THE ULTIMATE RPG PROJECT

oh jesus, bards tale 1 is asking for five thousand gold just to heal one hitpoint .__.

and then it'll ask for another similarly high price to actually heal the character.

i need around 20,000 gold to revive and heal the last two party members, and then another 8000 gold to get two of my casters to the next spell level, before i can go back into a dungeon and make some progress... ;___;

this game hates me! ive barely even made 4000 gold after an hour of surface dwelling!

What?! That's crazy! Take my advice and play the NES-version: 1 gold per HP.

Well, I'm going to start the Bard's Tale today, any tips?

Play the NES-version. Grind. Always make sure your Bard gets a drink before you leave the starting area. Magic Water is super effective against Undead and Disbelieve dispels Summoned monsters.

Well, the city sure is confusing. They tried to do a 3D city but like a dugeon in Wizardry so every house is like a wall or something. Anyway, the graphics are awesome, no more wireframe graphics.

I'm using a pre-made party without much luck, they keep dying and the healing fee keeps going up. Oh well, gonna keep trying.

if you're playing the dos box version (for old save bonuses from wizardry (makes starting up easier) and later for the next 2 games), start out with only 2 casters (face it, you cannot afford their cost at the start, and the bard isnt a suitable fighter untill he levels up and gains hp. you can change one of the front line fighters into a caster later on when ready.

also, south of the adventure guild is a statue: press z when in the city to summon a stone elemental, go fight the samurai guarding the statue, go back to the adventure guild, and repeat ad nauseum. you wont get much money from it, but it can quickly get you to lvl5 for everyone, and spell level 3 for both your casters, which will help a lot in dungeons thanks to them both now having target-group magic

increase in money needed for each spell level seems to be 1000, so you'll have to spend like, 10,000 gold to get to spell level 3 for both casters. sometimes to increase character levels you need to answer questions about the city, usually about the street name. a map will of course be handy. and obviously for more than just that.

if a character dies at level 1 or 2? delete them and replace. if a character dies at lvl3 or 4? either reset or consolidate your wealth. if a character dies at a level any higher? jesus christ reset reset reset because you will never be able to pay off that ludicrous sum of money required to get your team back together. (also, do not reset through the "leave game" command as it seems to automatically save the party under the name you loaded it with, meaning you will have to live with your mistakes.)

also, in a dungeon, always try running from an encounter unless its a really small group of enemies. it doesnt penalise you for trying, you can try every round of the fight (although its not likely to work after the first time) and its a safety measure that- may lose you some exp and money- will allow you to move in dungeons for longer periods of time.

also always use trap zap if you are going to open a chest. the risk is never going to be worth saving a few spell points.

edited 16th Dec '12 10:33:59 AM by Tarsen

Well, I decided to play Dragon Quest I first like you guys. Finished in about 6 hours, it was the third or forth time I won this game I think I was in the mood of a simpler game and it was just what I got. My god, this game is simple... and it's also very fun.

I played the Super Famicom remake, easier and more pleasant then the NES version. You get some backstory on the manual but it's the same thing as always: Bad guy wants to destroy everything, search for Mac Guffins. The story doesn't stand out but what I liked that lacked on previous games is that the world seems more lively. For example, there is a couple in some town who is far from each other but gets together at the end or a husband who sets off to another town, leaving his wife behind. These simple npcs interactions will later evolve into lively worlds we see today, so it's a nice start.

Another thing that's different from other games is the anime artwork which is very pleasant for me. Your first enemy will likely be a slime. It's a nice break from all those skeletons,thieves or rats as your first enemies. The bat like enemy is a Drakee, and so on. Variation is good after all, even though the rest of the enemies are much like the rpgs before, but drawn by Toriyama.

Graphics are alright, even though they could do better in 1993, it's a nice update from the NES version. The soundtrack was good before and now it's much better. The music are all updated, are longer and you can kind distinguish what each instrument is, unlike the 8 bit blip sound.

MUSIC Yeah... I had to separate this section. This is where the concept of awesome music in rpgs started, so I want a more in-depth description. The composer, Koichi Sugiyama, was formed in classical music so you can understand the complexity of the music for a video game that old. All the soundtrack is very well composed but some music doesn't stand out because of the limitations of the hardware.

The main theme is like an anthem, just epically done for what they had in hands. The castle theme does really pass a feeling of nobility, the town theme is lively and happy as it should be, the overworld theme is fantastical, it even got some oboe on the snes remake, the cave theme is even a little scary, there is even a sad music in a destroyed town later in the game. But what I want to talk about is the battle music. It just hurt my ears. It's well composed if a little simple, it gives the mood of a battle, what went wrong then? I think the hardware was to limiting for this kind of composion. It's made for an orchestra to play, it's too symphonic. If you hear the Symphonic Suite version, it's just that much better. I'll put a link on the end of my post, check it out later.

About the difficulty, it was just right. Not too hard, not too easy. I died like 5 or 6 times through the game, and its a short one too so no complaints. The enemies are divided in each region so you could wander too far off and die, but that's normal for older rpgs. Besides that, it's pretty straightfoward, if you are having trouble, buy equipment and grind a level and you are good to go.

