JRPG Thread

Lockdown Day 8 edition. What are ya playin' and/or grindin' today, Yas Forums?
Currently at the Moirae Sisters bit in Nocturne. Shit's kinda draining, but managable.

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I've been very, very slowly trying to get into Xenogears. The story and characters are interesting even early into the story but the gameplay does nothing for me at all. Each time I get to a combat segment I'll put the game down for a month.

>Xenogears
>Gameplay
You're playing the wrong "game".

Yeah, I know. I'm trying to get through it because it's my friend's favorite and he likes to talk about game stories.
I just don't get how so much effort can be put into sprite animations and storytelling and then the devs decide to saddle that with un-engaging busywork combat.

I played DQXI for 20 hours and it was a bog standard game on par with mobile games so far, why does Yas Forums praise it so much?

actually, I take it back - FF Dimensions actually had better gameplay and boss battles than that shit

At the time, nobody in Takahashi's team had any real experience in actual game design, it was just an improvised team of rookies, Takahashi himself was fairly inexperienced and his past years of work in the company were as a map designer.
On top of it all everybody knows how much of a failure was Xenogears' dev process, with funds getting cut, Takahashi not having any real idea of what he was doing and people rushing to get the game done in time after Square told them to wrap it up.

And to be fair, Xeno games to this day have still pretty mediocre gameplay, I don't think gameplay depth ever was one of the points of this series though, at least looking at how things are now and how they've been through the years, Xenosaga's gameplay was also really weak throughout the trilogy, with 3 being the only game with passable battles.

Ironically enough there's more depth to the arcade Gear fighter minigame in Nortune than there is in the rest of the game.

Started Octopath Traveler the other day. I dig the art, OST and story. Battle system is okay too. The only thing that made me really disappointed is the very minimal interaction between the party members.

It's a slow burn. It's okay through part 1, but it takes until part 2 for it to really get good. I liked the game a lot but the slow start is a big flaw and I wouldn't blame somebody for being put off by it.
It's also borderline necessary to opt into Stronger Monsters in the Draconian Quest options at the start of the game. On the default difficulty it's so easy that even journalists complained. Slayer of the Sands on Stronger Monsters is when the game started to click for me.

Alright bros, Nocturne or Raidou? Both seem so interesting so Im having a hard time deciding. I love the detective aesthetic of Raidou but I also love the setting of nocturne.

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The Lost Child.

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I beat him on that difficulty and still wasn't impressed. The game feels so predictable and by the numbers, it hurts. It's painfully limiting and linear too. It's nothing like Scarlet Grace and Romancing SaGa 2 and 3, other square games I loved recently.

Just finished playing through Stella Glow for the fifth time and now I want something on PC I can play. Anyone know a jRPG on PC I can pirate easily and play? I don't have any strict requirements, but if it has branching romance, like girl specific endings and shit, that would be the best. Also turn based combat is a plus but real time combat isn't a minus.
Really, all I want is something that's decent and lets me romance cute girls while increasing my power through the story.

>It's nothing like Scarlet Grace and Romancing SaGa 2 and 3, other square games I loved recently.
No shit, those games are literally the complete opposite of Dragon Quest, not sure what your argument is.
People who enjoy freedom of progression, gameplay depth and a generally open ended experience play those games, other people who enjoy a more relaxed experience with main story focused progression, classic combat and more straightforward mechanics play Dragon Quest, it's not rocket science, just a matter of taste.
It's not like DQ ever pretended to be anything else either, so I don't understand why you'd thought it would be a good idea to play those games when they're not what you like.

Aesthetics are one thing, but I'd argue that it depends more on what ya feel like playing - I assume you already know this, but nonetheless, Raidou's more of an ARPG while Nocturne plays out like your average SMT, if a bit faster than usual.
That said, if you want something more *tactical* and by-the-book, go for Nocturne. The setting's only one of the neat parts, and I'd argue that Nocturne has some of the better dark tones in SMT (especially if you plan on working with Lucifer). If you want the peak of aesthetic and comfiness combined with crazier action, go for Raidou. It has the more enjoyable OST and some of the more memorable characters.

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Emulate the Growlanser games.

Raidou if you're in the mood for story, Nocturne if you're in the mood for gameplay.

Raidou 1's gameplay is ass. It's carried entirely by its narrative and atmosphere, which are certainly unique. I was able to push myself through the bad gameplay because the rest of it was so charming.
Nocturne's dungeon crawling and boss battles are way more well-realized, but if you're looking for a story to motivate you then the bread crumbs the game leaves you might not be enough. If you already know you like SMT then this is the safer bet of the two by far, though.

