RPG Diary

Phantasy Star

Phantasy Star is mostly forgotten now, but it was one of the first console RPGs. While it competed with Dragon Quest III and Final Fantasy in Japan, Phantasy Star was actually the first console RPG translated and released in the US, over a year before Dragon Quest. I was pretty excited to check out this historic game (and series), but I set low expectations for an early 8-bit console RPG.

Title	Phantasy Star
Year	1987 (US 1988 )
System	SMS
Developer	Sega
Publisher	Sega

Phantasy Star looks great, even today. This is the first Master System game that I've ever played and it seems much more colorful and detailed than any NES game that I've played so far. In fact, it reminded me more of a 16-bit game, than an 8-bit game. I also enjoyed the soundtrack for this game.

The story is pretty much what I expected for an 8-bit console RPG — the big bad guy Lassic must die. While Phantasy Star has nice looking dialogue scenes, there aren't any full cutscenes that show anything happening, so there aren't really any twists or events along the way. (Ok, something happens after Lassic is defeated, but it comes and goes so fast that I honestly didn't understand what even happened.)

Phantasy Star uses a first-person view for dungeons. I think this was common for 80's computer RPGs, but it's unusual for a console RPG. I enjoyed it at first when the dungeons were simple, but things quickly get more complicated and I didn't want to deal with it. I found maps online for the dungeons and used those to save time.

Combat is pretty standard for the time with turn-based battles. The animated enemy sprites are a nice touch, but after awhile they really just slow down and drag out the battles. The most annoying thing was the inability to pick targets when there are multiple enemies — the game seemed to pick targets randomly, which can make battles harder than necessary. Phantasy Star also seems like it has the highest encounter rate of any game I've played so far — there were several times I had an encounter after a single step (or even immediately after running away in a dungeon). All of these factors made the game a bit of a slog to finish.

Finally, it is unsurprising that Phantasy Star requires some dedicated grinding. This is especially true in the first hour or so, where you can be very easily killed in just one or two turns if you wander into the wrong tile. However, I found that I didn't really need to grind after the full party was assembled. The few times I did grind later on were generally just for some money, not levels.

After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. Phantasy Star has far less plot than Final Fantasy II, but it doesn't require as much grinding as Dragon Quest II. (Both Dragon Quest II and Phantasy Star are much harder without a guide.)

Chrono Cross

Chrono Trigger is possibly my all-time favorite RPG, but I've never played its sequel, Chrono Cross. I'm not really sure what to expect with this one — many of the people involved with Chrono Trigger did not work on Chrono Cross, but the game seems pretty popular.

Title	Chrono Cross
Year	1999 (US 2000 )
System	PSX
Developer	Square
Publisher	Square

As a sequel to Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross is a massive disappointment. It can be hard to remember it's even a sequel at times — the gameplay mechanics are completely different, and the plot seems completely unrelated (outside of a couple name-drops) for about half the game. However, once the plot connections were finally revealed, I was even more disappointed. But if we ignore that aspect, does Chrono Cross stand up on its own?

For most of the game, there is very little explanation about what is going on. Serge, the main character, is whisked away to an alternate dimension. After regaining the ability to return to his home dimension, the game begins to feel aimless. Lynx is introduced as the primary antagonist, but without any clear goals, so there is just that generic RPG motive to "stop that bad guy, because he must be doing something bad." The game also kind of tries to force the other main character, Kid, into the party several times, but you can actually choose to reject her. Kid's backstory and motives are also barely explained for most of the game. I found myself losing interest in the game and debated abandoning it.

The story does have its moments. There was a pretty unexpected plot twist about halfway (switching bodies with Lynx) that captured my interest for awhile. However, the core plotline of what Lynx is actually trying to do continues to be a mystery until the last third of the game or so. Unfortunately, the mysteries are revealed via lore dump monologues before or after boss fights rather than seeing anything in cutscenes. This was extremely frustrating and unsatisfying. I'm a huge believer in "show, don't tell." The last few hours of the game is a whirlwind of convoluted (and barely explained) plot twists, and I just wanted the game to end already. I had to read summaries online to make any sense of the story.

One of Chrono Cross's claims to fame is that there are 44 party characters available in the game. Unfortunately, these characters have very little personality or impact on the story, and they basically all perform identically in combat. This was probably my biggest disappointment. I'm a completionist, but it felt like a total waste of time collecting all of these characters.

Characters share a combined party level ("star level"), which in theory means that you don't have to micromanage leveling all 40+ characters evenly. However, in practice there are permanently missable small stat gains that can be earned between star levels. Chrono Cross is not a hard game, but by the endgame I could clearly see the differences in stats for the characters I used and the characters I did not use.

