RPG gripes

[S1500]

So I decided to hanker down & play "Legends 1", an RPG for the TI-99/4A, where I knew the author(who lived a mile from me).

 

I wish I could say better things about this RPG. Sadly, it has some game-killing flaws.

 

1. Way too many random monster encounters. The encounters happen in real-time. Sadly, it's seems to be set for literally every 3 seconds you are on the map. If you finish a battle, you are returned to the map,and bam, even before MOVING, you can get another monster encounter. You can barely move past the beginning of the map. It should be on a movement basis, not on a realtime basis. You could theoretically run into monster encounters over & over again without the opportunity to move. Guess what, it happens here.

 

2. The "noob vs. the world" syndrome. I encountered this with the Fallout series of games(1 and 2 at least). Your beginning characters have weak skills & weapons. You encounter nothing but trained assassins. I recall tunnel rats in Fallout are trained UFC fighters who NEVER miss. You? You always miss until you get your stats up. I don't like RPGs where you can die in the first battle. Jeesh.

 

3. Character dead? Yep, it's dead forever. Healing potions don't work on corpses. And who's always the first to die? The wizard in your party, who ironically is the only one with the magic skills to resurrect dead players.

 

4. Useless "avoid the battle" options, like threaten, greet, intimidate. No point in using them, as they will always fail.

 

I moved onto playing Legends 2, with already pre-saved characters. Apparently someone else got equally frustrated, as I now have super-high level characters, with hit points in the 400s + good gear. I can slaughter my way through, PLUS have the option to run away from encounters. Fallout 2 has that, which is nice.

 

I remember for Fallout 1 + 2 I booted up the cheat utility to give maximum hitpoints for my character, as my game progress would be quickly cut short.

 

The Legends games have a difficulty level. I always chose the easiest, which had no effect. I would have loved to have the difficulty level actually mean something, like limit the # of monsters encountered, less wandering monster frequency(ie down from 100%), etc. Nope.

 

I remember dying quite quickly in the early Ultima gams. Oops, did I get near a diseased person? I'll be dying in 4 minutes without combat.

[+remowilliams]

Hmm, where can Legends 1/2 be downloaded? I've never even heard of it.

 

I've seen lots of folks complain about the rats in Fallout. I never had that many problems squashing them.

[S1500]

tigameshelf.net has both Legends games. Even the docs as well.

 

Some of the battles in Fallout 1 or 2, some random, some written are just plain HARD. Even on super-high levels. There's one part in a military base where so many Super Mutants attack, your companions are guaranteed to die. You can escape by going up an elevator, then back down again, and they are clustered around you. Then shoot a rocket, take some side damage, but all of them get hit.

 

Otherwise, random encounters have a LOT of freakin critters/baddies where it's basically 12 on 1.

[shadow460]

If you hadn't given a name, I'd say you were talking about Sa Ga 1. Each character begins the game with four lives and that is all. Until you get about halfway through, if those lives run out the character must be laid to rest and a new (weaker) one recruited from the Guild. You can carry the corpse around for a while if you want until you can buy certain items to revive it, but that wastes a position in your group. Even if the character has lives left, you still can't revive them until you get back to town...until you've got far enough to buy Revive items.

 

It has a few areas, especially the Tower, where the encounter rates are insane. Sa Ga 1 hits you a little harder, though, because all your weapons have a limited number of uses. They range from 25 to 50 uses per weapon, then that weapon is gone. Skills are also limited, with up to 88 uses per skill, and magic is limited as well.

 

If that's not enough punishment, then there's more: Only one type of character levels up after battles. Humans, OTOH, must purchase potions to level themselves up, kinda like FFX's Sphere Grid.

 

Oh yeah, I've seen Sa Ga 1 fight you with 9 enemies on 1 character. It's rough at the start, but it gets easier.

Edited December 6, 2009 by shadow460

[SoulBlazer]

If you hadn't given a name, I'd say you were talking about Sa Ga 1. Each character begins the game with four lives and that is all. Until you get about halfway through, if those lives run out the character must be laid to rest and a new (weaker) one recruited from the Guild. You can carry the corpse around for a while if you want until you can buy certain items to revive it, but that wastes a position in your group. Even if the character has lives left, you still can't revive them until you get back to town...until you've got far enough to buy Revive items.

