GBA GRAVY

[dusematic]

Perhaps some of you at this point have a less than savory mental image of me as an uncouth young man who can't shut up about Nintendo shit.  I'd like to engage (not N-Gage! lolol) you all in a dialogue about the latter.  Allow me to elaborate.


I've been wiling out with the DS Lite pretty much every day now, and it occurred to me that this GBA slot on the bottom wasn't getting its due.  So while I was at the mall today I picked up four GBA titles:  Mario&Luigi Superstar Saga, Fire Emblem Sacred Stones, Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, and Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance. 

So far, I've only played 15 minutes of Harmony of Dissonance, and let me tell you, it is sweet.  At first, I was like "what the fuck, this is exactlky the same as the NES version only there is a blue blur when my character moves."  But the game is far deeper than I first magined.  There is still the whip, but there are multiple armor slots to upgrade, lots of spells that change effects based on what sub weapon you're wielding, and these cool relics.  The relics have different effects, the only one I have right now lets you see numerically how many hit points you damage a monster for.   You can also turn off the effects of relics.  There is a ton of other amenities you'd expect from a AAA game, like maps and whatnot.  Trust me, its a good pickup if you have aa GBA.  Thanks for listening.

[Strazos]

I currently have the Castlevania Doublepak from Gamefly, which has both Dissonance and Sorrow on it. I've pretty much only played Dissonance so far...and it's great for a GBA platformer. I haven't played a Castlevania game since Belmont's Quest (UGH), and I was frustrated as a child with the original, so this is a nice change for me. I opened up Dissonance, just to check it out, and the game mechanics seem to be different enough to make that an awesome game in its own right.

I also have Tales of Phantasia, and it's fun...pretty generic story, but the actual Dialogue saves it - it's legitimately funny in places, and I enjoy the battle mechanics.

Also, while I haven't touched it in a week or so, Pokemon Emerald seems good as well, but the damn random encounters can become downright tiring when you have a proper variety of Pokemon to pretty much squash anything you could possibly encounter.

I really think the DS (and Lite) are great examples of versatility - all those GBA games still work, as well as the new DS games. This same philosophy is why I will eventually be getting a Wii...I missed a lot of cool GC games because I didn't own the console, and lets not even get started on the back library available for download.

Mod Note: Please add Castlevania and Wii to the dictionary.

[dusematic]

What is Tales of Phantasia?  A GBA RPG?  Is it comparable to an FF? 

Also...I've never played a Pokemon game...is it something I should look into?  Should I just wait for a Pokemon game on the DS?

[dusematic]

Fuck!  My Castlevania game just crashed...has this ever happened to anyone before?  Is it the backcompat sketchy?  Maybe my cart is fucked.  Damn.

[Trippy]

Mod Note: Please add Castlevania and Wii to the dictionary.

Use the now stickied "Expand our dictionary" topic to suggest words for the dictionary. I don't read every post.

[Strazos]

Fuck!  My Castlevania game just crashed...has this ever happened to anyone before?  Is it the backcompat sketchy?  Maybe my cart is fucked.  Damn.

There's not really any BC involved, such as emulation - it has fully-fleshed dual functionality. It's probably either bad luck, or your cart...which may be one in the same.

[dusematic]

True.  I bought the other games new but this one was used, figures.  It hasn't happened again, maybe because I used the blow trick?  Blowing probably does more harm than good but I like it.

[NiX]

Blowing probably does more harm than good but I like it.

Your forum title is well deserved.

[dusematic]

Zing.

[Rasix]

What is Tales of Phantasia?  A GBA RPG?  Is it comparable to an FF? 

Also...I've never played a Pokemon game...is it something I should look into?  Should I just wait for a Pokemon game on the DS?

This might be a personal choice thing, but I think Tales of Phantasia is one of the worst games I've ever played. I can't really think of any RPGs offhand that I'd consider worse since I try to steer clear of shit. This is of course, me assuming it's a direct port of the SNES game of the same name.  That battle system, while interesting, IMO sucked.

I've enjoyed the one Pokemon game I've played. I think it was the "Blue" one back when I had my Gameboy color.  Never beat it though, too much grinding up of individual pokemon eventually got on my nerves.

[Fabricated]

Tales of Phantasia is pretty comparable to Final Fantasy titles in the general feel of the game ignoring the combat system, which is more action based.

It's pretty fun, but leveling your special moves is boring and grindy.

The GBA Castlevania series are amazing. Harmony is...eh, not my favorite, but alright none the less. Aria of Sorrow is easily the best GBA game ever. Dawn of Sorrow, the DS continuation of Aria of Sorrow is also extremely good.

[Strazos]

I've played a lot of RPGs there are far worse than Tales of Phantasia...Lunar Dragon Song was pretty disgusting....I haven't really played many BAD RPGs since the heyday of SNES/Genesis.

Can I include DX2 as being very very bad?

[schild]

DX2 isn't very very bad compared to Tales of Phantasia and Lunar Dragon Song. In fact, it was only very very bad when compared to possibly one of the best FPS/RPG hybrids ever, DX.

[dusematic]

Dungeon Siege 2 is the worst RPG I've played in recent memory.  I guess I'll probably get flamed for that, but it wasn't even pretty like DS1 was when it came out.  It just got everything wrong in a hack and slash.  Chris Taylor is still talked of as a game god because he made TA in 1997.  Please.

[Strazos]

At least Phantasia has like...decent dialogue, and battle mechanics that take at least Some thought.

In Lunar Dragon Song, I eventually just gave up, and just held down R to hurry up through combat - I hardly had to actually Look at the game. The autoattack was more mind-numbingly painful than something like Lineage 2.

[dusematic]

I guess I won't be getting Tales of Phantasia.  Or Lunar Dragon Song.  There's all this talk abotu sweet RPG's for the DS.  I don't really see much.

[schild]

There's never been talk about sweet RPGs for the DS. They all suck ass. The PSP doesn't even have a good RPG yet.

I'll be posting about the first real RPG for either system tomorrow night after I get a few hours into Blade Dancer.

[Jain Zar]

Right now Phantasia is a poor place holder till Super Robot Wars OG comes out.
Its not a very impressive game, but I have outgrown most traditional Japanese console RPGs.
Games like Fallout 2 spoiled me and repetative grinding for totally uncontrollable animu plots just don't cut it anymore.
I still like the tactics genre, but I like turn based wargames, and this genre basically adds a plot and advancement to my wargaming.

[dusematic]

I'd like a moment of silence.  I was halfway through Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, when the game completely frailed and erased my saved game file on me.  I guess that's why God created emulators.

[Strazos]

Get a cart that isn't broken, nub.

[SurfD]

Doesent Golden Sun count as a goor RPG?   I seem to recal likeing it quite a bit.

[Kail]

Doesent Golden Sun count as a goor RPG?   I seem to recal likeing it quite a bit.

Maybe (cough), but that's for the GBA, not the DS.  There are a bunch of RPGs for the GBA; Mario and Luigi, or Megaman.exe, or Pokemon, for example, plus any one of the zillion SNES remakes (Breath of Fire, Phantasy Star, Final Fantasy).  Meanwhile DS owners can probably look forward to awesome conversions of EVERY N64 RPG ever made!!!!

[Strazos]

Was there such a thing, back in the day?