by Erpy » Thu Mar 31, '11, 4:03 pm
My personal preference in dungeons is to be able to JUST squeak by with my own sense of direction and memory (which isn't overly bad) without having to draw maps for every dungeon I enter.
PS1: Nice. Okay. The 3D perspective makes it easy to make basic dungeons still relatively challenging. Obviously, for technical reasons, the labyrinths eventually get mighty repetitive, but I won't hold that against the game. I think if the game had a spell or item that allowed you to see a partial top-down map of the dungeon (limited to...like a 3 or 4 square-radius around your party) that would have bumped the complexity from sometime-frustrating to absolutely perfect for me. Music was okay. The blips and bleeps don't do the actual songs justice. (though PS4 did) One thing I didn't like much...undetectable trapdoors.
PS2: Heh, when I entered Shure after beating PS1, I thought it was gonna be easier. Hooboy, that was a premature conclusion if there ever was one. The dungeons actually look pretty good with that overlay of pipes or clouds overhead. (though the pipes occasionally blocked walls from view) There's a fair bit of variety in the dungeons (not as much as PS4) though Noah didn't look at all like a spaceship. I also like the dungeon tunes a lot. What bugs me is the complexity. Occasionally taking the wrong turn and winding up at a dead end is all part of the game, but IF you're gonna follow the wrong turn and it takes like 10 minutes to reach a dead end, at least have a chest with a useful item as a consolation price. Some dungeons weren't too bad, but some others (Climatrol, Uzo Island, Ikuto...Good God, Ikuto) were downright crazy and took some time to figure out even WITH a map. I also didn't like the fact you had to cross a dungeon (even though the Crevice was fairly quick once you knew the right path) every time you wanted to visit the Esper Mansion.
PS3: I actually thought this was a step down. Several dungeon tunes were too repetitive for me and there was less variety in the actual dungeons, even the final-final dungeon part looking like an ordinary inter-dome techno passageway. I think the PS2 dungeons also looked slightly better. I did like the fact you could see down to the first floor from the second floor in the Climate Control Tower. Dungeon complexity was challenging at times, but less extreme than PS2.
PS4: The only gripe I had was that occasionally dungeon layout was too simple, though some of the later dungeons got better on that part. I wasn't fond of the seizure-inducing final dungeon theme though. Other than that, pure win. Dungeons looked awesome and again you could see floors below the one you were traversing, as well as the occasional sideshot when your party crossed a bridge. Plenty of variety in themes between dungeons too. Dungeon music too deserves mention...I wasn't too fond of the Rycross tower theme, but all the others, from the spooky cave music to the techno Beyond the Circuit and the PS1 remixes...top notch. (I personally would have liked to actually hear PS2's Advanced play in the Bioplant and have the PS1 Tower theme play in the Ladea Tower, but eh...nitpick) Even the techno dungeons had stuff like conveyors and platforms to keep things interesting. A few things that deserve special mention...making the Air Castle's basement mirror the PS1 version's layout (brilliant reference) and the Garuberk Tower as a whole (eyes as switches, oesophagus-like elevators, veins pulsating and the whole level contracting when opening a passage)...that level was just awesome. As far as level design itself goes, PS4 wins hands-down.