@Pandareus

Hmm, it's strange how my gaming tastes have changed. I used to enjoy traditional RPGs but for some reason, playing this one is kind of... well, not as fun as I would have found it years ago. Maybe I need to play it a bit more. Or maybe it's just that I'm too tempted by Tactics Ogre that I'm trying to find some excuse to quit playing this one now and keep it for a later date

Damn, all this Tactics Ogre love... where were you guys when I was looking for people to play Ogre Battle 64 with me? I've kind of fallen off the wagon on that one... wait, completely inappropriate expression here, right? Anyway, you know what I mean.

Maybe if more people had joined in. :(

Isn't the gameplay different though? I've played Tactics Ogre: The Knights of Lodis on the GBA before and its gameplay is more like Final Fantasy Tactics. I thought Ogre Battle 64 was more like the one on SNES which isn't the same at all.

Yeah, you don't really control the battles for instance, one is more "overall strategy" and the other, well, "tactics", but they're both part of the same big happy Ogre family, right?

Anyway, I've got my eye on Tactics Ogre myself, but not before I finish OG64, and probably not before a PSN sale.

Sounds like I might skip it. I loved VIII and V but I dunno if I have enough time to play so many big RPGs nowadays, and there are others I want to get to first.

Okay, I still haven't played all that much of it, but this game is ridiculous. Walking about, I cannot count to 4 Mississippi's before I get into a random battle. It's pretty damn constant: walk for 3 seconds, battle; walk for 3 seconds, battle. That's both in the overworld and the dungeons.

I did something I never usually do, especially so early in a game: use Holy Water (the item that makes random encounters less frequent).

...still can't count to 4.

Haha yeah, they are pretty frequent... but once you get items that lets you hit everything on the screen with one attack, they go by fast enough thankfully.

Not good enough for me.

I got the boomerang, but the interruptions kill the pacing. Bad pacing just may be my biggest pet peeve in video games.

I can't remember if DQV was this bad. I'm almost certain it wasn't.

Wasn't this game supposed to be hard? I found IX to be much harder, although still not that difficult. I've yet to come close to dying even once so far and I'm about 8 hours in now. Is this another one of those games where reviewers claim it's the hardest video game they've come across in their lives but it's easy as pie for us gamers?

I died a bunch of times, actually, and I'm not even as far as you. Maybe I'm just being careless, though.

Did not expect that "well-wisher", haha.

Do you guys think this game is on the level of V? It sounds like most reviewers don't so far.

I'm trying to get back into IX, played a bit last night, was enjoying it but I still liked V more. I think IX works best if you care about the sidequests and online and such, which I don't.

I haven't played V so I have no idea. The story for VI is kicking in though and... it's confusing. I'm not expecting to be blown away but for a classic style RPG, I'm still enjoying it.

Tactics Ogre is still tempting me so much and I'm afraid if I get that, DQVI will take the back burner and I'll never complete it.

Minor gripes I have with the game so far, nothing serious. Considering the game is a remake and not a port, I'm wondering why they couldn't make certain things such as item management a bit more convenient. Even just a button to press while in the inventory to automatically sort items instead of having to go into a separate menu and sort them all by character. It's just a chore and doesn't make sense that they'd keep this in a remake, assuming the original was the same way. Or even when equipping items. It would be better to have a menu that shows which character can equip what instead of randomly transferring new items around until someone can equip it... and even then, it may not be a stronger item. I guess this must be one of those Japanese things where they enjoy navigating useless menus?

I'm kinda wishing I went with Dragon Quest VI instead of Tactics Ogre. I've been helplessly stuck on like, the fifth mission.

Oh and the game is hard too? Do want even more!

I wonder if Dragon Quest VI is so easy because of the frequency of the random battles too. I don't escape any of them and now I'm in this dungeon that's just so confusing in design. Well it's actually small but by the time I've cleared out the areas with treasure, I've probably gained a few levels for everyone in my party. Not to mention all the gold I've found which I can then just return to town and purchase better equipment...

EDIT: Figures. As soon as I saw this, I'm faced with the most annoying dungeon and ridiculous battles. It seriously annoys me when you have monsters that cast Kasnooze 75% of the time and just puts your entire party to sleep so all you can do is wait for them to constantly attack you turn after turn And I got killed by an urn. Or should I say an Urnexpected. Damn you Dragon Quest and your clever monster names

@VofEscaflowne

Urnexpected? Man, puns have to be my favorite form of jokes!

Back to tactics Ogre, I think it's definitely given itself a reputation as a challenging game over the years, but a lot of the frustration so far, I think, it due to my inexperience with strategy RPGs and this game's deep battle system. I'm still stuck on mission five, and my team gets so overwhelmed after a few move rotations. I checked up a walkthrough for ideas on Youtube, and the player was performing spells and skills that I didn't know I could pull off. Patience and skill is so important here, which isn't something I shouldn't complain about.

It took me a while, but I'm finally getting into the game... or maybe I've just started accepting it for what it is. I'm only 10 hours in, defeated Murdaw, and just now I switched vocations at the Alltrades Abbey. The random encouter rate no longer bothers me, and I'm probably going to be playing it more from now on. Or so I hope.

@Pandareus

Uh... what? You can switch vocations in this game? How did I miss that? I'm nearly 20 hours into the game (haven't touched it since Radiant Historia) and never ran into anything that told me I could do that.

Right after you beat Murdaw, you can speak to that scholar dude in Somnia's castle and he says that he dreamt Alltrades Abbey has been rebuilt, yet he went there and it's still destroyed. So, yeah, pretty clear what you have to do!

But I admit it's easy to miss if you don't speak to that guy.

I forget, have you played 9? The way vocations work seem different in this one so far...

Oh... I guess I didn't talk to him then. I'll have to return to the game some day. It just wasn't doing much for me though.

I have played IX but how does it work in this one? I've noticed that characters seem to be able to "master" stuff from looking at their status screens. All I can think of is mastering weapons instead.