Posted November 06, 2013
Technically, it was Dragon Quest that invented the genre. But even ignoring that, aside from DQ, there really wasn't a JRPG genre prior to FF. So I'm not sure why you say it invented the "modern" JRPG, since the first FF is about as old-school as JRPGs get.
That aside, I do agree with your complaints regarding FF 2. It's not terrible (at least in its modern incarnations such as the Origins/Dawn of Souls remake) and it introduced a lot of elements that would become staples of the series, but the awkward leveling system pretty much makes it the weakest of the pre-VII games.
toxicTom: Half-Life 2
Not only introduced this the Über-DRM Steam, I really got very disappointed with the game itself. It has a great atmosphere, cool and well used physics (for its time) and overall good art direction. But while Half-Life often had multiple ways to solve a situation (i.e. the mined train tracks) and had (for its time) a real clever AI that worked in teams, HL2's leveldesign was essentially a long shooting gallery tunnel and the AI was as sophisticated as in Doom, not even dodging thrown grenades. All seemlingy clever actions of the combine soldiers are actually scripted and play out the same no matter what the player does. Even though I enjoyed Half-Life 2, I can't help but feel that it was primarily designed as a tech demo rather than a game. It's like it was more important to show off what the Source engine could do than it was to make a game that was great on its own.
I definitely do think it was overall inferior compared to the original.
Elmofongo: Gothic: The controls and even though I was told that the controls will take some time to get used to, well I went on and bought and actually saw what the controls were and they were horrible it counters all the things that 3D games for PC were building up to, these controls are backwards thinking, no no scratch that, they are even worse than 3D DOS games like Daggerfall default. I have to agree with people who said that the controls take time to get used to. They seem weird at first (and certain parts of the interface are indeed outdated), but once you get used to them, they're not that bad. In fact, it's actually kind of neat how melee combat has a certain rhythm and mastery to it, unlike most other games, where it pretty much consists of clicking until the bad thing dies.
That said, the hit detection is awful. And while the melee combat has some merits, it's very prone to abuse. The only reason why you aren't completely invincible if you master a certain pattern of melee weapon swings is the aforementioned hit detection.
And I still think you should give the SMT series a shot. You might be pleasantly surprised.
That aside, I do agree with your complaints regarding FF 2. It's not terrible (at least in its modern incarnations such as the Origins/Dawn of Souls remake) and it introduced a lot of elements that would become staples of the series, but the awkward leveling system pretty much makes it the weakest of the pre-VII games.
Not only introduced this the Über-DRM Steam, I really got very disappointed with the game itself. It has a great atmosphere, cool and well used physics (for its time) and overall good art direction. But while Half-Life often had multiple ways to solve a situation (i.e. the mined train tracks) and had (for its time) a real clever AI that worked in teams, HL2's leveldesign was essentially a long shooting gallery tunnel and the AI was as sophisticated as in Doom, not even dodging thrown grenades. All seemlingy clever actions of the combine soldiers are actually scripted and play out the same no matter what the player does.
I definitely do think it was overall inferior compared to the original.
That said, the hit detection is awful. And while the melee combat has some merits, it's very prone to abuse. The only reason why you aren't completely invincible if you master a certain pattern of melee weapon swings is the aforementioned hit detection.
And I still think you should give the SMT series a shot. You might be pleasantly surprised.
