Board 8 > Leonhart Ranks 124 User Nominated Games

(+) Yeah! (+)

Chrono Trigger man, real-time turn based combat destroys me.
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Shonen_Bat posted...

Chrono Trigger man, real-time turn based combat destroys me.

Can't you set it so the ATB doesn't continue while you select things?
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I thought I turned that on, but I don't remember it helping very much. Might just be that I suck.
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Wait mode is usually the default in most RPGs.

I can't imagine CT is suddenly super difficult in active mode though.
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82. Chrono Cross (pjbasis)


There are people who hate Chrono Cross for what it did to Chrono Trigger's plot and characters, but I am not one of them. I actually played Cross first since it came out on PS1 before Final Fantasy Chronicles, which was my first exposure to Trigger. I don't have the same reverence for CT that most people do anyway, so I probably have an uncommon perspective when it comes to CC. Chrono Cross is probably one of the best-looking and best-sounding games on the PS1. It still looks good even today, and the quality of the game's soundtrack is well known (although why the battle theme is one of the worst songs considering you hear it the most often is beyond me). The plot is infamously a mess, but sometimes it's a hot mess. It's got some great moments, like all the stuff with Miguel, the body swap, and the orphanage, among others. I'm willing to overlook something that might be flawed in some respects in exchange for great presentation, and Chrono Cross manages to pull it off most of the time.

It's a little less successful with the cast. The fact that it has a very large cast that's mostly interchangeable and the main way to differentiate between them is by their accents has been firmly established over the years, but even among the characters who would be considered "unique," there are relatively few that I like. I'm not a fan of Harle at all, and if I ever have to hear Kid tell someone else about how she's going to make them kiss the moons again, it'll be too soon. I actually did like Lynx a lot though. I think I'd still consider him one of my favorite RPG antagonists. I didn't particularly care for the battle system either, the Element stuff in particular. I didn't like having to swap and re-arrange them whenever I had to change party members, so I kept my party the same as much as possible (Serge/Norris/Fargo for life). That being said, the major boss fights were really well done, so that's another instance of atmosphere trumping all else.

Perhaps the best thing Chrono Cross did was how it handled its New Game+ mode. The implementation of a fast forward button was brilliant, and I'm confused that the concept fell by the wayside in Square RPGs for 15ish years. I haven't played Chrono Cross in many years, but I think it'd be hard to do again without that fast forward button. It's truly a game-changer!

Bonus Question: Who is your favorite Chrono Cross character?
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I usually disagree with at least one or two things you say, but that CC writeup is 100% my experience and opinion as well. I mean, other than that I tended to switch out party members more often and I don't think I ever used Norris.

I also liked Lynx a lot, so he might be my favorite character. Or Guile or Glenn.
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Harle the best
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: Do you prefer to play as a "good guy" or a "bad guy" if given the choice?

Depends on how bad. Like, I'll almost always be a good person when it comes to helping people, doing quests, use tranqs if able, and trying to make the world better. But I will break every single piece of property, steal every scrap of paper, and trespass everywhere to get my exploration fix.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: Who is your favorite character from the first Danganronpa?

Asahina and Kyoko are up there, but Chihiro is definitely my favorite. I had a longer writeup, but mobile problems.
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LeonhartFour posted...

I didn't like having to swap and re-arrange them whenever I had to change party members, so I kept my party the same as much as possible (Serge/Norris/Fargo for life).

Still fake news you hoisted on yourself!
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i'm bad to the bone

Master gif finder though.

Impressed smb1 won out of my noms lol.

Here's hoping I don't see it for a while but I doubt it!
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Chrono Cross too high.

pjbasis posted...

Still fake news you hoisted on yourself!

sorry I'm pretty sure there's still not a "switch" option for elements so nope
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81. The Simpsons (WhiteLens)


This is probably one of my most played arcade games, up there with various Street Fighters, the old X-Men arcade game, and strangely enough, Space Invaders. The dentist I went to as a kid had a Space Invaders arcade cabinet in his lobby, and you could lift up the cover and give yourself free credits, so that was cool. Anyway, it felt like just about every bowling alley and skating rink in the '90s had The Simpsons game in it, so I had plenty of chances to play it growing up. I didn't get it when they ported it to PSN a few years ago (and has since been discontinued), but I remember seeing lots of people saying the game hasn't aged well. I guess there was a part of me that was afraid it wouldn't be as good as I remembered, so maybe that's why I didn't get it, but I think it wouldn't be the same without being able to play with two or three other people anyway. Some games are just better experienced the way they were originally intended.

Anyway, like I said, since I haven't played this game in a long time, I can't speak to a lot of specifics. I think Marge is considered to be the best character, although I preferred to play as Bart because, again, he was my favorite Simpsons character. I love sidescroller beat-em-ups in general, and I was a big Simpsons fan back in the day, so this was a good combination. I seem to remember the game being pretty difficult and I never had enough quarters on hand to finish it, but that may have been me not being that good at video games as a kid. I guess I'll never know now! Although who knows? Maybe there's a bowling alley or skating rink out there somewhere that still has this game in it, and maybe one day I'll find it! I can only hope!

