Topic: General JRPG Thread

Xenoblade 1 and X largely have neither?

I mean isn't like half the story of Xenoblade 1 just characters coming together out of a desire for revenge? It's not really that baffling.

Are you responding to 2 different people at once?

I've been in a 3DS JRPG mood lately so I'm looking to round out my collection. Here's a picture of the JRPGs I have so far to make it easier:

https://i.imgur.com/g7ZZPwo_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thu...

Are there are other ones you'd recommend I get? In addition to what's shown here I also have SMT Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker and SMT Strange Journey Redux. I also plan on getting SMT Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers eventually.

I need to wipe the bland experience that was Asdivine Hearts from my memory.

Perhaps it's time to fire up the Xenoblade Chronicles remake?

@Magician

It's always Xenoblade Chronicles 1 time.

I always like the style of JRPGs but often find myself bouncing off for one of two reasons. The biggest one is probably character design. Whilst I don't mind simple, straightforward characters without enormous depths or motivations when the story doesn't call for it, there's been a real trend in anime the last few years for the same handful of archetypes to just crop up again and again and again. Which would be fine, but they're usually almost exactly the same character beyond visual difference - with the same jokes, the same tropes, the same behaviours.

Seen "angry tsundere girl" in one anime? Seen her in all of them. There was a scene where your character accidentally saw her bathing and she got angry and embarrassed and calls you pervert for ages until she cools down and probably fancies you know. Which anime/jrpg was she in? That's right! I don't know which one you said but there's literally hundreds of answers and they're all correct!

Substitute in "shut-in who never leaves room", "strong cheerful guy who laughs too loudly and is a bit thick", "peppy girl who probably says nya and makes cat puns until your teeth grit" and you've got what feels like the larger percentage of anime/jrpg characters. I keep bouncing off Fire Emblem for this reason - I can't get invested in characters who's entire schtick I know within minutes of meeting them. "Oh hey it's you. Didn't I just see you in Astral Chain?"

That's not to say I dislike anime or jrpgs. There's tons that I do love - I recently got done with Persona 5, and whilst the certainly bases characters on some of the ol' stereotypes, it does far more than just strictly adhere to them and builds interesting interactions, stories & relationships between them.

The anime style can be a really good medium for character interaction when it tries, which is why it's always disappointing when it doesn't, and instead just chooses to stick a different hairdo on another off-the-shelf mannequin

After finishing FF7R and starting FF7 to compare it to (they are completely different games, not only story-wise but character as well imho - they changed a lot) I've started playing Ara Fell on the side.
It's AMAZING. If anyone is interested in a pixel-style game with charming character, an intruiging story and a fine soundtrack, try it. Even the NPCs have unique portraits !

@Raylax This looks like a heavy jab at Xenoblade Chronicles 2 which I can understand but it hurts to see since it's one of my favourite games of all time. (Mainly due to the fact that you can collect different weapon types and unique Blades & the Music)

@Nephestinus Actually, I really enjoyed Xenoblade 2. I definitely had some qualms with it, and there's major characters in it that I didn't particularly care for, but it largely elevates itself above its potential issues by just being the most. Simple character designs & tropes are fine if they're mostly there to support an epic story & world, which is where xenoblade chooses to spend basically all its points - alongside ridiculous flashy fight scenes. Besides, the characters are still developed enough to get attached to, so when it does go for something punchy on a personal level, it still works. I think Xenoblade 1 is overall better written, but I do always find myself having more fun replaying Xenoblade 2.

Its almost the antithesis to Persona, where the world is small and the overarching big bad threat is fairly rote & predictable (read: using the infinite power of friendship to kill god), but instead shines by pouring almost everything it has into its characters.

My issues lie more with games that have simple characters and proceeds to do absolutely nothing with them asides go down the Checklist Of Stuff This Character Does - I enjoyed the gameplay & aesthetic of Tokyo Mirage Sessions, for eg, and a lot of its songs, but could not bring myself to care in the slightest about its characters or any of its story, and actively disliked several. When it came time to play Encore, my finger was pretty firmly glued to the skip cutscene button.

I just finished 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim on the PS4. It's a really great game, it's a little sad it hasn't been advertised much. I've heard it hasn't done too well sales-wise in the west, yet it was really well received by critics.

It is a bit of a niche game, even among JRPG fans, and to be honest I don't know if I'd fully consider it a JRPG. It's a weird mix of point-and-click adventure and real time strategy RPG. I'd definitely recommend it, though. It takes a while to get a grasp of the story but once you start to piece things together it can really hook you.

I'm closing in on the end of Ys VIII, and I think theres an argument to be made, for it being the best RPG on Switch.

