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What is your favourite JRPG from a purely gameplay perspective and why (all sub-genres allowed)?
- Thread starter toadkarter
- Start date
Pokemon probably has my favorite battle system of any JRPG. The problem, of course, is the games rarely ever make good use of it. When you're placed into situations where you need to make good use of the system (PVP or more difficult fan games), it stands heads and shoulders above anything else I've played.
I'd go with Octopath Traveler as far as gameplay goes in a particular game. Fire Emblem: Three Houses was also addicting for me, but it had more to do with having fun with unit customization since the maps themselves were a bit hit or miss (and the game launched a bit too easy).
I'd go with Octopath Traveler as far as gameplay goes in a particular game. Fire Emblem: Three Houses was also addicting for me, but it had more to do with having fun with unit customization since the maps themselves were a bit hit or miss (and the game launched a bit too easy).
I'm starting to realize it might be Pokémon. The games don't have a ton of mechanical depth, but rather everything feeds into each other. Preparing for gyms, learning match types, full control of your party, evolutions, catching new Pokémon, and finally creating an ultimate team by the end.
It's not like say a Persona 5 battle where if you get a super effective move it then allows for a baton pass, and then eventually allows for a hold-up (and there are multiple choices for what to do at each of those steps).
It's not like say a Persona 5 battle where if you get a super effective move it then allows for a baton pass, and then eventually allows for a hold-up (and there are multiple choices for what to do at each of those steps).
Digital Devil Saga/Persona 4
More actiony, FF XIII, and VIIR if i didn't have to deal with Materia.
More actiony, FF XIII, and VIIR if i didn't have to deal with Materia.
Turn-based wise, any SMT game using the press turn system, but Nocturne's presentation gives it the edge. Action wise I'd go with KH2FM, and I haven't really played many SRPGs, so I guess Fire Emblem would be my default.
What does that mean though? Offline Massive Multiplayer Online game? Doesn't make sense to me.
Let's just say Xenoblade is a real time combat RPG and call it a day
I've still yet to have something hit my combat sweet spot since Fantasy Fantasy Tactics. It's just so varied and perfect for me.
FF Tactics, Grandia, Souls.
I consider an action RPG any game recognized as an RPG where pressing a button immediately leads to an action, like attacking or dodging. Games like Xenoblade and FFXII aren't because there's still a menu between button presses and the resulting actions. Maybe Dragon Age II and Inquisition blur the line though.
I always thought those were RTWP, I think those existed before the term action rpg made it outside of Japan.
Strategy is definitely Final Fantasy Tactics. I haven't played a game since that tops the skill system, I've seen a few that did more interesting things with the tactics of it, but the multi-classing and utility skills concepts from FFT haven't been topped for me.
Classic I'm gonna say Lost Odyssey, almost for the same reason actually. The combat in Lost Odyssey is good and the enemies and bosses are mostly pretty solid, the little active element that rings brought to the combat was cool, but I really love the way you can effectively customize most of the characters by building up the sort of lose social link to inherit skills, you can't do it with every character, but it lets the ones that you can do it with feel powerful and keeps them relevant. They're supposed to be powerful according to the story, so it makes sense they'd be the best of your characters, and the way you have to unlock those skills means you're not just throwing the weaker characters out and never using them. It also somehow manages to have that system in place with what feels like less grind than most games that have similar kind of "links".
Action maybe Kingdom Hearts? I'll admit I don't actually play that man action JRPGs, but I think Kingdom Hearts (The 1.5 remake is the only one I've played to be clear) does a good job of having fun combat that isn't too chaotic or difficult to follow, and the RPG elements are there too. I guess a lot of people think 2 is better, and maybe it is, but I felt like I had a lot more control over when skills activated in the first game, where as the second one, a lot of the skills felt very situational and I wasn't always clear on what conditions lead to being able to activate them. Maybe I'm just slow and I only like the first one better because I understood it more, but that's my opinion anyway.
Classic I'm gonna say Lost Odyssey, almost for the same reason actually. The combat in Lost Odyssey is good and the enemies and bosses are mostly pretty solid, the little active element that rings brought to the combat was cool, but I really love the way you can effectively customize most of the characters by building up the sort of lose social link to inherit skills, you can't do it with every character, but it lets the ones that you can do it with feel powerful and keeps them relevant. They're supposed to be powerful according to the story, so it makes sense they'd be the best of your characters, and the way you have to unlock those skills means you're not just throwing the weaker characters out and never using them. It also somehow manages to have that system in place with what feels like less grind than most games that have similar kind of "links".
