Most Overrated RPGs of All Time

[Forsaken Lover]

FFX is linear but not linear like FFXIII. It's a false comparison and people really need to stop making it.
FFX has towns, for one thing, as well as the ability to backtrack. There is actually more to do than "go forward" therefore it is not as linear as XIII.


It's also a great game but hey, this is a thread about showing what unique snowflakes we are and going against the flow.

[Fynn]

And here I thought this was about popular games that we didn't really enjoy as much as we expected from all the hype.

Oh well, guess I was wrong. Now I'm tumblr trash

[Forsaken Lover]

And here I thought this was about popular games that we didn't really enjoy as much as we expected from all the hype.

Oh well, guess I was wrong. Now I'm tumblr trash

That's the site with all the porn, right? That's all I ever used it for.

[FFNut]

I like X but like I said, I was a Blitz Ball nut with it. Looking back I kinda agree with Fynn with it as when I replay it it always ends up a Blitz Ball game for me.

[Pumpkin]

Super Mario RPG for me. Chrono Cross as well.

[Randy]

FFX is linear but not linear like FFXIII. It's a false comparison and people really need to stop making it.

FFX isn't really much more linear than FF7, FF8, FF9. It's just set out as 1 long road for most of the game so it feels more linear!

[Karifean]

Final Fantasy IV for me. Nothing about it stood out to me in any noteworthy way.

[Wolf Kanno]

FFX is linear but not linear like FFXIII. It's a false comparison and people really need to stop making it.
FFX has towns, for one thing, as well as the ability to backtrack. There is actually more to do than "go forward" therefore it is not as linear as XIII.

Yeah but towns are kind of pointless in the game when you think about it. Enemies are far more generous with dropping items and equipment, not to mention the equipment system in the game makes carrying a whole lot a moot point in general. Also save points fully restore characters and are literally everywhere in the game. So in a lot of ways, it's kind of like FFVIII where towns were also useless beyond needing to go there for story purposes because all the important game functions can be done almost anywhere in the menu system.

You can backtrack, but there isn't a whole lot of reason to ever do so beyond Jecht Spheres, an useless upgrade to Valefore, and picking up stuff you might have missed which you'll find a bajillion more by just going forward. So it's kind of a moot feature.

I'll agree the level design is just poorly done and made the linear nature of dungeons more obvious than previous games.

[Formalhaut]

FFX is linear but not linear like FFXIII. It's a false comparison and people really need to stop making it.
FFX has towns, for one thing, as well as the ability to backtrack. There is actually more to do than "go forward" therefore it is not as linear as XIII.


It's also a great game but hey, this is a thread about showing what unique snowflakes we are and going against the flow.

Kinda, but then is the ability to backtrack even worth it? With the exception of getting Jecht spheres and 'gotta catch em all' dark aeons and monsters, backtracking isn't really worth it. It's not like new sidequests appear in say, Besaid that warrants hiking it back down. You do end up getting the airship towards the end, but there's not much point using it. It's more a vessel that drops you off to catch more monsters for the monster arena.

FFXIII doesn't gain backtracking until chapter 11, then you can roam around previous areas in that chapter. You can then backtrack in chapter 13 to the chapter 11 and 12 areas. Not quite as extensive, but then, do you need to return to The Hanging Edge?

I'm not saying FFXIII's linearity is 'better', I have large problems with both, but FFX's backtracking didn't add to the experience of me. It had settlements, true, but largely towards the beginning. Besaid, Kilika, Luca, and then Bevelle. I might be missing one, possibly. The whole point of FFX is that large settlements couldn't exist because of Sin. I mean, FFXIII had towns as well, though I agree you could explore the villages and Luca fully. You can't really explore Nautilus and Palumpolum when you visit them.

I'd say they're not the same, but they have similar enough qualities that a comparison can be made.

[Forsaken Lover]

Yeah but towns are kind of pointless in the game when you think about it. Enemies are far more generous with dropping items and equipment, not to mention the equipment system in the game makes carrying a whole lot a moot point in general. Also save points fully restore characters and are literally everywhere in the game. So in a lot of ways, it's kind of like FFVIII where towns were also useless beyond needing to go there for story purposes because all the important game functions can be done almost anywhere in the menu system.

Towns are a huge asset in terms of establishing a world and a plot's pacing. It's why X has better pacing than either XII or XIII. It let you sit back and properly digest what was happening, whereas XII numbed your mind with so much wandering between each and every town and XIII just kept up a nonstop barrage of "things" and Proper Nouns that left you very confused.

