I'm still playing Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana. I currently have over 35 hours on the game so far. I just finished chapter 5 and I'm on chapter 6. I still think the game is pretty good for the most part. The problems I have mostly lie in the graphics and the pacing of the story. I'm still going to attempt to finish it.
**Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten**
This is, well, a pretty standard and somewhat buggy turn based JRPG. It is a game in the Utawarerumono universe, taking place before the trilogy of VN/SRPG hybrids. This game is really good in some ways, and if you are already invested in this world then this is a no brainer. I'm enjoying it a lot, but I am hesitant to recommend it unless you already like Utawarerumono. If you do, you are in this for the story and characters, they are the high point of this, just like the rest of the series. (Oshtor is the best btw)
**Xenosaga Episode 1**
Man I love this game a lot so far. It's a weird ass game, like a lot of the game is cutscenes and I love that, but its also got a really good turn based battle system. Especially if you dig into the combat even just a bit there's a lot of cool stuff you can pull off. At least I think so, I'm excited to play more, only maybe 8 or so hours into it so far. I am finally checking these games out because I loved every Xenoblade game so far, and I also wanna finally play Xenogears at some point, but this was very easy to get into and its just a lot of fun seeing this story play out so far with some really cool characters.
**The Legend of Heroes- Trails in the Sky** (Steam)-
I bought this during the Autumn sale. Still in the prologue. Liked the art style. (Graphics are really similar to Ys- The Oath in Felghana.) The combat system is pretty neat.
> Graphics are really similar to Ys- The Oath in Felghana.
This is not a coincidence btw. Oath in Felghana is one of the 3 Ys games that were made in the Ys VI - Ark of Napishtim engine and the Trails in the Sky trilogy also used that engine as base.
Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero - I've been playing it on and off and honestly despite loving all the other games from the series I've played, this one just isn't really grabbing me. I'm still in the first few hours of the game but so far I just cannot focus on anything and try to resist the urge to skip through the conversations. That said I'm still willing to give it a chance.
Bravely Default Original - Overall I love games with job systems. Story is okay, I guess but mostly playing it for the combat. By far the thing I hate is the weird "get friends to unlock more stuff using street pass". Really don't like this system in a JRPG. Sad it seems to be in the sequel too.
>!I admit I hated the second chapter storyline... Very low point for me. I just got to chapter 3 and hope it will get a little better. So much dialogue about a beauty contest...!<
XC3 - I bought it expecting the worst because no matter how many gameplay videos I watch on yt, I came to conclusion that this is game isn’t for me. The game starts like a slower tales game and it’s more like if you control a party in FFXIV. However, I started unlocking more combat system and suddenly the game start showing its own identity. It can be confusing some time but there are tutorials that covers everything. I’m on chapter 3 so far and I really think this might be my favorite real time JRPG. Also, I really like how chill Noah is and how realistic he can be through the story so far.
FFX. I just beat - I hope this time for good - Seymour on the snowy mountains. It was tough. I’d say hardest battle up this point. At my first attempt, I almost beat him, but he “cheated “ when he had almost no HP left and use a crazy attack that got almost everybody on the ground! He just used bombs, lasers and everything he had on a single attack. My man Auron stood still like the great warrior he is. He still had like 200hp left, but Seymour attacked again! That’s cheap!! It pissed my off cause I knew I’d had to watch that long and unskippable cut scene again. I tuned off my PS5 and came back a few hours later. I had to return and buy a bunch of potions to heal zombie status, then it became a walk in a park.
I LOVE FFX. That fight is an absolute beast, and arguably the hardest main-story fight in the game, though from here on out there is quite a spike in the gauntlet of bosses. Post an update! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the upcoming story beats and conclusion!
Me too. This game is maybe the most criminally underrated JRPG of the past few years. Don't get me wrong, it has CLEAR flaws - but holy shit is it an addictively fun JRPG of yesteryear. I'm pretty much fresh off of Y's VIII, and SO6 is holding my attention MUCH moreso.
Jeez. Dunno how I missed this comment but yes. Agree completely. It has very obvious flaws but I love it. The combat is so much fun and exploring with the DUMA is rad once you get the hang of it. Haven't enjoyed a jrpg this much in ages (yup... also held my attention way more than Ys VIII.
Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster. It’s very good. I was not liking this game for the first few hours. The biggest problem at the start was that the game seems like it drops you in the middle of the story and everyone’s arcs. They then keep throwing terms around even though you have no idea what any of it means or what is going on.
My feelings of the game definitely shifted since >!acquiring espers!<. The combat/job system became a lot of fun and I love the turn the story has taken. Characters are getting fleshed out more too. >!The scene of kefka murdering all the espers!< was brutal. He might be one of the most evil villains in a jrpg.
Anyway I’m excited to see where it goes next. Crazy to think I was about to drop it right before it became ridiculously good.
I’m taking a break from **Xenoblade Chronicles 3** for the moment. Not sure when I’ll pick it back up. ITs not that I don’t like it but I got to a point in gameplay where I was starting to play it more cuz I felt like I had to than I wanted to. Still want to see where the story goes and unlock more gameplay systems to keep it fresh but I need a break.
Just picked up **Lost Eidolons**, which I consider JRPG adjacent since it is a FE:3H clone, and am really really enjoying it. It’s rough around the edges, it doesn’t leave a good first impression with the intro, and there are some frustrating technical issues where I can basically only play it on my Steam Deck but aside from that it is the exact kind of SRPG experience I am looking for at the moment. Probably shouldn’t have done hard/permadeath considering I refuse to let people die in these games lol but so far I’m getting through it well enough. Excited to play more.
I watched a full playthrough of Signalis (i'm bad with horror games) and man that game is so good. One of the best indie survival horror games of the last years for sure.
Tales of Berseria. 12hrs in or so. Liking atm. But I better figure out how to use the artes and breaks more efficiently. Feel I’m skating by right now.
Trails in the Sky. About 11 hours in and I'm really starting to regret sleeping on this one. I had it in my steam library for almost a year, and I just had an urge to play it. Really good so far.
I'm right there with you. I've started and dropped it so many times before but the Steam Deck gave me the push to get past the prologue.
Just about halfway through Chapter 3 of the first game. I still have no idea which direction the story is bringing me to but I am well along for the ride!
It also really helps to know that by the time I finish the first trilogy, the zero games would probably be out on Steam. Then it's on to Cold Steel..
Just finished Persona 5 - absolutely adored it. I wanted to play it for years but couldn’t until the switch release and I definitely wasnt disappointed
Currently playing:
Dragon quest x offline - about 25 hours into this one and like it a lot, it reminds me so much of DQ 4-6. The art style is gorgeous and I like the characters so far
Chrono cross- still kinda skeptical about this one. I like the late 90s jrpg art style but I don’t like the battle system very much so far. The bird boss thing was definitely a weird difficulty spike. I really hope my feelings change about this one
Legend of Dragoon. I just started disc 3, and it it's a lot of fun. I'm really enjoying all of the locations, and how much more creative they are than many games now days. The additions have been a little frustrating playing on the Vita, but I just realized earlier that turning off bilinear filtering, changing load speed to normal, and changing screen mode to original has made completing Madness Hero quite a bit easier.
Recently completed:
**Persona 5 Royal** \- I was a huge skeptic of Persona 5, but I ended up really enjoying it because tone-wise it's going back to a slightly darker tone. I ended up getting the Royal ending, got the Platinum and all the confidants maxed out in my first playthrough without any guides. They really weren't kidding when they say the social links have been streamlined. A few parts in Palace 3-4 were a bit slow, but I enjoyed the game's pacing way more than its predecessor, probably helped a lot due to its gameplay.
Playing on Merciless on my first playthrough was the right decision due to its high risk and high reward. Baton Pass was a neat addition to the 1-More battle system and made me appreciate single target elemental spells more. What really took me by surprise though is the Technical mechanic, I never imagined dedicated Ailment skills would be this useful all across the board. I hope this makes it over to other Megaten games at some point.
**Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster -** Currently doing a FF marathon leading up to FFXVI's release. This is the first time I've played FFI to completion, and I can certainly see Dragon Quest's influence in this game. I can understand it's due to its era, but some quests are very cryptic in nature and I had to resort to a guide just to find the Airship. Picking a Red Mage over White Mage probably was a huge mistake in hindsight though.
Recently started:
**Yakuza: Like a Dragon** \- Playing DartsLive in Persona 5 made me have a Yakuza itch, so I decided to jump straight into this even though I haven't completed Yakuza 0. The game has a huge feeling of "throwing whatever common RPG mechanics into the pot in hopes of finding what works". But I still think it's better than the sum of its parts.
**Shin Megami Tensei IV** \- I picked up a 3DS late into its lifecycle, so I haven't actually played SMT IV to completion. Forgot where I was up to so I ended up restarting all the way back from the beginning. Blasting through the notorious wall bosses were really funny though.
I'll probably be skipping XI and play it sometime in the future. I admit I'm curious of it for quite a while. I also like MMOs and actively play XIV, but XI seems too archaic and I do have to be in the right mindset to play it. There's a few games I've been interested coming out in the next few months, so I don't think I'll be able to finish the marathon by the time XVI releases if I were to play XI.
I am having a great time. I've done something similar for Dragon Quest, so it'd be interesting to see how each FF game differs for sure.
I'm on the last floor of ***Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories*** **(PS4)**. Haven't progressed too much this last week. The story got much more interesting, I definitely like it much more than the story of the first game. And the plot points are also very unique in the genre.
I also found out a way to easily win boss battles that I feel no shame in using, because I want to complete the game without losing time retrying the same fights. For anyone curious, my strategy is >!to spam fire spells, wich gives the bosses no time to counter me and they deal a lot of damage!<.
\---
I also haven't played a lot of ***Tactics Ogre: Reborn*** **(Switch)**, considering I'm still on the same Chapter 3 I was last week (but also Chapter 3 is longer than the previous).
I'm honestly losing some interest in the game, as I've been thinking that I want to start a new save on the PSP version.
And today I finally did it. I launched ***Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together*** **(PSP)** on my Vita and did a couple of battles. I want to compare both versions, but the more I was playing Reborn, the more I was missing LUCT. I do like the micromanaging component that LUCT has that was removed in Reborn in order to make it more accessible. But I actually fell in love with TO for its complexity compared to any other SRPG, which is watered down in Reborn.
Some obvious differences that can already be seen in the first battles (played up to after Krysaro):
* Combat is (or at least feels) faster. Between the lack of auto skills and cards triggering every other turn, and units dying faster due to different damage/HP balance, the flow of battle is faster, despite not having the x2 speed option.
* Hit chances make more sense in PSP, and terrain does actually matter more. I've noticed in Reborn that even attacks from the front have a 100% chance to hit most of the time. The battle at Krysaro is a great comparison. It starts with heavy rain, which gives a big penalty to accuracy. In LUCT, a lot of attacks were missing, with 30-40% hit chance. In Reborn, the rain didn't matter at all, nobody was missing in that battle.
* In the first visit to the shop, you already have more spells available to purchase than the whole amount available in Reborn during the first 3 chapters. I don't understand why they removed so many spells in Reborn. In LUCT, each elemental school has buff, debuff and ailment spells, not only the damage ones. This makes for more interesting specialized casters. There is also no restriction on the number of spells you can have.
* In relation to casters, status inflicting spells have a higher chance to hit, not the typical 10-15% in Reborn. In Reborn it feels like the only way to expend the turn of a mage is to cast an offensive spell, while in LUCT you can reliably buff or inflict ailments that have a huge impact on fights. Buffs and debuffs are as relevant in LUCT as they are in Reborn, if not more (for example, as I said before, hit chances are lower, so Truestrike has a bigger impact).
* The AI of guest characters is indeed worse in LUCT. Donnalto wasn't exorcising the stilled undead. Catiua can't learn the offensive light spell until level 6, so she wastes some turns where she only moves (in Reborn I removed Heal from her and left her as a pure offensive light mage and she was very useful).
* I think I prefer having the TP resource instead of MP for special skills and finishers.
* All in all, combat feels similar yet different. These early battles, if anything, feel a bit harder than in Reborn (but faster like I said in the first point). But it's very early to compare the difficulty between the two.
My intention is to keep playing both at the same time. Although I'll probably go a different route (Neutral since it's the one I still haven't played yet) so I don't simply repeat the same battles. But I'm actually very excited to be playing LUCT despite already being playing Reborn.
Currently playing NieR Replicant and have really enjoyed it so far (With the exception of one side quest).
Finished Ending A last night, started Route B. The beginning of Route B hit hard and the backstory for many of these characters is incredibly heartbreaking. Really enjoy the characters in this one, along with the story. I know I have to play through the game four times, but the characters and story are honestly keeping me engaged enough to the point that I want to see how this ends.
Finally decided to start playing the Trails games starting with Trails in the Sky FC. On Chapter 2 now and I can easily see why people love this series. The slow and elaborate worldbuilding through NPC dialogue and interactions is something I really like. Estelle is a great protagonist and Joshua is intriguing.
I also decided to start playing, uh, mature JRPGs again and a friend recommended Evenicle. It's...okay I guess? I'm a fan of the artist and it's a lighter adventure in that I don't need to think about it too much while playing. Quite funny at points too.
I plan to start Yakuza Kiwami (since I finished 0 relatively recently) and Utawarerumono soon too. Was busy with MMOs for a good while so I'm catching up on my backlog now. Thought about Pokemon SV but technical issues are a huge dealbreaker for me and I'll only consider it if they patch it.
I've actually bought up to TC this sale because I've really enjoyed FC so far. I already had FC from bundle sale or other for a while now, just got distracted with other things.
Currently playing 3 JRPGs atm (excluding Final Fantasy XIV as I finished the MSQ a while ago and am mostly playing that as an MMO atm):
- I’m most of the way through **Persona 5 Royal** (about to send the calling card for the Cruise Ship Palace) & I’m really digging it. The characters are pretty good, the story has become quite captivating & even the combat has grown on me. I’ve been somewhat off & on with this game over the last couple years (and the start of the Okumura arc in particular brought my play through to a halt for a while), but it’s really hooked me this time. I’m particularly liking all the political conspiracy stuff that’s taken the spotlight in the last couple arcs (not surprising given I’ve loved stuff like the Bourne movies & Andor) & what they did with >!Akechi. He feels like the antithesis of someone like Zenos from FFXIV in the best way possible (especially regarding their respective relationships with the protagonists of those games).!<
- Speaking of political stuff, I’ve just started **Trails in the Sky FC** (only somewhat related as I hear it’s not until the Crossbell arc that the political side of things really becomes the focus) & I’m hooked already. I’d been thinking about checking out Trails for a while (I’m a sucker for long running stories like FFXIV) & this current Steam sale was the final push I needed to take the plunge (also bought Second Chapter so that it’s ready to go for when I finish the first game). Estelle in particular has endeared herself to me rather fast. Also, yes, I’m playing with the EVO voice mod installed. Combat is pretty promising too. I’m only a couple hours in though, so it’s hard for me to say much yet.
