy to get wrapped up in the fate of these people, and care about the outcome. It's also easy to rally against the villains. While rather clique, the villains fill thier roles wonderfully. They truly feel like the threat the game had been building them up to be.

       Combat is really great, making use of the IP system. You would build up a bar by getting hit, and use the stored energy as it were to activate special abilities from your gear. This actually gives you a bit of customization, picking gear based both off stats and IP abilities. Pair that with the Capsule Monster, evolvable monsters that fill your fifth character slot, the only one you have control over, helps give you a lot of options even with a mostly story determined party.

      Though what I love most is the puzzles. Oh god the puzzles in this game were so fun to solve. Were it not for the fact solving them all a second time is so easy, making the solving puzzle joy diminish on subsequent play through s, this game would be higher on the list as well. Regardless, I'd love to see more games make such splendid use of solving puzzles to advance.

32. Infamous 2 (PS3)
31.Infamous (PS3)
      I was surprising excited when I say the trailers for Infamous, yet when I finally got the game it was better then I had thought it was going to be. I know some people will disagree because of the Arkham games with Batman, which were amazingly well crafted, but to me Infamous is the definitive Super Hero game. This game captures everything great about the comic book super hero.

      The gameplay for starters is superb. With two different paths to alter your power growth you end up with quite a few play styles, and best of all both paths are very viable. Regardless of your path, there is a wide array of abilities, and the wall climbing mechanics, while bothersome for travel purposes, are amazing when exploited in combat. Enemy AI is actually pretty solid as well. I love how when you've spotted an enemy, they won't come out of the same cover in the same spot to shoot at you, and while actually re-locate and try to catch you open.

      We also come with some great characters. Cole and his faithful sidekick Zeke, who fills in as comic relief and later on a big source of Coles worries. These two have some absolutely wonderful interactions with each other. What I ahve said up to this point applies to both games. So I guess I'll go into some of the reasons I pick Infamous 1 over 2 as the better game.

      The big reason is the Villains. All three villains in the first game are absolutely wonderful. Kessler being a personal favorite, and one of the best final boss's in any game I have ever played. That final fight felt like it was the final fight. That's a feeling I don't get from a lot of games. Kessler really was the best part of this entire series. The villains, while still good in 2, lacked in comparison.

      The big thing on two, however, that almost won it out was an absolutely wonderful ending. There were two differnt ones, neither of which could really be considered a 'good' or 'bad' ending, though both of which carry a certain level of sadness that I loved. I won't spoil it for you guys who haven't played it, but god it was a wonderful way to end it. I'll just say I'm glad the new Infamous game seems like it's a different continuity from the first two.

      One last think I'll bring up though is the thing that keeps this from being higher. This is a game that I think is actually hurt by the moral choice system it implements. While two handled it better, Cole always seemed like a guy with a predetermined personality, so the choices didn't really make sense. Worse yet you get choices that the only reason you would make is for the pure purpose of being a dick, which really doesn't set in well with the vibe of the game. So yeah, the moral choices I feel do more to damage the narrative then anything else. Likely would have been 2-3 places higher on the list had they dropped it.

[Bolivar]

Ok inFamous I'm legitimately surprised over being so high. I do think the first one is a very good game. It was the first PS3 exclusive that didn't have the hype, anticipation, or expectations of the console wars riding on it. It was just a good summer AAA title that delivered. The more you think about it, the more you appreciate how it handled everything right, from action combat to open-world exploration to a super hero narrative.

I'm just not sure if it's a top 50 game? It's cool it made that impression on some people, though.

[Bubba]

I've only played around half of the first Infamous game. I got it free with the old PSN outage debacle a couple of years ago. I thought it was pretty good. A decent attempt at a superhero game. I agree with Bolivar that I wouldn't have it that high up on an all-time greatest games list... but hey ho, it's all about personal opinion, I suppose.

[Loony BoB]

Infamous is an odd game for me, I really enjoyed it - Platinum'ed it, no less - yet I couldn't shake the feeling that almost every concept was simply taken from another game. Despite this, much like Warzone 2100 took a dozen concepts from different games and was great, inFamous manages to put it all together in a way that works well for it. Still, no matter how hard I look at the game, and how much I enjoyed playing it, I just didn't feel it ever had that moment where it went from a really good, enjoyable game to a game I want everyone else to play because it's just that amazing.

It makes it very hard to judge because of all this.

[NeoCracker]

And now for a fan favorite game amongst the more well traveled JRPG gamers among us, and one virtually none of you heathans have played!

