Final Fantasy 8 is my "I don't give a damn what everyone says" game. It's fantastic, and it's one of my all time favourites. Got it as a present in 1999, have played and finished it more times than any other Final Fantasy, maybe except the original Tactics. It was one of the games that inspired me to learn English (I'm not a native speaker, console games in my country were rarely localized back then, and school level English wasn't nearly enough to understand the game). It was one of the BEST RPG acquisitions in my life which I most certainly never regretted.
I also loved it, my only complain is that the ending was pretty nonsensical, but beyond that is my favorite FF until now (I didn't play a couple, though)
Agreed! Well not about learning English that's my only language but it's my favorite one of the series. Hell I bought a sword replica of the gunblade, which in my opinion is my favorite sword of final fantasy.
Final Fantasy VIII holds a very special and nostalgic place in my heart. My brother and I made up our own alternative universe with the characters (maybe because the game could be tedious) and it became our secret language. We still talk as those characters and probably look like complete idiots.
To David?? To anyone who purchased that garbage. I really believe that David and everyone else who bought that piece of trash should get refunded or sue the creators for false advertisement. That’s not a game. FF16 demo is a complete and long game compared to that crap. Any demo is longer than that. Even The Order 1886 is more of a complete game
Fragrant Story is a fascinating meta-story on gaming in general. The game is literally a demo, meant to get the game released prior to the 3DS e-shop shutting down. The rest of the game is finished, and is, as of today, just awaiting Nintendo's approval to be put up. Squire Games tried to be really upfront about this, but it got drowned out by the media reporting about it being the last 3DS physical release. There's an hour-long podcast interview with the creator about it, and I'd highly recommend listening.
@@PowerPandaMods Wow. I wasn’t aware at all. Thank you for letting me know. I’ll check out the podcast and check the game out again and admit that I was ignorantly criticizing Squire games since I didn’t know about that.
From my understanding, Game Arts had a falling out with their publisher for Lunar. The rights for Lunar were held in condominium. Eventually, Game Arts fought for sole rights to Lunar, even dragging their former publisher to court. Eventually, Game Arts won, but it may be the greatest Pyrrhic victory in gaming history. All of those legal fees sapped the budget of Grandia III during development, effectively killing that series. Meanwhile, realizing that they would probably lose, the publisher had Dragon Song made, possibly as intentionally bad as possible and released internationally. After Dragon Song came out, Game Arts won the rights for Lunar, a series no one will ever want to look at again. Game Arts didn't necessarily go bankrupt, but they may as well be shuttered. That court battle ate all of their resources and destroyed their two franchises.
Grandia III isn't anywhere near as bad as Lunar: Dragon Song. It's like a B grade RPG where I and II are both A grades. The problem with Grandia is that the main creator of the story is deceased, and everyone else involved in the franchise has moved onto new pastures. If you like Grandia, I recommend playing the Legend of Heroes series. It has a very similar combat system and types of characters, along with exceptional worldbuilding. The original Lunar games were made by Studio Alex, not Game Arts, and the latter made Dragon Song shitty because they didn't have any of the original designers of 1 and 2 on staff or know how to make a good RPG in general. They just a crappy game and put the Lunar title on it to sell copies.
It tarnished them a little, but if they made a new Grandia or Lunar the fans would be there to support them still. Assuming it looked well made anyways
I actually did take the time to learn it and get into it. I had made it a bucket list goal to play all of Matsuno's games. This was the game that ended that goal for me. I made it to the final dungeon, and then got a save file corruption. I asked myself if I truly cared enough to play through the game again, and honestly answered "no", so I just watched the ending on TH-cam.
"When you're used to it". I hate this excuse for anything but entertainment especially. What it actually means is that it's bad, but if you stick with it for long enough you stop caring how bad it is. Because god forbid it just be good out of the gate and you thus enjoy it completely the entire time. That's an unreasonable expectation right? It's not like countless games are in fact great right out of the gate and nobody has to "get used to them" or anything.
Vagrant Story is a masterpiece. That's why it got a perfect score in Famitsu, and why it remains Square's third-highest rated game on Metacritic. Granted, it can be challenging to get into, and is not for everyone, but I guarantee you, if you stick with it, it rewards you with an incredibly deep and engaging gameplay and some of the best storytelling in games. It's a true gem!
he's rather opinionated and struggles with being objective, but yeah I like his vids too I just can't watch them very loud around people because of his voice. and he says some pretty outlandish things sometimes like the time he said he didn't like the "thinly-veiled homophobia" in the persona series (???) whatever the hell that means lmao certainly the first time I'm hearing about it and I've played every megaten/persona game to date.
Yeah, I guess you're right because the homophobia really isn't "thinly veiled" at all - I was trying to be nice. The homophobia is right out there in the open and it's disgusting.
@@2bussy Shut your mouth, flamboyant voices are nothing to be ashamed about, that's a you problem, that comment was unnecessary and rude. Second, yes, there is homophobia in persona 4 and 5, there are countless articles and videos about it so do some research and learn something instead of acting like a 12 yo.
Coming in hot with FF8 at #10. No punches were pulled this video. At first I thought it was a bit unfair to put FF8 on the list, but then I realized that I only ever boot that game up to play Triple Triad. The stupid card game is more engaging than the adventure costing $30,000,000 to make.
honestly I like 8 more than 7 and 9 more than both of them. I don't think most ppl agree with David, tbh, I think there is just a vocal minority that never shuts up about their hate for this game.
I really enjoyed 8. That opening cinematic had me sold for the whole adventure. I didn’t love switching to other rando party on occasion though. Laguna and Co were kind of a drag to me.
Hey David, I'm a recent subscriber and haven't had a chance to watch many of your vids yet, but I was very entertained by how personable and honest you are about these bad games. I've been a life long gamer myself, and share a lot of the same views you have on them. Great stuff!
9:24 I was in the same boat with allowance. I was also supposed to get $5 per week, but if I ever actually asked for it, my dad's standard response was, "Did you eat this week?" My mom could usually be convinced to buy me a paperback if we were within striking distance of a bookstore, but video games were strictly a birthday/Christmas thing. At least until I was old enough to get a paper route.
Seeing that footage from Legend of Alon D'ar gave me flashbacks to playing it as a kid and never being able to get past the first section because those lizards would just kill you right out the gate
I liked FFVIII and Vagrant Story! They are far from perfect, and your criticisms are valid, but I found them enjoyable enough once I got into them. My regrets were FF Type-0 HD and Crystal Chronicles (twice 😅).
Exactly what I came here to say! FF8 and VS weren't terrible, just not my thing. I do agree xenogears would've made a phenomenal addition to the series tho.
Good video, you really crack me up 😆. Sometimes. Not sure if it’s done, but you should dona video on games you played years ago and didn’t like, but then replayed years later and loved it.
