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twesterm on 20 September 2010
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Khuutra said:
twesterm said:
Khuutra said:

I don't think that you can meaningfully qualify 16-bit JRPGs having bad gameplay.

They didn't really have good gameplay.  If you look at something like FFVI, it had awful gameplay and Chrono Trigger wasn't even anything all that good.  It was passable but it wasn't anywhere as good as many of the other actual good SNES games.

I said "qualify", which means you would need to explain why they had bad gameplay.

First off, just to get things straight, I love Chrono Trigger and it's my third favorite game of all time with Final Fantasy VI, another game with awful gameplay, is my favorite game of all time.

That said, it's hard to put my finger on why I would call the gameplay bad but if I had to it would be the tedium and the necessary parts of the game that destroy any flow and pacing the game has.

For the tedium, walking through certain areas again and again and again fighting the same enemies that aren't even worth your while just gets annoying.  It is cool to constantly revisit places but it just gets really old.  In fact, combat in general gets old.  It's cool learning new techs and different character combinations, but that game wears quickly.  Especially when you're doing the necessary grinding for levels, tech points, and items.  When the game is on, it's a wild ride, but the rest of the time it's a bore fest.

Which brings me to the pacing.  As I said, when the game is on, it's great.  The story is fantastic, the characters are incredible, and the music is awesome but when you're stuck farming certain items for the trading post, trying to tech up for a big fight, farming money, or just grinding in general, the game is boring.  Even places like Magus' fortress where you have to kill 100 of his henchmen (I have no idea if it's 100, I've never counted) just makes you sigh.  The combat can be cool, but it isn't the fun part of that game.

I equate grinding to fetch quests in modern games.  People don't like that shit and it only serves to artificially lengthen the game.  While modern games have mostly learned their lesson that people generally don't like long fetch quests, the traditional JRPG's have not learned their lesson.

Also,

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK I hate that shit where if you click off the reply window it instantly wipes your reply!  I've had to rewrite this 3 damn times because any post longer than a line I have to write in pieces as I work!  This is bullshit.