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

[No More Beef]

I fucking love the Trails series, namely Trails in the Sky 1-3 and Trails to Zero/Trails to Azure. Really quality sRPG with a lot of heart, the graphics are from the PSP era but I think its really charming. The setting is worldbuilding porn, the lore is so established and it feels so lived in; one of the main features of the game is that after every main story beat, the dialogue of every NPC in the game gets updated, which really makes the game feel lived in

You seem like you'd enjoy Summon Night, have you heard of it? One of its trademark features is getting the choice to speak with any of your allies at the end of each chapter, who will talk about the events of the day or reveal some of their backstory. A lot of thought was put into the worldbuilding, so much that books were released for stories they couldn't fit into the games. As an SRPG it also has a decent amount of customization in choosing which units to field and how to skill them, though balance isn't always great. The main series is fully voiced, but unfortunately most of it JP only. Only the latest games (5+6) and some spinoffs (Swordcraft Story 1+2) are available officially in English, though fan translations may exist for the others.

 

[X Prime]

Witch and the Hundred Knight certainly was experimental with the whole turning your mom into a mouse and then setting male mice on her to gang rape her thing.

Experimental is certainly one word you can use to describe it.

 

[Fcret]

On the topic of JRPG Youtubers, KBash just released a 2 hour video about Ys. No, not Ys the franchise... Ys, as in the first game.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Hi there!
I'm looking for a good j-rpg recommendations. Currently I'm playing ff XIII-2 but it fails to grip me despite on paper being better than XIII (more open structure and having full access to mechanics since the start of the game).
I've finishes most mainline ff games (except X-2 and XIII sequels), most big Atlus games like persona and smt and i dabbled in titles like dragon quest, breath of fire and xenogears.

Problem is nothing can grip me all the way through the game except atlus and ff games. I heard good things about trails in the sky but the artstyle isn't really appealing to me, and i heard it has bad sequels.

Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, and Earthbound are some good ones. Don't write off Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans as a mere licensed game, that's very good too. Tales of Symphonia, Parasite Eve, and Threads of Fate are great. The Ys series is worth looking into, Celceta & 8 are the best imo, doesn't matter too much where you start.

What are the pre 2000 JRPGs that stand up to KOTOR 2? I quite enjoy older JRPGs compared to newer ones and would love to get some recommendations.

I never played KOTOR, but some of what I listed above are the best in the genre so I'm confident they can stand up to it. Parasite Eve is a real classic and very unique.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Lunar Remastered Collection is up on Amazon.com.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

On the topic of JRPG Youtubers, KBash just released a 2 hour video about Ys. No, not Ys the franchise... Ys, as in the first game.

Yet another case of the essay being as long as the game.

I like the Witch series by NIS.
It was kind of the experimental baby of NIS with the first game, Witch and the Hundred Knight, being a top down diablo-like and also their first foray into 3D and the second and third games, Labyrinth of Refrain/Galleria, being DRPGs with VN elements.

The gameplay in the series isn't too stellar as hundred knight is a incredibly basic action rpg and refrain/galleria verge on being autobattlers, but they do do some things great like exploration and especially narrative. The stories of each game have incredibly strong and complex characters with plots that keep the mystery going until the final hour.

They're games that kinda tonally match something like drakengard where the story is edgy and full of suffering but with great emotional pay-off. The series actually shares a bit with drakengard like Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 being directed by some random schmuck instead of the guy who made the series and being worse off for it, the ending theme to each game is sung by Emi Evans, and the true endings being absolute slogs to get.

The soundtrack is absolutely amazing too definitely some of both Emi's and Tenpei Sato's best work

I really like the series. It's very rough around the edges, but has a lot of heart and a ton of "holy shit" moments.

Just hope they learned that nobody likes the random dungeons.

 

[ProfDongs]

It's been almost 7 years.

 

[HexFag]

Got my hands on the Lunar Remastered Collection and for a GungHo Remaster Port, it isn't AWFUL, just kind of lazy. The bar is in hell because of those Grandia remasters though, those were either visual nightmares or buggy and prone to crashing. This is just seemingly lazy. I'm still only on the introduction dungeon (I have shit I have to do today as much as I'd love to sit around and play this all day )

They give you an option for a "classic" mode (240p in 4:3 with this stupid ass border around all sides). The FMVs are also extremely low quality. Also the CRT filters are absolutely wack. You're better off just installing something like ShaderGlass and putting that over the game than using the ones present. They're extremely lazy and cheap and give me eyestrain which a proper CRT filter should NEVER do. You can also use the shared inventory option from the remaster for this mode which is something I appreciate.

