Comments on: Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny

By: Karura

Karura — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:08:45 +0000

Ender: Aagh, Odin Sphere- I always seem to get to the point of talking about it and thinking ‘yeah, I must buy that’ but then I forget to do anything about it. I will pick it up eventually, though.

By: K.J. O'Neil

K.J. O'Neil — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 18:31:20 +0000

Manga: “So you went and went trough every floor of Sphere Company? Nice :) But it´s easier to take the elevator you know :p ”

Oh damn… there’s an elevator?

Yeah, Sphere company. That’s where I gave up. Lost, somewhere… in that mess.

Yes, pick up Shadow of the Colossus as well. Same world as ICO. I can’t wait to see what the team does for it’s next game.

By: Ender

Ender — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:34:43 +0000

I’m in the middle of a PS2 RPG binge atm as well. Current playing Persona 3, which is a great addition to the SMT series, and has very unique gameplay systems. I finished Atelier Iris 3 awhile back; it was fun and breezy, but ultimately a bit shallow. Like many others, I stopped playing Valkyrie Profile 2 and Star Ocean 3 due to loss of interest. Have you tried Odin Sphere yet? It’s quite good if you are in the mood for some light action.

By: Karura

Karura — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:58:41 +0000

manga: Hmm, I’d assumed as the SO games took place in the same universe that the twist had to apply to them all (which is also what at least one fansite that I was on seemed to believe), but I’m happy to accept it doesn’t regardless of what the creators intended. And rest assured I will get DDS2 when I can ;)

K.J. O’Neil: Ico is definitely something I was planning to start sooner rather than later. I should probably think about getting Shadow of the Colossus too.

By: manga

manga — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 06:05:05 +0000

@ Karura: What I know of the earlier SO games explain that the plottwist from SO3: TTEOT doesn´t happen in the earlier ones.

And buy DDS2 as fast as you can. Great story and a lot of stuff happening that makes you go WTF just happened? Which is good :)

@ K.J: So you went and went trough every floor of Sphere Company? Nice :) But it´s easier to take the elevator you know :p Which makes the whole Sphere Company part much easier, atleast in the ordinary game.

By: K.J. O'Neil

K.J. O'Neil — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:25:01 +0000

Valkyrie Profile 2 – Very hard game. I gave up somewhere along the way, chapter 3. Harder than the first. The first was more fun for me, even though I put it down for five years before going back with a walkthrough to beat it. VP2 is just… hard.

Suikoden IV-V – Suikoden IV is supposed to be horrible and I avoided it like the plague. V was pretty awesome, despite the load times and the camera.

Dragon Quest VIII – I didn’t beat the end boss. (oops) I have no opinion. Very traditional, too much grinding.

Ico – You can beat the game in 6 hours. I’d say start off with this, it’s a nice break from the RPG grind. One of my favorite games ever.

Star Ocean 3 – Blargh. I gave up near the end somewhere because I couldn’t stand the weird broken battle system anymore and I no longer cared about the story, characters, or endless floors of annoying battles.

By: Karura

Karura — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:07:38 +0000

Someone already told me about the twist a while back, which retroactively ruined the whole SO series for me as it probably applies to the previous games too. Anyway, I’ve decided I must complete SO3 first as god only knows how many years it’s been since I got the game. After that I’ll either start Suikoden V or move into the world of SMT (still need to buy DDS2).

I really only got Suikoden 4 for completeness (and paid about £7 for it) so it can act as a shelf-filler for a while yet.

By: Neriya

Neriya — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:02:06 +0000

I enjoyed Suikoden 5, despite the ridiculously frequent loading times. Good music, and the hero doesn’t look like he’s 10 years old. Certain choices you make in the game determine the ending, but I don’t think they went far enough with that. Suikoden 4′s supposed to be easily the worst entry of the series.

Be warned, Star Ocean 3 has a an absolutely dreadful story twist something like half or 3/4s of the way through. I stopped playing completely after it happened, which I don’t think I can say about any other game I’ve played. The first disk is great though, which makes it very unfortunate.

By: manga

manga — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:34:36 +0000

Well, my love for SMT: DDS can´t be stopped so I recomend that and the sequel SMT: DDS2 actually since you need a break from the ordinary RPGs :p DDS is far from ordinary, atleast in my opinion.

Nocturne is also a great game, who does want to be a demon and create a new world? Somewhat intresting with it´s bits of story followed by massive fighting to create the perfect warrior and collecting demons almost like in Pokemon, but here you don´t trash them and keep them in small balls, here you talk with them, maybe even charm them or give them money to join you.

Suikoden IV isn´t something you should play if you haven´t got lots and lots and lots of time. Suikoden V has lots of loading time but still quite nice, way better than the fourth game anyway.

Valkyrie Profile 2 is a nice breeze when it comes to battle, but if you don´t learn the battle system well it´s kinda rough…

Draqon Quest VIII is something so old fashioned that I can´t say more. If you like old fashioned games then go ahead, otherwise stay away from it.

Star Ocean 3 is a nice story, don´t be fooled by the apperance it first makes, you´ll be spending a lot of time on a single planet. The characters are likeable(love Sophia!!) but what makes this game fun to play is the battles, free roaming with manageable special attacks and combos and when you´re finished there are multiple endings. Along with item creation there´s a lot of fun to do here.

My suggestion if you haven´t figured it out is thus either one of the SMT games or Star Ocean 3 with Suikoden 5 at second place.

By: Karura

Karura — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:53:42 +0000

I actually finished this game a couple of weeks ago and have been playing Okami since, but as I beat that last night I need to decide what to go onto next. Choices are either starting AI3, Valkyrie Profile 2, Suikoden IV-V, Dragon Quest VIII, Ico, Shin Megami Tensei DDS or Nocturne or getting back to Ratchet Gladiator and/or Star Ocean 3. Suggestions are welcome…