Post by DrJones

Posted: 10/19/2009 6:10 AM

Post subject: Recommendations for PS1 games

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Derakon

Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960

I kinda skipped the Playstation 1 as a console. As a result, I only have four games for it: Einhänder, Alundra, Vagrant Story, and a Megaman X collection (okay, I guess that counts as 6). Anyone care to recommend other games I should add to my collection? Some caveats: * Linedancing as a metaphor for combat stopped being able to hold my interest years ago. So no Final Fantasy, please. RPGs with interesting combat mechanics are fine, though. * Games with lots of grinding or very slow-moving gameplay are going to lose my interest. * Playstation 3D hasn't aged well. Some games look fine (Einhänder, for example), but most look terrible (Final Fantasy 7, and I'm not a huge fan of Vagrant Story's graphics). So to a certain extent I'd prefer sprite graphics here, unless the game's graphics actually have aged well. I'll probably only get one game this time around, but I'll keep the suggestions in mind in the future. There's a lot of good stuff out there that I haven't gotten to experience yet.

Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.

Posted: 10/19/2009 7:30 AM

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Tub

Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377

You've already checked the games listed here of course ;) I've had most fun with Final Fantasy (FF9 did age well, FF7 was ugly from the beginning) and Symphony of the Night. Yeah, kinda mainstream. ;)

m00

Posted: 10/19/2009 8:38 AM

Post subject: Re: Recommendations for PS1 games

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Warp

Banned User, Former player

Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland

Derakon wrote:

* Linedancing as a metaphor for combat stopped being able to hold my interest years ago. So no Final Fantasy, please. RPGs with interesting combat mechanics are fine, though. * Games with lots of grinding or very slow-moving gameplay are going to lose my interest.

That's a shame because I really think Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy IX are some of the best games for the PS1 (both technically and in content). You (in plural) are free to disagree, but that's my honest opinion.

Posted: 10/19/2009 9:52 AM

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Walker_Boh

Former player

Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden

I loved Vandal Hearts. Granted is an RPG it has more strategic elements in it. Some maps can be sort of repetitive, but overall it's an awesome game. I also liked Alien Trilogy back in the days. It's an fps with (compared to today) pretty bad graphics, but also an awesome game to my memory. Sadly these are the only ones I remember now, that is not RPGs. I know I know, but I have to mention FF7 because it's one of the most awesome games ever.

/Walker Boh

Posted: 10/19/2009 10:07 AM

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Snake

Joined: 6/27/2007
Posts: 137
Location: Germany

You could take a look at the 3 Digimon World titles. Of course the Final Fantasy Series. Maybe some RPG's like Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Wild Arms or Grandia. (The most i even haven't played xD) Or a pretty underated game (imo) Granstream Saga.

Posted: 10/19/2009 10:10 AM

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pirate_sephiroth

Active player (308)

Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil

Some old things I can remember: Resident Evil was cool at the time. Get the Diretor's Cut, since it contains the original mode. Felony 11-79 (Runabout) was a great racing/adventure game. Crash Team Racing is better than Mario Kart Skullmonkeys is a funny platformer. Norse By Norsewest has interesting puzzles. And as Snake said, Wild Arms is pretty awesome. Bad 3D graphics in battles, but the whole game is all nice classic 2D.

"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself. It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success." - Onkar Ghate

Bisqwit wrote:

Drama, too long, didn't read, lol.

Posted: 10/19/2009 10:28 AM

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moozooh

Senior Moderator

Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
Location: Away

I nominate MDK, although you'd be far better off with a PC version. There are also Gradius Gaiden, considered by many to be the finest classic Gradius game, and Raiden DX, considered by many to be the finest classic Raiden game. :) There are a couple Treasure games for PS1, although I can't say if they're any good.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 10/19/2009 10:42 AM

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Mukki

Skilled player (1090)

Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom

It seems that you, like me, only have the motivation for plug-in-and-play games these days. The PSX does have some nice games that you can get into quickly. Crash Bandicoot 1 - 3 + CTR Rayman Tomba 2 Gunners Heaven Wild 9 Monkey Hero Oddworld series Those are the ones that spring to mind, but there are so many more out there.

http://tasvideos.org/Mukki.html

Posted: 10/19/2009 12:25 PM

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ElectroSpecter

Player (244)

Joined: 8/6/2006
Posts: 784
Location: Connecticut, USA

First of all, please get Metal Gear Solid. =] Definitely look into Brave Fencer Musashi. It's a pretty ridiculous game, but the music is awesome and it's very fun (platformer / RPG). Not the greatest graphics though. The Resident Evil games are awesome (2 is the best of the PSX choices). Ape Escape is amazing with great music. Klonoa is a fun platformer, and nice cartoony graphics. Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and Soul Reaver are both amazing games (though the former is extremely old and sort of looks it). I've played Parappa the Rapper on a demo disc a bazillion years ago, and it was extremely fun and unique, if you're into the rhythm action genre. The Spyro and Crash games are great if you like the collect random stuff games. I like Spyro the most of the two. Since everyone is actually talking about RPGs despite you asking them not to, I recommend either FFVIII or FFIX. VIII's battle and junctioning system is extremely versatile and fun, despite what people will tell you, and I only mention IX because the chocobo mini game is the absolute best one of any of the FFs. Not sure how you feel about tactical games, but Final Fantasy Tactics is definitely worth looking into.

