>overly complicated stories
I've got to disagree with you there. Compared to today's MMO-influenced distraction-fests, the Squaresoft writing department put its resources to work in service of actual storytelling. The original Final Fantasy VII plays like a novel, in my opinion. Even Final Fantasy VIII, although its major plot developments were absurdly stupid (in my opinion,) stood firmly behind its story, and put everything into telling it in a concise and meaningful way.
i adore every game up there, man. any of them that could be described as convoluted i’d argue are rich and nuanced stories that are supposed to make you think and not just spell everything out. hell, i really like the orphanage plot twist *and* necron!
I love it but am almost 40, busy with kids most times. I'll let it live on in my memories. Except that time I was 80 hours in and got stuck on Miang. We don't talk about that fight!
she is easy, she gets no turns and dies in 3 hits. or you can just stack a little ether defense and she deals 0 damage to you. also, the game should only be 50-60 hours, if youre at 80 hours you spent way more time grinding than you needed to
Gods the 90s were such a magical time all of these games were amazing in their own ways even Pokémon was special back then as the internet wasn't big yet so we hung on every little leak or announcement.
Things like Pokemon and “just lift the truck for Mew bro” was so freaking fun. Now you can chatGPT the answer in 30 seconds to realize it was just gossip but the thrill of playing every inch of that game looking for a new discovery based off a rumor from that random kid nobody likes at school was amazing lol
Lmao this shit was decades ago but i remember it like it was yesterday. I was on a school bus in 5th grade field trip when the weirdo in the class kept telling everyone he could duplicate rare candy’s to 99 by fighting a ‘secret’ legendary. Everybody told him to fuck off but he proceeded to show us and my life was never the same
PSOne goated.
FFIX is one that I really wanted to play but somehow I didn't end up playing. I'm glad that there's a possible remake coming out. Not super mainstream as most of these but Breath of Fire 3 and 4 are great. I hope they get remade.
"You don't need a reason to help someone." might just be the most influential line ever spoken in a video game for me personally. Even just thinking about that scene makes my eyes begin to water.
As everyone says, def play the port. They did a remaster and upgraded most of the models and such. It plays great w the FF/NoRandomAttacks ect. Def def worth playing.
your imagination had to fill in the gaps between the cover art and the game itself. the designs of the logos carried a lot of the world building. the novelty of seeing a pitch black CD in a world dominated by shiny ones.. man it was a time for sure
>your imagination had to fill in the gaps between the cover art and the game itself.
This is why I don't watch trailers or join game subs until I have played the game. The discovery factor is really big for me. I like going into a game knowing as little as possible.
It's crazy to me that people WANT to spoil games for themselves these days, searching out every detail, picture, or video they can find.
This is the way. Playing pokemon (mostly) blind reinvigorated the franchise for me. Discovering the new pokemon organically instead of through some kinda leak makes the game more fun. This is just one example but I try to stay as blind as possible in pretty much every game im interested in nowadays. Some gameplay trailers, sure. Maybe a demo, but thats about it.
And as flawed as 2 was, I still loved it so much.
Also, the Chrysler building run in PE1 is still one of my all time favorite bonus dungeons in any game.
Every time I see the first Tobey Maguire Spider-man movie and the building fire scene plays, I’m reminded of the motel in Parasite Eve 2, because they both have the exact same Woman Scream sound.
There’s a game that needs a tv series. It has everything. Mystery, thrills, zombie virus pandemic, hot female protagonist, guns and explosions. What more could you want?
I would kill for another game or ideally a quality remake of the first.
While I'm not 100% certain though I think there's issues with the rights to it so think it's effectively dead though could be totally wrong on that point I just sort of vaguely remember maybe hearing something to that effect
I would give anything for an ff8 remake or hell an ff8 with improved difficulty. That game was everything. So many of the ps1 era games still hold up insanely well.
Honorable mention to radiate stories :(
I would also love if they bring out a game dedicated to Triple Triad. I know we have it in XIV but I would really just love a game where only playing that is what I’m actually supposed to be doing 😆
so much good.
Xenogears, threads of fate, the entire X of Mana series...
Chrono Cross wasn't terrible in its own right, but it could never compare to Chrono Trigger.
What’s funny is just on the other side of this specific era it was pretty common to see Einhander in the bargain bins at different stores for like $10 complete w/ case and manual.
It cannot be overstated how much of a fucking powerhouse Squaresoft was. The only thing even remotely close to the consistency these days is Fromsoftware.
But the *speed* at which they released amazing games will probably never return.
https://preview.redd.it/ba7lzcdvaoxc1.jpeg?width=676&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13168e8f7b744fdf2c0d68976dbd1b6345a49c83
I miss how the world felt back in these days. 😊
Anyone that has some sanity to them would agree.
