Topic: General JRPG Thread

@Nephestinus I own both Blue Reflection games, but only played through the second one. Having finished my first playthrough recently, I personally think that playing the first game isn't neccessary to understand how the story connects the two games, especially if the first game isn't even available on the Switch. Explanations that happen when topics regarding the first game come up are detailed enough to form an understanding of the important events.

For buying the first Blue Reflection, I think the most cost effective option is getting it when the Playstation store has a sale. In the US I believe Blue Reflection has a 55% discount on the Playstation Store currently. Finding a reasonably priced physical copy sounds iffy since Blue Reflection seems to fall in the group of Japanese games released in the West that only had 1-2 runs of physical copies before stopping production.

So my friend bought that Edge of Eternity game on steam, since it looked rough in the trailer, and streamed about the first hour of the game. All I can say is that it's.. not great. I get a small team worked on it, with barely any budget, but from the glimpse of the game I've seen, nothing redeems it. Not the open world, not the art style, and definitely not the story itself.

The story barely explains anything that happens, and sometimes things just happen because they happen. They dump an entire roster of characters upon you in the first 30 minutes as well, and barely do anything to establish them, or even give you a reason to care about them. This is noted when they all start to be killed off one by one. It doesn't help either that your own town gets blown up in the first 30 minutes as well, without letting you walk around and see the people in that place beforehand... and the death of the main character's mother, at the very start, without giving much reason for you to care as someone who just started the game.

What's worse is the dialogue lines and voice acting. The cast isn't particularly bad either, it's just that they have terrible voice direction, and horrible lines that sound extremely unnatural, and how an alien would think humans talk.

The ost is probably the only thing that's good about the game, all because the Xenoblade and Chrono Trigger composer is the composer for this game's ost... and even then, it's not even their best work, at least from what I've heard so far.

Then you have the technical issues where the cutscenes abruptly skip, or you think there's a moment where a cutscene should play, and yet one doesn't at all.

The only reason I'm talking about this here, is mainly because the Switch is supposed to get a cloud version of the game soon, and I wanted to leave this here as a warning. I heard the game's story gets a bit better later in, but the first hour of the game didn't leave me with confidence. I can't really say much about the combat system, or the controls though, since I was just watching a friend play through it.

@BruceCM, yeah, I know nothing of the original mobile game itself, but when this console JRPG spinoff was first shown off a couple years ago I was stunned at how good it looked.

I only heard about relink recently & I found that the mobile 1 was only available in Japan, @RR529 .... I guess they'll be hoping to reach a lot of people that haven't played that, though, so I'll look forward to hearing more about it

I have such a hard time getting into JRPGs anymore. It's really frustrating because they were my go-to thing years back. Final Fantasy legitimately helped me get through some horrible middle school and high school years. But I just can't get into it anymore. I played FF VII Remake all the way to chapter 13 or 14 and just stopped. I love the characters, setting, and music but I didn't like playing the game itself. Is this just me? Any advice? Any body have a JRPG that got them back into the genre?

@Losermagnet, I've never gotten out of the genre, but if it's the (psuedo) turn based combat that puts you off them maybe you could try a Ys game?

They have some of the snappiest, action game like combat I've experienced in a JRPG. the Trials of Mana remake is a good shout in that direction too, and though I haven't played it, maybe Neir Automata (it was made by Platinum, so combat is probably a highlight).

@RR529 I checked out a trailer for Ys VIII and it looks pretty good. Would it be a good entry to start with? I own Nier but haven't played it yet, so I may try that out first (although I'm really wanting to find a more traditional kind of RPG). Thanks for the recommendations btw.

The last JRPG that I was completely engrossed with was Dragon Quest XI S. That was great. So I was pretty bummed when FF VII didn't connect with me. Then I had similar disappointments with Ni No Kuni, Dragon Quest VII (3ds), and Final Fantasy VIII.

@Losermagnet, most Ys games star the same hero (though the surrounding party changes game to game), but I believe each game is mostly stand alone aside from minor references/Easter eggs. I think only 1 & 2 are directly related (they were meant to be 1 game), as well as Origin (which acts as a prequel that duo).

I started with VIII and really enjoyed it.

Well, it might be hard going back to some earlier entries after VIII, @Losermagnet .... What platforms do you have, though?

I think I may be addicted to Final Fantasy XIV now.

