The other two games I have been playing are Vagrant Story and Persona 4. Both are excellent RPGs and are cult classics, since neither one of them are very well known. I recently picked Vagrant Story up in Salem Oregon for 50 bucks and it definitely is a good purchase.
Vagrant Story Impressions:
Since i finally have played some more of Vagrant story, i can finally give my impressions on the game. Vagrant story is a cult game made by the same game designer as Final Fantasy Tactics, which is an another amazing game. Vagrant story on the other hand, is also very good but some aspects about the game is very frustrating. The battle system consists of chaining attacks, which is pretty neat but hard to get used to at first considering it is a RPG... This makes the game a rhythm based game, since you can to hit circle square or triangle whenever an exclamation point appears, and you cannot use the same move two times in a row. This makes it so i cannot play the game longer than an hour or two, because i become very frustrated and i start losing the "rhythm"...
Therefore, the game is really quite challenging... You have to make weapons with multiple elements just so you can deal a lot of damage to some enemies, otherwise have fun beating down an enemy with 200 hp while you are only dealing 5 each hit... On top of chaining, there is a status bar called risk, and as it raises so does the damage you take, the harder it is for you to hit enemies, but the healing you receive is drastically increased. Its best to keep this down as low as you can, but its hard than hell to do so sometimes especially during boss battles.
The story so far is awesome, which is to be expected since Final Fantasy Tactic's story was very good. Vagrant Story has very similar dialogue to FFT which keeps with the universe; what is funny though is that the two games were not tied together til' Final Fantasy 12, which i find kind of peculiar...
So far Vagrant Story is a good game when you play it for short bursts at a time, it definitely is not a game that you can sit down and play it for hours unless you want to drive yourself nuts and punch yourself in unneeded locations over and over again...
Persona 4 Impressions:
Persona 4 is the sequel to the hit persona series; the latest installments are known for their deep stories and weird genre combination in the RPG genre. Dating simulator mechanics and a turn based RPG rolled in to one? Well, some how it works amazingly well and it makes Persona 3 and Persona 4 really addicting. The dating sim mechanics are used to benefit the player by making him able to create more powerful personae, and receive support in battle.
The game takes place in the small Japanese town of Inaba; the name-less Protagonist was sent here to live with his uncle due to his parents going to America for a few months. When he arrived though, a peculiar chain of murders occur and during this time he hears about a rumor that when you turn the TV on during a rainy night at midnight, your soul mate appears on the screen. The night he does this, he sticks his arm out towards the TV, and to his surprise he was able to stick his arm through the screen.
He then tells his colleagues and decide to explore this other world... After a while they find out that someone is throwing people in each month, and if they are left in there for too long they end up dying. They make a vow to save the people who are thrown in, and some of the people end up joining the party. The game is dungeon based and each one is unique to the character that the player is saving. Each one has a specific theme based off of the character's own secrets and or inner problems.
The game play is your typical turn based RPG, but all of your abilities come from persona. Each one has their own unique strengths and weaknesses, and there's a total of about 200 personae but i'm not confident about that. They fixed what made the 3rd Persona a bit irritating, allowing you to be able to control your party members now but surprisingly the game is still hard as hell. What I like about this series in its current state, is when you are annoyed or tired of going through dungeons you can simply go through your daily high school life and hang out with people. It varies the game play drastically and its quite enjoyable.
Persona 4 is an awesome title and I would have beaten it when i first got it if it wasn't for a corrupted save file... Anyhow, this game [series] is worthy to play, and dedicate time to for the fact that the story, game play, and weird genre is a fantastic combo for a modern turn based RPG. If you have yet to pick it up, do so soon, because i ensure you this game will be hard to find just like any other Shin Megami Tensei game.
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