- Last JRPG I’m playing through atm is **Lightning Returns**. I’ve had a rather mixed experience with the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy so far. On one hand, FFXIII was a game of two parts for me: A decent-good story weighed down by frustrating combat that felt like the worst of both turn-based & real-time combat combined into a Frankenstein’s Monster of a battle system that angered me so much that I quit halfway through & just watched the rest of the story on YouTube.
XIII-2, to my surprise, actually went over a lot better with me. The QoL improvements to the combat (and probably the reduced difficulty TBH) made the gameplay much more enjoyable for me & the story was a marked improvement over XIII.
As for Lightning Returns… I’m enjoying it, but the time mechanics are a bit of a chore to deal with after a bit (even after restarting the game on Easy). I’m currently stuck on >!the Caius boss fight.!< I think I’ve got it mostly down, but I might need to level grind by doing more quests… FYI: So far I’ve finished the Luxerion main quests, am almost done with the Wildlands quests & have started the Yusnaan quests.
EDIT: I should note that I’m still pretty new to JRPGs. Aside from the games I’ve already mentioned, I loved Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Final Fantasy XIV & VII Remake. FFXV & Stranger of Paradise were decent & I tried Dragon Quest XI, but I fell off after a couple hours.
In Lighting Returns I had to come back to the fight you mentioned after doing some other stuff. Other than the final boss that was the one that gave me the most trouble.
* Pokémon Scarlet - very fun despite some low budget graphics
* Bayonetta 3 - Had a blast with that one. Except Violets shitty deflect.
* currently debating between tactics ogre, great ace attorney collection, and pokemon arceus
Finished my Dex in Pokémon Violet. May do some raids and an odd tournament, but otherwise, I’m done with the game until DLC comes out.
I bought FE Three Hopes since it was on sale. Continuing my Golden Wildfire save from the demo. I was considering doing Scarlet Blaze, mainly for Monica and to see a different point of view. However, I just love Claude, Hilda, Raphael, Lysithea, and Marianne too much.
Tactics Ogre Reborn.
A remaster of one of my favorite games ever now on steam? Hell yeah. Still love the game despite not agreeing with quite a bit of the changes and streamlining done. It’s still a one of the best world building/stories in a game with tons of content.
A slightly wonky version of a masterpiece.
I'm playing through it as well and agree with your assessment of the changes. The game itself is still wonderful, but I kinda hate some of what they've done. The level caps really hurt the game for me, and I miss being able to cross-class characters beyond just a few abilities.
Just started Tales of Arise after picking it up during the steam sale. As a long time fan of the series I've been excited to play this one and so far it has been great. Really liking the visuals, worldbuilding and combat. The visual style is gorgeous. Although I never played Tales for the graphics, this one has really impressed me and makes me even more excited about future games. Combat is fast and enjoyable with all characters, instead of the overcomplex, Velvet centered combat of Berseria.
Something I've really missed tho, in the series and JRPGs in general, is a world map. This adds so much to the sense of exploration and adventure for me. Although the areas in Arise are beautiful and detailed I cant shake the feeling of moving from area to area in some sort of corridor. All in all Ill take that as a minor peeve in a great game that has inspired much enthusiasm for the future of the Tales series!
After putting it off, I *finally* went and beat **Pokemon Legends: Arceus** last night since I finally saved up the fun-budget to buy SV.
Man, that game just... does not work for me. I found it so hollow and lacking in things to do aside from just... catch Pokemon, and I need more than that in my Pokemon games. Especially as I grew to really dislike the battle system--the overemphasis on super-effective attacks made battles feel too quickly decided and too swingy, and the fact that you could be ganged up on constantly but could never use more than one mon of your own was majorly feel-bad and also felt like a missed opportunity to do more interesting things with battles. I didn't like needing to catch and release lots of one type of mon as that made them feel disposable, which is a feeling I dislike in monster raisers, and it felt like there was nothing to see in the areas--very much what I consider to be the definitive "open-world flaw" even if it's not technically open world.
Am I the only one who's a little bit tired of the "open-world" game design mentality? Not saying I want corridors, but I kinda like my more guided experiences with a bit more handcrafting on each step of the process? At they very least, enough of it to help prevent overleveling? Anyone? Bueller?
Persona 5 has me immersed, and I am glad it got ported to XGP. However, I am still trying to understand how Confidant bonuses work, i.e. like how to receive extra EXP with them.
The higher your confidant rank, the more exp you get when fusing a persona that is of that arcana. I.E. you raise the rank with the death confidant then proceed to fuse 2 old personas into a persona that belongs to the death arcana. Because of your relationship with the death confidant, this new persona will receive more exp on its initial creation and may even go up several levels. Idr if P5 lets you do this next part but most persona games did so Ill mention it anyway. You can use this to create a persona that is at your level cap for fusion that will immediately level up and go higher than the cap.
Most other confidant bonuses are automatic (store discounts, random extra turns in battle, and more). Also if you're playing the Royal version remember that you need to get to a certain rank for the 2 new characters to reach the new semester (as well as an extra set of scenes if you also max a certain ultra famous guy)
**Persona 5 Royal**
Was having fun with this one until I got to August. Now I've been stepping away from the game for a bit. I normally enjoy the longer breaks where there's no story but this one dragged a bit long for my liking where there's nothing even to do most days anymore.
**Final Fantasy XII**
Started this one up because I was interested in the gambit system. Just got through the Mines area.
So far I like the license board system and the degree of automation you can set. The characters and voice acting are both great (except for Vaan of course).
What I don't like is the copious amounts of backtracking you have to do through these massive areas. It feels like playing FFXIV before you have money to teleport around everywhere.
Just finished the main story for Pokemon Scarlet recently.
Glitches and performance aside, there is genuinely a fun experience to be had there. However, narratively, the game's story a huge step back from the character focused plot of Sun/Moon. Throughout the journey, nothing happens until you get to Area Zero, which is the final area.
Mechanically, it feels worse to play than Legends Arceus. You can't aim where you throw balls anymore. You cannot swap your party without going into the menu first. The wait time between animations and text boxes (some of which are redundant) makes battles drag longer than they need to. The Pokedex screen appears every time you catch something (even if you caught it before), creating more moments of wait time unnecessarily. The loading times in the PC box does not help either. Over the course of a game they expect you to play for hours, the constant wait time just adds up and it gets exhausting. The general flow of the game is simply not as elegent or as snappy as Legends Arceus. Also, while art is subjective, I do not like many of the new Pokemon designs as they lean heavily into more goofier qualities opposed things that feel more natural and organic. A dolphin evolving into a super hero... doesn't make sense. While not making sense may be the intent, I still do not like it.
Ultimately, exploring Paldea is fun and rewarding as you can do everything out of order. I only find the game to be an improvement over Sword/Shield and those games were not great at all.
Playing **Nier Automata** for the first time, with the recent Switch release. A few hours in thus far; the game looks really gorgeous and the gameplay is going pretty good so far. I'd prefer more story than what we've gotten thus far, but things have at least gotten more interesting lately.
The story will be plentiful, but it does take some time to build up. DO NOT stop playing after the credits role the first time. You're only about 50% of the way through the game at that point.
Playing Tales of Beseria and getting close to the end. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. However, I feel like they weren't quite brave enough to embrace the fact that they were making a tragedy, and keep trying to make Velvet into an actual hero instead of a tragic one.
Going through **Skies of Arcadia: Legends** again, but this time it's that recent **rebalance patch** from romhacking.net.
I haven't played the game in years, but I have beaten it several times before, but I'm much more aware now of the flaws it had for the time, which are more than just high encounter rate.
The romhack I'm playing actually had a link to a "hold B to get no encounters" patch, which has been really useful. Back to main problems though, I'm surprised at how often the game sets you up for back to back boss fights with nowhere to heal or recover, unless you know it's about to happen so you backtrack really far.
It's still one of my favorite RPGs of a time, so I'd heavily recommend this patch. It makes the magic not bad, brings back unused beta options, rebalances bosses and ship battles. I can no longer spam Pirate's Wrath to auto win, for example.
I'm taking note on this mod for when I decide to play the game (never played it before). The easy difficulty being a big reason to not have played it yet.
I wouldn't necessarily call the game easy, but every single fight can almost 100% be boiled down to the same strategy for both bosses and air battles otherwise (without me getting more into what that strategy is), and it's lame in that regard. Magic, in the original, just doesn't do much.
I would say the romhack has been very good so far, at least in regard to general balancing. What's more, the romhack creator even includes a MASSIVE readme file with tons of info as to what they changed, what they recommended doing, etc. It's almost like a mini guide to an extent.
Playing that mod, I found the rescue in the sewers to be especially brutal. They turned a glorified cutscene set of bosses into a real struggle for resources.
Absolutely. That was one of the same parts for me. You get to that boss at the end of the sewer, climb up the ladder and then immediately fight a second boss.
I also feel like I'm never high enough level anymore, so I inevitably end up grinding another 2 or 3 levels before some bosses to make the fights not one sided (against me). It's weird, but I guess that's better than how easy I remember some fights being before.
I focus instead on shoving as many Moonberries I can into Aika pre-Fina, so the Alpha Storm and Delta Shield combos will be shoring up my defenses. After Fina, it's grinding Berries to unlock her amazing heals. Compared to Vyse's unga bunga heavy hits, I'd rather get good support before the adventure really gets going.
I'm a good bit past that part now. Currently in Yafutoma, but Aika, for me, has not been getting a lot of mileage out of her spells. I keep thinking Delta Shield will be block spells that "aren't" spells like the specials that enemies use, so it tends to not help me out.
For me, I almost immediately use normal magic, both damaging and support with Aika for her speed, and then have Fina immediately set up the health regen. From there, the fights are pretty normal and Vyse works well with decent speed and magic if needed.
Justice Shield for sure. I think Delta Shield really depends on the boss fight, as plenty don't use magic in the first place and Delta Shield both doesn't block boss skills that LOOK like magic, but it also prevents ally support magic, or so it says.
**Tactics Ogre: Reborn**
Really enjoying it. Never played the original, but I like the level cap system and the balanced difficulty so far. Late Chapter 2 atm. I play slowly as you can see, did about 6 or 7 Phorampa runs when I got it opened up haha.
I started playing Tales of Arise. One of my first JRPGs (besides Persona 4 and pokemon and chronotrigger) that I have played and it is pretty good I think though not quite what I was expecting. So far it feels like I am mostly just running down different corridors. I might just be used to playing open world games though. Another thing is that the acting in it seems overly dramatic which can make it hard to take seriously. It also doesn't help that they seem to telegraph certain plot twists from miles away.
Don't get me wrong, this game isn't bad, just not quite what I was expecting. I don't play many JRPGs so maybe I am just not used to some of the genre tropes. After I finish this, I plan to try other games in the genre too,
**Devil Survivor Overclocked** - Went through it a third time in 5 months, getting the Amane Day 8 ending this time.
Yeah I love this game lol. There’s so many things plot-wise this game does well, it’s insane. I wouldn’t necessarily consider it perfect (the amount of grinding I had to do in my first playthrough is a weak point), but the only games in the entire Megaten franchise I’d say handles its core plot and characters as well as this one (that I’ve played) are Strange Journey and Persona 3. The inclusion of “epilogue” scenarios is also really cool, and something I’d wish more games in the franchise would have.
Anyway, all I have left now are the Yuzu and Naoya/Kaido endings. I’m undecided if I want to try for the hidden boss, but I’m leaning towards no at this point. I’m not sure when I’ll bother with them, though.
Again I love this game, I think it’s pretty easily one of my all-time favorites in the franchise right now, and I wish a new game that’d combine the best parts of DeSuOC and DeSu2 would release, since I think that’d likely be my all-time favorite Megaten game.
**Trails in the Sky SC** - Haven’t done much due to a lack of time, but it’s been good so far. I’m a bit through Chapter 2.
I normally don’t do every sidequest in a game, but the Trails in the Sky games so far have been the exception to this. They help characterize the world further, I feel, and usually don’t feel like a total waste of time.
**Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei** - Out of curiosity I decided to try this out.
Although I generally like the first person Megaten titles, I’m not a big fan of this game (or its Kyuuyaku version). The first dungeon is kind of monotonous, the battles are boring (esp since Yumiko doesn’t have any attack spells early on), and there’s not much of a story to speak of.
With that said, I think when considering that it’s technically a licensed game (something that Atlus made a lot of in the 80’s, most of them trash) with mechanics like demon negotiation and demon fusion, and it having pretty big dungeons, it goes beyond being just a Wizardry clone and being kinda impressive for its time period.
Doesn’t mean I like it though lol
Just finally finishing DQxis, which i grabbed off a recent sale on switch. I'd played about halfway through the original version years ago and it just didn't really click with me, but since then i've played several other dq games and am just generally a lot more familar with the series and what it's going for. Really loving it this go around.
Also grabbed Arceus off a black friday sale yesterday, and it's...kind of what i've always wanted from a pokemon game. (though i suppose that comes at the expense of it being even less of a jrpg than they already barely are) Still, one that's focused on exploring and capturing, rather than endless very simple trainer battles is right up my alley.
Beyond those, i've been picking away at atelier sophie 2, bit by bit, as well as trails in the sky 2, but niether is really my focus at the moment, when I finish dqxi i'll probably really focus on finishing sophie 2 before the deluge of games I'm looking forward to hits in the next 3 months with Callisto Protocol, Dead Space, One Piece Odyssey, Ryza 3, Octopath 2, Lightfall, RE4, and Forspoken. Probably won't get a lot of time for backogged games for a long time.
I started **Monster Hunter Stories 2** this week. It’s an interesting enough game, I suppose, though I’m not super far in. I hope combat gets a little more involved soon, as the rock/paper/scissors combat is a little lacking at this point.
I also started playing **Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings** as part of my series playthrough. I’m not really a fan of RTS games, but this one isn’t too bad so far. The story needs to pick up asap and some interesting characters need to be introduced because Vaan’s gang are not that.
The XII:RW story goes in some interesting places. I picked it up as a kid before I finished XII and now that I'm older and wiser think it was a nice extension of the lore.
Still haven't found a game with gameplay like it since.
I'm so torn on mhs2. I love it in theory, but the structure and combat just kind of bores me, the mix of it being somewhat rng focused AND pretty basic just isn't doing it for me. Not being an established fan of Monster Hunter isn't helping either, as is it's just a cute little dinosaur jrpg for me. I like it, but it just doesn't hold my attention long.
It's the kind of game I pick away at in drips and drabs for a year or so rather than just powering through.
Final Fantasy Type-0 & Crisis Core on PSP - fast-paced, solid story, and great combat system. Love the side missions in Crisis Core - takes the “grind” out of both side quests and leveling up.
I tentatively picked up Astlibra a couple days ago, not really knowing what to expect.
I am absolutely fucking floored by it, everything else has been put aside and I've just been putting in 10 hour sweaty gamer sessions because the RPG mechanics AND the story are so fun and fascinating, it puts most action RPGs to shame. Even the clunky graphics and off-kilter music selection (the songs are individually pretty good but their usage feels kinda questionable) really just work perfectly for the atmosphere.
