Prince Levin

If you are an SRPG fan, this is the SMT game to start with. Devil Survivor is the only SRPG in the SMT series that has been released stateside (the SNES Majin Tensei games were SRPGS too but Japan only).

Best: Emperor Alvis Worst: Bastard Desmond

Anyone else played this? If you are a fan of SRPGs it is a must play, amongst the very best IMO. It actually has an aggressive and intelligent AI, and there is a lot of strategy involved in becoming victorious whne you consider the demon fusing, the inherent skill system, exploiting enemy weaknesses to get extra turns whilst robbing them of their turns, and many other factors. On top of this are multiple routes, a dark story taking place in modern Japan, and music consisting of rock guitar riffery and solos.

Cloud was cliche back then even. The spiky hair, and the typical look for a shonen anime protagonist. For the big sword, just look at Guts from 'Berserk' which has been out since the 80s. Cloud is overrated because the game, FF7 is overrated. Now I'm not a fan of the series, (I hate random encounters, find the battle systems incredibly boring, and really nothing in the series appeals to me) however true fans of the series who played the FFs before 7 consider it incredibly overrated as well. Sephiroth gets a lot of hype, but at least he has a pretty cool design I must admit.

It is a fairly niche genre, well at least on consoles (not too familiar with PC games)...so this could be a way of people finding about great Srpgs they never played or even heard about. Ok for me besides FE series I would say 1. Tactics Ogre: LUCT, Dragon Force, Der Langrisser 4. Ogre Battle 64 5. Ogre Battle (SNES), Final Fantasty Tactics 7. Ogre Battle: KotL, Shining Force RoDD, Shining Force 2 10. Valkyrie Profile: CoP EDIT: Forgot Disgaea which I would put tied at #5 with the other entries

Favorite class hands down is mamkute. Little girl who turns into a fearsome dragon and scorches her enemies to death, what's not to love? 2. Pegasus knight (I have a soft spot for flyers in any game, and I like Peg knights much more than Wyvern knights...whilst Wyvern Knights often have higher defense and strength, they are not only super weak to arrows but magic as well, whilst Peg knights are only weak towards arrows and usually have high res making them great to kill mages. Add that peg knights are almost always attractive women and in some games on promotion can be flying healers as well and you got a winner) 3. Berzerker-Maybe the most intimidating looking unit, usually with high strength and a crit boost and great animation 4. Valkyrie-Mounted user of magic and staves is pretty awesome 5. Sage-There always seems to be a well written and powerful character who is one of these. Love emperor and bard (Levin) but those are exceptions to the usual classes

Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury. Pure cheese. However Garao MOTW is an awesome game Cloud - The giant sword is cliche, and the personality not to my liking. FF7 is not an awesome game. (the opposite) Roy - The runty appearance, and I hated his battle animation as well...an embarassment to Eliwood.

Gotta go with FE3 book 2 as well

I wouldn't consider Legend of Zelda a hard game, especially compared to many of its NES brethren. It just takes time, exploration, that's all...but it is a game that is beatable by most. Then there is a game like Battletoads which I don't know anyone who has beaten that game, though I'm sure someone has, somewhere. Super Ghouls and Ghosts is terribly brutal as well, think you are close to the end...wait you have to do all the levels over again!!!! I thought Blaster Master was pretty damn tough as well. Contra series as a whole is tough, I'd say Contra 1 being the easiest with its 30 live classic konami code, Contra 4 the second easiest (on normal at least, I haven't beaten hard mode), Alien wars the second hardest, and the genesis Contra (Hard corps?)being maybe the hardest. Not counting the 3d ones of course. Megaman series is fun challenge, a game that will pose good challenge for many players, but still beatable by most players. As fighting games go, yeah GG with its roman cancels, insane combos, being very strict on inputs, and with every character being so different is the most difficult I've played. You can't just walk in and be decent at it, even if you are experienced at fighters...prepare to spend a long time learning. I'm sure there are other NES games that are near impossible, let's see...ah yes, what about Amagon? or Xexyz? to name a few.

I don't use FAQs so no secret shops (though I was lucky in FE3 and found one), abusing bosses or arenas seems tedious and I don't even like grinding in standard RPGS so that's a big no, if I find a stat booster I'll use it, I never reset on level ups...play the whole level again for a level up? Besides which that's the way the chips fall and that's the beauty of the RNG..if you get 0 stat ups that's just the way it goes, besides which you don't need killer stats to beat any of the games.

Just got into this series recently. Played SF1 remake, SF2 and am in the process of playing SF CD. Zylo is cool, but it seems I have bad luck with beastmen since him, Gestalt...and now Gyan (SF CD bk 1) are pretty subpar (Zylo was definitely the best of the 3). SF1 had really memorable characters like Gort the veteren Dwarf, Bleu the cowardly dragon, and Guntz the rhino in a steam suit...I also thought it had the better story out of SF1 and 2. However SF2 had a lot or humor and charm, and what was so cool was it was like a regular RPG such as say Dragon Quest but with strategic battles. Really unique in that way. SF CD is more like FE, in you go from battle to battle without any exploration. It is a real fun series from what I've experienced thusfar, light hearted, with a simple but entertaining battle system. Terrain is used to great effect, and the map layouts are often very interesting making the strategic focus more on positioning. BTW Shining Force 3, fan made translation patches are being made for Scenarios 2 and 3.

