[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Originally Posted by Nandito

Gah... now I'm thinking if I should have picked it up while I was at Gamestop. Was looking at the back of the cover, shrugged, and put it back.

Is it REALLY that good? I like RPGs but some are just dull... What's it like compare to, say, Star Ocean 3?

Persona 3 eventually has up to ten playable characters, the way your character goes about his school year, the friends he makes and such are more or less or your choosing. Each friendship in the game has its own storyarch and a connection to the types or Personas you can create and how stronge they can be when you create them.

There's a customizable weapon system, personas are customizable, you have skills you must improve to gain more social connections.

There are a series of randomized dungeons you can enter almost every day, with lots of loot and personas to find. The battle system is pretty dynamic, more or less the goal of many fights is to find an enemy's weakness to a type of magic or weapon to achieve a series of knock downs so your party can perform an "All-Out Attack" (basically a group attack) that does heavy damage to all enemies.

Not all of the battles take place in a dungeon, you'll see other locales in the game and battle in them, giving a nice break from the dungeons. They real fun of it all is the weapon and persona fusions, as well as seeing the "social link" storylines play out.

So, its kinda like you have this big, epic quest in which you must save the world from the forces of evil, but also hang out with friends, go out on dates, study and dread exams. There are little classroom sequences that play into exams later on, but its mostly just trivia and some of the classes can be amusing. If you find them boring, you can opt to fall asleep in class.

One of the better elements of the battle system is that while your allies are totally AI controlled, they're not a bunch of goddamn retards like in other RPGs. If they see that a fire spell is absorbed by an enemy, they learn and never do it again on that type of enemy. Same thing if they find the weakness - they'll exploit it. If an enemy's HP is low enough, they'll do a physical attack instead of using thier magic points. And they won't blow through healing items if they have magic points to use first. There are also AI commands you can set them in during battle. Better still is you can actually trust the ones capable of healing to do so to you and other allies.

And as they get stronger, you can split up the team to explore the floor of a dungeon, find items, the stairs to the next floor and such. If they encounter an enemy, they'll fight it and ou can go help them or if you're alone and attacked, you can call for them and they'll eventually join the fight.

Overall, its just a really tight and well-crafted game. The main quest is very long, too. You'll get a lot out of the $30 you spent on Persona 3 FES.

[Illyria]

Originally Posted by Feba

Amazon had ones listed as new at $2. Whether it's true or not is up to the seller, but if it's incorrect you should have no problems returning it.

I was surprised to find that the used games are actually more expensive than the new ones. But with shipping and handling, the cost goes up $5 to $10 depending on where you order it from.

Chrono Cross is another good game you can order in new condition for cheap.

[Pai Pai Master]

Patapon. PSP. $20.

BUY IT.

[TheGrandMom]

Originally Posted by Illyria

Chrono Cross is another good game you can order in new condition for cheap.

Yet, another good game........as long as you don't compare it to Chrono Trigger.

[Vyuru]

Yet, another good game........as long as you don't compare it to Chrono Trigger.

Playing Chrono Trigger now, and albeit I suspect not that far into it, and I'd have to say that I enjoy both of them equally. I really don't get why people diss Chrono Cross.

And....

Shadow of the Colossus - $20ish easily a must have game.
Star Ocean III - Kinda hit or miss, should be around $30

The following are hard to find and can only be gotten used, ye have been warned!

Ico
Draken: The Ancients Gates

And if you can find a copy of Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PS1 or PSP), snag it, it's a great game. Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria is enjoyable, but I can't lose myself in the storyline like I did with Valkyrie Profile, so I tend to favor VP more than VP2.

Anything else that I'd recommend can probably only be gotten used now, and are mostly PS1 games.

[TheGrandMom]

Originally Posted by Vyuru

I really don't get why people diss Chrono Cross.

Totally agree. I think it stems more from them comparing it to Chrono Trigger than anything. I enjoyed the game immensely.

Originally Posted by Vyuru

The following are hard to find and can only be gotten used, ye have been warned!

Ico

I have 10 brand new Ico's. Old age and bad memory are mostly to blame. LOL I'd see one for in the store clearance and buy it, put it away, and totally forget I had it. Rinse and repeat at the next store. Then when we packed away our game room, I went through every box and found bunch of them. LOL

Originally Posted by Vyuru

And if you can find a copy of Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PS1 or PSP), snag it, it's a great game. Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria is enjoyable, but I can't lose myself in the storyline like I did with Valkyrie Profile, so I tend to favor VP more than VP2.