Action maybe Kingdom Hearts? I'll admit I don't actually play that man action JRPGs, but I think Kingdom Hearts (The 1.5 remake is the only one I've played to be clear) does a good job of having fun combat that isn't too chaotic or difficult to follow, and the RPG elements are there too. I guess a lot of people think 2 is better, and maybe it is, but I felt like I had a lot more control over when skills activated in the first game, where as the second one, a lot of the skills felt very situational and I wasn't always clear on what conditions lead to being able to activate them. Maybe I'm just slow and I only like the first one better because I understood it more, but that's my opinion anyway.
Strategy RPG: Tactics Ogre LUCT (PSP) / Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1)
Traditional RPG: Chrono Trigger (SNES)
Best combat system: Grandia XTreme/3
Action RPG: Bloodborne (PS4)
Traditional RPG: Chrono Trigger (SNES)
Best combat system: Grandia XTreme/3
Action RPG: Bloodborne (PS4)
Strategy RPG: Wild Arms XF. All the encounters/mission objectives are so varied, the game makes you adjust your strategy and party make-up.
Traditional RPG: I can't decide among Bravely Default, Bravely Default 2, or Octopath Traveler. Maybe the last one. But for the same reasons above -- the fantastic encounter design eventually forces you to move outside the comfort zone of a "typical" RPG party and/or frequently has you change your loadout as you enter new areas.
Action RPG: Dragon's Dogma. They're master works, all. You can't go wrong. Honestly though, I don't play this genre much. I should probably fix that, as I have Bloodborne sitting in my massive backlog. I've never played any of the Souls games.
Traditional RPG: I can't decide among Bravely Default, Bravely Default 2, or Octopath Traveler. Maybe the last one. But for the same reasons above -- the fantastic encounter design eventually forces you to move outside the comfort zone of a "typical" RPG party and/or frequently has you change your loadout as you enter new areas.
Action RPG: Dragon's Dogma. They're master works, all. You can't go wrong. Honestly though, I don't play this genre much. I should probably fix that, as I have Bloodborne sitting in my massive backlog. I've never played any of the Souls games.
Tales of Beseria is considered an action RPG, you can do instant attacks like you said, but you have to wait it out until the Soul Gauge is charged, for the artes to do substantial damage and begin the stages of the combo. So you can you use blocks and dodges to build it up, which isn't that different from Xenoblade when you press the burst affinity buttons to defend them all, and to charge up the chain attack. I find it quite superfluous to say Xenoblade isn't one, because the way you build up the combo stages, and the timing is similar.
In my opinion, that was drawing an arbitrary line, and I think one person who likes one battle system, has a good chance of enjoying the other.
For classic turn-based RPG I'd say the Bravely series. All three games are similarly fantastic. I love the breadth and depth of the job system, there's tons of options and tons of interesting ways to combine them. You can make some extremely overpowered parties with the right setups and discovering that is a lot of fun for me.
For dungeon crawling RPG I like the Etrian Odyssey series. The job system is similar to Bravely in terms of its breadth and depth, but it's a bit more restrained and mathematically refined than Bravely, which is fun in its own way. I also find the dungeon crawling such a joy, it hits a good balance between chill and difficult, the puzzles are fun, filling out the map is satisfying, and overall it's very player convenient.
For strategy RPG I haven't played very many, all I know is that I like Fire Emblem's basic gameplay concept a lot more than Final Fantasy Tactics's.
For action RPGs I not a big fan in general, but I really liked CrossCode. Your moveset is a lot of fun and the enemy and boss fights are always unique and interesting.
For dungeon crawling RPG I like the Etrian Odyssey series. The job system is similar to Bravely in terms of its breadth and depth, but it's a bit more restrained and mathematically refined than Bravely, which is fun in its own way. I also find the dungeon crawling such a joy, it hits a good balance between chill and difficult, the puzzles are fun, filling out the map is satisfying, and overall it's very player convenient.
For strategy RPG I haven't played very many, all I know is that I like Fire Emblem's basic gameplay concept a lot more than Final Fantasy Tactics's.
