Topic: General JRPG Thread

@VoidofLight The first three games can be easily copped for $20 or less a pop. The last DS game (and first entry in the second trilogy) is probably the most expensive of the lot, but still manageable. The only one with truly insane prices is the final 3DS game, Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, which is basically impossible to find physically for under $90. Thankfully, the digital version should be on the eshop for $40.

One of my favorite video game series of all time. The Ace Attorney crossover game is fun as well.

I really wanted to like Cyber Sleuth. The environment is cool, and it's the sort of hardcore JRPG a lot of Pokemon fans would love to see that series attempt. I feel like you have to enjoy the roster of mons on some level to get much out of it, though, and I can't take Digimon seriously. Ditto with the show.

@Pizzamorg NnK's battles get vastly worse when you fight bosses with the super attacks I mentioned, because it barely gives you time to have even one of your character's defend against an attack, let alone multiple party members. And it takes an unreasonably long amount of time before the game addresses this. Still doesn't fix the action running at full speed while you're trying to dig through menus, though.

There are a number of dungeon crawlers on Switch, but given your reaction to SMT Nocturne, I'm hesitant to recommend any of them. Have you played Bug Fables? I believe there is a timing element when attacking, but it should otherwise be almost purely turn-based.

I’d happily take the names of the titles to at least give them a try, my sister recommended the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, so I might give them a go. I tried stuff like Hades but I’m not a rogue fan so it wasn’t really for me.

I have heard good things about Bug Fables, I just keep forgetting about that one. I’ll look into it, thanks.

I heard those PC ports weren’t so great, are the better on Switch?

Aw dang it, I knew I’d miss some titles! I tried to list everything but forgot some clearly.

I have tried OT, found it took really long to get going and then when it did, it seemed to get really hard, really quickly.

I grew up on FF games to be fair, not heard a lot of good things about the various PC ports, are the Switch ports any better?

I've only played them on PC, @Pizzamorg .... They ran fine on mine & shouldn't be too demanding! It's probably the Switch versions that struggle

@Pizzamorg Switch ports are fine as far as I know (I've given them all a go, but not got very far).

What had you heard about the PC ports? The old PC ports had their fair share of issues back in the day (inferior soundtrack, no button prompts) --- but as far as I know these were updated 3 or so years ago when all the modern systems (including PC) got updated ports of VII through X. None of these issues will be in the Switch versions AFAIK.

@Buizel Probably would be too hard or too grindy, and it has a twist on the combat.

@Ralizah Ah, alright! I'll probably end up going with the mobile ports or something then. I'll look into it more.

Hoping to start XC2 over my short Christmas break, hopefully Friday. Anything non-spoilery I need to know in advance?

@Buizel Symphonia is another name I recognize; I heard a thing or two about it back in the day and didn't also realize it was on PC! Kudos for mentioning that! Since Vesperia is on Switch though, I'll likely end up trying that one first.

Hmm, not really, @Tyranexx .... I'm sure we'll be able to help if needed when you're playing it! Please keep me posted on progress

@Tyranexx Be sure to ask questions if the combat isn't clicking for you. Combat is great, but it's also complex and poorly-explained in-game.

@BruceCM I'll try to, but I may use the respective thread for any feedback or calls for help.

@Ralizah Duly noted. I didn't have many issues with XC:DE's combat, though it's the most recent release (technically). XCX's combat system took a bit to click with me; it wasn't well explained at first, and I failed the tutorial fight spectacularly the first couple of tries.

That'd be a good idea, @Tyranexx .... It should be somewhat easier for you having played XC DE than it was for me when I played XC2, at least

Dug out my old Wii U so I can play Xenoblade X and Twilight Princess.

After finishing SMT V last week I am now playing through Megadimension Neptunia VII which is my first experience with the franchise. I always brushed these off as shovelware titles due the sheer number of games available but I wanted to give the franchise a fair go on the Switch similar to other games that I have done so far (e.g. Atelier games). I'm roughly 18 hours into the game and it is surprisingly fun. The writing is a bit cringey at times (as I expected) but I really dig the meta humour the game is going for. I also really like the character designs and the combat. There is also a lot less fanservice than I expected which I am neutral on. That said it is very obvious that these games run on a low budget with the way the story scenes are presented, dungeons are recycled and you don't even get to explore towns and stuff. Overall I am pleasantly surprised with the game and I'll definitely check out Super Neptunia RPG when it is on sale again.

Are the Trails of Cold Steel Switch ports any good, or am I better off sticking with PC? And if they are good, am I best to go with the newest one or 3 first?

For context, I played about 15 hours of the first Trails game on PC and found it pretty mediocre so I dropped it. However, at the time I was at home, with everything at my finger tips. I am currently gaming exclusively on my Switch while away with family and am sort of feeling like I am already starting to run out of stuff to play, at least when it comes to meaningful time sinks that don’t end up leaving me frustrated.

As such, a completely by the numbers JRPG actually sounds sorta cosy right now, but even on sale, these ports are pretty expensive and I’ve heard some not great things about NIS ports in general, so not sure whether I should just skip them.

I wish they would port Tales of Xillia 1 and 2 + Graces F to Switch.

I just got to playing Tales of Arise recently, and I already really like it so much more than Tales of Berseria. Berseria was good, but the overworld had a weird structure/flow towards it, and stuff like the lack of a run button felt awful. However, Arise actually has a run button, and the overworld feels far more natural. Plus, it helps that the overworld in Arise is smaller than the overworld in Berseria, so the areas feel just big enough to traverse through, but not big enough to have tons of empty space found within.

The music in Arise is odd, since some of the tracks just kinda feel like something you'd hear in StarWars, but the battle music so far is really great. The average battle theme is awesome, and so are the boss themes. The super boss theme that has been within every entry of the series since Vesperia sounds so much better here as well.

I'm only to the second region of the game, so I don't know much about the story, but so far it's alright. The pacing was wonky at the very beginning, and felt like things just kind of rushed by, however the pacing got better once the battles started occurring, and the story seems better after that as well.

I’m still playing Blue Reflection 2nd Light. It’s a wonderful game, better than the first in every way.

That is one game I plan to come back to, but want to see come down in price. It seemed people really enjoyed it and I certainly enjoyed a lot of parts of it in the demo, but I just thought the combat was so messy and kinda frustrating, there was no way I was going to pay full price for it.

@Pizzamorg The demo is really awful at explaining the combat, and throws all the mechanics at you all at once. The actual game does a way better job at easing the player into the combat itself.

I did think the demo was problematic in that regard in general, it just gave you this slice of game that seemed fairly far in with no tutorialisation and told you to just go figure stuff out. While in some scenarios that might be fine, like you say, in regards to the combat I think I would have preferred an earlier slice of game so it didn't feel as much like mindless mashing. Good to know it builds up more organically over the course of the game though.