LOTR The Third Age

[BliX]

Anyone else pick up this spiffy RPG? When I learned it was a Final Fantasy game with LOTR characters I had to have it, ive been playing for around an hour and I love it, great graphics and familiar game play

[Inkthinker]

I've lost my interest in most console RPGs

I'm espescially beyond tired of "Red Rover" combat... my guys stand in a row on my side of the line, the bad guys stand in a row on the other side, and we hop back and forth. Boooorrrrrriiiinngg...

One of the things I look forward to in FFXII is the end of random, turn-based, Red Rover combat.

I will admit, however, that this LOTR game is silly gorgeous-looking. Maybe my girlfriend would like it... she's a big Final Fantasy and LOTR fan. But for me, I'll wait for FFXII.

[BliX]

A lot of people seem to be tired of the "Red Rover" combat system, but thats 50% why I bought it. I just love the old school Final Fantasy type game play,and the other 50% because of LOTR. This game is super awesome looking to boot

[FIG]

Looks like more EA poop warmed over.

[Reilly]

I've lost my interest in most console RPGs

Ha ha ha!! That was great!
But I certainly agree with you Ink, most of the big RPGs nowadays are all kinds of boring. You have to spend countless hours wandering around dungeons looking for invisible bad guys that jump you at random just so that you can be strong enough to get to the next chapter of the story which doesn't make any damn sense anyway.
Old school games like FF1 were fun that way, because each random battle was almost a fight for your life, but nowadays even the boss monsters are easy.
Every now and then a cool game will come out that's actually fun to play (like Valkyrie Profile) and I hope that the bigger titles like Final Fantasy will pick up on some of the cool ideas, but alas, they never do.

Actually, I haven't played it, but FFX2 looked like it was pretty fun. The battles were pretty fast-paced at least, and it looked like it kept you on your toes.
Is FF12 going to have a more active battle system than the previous games? Even if it does, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get over those character designs enough to actually play it. . .

--Reilly

[Inkthinker]

FF12 has a combat system apparently based on the online combat of FFXI. This means no random battles, you'll see your enemies as they approach... all the characters not in immediate control by the player operate on AI scripts. And from what I can tell by watching gameplay movies, the characters get mixed up into a melee when they fight... no more "my side, your side" BS.

I'm expecting something similar to the combat in KOTOR, really. If I had played FFXI at all I might know more of what to expect.

And I like the new designs... Akihiro Yoshida did a bang-up job with Vagrant Story, despite the assless shorts.

[Super Rats]

At first I wasn't too keen on the idea of moving away from the turn-based fighting in RPGs...I hated it when the Ultima games moved away from turn based combat way way back. I was even dreading the eventual demise of turn based combat in the Final Fantasy series. But, the most recent Star Ocean and Sudeki have got me liking active real time combat in RPGs. Both games had poor story lines and weak overall game design, but they did have some enjoyable combat. In Sudeki I liked how spellcasting and ranged combat was done FPS style, providing some variety from the hand-to-hand combat which was 3rd person. On the other hand, I don't want to see the Red-Rover style go completely -- it provides more opportunity for stat management, and skill matching, than a real time combat game does since you get to control everything in a turn based game.

I hate required leveling up, though. Fighting as you go from place to place is fine, but I hate having to intentionally look for random combat to be able to play the next stage. Star Ocean is terrible in this regard. I've been leveling up for almost five hours and I'm still getting slaughtered by normal monsters when I set foot in the next area I need to get to.

The turn based combat if FFX2 was a lot of fun in the beginning. The main problem with it was at a point, you could just hold down the X button to defeat your enemies. I played the game twice...it was a fun game all around. Looking forward to FF12.

[Ed]

the only way old school rpgs can hold my intest now is being very long and having a very good story.

ie: Sin Megami Tensei: Nocturne


best rpg ive played in a while....



and having dante in your party is cool.

[Knigge]

Ink, I love that comic. As far as final fantasy, its my favorite series next to grand theft auto. I don't really buy them so much for the gameplay (which is mostly why I buy GTA), although I really dig it, rather I like the stories they come up with and the graphics and designs and seeing what they will think of next. However, I won't play ffxi cause i'm already spending money on swg and I don't have the time to make sure I get my money well spent each month. I think I'll check out lotr when it goes down in price a bit. It sounds fun.

[Inkthinker]

I think you can still have proper stat management and so forth in a real-time combat system... all you need is a pause button that allows you to still mess about in your menus while freezing the action, but doesn't allow you to actively perform any moves until time kicks back in.

FFXII is due early next year, so as soon as all the pre-Christmas sales BS and the Halo 2 hype finally dies down to a quiet roar, the games media will pick up on the newest details to the next iteration in the series.