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[Robz888]

I have mixed feelings about Final Fantasy. I never finished VII or VIII (which is odd for me), but I enjoyed them. I loved IX. X was very good. X-2 was meh. I disliked XII. I despised XIII.

I love talking about FF games because everybody has a different opinion. My feelings of the games are rooted heavily in nostalgia. Since my gaming really started in the SNES era, VI and IV are my favs. IX and XII are close behind. I liked the lighthearted tone of those games and I feel they had really great battle systems. VII is good, but somewhat overrated. XIII was an interesting and well made game, but I feel that the game was hurt by a lack of NPCs to interact with (let alone the complete lack of towns). I don't really understand the "walking through a tunnel" complaint because one of the most popular games in the series (X) was almost as linear (there were just more diversions along the way). Don't even get me started about VIII. Hands down the worst game in the series, except for its music... "The Man with the Machine Gun" is probably the greatest battle theme ever written.

Maybe I didn't give XIII enough of a chance, I was just so bored after the first 3 hours. X had me hooked, I guess, even though I understand the similarities you mentioned.

I really didn't like the combat system in XII, though I think I'm alone in that opinion. It was goofy running up to enemies and then having to wait to attack them. It did not combine turn-based combat and real-time combat in a sensible way, I thought. FFIX, on the other hand, did a great job with that, and with so many other things. Loved the characters, the world, the mini-games, the music, the feel of IX.

[Cuzz]

I loved Skyward Sword, but I didn't like travelling in it, the senseless flying from A to B was very repetitive.
Didn't mind the boss fights that much.

Anyway, I always start the game like: "I'm gonna get every secret"
And halfway through: "Okay, I just wanna finish it"

"A Link to the Past" is the best for me and I've completed it a couple of times with a SNES Emulator.

Yeah, the flying was pretty obnoxious, especially because the open sky was a fairly uninteresting area. I think they were going for something akin to the Great Sea in Wind Waker, but they just didn't make the sky nearly as fleshed out and interesting.

I did really like the Skyloft, Link's home town, though. Probably my friend Zelda town since Clocktown in Majora's Mask. And the areas beneath the clouds were really cool, in my opinion. I loved the feel of the desert area.

I'm a video game completist, so I can't rest until I find and do everything.

A Link to the Past is really good, and decently challenging, even on replays. I beat it every other year or so.

I was really excited for Skyward Sword and beat it relatively quickly after it came out, but something just felt off about it to me. I love the Zelda series, but SS just didn't have the sense of an immersive world with lots to explore that most of the other games do. Everything just felt too directed and hand-holdy (Fi was almost enough to ruin the game on her own for me). In Ocarina for example, you have Navi vaguely bugging you about what to do next, but there's plenty of opportunity to say "screw off Navi, I'm gonna see what's over here instead." Or in Majora the mask-collecting is like an entire other optional game within the game. But in SS, there was hardly ever anything to do besides just "what's next."

Well, Fi was awful. I also thought the story was too delayed, though it was good when it finally came through.

I felt fairly immersed in the desert, forest, and mountain areas though. I really liked the forlorn feeling of the desert, and the robots with whom you could only communicate if you traveled 100 years into the past.

But I do think OOT and MM are better, including for the reasons you mentioned.

Yeah, what was up with that? "We're gonna make the game that's chronologically the first in a timeline spanning millennia, and in that game we'll make constant references to a time centuries before that, in which they had freaking robots."

[Toolshed113]

Yeah, what was up with that? "We're gonna make the game that's chronologically the first in a timeline spanning millennia, and in that game we'll make constant references to a time centuries before that, in which they had freaking robots."

To quote the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past (from Aqua Teen)...

"Because now, in the future, the past has occurred."

[Robz888]

Well, I liked that. The robots were so cool! I gathered that the world was pretty cool and advanced, even in it's early life, before "evil" came in the form of Demise.

[eHalcyon]

I've mentioned it elsewhere on the forums, but I'm a HUGE fan of the Pokemon games. I've been playing for a long, long time and still love them as much as ever. I just got my copy of the new game (Black 2 and White 2 were just released in the US) and have been playing a ton this week. There is so much more to those games than most people realize.

As much as I love Pokemon, it is far too easy and Gamefreak never deviates from the tried and true formula of game design. Your goal is the same in every game, and to make matters worse, Pokemon has been becoming far more linear in every iteration of the game after gen I.

