360 RPG Opinions and Feedback

[jasonnc80]

Crabmaster2000 said:

I am really interested in three games right now and am seriously thinking about puchasing a 360. I have read a few reviews and such from various sites but would really like the feedback and opinions of people who have played through the games and enjoy these type of games. The three I have in mind are:

Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon.

I want to play a good RPG I can really sink into so the most important factors I'd like to know about are characters and story. And a brief overview of the battle system for each game would be helpful aswell. Just so you have an idea as to what my taste in RPGs is my favorite three would probably be: Xenogears/saga, FFIX and Legend of Dragoon.

So I would like to know if you would recommned any of these games and what your impressions of them are.

PS - please dont push Oblivion, Mass Effect or Fable on my because I really dislike that type of RPG. Also if there are any other games for the 360 that you think I might enjoy please mention them and ill look into them. Also try to keep the spoilers to a minimum if possible. Thanks everyone.

I have both Eternal Sonata and Lost Odyssey. I played through the entirety of ES and am halfway through LO right now.

I enjoyed Eternal sonata for the most part. I found the story which started strong imo towards the latter part to be a little weak and the ending a little lacking. The art style and battle system was what really kept my interest. I liked the way it tried to tie in Chopin's history with the story and having his music incorporated was nice. It was however quite short for an RPG (it took me about 22 hours to beat). However there is an 'Encore mode' that lets you play a second time but beefs up the difficulty of the fights and adds a few items you couldn't get through the first playthrough. I haven't gone back myself but after a few months I'll probably play it again. It really is a beautiful game and imo worth playing for the art style alone.

The battle system is more real time vs turn based. It seems simple at first but is gets pretty deep once you learn the intricacies of the system. There are characters with short & ranged attacks, and you have differnet special moves depending on if you're standing in light or dark. Enemies also change depending on if they are in light/dark. You also have special attacks which can be fired off at any time but building them up by executing normal attacks making them stronger. So this throws in an element of timing and preparation. Some people complain that the battles can be repetitive but there are no random encounters so you can skip a lot of enemies if you desire.

Lost Odyssey I am really having a great time with. I haven't finished the game but the biggest draw to me is the story and characters. I was a big FF fan (played them every gen) and was really turned off by the entire PS2 generation of games. This to me felt like a throwback to the early FF's I really enjoyed. It is heavily story driven and features all the old school elements like random encounters and turn based combat. The encounters are less frequent and encourage you to move on to new areas because after a while exp will become almost non-existant.

The combat also incorporates a 'ring' system which gives a little "real time" feel to the combat. Depending on the type of ring you have equipped you can deal extra damage, status aliments, etc. It's timing based and reminded me somewhat of FF8 w/ Squall dealing extra damage when he struck with the gunblade. I haven't gotten to the end of the game but it's been one of the most fun RPG's I've played in a long time.

With those and a good selection of future JRPG's I think the 360 has a healthy lineup of RPG's for the system. 

kingofwale said:
with Trusty Bell (yes, I refuse to call it by another name), coming to PS3 with extra content. LO is the only game I'm very interested in.

Although not enough to throw out 400 bucks for a console for.

 Also good job not answering any of his questions and posting just to thread-crap on someone looking for a 360.  Glad he also called you out on it.  The console is also 349 (not 400) with a rumored price drop coming soon.  Thanks for trying.