Author Topic: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game  (Read 20188 times)

Offline Misery

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #15 on: January 04, 2015, 09:57:49 pm »
I swear I must be the only one that didn't like FF6 all that much.

Though it being super-easy didn't help my limited attention span one bit, so that's kinda part of it...

Offline Cyborg

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #16 on: January 04, 2015, 10:20:59 pm »
I swear I must be the only one that didn't like FF6 all that much.

Though it being super-easy didn't help my limited attention span one bit, so that's kinda part of it...


Did you finish it? It's important to note that most Final Fantasy games have optional bosses and the ability to level yourself out of getting "stuck." If you do not level yourself up and just go straight through, you should be able to find some tension, especially if you go after optional bosses and optional characters. But overall, the game is not meant to be the hardest thing you ever played, and I don't even think you are supposed to "lose." It's an adventure that will hopefully give you enough tension and enough story to keep things interesting. If story is not important to you, you probably shouldn't play these games. It's for people with overactive imaginations. This is back in the day when Final Fantasy was extremely story heavy and in its prime. At the age of 12, when I first played this game, it caught me at the right moment. Imagine being a child who already spends too much time in fantasyland and daydreaming, and this is the kind of game that will indulge that kind of personality.


I remember when I beat the game, it was a moment of exhilaration and sadness that it was over. I was excited to take down Kefka, but more than that, the redemption of each character. Every single character gets their heart ripped out. They lose everything. It's an incredibly dark story (a little heavy for a 12-year-old), and it's not going to give you the happy ending wrapped in a bow. It offers you something different. Even addressed controversial topics at the time it came out, such as teen pregnancy. I find it inspiring. Sometimes I still load up the dream oath opera on YouTube.  I remember when I excitedly called my mother to witness my crowning achievement at the time, to which she only looked at me with a blank face and wondered what I was going on about. She never got it. But to me, it was a moment. And the people who have experienced that will undoubtedly claim that this game is the best of all time.


As someone who is older, who actively tries to nurture and maintain my imagination, I can only look back with nostalgia and fondness. The characters themselves and the story "meant something" to my 12-year-old self. I don't think that someone who is older trying to play this game is going to have it capture them in quite the same way. The battle system was novel at the time, but it's tried-and-true now.


So I don't know what to tell you besides, if the adventure doesn't capture you, there's no point in playing.


Edit: one more Final Fantasy 6 story of how i met my best buddy in college. He was playing ping-pong and the topic of games came about. We each had the same favorite game. He went back to his room and returned with the Final Fantasy VI Bible, and I had a strategy guide that I also brought to college. Instant friends for life. There's something about this particular title that strikes people.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2015, 10:37:34 pm by Cyborg »
Kahuna strategy guide:
http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,13369.0.html

Suggestions, bugs? Don't be lazy, give back:
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/

Planetcracker. Believe it.

The stigma of hunger. http://wayw.re/Vi12BK

Offline Misery

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #17 on: January 05, 2015, 06:23:43 am »
I swear I must be the only one that didn't like FF6 all that much.

Though it being super-easy didn't help my limited attention span one bit, so that's kinda part of it...


Did you finish it? It's important to note that most Final Fantasy games have optional bosses and the ability to level yourself out of getting "stuck." If you do not level yourself up and just go straight through, you should be able to find some tension, especially if you go after optional bosses and optional characters. But overall, the game is not meant to be the hardest thing you ever played, and I don't even think you are supposed to "lose." It's an adventure that will hopefully give you enough tension and enough story to keep things interesting. If story is not important to you, you probably shouldn't play these games. It's for people with overactive imaginations. This is back in the day when Final Fantasy was extremely story heavy and in its prime. At the age of 12, when I first played this game, it caught me at the right moment. Imagine being a child who already spends too much time in fantasyland and daydreaming, and this is the kind of game that will indulge that kind of personality.


I remember when I beat the game, it was a moment of exhilaration and sadness that it was over. I was excited to take down Kefka, but more than that, the redemption of each character. Every single character gets their heart ripped out. They lose everything. It's an incredibly dark story (a little heavy for a 12-year-old), and it's not going to give you the happy ending wrapped in a bow. It offers you something different. Even addressed controversial topics at the time it came out, such as teen pregnancy. I find it inspiring. Sometimes I still load up the dream oath opera on YouTube.  I remember when I excitedly called my mother to witness my crowning achievement at the time, to which she only looked at me with a blank face and wondered what I was going on about. She never got it. But to me, it was a moment. And the people who have experienced that will undoubtedly claim that this game is the best of all time.


As someone who is older, who actively tries to nurture and maintain my imagination, I can only look back with nostalgia and fondness. The characters themselves and the story "meant something" to my 12-year-old self. I don't think that someone who is older trying to play this game is going to have it capture them in quite the same way. The battle system was novel at the time, but it's tried-and-true now.


So I don't know what to tell you besides, if the adventure doesn't capture you, there's no point in playing.