Lol, you echoed my thoughts about Dragon Song pretty well. I played and loved the games on PS1 and got the DS game sight unseen. I managed to tolerate the taking damage when you run in the overworld, how you can only gain exp or money not both, and managed to not have any enemies spawn in unreachable spots if I was going for the items that show up when clearing an area, and I didn't have to escape fights enough for the blowing in the mic thing to become annoying. But when I got to the part of the story where the main character loses his ability to handstand somehow and that nerfs his triple-attacks to a single attack I was like "That is the stupidest damn thing I ever heard". Then I got a little further and was like "Oh so they're just rehashing Silver Star's plot. Cool." That's around when I dropped it.
Final Fantasy VIII is a love it or hate it game. I didn't mind the draw system too much on my first couple playthroughs, but yeah it is a tedious aspect of the game on subsequent playthroughs, If I remember right you can use the GF's abilities to get magic a lot easier. I think the problem with the game comes down to the fact that because your stats are determined by what magic is junctioned to them you will either never use magic because that affects your stats, or you will boost your attack stat with your best magic to the point that you don't need to use magic at all and can just do the basic attack to take out all of the mobs and bosses in the game. It really makes the battles really dull on two fronts. You're either drawing magic for a good 5 minutes for each spell, or you're doing regular attacks all the time. I don't mind them experimenting though and they never really went back to that system afterwards, so it's more or less just a quirk of the game. The one thing I can't really defend is the enemies level scaling with your characters. I think VII and IX had similar level scaling happening, but it's way less noticeable compared to this game. On my first playthrough I leveled up so much that Ultimecia kind of became impossible to beat especially since she periodically removes magic which sucks if she removes one that's junctioned to an important stat. I do kind of like the desperation limit break though because it does encourage some risk vs reward when using it. As for the story in hindsight it's definitely one of the most bats**t insane stories in the series even though it initially feels grounded. It is cool that how crazy it can get created the Squall is Dead theory, and if you look at everything from disc 2 onwards as his dying dream it kind of works.
It seems that a lot of people loved FF 8 and vagrant story. And I am one of them. Ff5 and ff8 are my favorite. I was 17 in 1999 and so was Squall which was relatable , It helped me escape reality during a really difficult time in my life.
FF8 was a travesty to the series due to it's awful gameplay or more specifically it's terrible junction system. If it weren't for the existence of FF2 it would be the worst Final Fantasy game in the series bar none.
Yeah. Ff8 best ff for me (except 14) ans vagrant story is extremely good. But vagrant story unlike lot of jrpg, is also extremely HARD at times, so i can understand casual players dropping it after getting rekted several times.
I really wanted to like Ephemeral Phantasia. The rhythm game mechanic is a cool idea, and that princess was gorgeous! Too bad it was so haphazard everywhere else. Lunar Dragon Song is the saddest way for such a beloved series to die out. By far the worst part was needing to do everything twice, once for exp and again for items. Sleaziest way to squeeze extra play time.
The various ideas for the game are all good, it's just that the game............executed it all poorly. I could see it getting remade and becoming good as viable.
Well, I can understand why some don't like Vagrant story. Yes, it's not your common JRPG. But it's still interesting exp and game with good story. Battle system start opening only from the middle of the game so yeah, long and hard walk. Agree on FF8... SSoft really did a strange job on battles and balance (both sucks). Literally, draw-draw-draw-draw or cards hell with infinite matches playing... As for me... nope. Don't regret buying any JRPG (and I have played some really strange titles, including almost all from Idea Factory, Time and Eternity (PS3), Last Rebellion (PS3), Unlimited Saga, Hoshigami). I really like to find good points even in bad games. Sometimes... those points are really great (after I replayed Hoshigami... I actually liked it. AI of opponent really think about moves, weak points, your movements and attacks. It's like playing chess against good opponent, and not some beginner)
I played the hell out of Vagrant Story, and even have the soundtrack. It was the first game I 100% completed, back in the day. But thinking back to those menus and how slow everything was, I know, for a fact, that it would drive me insane nowadays. I do wonder what a modern remake of this game would look like, though.
To me FF 8 was the best mainline FF on ps1, only FF game I thought was better was FFT. I loved the draw system.and enjoy actually making myself over powered, it was better graphically than 7 and even 9, had a better story and I preferred the draw and junction system to materia and learning the spells in 9. As for Vagrant Story I never played it but it was always talked about as a great game, I never got it but always wanted to though.
@jaretco6423 I know I'm in the minority but I also know I'm not the only one that feels that way. I barely used magic and so after drawing 99 of spells and junctionning them the gameplay was fast and fun to me. Then again FF 8 & FF2, which are generally disliked by the majority it seems, are my 2 favorite FF game's. I loved FF2 for how you leveled your stats, honestly don't remember the story, but loved it for how you leveled stats by using abilities, attacking or getting hit. As for being broken it was if you junctioned 99 of yhe spells and made it easy, and while I liked challenges when younger I also liked finding ways to make battles eady and being overpowered. I honestly couldn't find too many negatives about FF8 myself.
@@jaretco6423 to each their own. While I like 8 better I didn't dislike 7 or 9 at all either and did love the materia system just felt like the junction was a step above the materia. I know my opinion is in the minority and that's fine, I liked FF2 & 8 for reasons that many people don't like those game's at all and I know that.
I had Deadly Towers as a kid and never knew what was going on with it, either. Years later, I tried it again using a guide online. It wasn't a terrible experience, but I have no clue how anyone was supposed to figure anything out in that game.
I had totally blocked Deadly Towers out of my memory. I remember the art and the footage you showed. I think this was one of the ones I rented and played for an hour and hated it, then had nothing to play all weekend.
Lunar: Dragon Song hurts. My friends knew I loved the first two games especially and they got me it for my 18th Birthday. I tried so hard to beat it, my friends never got me a videogame before and this was our last year together before college but I just couldn't do it. I felt so bad.
Alon'dar was actually given to me by one of my mom's coworkers when I was younger, they were the type who'd play a game and give it away when they were done, and it was one of the few games I'd ever been given for free that I gave back LOL Looking back, I actually regret NOT getting Final Fantasy VIII or IX when they were new. I wasn't sure why, but after Tactics and FFVII, which were and remain two of my favorite games ever, I just kind of... stopped buying FF games until Tactics Advance came out. Like, I knew the games existed and saw friends play them, but I can't for the life of me understand why it took half a decade for me to get another game in the series. Kid logic is just baffling, I guess xD
Lunar Dragon Song is the only one on this list I ever played, and it's one of the few games that made me legitimately angry at game design. I didn't have a PSP or PSX so I had only heard about how good the Lunar series was, so when I saw this coming out, I got it right away. I could have lived with the money or XP thing except... The game starts you out super strong, then nerfs you hard with that 'can't balance' thing you mentioned. And then I remember spending like 6 hours farming materials (with no XP!) to get money to upgrade equipment.... only to have the very first random enemy I encountered in the next dungeon break it on a normal attack. Yep, enemies can break equipment, and while you can protect from that, it requires a lot more grinding to find the right items (and IIRC those items are single use, so you would need a ton of them since normal enemies break stuff). I put the game down then and there and never went back.
