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A Little Black Friday Decision Making Help


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So I saw that Gamestop is doing "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" on pre-owned products, and I'm just making an inquiry as to what exactly I should pick as my trio. I have a PS3, a Wii U, and a 3DS.

My first gut choice is Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, it's going for only $15, which would probably make it the game I get free. I've been wanting to try it for a while, and I liked V and VIII a lot. But I heard the DS version lacks party chat over the iOS port, which after all the cute lines from having the kids follow me everywhere in DQV is a disappointment. It should control much better though and it'd be impossible to get all the party chat lines in a single run due to the large cast, and I'd probably only play this once.

 

Other games I'm considering are:

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation. More DQ? Well if I have two Zenithian games, might as well have the third and final in the trilogy as well. Plus I like a good class system. I'd consider VII instead, but that game is monstrously long and slow to start I hear. Still, is it better than VI? And no I don't want to get a triple DQ sundae- too much traditional JRPG all at once.

Sonic Generations or Sonic Colors. I used to play a little Sonic when I was young, I played Adventure 2 Battle (up to Biolizard), Shadow (in full), some Heroes, and Advance (plus that Battle spinoff). I recently played Freedom Planet too, which is Sonic-ish and was fun (on Normal difficulty, had to drop it to Easy for Brevon). I've heard these are the two high notes of the Sonic franchise post-A2. I think Generations is supposed to be better, but I'm open to trying either.

3D Dot Game Heroes. A fairly obscure Legend of Zelda knockoff, but it appears to be a decent one. I like 2D Zeldas, but is it too dated? The original LoZ is bad by modern standards, ALttP and the Oracles on the other hand are timeless. Any detailed opinions on this one?

Donkey Kong Country Returns/Tropical Freeze. These are admittedly less likely games for me to consider. I'm only middling in my platformer talents, and I've heard these two are pretty tough. Still, they're somewhere on my radar. Just how grueling are they?

Dynasty Warriors 8. I have DW7 and WO3H, so just how many revamped/new movesets are there in 8? I don't want to oversaturate myself in Warriors games since their gameplay loses its luster for me if I play them too much, so I want to space out my purchases and wait for the new content to reach a significant level.

Infinite Space. A niche strategy RPG I've heard some good of on the DS. I know it has minor issues with used copies- but thats the only way it comes. The story is supposed to be excellent, but the gameplay a little clunky- how much so?

 

Any other recommendations? I'm JRPGs and strategy RPGs, plus a dose of action-adventure, platformers, and some other games.

*Sigh* It seems like my pool of possible old pre-owned games I'm interested in is shrinking- I'm both happy and disappointed by this. My backlog is massive though.

@eclipse Can you remove double post? It doesn't look like I can edit it to say nothing without affecting the first post too. Probably since both have opening post status I'd imagine.

Edited by Interdimensional Observer
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So I saw that Gamestop is doing "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" on pre-owned products, and I'm just making an inquiry as to what exactly I should pick as my trio. I have a PS3, a Wii U, and a 3DS.

My first gut choice is Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, it's going for only $15, which would probably make it the game I get free. I've been wanting to try it for a while, and I liked V and VIII a lot. But I heard the DS version lacks party chat over the iOS port, which after all the cute lines from having the kids follow me everywhere in DQV is a disappointment. It should control much better though and it'd be impossible to get all the party chat lines in a single run due to the large cast, and I'd probably only play this once.

 

Other games I'm considering are:

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation. More DQ? Well if I have two Zenithian games, might as well have the third and final in the trilogy as well. Plus I like a good class system. I'd consider VII instead, but that game is monstrously long and slow to start I hear. Still, is it better than VI? And no I don't want to get a triple DQ sundae- too much traditional JRPG all at once.

Sonic Generations or Sonic Colors. I used to play a little Sonic when I was young, I played Adventure 2 Battle (up to Biolizard), Shadow (in full), some Heroes, and Advance (plus that Battle spinoff). I recently played Freedom Planet too, which is Sonic-ish and was fun (on Normal difficulty, had to drop it to Easy for Brevon). I've heard these are the two high notes of the Sonic franchise post-A2. I think Generations is supposed to be better, but I'm open to trying either.

3D Dot Game Heroes. A fairly obscure Legend of Zelda knockoff, but it appears to be a decent one. I like 2D Zeldas, but is it too dated? The original LoZ is bad by modern standards, ALttP and the Oracles on the other hand are timeless. Any detailed opinions on this one?

