I don't mind these games and may eventually play through them, but it really seems to me like an interactive movie more than anything because they seem(well FF4 anyway) pretty linear, you do this, the find that, you fight this guy, you fight that guy. You get all of your spells at specific levels, you can't improve specific stats or choose between spells and whatnot.

I mean, Pokemon is basically an old school RPG and I like(d) it(not for the pokemon but because it is a solid RPG, just kind of shity story or at least very repetative). At least for that you could lvl up specific monsters and teach them specific attacks, tailor your crew to your playing style, but with FF4 and RPG's like it, you can't really do that.

Maybe it's because the first RPG I really played was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and it is a modern RPG where you customize your character and I just can't get used to the old RPG's because of this.

I own FF4, FF6, Illusion of Gaia(I think it's old school RPG?), and maybe a couple others, I like having them because of there historical value in the gaming world and got sucked in to FF4's story, but when I realised I was going to have to grind a lot to move forward, I stopped giving a shit and havn't played it since.

Now, that was likely not terribly cohesive, but the bottom line is:

What is so appealing about Old School RPG's? Why do you think I should put the 20-25 hours(including a good bit of grinding) into these games?

GPFontaine wrote:

FFIV for the SNES, not to be confused with the new one in 3D is VERY linear. The story is exactly the same, but the original one required no grinding at all. You could beat the game by simply fighting the enemies you encountered during your travels. Ultimately you follow a story and the result is you get to see the ending. The new 3D verison is harder. Monsters have more weaknesses and must be fought in specific ways. You will find your party dies much more often in this new rendition of the game. In anycase, what makes it so appealing? The story. Play FFIV all the way through. Tell me that you expected each and every thing that happened and I will simply not beleive you. The twists and turns in the story make you want to learn more. The fact that it is linear is actually not a bad thing. I would argue that too many games abuse their non-linear type models. Oblivion is a perfect example of a non-linear game that is very fun, but never sucks you in because there is no real plot. In the end, you should think of it as a cross between reading a book and watching a movie. FFIV and FFVI didn't require grinding to beat, though they allowed for it if you chose. They were unbeleivably good stories.

Well, in FF4 for SNES, I'm at the cave that won't let you walk in with anything metal and apparently i have to grind because my guys are like level 25 and I fought every monster I've seen so far and every boss type guys and right now, if I walk in the cave, my party dies.

I'm in the very early stages of FF6, havn't played much of it.

GPF: I'm playing the SNES version, have both of the old carts for 4 and 6, trying to get the best games for the actual system and I know those are up there