Ack! I'm super bored! PLEASE HELP

[zqfmgb]

Sadly, (stat) grind could effectively describe (almost) any and every Atlus/NIS RPG ever. That I've played, at least. Dammit, Persona 4? I suppose I knew, sort of, that it was out, but I'm still working through 3.  Actually, I never really finished 2. It's a bad habit I had, putting down a Persona game while not done then not coming back to it for a year or more. By that time, I have to start over. Did it twice with the original Persona. After P3 I have Valkyrie Profile 2 and I'm going to try Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. Hope it's fun, I think it's kind of a love it/hate it game. With lots of people on the Hate it side. Bah, I don't have enough time.

I'm just glad Persona 4 is on PS2, and not something else. I might wind up getting it, too, then.

[Greywind]

Stat grind doesn't work for all Atlus games. Sometimes it's strat or builds that does it. Like the persona games! You can build your stats to the absolute max but if you don't have the right personas (or know how to use them properly), you can and WILL be killed instantly by bosses that can do max damage well above the max allowable HP for players. It's even more fun in a game where it doesn't allow you control your 3 extra chars and they act how they feel like. Persona 4 allows you to control all actions, but it's still about knowing enemy weaknesses or at least finding something they aren't strong against.

As for Breath of Fire, I still need to finish 3 and 4, I loved them both dearly, but I set them down for too long and forgot how to play. I'm not usually the best at picking games up because then I feel like I wasted all that time on the previous game. I own Dragon Quarter, I played a little, but from what I saw, I wasn't as impressed as I would have liked.

As for other games, Star Ocean is another great series that I've been replaying on my PSP, it was nice they released the first one on the PSP, but since I already own the second one on the PS1, I kinda don't like playing it as much. The front Mission games are pretty good also. Another is the Arc the Lad series.. But that's one that's really hard to pick up after being down. I've also been meaning to replay Chrono Cross. Ugh, really too many choices honestly. Sometimes too much can be a bad thing.

[zqfmgb]

Persona isn't maybe stat grind, but it's still grind. That's what Tartarus basically is, I blaze to the top of the area in 1-2 visits, then any other visits until the full moon are just grind. It's fun grind, though, no where near what the old Persona games were, where you went out of your way to level grind for that one particular Persona near the end of the game, or to try to level a Persona to max(then rank , to turn it in for an item. If you've never played them, P3 is a HUGE change, but they did it really well. I agree that I enjoy not being able to control the actions of the other characters. Makes for more interesting planning for balancing of weaknesses and style.

Mm, Star Ocean Till the End of Time is good. It drags at parts, but the battle system is enjoyable. I never finished Second Story, I got stuck against the Wise Men without the Eternal Sphere, and kind of gave up. I loved Arc the Lad 2... wow. The whole game, the way it just came together. Breath of Fire 3 and 4 were both fun. 3 edged out for me for the dragon forms and for Rei My wife thinks he's a cutie. I finished Chrono Cross the second time I played it, but I have a low opinion of the game. It's fine and well done by itself, but to me it simply cemented the fact that Square doesn't understand how to make a SEQUEL.

If you want to dredge it up, Grandia is a good game. It's pretty standard RPG fare, but well done. Combat drags near the end and a few voices are just bad, but pretty solid other than that. Grandia 2 is... ok, more of the same, basically, but it lacks the sense of wonder I think. Haven't played Xtreme, don't think I want to. I picked up Shining Force Exa on a lark, and had a lot of fun just plowing through the hordes for gobs of treasure. Reminded me seriously of Record of Lodoss War on Dreamcast.

I just thought of some other time-sucking games, totally different. There's Dynasty Warriors, if you're a completionist who likes to get all the best weapons. If you like strategy sims, there's Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Honestly, the only one I've played was number 4 (wall of fire) for the Saturn, but I don't think that the basic premise has changed enormously.

If you've never played it, Dark Cloud 2 is actually quite fun. It's cliche, but enjoyable. Skip the first one. It's not really that it's bad... the second just does everything better and makes it rather pointless to play.

Bah, don't mean to drone on like this. Sorry. I'm sure I could think of tons more to say, but I don't want to blather on if no one wants to hear it.

[Greywind]

As for your last post, I've played all of those games except for record of lodoss. While I agree Chrono Cross wasn't a great game compared to the original, it was still a good game by itself. Also, I think it's fair to mention Chrono Cross was not supposed to be the sequel. There was a true sequel to Chrono Trigger that was supposed to be made, but in the end Square didn't have enough backing/money at the time to make it a reality and it was scrapped. This same thing happened on the PS2 I believe, because they were planning on doing a game called Chrono Break but it was canceled also.

Dynasty Warriors games can be fun, stat maxing is a bit tedious, also I don't really need max stats in those types of games, I'm pretty much the god of war when it comes to those games, trial by fire and all that good stuff. I wander into an enemy camp of 3,000 with 3 bodyguards and my rusty sword and I tear them apart. Extremely graphic and pretty true to life, as I do this occasionally when I wander around town.

[zqfmgb]

I won't argue about DW not really being all that tough at times. I've done the whole wander into an army thing, only I rarely bring bodyguards. They never seem to help all that much I've never bothered to max any stats, but I did bother to get the Level 10 weapons for everyone.

So, that list had nothing new. Wow... it was quite a few games, too. Hm. I could dredge up some more to more or less recommend, but I don't know if it's worth it Gonna start getting 12+ years old at this point. Well, there's the Tales series... Legendia was interesting but Symphonia was more fun.

[Greywind]

I won't argue about DW not really being all that tough at times. I've done the whole wander into an army thing, only I rarely bring bodyguards. They never seem to help all that much I've never bothered to max any stats, but I did bother to get the Level 10 weapons for everyone.

So, that list had nothing new. Wow... it was quite a few games, too. Hm. I could dredge up some more to more or less recommend, but I don't know if it's worth it Gonna start getting 12+ years old at this point. Well, there's the Tales series... Legendia was interesting but Symphonia was more fun.

Bodyguards are incredible normally I give them crossbows and that pretty much makes me immortal. I've fought off Lu Bu with a rank 1 character because I had Xbow guards with me.

As for Tales, played alot of them, just not the newer ones as I have abandoned nintendo.