30. Breath of Fire 3
      It was only a matter of time before I reached an entry in the Breath of Fire series. I'll get right into the best thing about this game, The Master System. This is a system in which you apprentice your characters to masters which alters their Per-level stat growth, as well as the option of learning new abilities. There is a lot of realistic party customization this offers while keeping your characters unique. There are a few ways to abuse the system though, but hey nothings perfect.

      The characters and visuals are all great as well. I love all the different dragon transformations you have access too, though by end game you'll pretty much only be using Kaiser if you figured it out. Still, there is a lot of variety within your own dragon transformations until that point.

      I love watching the changes to your party as time progress's. One thing this game does great is showing your main character to have a strong personality, even though he remains a Silent Protagonist the whole game. You really start feeling him grow as an individual and by games end, that really helps the conclusion of everything to feel satisfying.

29. Brigandine: Legend of Forsena
      Once again is a game that didn't get much attention at all when it had come out. Brigandine is an SRPG in which a continent has delved into war, though you actually get to select the country you take control of. Each one comes with it's own sets of generals and recruit able units, so your choice has a big effect on your strategy.

      I love how in this game you can understand every countries reasons for being involved, and on some level you can even agree with all of their reasoning. You do have Iscallio as the odd man out here, but that country has many of it's own reasons to be absolutely wonderful. I'll avoid in depth analysis of every country though.

      The story going on is great as well when you see the hands working in the shadows behind the start of the war, and the endings you can achieve are wonderful, especially if you know the way to get the extended endings for each country. You never really get the full story behind Bulniol though, but in the end it's a bit like Arek from Lufia. Even without the full explanation, the stories told are wonderful. There was Brigandine Grand Edition, but it never got a US release so I won't be taking that into account.

      What really cinches this game is though is the battle system. I absolutely love the use of a Hex Grid in favor of the typical square grid for the map. It adds quite a bit to strategy with the new positioning options it offers. In addition the Rune Knights, or your generals, use monsters under their command. Generals very not only in stats and combat ability, but the size of their squad and how far their Rune Field is, which is how far out their monsters go without weakening.

      Seriously, it's one of the best uses of a typical SRPG combat, and a lot of great stories and characters to be told. If you ever get the chance, play this one.

[Bolivar]

Intriguing! It's one of the many Japanese PSN releases that a fan can only hope comes over here...

[NeoCracker]

It's great how each country, when you play their stories, has a unique piece games plot, so you actually don't learn everything until you play through every countries story too.

[Ultima Shadow]

...I'll try to keep this short too so the thread can go on.

I would need to know what these "half decent RPGs" were because once you drop FF and other fan favorites like BoF, Suikoden, MegaTen, and Persona, it seems to me all that is left is Tales and a few dungeon cralwers like Etrian Odyssey.

Ar Tonelico, Baten Kaitos, Skies of Arcadia, Star Ocean 1 and 4, Luminous Arc 1 + 2 and Valkyria Chronicles 2 to name a few (plus some of the FFs). Not all fan favourites perhaps, but I never said that. Not all of them are "bad", but certainly not that good either and most of the casts are kinda poor - especially compared to the later Tales of games. Many random and less known titles still make up over half the RPGs I've played. ...and there are a few other titles that I thought of mentioning, but won't - at least not now - for the sake of the thread since they might result in even more discussion.

My issue is that I don't find the characters too engaging, they may use a new spin on old cliches but by this point in time after playing the genre for well over ten years, I'm just sick of the cliches themselves.

Well, I don't mind cliches that much as long as they work - so I disagree. But that's me - not much to say other than "personal preferences". And hey - pretty much all the FF games use cliches too, though it might be to a slightly less extent.

It doesn't but it has to bring something that really sets it apart and while the Tales games have a battle system, I prefer a complete package, especially if I'm going to elevate something to 'great" status and I just feel the Tales series doesn't have that. Beyond their combat system, I don't feel their is anything that makes them truly stand out.

Aside from the fact that I absolutely love the casts in the Tales of Games, it is mostly the combat that really stands out to me as well. But combat usually makes up most of the gameplay in RPGs and I consider Tales of to be the best Action JRPG series, packed with the best JRPG gameplay second only to SO3. VP2's gameplay comes pretty close though.

Something that actually changes how I think both in terms of game design and in dealing with characters and stroies. A game that alters how I feel falls into the "non-junk food" a game should have a lasting impact even after you shut it off and for me, Tales doesn't really have it.

