Topic: RPGs of 2016: The Retconning

(Freudian slips are best slips)

This thread is essentially a follow-up to Shingi_70's [upcoming] RPGs of 2016 thread, which everyone apparently forgot about by 2016. However, despite the numerous delays, more than half of that list is already out (as well as others that weren't even mentioned there, which ended up being most of them), plus a few more on the way for the holiday season.

So, I just thought I'd ask: what's the verdict? What RPGs did you play this year? What ones did you like the most? What ones were you disappointed with? And what delays hurt the most?

Please note: If a game originally came out last year (or earlier), and they released a GOTY version this year, it still doesn't count. "Remasters", however, still apply since they aren't the exact same game repackaged as a complete release.

Lost Odyssey [360 BC for X1]
I've been waiting what seems like a lifetime to play this other Sakaguchi classic (The Last Story on Wii being the first). I'm only a little ways in since it just released, but wow. It doesn't disappoint. I'm playing right now in fact, just took a time out to chat in the forums. Highly recommended. Buy an X1 if you must.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE [Wii U]
Wow, what a great game! I bet this one tanked sales wise, and such a shame too cause this game has Persona and SMT written all over it. Truly, this is a great game. One of the best on Wii U and one of the best RPG's of the year too. There's just... nothing to dislike, really. I mean, there's always stuff in JRPG's you can find you dislike, but that's more an issue with genre staples than the game itself. Idk what else to say- fantastic game. Let's leave it at that.

Dragon Quest VII [3DS]
Ah, Dragon Quest. The franchise I've always heard about but never played. Well that changed with DQVII. And it's just excellent! Takes about 2 hours to kick everything into high gear, but it's well worth it. Sets the story up nicely and once you're going, it's hard to put down. I loved this game so much, I went out and bought Dragon Quest IX [DS], DQM Joker [DS], DQM Joker 2 [DS], DQ Heroes: Rocket Slime [DS], Dragon Quest Heroes [PS4], Dragon Quest Swords [Wii], Dragon Quest Builders [Vita preorder] English Asian version retail import, Dragon Quest Builders [PS4 preorder], and the SNES VC on 3DS for DQI+II, DQIII, DQV and DQVI and the GBA VC on 3DS for the English translated DQM Caravan Heart. Already owned DQIV, V and VI for DS. Absolutely stoked for Dragon Quest VIII now!

DQM: Terry's Wonderland 3D [3DS English fan translation- out soon]
This one is about to drop any day now- the final testing stage just jumped from 85% complete to 92% complete a few days ago. My guess is a mid October release. After my experience with DQVII I'm more excited for this game than most official releases in the pipeline. It just looks spectacular!

Fire Emblem Fates [3DS]
Ok, it wasn't as good as Awakening when looked at split up individually, but as a whole FE Fates is quite a game. Spectacular at the very least. I sunk 100 hours into this one before moving on, which is a shame because I never played Revelations. I became inundated with games releasing and got sidetracked. But ya, this is an extremely solid release and highly recommended. I mean, it's Fire Emblem, what did you expect? And one more thing- the story and characters are the one thing that drags this release below Awakening, but, the gameplay is sublime perfection. I mean, they nailed it. Truly and utterly, nailed it.

Bravely Second [3DS]
Better than the first. Didn't play too far into it, but a solid JRPG and must-have for any 3DS owning RPG lover.

Monster Hunter Generations [3DS]
Is it an RPG? Idk. Kind of. But kind of not. Either way, this game is phenomenal- it's a Monster Hunter game... what did you expect, right?

7th Dragon III: Code VFD [3DS]
Solid game. All I can say. Old school in style, but solid through and through.

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Final [3DS]
Haven't played much, but if SMTIV is anything to go by, this game is a masterpiece and one of the best RPG's on 3DS.

XCOM 2 [PS4]
Haven't played it yet, but it's in line. Just busy with Forza Horizon 3, Dragon Quest VII and Lost Odyssey. But I'm thinking this is a classic, since it's a Firaxis game. And I fell in love with Firaxis games when I played Civilization, which I'll get to next.