I've already played them all after I first played the PSP one years ago.

FFXII Zodiac on Switch hand-held

I'm about 20 hours in and the game is fucking great. I'm glad I played instead of listening to Yas Forums

Tales of symphonia hd/resonance of fate

Game starts very slow but gets great.

it's puzzling because the game is frequently called the best JRPG of the generation. Which has less to do with personal preferences - and more with you guys having shit taste, it seems. There are far better games for story focused progression and classic combat.

I haven't heard anyone here call it the best JRPG of the generation, and this is from someone that doesn't even like it very much. I think you're confusing shitty game journo websites with Yas Forums.

DQ11 is the best JRPG game of this generation

>the game is frequently called the best JRPG of the generation.
Outside of DQ fans, I've heard nobody say this, you'd find a lot more people hailing P5 as that.
Nevertheless, if you still care about dumb shit like that you might as well be mad about FFVIIR, play what you like and stop giving a damn about what other think, the bigger audience always gravitates towards the more accessible and less effort needed experience.

For the records, I much prefer things like SaGa games to most JRPGs around, Scarlet Grace is my current best JRPG for the last decade, but I don't go around bitching about DQXI or other games taking the spotlight among casuals.

Nearly finished CS2, just enjoying the comfy epilogue before moving onto CS3, good stuff all round.

Im just wrapping up FFX today, just need to beat Dark Yojimbo then Penance.
I tried playing Caligula Overdose earlier this year but after 3 or 4 hours I was still running around this school hallway. The battle system is cool but once I got 3 party members the random encounters became laughably easy. Should I stick with it? When does it pick up?

>Playing through the Breath of Fire games
>BoF1 had benched party members gaining EXP and probably one of the earliest instances of benched party members being able to be swapped in midbattle in a JRPG.
>BoF2 goes back to benched party members getting jack shit exp, and now party members can only be swapped out at save points.

what the fuck man

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Breath of Fire II is a horrendous grindfest of a game. If you're not having fun, just skip to 3 - although that one's also a 7/10 at best.

Picked up The Last Remnant again after seeing it mentioned a couple of times these days
Just clearing out various side quests before going to Celapaleis, and leaving a specific teammate behind
>Managed to make Baulson a Lancer
Time to faceroll

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I really like Baulson as a character, especially after you get close to him and he starts telling you about his youth, all the Yama are based really, him, the DOG and Zolean might be the best Yama in the cast.
The recruitable cast in TLR is really strong all around, it also helps they all have their own dedicated storylines, unlike the other games where the narrative is a lot more incidental and self contained, it was a nice change of pace.

I'm playing Cold Steel 3. Its actually good, thank god. I enjoyed CS1 and 2 when I played the, but they were my first Kiseki/Falcom games. Since then I played Sky and Crosbell and pretty much all the Falcom games I could and more and more I realized CS1 and 2 kind of sucked and I felt stupid for liking them so much, So, that in mind, I really like CS3. It is practically CS1 if it was actually done correctly. I am in Chapter 3 and I get the feeling I will be meeting up with Sara, the only CS1/2 girl who I actually like, soon.

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Isn't only those with a Unique portrait that has a storyline, together with those you do a Quest for before you can hire them?
But yes, Yama are based as hell
Also really liking the Qsiti. Unironically my favourite race of any game
>the Qsiti, Darien comes as a fucking Scout with all these tools
Holy fucking shit
>Fucked up Blocter and he's now a Monk
Ohshit, I forgot to change some things in his loadout to prevent this

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Yeah only unique leaders have their storyline, but generics have been a more or less stable thing in the series since Minstrel Song reintroduced the concept.
>>Fucked up Blocter and he's now a Monk
Eh, Blocter is fine as a monk really, he's not that great of a unit in the first place, his only real strength is being the only unique leader outside of Rush who equips the Wonder Bangle, that alone makes Blocter extremely useful despite is average anything.
You can even slot him in a mystic union for Arcanas since he's a Hexer.

Ive been wanting to get this for Switch since I keep seeing so much discussion about it and I love SaGa games, is the remastered version really as butchered as people say?

I was considered ditching him for Nora actually
Also trying to do all of the stupid cute Witch's quest for her as a party member later on

Rush so far is in the Healer role, hopefully will become Cavalier since I focus on Remedies for my Mystic Skill

Still not sure if I want to keep David, but Mystic Knight just by default makes him useful, and his Arts are somewhat decent for when they appear

I play it on PC, so I have no idea
Honestly I'd get it on PC because you have access to tools like TLRPlanner, which makes tracking your experience for each individual character possible
It beats having to guess what Class you have access to

Right now I'm playing Persona 5 Royal. Enjoying it a lot so far, just started the fourth palace.
I was looking for something to play after this, are the Trails games any good? I have Cold Steel part 1 and Sky part 1, I guess I should start with Sky right?