For action RPGs I not a big fan in general, but I really liked CrossCode. Your moveset is a lot of fun and the enemy and boss fights are always unique and interesting.
Strategy RPG: Valkyria Chronicles. One of the most fun core gameplay loops I've ever experienced, in an RPG or in any other genre. Funnily enough, my first experience with the series of VC2, which is everybody's least favorite. Sure, the plot is bad. But all I knew at the time was that the game was amazingly fun. And that was enough for me.
Traditional JRPG: I'm going to cheat and say every PS2 era SMT game. Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga, Persona 3 (and 4, but less so). If you forced me to pick one, it would be Persona 3.
Action RPG: Not my favorite genre, but if I had to pick I'd choose Kingdom Hearts 1. Simple, but fun.
Traditional JRPG: I'm going to cheat and say every PS2 era SMT game. Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga, Persona 3 (and 4, but less so). If you forced me to pick one, it would be Persona 3.
Action RPG: Not my favorite genre, but if I had to pick I'd choose Kingdom Hearts 1. Simple, but fun.
Shining Force III (all 3 scenarios are playable!) and Dragon Force need more love in here
Shining the Holy Ark while were at it, what a fantastic dungeon crawler
Shining the Holy Ark while were at it, what a fantastic dungeon crawler
Strategy: Fire Emblem three houses. So much to do, a good story, characters, deep combat system.
Classic: FF12 and XC2. I prefer the dynamic systems of these games to the old 'select potion from a menu' type. Amazing worlds and combat systems, deep and satisfying.
Action: Dark Souls mainly. I would have added Dragons Dogma and Nioh but for me the DS series is just above the competition. I love DS2 and rate it above 1 and 3;lol.
All in all I am not a fan of classic JRPGs. I like the aesthetics and the world building of older FF entries but for me they are too slow and grindy to play. I much prefer FF7R to the original.
Classic: FF12 and XC2. I prefer the dynamic systems of these games to the old 'select potion from a menu' type. Amazing worlds and combat systems, deep and satisfying.
Action: Dark Souls mainly. I would have added Dragons Dogma and Nioh but for me the DS series is just above the competition. I love DS2 and rate it above 1 and 3;lol.
All in all I am not a fan of classic JRPGs. I like the aesthetics and the world building of older FF entries but for me they are too slow and grindy to play. I much prefer FF7R to the original.
OOoh, this looks to be right up my alley. I can't tell from the game page, but how far in development are they? I'm usually not a fan of Early Access, but if the game is content complete (i.e., can play to the end), I may give this a go now.
There are a lot of games and series that come to mind, like Etrian Odyssey, Bravely Default, Ys, Tales of Graces F, etc, but if I had to choose on thinking, it'd probably be Pokemon (Specifically competitive Pokemon). VGC is such a fun format when you learn it and it can be super addictive to just do one match. It's a lot of fun mind games and when you're doing well you can really feel yourself growing as a player and matches can be super tense and fun. That said, it feels a bit unfair to compare the multiplayer experience to other game's single player ones
Pokemon actually has a shitload of mechanical depth, easily more than any other JRPG by a longshot. The issue is that the single player game doesn't even scratch the surface so you really need to be playing competitively to appreciate it. Hell, the sheer depth is what can lead to Pokemon having so many unique and different feeling meta games depending on format. Like the differences between VGC and OU are well documented, but even comparing VGC to doubles OU which are both doubles formats they have major differences due to the difference between bring 6 choose 4 and bring 6 use 6 formats
For action: Final Fantasy VII Remake knocked it out of the park;
Turn based: That goes to Golden Sun of course 😏
ATB: Granda series
Turn based: That goes to Golden Sun of course 😏
ATB: Granda series
Classic JRPG - Trails of Cold Steel III
I think as a combination of challenging obstacles and giving players a breadth of choice, Trails of Cold Steel III is as good as it gets for me. I loved tinkering with each character's builds, swapping orbments out to fine-tune an incredibly strong combination of abilities. I got so into the combat, I ended up cranking the difficulty up to Hard, where I used to struggle with the previous entries in the series. Runner-ups: Final Fantasy XII, Persona 5 Royal, Xenoblade Chronicles
Action JRPG - Ys
Pick any Ys game. Seriously. I love them all. Ys VIII is maybe my favorite gameplay-wise, but every entry holds up so incredibly well and feels so intuitive to play. Runner-up: Final Fantasy VII Remake
Strategy JRPG - Fire Emblem: Awakening
I admittedly don't have much to draw on, but I found Fire Emblem Awakening to be the most addictive of the SJRPGs I have played. All around very satisfying and I think creating super children added a lot of layers to the whole thing. Runner-up: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Dungeon JRPG - Etrian Odyssey IV
I have actually only played one DJRPG despite trying to get into them numerous times before, so this is just an excuse to talk about EOIV which I'm currently playing, and finding myself absolutely floored by the gameplay. The dungeon design is absolutely out of this world, and it's got some of the stiffest yet most satisfying combat puzzles I've experienced in a JRPG. I am absolutely hooked into the series after this one entry.
