1. several: SMT DDS, Persona 4, the Soul Reaver trilogy, most of the Ace Attorney and related games... XGRA... WipEout Omega Collection with the PS4's VR....
4. I cannot for the life of me get into Final Fantasy games. I just can't.
I think it's a combo of two things: first, the Star Trek vs Star Wars thing. it's usually what you loved first, that you love more, because of the added points from the Nostalgia Goggles.
for me, that wasn't FF. it was Sid Meyer's Pirates, it was the Ultima games, it was-
Moebius: Orb of Celestial Harmony, it was Phantasy Star IV (which I should've included in answering 1, too), and a handful of other games.
the second thing is the Titanic Song effect. I'm sure it's great, and I don't doubt that others love it, but I kinda never want to hear it again. that song was basically on endless repeat on every pop radio station-
when it came out, and I still find myself gritting my teeth when I hear it somewhere.
in high school, the kids I'd hung out with and nerded out about video games, cartoons/anime, etc, with? FF7 came out, and then they wouldn't talk about anything else for even five whole minutes. I tried to get them onto other subjects.
not so coincidentally, I ended up not still hanging out with them much, all that long after that.
and then there was FFX, which my sister's then-bf was playing on the tv right next to the computer, when I was trying ever so hard to work on some 3D models I was making. I'll let you guys guess how irritated I was with that title.... (spoiler: very.)
oh, I just had a very short fuse that particular night when he was playing that. I never said anything about it. just, it went on so long when I was trying so hard to get through a particularly frustrating bit on what I was making, and... idk. I just... have a bit of a grudge against that scene in particular.
and then FF12... someone played some of it where I could watch it, and I just... idk. I didn't really feel anything. it was visually kinda pretty? but my brain was already going "nope, cannot suspend disbelief enough to try getting into this one" in the first few minutes....
...yeah, FF12 IMO has a distinct problem wherein the story and the gameplay, while individually decent, really fit together poorly, and the places where they try to connect or transition are the weakest parts.
and then a friend of a friend tried to nerd out with me about games, and when I was trying to explain that I didn't have any particular love for the FF franchise (I mean, I was really trying to be diplomatic about it, too!) she started laying into me about how I needed to give FF6 a chance!!! like, would not give up, to the point where I blatantly
laid out for her that if she tried to urge me to do it one more time, I would be absolutely certain to put it on my "will never ever give it a chance" list. that finally kindasorta shut her up, and she was pissed about it. I'm just like... why can you not grasp that just because you like something doesn't make it okay to try to immediately cram it
down someone else's throat, when they say they're only lukewarm on it and give it a "maybe once I've finished more of my excited-for-these games list, I'll look into it." how is that ever an invitation to berate someone about the thing? sigh....
but, on its own merits, it's a great game, and I love it. it has some of the best bad lines, some "so bad it's good" parts... but it stars Simon Templeman as the main char's VA, and I am a big fan of his because of that role. the gameplay mechanics are solid, the game itself is fun... yeah, I like it.
I just really wish the devs' bosses had let it be its own game - Chakan, iirc - rather than making them shoehorn it into the LoK franchise as a second Blood Omen game. they could've had another team work with the Soul Reaver devs to make a more fitting BO2 than that.
6. probably the PS2. I've spent more time playing it than probably any other console, and its library is fabulous.
runner up for me is likely the PSP. I have something of an on-again-off-again love-obsession with a handful of games on it, like Sims Castaway, the Project Diva and Megpoid games, and the Pirates! remake, lol....