Edit: one more Final Fantasy 6 story of how i met my best buddy in college. He was playing ping-pong and the topic of games came about. We each had the same favorite game. He went back to his room and returned with the Final Fantasy VI Bible, and I had a strategy guide that I also brought to college. Instant friends for life. There's something about this particular title that strikes people.

Yeah, I went all the way through it without excess levelling.  I've always hated the heck outta the concept of grinding, as it's boring. I havent the patience for boring, and usually I refuse to grind in any game.  The moment a game starts to throw that at me, is the moment I find something else to do.

Had the game as a kid (well, still have it now, I never get rid of anything, except the Wii, that is...) along with the other FF games that had been released to the US.  Never grabbed me as much as the other ones, or even some other games in the genre.   This being back when I actually cared about that genre... these days, well... it aint what it used to be, at least by my view, that's for sure.  I miss those older JRPGs. 

As FF goes though the one I'm most familiar with (as it requires the most time put into it to beat) is the very first game.  Downright mean, that one.  Lots of ways to just have near-instant total party death.  I enjoy it well enough, though it appears to be made entirely out of glitches at times.  Has the Marsh Cave in it though, anyone that's played that one should remember that hellhole.  And the STORES.  Ugh.  It took like a billion zillion years to buy a stack of potions.

.....remembering the potion bit has now caused me to forget whatever else I was going to say.


Offline x4000

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #18 on: January 05, 2015, 03:33:30 pm »
Cheers guys. :)

For some reason the forum decided to stop sending me emails yet again, sigh.

At any rate, I hold FF6 and CT in about equal regard, yes.  Overall I do find the FF6 story to be vastly superior, of course.  Yet... in a bit more of a pulp fiction sort of way, I connect highly with Chrono Trigger to me, too.  Both of those games represent something rather elemental to me, I suppose.  One is heavier and more serious, and the other is more whimsical and light and funny, and yet also with some doses of tragedy thrown in there.

In terms of difficulty, I don't particularly mind that being easy.  Frankly I'll typically do a quick grind right before Thamasa in FF6 so that then I am overleveled for the rest of the game and can power through more quickly.  I love getting all the extras and secrets and characters, but the leveling system does nothing much for me.  The battles in FF6 were all right, and in CT they were more fun but still just kind of something to pass the time.

With both games, I'm there for the story alone.  Well, and that includes art, music, atmosphere, etc.  Everything that goes into telling the story.  The battles just slow down the pacing and give me a slight be of something else to do.  On the battle systems, I'm not really into RPGs at all.  I'll play the ones that have a reasonable system if the story is good enough.

Though Super Mario RPG did a pretty darn good job of making it tactile.  I find myself unable to suffer all the way through any Paper Mario game, though, despite owning several.  I also found the combat mechanics in FFX and FFXII to be pretty solid and fun.  They felt like they had some kinetics to them, despite not having the literal timing elements that SMRPG did.
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Offline Cyborg

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #19 on: January 05, 2015, 10:50:03 pm »
Cheers guys. :)

For some reason the forum decided to stop sending me emails yet again, sigh.

At any rate, I hold FF6 and CT in about equal regard, yes.  Overall I do find the FF6 story to be vastly superior, of course.  Yet... in a bit more of a pulp fiction sort of way, I connect highly with Chrono Trigger to me, too.  Both of those games represent something rather elemental to me, I suppose.  One is heavier and more serious, and the other is more whimsical and light and funny, and yet also with some doses of tragedy thrown in there.

In terms of difficulty, I don't particularly mind that being easy.  Frankly I'll typically do a quick grind right before Thamasa in FF6 so that then I am overleveled for the rest of the game and can power through more quickly.  I love getting all the extras and secrets and characters, but the leveling system does nothing much for me.  The battles in FF6 were all right, and in CT they were more fun but still just kind of something to pass the time.

With both games, I'm there for the story alone.  Well, and that includes art, music, atmosphere, etc.  Everything that goes into telling the story.  The battles just slow down the pacing and give me a slight be of something else to do.  On the battle systems, I'm not really into RPGs at all.  I'll play the ones that have a reasonable system if the story is good enough.

Though Super Mario RPG did a pretty darn good job of making it tactile.  I find myself unable to suffer all the way through any Paper Mario game, though, despite owning several.  I also found the combat mechanics in FFX and FFXII to be pretty solid and fun.  They felt like they had some kinetics to them, despite not having the literal timing elements that SMRPG did.

Agreed on all points. The music was legendary. Amazing that a 16-bit system could generate such great music or maybe not considering the composer is some kind of genius. One wonders if his efforts are more hidden because he wrote for a videogame series. Oh well, he's not hurting too bad given all of these "distant worlds" performances.

Super Mario RPG was a peculiar, awesome title. At the time, it was clearly trying to take the magic from the traditional JRPG and package it up with an all-star Nintendo cast. And it came out really well. It's the most Nintendo character story you are going to get, even to this day.

I like Final Fantasy X, although I didn't find the combat that amazing. It was a step down in the series in the sense that, it felt extremely linear in all the ways that people criticize Final Fantasy XIII as being. The plotline becomes creepy and tidus never convinces us he's ready for prime time. And what about the sphere grid? It's linear, also. It just looks cool.