I think as a combination of challenging obstacles and giving players a breadth of choice, Trails of Cold Steel III is as good as it gets for me. I loved tinkering with each character's builds, swapping orbments out to fine-tune an incredibly strong combination of abilities. I got so into the combat, I ended up cranking the difficulty up to Hard, where I used to struggle with the previous entries in the series. Runner-ups: Final Fantasy XII, Persona 5 Royal, Xenoblade Chronicles
Action JRPG - Ys
Pick any Ys game. Seriously. I love them all. Ys VIII is maybe my favorite gameplay-wise, but every entry holds up so incredibly well and feels so intuitive to play. Runner-up: Final Fantasy VII Remake
Strategy JRPG - Fire Emblem: Awakening
I admittedly don't have much to draw on, but I found Fire Emblem Awakening to be the most addictive of the SJRPGs I have played. All around very satisfying and I think creating super children added a lot of layers to the whole thing. Runner-up: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Dungeon JRPG - Etrian Odyssey IV
I have actually only played one DJRPG despite trying to get into them numerous times before, so this is just an excuse to talk about EOIV which I'm currently playing, and finding myself absolutely floored by the gameplay. The dungeon design is absolutely out of this world, and it's got some of the stiffest yet most satisfying combat puzzles I've experienced in a JRPG. I am absolutely hooked into the series after this one entry.
Ah that's the issue then, I have no clue about PvP Pokémon and wouldn't even know where to begin.
PvP Pokemon is a lot of fun, I'd recommend at least trying it. Especially since getting rental teams from great players can really reduce the barrier of entry for trying it out before you're willing to commit to building your own teams. There are plenty of good resources on learning the game depending on which format you're interested in (I personally tend to focus on the official VGC formats myself). Just know that if you use stuff like rental teams it's important to actually learn how that team is meant to be played by reading a writeup if available and possibly watching the creator show it off in a video. If you're new and trying to use someone else's team without knowing how it's actually meant to work it'll probably end very poorly
The final boss is releasing next month, the game as it stands is like over 80 hours long, the translation is excellent. Not technically done though it's releasing shortly.
Turn Based: Digital Devil Saga 1& 2.
These games use the already-excellent Press-turn system SMT made famous. On top of this, DDS forced you to use a limited set of characters with fixed strengths, weaknesses, and skillsets that could not be covered (until very late in the game IIRC). On top of this, your available party members were occasionally limited by the circumstances of the game itself. Since you didn't have a raft of personas/demons to trade out on a whim, you really had to play the hand you were dealt which made almost every encounter highly strategic.
Strategic: Final Fantasy Tactics
Not an original choice but there's a reason for that. What I think works in Tactics favor is that grinding is possible, but it is also inconvenient and kind of a pain in the ass (any encounter with all chocobos is harder than most story battles). So there's this nice balance where your incentivized to continue progressing even when the current story battle is challeging, but you can go grind out some levels if you really need to. The result is that there's a really natural difficulty curve. Outside of one infamous 1-on-1 battle, it rarely throws up brick walls, but never feels like a cakewalk either.
Action: N/A
I feel like action RPGs kind of blob together in this formless quality slime of "alright-to-pretty-good". They can play pretty differently (Ys is different from Mana which is different from Kingdom Hearts) but the peaks and valleys of this subgenre aren't as dramatic as the others.
These games use the already-excellent Press-turn system SMT made famous. On top of this, DDS forced you to use a limited set of characters with fixed strengths, weaknesses, and skillsets that could not be covered (until very late in the game IIRC). On top of this, your available party members were occasionally limited by the circumstances of the game itself. Since you didn't have a raft of personas/demons to trade out on a whim, you really had to play the hand you were dealt which made almost every encounter highly strategic.