I was part of the Lunar community at the time Dragonsong came out. I leveled it up to 99 just to see if it was possible. ...it was. I don't think anybody else was ever insane enough to do it again.
Oof! My brother and I got burned as kids by Deadly Towers too! Definitely a stinger since we were poor kids in Southwest Virginia and buying a game was a rare opportunity.
Wholly agree about Lunar Dragon Song. Your anguish definitely reflected my anguish perfectly. I was such a huge Lunar fan, I even bought Dragon Song before I even manage to buy a DS!
Games I regret getting Xenoblade 3 Xenoblade 2 Ragnarok Tactics Tokyo Xanadu ex+ FE Engage FE 3 Houses Most of these games are not bad, but I just dropped them to the backlog void of no return.
That’s really the thing about vagrant story. It just isn’t an action rpg. Or its hybrid lite at any rate. I think it’s a really cool game but it’s VERY esoteric and niche so i sure as hell don’t blame you lol.
This is very true Vagrant Story is more a tactical RPG, even to the point that Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics share the same world, Vagrant Story even taking place within Ivalice.
I love a good David rant on a Monday!! I was howling at “I should have just plunged it into my toilet!” 😂 My most regretted game on this list is definitely Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness. What a horrible game.
The memories of buying Star Ocean: I&F and Lunar Dragon Song still sting. How did two of my favorite RPG franchises sink so low? What the hell happened?!
I talked to a guy in a game swap about how Lunar dragon song is soooo bad. The guy is a big rpg fan and he replied "I know, but I've finished it and not going back". That guy MUST finish every rpg he starts.. But he changed his pattern after that lunar game 😅
Dragon Song was one of the first non-Final Fantasy RPGs I tried, was about halfway through high school, it made me not trust non-square rpgs which is a real shame, because I missed out on a lot
Fun Fact, Ephemeral Fantasia was originally in development for the Dreamcast. I'm also psychotic and think there's ALOT of good ideas in the game. It's just none of them are done well.
Also not an RPG but a game I regret buying has to be DNF Duel. It is a fighting game based on a popular online fighting game. It's mostly popular in China and Korea. The problem with this game was there wasn't much content. The fighting and characters are cool but there isn't much to do after you beat story mode besides playing online.
I had no idea that some RPGs you regret buying. Jeezus. Fragrant Story would be one for me, even though I bought it digitally for $4. But for me, the one game I regretted buying wasn't an RPG. It was Yoshi's New Island and it was honestly a slap in the face. Good list David.
My sympathies for you being introduced to western RPGs like that. My introduction was the semi-turn based Knights of the Old Republic (it used a Star Wars variant of D&D but made it work in real time, had a log of your rolls and everything). Ironically my introduction to JRPGs was Star Ocean The Last Hope, and the grating english voices drove me away for a long time. KAY?! (shivers)
I haven’t regretted buying any, well not yet at least. But my friend did many years ago in 5th grade he gave me his copy of FF13 cause he hated it. I didn’t like it myself, mostly cause i didn’t like jrpgs games back then.
1. Digimon World 2. Tales of The Abyss 3. Grandia HD Collection 4. Valkyrie Profile 5. Lunar Dragon Song That’s my list. Every other game I’ve bought I’ve loved…Love FFVIII. Hilarious you also included Dragon Song…I wrote my list before watching your video. Haha
My biggest regret was Kitaria Fables. Granted that I only started buying games legally starting the 3ds and then switch era. Everything else I played were roms on original hardware (psp, ds, etc...)
Ummm... I think you may be misremembering Opoona. It did not need motion controls. You could play it with a classic controller, and use the right analog stick to aim your attacks in battle. Heck, you could use the wiimote-nunchuck setup and just use the analogue stick on that.
Ouch; I had no idea there was a Lunar spin-off where they ditched the quasi-strategy combat. What a waste of a good system! I haven't played Vagrant Story, but tbh "Action RPG where you have to stop every few seconds and select an option from a menu" would actually be a pretty good description of the active time battle system from Final Fantasy IV-IX! Not sure what makes VS's implementation so bad.
I'm one of the only people I know who's actually beaten Ephemeral Fantasia. I actually loved the groundhog day concept and the music minigames, but the implementation of everything was so bad. I lowkey hope that a group of indie devs will take a stab at this idea again some day.
Yeah, I also beat ephemeral fantasia. Honestly, I thought it was a great game due to its concepts and really enjoyed the guitar mini game giving nat free reign and zero hints. I think the game was a little too ambitious for almost everyone. It's nearly impossible to cleanly progress without a guide or a lot of time. So at this time, easily understandable to hate or drop the game. Also, the guitar minigame was amazing, I played guitar freaks at the time so I really liked it.
The Legend of Alon D'ar was one of my first games on PS2. Many years later, I just realized that it's considered to be a bad game according to reviews. 😅 But, since I got it on sale, I don't have any regret. It's a lesson for me to check on reviews before purchasing a game. 🤓
I played FF8 not long after I finished 7 for the second time believing that they couldnt miss with the 8th game.....yeah....it took me until the near end of the 3rd disc to really start liking it. I was hoping that if i stuck with it it would get better and well....sorta? There is definitely some trashy games in this list and Alon Dar looks like a star for sure, a shit covered star. So much to work with when it comes to dubious regret in gaming and these are or at least seem (because ive not played a few of these) like great candidates. Thanks David!
Lunar Dragon Song is also one of the games that I regret buying. I almost finish it but the save file got corrupted and couldn't reload the game, I was so frustrated DX
As a teenager I was a total completionist so even if I didn't like a game I'd force myself to finish it anyway -- I'm convinced that's the only reason I stuck with FF8 because the only things I ended up really enjoying about it were the incredible soundtrack (possibly Uematsu's best ever imo) and... Triple Triad. LOL. The Draw system coupled with scaling enemy encounters ruined the combat for me and I thought the story was way too convoluted and cheesily melodramatic. Funnily enough my sister loved it.
Lots of games over the years (here's lookin at you Jerkyl and Hyde for nes), but as far as RPGs, I know I am missing a few but: Paladin's Quest for snes, Ghost Lion for NES, and Beyond the Beyond for PS1, Shadow Madness for PS1 come to mind. I know I have more but those jump out to me the most as far as rpgs. Back in those days with limited options and money goofing up on a game purchase was way worse. Now a days I have a 2000 stream backlog, and god knows how many classics on the Raspberri PI i need to play.
I took literal offense to Lunar Dragon Song. I saw the game on the shelf and I bought a DS solely to play that game. I turned it on played for 15 minutes and I felt personally attacked. Like how could one of my favorite series ever get demoted to this crap?