My Backloggery

Posted: 10/19/2009 4:00 PM

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Derakon

Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960

Thanks for the recommendations, everyone! Tub: I already have the MMX series, and I'd assumed that SotN would be too expensive, used. Turns out it's actually reasonably-priced, so, score! Warp: fair enough. The Final Fantasy series mostly bothers me in the ways that it hasn't advanced since the 80's. Square's found a set of tropes that makes it games that people buy, and it's iteratively improving those tropes instead of looking for new ones. Which is fine for people like you who like it, but I see them occasionally make gems like Einhänder and wonder what they'd be capable of if they just tried. Moozooh: I've played MDK on the computer way back in the day, and I actually have MDK2 for the Dreamcast assuming my console still functions. In other news, searching for Gradius Gaiden on Amazon gets you a Cho Aniki game. ;_; ElectroSpecter: it's not that I don't want RPGs; I just don't want Square-style combat mechanics and random encounters. I played the hell out of Grandia II, which lets you see enemies on the map and has combat mechanics which let you manipulate the turn order (you can see your opponents preparing for attacks and try to cancel them, and the amount of time you need to prepare and recover from your own techniques depends on your skill levels). The story was tripe, but the gameplay was fun. Position in combat also mattered, though your very limited ability to control it meant that you were mostly just stuck taking advantage of enemy positions when your turn came around. And the soundtrack was enjoyable, which always helps. All else: thanks for the recommendations!

Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.

Posted: 10/19/2009 5:33 PM

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Warp

Banned User, Former player

Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland

Derakon wrote:

Warp: fair enough. The Final Fantasy series mostly bothers me in the ways that it hasn't advanced since the 80's. Square's found a set of tropes that makes it games that people buy, and it's iteratively improving those tropes instead of looking for new ones. Which is fine for people like you who like it, but I see them occasionally make gems like Einhänder and wonder what they'd be capable of if they just tried.

Maybe the purposely want to use the same mold for all FF games, and try different approaches with unrelated RPGs. They do have some games which are quite different, such as Valkyrie Profile (although it might be that in this case Square Enix is acting only as the publisher rather than the developer).

Posted: 10/20/2009 5:46 AM

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Sir_VG

He/Him

Player (39)

Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 1911
Location: Floating Tower

My favorite PSX game (and game overall) is Legend of Mana. You don't have to grind, it's got 3 great storylines (in one package), you can play it almost however you want, you've got great graphics, and you've got Yoko Shimomura. What more could you ask for?

Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing

Posted: 10/20/2009 6:19 AM

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pirate_sephiroth

Active player (308)

Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil

Sir VG wrote:

My favorite PSX game (and game overall) is Legend of Mana. You don't have to grind, it's got 3 great storylines (in one package), you can play it almost however you want, you've got great graphics, and you've got Yoko Shimomura. What more could you ask for?

Maybe something like this..

"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself. It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success." - Onkar Ghate

Bisqwit wrote:

Drama, too long, didn't read, lol.

Posted: 10/20/2009 12:58 PM

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ElectroSpecter

Player (244)

Joined: 8/6/2006
Posts: 784
Location: Connecticut, USA

Sir VG wrote:

My favorite PSX game (and game overall) is Legend of Mana. You don't have to grind, it's got 3 great storylines (in one package), you can play it almost however you want, you've got great graphics, and you've got Yoko Shimomura. What more could you ask for?

I had problems following the storyline of this game, which was the main thing I didn't like about it. It seemed discontinuous and choppy... Characters who you get to know during one event will appear in later events and act like complete strangers. Speaking of this game though, has anyone played Threads of Fate? (Square advertised Threads of Fate, LoM, and Chrono Cross as three great releases during their "Summer of Fun" event; I think that's what it was called). I believe I played a demo and didn't like it, so only ended up getting LoM and CC. I never got the backpack for getting all three. =[

My Backloggery

Posted: 10/20/2009 3:50 PM

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nesrocks

He/Him

Player (241)

Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil

I recommend Ridge Racer Revolution for its impressive sense of speed and adrenaline. You really need to challenge the white or black cars and then drive them. It's nuts. Ridge Racer R4 has nice graphics, but it's not as good as rev. I also enjoy tekken 2 for the animations and the amazing soundtrack. But don't play it if you hate blocky 3D. You can also experiment Tobal 2. It's a fighting game with hundreds of playable characters, but the main point of the game for me is the rpg mode. Unfortunatelly, it's in japanese only so I never got too far. Um Jammer Lammy is more interesting to me than Parappa. Final Fantasy Tactics is the best PSX game evar, but you can play an improved version on the PSP. Castlevania SoTN if you haven't played it yet. International Track and Field 2000 for multiplayer fun. Shaolin if you want 8 players simultaneous Souldcalibur-like arena hand-to-hand martial arts. Other than that, the playstation had a lot of versions of games from several platforms, but none of them are the best version, so I can't really recommend it.

aka Nesrocks http://www.youtube.com/user/UoBtExFODA https://nesrocks.com https://twitter.com/bitinkstudios

Posted: 10/21/2009 4:20 AM

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pirate_sephiroth

Active player (308)

Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil

FODA wrote:

I also enjoy tekken 2 for the animations and the amazing soundtrack. But don't play it if you hate blocky 3D.

Yeah, if you like people moving like robots you can't miss that one.

You can also experiment Tobal 2. It's a fighting game with hundreds of playable characters, but the main point of the game for me is the rpg mode. Unfortunatelly, it's in japanese only so I never got too far.

http://www.romhacking.net/trans/604/

Final Fantasy Tactics is the best PSX game evar, but you can play an improved version on the PSP.

I like the GBA version better, it's focused on entertaining. The PSX game has an acceptable storyline. But it is EXTREMELY slow, everyone looks the same and has a lot of useless features, such as "terrains".

International Track and Field 2000 for multiplayer fun.

Hahah I've completely forgot about that. Yeah it was awesome back in the day.

"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself. It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success." - Onkar Ghate

Bisqwit wrote:

Drama, too long, didn't read, lol.

Posted: 10/21/2009 3:19 PM

Quote

nesrocks

He/Him

Player (241)

Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil

pirate_sephiroth wrote:

Yeah, if you like people moving like robots you can't miss that one.

Well... robots with rhythm then.

http://www.romhacking.net/trans/604/

Thanks!

I like the GBA version better, it's focused on entertaining. The PSX game has an acceptable storyline. But it is EXTREMELY slow, everyone looks the same and has a lot of useless features, such as "terrains".

Useless doesn't mean that you have to use them. Ignore it, just like you ignore the zodiac signs. And I find the story line to be extremely good... But one thing I don't like about the GBA version is that judge. I want him to die.

aka Nesrocks http://www.youtube.com/user/UoBtExFODA https://nesrocks.com https://twitter.com/bitinkstudios

Posted: 10/21/2009 4:05 PM

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BigBoct

He/Him

Editor, Former player

Joined: 8/9/2007
Posts: 1692
Location: Tiffin/Republic, OH

Disruptor was a pretty fun pre-dual-analog FPS.

Previous Name: boct1584

Posted: 10/21/2009 5:57 PM

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erokky

Former player

Joined: 4/6/2006
Posts: 462

Star Ocean 2, anyone?

Posted: 10/22/2009 1:15 AM

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Zeupar

Joined: 5/14/2007
Posts: 525
Location: Pisces-Cetus filament

pirate_sephiroth wrote:

Resident Evil was cool at the time. Get the Diretor's Cut, since it contains the original mode.

If he owns a Nintendo GameCube, he should play the remake for that console instead.

Mukki wrote:

Oddworld series

^This. These games are unique.

FODA wrote:

I also enjoy tekken 2 for the animations and the amazing soundtrack. But don't play it if you hate blocky 3D.

Tekken 3 is way better in every aspect. Have you played it? You should play these games that nobody mentioned: - Silent Hill. Its graphics aged badly, but still. This game has something special. - The Adventures of Lomax. - Driver and Driver 2: Back on the Streets. - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. It has great levels and soundtrack. And Spider-man!

AzumaK wrote: I swear my 1 year old daughter's favorite TASVideo is your R4MI run :3 xxNKxx wrote: ok thanks handsome feos :D Help improving TASVideos!

Posted: 10/22/2009 1:18 AM

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theenglishman

Active player (441)

Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada

I second the Metal Gear Solid recommendation obviously :P Also, the Crash Bandicoot games and Tony Hawk 2 were staples of my childhood, so get those. Awesome games.

My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(

Posted: 10/22/2009 4:12 AM

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nesrocks

He/Him

Player (241)

Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil

Zeupar wrote:

Tekken 3 is way better in every aspect. Have you played it?

Yes, I've played it a lot, but the mechanics are different, they are looser. I prefer tekken 1 and 2.

aka Nesrocks http://www.youtube.com/user/UoBtExFODA https://nesrocks.com https://twitter.com/bitinkstudios

Posted: 10/22/2009 9:41 AM

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Tub

Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377

tony hawk is one of those games that's more enjoyable on a different platform. Like the PC.

m00