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so, is kingdom hearts re the new game? i honestly haven't kept up on them. also, what's 'final mix'? the greatest hits version, or something?

Re: Chain of Memories is KH 1.5

it's a remake of the GBA game

"Final Mix" means KH+ basically. It's the version the japs got after we got ours, I think.

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Rather than start a new thread I'll just post this in here. I'm having a hard time getting a good review on BattleFront II. Does anyone have this game and can concur its competitive value? (I am talking as a competitive online game). Or perhaps a better question: would it be a good substitute for a guy whose parents won't let him play "gun games" or, FPS's?

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so, is kingdom hearts re the new game? i honestly haven't kept up on them. also, what's 'final mix'? the greatest hits version, or something?

Squeenix's PS2 games tend to have better versions in Japan. These are the "Final Mix" for Kingdom Hearts, or the "International Edition" for FFX and FFX-2.

FFX differences: http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/197344/41079

FFX-2: not linked to avoid spoilers. You miss EPIC boss fights, and get a crappier music video.

Kingdom Hearts 2: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_KH2_and_KH2_Final_Mix

If your PS2 can play Japanese games, I HIGHLY advise that you get the international editions, as there's no good reason to avoid extra content. Especially in KH2's case, as KH2 Final Mix comes WITH Re: Chain of Memories on the disc. The standard FFX is also ridiculously easy if you get the super weapons -- the extra bosses would give them a purpose that's not instant-win.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that all of the "International" versions can be set to full English, both text and voice acting.

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my console can't =( oh well. thanks for the info.

battlefront II was an awesome game, but i doubt anyone online still plays it. it's a buttload of fun, though. my roomie and i used to have a lot of fun going through and seeing what we could pull off. if you've got a buddy, it's a lot more fun, but even if you don't it's still enjoyable.

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Let me go through my collection and see here...

Not recommended:

-Mega Man X7: Not worth it. It's not good at all.

-SEGA Classics Collection: SEGA arcade classics, remade with new graphics and sound. Not really worthwhile except for the Virtua Racing remake (which is the only one that improves the original); all the rest are pretty forgettable.

-SEGA Genesis Collection: All of the games are available elsewhere or via emulation, so I can't really say to get this.

-Mega Man Anniversary Collection: Same as above.

Recommended if you like the genre/series:

-Mega Man X Collection: Another collection that could be emulated, but it does include Mega Man Battle & Chase.

-Mega Man X8: Not a bad return to form for the X series, this is worth picking up if you're a fan.

-Midway Arcade Treasures 3: I'm a big racing fan, so I personally love this collection (which includes San Francisco Rush: The Rock, Hydro Thunder, Rush 2049, Super Offroad, and Race Drivin', among other less notables). If you like arcade racers it might be worth tracking this down, if only for the Rush games and Hydro Thunder.

-Gran Turismo 4: As I said before, I'm a big fan of racing games, so I love the GT series. It's a pretty unforgiving simulation though, so it isn't something I would recommend unless you're a hardcore car guy or racing fan.

-Gran Turismo 3: Same thing.

-Tourist Trophy: Even more of a hardcore simulation than GT. In fact, they're practically the same game (by the same developers), just remove the cars and replace them with motorcycles. The controls are ridiculously unforgiving and 99% of the tracks are recycled from GT4.

Recommended:

Dragon Quest VIII: I watched Mae play through this game, and while I'd personally never play it because I loathe turn-based battle systems, the characters were great and the story was superb. Since you're an RPG fan I would highly suggest picking this up.

-Burnout 3 Takedown: HOLY CRAP awesome, ridiculous, over the top arcade racing carnage. I hear Burnout Revenge is better, but 3 is by no means not worth picking up. You'll have a blast.

Flatout 2: In much the same vein as Burnout, although not quite as good. I'd still suggest grabbing this one if you like Burnout, though. Ejecting drivers through their windshields never gets old.

X-Men Legends 2: Great Action RPG. Highly recommended, even if you're not really a fan of X-Men, the storyline and voice acting are great, and gameplay is quite fun.

-Gitaroo Man: Get this. You have no excuse.

-Parappa the Rapper 2: No excuse for not owning this, either. Brilliant game.

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Xenosaga I, II, and III.

The Xenosaga series has a fairly grand but cool story, very cool visuals, strategic and sometimes complicated combat (II in particular), and very long cutscenes. On the whole I'd say don't be fooled by the packaging, Xenosaga I looks somewhat anime-ish, but the rest shy away from that and go for more of a half realistic half artistic style.

In the end it might not have been as epic as it they wanted it to be (originally they planned to have it unfold over 6 games instead of 3), but it's definitely worth experiencing and playing through. Each of the games have their similarities and differences, and there are a fair amount of minigames, the minigame in III, Hakox, is particularly interesting, unique, and addictive.

Aside from that I think you have your bases covered, obviously you're going to have to run through FFX, FFX-2 (this is another one you have to make sure you don't get fooled by your first impression), FFXII, and Dragon Quest VIII is absolutely amazing if you grew up with the series (and most likely even if you didn't).

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I realise I'm chiming this quite late into the thread, but I just wanted to ask.

What is it people think is so cool about the Tales of the Abyss battle system.

I loved Tales of Phantasia on the SNES, that battle system really blew my mind and it felt really good to play.