The battle system in Chrono Cross is pretty different from anything else I've seen so far. Three different levels of basic attacks are available, providing a tradeoff between accuracy and strength. Successful attacks increase the accuracy of future attacks, creating a simple combo system. Characters do not have MP in Chrono Cross — instead, attacks charge up characters so that they can use elements (which includes both abilities and items). I had fun with battles at first, but the elements became a pain to manage towards the end of the game. Furthermore, basic attacks became so strong that there really wasn't much reason to bother with elements either.

Ultimately, Chrono Cross reminds me of Final Fantasy X-2: a thoroughly disappointing sequel that deviated way too far from the original game.

After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. Like Final Fantasy VIII, the story was a huge mess, but at least that game had an interesting world and characters. I'll put Chrono Cross between that and Final Fantasy II which was more annoying to play.

Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger is a pretty legendary game. It was created by a "dream team" of people who worked on both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, the two most famous RPG series of the time. (Ironically, the companies behind these two franchises would end up merging 8 years later.) I've finished Chrono Trigger multiple times already, but playing both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest recently made me want to play this one again.

Title	Chrono Trigger
Year	1995
System	SNES
Developer	Square
Publisher	Square

Despite all the hype about the dream team, in my opinion the game feels overwhelmingly more like a Final Fantasy than a Dragon Quest. (I guess this makes sense, since it is a Square game.)

Chrono Trigger is a very story-driven RPG with fast pacing and minimal side quests to distract you. The time travel plot device is well written, and there are some good surprises along the way. There is also a good balance of humor between the more serious moments. The game can be beaten in about 20 hours, which I found very refreshing compared to more recent games which can easily take 80+ hours to finish.

Combat uses the famous ATB system first introduced in Final Fantasy IV. However, Chrono Trigger adds a few improvements to this. First, positioning is important because techs may have AoE. The player cannot move the party characters, but many enemies are frequently moving around during battle. Second, when 2 or 3 party members have full ATB bars, they can act simultaneously to use double or triple techs. These techs can be much stronger or use different elements than regular single techs. Both of these features make battle much more engaging because they add timing elements. This is my favorite combat system from every turn-based RPG that I've played so far.

Chrono Trigger is ahead of its time (pun?) because it does not have random encounters. Enemies are in fixed locations in dungeons, and there are no encounters on the world map. Getting too close to an enemy will trigger a battle, but the player can attempt to skip combat by aviding the enemy. However, not all encounters can be avoided, and some enemies are completely hidden before combat. There is some backtracking in this game due to the time travel, so I was very happy to skip weak encounters later in the game.

Despite being nearly 30 years old, Chrono Trigger is still very aesthetically pleasing. The artwork has the same charm as Dragon Quest (thanks to Akira Toriyama's designs), and the soundtrack is extremely memorable. The sprites in particular are very expressive, similar to Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI. Being a SNES game, there is neither FMV cutscenes nor voice acting, but I never felt the game needed it.

In my opinion, Chrono Trigger sets the bar for RPGs, or at least story-driven RPGs. It's a complete package: great story, great pacing, great gameplay, great music, and great artwork. There's very little I would change about this game. My only real critique is that while the party characters have distinct personalities, they don't have much background or character growth (except for Frog, Robo, and Magus). In fact, Ayla is kind of just along for the ride without much explanation or motivation. Crono being a silent protagonist (in classic Dragon Quest style) doesn't help with this either.

After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. Chrono Trigger is my favorite RPG of all-time, and nothing in this playthrough changed my mind about that.

Dragon Quest XI S

Dragon Quest XI came out at a time in my life where I was not playing many RPGs (or even video games at all), so I completely missed all the buzz about it. This turned out to be serendipitous for me though, because a "definitive edition" was released just two years later with extra content. I wasn't sure what to expect with this one — I loved Dragon Quest VIII, but I hated Dragon Quest IX (and Dragon Quest X was an MMORPG).

Title	Dragon Quest XI S
Year	2019 (Original 2017 )
System	NS PS4 XB1 WIN
Developer	Square Enix
Publisher	Square Enix

Thankfully, Dragon Quest XI is a spiritual successor to Dragon Quest VIII. Both games feature memorable characters and a clear central narrative, which are not a guarantee in a Dragon Quest game. Both games are also gorgeous full 3D, though I prefer the cel shading style of Dragon Quest VIII.

The story was hit and miss for me. Act 1 is fairly standard Dragon Quest stuff. Although there are a few scenes related to the central narrative sprinkled in, the game is mostly just another adventure in search of arbitrary magic items and bumping into things along the way. I didn't see Act 2 coming, so when I thought the game was ending with Act 1, I was all ready to move on to something else. Act 2 on the other hand really blew me away. The World of Darkness reminded me of Final Fantasy VI's World of Ruin, but with a stronger and more focused narrative. I also liked how all the party characters really got fleshed out in Act 2. This was probably my favorite part of any Dragon Quest game.