The remastered mode is alright, though I have no clue why the background assets look like they've had this ugly linear filtering over it instead of just being the raw pixels. The upscaled portraits also leave something to be desired, you can tell that they just ran it though waifu2x and called it a day. The bloom is also pretty obnoxious and the image on the remaster looks noticably brighter than the "classic" mode.

Apparently the new voice acting is ATROCIOUS. A good bulk of the negative reviews are addressing the poor and wooden acting on display and I felt like even the devs knew this because the default audio track was JAPANESE. I don't really give a rat's ass about the English VAs (especially MODERN English VAs), though I'm sure some dedicated autist will be able to conquer whatever engine GungHo uses for their games in order to just patch back in the old voice acting.





Also said fuck it and got some reference images for what you could do with Duckstation with an actual good CRT filter (or at least what I think is good) for free:

 

[Ivy D. Locked]

I really like the series. It's very rough around the edges, but has a lot of heart and a ton of "holy shit" moments.

Just hope they learned that nobody likes the random dungeons.

I thought it was kinda clever how they rationalized the random dungeons, especially the last one, tying the number of dungeon floors to the search time and a character rationalizing if it's her place to do something.

Tatsuya Izumi isn't around at NIS anymore, so we probably won't see another witch game for a while, if at all.

 

[King Of The Kiwis]

Other than Pokémon I haven’t played a jrpg. They don’t look as customizable or roleplayable as wrpgs so why do you guys like them.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I thought it was kinda clever how they rationalized the random dungeons, especially the last one, tying the number of dungeon floors to the search time and a character rationalizing if it's her place to do something.

Tatsuya Izumi isn't around at NIS anymore, so we probably won't see another witch game for a while, if at all.

God damn I really liked the tone of the series and how it plays with the overused Etrian Odyssey battle system.

 

[Fcret]

Finishing up the tutorial dungeon in the Lunar Silver Star Story remaster. The English voices aren't that bad so far and it's not like the original dub was some masterful work or anything (at least from what I remember).

Maybe there's a particularly bad character later on or Eternal Blue is way worse.

EDIT: Okay apparently if you're planning to check this out and you don't have a high-res display (1440p or above for standard monitor sizes), there apparently can be some bad graphical artifacts in the remastered version. I actually don't own a 1080p monitor anymore so I can't confirm but I am seeing a few people talk about this.

Other than that, Silver Star has been good so far. I'm glad that they got rid of the WD gameplay stuff (especially the numerous bromide triggers). I'm torn on whether or not sticking to the PS1 version's graphics was a good idea as I have a certain fondness for Harmony's style but I get why they picked the more popular version to base things off.

New voice acting has been fine. Nall is more correct to the actual character I feel (original WD dub gave Nall an extremely high-pitched voice for some reason) and Luna is solid. Nash is missing his WD 90s cool guy direction but I think he's more in line with the original JP voice actor so it's even-odds whether this is an improvement.

EDIT2:
Playing on PC but I thought about grabbing a physical version just to have and...

Completely sold out. #1 and #8 Best Seller in video games on US Amazon right now


Maybe this will finally convince Game Arts to make a sequel that isn't outsourced dogshit.

 

[foam rolla]

Played Final Fantasy 6 recently. I hadn't played it since I was a kid when the PS1 origins collection came out. So I little recollection of it.

While I feel it's a really good game, I think internet nerds putting on such a pedestal all the be all and end all of RPGs raised my expectations which weren't met. I've been a FF7 enjoyer since I was a kid but purists would say it's not good and FF6 shits on it. But I'd much rather play FF7 for the tenth time than play FF6 again.

 

[foam rolla]

The Etrian Odyssey series from Atlus is probably my favorite series of all time, its on the DS and 3DS systems and it plays like oldschool SMT and Wizardry games. It's main gimmick is that you draw your own map on the bottom screen, but it also has the tightest difficulty balancing of any game I've ever played.