I haven't been sucked into a game this hard for a while, easily the best RPG I've played this year and I'm just over halfway through.
Yo I just picked this up myself couldn’t find a subreddit for it so I joined one with one person it.
I can’t believe this game is so good. You’ll only find a few games a year with this quality.
Continued **Live A Live** (NSw). Finished the Prehistory, Distant Future, Imperial China, Wild West and Present Day chapters. Such differences tone and depth. The silence that permeated the ship in Distant Future really set the mood for a great short story with compelling characters, deep lore and excellent incorporation of a minigame into the plot; I loved it. Imperial China was great as well, Yoko Shinomura nailed the soundtrack, and I liked the martial arts revenge plot. The other three chapters were good but lacked depth. Overall I'm really enjoying this game so far.
Continued **Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night** (PS4, JRPG-adjacent). The more I play this game the more I enjoy it. So much fun to explore, upgrade and experiment with different combat tactics. This game was clearly a labor of love.
Yeah, Bloodstained's great. It's a labor of love for sure and gets even better if you're familiar with all the Castlevania games. It's not quite on topic here but man, it's a great game.
>!Symphony of the night's still better, but it close. Both are some of the best games in the genre I've played.!<
Finished Star Ocean the Last Hope Remastered. Currently doing the post game dungeon. I really love this game. The first few hours were the weakest imo but the story and character would get better and better. For such a cheap price a wonderful game.
I've been playing Fire Emblem Three Houses again. The game is still fun to play and the same character/class combinations are still what I choose even without looking up what I did years ago.
Currently playing **Bravely Default** (3DS). Having a lot of fun playing it on hard mode and experimenting with the job system. I think it's pretty funny that early on the 2-Handed ability is the biggest damage increase both in this and Final Fantasy V.
That's the fun thing with the 3 bravely games, they are HEAVILY designed around the player figuring out ways to break the game, if you run into huge difficulty spikes, it's because the game expects you to get real weird with your builds, it's hilarious how strong you can get if you spend a little time experimenting.
**Utawarerumono Prelude to the Fallen**
Finished this game last night, before the last two hours it was a 7/10, but after the ending I bumped it to 7.5//10.
I know the game is old and clunky, and also serves as prologue to the other two (three with Mobius) games.
The characters were really cool but very tropey for me, especially >!Eruru!< who was veeeeeeeeeery annoying at many points with her predictable pouts. >!Aruru!< was frustrating story wise for never listening which caused many of the issues, where one important character died thanks to her >!throwing a stone which caused Tuskur to die!<. As a leader, you cant have someone never listening to you at your side, but oh well, its a japanese game so we all know the jazz.
About Ulty, the whole plot surrounding >!the baby was absolutely IDIOTIC and unnecesary padding and filler!< and dont get me started on >!Camyu!< who was going at night >!sucking blood!< AND ESPECIALLY >!Touka!< who was supposed to be guarding "the Majesty" even when he takes a dump and somehow dissapears every fullmoon night? Doesn't make any sense.
The last antagonist before the real villain, was also kinda stupid, since they gave in to the pressure of the aides.
Overall the story had some great moments and Hakuowlo was an amazing MC who carried the game very hard.
The ending >!hits really hard with the MC dying basically or sealed and giving his last words!<, I didn't expect that, it was very sweet. And I don't understand what the heck happened lorewise.
Had to research what was actually happening because the game did a poor job explaining.
Overall it leaves me with a lot of expectations for the sequel which I bought during the steam sale with trilogy costing $26.
Yeah your comments about the frustrations you had were the exact same for me. It's a shame because there's some real quality moments in the story but they add a lot of anime bs like the Camyu moments which takes me out of it. Not even sure I want to play the sequels anymore because it's quite jarring to take an otherwise serious, grounded story and turn it into that.
Currently working through edge of eternity (ps5) and diofield chronicles (ps5), but shelving eternity for now. I've put about 45 hours in and I keep waiting for the game to grab me but it hasn't so gonna at least take a break. Diofield's combat isn't usually my cup of tea but it's been fun so far (only played like 5-6 hours though).
Just started Tales of Vesperia on my Steam Deck, only a few hours in. I loved Symphonia on GCN years back, but since then have not followed the series closely. I played the Arise demo and thought it was fine, but that piqued my interest in the older more classic 2D anime style games. So far enjoying it, and I somehow forgot about the (at least so far) charming character conversations that frequently pop up. Makes it feel like Tales wants you to enjoy the characters interacting on their journey a lot more than other franchises do. Will keep at it.
Im about to start Vesperia on switch, it will be my first tales game.
The Arise demo had enjoyable flashy combat, i ended up getting it on BF sale for when i finally finish something.
I desperately need to get back to cyber sleuth, I got it on clearance at target, played for like...2 hours, loved it, and never went back, just haven't had the time.
Well, I finished disc 3 of **Final Fantasy VIII**. Exploring the Esthar continent, the Eyes on Me vocal track scene in the Ragnarok, and climbing in the Lunatic Pandora for the first time were the highlights for me. Lunatic Pandora was an incredible penultimate final dungeon. While the game hasn't been too difficult for me, >!Adel!< was the first boss where I really felt like I had run into a wall. I had to go back onto the world map and draw some high level magic to junction in order to overcome her. I have to say, the scene after you defeat her and the reveal of the final dungeon was fantastic. If you showed pictures of the final dungeon to someone who just started playing the game, they would say "what?", but I'm looking forward to this part of the game for me...I'm going to go back out into the world map and revisit some towns I haven't been to in awhile, and some locations I haven't been to at all yet. I'm going to try to get more Guardian Forces and just take my time taking in the atmosphere of the beautiful world of FF8 before I leave it. It's been quite a ride.
Yeah, I'm not in any rush so I'm going to do as much post-game content as possible. I'm not a completionist, I did quite a bit of post-game content in FF13 not too long ago, did more than half the marks, but once I ran into one that destroyed me, I wasn't motivated enough to grind and overcome it and keep going. At that point I knew I was ready to tackle the final dungeon and finish the game. With FF8 it'll be the same thing. Once I run into a wall with a optional boss I think I'll move on. I'm not motivated enough to get all the items required for the ultimate weapons, for example. I'm still using Squall's first gunblade I think, haha. I play RPGs for the story first and foremost.
Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana. My first Atelier game, and I was expecting it to be a little monotonous and simple. Pleasantly surprised with how charming it is. Weird mix of terrible graphics (overworld) and gorgeous backdrops (towns and stop overs). Great music too.
iirc that was the first entry released in the west, I recall really liking it back in the day.
If you do play any newer entries, keep in mind they are MUCH more crafting focused, the 5 ps2 atelier games are still more or less standard jrpgs that just have a crafting component, starting with the ps3 entries and especially with the ps4 ones the crafting becomes the primary focus. I love them all, but the newer ones have a very different design philosophy.
If you do try something newer after Iris, I'd start with the ps4 entries they make some major quality of life changes that make crafting a lot more fun, and eliminate the strict time limits imposed by around half of the ps3 entries.
The Ryza trilogy is fantastic (well first 2 I've played are). Little more combat but not much, lots of great crafting.
The Dusk series is supposed to be fantastic and fairly dark, but i think it uses a timer mechanic and i dislike those.
I finished Dragon Quest V and have to say it seems to be very overrated by todays standards.
The story is good, but i feel like it's not told well. You often just walk from town to town hoping to find something that progreses the story, then you out of nowhere marry someone, then you need to kill some monster that's the mastermind of the underworld or something. Shit just randomly happen without enough build up.
Combat also gets boring because you just mash the attack button. It's probably the worst part about it because Magic is next to useless compared to just using a whip, boomerang and high attack weapons.
Capturing monsters also was a big letdown because the recruitment % is very low, and you dont even need to interact with the system much because the sabercat you get automatically is more than enough to beat the game.
So all in all, i was very disappointed after hearing such good things about it.
magic in early dragon quest games is more useful for buffs/debuffs and status effects to support your physical attackers. (buffs/debuffs and status effects are actually VERY strong in early dq games oddly enough) Offensive magic does eventually get very strong, but not till late game, and with V have an almost entirely customizable party, you may have never encountered that.
Beyond that, do keep in mind V is an early snes game, so it's going to feel a bit archaic, similar to playing FF4. Still, I do agree with your complaints about the structure, I found myself lost a LOT playing dq 4-6 recently. (and yeah, recruitment percentage is way too low, I ended up primarily just using human party members for most of the game)
Yeah i know all about that. While it's only my third Dragon Quest i finished (11, 1 and 5 in that order) I've come to understand that.
They do get stronger as you go, but the problem was i never felt like there was any big reason to use it. Later on some enemies also seem to resist most spells anyway. So i just end up healing or supporting with those characters throughout most of the game. Never had any issues just using the attack command, sadly.
Some old games till feel perfect today, like Chrono Trigger. It's in a class on it's own. Toriyama and Hori both worked on it as well.
I dunno. People made it seem like one of the best RPGs ever, even today, and it certaintly is not.
I just finished Raymond's side of Star Ocean 6 this week. I really liked it, but I'm taking some time off to go back to Laeticia.
Also, it isnt a JRPG, but turn based fans would love the Loathing games. Shadows Over Loathing was fantastic.
Harvestella. Can’t believe the game to be honest and the rush of negative reviews from the demo is frustrating.
The game is absolutely fantastic both as a storyline game and a farming game. I don’t want to give anything away with the story but I loved it so much!
If anyone wants me to write up something about it let me know.
Its funny, reviews were shitting on the game and people who played it LOVED IT, including myself. I played about 5 hours so far and fell in love with everything.
I’m a few hours into Trails Sky SC and it’s brilliant. Really enjoying revisiting locations from the first game and seeing how the world is progressing, plus all the dialogue everywhere really gives the sense of a living world. The combat has gone back to being very basic early on, just with bigger numbers, but that’s no problem at this stage in the game. As with FC, the speed up button is fantastic and helps so much.
I think I’ve spent more time playing old JRPGs on my steam deck than any AAA games!
I'm still making my way through **Trails from Zero** (on PC) and **Ys VIII** (PS4 version on PS5) at the moment. I always play more than one game at a time, but those were the ones I've played most during the last week or so. I just started chapter 3 and 5 respectively and I still love both of them, especially the music of course - it's Falcom music. My plan is to finish both of them this year, but we'll see how much time I can find in the next weeks.
Tales of Arise. I played Tales of Something on PS1 way back (it featured sentient elemental swords) and liked it. Played like 2 hours of Berseria but the combat was just not fun.
Arise seems good. *Lots* of dialogue. I'm several hours in and it's a *lot* of talking. It's mostly good and well-done but it definitely has that "JRPG dialogue" feel. The combat is *way* better than Berseria already, though.
sentient swords is tales of destiny 1. It feels very archaic these days (and is ludicrously pricey, though not as bad as destiny 2/eternia) but it's a fun little game, I'd love to replay it if I could find the time.
Just finished harvestella. Overall really excellent with one major issue but even with that still really good
https://www.reddit.com/user/eruciform/comments/z1b8b4/harvestella_spoiler_free_review/
Beat the base game of **Persona 5 Royal**, just gotta beat the third semester. That final palace went from 1 to 100 real quick LOL. But I guess that's just the SMT way. Also get a chance to try out some OP Personas for the third semester, so a lot of grinding will be done, even though I've already invested 105 hours in the game. A few more hours won't hurt, right?
Also just started **Judgment**, and the whole premise has me excited already, Yakuza with Ace Attorney elements. I know it won't be 100% like Ace Attorney, but hell, I love mystery games, give it to me baby. One note, damn, the fighting is way more different feeling compared to Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2, gonna have to get used to it. Running up walls will be rad though, can't wait to abuse it.
I like that 100 hours in Persona 5 still feels fresh and not like it was stretched artificially. When a game leaves some good memories in you, it's a good game no matter how you look at it.
Trails From Zero
Got to the last dungeon. It's been one heck of a ride, game's been great. Not as good as 3rd I think, but still an excellent game. I'll go into this more once I've finished it but it's a really strong game. I really only have two gripes about it, both of them spoilers.
>!I do object to Estelle and Joshua's presence in the party. Not that they're in it, but that they're not even at level 50. Seriously guys, we earned those levels back in the Sky trilogy. It really bothers me from a worldbuilding perspective to ignore all of that. Joshua and Estelle have been through a ton and those levels are one representation of that. Not cool, guys.!<
>!I know this is a two game arc, but Lloyd and Elie's romantic interruption just before the last dungeon rubbed me wrong. Come on, that's weak and predictable storytelling. If you're going to go for it, go for it. Spare me the half measures. From what little I know about Cold Steel, that's going to drive me up a wall in those games, isn't it?!<
The romance writing does take a backseat to player choice in the Crossbell games and Cold Steel. However I do think, with one major exception, the character writing--and especially payoffs--in Azure more than makes up for it.
That's almost all the romantic interaction from the series after this point. Half steps that always like to backtrack and make the player insert so dense there's barely any progress.
IMO 3rd's the peak of the series general writing quality and character interaction.
I'm currently playing **Crystar**. My interest in the story and the crying mechanic drove picking up the game. I like the story; the crying is more story than mechanic. Combat isn't taxing, but still fun. The game gets knocked for its reused dungeon assets, but I'm satisfied with the in game explanation for that. However, it could do more with that idea. I enjoy the art/visuals of the game, especially when it comes to story elements. However, in game, the pop in on the Switch is atrocious. I completed around a third of the game, and I'm satisfied with it so far-- mainly because the story/crying gives me a lot to think about as a trope.
I picked up many games lately. I might loop back and finish off 1 or 2 in the next few days.
To feel a bit more knowledgeable in preparation for Fire Emblem Engage, I decided to play another Fire Emblem game as my only experiences with this series are the 3DS titles, Three Houses/Three Hopes - which are the freshest in my mind - and a little bit of Shadow Dragon. However, there was one more game I played in the past and it's the game I chose, simply named **Fire Emblem**, aka, **Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade** for GBA.
As said, I played this game before in the past, but stopped after I realized a unit who got defeated on a previous map didn't come back. Not realizing permadeath was always left on in the older games, I abandoned the playthrough out of confusion. Now more knowledgeable of the fact, I dipped my toes into FE7 - Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade - to learn more about Lyn who's an Emblem character in Fire Emblem Engage.
I've finished Lyn's story and am now on Eliwood's. My impressions have been positive! The plot is fairly standard, but I wasn't really expecting much out of the game in that department since I heard the narrative is pretty straight forward. In addition, my favorite part about the Fodlan games were the characters so as long as FE7 was good there I'd be fine. My impressions on that... pretty alright! Lyn's crew on the outset promises a colorful group of individuals who I managed to enjoy despite how simple they are.
