Daria Reviews Wonder Project J [SNES]

[Tanooki]

Personally for me the noob comment has a few qualifiers.

You actually are new to the concept either entirely or you've maybe dabbled in like one of them ever before so it's basically fresh.

Then you have your unskilled or just poor players who just suck at the type of game and just fail to do well or get far. And third to that are those who have low tolerances for overly repetitive slow grinds in games, not even quite just qualifying only for RPGs but other games too that crawl to get to the point which could drive people mad for various reasons. Perhaps you have low tolerances to bs. Maybe you have other things in life (kids, job(s), other responsibilities.) Or maybe you just have a very small amount of patience in general. People like that probably could easily thumb their way through a Final Fantasy 2 SNES cart because its' a 20 hour game, it could be done in a month with casual play an hour here or there. But someone under any of those qualifiers would probably say screw this garbage and walk from any Dragon Quest main line RPG, FF games from like 6 and later that are like 30-70 hour games plus, Skies of Arcadia stuff that crawls too due to over zealous random battles making dungeon crawling and map traversing a slog.

A game like DQ7 or 8 maybe easy to get the concept and easy enough not to die, but that's only because they're so bloody slow to get anywhere because of how they're designed by the time you can safely go somewhere you'll have bought all the gear you need and the XP required walking around outside a town for 5-10 hours or more. Garbage like that is not fun for a lot of people for any reason including those I gave just above. That's why I argued for different titles on my list as I was thinking of not just the noob, but also those who have other things going on in life or have a personality that games like that would grate their nerves raw.

[lendelin]

I think the discussion about the best RPG entry games is exaggerated. There are only a few RPGs I wouldn't recommend to beginners, but all the games in the OP are suited for RPG newbies. Actually, the vast majority of RPGs aren't a hindrance if you are a bit interested in the genre.

In 1990, I had little experience with videogames. I had only played Life Force, Mega Man 2, Ninja Gaiden and Zelda 2 before I tried a strange game called 'Final Fantasy'. They called it a 'Role Playing Game,' Nintendo Power and other game mags had explained in detail what kind of a game genre that is when in 1989 Dragon Warrior on the NES was released. I knew that Dragon Warrior despite a huge marketing effort by Nintendo didn't sell well at all, but I was curious and tried this Final Fantasy game. (Supposedly it was successful in Japan) Result: I wasn't overwhelmed, the game was not too complicated for me as Nintendo was afraid of for European and American players, and I appreciated RPGs from my first FF on.

I think if you have a dispostion to like RPGs, not a lot of games can throw you off.

[kupomogli]

I think the discussion about the best RPG entry games is exaggerated. There are only a few RPGs I wouldn't recommend to beginners, but all the games in the OP are suited for RPG newbies. Actually, the vast majority of RPGs aren't a hindrance if you are a bit interested in the genre.

In 1990, I had little experience with videogames. I had only played Life Force, Mega Man 2, Ninja Gaiden and Zelda 2 before I tried a strange game called 'Final Fantasy'. They called it a 'Role Playing Game,' Nintendo Power and other game mags had explained in detail what kind of a game genre that is when in 1989 Dragon Warrior on the NES was released. I knew that Dragon Warrior despite a huge marketing effort by Nintendo didn't sell well at all, but I was curious and tried this Final Fantasy game. (Supposedly it was successful in Japan) Result: I wasn't overwhelmed, the game was not too complicated for me as Nintendo was afraid of for European and American players, and I appreciated RPGs from my first FF on.

I think if you have a dispostion to like RPGs, not a lot of games can throw you off.

If someone wants to get into RPGs, you're right, not a lot of highly praised games are going to turn them off. But this post and video could be considered what if you have friends who have no interest in getting into the genre, and what could you show them to get them into it? With the games you played, it's comparing 8bit game to 8bit. What about gamers who started gaming in the last gen regardless of age? The original Final Fantasy is a great game, but it might feel a bit too limited and archaic not only in terms of how it plays but graphics too. You'd rather show these people games that are timeless in execution rather than something that is clearly showing its age, especially when you're trying to get someone who's not very interested in trying the genre.

[FieryReign]

No doubt, these are good games. Except for BOF3, that just boggles the domepiece. Would you expect your friends, who crush Madden even in the offseason, to like these games? Or your friend who is into online fps? Or your friend who is into mmorpg type shit? Maybe, but it depends. I still think it's a niche genre. Despite the perception that it's popular.

