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Post by KOI KOI on Sept 23, 2014 14:06:03 GMT -8
I really enjoy Archeage, but it's sandbox features are very limited to non-subscribers. The game is F2P but has a subscription model. Labor points take a very long time to regenerate. And you have to have labor points to do anything outside of kill things, really. Subscribers get twice the amount as well as regenerate them offline. Where as a regular player only gets about 5 per minute and don't regenerate them offline. I haven't been very impressed by the story line. The combat feels pretty solid, though. It's nothing brand new, but it introduces combos and I don't mind point and click. You can run around while you do things, anyways. Labor points do take a while for F2P players but you can definitely work around that. You can drink a labor pot for 1k labor every 12 hours per character. Many people make a few alts just for the sole purpose of drinking labor pots. For the most part, you're better off looking to be a merc for trade runs or going out to kill people on the ocean as a F2P. Storyline is bleh. Never was an advertising point and probably never will be. The faction drama between guilds makes up for it, at least for me. Currently, you can easily get a month of subscription just from leveling up. I play on Kyrios and APEX runs for roughly 30g. If you save up your labor/coin purses and gold while questing until 50 (use your labor if you cap out though) you should easily have enough to buy 2 APEX which is enough for a month of subscription.
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Post by LIBERTINES on Sept 30, 2014 8:53:30 GMT -8
Going back to the vein of RPGs and etcetera, I get the feeling that she's probably into JRPGs and their beautiful cutscenes and concept art. In that trend, I would suggest Jade Empire by Bioware because it stands out as being one of my favourite games. It hits all the notes, drawing from Chinese imagery and myth while retaining the standard of story that Bioware puts out. It also allows for a range of sexualities and exploration.
The Persona games are an obvious rec, and are a modern take on JRPGs that makes them more personal. She's probably played them already, though, but P3P and P4G are the best IMO.
PS2-era JRPGs were the best, so I deeply and wholeheartedly recommend Odin Sphere. The game is fully 2D, and it is beautiful. I'm terrible at it, but the story unfolds across many different characters, each with their own version of events about this one war. It lends itself to a multifaceted story which is also incredibly artful.
Story is the obvious short end of every MMO. The only MMO I can think of that actually uses story in a meaningful way is Guild Wars 2, which is also my favourite MMO, fancy that. Their new 'living stories' feature is an interesting development in storytelling.
Transistor is a great indie game with incredible art, fun combat, and an evocative, if vague, story. Quite the work of art, and just the right length to boot at about 5-7 hours. Journey was celebrated for its marriage of story and mechanics when it was released.
The Final Fantasy Tactics games are among my favourites, nostalgia-wise. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is conisdered the best in the series. But honestly, the best place to find story these days is to look into the indie sector. If your friend doesn't like Bioware or The Witcher, there aren't a lot of AAA RPGs left that retain those cinematic values. Square Enix takes half a decade to put out anything and misses the mark half the time. Making games like that is just impossible to sustain. That's why Tales of X can put out a new game every year, but their graphic and story quality is always middling- the main draw is combat. Once upon a time you could get away with having six polygons per character, and you could pay someone peanuts to do it. Modern game design is a hulking beast, and not even EA can afford to go 3-5 years without a release, paying a studio of over 100 people to make a game that will end up being less profitable than ShootyMcShooter's game.
Finally, I suggest looking at actually, seriously old-school or retro-inspired western RPGs. Things like the original Fallout, Planeswalker: Torment, Baldur's Gate and the like are available for dirt cheap on GoG and have stories and characters that are continually referenced to this day.
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Post by Saska on Nov 3, 2014 10:17:47 GMT -8
You're pretty much looking at anything Tales if you want a decent story. Personally, they're my favourite set of games that have some action and decent graphics (Symphonia, given the fact that it's originally on freakin' GameCube, is actually quite phenomenal) though some of them are questionable (Abyss, for example -- although if you know how to take your disk and make an ISO to upscale it on an emulator, it's actually quite phenomenal itself).
as for MMORPGs? If she's a fan of the Tales graphics style, I'd recommend Ragnarok Online 2, because it has decent graphics. If she wants something a little better that's still F2P, though, I'd say Forsaken World. The community is all right and the management is kind of eh, but some of the content isn't too bad, and I personally love that the combat systems aren't actually all that complex, at least not compared to games like, say, World of Warcraft. It's got some complex game mechanics, but not so much that you're overwhelmed.
Back on console games with story and graphics though... I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the Mass Effect trilogy yet. Coming from someone who despises shooters in general (Particularly because I'm terrible at them) I actually loved Mass Effect. It has an extremely rich story, phenomenal lore, characters, everything really. It's a sci-fi space era futuristic-set game, yes, but again as someone who's generally not into shooters and not into sci-fi, I still found the game amazing. The systems in ME1 and 2 aren't too great, but 3's system is phenomenal. It's on everything from console to PC as well, and I believe you can actually get 3 on the Wii-U (though you lose out on many of the decisions and bonuses from 1 and 2 that way).
And, on the Bioware note, too, I've heard good things about Dragon Age as well. Haven't played it myself, though. And Elder Scrolls, but again I haven't actually played it so my opinion may be invalid. xD
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Post by the guru on Nov 18, 2014 7:57:47 GMT -8
I recommend Bayonetta 2 because it's literally by far the best game to come out in AT LEAST the past 4 years.
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