My brother wants to try a good JRPG that he can get for cheap. He wants it to be a fairly serious game, leaning towards Final Fantasy's style rather than Dragon Quest's, and he wants it for one of the Playstations. Downloadable games are fine too. As this is his first time playing one, unless you count Pokemon and Paper Mario, he wants to start with a particularly great title. Any recommendations?
PS- I hope this is the right place to post this...
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Star Ocean Till the End of Time - PS2 Grandia - PS1/PSN Grandia II - PS2 Wild Arms - PS1/PSN Chrono Trigger - PSN/PS1 Odin Sphere - PS2/PSN, though more of an action RPG
The Shin Megami Tensei/Persona games are great but they wouldn't be good for someone playing their first JRPG. They can be brutal.
Thanks for the response. After looking at the RPG's available on PSN, he did consider Grandia, but wanted a more traditional battle mode (from what we could tell it has strategy game elements, but we might be mistaken; strategy as in Fire Emblem). I should have mentioned it before, but he wants a turn-based game with little traveling during battle/pretty stationary characters. That said, we'll definitely give Grandia it a second look.
As for Chrono Trigger, he didn't want to play a game with Dragon Quest-like graphics. Even with my glowing recommendation.
PS- Any opinions about Final Fantasy 7?
Edit: I was thinking of a different game when I was talking about Grandia, I think Arc the Lad... Anyway, Grandia looks awesome.
Thanks for the response. After looking at the RPG's available on PSN, he did consider Grandia, but wanted a more traditional battle mode (from what we could tell it has strategy game elements, but we might be mistaken; strategy as in Fire Emblem). I should have mentioned it before, but he wants a turn-based game with little traveling during battle/pretty stationary characters. That said, we'll definitely give Grandia it a second look.
As for Chrono Trigger, he didn't want to play a game with Dragon Quest-like graphics. Even with my glowing recommendation.
PS- Any opinions about Final Fantasy 7?
Edit: I was thinking of a different game when I was talking about Grandia, I think Arc the Lad... Anyway, Grandia looks awesome.
You can move around a small battlefield in the Grandia games but it's nothing like Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics where strategy is more pronounced. You can move closer and farther away from your enemies for short-ranged and long-ranged attacks. It adds a lot of depth to the battle system actually, allowing you to avoid enemy attacks and position yourself to hit groups of enemies while only targeting one. The system was way ahead of it's time and you can find some videos on Youtube on it to show you how it works. It's totally turn-based though and I personally think the battle system in Grandia outclassed every other JRPG battle system on the PS1.
Final Fantasy VII was the first JRPG I ever played and it got me into the genre. It would make a great game for your brother to start out with. I love the game but I don't think it's the best in the series like I once did. Great story, music, and characters. Long and lots of stuff to do. Fairly easy as well. The materia (magic/summon) system doesn't hold up too well and makes all the characters carbon copies of one another (besides each characters' limit breaks) after awhile. But yeah, turn-based, random encounters, 3 character party, and you can drop 80+ hours into it if you plan on completing everything (I have a file that is maxed out on time, 99+ hours and I know I still played for hours after hitting that mark, lol. It would probably be the perfect game to start getting into JRPGs out of the ones available on the PSN (along with Grandia and Chrono Trigger of course). If your brother likes FF7 then he can try 8 and 9 as well. In my opinion, 9>7>8 for the PS1 games. I like 9 the most because it reminds me of the old days of FF, FFVI (my favorite in the series) and before. Plus FFX is coming to PSN in an HD remake so if he likes the series he will have almost half the installments at his disposal to play.
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If you want a really traditional JRPG, then you should go with Atelier Rorona or Atelier Totori. They're both incredibly charming, very traditional turn based RPGs.
I do not recommend Final Fantasy VII. It's a broken game by modern standards. The only people who will be able to get much out of it are those who played the game when it was relevant.
Thanks for all the input. For now he chose Final Fantasy 7 because it's cheap, popular, and available for download. He's already 5 hours in and loving it.
I am the TrueWiiMaster! Those who call the Wii casual BEWARE!
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Topic: JRPG recommendations?
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