Welcome to Gaia! ::

Welcome to the horribly named Match the Ratings game!

It's a pretty straightforward game. ^.^

I'll give you 10 RPGs and give you a "topic/aspect" to rate them off of IE: Storyline or Graphics.

Rating each of them from 1-10
IE: FF7 is 1 for 1st, FF5 is 2 for 2nd Best (in the category) and so on

1 being the Best, 10 being the Worst.

Note that its a comparison, not an overall rating.

And if at least 5 of yours match up with mine (which will be revealed after a week, along with a discussion/reasoning) you get 500 Gold ^.^

~Prize System~
5 Match : 500 Gold
6: 1000
7: 1750
8: 2500
9: 3750
10: 5000 + ???? Prize

What kind of scale do we use for rating?

Eh...There's some games on the list that I didn't play. sweatdrop Should I just skip over it, if I didn't play?

But not to waste a post, my ratings for the battle system of each game:

FFX: 3
Chrono Trigger: 4.5
KH1: 2
Tales of Phantasia: 5
FFTA: 7
Zelda: Link to the Past: 6
Secret of Mana: 4

Oh, and should we give an explanation for each of our rankings?

I'm not quite sure I understand, but I'm guessing that you want us to order them from best to worse (ranking?), and not give random values to each one, right?

This is actually the format i'm looking for ^.^

Ah, I should have elaborated on mine, too. I should probably preface by noting that I don't care much for complex gameplay - for me, gaming is something I do to relax, more mental calisthenics than anything strenuous. I get enough of a workout at school (curse you, AP classes!).

1. Chrono Trigger - Lacks the depth of newer games, but again, I don't find that a fault; for me, it was the perfect level of depth - enough to occupy, but not so complex as to require particular use of the mental faculties. That, and it was DAMNED FUN (for me, not much warrants the use of an expletive, so I'm really emphasizing). Double and Triple Techs were easy to implement, but rewarding.
2. FFTA - Aw, say what you will - this is, indeed, bias in my case, because I love SRPGs, and its the only SRPG on the list. I must say, though, that I think FFTA generally gets a bad rap - yes, the laws were irksome at times, and everything was quite simplified in comparison to FFT, but it is a handheld on the GBA - I thought it did very well, all things considered.
3. Zelda aLttP - All right, this may be nostalgia, but it's worthy nostalgia. Zelda is a franchise based on gameplay - its stories are tolerable at best, tritely bland at worst (though I suppose fangirlism over Link has supplanted this to some degree - but I digress), so it had to deliver, and deliver it did, in aLttP.
4. SMRPG - Eh, yes, it is very simple, but the mock 3D environment was fun; they really did a job on the jumping and incorporating that into the environment and the gameplay. The in-battle gameplay wasn't particularly noteworthy, I agree - while fun, it wasn't as engaging as some, but the plethora of little tricks and such in the field made SMRPG quite a fun experience.
5. FFX - Sphere Grid system is awesome, and for me, second only to the Jobs system, at least with regard to Final Fantasy. However, lack of a world map and astoundingly linear progression did not endear themselves to me. Also, I prefer ATB to CTB, personally (and I realize I'm probably in the minority here), so long as the ATB never takes too long.
6. Tales of Phantasia (SNES) - The side view really bothered me. I suppose they meant to mimic side-scrollers, but arranging the characters in battle could be extremely tedious when you can't side-step past people or enemies, leading to those trapped scenarios. The magic system was a bit too simplistic, even for me - there was no depth involved; choose a spell, see it work. Food was next to useless in this version. And on a more personal note, Mint's AI was simply horrid for me in the SNES version - she never casted the right spell at the right time.
7. Kingdom Hearts - Camera. Menu. GUMMI SHIP. Otherwise, I've few complaints, save that I really can't say whose AI is dumber - Mint's or Donald's.
8. Secret of Mana - Muh. First, it's hack-hack-hack. Then, it becomes charge-hack. Then, charging lengthens until it becomes chaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrgggggge-hack, which can become absolute tedium as it gets broken by enemy attacks. The techs were decent, however, and there were some pretty neat little puzzles here and there, especially involving the whip, axe, chakram, and sword. Multiplayer capability, though, is its distinguishing feature, as well as being able to cycle through characters. Still, there was a general sloppiness about SoM (hit detection, etc) and that the enemies had all of about four different attack patterns didn't do much for me.
9. Saga Frontier - Somehow, it didn't appeal to me as much as it probably should have. Maybe this is due to it apparently attempting to condense what should've been several different gameplay systems into one. For me, it was simply too much, and a little too unbalanced.
10. FFMQ - Even for a person who doesn't mind simplicity, this is too much. There's hardly any "game" here worth talking about.

It was very, very close from SMRPG down; the gameplay varies so much as to make them hard to compare objectively. And though I came down hard on many of them, I did like them - it just seemed more important to point out what I didn't like for the sake of justifying my order.

Now that I think about it, Saga Frontier should definitely be higher up, but I'm too lazy to move it. xp

Oh, I saw that; I just wanted to elaborate on my reasoning for fun. xp

Let the fun continue!

1. FFT - See aformentioned bias towards the genre. Also, in terms of gameplay, it far surpasses FFTA, so this wasn't much of a decision.
2. FFVI - If only it didn't turn into a mess in the second part of the game, what with everyone having magic, thus rendering some characters utterly worthless (Umaro, I'm looking at you). Esper/Phantom Beast system ranks fifth for me in FF systems.
3. SO:TtEoT - Muh. As many grievances as I had towards the story and characters (and the series in general, for that matter), I did like the gameplay enough to finish it, so that's got to count for something...
4. Earthbound - Straightforward and fun. It's the kind of game that drew me to retro-gaming.
5. Lufia II - Liked the IP/Ikari gauge, simple as it was. Liked the (albeit limited) monster ranching ability. A bit bland every now and then, but solid.
6. SD3 - SoM, but worse. Hack-hack-hack-hack-tech. Oh, and if you change classes? Hack-hack-hack-hack-hack-hack-hack-tech. Yay? It's mindless button-mashing at its worst; at least SoM had the charge system. I like simplicity, but not this kind of simplicity. Even the decent magic system couldn't draw me into it. I'm definitely in the minority here, because everywhere I go, people veritably sing its praises. IMO, one of the most overrated games, ever.
7. Shining Force - Even bias couldn't save this one. It really hasn't aged gracefully, IMO, the way some games do. The interface really irked me (don't laugh, but I was infuriated by talking, along with other menu procedures), and the game alternated between being quite easy and annoyingly weird - the enemy AI seemed really erratic.

This whole list past FFVI, IMO, consisted of solid, but not awesome games. That made it really hard to rank some of them.

Er, what happens if we haven't played all of the games? I haven't played Brave Fencer Musashi, Chocobo Dungeon, or BoFIII (which I should have, by now).

Can't wait to see your opinions, Moonlight Mentalist.

Half of all reviews by the major groups (IGN, etc) are trite and faddish. I'm too lazy to sift through the mess to find good ones. And what would be the point in that, anyway? XD

Heh, I just prefer seeing the opinions of those who I hold in high regard, not those bozos...