Bonus Question: What is your favorite arcade game?
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I thought Lisa was eight.
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I mean Lisa should technically be approaching 40 so we can give them a little leeway
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chrono cross battle theme is a masterpiece
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80. VVVVVV (NFUN)


That GIF captures my favorite and most memorable part of this game. I felt very accomplished pulling that off! That's the joy of VVVVVV. The level design is tough, but the game itself is extremely forgiving, so it never gets that frustrating. I don't know how many times it actually took me to succeed on that section, but it somehow managed to keep me engaged until I got it. It felt like something worth celebrating instead of something to just groan about and say, "Man, I'm glad that's over." That's one of the best things about VVVVVV. You're free to experiment with how to get through a screen however you choose because you have infinite lives and you usually immediately respawn on the screen you die on. The older I get, the less patience I have for difficult games that punish you excessively for failing. That's just not very fun for me anymore. I rarely play games for the challenge anyway. That's not to say that I dislike hard games. It's just not a big factor in determining how much I like something.

VVVVVV is also a very charming game visually and aurally. The gingerbread-esque character designs are pretty cool, and I like the fact that the color schemes change depending on what area you're in at the time. The level titles are usually clever, too. The game has an excellent soundtrack. It doesn't have a lot of songs, but just about every one of them is really good. They're very energetic and help keep you pumped up as you push your way through each section. VVVVVV might be the most accessible and least frustrating "hard" game I've played, and that's a big reason I finished it compared to other similar games that I just eventually got tired of and dropped. If you're a platformer fan, I'd definitely recommend this one to you.

Bonus Question: What is your favorite indie game?
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What is your favorite indie game?

I haven't played very many... probably either Hollow Knight or Shovel Knight.
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Hollow Knight ez
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Shovel Knight.

Honorable mentions to Cuphead/A Hat in Time/Hollow Knight, which were all also really good.
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79. The Bouncer (LeonhartFour)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxBmBJiv7f0

I'm going with a YouTube video instead of a GIF here because I love that song and because it's tough finding good GIFs for this game. Anyway, I actually really enjoyed this game. I feel like it was kind of overlooked since it fell between FFIX and FFX, and it was Square's first offering on PS2. It did have some problems. The combat could get a bit repetitive, but that tends to happen with beat-em-ups in general. The game is very short, but I don't know that I minded it that much because I think it adds to the replay value since you can get through it in short order. It also takes three full playthroughs to get the complete story, but I thought it was cool getting it in bits and pieces and experiencing things from each character's unique perspective. Connecting all the dots as you play through the game was neat, and I wish more games did it that way. They also got some pretty high quality voice actors for this game, like Steve Blum and Bridget Hoffman.

I thought the three playable characters (Sion, Volt, and Kou), as well as Dominique and Dauragon C. Mikado (as the character select screen tells you if you pick him in multiplayer) were all very likable, and they had some really cool designs. The game threw lots of crazy twists at you, too, and I tend to enjoy when games go over the top like that. The final boss fight you unlock after you beat the game three times was very fun, too. "Fighting for the sheer joy of fighting" indeed.

I'll close this out with a nerdy anecdote about myself. When I was in high school, we had a creative writing project in one of my English classes where we had to write a short story, and I actually wrote a fanfiction story about The Bouncer. I don't think I ever told the teacher that I got the idea from a video game, but I got a good grade on it, so that's all that matters!

Bonus Question: What is your favorite game that you feel is overlooked?
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I didnt think anyone had actually ever played the bouncer
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well I am one of the few and proud
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I remember that it got hyped before it came out, then it turned out to be terrible and everyone made fun of all the people who hyped it up. Kinda like Lair or whatever.
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78. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (tazzyboyishere)


I love Roxas. He's easily my favorite Kingdom Hearts original character. I thought his role in Kingdom Hearts II was tragic. Nearly everyone he knew was using him to get to Sora and the Keyblade, and he was basically fated not to have a happy ending. So when he got his own game in 358/2 Days, I was all over it. This is not a happy game. It is thoroughly bittersweet from start to finish, partly because you already know how this will all end for Roxas. It just makes his story even more heartbreaking by showing us the friendships he had with Axel and Xion while he was part of Organization XIII. It's kind of funny how the characters who supposedly have no hearts and no emotions are the ones who tug at your heartstrings the most. The scene right before the final boss fight might be one of the most unsettling moments in the series for me. The whole experience hit me pretty hard.

As for why 358/2 Days isn't higher after saying all that, it's primarily because of the gameplay. Simply put, it's not very good. I really like Kingdom Hearts's battle system because it's normally a lot of fun, but it's not that fun here. Due to the limitations of being on the DS, it's very reductive compared to the mainline games. The missions end up being very repetitive, and the worlds themselves are pretty small. It uses a panel system similar to the one in Birth by Sleep, but it's less elaborate. I can understand why the HD version of the game was just the cutscenes because that's the real appeal here.