Civilization Revolution 2 Plus [Vita]
Not sure when this released, but I recently imported the English Asian version since there are very few Civilization games on consoles and I want to mention it with XCOM 2 having just dropped. The first CivRev released on 360/PS3 but no BC for X1 yet. It was ported to DS in the vein of Advance Wars art style, which I also purchased. But the sequel, CivRev 2 for mobile, was ported to Vita. And that I own. So I bought it, and it's great! Very unique. Made me very interested in buying a PC for Civilization VI, and of course piqued my interest in XCOM.

Dark Souls III [X1/PS4]
Ya, it's a masterpiece. Don't doubt it for a second. It's tough as nails, but worth it. I've never played any game like it, and I recommend it to any and all Monster Hunter veterans looking for deep, precision based gameplay.

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered [PS4]
Oh my goodness, can we say PS4 GotY? This is the only strategy RPG I've ever played that can rival the greatness of Fire Emblem. It's different, but it's just as good. I'd buy a PS4 just for this game, yes I would.

Star Ocean: Integrity & Faithlessness [PS4]
Eh, haven't played much. Seems a little underwhelming though, judging by the bit I played. Just, much lower budget than I was expecting. Seems average. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm sure it's enjoyable enough if you play through.

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth [PS4/Vita]
Surprisingly good. Looking forward to the sequel. Shame it's not coming to Vita despite starting as a Vita exclusive.

MegaDimension Neptunia VII [PS4]
Haven't really played it. Just got swallowed into backlog as many games do in my collection.

God Eater Resurrection [PS4/Vita]
Not bad. It's no Monster Hunter, but it's pretty fun. Great deal too if you buy GE2, get this one free.

God Eater 2: Rage Burst [PS4]
Haven't played yet. Tried playing Resurrection first before moving onto this one.

Trails of Cold Steel II [Vita]
Not bad. Not exceptional, but another solid B-grade JRPG. Gains a few points for being on Vita though. Nothing like a good JRPG on a handheld. Like pancakes and syrup, ammirite?

Shiren the Wander [Vita]
Surprising good! This is a great little rogue like. Went out and got the Shiren for Wii (which was like $85 in like new condition, and that was a "deal"). And grabbed the English-translated SNES virtual console entry for 3DS. Well done Spike Chunsoft. Well done.

Grand Kingdom [PS4/Vita]
Very odd game. Different. But good all the same. I haven't dug in like I wanted to- the backlog swalloweth- but I liked what I played. Ex-Vanillaware devs. Tells you everything you need to know.

Odin Sphere [PS4/Vita]
Wow, this game is fantastic! Made by ex-Vanillaware devs. Tells you everything you need to know.

I Am Setsuna [PS4]
Never played. Monster Hunter had me in a headlock at time of release.

Earthlock Festival of Magic [X1]
Kickstarted this one. Haven't played much, but like what I've played so far.

Severed [Vita/Wii U/3DS]
Man, Drinkbox does it again! Severed is a modern indie masterpiece. The gold standard of how indies should be done right. If you haven't played Severed, go buy it! It's 1st person RPG style like SMT but with Skyward Sword style combat via touch/stylus, including parrying attacks, exploiting weakness and vulnerabilities and severing limbs to craft. It's all about the angle baby!

Final Fantasy Explorers [3DS]
Didn't play much, but it seemed ok. Destined for failure, surely. But it really did seem like it could provide a fun little experience- even moreso with friends online like Monster Hunter.

Adventures of Mana [Vita]
Mobile remake of the original GameBoy entry, this game feels right at home on Vita. I feel fortunate to get a modern remake of such a beloved classic series. Really enjoy the simplicity of games like this. Can't go wrong with this one.

Final Fantasy Worlds [PS4/Vita- out soon]
This looks very promising. Maybe even as much as FFXV. Definitely excited and counting the days!

Final Fantasy XV [PS4/X1]
Possibly the most famous game of our time, and it's almost here. Just 2 more months. Given the time in development and hype surrounding it, I don't think it's possible to live up to expectations. Which is why I'm expecting nothing, and will hopefully be pleasantly surprised. It does look pretty good though.

Darksiders Warmastered [Wii U/PS4/X1]
Loved Darksiders II and always wanted a chance to play the first. Can't believe it's actually getting a remaster. And for just $20? Shoot. If you're a Wii U owning RPG lover, you'd have to have very good reason to not take a look this way come release.

