Trouble getting into Final Fantasy--what games do you like a

[Kimiko]

You mean Suikoden Tierkreis? I've played that. It was great. The soundtrack was pretty good too.

[manaman]

Yup, that's the one. What did you like about it, Kimiko?

[DeadWolf]

I have the DS one. If you can get past the terrible voice acting the game is really good.

[Kimiko]

Hmm.. Let me dig up what I wrote about it on another forum:

Playing Suikoden Tierkreis for hours on end. This game is pretty good. The character 3D models are a bit blocky and they have goofy walks, but otherwise the art is great (backgrounds and monster models, anime cutscenes).
The story is also quite intriguing. With a huge cast of supposedly 108 warriors plus numerous supporting characters you can't expect too much background on every one of them, but there is definitely a lot more to them than FF characters.
Monsters are getting tougher now, so the gameplay/story segregation isn't as big as it was in the beginning ("we have to run, these monsters are way too strong for us" - huh? you just beat three of them in one turn..).

I don't care if it's a real part of the series, Suikoden Tierkreis is absolutely great. Really, there is so much detail everywhere. With 108 recruitable characters not everyone has a lot of background, but even the least backgrounded characters are still on par with some Final Fantasy characters. The story is great, the trading/item system is fun, the backgrounds/environments are beautiful, the monsters are very detailed (even recycled monster types have different appearances), the music is very good (some of it reminds me of Yasunori Mitsuda's work), the sounds are also nicely detailed (footsteps sound different on varying surfaces for example), and there are oodles of side-quests (and not just for recruiting characters either). I don't know if the voices are that bad. They do suffer a little from compression, but otherwise they're just American English. American accents are often a little grating on the ears, but that's not a fault of this game. I think this is one of the best RPGs I've played yet. The only big flaw is that despite the tons of characters, you can't change the main character. With this much attention to detail, it seems stupid that you can't even choose between a female and male main character. When will game developers stop neglecting half their audience?

I finished Suikoden Tierkreis last night (with all 108 characters recruited). Afterwards I went back and replayed a little to see the (very short) bad ending, just so I could tag it as Completed over at Backloggery.com. Overall, I'd say this is a very good DS game, but it would have been much better if the characters' genders had been more balanced. Only 27% of the playable main (story) characters are women, and despite some exceptions, many female characters are weak mages/archers or support characters.

[manaman]

Hmm,

It sounds like it would be a really fun game to get for my road trip. . . . How many hours did you sink into it in order to get all the characters?

Peace,

manaman

[Kimiko]

*checks* My two save entries are at 136 and 151 hours, but keep in mind that I have a strategy of (and high tolerance for) grinding, and that I did every quest possible, including the online ones. Someone else would end up with a much shorter playtime.

[Duran]

Oh, Durrraannn.... *holds up a roasted Rabite*

Hmm?

[manaman]

Okay, Kimiko,

Thanks. I think I may pick this one up--unless I don't get anything until 4 Heroes of Light comes out.

Peace,

manaman

[CaraBanana]

Oh, Durrraannn.... *holds up a roasted Rabite*

Hmm?

Lmao.
How long ago did I post that? xD

[NightshadeTea]

Oh My Gosh! I've been playing FF6 lately. This game is one of the best I've ever played. This one is definitely on my list of "Games Better Than Final Fantasy 7".

[Mataxia]

For a long time FF7 was the only Final Fantasy I had beaten (even though I've dabbled in most of the others). Recently I was kind of on an FF spree and beat 9 and then started playing 6. Needless to say, I've been hearing great things about FF6 all my life and that was one of the game in the series I wanted to play the most. Maybe my expectations were too high or something though, I dunno. I got pretty close to the end of the game and then stopped playing for a while because it just wasn't holding my interest very much. I really wanted to like it, but I dunno. Nothing in the story was that compelling to me, but maybe I was just expecting too much like I said before. It felt like the story should've been just beginning still but then I realized I was really far into the game. I'm sure at some point I'll pick it back up and finish it though.