7. several, lol. I love Serph, from DDS. I adore how Atlus pulled off the Silent Protag thing, but still managed to show his personality just fine, refusing to leave him as a blank slate: he's a complete dorkus. he's sweet, kinda (understandably!) ignorant, thoughtful, and he will literally eat your face if you hurt his best friends.
both Phoenix Wright and Edgeworth count as protags thanks to how the games play! Phoenix is a funny guy, and Edgeworth is one of the few chars I actually feel confident in pointing to and going "I understand this" with his apparent ace-ness. like, I could actually maybe point him out to someone as an example of "I want more of this" regarding having a
character for whom romance apparently isn't on the agenda, let alone hookups. I get that the majority of people are allosexual and expect certain things out of the media they consume, but at this point, it really feels like a mere checklist item. "must include sexual or romantic things" - why, though? why can't we have more chars who're interested in
the actual plot going on around them, solving murders or whatever else is going on? why not get rid of that checklist item? it's obnoxious. it detracts from most things, for me.
Romance is "supposed to be" the be-all and end-all of women's interests, so it's drilled into a lot of people that they "should" be interested in that, and meanwhile media companies often think forcing in romance is required to attract women and girls as an audience.
oh, surely. I've fantasized about the things I'd like to tell to the people that ~assure me~ that I will change my mind about wanting children someday. or the guys that seem to think their dick is magical and will interest me, if I just ~give them a chance~.
"resentment" toward this bullshit is putting it mildly.
Raziel's a spoiled, melodramatic Brat Prince. self-righteous, self-important... but he wants to see himself as being in the right. so to that end, he's trying to do the right thing... but oh god, is he ever facepalm-worthy sometimes, in going about it. I love it. he's an unreliable narrator at times, even!
and Kain's confident, careful in plotting things. kind of a Magnificent Bastard type. callous, cruel, even, but more because piddling little things like random humans' lives simply don't concern him. the fate of the world does. kill the annoying beggars; this vampire needs blood while he figures out what time-travel bullshit he's up against this time.
...I think I should give Eike Kusch an honorable mention too, honestly. he's from Shadow of Destiny/Shadow of Memories. he's such a dumb dorkus. he's kind, sweet, a guy that goes out of his way to give a lonely little kid a kitten, while he's busy time-hopping to try to solve things to prevent his own murder.
and some of the shenanigans you can get up to if you repeat certain scenes enough times are just great. he starts messing with people, because he knows what they're going to say, because he's been through this time loop before.
I wish his VA had been given better direction, though, and that the writing in some parts had been better, in phrasing things in the dialog. oh well.
...more than that, though, I wish they'd looked up the pronunciation of some of the chars' names... but at least they were consistent in getting it wrong....
11. I don't remember precisely... I think it would be the copy of Epic Mickey on the Wii, for my nephew.
for myself, I think it was Ghost of the Dusk, for 3DS? or WipEout 2048 for Vita. (I have a Vita, but it needs to be repaired. doesn't mean I won't still get games for it, for when it is!) or maybe Spirit Camera on 3DS...?
I'll be honest, I haven't been playing my consoles much lately. just mostly playing a mobile game (the one I ducked out briefly for) or alternating between the second 3DS AA game, and Soul Hackers (also on 3DS.)
12. JRPGs, racing, puzzle, mystery, platformers.... I'm mostly just not fond of (or good at) sports games or FPS ones. give me games of reflex and/or strategy, things I can practice at, and get better that way, or logic to death.
17. several: Shin Megami Tensei, Ace Attorney, WipEout... I have some serious nostalgia goggles on for Phantasy Star, too. I haven't been able to really get into any of the later games (just a matter of time vs priorities, tbh) but PSIV will always own a fair chunk of my heart.
big shout-outs to the Zero Time Dilemma/999/VLR franchise for being seriously
cool and super well done puzzle/story games! and I will always adore Persona, but I think I blanked and lumped it in with the SMT mention above, even though I know better, lol.
18. the Soul Reaver trilogy. (it's a three-part game, lbr here.) beautiful ambient music all throughout it? unusual instrumentation? a feeling of odd magic and medieval-ish shenanigans? yes please.