@JaxonH So, in summary, buy ALL the games!

Pretty much.

That's how we roll. "Play everything, miss nothing"

Lol, Dead Island 2.

Anyway, y'all forgot Nioh. For my money, I'll take that over Souls. I don't think Souls has much of the appeal of Monster Hunter. That combat system, at least circa 2011, was not as polished as its contemporaries. And I did enough corpse runs when I played WoW. Nioh's checkpoints seem a lot more reasonable, as they're all within running distance of that area's boss.

But seriously, anyone else think the RPG genre is stupid? This list has action games, MMO-likes, traditional JRPGs, dungeon crawlers, strategy games, 2D brawlers, and even first person stealth games like Deus Ex and Dishonored. Every game has RPG elements and a story these days because practically every game is an open world title.

...That was more comprehensive than I thought it would be. Also, just in case anyone gets confused: I intended the topic to be about new games released this year. That's...actually, that's the hard part for me. I haven't got much to add in that area. I'll try, at least:

RPGs I enjoyed:

Hyper Light Drifter - Only ~25% done, but I love it. The gameplay's precise, and the atmosphere and attempts at telling a story with without dialogue is surprisingly satisfying. I always appreciate such attempts, but it seems to be excessively difficult for games compared to other mediums.

Dragon Quest VII - I forgot that the biggest hurdle with this game was its God-awful pacing and hackneyed storytelling, at least for the early parts...which is all I've ever gotten to experience. Because this game is so long, yet stretched so thin, I could play through the entirety of Dragon Quest III before I even get to the second act of DQ7. I mean, at least they got rid of every other hurdle the PS1 version suffered from (and, to their credit, there were many), but I was this close to considering it a disappointment because of how terrible this setup is. At least it seems like it'll get better soon enough, and there has been some fun bits here and there, especially the DQ-brand quirky dialogue.

Disappointing delays:

Earthlock - GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Persona 5 and Nier: Automaton - I'm still enjoying the previous entries in both series, so eh...I'll live. Plus it helps ensure that they'll be good games when they release.

Tales of Berseria - I honestly forgot this had a 2016 release date. And I haven't even touched Zesteria!

...I can't really think of any others...While I didn't play them, I'll at least say that I'm very disappointed in the fan reception of Star Ocean 5 and I Am Setsuna.

This is so wrong in so many ways, but instead of picking it apart, I'll just tell you that the strategy portion is indeed quite weak, if you're expecting to be strictly penalized for not following a strict set of puzzle-like steps in order to succeed, like Fire Emblem used to do, but have since abandoned because that's not actually fun, nor is it strategy. I liken Disgaea as more of a toy box for stats junkies. There are so many customization options and mechanics strictly there to grind, with caps raised to ludicrous proportions, that it's next to impossible to take the main campaign seriously. Which is fine, the games usually doesn't take themselves seriously, either.

Besides, it's not like there isn't strategy. In fact, I'd wager that trying to get the max amount of damage (and therefore rewards) in each map requires a lot of thinking, unless you seriously want to grind to level 9999...which you can do, repeatedly, with every character.

@CanisWolfred
I shouldn't have said that. But that was honestly my first reaction in my head when playing it. I'd heard a fair few ppl over on that PS site tell me, "oh ya, you should play Disgaea, it's like the best SRPG ever!" So I bought it, and I quit playing fairly quickly. I could tell right off the bat that... it wasn't the kind of game I was expecting it to be. It wasn't that it was a bad game. It just wasn't scratching the itch I was looking for. Expectations are everything, and those who recommended it made it sound like, well, like other grid-based SRPG's. I'm sure it's a fine game in its own right, but it's got as much in common with Shiren the Wanderer as it does Fire Emblem. Which, I like dungeon crawlers and random maps and all that jazz, but again it comes down to what you expect going in. Know what I mean? It's my own fault for my preconceived notions but at the same time, those who told me it's "better than FE or any of my fave SRPG's" were full of it. It's just not the same kind of game.

Anyways, with the exception of CivRev+2 which I had to mention since XCOM just released, I'm pretty sure those games were all released this year (or close enough, like Xenoblade). Ok wait, Disgaea 5 dudnt release this year. I bought it this year. That's what threw me off. I'll go through and delete that one, and let me see if there's any others.