Surprisingly, the game continues in a significant way after the credits. While it has become common to add extra challenges after the final boss, Dragon Quest XI actually resumes the story! Unfortunately, I really did not like how the story progressed at this point, and I thought it ruined the original ending. The sudden and barely explained introduction of time travel is a complete deus ex machina and it retcons all the emotional scenes and character growth that happened in Act 2. These plot points have to be resolved again in the post-game, but they are mostly just hand-waved and it felt forced so that the game could continue. Similarly, the tie-in to Dragon Quest III felt equally forced — while there were clear references to the game throughout, it's only in true ending that Dragon Quest XI is explicitly revealed as a prequel. This felt like cheap fan service, because it didn't add anything to either game.

Mechanically, Dragon Quest XI pretty much had everything that I want in an RPG. Like many other modern games, random encounters are replaced with monsters on the map, which makes it much easier to avoid battles if you don't need the experience. The skill system from the previous games returns, but now it is clear when skills will be learned, skill points can be even be reset (for a trivial amount of money). This really lowered my anxiety as I experimented with my builds quite a few times during my play. Finally, while Dragon Quest XI has more party members than can participate in battle, the reserve still gain experience from battles, even if they never appeared. I really appreciated this, because I did not enjoy constantly shuffling characters around in Final Fantasy X to share experience.

Ultimately, Dragon Quest XI was a roller coaster of emotions for me: I was bored of it, then I was really into it, and finally I was annoyed with it. It's a solid but unspectacular game, so I am unlikely to ever replay it. (It's also very long!) One of the additions in the defintive edition is a separate 2D version that reenvisions the game as a SNES-era Dragon Quest. I stayed completely in the 3D version this time (minus Tickington of course), so if I did ever replay it, I would check that out and see how that changes things.

After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. Dragon Quest XI has its moments, but overall I found it to be a thoroughly standard RPG. I'll place it below Final Fantasy XII which was similarly uneven, but I'll give the advantage to the game that starts off stronger.

Dragon Quest IX

I've been generally disappointed with the Dragon Quest series, but Dragon Quest VIII was a game that I really enjoyed. Dragon Quest IX was made by the same developer, so I'm hoping I'll enjoy this one too.

Title	Dragon Quest IX
Year	2009 (US 2010 )
System	DS
Developer	Level-5 Square Enix
Publisher	Square Enix (US Nintendo )

With Dragon Quest IX, the series made the uncommon jump from consoles to a handheld. While the DS was powerful for a handheld, it was obviously limited in comparison to the PS2. Dragon Quest IX is mostly 3D, though some NPCs use 2D sprites, similar to Dragon Quest VII. This is awkward and clunky, because the 2D sprites cannot rotate smoothly with the camera changes. And while most of the game is in 3D, the DS hardware is more limited than the PS2 hardware, resulting in "uglier" 3D (for lack of a better word). This was a little disappointing because Dragon Quest VIII was such a beautiful game.

Probably the biggest reason that I enjoyed Dragon Quest VIII was its strong central narrative and memorable cast of characters. Unfortunately, Dragon Quest IX is completely the opposite. The main story is once again meager and barebones, barely present after the prologue. The party is once again filled with generic create-a-characters, as in Dragon Quest III, so they are absent from the story. Instead, an NPC named Stella joins the party and provides commentary about what is happening. However, this gyaru fairy seldom had anything important to say and quickly became an annoyance. The main story does finally pick up some steam around 25 hours in, but by that point I was no longer interested and just wanted to move on to something else.

Dragon Quest IX has a lot of side quests. So many, that they are numbered and tracked in a journal. Unfortunately, these are the dull MMO style quests: boring fetch quests and other mundane tasks, requested by disposable NPCs with no significance to anything. Even worse, most the quest rewards did not seem to be worth the effort either. (However, a few quests grant new jobs which are definitely worth doing.) I quickly stopped bothering with these because they felt like filler and a waste of time.

While the story was a huge flop, the core gameplay was good. There are no more random encounters — battles are started by walking into a monster on the map. This makes metal slime hunting a little less painful, since you can avoid the other monsters. The game also felt well balanced because I never really needed to stop and grind for hours to progress.

Dragon Quest IX combines a job system (somewhat similar to Dragon Quest III) with the skill trees of Dragon Quest VIII, which provides a lot of customization and choices for your party. However, because class changing resets the character's level and they don't keep any stat gains, it felt kind of detrimental to class change. Additionally, spells (unlike skills) can only be used in the original class that unlocked them, so class changing spellcasters seemed especially bad.

In the end, Dragon Quest IX was one of the most boring and uninteresting games that I have played in a while. I found myself completely unmotivated to play it, and there were many days that I chose to do something else with my free time instead. If I wasn't trying to finish the entire Dragon Quest series, I would've abandoned the game very early on.

After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. This is easily one of my least favorite games so far, so the only question is how low it will go. Final Fantasy X-2 also had a bunch of filler side quests, but at least it had a (very awful) central narrative that I wanted to know the resolution to. Meanwhile, the original Dragon Quest barely qualifies as a game by modern expectations, so I'll safely place Dragon Quest IX above that (and only that).