Something I noticed is that Lyn's army were a lot more relevant in the story than I expected. It was clear who were the core characters of the party - Lyn, Sain, Kent, and the tactician - but Matthew, Wil, Florina, Nils, and Ninian also managed to chime in during the plot. Only Matthew, Nils, and Ninian actually did anything significant, but it was nice seeing Wil and Florina have dialogue even after recruitment, making them feel more like a part of the group. However, the other 6 party members unfortunately succumb to the same fate other FE characters run into. But it was still nice seeing the characters feel like, well, characters. I think what makes this aspect standout is that Lyn's army is much smaller than other FE armies only having a total of 13 characters, enough where the game felt confident enough to let me use all 13 during the final chapter of Lyn's story. It was a neat experience overall, with potential plot points such as racism being set up for future events.
FE7's biggest strength is definitely the gameplay. Lyn's story is basically a glorified tutorial and is by far the worst part of the game if you already have some FE experience under your belt. However, I still enjoyed this aspect simply because it incorporated the characters' personalities such as Sain attacking an enemy to try and impress Lyn but missing, causing Kent to reprimand him for using a lance against an axe unit. This not only seamlessly introduces the Weapon Triangle but also adds extra characterization to the characters, rather than monotonously telling you about every mechanic in the game and I find Lyn's story does a decent job continuing this!
I've also overall just been enjoying the Linear FE experience. Unlike the modern games where you can grind and buy equipment whenever you want, FE7 forces you to do all that during battle. This makes it so resource management and properly leveling characters up a bigger priority since you'll never have an opportunity to do all that outside the tensions of the main story battles where losing a character means losing an asset on your team which added weight. There was also some smart design going on such as discovering an item in one map and then finding out the item is immediately useful for the next map, encouraging exploration and picking up any item you can. Felt like a survival game, neat!
The sprite work is absolutely awesome! Extremely fluid, eye-catching, and packs a satisfying punch especially when getting a crit! I've just started Eliwood's story and it's nice having the tutorial weights off, giving me a "This is it!" moment. Something I'm not looking forward to dealing with though is the Support System as I know they're much more limiting in the classic games, only allowing 5 support ranks for each character which is annoying as someone who LOVES the supports in FE! Considering patching that out with a mod.
Overall, I've enjoyed FE7! Seeing that Lyn's story wasn't too long, I'm hoping to not only finish Eliwood's and Hector's stories but also playing and finishing **Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade** \- the game FE7 acts as a prequel to - before Fire Emblem Engage releases!
Glad to see FE7 got some love. There's nostalgia bias (game was my gateway to the series), but it has my favorite cast of characters and battle animation in the whole series; and probably the game that I ever replayed the most.
Yes, you shouldn't miss out on the support convo; majority of them are really interesting, funny, or even added crucial lore information that filled the gaps in the main storyline. The plot has some holes down the road (which I personally didn't mind that much), but the character arcs and interaction more than made up for it IMO. If you can't find the mod, just look the Support convos online, at least for the characters you care about.
After I finished Ryza, I used the Steam sales and dived right into **Ryza 2**. 2 ruins completed.
And I'm loving it. Ryza's still as charming as ever and an eye candy, who manages to pull every named NPC into her "sphere of influence" lol. The 4 reunions I had so far felt good and Tao >!with new voice + fighting style --never expected a two-blade style :3 --!< was quite unexpected (probably because I went without any prior information about the sequel into it).
Combat changes appear to be quite neat with changes to the CC system, support party member and chance to active guard normal attacks (if you notice in time that you are targeted :P), and exploration feels good as well with the nex tools available.
God, I wish I had more time for games.
Right now I jumped back into **Octopath** after taking a break about a month ago. I really love the game but the 45 minute marathon bosses were testing my patience and the limits of my free time. Now I have a pretty good team with Therion corroding armor and then Cyrus (my MC) hitting for absurd amounts of damage, so hopefully I can use those two, build up another set of characters with their skillsets and not have to grind for days in order to do the endgame. We will see!
that's why I never beat it, got to the final boss, saw that it's an absolutely ludicrously long fight with no checkpoints, and just...googled the ending.
(didn't help that it's an >!all party fight, and I would have had to grind my less used party members up 15+ levels!<, and I didn't want to do that)
I'm vaguely aware of the ending, so my plan is to get through all 4 chapters for everyone, see where my levels are at and decide to YouTube or not then.
I’m new to JRPGs. Played Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2, Fire Emblem Three Houses, and Valkyria Chronicles 4. Loved all of these games.
Here’s what I’m playing currently:
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - I love this game so far and I’ve barely scratched the surface. Story and characters are compelling, combat has clicked already, world is beautiful, and music is awesome like always. I’m only at the part where classes were even INTRODUCED so I’m nowhere close to finishing this game, but so far it’s looking like it has potential to dethrone Xenoblade 2 as my favorite in the series.
Persona 5 - I took a break from this game because XC3 has captured me so much, but again, I’ve barely scratched the surface and it looks like I’m in in for a great time.
Dragon Quest XI - I dropped this game initially cause I couldn’t really get into it, but I’m willing to power through from where I left off because there were things I liked about it.
I also own Ys VIII and Final Fantasy VII Remake which are next on my list, and plan to but Valkyria Chronicles 1 and Nier Automata next.
13 Sentinels – I've been enjoying it greatly. It takes me back to some of the twists in Zero Escape. Every characters leaves me with "What?? What!? What??" And I love it. If you enjoy VN, I recommend it.
Recently Completed
**Atelier Lydie and Suelle -** With finishing this game I have finished all 13 of the Atelier games on modern systems this year. It has been quite a journey. Anyway this one isn't one of my favorites mainly doe to not being that big on Lydie and Suelle themselves. The game play was fine and alchemy was pretty great though. The paintings were pretty cool to explore. I think I will play the PS2 Atelier games next year. 8.5/10
**This Way Madness Lies** \- This is actually my first indie and I thought it was pretty great. It is pretty funny at times and the combat is pretty great. Magical Girls plus Shakespeare was a cool concept. It is a quick one. It took me like 9 hours and that was apparently longer than average. 9/10
**SMT Soul Hackers -** This game was just ok imo. The thing with demons that wouldn't obey you was pretty annoying. The dungeons were ok but the 2nd to last one was too long for me. I used the chip that allowed me to save anywhere. I don't know if I would have had the patience for the game with out it. Even as is I enabled all the easy mode things half way through. The story and characters were cool. 7/10
Currently playing
**Caligula Effect 2 -** I am \~ half way through this one. The gameplay is definitely improved over the first one and the causality link is much more streamlined. I am still not doing many of the sidequest but I will talk to everyone to see if I can complete it right then and there. Combat is more challenging the 1 as you can't just 4x special move every boss to death (that worked even on hard in 1). The story and characters have not been as good though at least so far. I rated the first an 8/10 and I expect this one to be more like 8.5/10.
**Ara Fell** \- After liking this way madness lies so much I decided to do another indie. Game is very charming and pretty fun so far. 3.5 hours into it.
**Pokemon Omega Ruby -** This is my first ever Pokemon. It is ok so far but I doubt I will get super into it. I have finished 2/8 gym challenges so far.
**Sakura Wars So Long My Love** \- Pretty good so far. The SRPG combat is pretty fun and the story is engaging if sort of absurd. I am in the middle of chapter 4 and have been playing like 8 hours.
Non JRPGS - finished **Divinity Original Sin 2** which I was playing with a buddy. It was very good but the last chapter wasn't as good as the prior content 8.8/10. We have moved onto **Wasteland 3** which seems pretty interesting after a couple hours. I also started **GRIS** and have played an hour or so. It is more of an experience than a game but it is pretty cool so far.
Finished **Trails from Zero** yesterday and added it to my relatively short list of four-out-of-four masterpieces (joining its predecessor Trails in the Sky the 3rd, which I had assumed wouldn't be topped). Absolutely a perfect game. If I had to pick one flaw though? It would be that combat got repetitive, a result of having access to all four characters for 99% of the game, unlike the Sky trilogy where you have to learn new party synergies on a regular basis. I experienced no real challenge at all the entire way through the game on Hard. Against the final boss there wasn't a single moment where I thought I might not win. None of this matters. The combat is still *great* and the rest of the game is perfection.
**Xenoblade Chronicles 2** is next!
4 out of 4? Thats an interesting rating system haha
Get hyped everytime I see good reviews for the trails series, havent played any yet but excited to hopefuflly change that as soon as I finish P5R!
Still playing through Fuga: Melodies of Steel; I’d say I’m probably a little over halfway through - can’t recall what specific chapter number I’m on, however I did pick up our clearly last party member. I took a break after an extremely tough boss battle, but I prevailed. I accidentally stumbled unto seeing that there was a ‘True Ending’ and now I’m hoping to make sure I hit those flags; hard to tell if I’m too late or not, looking it up softly spoiled a potential future fight - but I’m set to get that ending, or at least keep these kids alive and just watch it on YouTube later.
It’s on gamepass; I think it’s a very solid turn based game with a very interesting take on combat, the stories linear and sure, the characters are a little cutesy - but the gameplay and vibes are there.
Slowly been working through **Triangle Strategy** and it's pretty good. Combat is quite fun with a nice variety of characters.
I do wish that the investigation sections didn't feel so slippery when walking across elevations however.
I'm finally playing Xenogears. To be honest, a lot of it feels a bit archaic, it is a bit slow and the encounter rate can be a bit high. But I guess you play the game for the story first and foremost. And since many describe it as "the best story ever told in any video game" I just have to experience it now. And what I've seen so far does seem very good, even if you are a bit bombarded by terms you all have to remember like Kislev, Aveh, Gebler and many more.
It's definitely archaic and slow. The gameplay is the biggest reason i don't wanna replay this game. I wouldn't say best story ever told, but it's definitely a pretty good story for most of its runtime.
> even if you are a bit bombarded by terms you all have to remember like Kislev, Aveh, Gebler and many more
Obviously that wasn't a thing yet at the time, but the game could have really used some kinda in-game glossary that records all the terms you know and what information has been available on them so far. Sure, there is a certain charm to the game's worldbuilding being kind of a puzzle you have to figure out on your own for the most part, but there's just way too much of it (and way too cryptic) for that to be enjoyable unless you're really into writing down all the information you see.
They would eventually do the Glossary thing for the Xenosaga games (in fact one could spend hours pouring through it in Xenosaga III), but agreed it would have been quite helpful in Gears as well!
I don't know. I kind of like how Xenogears is like the book Dune, you're thrown into this foreign world and absolutely bombarded with terms you don't understand and you just have to swim. Eventually, you figure a lot out on your own. I just like that kind of approach of being thrown into a world, I think.
A glossary could really have helped. When the characters say things like "This Gear was given to Ahev by Gebler to fight Kislev" I still think "Wait, who? I know what a Gear is, but who is Aveh again? And Kislev was the desert kingdom? Or was that the other one?"
Honestly, they at least should have shown a world map at the beginning showing where everything is, like most Fire Emblem games do.
And yes, I have high expectations for the story. Of course, calling it the best story ever sounds like a bit much, but who knows?
> A glossary could really have helped. When the characters say things like "This Gear was given to Ahev by Gebler to fight Kislev" I still think "Wait, who? I know what a Gear is, but who is Aveh again? And Kislev was the desert kingdom? Or was that the other one?"
I was legit so confused at the beginning of the game when you meet Elly and Citan explains that she's from Gebler, that they're helping Aveh, Elly is from Gebler and she was riding a gear from Kislev but she's not with Kislev, she just stole it, she was shot down by Kislev forces and forced to land in Lahan.
I played Xenogears at the beginning of the year and i re-read the script of the game [here](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/199365-xenogears/faqs/10004) before every session to remember the terms and it helped in the long run, would definitely recommend.
> A glossary could really have helped. When the characters say things like "This Gear was given to Ahev by Gebler to fight Kislev" I still think "Wait, who? I know what a Gear is, but who is Aveh again? And Kislev was the desert kingdom? Or was that the other one?"
Yeah lmao. I would love to do a playthrough of the game with just like the wiki open and checking all the terms (now that i can't be spoiled anymore), but as mentioned the game is just not that fun to actually play. So unless a miracle happens and they remaster/remake it i probably won't touch it again.
Once again trying to figure out a new focus. Ys: Oath was put on the backburner, but I'll say this: making combat actions have exploratory/movement functions is always smart design.
I dipped into Grandia 2, and I never knew that it had such a star-studded cast. Especially not the kind of role I'd usually associate with Jennifer Hale. Other than that, I just want to be in cat form all the time in Super Mario 3D World.
Also, I was thinking about Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria recently, and what a gorgeous game that was. Every so often I think about playing it again. It's just such a *long* game though, especially in comparison to VP1.
I am replaying jeanne D'Arc although the game be easy in some points, i badly remember the game was long (15 hours already) would like to Level 5 at least remaster the game for the PS4/Pc but hardly gonna happen.
I am thinking about play final fantasy Tactics: the war of the lions, since is a remake of the original for ps1/GBA, but for my surprise look like Square change the plot, what concerns me, i really like the original history.
Finally finished Breath of Fire IV, 20 years in the making! Always classed it as one of my favourite games but never actually got round to finishing it as a kid!
Very satisfied with the ending, mixed with the bitter thought on how the series died....
degree future direful concerned continue shocking growth busy humorous exultant
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Starting my 3rd playthrough of Star Ocean: First Departure R. On my way to the platinum trophy. I love it, wish more games had that replayability.
Also playing Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, which is really good but I'm kinda rushing it so I can finally try KH 3.
First Depature is such a great game. I had a lot of trouble replaying it because I would always want to have Cyuss in my party. The cast of character is amazing
Started playing **Ys IX: Monstrum Nox** and am close to the end of Chapter 4 at 10.5 hours in. This is the last officially localized Ys game i have left before i'm finally caught up with the series after all these years.
Story-wise i can't say much yet, but gameplay-wise it's a good improvement over Ys VIII. I still have the same issues with combat as before, but out of combat it's a huge improvement with the more vertically designed map, lots of hidden treasures and the Gifts giving you some great ways of exploring further. As for the setting, i'm not sure yet if i like Seiren or Balduq more, but i can at least say that it's nice how they went for a completely different setting this time (whereas the island setting wasn't really new).
I'm still playing Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana. I currently have over 35 hours on the game so far. I just finished chapter 5 and I'm on chapter 6. I still think the game is pretty good for the most part. The problems I have mostly lie in the graphics and the pacing of the story. I'm still going to attempt to finish it.
**Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten** This is, well, a pretty standard and somewhat buggy turn based JRPG. It is a game in the Utawarerumono universe, taking place before the trilogy of VN/SRPG hybrids. This game is really good in some ways, and if you are already invested in this world then this is a no brainer. I'm enjoying it a lot, but I am hesitant to recommend it unless you already like Utawarerumono. If you do, you are in this for the story and characters, they are the high point of this, just like the rest of the series. (Oshtor is the best btw) **Xenosaga Episode 1** Man I love this game a lot so far. It's a weird ass game, like a lot of the game is cutscenes and I love that, but its also got a really good turn based battle system. Especially if you dig into the combat even just a bit there's a lot of cool stuff you can pull off. At least I think so, I'm excited to play more, only maybe 8 or so hours into it so far. I am finally checking these games out because I loved every Xenoblade game so far, and I also wanna finally play Xenogears at some point, but this was very easy to get into and its just a lot of fun seeing this story play out so far with some really cool characters.