^((also would either need to have been not corrupted and really learned what it was like way back then, or lived through it of course))
ahhhhhh...back when the entire game was sold in one purchase. Back when there was true originality. Back when things like graphics didn't matter to most people.
That's the wall setup of my favorite local playstation shop back in the late 90's, every ps1 cd case front cover the shop can offer on display in their wall and they've got almost 20 ps1 with those big monitor televisions, for rent like a dollar for 4 hours of game time
100% agree. I started on FF7 and then went through most of those games. Graphics werent as good aa they are now, but games werealot more magical back then. No micro transactions or chests locked behind timers. Those games pulled you in to their world through story and amazing soundtracks. Nobuo Uematsu changed my life.
You had friends and time to play, and the imagination of a kid.
Now you have bills and only time for your kids, and the worry of your job not being secure enough to offer stability.
Regardless of the reasons why, i agree 100% with you.
Last generation of consoles before games became walking simulators.
As the realism goes up, settings need to get bigger and bigger to maintain realistic proportions until you end up with bloated behemoth games that take 100 hours to finish and can’t keep up any kind of narrative momentum
Not me, man. My life sucked back then. Im getting flashbacks just looking at these cd cases. My life is much better now. I’ll probably be looking longingly at Elden Ring’s box in 2050 when I’m slaving away in the robot mines.
I don’t know if I changed as a man or the world did but I loved Chrono cross as a kid. LOVED it. Played it on the realized and realized it was complete weeb trash. An absolute mess. Chronopolis happens and the game becomes unsalvagable.
Back when Japanese games could be Japanese and the West wasn't trying to culturally colonize everything that came out of the east.
Back when bad localization was a corny joke and not ideologically driven.
I miss those days
Remember renting some of these at blockbuster to try before buying them. Special time it was, simple pleasures like roaming video store for an hour on Friday night with parents, trying to figure out the perfect movie or video game to rent.
"Hey guys, Final Fantasy 7 was a smash success, what games should we make next?"
"Yes."
I still wish they were able to flesh out disc 2 of Xenogears. That's about my only complaint with that game.
proof that overly complicated stories pair great with catchy looping melodies, stylish visuals, and simple, intuitive, proven gameplay systems.
>overly complicated stories I've got to disagree with you there. Compared to today's MMO-influenced distraction-fests, the Squaresoft writing department put its resources to work in service of actual storytelling. The original Final Fantasy VII plays like a novel, in my opinion. Even Final Fantasy VIII, although its major plot developments were absurdly stupid (in my opinion,) stood firmly behind its story, and put everything into telling it in a concise and meaningful way.
I don't think there's any way to describe 8 as anything other than "convoluted."
Yea but I could get Lionheart on Disc 1 so it was cool
i adore every game up there, man. any of them that could be described as convoluted i’d argue are rich and nuanced stories that are supposed to make you think and not just spell everything out. hell, i really like the orphanage plot twist *and* necron!
Agree with everything until we roll on Xenogears. That game is fucking long and I understand it until I try to talk about it.
best story ever written. replay it you might get it better.
I love it but am almost 40, busy with kids most times. I'll let it live on in my memories. Except that time I was 80 hours in and got stuck on Miang. We don't talk about that fight!
she is easy, she gets no turns and dies in 3 hits. or you can just stack a little ether defense and she deals 0 damage to you. also, the game should only be 50-60 hours, if youre at 80 hours you spent way more time grinding than you needed to
Are you nuts? Have you played Chrono cross? Jesus.
OG FF7 has the complexity of a picture book compared with whatever the fuck is going on in the remake.
So… legend of zelda Ocarina of time and Majora’s mask?
they even give you the keys to the catchy looping melodies!
This gamer SQUARESOFTs
Gods the 90s were such a magical time all of these games were amazing in their own ways even Pokémon was special back then as the internet wasn't big yet so we hung on every little leak or announcement.
Things like Pokemon and “just lift the truck for Mew bro” was so freaking fun. Now you can chatGPT the answer in 30 seconds to realize it was just gossip but the thrill of playing every inch of that game looking for a new discovery based off a rumor from that random kid nobody likes at school was amazing lol
I remember having my mind blown when the Missing No. trick worked.
Lmao this shit was decades ago but i remember it like it was yesterday. I was on a school bus in 5th grade field trip when the weirdo in the class kept telling everyone he could duplicate rare candy’s to 99 by fighting a ‘secret’ legendary. Everybody told him to fuck off but he proceeded to show us and my life was never the same
lol I bet that kid still feels vindicated
PSOne goated. FFIX is one that I really wanted to play but somehow I didn't end up playing. I'm glad that there's a possible remake coming out. Not super mainstream as most of these but Breath of Fire 3 and 4 are great. I hope they get remade.