Be honest, how big is the backlog. I've beat like 30 games on my steam library. What I would suggest regarding ff8, get the rom, cheat all items and gf. Ff8's story is good, I will not spend hours drawing again tho.
The funny thing is I disliked FF8 at first because it wasn't FF7. But FF8 is the only FF I played 3 times. I mean, the story was trash, but the gameplay is so much fun and addictive. Music is incredible. The exploration, card game, and customization are top-notch. As for Vagrant Story. I did enjoy it part of it but never finished it. I think the games mechanics felt complicated since it doesn't really explain many of its systems.
Lunar: Dragon Song is one of my most regretted purchases ever. The GameStop guy tried to get me to buy Phoenix Wright (which had also just been released at the time) instead... I should've listened.
The RPG regret that comes immediately to mind for me is Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World for Wii. It was the first game in my life that I consciously chose not to finish. I was a big fan of the original Tales of Symphonia, so I went into the sequel with a lot of excitement, but it was just dashed. From the story to the gameplay, it was a disappointment in every way. Another regret was Dragon Warrior 7 for PS1. I rented it as a kid and liked it back then, but it was too hard for me to beat, but it was always in the back of my mind. Like my white whale. I wanted to finish it. In my college years, I paid entirely too much for it at a 2nd hand game store only to find my younger self had dodged a bullet. DQ7 is easily one of the most needlessly grindy RPGs I've ever played, and I hated it, lol.
Definitely regret buying Disgaea 6. As someone who enjoyed all the previous Disgaea games 6 was just lazy and felt half-finished. I usually pre-order all of the collector's editions for the Disgaea games from the NIS America online store, but I was so let down by 6 that I'm only buying the regular edition of 7 because I'm cautiously optimistic that they'll fix the mistakes of the previous game.
I absolutely loved FF8 (for the story and music) and Vagrant Story (for the combat depth and challenge). But your video still gets a like because your complaints were very entertaining.
I'm there with your feelings for Ultima Runes Virtue. I had the same thing happen. After playing Dragon Warrior, I wanted more of the same. Hydlide was there and I bought it with my savings, thinking it was similar. I still regret getting that and not Monster Party.
I actually like Final Fantasy 8; it's not my favorite in the series, or even on the PlayStation, but I did like it more than 7. That said, I don't use magic all that often, and am a hoarder of all things consumable (I usually don't even use E-tanks on the final bosses of Mega Man games, "Just in case"), so its most punishing feature didn't affect me... also, I like Deadly Towers, so my taste in games is a bit unusual. As for regrets, I have plenty, many of which came in the wake of my newfound WRPG enthusiasm; I played some great games in the genre, including the legendary Planescape: Torment, and thought, "I love WRPGS now! Time to catch up on all the classics!" Now, I have a gigantic digital pile of D&D licenses (including Baldur's Gate) that were so obtuse I couldn't get into them, some of which I couldn't even win the first battle in the game! Another one, which was actually really good, was Celestian Tales: Old North. You choose one from six different protagonists - I went with the one that looks almost identical to my sister when she was younger - and the rest of them are your other party members. The writing was very philosophical, and even the characters I couldn't stand were used to set up interesting counterpoints from the ones I did. On a surface level, it feels a little like a Suikoden, for how it handles war (no giant base with over 100 characters, though), and it wraps up with a really interesting conclusion. Great! Wait, there's another chapter? The last chapter comes in after what should've ended the game, uproots EVERYTHING, and just leaves, like the world's worst dinner guest. So, a sequel comes out, I pick it up, and in between then and when I was about to play it, I found out that this isn't going to end properly either, because it's supposed to be a trilogy. Sequels that continue the story are fine, but when you're already planning for a sequel and use that as a reason to end your game on a cliffhanger, that's just bad design; finish the game, and then sell me the finished product. I know this one's partially on me - do your research, kids; don't preorder and don't buy anything Day 1 - but that doesn't make it any less a regret.
I regret buying Tak and the Power of Juju to not for the reason you might think it was actually a pretty fun game but the problem is there was a glitch for mechanic in the game that the developers never fixed until this day is one of the few games I've never been able to beat
From this list I only played Final Fantasy VIII, and it actually is one of my favourite in the series. I like it much more than VII. I also plan to play Vagrant Story someday. Hope it will be worth it.
Check out Part 1 here: th-cam.com/video/oC7_KPd02LI/w-d-xo.html
Check out EVERYONE'S picks in a collab I did: th-cam.com/video/ivpAtIpeg7Y/w-d-xo.html
Final Fantasy 8 is my "I don't give a damn what everyone says" game. It's fantastic, and it's one of my all time favourites. Got it as a present in 1999, have played and finished it more times than any other Final Fantasy, maybe except the original Tactics. It was one of the games that inspired me to learn English (I'm not a native speaker, console games in my country were rarely localized back then, and school level English wasn't nearly enough to understand the game). It was one of the BEST RPG acquisitions in my life which I most certainly never regretted.
I also loved it, my only complain is that the ending was pretty nonsensical, but beyond that is my favorite FF until now (I didn't play a couple, though)
Agreed! Well not about learning English that's my only language but it's my favorite one of the series. Hell I bought a sword replica of the gunblade, which in my opinion is my favorite sword of final fantasy.
@@singingcam I definitely like it more than the buster sword
Final Fantasy VIII holds a very special and nostalgic place in my heart. My brother and I made up our own alternative universe with the characters (maybe because the game could be tedious) and it became our secret language. We still talk as those characters and probably look like complete idiots.
We’ll never forgive what Fragrant Story did to David.
if he didnt even like Vagrant Story why would he ever thought something called Fragrant Story would be good lol Vagrant Story is amazing game
I can't believe he compared Vagrant Story with some shitty games. I mean the game is awesome, great.
To David?? To anyone who purchased that garbage. I really believe that David and everyone else who bought that piece of trash should get refunded or sue the creators for false advertisement. That’s not a game. FF16 demo is a complete and long game compared to that crap. Any demo is longer than that. Even The Order 1886 is more of a complete game
Fragrant Story is a fascinating meta-story on gaming in general. The game is literally a demo, meant to get the game released prior to the 3DS e-shop shutting down. The rest of the game is finished, and is, as of today, just awaiting Nintendo's approval to be put up. Squire Games tried to be really upfront about this, but it got drowned out by the media reporting about it being the last 3DS physical release. There's an hour-long podcast interview with the creator about it, and I'd highly recommend listening.
@@PowerPandaMods Wow. I wasn’t aware at all. Thank you for letting me know. I’ll check out the podcast and check the game out again and admit that I was ignorantly criticizing Squire games since I didn’t know about that.
