FALCOM Thread

[drauch]

Adolf wearing some Jnco shorts in that picture? Fuckin' sick, dude.

[BIL]

Adolf wearing some Jnco shorts in that picture? Fuckin' sick, dude.

And I just hit POOM TOWER or whatever it's called in DSII, fulla "PFFT nothin personnel kid" behind-teleporting ninjas! :O But in further great news:

"SOULS LIKE" (™ ) ACHIEVED



HIT EM SQUARE IN THE FUCKIN PLUMS M8
AUTHENTIC PLUM-HITTING ACTION



^ ONE 4 EACH PLUM = NO HARM DONE

You know it's a more meaningful criterion than "LMAO I SPAM BUTTON AND GOT A SMACK IN MY SCRUB MOUTH, BAWWWW 10/10 GOTY"

[Rastan78]

https://youtu.be/nzRNrS5MPOw

No game before DS ever expected the player to methodically dodge telegraphed attacks and deal out damage when safe to do so. Unprecedented.

Also the combat in DS is very similar to real medieval swordfighting. I would know bc I've watched choreographed Hollywood imitations of medieval swordfighting in movies.

[Sima Tuna]

Zelda is just dark souls on the nes dood.

[Rastan78]

Super Metroid is just 2D Dark Souls with a gun.

The only game ever made that wasn't influenced by Dark Souls is Dark Souls II.

[BulletMagnet]

Falcom's latest earnings report states that they plan to release the next Ys entry sometime before the coming fiscal year ends in September 2023; PS4, PS5 and Switch are the systems mentioned.

[BulletMagnet]

Speaking of the next Ys entry, it seems Adol's headed North this time around.

There's also a fancied-up version of Oath in Felghana on the way to the Switch.

[BIL]

Would buy that Oath port in a heartbeat on PS4/5 Assuming it's not nerfed in some way, grr. Never did finish off Inferno mode.

[BulletMagnet]

A few new tidbits on Ys X. Also, Falcom intends to reissue two more "enhanced' titles for the Switch, though it hasn't spilled the beans on which ones yet.

[BulletMagnet]

A few of you might recall that in real time I enjoyed Ys 8, but also called its story one of the silliest and stupidest things I've ever experienced.

Naturally, it's getting a novelization.

[BulletMagnet]

Nayuta's Western release date set for September 19th.

[Sima Tuna]

I keep meaning to play the rest of the Ys games. I loved Ys Seven but wasn't big on Celceta. I own Origins but never played it. Should pick up Oath as well. Ys 9 was fine but I played it on the switch and performance was extremely sub-par.

I kind of wish Falcom would prioritize Ys over Trails even though Trails is obviously the bigger money-maker for them. I like the Trails games but I think it unlikely they'll create another Trails games as enjoyable (for me) as Sky SC. Ys has an "eternal adventure" setup that's perfect for creating new adventures and experimenting with the gameplay and design. So to summarize my thoughts, I see Ys as having limitless potential, while Trails games have become rather pigeonholed and taken on some obnoxious JRPG harem tropes.

[cfx]

.

[Sumez]

I keep meaning to play the rest of the Ys games. I loved Ys Seven but wasn't big on Celceta. I own Origins but never played it. Should pick up Oath as well. Ys 9 was fine but I played it on the switch and performance was extremely sub-par.

If you haven't even played 1&2, Oath, Origin, or 8 yet, you have the best in store for sure. Seven and Celceta are both extremely mid
I'd recommend playing 1&2 (the Chronicles collection is excellent - looks beautiful, but feels very respectful of the originals) before Origin if only to recognize all the little callbacks in that game. But I guess it's possible it works both ways. Either way it's just a little classic game that holds a lot of love and nostalgia for me. The bump combat in 1 feels like it'd be a meme, but it kinda plays into its pure, basic and fast paced nature.

[BulletMagnet]

Japanese release date for Ys 10 is September 28th.

[BloodHawk]

As a very casual RPG player that's hesitant to jump into a massive series of interconnected stories and characters across multiple games I decided to dip my toes into Trails by trying out the PC port of Nayuta earlier (since from what I read it's a one-off shorter story and more action/non-turn based like Ys, which is usually more my style). After finishing the main story I came away liking it a lot. It was involving enough for me to have fun, but not so complicated that I would forget the details if I took a few days or a week off in between play sessions. The 1-town structure and in-progress quest notes helped a lot. I think it took me around 3 weeks to finish.

Now I am trying out the main series with Trails in the Sky. I finished the prologue and think I am about half way into Chapter 1, and "so far so good", but usually I start to lose interest in stories after around the 20-25 hour mark. I have seen others mention that the story gets good later on so I am going to try to stick with it.

