I used the eShop sale to buy Xenoblade Chronicles Torna, not having played XC2, and boy they just throw stuff at you. I'll eventually pick up on the bunch of kingdoms palling around in each other's spaces, but I'm having trouble with the combat, specifically Blade combos.
I sometimes get prompted to push A for the blade combo of my own team, which I think is getting me a level of the 1-2-3 blade combo, but I don't know what triggers that prompt. If I don't have the prompt and I press A to do a special, does that also add to the blade combo level, or would I have to wait to hit a level 2 special from my team to add to a currently level 1 blade combo? And for the ZR/ZL combo prompts, will they always add to my combo level, and I only need to be picky about them with regards to the special elemental order?
Starting from first principles: every time you use an Art, it charges your Special Attacks. That will rise through levels 1, 2, and 3, and so long as it's at least at level 1 you can use it at any time. So when you get the A button prompt, I think that just means you are capable of doing the special attack, not that it will necessarily contribute to the combo. I think there's a UI element in the upper-right showing what your current combo is, so you'll need to look at that to see what level your special needs to be to continue the combo.
Allies, on the other hand, will never offer to execute a special at your command until it will contribute to the combo, so when you get the ZL or ZR prompt, you can be sure that that will add to the combo with whatever element they currently have up.
(That's all from memory, though, so check what I'm saying against your lived experience.)
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
Getting back into FF4 a bit, I've got Cid and the airship now
The walkthrough I've been using takes this opportunity to have me fly all over the world and scoop up as much hidden free loot as I can, and sends me down to Eblan Castle for a Sleep Blade. Grabbing the blade triggers an ambush which the guide says I might lose if the skeletons use Thundara right away, but if they don't then I probably have it made
I have tried this fight 8 times and they have opened with Thundara every time and wiped us in two turns. I can't grind around here either because everything is likewise way above my level
This walkthrough really goes hard on "follow these exact steps now and they'll pay off much later" but I don't know if the fuckin Sleep Blade is worth the trouble
Honestly I'm not sure how much I'm digging FF4. I picked it up because people were saying Endwalker was pulling a lot of stuff from it and I wanted to see the context, but frankly it's just too hard. I don't feel like I can safely explore and every boss fight feels like I have to hit the right pattern exactly or I'll get real messed up, and that just isn't a ton of fun. And I read that the DS remake was notoriously tough and yet here I am, so I only have myself to blame
Honestly I'm not sure how much I'm digging FF4. I picked it up because people were saying Endwalker was pulling a lot of stuff from it and I wanted to see the context, but frankly it's just too hard. I don't feel like I can safely explore and every boss fight feels like I have to hit the right pattern exactly or I'll get real messed up, and that just isn't a ton of fun. And I read that the DS remake was notoriously tough and yet here I am, so I only have myself to blame
If you're playing the 3D remake, I'm just going to straight up say it isn't worth it
It's an ok game is you're an old hand at the original, but a lot of the decisions in how the game plays seems to be based on you really abusing the extra ability stuff. There is also just hard spikes in difficulty that make it a slog. Like those dumb fire dogs. I wouldn't even really call it tough so much as poorly paced and prone to clubbing you with single solution problems you either get because you're used to the game or over level it.
You're better off just picking up the original, the GBA advanced one, or the recently released pixel remaster.
+1
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
XC2 is a mess even when you do know how to play it, honestly
It's somehow overly complicated but also way too simple at the exact same time.
Like there's all of these systems and tutorials and pieces seemingly moving together.
But when you get down to it you just rotate through a single combo based upon what blades you happen to have randomly gotten and... that's basically it. Nothing the enemy is doing matters. The ability to move doesn't really mean anything outside of sliding between potentially two positions throughout a fight if you happen to have chosen two different positionals for your very limited skills selection. And then all your progression is basically just making numbers bigger with the same attacks. So little changes visually. You can legit be using the same damn attacks in your combo at hour 10 as you are at hour 110.
Honestly I'm not sure how much I'm digging FF4. I picked it up because people were saying Endwalker was pulling a lot of stuff from it and I wanted to see the context, but frankly it's just too hard. I don't feel like I can safely explore and every boss fight feels like I have to hit the right pattern exactly or I'll get real messed up, and that just isn't a ton of fun. And I read that the DS remake was notoriously tough and yet here I am, so I only have myself to blame
If you're playing the 3D remake, I'm just going to straight up say it isn't worth it
It's an ok game is you're an old hand at the original, but a lot of the decisions in how the game plays seems to be based on you really abusing the extra ability stuff. There is also just hard spikes in difficulty that make it a slog. Like those dumb fire dogs. I wouldn't even really call it tough so much as poorly paced and prone to clubbing you with single solution problems you either get because you're used to the game or over level it.
