Your very favorite video games and genres

[senketsu]

I know a few of us posted these already in the getting to know you section, but I wanted a nice handy little place we could all post and discuss our fav's.

Some of my biggest favorites are first-person shooter RPGs: Deus Ex, System Shock 2, and Fallout New Vegas.

I also really enjoy the Half-Life series, Portal 1 and 2, the Timesplitters series, Condemned, Silent Hill 2 and 3 (haven't played 1 and 4), Bioshock, any Grand Theft Auto game after III, Saint's Row, and the wonderfully trippy Killer7.

I also love old school arcade games :3 from Pac-Man to Dig Dug to Space Invaders and Donkey Kong of course. My favorite arcade games are Berzerk and Robotron.

[gundamblueriver]

My favorite games are the Disgaea games. They are Turn based strategy RPGs. JRPGs are my favorites. I hate FPS but the Portal games were great.
I am fond of Mass Effect, though I haven't played the second and don't own an X-box.

[senketsu]

I've always wanted to try an Atlus RPG. The Persona games seem pretty interesting, but I'm terrible with JRPGs. The only one I've played is the first dot hack game and I was terrible at it so I just cheated to the end

And I can see why you wouldn't like FPSs. There's so damn many these days!

[Burning Desire~]

lol I love JRPGs and FPSs ^_^ as well as platformers and action/adventure games.

[nakamurasayuri]

NYA! PERSONA! PLAY! NAO! *ahem* I am a notoriously horrible gamer, so there aren't many games that hold my attention. Kingdom Hearts of course is one of my favorites, but my all-time favorite game is the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. For those of you who tried to play it back in the day and didn't play it...play it! It's fantastic. The many, MANY hidden easter eggs and scenes in the game make it one that will entertain you for hours upon hours. I kid you not.

[gacktluvr]

Sept 22, 2011 22:20:51 GMT -5 senketsu said:

I've always wanted to try an Atlus RPG. The Persona games seem pretty interesting, but I'm terrible with JRPGs. The only one I've played is the first dot hack game and I was terrible at it so I just cheated to the end

And I can see why you wouldn't like FPSs. There's so damn many these days!

.hack isn't an ATLUS game.

If you want to try out an ATLUS game that doesn't follow the traditional J-RPG format, pick up a copy of Catherine. It's done by the same people who did Persona 3 and Persona 4, but the game play is actually a mix between juggling life and solving puzzles. The story is intense, too.

And don't let Kristen fool you. She only knows the Persona games through me, and I don't even think she's seen 3 and 4 all the way through.

[Burning Desire~]

He meant that was the only JRPG he'd played. gacktluvr.

[gacktluvr]

Which .hack game did you play, anyway? Was it .hack//Infection, or .hack//GU Volume 1?

If you tried the original .hack game I apologize, as that's a very... different, difficult J-RPG. At least .hack//GU is a little easier to get into, although it's also fairly different. It's very fun, but it isn't a good starter RPG.

If you want a JRPG for beginners Final Fantasy VII is good. It has a fantastic story and fantastic characters. The turn-based fighting style makes it easier to complete, and the story sucks you in. I know a lot of people love to hate it, but it really is something fantastic. Hardcore Final Fantasy fans like to bitch about it, but it's great for getting people into the genre.

After that I'd suggest either Persona 3 or Persona 4. I think Persona 3 has the more moving story, but Persona 4 does a better job of nailing high school life. Both of those mix a sort of dating-sim aspect into a dungeon crawler with turn-based combat. If you get easily frustrated with computer AI I suggest Persona 4, since you can control all of your characters in that game.

After that, it's pretty much up to you. I'd suggest any game in the Tales of series, although I would suggest starting with Tales of the Abyss as it has the most polished fighting system. Tales of Symphonia is fantastic, but the inability to run in three dimensions makes it a bit frustrating from time to time. Some practice with Tales of the Abyss might make it easier to play.

Tales of the Abyss executes attacks fluidly, making the real time fighting pretty simple and easy to understand. The choice of characters, FOF changes, cores, etc gives you a good opportunity to customize your fighting style. Unlike with Final Fantasy VII and the Persona games you have complete control over your party. You only have to use the main character if you want to, and each character has a different fighting style. There's the magician, the magic swordsman, the fast combo-dealer, the healer, the archer, and the standard swordsman. All of them are capable of close combat fighting, including the mage and the healer. There are tons of side-quests, too.

Kingdom Hearts has the same level of difficulty, but while Tales of the Abyss takes you to a small field for each fight, Kingdom Hearts keeps the entire map open for your fighting. The AI for your companions can be very annoying, and the first game has difficult controls from time to time, but it's impossible to understand Kingdom Hearts 2 without having played the first one. They also have absolutely fantastic stories.

After that I'd recommend things like .hack and .hack//GU. They're very unique in game play and the stories are engaging. I would consider them the bridge between the usual and the unusual, as they employ a fairly simple fighting style but they also include elements foreign to other games.

Then there are the games that try to create a new system of their own, such as Odin Sphere.

You could technically start with any of those games, of course, but the learning curve gets bigger between each one. I wouldn't suggest starting with Odin Sphere to anyone, as the game takes quite a bit to really master.

[gacktluvr]

Oh, warning about the Persona games, though: If the main character dies, the entire party wipes. Even if everyone else is at full health. That's probably the most difficult part of it...

[Burning Desire~]

That seems to be the case with most RPGs where you control one character and the others are AI.

[gacktluvr]

Even in Persona 4, where you can control the other characters, the main character's death results in the party wiping. And in Persona 3 you can put any of your healers on 'priority heal' and they would res you next turn, but they game over as soon as you die.

It makes the game annoying as hell at times because you have to cover your weaknesses or you'll end up wiping nonstop. And covering your weakness means you lose out on space for other attacks.

[ghostofskull]

my favorite video game seems to change constantly, however I seem to be stuck in my "Okage: Shadow King" faze (or however you spell it) oh for those of you who don't know of the game it is similar to the final fantasy series in both movement and combat.

*spoiler* my pic is one of the main characters of the game, Evil King Stan

[Zaleros]

hmm, if i have to give a fav game, probly LoZ: OoT. if you don't know what it is, I should smack you but won't. instead i'll just be kinda sad but i'll get over it. there's like a billion series i love to play, like the zelda games or the tales games. i play plenty of fps's and excel in halo and keep being told to play cod but i don't feel like it even though i keep being told i'm good. i'll pretty much play anything i think has a good story and sticks with it. and with said thing about stories i mention now that rpgs are probly responsible for about 1000 hours minimum of my life. pretty much i'm a gamer with no care as to the genre of the game as long as it catches my interest.