Pokerant, sort of

[Jigglysaint]

Okay, has anybody ever noticed that all the games nowadays involves defeating monsters to gain their powers to be used agains yet more monsters? Take Aria of Sorrow for example: In the game you collect the souls of monsters by defeating them. The soul system was quite fun, but unfortuatly it lacked somthing, like a new concept or somthing. In Golden sun, you gain powers by either euqiping dijins you find and capture, or by equipping items(not quite the same).

Then there's Metroid Fusion. Ever notice how the boss you defeate where you gain a new item has that item's properties in it? the first boss rolls into a ball, the second boss jumps high. Of couse it's not all like that in that game, but most of the bosses are like that.

Now we come to pokemon, the seeming first of the series, but no! The concept of using enemy attacks goes much farther back, even to the seies called Megaman. What made megaman so great was the idea that you can use the enemies weapons agains other enemies. At the time this was a great concept. What I see nowadays is pokemonish situations where you are expected to gain powers by using such creatures to defeat the game. Items that grant abilities are replaced with creatures that gain abilities. A good example of this is the game for the Genesis: Crusader of Centry, where you dont get items, but creatures that help you by granting abilities.

When will the madness end! What ever happened to the idea that you can get stronger by getting better items? Why must all these games revolve around the absorption of other life forms? To me this concept just sounds too much like pokemon(Creaking Skull, I chose You!).

[vegeta1215]

You dissin' Metroid Fusion? :glare:

In Metroid Fusion you are collecting items just like in Super Metroid: in Super Metroid these items were additions to enhance your suit. The same is true for Metroid Fusion, except now you have a cool X parasite killing Metroid suit. :D

The thing in Aria of Sorrow sounds boring to me. I'd like to rent it and see for myself though, cause I don't wanna dish out $30 for another dissapointment like Harmony of Dissonance ::cough SoTN rip off in every sense ::cough:: Circle of the Moon's card system was much better and very original. Even though you got alot of cool powers, you gained cards slowly, and even with the powers you have a very formidible challenge.

Mega Man rocks, period. Always has, always will.

Pokemon however isn't like these other games imo. In Pokemon you the trainer do not gain powers, instead you recruit monsters to your party with different special moves to fight your battles, like any ol' RPG.

[TheGeepster]

Pokemon puts you in the position of a general of sorts. As far as getting items which are similar to the boss capability, it's usually because the area has a theme of sorts, which means you either get an item that fits the theme, or one that is effective against it.

I'm a bit tired of Pokemon myself, because there hasn't been a lot of truly revolutionary ideas found within it. Of course I understand the latest versions include 2 on 2 battles, which sounds OK.

[Pink_Demon]

I was foolish enough to buy Saphire. The sad part is I nearly ignored the Pokemon and spent most my time looking at all the secret hideouts..

[Rufus84]

Final Fantasy Legend 3 had the whole capture/kill a creature and use its power idea back in 1991, so its nothing new. I bet it could be traced further back than that. On a side note, FFL3 is one of the few GB games i really enjoy.

[Mak-X]

Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sarrow were both made by the same team that did Symphony of the night weren't they?

Yeah, in Metroid Fusion your just taking back your powers by having Samus absorb the X that came from her suit and stole her abilities, she doesn't have the x continue to live or fight for her.

The idea of using monsters and battling and raising them is more widespread now though. In the game Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals, the extra capsule monster was useful for battles, and they were just like hidden treasures you found as you went through the game.

In Little Nemo's Dreamland for the NES, you fed Candy to animals and then Nemo would climb inside their bodies and get ablities but I think that's a bit different than how monsters are used in Pokemon. Nemo's case is just a powerup that moves before he gets it.

For the most part, most of these things just seem like another form of a powerup to me, under the guise of spells, weapon upgrades, items, or other monsters.

[Kairyu]

I think that gaining new powers which help you explore/defeat foes is a great idea, if the power is optional for exploration/defeating foes in case you want to make the game more difficult, or more simple, or just REALLY want to kick something's *^%$% after being killed by it lord-knows-how-many-times. You know, like in Mega Man/MMX or the Castletroid games. Forcing the player to get new abilities to proceed is annoying, and boring to me. If Pokemon required you to get 100 Pokemon to face the Elite Four or something, I'd just say screw it and play something else... But I don't have to, so I just get the abilities I want and forget the rest.

BTW, Aria of Sorrow is better than Circle of the Moon, but only slightly so, because the first time through is way too easy in comparison. It's still harder than Harmony of Dissonance, though... and the music beats both. It's the closest game to SotN, as of yet. Just be aware that it won't really be hard unless you... uh, well, set the difficulty to hard...

[Jigglysaint]

Which I am on right now and I still find it easy.

I suppose I shouldn't have been hasty to call it a pokerant. I think the point is that I noticed the seemingly popularity between defeating monsters and taking their powers. I guess I just like games that are item based, since I like finding stuff in treasure chests alot.

[vegeta1215]

Originally posted by Kairyu
BTW, Aria of Sorrow is better than Circle of the Moon, but only slightly so, because the first time through is way too easy in comparison. It's still harder than Harmony of Dissonance, though... and the music beats both. It's the closest game to SotN, as of yet. Just be aware that it won't really be hard unless you... uh, well, set the difficulty to hard...

The thing I liked best about Circle of the Moon was the card system, and it's replay value: I was still excited playing through the game 4 more times as the magician, fighter, shooter and thief.

I just finished playing SoTN, I didn't think it was so hot. The bosses were boring and it was too easy. The only things I really liked were Alucard and the music (and most of the graphics: I don't like the monsters with segmented limbs though, they look cheesy)