It's no coincidence that my favorite Pokemon game is Colosseum because the difficulty curve in that game is very high (actually a little too high). The only gripe that I have with Colosseum is that it forces you into the double battle format but doesn't give you very many tools at all that would be effective in the double battle format - having moves like Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Rock Slide, Surf, Icy Wind, etc. more available with more Pokemon that could learn Fake Out, Helping Hand, Earthquake, Eruption, Water Spout, etc. with synergistic double battle abilities would have been great, but alas...

Maybe you'd like the meta game more then, i.e. simulators where you can create pokemon with IVs and EVs exactly as you'd like and you just battle others.  There is much more strategy in that than in the main series game.

[Toolshed113]

I got pretty far into Skyward Sword (I think I had just beat the big sand ship thing) when my Wii died. After I got it fixed I had no desire to replay back to that point. It's been six months since then and I just last week decided to start up again, but my progress is slow. There's just something missing with this game that makes me not want to play it again (even though I enjoyed it my first time through). Twilight princess was the same for me, as I've only beaten it twice. This is coming from a huge Zelda fan. I've played through Ocarina at least 50 times and Wind Waker about 10.

I would agree with whoever mentioned Fi as a major source of problems for the game. She's so annoying. I also really wish they made the motion controls optional, though that would make the game far easier. Particularly in boss fights I have found myself cursing at the controls as I die because they were too unresponsive.

[Robz888]

I got pretty far into Skyward Sword (I think I had just beat the big sand ship thing) when my Wii died. After I got it fixed I had no desire to replay back to that point. It's been six months since then and I just last week decided to start up again, but my progress is slow. There's just something missing with this game that makes me not want to play it again (even though I enjoyed it my first time through). Twilight princess was the same for me, as I've only beaten it twice. This is coming from a huge Zelda fan. I've played through Ocarina at least 50 times and Wind Waker about 10.

I would agree with whoever mentioned Fi as a major source of problems for the game. She's so annoying. I also really wish they made the motion controls optional, though that would make the game far easier. Particularly in boss fights I have found myself cursing at the controls as I die because they were too unresponsive.

Well, I'm a Zelda apologist. In my opinion, Skyward Sword is much better than Twilight Princess. I don't know if it's better than Wind Waker. It's certainly not better than OOT or MM.

I would encourage you to keep playing though. I found the post-Sandship phase of the game highly rewarding. A lot of the story is illogically delayed until the late game, but when it comes, it's fairly compelling.

[Toolshed113]

Well, I'm a Zelda apologist. In my opinion, Skyward Sword is much better than Twilight Princess. I don't know if it's better than Wind Waker. It's certainly not better than OOT or MM.

I would encourage you to keep playing though. I found the post-Sandship phase of the game highly rewarding. A lot of the story is illogically delayed until the late game, but when it comes, it's fairly compelling.

I will agree that the dungeons got better and better as the game went on, unlike in Twilight Princess which seemed to peak around the middle and get worse as the game went on. I thought the sky temple, twilight temple, and Ganon's palace were pretty lame. The final phase of the Ganon fight though... Man that was great. So was Wind Waker's.

Interestingly, even though MM is one of my favorite Zeldas, I realized it is one that I have replayed very few times. Instead of replaying, I would fire up my 100% file and mess around with the masks. The fierce diety mask glitch where you can run around the world in super form was pretty sweet.

[Robz888]

Well, I'm a Zelda apologist. In my opinion, Skyward Sword is much better than Twilight Princess. I don't know if it's better than Wind Waker. It's certainly not better than OOT or MM.

I would encourage you to keep playing though. I found the post-Sandship phase of the game highly rewarding. A lot of the story is illogically delayed until the late game, but when it comes, it's fairly compelling.

I will agree that the dungeons got better and better as the game went on, unlike in Twilight Princess which seemed to peak around the middle and get worse as the game went on. I thought the sky temple, twilight temple, and Ganon's palace were pretty lame. The final phase of the Ganon fight though... Man that was great. So was Wind Waker's.

Interestingly, even though MM is one of my favorite Zeldas, I realized it is one that I have replayed very few times. Instead of replaying, I would fire up my 100% file and mess around with the masks. The fierce diety mask glitch where you can run around the world in super form was pretty sweet.

