Some games are timeless and no matter how many times, you can replay them and appreciate them not only of their moment, but just as a comfortable fun time.

And sometimes you play Secret of Mana for the first time in a few years and finally realize what others meant on how bad the combat can feel at times. Don't get me wrong, the game is an absolute beaut for 1993. It still amazes me how they managed to make it look so good. But the combat isn't great and the plot kinda falls apart in the middle.

Or Twilight Princess, where the pacing feels like the game is constantly wearing iron boots the entire time; trudging what should be a 15 minute moment into a whole hour.

And rather unfortunately, I've grown a bit of a distaste for strictly turn based combat. Sure, I like SaGa 2&3 as much as the next person (and yes, I know the third game was more closely related to Mystic Quest than SaGa), but I lack the simple patience for most of them. Especially that one popular JRPG series about the animals.

And sorry Descent, but the controls within (by default) were not made with the conventions of modern 6 DOF design. Half the time I'm upside down and have no idea where I am, where I'm going, and the best route to either.

Partial Credit: Earthbound/Mother 2: If there was a way to skip the first hour or two of this game, that'd basically remove the biggest obstacle in starting.

Stealing thread ideas are we now?

I just got hit with this with Just Cause 1. First time was on OG Xbox, second time was on 360. Decided to get if off of GOG and by golly, it did not age well. Maybe the PC version is borked, but the on-foot aiming is fine because it's free aim at all times, but when not on foot it forces you to use its crappy lock on system. The main missions are also lackluster and the side missions are extremely repetitive. There is also a problem with the randomness of the game where you might be perfectly fine or just randomly get knicked by missiles in some sections. I had to force myself to rush through the game just to get it over with.

Blasphemy!

Descent is timeless.

No idea about the default controls, but in the setup menu you can rebind.
Oh, Descent also has user levels.

... and auto - leveling, if you want. It's highly customizable. Just play around with the settings and find the best one for you. I agree, Descent is timeless and still loads of fun. Especially since there are still new fan missions being released every now and then and very good ones too.

The only thing that Descent shows me is, that I didn't age well. My reaction time is much worse than it used to be!

The 7th Guest belongs on this list. While it's enjoyable enough the first time you play it, any repeats are going to result in noticing some glaring flaws.

The biggest draw with this game was always the graphics that were good for the that the game came out. This isn't counting the full motion video (FMV) that was always mediocre.

The game has one hard puzzle (microscope), and the rest are all super easy. Also the game can't make up its mind as to what sort of puzzles it wants to give you, so it tries to do a bit of everything. There's a reason why Tetris endured so long when it does one thing as it does that one thing extremely well, which is something that Trilobyte could have learned. In the case of The 7th Guest, it's like they went all out on that one microscope puzzle where it feels like they didn't put as much effort into designing the rest.

The game is also on rails to the extent that it doesn't even pretend that you can explore the mansion to complete tasks in whatever order you wish. I'm going to have to disagree here.
I wouldn't change anything at all when it comes to Earthbound.

Final Fantasy 4: After playing the game multiple times, and having access to other games in the series, FF4 has the problem that the game just doesn't provide enough variety on repeat playthroughs. There's no trying different parties or different abilities, as the game dictates that for you in a scripted (non-random) manner. For any given dungeon or boss fight, you will *always* be fighting with the same exact party on every playthrough.

Also, the game is linear, with there only being a few late-game optional dungeons, and none of the other minor dungeons that were featured in FF3. (I'm thinking things like FF3's mythril cave and Saronia tower; optional dungeons with useful treasures and not necessarily a boss fight.)

The 3D remake of FF4 improves this somewhat with augments, but at the cost of adding extra permanent missables to the game. The GBA and PSP versions let you change your party at the endgame and add a bonus dungeon, but that does no good for most of the game (and GBA 1.0, which is the version released in the US, is horrendously buggy; game was rushed for the holiday season and it shows; play the 1.1 (European) release or the PSP version instead).

There's also a few odd situations in the Zelda series:
* Zelda 1: I find the first quest to be too simple and boring. I prefer the second quest, which fortunately you can start on by naming your character ZELDA. (Note: If you're new to the game, don't do this your first playthrough.)
* Zelda: A Link to the Past: I find that, for me to enjoy the game, I need to use glitches to sequence break, doing things out of the intended order. The game is *much* more fun that way. Now if only I had a way to get that mirror while it's still raining outside and save it without the game softlocking on me... There's way too many games that take too long to get interesting.

Final Fantasy 6, for example, takes too long to get you access to the game's most interesting gameplay system (an issue that Dragon Quest 6 and 7 also have, by the way), and the game doesn't really open up until far too late, when you get the second airship. I've actually grown a distaste for combat that isn't strictly turn-based, but isn't full action either.

Also, it might be interesting to check out the SaGa 3 remake (unfortunately only released in Japan for the Nintendo DS); it changes the game to make it more like other SaGas.

By the way, I really enjoy SaGa 1, and I wish there were more RPGs with comparable length and density. The game really doesn't waste your time the way most other RPGs have a tendency to.

More than once, yes!

And yes, that sounds like a lot of games of the era; interesting concept, terrible execution, worse implementation. I really have to wonder about people who praise MDK have played it recently? Idly glancing over the screenshots, it looks like the worst intersection point between a FMV game and a third person shooter. Might one of those user levels be a nice open training area?

I've heard a lot about 7th Guest. As I recall, you're requested to do that particular puzzle not once, but multiple times? It reminds me of the puzzle board you can run into within 5 minutes of opening Riven; you do not, and should not solve the puzzle so early.

