And now we get to it!Originally Posted by Neocracker
Time to stir up a bit of hate
130. Digimon World 2 (PSX)
I feel the need to apologize for this one. Because this is not a good game. Oh sure, there are a few good points to it, it’s not completely without merit. But still, I don’t think anything on my list has as much objectively wrong as this game does.
I’ll start with the good though. There is an insane amount of party options. And with their D.N.A Digivolution of combining different types, I actually think it’s a much better customization set up then Pokemon has ever had.
With limited item space in dungeons, liminted amount of moves based on engine, and all attacks costing MP, it’s actually a nice set up to force a person to plan thier dungeon dives to an extent. True, it’s not much, but still deserves a bit of credit for the effort.
Now to the bad. This game has, bar none, the laziest Dungeon design I have ever seen. No matter where you are in the game, it’s the same color scheme, and no dungeon has a defining characteristic. I mean smurf, NES titles managed to have more varience within a single dungeon then this entire game.
And the second problem, the game is long. But not for good reasons. This game is 2% story and character devlopement, 1% prepping and customizing, and 97% grinding. That is this game. Grinding. Grinding for the purpose of creating new Digimon. Grinding for the purposes of beating the boss’s. Grinding because this game offers nothing else to do.
I could go on, but I’ll stop the bitching. I will never be able to explain my joy for this game. It is truly an awefully designed game with little good, and what good it does do (The DNA system and dungeon prep) Is undermined by it’s like of versatility in abilities and over all designer ineptitude.
129. Final Fantasy VII(PSX)
Oh yeah, this game isn’t even in the top 100, and to top it off my lowest FF on this list. But to be honest, I enjoy this game, it does a fair amount right. Though, I guess I’ll need to justify putting one of, if not the most, loved FF so low on the list.
It’s known here I love FF VI, so I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying I prefer this one, as you know its going to be listed higher. But if I had to bring up one thing that bothed me was by the second half of the game, due to their Esper system and per level bonus, your party started to become irrelevant. There wasn’t a big reason to use on person over another.
FF VII was an extention of this, and expanded that to where you really started to feel like your characters were intertchangable in battle, leaving no reason to use someone other then thier limit breaks. This creates a problem, because some Limit Breaks are objectively worse then others.
There are very few characters I really like from this game, though they do exist. On the Heroes side, Cid is my favorite. And for more then his comically foal mouth. I really get a feel for his dream, and why he cares so much. I even understand why he’s so upset and angry. He’s probably FF VII’s best devoloped character, the stretch where he’s made Party leader basically solidifying my love of him.
The other is Hojo. Well, Hojo pre-cannon. That whole scene just has me scratching my head, and it didn’t seem like something Hojo would do considering all his developement up until that point.
The other issue I take is that Sephiroth, the main villain, is overshadowed entirely by Shinra. Rufus himself I wasn’t to fond of, but the organization as a whole had a pressence and flair about them Sephiroth just didn’t have. Sephiroth was a bit of a mess when it’s established that he is in fact in control, yet his plan is, to the letter, to do what Jenova wanted to do.
Still though, for all the issue I take, the story is well done enough. Theres some great areas to explore, a lot of fun side stuff to do, and a lot of custimization options with a variety of Materia. This game has plenty about it to enjoy once you get past some of it’s dumber bits.