Super Nintendo and moving
Next week I am moving out of my childhood home. I have a PS3 and a Wii and a DS, but right now, I am playing my Super Nintendo the most. A few nights ago it struck me to hook it up. It's odd that with all these boxes around me I've decided to take an old system out of it's box which it's been resigned to for a few years.
The only games I dug out with it were Super Castlevania 4, Final Fantasy 3 and Super Mario All-stars. I had to clean my system with tons of alcohol wipes first, because I guess I had spilled a Coke on it at some point.
What I've found myself playing the most is FF3. I've started a new quest and am up to the Phantom Train sequence. I had forgotten how great this game is. For a few years now I've considered FF2/4j to be my favorite Final Fantasy game title. Although for the record I don't really consider there to be much competition as of all the recent games(7-12) only 12 is actually worth a damn and of the older games(1-6) 1-3 are pretty awful to play today, which really just leaves me to rank 4, 5, 6 and 12.
For the record the official ranking for me is:
6
4
12
5
ANYWAY. FF3 does a lot of things that I wish more RPGs would do today. And I am saying this as someone who really LIKES Japanese role playing games, even newer ones.
For one, the battle system is fast. Random battles are a pretty difficult to reason abstraction in JRPGs(though not all have them), and the less time spent in them, the better. While they are fast(and you can make them even faster if you choose, by altering the battle speed in the CONFIG menu), they are not devoid of strategy.
Also the story is linear, however it is very good at making you think that it's not. Early on, after maybe 2 hours of playtime(FF3 is pretty short as well, maybe 30-35 hours tops. Not bad!) you get to decide on the order you want to play through three scenarios. The game of course will only let you do these three, so it maintains some form of linearity, however the player is given a degree of choice. Want to get stealthy with Locke in South Figaro? Go for it. How about find out where Sabin went after that battle with Ultros? That's your choice. It makes the player have more interest in the story, as it makes them feel they have a more active role in it. Off the top of my head I can't think of any other RPGs that do this, although I am probably wrong.
Lastly, in the second half of the game FF3 takes a major risk by becoming a more open, free form game. In the World Of Ruin section you can choose to go tackle the final dungeon/bosses with only three characters. You need to split your team into teams of 4 for the dungeon(which is by far one of the best dungeons ever designed), so if you really wanted a challenge you could just use parties of one. The game doesn't force you to find all the characters again, it merely gives you incentive to do so. If you don't, then you are in for a tought, though not impossible challenge. If you do, then the dungeon is easier for you, and you get to do sidequests that are actually linked with the story, and provide closure/resolution for the characters.
So yeah, Super Nintendo. I think it would be really nice to play through Super Mario Bros 3 on the day before the move, hopefully I can do that. It would just seem really fitting. I will do a post sometime about SMB3 and how it is the pinnacle of human achievement.
The only games I dug out with it were Super Castlevania 4, Final Fantasy 3 and Super Mario All-stars. I had to clean my system with tons of alcohol wipes first, because I guess I had spilled a Coke on it at some point.
What I've found myself playing the most is FF3. I've started a new quest and am up to the Phantom Train sequence. I had forgotten how great this game is. For a few years now I've considered FF2/4j to be my favorite Final Fantasy game title. Although for the record I don't really consider there to be much competition as of all the recent games(7-12) only 12 is actually worth a damn and of the older games(1-6) 1-3 are pretty awful to play today, which really just leaves me to rank 4, 5, 6 and 12.
For the record the official ranking for me is:
6
4
12
5
ANYWAY. FF3 does a lot of things that I wish more RPGs would do today. And I am saying this as someone who really LIKES Japanese role playing games, even newer ones.
For one, the battle system is fast. Random battles are a pretty difficult to reason abstraction in JRPGs(though not all have them), and the less time spent in them, the better. While they are fast(and you can make them even faster if you choose, by altering the battle speed in the CONFIG menu), they are not devoid of strategy.
Also the story is linear, however it is very good at making you think that it's not. Early on, after maybe 2 hours of playtime(FF3 is pretty short as well, maybe 30-35 hours tops. Not bad!) you get to decide on the order you want to play through three scenarios. The game of course will only let you do these three, so it maintains some form of linearity, however the player is given a degree of choice. Want to get stealthy with Locke in South Figaro? Go for it. How about find out where Sabin went after that battle with Ultros? That's your choice. It makes the player have more interest in the story, as it makes them feel they have a more active role in it. Off the top of my head I can't think of any other RPGs that do this, although I am probably wrong.
Lastly, in the second half of the game FF3 takes a major risk by becoming a more open, free form game. In the World Of Ruin section you can choose to go tackle the final dungeon/bosses with only three characters. You need to split your team into teams of 4 for the dungeon(which is by far one of the best dungeons ever designed), so if you really wanted a challenge you could just use parties of one. The game doesn't force you to find all the characters again, it merely gives you incentive to do so. If you don't, then you are in for a tought, though not impossible challenge. If you do, then the dungeon is easier for you, and you get to do sidequests that are actually linked with the story, and provide closure/resolution for the characters.
So yeah, Super Nintendo. I think it would be really nice to play through Super Mario Bros 3 on the day before the move, hopefully I can do that. It would just seem really fitting. I will do a post sometime about SMB3 and how it is the pinnacle of human achievement.
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