As to Earthbound, you wouldn't cut out the 3 visits to the hillside? Maybe streamline some of the dungeons? Give a key item pocket? 1) Oh, I get that FF4 is a classic of storytelling and such, but I've never understood the hype for it. Of course, when I was playing SoM, others were playing FF4. I personally prefer FF5.

1ab) And that still doesn't quite fix the pace or walls you can face. Since you can't tailor the party to the circumstances with laser honed precision, that means bosses like Candlebrina can be an absolute [explicative] to face down.

2) How do you feel about randomisers, the BS-X episodes, and "third" and "fourth" quest hacks?

3) So wait. You're suggesting the game doesn't open up until WoR?

4) But I actually like that you can traditionally level up in SaGa GB 3. I don't like being at the mercy of the dice.

5) Yes, they're absolutely breezy in pace compared to most other RPGs. In battle within a quick screen slice, unlile the theatrics other RPGs go though.

Yes. Further, I'm saying the game doesn't even open up then; you need to actually get the airship in the WoR before it opens up.

Before that point, the game is quite linear, with very few side events (the only significant ones I can remember are a couple in early WoR), and the game gets severely bogged down with cutscenes, with the player being forced to spend too much time watching rather than playing. After you get the second airship (and only *after*, as there's more annoying cutscene right when you're about to get it), the game world opens up, and the cutscenes finally let up.

One of the reasons I hated FF7 is that it has the same issues with linearity and cutscenes that FF6 has, except worse in therms of cutscenes, but it never opens up the way FF6 eventually does. (I believe I played up to the start of the 3rd disk, but apparently the 3rd disk has only one area to explore that isn't previously accessible.) Thing is, the growth in the SaGa 3 remake feels more controlled than in early SaGas. For example:
* Stat growth chance is more heavily influenced by enemy difficulty. If you're fighting a high level enemy with low stats, your stats will rise very quickly. It also helps that every action has a chance of triggering a stat increase; no need to wait for the battle to be won. (This means that character death doesn't prevent stat increases (though it does prevent meat/part usage), though it does have the issue that slower characters might not get to act in the last round and hence might not get a stat increase for that round.)
* Weapon and spell leveling is deterministic. (400 uses, if the character is of the right race, will max out the skill.) Furthermore, the chance of a technique being learned is heavily dependent on the skill level. Learning Raisera (the one spell I've found you really need to go out of your way to learn if you want it) requires about 160 casts of Raise to learn, but that number is remarkably consistent.
* The only thing that really feels random is the learning and transference of passive skills (and transference of monster spells) when installing meat and parts. With that said, the drop rate of meat and parts has been *massively* increased, to the point where you're no longer spending inordinate amounts of time looking for the meat or parts you need to transform. Furthermore, since overkilled enemies are more likely to drop meat or parts, you can manipulate what gets dropped, plus you can see enemies before engaging (though that feature does have its downsides, especially late game). I think I may aim for that in the RPG I'm planning to make. Fast battles, fast character growth, and not too much length should work well, particularly since I think this choice will also mean less work for the developer (who would be me, of course).

I think Twincast could help in that particular fight.

But then again, I tend not to have Twincast available at that point, as I tend to give one copy of this augment to Tellah, and it's useless when only one character has it.

Bardsong on Rydia, on the other hand, makes multiple bosses really easy; one of those bosses is the final boss. (Augment guides often give Bardsong to a temporary character, but I consider that bad advice, because it's so good on Rydia, particularly since it combines well with Fast Talker.)

Also, Bless on Cecil (or Tellah) makes the midgame more fun on New Game +. When I can just regularly throw around Twincast in the Magnetic Cave, that dungeon actually becomes fun rather than obnoxious. Add in a Soma Drop so Tellah can use Meteor, and then... I actually just watched some Z1M1 randomizer. The problem with randomizers is that you can't try to get your favorite item sooner, and you will occasionally get seeds that take a lot longer than you bargained for (the player's usual time was under 2:20, but this seed took close to 4 hours).

(Z1M1 is a randomizer that combines Zelda 1 and Metroid, with paths between the games being placed randomly, and items from one game appearing in the other. Also, there's some map randomization, which is something that is not as common in randomizers of more modern games like Zelda 3.)

If so - I would not know. I remember downloading some *.zip called ''More levels'' and ''even more levels''. Played some maps. Vaguely recall some having very open spaces.

But I'll be damned if I remember the names.

Your problem is a different, though.

There is no ''up'' and ''down in a 6DOF game. (Well, aquanox has the ocean floor... but that's a different matter.)
Flying however you like is part of the appeal.

Up or down, sideways -- you must be able to, and like to navigate 3D space.
Compared to space games Descent takes place inside tunnels, so you could want to apply ''walking like a human'' logic to the map design; but no -- you must think of the walls as constraints that prohibit you from navigating all 3 dimensions.

Another thing - I just checked on your post in the Descent subforum. =) 1.) The correct term would be HOSAS (Hands on stick and stick (2 joysticks)) not Hands On Throttle and Stick.
2.) The map is glorious! In Overload they changed it so that the further you explore the map from the ship, the less detailed it gets. Makes it easier to find your ship in the map, but makes finding unexplored areas harder.

Oh, my settings were/are:
keypad: look up, down; look left right; go up, down.
keyboard: roll left, right; go left, right; go forward, backward.

That's cool, but I use an 8bitdo Pro+.

I've never been able to make it very far into FF6, what system are you referring to? Maybe I'll stick it out next time.

Learning spells from espers. It takes quite a while for the game to give you your first batch of espers, which is how spells are learned for the most part.

Basically a prototype of Materia and other systems, as they also affect your stats with use as well.