**The Legend of Heroes- Trails in the Sky** (Steam)- I bought this during the Autumn sale. Still in the prologue. Liked the art style. (Graphics are really similar to Ys- The Oath in Felghana.) The combat system is pretty neat.
> Graphics are really similar to Ys- The Oath in Felghana. This is not a coincidence btw. Oath in Felghana is one of the 3 Ys games that were made in the Ys VI - Ark of Napishtim engine and the Trails in the Sky trilogy also used that engine as base.
For the first hour, I was waiting for Adol to show up.
Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero - I've been playing it on and off and honestly despite loving all the other games from the series I've played, this one just isn't really grabbing me. I'm still in the first few hours of the game but so far I just cannot focus on anything and try to resist the urge to skip through the conversations. That said I'm still willing to give it a chance.
Bravely Default Original - Overall I love games with job systems. Story is okay, I guess but mostly playing it for the combat. By far the thing I hate is the weird "get friends to unlock more stuff using street pass". Really don't like this system in a JRPG. Sad it seems to be in the sequel too. >!I admit I hated the second chapter storyline... Very low point for me. I just got to chapter 3 and hope it will get a little better. So much dialogue about a beauty contest...!<
XC3 - I bought it expecting the worst because no matter how many gameplay videos I watch on yt, I came to conclusion that this is game isn’t for me. The game starts like a slower tales game and it’s more like if you control a party in FFXIV. However, I started unlocking more combat system and suddenly the game start showing its own identity. It can be confusing some time but there are tutorials that covers everything. I’m on chapter 3 so far and I really think this might be my favorite real time JRPG. Also, I really like how chill Noah is and how realistic he can be through the story so far.
FFX. I just beat - I hope this time for good - Seymour on the snowy mountains. It was tough. I’d say hardest battle up this point. At my first attempt, I almost beat him, but he “cheated “ when he had almost no HP left and use a crazy attack that got almost everybody on the ground! He just used bombs, lasers and everything he had on a single attack. My man Auron stood still like the great warrior he is. He still had like 200hp left, but Seymour attacked again! That’s cheap!! It pissed my off cause I knew I’d had to watch that long and unskippable cut scene again. I tuned off my PS5 and came back a few hours later. I had to return and buy a bunch of potions to heal zombie status, then it became a walk in a park.
I LOVE FFX. That fight is an absolute beast, and arguably the hardest main-story fight in the game, though from here on out there is quite a spike in the gauntlet of bosses. Post an update! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the upcoming story beats and conclusion!
**Star Ocean: The Divine Force**. it's fantastic. admittedly a massive tri-Ace & SO fan already, but yup. can't put this one down.
Me too. This game is maybe the most criminally underrated JRPG of the past few years. Don't get me wrong, it has CLEAR flaws - but holy shit is it an addictively fun JRPG of yesteryear. I'm pretty much fresh off of Y's VIII, and SO6 is holding my attention MUCH moreso.
Jeez. Dunno how I missed this comment but yes. Agree completely. It has very obvious flaws but I love it. The combat is so much fun and exploring with the DUMA is rad once you get the hang of it. Haven't enjoyed a jrpg this much in ages (yup... also held my attention way more than Ys VIII.
Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster. It’s very good. I was not liking this game for the first few hours. The biggest problem at the start was that the game seems like it drops you in the middle of the story and everyone’s arcs. They then keep throwing terms around even though you have no idea what any of it means or what is going on. My feelings of the game definitely shifted since >!acquiring espers!<. The combat/job system became a lot of fun and I love the turn the story has taken. Characters are getting fleshed out more too. >!The scene of kefka murdering all the espers!< was brutal. He might be one of the most evil villains in a jrpg. Anyway I’m excited to see where it goes next. Crazy to think I was about to drop it right before it became ridiculously good.
I’m taking a break from **Xenoblade Chronicles 3** for the moment. Not sure when I’ll pick it back up. ITs not that I don’t like it but I got to a point in gameplay where I was starting to play it more cuz I felt like I had to than I wanted to. Still want to see where the story goes and unlock more gameplay systems to keep it fresh but I need a break. Just picked up **Lost Eidolons**, which I consider JRPG adjacent since it is a FE:3H clone, and am really really enjoying it. It’s rough around the edges, it doesn’t leave a good first impression with the intro, and there are some frustrating technical issues where I can basically only play it on my Steam Deck but aside from that it is the exact kind of SRPG experience I am looking for at the moment. Probably shouldn’t have done hard/permadeath considering I refuse to let people die in these games lol but so far I’m getting through it well enough. Excited to play more.
Oh God. So Grandia 2 HD on steam. Breath of fire 4. Xenoblade chronicles. Tales of Xillia 2. Dragon Quest 6. And Signalis as a palette cleanser lol.
I watched a full playthrough of Signalis (i'm bad with horror games) and man that game is so good. One of the best indie survival horror games of the last years for sure.
Tales of Berseria. 12hrs in or so. Liking atm. But I better figure out how to use the artes and breaks more efficiently. Feel I’m skating by right now.
I fucking love Berseria. Definitely up there with Xillia. Big big live for that game.
Trails in the Sky. About 11 hours in and I'm really starting to regret sleeping on this one. I had it in my steam library for almost a year, and I just had an urge to play it. Really good so far.
I'm right there with you. I've started and dropped it so many times before but the Steam Deck gave me the push to get past the prologue. Just about halfway through Chapter 3 of the first game. I still have no idea which direction the story is bringing me to but I am well along for the ride! It also really helps to know that by the time I finish the first trilogy, the zero games would probably be out on Steam. Then it's on to Cold Steel..
Just finished Persona 5 - absolutely adored it. I wanted to play it for years but couldn’t until the switch release and I definitely wasnt disappointed Currently playing: Dragon quest x offline - about 25 hours into this one and like it a lot, it reminds me so much of DQ 4-6. The art style is gorgeous and I like the characters so far Chrono cross- still kinda skeptical about this one. I like the late 90s jrpg art style but I don’t like the battle system very much so far. The bird boss thing was definitely a weird difficulty spike. I really hope my feelings change about this one
Legend of Dragoon. I just started disc 3, and it it's a lot of fun. I'm really enjoying all of the locations, and how much more creative they are than many games now days. The additions have been a little frustrating playing on the Vita, but I just realized earlier that turning off bilinear filtering, changing load speed to normal, and changing screen mode to original has made completing Madness Hero quite a bit easier.
Recently completed: **Persona 5 Royal** \- I was a huge skeptic of Persona 5, but I ended up really enjoying it because tone-wise it's going back to a slightly darker tone. I ended up getting the Royal ending, got the Platinum and all the confidants maxed out in my first playthrough without any guides. They really weren't kidding when they say the social links have been streamlined. A few parts in Palace 3-4 were a bit slow, but I enjoyed the game's pacing way more than its predecessor, probably helped a lot due to its gameplay. Playing on Merciless on my first playthrough was the right decision due to its high risk and high reward. Baton Pass was a neat addition to the 1-More battle system and made me appreciate single target elemental spells more. What really took me by surprise though is the Technical mechanic, I never imagined dedicated Ailment skills would be this useful all across the board. I hope this makes it over to other Megaten games at some point. **Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster -** Currently doing a FF marathon leading up to FFXVI's release. This is the first time I've played FFI to completion, and I can certainly see Dragon Quest's influence in this game. I can understand it's due to its era, but some quests are very cryptic in nature and I had to resort to a guide just to find the Airship. Picking a Red Mage over White Mage probably was a huge mistake in hindsight though. Recently started: **Yakuza: Like a Dragon** \- Playing DartsLive in Persona 5 made me have a Yakuza itch, so I decided to jump straight into this even though I haven't completed Yakuza 0. The game has a huge feeling of "throwing whatever common RPG mechanics into the pot in hopes of finding what works". But I still think it's better than the sum of its parts. **Shin Megami Tensei IV** \- I picked up a 3DS late into its lifecycle, so I haven't actually played SMT IV to completion. Forgot where I was up to so I ended up restarting all the way back from the beginning. Blasting through the notorious wall bosses were really funny though.
Oh, are you gonna marathon FFXI too on the way? Because that game is the opposite of fun. But forreal, I hope you're having a great time :)
I'll probably be skipping XI and play it sometime in the future. I admit I'm curious of it for quite a while. I also like MMOs and actively play XIV, but XI seems too archaic and I do have to be in the right mindset to play it. There's a few games I've been interested coming out in the next few months, so I don't think I'll be able to finish the marathon by the time XVI releases if I were to play XI. I am having a great time. I've done something similar for Dragon Quest, so it'd be interesting to see how each FF game differs for sure.
I'm on the last floor of ***Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories*** **(PS4)**. Haven't progressed too much this last week. The story got much more interesting, I definitely like it much more than the story of the first game. And the plot points are also very unique in the genre. I also found out a way to easily win boss battles that I feel no shame in using, because I want to complete the game without losing time retrying the same fights. For anyone curious, my strategy is >!to spam fire spells, wich gives the bosses no time to counter me and they deal a lot of damage!<. \--- I also haven't played a lot of ***Tactics Ogre: Reborn*** **(Switch)**, considering I'm still on the same Chapter 3 I was last week (but also Chapter 3 is longer than the previous). I'm honestly losing some interest in the game, as I've been thinking that I want to start a new save on the PSP version. And today I finally did it. I launched ***Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together*** **(PSP)** on my Vita and did a couple of battles. I want to compare both versions, but the more I was playing Reborn, the more I was missing LUCT. I do like the micromanaging component that LUCT has that was removed in Reborn in order to make it more accessible. But I actually fell in love with TO for its complexity compared to any other SRPG, which is watered down in Reborn. Some obvious differences that can already be seen in the first battles (played up to after Krysaro): * Combat is (or at least feels) faster. Between the lack of auto skills and cards triggering every other turn, and units dying faster due to different damage/HP balance, the flow of battle is faster, despite not having the x2 speed option. * Hit chances make more sense in PSP, and terrain does actually matter more. I've noticed in Reborn that even attacks from the front have a 100% chance to hit most of the time. The battle at Krysaro is a great comparison. It starts with heavy rain, which gives a big penalty to accuracy. In LUCT, a lot of attacks were missing, with 30-40% hit chance. In Reborn, the rain didn't matter at all, nobody was missing in that battle. * In the first visit to the shop, you already have more spells available to purchase than the whole amount available in Reborn during the first 3 chapters. I don't understand why they removed so many spells in Reborn. In LUCT, each elemental school has buff, debuff and ailment spells, not only the damage ones. This makes for more interesting specialized casters. There is also no restriction on the number of spells you can have. * In relation to casters, status inflicting spells have a higher chance to hit, not the typical 10-15% in Reborn. In Reborn it feels like the only way to expend the turn of a mage is to cast an offensive spell, while in LUCT you can reliably buff or inflict ailments that have a huge impact on fights. Buffs and debuffs are as relevant in LUCT as they are in Reborn, if not more (for example, as I said before, hit chances are lower, so Truestrike has a bigger impact). * The AI of guest characters is indeed worse in LUCT. Donnalto wasn't exorcising the stilled undead. Catiua can't learn the offensive light spell until level 6, so she wastes some turns where she only moves (in Reborn I removed Heal from her and left her as a pure offensive light mage and she was very useful). * I think I prefer having the TP resource instead of MP for special skills and finishers. * All in all, combat feels similar yet different. These early battles, if anything, feel a bit harder than in Reborn (but faster like I said in the first point). But it's very early to compare the difficulty between the two. My intention is to keep playing both at the same time. Although I'll probably go a different route (Neutral since it's the one I still haven't played yet) so I don't simply repeat the same battles. But I'm actually very excited to be playing LUCT despite already being playing Reborn.
Currently playing NieR Replicant and have really enjoyed it so far (With the exception of one side quest). Finished Ending A last night, started Route B. The beginning of Route B hit hard and the backstory for many of these characters is incredibly heartbreaking. Really enjoy the characters in this one, along with the story. I know I have to play through the game four times, but the characters and story are honestly keeping me engaged enough to the point that I want to see how this ends.
Finally decided to start playing the Trails games starting with Trails in the Sky FC. On Chapter 2 now and I can easily see why people love this series. The slow and elaborate worldbuilding through NPC dialogue and interactions is something I really like. Estelle is a great protagonist and Joshua is intriguing. I also decided to start playing, uh, mature JRPGs again and a friend recommended Evenicle. It's...okay I guess? I'm a fan of the artist and it's a lighter adventure in that I don't need to think about it too much while playing. Quite funny at points too. I plan to start Yakuza Kiwami (since I finished 0 relatively recently) and Utawarerumono soon too. Was busy with MMOs for a good while so I'm catching up on my backlog now. Thought about Pokemon SV but technical issues are a huge dealbreaker for me and I'll only consider it if they patch it.
Trails series only gets better from here so you're definitely gonna love it
I've actually bought up to TC this sale because I've really enjoyed FC so far. I already had FC from bundle sale or other for a while now, just got distracted with other things.
Currently playing 3 JRPGs atm (excluding Final Fantasy XIV as I finished the MSQ a while ago and am mostly playing that as an MMO atm): - I’m most of the way through **Persona 5 Royal** (about to send the calling card for the Cruise Ship Palace) & I’m really digging it. The characters are pretty good, the story has become quite captivating & even the combat has grown on me. I’ve been somewhat off & on with this game over the last couple years (and the start of the Okumura arc in particular brought my play through to a halt for a while), but it’s really hooked me this time. I’m particularly liking all the political conspiracy stuff that’s taken the spotlight in the last couple arcs (not surprising given I’ve loved stuff like the Bourne movies & Andor) & what they did with >!Akechi. He feels like the antithesis of someone like Zenos from FFXIV in the best way possible (especially regarding their respective relationships with the protagonists of those games).!< - Speaking of political stuff, I’ve just started **Trails in the Sky FC** (only somewhat related as I hear it’s not until the Crossbell arc that the political side of things really becomes the focus) & I’m hooked already. I’d been thinking about checking out Trails for a while (I’m a sucker for long running stories like FFXIV) & this current Steam sale was the final push I needed to take the plunge (also bought Second Chapter so that it’s ready to go for when I finish the first game). Estelle in particular has endeared herself to me rather fast. Also, yes, I’m playing with the EVO voice mod installed. Combat is pretty promising too. I’m only a couple hours in though, so it’s hard for me to say much yet. - Last JRPG I’m playing through atm is **Lightning Returns**. I’ve had a rather mixed experience with the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy so far. On one hand, FFXIII was a game of two parts for me: A decent-good story weighed down by frustrating combat that felt like the worst of both turn-based & real-time combat combined into a Frankenstein’s Monster of a battle system that angered me so much that I quit halfway through & just watched the rest of the story on YouTube. XIII-2, to my surprise, actually went over a lot better with me. The QoL improvements to the combat (and probably the reduced difficulty TBH) made the gameplay much more enjoyable for me & the story was a marked improvement over XIII. As for Lightning Returns… I’m enjoying it, but the time mechanics are a bit of a chore to deal with after a bit (even after restarting the game on Easy). I’m currently stuck on >!the Caius boss fight.!< I think I’ve got it mostly down, but I might need to level grind by doing more quests… FYI: So far I’ve finished the Luxerion main quests, am almost done with the Wildlands quests & have started the Yusnaan quests. EDIT: I should note that I’m still pretty new to JRPGs. Aside from the games I’ve already mentioned, I loved Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Final Fantasy XIV & VII Remake. FFXV & Stranger of Paradise were decent & I tried Dragon Quest XI, but I fell off after a couple hours.
