JRPG General - Video games were never meant to be shorter than 50 hours.

HexFag

I have not one shred of regret in my entire life.
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Jun 7, 2020
Decided I'd make a general thread for JRPGs since unless they are named Pokemon, Persona, or Final Fantasy, the threads on here are more or less dead. Feel free to shill your favorite "hidden gem" JRPG that totally doesn't end with 4 anime kids fighting some form of God or just talk about how JRPGs were so much better back in the late 1990s.

As for me, I recently started Community Pom and Skies of Arcadia and they're both very kino.
 
I played the Golden Sun games. The worst part were the unskippable cutscenes.
I still really enjoyed the Djinn system, even if I had no clue you could mix and match them when I played it as a kid. I know there's a DS sequel, is it any good?
Suikoden 1 and 2 are kind of overrated, but they do have good stories.
You don’t fight God in either.
I cracked on the remaster despite the visuals being shit because I heard they improved the translation. Really hoping somebody can mod back in the old background because they look like shit.
 
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I still really enjoyed the Djinn system, even if I had no clue you could mix and match them when I played it as a kid. I know there's a DS sequel, is it any good?
I remember Dark Dawn feeling shorter than expected (compared to Lost Age) and too easy, although I guess they are all easy for the most part. It might be worth trying for completionism's sake.
 
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Some of my favourite games are from Pokémon, but from the Mystery Dungeon series (they're roguelites: Red Rescue Team and Explorers of Sky).

Another title that doesn't get much attention (but is very fun) is Pokémon Conquest. The ending is a bit weak in my opinion, but the overall experience is great; I hoped they would do more like this, but they haven't.

Apart from that, I enjoyed the "Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja" games a long time ago, although I don't like some mechanics & aspects of it, it could be better, but still cool. There's also a method I found to massively grind levels.

"Dragon Quest IX" for the DS is also good in my opinion, I enjoy its vibes, but by some point it's what they call a grindfest, it also has a "reincarnation" system that I generally don't like. If you don't mind spending some time in a game, enjoying its atmosphere, lore, and potential, then this could be one to play, but unless you want to speedrun it, you're going to need some patience.

Some old ones: Robopon. This is super retro and essentially like Pokémon, some people hate it, but others might like it like me, but you can tell it's old. I ended up with a team comprised of a magical granny, a jack-o'-lantern, a toy samurai, and an evil blimp, so you can imagine that there's some cool Robopons in it.

Another that I played some hours but didn't really continue with it: Azure Dreams for the Game Boy Color. This could be a "hidden gem" if you enjoy rogelikes, and retro stuff.
 
"Dragon Quest IX" for the DS is also good in my opinion, I enjoy its vibes, but by some point it's what they call a grindfest, it also has a "reincarnation" system that I generally don't like. If you don't mind spending some time in a game, enjoying its atmosphere, lore, and potential, then this could be one to play, but unless you want to speedrun it, you're going to need some patience.
I really wish DS emulators had WiFi capabilities for multiplayer. Other than the Tales of series and the Mana series, I really can't think of any JRPGs that you can play with friends all the way through.
The Dragon Quest thread is just fine, thank you.
I'm just wondering where Dragon Quest XII is? Did they scrap it after Sugiyama died or after Toriyama died?
 
I played the Golden Sun games. The worst part were the unskippable cutscenes.

Golden Sun is a series that constantly get praised (at least the first two games), but I feel like those people have not played those game recently, and only remember their fond memories of those games. The stories are written like absolute dog shit, the battle is braindead easy, and the "puzzles" are recycled and repetitive; the classic case of making people think that they're smarter than they actually are.
 
Chrono trigger has been getting lots of buzz for its 30th anniversary so I'm probably going to start a replay soon, not that really need an excuse chrono trigger is awesome.

JRPG that totally doesn't end with 4 anime kids fighting some form of God
Been playing the older shin megami tensei games and two at least has the balls to let you fight the literal Judaic God with the help of Satan and lucifer, there separate demons don't think about it to much. I might just have Stockholm syndrome but man I miss the first person dungeon crawling, sure they can get obnoxious and sometimes down right terrible but Vv and the other recent fatlus rpgs has made me miss it. I want to check out the touhou Artificial Dream in Arcadia game thats apperatetly a very faithful classic megami tensei inspired game but I know jack shit about those characters outside of meme osmosis.
 