From my understanding, Game Arts had a falling out with their publisher for Lunar. The rights for Lunar were held in condominium. Eventually, Game Arts fought for sole rights to Lunar, even dragging their former publisher to court. Eventually, Game Arts won, but it may be the greatest Pyrrhic victory in gaming history. All of those legal fees sapped the budget of Grandia III during development, effectively killing that series. Meanwhile, realizing that they would probably lose, the publisher had Dragon Song made, possibly as intentionally bad as possible and released internationally. After Dragon Song came out, Game Arts won the rights for Lunar, a series no one will ever want to look at again. Game Arts didn't necessarily go bankrupt, but they may as well be shuttered. That court battle ate all of their resources and destroyed their two franchises.
Grandia III isn't anywhere near as bad as Lunar: Dragon Song. It's like a B grade RPG where I and II are both A grades. The problem with Grandia is that the main creator of the story is deceased, and everyone else involved in the franchise has moved onto new pastures. If you like Grandia, I recommend playing the Legend of Heroes series. It has a very similar combat system and types of characters, along with exceptional worldbuilding.
The original Lunar games were made by Studio Alex, not Game Arts, and the latter made Dragon Song shitty because they didn't have any of the original designers of 1 and 2 on staff or know how to make a good RPG in general. They just a crappy game and put the Lunar title on it to sell copies.
@@aspirit9763 Matt did one on Trails in the Sky SC but this one on Lunar Dragon Song is just freaky.
It tarnished them a little, but if they made a new Grandia or Lunar the fans would be there to support them still. Assuming it looked well made anyways
@@StarDragonJP True but I had no idea a lawsuit would contribute to the death of not one but two franchises. Jeezus christ.
Despite many rpg players criticize Grandia 3, But it also has the most FUN turn base battle system I have played!
Getting into Vagrant Story's battle system takes some time but when you're used to it, it really is a fantastic game with a cool story.
I actually did take the time to learn it and get into it. I had made it a bucket list goal to play all of Matsuno's games. This was the game that ended that goal for me. I made it to the final dungeon, and then got a save file corruption. I asked myself if I truly cared enough to play through the game again, and honestly answered "no", so I just watched the ending on TH-cam.
"When you're used to it". I hate this excuse for anything but entertainment especially. What it actually means is that it's bad, but if you stick with it for long enough you stop caring how bad it is. Because god forbid it just be good out of the gate and you thus enjoy it completely the entire time. That's an unreasonable expectation right? It's not like countless games are in fact great right out of the gate and nobody has to "get used to them" or anything.
Vagrant Story is a masterpiece. That's why it got a perfect score in Famitsu, and why it remains Square's third-highest rated game on Metacritic. Granted, it can be challenging to get into, and is not for everyone, but I guarantee you, if you stick with it, it rewards you with an incredibly deep and engaging gameplay and some of the best storytelling in games. It's a true gem!
the character’s face in Alon D’ar looks like he’d have “permanent constipation” as a medical diagnosis 😂
I love how you're so brutally honest and detailed about games, whether you love or hate them😂
he's rather opinionated and struggles with being objective, but yeah I like his vids too I just can't watch them very loud around people because of his voice. and he says some pretty outlandish things sometimes like the time he said he didn't like the "thinly-veiled homophobia" in the persona series (???) whatever the hell that means lmao certainly the first time I'm hearing about it and I've played every megaten/persona game to date.
Yeah, I guess you're right because the homophobia really isn't "thinly veiled" at all - I was trying to be nice. The homophobia is right out there in the open and it's disgusting.
@@2bussy Shut your mouth, flamboyant voices are nothing to be ashamed about, that's a you problem, that comment was unnecessary and rude.
Second, yes, there is homophobia in persona 4 and 5, there are countless articles and videos about it so do some research and learn something instead of acting like a 12 yo.
Coming in hot with FF8 at #10. No punches were pulled this video. At first I thought it was a bit unfair to put FF8 on the list, but then I realized that I only ever boot that game up to play Triple Triad. The stupid card game is more engaging than the adventure costing $30,000,000 to make.
"Shitty ass piece of shit!"
I died. 😆
Vagrant Story is one of my favorite games, but it certainly doesn't make it easy to get into it
I can understand the gripes with 8, but the story is highly underrated and the final battle with Ultimecia was epic.
honestly I like 8 more than 7 and 9 more than both of them. I don't think most ppl agree with David, tbh, I think there is just a vocal minority that never shuts up about their hate for this game.
I really enjoyed 8. That opening cinematic had me sold for the whole adventure. I didn’t love switching to other rando party on occasion though. Laguna and Co were kind of a drag to me.
FF8 is one my favorite Final Fantasy games. It has great music too
8 is my favorite FF to be honest... i don't understand all the blind hate.
I prefer 8 to 10
Hey David, I'm a recent subscriber and haven't had a chance to watch many of your vids yet, but I was very entertained by how personable and honest you are about these bad games. I've been a life long gamer myself, and share a lot of the same views you have on them. Great stuff!
Thanks!! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
9:24 I was in the same boat with allowance. I was also supposed to get $5 per week, but if I ever actually asked for it, my dad's standard response was, "Did you eat this week?" My mom could usually be convinced to buy me a paperback if we were within striking distance of a bookstore, but video games were strictly a birthday/Christmas thing. At least until I was old enough to get a paper route.
Seeing that footage from Legend of Alon D'ar gave me flashbacks to playing it as a kid and never being able to get past the first section because those lizards would just kill you right out the gate
I had to grind there for some time, to overcome that lizards - but after that, game becomes much easier.
Ephemeral Phantasia had some potential but needed more time in actual development.
I liked FFVIII and Vagrant Story! They are far from perfect, and your criticisms are valid, but I found them enjoyable enough once I got into them.
My regrets were FF Type-0 HD and Crystal Chronicles (twice 😅).
Exactly what I came here to say! FF8 and VS weren't terrible, just not my thing. I do agree xenogears would've made a phenomenal addition to the series tho.
It's so cool to hate on FF8 that the game is now underrated, the game is a solid 7/10 that's above average most jrpgs
No. Far from it. FF8 isn't underrated and no way it's an 7/10. It's an 3/10 game.
Good video, you really crack me up 😆. Sometimes. Not sure if it’s done, but you should dona video on games you played years ago and didn’t like, but then replayed years later and loved it.
Lol, you echoed my thoughts about Dragon Song pretty well. I played and loved the games on PS1 and got the DS game sight unseen. I managed to tolerate the taking damage when you run in the overworld, how you can only gain exp or money not both, and managed to not have any enemies spawn in unreachable spots if I was going for the items that show up when clearing an area, and I didn't have to escape fights enough for the blowing in the mic thing to become annoying.
But when I got to the part of the story where the main character loses his ability to handstand somehow and that nerfs his triple-attacks to a single attack I was like "That is the stupidest damn thing I ever heard". Then I got a little further and was like "Oh so they're just rehashing Silver Star's plot. Cool." That's around when I dropped it.
