The boost system in one wound randomly smurf you at any given time. It was way more advantagous to the enemy then it was to you. It was 'use it the moment you have the opprotunity' or the boss smacks you twice.
2's added actual strategy to the game play. :
True that.Originally Posted by black orb
>>> If stuff like Harry Potter became a sucess, anything can..
That's what I was thinking.
If you like human-like robots in your games, it doesn't get any better than Phantasy Star IV.
I just tried to play this again yesterday because it had been a while and I couldn't remember the combat very well. I'm definitely with the opponents of the boost system. It's worthless. And the pacing is so bad...ugh
I never really had any trouble with the boost system the 3 or 4 times I've played through the first game. For me it added a sense of strategy, saving up your boosts and knowing when to use or not use them. Really the exploitation of the system comes in when you save up those boost packs and wait until the final battle. Boosting plus the giant robot thing you can get (I can never remember it's name) make the final battle painfully easy. Once you start attacking you can make it to where that thing can never get a hit on you before it's dead if all goes well. I also enjoyed the little slot machine mechanic thing in battle (can't think of what to call it) made things fun. Maybe I'm just strange but 1 had my favorite battle system in the three games. Part of that could just be that it's my favorite of the series in general.
The robot is Erde Kaiser.
The only time boosting was a problem is when I was under leveled and that is a result of me not understanding how to abuse the leveling up system. You give all of your points to the stats and keep boosting them. The only limit on the stats for each character is they cannot go higher than the highest in the overall party. By level 20 you can practically be a GOD in this game.
I took on the final boss at level 32 or 34 or something, doing this and he never got a turn. I obliterated him that fast because of my reckless abuse of the leveling system...that and I had Erde Kaiser which deals 9999 damage and the final boss only has 16000 HP. So I only need 6000 more damage before he could go and I accomplished that.
The boost might not have been all that strategic in one but it made it more fun and abusive for me. I used the boost system in two because it was part of my master strategy. Everyone at full HP and full boost? Good now lets all attack non-stop using the break that we learned. Battle didn't end? Start saving up the boost again and do it again. SSOOOOOOOOO Boring!
That was all of the other inherent problems with 2, not problems inherent in the Boost system.
I mean hell, it was virtually unchanged in from 2 to 3, they just fixed all the other problems.
That's right! I always want to call it Ehrgeiz for some reason. Well, I may have to play through these games again when summer hits in a few months and I'm out of school. I'm getting excited thinking about them again, haha.
I'm coming of out hiding too. And I am intoxicated right now! So here we go.
When I was skinnier and stuff, I actually bought Xenosaga II and tried to convince myself it was good. I knew this fact before purchasing the game, but I really was let down that Mitsuda's music wasn't in the game. The person who made the music in general was alright, but her stuff is better suited for what she normally does--anime.
But as for the game, the gameplay made no sense, and the story kind of derailed and made no sense to me. I don't remember it now because I haven't touched it since I beat it in 2005, but what I do remember is being seriously depressed while playing episode II. If I had a gun I would have blow my brains out. Okay, that's too harsh. But the fact remains that after I finished it, I never wanted to see a Xenosaga game ever again. edczxcvbnm let me borrow episode III after he beat it.
You know what I did with that game? I put in on top of my TV and scowled at it everyday until edczxcvbnm showed up at my apartment and admitted that I would never touch the game because I still felt like someone pissed in my mouth. Goign back to episode II, why did Momo's bow and arrow overpower KOS-MOS? Seriously. Why? That battle system sucked.
Anyway, I don't want to overstate my welcome, so here's my final thoughts:
Episode 1 is still my favorite installment in the Trilogy. Cal it nostalgia or whatever but I recently went back and played Episode III and it's far from the masterpiece I used to think it was. Oh sure, upon your first or second playthrough it is pretty good. But I have the perspective of a guy who's played both EP1 and EP3 at least five times through and then several times part way.
Episode III is still a pretty good JRPG. It just isn't nearly as good as I had thought it was.
Episode II...well, Episode III gives you a complete summary of all the important things from there so just skip it.
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