Hmm.
I have these funny prejudices with games. After asking around what the best RPG for GBA was, and having crowds of GOLDEN SUN GOLDEN SUN!!!!! screamed at me (hoohoo, I spelt that as golden fun the first time round) I played that, and then why did I dislike it? Because they nodded too much. Yep. It's an anime trait which irritates me, along with the "This is..." with a 45-second gap whilst wondering if they'll ever finish their sentence, some unintelligent girl in a skirt who is completely useless and keeps gasping as if she's breathing through a vacuum cleaner and her only lines are to shout the main character's name as if she's trying out for Most Irritating Cheerleader Of The Month Award, dramatising everything that ever happens, characters which have a sword through them or get shot five billion times yet SOMEHOW survive, etc. etc.
Alright, didn't mean to rant on about anime there. Actually I was going to rant on about games.
Anyway, after getting past the loooooooong intro of Golden Sun I realised they stopped nodding for a while and it was actually a pretty bloody good game. I got to the next town and then forgot all about it. 8D
Oh well, I'll probably remember it later. Like Illusion of Gaia, which I tried to complete a second time and never really got round to it.
What I was going to write here...Golden Sun has a huge intro - "intro" as in everything that happens (including things the player is free to do) up to the point when you find out what the POINT of the game is. Like, in Golden Sun you don't find out the main plot until you've dodged falling rocks, been beaten senseless by two mysterious high-level punks, wander around the town for half an hour, get through a very large dungeon, solve four-five puzzles and almost get killed, get one of your members taken hostage and THEN you find out it's thing about the gemstones whatchamacallit.
So yes. I shall make a list of some games, how long the intros are...here we go.
Final Fantasy II - fairly short, you fly from an airship and the King fires you from your job. UNLESS of course, you mean the main plot is until you meet Golbez for the first time, up to which you'll have to wait until you get through several bosses and wind up at Fabul and get beaten up by your best friend.
Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest - ALMOST INSTANTANEOUS. Basically, it's like this. Earthquake. Old man appears. You jump onto another cliff. He says, you must be the chosen one, you say, no I'm not, a GREAT BIG BEHEMOTH APPEARS BEHIND YOU, you kill it (as long as you don't miss too much), and then you say, Gosh, blimey, I guess I must be the chosen one, old man says yeah you are, now go find these crystals. And bye. And he disappears. Plot done.
Seriously, FFMQ shouldn't even belong in the series. I know I've ranted on about this on TDF, but...really? Dialogue is off, plot is off, game is bloody EASY. It's designed for people who don't like RPGs. If you find the game hard, an RPG of normal standard will just turn you into mincemeat. I completed it (and it was the first game I did complete, at least without cheats or walkthroughs) and was really ecstatic at first, like you do when you finish your first game ever, but anyone could beat this game with their hands behind their back. Yeah. Hit the keys with your NOSE. There's a speedrun of someone beating the game in over an hour - and the final boss you can beat in two moves. Ok, maybe three.
However, the music is just kickass. It kept me going through the game. :3
Anyway, moving on...
Earthbound - moderate length, you wake up, police arrive, you go back to bed, wake up again, see asteroid is there, Buzz Buzz arrives, you beat up some alien trooper, Buzz Buzz gets swatted to death by your friend's mum, and plot unfolds. Sounds ridiculous, but that's what makes it unique.
Breath of Fire - short intro, so wastes no time getting you off to a fine start.
Lufia - Aha. This is interesting. You play in the PAST, as the previous heroes, and then you relive the...not-so-distant past? I think. And then the next town gets attacked, you go over there, run back, run there again, evil guys arrive and club you to death. Sort of.
Final Fantasy V - I never really got into this game. But the intro is pretty straightforward. Wind stops, and that princess person goes looking for her daddy, runs into main character with no name, and there you go. They really already told you the whole story in the cutscenes. Although, if the plot actually picks up later, I'll have missed it because it failed to hold my attention that long. :3
Wait. That wind stopping - isn't that stolen from Rolante from Seiken Dentetsu 3? Or whichever came first.
Chrono Trigger - Now this DOES take a while. You go the fair, the princess wants to go out with you, she gets sucked into the past, you follow her, Time Differences mess stuff up, you have to rescue her, battle through a castle/cathedral, beat up the boss, back into the present, take her home, get dumped in jail for being kind-hearted, fight your way out, beat another boss, run away with the princess and an inventor who uses fire, get sucked into the FAR future, go around beating up robots, beat up another boss, go a looooong way and eventually you'll find out why you have to save the world.
It's long, but eventful. And it certainly is very unique. It also isn't as predictable as some other games, and there's even a frog. Not that the princess kisses the frog or anything.
Of course not.
Well, can't be bothered to list any others.
On a completely unrelated note...I just LOVE Mathematical Methods. Five.