Great Gaming Concepts

[Loony BoB]

What games have you played that, regardless of how good the game was, had some concepts or features that you found to be absolutely class?

One game that comes to mind for me is The Mark of Kri. It was an okay game, nothing too special - aside from the battleplay. It's the first game that I feel effectively allows you to fight large groups with fluent attacks. It does this by letting you sweep out with one of the PS2's analogue buttons and selecting up to six characters - two for each of three of the main buttons. So then you can hit the buttons as you like, with Rau (your character) moving swiftly and fluently between the selected enemies, decapitating and impaling as you wish. Best fighting system I've seen in any game of it's kind. And a nice set of combos to go along with it, too. I just wish more of the mainstream games would take it on.

Anyone else know of any brilliant features/concepts/etc. in lesser known games?

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

Zone of the Enders 2: the Second Runner has one of the most effective 3D arial combat systems I've seen. The way you control your orbital frame and battle others is fluidly executed and really easy. The game itself is great too.

Most of the Nippon Ichi games do interesting things to the strategy RPG genre. One of the most interesting is Phantom Brave's lack of a grid, allowing for totally free movement. It can be annoying at times, but it's generally a really cool touch.

[Shoeberto]

KATAMARI DAMACY
DADA DADADADADADA DADADADA
DUMDUDUDUDUMDUDUDUDU

[Dreddz]

I thought the Rage meter in GGX2 was genius

[Hroth]

I liked the combo combat system in Legend Of Legaia, it made battles long but at least they were fun. In Wild Arms, you have these items called Tools that you can use on the maps, it added an extra element of puzzle in the game, it was pretty good, sorta reminds me Zelda. I can't think of anything else for now...

[edczxcvbnm]

I like that in Sim City 3000 you can make deals with other towns to say haul ALL of your trash away for x amount of $$$ per so many "unit". Great concept but it sucked to sell [img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img] to other towns. You had to make deals to give them X amount of electricity every month for Y amount of $$$. X was usually every bit of whatever was not in use. Great concept and executed nicely for giving other towns jobs in your town but not the other way around.

In RPGs the 3 that stand out in my mind are Chrono Cross, Xenogears and Lunar for limiting your levels to make it challenging. In Cross you could not go beyond a certain level. In Gears your mechs were limited in ability to the items you could buy. In Lunar the enemy level was based off of your level so you couldn't over gain.

[Sepho]

I liked the combo combat system in Legend Of Legaia

I remember Legaia's boss fights more than most any other RPG's for this reason. When I'm bored, I have two extra saves right before boss fights: one before Sim Seru Gaza; the other before the Delilas family fights. They're all great, though.

Ikaruga: the Black and White thing is really nifty.

[Erdrick Holmes]

Phantasy Star, it was the only RPG of it's kind. Most RPGs of it's time took place in medival times where you slayed dragons and explored caves and dungeons. This game was pretty much a combination of Sci-Fi and fantasy, almost like Star Wars, only with more plot twists. That's why PS is the best RPG series ever, DOWN WITH SE UP WITH SEGA.

In fact, everything Sega has ever made was innovative.

[Drift]

Metal Gear Solid

[Dreddz]

everything Sega has ever made was innovative.

Not really

[Lindy]

Super Metroid.

Not little parts, just the whole thing.

[Necronopticous]

They aren't regarded very highly here in the states but I think basically every SaGa game ever made has been a conglomeration of many great, innovative, and original concepts.

[Lindy]

Maybe the SNES Romancing SaGa 1~3, but SaGa Frontier and Unlimited SaGa are just...bleh, they don't deserve the plastic they're burnt onto, sure they TRIED to be innovative, but it was just a horrible failure, and I don't think even those few things could have saved them.

[Mercen-X]

I liked SaGa Frontier, I never played Frontier 2, I hated Unltd.

I liked the combo combat system in Legend Of Legaia, it made battles long but at least they were fun. In Wild Arms, you have these items called Tools that you can use on the maps, it added an extra element of puzzle in the game, it was pretty good, sorta reminds me Zelda. I can't think of anything else for now...

YES!

Also, Prince of Persia. ICO was a poor man's PoP.

[edczxcvbnm]

StarCraft introducing key groups. You could select a group of units and lock them to a key so that that when you press that key they all become selected. A great move for real-time stratagy.