[Daria]

It's actually kind of funny. I can't get my husband to play my games usually (when we met he wasn't big on games with a lot of reading), but he LOVES both Dragon Quest 8 and Skies of Arcadia. Really the only two JRPGs he'd actually had the patience to play. So Nyaaaahhh! (jk) :P

Ni No Kuni (come to think of it he liked this one too) IS an excellent suggestion and one I originally wanted to cover but I can't capture footage from my PS3. So that really limited the systems I could pick from.

[FrankSerpico]

Good list, but I'm biased as Skies is tied with FF4 as my favorite JRPG of all-time.

[JSoup]

What about the classic homebrew brought to us by Bratwurst? It was a big hit in your last RPG topic, Daria.

[MetalFRO]

I enjoyed the video, and totally agree with Lunar - it was one of my first RPG's, and the learning curve was pretty minimal. I'm surprised Earthbound isn't in the list, given the way a lot of people say it's hardly grindy at all, and is very well paced.

[Daria]

What about the classic homebrew brought to us by Bratwurst? It was a big hit in your last RPG topic, Daria.

I've moved onto the spiritual successor:

[TheBenenator]

I didn't mention Pokemon because I burned out on it. I've played and beaten Ruby, Emerald, XD: Gale of Darkness, and FireRed several times each; Platinum, SoulSilver, and Black once each. Once I learned about IVs and Natures and RNG exploitation . . . ugh. Fell down the Buneary-hole with several months straight of catching non-cruddy legendaries and breeding Nature/IV/movesets . Eventually got sick of it and moved on to Persona 3/4, and from there the Shin Megami Tensei series in general. Didn't play Pokemon at all for over a year, blocked it out . . . and now I'm playing Platinum again because of Dashopepper's comment.

Daria, a video on strategy RPGs would be great -- I'm a big fan of the Disgaea series, and somewhat less so of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. Sure, Disgaea has a LOT of mechanics, especially from 3 on, but you don't have to know or master all of them to play the storyline.

[Daria]

Daria, a video on strategy RPGs would be great -- I'm a big fan of the Disgaea series, and somewhat less so of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. Sure, Disgaea has a LOT of mechanics, especially from 3 on, but you don't have to know or master all of them to play the storyline.

I'd be sooo tempted to just start naming off games from the Shining series and call it a day though. :P

Actually I think I need to brush up on my strategy gaming before tacking that list. While I've played a lot, there's a few genre stables I've never even touched - like the original FFT and Tactics Ogre.

[bb_hood]

The first Final Fantasy Tactics is really really good. Its one of the best PlayStation games in my opinion.

[celerystalker]

I really like some of the less conventional ones like Ogre Battle, Dragon Force, and 7: The Cavalry of Molmoth.

[Daria]

New video. I wanted to bring some attention to some of the really awesome NES homebrews that are currently in development. This review covers the playable demo recently released for Legends of Owlia plus highlights a plethora of indie titles in general.

Basically Owlia is an action adventure game in the style of Legend of Zelda (or Star Tropics - which the creator credits as inspiration). Spoiler alert: I loved it. (:

[Daria]

New Video:

Big surprise! It's an RPG.

[Nz17]

Request: More RPG's for SEGA consoles please.

[Daria]

Request: More RPG's for SEGA consoles please.

Your request has been duly noted sir. (:

Although my next video will be another homebrew game, since the author was generous enough to send me a review copy. But I also promised Zebbe I'd give my opinion on Pier Solar, so there's that in the near future to look forward to.

[Daria]

New video! The Incident from Khan Games

[Daria]

[lendelin]

Very good reviews of Little Ninja Brothers and Arabian Nights, I liked them.

If Little Ninja Brothers wouldn't be so pricey in the meantime (cib) watching your review tempted me to pick it up.

Too bad that Arabian Nights didn't turn out better. You showed the pros and cons very clearly. The unduly frequent random encounters in RPGs is a well-known problem even in fantastic ones like Skies of Arcadia for the DC. I asked myself why the programmers (although it is a homebrew) fell into this trap. Exaggerated encounters are frustrating at best if the gamer has a specific goal during a game session and are a big hurdle to identify with the storyline. Even for grind-loving animals like myself too frequent battles are just frustrating.