Eh, debatable. I’ve played it for roughly 2 years (2004-6) on private servers and even then I knew it wasn’t “the best” or “incredible” by any means, but it was light years ahead of Tibia (which was my first taste of MMORPGs, back when the starter island was a mess with too many players and not enough rats in the sewers for people to kill and level up) in every regard. Even with higher rates and an incredible teenage patience for braindead repetition, the grind got old really damn fast, not to mention that the game penalized fucking around (no stat resets, only on the 99 rebirth) and fucking up (1% xp penalty on death hit harder and harder the higher your level).
Played for a long time on EuphRO server (3x/3x/2x), my highest level character was 75 or something close to that. I think I gave up playing altogether around the time I got a super novice to level 50 on a different, higher rate server
I personally dislike the skills from equipment because, compared to FFT, it creates an artificial, story-gated wall on character progression (you can’t get the most powerful magic because you can’t get the equipment, because it only unlocks later during the story)
As for the judges, I don’t think they add enough to game to make combat more interesting
I really hope square doesn’t fuck up the remaster like they did with the PSP and Android versions, both shipped with a stupid bug that caused a huge slowdown on every magic-like animation.
The game became that shitshow because Warner Bros execs got pissed that a “no-name” yuropeean company got the rights to make a licensed Superman game (because they were the only company that bothered to bid), so they did a lot of time-wasting requests to the developers.
I really enjoyed 3 more than 2, despite never quite getting the hang of doing hook-gliding combos. Flying a heli with missiles in 2 was the game’s “I win” button, dodging AA missiles was pretty trivial, 3 doesn’t have anything as OP
I personally judge that game as plain bad with decent shooting and ok loot. The main story, and the game universe in general, are memorable for how stupidly thought out they are, even for the low standards of Bethesda post Oblivion. The citizens and assorted non-hostile npcs feel less alive than the people you run over in GTA games. They also managed to take the fun basebuilding of Fallout 4 and make it bad AND pointless - very little customization and freedom of certain objects’ placements, plus you’re better off just buying resources from vendors.
Pretty much every korean MMORPG released from 2006-2014, as they were desperately trying to be “World of Warcraft, but better”. Perfect World, Aion, ArcheAge, 4story, Granado Espada, etc etc etc, even when you have the better experience of playing on a private server with significantly less P2W (as in, nearly everyone gets most of the shop for free)
To me, personally, ArcheAge would be the best fit for “dead medium quality”. It boasts naval combat, which is meh; player run trade caravans, which probably only worked as intended in the first 2 months after launch; limits on gathering and crafting, which just forces free players to buy premium; graphics are the generic korean mmo variety, pretty but almost impossible to distinguish between games; music, enemies, dungeons and most gear exist
Hell, imagine if Apple finally woke up to gaming and made a Mac Deck. Now that would shake things up.
They have the hardware (any current gen iphone or ipad), they only need to release a version with console-like controller buttons, but they lack the willingness to really invest in games. Apple arcade is a joke compared to nearly everything else on offer.
I’ve played some old Silver Box Dungeons and Dragons games (Heroes of the Lance, Dragons of Flame and Shadow Sorcerer) I got from a GOG promotion who knows how long ago. Stuff from 1988-1990. My god, those games suck HARD. Granted, PCs didn’t have much in terms of “good real time action games”, but those just feel awful from start to finish. The fact that increasing cycles or adding frameskips in DOSBox doesn’t speed up the games doesn’t help, either.
Shadow Sorcerer isn’t as bad as the previous 2, no longer being a side scroller and being real time tactics, but it doesn’t quite cut it.
If you want Star Wars with actual saber combat, try the old Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy games. Neither should be too long, but I think JA is easier overall, as levels tend to be pretty straightforward and you start as padawan with a saber. Fighting against multiplayer bots in both games can be fun, too.