Pumpkin's Top Games of All Time Ever

[Kyros]

I did that and cooked everything in the game I'm pretty sure. Didn't the food come out better if you used the person who made them better? I don't remember b/c it's been a long time since I played ToS.

[Pumpkin]

I didn't *master* the cooking, but I rarely master anything in a game. I did get petty good at it and I had everyone with their maximum amount of stars for the dishes (like Raine usually only got up to 2 stars because she wasn't a very good chef) but yeah I did a ton of cooking in that game. I did some in Vesperia, but not much, and I tried in Abyss but I was always so broke I couldn't afford to do much

I don't think Xillia had the cooking

[Skyblade]

I tried with the cooking in both games. Then, half an hour later, I realized I had spreadsheets opened, trying to determine who I needed to fix what to give the maximum benefits, and I just went "to heck with this", and stuck to generic items ever since. I never understood why the heck the mechanics were so complicated. Most of the players I talked to had a similar reaction. "Oh, I just chose recipe X and stuck with it, because no one really hates it and it works for most situations". The mechanics are stupidly overcomplicated, especially with no good in-game tracking system for some of the stats.


The combat gives me a similar problem. I don't specifically remember how it worked in Symphonia, it's been too long since I've played it. But in Abyss, I remember sitting through hours of tutorials on Fields of Fonons, only to wind up completely ignoring the system in favor of basic attacks and basic artes. Because it's stupidly overcomplicated.

"You have to have two of the same element ability cast on the same location to create a FoF. Oh, and you can't actually aim them, they cast on whatever your current target is, so hope it doesn't move. Then, abilities used in the FoF get additional effects. So, again, hope the enemy doesn't just move away or sidestep, or that field will be useless. Finally, don't forget that your main character can't actually set up ANY FoFs, just in case you thought the system was too easy to set up."

So they give us a system requiring three or more turns to set up and take advantage of, that you have almost no control over due to the fluid nature of combat and the whims of the AI, and that only marginally improve your skills. I wound up getting so frustrated by the completely inaccessible depth in the combat that I quit the game and never went back. I keep thinking "y'know, I liked the story, I should go see what happened", but then I get in, play a battle or two, and shut the game off again. I didn't have the same desire to go back to Symphonia because I realized how similar it was to FFX, and I figured I knew most of what I needed to about the story.

[Pumpkin]

I didn't like the FoF in Abyss either and I agree that the combat mechanics in the series are generally overcomplicated. But I've never been the person who needs to maximize everything or do everything perfectly and I managed fine on what knowledge I had. Like I didn't care in Symphonia about the best recipes because I was doing it for fun and it worked just fine. In Abyss I never needed to use the FoF to win battles, the game was overall pretty easy and what wasn't could be fixed with a bit of evel grinding, so I never needed to learn the FoF stuff

Not fussing at you, you like what you like, just saying for me it was generally a non-issue

[Skyblade]

I didn't like the FoF in Abyss either and I agree that the combat mechanics in the series are generally overcomplicated. But I've never been the person who needs to maximize everything or do everything perfectly and I managed fine on what knowledge I had. Like I didn't care in Symphonia about the best recipes because I was doing it for fun and it worked just fine. In Abyss I never needed to use the FoF to win battles, the game was overall pretty easy and what wasn't could be fixed with a bit of evel grinding, so I never needed to learn the FoF stuff

Not fussing at you, you like what you like, just saying for me it was generally a non-issue

I don't feel like I HAVE to get the most out of mechanics, I feel as though I have to be ABLE to get the most out of a mechanic.

In Abyss, for example, several things bugged me. First, the game tracked which transformed Artes you had unlocked/used, and the completionist in me wanted to fill that page up.

Second, and more important, I was afraid I'd get into a fight where basic attacks and the three Artes that had been all I had used since the first area of the game would eventually wind up useless, and I would have no clue how to progress or fight anything because I had no further strategy developed.

Third, it did get a little boring using the same exact attacks every single battle. I wanted some more depth to the battle, but the complexity required to get to it was just ridiculous.



I need to go back and try controlling another character. Maybe Tear will be more fun.

[metagloria]

I didn't ever get cooking in Symphonia at all I did it every now and then with Lloyd after a battle to restore some TP, but that's it.

Also, if Dark Cloud 2 is that high on your list, I definitely need to play it.

I'm waiting with levels of anticipation for your top 3!

[Rez09]

The Field of Fonon mechanic may be the worst general mechanic I've encountered in the series thus far. It is extraordinarily difficult to make use of until you unlock sunlight chambers, which allow you to make use of incomplete fields, but then you can constantly use them and the effects are so powerful it trivializes the rest of the game. First it's useless because you can't use it, then it's useless because battles are pointless.

[Egami]

I'm waiting with levels of anticipation for your top 3!

Yeah, will be interesting to see what #3 and #2 are...I think we all know what Pumpkin's #1 is.

[Pumpkin]

IT IS TIME

DUN DUN DUNNN

3. Final Fantasy VIII (PlayStation)
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Final Fantasy VIII is the story of a mercenary group called SeeD. We meet Squall, a SeeD completing his training, and a few others who accompany him. Along the way he meets a woman and falls in love, comes to terms with his feelings, and also there's some evil sorceress because of course there's an evil sorceress.

