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[GlyphGryph]

The one setting that actually made Mechs make sense was MechWarrior (or Robotec I believe was its name)

I'd argue Starsiege did significantly better on that front.
(Though hovertanks using confiscated alien antigravity technology and active-repair nanite responsive armor were the BEST)

[Solifuge]

As for the Cloud type of character, there's Chrono, Mario, Link, Snake, Samus, the hero of Dragon Quest

You know... Cloud and a silent protagonist are not sort of the same thing. A lot of characters project a sort of personality at you even if they don't actually speak.

Also Snake talks a LOT!

Not in his pre-Playstation games, he doesn't :I

Not to nit-pick, but I think Snake talked about as much in Metal Gear 2 for the MSX as he did in Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation (mostly just replies, to facilitate plot-dumping). And they had equally bonkers-crazy boss characters, who had equally serious dramatic scenes with one another.

Spoiler: An excerpt from Metal Gear 2 (click to show/hide)

: Heh heh heh... Foolish FOXHOUND! Dr. Marv isn't here! Figures that FOXHOUND would use such a cheap transmitter... You guys are really behind the times.

(Marv removes his disguise)

: I am Black Ninja, a former member of NASA's extraterrestrial environment special forces unit. Now let's see just how strong the world's most advanced black ops unit really is! Show me what you got, FOXHOUND!

(Snake defeats Black Ninja)

...Snake...

Who are you? ...How did you know my name?

It's... it's me... Schneider, Kyle Schneider. Remember me?

Schneider? ...You were in the Resistance at Outer Heaven! But... I thought they killed you!

You've still got a lot to learn, Snake. I was almost killed, but not by them. By you, and your country.

What are you saying, Schneider?

...Snake, after you destroyed Metal Gear, NATO launched a massive bombing campaign against Outer Heaven. All of us Resistance fighters... and the children of Outer Heaven...they didn't care about any of us. There was no escape from the flames... They died like animals in a cage.

I... can't believe this...

Think about it. The children of Outer Heaven were originally orphans and refugees from all over the world. They were a liability... and NATO didn't want to deal with them...

...No...

You're no different. They'll forget about you, too... But he wasn't like them...

Who....?

He came... and saved us from annihilation. He forgave us for what we'd done. He gave us a new land to call home... A new family...

He did...? You mean...

Snake, you'll understand soon... what a wonderful man he is... Snake... I owe you a debt. There's no hate between us. I'll tell you where Dr. Marv is. It's what he would want me to do... Find the man who's guarding the cell where Dr. Marv is being held. Follow that man...and he should lead you straight to the cell. You can tell him by his green beret. He should be on the first floor. Got that? A green beret. Follow the man in the green beret!

(Black Ninja dies)

[Vector]

Fine fine, I mean Metal Gear.  And Snake has a line in that one, too... but there's a particular point I'm trying to make, which I'm sure everyone now understands and I shall never explain again.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

All I wanted was to build giant mechanical nuclear-capable dinosaurs for peace and sustainability.

[MaximumZero]

I have to admit... I'm not really a fan of giant mechs...

Awww.

I like giant mechs that look like animals or monsters, but not so much giant mechs that look like people.

You say that as if you desire a weapon that can function as the great missing link in warfare; a metal gear to fill the gap between infantry and artillery.

Why yes!  Do you need some funding for this... Metal gear?!

How about a crossbreed Metal Gear/Armored Core?

[Vector]

You know what?  Why not.

[Parsely]

Damn it Sokolov I said I wanted legs on the thing. What am I going to do with a tank that has jet engines strapped to it.

[Bauglir]

I'm late on this, but I actually loved FF12. I can't decide whether I liked it better than FF6, even. However, the gameplay is terrible and I readily admit this. I loved it in spite of that. As a game, it's rubbish. There are also too many padding sequences fucking up the flow of the narrative. The thing is, I love worldbuilding, and as a setting exploration, it's magnificent. Spoilers ahead, just in case.

My understanding is that FFXIII went too far in this direction, thrusting the player into an unrelatable world that very nearly requires a glossary to understand. I couldn't get into the game, myself. FFXII hit the sweet spot here, for me, because it had the depth but played with familiar tropes, its invented terminology was reasonably intuitive, and a lot of the really deep stuff was optional (nobody forces you to read the bestiary entries, for instance, and the game makes sense whether you do or not).

12 is also the only game since 6 that's achieved the feel of ambiguous protagonist, which is something I adore. Actually, in general, 12 has some of the best characterizations (and voice acting, for that matter) of any game I've played. I've never encountered a villain as sympathetic as Vayne before, a puppet master as inscrutable as Venat*, or a ham quite as perfect as Cid. I can't think of a twin story off-hand that I like better than Gabranth and Basch in any medium, but I admit I might just be forgetting or unfamiliar with something.

But, again. The gameplay is a miserable slog-fest. The game's only worth it if you have the time and inclination to put up with that. I wouldn't be able to play it, these days. It would've made a kickass TV series, enough so that I sometimes just watch the cutscenes. But, yeah, anyway, rant finished.

*Was Venat evil? I still don't know! I can't actually tell if it was trying to manipulate Vayne into conquering the world and then possessing him, or if it legitimately wanted to free humanity from the Occuria and did what it believed was necessary to make that happen.

Damn it Sokolov I said I wanted legs on the thing. What am I going to do with a tank that has jet engines strapped to it.

What AREN'T you going to do?

[Vector]

Man, if they'd just spent a little bit more time on characterization and support conversations... I loved Balthier and Fran, I thought that Basch was super-awesome, Penelo was cute, and I liked the limit break system as well, oddly enough.  And the emphasis on fighting megabeasts.

But the gameplay was SUCH a mess.  "Play an MMO without any of the MM or O advantages!"

[Bauglir]

God, that.

[Pnx]

Damn it Sokolov I said I wanted legs on the thing. What am I going to do with a tank that has jet engines strapped to it.

From what I heard the Russians used their jet engine tank as a snow blower... they built it to blow mines away in mine fields, didn't work out so well.

[Loud Whispers]

Damn it Sokolov I said I wanted legs on the thing. What am I going to do with a tank that has jet engines strapped to it.

From what I heard the Russians used their jet engine tank as a snow blower... they built it to blow mines away in mine fields, didn't work out so well.

Nah, you're confusing it with the Canadian minefield remover that was turned into a snow blower because it just blew the mines around in a hurricane of lethal hilarity. The Russian one was operational by Soviet standards.

[Parsely]

Damn it Sokolov I said I wanted legs on the thing. What am I going to do with a tank that has jet engines strapped to it.

From what I heard the Russians used their jet engine tank as a snow blower... they built it to blow mines away in mine fields, didn't work out so well.

Shagohod is definitely not a snow blower.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Pnx]

I don't know man, nuclear warheads fired through a railgun can clear a lot of snow.

[Neonivek]

The one setting that actually made Mechs make sense was MechWarrior (or Robotec I believe was its name)

I'd argue Starsiege did significantly better on that front.
(Though hovertanks using confiscated alien antigravity technology and active-repair nanite responsive armor were the BEST)

And when Starsiege actually USES Mechs instead of just battle suits

Unless those things were in fact huge (Mind you given the tons that Mechs weigh... Their size seems to be because they aren't too dense, though that makes sense given that it is a universe where micronization did not occur except when it does due to stupidity on the writer's fault)