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

[Fcret]

I still can't believe Idea Factory and Compile Heart are still in business. I also can't believe they're still making Neptunia games.

Not only are they still in business but they're positively thriving to the point where they have their own profitable international subsidiary that lets them self-publish their games abroad. The only other B-tier Japanese studio/publisher I've seen pull that off is Nippon Ichi.

 

[HexFag]

Not only are they still in business but they're positively thriving to the point where they have their own profitable international subsidiary that lets them self-publish their games abroad. The only other B-tier Japanese studio/publisher I've seen pull that off is Nippon Ichi.

It has to be because their games cost so damn little to make right? I'm pretty sure the Neptunia Re;Birth games and onwards have been using the same maps since the original in like 2010.

 

[Charlaquin]

Harle and an obscure korean MMO gave me a harlequin woman fetish (Chrono Cross is a pretty great game too)

So friggen based...

 

[HexFag]

This translation cannot possibly be accurate whatsoever but I'm not gonna lie some of the lines are pretty funny. There's also a lot to be gained from rereading NPC dialogue after events which I always enjoy.

 

[Fcret]

It has to be because their games cost so damn little to make right? I'm pretty sure the Neptunia Re;Birth games and onwards have been using the same maps since the original in like 2010.

I mean so does Falcom (they've been reusing models from Trails of Cold Steel for like 10+ years at this point), but they still haven't hit the point of being able to self-publish abroad.

Speaking of publishing - this company GungHo who published the Lunar Remaster is apparently in bed with Kadokawa via Softbank??? I'd never heard of them but they suddenly appeared on my radar last year slated to publish Lunar and the Trails in the Sky remake. I can only assume this is a new unified front from Japan to completely conquer the NA and EU markets.

This translation cannot possibly be accurate whatsoever but I'm not gonna lie some of the lines are pretty funny. There's also a lot to be gained from rereading NPC dialogue after events which I always enjoy.
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There's a reason why WD still has diehard defenders even to this day.

 

[Multi-Family Garage Sale]

I've been enjoying the Xenoblade X remaster. XC3 base game pissed me off, XC2 was fun schlock, and XC1 DE was a truly amazing game. I like the slightly more grounded sci-fi setting in X that is closer to Xenosaga.
Xenosaga 1 is a top tier game for me. I really should finish Xenogears. It's sitting on my PS3 with only a few hours on the save file lol

 

[HexFag]

There's a reason why WD still has diehard defenders even to this day.

Yeah it's starting to grow on me a bit. Now I'm just curious at how much they deviate from the original Japanese script...

Speaking of publishing - this company GungHo who published the Lunar Remaster is apparently in bed with Kadokawa via Softbank??? I'd never heard of them but they suddenly appeared on my radar last year slated to publish Lunar and the Trails in the Sky remake. I can only assume this is a new unified front from Japan to completely conquer the NA and EU markets.

GungHo has been around for a while. IIRC GameArts is a subsidiary of them and they also did the Grandia Remasters which are terrible compared to the Lunar ones. They apparently also own Grasshopper Manufacture which are behind the Kill The Past games.

Xenosaga 1 is a top tier game for me. I really should finish Xenogears. It's sitting on my PS3 with only a few hours on the save file lol

Also I'm glad there's another Xenosaga 1 appreciator out there. It's still my favorite of the trilogy with Xenosaga 3 being good in spite of all of the bullshit that came with Xenosaga 2. You really should finish Xenogears. There really isn't anything like it and Disc 2 being in the state that it was is sometimes a blessing and other times a horrible, horrible curse.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

X is cool because humanity is being hunted and it really seems like everything is fucked at the start, at least from what I remember about it. I was one of the cunts who got the collector's edition all the way back in 2015.... and then the fucking artbook spoiled me on the true identity of one of the main characters, ruining the biggest twist in the game - thanks Xenoblade. At least the everyone's bodies are machines twist wasn't spoiled, that was a really cool moment.

