Abelardo

Good topic, growing up loving JRPGs and thinking of them as the true defining console RPG experience, my opinion has shifted over the years.

The origins of console RPGs are obviously traced back to pen and paper RPGs, some elements you'd expect from pen and paper RPGs are:

• Character creation (choice of name, race/class).
• Character growth (level up, improve character traits).
• Freedom to interact with the world that surrounds you (to some degree).
• The element of randomness (the throw of the dice).

Western RPGs actually incorporate a lot of these if not all, it's Japanese RPGs the ones that are missing some of these elements but in return we get (generally) a more pleasant experience, omitting character creation they gave us nice storylines with predefined characters and maybe the freedom is limited so the story advances nicely.

On the debate, Zelda is most definitely not an RPG, sure you're given freedom in a big world but it's missing other key characteristics, it's an adventure game for sure, but no RPG.

Heading straight to failure, getting a Switch this year changed priorities and actually finished some games there, but recently picked up The Witcher 3 so that's pretty much game over for my goals this year, I might be able to finish Bravely Default and maybe try to finish Mega Man 5, I lost interest in Xenogears on the 2nd disc but might pick it up just to get it done.

1 hour ago, Estil said:

How are the chicks in this game (main party ones)?  Are any of them cute?

 

Well, it's a JRPG 

Finished it last year on a New 3DS and became one of my favorite RPGs of all time, great story, huge areas to explore, seemingly endless side quests to keep you entertained if you choose to, easy to recommend to anyone that's into RPGs and doesn't mind playing for 100+ hours but it's not for everyone, in particular I had a lot of difficulty with the combat, at around hour 15 I hadn't fully grasped the combat mechanics so I googled some video tutorials (should've done it sooner), after that it was smooth sailing. I think it took me 160 hours but did so many side quests and I was overleveled for the final battle.

On 8/24/2021 at 7:08 PM, FireHazard51 said:

I can see how you found your way to Covets.  If I had to nail it down for me it was American Football and also Cowboy Bebop OST.  Which has a very jazzy bebop type of the songs I REALLY love from that OST.  Let me share what I've found in case you might enjoy it as well.  But before that there are some AMAZING flow charts that people have put together to help others find that right kind of math rock that tickles your fancy.  I actually started off as a late 90's emo fan (Braid, American Football, Sunny Day Real Estate, Promise Ring, etc.) and then was searched for the jazzy/mathy music stuff but couldn't find it and damnit if labeling music is hard to describe for me which is probably the issue.

 

Some of my personal recommendations that I enjoy that are "math rock"

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TTNG (This Town Needs Guns) is really big in the "math rock" type of music.  

Explosions in the Sky, they stuff is in a lot of movie sound tracks.  Puts a chill down my spine with all the feels I get from listening to them.

American Football, this band did ONE album and broke up for decades.  This album influenced a ton of other "math rock" bands.  Definitely emo feels from them.

Chinese Football, the first band that made me think American Football left a mark on more than just me.

Tricot, the first "math rock" band that opened the world to me based on recommend bands on Spotify and comments in the YouTube section.  They got more of the punk/jazzy mix that I found in the past from Japan that I love.

Elephant Gym, amazing jazz funk that you'll probably dig.  The bassist is fucking amazing!!

Toe, I don't know how to describe it.... I just love it

Delta Sleep, my latest favorite band station to play on Spotify

Clever Girl, jazzy sounding "math rock"

CHON, everyone always mentions them as one of the best "math rock" bands around and I can't fault people for saying that

Uchu Conbini, defunct Japanese band that is crazy.  Apparently there are a lot of great "math rock" bands in Japan.

Tororro, generally more upbeat/fast pace type of "math rock"

 

 

 

I'm somewhat casual on math rock as I like some of the adjacent stuff (like post-rock), nice video about math rock.

Have you heard black midi? Maybe on the more extreme end of the spectrum, but this year they knocked it out of the park:

A few days ago I put down the Switch for now and began playing Bravely Default, I'm about 6 hours in and my initial fears that the game was going to be a cringefest of RPG clichés disappeared after an hour or two, still a little juvenile for my taste but it's alright, nice game so far.

Updated my original post, so I set Xenogears aside for a while now (not enjoying disc 2 to be honest), got a Switch earlier this year so that has kept me busy.

Anyways set the Switch aside for a while and to jump back to my backlog so I picked up Phantasy Star 4, playing an old school RPG was a welcome change, the story decent and even good at times, cutscenes were cool, reminded me of the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-CD style, most characters are well developed, my complains probably due to technical limitations since I can't help but compare this game to the excellent SNES RPGs released back then, things like lack of overworld map, limited item space, and the lack of descriptions for the many techniques, skills and items was annoying, even the cost in techniques is not shown in the menu (at least they show it in battle), overall it just doesn't compare favorably to the SNES cream of the crop RPGs, it feels kind of closer to Breath of Fire and quite far from Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6, my rating 7/10.

The Legend of Zelda, played it for months, maybe a year or more, I had a friend who was playing as well and we shared secrets, progress, etc. That kept me playing long enough to beat it.