Strategic: Final Fantasy Tactics
Not an original choice but there's a reason for that. What I think works in Tactics favor is that grinding is possible, but it is also inconvenient and kind of a pain in the ass (any encounter with all chocobos is harder than most story battles). So there's this nice balance where your incentivized to continue progressing even when the current story battle is challeging, but you can go grind out some levels if you really need to. The result is that there's a really natural difficulty curve. Outside of one infamous 1-on-1 battle, it rarely throws up brick walls, but never feels like a cakewalk either.
Action: N/A
I feel like action RPGs kind of blob together in this formless quality slime of "alright-to-pretty-good". They can play pretty differently (Ys is different from Mana which is different from Kingdom Hearts) but the peaks and valleys of this subgenre aren't as dramatic as the others.
Valkyrie Profile may very well be one of the best for me. I love the side scrolling dungeon design, platforming elements with using the 'ice crystals' to create platforms, and of course the rhythmic timing-based battle system. Extremely unique game in every which way.
For an action RPG, gotta go with Ys Origin. This is Ys distilled to its essence, it's super fast and kinetic, and those boss fights (with shmup/bullet hell elements) are incredible.
Some others I loved:
FF5 - love the Job system
Star Ocean 2 - the Skill and Item Creation system were so ahead of their time and really addicting
Wild Arms 4 - the hex-based battle system was fast-paced and allowed for a nice amount of strategy, plus adding 3d platforming elements to an RPG was really cool
Lufia 2 - awesome puzzle-based dungeons
Nier Automata - Platinum-quality 3D action battles and I liked the shmup elements
For an action RPG, gotta go with Ys Origin. This is Ys distilled to its essence, it's super fast and kinetic, and those boss fights (with shmup/bullet hell elements) are incredible.
Some others I loved:
FF5 - love the Job system
Star Ocean 2 - the Skill and Item Creation system were so ahead of their time and really addicting
Wild Arms 4 - the hex-based battle system was fast-paced and allowed for a nice amount of strategy, plus adding 3d platforming elements to an RPG was really cool
Lufia 2 - awesome puzzle-based dungeons
Nier Automata - Platinum-quality 3D action battles and I liked the shmup elements
Turn based combat: SMT Nocturne
Action combat: Dark Souls
Strategy combat: Devil Survivor 1/2
Town exploration: Crossbell Trails games
Outside exploration: Xenoblade
Minigames: FFIX
Weapon customization: Resonance of Fate
Skill development system: Star Ocean 1/2
Sidequests: Shadow Hearts Covenant
Dungeon design: Valkyrie Profile
General gameplay: That's harder to pick. I think Xenosaga III is pretty good in most of its gameplay elements, so it's my pick.
Action combat: Dark Souls
Strategy combat: Devil Survivor 1/2
Town exploration: Crossbell Trails games
Outside exploration: Xenoblade
Minigames: FFIX
Weapon customization: Resonance of Fate
Skill development system: Star Ocean 1/2
Sidequests: Shadow Hearts Covenant
Dungeon design: Valkyrie Profile
General gameplay: That's harder to pick. I think Xenosaga III is pretty good in most of its gameplay elements, so it's my pick.
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Persona 4 Golden for the day-to-day fare. Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX for minigames. Final Fantasy VII Remake for action-based combat. Xenogears for turn-based combat. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age for overall combat mechanics. Star Ocean 2 or its skill upgrade systems. Lufia II for dungeon design. Legend of Mana for world exploration. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age and Xenoblade Chronicles if we aren't counting that. :P
SRPG: Fire Emblem Conquest. Great map design, mostly a good level of difficulty, and a great balance between simplicity and the RPG mechanics.
Traditional turn Based: Cosmic Star Heroine. Pretty much a textbook example of how to make a great turn based combat system. It's simple but still provides variety both in character builds and combat encounters, and it has a good enough level of difficulty that you actually need to play the game properly in order to beat it.
Action: Ys Origin. The perfect action game. Simple, but it plays incredibly well, and the three different playable characters for some variety. It's also impeccably paced, which isn't something you can say about modern Falcom output.