[BIL]

There's also a fancied-up version of Oath in Felghana on the way to the Switch.

Out May 23rd for PS4 + PS5, AFAIK. Hoping the port's good, will be Day 1 for me assuming they ain't dun goofed.

[BulletMagnet]

Ys 10 is headed our way on October 25th.

[KAI]

These last 6 months I went full Falcom and finally finished Cold Steel IV after dropping it for more than 2 years. Now I have only Reverie left to play (my potato pc cant handle daybreak sadly )

I also started playing the MSX port of Sorcerian, and finally understood why its considered a cult classic in japan, and why reviewers back then labeled it as an arcade ARPG.
The game is basically a puzzle side scroller with rpg elements that can be so cryptic they needed to release it with a 50 pages manual to explain in detail how they work.
Aside from that its a lot of fun, hope to beat it this weekend.

As a very casual RPG player that's hesitant to jump into a massive series of interconnected stories and characters across multiple games I decided to dip my toes into Trails by trying out the PC port of Nayuta earlier (since from what I read it's a one-off shorter story and more action/non-turn based like Ys, which is usually more my style). After finishing the main story I came away liking it a lot. It was involving enough for me to have fun, but not so complicated that I would forget the details if I took a few days or a week off in between play sessions. The 1-town structure and in-progress quest notes helped a lot. I think it took me around 3 weeks to finish.

Now I am trying out the main series with Trails in the Sky. I finished the prologue and think I am about half way into Chapter 1, and "so far so good", but usually I start to lose interest in stories after around the 20-25 hour mark. I have seen others mention that the story gets good later on so I am going to try to stick with it.

Glad to know you liked Nayuta. Falcom also released 2 other games with the same design/structure, Gurumin and Zwei 2, which are awesome. Played them recently and I loved them (also played Zwei1, but that one is more similar to the old Ys games).

Hope you can endure at least until the end of Sky FC, the game can be super comfy, but is know as the biggest to fully get into this series. Most people cant even reach the point where the story gets good and the plot starts happening.

[BulletMagnet]

As one reply to the article rather aptly put it, Falcom is pulling an Atlus.

[Blinge]

Ys Proud to be Nordic


wait wtf i haven't even played the original yet it's too expensive..

[Sima Tuna]

Ys XXX: Proud to be Iron Pill

https://www.tumblr.com/theironpill

I don't like how both of Falcom's RPG franchise are now action rpgs. I prefer turn based games. I wouldn't want Ys to become turn-based but I think it's a shame they're remaking Trails in the Sky as an action hybrid rather than retaining the older tactical combat of the original games.

[Stevens]

Hey I didn't see this posted anywhere else, but Falcom's founder Masayuki Kato passed a few days ago.

[BulletMagnet]

While the "...wait, didn't you just release this?" expanded edition might have been sadly predictable, I have to say I didn't see this one coming.

[hazys]

A bit late to the party, but I've been playing through Ys VIII on Switch over the last week or so. Probably halfway through the story.

The castaways / deserted island premise pairs really well with the base-building structure. You run around exploring the island, find new castaways, add them to your base, and unlock new features. It's like Suikoden but not boring. Some people have complained that the story takes a while to get going (and it's true), but I was perfectly content just getting into this rhythm and ignoring whatever larger narrative was being planned.

My experience with the series is limited but they seem to have achieved a more fluid version of Seven's party-based combat here. Swapping instantly between characters feels almost unfair, though it can also be tedious when you have to take advantage of the game's rock-paper-scissors damage-type system. Fortunately everyone's moveset is uniquely enjoyable, though the order in which they unlock skills is a bit puzzling. You unlock some very spammable stuff early on, and from then on whether you unlock something useful or trivial is basically a coin toss.

They really nailed the combat rhythm of stuff like Origins here by incorporating the corridor-based level design into more expansive environments. Basically the environments are visually expansive but quite closed-off in practice. Sometimes this is annoying when you realize that the visual environment has near-zero relation to the actual game-space, but most of the time it works. They're lucky that this island has so many natural hallway-shaped formations! Running around at high speed and skill-spamming mobs to death is good, dumb fun. Plentiful skill replenishment encourages this approach.

My only real complaint with the combat is that it should've added some kind of chain/multiplier system like Origins did. There isn't much of an incentive to keep this rhythm going, which, in a game that incentivizes replays on increasingly-ruthless difficulty modes, seems odd. Boss fights are typically Falcom-good, though there are many bland and some annoying ones as well.