You're better off just picking up the original, the GBA advanced one, or the recently released pixel remaster.
I don't know if I want to start over at this point but, yeah, seems like I made the wrong choice here
The 3d remake is actually my favorite version of 4, but there's 2 versions of the 3d remake.
There's the original version for the DS and the version they put on the PC. The DS version is notably harder than any other version of the game. When they ported it over to PC they made the default difficulty easier than the DS, but kept the DS difficulty as an optional hard mode.
Honestly I'm not sure how much I'm digging FF4. I picked it up because people were saying Endwalker was pulling a lot of stuff from it and I wanted to see the context, but frankly it's just too hard. I don't feel like I can safely explore and every boss fight feels like I have to hit the right pattern exactly or I'll get real messed up, and that just isn't a ton of fun. And I read that the DS remake was notoriously tough and yet here I am, so I only have myself to blame
If you're playing the 3D remake, I'm just going to straight up say it isn't worth it
It's an ok game is you're an old hand at the original, but a lot of the decisions in how the game plays seems to be based on you really abusing the extra ability stuff. There is also just hard spikes in difficulty that make it a slog. Like those dumb fire dogs. I wouldn't even really call it tough so much as poorly paced and prone to clubbing you with single solution problems you either get because you're used to the game or over level it.
You're better off just picking up the original, the GBA advanced one, or the recently released pixel remaster.
I don't know if I want to start over at this point but, yeah, seems like I made the wrong choice here
The plus side is that the 2D versions of the game are very slick. If you're even remotely aware of what you're doing in a 'go to A, B then C' fashion you can blitz right through the game. It's why I'll sit down and play through it every year or two. So at the very least even if you put it down now you can just pick it up again as one of the other versions and get up to speed fairly easily.
The main thing that got me through the DS remake was to slow or disable enemies whenever possible. Slow spell, Spider Silk item, Hold Spell, Stop spell; these are more effective than I'd have expected, and make things considerably easier to deal with.
In Yakuza 7 you can call down an orbital laser strike on a giant Roomba.
GOTY.
+8
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
edited December 2021
Wrapped up SMT5 the other day!
What a fantastic game that was. If you had that gameplay and exploration in a more story oriented game it would be my GOTY hands down.
The exploration was easily the best I've ever experienced in a JRPG. Probably right ahead of DQ11 off the top of my head. But man all the way through it just felt so good. Even legit had those moments where I would climb up something high to get a better perspective and try to plan out where I was heading to find the next item. The map was just enough to show you general locations without being just a plain and simple follow the map to the glowing point sort of thing. You could see there was a reward and now it would be up to you to try and find it. Fantastically smart and well done.
Definitely had that traditional JRPG reverse difficulty curve but I like that so that was ok. And it wasn't until the last big map area of the game that I was actually starting to feel overpowered. So I still spent most of the game needing to be quite strategic.
Downsides: Overall story writing and it looks a bit muddy due to switch.
Stacey score: 4/5 (no half points, those are for cowards)
In Yakuza 7 you can call down an orbital laser strike on a giant Roomba.
GOTY.
It opens with a fetch quest for a plunger for the backed-up toilet at the "not-a-brothel" you grew up at.
Game of the century.
I am so excited to see what they do with a full dev cycle just improving on that combat engine.
Yakuza 8 is gonna be SO GOOD.
Yakuza is turn-based now, right? IIRC Capcom said something about how Like a Dragon wasn’t a spin-off, and Judgement was the new action-centric face of the series.
In Yakuza 7 you can call down an orbital laser strike on a giant Roomba.
GOTY.
It opens with a fetch quest for a plunger for the backed-up toilet at the "not-a-brothel" you grew up at.
Game of the century.
I am so excited to see what they do with a full dev cycle just improving on that combat engine.
Yakuza 8 is gonna be SO GOOD.
Yakuza is turn-based now, right? IIRC Capcom said something about how Like a Dragon wasn’t a spin-off, and Judgement was the new action-centric face of the series.