Final Fantasy VIII is a bit different from most other games in the series. GFs, Guardian Forces, essentially the summons of this game, play a huge roll. Each character needs to equip one to be able to do more than attack. With it they can then customize the battle commands, such as adding the use of magic or items. Junctioning a GF will also allow the player to improve certain character stats by Junctioning magic spells that the player draws from the enemy during battle. The maximum amount one character can hold of each spell is 100. This means that with each spell the character casts, it will deplete that spell, and the player will need to draw more to go back to 100. If a spell is Juntioned and the player uses it, that stat will decrease. There are a total of 6 main playable characters and 5 temporary.

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General impressions:
Technically speaking, VIII is the first FF game I played. I don't count it because I couldn't make it past the Fire Cavern and Ifrit scared me. I was quite young. I couldn't remember anything about it other than the scary demon thing. Something I do remember was that it was a struggle to even get to play it at all because I wanted to only play Disc 3 because it had the girl (Rinoa) on it and I wanted to be the girl. My small brain took a while to understand that she was on ALL of the discs, not just the one with her face on it. Again, I was quite young. I played it again a few years later, it was my second one. This time I had a better understanding of how the game worked and I absolutely loved it. The characters, the story, the world. I've replayed it so many times since and every time is just as exciting.

Story:
A lot of people think its weird but I actually really like it. And I like it more starting when things get weird. It's a fantasy. I would have been more bummed if it stayed “teen mercenaries get hired to do stuff”. I liked the Moombas, and I liked how fantastical it had all become. The sorceresses, (SPOILER)the traveling to the past (kind of), the weird places like Esthar. It just felt... well like a fantasy. I don't know how else to describe it. It had me hooked the whole way. It also had kind of a more serious tone to me than other games in the series, but that could be because of Squall and how he felt and how I interpreted it based on similar feelings. I don't really like the space part, the whole thing just gave me question marks over my head. But I did love most of it and it also has one of my favourite video game romances ever.

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Gameplay:
The gameplay I'm kind of torn on. I don't like how you magic works because I'm weird about having 100 of everything, so I could essentially not use magic in this game unless I drew it and cast it from the enemy directly. But I did like being able to customize the characters however I wanted, and it has my favourite summon system of any Final Fantasy game. I liked how Boost actually gave you something to do during the long summon animations, and overall it had my favourite summon designs. Overall it certainly isn't the best gameplay in the series, but it wasn't bad either.

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World:
This game has one of my favourite Final Fantasy worlds, and video game worlds in general. There are so many beautiful locations, from Fisherman's Horizon to Balamb to Esthar to Winhill. Almost every new location had me going “wow” and they easily stay in my mind when I think back on the game. My favourite has to be Balamb Garden. It's so pretty and some of the most exciting moments happen there. It has great music, it's bigger than a lot of towns, and it has a lot of things you need. Would live there.

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Characters:
I really like the characters in this game. Well, except for Irvine, but I don't hate him either. I think the characters are solid, the group is overall well written together, and it has some really strong relationships, even between the protagonists and the antagonists. I just wish some of the heroes had interacted more between each other than they did.

Favourite character: Squall Tw3lskc.jpg
Honourable mentions: Selphie, Zell QpNF8nq.jpg4lJUUIH.jpg

Squall is a character I can actually relate to really well and I found him very well written. He comes across like an emo jerk at first, but when they show you his thoughts, you can see he's put up a wall (SPOILER)because he's lost people he cares about. He's not a jerk, he's just emotionally stunted. And watching him grow and change was great and I really enjoyed it. I really loved how they would show you what he was thinking because it made it more clear that he was having emotional problems which is something I can identify with, although I deal with it differently. I like Selphie and Zell because they bring a lot of fun to an otherwise very serious game. Selphie's diary was super cute too and so was Zell and his romance.

Overall it has great characters, a beautiful world, one of my favourite main characters and romances, and an interesting story. It is one of my most replayed games ever and there's a reason it made it so high up on this list.

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Also, fun fact about sharky and mine's joined game list that we lost. This is my number 3 overall and it was tied for his favourite Final Fantasy and pretty high on his individual list, so it made it to number one on our joined list

[Skyblade]

Great game. It gets way more flak than it deserves. It's not perfect, but it is still a fantastic game with some really great characters.

Plus, best Shiva design of the series.

[Egami]

Well, just one more surprise on Pumpkin's list...wonder what it is

[Pumpkin]

Hopefully you'll still enjoy my number 1 even if you know what it is

[Egami]

Well, I won't spell out which game it is to not ruin the surprise for those who don't know; but that game really doesn't do it for me, I finished it once when it came out and never really felt like playing it again until recently and try as I might I just couldn't get into it this time around and stopped playing before finishing it.

But, different strokes for different folks as they say

[Pumpkin]

I understand. Not everyone likes the same things. I just mean maybe you'll like my actual review even if you don't like the game :P

Most people know what my number 1 is, I've never been shy about it. But hopefully people still enjoy the review even if it's not really a surprise

[Madame Adequate]

I do think VIII is a great game, but I won't pretend I'm not a little sad seeing it higher than Suikodens! But I can forgive you because you recognize that Zell and Selphie are two of the best characters.