Donkey Kong Country Returns/Tropical Freeze. These are admittedly less likely games for me to consider. I'm only middling in my platformer talents, and I've heard these two are pretty tough. Still, they're somewhere on my radar. Just how grueling are they?

Dynasty Warriors 8. I have DW7 and WO3H, so just how many revamped/new movesets are there in 8? I don't want to oversaturate myself in Warriors games since their gameplay loses its luster for me if I play them too much, so I want to space out my purchases and wait for the new content to reach a significant level.

Infinite Space. A niche strategy RPG I've heard some good of on the DS. I know it has minor issues with used copies- but thats the only way it comes. The story is supposed to be excellent, but the gameplay a little clunky- how much so?

 

Any other recommendations? I'm JRPGs and strategy RPGs, plus a dose of action-adventure, platformers, and some other games. Reflexes are my weakness.

*Sigh* It seems like my pool of possible old pre-owned games I'm interested in is shrinking- I'm both happy and disappointed by this. My backlog is massive though.

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If I were in your position, I'd get...

Donkey Kong Country Returns/Tropical Freeze - Tropical Freeze is currently The Best 2D Platformer Ever. Since you own the platform for which it is exclusive, either you have zero interest in the platforming genre, or you need it right now. Returns isn't far behind, but the 3DS version has an extra world. These games sh** all over the New Super Mario series.

Sonic Generations or Sonic Colors - These are both great Sonic games, but Generations is best played on PC, with 60 fps and a mod for the daytime stages of Unleashed. So I'd get Colors instead.

3D Dot Game Heroes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL3qVfemEp4

 

Edited by Zera
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Ah, I remember the buy 2 get 1 free deal. I'd take advantage of that all the time years ago. The trick is to pick out three games at or around the same price point. Since the game that's free will be whatever is cheapest. So keep price in mind as you pick out your three games. You want them to cost about the same, but you also want to want them enough to spend that amount of money on them.

For PS3, there's a lot of remaster compilations for PS2 classics that tend to be a great deal if you missed out on playing them a decade ago. Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper, Jak & Daxter, God of War, Metal Gear Solid, etc. To your tastes, I'd most recommend Ratchet & Clank, an action platformer series with a hook of purchasing new weapons to use and from the second game onward has those weapons start to accrue their own experience points to upgrade into better versions. All three games in the HD collection are consistently good, and worth 30 bucks going by the price it says online. Unfortunately, I can say from personal experience the remasters weren't perfect. There are many sound and visual glitches, particularly in the third game. But still totally enjoyable if its you're first time through. I also notice the Infamous 1 and 2 collection for 15, that's a steal. Great open world action games with a comic book flair. My only gripe with these two games is the characters are not at all compelling which drags down the story, but the gameplay is great and there's a hook in being able to role play a good or evil version of Cole MacGrath through choices in the story.

Finding great deals for 3DS and Wii U is harder, as these games tend to not drop in price until they become part of the "Nintendo Selects" program. From there, I can certainly recommend a few. The remasters for Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Wind Waker are all great. Would definitely recommend picking up any of those games if you haven't experienced them in any format before. As for platformers, the best picks are Kirby Triple Deluxe or DKC: Tropical Freeze. Tropical Freeze is, in my opinion, the best white knuckle 2D platformer I've ever played, even better than the original SNES trilogy. The caveat there is it's also a pretty challenging game that you can only expect to beat with a healthy level of persistence and patience. And its post game content and optional objectives are all there to cater to platforming veterans that really want to test their grit. Again, incredible platformer, but there isn't much to offer if platformers aren't already your thing. That's why I'd also consider looking at Kirby Triple Deluxe instead. One of the better Kirby games in its own right and one of the easier, turn your brain off entries in the series. It never asks you to do anything difficult until you're grinding out the harder modes like the True Arena for completion. And like any kirby game, it's always the player's choice selecting which copy ability you want to go through a level with. This is distinctly different than how DKC asks you to get through a difficult section using only your rolling and jumping.

As for what's left on the list of twenty dollar nintendo selects...Mario & Luigi Dream Team is okay. Totally forgettable among series fans but there's nothing functionally wrong with the game that it doesn't earn a spot in somebody's JRPG backlog. Looks like they're selling Bowser's Inside Story for the same price. Though it's a DS game, it's my personal favorite of that franchise because the bulk of the gameplay is playing as Bowser. It gets bogged down by gimmick gameplay sections as Mario and Luigi, but is the most memorable for my tastes.

Hope this helps. I tried not to do a wall of text by focusing on just highest recommendations of cheap games, but there's still so much to say, especially when it comes to the PS3's library.