Ah, alrighty. To be honest, only a few of the FFs had that kind of lasting impact on me, while Abyss and Symphonia both had it and to a greater extent than any FF. It's more of a "wow, playing this game was awesome" feeling than a "wow, that was some deep stuff" thing though. But that's the way I like it.

I disagree, while Tales of certainly has nice desings, the anime designs don't lend itself well especially in a market that is increasingly using the style. FF may have some ugly desing choices but it at least stands out. Then again, I tenbd to favor stylized designs like Amano and Tatsuya Yoshikawa

I actually meant to even say "character design and personalities". But I doubt that changes anything. I like the anime styles though, so yeah.

Depends on your poison, while I like Tales of gameplay, I'm not a fan of Action RPGs so I would favor FF in most cases on this point.

I'm more of a fan of Action RPG battle systems than turn-based myself, so yeah.

Well the series does have a monopoly on that element, its hard to find composers on par with Nobuo Uematsu.

Yups.

Compared to Tales of, yes I would agree.

While I can agree that fun gameplay is important, story tends to be my other factor over character design, I usually don't give a damn about graphics and could care less if the characters look cool or sexy. As long as I like the characters personality I can overlook sub-par design. Tales of is hindered to me by their stories and characters who can never hold my attention for long. To me apathy is the clearest sign of dislike for something. Hating a character is fine, at least the writer was able to write someone who could illicit a response from the consumer even if its not what they intented, but not giving a damn about them in the first place is a sign of failure and this is why I don't care for Tales of because they can't illicit anything from me, this is why I don't like FFVII, X, and XIII because I am largely apathetic to them and it hinders my ability to enjoy the games.

...and I agree with most of that, save the little fact that Tales of DOES work perfectly for me and never makes me apathetic. Plus the fact that I won't deny that I do care quite a bit about the looks of characters too.

Edit: OMAIGASH, I USED THAT SMILIE 6 TIMES WITHOUT EVEN THINKING ABOUT IT! =O

...I also failed to keep it short. It's somewhat short though - compared to the worst posts. It just has too many quotes.

[NeoCracker]

I have no Idea how these spots will be perceived by you lot.

28. Golden Sun DS (NDS)
      This is everything Golden sun should have been. And don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Golden Sun, but this pretty much improved on everything. The biggest improvement being the Djinn set up. Originally, there really wasn't a reason to have a character with anything other then their own element of Djinn, but this one makes it so there are a lot of useful combinations you could configure, giving you a lot of play room for forming your party.

      It also has the series best writing to date, and Alex from the last two games being seriously on form here. OF course, the game is still demonstrably Golden Sun, so I can't really say much else about it I didn't gush about the first game for, so I'll say the one thing that seriously bothered me.

      You know Arcanas is Alex. I figured this out from his Silhouette alone. Yet the entire game they are building up this 'WHO IS THIS!?' vibe, while you the player, assuming you've played the last two, already know this is going to be Alex. So when they make a big deal about it near the end, I just wanted to punch the makes in the face.

27. Earth Bound (SNES)
      Anyone who has played this game knows why it is here. Earthbound is comedy gold, having this weird and trippy world in which you fight everything from deranged hippies to tyrannical piles of vomit. A game built around bizarre Pop Culture References and trout you think they were doing drugs to come up with, Earthbound is definitely a different experience.

      I also loved the rolling health meter, adding a bizarre notion of timing to when you heal in a turn based game. Then there is your cast of characters who are all fun and likable, though the game itself doesn't really flesh any of them out all that much. I admit, the humor value of the game allows me to enjoy it a lot more then it is objectively good, but regardless I love it so.

26.5 Mother 3 (GBA)
      I can't believe I'd originally forgot to include this on the list. I deleted by mistake at one point. Regardless, it just edges out Earthbound for me. While I wasn't a fan of the critical his system that involved you timing your button presses with the background music, the system was pretty solid. While not as funny as Earthbound was, Mother 3 edges out for a much stronger narrative. Of course, the game does have the single funniest and most smurfed up line in the series.

"The good news is we found this Drago tooth, and we can use it to make a powerful weapon. The Bad news is we found it impaled in the chest of your wife."

      I felt I shouldn't have, but I laughed may ass off when the game threw that line at me. That kind of speaks to my sense of humor though. Anyway, back on focus.

      Since the only way to play this game is by fan-translation or speaking Japanese, I'll go ahead and spoil the end fight, because to understand why I love this game you would need to know this. I'll actually spoiler tag it, but I'll say for people who don't' want it spoiled this is the best use of game mechanics I have ever seen used to enhance an emotion in the player, even better then Galuf Vs. Ex-Death if FF V.