The last thing I want to talk about is the simplicity. It's just too simple! You've got no party members, okay... but then only one-on-one fights. No vehicles? Just a continent with no ocean to traverse? Saving only at the king of the first town? About 10 or 12 equipment itens, 4 or 5 monsters with pallete swaping? Even Wizardry was more complex in 1981 on this regard. Oh well.

8.0/10

And here is music:

Symphonic Suite Battle Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW_wjXAEeC8

Symphonic Suite Main Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1nZo4srXKU

Symphonic Suite Overworld Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nve9W-8IJ3s

edited 16th Dec '12 3:52:06 PM by Steendy

snes remake...

ok, that would have been nice, if you could get through it in only 6 hours.

on the nes version you had to grind to level 17 to get healmore which was necessary to win the final fight, and grinding from 5 to 9 took 7 hours, and i spent another 3 hours getting to lvl11, and i used exploits to kill stronger monsters without giving them a chance to attack so i could get more exp quickly during those 3 hours.

the result of my laziness was 0-1 damage per hit to the dragonlords true form, and having to reset anytime i hit but he woke up. took at least an hour and a half.

i was very very disappointed when i realised my beloved DQ mini-arcs werent introduced into the series yet.

edited 17th Dec '12 3:28:05 AM by Tarsen

Well, it's the first one after all. You can't expect that . In the past I've only played the first 3 and the third one is one of the best rpgs I've ever played. I just love Sugiyama style, the soundtrack of 3 is wonderful.

Bard's Tale is kind boring, maybe because it's too hard and I can't exploit save states on this version. I'm still dying all the time.

Well I kinda skipped all the way to Dragon Quest...

DA SOUNDTRACK IS AWESOME. I haven't finished yet, but wow so far I can see why its highly regarded in Japan...

Welcome back! I was kind worried almost everyone was giving up... . Just for the record, what games have you won till now? The only game that I recommend you don't skip is Ultima IV, because it's totally different from everything else. When you have the time, play it

And yeah, the soundtrack is awesome! How's your progress?

i just tried out the snes version of dq1/2

is nice improvement.

so much color~

so much detail~

and steendy said it was beatable in 6 hours? then i guess its worth a retry before going to 2.

although i kind of miss the shakespearan dialogue used in the nes version, despite how nice the simple, easily understood text is.

You don't have to grind much on this version. Levels are attained in about 10-15 minutes if you are fighting strong monsters. I was at level 18 when I had everything prepared to storm the Dragon King's Castle, got about 2 levels inside the castle and beat the final boss at level 20.

Dang it, you guys are making me want to play Dragon Quest. But I can't get the SNES-version to work...I guess I'll be trying out the NES-version in a couple of days.

Well I haven't actually played a lot of the game yet. Got like, 2 hours in at best. Awesome music though.

...To be honest, I really wanted to skip right to Megami Tensei...but seeing as everyone is playing DQ, I decided to take a detour first. I'll probably go try Ultima IV eventually. After DQ at least.

Might and Magic 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 50% off on GOG. From $9.99 to $4.99. In one package! It comes with manuals,soundtracks,maps and lots of stuff . I'm done with Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu and Dragon Slayer Jr/III: Romancia. I'll post my impressions later.

So, the only games left for me are: Bard's Tale 1 and 2, Ultima IV and Might and Magic Book 1, Then it's 1987 . I suggest everyone play the games they want till 1986, and when all that is done, stop it for a while. It would be good for everyone to enter 1987 together as this is an awesome year (Dragon Quest,FF,Ys,Megami Tensei,Phantasy Star!) and to not left everyone behind. We're also almost at christimas so lots of people won't have much time and stuff.

By january, things will get really awesome. I've been waiting for this year . Anyway, yesterday was our 3 month anniversary! Congratulations! And good luck on all the remaining games.

Well, you say stop after 1986, but since all of you have played DQ now, I'll try to get started with it before we move on. I'll be skipping Ultima IV and Might and Magic to be able to finish Bard's Tale and DQ. Unsure about Bard's Tale 2.

Whatever you do, don't skip Ultima IV. You can skip it for now, but play it sometime. It's the first deep writing of the rpg genre and people say it's depth has not yet been matched so...just check it out later

That may be, but it's still got the same annoying food-system as its predecessors and a travel-system almost as confusing as Ultima II. We'll have to see.

its not game over if you run out of food anymore.

Oh, really?

...well, okay then. That's pretty much been the only thing that keeps me from enjoying Ultima-games. What happens instead, though?

I'm just unsure what to play for now. I have 3 options: The Bard's Tale, I've played a little and was crushed by everything almost immediately. Never even got to a dungeon.

Might and Magic Book 1: Haven't played it yet, but people say it's the same soul crushing difficulty of Wizardry like games.

Ultima IV: Have read the manual and the world building is fantastic. Politics, Geography, races. It talks about everything. Maybe that's why I like Ultima better than Wizardry,Bard's tale, etc. Because there actually is a world and because its difficulty doesn't make me want to break my computer.

EDIT: That doesn't happen in the third one either, I think. Your HP just keeps going down instead.

edited 18th Dec '12 3:28:12 AM by Steendy

If it goes down to 0, you will lose health until you die.

...

...still sounds pretty annoying. :|

You can even hold conversations with npcs on IV... Typing Name, Job, and other important keywords you might find, like asking the name of the city, asking about a person, etc.