Don't judge a book by it's first ten chapters

[Markus. D]

Drakengard. Not until the game is finished. The story telling for the hidden-chapters is still quite bad, yet the lengths they go to with their concepts are disturbingly chromatic. <3

My quarrel with the MMO RIFT is simply graphical tolerance. Grassy areas until level 30-ish. Desert and wasteland follows. How boring. They really had me convinced with that neat little starting sequence though.

[Crop]

Final Fantasy 8 for me. I thought the game was great up until you defeat Edea after the battle between the gardens, then it just got so bad I've never actually been able to bring myself to complete the game.

[Rostum]

Final Fantasy 8 for me. I thought the game was great up until you defeat Edea after the battle between the gardens, then it just got so bad I've never actually been able to bring myself to complete the game.

I agree, but it's a shame you never completed it. The last dungeon has probably some of the best design, music and atmosphere out of the series.

[Jiro]

Final Fantasy 8 for me. I thought the game was great up until you defeat Edea after the battle between the gardens, then it just got so bad I've never actually been able to bring myself to complete the game.

I agree, but it's a shame you never completed it. The last dungeon has probably some of the best design, music and atmosphere out of the series.

This is true right here.

[VeloZer0]

Which is interesting as I quite FF8 immediately at he commencement of Disk 4. I should have plowed through so I could have seen it at least once.

[Wolf Kanno]

I was not really impressed with Ultimecia's castle from an audio visual point of view, the music is okay and if you've played RE you've seen just about everything UC throws at you. Its fighting to get your abilities back that makes it stand out.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

What games can you think of that changed significantly, for better or worse, at some point midway through?

Xenogears.

This quote pretty much sums it up.

"The first disc is a game. The second disc is a text dump with some boss fights. The project had gone way over time and budget limitations. So, they rushed to get the game out. Unfortunately, that means that on the second disc, you read about events and fight bosses between long reads. There's no more exploring or finding things for yourself....for the most part, anyway.

It does go back into World Map game mode, before the final battle. Which will allow you to trigger a few optional sidequests that you may have missed on disc 1."

I truly believe this would have been my favorite video game of all time, if only the content was spread out between 3-4 discs, instead of having it all rushed in to 2 discs.

[VeloZer0]

I think they could have fit it on 2 just fine, they just didn't have time to make the content.

Xenogears was my inspiration for making this thread.

[Wolf Kanno]

Despite my hate of XIII, I actually don't mind Xenogears 2nd disc but that's because they waited until I was completely invested in the story to pull what they did.

Legend of Mana has a rather sub-par ending, the game really doesn't try too hard to tell an overarching story with the Mana Tree, so when it finally shows up, and you face the final boss, its not as well done as the Dragoon or Jumi Tribe stories. It's a shame cause overall, it was a great game.

DQVIII petered out by the end as well, I literally was thrown off that I had reached the end and when I beat the Final boss, I was expecting another form, and instead went straight to the ending.

I would agree with FFXII, but only in concern with everything that takes place after the Pharos dungeon. It really reeked of a rush job but, I still give Vayne props for being a more challenging boss than most of the modern era FFs.

[VeloZer0]

I still give Vayne props for being a more challenging boss than most of the modern era FFs.

You usually seem like a pretty smart guy, but sometimes you just blow my mind. I've only played FF12 once, but I remember fighting Vayne while watching TV with my friend and laughing at how easy it was. No end game sidequests either. (Yes that's right, there were two TVs in the room) It boggles my mind how whenever you bring up FF12 my experience was completely different.

I actually don't mind Xenogears 2nd disc but that's because they waited until I was completely invested in the story to pull what they did.

I think thats why I disliked it so much. It was such an abrupt change from the disk before. Had the game slowly progressed in that direction or been that way the whole time I would have been much more tolerant.

[Wolf Kanno]

I still give Vayne props for being a more challenging boss than most of the modern era FFs.

You usually seem like a pretty smart guy, but sometimes you just blow my mind. I've only played FF12 once, but I remember fighting Vayne while watching TV with my friend and laughing at how easy it was. No end game sidequests either. (Yes that's right, there were two TVs in the room) It boggles my mind how whenever you bring up FF12 my experience was completely different.

I said he was challenging compared to most modern FF bosses, you know the same ones where a round of Ultimas, a casting of KotoR, using an Invincibility Item, spamming a games four max damage skills (when you're not spamming Trance), and letting Auron hit him with Masemune has been the norm. Every boss from VI to FFX have been killable in a single round of combat. Vayne could at least dance around a bit and spam his palings to keep himself alive. He's a cockroach, he can't hurt you, but he didn't go down like a chump like every other boss from the previous five console final bosses. If Vayne being considered "challenging" makes you sad, then you should look at what we've been working with for the last decade preceding it.

I actually don't mind Xenogears 2nd disc but that's because they waited until I was completely invested in the story to pull what they did.

I think thats why I disliked it so much. It was such an abrupt change from the disk before. Had the game slowly progressed in that direction or been that way the whole time I would have been much more tolerant.

It was a sharp contrast, but I just didn't feel the same way. I understand the game was half finished and I appreciate getting a really well crafted first disc. The second disc delivered what I wanted (the story) and frankly, since most people are averaging 60+ hours by the time you get to the second disc, I felt the gameplay was starting to feel repetitive and old (and I adore this game) by this point so taking a break from it was actually a nice breather for me cause I was more focused on the plot by this point. Besides I feel the most memorable dungeons were in Disc 2, which is kind of impressive considering there were only three of them not counting the two optional sections.

[VeloZer0]

I was just referring to the story->last boss difficulty curve. I find it is the only way to play any modern RPG and still get any enjoyment out of the last boss fight.