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Can't comment on too many of the games listed here but I can't talk about DKC Tropical Freeze and Returns and maybe a little bit about DQ.  

First off the Wii version of DKC: Returns has waggle for this reason and this reason alone I recommend the 3DS Version if you're interested in picking up this game I recommend just starting with returns and if you like it pick up Tropical Freeze. If you want to just start with the best game of the two that would be Tropical Freeze but it can be hard to go back to returns once you play tropical freeze so I recommend returns first.  

As far as difficulty goes I would be lying if I said the games are not hard, but I'm not known for being the best in the world that platformers I'm just decent (for example despite my adoration of the Mega Man X series I cannot for the life of me beat a single one of them I can only ever get the Sigma I can never beat him Mega Man final bosses are bullcrap) and was able to beat both games as they are definitely challenging but not impossible and the hardest parts of the game can be memorized (i.e. the rocket barrel most of your frustration from these games will come from these segments, Returns is especially guilty here). If you're up for something challenging these games are definitely doable but don't expect to get even close to fully completing them because although the main game is totally doable for someone of average talent, the optional stuff is absolutely insane. TLDR; If you enjoy a good challenge that's doable for someone average talent I definitely recommend both.

For Dragon Quest just some notes on pricing Squares games rarely go on sale on the App Store but if they do go on sale you might find some deals right went black Friday hits  All main line dragon quest game except 9 and up and 7 (3DS and PSX exclusive)  are available on the App Store the more recent ones 4 and up cost $15 and 3 cost 10$, 1&2 cost 5$.  So if you're more interested in the iOS version of any of these (4 being the only "improved one" are the same the same as their DS counterparts).  I personally recommend against iOS ports of Console/handheld game while functionally they're fine the controls for these games can be pretty annoying, but if you can deal with the touch controls it's not a problem I suppose but I have personally regretted every single port I've bought. 

 As for recommendations on the games specifically. Personally I have only played the 3DS version of 7 and the DS version of 5.  So I can recommend 7 but I never played the other ones, though but I hear they're good.  If you have more questions about this I would just ask Glaceon Mage she would know best. 

As far as other recommendations go I'm sure you know most of them at ones I will throw at you but whatever i'll tell you what I know  i'll go by system lets with start Wii U it only has two RPG's worth mentioning but I'm sure you already know about them (Xenoblade X and TMS) though if you some haven't played them yet I recommend them, for Wii there's also the original Xenoblade & Last Story which are good. Color Splash and Super Paper Mario also teeter on the edge of being RPG's but trend more towards puzzle games, Color Splash for what it's worth is a good game unlike Sticker Star just not as good as Thousand Year Door or Super Paper Mario,  i'd say it's about on par with the N64 title  if a bit more flawed as a whole.  

PS3's home to a ton of JRPGs but I didn't play many of them,  but one I did play was Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch,  I was drawn to this game but it's incredibly beautiful art style and it is a beautiful game, the gameplay itself is a bit like hardcore real time Pokémon.  It's a bit flawed as it drags near end game and get a bit grindy there, and worst of all is capture mechanic is 100% random and very flawed. But it overall very charming and good game I recommend it. 

DS/3DS:  here is my opportunity to talk up a highly underrated game Age of Empires of the DS yep you read that correctly this game is surprisingly amazing no real story or anything but as a pure Turn Based Strategy game it's a fun mix of advanced wars and the more progression styled gameplay of Age series. But Empires only do not get Mythologies for the DS. Other than that there's Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced A2 which is really good.  I'll just leave it there there's more I can recommend but I'm sure you know most lol.

Edited by Locke087
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Just find Conception 2 and you'll be good for the year.

Sonic Colors was decent, and this is from a guy who REALLY does not like Sonic. All of the little Color Powers were pretty cool, from Violet's Void flying around sucking in everything in sight and then some, to a level where you have to play the entire thing using Yellow's Drill and one missed item pickup could mean you couldn't keep the Drill going long enough to survive, then to Cyan's Laser shenanigans, which included getting split by a prism into four or five small lasers and bounced around and then joined back up.

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I'd consider VII instead, but that game is monstrously long and slow to start I hear. Still, is it better than VI?

4 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I'd consider VII instead, but that game is monstrously long and slow to start I hear. Still, is it better than VI?

Yes it is better. Slow to start is putting it nicely. Between the cutscenes and the puzzle dungeon, you can go like 35-45 minutes before you even fight a basic slime enemy. DQ7 is in a whole other league of slow compared to the six~12 minute long cutscenes you might put up with on a PSX RPG. 