Anything else that I'd recommend can probably only be gotten used now, and are mostly PS1 games.

Well the PSP version is Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth and the PS1 version is just Valkyrie Profile. There is no gameplay difference between the two, I believe. There were some graphical/voice changes. The first VP is by far better than VP2, which is unfortunate. I was so looking forward to VP2 so it was disappointing. If you decide to play VP1 on the PSP, be aware that the save points are few and far between so you will not be able to save on a dime. I don't think its a good game for portables because of this. Most people play them on the run and want to be able to save quickly and thats just not a possibility with the PSP port.

[Pai Pai Master]

There is a standby mode on the PSP, you know. Constant access to the save function is not always necessary.

[Feba]

Originally Posted by Vyuru

Shadow of the Colossus - $20ish easily a must have game.

I've been looking for this, but it didn't look like it was anywhere near 20 hours.

[TheGrandMom]

Originally Posted by Pai Pai Master

There is a standby mode on the PSP, you know. Constant access to the save function is not always necessary.

I don't trust the standby mode. I've put my PSP's into standby and then stuck them in my pocket, purse, briefcase, etc and found out later that either the battery ran out of juice or that somehow it got switched entirely off. I don't feel like playing for a while and losing my point in the game to something iffy.

[Feba]

Originally Posted by TheGrandMom

I have 10 brand new Ico's.

Wait, wait; can has?

[TheGrandMom]

You haven't played it yet Feba?

[Nandito]

I'd like a copy too, pleeease.

And thanks Kitten, I'll have to grab a copy of FES whenever I decide to drive to Gamestop again. Too far for regular visits~

[Pai Pai Master]

Originally Posted by Feba

I've been looking for this, but it didn't look like it was anywhere near 20 hours.

Sure, but the 8-12 hours you get from it are far superior than the 20+ hours you get from most other games. And it does have strong replayability.

[Vyuru]

I have 10 brand new Ico's.

........
................
GAHHHHHHH!!!!

I had to hunt through 3 stores, 6 unorganized bins, and fight off 2 ravening Gamestop employees who also wanted to buy the lone pristine copy of Ico that I found!

Grats, don't sell one for under $100 now

Well the PSP version is Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth and the PS1 version is just Valkyrie Profile.

Well, alot of people seem to get confused when I just say Valkyrie Profile, and it mostly seems to be the people who became aware of the game after VP2 came out. You say Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth however, and everyone knows you mean the first game.

And that is good to know about the save points. While I don't have a PSP, I did snag a Valkyrie Profile for the PSP just in case I ever get one. Now the question is do I leave it unopened and start a VP collection or open it someday? >.>

I've been looking for this, but it didn't look like it was anywhere near 20 hours.

It really depends. I would say that it maybe takes 14 hours or so, plus or minus an hour or two, in order to play through. If however, you are interested in exploration, getting to the top of the tower, and hunting down the lizards and fruit, I imagine you could easily break 30 hours on this game. The world is HUGE, and while you have to fight each Colossus in a specific order, the entire world is just so big. It can also get interesting just doing stuff in order to see how the Colossai (is that the plural of Colossus?) react.

Draken: TAG and Ico are also fairly short games if you rush through them IMO, and if you know what you are doing, maybe about 10-12 hours in length. If you do not know what you are doing and how to do things, and take your time to do sidequests and explore, both games get quite a bit longer in playtime.

SotC, Draken, and Ico are all games where I would say that the amount of enjoyment you get out of them depends on how much time you put into them. They all have very immense, and very immersive worlds. I'd also rate the replayability on these to be very high.

[Feba]

Originally Posted by TheGrandMom

You haven't played it yet Feba?

No >.>

Originally Posted by Pai Pai Master

Sure, but the 8-12 hours you get from it are far superior than the 20+ hours you get from most other games.

I picked up a copy earlier today, and while it is definitely very much worth $20, the main point of this thread is "bang for your buck"; not only in terms of quality but also in terms of length. Given how much of the fun of boss fights is in the puzzle solving, I doubt that you could replay it without losing some of the fun, although hanging onto a giant )FAS(((*Y&)(er flying over beautiful terrain is definitely fun. The main point of length, though, is that "If you pay $X for the game, you're going to get X hours of enjoyment at least" from it; as in "You aren't going to be paying for a cheap game which is over and leaves you wanting again".