X's settlements were essential to helping keep everything nice and smooth so we could process this new world, its lore, and so-on. Meanwhile, in XII, you just get thrown into a horrible desert for ten years and in XIII you never have any real time to stop and catch your breath and figure out the difference between a PSICOM and a Cocoon.

(I brought XII into this because arguing X vs. XIII with you seems like it be kind of like arguing piss or feces so what's the point)

[Spuuky]

Guys, guys. Both FFX and FFXIII are terrible games by historical RPG standards so there's no need to argue about which one is MORE terrible.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah but towns are kind of pointless in the game when you think about it. Enemies are far more generous with dropping items and equipment, not to mention the equipment system in the game makes carrying a whole lot a moot point in general. Also save points fully restore characters and are literally everywhere in the game. So in a lot of ways, it's kind of like FFVIII where towns were also useless beyond needing to go there for story purposes because all the important game functions can be done almost anywhere in the menu system.

Towns are a huge asset in terms of establishing a world and a plot's pacing. It's why X has better pacing than either XII or XIII. It let you sit back and properly digest what was happening, whereas XII numbed your mind with so much wandering between each and every town and XIII just kept up a nonstop barrage of "things" and Proper Nouns that left you very confused.

X's settlements were essential to helping keep everything nice and smooth so we could process this new world, its lore, and so-on. Meanwhile, in XII, you just get thrown into a horrible desert for ten years and in XIII you never have any real time to stop and catch your breath and figure out the difference between a PSICOM and a Cocoon.

(I brought XII into this because arguing X vs. XIII with you seems like it be kind of like arguing piss or feces so what's the point)

I wouldn't go so far as to say they were "essential". Nothing non-cutscene related is really given in the towns that sell the story too much. This is what FFXII's towns have going for them, you'll actually get more of the world and story through interacting with the random NPCs than FFX's habit of having a cutscene have a party member break down everything relevant about the location before you're finally allowed to explore. This is ultimately the weakness in X's world design. Besiad and Kilika are great towns from a narrative perspective, but the farther you get in, the more meaningless each town gets for the player. Two of them are pretty much just glorified dungeons (Bevelle and Home) you visit once and you don't really get any sense of the culture or world from either of them that wasn't already shown to you in earlier non-town related places (Temples and most cutscenes for Yevon faith, and Operation Mihen/Rikku for the Al Bhed) so again, I would argue they weren't that relevant beyond the second town which is typical for RPGs in general when you think about it.

For FFXII though, you are meant to explore the world and interact with it. No party member to take ten minutes of your life explaining every single location and why it's relevant, no obnoxious old man to bore you to death with history and lore, and several cities that are fully explorable, more scaled to an actual city, and filled with NPCs you have to actually talk to multiple times to piece together what else is going on in Ivalice that surprisingly doesn't have to do with what your party is doing. The difference here is that we were placed on the tour of Spira in FFX, no deviation, keep your hands and feet firmly in the vehicle as people told you to "look over there" while they explain why you should care. FFXII was more like going to another country with a friend who ditched your ass the night before to strike it with that cute redhead and how you're going to have to wander around, talk to people, and actually immerse yourself in a foreign land if you want to get out of there. So I would argue FFXII did the town thing right.

[escobert]

Your favorite RPG.

That's right if you're reading this then your favorite RPG is OVERRATED

what if my favourite rpg is FFTA?

What if Morrowind is my favorite RPG?

[Wolf Kanno]

Ooh, can I add The Last Story? I hate how it overshadowed Xenoblade simply because it had Sakaguchi's name on it. Sure, it had a cool system, fun party banter, and smart deconstructionist of fantasy tropes, but the overall plot was weak, world felt restrictive, and the main breeding pair was just abysmal. It's basically, to quote the ever insightful Lindsay Ellis' comments on Dear John, White Bread meets Mayonnaise Girl and they are perfect for each other.

Honestly, I've never seen two characters that are so dry and wooden in an RPG.

I wouldn't call The Last Story overrated. Hell, no one has talked about it since it's release and in the years since it's release, I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that Xenoblade won that battle. One of the reasons why I didn't mention White Knight Chronicles is because the hype was mostly before it's release. No one talks about it anymore. The only time The Last Story ever gets mentioned is when Mistwalker announces a new TLS themed event for Terra Battle.

[Fynn]

Well, it did definitely feel like that at one point. But yeah, Xenoblade definitely left a more noticeable mark on the genre.