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Nora's strong but even with the Flachonelle she can't surpass Blocter in terms of utility, she sure does hit a fuckton harder than Blocter though, and she can also be a much better Hexer.
Blocter is mostly a commodity slot for amping your Union's HP pool and making them more or less immune to anything that isn't instadeath, he also has a much more well rounded skillset compared to people like Nora, she's an all or nothing Hammer/Mystic attacker, with her selling point being the Flachonelle which can make a mystic union unstoppable in case you make her a Hexer Druid, not to mention she also knows Invocations which means she can learn stuff like Blackout, but if you try to make her a middle of the road she's just not a good unit at all.

Blocter on the other hand fits effortlessly on anything, he doesn't reach Nora's highs but also has none of the lows, and the Wonder Bangle is some of the very best Remnants you can get in the game, it means you can just truck through anything that loves to pelt you with statuses and not give a single fuck, which is a major advantage, especially when you pair it with a high skill Herb, Blocter improves any Union's survivability considerably without being a dedicated healer, which Nora simply cannot do since at the very best you get Lotions, and you get them much later in the game than Herbs on Blocter's case.

I usually put Nora together with Yaeger in glass cannon unions, while Blocter goes on the tankier unions together with the DOG, Garou and Baulson.

The SKy trilogy is a masterpiece but you would have to understand going into it that the games are old. The battle system is slow, clunky and dated. additionally, the games themselves start of SLOOOOOW. Extremely slow. Imagine the games as more of a really comfy fantasy slice of life that slowly builds up to more and more as you play. I think it is super unique and worth it and I fondly remember my time with it even though it is flawed.

Cold Steel on the other hand.... Well I guess if you need something modern you COULD use it to ease yourself into the franchise. I mean I did, but I realized the error of my ways and I can't really recommend it.

Another Hexer sounds good, just hired Perneth asap because he comes with them by default
Blocked out Poison because lmao, and focused on capping Paralyze for cheese
Got Silent Gas now to level, but can't remember if it's worth it

I fucking can't wait to get to the Cachexia stage

>additionally, the games themselves start of SLOOOOOW. Extremely slow.
This is actually the reason I haven't played the games yet. I started Sky a couple years ago, got around 3 hours in, and quit because I was super bored.
>Cold Steel on the other hand.... Well I guess if you need something modern you COULD use it to ease yourself into the franchise.
I've heard nothing but good things about Cold Steel, so I'm not sure where your extreme dislike is coming from. Then again I haven't played them myself so I can't really defend them or anything

>I've heard nothing but good things about Cold Steel
not sure what planet you're living on user

Planet Earth. I've seen positive reviews for it from pretty much everyone

Must be nearly halfway through Persona 5 by now. About to finish the pyramid Palace anyway.

You need to hate Cold Steel to be a cool guy on Yas Forums, that's it. They are great games, but you should start with Sky.

So, yeah, outside of Yas Forums and dedicated Falcom communities, you will see nothing but praise for Cold Steel. I also, as I said, really enjoyed it as my first game in the series.

It is really just as you play the other games in the series you understand how big of a step down Cold Steel was in regards to the story, plot, characters and their development, world building,etc. The core game play that makes the series what it is, is still present, and the OST is top notch, AND importantly the combat is more smooth, fast and streamlined. If you like modern anime, harems, magical high schools, and battle shounen, go ahead with CS I guess. Mechanically it is a great game, but just know that it is the worst in the series in regards to everything else I mentioned, and those things are what people who played through Sky and Crosbell rightfully dislike CS for.

Sadly I do think that it has unfortunately became a meme to hate Cold Steel. I personally don't hate it but I just think that Cs1 and 2 were massive steps down in quality from the previous games. CS3 is good though, and its only jarring issues are its tendecnies to fall back into the trappings of CS1 and 2.

I'll start with Sky first. Should I play all 3 games before moving onto CS?

You really want to play the series in release order. It's pretty unique because all the games in the series are connected, there's 9 (soon to be 10) games in the series and only 4 years have passed in the game world.
So Sky FC -> Sky SC -> Sky the 3rd -> Zero -> Ao -> CS1-4.
Zero and Ao have fantranslations. Zero actually has two and both have their share of problems.

Depending on how much you want to go down the rabbit hole you go through the sky trilogy, then the crossbell duology, then CS. I didn't mind jumping through the hoops for crossbell but I understand if you can't be bothered.