Hold on to it, this one is a grail, anybody going for a CIB GBC is missing this one, maybe about 10 have shown up?

Seen The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover but it was about 20 years ago so honestly I don't remember much, also watched El Topo around that time and really liked it, to be fair all Jodorowsky films are good, I'd say Santa Sangre is my favorite.

One if my favorite films of all time is 24 Hour Party People, love the story, the music, the characters, the humor, it's really great but I don't think many people have seen it.

Had to delete Lil Xan and Blood on the Dance Floor from my YT watch history, didn't wanted to vote for either but settled for the kid high on sleeping pills.

1111 for me, first one was a bit tough but had to go with Plush, I like earlier REM better.

I'm rooting for Tears for Fears from now on 

2211 I only hesitated a bit on the 4th matchup, my non-metalhead vote goes to Master of Puppets, it's a banger and more interesting/challenging than the Nightwish song (it's nice by the way, made me think it was almost too nice for a metal song).

LucasArts had a hint line that charged per minute, the motivation to make the puzzles really difficult to figure out was there. I remember reading a review where they mentioned it was good thing they included the in game hint system as a substitute for the old hint line.

Just found about this website, seems good:

https://www.music-map.com/

An easy way to find new music is pick an album or artist you really like and on Spotify or YouTube Music use the radio feature, it will come up with a playlist of similar music, it's a little hit or miss but just skip and take note of the stuff that sounds interesting so you can check that band's album or their biggest singles, you should be able to find at least a few songs to add to your playlist.

Another way is to go through playlists by genere, the more niche the genere the better, you got to be very patient but eventually you'll find something you really like.

7 minutes ago, Sumez said:

Here's my current ranking of Bowie's albums. I first made it in 2016, but over the past years they have changed places a bit. Ziggy has climbed a lot, and Heroes has dropped a bit, and Honky Dory has replaced Scary Monsters at the top spot.

1. Hunky Dory
2. Scary Monsters
3. David Bowie (Space Oddity)
4. Ziggy Stardust
5. Low
6. Lodger
7. Outside
8. The Next Day
9. Station to Station
10. Heroes
11. Blackstar
12. Reality
13. Heathen
14. Earthling
15. Young Americans
16. Diamond Dogs
17. The Buddha of Suburbia
18. Aladdin Sane
19. Black Tie White Noise
20. David Bowie (1967)
21. The Man Who Sold The World
22. Let's Dance
23. Hours
24. Never Let Me Down
25. PinUps
26. Tonight

(old picture, I'm only lacking a couple of albums now )

Dude Hunky Dory is one of my favorite albums of all time, top 3 I'd say along with Siamese Dream from Smashing Pumpkins and Psychocandy from The Jesus and Mary Chain. I never really took a deep dive into Bowie but some albums once they clicked they were pure bliss, especially Hunky Dory. It seems that Bowie never took a false step thought his career, whatever he was up to he was at least (very) competent, I rated him 10/10 out of the joy of thoughly enjoying Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust, everything else is just icing the cake.

Are we still on topic?

Mine would be: NES>Gameboy>SNES>PS>PSP>Wii>DS>PS3>3DS>Switch

Picked the PlayStation over the N64 because it had SquareSoft on board and of course Final Fantasy VII, I enjoyed a lot of RPGs late in the SNES lifespan so going for the PS was the right choice.

I got the PSP because of the emulators and that it played original Playstation games, the Wii was a gift from my wife (then girlfriend). Sometime later I started collecting videogames and picked up a bunch of consoles, listed only the ones I actuality played a considerable amount of time.

14 minutes ago, SilverspoonGaming said:

I just listened to a couple of their songs.  They sound much more like OMD and Depeche Mode than the Clash or Ramones to me.

Try the first record, their best regarded and has no synth. Some punk bands transitioned into post-punk and incorporated synths so yeah some of the later stuff sounds a bit like synthpop.

This is their most well known song, but the whole LP is fantastic:

Wire is an awesome first wave punk band that always seems to be overshadowed by more well known bands like The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Ramones, etc. Easily top 5 in my book.

Maybe not top 5 but a lot of modern bands are criminally underrated.

Terrible news, yesterday Near (previously known as byuu) has died by suicide as a result of intense cyberbullying.

Rest in peace Near, such a shame, nobody deserves this sort of treatment, fuck those cowards at Kiwi Farms, hopefully the perpetrators are brought to justice.

https://kotaku.com/the-brilliant-snes-emulator-creator-known-as-near-has-d-1847182851

No idea at all, lived all my life in the same city in northeast Mexico, took English class as second language from kindergarten up to and including 9th grade (TOEFL was high enough at that point so I had to take a 3rd language from 10-12).

Most likely the the actual accent I must've picked it up watching cartoons and tv shows on cable television, I did read quite a bit in English from video games, books and music, and later the internet, not much chance to actually speak it until I started working for foreign companies about 12-13 years ago.

Once a university English professor from the US kind of made a comment on my accent but all he said was basically that he couldn't quite pinpoint it, so still pretty clueless about it.

As far as my Spanish accent it's pretty much typical northern Mexico accent, pretty punchy, strong pronunciation, southerners often think we're angry lol.