One u won't regret buying is sea of stars physical edition sometime early next year
Final Fantasy VIII is a love it or hate it game. I didn't mind the draw system too much on my first couple playthroughs, but yeah it is a tedious aspect of the game on subsequent playthroughs, If I remember right you can use the GF's abilities to get magic a lot easier. I think the problem with the game comes down to the fact that because your stats are determined by what magic is junctioned to them you will either never use magic because that affects your stats, or you will boost your attack stat with your best magic to the point that you don't need to use magic at all and can just do the basic attack to take out all of the mobs and bosses in the game. It really makes the battles really dull on two fronts. You're either drawing magic for a good 5 minutes for each spell, or you're doing regular attacks all the time.
I don't mind them experimenting though and they never really went back to that system afterwards, so it's more or less just a quirk of the game. The one thing I can't really defend is the enemies level scaling with your characters. I think VII and IX had similar level scaling happening, but it's way less noticeable compared to this game. On my first playthrough I leveled up so much that Ultimecia kind of became impossible to beat especially since she periodically removes magic which sucks if she removes one that's junctioned to an important stat. I do kind of like the desperation limit break though because it does encourage some risk vs reward when using it.
As for the story in hindsight it's definitely one of the most bats**t insane stories in the series even though it initially feels grounded. It is cool that how crazy it can get created the Squall is Dead theory, and if you look at everything from disc 2 onwards as his dying dream it kind of works.
Awesome video as always - always making me laugh! :)
Glad you enjoyed it!!! and I always try to inject my special sense of humor in there :)
It seems that a lot of people loved FF 8 and vagrant story. And I am one of them. Ff5 and ff8 are my favorite. I was 17 in 1999 and so was Squall which was relatable , It helped me escape reality during a really difficult time in my life.
FF8 was a travesty to the series due to it's awful gameplay or more specifically it's terrible junction system. If it weren't for the existence of FF2 it would be the worst Final Fantasy game in the series bar none.
Anyone else grew up loving (and still loving) FF8 and Vagrant Story?😭😂
Yeah. Ff8 best ff for me (except 14) ans vagrant story is extremely good.
But vagrant story unlike lot of jrpg, is also extremely HARD at times, so i can understand casual players dropping it after getting rekted several times.
It took me a while to warm up to FFVIII, but now it is one of my favorites. Agree with some of your others.
I really wanted to like Ephemeral Phantasia. The rhythm game mechanic is a cool idea, and that princess was gorgeous! Too bad it was so haphazard everywhere else. Lunar Dragon Song is the saddest way for such a beloved series to die out. By far the worst part was needing to do everything twice, once for exp and again for items. Sleaziest way to squeeze extra play time.
The various ideas for the game are all good, it's just that the game............executed it all poorly.
I could see it getting remade and becoming good as viable.
Lunar, technically, didn't die out. We got Lunar Silver Star Harmony for the PsP.
Well, I can understand why some don't like Vagrant story. Yes, it's not your common JRPG. But it's still interesting exp and game with good story. Battle system start opening only from the middle of the game so yeah, long and hard walk. Agree on FF8... SSoft really did a strange job on battles and balance (both sucks). Literally, draw-draw-draw-draw or cards hell with infinite matches playing...
As for me... nope. Don't regret buying any JRPG (and I have played some really strange titles, including almost all from Idea Factory, Time and Eternity (PS3), Last Rebellion (PS3), Unlimited Saga, Hoshigami). I really like to find good points even in bad games. Sometimes... those points are really great (after I replayed Hoshigami... I actually liked it. AI of opponent really think about moves, weak points, your movements and attacks. It's like playing chess against good opponent, and not some beginner)
lol.....all the hate David gets for disliking Vagrant Story and he gives another middle finger
I played the hell out of Vagrant Story, and even have the soundtrack. It was the first game I 100% completed, back in the day. But thinking back to those menus and how slow everything was, I know, for a fact, that it would drive me insane nowadays. I do wonder what a modern remake of this game would look like, though.
Finally! Someone who agrees with me about Vagrant Story!
To me FF 8 was the best mainline FF on ps1, only FF game I thought was better was FFT. I loved the draw system.and enjoy actually making myself over powered, it was better graphically than 7 and even 9, had a better story and I preferred the draw and junction system to materia and learning the spells in 9.
As for Vagrant Story I never played it but it was always talked about as a great game, I never got it but always wanted to though.
@jaretco6423 I know I'm in the minority but I also know I'm not the only one that feels that way. I barely used magic and so after drawing 99 of spells and junctionning them the gameplay was fast and fun to me. Then again FF 8 & FF2, which are generally disliked by the majority it seems, are my 2 favorite FF game's. I loved FF2 for how you leveled your stats, honestly don't remember the story, but loved it for how you leveled stats by using abilities, attacking or getting hit. As for being broken it was if you junctioned 99 of yhe spells and made it easy, and while I liked challenges when younger I also liked finding ways to make battles eady and being overpowered. I honestly couldn't find too many negatives about FF8 myself.
@@jaretco6423 to each their own. While I like 8 better I didn't dislike 7 or 9 at all either and did love the materia system just felt like the junction was a step above the materia. I know my opinion is in the minority and that's fine, I liked FF2 & 8 for reasons that many people don't like those game's at all and I know that.
I had Deadly Towers as a kid and never knew what was going on with it, either. Years later, I tried it again using a guide online. It wasn't a terrible experience, but I have no clue how anyone was supposed to figure anything out in that game.
I had totally blocked Deadly Towers out of my memory. I remember the art and the footage you showed. I think this was one of the ones I rented and played for an hour and hated it, then had nothing to play all weekend.
Lunar: Dragon Song hurts. My friends knew I loved the first two games especially and they got me it for my 18th Birthday. I tried so hard to beat it, my friends never got me a videogame before and this was our last year together before college but I just couldn't do it. I felt so bad.
Tell me you dont like playing RPG's without telling me you dont like playing RPGs
Alon'dar was actually given to me by one of my mom's coworkers when I was younger, they were the type who'd play a game and give it away when they were done, and it was one of the few games I'd ever been given for free that I gave back LOL
Looking back, I actually regret NOT getting Final Fantasy VIII or IX when they were new. I wasn't sure why, but after Tactics and FFVII, which were and remain two of my favorite games ever, I just kind of... stopped buying FF games until Tactics Advance came out. Like, I knew the games existed and saw friends play them, but I can't for the life of me understand why it took half a decade for me to get another game in the series. Kid logic is just baffling, I guess xD
Lunar Dragon Song is the only one on this list I ever played, and it's one of the few games that made me legitimately angry at game design.
I didn't have a PSP or PSX so I had only heard about how good the Lunar series was, so when I saw this coming out, I got it right away.
I could have lived with the money or XP thing except...
The game starts you out super strong, then nerfs you hard with that 'can't balance' thing you mentioned. And then I remember spending like 6 hours farming materials (with no XP!) to get money to upgrade equipment.... only to have the very first random enemy I encountered in the next dungeon break it on a normal attack.