Interesting, thank you. I've got the first game on my Vita so I guess I'll be getting to that after some more P5.

Do I need to play II and III before jumping into IV which the JRPG Confinement thread has been shilling lately?
Also I've heard V is extremely good too.
So which is it?

Started going through the Langrisser remakes. They're pretty fun.
Also was so fucking bored last night I went through fucking twitch to look at shit and that chink not-botw game piqued my interest that I made an account and are now hoping for another closed beta.

I've been playing (emulating) Persona 2: Innocent Sin (I think I'm like 3/4's done? I finally finished that shitty mountain section and onto the Mayan building thing)
Is Eternal Punishment worth playing? I know it's got a fantranslation
postan best boy

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>Do I need to play II and III before jumping into IV
Nope, but wouldn't hurt playing them anyway, they're decent games for their age as much as the localization for 2 and 3 is abysmal and 1 is JP only.
1 is also really rough around the edges and honestly pretty forgettable overall, 4 has better homolust too.
>Also I've heard V is extremely good too.
Debatable.

>Is Eternal Punishment worth playing? I know it's got a fantranslation
Unpopular theory but I hated the PS1 version of EP. And no, the PSP version isn't translated yet.

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>Is Eternal Punishment worth playing?
It *is* the conclusion to Persona 2, so I don't see why you wouldn't wanna go through it. It's pretty good either way.
>I know it's got a fantranslation
To my knowledge, that one's still janky and probably unreleased (though it's been a while, so grain of salt and whatnot). Odds are you're gonna have to emulate the PS1 localization, which - if you're worried - isn't like the Revelations: Persona localization in that things are americanized and shit. Bit graphically downgraded, of course, but it's still solid.

These threads have been super comfy.
How are Seventh Dragoon, Alliance Alive, and the Radiant Historia games on the 3DS? They're on sale and look nice.

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Been playing this game. I'm 8 hours in (just finished the Loire Castle quest), which afaik is about halfway through, but I'm not really feeling it. It's not bad, but nothing about it is motivating me to finish it. Does anyone know if it gets better?

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Not theory, opinion
God I'm retarded

Playing P5R
Just finished reaching the treasure in Sae's Palace

Anyone else kinda block out how dogshit September/October are? It feels like you get a week of actual free days

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Damn, I was kinda hoping that was the case.
Okay fair enough, I just wasn't sure 'what' it was exactly. I can deal with a bit of shitty graphics, considering they weren't even that good to begin with.
Is the theatre stuff worth completing? I did like a part of one and it sucked ass. Felt really tacked on honestly, though the other one (persona thief or whatever) may be better.

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These threads doesn't seem to work without FFXII art

Finally convinced someone to play devil survivor so I’m happy
Radiant historia is super fun but I’m only 10 hours in the best feature of the enhanced version is that the new content is optional and you can turn it off

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Just finished Verdant Wind last night so now I'm freed up to get through Final Fantasy Adventure. I'm gonna miss these kiddos. Probably gonna do the next route when I've dug through my JRPG backlog.

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That doesn't sound very gripping then, does anyone know about the other games?

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I was going to play a jrpg but I decided to run through Bloodborne and the old hunters dlc again. I’ll play the zodiac age soon I promise.

We agree this is the best 8th gen JRPG right? It just HAS TO BE. It's just too adventurous and soulful not to be.

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I dunno user
Maybe SMT5 will save us from this drought
As a chaosfag, I can only HOPE

>We
No, and take your buzzwords with you to your Ys shilling threads.

You haven't posted a better 8th gen JRPG so fuck off.

Frankly, I wouldn't know. Never really tried them. What I do know is that two of Eikichi's better lines come from that shit, but aside from that, I got nothin'. You could always watch some playthroughs of it or whatever, if you don't feel up for it.
As for those Eikichi lines, I'd have to do some real quick digging...
I actually was wondering if I should fire it up with more FFXII artwork, but I wasn't sure if it was getting old or if there was any more art to use anyway, kek. Will keep in mind for next time.

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>terrible gameplay
>terrible story
No.

>Xenosaga's gameplay was also really weak throughout the trilogy, with 3 being the only game with passable battles.
Cannot disagree more. I was fine, albeit slow; II was great; III was boring but functional.
I never bothered with the Dark Aeons. I wonder if I ever will.

>NISA plagued mess

No thanks, and I have no idea how CS3 didn't suffer from NISA's usual fuckups.

Also in Super Nep I am now at the point where I have to unlock the goddess powers by winning several 1v1 boss fights