Bonus Question: Who is your favorite Kingdom Hearts character?
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If Days had Re:coded's battle system, oh man what could have been
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What is your favorite indie game?

Undertale on account of it being the... you know.

(It really is my #1 game though)
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What is your favorite game that you feel is overlooked?

Papo & Yo

One of the most powerful and emotional narratives told in a game, but it flew completely under the radar because it wasn't mechanically impressive enough
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& Yo makes it sounds like "and I" in Spanish.

I ain't playing no spanish game
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cant tell if serious
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The Mana Sword posted...

cant tell if serious

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Roxas, Xion, and Axel are my top 3 KH characters, so 358/2 Days is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. Yeah, equipping levels is terrible design, and the missions are solely there to make this a video game (Should've just made an anime special or manga tbqh), but Roxas' entire storyline really shows what the series' lore is capable of creating.
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I swear I thought I was mistaken somehow.
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what happened here
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77. Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Mac Arrowny)


Final Fantasy XIII-2 is an interesting experience because a lot of it is an extreme overreaction to the criticisms lobbed at FFXIII. It tries to fix many of the major complaints with varying degrees of success. In particular, they tried to do a better job of having real towns and NPCs, two things the original largely lacked. Of course, I liked FFXIII quite a bit as is (list spoilers), so it wasn't necessary for me to have them change so much. Perhaps the most pleasant surprise in FFXIII-2 was how much I liked Serah. I thought she was nothing special in the first game, but I really enjoyed what they did with her here. She's just a really likable lead, and I found myself rooting for her despite the fact that those closest to her were kinda dumb. I mean, despite the fact that I do like him a good bit, I expect Snow to do dumb things, so that's nothing new, although I did enjoy his role in the game. This is also where the deification of Lightning began, and I did not particularly enjoy that. The worst offender here is Noel though. I just didn't like him at all, and that's bad news for me because it's hard for me to get attached to a game if I don't enjoy the main characters. Caius was whatever, too, but putting up with a whatever villain is a lot easier for me.

The battle system is mostly the same, although it's slightly less enjoyable because all the monster capturing stuff does nothing for me. I'd rather just have a real character in that third slot. That being said, it's still pretty fun, so it's not like that was a deal breaker or anything. I enjoyed the plot and the setting. Time travel stories are usually interesting for me, especially since they tend to be wild and crazy, even if they don't totally make sense. I thought the various environments were pretty cool, whether it was revisiting some familiar locations in new circumstances and points in time or just visiting the same places in different timelines to see what had changed. It's always cool to see the repercussions of your choices when it comes to time travel plots.

I still need to finish Final Fantasy XIII-2 one of these days so I can complete the trilogy at long last. I don't even remember why I stopped playing. It wasn't because I disliked it. I guess I got distracted by something else and just didn't go back to it. I think I'm pretty close to the end, too. Hopefully, I won't need to start over because I can't keep everything straight in my mind, but it has been a while, so who knows!

Bonus Question: What is your favorite game with time travel in it?
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What is your favorite game with time travel in it?

Bioshock Infinite, though the time travel aspect was pretty minor until the end

Life is Strange is my favorite where time travel is the main focus
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I haven't really posted here, but I did read a little bit at the start and saw this be posted today. Felt it'd be relevant.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-02/there-s-now-a-monopoly-made-specifically-for-cheating
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that actually sounds kinda interesting but I still wouldn't want to play it
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Ocarina of Time I guess

Not a very interesting way to use time travel though in the grand scheme
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Maybe I should've phrased it as favorite use of time travel in a game.
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aw yeah 13-2
top 5 FF game
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XIII-2 was the worst FF game imho (so like a 6/10). It really dumbed down the battle system and most of the open world was just a bunch of busywork fetch quests. Jumping puzzles and the clock minigame were also awful
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LeonhartFour posted...

Maybe I should've phrased it as favorite use of time travel in a game.

ok yeah definitely Life is Strange then
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LeonhartFour posted...

that actually sounds kinda interesting but I still wouldn't want to play it

Me neither, it's just interesting that they actually tried to add something to change up some gameplay in it.
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Mobilezoid posted...

Jumping puzzles and the clock minigame were also awful

I actually kind of liked those!

The game does have too many fetch quests though. Just setting the stage for FFXV, I guess...!
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WickIebee posted...

Me neither, it's just interesting that they actually tried to add something to change up some gameplay in it.

man it's a game that encourages you to make your own rules

You don't need an official version to change things! My friends and I made business deals and contracts with each other to make it feel less like a dice game and more like a game of risk and partnerships and betrayals.
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Hmm...It's close to the end of the page.
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I suppose I'd better go ahead and end it so I don't bury the next one at the bottom and it gets overlooked.
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