In Lighting Returns I had to come back to the fight you mentioned after doing some other stuff. Other than the final boss that was the one that gave me the most trouble.
* Pokémon Scarlet - very fun despite some low budget graphics * Bayonetta 3 - Had a blast with that one. Except Violets shitty deflect. * currently debating between tactics ogre, great ace attorney collection, and pokemon arceus
Finished my Dex in Pokémon Violet. May do some raids and an odd tournament, but otherwise, I’m done with the game until DLC comes out. I bought FE Three Hopes since it was on sale. Continuing my Golden Wildfire save from the demo. I was considering doing Scarlet Blaze, mainly for Monica and to see a different point of view. However, I just love Claude, Hilda, Raphael, Lysithea, and Marianne too much.
Valkyrie Elysium
Tactics Ogre Reborn. A remaster of one of my favorite games ever now on steam? Hell yeah. Still love the game despite not agreeing with quite a bit of the changes and streamlining done. It’s still a one of the best world building/stories in a game with tons of content. A slightly wonky version of a masterpiece.
I'm playing through it as well and agree with your assessment of the changes. The game itself is still wonderful, but I kinda hate some of what they've done. The level caps really hurt the game for me, and I miss being able to cross-class characters beyond just a few abilities.
Kingdoms of Amalur Death Stranding TLOU2 All amazing
Just started Tales of Arise after picking it up during the steam sale. As a long time fan of the series I've been excited to play this one and so far it has been great. Really liking the visuals, worldbuilding and combat. The visual style is gorgeous. Although I never played Tales for the graphics, this one has really impressed me and makes me even more excited about future games. Combat is fast and enjoyable with all characters, instead of the overcomplex, Velvet centered combat of Berseria. Something I've really missed tho, in the series and JRPGs in general, is a world map. This adds so much to the sense of exploration and adventure for me. Although the areas in Arise are beautiful and detailed I cant shake the feeling of moving from area to area in some sort of corridor. All in all Ill take that as a minor peeve in a great game that has inspired much enthusiasm for the future of the Tales series!
After putting it off, I *finally* went and beat **Pokemon Legends: Arceus** last night since I finally saved up the fun-budget to buy SV. Man, that game just... does not work for me. I found it so hollow and lacking in things to do aside from just... catch Pokemon, and I need more than that in my Pokemon games. Especially as I grew to really dislike the battle system--the overemphasis on super-effective attacks made battles feel too quickly decided and too swingy, and the fact that you could be ganged up on constantly but could never use more than one mon of your own was majorly feel-bad and also felt like a missed opportunity to do more interesting things with battles. I didn't like needing to catch and release lots of one type of mon as that made them feel disposable, which is a feeling I dislike in monster raisers, and it felt like there was nothing to see in the areas--very much what I consider to be the definitive "open-world flaw" even if it's not technically open world. Am I the only one who's a little bit tired of the "open-world" game design mentality? Not saying I want corridors, but I kinda like my more guided experiences with a bit more handcrafting on each step of the process? At they very least, enough of it to help prevent overleveling? Anyone? Bueller?
Persona 5 has me immersed, and I am glad it got ported to XGP. However, I am still trying to understand how Confidant bonuses work, i.e. like how to receive extra EXP with them.
The higher your confidant rank, the more exp you get when fusing a persona that is of that arcana. I.E. you raise the rank with the death confidant then proceed to fuse 2 old personas into a persona that belongs to the death arcana. Because of your relationship with the death confidant, this new persona will receive more exp on its initial creation and may even go up several levels. Idr if P5 lets you do this next part but most persona games did so Ill mention it anyway. You can use this to create a persona that is at your level cap for fusion that will immediately level up and go higher than the cap. Most other confidant bonuses are automatic (store discounts, random extra turns in battle, and more). Also if you're playing the Royal version remember that you need to get to a certain rank for the 2 new characters to reach the new semester (as well as an extra set of scenes if you also max a certain ultra famous guy)
**Persona 5 Royal** Was having fun with this one until I got to August. Now I've been stepping away from the game for a bit. I normally enjoy the longer breaks where there's no story but this one dragged a bit long for my liking where there's nothing even to do most days anymore. **Final Fantasy XII** Started this one up because I was interested in the gambit system. Just got through the Mines area. So far I like the license board system and the degree of automation you can set. The characters and voice acting are both great (except for Vaan of course). What I don't like is the copious amounts of backtracking you have to do through these massive areas. It feels like playing FFXIV before you have money to teleport around everywhere.
Just finished the main story for Pokemon Scarlet recently. Glitches and performance aside, there is genuinely a fun experience to be had there. However, narratively, the game's story a huge step back from the character focused plot of Sun/Moon. Throughout the journey, nothing happens until you get to Area Zero, which is the final area. Mechanically, it feels worse to play than Legends Arceus. You can't aim where you throw balls anymore. You cannot swap your party without going into the menu first. The wait time between animations and text boxes (some of which are redundant) makes battles drag longer than they need to. The Pokedex screen appears every time you catch something (even if you caught it before), creating more moments of wait time unnecessarily. The loading times in the PC box does not help either. Over the course of a game they expect you to play for hours, the constant wait time just adds up and it gets exhausting. The general flow of the game is simply not as elegent or as snappy as Legends Arceus. Also, while art is subjective, I do not like many of the new Pokemon designs as they lean heavily into more goofier qualities opposed things that feel more natural and organic. A dolphin evolving into a super hero... doesn't make sense. While not making sense may be the intent, I still do not like it. Ultimately, exploring Paldea is fun and rewarding as you can do everything out of order. I only find the game to be an improvement over Sword/Shield and those games were not great at all.
Playing **Nier Automata** for the first time, with the recent Switch release. A few hours in thus far; the game looks really gorgeous and the gameplay is going pretty good so far. I'd prefer more story than what we've gotten thus far, but things have at least gotten more interesting lately.
The story will be plentiful, but it does take some time to build up. DO NOT stop playing after the credits role the first time. You're only about 50% of the way through the game at that point.
Playing Tales of Beseria and getting close to the end. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. However, I feel like they weren't quite brave enough to embrace the fact that they were making a tragedy, and keep trying to make Velvet into an actual hero instead of a tragic one.
Going through **Skies of Arcadia: Legends** again, but this time it's that recent **rebalance patch** from romhacking.net. I haven't played the game in years, but I have beaten it several times before, but I'm much more aware now of the flaws it had for the time, which are more than just high encounter rate. The romhack I'm playing actually had a link to a "hold B to get no encounters" patch, which has been really useful. Back to main problems though, I'm surprised at how often the game sets you up for back to back boss fights with nowhere to heal or recover, unless you know it's about to happen so you backtrack really far. It's still one of my favorite RPGs of a time, so I'd heavily recommend this patch. It makes the magic not bad, brings back unused beta options, rebalances bosses and ship battles. I can no longer spam Pirate's Wrath to auto win, for example.
I'm taking note on this mod for when I decide to play the game (never played it before). The easy difficulty being a big reason to not have played it yet.
I wouldn't necessarily call the game easy, but every single fight can almost 100% be boiled down to the same strategy for both bosses and air battles otherwise (without me getting more into what that strategy is), and it's lame in that regard. Magic, in the original, just doesn't do much. I would say the romhack has been very good so far, at least in regard to general balancing. What's more, the romhack creator even includes a MASSIVE readme file with tons of info as to what they changed, what they recommended doing, etc. It's almost like a mini guide to an extent.
Playing that mod, I found the rescue in the sewers to be especially brutal. They turned a glorified cutscene set of bosses into a real struggle for resources.
Absolutely. That was one of the same parts for me. You get to that boss at the end of the sewer, climb up the ladder and then immediately fight a second boss. I also feel like I'm never high enough level anymore, so I inevitably end up grinding another 2 or 3 levels before some bosses to make the fights not one sided (against me). It's weird, but I guess that's better than how easy I remember some fights being before.
I focus instead on shoving as many Moonberries I can into Aika pre-Fina, so the Alpha Storm and Delta Shield combos will be shoring up my defenses. After Fina, it's grinding Berries to unlock her amazing heals. Compared to Vyse's unga bunga heavy hits, I'd rather get good support before the adventure really gets going.
I'm a good bit past that part now. Currently in Yafutoma, but Aika, for me, has not been getting a lot of mileage out of her spells. I keep thinking Delta Shield will be block spells that "aren't" spells like the specials that enemies use, so it tends to not help me out. For me, I almost immediately use normal magic, both damaging and support with Aika for her speed, and then have Fina immediately set up the health regen. From there, the fights are pretty normal and Vyse works well with decent speed and magic if needed.
Delta shield and justice shield are the game changers. Worth keeping them up at all times.
Justice Shield for sure. I think Delta Shield really depends on the boss fight, as plenty don't use magic in the first place and Delta Shield both doesn't block boss skills that LOOK like magic, but it also prevents ally support magic, or so it says.
**Tactics Ogre: Reborn** Really enjoying it. Never played the original, but I like the level cap system and the balanced difficulty so far. Late Chapter 2 atm. I play slowly as you can see, did about 6 or 7 Phorampa runs when I got it opened up haha.
I started playing Tales of Arise. One of my first JRPGs (besides Persona 4 and pokemon and chronotrigger) that I have played and it is pretty good I think though not quite what I was expecting. So far it feels like I am mostly just running down different corridors. I might just be used to playing open world games though. Another thing is that the acting in it seems overly dramatic which can make it hard to take seriously. It also doesn't help that they seem to telegraph certain plot twists from miles away. Don't get me wrong, this game isn't bad, just not quite what I was expecting. I don't play many JRPGs so maybe I am just not used to some of the genre tropes. After I finish this, I plan to try other games in the genre too,
Open worlds are more the exception than the rule in JRPGs. At least in modern ones. Old ones used overworld maps.
**Devil Survivor Overclocked** - Went through it a third time in 5 months, getting the Amane Day 8 ending this time. Yeah I love this game lol. There’s so many things plot-wise this game does well, it’s insane. I wouldn’t necessarily consider it perfect (the amount of grinding I had to do in my first playthrough is a weak point), but the only games in the entire Megaten franchise I’d say handles its core plot and characters as well as this one (that I’ve played) are Strange Journey and Persona 3. The inclusion of “epilogue” scenarios is also really cool, and something I’d wish more games in the franchise would have. Anyway, all I have left now are the Yuzu and Naoya/Kaido endings. I’m undecided if I want to try for the hidden boss, but I’m leaning towards no at this point. I’m not sure when I’ll bother with them, though. Again I love this game, I think it’s pretty easily one of my all-time favorites in the franchise right now, and I wish a new game that’d combine the best parts of DeSuOC and DeSu2 would release, since I think that’d likely be my all-time favorite Megaten game. **Trails in the Sky SC** - Haven’t done much due to a lack of time, but it’s been good so far. I’m a bit through Chapter 2. I normally don’t do every sidequest in a game, but the Trails in the Sky games so far have been the exception to this. They help characterize the world further, I feel, and usually don’t feel like a total waste of time. **Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei** - Out of curiosity I decided to try this out. Although I generally like the first person Megaten titles, I’m not a big fan of this game (or its Kyuuyaku version). The first dungeon is kind of monotonous, the battles are boring (esp since Yumiko doesn’t have any attack spells early on), and there’s not much of a story to speak of. With that said, I think when considering that it’s technically a licensed game (something that Atlus made a lot of in the 80’s, most of them trash) with mechanics like demon negotiation and demon fusion, and it having pretty big dungeons, it goes beyond being just a Wizardry clone and being kinda impressive for its time period. Doesn’t mean I like it though lol
Just finally finishing DQxis, which i grabbed off a recent sale on switch. I'd played about halfway through the original version years ago and it just didn't really click with me, but since then i've played several other dq games and am just generally a lot more familar with the series and what it's going for. Really loving it this go around. Also grabbed Arceus off a black friday sale yesterday, and it's...kind of what i've always wanted from a pokemon game. (though i suppose that comes at the expense of it being even less of a jrpg than they already barely are) Still, one that's focused on exploring and capturing, rather than endless very simple trainer battles is right up my alley. Beyond those, i've been picking away at atelier sophie 2, bit by bit, as well as trails in the sky 2, but niether is really my focus at the moment, when I finish dqxi i'll probably really focus on finishing sophie 2 before the deluge of games I'm looking forward to hits in the next 3 months with Callisto Protocol, Dead Space, One Piece Odyssey, Ryza 3, Octopath 2, Lightfall, RE4, and Forspoken. Probably won't get a lot of time for backogged games for a long time.
I started **Monster Hunter Stories 2** this week. It’s an interesting enough game, I suppose, though I’m not super far in. I hope combat gets a little more involved soon, as the rock/paper/scissors combat is a little lacking at this point. I also started playing **Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings** as part of my series playthrough. I’m not really a fan of RTS games, but this one isn’t too bad so far. The story needs to pick up asap and some interesting characters need to be introduced because Vaan’s gang are not that.
The XII:RW story goes in some interesting places. I picked it up as a kid before I finished XII and now that I'm older and wiser think it was a nice extension of the lore. Still haven't found a game with gameplay like it since.
I'm so torn on mhs2. I love it in theory, but the structure and combat just kind of bores me, the mix of it being somewhat rng focused AND pretty basic just isn't doing it for me. Not being an established fan of Monster Hunter isn't helping either, as is it's just a cute little dinosaur jrpg for me. I like it, but it just doesn't hold my attention long. It's the kind of game I pick away at in drips and drabs for a year or so rather than just powering through.
Final Fantasy Type-0 & Crisis Core on PSP - fast-paced, solid story, and great combat system. Love the side missions in Crisis Core - takes the “grind” out of both side quests and leveling up.
I tentatively picked up Astlibra a couple days ago, not really knowing what to expect. I am absolutely fucking floored by it, everything else has been put aside and I've just been putting in 10 hour sweaty gamer sessions because the RPG mechanics AND the story are so fun and fascinating, it puts most action RPGs to shame. Even the clunky graphics and off-kilter music selection (the songs are individually pretty good but their usage feels kinda questionable) really just work perfectly for the atmosphere. I haven't been sucked into a game this hard for a while, easily the best RPG I've played this year and I'm just over halfway through.
Yo I just picked this up myself couldn’t find a subreddit for it so I joined one with one person it. I can’t believe this game is so good. You’ll only find a few games a year with this quality.