 

For  the other game's I'm going to be against RPGs at all times, and Pro action games and puzzle games. 

Donkey Kong Country Returns can be skipped- I think the level design in the first 5 worlds is kinda generic, it only gets good for the last 3 worlds+the temple levels.

Donkey Kong Country Returns: Tropical Freeze is a must have- don't worry too much about your ability. If you "let yourself" you can use the in-game shop items or go back to a previous level so that you can start a hard level that gives you trouple with Dixie/Cranky so that you can use their glide/cane jump to get you through the section that stumped you. 

I don't think they will be discounted, but before looking into "indie" 2D zelda-clones, I would use the Wii U's ability to access the original Wii shop channel to by the classic Genesis and Turbografx zelda clones- "Crusader of Centy" and "Neutopia" . Virtual Console sadly doesn't have PSX's Alundra or Dreamcast's Elemental Gimmick Gear. The Wii virtual console (not Wii U) DOES also have the similiar, but less ambitious Zombies ate My Neighbors and Beyond Oasis. Although beyond sharing the top down perspective and samey controls/combat, I wouldn't readily compare them to LttP era Zelda. 

Also I could list like whole pages of action, platformer, and puzzle games from 8 and 16 bit consoles to get before the 2019 closure of the virtual console service, but I'll let the "reflex" requirement stand and not bring them up.

Wii U games to care about - Puyo Puyo Tetris / zelda Botw / Tropical Freeze / Yoshi's Wooly World / Bayonneta 2 /  Pikmin 3 / Captain Toad / The Oddworld  and the Another World ports /Mario Kart 8 /and a couple more that only apply for people with really MP intensive households now that the console's life cycle is too far to justify it's niche games.  Also FE Tokyo Mirage Sessions is more interesting imo than the RPGs you mentioned although the only RPGs I would ever ever recommend for Black Friday or ANY other time would be Wizardy 8 and Divinity Original Sin 1&2 for all PC.

I'm not going to bring up my PS3 picks because I'm pro- first person shooter, and I can tell from your post you would ignore that.

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The only games from the list that I have played are dq 4 and 6. Both are interesting. dq 6 has a class system similar to 7, but is less long. dq 4 has little party custimisation, other than deciding which 4 of the 8 partymembers are in the party at any given time. The first half of 4 is really interesting (where you play as individual party members, and then play as the hero as he recruits them), but the second half is just kind of generic. In both 6 and 7, the class system does not start untill late (altough the 3ds remake of 7 cuts a few hours off of the opening sequence, it is still really long). Honestly, if you have to get one dq game, i would recomend 9. The plot is not quite as good as the other ones, but the gameplay is leagues better IMO (think 8's skill point and forging systems, with a class/job system on top of that).

Other totaly recomended ds/3ds games that you might find a gamestop (which you may or may not have played, and which tend to involve minimal reflexes):

Chrono trigger: this is the the definitive version of the classic snes rpg you have probably heard of. Unlike, say, ds ff3 or 4, it is an enhanced port as opposed to a remake. The ds version is full of extras and ease of use adjustments.

Puzzle quest, challenge of the warlords: an epic ds rpg, except all the battles are games of bejeweled. May involve some reflexes.

Radient historia: arguably the best original ds rpg. Will get an enhanced 3ds port next year, so you probably want to wait till then.

devil surviver: great (but really hard) ds srpg with a really dark story. The 3ds remaster is better, and the digital copy ocashionaly comes on sale. also has a sequal that I have not played (with its own 3ds version)

Etrian odyssey 4: 3ds first person dungion crawling rpg (think Wizardry). This one is the best in the series imo (have not played the ds games, but have played the remakes of two of them.)

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Has it's issues (like way too many tutorials and permenant missables), but i still had a ton of fun with this one. It has a classic jrpg combat system, with environmental puzzles that you solve by using the same magic you use in battle. The presentation is also top notch.

Final Fantasy 3 ds: total 3d remake of the nes game. Great game, but very grindy at the end, and later ports of this version apparently help with that, so get one of those instead. There is also a total ff4 remake that i have not played.

Pokemon mystery dungion explorers of time/darkness/sky:  a rouguelike (in the classic top-down dungion crawler sense) with pokemon characters. Had some annoying mechanics, but was still quite good. I played darkness, but sky is the enhanced 3rd version with more contents. Also, the only pokemon games afik where skitty is arguably the best starter.

I have other suggestions, (like new 3ds virtual console earthbound) that you can't buy a pyhsical copy of at gamestop.

Edited by sirmola
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