(SPOILER)At end game, you finally fight with your brother. As the fight goes on, you character starts occasionally losing actions, and the dialogue you get say's things like your eyes are tearing up, and progressively getting worse. After a while you find your character unable to do anything, and the fight ends when he essentially completely breaks down crying, unable to bring himself to keep fighting. It's smurfing heartbreaking.

[Bolivar]

I really need to try Golden Sun soon, given that development team's profound impact on me as a kid through Shining Force.

With Camelot and Monolith, it's a wonder Nintendo doesn't have them cranking out RPGs on their main console ever 2-4 years. I'd probably be a nintendo-only gamer if that happened.

[NeoCracker]

Time for another round!

26. Secret of Mana (SNES)
      Those of you who haven’t played Secret of Mana are truly missing out on something wonderful. This is a really fun game, and pretty much the last game on this list that I say is better with a friend (Well, kind of, but we’ll get to that), though even single player is great.

      My first ever Action RPG, this game had me the moment I realized you could switch between weapons. Sounds simple, and not a big deal, but it really added a lot to the gameplay. None of the weapons felt at all alike, though the Spear was my personal favorite. A great way to stay fighting Melee while keeping yourself a safe distance from the enemy.

      The story and characters were decent, though what sells this game are it’s villains, particularly Thanos. Really though most of the boss’s in this game are awesome to fight, and have some amazing visuals. That actually ends up being my favorite part about this game are the boss fights.

      I loved how you needed to use the different weapons and Magic in order to raise your skill in them, meaning your strengths would mirror your play style. Of course you could grind up the skills, which I did, but until you go out of your way to master everything it mirrors your play style.

      And no, the Sequel that didn’t get a US release isn’t on this list as I never got the chance to play more then half way through it, so Didn’t think I had place to comment on it. I do intend to play through it one day, as it was freakin’ awesome.

25.Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (Gamecube)
      This was probably the most under rated Zelda title that has been released for the consoles, and it honestly kind of saddens me. It seems hate for this game died down since it’s release, but there were a lot of people crying fowl on the new art style saying how bad it looked, how cartoonish it looked and how no one could possible take it seriously. And I tell those people to go smurf themselves. This game looks absolutely wonderful.

      It also has one of the better built stories and world of the series, beating out Ocorina. The characters and towns just had more flare and life then OoT did, so you became a lot more invested in the fate of the world. Controls were smoother, and dungeons were better designed. It also had an absolutely wonderful showdown with Gannon, you and Princess Zelda actually working together to take him down.

      I’m glad these days this game gets less flack then when it launched, because it truly was an amazing experience. I remember the first time playing it back at launch how impressed I was with the Shadows of all things. I don’t recall seeing a game that had better shadow effects prior to it. Odd thing to remember, but it’s something that really stuck out in my mind.

      I should bring up the biggest disadvantage of the game. The Sea travel. Mind you, the sea’s and sights looked wonderful, and it controlled very well. The problem comes with just how long the voyages can take. There are points it helps with the feeling that you are really traveling this vast and epic ocean, but too often it just feels like it starts to drag. Even with the Song of Storms to warp you to places, it’s pre-determined locales and you simply pick the one closest to your destination. It helps the tedium of travel, but in the end it wasn’t enough to kill it entirely.

[Bubba]

Unfortunately I never actually owned a Gamecube hence I never got to sample Wind Waker. I'm hoping it appears on another platform at some point so I can give it a playthrough.

Secret of Mana was a game I came to quite late but I'm extremely glad that I did. I got a PAL SNES copy on ebay a few years for about £20. I thought this was quite a lot but it was worth every penny. The battle system was excellent and I loved the ring menu system. Even though I only experienced it a few years ago, I remember being very impressed with the music. I couldn't believe the sounds they could get out of that little SNES. I agree the bosses were excellent as well. I seem to remember getting battered by Spiky Tiger I think it was called quite early on in the game. I'll definitely pick it up again for another play at some point.

[maybee]

Well, there's no accounting for one man's opinion. This isn't a professional criticism, Neo's entitled to his say. Some people consider Psychonauts to be god's gift to gaming. While I like the game, I certainly wouldn't call it a godsend.

This ^

And the Psychonauts thing as well. ;/

I don't agree with some of the list like FF IV being so damn low, but afterall at the end of the day, it's one man's opinion.