I love the Etrian Odyssey games. I've only finished the EO2 remake for 3DS. I find them very comfy games. Something I can causally play over a few months and tinker with.

I was playing EO1 remake recently but I couldn't beat the Yggdrasil Core final boss. Tried for weeks but couldn't crack it. Then I fucked up and erased my save file as I didn't know you could only have one save file at any time.

 

[Old Bay Sneedsoning]

Other than Pokémon I haven’t played a jrpg. They don’t look as customizable or roleplayable as wrpgs so why do you guys like them.

Depending on the game you can work your characters into certain builds to fit your playstyle. FFIV kind of locks your characters into a specific role based on their class but FFV seems to be more customizable in terms of gearing your party up the way you want to with the job system (granted I'm only halfway through FFV).

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Other than Pokémon I haven’t played a jrpg. They don’t look as customizable or roleplayable as wrpgs so why do you guys like them.

Because their strengths usually don't lie in customization or, ironically, roleplaying (as-in dialogue options/gameplay freedom). Their strengths are in great art, peak music, good stories, interesting characters, and fun combat.

Generally speaking, WRPGs seem better at character building, exploration, roleplaying, and prioritize a larger scope (bigger worlds, more to do; not necessarily better). The tighter, more guided experience in JRPGs is usually preferable to me but both have a place.

Personally, I also feel like JRPGs simply have more variety in tone, theme, and gameplay. Mass Effect, Fallout New Vegas, and Baldur's Gate 3 all feel kinda samey despite being in different genres and playing differently. Parasite Eve, Mario RPG, and Chrono Trigger feels completely different despite being made by the same company. Dragon Quest feels nothing like Earthbound despite their similarities on paper (EB is regarded as a DQ clone, in fact). Jade Empire and Skyrim may as well be the same game even though they have little in common, that WRPG flavor is strong.

In food terms I'd say WRPGs are like fish, you know when you're eating it no matter how different the fish is. JRPGs are like cheese, you're not going to compare a pizza and cheesecake despite both being cheese. It's just more versatile. Probably an unpopular opinion, I'll dump this in the "unpopular opinions" thread too lol

 

[Retarded Weeb]

Played Final Fantasy 6 recently. I hadn't played it since I was a kid when the PS1 origins collection came out. So I little recollection of it.

While I feel it's a really good game, I think internet nerds putting on such a pedestal all the be all and end all of RPGs raised my expectations which weren't met. I've been a FF7 enjoyer since I was a kid but purists would say it's not good and FF6 shits on it. But I'd much rather play FF7 for the tenth time than play FF6 again.

The FF6 vs FF7 wars (and Kefka vs Sephiroth wars) used to be big on the net in the 2000s, but it feels like it barely exists anymore. Though I'm sure you could still find some stray FFboomers that will talk 6 up as the best ever. Usually the biggest ballwashing I see 6 given nowadays is when journos put out some top JRPG list and they always put FF6 at top because I've guess they got together a long time ago to agree it's the "safe" option that won't offend anyone. Personally I would say 6 is around the 5th best FF game, behind several others.

The biggest arguments I would see at 4chan where people arguing over which between 7, 8, and 9 were the best. Though it was mostly started by one autistic FF8fag who kept spamming threads shitting on 9.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Personally I would say 6 is around the 5th best FF game, behind several others.

Sounds about right. I say 10 > 8 > 9 > 7 > 4 > 6.

The biggest arguments I would see at 4chan where people arguing over which between 7, 8, and 9 were the best.

Between them they each do something best so it's gonna be an eternal argument. 9 has the best world, 8 has the best atmosphere, 7 has the most iconic characters.

 

[HexFag]

Played Final Fantasy 6 recently. I hadn't played it since I was a kid when the PS1 origins collection came out. So I little recollection of it.

While I feel it's a really good game, I think internet nerds putting on such a pedestal all the be all and end all of RPGs raised my expectations which weren't met. I've been a FF7 enjoyer since I was a kid but purists would say it's not good and FF6 shits on it. But I'd much rather play FF7 for the tenth time than play FF6 again.

It's crazy because FF5 is better than both of those games. Also FF9 best PSX FF.

 

[harakirikun]

Ive played the SMT franchise, and honestly, I’m glad I did. Also anyone excited for the new raido kuzunoha remake?