Hearts of Iron
Europa Universalis
Sid Meyer’s Civilization
Armored Core (with a bonus freebie title)
Civ has a lot of old fans since civ 1 or 2 that just buy and play any new civ game that comes out. I had: Civ 1 Civ 2 + Addons Call to Power (which was no official civ) Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri Civ 4 + Addons Freeciv Civ 5 + Addons Civ: Beyond Earth Civ 6 + Addons Unciv
Here’s a hot take. I really like the leveling system in Final Fantasy 2.
I loved it too! Until I learned you can attack your own party to essentially powerlevel. Couldn’t stop myself from abusing it instead of doing some proper leveling.
I think it’s worth noting that if you’re playing the Pixel Remaster version, it’s significantly less jank than the original from the NES. They also made the trap rooms a lot less brutal. That said the game is overheated for sure. It had ideas that didn’t pan out but it also was pretty ambitious for a NES game.
The first version I played was the dawn of souls on the GBA. Never tried the og.
That’s why you like it, then. Every version of FF2 beyond the original has made the levelling less awful as well as try to fix up some of its other
If you go back and try an English translation (or can read Japanese I guess)of the original you’ll find its a shit ton of pointless grinding that just hurts to play
Im usually ok with a grind and some pain in older JRPGs but FF2 is not ok
fallout 1, and fallout 2 are amazing games. yes it helps to use the new community engines for modern computers, but its hard to find that level of narrative engagement in any modern games. (fallout new vegas is also excellent)
Yeah I was going to post the same. The games themselves were awesome stories, and half the fun was replaying the game and trying to get overpowered as quick as possible, or do a dumb character run or a charismatic pacifist run or whatever.
But yeah, the engine is so janky that I can understand modern gamers being put off.
I maintain that Witcher 1 and 2 are better story rpgs than 3.
Witcher 3 is a beautiful game with lots of strengths, but balance and pacing are completely lost to the open world dynamic.
The Witcher 1 is incredibly painful to play, though. I played through it, but it felt incredibly unbalanced at times and just wasn’t as well designed as the sequels.
I do get that. I played through them in order a few years ago but I’m also an older guy who doesn’t mind old janky games as much.
I actually had to take a couple of months off between 2 and 3 because it was such a jarring transition.
Granted I haven’t played them since they first came out, but far cry was great and the second one was ground breaking. The second one also started the trend of memorable, nuanced villains with the Jackal.
It’s kinda why I hated farcry 5. Joseph seed wasn’t nuanced, he was a religious zealot with no redeeming qualities, and since I despise religion I found him insufferable and not interesting. Also the bad guy in 6 was pretty straight forward and boring
A lot of people meme about the malaria in Far Cry 2 as being annoying but personally I hated the instantly respawning checkpoints wayyy more. Getting the malaria pills side quest adds to the flavour and danger of the land, and like 1 button prompt once in awhile, while not ideal, isn’t the worst and can add into the tension when if flairs up at the wrong time.
But clearing a checkpoint, realising you made a wrong turn, turn back and needing to fight at the same checkpoint again? Gah!