XGRA. it's racing music - BT, Celldweller, Alien Breed... upbeat, kinda rock/dance types of stuff. I keep it on a playlist, and often put it on while I go
biking... surprise! I end up getting places more quickly for it! lol.
and then there's something to be said for everything in most of the SMT and Persona games. P3 and P4, I adore... DDS's soundtrack just plain rocks, as does Nocturne's... I should hunt down the others' again.
the AA games? yes please; gimme. I love the orchestral cover album, especially.
The one thing I'll say in defense of FF here is there is a LOT of variation between them, so any given one may strike a chord with someone who gets nothing out of the rest. 6 does have a lot going for it... but I could note very different things that each other entry has going for it. Whatever anyone says FF is about, there's an exception.
honestly, I have given a good handful of them at least a little look. the only one I actually enjoyed enough to remember was some kind of multiplayer GBA one, which I gather wasn't "really" an FF game. something about one player carrying a thing, and the rest of us having to stay near them....
but really, again, it's a matter of priorities vs time, for bothering to do more than glance in their general direction lately. I have a growing list of games I really want to play/play more, and FF games just... aren't anywhere near the top of it. for all I know, I'll love one of the earlier titles! ...but the idea of playing the Sherlock-era AA game is
Hmm. Not sure if I know that one or not. I know at least that FF branding was applied to several original Game Boy games that were actually different series entirely in Japan
Mm, and I wouldn't want to recommend one without a more solid idea of what you'd be looking for in the first place. Because there are so many with a unique charm, but all of them are flawed enough that if that particular game's charm doesn't work for you, you'd probably just get annoyed.
far, far more appealing to me than trying those FF ones, you know? or hunting down the pieces to build my own Switch, and grabbing a copy of whatever SMT game I can get my hands on for it - SMTV, maybe? or Nocturne's remake... or setting up in DDS to screw with Harley again, to figure out more about his mechanics...
....okay, yeah, that's a fair idea, lol. but again, other priorities. I'd actually like to find a playthrough of the first three Phantasy Star games, come to think of it....
(Heck, I'd personally like to find a really good LP of FFXIV. The story is awesome, especially once you reach the expansions. The gameplay... not so much.)
19. ....once again, nothing's particularly sticking out for me...?
20. oh man. first console game was Sonic 2. first game ever was on the Amiga computer - Battle Chess! and then on PC, Sid Meier's Pirates!, Moebius: Orb of Celestial Harmony, Ninja (a little side-scroller), the CGA Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?...
Heh. I'm not entirely sure what my first video game actually was, mostly because I don't remember which we got first: the Apple ][ + or the Intellivision.
21. ...I have no idea? I haven't finished getting a 100% perfect rating on every song on Normal difficulty yet, in Megpoid the Music , which was actually a goal of mine, at one point....
Ah, actually, probably played some games on an Apple ][ e at school even before that? I vaguely remember Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego on the Apple ][ e.
22. Atlus, likely. and the Soul Reaver team. possibly the AA team too, but I definitely can't give that award to Capcom as a whole. give us the games in English, in cartridge form, dammit.
23. .....uhh...... not coming to mind atm, sorry.
24. ... /shrug?
25. in my collection? Klonoa, Eternal Darkness, Diablo on PSX, almost all the AA games... I'd have
to look up a lot of mine; I don't always pay attention to their prices, lol. umm... Persona 3 Portable, Persona 1 on PSX (so sue me, I wanted it for collector reasons!) and... I'll have to dig through my shelf to refresh my memory on what all else I actually own; a lot of games, I bought but haven't played yet, so I don't really recall offhand...
hah, yeah, I could imagine. I'd like to get a good recording of various music bits from the original Pirates! game, which used the internal PC speaker. makes me wonder if I could take an old PC and rewire its internal speaker to an AUX cord, and hook it to another comp's Line In....
26? my PS4. which my niece has snagged for now. ...and as she's realized she can browse/play Youtube on it on her TV.... I suspect I won't get it back for a while. lol...
