tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1662140190218708863.post5207443513511278786..comments2023-08-03T04:54:13.975-05:00Comments on Critical-Gaming: Mechanics and Abstractions part.4KirbyKidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13866037458298228815noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1662140190218708863.post-39679961383756758282008-05-16T09:07:00.000-05:002008-05-16T09:07:00.000-05:00Ah, I remember Valkyrie Profile well. Beautiful gr...Ah, I remember Valkyrie Profile well. Beautiful graphics. Interesting Story. Entertaining overworld and dungeon mechanics (flying, crystal shooting).<BR/><BR/>However, the combat mechanics suffer like like most of Square's other action RPGs. It was really shallow, and optimizing attacks was very simple. <BR/><BR/>The "Purify Weird Soul" attacks were over powered especially when you chained them together. Because you couldn't move, or block really, the only thing there was to do was efficiently attack and then spam the super moves. <BR/><BR/>The range of moves didn't result in hardly any variety. And Guard breaking only required players to continually attack a target (as if they were planning on approaching some other way). <BR/><BR/>The battle system was fairly concrete, but shallow and simple at the same time. <BR/><BR/>Turn/timed based RPGs like Paper Mario and Grandia 2 have more dynamic action than Valkyrie Profile. It's amazing what a few true mechanics can do to the gameplay.KirbyKidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13866037458298228815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1662140190218708863.post-71936304817243079702008-05-15T20:51:00.000-05:002008-05-15T20:51:00.000-05:00One of the best SquareSoft action / combo type gam...One of the best SquareSoft action / combo type games was the original Valkyrie Profile.<BR/><BR/>[], X, /\ and O are each assigned to a characters physical attack. Each character has a variety of physical attack variations as determined by the weapon they're holding and you may choose to attack with all the combos at once, or time them individually.<BR/><BR/>This simple mechanism was in fact more complex than it would seem, however, as the attack animations would also affect the opponents placement on the field. So if you sent a character in for a slash, then comboed with an uppercut and then sent in a second character to attack with a low slash, you'd miss the attack.<BR/><BR/>Added to this simple attack / combo system was a wide range of special moves accessed from a menu. Weapon and armour swapping was also accepted.<BR/><BR/>Games such as Kingdom Hears, Parasite Eve and Vagrant Story also incorporated action elements into an RPG style game to great effect. I'm not sure it's a Square related thing on the whole but more probably directly related to the developer whose using Square's property.Daniel Purvishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15678228002879207522noreply@blogger.com