I hail from the late 8- early 16-bit era and still like playing games from that timeframe out of nostalgia and my pretty unreasonable and unhealthy attachment to sprite graphics. I also like me some good old JRPGs. Now I know that Kemco release(d) a ton of their games on iOS. I may not have as much free time than I had back in the 90s and I am not as resiliant against mindless grinding as back then but I think I still want to try (against my better knowledge and my humongous backlog) some of the Kemco RPGs. But there are so many of them, so any good tips and recommendations from some KEMCO Veterans? I value story/setting/lore more than perfect gameplay/graphics. I know that may be a problem with said games but I believe not all of them are cookie-cutter bland vanilla rpgs? So mind over matter, where to start?
From what I learned here on TA, Asdivine Hearts is considered one of their best titles. I still haven't gotten around to playing it yet, despite having purchased it a few months ago. Other than that I wouldn't know, but it's a question that has come up a few times before so I'm sure if you search the forum for kemco threads you'll be able to find a few.
I own most of Kemco games, but have not really dived into them.. I am also not sure where to start.. I was thinking of just playing each game from earliest release date - then moving forward. But I am aware that different teams develop these games, so release date is not a true indicator of quality.. It would be cool if there was a list of Kemco games from best to worst, with a description of reasoning.. This may be asking a lot, but I am sure someone would enjoy this quest... With this said.. If a list never pops up.. Shaun, has done a review on pretty much each and every Kemco game, so this will take a person pretty far in the early exploration..
Here is an article that Shaun wrote on the current Kemco sale if you missed it. http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/10/kemcos-having-another-0-99-sale-here-are-our-picks/
Thanks that was a start. I also started to collect them when they were on sale....so I at least have about 8-10 already but as I know they are from different teams quality wise they may vary a lot. Also thanks I know there are some reviews out there where the game are individually covered...but I was out for more a "in relation" ranking (preferably with short reasoning) like: I have games A,B,C,D and E. A is the best storywise, C was the prettiest but bland. Of course a bit more detailed. but ok I will search the forums and the reviews again. Reason? There are so many of them. If I read reviews of -for example- Squares FF 1-12 every one sounds nice on its own, but compared to the others they are completely different, I for my self liked FF8 much more than FF7...which makes me one of all 3 people on the entire globe to think so ;-P
I've only played a few Kemco games myself. I don't even remember the names and I didn't play them for long because they just didn't grab my attention. But like you said, some are better than others. Maybe I just haven't played the right one yet. If you like the 8 to16 bit era, have you played Dragon Fantasy? For me, it was the closest I've come to getting that old school feel.
Yeah, Same here.. I will be honest, I have finished very FEW games in my sort gaming career. Mainly do to the idea that I wanted to sample EVERYTHING I can - from all genres - to figure out what really draws me in.. I just began gaming 3 years ago, and it was on a tablet.. Interestingly though, I am 41 years old.. Last game I played was Mortal Combat in the arcade late 90's, and before that, mario brothers on original nintendo.. I came from a time and place where gaming was uncool, but bike riding and building forts was awesome.. These days I still love bike riding and building forts, but I am also discovering that I love gaming equally, if not even more... The reason I brought that up, is that I am ready to finish a Kemco game, even if it takes me 2 weeks..
I would recommend Asdivine Hearts to get started. Basically, Kemco has four developers, and they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. EXE-Create (Asdivine Hearts, Alphadia) does solid gameplay, good characters, but kind of uninspiring plots. Their localizer is miles ahead of the ones for the other three, and it makes a big difference. Hit-Point (Fantasy Chronicle, Chronus Arc) experiments in interesting ways with their gameplay systems, but their plots and characters are incredibly bland for the most part. Magitec (Covenant Of Solitude, Soul Historica) pound for pound makes the best plots, and their characters are decent. That said, their gameplay is the worst of the bunch, and they're also quite prone to dirty tricks with IAP like hiding story content behind the paywall. WorldWide Software (Symphony Of The Origin, Tears Revolude) makes the most generic games of the lot. They're usually trying to catch a Namco/Tales vibe and failing badly at it. I like their games the least of the bunch because at least when Magitec or Hit-Point fail, they do it in interesting ways.
Oof....after some further research I realised there are really a lot of Kemco Games out there. Also since I didn't find a comprehensive/compleate/easy list yet regarding which of the for teams released which games I can at least go to each landing page from there and scroll down. The (c) note at the bottom always lists Kemco and the responding team. Regarding the 4 Teams - after reading Shaun's detailed pro/cons on the 4 teams I realise no team of them is the "best" but each have a set of weaknesses which almost always cancel out the pros...so basically as I don't have any prior reference point with any Kemco games I should pretty much ignore the team alltogether and try an open-minded approach. Since my ever-growing backlog isn't giving me much breathing space I just settled with these two games first: Legend of Ixtonia Legna Tactica Because even if I like oldschool'esque JRPGs a lot... I like oldschool'esque S(j)RPGs much much more...