And let's never speak of Final Fantasy x-2. I was so excited to purchase this game and raced home. I opened the box and hurriedly placed it into my PlayStation with my aforementioned ff6 best buddy and his brother. We all were slack-jawed in our amazement at what a steaming pile of crap… Final Fantasy turned into some kind of girl band supergroup. We felt trolled. We kept waiting for it to get good. It never did, and it was easily beaten within the week, out of duty rather than joy.

Final fantasy 12 battle system is the best in the series, although it got the negative feedback for creating "simple programming" of battles. Well which way do you want it? Will we suffer through mopping up easy battles or do we just make it tactical so all you have to do is run through them? No complaining, given the hunts, I think it was just right, and there's plenty of challenge after the fact if you chase down those optional boss fights.
Kahuna strategy guide:
http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,13369.0.html

Suggestions, bugs? Don't be lazy, give back:
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/

Planetcracker. Believe it.

The stigma of hunger. http://wayw.re/Vi12BK

Offline Misery

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #20 on: January 06, 2015, 02:19:56 am »

Agreed on all points. The music was legendary. Amazing that a 16-bit system could generate such great music or maybe not considering the composer is some kind of genius. One wonders if his efforts are more hidden because he wrote for a videogame series. Oh well, he's not hurting too bad given all of these "distant worlds" performances.

Super Mario RPG was a peculiar, awesome title. At the time, it was clearly trying to take the magic from the traditional JRPG and package it up with an all-star Nintendo cast. And it came out really well. It's the most Nintendo character story you are going to get, even to this day.

I like Final Fantasy X, although I didn't find the combat that amazing. It was a step down in the series in the sense that, it felt extremely linear in all the ways that people criticize Final Fantasy XIII as being. The plotline becomes creepy and tidus never convinces us he's ready for prime time. And what about the sphere grid? It's linear, also. It just looks cool.

And let's never speak of Final Fantasy x-2. I was so excited to purchase this game and raced home. I opened the box and hurriedly placed it into my PlayStation with my aforementioned ff6 best buddy and his brother. We all were slack-jawed in our amazement at what a steaming pile of crap… Final Fantasy turned into some kind of girl band supergroup. We felt trolled. We kept waiting for it to get good. It never did, and it was easily beaten within the week, out of duty rather than joy.

Final fantasy 12 battle system is the best in the series, although it got the negative feedback for creating "simple programming" of battles. Well which way do you want it? Will we suffer through mopping up easy battles or do we just make it tactical so all you have to do is run through them? No complaining, given the hunts, I think it was just right, and there's plenty of challenge after the fact if you chase down those optional boss fights.

Ooh yes, 12's combat was fun, I liked that.   The stupid "simple programming" bit, it always bugged me when people whined about it.  It's like, what the heck else would you want?  Usually AI in that type of combat is dumber than a sack of hammers.  In that game, you get to tell it directly what it is and isnt allowed to do.

If more "action RPGs" with AI party members did that, well, that type of game would suck alot less, that's for sure.

Offline x4000

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #21 on: January 06, 2015, 08:07:47 am »
Agreed on FFXII... and FFX-2.  Holy smokes that was... wow.  "Feeling trolled" is a really good way to put it.  I never thought of it that way before, but that's exactly how I felt.
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Offline ScrObot

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #22 on: January 08, 2015, 01:38:25 am »
Speaking of FF6, there's a good OCRemix album (5 discs worth!) focused on it: http://ff6.ocremix.org/

Don't get me started on video game covers and arrangements. ;)

Offline Cyborg

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #23 on: January 08, 2015, 08:35:03 am »
Speaking of FF6, there's a good OCRemix album (5 discs worth!) focused on it: http://ff6.ocremix.org/

Don't get me started on video game covers and arrangements. ;)


Yeah, it came out well.
Kahuna strategy guide:
http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,13369.0.html

Suggestions, bugs? Don't be lazy, give back:
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/

Planetcracker. Believe it.

The stigma of hunger. http://wayw.re/Vi12BK

Offline x4000

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #24 on: January 08, 2015, 08:56:16 am »
Niiice!

I haven't been to ocremix in ages, they seem to have stepped up their game.  I used to be really into vgmix.com, too -- creating, not producing, mind you.  And way back in the day, in the 90s sometime or other, there was a giant midi site that did arrangements and remixes and was very exciting at the time.  Things have come a long way!
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline ScrObot

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Re: Bionic Dues is already my favorite game
« Reply #25 on: January 09, 2015, 01:12:01 pm »
Obligatory mention of MAGFest 13 on Jan 23-26th in Washington DC. Tons of VGM bands, chiptunes, 24/7 gaming (freeplay arcade, console, board, card, you name it), a ton of other stuff... it's insane and awesome. http://magfest.org/

(Followed by the similar but smaller Rockage 4 on February 6-8th in San Jose, CA.)

 

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