Yep, enemies can break equipment, and while you can protect from that, it requires a lot more grinding to find the right items (and IIRC those items are single use, so you would need a ton of them since normal enemies break stuff). I put the game down then and there and never went back.
I was part of the Lunar community at the time Dragonsong came out. I leveled it up to 99 just to see if it was possible. ...it was. I don't think anybody else was ever insane enough to do it again.
FF7 and FF8 both were released on PC too back in the 90s as a 4 disc set
Thenks for giving me more games to play. Will gave to look some of these up
Oof! My brother and I got burned as kids by Deadly Towers too! Definitely a stinger since we were poor kids in Southwest Virginia and buying a game was a rare opportunity.
Wholly agree about Lunar Dragon Song. Your anguish definitely reflected my anguish perfectly. I was such a huge Lunar fan, I even bought Dragon Song before I even manage to buy a DS!
Oh hello my twin! Lol
Games I regret getting
Xenoblade 3
Xenoblade 2
Ragnarok Tactics
Tokyo Xanadu ex+
FE Engage
FE 3 Houses
Most of these games are not bad, but I just dropped them to the backlog void of no return.
>lose HP for running
Excuse me!? Why!?
I still get angry whenever Dragon Song gets brought up; it killed one of my favorite childhood JRPG franchises.
That’s really the thing about vagrant story. It just isn’t an action rpg. Or its hybrid lite at any rate. I think it’s a really cool game but it’s VERY esoteric and niche so i sure as hell don’t blame you lol.
This is very true Vagrant Story is more a tactical RPG, even to the point that Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics share the same world, Vagrant Story even taking place within Ivalice.
@@CrowQuark yep yep!
I love a good David rant on a Monday!! I was howling at “I should have just plunged it into my toilet!” 😂
My most regretted game on this list is definitely Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness. What a horrible game.
7:54 “This game not only wasted my time, but turned me into a liar… shitty ass piece of shit” 😂 I’m so sorry lmao. I felt so bad for you and Ken.
The memories of buying Star Ocean: I&F and Lunar Dragon Song still sting. How did two of my favorite RPG franchises sink so low? What the hell happened?!
I didn’t even know that Deadly Towers existed till AVGN did an episode about it. Man I feel bad for anyone trying to get through that one.
I talked to a guy in a game swap about how Lunar dragon song is soooo bad. The guy is a big rpg fan and he replied "I know, but I've finished it and not going back".
That guy MUST finish every rpg he starts.. But he changed his pattern after that lunar game 😅
Dragon Song was one of the first non-Final Fantasy RPGs I tried, was about halfway through high school, it made me not trust non-square rpgs which is a real shame, because I missed out on a lot
I remember I bought Ephemeral Fantasia because the art reminded me of Skies of Arcadia. Boy was I wrong! Lol
Fun Fact, Ephemeral Fantasia was originally in development for the Dreamcast.
I'm also psychotic and think there's ALOT of good ideas in the game. It's just none of them are done well.
Also not an RPG but a game I regret buying has to be DNF Duel. It is a fighting game based on a popular online fighting game. It's mostly popular in China and Korea. The problem with this game was there wasn't much content. The fighting and characters are cool but there isn't much to do after you beat story mode besides playing online.
Star ocean 5 deserves a remake i mean there remaking everything else 😊😊😊😊
I had no idea that some RPGs you regret buying. Jeezus. Fragrant Story would be one for me, even though I bought it digitally for $4.
But for me, the one game I regretted buying wasn't an RPG. It was Yoshi's New Island and it was honestly a slap in the face.
Good list David.
My sympathies for you being introduced to western RPGs like that. My introduction was the semi-turn based Knights of the Old Republic (it used a Star Wars variant of D&D but made it work in real time, had a log of your rolls and everything). Ironically my introduction to JRPGs was Star Ocean The Last Hope, and the grating english voices drove me away for a long time. KAY?! (shivers)
Dead as a door knob just like Working Designs 😭, that one hit hard.
FF8?!? Bruh! I grumble about that game too, but even I don't regret buying it. It must *REALLY* have rubbed our guy all the wrong ways!
Small city in Appalachia where you had to drive into the city to get anything - are we from the same area?? 😂😂
Crazy that PeteDorr speedran Ephemeral Fantasia. What a guy.
You don't hold back any punches, I like that
I haven’t regretted buying any, well not yet at least. But my friend did many years ago in 5th grade he gave me his copy of FF13 cause he hated it.
I didn’t like it myself, mostly cause i didn’t like jrpgs games back then.
I never liked ff8. I tried it a couple times but lost interest early on each instance.
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is still my favorite
1. Digimon World
2. Tales of The Abyss
3. Grandia HD Collection
4. Valkyrie Profile
5. Lunar Dragon Song
That’s my list. Every other game I’ve bought I’ve loved…Love FFVIII.
Hilarious you also included Dragon Song…I wrote my list before watching your video. Haha
Ff8, now we are about to fight 😤 one of the best Ff games in the series.
Nope. It's one of the worst.
My biggest regret was Kitaria Fables. Granted that I only started buying games legally starting the 3ds and then switch era. Everything else I played were roms on original hardware (psp, ds, etc...)
Ummm... I think you may be misremembering Opoona. It did not need motion controls. You could play it with a classic controller, and use the right analog stick to aim your attacks in battle. Heck, you could use the wiimote-nunchuck setup and just use the analogue stick on that.
Ouch; I had no idea there was a Lunar spin-off where they ditched the quasi-strategy combat. What a waste of a good system!
I haven't played Vagrant Story, but tbh "Action RPG where you have to stop every few seconds and select an option from a menu" would actually be a pretty good description of the active time battle system from Final Fantasy IV-IX! Not sure what makes VS's implementation so bad.
I'm one of the only people I know who's actually beaten Ephemeral Fantasia. I actually loved the groundhog day concept and the music minigames, but the implementation of everything was so bad. I lowkey hope that a group of indie devs will take a stab at this idea again some day.
Yeah, I also beat ephemeral fantasia. Honestly, I thought it was a great game due to its concepts and really enjoyed the guitar mini game giving nat free reign and zero hints. I think the game was a little too ambitious for almost everyone. It's nearly impossible to cleanly progress without a guide or a lot of time. So at this time, easily understandable to hate or drop the game. Also, the guitar minigame was amazing, I played guitar freaks at the time so I really liked it.
I felt the same way about vagrant story. I was immediately repulsed within the first 30 minutes.
The Legend of Alon D'ar was one of my first games on PS2. Many years later, I just realized that it's considered to be a bad game according to reviews. 😅 But, since I got it on sale, I don't have any regret. It's a lesson for me to check on reviews before purchasing a game. 🤓
I played FF8 not long after I finished 7 for the second time believing that they couldnt miss with the 8th game.....yeah....it took me until the near end of the 3rd disc to really start liking it. I was hoping that if i stuck with it it would get better and well....sorta? There is definitely some trashy games in this list and Alon Dar looks like a star for sure, a shit covered star. So much to work with when it comes to dubious regret in gaming and these are or at least seem (because ive not played a few of these) like great candidates. Thanks David!