27. tossup: the Soul Reaver series (RIP, Tony Jay (Sher Khan, Frollo, Megabyte...) and Rene Auberjonois (Odo from DS9), in particular... other VAs include Simon Templeman and Michael Bell)
and basically everything Atlus makes, imho. but if I had to pick just one, I'm going with the Soul Reaver games.
28. ...I was very sick and tired of Teddie's constant freakouts in battles in P4, when I would one-shot the enemies and get a whopping 1 XP from the battle, because I was so obscenely over-leveled that I was absently auto-ing everything.
31. not counting the mobile game I've sunk countless hours into, probably SR1. once I got my hands on a GameShark code someone came up with, that patched a kind of double-jump-prompts-"flying" behavior in, I spent hours flying around, landing everywhere I shouldn't, just to see the landscape from different angles, and draw it...
that's after the many hours I spent playing the game normally, finishing every block puzzle in the Cathedral (yes, every. single. goddamn. one. ....fucking block puzzles, goddamn.... /eyetwitch) and then even exploring as much as I could in the Rahabim's territory... and then mapping out some of the areas, like the Lighthouse.... I think I still
have a lot of the maps and diagrams I'd made, around here somewhere. I know I at least have some scans of them, and of my detail studies of a couple of the enemies, for reference-image purposes....
or maybe it was DDS1, where I spent multiple hours with a clipboard and pencil, making tally-marks to keep track of how many times Harley used what skills, to try to better understand his actual, in-game stats.... out of spite, after someone pissed me off, in the DWRP game I was in at the time. this was after playing this full-length JRPG, too.
...because I was on a new-game-plus run, to do what I wanted to do with him.
or maybe it was P4, where I spent so many hours grinding in the stripclub dungeon to get ridiculously OP, in my mad quest to create a particular persona and get its level up high enough that it could learn a particular skill, that my savegame says I was at ~87 hours?
or maybe it's 7 Days to Die, with all the time I've spent playing with a few friends of mine, building our bases and crafting weaponry, stockpiling the items we like, growing crops, etc....
...I also don't recall how much time I sank into my now-abandoned quest to get a Perfect on all songs on both Easy and Normal difficulty, in the Megpoid game (and some songs, on Hard, or even Extreme!) but that save game was since lost when the memory card was corrupted, so my quest was aborted.....
or Soul Hackers, lmfao. I spent what felt like forever in this one dungeon, grinding to get up to a high enough level that I could let the Archangel join me, who liked me... and make serious bank off the Mad Gasser. (he still cracks me up, no lie)
(Aside on the nostalgia front when it comes to FF games: FF4 was the first I played, but I can step back objectively and say its story is overall pretty cheesy with a handful of bare-bones strong points, and its gameplay simplistic enough that I could see new players not getting much out of it these days aside from historical curiosity.)
(Also way up there on the nostalgia-goggles meter is Secret of Mana, to the point that I kind of wish someone would make an indie in-the-spirit-of game because the reality of SoM itself doesn't live up to my nostalgia for it.)
and now after talking to someone about old computer games, I'm pondering whether Jill of the Jungle's key config would lend itself to being mapped to the PSP in DOSBox... could I set up my PSP to play it?
I think it's a combo of two things: first, the Star Trek vs Star Wars thing. it's usually what you loved first, that you love more, because of the added points from the Nostalgia Goggles.
for me, that wasn't FF. it was Sid Meyer's Pirates, it was the Ultima games, it was-
the second thing is the Titanic Song effect. I'm sure it's great, and I don't doubt that others love it, but I kinda never want to hear it again. that song was basically on endless repeat on every pop radio station-
in high school, the kids I'd hung out with and nerded out about video games, cartoons/anime, etc, with? FF7 came out, and then they wouldn't talk about anything else for even five whole minutes. I tried to get them onto other subjects.
and then there was FFX, which my sister's then-bf was playing on the tv right next to the computer, when I was trying ever so hard to work on some 3D models I was making. I'll let you guys guess how irritated I was with that title.... (spoiler: very.)