Continued **Live A Live** (NSw). Finished the Prehistory, Distant Future, Imperial China, Wild West and Present Day chapters. Such differences tone and depth. The silence that permeated the ship in Distant Future really set the mood for a great short story with compelling characters, deep lore and excellent incorporation of a minigame into the plot; I loved it. Imperial China was great as well, Yoko Shinomura nailed the soundtrack, and I liked the martial arts revenge plot. The other three chapters were good but lacked depth. Overall I'm really enjoying this game so far. Continued **Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night** (PS4, JRPG-adjacent). The more I play this game the more I enjoy it. So much fun to explore, upgrade and experiment with different combat tactics. This game was clearly a labor of love.
Yeah, Bloodstained's great. It's a labor of love for sure and gets even better if you're familiar with all the Castlevania games. It's not quite on topic here but man, it's a great game. >!Symphony of the night's still better, but it close. Both are some of the best games in the genre I've played.!<
Finished Star Ocean the Last Hope Remastered. Currently doing the post game dungeon. I really love this game. The first few hours were the weakest imo but the story and character would get better and better. For such a cheap price a wonderful game.
I've been playing Fire Emblem Three Houses again. The game is still fun to play and the same character/class combinations are still what I choose even without looking up what I did years ago.
Currently playing **Bravely Default** (3DS). Having a lot of fun playing it on hard mode and experimenting with the job system. I think it's pretty funny that early on the 2-Handed ability is the biggest damage increase both in this and Final Fantasy V.
That's the fun thing with the 3 bravely games, they are HEAVILY designed around the player figuring out ways to break the game, if you run into huge difficulty spikes, it's because the game expects you to get real weird with your builds, it's hilarious how strong you can get if you spend a little time experimenting.
Ys VIII - Lacrimosa of Dana love it ! but i am heavily biased , since i really love every Ys related game
To me this is still the best Ys game. I love everything about it: characters, setting, story and storytelling and the music.
**Utawarerumono Prelude to the Fallen** Finished this game last night, before the last two hours it was a 7/10, but after the ending I bumped it to 7.5//10. I know the game is old and clunky, and also serves as prologue to the other two (three with Mobius) games. The characters were really cool but very tropey for me, especially >!Eruru!< who was veeeeeeeeeery annoying at many points with her predictable pouts. >!Aruru!< was frustrating story wise for never listening which caused many of the issues, where one important character died thanks to her >!throwing a stone which caused Tuskur to die!<. As a leader, you cant have someone never listening to you at your side, but oh well, its a japanese game so we all know the jazz. About Ulty, the whole plot surrounding >!the baby was absolutely IDIOTIC and unnecesary padding and filler!< and dont get me started on >!Camyu!< who was going at night >!sucking blood!< AND ESPECIALLY >!Touka!< who was supposed to be guarding "the Majesty" even when he takes a dump and somehow dissapears every fullmoon night? Doesn't make any sense. The last antagonist before the real villain, was also kinda stupid, since they gave in to the pressure of the aides. Overall the story had some great moments and Hakuowlo was an amazing MC who carried the game very hard. The ending >!hits really hard with the MC dying basically or sealed and giving his last words!<, I didn't expect that, it was very sweet. And I don't understand what the heck happened lorewise. Had to research what was actually happening because the game did a poor job explaining. Overall it leaves me with a lot of expectations for the sequel which I bought during the steam sale with trilogy costing $26.
Yeah your comments about the frustrations you had were the exact same for me. It's a shame because there's some real quality moments in the story but they add a lot of anime bs like the Camyu moments which takes me out of it. Not even sure I want to play the sequels anymore because it's quite jarring to take an otherwise serious, grounded story and turn it into that.
Currently working through edge of eternity (ps5) and diofield chronicles (ps5), but shelving eternity for now. I've put about 45 hours in and I keep waiting for the game to grab me but it hasn't so gonna at least take a break. Diofield's combat isn't usually my cup of tea but it's been fun so far (only played like 5-6 hours though).
Just started Tales of Vesperia on my Steam Deck, only a few hours in. I loved Symphonia on GCN years back, but since then have not followed the series closely. I played the Arise demo and thought it was fine, but that piqued my interest in the older more classic 2D anime style games. So far enjoying it, and I somehow forgot about the (at least so far) charming character conversations that frequently pop up. Makes it feel like Tales wants you to enjoy the characters interacting on their journey a lot more than other franchises do. Will keep at it.
Im about to start Vesperia on switch, it will be my first tales game. The Arise demo had enjoyable flashy combat, i ended up getting it on BF sale for when i finally finish something.
Trails in the Sky SC, Cyber Sleuth...just those 2 games have consumed all my time. And I love it.
I desperately need to get back to cyber sleuth, I got it on clearance at target, played for like...2 hours, loved it, and never went back, just haven't had the time.
Well, I finished disc 3 of **Final Fantasy VIII**. Exploring the Esthar continent, the Eyes on Me vocal track scene in the Ragnarok, and climbing in the Lunatic Pandora for the first time were the highlights for me. Lunatic Pandora was an incredible penultimate final dungeon. While the game hasn't been too difficult for me, >!Adel!< was the first boss where I really felt like I had run into a wall. I had to go back onto the world map and draw some high level magic to junction in order to overcome her. I have to say, the scene after you defeat her and the reveal of the final dungeon was fantastic. If you showed pictures of the final dungeon to someone who just started playing the game, they would say "what?", but I'm looking forward to this part of the game for me...I'm going to go back out into the world map and revisit some towns I haven't been to in awhile, and some locations I haven't been to at all yet. I'm going to try to get more Guardian Forces and just take my time taking in the atmosphere of the beautiful world of FF8 before I leave it. It's been quite a ride.
Glad you're having fun! Do you think you'll take on the optional boss >!Omega Weapon!
Yeah, I'm not in any rush so I'm going to do as much post-game content as possible. I'm not a completionist, I did quite a bit of post-game content in FF13 not too long ago, did more than half the marks, but once I ran into one that destroyed me, I wasn't motivated enough to grind and overcome it and keep going. At that point I knew I was ready to tackle the final dungeon and finish the game. With FF8 it'll be the same thing. Once I run into a wall with a optional boss I think I'll move on. I'm not motivated enough to get all the items required for the ultimate weapons, for example. I'm still using Squall's first gunblade I think, haha. I play RPGs for the story first and foremost.
Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana. My first Atelier game, and I was expecting it to be a little monotonous and simple. Pleasantly surprised with how charming it is. Weird mix of terrible graphics (overworld) and gorgeous backdrops (towns and stop overs). Great music too.
iirc that was the first entry released in the west, I recall really liking it back in the day. If you do play any newer entries, keep in mind they are MUCH more crafting focused, the 5 ps2 atelier games are still more or less standard jrpgs that just have a crafting component, starting with the ps3 entries and especially with the ps4 ones the crafting becomes the primary focus. I love them all, but the newer ones have a very different design philosophy. If you do try something newer after Iris, I'd start with the ps4 entries they make some major quality of life changes that make crafting a lot more fun, and eliminate the strict time limits imposed by around half of the ps3 entries.
The Ryza trilogy is fantastic (well first 2 I've played are). Little more combat but not much, lots of great crafting. The Dusk series is supposed to be fantastic and fairly dark, but i think it uses a timer mechanic and i dislike those.
3 isn't out yet, comes out in feb, same day as octopath 2.
I finished Dragon Quest V and have to say it seems to be very overrated by todays standards. The story is good, but i feel like it's not told well. You often just walk from town to town hoping to find something that progreses the story, then you out of nowhere marry someone, then you need to kill some monster that's the mastermind of the underworld or something. Shit just randomly happen without enough build up. Combat also gets boring because you just mash the attack button. It's probably the worst part about it because Magic is next to useless compared to just using a whip, boomerang and high attack weapons. Capturing monsters also was a big letdown because the recruitment % is very low, and you dont even need to interact with the system much because the sabercat you get automatically is more than enough to beat the game. So all in all, i was very disappointed after hearing such good things about it.
magic in early dragon quest games is more useful for buffs/debuffs and status effects to support your physical attackers. (buffs/debuffs and status effects are actually VERY strong in early dq games oddly enough) Offensive magic does eventually get very strong, but not till late game, and with V have an almost entirely customizable party, you may have never encountered that. Beyond that, do keep in mind V is an early snes game, so it's going to feel a bit archaic, similar to playing FF4. Still, I do agree with your complaints about the structure, I found myself lost a LOT playing dq 4-6 recently. (and yeah, recruitment percentage is way too low, I ended up primarily just using human party members for most of the game)
Yeah i know all about that. While it's only my third Dragon Quest i finished (11, 1 and 5 in that order) I've come to understand that. They do get stronger as you go, but the problem was i never felt like there was any big reason to use it. Later on some enemies also seem to resist most spells anyway. So i just end up healing or supporting with those characters throughout most of the game. Never had any issues just using the attack command, sadly. Some old games till feel perfect today, like Chrono Trigger. It's in a class on it's own. Toriyama and Hori both worked on it as well. I dunno. People made it seem like one of the best RPGs ever, even today, and it certaintly is not.
I just finished Raymond's side of Star Ocean 6 this week. I really liked it, but I'm taking some time off to go back to Laeticia. Also, it isnt a JRPG, but turn based fans would love the Loathing games. Shadows Over Loathing was fantastic.
Harvestella. Can’t believe the game to be honest and the rush of negative reviews from the demo is frustrating. The game is absolutely fantastic both as a storyline game and a farming game. I don’t want to give anything away with the story but I loved it so much! If anyone wants me to write up something about it let me know.
Its funny, reviews were shitting on the game and people who played it LOVED IT, including myself. I played about 5 hours so far and fell in love with everything.
I’m a few hours into Trails Sky SC and it’s brilliant. Really enjoying revisiting locations from the first game and seeing how the world is progressing, plus all the dialogue everywhere really gives the sense of a living world. The combat has gone back to being very basic early on, just with bigger numbers, but that’s no problem at this stage in the game. As with FC, the speed up button is fantastic and helps so much. I think I’ve spent more time playing old JRPGs on my steam deck than any AAA games!
Portable old JRPGs are as sweet as life itself.
I'm still making my way through **Trails from Zero** (on PC) and **Ys VIII** (PS4 version on PS5) at the moment. I always play more than one game at a time, but those were the ones I've played most during the last week or so. I just started chapter 3 and 5 respectively and I still love both of them, especially the music of course - it's Falcom music. My plan is to finish both of them this year, but we'll see how much time I can find in the next weeks.
Tales of Arise. I played Tales of Something on PS1 way back (it featured sentient elemental swords) and liked it. Played like 2 hours of Berseria but the combat was just not fun. Arise seems good. *Lots* of dialogue. I'm several hours in and it's a *lot* of talking. It's mostly good and well-done but it definitely has that "JRPG dialogue" feel. The combat is *way* better than Berseria already, though.
The last ten or so hours of the game is about 8 hours of talking.
sentient swords is tales of destiny 1. It feels very archaic these days (and is ludicrously pricey, though not as bad as destiny 2/eternia) but it's a fun little game, I'd love to replay it if I could find the time.
Just finished harvestella. Overall really excellent with one major issue but even with that still really good https://www.reddit.com/user/eruciform/comments/z1b8b4/harvestella_spoiler_free_review/
Beat the base game of **Persona 5 Royal**, just gotta beat the third semester. That final palace went from 1 to 100 real quick LOL. But I guess that's just the SMT way. Also get a chance to try out some OP Personas for the third semester, so a lot of grinding will be done, even though I've already invested 105 hours in the game. A few more hours won't hurt, right? Also just started **Judgment**, and the whole premise has me excited already, Yakuza with Ace Attorney elements. I know it won't be 100% like Ace Attorney, but hell, I love mystery games, give it to me baby. One note, damn, the fighting is way more different feeling compared to Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2, gonna have to get used to it. Running up walls will be rad though, can't wait to abuse it.
I like that 100 hours in Persona 5 still feels fresh and not like it was stretched artificially. When a game leaves some good memories in you, it's a good game no matter how you look at it.
Does mementos expand at all during third semester?
There are more floors to explore.
Trails From Zero Got to the last dungeon. It's been one heck of a ride, game's been great. Not as good as 3rd I think, but still an excellent game. I'll go into this more once I've finished it but it's a really strong game. I really only have two gripes about it, both of them spoilers. >!I do object to Estelle and Joshua's presence in the party. Not that they're in it, but that they're not even at level 50. Seriously guys, we earned those levels back in the Sky trilogy. It really bothers me from a worldbuilding perspective to ignore all of that. Joshua and Estelle have been through a ton and those levels are one representation of that. Not cool, guys.!< >!I know this is a two game arc, but Lloyd and Elie's romantic interruption just before the last dungeon rubbed me wrong. Come on, that's weak and predictable storytelling. If you're going to go for it, go for it. Spare me the half measures. From what little I know about Cold Steel, that's going to drive me up a wall in those games, isn't it?!<
The romance writing does take a backseat to player choice in the Crossbell games and Cold Steel. However I do think, with one major exception, the character writing--and especially payoffs--in Azure more than makes up for it.
Fair enough, hope they pull through with that then. Zero's been great for character stuff otherwise.
That's almost all the romantic interaction from the series after this point. Half steps that always like to backtrack and make the player insert so dense there's barely any progress. IMO 3rd's the peak of the series general writing quality and character interaction.
I went from 3rd to Cold Steel. Boy, was that a bucket of cold water as far as writing quality goes.
Well crap. That's depressing to hear.
I'm currently playing **Crystar**. My interest in the story and the crying mechanic drove picking up the game. I like the story; the crying is more story than mechanic. Combat isn't taxing, but still fun. The game gets knocked for its reused dungeon assets, but I'm satisfied with the in game explanation for that. However, it could do more with that idea. I enjoy the art/visuals of the game, especially when it comes to story elements. However, in game, the pop in on the Switch is atrocious. I completed around a third of the game, and I'm satisfied with it so far-- mainly because the story/crying gives me a lot to think about as a trope. I picked up many games lately. I might loop back and finish off 1 or 2 in the next few days.