Lunar Dragon Song is also one of the games that I regret buying. I almost finish it but the save file got corrupted and couldn't reload the game, I was so frustrated DX
Wow, that level design for Ultima 4 looks like all kinds of random.
Just stared the video and I love coming outta the gate with “FF8 was bad, people” take. Peak David. Yassssss. 🎉
As a teenager I was a total completionist so even if I didn't like a game I'd force myself to finish it anyway -- I'm convinced that's the only reason I stuck with FF8 because the only things I ended up really enjoying about it were the incredible soundtrack (possibly Uematsu's best ever imo) and... Triple Triad. LOL. The Draw system coupled with scaling enemy encounters ruined the combat for me and I thought the story was way too convoluted and cheesily melodramatic. Funnily enough my sister loved it.
Lots of games over the years (here's lookin at you Jerkyl and Hyde for nes), but as far as RPGs, I know I am missing a few but: Paladin's Quest for snes, Ghost Lion for NES, and Beyond the Beyond for PS1, Shadow Madness for PS1 come to mind. I know I have more but those jump out to me the most as far as rpgs. Back in those days with limited options and money goofing up on a game purchase was way worse. Now a days I have a 2000 stream backlog, and god knows how many classics on the Raspberri PI i need to play.
FFVIII is the worst of the golden age of Squaresoft... but it's still one of them. It's still better than everything that came after FFIX imho.
What? Even 10? U think 8 is better than 10?
I took literal offense to Lunar Dragon Song. I saw the game on the shelf and I bought a DS solely to play that game. I turned it on played for 15 minutes and I felt personally attacked. Like how could one of my favorite series ever get demoted to this crap?
Be honest, how big is the backlog. I've beat like 30 games on my steam library.
What I would suggest regarding ff8, get the rom, cheat all items and gf. Ff8's story is good, I will not spend hours drawing again tho.
The funny thing is I disliked FF8 at first because it wasn't FF7. But FF8 is the only FF I played 3 times. I mean, the story was trash, but the gameplay is so much fun and addictive. Music is incredible. The exploration, card game, and customization are top-notch. As for Vagrant Story. I did enjoy it part of it but never finished it. I think the games mechanics felt complicated since it doesn't really explain many of its systems.
FF8 is on of my favs. Cool video!
The bit about Final Fantasy viii and Xenogears is one of the most true statements I have ever heard
Lunar: Dragon Song is one of my most regretted purchases ever. The GameStop guy tried to get me to buy Phoenix Wright (which had also just been released at the time) instead... I should've listened.
Final Fantasy VIII is my favorite FF game, and I think a lot of the negative backlash against it is because it was between 7 and 9
The RPG regret that comes immediately to mind for me is Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World for Wii. It was the first game in my life that I consciously chose not to finish. I was a big fan of the original Tales of Symphonia, so I went into the sequel with a lot of excitement, but it was just dashed. From the story to the gameplay, it was a disappointment in every way.
Another regret was Dragon Warrior 7 for PS1. I rented it as a kid and liked it back then, but it was too hard for me to beat, but it was always in the back of my mind. Like my white whale. I wanted to finish it. In my college years, I paid entirely too much for it at a 2nd hand game store only to find my younger self had dodged a bullet. DQ7 is easily one of the most needlessly grindy RPGs I've ever played, and I hated it, lol.
Definitely regret buying Disgaea 6. As someone who enjoyed all the previous Disgaea games 6 was just lazy and felt half-finished. I usually pre-order all of the collector's editions for the Disgaea games from the NIS America online store, but I was so let down by 6 that I'm only buying the regular edition of 7 because I'm cautiously optimistic that they'll fix the mistakes of the previous game.
If Vagrant Story played more like Diablo in combat it would have been one of my favorite games.
I absolutely loved FF8 (for the story and music) and Vagrant Story (for the combat depth and challenge). But your video still gets a like because your complaints were very entertaining.
Glad you enjoyed it!
For me it's chrono cross-- shouldn't even be a chrono game (music was good tho).
Ah, the game I regret buying was Fragrant Story as I thought it was the acclaimed Vagrant Story. I wasted $40 on 10 mins of gameplay :)
Can't wait for part 3!
I'm there with your feelings for Ultima Runes Virtue. I had the same thing happen. After playing Dragon Warrior, I wanted more of the same. Hydlide was there and I bought it with my savings, thinking it was similar. I still regret getting that and not Monster Party.
I actually like Final Fantasy 8; it's not my favorite in the series, or even on the PlayStation, but I did like it more than 7. That said, I don't use magic all that often, and am a hoarder of all things consumable (I usually don't even use E-tanks on the final bosses of Mega Man games, "Just in case"), so its most punishing feature didn't affect me... also, I like Deadly Towers, so my taste in games is a bit unusual.
As for regrets, I have plenty, many of which came in the wake of my newfound WRPG enthusiasm; I played some great games in the genre, including the legendary Planescape: Torment, and thought, "I love WRPGS now! Time to catch up on all the classics!" Now, I have a gigantic digital pile of D&D licenses (including Baldur's Gate) that were so obtuse I couldn't get into them, some of which I couldn't even win the first battle in the game!
Another one, which was actually really good, was Celestian Tales: Old North. You choose one from six different protagonists - I went with the one that looks almost identical to my sister when she was younger - and the rest of them are your other party members. The writing was very philosophical, and even the characters I couldn't stand were used to set up interesting counterpoints from the ones I did. On a surface level, it feels a little like a Suikoden, for how it handles war (no giant base with over 100 characters, though), and it wraps up with a really interesting conclusion. Great! Wait, there's another chapter? The last chapter comes in after what should've ended the game, uproots EVERYTHING, and just leaves, like the world's worst dinner guest. So, a sequel comes out, I pick it up, and in between then and when I was about to play it, I found out that this isn't going to end properly either, because it's supposed to be a trilogy. Sequels that continue the story are fine, but when you're already planning for a sequel and use that as a reason to end your game on a cliffhanger, that's just bad design; finish the game, and then sell me the finished product. I know this one's partially on me - do your research, kids; don't preorder and don't buy anything Day 1 - but that doesn't make it any less a regret.
I regret buying Tak and the Power of Juju to not for the reason you might think it was actually a pretty fun game but the problem is there was a glitch for mechanic in the game that the developers never fixed until this day is one of the few games I've never been able to beat
I don't think I've regretted buying any games yet because my collection is still relatively small and well curated to my taste.
From this list I only played Final Fantasy VIII, and it actually is one of my favourite in the series. I like it much more than VII. I also plan to play Vagrant Story someday. Hope it will be worth it.