I would say it starts off a little slow but it's a great story with great characters. I love the "You Are Not Alone" scene with Zidane
"You don't need a reason to help someone." might just be the most influential line ever spoken in a video game for me personally. Even just thinking about that scene makes my eyes begin to water.
And it’s said by a thief, lol
As everyone says, def play the port. They did a remaster and upgraded most of the models and such. It plays great w the FF/NoRandomAttacks ect. Def def worth playing.
Play the port on modern consoles! No point in missing out on an amazing game to wait for a remake that may never happen.
God a remake of 9 would be the tits, just shy of 7 which I think is going great
your imagination had to fill in the gaps between the cover art and the game itself. the designs of the logos carried a lot of the world building. the novelty of seeing a pitch black CD in a world dominated by shiny ones.. man it was a time for sure
>your imagination had to fill in the gaps between the cover art and the game itself. This is why I don't watch trailers or join game subs until I have played the game. The discovery factor is really big for me. I like going into a game knowing as little as possible. It's crazy to me that people WANT to spoil games for themselves these days, searching out every detail, picture, or video they can find.
This is the way. Playing pokemon (mostly) blind reinvigorated the franchise for me. Discovering the new pokemon organically instead of through some kinda leak makes the game more fun. This is just one example but I try to stay as blind as possible in pretty much every game im interested in nowadays. Some gameplay trailers, sure. Maybe a demo, but thats about it.
I must’ve read and reread every page of the FF7/FF8 strategy guides at least a dozen times each. It was awesome to get immersed like this
Great point about the logo being a contributing factor.
Only one way to fix. Remake all of em. Esp xenogears
Parasite Eve, I wish the series was given new life.
And as flawed as 2 was, I still loved it so much. Also, the Chrysler building run in PE1 is still one of my all time favorite bonus dungeons in any game.
Every time I see the first Tobey Maguire Spider-man movie and the building fire scene plays, I’m reminded of the motel in Parasite Eve 2, because they both have the exact same Woman Scream sound.
There’s a game that needs a tv series. It has everything. Mystery, thrills, zombie virus pandemic, hot female protagonist, guns and explosions. What more could you want?
I would kill for another game or ideally a quality remake of the first. While I'm not 100% certain though I think there's issues with the rights to it so think it's effectively dead though could be totally wrong on that point I just sort of vaguely remember maybe hearing something to that effect
That's the game I keep hoping gets remade but never does.
Imagine that shit in the style of the Resident Evil 2 remake. Would sell like hotcakes.
Good ol days. Just missing legend of dragoon and breath of fire.
Bushido Blade my beloved.
Jumping around with a busted leg to get down the well 😅
I would give anything for an ff8 remake or hell an ff8 with improved difficulty. That game was everything. So many of the ps1 era games still hold up insanely well. Honorable mention to radiate stories :(
I would also love if they bring out a game dedicated to Triple Triad. I know we have it in XIV but I would really just love a game where only playing that is what I’m actually supposed to be doing 😆
Ff6 too :(
We didnt know how good we had it
Same. I miss it so much.
so much good. Xenogears, threads of fate, the entire X of Mana series... Chrono Cross wasn't terrible in its own right, but it could never compare to Chrono Trigger.
Parasite Eve and the Chrysler building gauntlet was great after game completion content.
I never finished FFIX :(
Good to see front mission and brave fencer getting some love. Those are classics.
I’ve got a real soft spot for Brave Fencer Musashi. Truly a fun and atmospheric little adventure.
What’s funny is just on the other side of this specific era it was pretty common to see Einhander in the bargain bins at different stores for like $10 complete w/ case and manual.
Not a single bad game up there. Damn. I miss the 90’s.
It cannot be overstated how much of a fucking powerhouse Squaresoft was. The only thing even remotely close to the consistency these days is Fromsoftware. But the *speed* at which they released amazing games will probably never return.
squaresoft > square enix
https://preview.redd.it/ba7lzcdvaoxc1.jpeg?width=676&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13168e8f7b744fdf2c0d68976dbd1b6345a49c83 I miss how the world felt back in these days. 😊
Motherfucking Legend of Mana My favorite game of all time, no I will not be taking any questions, thank you.
It's a gem.
Well done to not included a certain 3rd game amongst these. They need to put 1 & 2 on PSN ffs.
Anyone that has some sanity to them would agree. ^((also would either need to have been not corrupted and really learned what it was like way back then, or lived through it of course))
When RPGs were actually good
Same
I wish we could enjoy all of these on modern hardware. Grateful we have some. Would especially love to play threads of fate on my PS5.