I actually omitted Hyper Light Drifter and Deus Ex ManKind Divided since they didn't strike me as RPG's, but I suppose with the inclusion of MH and a few others they could have been added as well.

Also, I'm pretty sure Persona 5, Nier Automata and Tales of Berseria release next year. At least, the western versions anyways. I did play the Nioh demo and it was fantastic, but not sure when the game releases.

@CanisWolfred
Seems I had a few of my release dates goofed up. I've edited my list to remove a few 2015 releases.

So talk to me about I Am Setsuna and Star Ocean. I take it you've played them through? What did you think. Let's hear it.

I wish I had the time to play a fully fledged RPG game these days...

The only one I have played is Hyper Light Drifter as I was a backer for their Kickstarter project almost three years ago. It also came along at a good time, bang in between Uncharted 4 in May and ABZÛ and No Man's Sky in August.

I am not even sure I would consider the game to be a RPG anyway! More of an hack and slash adventure with puzzle-like elements.

Completed it, loved it, but I have no desire to return to collect all those gearbits and find the (hidden) costumes.

Wish there was a reason to replay the game, as the world and gameplay mechanics are too good not to.

@JaxonH XCX released early December (December 4th/5th).

@Grumblevolcano
Oh did it? Why am I thinking December 23rd? Game awards. That's what I'm thinking, and how it missed from releasing so close to them.

I get so many games in the mail, many of which I dont play right away. I guess I struggle to keep track of when they all released.

Removed. A month out is too far into last year, imo.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, awesome game. If Hyper Light Drifter is considered and RPG, then I played that too, great game as well.

@JaxonH February 9, 2017 for Nioh.

@Octane
Witcher released this year? How did I forget that one. I thought it was last year lol.

Man I'm hopeless. Let me edit that in.

edit Wait that was 2015. Never mind

@JaxonH No, I haven't played them, that's why I said I'm disappointed by the fan reaction. I thought I made that part clear? They were two games I was seriously looking forward to, but once they came out, it turns out they weren't very good. Like, Star Ocean was never a great series, but the new one was supposedly a total cob-job, even in terms of the combat. Like, everything I've heard points to them running out of budget only halfway through the development phase.

I Am Setsuna's been more mixed, but everyone seems to agree that the game was too overhyped, and ultimately feels shallow and derivative. Like, they wanted to make a game like Chrono Trigger, but the only things they share are the most basic aspects of the combat.

As for Disgaea, yeah, Strategy RPGs come in a lot of flavors, and, in fact, I remember a friend of mine used to say that games like Fire Emblem were essentially a different genre - he'd always say they were "tactical RPGs" rather than SRPGs, since the latter focused more on the preparedness aspect rather than the actual tactics used in battles. Of course, you frequently have the option to grind and focus more on bringing the best team to mow down your enemy, but it doesn't feel as encouraged as a game like Disgaea, where that's a huge part of their marketing campaign.

EDIT: Actually, this is a better trailer for what I'm talking about:

@JaxonH It was indeed last year, but I thought the question was about any RPGs you played this year. The GOTY edition came out this year, so maybe it still counts?

...No.

@CanisWolfred
"I thought I made that part clear"

Yikes, sorry.

What it sounded like was "I loved these games, and I'm disappointed by the fan reaction which was negative- I totally disagree with that fan reaction and I'm disappointed because the games were amazing"

I thought that would've been enough. I guess I should've mentioned that I was really looking forward to them at the end there, now that I look back at it. Oh well.

@CanisWolfred
Musta missed that.

I love hearing ppl make a good case for a game, especially a game that seems to be generally panned by the community. Take ReCore, for example. Just torn to pieces in most reviews yet I really enjoyed that game. Probably helped that I was playing it from a post-Metroid Prime perspective. So a lot of the mechanics which were heavily inspired from Prime really triggered that inner nostalgia for me. I say that game is way better than reviews make it out to be.

I was hoping you'd tell me Star Ocean was this amazing game and reviewers have no idea what they're talking about. If you ever do play it, let us know your thoughts. I have yet to find a single person who's actually played that game through.