There's a lot of RPG fluff running in the background, from bulletin-board quests to fishing mini-games to even a rudimentary social/dating sim aspect (as JRPGs in the 2010s were contractually obliged to have). Most of this is optional and unintrusive but some item-crafting requirements are annoying (why do I have to farm Digitalis Leaves to refill my potions? Just give me an Estus system, since you love Dark Souls so much). There are some Raid Battles as well (why?), which really interrupt the rhythm of exploration and are tedious whenever they're not optional.

As for the presentation, I enjoy the vibrant day-glo look of the island, though the characters are a little doll-like and "generic 2010s anime" for my taste. It's a shame because previous Ys games had quite a dignified classic-fantasy look before, I dunno, Seven decided to "spruce it up." It's a little porn-y as well. That's how you can tell this was a Vita game originally. Doesn't really bother me, but it could've been better.

Overall I'm having a great time, though, and in fact I've barely managed to put the game down over the weekend. It does seem like the campaign would've benefited from trimming all the fat, because I doubt I'll be inclined to replay it if it clocks in at ~25 hours like I expect it to.

[Squire Grooktook]

Yeah it's a great game, worth soaking in.

Fortunately everyone's moveset is uniquely enjoyable, though the order in which they unlock skills is a bit puzzling.

I definitely like the toybox of juicy special moves to fool around with. It's just that since the combat degrades into flash guard spam, it kind of overstays its welcome over 50-80 hours. By the end I was definitely playing purely for the story (which is absolutely one of the best ones Falcom has ever written, a few flaws aside, almost up there with Trails 1 and 2).

Basically the environments are visually expansive but quite closed-off in practice. Sometimes this is annoying when you realize that the visual environment has near-zero relation to the actual game-space, but most of the time it works.

Definitely one of my favorite things about the game, it really recalls the fun of classic rpg's where the world is exploration friendly but still "curated" and tight. I actually cannot recall an RPG recently that had such entertaining world design and exploration.

There's a lot of RPG fluff running in the background, from bulletin-board quests to fishing mini-games to even a rudimentary social/dating sim aspect (as JRPGs in the 2010s were contractually obliged to have). Most of this is optional and unintrusive but some item-crafting requirements are annoying (why do I have to farm Digitalis Leaves to refill my potions? Just give me an Estus system, since you love Dark Souls so much). There are some Raid Battles as well (why?), which really interrupt the rhythm of exploration and are tedious whenever they're not optional.

There's definitely a "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" approach to make up for how shallow the core combat is. It's tolerable here, and I like that most of it adds to the story, but I couldn't stand it in in Ys X when it feels like there's too many buttons to even remap and the gimmicky tower defense stuff becomes more front and center.

As for the presentation, I enjoy the vibrant day-glo look of the island, though the characters are a little doll-like and "generic 2010s anime" for my taste.

I think the character art (IE the portraits and promo material) is drop dead gorgeous and its vibrant colorfulness perfectly fits the tropical theme. The in-game character models have a definite "budget" feel to them - a Mihoyo game this is not - which is where the doll-like aspect comes in, but they do have a certain lo-fi charm to them.

It's a little porn-y as well. That's how you can tell this was a Vita game originally. Doesn't really bother me, but it could've been better.

Oh come on, bro

Lot that could be said in response to this (you've clearly never played a Nitroplus game if you think these designs are "porn-y"), but the character designs / fanservice in this game is if anything tame and perfectly family friendly compared to some of the shit Falcom put out in the 80's-90's. Like have you seen how lewd some of pc-98 Brandish's art gets (in and out of game) there are literally cg's in that game which are just close ups of an ass in a thong.

[hazys]

lol I'm aware that other games are way more OTT about the fanservice, I just think there's a je ne sais quoi about the character designs that screams Vita game. I agree that the artwork itself is very good, though.

[KAI]

Finished Trails into Reverie, at last, Im so tired, took me 95 fucking hours to get all the story segments and true ending.
The visual novel part at the end was really cool and hype af. Im glad the original story arc finally ended with this game, but I dont want to touch any other trails game, at least until next year, even if the story in Daybreak is new and the gameplay is completely different compared to the last 3 previous games, and lot of people say its a good change of pace on the franchise.

I need to take a huge break from these games and start playing the Ys stuff i've been missing these last 10 years, and maybe finish that damn last scenario from Sorcerian.
The last boss is so hard it made me drop the game 6 months ago and never touched it again.

[Sumez]

When a game is too anime for KAI you know it's really fucking anime.

[Mero]

Should be getting my hands on Daybreak 2 tomorrow, played the first one last year. I seem to recall there was quite a big gap between Cold Steel IV and Reverie so they're getting quicker.