In TP, I liked the Sky dungeon, but Zant and Ganon's respective strongholds were fairly tedious. So I agree with you. The Temple of Time and the Snowpeak Ruins were absolutely the best.

IN SS, there are two more dungeons after the Sandship, and they are both really awesome. The final dungeon is extremely unique.

[Toolshed113]

Now, there hasn't been a good handheld Zelda since Minish Cap...

[Dsell]

I've mentioned it elsewhere on the forums, but I'm a HUGE fan of the Pokemon games. I've been playing for a long, long time and still love them as much as ever. I just got my copy of the new game (Black 2 and White 2 were just released in the US) and have been playing a ton this week. There is so much more to those games than most people realize.

As much as I love Pokemon, it is far too easy and Gamefreak never deviates from the tried and true formula of game design. Your goal is the same in every game, and to make matters worse, Pokemon has been becoming far more linear in every iteration of the game after gen I.

It's no coincidence that my favorite Pokemon game is Colosseum because the difficulty curve in that game is very high (actually a little too high). The only gripe that I have with Colosseum is that it forces you into the double battle format but doesn't give you very many tools at all that would be effective in the double battle format - having moves like Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Rock Slide, Surf, Icy Wind, etc. more available with more Pokemon that could learn Fake Out, Helping Hand, Earthquake, Eruption, Water Spout, etc. with synergistic double battle abilities would have been great, but alas...

Maybe you'd like the meta game more then, i.e. simulators where you can create pokemon with IVs and EVs exactly as you'd like and you just battle others.  There is much more strategy in that than in the main series game.

Yep yep yep. This was my obsession a while before I found Dominion.

Getting through the game is a piece of cake. A lot of fun, but a piece of cake. But the online simulators and the "extra-game" features on the newer games (like battle subway for Black and White) are quite strategically deep. The Battle Subway is especially tough because you actually have to breed for these perfect pokemon, which usually takes a lot of time and planning. But if your pokemon aren't fairly perfected, you're not gonna do that well at later levels.

But yeah, the online implementation is really the purest form of pokemon meta battling.

[Lekkit]

I was never really good at those online Pokémon thingies. I won a bunch, it's not that. But I could not compete with the really good players with the really good teams, as I refused to play with the "standard" monsters. Most of my friends are the same. It's always fun to see a Murkrow kill an entire Ubers team by himself.

[eHalcyon]

I was never really good at those online Pokémon thingies. I won a bunch, it's not that. But I could not compete with the really good players with the really good teams, as I refused to play with the "standard" monsters. Most of my friends are the same. It's always fun to see a Murkrow kill an entire Ubers team by himself.

Purely from design, some pokemon are stronger than others.  That's why the community has come up with tiers.  It's pretty interesting, and sometimes unconventional things CAN break through.

There are also some really interesting cases.  Shedinja is a pokemon with an ability that prevents all damage from attacks except for super-effective damage.  It only has 1hp ever, so a single effective hit will kill it.  The funny thing is that it is absolutely useless at most tiers but can be effective in the Uber tier, because some of the biggest threats in that tier have nothing that would damage it.

You can also find hilarious strategies like the FEAR-ratata.

[Lekkit]

eHal, dont get me wrong. Im a total Pokemon Geek. Ive spent hours and hours on breeding and training and grinding and pokeradaring and laddering on Pokemon Online. I just prefer to use an Oblivious Quagsire as a wall over a Blissey. I used Scizor a LOT before he got Bullet Punch. But Ive never used a Garchomp.

[ConMan]

Now, there hasn't been a good handheld Zelda since Minish Cap...

I found Phantom Glass to be not-terrible and Spirit Tracks to be moderately-better, but I can also be annoying and point out Ocarina of Time 3DS (which I just finished, and will come back to for Master Quest later)

[popsofctown]

FFTA the bess FF

[eHalcyon]

eHal, dont get me wrong. Im a total Pokemon Geek. Ive spent hours and hours on breeding and training and grinding and pokeradaring and laddering on Pokemon Online. I just prefer to use an Oblivious Quagsire as a wall over a Blissey. I used Scizor a LOT before he got Bullet Punch. But Ive never used a Garchomp.

The solution then is to play in UU or NU or maybe even BL or LC tiers.