Its one flaw, is the graphics look quite dated. The rest of the game is pretty much good to great in every area. The games metroid-lite structure, counter based combat, and plot revolving around a shipwreck are all really enjoyable.

I don't think it excels in any particular area, but it's a really great all rounder.

Looking at my library for games completed rather than owned, it looks like I am partial to Dragon Quest and Monolithsoft games primarily. I don’t have the time sinks I used to and I prefer action-adventure to RPGS in general, but I do still buy into the genre. Just finished buying all the suikoden games two months ago. I need to dig out my PS2.

I count Fire Emblem as a SRPG first so while I have beaten many games in that series I don’t list it when talking JRPGs.

Just finished up Xenoblade: DE (including Future Connected), and as it's been pretty much the only Switch game I've been playing since at least November I don't know what to do with myself now (seriously, that's like 1/4th of a year dedicated to that game, lol). Sad thing is that while the end of DE proper left me satisfied, Future Connected left me wanting more, lol.

Also nearing the end of Dragon Quest Heroes on PS4. Have a 4 day weekend coming up so hopefully I'll be able to polish it off. Afterwards I'm planning on jumping into Sakura Wars.

I've recently purchased the Digital Deluxe Edition of Persona 5 Strikers on Steam. I'm going to get it on PS4 at a later date but the load times on console got really annoying to put up with. I played the JP Switch version when that came out and the loading on that was horrendous imo, and PS4 doesn't look much better when played on either the base or Pro models, so I'll probably get it when I finally get my hands on a PS5 hopefully soon. For now the PC version will greatly benefit from faster loading on my SSD

Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory also put me back on a Kingdom Hearts binge so I'm going through the 1.5/2.5 ReMIX compilation on PS4 again. Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix really holds up still

Just threw down a preorder for a copy of Saga Frontier on dat Switch, boi! Like other Southeast Asian releases Romancing Saga 3 and Final Fantasy IX, I hope the boxart orientation is horizontal rather than vertical. Keep that trend going, S-E SEA. It's cool.
https://www.shop4megastore.com/nintendo-switch-games/saga-fro...

Yeah, Future Connected wasn't really that satisfying a story I thought. Felt like something they hacked together in 10 minutes. I really enjoyed exploring the area though. They clearly haven't lost their talent for creating awesome environments.

@Dezzy @RR529 The music was honestly the only original thing about Future Connected that I liked. I liked the Bionis' Shoulder area as well but it had been sitting on Tetsuya Takahashi's hard drive since 2010 so it sure doesn't count. The music was some of the best in the whole game, from the tranquilities of the Shoulder themes, to the funky battle theme, and the uncompromisingly epic Fogbeast theme. The two battle themes are among the best battle themes in the series and considering how much good music has been produced for these games, this is high praise.

My favourite song in Future Connected is definitely Fogbeasts because of how awesome the composition and idea is. The strings and piano creating harmonies off each other almost as if they're having an epic duel of their own. And the electric guitars sound heavenly, making for a near cathartic like climax at the end of the song.

As for the rest of the adventure, Shulk's voice acting from Adam Howden didn't age a day, unlike Jenna Coleman's, unfortunately. I'm still extremely happy she returned to voice Melia but the writing was so bad that it just didn't feel the same. The two Nopons were cute but were clones of Reyn and Sharla. You might as well have brought Reyn and Sharla back to give them an established couple dynamic that Shulk and Melia didn't (appropriately) have. I liked that the Heart-to-Hearts were voiced but there were some since-patched jarring inconsistencies between the dialogue and the script.

The combat was also strange, because it made the game so much harder, because it primarily relied on Visions which Shulk doesn't have. The infamous Topple Lock from the Fog King comes to mind. But otherwise it wasn't changed much. The Ponspectors were fun but were spread out so much that getting them felt like a slog.

If I was to implement my desired changes for Future Connected, I'd ask for a more engaging story that had a much better continuity, and a satisfying ending. There's not much you can do about voicework, but improve the English script and you're good to go. I'd also make the epilogue a bit longer, not quite to Torna levels of long (20 hours) but base story content wise somewhere around that area. And as for the Bionis Shoulder itself, I'd keep it, and add even a smaller second area to supplement it. Because the entire thing feels like it was made just because the Bionis Shoulder was there.

Are Yokai Watch and Miitopia considered too as JRPG ?

I doubt it. Maybe Yo-Kai but absolutely not Miitopia. It's a normal RPG.

@TheJGG Aren't JRPG's Japanese Roleplaying Games? So if the game's made in Japan, and it's a RPG, then it's automatically a JRPG right?