Personally i loved dragon age.
I felt that that character development and romances were far deeper than mass effect though both of them are just as good IMO.
Mass effect 2 is a different story considering the game is going to be awesome and an even bigger game than even GTA san andreas(2 DVD's for xbox and pc).
Originally posted by truejediOkay Oblivion and Fallout 3 are titles from Bethesda, they are similar. They're the same format. Personally for me it goes
How does Fallout 3 compare to these games? Fallout 3, in my opinion, was a great game, but too competitive, and lacked death. Mass Effect is similar i've heard? is that correct? (or maybe it was oblivion was similar?)
Try pumping your difficulty up on Fallout 3. That makes it challenging, I sped through Oblivion on 'normal' in hours. On 'Expert' or hardest difficulty, took me days.
I think for the most part that Bioware fans quite simply haven't been exposed to a high quality of storyline driven games to rate them as highly as they do, given that storyline is the primary selling point of these games, and comparatively speaking they're really not that great at telling one. I'm really struggling to see the appeal behind them. But then again I've played games like Xenogears and Chrono trigger and Suikoden II and perhaps my standards for a great storyline driven game are a little bit higher.
Or perhaps people simply have different tastes?
But seriously, what so great about Xenogears? From what I've seen of cutscenes it seems like overly-contrived tripe with terrible voiceacting and lip-syncing. And I mean, c'mon. A main character with a split-personality called Id? That shits just awful. And giant mechs are sooooo lame. But thats just my opinion. Don't know anything about the other two.
Originally posted by Nephthys
But seriously, what so great about Xenogears?
Simply put, Xenogears is one of seven games (the others being Chrono Trigger, Radical Dreamers, Chrono Cross, and the Xenosaga trilogy) that tells a story quite simply beyond comparison with that of any other, in any storytelling medium and of any genre.
For one, it’s probably the deepest story I’ve ever come across, exploring an unimaginable number of storytelling themes and styles, from ethics, to religion, to philosophy, to history, to politics, to war, to God, to the nature of the universe and many others. There’s a great sense of tragedy, friendship, betrayal, love (telling hands down the best love story I‘ve ever come across); there are scenes that will shock and genuinely terrify you; there are scenes that will keep you excited; there are scenes that will keep you intrigued; the story’s filled with appropriately place humour (which while good I can admit I could have done without). There’s a heavy use of symbolism. Time and effort is invested into the role and backstory of each character (the party members, primary supporting characters, and antagonists) that you genuinely find yourself becoming emotionally attached to every single one of them. The story is filled with a number of memorable villains, from Grahf, to Miang, to Krellian, to Id; villains that will genuinely terrify you at parts of the storyline and villains that hold a significant amount of presence throughout the storyline. As far as how much depth there is to the storyline, it has something for everyone and generally goes overboard with how much content it puts into the game; the main, linear storyline alone is easily over 30 hours long, and this is filled with immediate dialogue that’s presented to the player at a rate far faster than it would be in a movie or TV show for example, with far more immediate visuals than a book, and if you take the time out to interact with the NPCs that occupy the different towns and villages there’s about an extra 10+ hours of content. Analysing aspects of the story alone can take hours. There’s quite simply so much content, that’s all focused on one storyline, that you find yourself becoming emotionally attached to the characters to a greater extent than you can find in pretty much any other storyline.
Secondly, it is without a doubt the most complex story I’ve ever come across, and by no small margin. It’s often compared to Neon Genesis Evangelion in this regard but the truth is that Neon Genesis Evangelion is nothing compared to this. The story leaves you in a constant sense of mystery and suspense, with a number of events and characters and different plot points that at first seem completely unrelated (as an example the very opening scene doesn‘t appear to have any relation to the game‘s storyline for the vast majority of the game) that come together and connect later on in a manner that makes perfect sense, and that you’ll find was even hinted at earlier in a game whilst also being virtually impossible to predict. Not only does this pave the way for plot revelations unsurpassed in quality but it keeps you in constant awe of what’s truly taking place in the storyline. Ultimately, by the story’s end, everything connects together and any questions that tied directly to the plot and characters are all answered. That being said, one of the greatest tragedies of this game is that it was originally intended to be the fifth part of a six part saga. So as far as a lot of the setting that had been in the process of being fleshed out goes, there are many aspects of Xenogears’s storyline that is largely unfinished. With the developers no longer part of Square [Enix] who own the rights to the game, there probably won’t ever be a sequel. Which wouldn’t be as big a deal if it wasn’t intended to have been an expanded project.
And largely one of my favorite aspects of the game is its music. As far as how music is able to draw out your emotions and complement the mood and atmosphere of the scene, Xenogears’s is completely without comparison. Truthfully speaking, the only music that comes close is that of the Chrono series (delivered by both Nobuo Uematsu and Xenogears’s own composer, Yasunori Mitsuda); aside from that nothing else comes close. And it supplements and enhances an already incredible storyline to ridiculous heights.
Really, I could go on about how amazing this game is for hours, and it’s because of games like these that I largely feel quite strongly about how overwhelming unimpressive games like Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic actually are.
I won’t go into the specifics but the nature of Fei and Id is far more complex then you may have read and the Gears (the mechs) are much more than a storyline gimmick and tie in with the mythology and history of the setting from the very get go. The mythology is largely built around the existence of the gears, and I can guarantee you that if you played the game you’d see them in a completely different light.
Another thing I’ll say about Japanese video games as well in general is that the localisation isn’t always perfect so there usually are issues with voice acting and translations and such and this is no exception with Xenogears. That being said, comparatively speaking, the voice acting is actually pretty good and as long as you learn to look past the somewhat simplistic writing technique behind the English translations there’s a lot of charm and brilliance behind the dialogue.
Really, there's not enough I can say about this game. Aside from a few minor issues it's virtually the perfect storyline.
Edit: Well that as wierd. Dunno what happened there but I lost most of the post. Heres the actual one.
Ok, I've read it now and I'll admit that it seems intriging ( wtf spellcheck?), though you make it seem like like the game tries to juggle too much. One youtuber said that it was more like a 12-hour movie than a game. So I ask, hows the gameplay? Becuase naturally the gameplay is one of the three most important aspects of a game, the others being story and characters. Does it suffer for this?
Also, hows the protagonist? Becuase he looks like kind of a wang.
But it seems like this may be one of the things I ask Father Christmas for this year.
Edit: Also, Chrono Trigger looks pretty shit. And I hate silent protagonists and Chrono looks too much like a generic shounin (can't remember if thats the right one) main character with his annoying spiky hair.
Funnily enough the gameplay also has a lot going for it. There are two different battle systems available to you, that both largely rely on strategy in their execution (you can usually switch between the two at your leisure, though sometimes the storyline will dictate which one you use), the minigames are great and some of the best I've ever come across in an RPG, and while it'll probably sound pretty simplistic the addition of a jump mechanic adds a whole new dimension to the exploratory and travel elements of the gameplay.
Really, as far as turn based RPGs go some of the best gameplay I've come across.
However, that being said, while the gameplay is in my opinion great, the balance between gameplay and storyline might not be to everyone's liking (personally I was perfectly fine with it but then again I largely played Xenogears for the storyline). For as much of it as there is, it really is perfectly enjoyable, but the emphasis is clearly on the storyline, and it may feel like more of a movie or a novel than a game.
BTW, I'd probably recommend getting a PS1 emulator if you're really planning on playing it as even used copies can sell in the $hundreds and you'll need something that can play American PS1 games as it was never released in PAL regions and PS1 games aren't region free.