.HACK/Infection suprisingly good RPG

[Raedon]

Been playing .hack part I for a week or so and it's suprisingly good. It does a really good job of acting like an online RPG. It plays the way I wish PSO did lol. Anyone else playing?

[Lexicon]

All the time at least until I got Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter now dividing time between the two. Cant wait for the other 3 games in the .hack series to come out later this year. The anime dvd was very well done as well.

[digitalpress]

Good rental. I was wondering if the first post about the game would be "very cool action RPG" or "RPG on rails, 15 hours". I'm glad to hear someone is enjoying it, though your ride is gonna come to a very abrupt end. I'm looking forward to the sequel. I think the animated series is spectacular, the game... well... needs to be bigger.

[geelw]

it's defintely a sleeper hit. i think the short playtime and ending deal make me like it even more because it's going to be followed up by other parts (i guess the whole thing will run about 60-80 hours or so), and shorter RPGs tend not to bore most folks looking for something new and different.

that said and done, i tried to make it through a section of xenogears last week (i borrowed a reviewable and a memory card with a partial save "to keep you from falling asleep" said the person i got it from), and it's a gloriously BORING, but beautiful (at times game). i dunno who's gonna want to sit through 20-30 minute movies every few hours during a game, and then walk around and NOT fight for about 5 or so minutes, but it seems to be pre-ordered up the wazoo, lol. i'll pick one up, but it'll sit unplayed until i finish suikoden III, and a few other games...

[Raedon]

Xenosaga you mean. :P

[geelw]

lol! i kept thinking of xenogears as i was playing xenosaga- sorry 'bout that!

[Sylentwulf]

I've heard from ALL reviewers that Xenosaga is VERY VERY Heavy on the "movie" aspect. As long as I know that going into a game, I'm happy with it. Nothing could be worse than FFX, that's my viewpoint.

Suikoden III - GREAT GAME so far! 20 hours in and LOVING it!

[geelw]

well, 'saga outdoes ffx in the length of its movies, and while i really don't have a problem with CG movies in general, it's getting out of hand when you're put at the mercy of a complicated plot with eye-rolling "revelations" and no way to skip stuff you see coming like a slow-moving freight train. they go really heavy on the quasi-religious stuff here, and the only blessing is you can pause to take a leak if you need to, lol. sort of reminded me of being 8 years old, sitting in church, squirming away during a sermon... LOL

i'd have preferred a separate disc (like .hack has) to set things up, then let the player take over (with shorter movies during the game), but it is what it is. don't get me wrong, it's a mighty good game, and the anime crowd will eat it up. you definitely get your money's worth in the overall length department (can't say much about some gameplay aspects, though). and yeah, suikoden III is just plain great, right?

[Tritoch]

Suikoden III - GREAT GAME so far! 20 hours in and LOVING it!

I just beat Suikoden III with all 108 stars and a playing time just over the 80 hour mark. Easily the best RPG on PS2 (even better than FFX), and perhaps even better than the first Suikoden.

[hamburgler]

The cartoon is alright.

[Raedon]

when it comes to RPG's like Xenosaga you have to ask yourself, would you pay $50 for an anime movie?

[Kid Fenris]

when it comes to RPG's like Xenosaga you have to ask yourself, would you pay $50 for an anime movie?

People routinely pay over a hundred bucks apiece for the DVD collections of 13-hour anime series (and a number of live-action shows as well), so it's not really a stretch to fork over $50 for a game with a similar length of cut scenes and gameplay to support it.

I'm not sure how Xenosaga will turn out , but most of the reviews have been positive. I suppose I'll know within the week. And if I hate it, at least I'll have the art book.

And Suikoden III wasn't terrible, but it wasn't remotely as satisfying as the first two. The quest was repetitive, the battles sucked, the lack of a world map hurt the game far worse than it did Final Fantasy X, and in spite of some likable characters, the storyline rarely had a convincing sense of drama. I guess it was still the best Japanese RPG of 2002, though that's not really saying much.