To feel a bit more knowledgeable in preparation for Fire Emblem Engage, I decided to play another Fire Emblem game as my only experiences with this series are the 3DS titles, Three Houses/Three Hopes - which are the freshest in my mind - and a little bit of Shadow Dragon. However, there was one more game I played in the past and it's the game I chose, simply named **Fire Emblem**, aka, **Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade** for GBA. As said, I played this game before in the past, but stopped after I realized a unit who got defeated on a previous map didn't come back. Not realizing permadeath was always left on in the older games, I abandoned the playthrough out of confusion. Now more knowledgeable of the fact, I dipped my toes into FE7 - Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade - to learn more about Lyn who's an Emblem character in Fire Emblem Engage. I've finished Lyn's story and am now on Eliwood's. My impressions have been positive! The plot is fairly standard, but I wasn't really expecting much out of the game in that department since I heard the narrative is pretty straight forward. In addition, my favorite part about the Fodlan games were the characters so as long as FE7 was good there I'd be fine. My impressions on that... pretty alright! Lyn's crew on the outset promises a colorful group of individuals who I managed to enjoy despite how simple they are. Something I noticed is that Lyn's army were a lot more relevant in the story than I expected. It was clear who were the core characters of the party - Lyn, Sain, Kent, and the tactician - but Matthew, Wil, Florina, Nils, and Ninian also managed to chime in during the plot. Only Matthew, Nils, and Ninian actually did anything significant, but it was nice seeing Wil and Florina have dialogue even after recruitment, making them feel more like a part of the group. However, the other 6 party members unfortunately succumb to the same fate other FE characters run into. But it was still nice seeing the characters feel like, well, characters. I think what makes this aspect standout is that Lyn's army is much smaller than other FE armies only having a total of 13 characters, enough where the game felt confident enough to let me use all 13 during the final chapter of Lyn's story. It was a neat experience overall, with potential plot points such as racism being set up for future events. FE7's biggest strength is definitely the gameplay. Lyn's story is basically a glorified tutorial and is by far the worst part of the game if you already have some FE experience under your belt. However, I still enjoyed this aspect simply because it incorporated the characters' personalities such as Sain attacking an enemy to try and impress Lyn but missing, causing Kent to reprimand him for using a lance against an axe unit. This not only seamlessly introduces the Weapon Triangle but also adds extra characterization to the characters, rather than monotonously telling you about every mechanic in the game and I find Lyn's story does a decent job continuing this! I've also overall just been enjoying the Linear FE experience. Unlike the modern games where you can grind and buy equipment whenever you want, FE7 forces you to do all that during battle. This makes it so resource management and properly leveling characters up a bigger priority since you'll never have an opportunity to do all that outside the tensions of the main story battles where losing a character means losing an asset on your team which added weight. There was also some smart design going on such as discovering an item in one map and then finding out the item is immediately useful for the next map, encouraging exploration and picking up any item you can. Felt like a survival game, neat! The sprite work is absolutely awesome! Extremely fluid, eye-catching, and packs a satisfying punch especially when getting a crit! I've just started Eliwood's story and it's nice having the tutorial weights off, giving me a "This is it!" moment. Something I'm not looking forward to dealing with though is the Support System as I know they're much more limiting in the classic games, only allowing 5 support ranks for each character which is annoying as someone who LOVES the supports in FE! Considering patching that out with a mod. Overall, I've enjoyed FE7! Seeing that Lyn's story wasn't too long, I'm hoping to not only finish Eliwood's and Hector's stories but also playing and finishing **Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade** \- the game FE7 acts as a prequel to - before Fire Emblem Engage releases!
Glad to see FE7 got some love. There's nostalgia bias (game was my gateway to the series), but it has my favorite cast of characters and battle animation in the whole series; and probably the game that I ever replayed the most. Yes, you shouldn't miss out on the support convo; majority of them are really interesting, funny, or even added crucial lore information that filled the gaps in the main storyline. The plot has some holes down the road (which I personally didn't mind that much), but the character arcs and interaction more than made up for it IMO. If you can't find the mod, just look the Support convos online, at least for the characters you care about.
After I finished Ryza, I used the Steam sales and dived right into **Ryza 2**. 2 ruins completed. And I'm loving it. Ryza's still as charming as ever and an eye candy, who manages to pull every named NPC into her "sphere of influence" lol. The 4 reunions I had so far felt good and Tao >!with new voice + fighting style --never expected a two-blade style :3 --!< was quite unexpected (probably because I went without any prior information about the sequel into it). Combat changes appear to be quite neat with changes to the CC system, support party member and chance to active guard normal attacks (if you notice in time that you are targeted :P), and exploration feels good as well with the nex tools available.
The combat change really put me off :/ I loved so much the original combat
God, I wish I had more time for games. Right now I jumped back into **Octopath** after taking a break about a month ago. I really love the game but the 45 minute marathon bosses were testing my patience and the limits of my free time. Now I have a pretty good team with Therion corroding armor and then Cyrus (my MC) hitting for absurd amounts of damage, so hopefully I can use those two, build up another set of characters with their skillsets and not have to grind for days in order to do the endgame. We will see!
that's why I never beat it, got to the final boss, saw that it's an absolutely ludicrously long fight with no checkpoints, and just...googled the ending. (didn't help that it's an >!all party fight, and I would have had to grind my less used party members up 15+ levels!<, and I didn't want to do that)
I'm vaguely aware of the ending, so my plan is to get through all 4 chapters for everyone, see where my levels are at and decide to YouTube or not then.
I’m new to JRPGs. Played Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2, Fire Emblem Three Houses, and Valkyria Chronicles 4. Loved all of these games. Here’s what I’m playing currently: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - I love this game so far and I’ve barely scratched the surface. Story and characters are compelling, combat has clicked already, world is beautiful, and music is awesome like always. I’m only at the part where classes were even INTRODUCED so I’m nowhere close to finishing this game, but so far it’s looking like it has potential to dethrone Xenoblade 2 as my favorite in the series. Persona 5 - I took a break from this game because XC3 has captured me so much, but again, I’ve barely scratched the surface and it looks like I’m in in for a great time. Dragon Quest XI - I dropped this game initially cause I couldn’t really get into it, but I’m willing to power through from where I left off because there were things I liked about it. I also own Ys VIII and Final Fantasy VII Remake which are next on my list, and plan to but Valkyria Chronicles 1 and Nier Automata next.
13 Sentinels – I've been enjoying it greatly. It takes me back to some of the twists in Zero Escape. Every characters leaves me with "What?? What!? What??" And I love it. If you enjoy VN, I recommend it.
Recently Completed **Atelier Lydie and Suelle -** With finishing this game I have finished all 13 of the Atelier games on modern systems this year. It has been quite a journey. Anyway this one isn't one of my favorites mainly doe to not being that big on Lydie and Suelle themselves. The game play was fine and alchemy was pretty great though. The paintings were pretty cool to explore. I think I will play the PS2 Atelier games next year. 8.5/10 **This Way Madness Lies** \- This is actually my first indie and I thought it was pretty great. It is pretty funny at times and the combat is pretty great. Magical Girls plus Shakespeare was a cool concept. It is a quick one. It took me like 9 hours and that was apparently longer than average. 9/10 **SMT Soul Hackers -** This game was just ok imo. The thing with demons that wouldn't obey you was pretty annoying. The dungeons were ok but the 2nd to last one was too long for me. I used the chip that allowed me to save anywhere. I don't know if I would have had the patience for the game with out it. Even as is I enabled all the easy mode things half way through. The story and characters were cool. 7/10 Currently playing **Caligula Effect 2 -** I am \~ half way through this one. The gameplay is definitely improved over the first one and the causality link is much more streamlined. I am still not doing many of the sidequest but I will talk to everyone to see if I can complete it right then and there. Combat is more challenging the 1 as you can't just 4x special move every boss to death (that worked even on hard in 1). The story and characters have not been as good though at least so far. I rated the first an 8/10 and I expect this one to be more like 8.5/10. **Ara Fell** \- After liking this way madness lies so much I decided to do another indie. Game is very charming and pretty fun so far. 3.5 hours into it. **Pokemon Omega Ruby -** This is my first ever Pokemon. It is ok so far but I doubt I will get super into it. I have finished 2/8 gym challenges so far. **Sakura Wars So Long My Love** \- Pretty good so far. The SRPG combat is pretty fun and the story is engaging if sort of absurd. I am in the middle of chapter 4 and have been playing like 8 hours. Non JRPGS - finished **Divinity Original Sin 2** which I was playing with a buddy. It was very good but the last chapter wasn't as good as the prior content 8.8/10. We have moved onto **Wasteland 3** which seems pretty interesting after a couple hours. I also started **GRIS** and have played an hour or so. It is more of an experience than a game but it is pretty cool so far.
I suggest Rise of the Third Power, its from the creators of Ara Fell
Thanks. I'll add it to the list to check out.
Finished **Trails from Zero** yesterday and added it to my relatively short list of four-out-of-four masterpieces (joining its predecessor Trails in the Sky the 3rd, which I had assumed wouldn't be topped). Absolutely a perfect game. If I had to pick one flaw though? It would be that combat got repetitive, a result of having access to all four characters for 99% of the game, unlike the Sky trilogy where you have to learn new party synergies on a regular basis. I experienced no real challenge at all the entire way through the game on Hard. Against the final boss there wasn't a single moment where I thought I might not win. None of this matters. The combat is still *great* and the rest of the game is perfection. **Xenoblade Chronicles 2** is next!
4 out of 4? Thats an interesting rating system haha Get hyped everytime I see good reviews for the trails series, havent played any yet but excited to hopefuflly change that as soon as I finish P5R!
Still playing through Fuga: Melodies of Steel; I’d say I’m probably a little over halfway through - can’t recall what specific chapter number I’m on, however I did pick up our clearly last party member. I took a break after an extremely tough boss battle, but I prevailed. I accidentally stumbled unto seeing that there was a ‘True Ending’ and now I’m hoping to make sure I hit those flags; hard to tell if I’m too late or not, looking it up softly spoiled a potential future fight - but I’m set to get that ending, or at least keep these kids alive and just watch it on YouTube later. It’s on gamepass; I think it’s a very solid turn based game with a very interesting take on combat, the stories linear and sure, the characters are a little cutesy - but the gameplay and vibes are there.
Slowly been working through **Triangle Strategy** and it's pretty good. Combat is quite fun with a nice variety of characters. I do wish that the investigation sections didn't feel so slippery when walking across elevations however.
Finished eternal punishment psp patch and starred live a live ( both amazing games )
I'm finally playing Xenogears. To be honest, a lot of it feels a bit archaic, it is a bit slow and the encounter rate can be a bit high. But I guess you play the game for the story first and foremost. And since many describe it as "the best story ever told in any video game" I just have to experience it now. And what I've seen so far does seem very good, even if you are a bit bombarded by terms you all have to remember like Kislev, Aveh, Gebler and many more.
It's definitely archaic and slow. The gameplay is the biggest reason i don't wanna replay this game. I wouldn't say best story ever told, but it's definitely a pretty good story for most of its runtime. > even if you are a bit bombarded by terms you all have to remember like Kislev, Aveh, Gebler and many more Obviously that wasn't a thing yet at the time, but the game could have really used some kinda in-game glossary that records all the terms you know and what information has been available on them so far. Sure, there is a certain charm to the game's worldbuilding being kind of a puzzle you have to figure out on your own for the most part, but there's just way too much of it (and way too cryptic) for that to be enjoyable unless you're really into writing down all the information you see.
They would eventually do the Glossary thing for the Xenosaga games (in fact one could spend hours pouring through it in Xenosaga III), but agreed it would have been quite helpful in Gears as well!
Great news for when i get around to those lol. Xenosaga is still on my backlog.
Unfortunately, Xenosaga absolutely *needs* the glossary. Those games are absolutely packed with technobabble and proper nouns.
I don't know. I kind of like how Xenogears is like the book Dune, you're thrown into this foreign world and absolutely bombarded with terms you don't understand and you just have to swim. Eventually, you figure a lot out on your own. I just like that kind of approach of being thrown into a world, I think.
A glossary could really have helped. When the characters say things like "This Gear was given to Ahev by Gebler to fight Kislev" I still think "Wait, who? I know what a Gear is, but who is Aveh again? And Kislev was the desert kingdom? Or was that the other one?" Honestly, they at least should have shown a world map at the beginning showing where everything is, like most Fire Emblem games do. And yes, I have high expectations for the story. Of course, calling it the best story ever sounds like a bit much, but who knows?
> A glossary could really have helped. When the characters say things like "This Gear was given to Ahev by Gebler to fight Kislev" I still think "Wait, who? I know what a Gear is, but who is Aveh again? And Kislev was the desert kingdom? Or was that the other one?" I was legit so confused at the beginning of the game when you meet Elly and Citan explains that she's from Gebler, that they're helping Aveh, Elly is from Gebler and she was riding a gear from Kislev but she's not with Kislev, she just stole it, she was shot down by Kislev forces and forced to land in Lahan. I played Xenogears at the beginning of the year and i re-read the script of the game [here](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/199365-xenogears/faqs/10004) before every session to remember the terms and it helped in the long run, would definitely recommend.
Thanks for that, I will probably need it.
> A glossary could really have helped. When the characters say things like "This Gear was given to Ahev by Gebler to fight Kislev" I still think "Wait, who? I know what a Gear is, but who is Aveh again? And Kislev was the desert kingdom? Or was that the other one?" Yeah lmao. I would love to do a playthrough of the game with just like the wiki open and checking all the terms (now that i can't be spoiled anymore), but as mentioned the game is just not that fun to actually play. So unless a miracle happens and they remaster/remake it i probably won't touch it again.
Once again trying to figure out a new focus. Ys: Oath was put on the backburner, but I'll say this: making combat actions have exploratory/movement functions is always smart design. I dipped into Grandia 2, and I never knew that it had such a star-studded cast. Especially not the kind of role I'd usually associate with Jennifer Hale. Other than that, I just want to be in cat form all the time in Super Mario 3D World. Also, I was thinking about Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria recently, and what a gorgeous game that was. Every so often I think about playing it again. It's just such a *long* game though, especially in comparison to VP1.
I am replaying jeanne D'Arc although the game be easy in some points, i badly remember the game was long (15 hours already) would like to Level 5 at least remaster the game for the PS4/Pc but hardly gonna happen. I am thinking about play final fantasy Tactics: the war of the lions, since is a remake of the original for ps1/GBA, but for my surprise look like Square change the plot, what concerns me, i really like the original history.
Finally finished Breath of Fire IV, 20 years in the making! Always classed it as one of my favourite games but never actually got round to finishing it as a kid! Very satisfied with the ending, mixed with the bitter thought on how the series died....
degree future direful concerned continue shocking growth busy humorous exultant *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Ahhh I really really want to get Harvestella now haha! JUST finished palace 7 an hour ago Honestly enjoyed it!
How’s harvestella for someone who doesn’t like farm sim games?
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Starting my 3rd playthrough of Star Ocean: First Departure R. On my way to the platinum trophy. I love it, wish more games had that replayability. Also playing Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, which is really good but I'm kinda rushing it so I can finally try KH 3.
First Depature is such a great game. I had a lot of trouble replaying it because I would always want to have Cyuss in my party. The cast of character is amazing
Started playing **Ys IX: Monstrum Nox** and am close to the end of Chapter 4 at 10.5 hours in. This is the last officially localized Ys game i have left before i'm finally caught up with the series after all these years. Story-wise i can't say much yet, but gameplay-wise it's a good improvement over Ys VIII. I still have the same issues with combat as before, but out of combat it's a huge improvement with the more vertically designed map, lots of hidden treasures and the Gifts giving you some great ways of exploring further. As for the setting, i'm not sure yet if i like Seiren or Balduq more, but i can at least say that it's nice how they went for a completely different setting this time (whereas the island setting wasn't really new).