[dondon151]

Maybe you'd like the meta game more then, i.e. simulators where you can create pokemon with IVs and EVs exactly as you'd like and you just battle others.  There is much more strategy in that than in the main series game.

I've probably played online Pokemon simulators before any of you guys have. I was a pretty good battler back in gen 3 (when the simulator of choice was Netbattle or RSbot), but gen 4 and gen 5 did not strike my fancy. There are too damn many Pokemon and the strategy space is just so much more confined. It used to be that you could feasibly prepare for every threat if you were smart, but now that is no longer possible and every now and then you'll come across that Pokemon that you were completely unprepared for.

(I get the impression that Gamefreak doesn't care about balance anymore either: things like the Stealth Rock damage formula, the absence of Rapid Spin analogs, Drizzle Politoed, ubiquitous Draco Meteor and Outrage, Normal types being comparatively useless, and so on. Those things made the metagame a lot less enjoyable. Plus the power creep in gen 5 is absolutely huge; I was pretty surprised when gen 3 OU staples like Swampert, Snorlax, and Zapdos dropped down to UU.)

Getting through the game is a piece of cake. A lot of fun, but a piece of cake. But the online simulators and the "extra-game" features on the newer games (like battle subway for Black and White) are quite strategically deep. The Battle Subway is especially tough because you actually have to breed for these perfect pokemon, which usually takes a lot of time and planning. But if your pokemon aren't fairly perfected, you're not gonna do that well at later levels.

I cannot afford to waste hours upon hours of time on Pokemon post-game content, and it just doesn't feel the same when you beat an AI.

[Titandrake]

FFTA the bess FF

Played that a ton a while ago. It's kinda easy, but it's still pretty satisfying. I couldn't get into the original FFT, maybe because I didn't really understand the game's system as well, so I couldn't get as into the character building.

[Ozle]

Ultima 5 possibly the greatest game ever if you are old enough to have played it first time round

A proper open game that you could go anywhere at any point if you were brave enough!

Which then moved over into Ultima Online

If you missed UO in the MMORPG craze, late 90's early 2000's then you missed the best MMORPG
Sure WOW has pretty graphics, a million shinies and stuff. But UO was so free and open you had entire communities form in game!

[Lekkit]

The solution then is to play in UU or NU or maybe even BL or LC tiers.

LC is stupid. While I like the idea of small guys battling, the stats matters too much. 1 point makes sooo much difference. I've tried UU and NU, but didn't really like it. I've done some extensive Uber battling, but there's just not enough players there for me. I get tired of battling the same team over and over and over and over again. But it's actually the tier I like the most. But I'll probably mainly keep doing OU battles.

[Toolshed113]

I found Phantom Glass to be not-terrible and Spirit Tracks to be moderately-better, but I can also be annoying and point out Ocarina of Time 3DS (which I just finished, and will come back to for Master Quest later)

I really didn't like either DS Zelda game, and OOT 3DS doesn't count. Master quest has ruined OOT for me forever though. I used to play through that game about once every 3 months or so, but I finally finished a master quest playthrough about a year ago and haven't touched the game since. The master quest spirit and shadow temples were too frustrating.

[jsh357]

dondon: afraid I have you beat.  I played online Pokemon back in gen 2 when it was all on irc, then netbattle.  I quit partially for the same reasons as lekkit, but also because a lot of competitive Pokemon players are really vulgar people.  frequent n word use, using 'gay' to mean bad, etc.  even today, you see it on smogon and such.  at any rate, Pokemon's mechanics grow stale after a while.  I'm convinced game freak has no idea how to balance the game and the fact that it ever worked competitively was a coincidence.

[Toolshed113]

I quit partially for the same reasons as lekkit, but also because a lot of competitive Pokemon players are really vulgar people.

Never, ever, ever play DOTA then. Worst gaming community I have ever seen. That game destroys friendships. My best friend is really into it and tried to get me to play. When I finally did, my suckage lost us games and you would have thought I was causing the downfall of western civilization. Needless to say I refuse to play anymore. The whole community is a cesspool of the worst qualities in gamers.

[Lekkit]

That is true for most of the eSports scene. The top players tend to be relatively nice though. It's the ones that are playing from their mothers' basements and think they are super good that are really vile. Just look at "serious" FPS-players.