Sega does Yakuza, Capcom is Monster Hunter and Resident Evil and such.
0
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
In Yakuza 7 you can call down an orbital laser strike on a giant Roomba.
GOTY.
It opens with a fetch quest for a plunger for the backed-up toilet at the "not-a-brothel" you grew up at.
Game of the century.
I am so excited to see what they do with a full dev cycle just improving on that combat engine.
Yakuza 8 is gonna be SO GOOD.
Yakuza is turn-based now, right? IIRC Capcom said something about how Like a Dragon wasn’t a spin-off, and Judgement was the new action-centric face of the series.
Correct. LAD was Yakuza 7. Yakuza 8 is the direct sequel to that following the same main character with the turn based combat.
So that's why I'm saying it will be awesome to see how they iterate and improve on the battle system now that they have the first game under their belt. Can do so much more once you have all the basics in place.
+1
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
That announcement really bummed me the fuck out because as cool as Yakuza 7 was, it is cool as a change of pace for me but I still vastly prefer the action gameplay of the rest of the series and now Judgement
0
Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
If you’re wanting an old school PS1 era feeling RPG I will 100% recommend Ghost Sync
If you’re wanting an old school PS1 era feeling RPG I will 100% recommend Ghost Sync
Kemco games in general check a lot of comfy SNES era jrpg boxes. I've probably played through half a dozen of their games and I've been generally satisfied with all of them. Not to say they are masterpieces, but they are a solid chicken soup tier.
+1
Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
If you’re wanting an old school PS1 era feeling RPG I will 100% recommend Ghost Sync
Kemco games in general check a lot of comfy SNES era jrpg boxes. I've probably played through half a dozen of their games and I've been generally satisfied with all of them. Not to say they are masterpieces, but they are a solid chicken soup tier.
If you’re wanting an old school PS1 era feeling RPG I will 100% recommend Ghost Sync
Kemco games in general check a lot of comfy SNES era jrpg boxes. I've probably played through half a dozen of their games and I've been generally satisfied with all of them. Not to say they are masterpieces, but they are a solid chicken soup tier.
It's Exe-Create, not Kemco, and man, looking at the not-box art of their games, they certainly have, uh... a type.
If you’re wanting an old school PS1 era feeling RPG I will 100% recommend Ghost Sync
Kemco games in general check a lot of comfy SNES era jrpg boxes. I've probably played through half a dozen of their games and I've been generally satisfied with all of them. Not to say they are masterpieces, but they are a solid chicken soup tier.
It's Exe-Create, not Kemco, and man, looking at the not-box art of their games, they certainly have, uh... a type.
Who publishes every single game?
Oh. Right. Kemco.
What an asinine distinction.
Anyway, they are all fine games that do different enough things mechanically and have charming little stories that aren't going to win any awards but are comfy to play through.
If you’re wanting an old school PS1 era feeling RPG I will 100% recommend Ghost Sync
Kemco games in general check a lot of comfy SNES era jrpg boxes. I've probably played through half a dozen of their games and I've been generally satisfied with all of them. Not to say they are masterpieces, but they are a solid chicken soup tier.
It's Exe-Create, not Kemco, and man, looking at the not-box art of their games, they certainly have, uh... a type.
Who publishes every single game?
Oh. Right. Kemco.
What an asinine distinction.
Anyway, they are all fine games that do different enough things mechanically and have charming little stories that aren't going to win any awards but are comfy to play through.
What crawled up your ass and died? Development is significantly different from publishing. Team Ninja, Tri-Ace, and, well, Square, are extremely different developers and everybody has extremely different expectations for games developed by each of them, but they all make action RPGs published by Square-Enix.
If you’re wanting an old school PS1 era feeling RPG I will 100% recommend Ghost Sync
Kemco games in general check a lot of comfy SNES era jrpg boxes. I've probably played through half a dozen of their games and I've been generally satisfied with all of them. Not to say they are masterpieces, but they are a solid chicken soup tier.
It's Exe-Create, not Kemco, and man, looking at the not-box art of their games, they certainly have, uh... a type.
Who publishes every single game?
Oh. Right. Kemco.
What an asinine distinction.
Anyway, they are all fine games that do different enough things mechanically and have charming little stories that aren't going to win any awards but are comfy to play through.