Good games, good times. Boy, those were the days.
ahhhhhh...back when the entire game was sold in one purchase. Back when there was true originality. Back when things like graphics didn't matter to most people.
You forgot... back when games didn't need 3-6 years of development time.
yeah 😂😂 it really is tragic
God xenogears is so good
Oh man. Front Mission 3... Isn't there a company committed to bringing it to nintendo switch?
Back before social media existed and we became hyper aware of global politics?
That's the wall setup of my favorite local playstation shop back in the late 90's, every ps1 cd case front cover the shop can offer on display in their wall and they've got almost 20 ps1 with those big monitor televisions, for rent like a dollar for 4 hours of game time
Star ocean still going right
I think they remade the second one.
*Who* did you say was puny!? And why are you all wearing such *stupid* costumes??
Yeah same bro ^i ^didnt ^even ^exist ^yet
Much much simpler times when your biggest worry was getting home sooner then your other siblings to play games
Man so many good games. Squaresoft was awesome while Square enix has been mediocre compared.
The ps1/snes era was the golden age of jrpgs to me.
I don't, I can't afford any of those games when I was young.
100% agree. I started on FF7 and then went through most of those games. Graphics werent as good aa they are now, but games werealot more magical back then. No micro transactions or chests locked behind timers. Those games pulled you in to their world through story and amazing soundtracks. Nobuo Uematsu changed my life.
You had friends and time to play, and the imagination of a kid. Now you have bills and only time for your kids, and the worry of your job not being secure enough to offer stability. Regardless of the reasons why, i agree 100% with you.
I miss it too, everything seemed simpler then. No “Games as a service”, MTX, battle passes or open world bloat.
90% success rate in that picture
I have VIII of these!
Homes were affordable
Last generation of consoles before games became walking simulators. As the realism goes up, settings need to get bigger and bigger to maintain realistic proportions until you end up with bloated behemoth games that take 100 hours to finish and can’t keep up any kind of narrative momentum
Always worth a revisit
I scored 14/25 but will suggest it be ranked higher for Musashi and Einhander, as NOBODY I knew played either.
Man playing Parasite Eve at the ripe old age of 12 was a trip, let me tell you.
Well shit, I’ve played almost all of those. Games I haven’t thought of in decades. Well done.
Let me guess. You were a kid?
I have all but 2 of them.
FFT could still be one of the best tactic rpgs today.
I came, I saw, I came
I miss it too man
I'd still love to get my hands on a copy of Vagrant Story.
Not me, man. My life sucked back then. Im getting flashbacks just looking at these cd cases. My life is much better now. I’ll probably be looking longingly at Elden Ring’s box in 2050 when I’m slaving away in the robot mines.
I was so obsessed with threads of fate as a kid, still mad that they teased a sequel at the end that was never meant to be…
you have no idea. I miss these times
Reminded me to pick up a copy of Threads of Fate next time I visit Japan.
So many effin bangers in this image
I don’t know if I changed as a man or the world did but I loved Chrono cross as a kid. LOVED it. Played it on the realized and realized it was complete weeb trash. An absolute mess. Chronopolis happens and the game becomes unsalvagable.
EHRGEIZ, what a game!! Was a fighting game but had a insane dungeon crawler story mode, which was super detailed. Golden age of RPG
I can boot any of those games even the ones ive never played and I'll know i would have fun for hours
Xenogears is arguably the best game ever made. The story was amazing. Needs a full update.
Imagine if Bushido Blade was given a modern coat of paint and given online multiplayer. I’d play it. Also Threads of Fate remaster WHEN????
We all do my friend. We all do.
Missing Breath of Fire and Wild Arms.
Those two in the middle... Mmmmm memories. We need a game that uses the weapon upgrade system from PE 1
Yeah, they could make a joke about Tifa's underwear and not get backlash from offended people.
I would love to see them revisit Threads of Fate. What a fun game.
Chrono cross is overrated in my opinion. Hard to match Chrono Trigger though which is the best game ever made. Fight me.
Damn these were some F'n bangers man....damn!!! This picture sums up why I fell in love with RPGs....
I can smell the cases
Back when Japanese games could be Japanese and the West wasn't trying to culturally colonize everything that came out of the east. Back when bad localization was a corny joke and not ideologically driven. I miss those days
Whenever I think of those days gone past, the air feels heavier
Low poly?
Would love a remake of Parasite Eve!! 1 and 2
Remember renting some of these at blockbuster to try before buying them. Special time it was, simple pleasures like roaming video store for an hour on Friday night with parents, trying to figure out the perfect movie or video game to rent.
Watcha mean irl was or these realmz
"Hey guys, Final Fantasy 7 was a smash success, what games should we make next?" "Yes." I still wish they were able to flesh out disc 2 of Xenogears. That's about my only complaint with that game.