'cause boy, FF sure does have some fashion choices...
I can say that, as a sequel of sorts, Blood Omen 2 was terrible. there's a reason it
but, on its own merits, it's a great game, and I love it. it has some of the best bad lines, some "so bad it's good" parts... but it stars Simon Templeman as the main char's VA, and I am a big fan of his because of that role. the gameplay mechanics are solid, the game itself is fun... yeah, I like it.
runner up for me is likely the PSP. I have something of an on-again-off-again love-obsession with a handful of games on it, like Sims Castaway, the Project Diva and Megpoid games, and the Pirates! remake, lol....
"resentment" toward this bullshit is putting it mildly.
Raziel's a spoiled, melodramatic Brat Prince. self-righteous, self-important... but he wants to see himself as being in the right. so to that end, he's trying to do the right thing... but oh god, is he ever facepalm-worthy sometimes, in going about it. I love it. he's an unreliable narrator at times, even!
...more than that, though, I wish they'd looked up the pronunciation of some of the chars' names... but at least they were consistent in getting it wrong....
....
wow, I'm drawing another blank. again, I don't really dwell on games/chars I don't really like....
10. ....does Blood Omen 2 count?
for myself, I think it was Ghost of the Dusk, for 3DS? or WipEout 2048 for Vita. (I have a Vita, but it needs to be repaired. doesn't mean I won't still get games for it, for when it is!) or maybe Spirit Camera on 3DS...?
oh man, I'm blanking again on this one.... I know there's more, but....
on console... as said earlier, I've been bouncing between an Ace Attorney title and SMT Soul Hackers.
big shout-outs to the Zero Time Dilemma/999/VLR franchise for being seriously
XGRA. it's racing music - BT, Celldweller, Alien Breed... upbeat, kinda rock/dance types of stuff. I keep it on a playlist, and often put it on while I go
and then there's something to be said for everything in most of the SMT and Persona games. P3 and P4, I adore... DDS's soundtrack just plain rocks, as does Nocturne's... I should hunt down the others' again.
the AA games? yes please; gimme. I love the orchestral cover album, especially.
20. oh man. first console game was Sonic 2. first game ever was on the Amiga computer - Battle Chess! and then on PC, Sid Meier's Pirates!, Moebius: Orb of Celestial Harmony, Ninja (a little side-scroller), the CGA Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?...
23. .....uhh...... not coming to mind atm, sorry.
24. ... /shrug?
25. in my collection? Klonoa, Eternal Darkness, Diablo on PSX, almost all the AA games... I'd have
27. tossup: the Soul Reaver series (RIP, Tony Jay (Sher Khan, Frollo, Megabyte...) and Rene Auberjonois (Odo from DS9), in particular... other VAs include Simon Templeman and Michael Bell)
28. ...I was very sick and tired of Teddie's constant freakouts in battles in P4, when I would one-shot the enemies and get a whopping 1 XP from the battle, because I was so obscenely over-leveled that I was absently auto-ing everything.
OMG LOOK OUT, FIVE ENEMIES!!! /presses triangle; battle ends.....
ffs, Teddie, shut up or I will just turn the sound off on my TV and put on some Tool or something. goddammit....
31. not counting the mobile game I've sunk countless hours into, probably SR1. once I got my hands on a GameShark code someone came up with, that patched a kind of double-jump-prompts-"flying" behavior in, I spent hours flying around, landing everywhere I shouldn't, just to see the landscape from different angles, and draw it...
or maybe it was P4, where I spent so many hours grinding in the stripclub dungeon to get ridiculously OP, in my mad quest to create a particular persona and get its level up high enough that it could learn a particular skill, that my savegame says I was at ~87 hours?
or maybe it's 7 Days to Die, with all the time I've spent playing with a few friends of mine, building our bases and crafting weaponry, stockpiling the items we like, growing crops, etc....