 

It has a few areas, especially the Tower, where the encounter rates are insane. Sa Ga 1 hits you a little harder, though, because all your weapons have a limited number of uses. They range from 25 to 50 uses per weapon, then that weapon is gone. Skills are also limited, with up to 88 uses per skill, and magic is limited as well.

 

If that's not enough punishment, then there's more: Only one type of character levels up after battles. Humans, OTOH, must purchase potions to level themselves up, kinda like FFX's Sphere Grid.

 

Oh yeah, I've seen Sa Ga 1 fight you with 9 enemies on 1 character. It's rough at the start, but it gets easier.

 

You're talking about Final Fantasy Legend for the Gameboy, right? If I recall, Saga 1 was the Japanese version. I never really had those problems.

[Video]

I hear you on those rats on Fallout. They are easy once you get leveled up that first time, but untill then, it's fight ONE rat, heal up (if you can, if youy can't you're screwed) and fight another rat. I went through the whole cave at the begining and killed everything, that leveled me up. The thing that gets me is those randome fights, you run into a group of like 5 (giant grasshoppers?) and each one takes a rediculous ammount of damage to kill, and if you try, you get surrounded and can't move, and you can't run, cause their faster. So early on, I'd hit those things and just be like "damn" and start from a previous save. I still haven't gotten to where I can kill them all, the old style game is just painfull to play over all to me, but at least now, I can kill one or two of those bastards and escape.

 

Luckily on Fallout, unlike the third one (and maybe the second one, haven't tried it yet) your weapons don't wear out, just run out of ammo....

[S1500]

There's some balance differences in Fallout 1+2 versus 3. In Fallout 1+2, enemies can actually run out of ammo, and frequently do. Then they just go melee. The Wanamingos in F2 were unfairly hard, on ANY level.

[Classic Pac]

I have had the same complains about more than a few RPGs. I hate random battles, for this one reason which actually made me sell The Final Fantasy Anthology game I once owned. I forget which one but I had myself maxed out with everything to do battle with this one boss, but on my way there I fought so many random battles by the time I got to the boss I had nothing left. And when I finally got Phantasy Star 3, I actually used my Game Genie to prevent any random battles before I fought the final boss.

[shadow460]

If you hadn't given a name, I'd say you were talking about Sa Ga 1. Each character begins the game with four lives and that is all. Until you get about halfway through, if those lives run out the character must be laid to rest and a new (weaker) one recruited from the Guild. You can carry the corpse around for a while if you want until you can buy certain items to revive it, but that wastes a position in your group. Even if the character has lives left, you still can't revive them until you get back to town...until you've got far enough to buy Revive items.

 

It has a few areas, especially the Tower, where the encounter rates are insane. Sa Ga 1 hits you a little harder, though, because all your weapons have a limited number of uses. They range from 25 to 50 uses per weapon, then that weapon is gone. Skills are also limited, with up to 88 uses per skill, and magic is limited as well.

 

If that's not enough punishment, then there's more: Only one type of character levels up after battles. Humans, OTOH, must purchase potions to level themselves up, kinda like FFX's Sphere Grid.

 

Oh yeah, I've seen Sa Ga 1 fight you with 9 enemies on 1 character. It's rough at the start, but it gets easier.

 

You're talking about Final Fantasy Legend for the Gameboy, right? If I recall, Saga 1 was the Japanese version. I never really had those problems.

Yep, one and the same. I usually play through with only one or two characters. This allows the one mutant to benefit more often from random stat increases. When she gets rich, I typically recruit a human and rob the bank to level them up.

 

It is still tough in places even with four characters. A full party can have its hands full ascending the tower.

 

FF Legend/Sa Ga 3 is difficult even with a full party, IMO. It has even higher encounter rates and several bosses (Chaos, Maitreya, and Agron) are tough no matter what you do.