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Gacha really killed the genre, and whatever was left was infected by Persona and Bravely Default to be mediocre slop.

But here are two recent good ones:
WitchSpringR - Play as a cute witch to explore the world. Has a lot of heart, fun battle system that gives you actual feeling of advancing

Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten - A prequel to the last two Utawarerumono games. Really fun battle system and great writing. It's not mandatory to play the Visual Novels before hand but there are some nods to characters and events you'll see later. Should have a sequel coming soon.

Also I have the new Phantom Brave and Atelier coming in the next few weeks.
 
I want to check out the touhou Artificial Dream in Arcadia game thats apperatetly a very faithful classic megami tensei inspired game but I know jack shit about those characters outside of meme osmosis.
I played that last year. It's fantastic, very much a throwback to SNES era SMT with some kind of neat Touhou lore that isn't super important. The only sucky part is the lack of choices but for a full length JRPG made by one person that goes for like 70 cents on sale, it's very solid.
Also I have the new Phantom Brave and Atelier coming in the next few weeks.
I played a bit of that new Atelier demo and honestly the gameplay felt extremely underwhelming. The dodging mechanics being a weird form of MMO AOE mechanics are cool, but I feel like the attacking is extremely spammy. I might pick it up but I do want to play the Mana Khemia series first before playing a proper Atelier game.

Also I still don't think gacha games killed off JRPGs like they did with VNs or anything else, there are always going to be people making JRPGs due to how simple the gameplay mechanics can be. I will say that some of these new Switch JRPGs look and feel extremely cheap.
 
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I really like all the Paper Mario games that are actual RPGs (Super Paper Mario is good, too I guess). Having to press a button at the right time to do the max amount of damage keeps me from falling asleep during the turn based combat.
 
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Ogre Battle, all of them
Seconded. And since it's impressing the hell out of me, try Tactics Ogre specifically.
Chrono trigger has been getting lots of buzz for its 30th anniversary so I'm probably going to start a replay soon, not that really need an excuse chrono trigger is awesome.
It's pure compacted quality and the type of fun that's sorely missing right now. No random battles in 1995, thank you. Newgame+ in 1995, I salute you. Over 10 endings in 1995, god damn.
 
I played that last year. It's fantastic, very much a throwback to SNES era SMT with some kind of neat Touhou lore that isn't super important. The only sucky part is the lack of choices but for a full length JRPG made by one person that goes for like 70 cents on sale, it's very solid.
I started it but kinda hard to get into long Touhou games when the plot usually doesn't matter due to having established characters.
I played a bit of that new Atelier demo and honestly the gameplay felt extremely underwhelming. The dodging mechanics being a weird form of MMO AOE mechanics are cool, but I feel like the attacking is extremely spammy. I might pick it up but I do want to play the Mana Khemia series first before playing a proper Atelier game.
Yeah I saw mixed reviews about it, but I'm willing to pay for Gust due to them doing good job on average. Wish they went back into classic JRPGs, also the first Mana Khemia is amazing. The second is not as great.
Also I still don't think gacha games killed off JRPGs like they did with VNs or anything else, there are always going to be people making JRPGs due to how simple the gameplay mechanics can be. I will say that some of these new Switch JRPGs look and feel extremely cheap.
It was in conjunction with the PS3 release and the increasing costs of development. From the PS2 having dozens of games we got a fraction of it each passing generation. Meanwhile the rise of handheld and phone use siphoned a lot of hard work. Visual Novels though never really stopped going out for the PC due to the low cost of creation.
 
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I've always get a little confused whenever I see the hype around Chrono Trigger as I never really managed to get into it. It's a ok game but the best RPG thing just never really made sense to me. Maybe if it was the fist one I've ever played I would have a different opinion but it just seemed so basic even to the other JRPGs that came out at the same time. It really makes me wonder what the heck I'm missing that everyone else gets from it.
 
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