What crawled up your ass and died? Development is significantly different from publishing. Team Ninja, Tri-Ace, and, well, Square, are extremely different developers and everybody has extremely different expectations for games developed by each of them, but they all make action RPGs published by Square-Enix.
I don't think I've held any expectations from Tri-Ace since 1999
If you’re wanting an old school PS1 era feeling RPG I will 100% recommend Ghost Sync
Kemco games in general check a lot of comfy SNES era jrpg boxes. I've probably played through half a dozen of their games and I've been generally satisfied with all of them. Not to say they are masterpieces, but they are a solid chicken soup tier.
It's Exe-Create, not Kemco, and man, looking at the not-box art of their games, they certainly have, uh... a type.
Who publishes every single game?
Oh. Right. Kemco.
What an asinine distinction.
Anyway, they are all fine games that do different enough things mechanically and have charming little stories that aren't going to win any awards but are comfy to play through.
What crawled up your ass and died? Development is significantly different from publishing. Team Ninja, Tri-Ace, and, well, Square, are extremely different developers and everybody has extremely different expectations for games developed by each of them, but they all make action RPGs published by Square-Enix.
I don't think I've held any expectations from Tri-Ace since 1999
the bar is set underground at this point
Oi. Silmeria was 2006 and it was fucking fantastic.
...But yeah. No argument there. Tri-Ace games, even from back when they occasionally did decent things, always needed at least one to two more playability and writing passes. I still find it hilarious how Valkyrie Profile had three difficulties, Easy, Normal, and Hard. Hard being the easiest with the most content, and Easy being the hardest with the least.
I'm actually really enjoying the FF4 pixel remaster. I'm playing on my phone and it's very quick and snappy, and feels a lot more player friendly. I think the art looks very charming and the orchestrated music is fantastic
If you’re wanting an old school PS1 era feeling RPG I will 100% recommend Ghost Sync
Kemco games in general check a lot of comfy SNES era jrpg boxes. I've probably played through half a dozen of their games and I've been generally satisfied with all of them. Not to say they are masterpieces, but they are a solid chicken soup tier.
It's Exe-Create, not Kemco, and man, looking at the not-box art of their games, they certainly have, uh... a type.
Who publishes every single game?
Oh. Right. Kemco.
What an asinine distinction.
Anyway, they are all fine games that do different enough things mechanically and have charming little stories that aren't going to win any awards but are comfy to play through.
What crawled up your ass and died? Development is significantly different from publishing. Team Ninja, Tri-Ace, and, well, Square, are extremely different developers and everybody has extremely different expectations for games developed by each of them, but they all make action RPGs published by Square-Enix.
I don't think I've held any expectations from Tri-Ace since 1999
the bar is set underground at this point
Oi. Silmeria was 2006 and it was fucking fantastic.
...But yeah. No argument there. Tri-Ace games, even from back when they occasionally did decent things, always needed at least one to two more playability and writing passes. I still find it hilarious how Valkyrie Profile had three difficulties, Easy, Normal, and Hard. Hard being the easiest with the most content, and Easy being the hardest with the least.
What's more is that it's not even something you can simply blame on SE being unreasonable like you usually could - SE has been weirdly generous with letting them continually pump out mediocre-at-best product while franchises like Deus Ex get buried. Does Tri-Ace's mobile games actually bring in that much money?
0
turtleantGunpla Dadis the best.Registered Userregular
If you’re wanting an old school PS1 era feeling RPG I will 100% recommend Ghost Sync
Kemco games in general check a lot of comfy SNES era jrpg boxes. I've probably played through half a dozen of their games and I've been generally satisfied with all of them. Not to say they are masterpieces, but they are a solid chicken soup tier.
It's Exe-Create, not Kemco, and man, looking at the not-box art of their games, they certainly have, uh... a type.
Who publishes every single game?
Oh. Right. Kemco.
What an asinine distinction.
Anyway, they are all fine games that do different enough things mechanically and have charming little stories that aren't going to win any awards but are comfy to play through.
What crawled up your ass and died? Development is significantly different from publishing. Team Ninja, Tri-Ace, and, well, Square, are extremely different developers and everybody has extremely different expectations for games developed by each of them, but they all make action RPGs published by Square-Enix.
I don't think I've held any expectations from Tri-Ace since 1999
the bar is set underground at this point
Oi. Silmeria was 2006 and it was fucking fantastic.