 

[Fcret]

Yeah it's starting to grow on me a bit. Now I'm just curious at how much they deviate from the original Japanese script...

A good rule of thumb is that anything that's a joke is probably deviation and anything that's serious is probably faithful. Victor Ireland had a dim view of Japanese humor and generally saw it as a impediment to making Japanese games accessible to a western audience (which to be fair... he wasn't completely wrong about especially if we're talking about the 90s). Characters also tend to speak much more overtly and writing is slightly shifted so that characters speak like how an analogous character trope would speak.

One thing that it looks like they've removed is some of the more insanely out-of-pocket humor and rewritten those parts to be more in line with the original JP script. Good example IIRC there's a joke when you meet the witch in the forest early on about how, "she must like Thai food" because she eats cats and dogs and that was cut out for obvious sensitivity reasons and also because "Asian people eat dogs" is kind of a played out joke even among racists in 2025.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

This translation cannot possibly be accurate whatsoever but I'm not gonna lie some of the lines are pretty funny. There's also a lot to be gained from rereading NPC dialogue after events which I always enjoy.
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This is why I love the Working Designs translation. Which jokes did they actually change though? I'm curious.

 

[Nigger Cattle]

Not only are they still in business but they're positively thriving to the point where they have their own profitable international subsidiary that lets them self-publish their games abroad. The only other B-tier Japanese studio/publisher I've seen pull that off is Nippon Ichi.

To be fair, IF/CH can make some really fun slop if you like grindy JRPGs, i had a blast with Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force and Hyperdimension Neptunia 1 (the Vita one), even though it's full of fan service.

 

[foam rolla]

Not sure if it's been added yet but Lufia 2 is a really great JRPG for the Super Nintendo.

It greatly improves on the first game which is actually kind of shit. Pretty standard four adventurers go out to save the world. The story line isn't anything amazing but it's pretty competent. The characters are decent even if a bit one dimensional. It has a decent over world like Final Fantasy to explore and magic and weapons is fairly straight forward as you just buy them from shops. Certain characters can use certain weapons and magic ability. Graphics still hold up really well and the soundtrack is pretty solid. I think the battle score and overworld score are pretty good. There's also a lot of puzzles in it if you're into that kind of stuff.

Some cool things they added was almost like an early pokemon style companion pet. There a number of pets who will join your party and fight autonomously. You can level up your pet by feeding them certain items like weapons and armor that they like. When they level up, they go from a wimpy small pet into large beefy monsters that can do some damage.

Probably the best thing Lufia 2 had was the Ancient Cave. When you go into the Ancient Cave, you're stripped of all your items, weapons and your level goes back to one. There are 99 levels in the cave and they're all randomly generated and each level has harder monsters to fight. On each level there's items you can find including rare items. If you die, you lose everything you find and get kicked out of the cave. If you make it to the 99 level, you keep everything you found and can get some particularly good items. There's also a single copy of item called the Providence which allows you to leave the cave at any point along with items you have. This allows you to get out before the harder later levels. Some people will fight every monster to try and level up for the harder levels. Some people will try and speed run it and avoid fights and just get treasure. It's a really fun bit of side questing with lots of replayability.

If you want a Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Phantasy Star style RPG from that classic era, Lufia 2 is a really solid game that didn't get big commercial success at the time but has stood the test of time as a great 16bit JRPG

 

[Namekian George Floyd]

Does anyone here recommend playing Xenogears? Caught a glimpse of it recently and the pixel graphics look so cool that it's like something that'd be made today that way as a stylistic choice. Is the gameplay and story worth it though? I've heard mixed things, mostly about part of disc 2 being hard to get through and the story trying to cover too much in too short a time.

 

[HexFag]

Does anyone here recommend playing Xenogears? Caught a glimpse of it recently and the pixel graphics look so cool that it's like something that'd be made today that way as a stylistic choice. Is the gameplay and story worth it though? I've heard mixed things, mostly about part of disc 2 being hard to get through and the story trying to cover too much in too short a time.