I was all excited about Tales of the Abyss since it has some of my favourite Japanese voice actors in it (yer, I got the undub). But the Battle system just seemed very quick and messy to me. Nothing satisfying about it.

Tales has consistently disappointed me compared with the SNES version tbh. Music, Gameplay, Story (Altho the wittyness in Phantasia may or may not have something to do with Dejap's translation)

Edit:-

I'm just gonna add on to that. Rogue Galaxy, the premise of the game, the voice acting and animation is awesome. Again for me it suffers from a horrendous battle system. In tougher areas your companions will act stupidly and require a ton of healing. And half the time you hit 1 hp so fast you barely know that it's happened. The game promised so much for me since it resembled the combat style of Bleach Blade Battlers 1 & 2 (great PS2 games but you need to be able to play imports and use GameFAQs guides to read menus) but also being inside an RPG.

RPG have to remember that, your battle system is the thing your players are likely to spend the largest amount of time using so it has to be the most important thing.

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I realise I'm chiming this quite late into the thread, but I just wanted to ask.

What is it people think is so cool about the Tales of the Abyss battle system.

I loved Tales of Phantasia on the SNES, that battle system really blew my mind and it felt really good to play.

I was all excited about Tales of the Abyss since it has some of my favourite Japanese voice actors in it (yer, I got the undub). But the Battle system just seemed very quick and messy to me. Nothing satisfying about it.

Tales has consistently disappointed me compared with the SNES version tbh. Music, Gameplay, Story (Altho the wittyness in Phantasia may or may not have something to do with Dejap's translation)

I was tempted RAAAAAAGE on you, but I decided not to. You put your standards WAY too damn high if you were "consistently disappointed."

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Xenosaga I, II, and III.

No.

Imagine buying a third of a game padded out to a full-game's length by adding in ridiculously, pointlessly long cutscenes (I'm talking like an hour or so) and ridiculously, pointlessly long dungeons (that are also ridiculously boring because they're completely linear and there's no sort of dialogue or story AT ALL except during the between-dungeon stupidly-long cutscenes). Now imagine that the game you just bought 1/3 of isn't particularly good to begin with.

That's Xenosaga Episode I. I have to be honest and say that I haven't played Episode II or III, but from what I hear, Episode II is worse in just about every regard, and while Episode III is supposedly better it's really not worth the trip. The analogy I've heard is that it's like eating a charred, burnt steak, and then a rotten, maggot-filled steak, for the privilege of eating an edible but ultimately mediocre steak. And paying full price for all three.

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omfg i can't believe i forgot Radiata Stories

One of the funnest rpgs i've ever played!! It lampoons basically everything about jrpgs (and tri-ace did it, so you know it owns) and the combat is enjoyable. It also has lots of replay value (I have yet to do half of the whole game and I'm at 45 hours).

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xenosaga's too damn long, and i never heard anything good about it, honestly. not anything making me want to actually sit down and play the whole thing, at least.

radiata stories looks interesting, at least.

agreed, xenosaga is a classic case of a game that doesn't live up to the hype. as far as old school jrpg's go this one is especially long with a story thats more nonsensical than most.

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thank you bryce for saying that so i wouldn't have to flame the crap out of him.

Why the need to sound so superior at all?

Honestly I just haven't enjoyed any of the newer Tales battle systems as much as Tales of Phantasia. Same goes for the soundtrack. Should I be flamed because I feel this way?

Am I not in the right clicke? Do I need to caress some egos to post on this forum, do let me know wont you?

I think the fact that for the first Tales themed OCR Album half of it was dedicated to Tales of Phantasia tells you something about the quality of the music.

Don't get me wrong I'm not a hater, I'm not trying to be in some cool retro 'Phantasia r00lz the rest suck' clicke. I'm not actually 12.

Probably the single worst thing about the Tales of the Abyss battle system, aside the messy button spamming nature of it (It doesn't know if it's an action RPG or a Turn based one very well - and a good action RPG doesn't need load a battlefield for each fight), the worst thing is the load time especially post battle compared with the amount of time you spend fighting in many scenarios. It feels entirely grating when you want to grind a little exp out.

A lot of people hate on FF12 but you got a whole level full of enemies with no loading till you changed zone. In this respect Tales of the Abyss being a late PS2 title is really lagging behind the competition. Ok they might not have the same budget but they will by now know how to get the right juice out of the console.

Undoubtedly there is some ambition and individuality in the Tales battle system but I feel like they've lost focus and a lot of the playability of previous ones. For me fighting thru the battle arena level on Phantasia is something that just hasn't been touched in the Destiny games or anything else.

(PS For anyone wondering why those scenes where the character faces come up aren't voice acted. it's simply because they were not 'vocally' translated. If you obtain the Undub version you can hear them vocalized in Japanese - by what is often a better quality of voice actor anyway. Again have to praise FF12, it was probably one of the first English to Japanese voice acting translations that actually didn't suck. I loved FFX but I wanted to shoot Tidus by the end. In the Undub version Tidus is played by the same voice actor who voice Kurosaki Ichigo in Bleach. Much better!)

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No one's contesting the absolute brilliance of phantasia.

We just think you have nostalgia-based standards, which are retarded.

Tales of Legendia is superior in almost every way to Phantasia, including the soundtrack.

...though that's to be expected; the New Japan Philharmonic recorded the thing [insert omfg here].

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