@VoidofLight How far are you into the game? I keep hearing that the beginning is pretty boring but it gets very good late game, would you say the same?
@Losermagnet Personally i was surprised how much i liked Yakuza like a dragon, after playing it this year, maybe even enjoyed it more than yakuza 0. I don't know what you have played but games that personally really ignited that spark was the Xenoblade games, Final Fantasy 9, Undertale and Nier. But it is also somewhat harder to into JRPGs for me, as i recently stopped playing FFXV, Tales of Arise, Monster hunter stories 2 and TWEWY this year.

@VoidofLight I've had final fantasy 14 on my PC for a little while now but I haven't started it yet. I'm pretty eager to see what the hype is about but I'm always intimidated by MMOs because I know they're such huge time sinks lol.

@Solaine For XIV? Yeah, the beginning isn't as great, but Heavensward is pretty good so far, and the end of A Realm Reborn is alright if you can get past the filler.

@Vortexeo Oh yeah, MMO's are generally huge time sinks. I've just generally been doing Main Story Quests though, but if you set out to do all the optional content, then you'll probably spend years on it. I play about an hour or two every few days, and I've gotten pretty far.. however, I am doing the free trial, and I feel like things will probably be different when I get the full game, since you have to purchase game time.

@BruceCM too many lol. SNES, Gameboy, GBA, Wii/Gamecube, Wii U, DSi, 3DS, Switch, PS2, PS5. Sometimes I feel like if I had less it'd be easier to enjoy games more.

@Solaine I totally forgot Like a Dragon was an RPG 😲 i've been casually working my way through 0 for awhile and I'm almost done (I think...). Would it be okay to skip from 0 to LaD? I uhhhh...bought all of the Yakuza games already 😑 (and Fist of the North Star. I may have a shopping problem). I had every intention of playing through them chronologically, but it'll be next year before I play LaD if I do it that way.

Lol, nice collection, @Losermagnet .... I just meant which other Ys games you'd consider? You certainly can just jump into Like a Dragon without playing any of the previous games, since they obviously hoped some would
I'd played some of Kiwami 1 & 2 while they were on GamePass but didn't really get into them but had no problems with the latest game

@Losermagnet Funny that you mentioned it cause i did just that. Just played 0, started kiwami and was only feeling it to be a rundown version of 0, so i skipped to like a dragon and loved that one again.
You can easily play it as a standalone title since it opens up a completely new story. Some Stuff you will enjoy more having played 0 and there are some other things you enjoy and probably get only if you played the other games as well. So yeah, i guess the experience might be enhanced a little bit by playing the other games but it is certainly not necessary at all to understand the story.

Playing Blue Reflection 2nd Light. It’s quite good.

Okay folks. With all the acclaim Tales of Arise is earning this year, I suppose it's finally time that I try a series entry...or at least start planning for it. Any recommendations? I'm mostly a Switch aficionado for now, but I'm not against Steam recommendations either...though it'll be awhile before I have an optimal PC that can handle anything graphically intense.

(Also, I know I have outstanding replies elsewhere; I wanted to get this request down before I forgot)

Seconded. XD I played the Switch version a few months ago and enjoyed the plot, characters, and music, but both control schemes weren't the best. I know the DS version is still arguably the "best", but the gameplay I've seen is way too touch-happy for my liking.

@BruceCM Figured I'd mention, the D12 has spoken. My winter JRPG shall be XC2.

@Tyranexx As someone who's dabbled in some of the Tales games, most of them are pretty much stand-alone games. Tales of Berseria was the one I began with, and that was a pretty decent game, but if you want to start with Arise, you're able to start with that as well. I wouldn't get Zestiria, since it's pretty rough in comparison to the games that came both before and after it, but it's connected to Berseria somewhat, so it's only really worth playing if you played Berseria first.

It also depends on what you're looking for as well. Every Tales game supports multiplayer, aside from Arise, so if you're looking for a game to play with friends, Berseria, Symphonia, and Vespiria are probably your best bet. Vespiria is a bit older though, but I heard it still holds up. If you don't care about this however, I'd say just start with Arise.

Yeah, no reason not to just go for Arise, @Tyranexx .... Otherwise, Vesperia is great, too & that's obviously on Switch! XC2, especially if you're also playing Torna afterwards, should definitely last you awhile, lol