The timeless megaman series, I love the classic series best played all 9 of them and the gaiden with Treble and Bass, played X1-4 (1-3 were very good), played ZX and ZX advent which were alright (the latter had an amazing final stage), enjoyed the zero series which brought old school challenge to the GBA, enjoyed the first BN game but never played another (I prefer MM as a fairly straightforward action series). Never tried the 3d megaman games. Megaman 9 showed that MM gameplay is timeless

-Zoma (DQ 3) -Count Dracula (Castlevania) -Thanatos (SOM) -Queen Zeal (CT)

Tactics Ogre > Final Fantasy Tactics QFT! It isn't even a contest, the replayability of LUCT is insane...not just all the classes, hidden characters, but the branching paths not just for a few chapters but for a large portion of the game...the ability to make decisions that influence the plotline, the music, amazing stuff. KOL was good too, but doesn't compare...loved Ogre battle and Ogre battle 64 as well though that is RTS. Hopefully (I know it is a long shot) this series is revived. As for FFT series, I did enjoy the first game a lot...until you got a certain godlike character, but FFTA and FFTA2 I couldn't get into at all.

Nay-I would prefer them try different settings. Taking place on ships could actually be cool. Taking place in quasi middle ages East Asia would be interesting, or in a more primitive tribal setting that still had sophisticated politics. Nay-Don't like grinding. I like the fairly straightforward approach of most games. Yay-She has a lot of good qualities

Great stuff, Levin pwning the bandits...and how the battle of Nodion carried out. Lachesis's personality has been fleshed out a lot more, loved how she defeated Elliot herself (as well as a few of his soilders). Eltoshan calling Lachesis his 'one true love', wow. He calls on the god Hezul to protect his wife, son...and one true love. Interesting how he says he'll give his life to protect 'her' instead of 'them', leaving no doubt as to who is most important to him. Thanks a lot for translating this stuff again, take your time, I think we all are very thankful and appreciative that this is being translated.

Topic.

1. For putting tier lists in their own subforum, they could be added to the Debate subforum since tier threads are all about arguing. However it doesn't really matter, as long as character efficiency and tier discussions stay in their respective threads...which they often do not. Notice how in this very thread tier discussion started about Sothe, Dart (page 2). Stop invading threads. 2. It seems my comments here have been taken as a personal attack to some of the tierists, or a revenge of sorts...lol. I'm simply stating my opinion about the matter at hand and have been personally attacked about it. This is the hostility I'm talking about. 3. In my experiments on these threads I've found that discussions are rarely calm and friendly. Instead of just responding to the points of a post about this character or that, there is often times an offensive judgement on the person him or herself as well. Egos and hostility abound. Perhaps the repressed anger of some tierists about RL is released in these threads, and insecurities lead to narcissism and trying to put oneself above others.

Lol, what's the big deal? What's with all thie seriousness? Since you are referring to all tier enthusiests as 'we', let me say this. You, the political party of tierists, have continually stated you don't have problems with people liking characters. However it is pretty much guaranteed if someone says 'I like Gordon, he rocks!' Someone is going to come in with their nerdy stat mumbo jumbo and slam the person and the character. Goading that person into argument, when the person saying 'gordon rocks' could have just meant I like his attitude/personality. Tierists are ready to jump on people for any subjective comment about a character. 2. Since you say tier lists are usually not based on ranked runs, then they really are pointless since you can use pretty much any combination of characters and still beat the game. 3. I have commented in tier list debates, just to see how it is. The lol, giant egos, worshipping of tierist veterens, and general hostility was amusing. 4. Comparing it to chess? Chess is the timeless game of pure strategy, debating stats is nothing like it. 5. 'Prevent spreading misinformation' Are you the government? Who cares, so then some people new to the game will use someone who isn't necessarily the 'best' so what? Will that lead to some dire tragedy? Anyways people nowadays spend too much time looking to use the 'best' character or characters, instead of just using who they like and experimenting for themselves. 6. Many threads have been derailed, when some comment starts a geeky tier debate when it has absolutely nothing to do with the topic. Tier discussions should stay in their respective threads.

Well she does end up with Fin who is a stand up guy, reminiscent of her brother perhaps. However her predestined pairs are either a thief or a mercenary.

1. People take it way to seriously. 2. It often derails other topics. 3. 9 times out of 10, if a person says he or she likes this character and said character is 'low or low mid tier' someone will slam the person even though 'liking' a character may have nothing to do with his/her efficiency. 4. As I said before, egos and hostility often enter discussions. 5. It is rather pointless when you think about it, unless you want to do a ranked run. 6. Fire emblem is a game, games are for fun. Moreover FE, besides wifi SD, is a 1 player experience. With fighting games at least there seems to be a point especially for those hardcore gamers who enter tournaments and all that.

Amen Superbus. Giant egos and hostility seem to abound in tier list discussion or character discussion...which actually pretty hilarious when you think about it. There isn't really a problem if tier list and character discussion stay in their respected topics though, whatever floats peoples' boats...but when they invade other topics that's another story.

She is great with Resire, but with the much heavier Aura she isn't very useful offensively though still handy for her stave use. When she gets Narga with its ridiculous bonuses she is a monster.

Best: Lyn as Bladelord Worst: Archer