Banjooie wrote:
It's been too long since last real FF.
Sorry, this ain't an FF either. The battle system is nearly realtime, your party members are AI controlled for the most part, and they've basically tried to take FFXI offline.
Actually, if it's done right, I might not mind this. Not that I've played FFXI, but I have played EQ and WoW, and with WoW especially, I like the real-time battle system and would have enjoyed it as a single-player RPG. One of the games I mentioned, Minions of Mirth, is essentially a "
single-player MMORPG"
, although it can be played multiplayer (on public or private servers, too). In any case, FFXII just seems to be doing something different, and since I've always liked computer RPGs better than console ones...well, I guess I don't mind them doing something new that points in that direction.
cheese obsessive wrote:
How is the Elder Scroll series? I have been debating buying Morrowind for a while, but I need a good recommendation before I buy it...I know it is a huge, open-ended RPG, and it won game of the year, but I am wondering what makes it so good? Does a game that you can't really beat ever get boring? I love a good 50+ hour RPG...O_o
The Elder Scrolls games are one of the better examples of the differences between computer and console RPGs. All of the Elder Scrolls games have been humongous games, although amusingly enough, they have decreased in scope as the sequels came out. The first one spanned an entire continent, and you could walk the whole thing on foot...and it really would take a *long* time. But there was also a fast-travel system that still took days of in-game time, but you could choose from the hundreds of cities, towns, and villages to travel to, as well as dungeons if you had a map to them. You could also just randomly explore and maybe find some dungeons that no one knew about...
The problem with such a huge game is that it is nearly impossible to personalize anything. In the case of Arena (the first Elder Scrolls game) a few cities and 8 or 16 major dungeons were personally built, the others were pretty much randomized. There wasn't much conversation with people either. The sequel, Daggerfall, was much smaller in scope--only one province on the continent--but still had nearly the same number of cities because the cameral pulled in tighter, as it were. They did a much better job on the randomization, and the cities, and there was just so much to do. It was very much like the "
sandbox"
style of play the GTA games have, and perhaps Fable, although not the same kind of gameplay, necessarily.
And then we come to the third game, Morrowind. This was smaller in scope even more--it was only a large island within one of the provinces, and there weren't that many cities or villages at all--but it was
much more personalized. Every city/village was hand-crafted, as well as the entire landscape, and every single dungeon. It definitely felt more like a real world...even if it was a smaller area. The biggest problem was that the people didn't have schedules like they did in the first two games...when night came, everyone would still be standing where they were at noon. The next one, Oblivion, will supposedly bring back NPC schedules.
Anyway, most people like Morrowind because it really is a sandbox. The main storyline could take you, perhaps, 20-30 hours if you're a seasoned player. But all the side quests could take you a much,
much longer time. Similar to the previous games, there are several guilds that will give you quests--unlike the previous games, these aren't randomized. There are 5 guilds: Fighter's, Mage's, Rogue's, The Dark Brotherhood (assassins), and The Imperial Legion (the police force, basically). You can join all of those guilds and do all their quests as long as your stats meet their requirements (i.e. you can't join the Mage's Guild without the ability to cast spells with some confidence), but since with enough practice anyone can learn any skill, it's possible. Then there are 3 merchant houses, whose names I don't fully recall, but you can only join one in a game. There are various quests from various people not associated with the guilds or houses, and then there is the main quest I mentioned earlier. Even with all that, there are dozens of dungeons that aren't accessed through any specific quest, and are merely there to be found by the explorer. Like Daggerfall, in Morrowind it is possible to be turned into a vampire and (in an expansion) a werewolf. Unlike Daggerfall, there is a quest to be cured of it in Morrowind. And then of course there are the hundreds of mods out there for Morrowind, which are only available on the PC version, not XBox. I definitely plan to use some of them on my next playthrough, whenever that will be.
Now, there are many people who simply don't like Morrowind, whether because of the gameplay or the graphics (it's a very dismal-looking island, ecology-wise). I'd definitely say someone who appreciated the Ultima series of games would be interested by Morrowind. It's very different from almost any console RPG out there except, perhaps, Fable, but computer RPG players will be more at home. I think it's definitely one of the better games ever, and I'm looking forward to the sequel...assuming my computer can run it.
Game on,
____________________________
"
He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an
unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder."
-- Tad Williams
[Last edited by Oneiromancer at 11-20-2005 09:31 PM]
and recently Doom3 multiplayer maps. Splash Damage people came directly from multiplayer gaming commmunity. They know how stuff works. On technical side there's John Carmack, who has been caught saying that optimising code is fun. ID's games may be simplistic at times (I don't have a problem with that), but their technical excellence can't be denied.
Just imagine that!!!! How freaking long would that game be? That would have to be absolutely huge. I'm thinking like a year of solid game time. MUAHAHA!!!
) and Makai Kingdom (very fun).
YAY!! I never knew that! Thank you! 