...But yeah. No argument there. Tri-Ace games, even from back when they occasionally did decent things, always needed at least one to two more playability and writing passes. I still find it hilarious how Valkyrie Profile had three difficulties, Easy, Normal, and Hard. Hard being the easiest with the most content, and Easy being the hardest with the least.
What's more is that it's not even something you can simply blame on SE being unreasonable like you usually could - SE has been weirdly generous with letting them continually pump out mediocre-at-best product while franchises like Deus Ex get buried. Does Tri-Ace's mobile games actually bring in that much money?
If it's a couple mobile game that are at all successful
yeah probably
0
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
They make so much money that Star Ocean Anamnesis and Heaven x Inferno both shut down
Also Valkyrie Profile mobile, which was developed by someone else, right into the bin
Not to poo poo on it too much, but 3 is probably my least favorite in the entire series!
That said I didn't really touch much of the series after that either, except for the weird hex based PSP game which was fun if deeply flawed
2 is probably my high watermark for the series, though as a PS1 game it obviously has some warts by now
I wanted to like Wild Arms XF so, sooo bad. I love SRPGs, I love hex grids, I love Wild Arms. So the fact that they were able to make a game that is so not-fun to play is kind of amazing. I got softlocked once because a battle wants you to use the weak-ass class whose special allows you to knock environment blocks around, and I didn't bring one, and eventually I got into a position where neither I nor the enemies could reach each other.
Or the fucking STEALTH MISSION in a STRATEGY RPG
0
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
edited December 2021
Oh yeah, that game was designed around bringing specific classes to specific maps in a way that made it feel more like a bad puzzle game than an SRPG, was ultimately not a fan
Posts
Starting from first principles: every time you use an Art, it charges your Special Attacks. That will rise through levels 1, 2, and 3, and so long as it's at least at level 1 you can use it at any time. So when you get the A button prompt, I think that just means you are capable of doing the special attack, not that it will necessarily contribute to the combo. I think there's a UI element in the upper-right showing what your current combo is, so you'll need to look at that to see what level your special needs to be to continue the combo.
Allies, on the other hand, will never offer to execute a special at your command until it will contribute to the combo, so when you get the ZL or ZR prompt, you can be sure that that will add to the combo with whatever element they currently have up.
(That's all from memory, though, so check what I'm saying against your lived experience.)
The walkthrough I've been using takes this opportunity to have me fly all over the world and scoop up as much hidden free loot as I can, and sends me down to Eblan Castle for a Sleep Blade. Grabbing the blade triggers an ambush which the guide says I might lose if the skeletons use Thundara right away, but if they don't then I probably have it made
I have tried this fight 8 times and they have opened with Thundara every time and wiped us in two turns. I can't grind around here either because everything is likewise way above my level
This walkthrough really goes hard on "follow these exact steps now and they'll pay off much later" but I don't know if the fuckin Sleep Blade is worth the trouble
If you're playing the 3D remake, I'm just going to straight up say it isn't worth it
It's an ok game is you're an old hand at the original, but a lot of the decisions in how the game plays seems to be based on you really abusing the extra ability stuff. There is also just hard spikes in difficulty that make it a slog. Like those dumb fire dogs. I wouldn't even really call it tough so much as poorly paced and prone to clubbing you with single solution problems you either get because you're used to the game or over level it.
You're better off just picking up the original, the GBA advanced one, or the recently released pixel remaster.
It's somehow overly complicated but also way too simple at the exact same time.
Like there's all of these systems and tutorials and pieces seemingly moving together.
But when you get down to it you just rotate through a single combo based upon what blades you happen to have randomly gotten and... that's basically it. Nothing the enemy is doing matters. The ability to move doesn't really mean anything outside of sliding between potentially two positions throughout a fight if you happen to have chosen two different positionals for your very limited skills selection. And then all your progression is basically just making numbers bigger with the same attacks. So little changes visually. You can legit be using the same damn attacks in your combo at hour 10 as you are at hour 110.
It's all very bizarre.
I don't know if I want to start over at this point but, yeah, seems like I made the wrong choice here
There's the original version for the DS and the version they put on the PC. The DS version is notably harder than any other version of the game. When they ported it over to PC they made the default difficulty easier than the DS, but kept the DS difficulty as an optional hard mode.
