The Shrine

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I wonder what it's going to be like to have regular sleep again =P

Anyways, the only game I have really been looking at getting around this time is Tales of Symphonia, but I'd like some opinions of alternative titles (I've got all systems) on games released in the last 4 months or so. I'm looking mainly for an RPG, though a good Action Adventure or platformer would suffice.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion; text-align: left; '>I dunno if you've played it or not, but I just bought LaPucelle Tactics. Took 3 stores to find the damn thing and it's still a "new release" (or so the sticker on the box says)</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Mega Man Collection is great, particularly for the price</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>I forgot I bur---errr bought that game. I need to finish it, I already beat 1,2,3,7,8. :P</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I've only got #8 to go. Wily is pretty tough in #7, hardest by far of all the Mega Mans</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>I</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>I'm just starting #3! I have a long way to go.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Hmm, I figured the French title would have driven you away =P Anyways, I have heard the title of that game mentioned around, I'll look into it, it seems to be a strategy of some sort, I'm kind of high off of strategy games since playing FFT and Fire Emblem earlier.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I always liked Side Scrollers, but somehow I could never get into Megaman. I'll still look into it, my opinions on games have changed before over time, when I was younger I used to hate FF1 because it was too simple and unbalanced, ironically that is the main reason why I love it now.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>I thought i remembered my best parties being balanced: Fighter, Black Belt, BM, WM</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>I thought i remembered my best parties being balanced: Fighter/Warrior, Black Belt/Master, BM, WM</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>On the lines of LaPucelle Tactics, there's also Disgaea by the same company. I've already plugged 90+ hours into that sucker, and there's still plenty to do in it.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Arial; text-align: left; '>I'm enjoying Tales of Symphonia quite a bit now... At first I thought it was just *average* but now I find it quite challenging.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I remember that you could rock the game with a party of fighters. I wouldn't actually go through the game like that though, I didn't want a line up of four red uniforms every damn random battle. :)</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>There is a location not far from the second town where you can fight enemies from the Northern Continent, they are all severely weak against fire, get the best fire spells at Elf town, go back there, fight a few times and you'll level up like crazy and soon have enough to get the most powerful weaponry and magic available. The game is cake walk up until Liches cave which can be a bit difficult if you come without many supplies, but once past that location, there aren't really any more difficult dungeons, the hardest are the first few.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Maybe I'll try that one, it seems that it is the one which most people I talked to seem interested in. My alternative is a replay of Final Fantasy 9 which for some reason I barely remember (it's like the only RPG ever which I don't really remember) and so it would be kind of like playing a new game.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Yeah, I like 2 blackbelts and 2 black mages. Fast + blackbelt = Pain</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>Blackbelts by the end hit harder than the masemune, its nuts.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Shit, I'm only at 26 hours.  Man I've got a ways to go on this game. : )</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>That's another very good party set-up, I tried 4 blackbelts in my last game (adding 2 Black mages in there would allow for the easy leveling up from Pirate town); the beginning took 4-5 hours longer by the rest of the game was a breeze.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>For some reason, I really did forget a lot of the game, but each part I play causes it to come back to me. So it is like I am playing it again for the first time.

Anyways, in short, it has a little of every Final Fantasy game in it. The world, of course, is most like Final Fantasy 1, with several returning characters (Garland and the 4 Fiends, Lich, Kary, Kraken, and Tiamat most notably). I'm only a few hours in (I just arrived and Lindblum for the first time, after Evil Forest, Ice Cave, The Village, and the Airship.). Anyways, if anyone's feeling like they're out of RPG's to play (I know a bunch already played FF8 over), then try this one again.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>Ahhh shit, I guess I need to pick that game up again myself, I think I actually got through ALL of it but I lost interest at the very end. lol. I JUST beat FFVIII recently.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>I'm in the same boat, just beat FF8 recently and now I have FF9 to replay (i'm in the middle/end also) and Chrono Cross (in the middle). Once i get tired of Megaman Anniversary frustrating me i'll pop in FF9.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>FF9 is spectacular. Easily the best of the Playstation games. It should have been FF7 in more ways than one</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I have found that my favourite FF games to play are actually FF1&3 on NES and 8 on PSX, they all have very good customizability and replay value (in fact I found that replays through all of these games are actually more fun than the first time through.

As for the strait forward FF games (2, II, III, 7, 8, 10) This one is definately my first or second favourite (depending on which one I feel like playing at the time between this one and FFIII on SNES)</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>A lot of people I know have lost interest in FF9 in during some point of the game; it's because of the length, it might take a few tries to get through (the more you play, the more you remember from the story). I had that problem with Xenogears, and now it is one of my favourite RPG's</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>lol, no I mean THE END, like at the final boss I never picked it up and played it and beat it. Save with FFVIII, I got to the castle and quit, it's not fun to just pick it up and beat it, you've forgot the entire plot!</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>My problem with XG was that the Gears-battles were some of the poorest in RPG history.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>No arguement there.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Yep, that and the fact that it became a little too combo-happy later on</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>Ummm, the combos with the regular characters were actually fun.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Yeah, I loved playing with the regular characters, personally. But that just made it all the more infuriating when I had to fight in the Gears.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>Aye...they improved it quite a bit with XS, but I was disappointed that they took out some of the longer combos.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>And the arena gear battles were surprisingly fun.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I don't disagree, but when the ONLY thing that was useful were the combos (magic could have basically been eliminated and taken nothing away from the game), it's not good.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>I forgot their was magic, lol.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>Someone posted a review here way back that called XG, "a great fighting game dressed up as a crappy RPG". The whole article was satire and pretty funny.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>That would be the review by Jeremey Parish/toastyfrog.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>My point exactly :-)</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>I just don't understand why this development team consistently refuses to return to any of the elements that made Chrono Trigger great.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Well, Chrono Trigger was a unique colaboration between people from Square and Enix. The game director was the same guy that did Final Fantasy 8.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Overall, I didn't care much for the battle system, I prefer a simpler battle system than what Xenogears had (I felt it was a bit time consuming), but the exploration factor, the story, and the towns dwarfed any problems I had with the battle system.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Oh? I thought the XG and CT were made by the same team.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>CT was a collaboration between Square, Enix, and the Akira animator (I think the Ogre Battle team was involved somehow too). XG was done by what is now Monoliftsoft, which is with Namco, hence the continuation of the series with another company</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>The Dragon Ball animator actually, his name just happens to be Akira, Akira Toriyama =P</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Yeah, that was it. I sit corrected</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono_Trigger">here</a>

Full list of those involved</div>