Traditional turn Based: Cosmic Star Heroine. Pretty much a textbook example of how to make a great turn based combat system. It's simple but still provides variety both in character builds and combat encounters, and it has a good enough level of difficulty that you actually need to play the game properly in order to beat it.
Action: Ys Origin. The perfect action game. Simple, but it plays incredibly well, and the three different playable characters for some variety. It's also impeccably paced, which isn't something you can say about modern Falcom output.
My picks:
SRPG: Disgaea 5's story is bland garbage but the gameplay, with its systems upon systems and options upon options, is amazing value if you're an SRPG fiend.
ARPG: Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix on Critical is just great. One of the most challenging and satisfying ARPG experiences ever.
JRPG: Labyrinth of Touhou 2. It's a hybrid JRPG/DRPG with ridiculous levels of party variety (between its cast of 48+ party members). It wouldn't be that inaccurate to call it the Disgaea of DRPG's (it even has a very, very extensive post-game like Disgaea). It also has the only good random encounter system in a JRPG ever.
SRPG: Disgaea 5's story is bland garbage but the gameplay, with its systems upon systems and options upon options, is amazing value if you're an SRPG fiend.
ARPG: Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix on Critical is just great. One of the most challenging and satisfying ARPG experiences ever.
Honorable Mentions: Dragon's Dogma (it's fun but it also has too many issues for me to put it over KH2FM), Dragon Quest Heroes 2 (also has issues, but it's my favorite ARPG that lets you swap between party members), Rogue Galaxy (my guilty pleasure ARPG. The combat system is actually super *busted*, but that's what makes it so great)
JRPG: Labyrinth of Touhou 2. It's a hybrid JRPG/DRPG with ridiculous levels of party variety (between its cast of 48+ party members). It wouldn't be that inaccurate to call it the Disgaea of DRPG's (it even has a very, very extensive post-game like Disgaea). It also has the only good random encounter system in a JRPG ever.
Honorable Mentions: Labyrinth of Touhou 1 (it's hard as nails, unforgiving as hell and with graphics that have aged like the finest of raw milk, but the combat system still holds up and it still has some of the most adrenaline pumping boss fights in a JRPG ever) and Wild Arms 3 (has a fantastic, methodical combat system that is seriously let down by the hellishly slow battle animations)
I really enjoy the gameplay of FF Tactics Advance 1 & 2. The pace of the battle was just right and the job system was just so amazing.
Can't say the same about war of the lions though. For some odd reason it doesn't really clicked for me and I just finished it because of the story.
Can't say the same about war of the lions though. For some odd reason it doesn't really clicked for me and I just finished it because of the story.
Classic RPG: Blue Dragon. Great version of the FFV job system allowed for good customization. DQ styled battles with great encounter design. Loved the ability to delay your turn on the timeline to power up your attacks or extend the range of your spells.
SRPG: Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Love Fire Emblem as a series and this one is my favorite entry. Battalions and Combat Arts are a great addition that allow me good tactical options without being overwhelming. Great flexibility in growing characters with what skills they learn, class options, NG+ features, etc. Divine Pulse give me the freedom to be more daring with my strategies and avoid turtling. It's telling that this is the first FE I'm playing through on Maddening/Lunatic - I feel it supports the challenge well mechanically.
Action RPG: FFVIIR. Though if the OP didn't specify JRPGs then my favorite Action RPG would easily be Mass Effect 3.
SRPG: Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Love Fire Emblem as a series and this one is my favorite entry. Battalions and Combat Arts are a great addition that allow me good tactical options without being overwhelming. Great flexibility in growing characters with what skills they learn, class options, NG+ features, etc. Divine Pulse give me the freedom to be more daring with my strategies and avoid turtling. It's telling that this is the first FE I'm playing through on Maddening/Lunatic - I feel it supports the challenge well mechanically.
Action RPG: FFVIIR. Though if the OP didn't specify JRPGs then my favorite Action RPG would easily be Mass Effect 3.
I honestly think Tokyo Mirage Sessions has my favorite turn-based battle system. At least once you're able to chain attack combos with benched party members. That plus being able to quickly switch people out is just super fun, made even better by all the random chance attack
Completely agreed with you there. FFT was great for its time, but sooooo slow. Mechanically speaking, the FFTA series were fantastic iterations – even the Law system, IMO. A shame though about their pivot away from the political themes of their predecessor.