gmail imap is kinda dogshit anyway, and they bought the client that coped with it best only to immediately discontinue it and put everyone involved to work on a messaging app
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I’m still wondering how much longer Spark will hold out on iOS without an acquisition
They probably have the best shot because they sell email collaboration tools that are great for personal assistants or support teams for small to medium sized businesses
Is playing the original Phantasy Star in 2018, even just an hour or so at a time once a week when half paying attention to late afternoon Sunday NFL games, a decent idea or is it a game best left to the past? The sequel would also theoretically be an option, but it seems to be almost twice as long and that is a big starting mark against it.
This is how I finally played through Dragon Quest V a couple years back, FWIW.
Hey I did this in 2018 but only for a couple hours until I got stuck. I recommend the new translation which is the only way to play in english with fm sound. I like the aesthetic and the whole thing is just impressive for 87. You will just be grinding most of the time but grinding is cool plus you have fast forward.
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Have you considered Phantasy Star IV instead? It’s like the “SMT: Nocturne” of the series. Instead of a pure grindfest, you have a “fairly grindy, but also very tense and punishing” experience. Not to mention the plot is more coherent in PSIV than it’s ever been, and the art is more varied.
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I played through IV a little while back. I enjoyed it but I didn’t get the tense and punishing part, I found it to be pretty straightforward. It was a game I’d wanted to play for a long time though and I took it pretty thoroughly, I kept little line maps in a notebook for the dungeons. So I probably got everything in them. The only wrinkle I remember were the combination attacks, which were ok
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PS is eventually getting a release on the Switch with an automapping feature, so that’s a thing in case you want to wait anywhere from a week to a month and can also abuse the Japanese eShop
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I should clarify a bit. I brought up Phantasy Star specifically as I was gifted this thing some decade-plus back:
It is one of only two unbeaten portable jrpgs I own (the other is TWEWY which is probably too real time for this setting). It is seemingly a rather bare-bones port of the first three games (plus a bonus save bug that I think I can work around). My question is basically meant to be if it is worth it to play through the game this way at this point.
It is true that I could likely emulate a different version (or IV) on the DS, but at that point the selection wouldn’t be limited to just the Phantasy Stars.
Well, I tend to calibrate my amount of grinding, sidequesting and running-away so as not to trivialize any boss in JRPGs. If you approach PSIV that way, the long walk from the savepoints and the volatile turn-order makes bosses nail-biting.
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PS1 is real great but good luck with that GBA port.
Here is my rating of the Main Phantasy Star s
PS1
4
3 with heavy fast forwarding
2
2 has these giant aimless motivation-dungeons that I have never played for more than 90 minutes.
I spent a whole afternoon with 3 and had a great time.
4 is perfectly acceptable. But none of it really stands out. Oh wow Anime cutscenes. A sort of all star remix or the casts of the first three games. Like there are good things about but the second I turned it off I didn’t think about it again.
I like the gall and villiany of some of the later dungeons in PS1. With an faq open of course because fuck that. All of the appreciation none of the headache.
PS3’s monster designs are fucking wild.
PS1 is definitely the best 8bit JRPG. but if I was making a list of the best 16bit jrpgs PS2-4 wouldn’t make the top 20.
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OTOH Phantasy Star IV has Seth
What a charming and friendly dude. Good vibes all around
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I like the idea of 2 but I’ve only played it for a couple hours. Otherwise it sounds plausible, I’d be interested in hearing more rpg rankings of yours
Phantasy star 2 is one hell of a grindy slog, and only really worth playing with fast forward, imo.
3 fares a little better because the dungeons are smaller and the game is much weirder in general, but still gets a bit monotonous after a while.
Been a while since I played the original, but I think it holds up pretty well in comparison to the aforementioned games as far as grindiness goes. As I recall you kind of only need to grind a few levels at the start and then it’s smooth cruising for most of the rest of the game.
I am pretty biased towards PS4, but Rudie is probably right about it being nothing special in the grand scheme of 16 bit Jarpeggin’. It’s got some good vibes though
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ps2 is quite atmospheric and has some cool tunes i guess, The Big Twist and ending were probably really cool if you were playing it as a kid in 1989
but yeah i can’t even begin to describe how inscrutable the dungeon design is
there’s a playstation 2 port in sega ages (not the really ugly remake) that has some toggles for a significantly lower encounter rate and bigger experience gains, that’s the only way i’d even consider playing it now
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Thanks for e-mail answers, everyone. Will try Disroot since I’ve never actually used a native client and would probably never be able to adjust adequately if I don’t actually have to.
Sadly the really cheap copy of Girl’s Mode 3 (Style Boutique 2 / Fashion Forward) I was eyeing was gone when I went to pick it up and am real bummed about that.
This is actually the version that’s coming to the Switch in the future somewhere (no date for the west other then the confirmation that it will be eventually)
I know clowning on bad box art is passé but holy cow
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Those are great but not the original Japanese art. Megadrive boxart is qing boxart.
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Oh, true. The Japanese art isn’t as bonkers, but II’s is super cool.
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