Like some kind of officially released romhack or something
The plus side is that the 2D versions of the game are very slick. If you're even remotely aware of what you're doing in a 'go to A, B then C' fashion you can blitz right through the game. It's why I'll sit down and play through it every year or two. So at the very least even if you put it down now you can just pick it up again as one of the other versions and get up to speed fairly easily.
I wanted something old school and this looks deliciously old school
GOTY.
What a fantastic game that was. If you had that gameplay and exploration in a more story oriented game it would be my GOTY hands down.
The exploration was easily the best I've ever experienced in a JRPG. Probably right ahead of DQ11 off the top of my head. But man all the way through it just felt so good. Even legit had those moments where I would climb up something high to get a better perspective and try to plan out where I was heading to find the next item. The map was just enough to show you general locations without being just a plain and simple follow the map to the glowing point sort of thing. You could see there was a reward and now it would be up to you to try and find it. Fantastically smart and well done.
Definitely had that traditional JRPG reverse difficulty curve but I like that so that was ok. And it wasn't until the last big map area of the game that I was actually starting to feel overpowered. So I still spent most of the game needing to be quite strategic.
Downsides: Overall story writing and it looks a bit muddy due to switch.
Stacey score: 4/5 (no half points, those are for cowards)
That said I didn't really touch much of the series after that either, except for the weird hex based PSP game which was fun if deeply flawed
2 is probably my high watermark for the series, though as a PS1 game it obviously has some warts by now
It opens with a fetch quest for a plunger for the backed-up toilet at the "not-a-brothel" you grew up at.
Game of the century.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
I am so excited to see what they do with a full dev cycle just improving on that combat engine.
Yakuza 8 is gonna be SO GOOD.
Yakuza is turn-based now, right? IIRC Capcom said something about how Like a Dragon wasn’t a spin-off, and Judgement was the new action-centric face of the series.
Sega does Yakuza, Capcom is Monster Hunter and Resident Evil and such.
Correct. LAD was Yakuza 7. Yakuza 8 is the direct sequel to that following the same main character with the turn based combat.
So that's why I'm saying it will be awesome to see how they iterate and improve on the battle system now that they have the first game under their belt. Can do so much more once you have all the basics in place.
I love so much that the majority of the cast is 40+ and for the most part a gaggle of losers and weirdos.
It's a story of ordinary people being incredibly badass which is awesome. Especially in a JRPG.
Kemco games in general check a lot of comfy SNES era jrpg boxes. I've probably played through half a dozen of their games and I've been generally satisfied with all of them. Not to say they are masterpieces, but they are a solid chicken soup tier.
Absolutely. It’s what I need sometimes
It's Exe-Create, not Kemco, and man, looking at the not-box art of their games, they certainly have, uh... a type.
Who publishes every single game?
Oh. Right. Kemco.
What an asinine distinction.
Anyway, they are all fine games that do different enough things mechanically and have charming little stories that aren't going to win any awards but are comfy to play through.
What crawled up your ass and died? Development is significantly different from publishing. Team Ninja, Tri-Ace, and, well, Square, are extremely different developers and everybody has extremely different expectations for games developed by each of them, but they all make action RPGs published by Square-Enix.
I don't think I've held any expectations from Tri-Ace since 1999
the bar is set underground at this point
Oi. Silmeria was 2006 and it was fucking fantastic.
...But yeah. No argument there. Tri-Ace games, even from back when they occasionally did decent things, always needed at least one to two more playability and writing passes. I still find it hilarious how Valkyrie Profile had three difficulties, Easy, Normal, and Hard. Hard being the easiest with the most content, and Easy being the hardest with the least.
What's more is that it's not even something you can simply blame on SE being unreasonable like you usually could - SE has been weirdly generous with letting them continually pump out mediocre-at-best product while franchises like Deus Ex get buried. Does Tri-Ace's mobile games actually bring in that much money?
If it's a couple mobile game that are at all successful
yeah probably
Also Valkyrie Profile mobile, which was developed by someone else, right into the bin
I wanted to like Wild Arms XF so, sooo bad. I love SRPGs, I love hex grids, I love Wild Arms. So the fact that they were able to make a game that is so not-fun to play is kind of amazing. I got softlocked once because a battle wants you to use the weak-ass class whose special allows you to knock environment blocks around, and I didn't bring one, and eventually I got into a position where neither I nor the enemies could reach each other.
Or the fucking STEALTH MISSION in a STRATEGY RPG