It's one of the best the PSX has to offer. The game is a complete masterpiece and I love the story even if the game as a whole suffers due to Disc 2's production.

By the time you get to Disc 2 which is primarily focused on getting the last of the story out in sacrifice of the gameplay you aren't particularly missing the gameplay because while it is JUST FINE, it's basic and most fights are a cakewalk without a whole lot of strategy behind it. Deathblows are a very cool concept however there's no reason to use the old ones once you get the new ones unless you like the older animations more.

Some fans are working on a rebalance/retranslation patch for Xenogears called the Perfect Works Patch. This also goes to improve the base game's translation (which while not bad, it was clearly done by one person and some lines read weird) as well and it's about 80% done as of this post. I haven't replayed the game with the patch so I can't say anything about the overall balance of the gameplay but the retranslation is always welcome.

Also find an undub if possible. The English dub is rough even for a 90s era JRPG.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

You know what something? Eureka is one of my favorite secret or optionals dungeons in all the JRPG's i played so long.
From FF3, is kind of epic going into the center of the world and get the last jobs.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

It's one of the best the PSX has to offer. The game is a complete masterpiece and I love the story even if the game as a whole suffers due to Disc 2's production.

By the time you get to Disc 2 which is primarily focused on getting the last of the story out in sacrifice of the gameplay you aren't particularly missing the gameplay because while it is JUST FINE, it's basic and most fights are a cakewalk without a whole lot of strategy behind it. Deathblows are a very cool concept however there's no reason to use the old ones once you get the new ones unless you like the older animations more.

Some fans are working on a rebalance/retranslation patch for Xenogears called the Perfect Works Patch. This also goes to improve the base game's translation (which while not bad, it was clearly done by one person and some lines read weird) as well and it's about 80% done as of this post. I haven't replayed the game with the patch so I can't say anything about the overall balance of the gameplay but the retranslation is always welcome.

Also find an undub if possible. The English dub is rough even for a 90s era JRPG.

I was about to say how dare because both Bridget Hoffman and Mariko Suzuki are iconic as KOS-MOS and then I realized its Saga not Gears.

So it turns out Jackie Lastra did the theme for Lunar Remastered. She seems relatively new. I don't mind her voice. At least they didn't get Cristina Vee or Abby Trott's overrated asses

 

[HexFag]

I was about to say how dare because both Bridget Hoffman and Mariko Suzuki are iconic as KOS-MOS and then I realized its Saga not Gears.

So it turns out Jackie Lastra did the theme for Lunar Remastered. She seems relatively new. I don't mind her voice. At least they didn't get Cristina Vee or Abby Trott's overrated asses

How is the dub for the game anyway compared to the original? I know the original is ICONIC for some people but I'm genuinely curious because some of the negative Steam reviews were primarily because of the dub quality.

 

[Croaking Spider]

I'm currently playing V as my first SRW and really enjoying it. I'd also love to get into the older games like the Super Famicom ones, what are best old entries in the series?

Honestly they're all good, it's just a matter of what the character roster looks like. My first SRW game was a translated rom of SRW J on the GBA, and one of my favorites. It still used the old-school spritework animations with soul instead of the cheap plasticky animation in the newer games.

The UI isn't quite as intuitive as the newer games, but if you're coming into it from another SRW, the mechanics are mostly the same. The OC mech designs are some of my favorites and the franchise roster is quite good, with G Gundam and Full Metal Panic! being the peak for me.

 

[WuTangClan2299]

I'm currently playing V as my first SRW and really enjoying it. I'd also love to get into the older games like the Super Famicom ones, what are best old entries in the series?

W for the DS is a favorite and has a fan translation.

onestly they're all good, it's just a matter of what the character roster looks like.

Yeah, kind of late down by Y's and the fact they added fucking Denvuo to it. The shit actually killed me wabting to buy it

 

[Glory To Arztotska]

At least they didn't smooth the graphics like they did to Grandia

Ew EW EW Sean Chiplock is in the lunar remaster

I am afraid I am unfamiliar with that name. What did he do wrong?