Cosmic Star Heroine on the Switch. Does that count? It's an indie RPG reminiscent of Chrono Trigger.
Battle system is the star of the show. Each encounter makes you work for it...the enemies are typically challenging, but you do get full health for your characters at the start of each battle. It's emphasis is on strategy rather than a battle of attrition. In this sense, it's more about going all out in each battle instead of trying to conserve resources and manage health through a series of several battles. Moves are depleted after each use until you use a turn to "recharge", which adds to the strategy element.
Characters are pretty flat, personality-wise. They generally speak with the same "voice" and there's little variation from the snarky smart aleck. There seems to be quite a few characters you can recruit to your team though, and are actually quite varied in terms of gameplay. Each has their interesting mix of physical, magical, technical, or ailment talents, which makes mixing and matching units in the team a pretty fun exercise throughout the game. I also appreciate that the game forces you to use certain lineups at times in the story...I like working within constraints and learn how to make the most out of what you are given.
The story's pacing is kinda out of whack. I like the sci-fi space-faring adventure (decent Mass Effect tones here), but you really don't have much chance to breath before jumping from one beat to another. I guess this is in part due to a relatively short run time (I'm like 10 hours in and it seems like I'm getting close to endgame stuff). The different worlds you visit all feel unique and lively through. I'm especially enjoying the recent planet of scientific, telepathic humanoid insects...kinda reminds me of Turians from Mass Effect.
All-in-all, it's a fun space romp so far. It's got its flaws for sure, but I'm nevertheless enjoying it. Picked it up for $3.00 when it was on sale.
im playing final fantasy 4... its cute.
kinda torn between doing suidoken, persona 4, or xenoblade (already started this) next.
no, haven't played any! so i would start at the beginning. my friend said i'd like it since its a more political story instead of a ragtag group of friends save the world and theres lots of playable characters. i also heard its relatively short too which is nice.have you played Suikoden before?
which one are you maybe playing?
no, haven't played any! so i would start at the beginning. my friend said i'd like it since its a more political story instead of a ragtag group of friends save the world and theres lots of playable characters. i also heard its relatively short too which is nice.
Cool, interested to hear what you think it later. If you're already pretty familiar with the JRPG genre, then I'd really recommend playing on the higher difficulty settings. I alternated between the highest and second to highest settings, and felt that was the sweet spot for actually pushing me to deploy some tactics. Good thing about this game is that it never really requires you to grind either, which helped make every battle encounter feel more of an event rather than a "spam attack for XP" thing.I started this a week or so ago, kind of randomly. I do like the combat approach for sure, and I'm glad to hear it may not be super long.
Working my way through xenoblade chronicles for sort of the first time now. I did play it a bit before but stopped before colony six for some reason. Really enjoying it tho I think I'm getting sick of playing as shulk as hes so slow to get new abilities, at least where I'm at right now. I wonder if they anticipated people trying the different characters more than I am. I usually just stick to playing the main person in rpgs like this that let you choose.
First time with both or replay?I'm not really feeling Bug Fables right now (it's good but it's pretty slow paced and I'm just not in the mood for that atm) so I'm gonna do a different RPG.
Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI?
First time with both or replay?
I picked up FFVI again in 2020, and super enjoyed all the great music, but the combat is pretty meh. And the story is interesting, but not as compelling to me on replays.
Echo all that on CT personally. Both games are fine combat, but nothing seriously though provoking besides your standard JRPG stuff. I say those games are most enjoyable in the OST on replays.
I have a hard time replaying JRPGs even ones I like. I need loooooong breaks in-between them.I've played Chrono Trigger four or five times, while FFVI only once since my second playthrough got wiped halfway through. Chrono Trigger is definitely a leaner game but I have played it a lot more than FFVI.
Dunno what I'll play next. Probably either Shadow Hearts: From the New World or Arc the Lad 3 (since I liked that game a lot, but never finished it).
I'm someone who likes the first Shadow Hearts more than Covenant, so this kinda fits my experience of Koudelka -> Shadow Hearts -> Covenant :PFirst game - solid but an appetizer for the main course, which is the second game
Second game - the real standout
Third game - much goofier and a lot less interesting than the other games in the franchise
I'm someone who likes the first Shadow Hearts more than Covenant, so this kinda fits my experience of Koudelka -> Shadow Hearts -> Covenant :P
Yeah!
Suikoden 1 is a brisk 20 hours, yet it still feels really epic when you are done. You build up a home base with eventually the "108 Stars of Destiny" and that is the basic premise for all 5 games. There are indeed lots of politics in all the games, and the soundtracks are O M G.
Suikoden 2 is a lot of people's favorite. It's like the first game, but now a 50 hour epic RPG with a huge world, refined battle system, and some characters you really grow to love. The base building (that is also home to various minigames and events) is even better and bigger in 2.
Suikoden 3 was a 3D game, so a huge departure. It's really different than the rest and follows the story of 3 people while you switch between them and see what's happening in the world. You still have a base, and battles are sorta similar, but it's a different game. I still liked it, but 1+2 are far superior.
We don't talk about Suikoden 4. Just pretend it does not exist.
The last game, Suikoden 5, released on PS2 and is...probably my favorite even over 2. This game is just...so...so great. The graphics are still Suikoden style but in 3D, the base building is great, the music is wonderful, battles are still fast and similar to 1+2 but with of course more refinements. This game focuses on a kingdom led by women, where the men can never be the leader, and follows some people in and around the Queen of the kingdom. Again, it's very political, and spans a huge world. It's just an incredible game all around.
So I highly recommend if you like 1 to play 2, and then 5 for sure. 3 maybe sometime, and never ever 4 lol!
Have fun. This is one of the great RPG series ever :)
Haha, I started Alliance Alive a few days ago and don't feel quite so glowing about it in comparison to Octopath. In terms of nostalgic JRPGs. It might have to do with how I never played the Saga games so that element of nostalgia isn't there. The damage variation and random artes awakening just feels despairing reliant on RNG.Just beat P5R and have started up Alliance Alive HD.
This game is amazing, it's a throwback while doing a lot of new stuff, think this is what people were wanting with Octopath, but actually realkzed
It was alright? I have zero experience with the property (Sgt Frog outside of Japan) and was surprised at how meta the entire thing was. The characters are constantly riffing on classic JRPG tropes and properties (and not in a particularly clever way most of the time tbh, though a genuinely good joke does sneak in every now and then), and there are a bunch of cameos from other Namco games as battle assists:
I'd go crazy for a mecha (Macross?) JRPG or something from the Ace Combat team:Ace Combat 7.
I also have pretty much every good JRPG on Vita, yet to be played.
I think you'd enjoy XBC:DE. Having it portable makes it more likely to finish. Plus the back half of the game is the best part.I'm in Act 2 on DQXIS and just kind of savoring it as a comfort RPG between Last of Us II, but I'm deciding which RPG to tackle next when I wrap this, though I probably still have a ways to go with DQ. Thinking between, but please let me know if any of y'all think one would be a good fit after DQXI:
Trails of Cold Steel (which I guess would bleed into 2 and 3 or going back and actually playing the Sky series for context - This one's the most daunting, haha)
Fire Emblem Three Houses
Xenoblade Chronicles DE (played original when it came out, but never finished it. Not for lack of interest, life just got busy and it was hard to go back. I'd like to get to the finish line with this one)
Persona 5 Royal (I've played original P5 when it was released, so not in a rush to get to this ASAP)
Atelier Ryza
Grandia Collection
Star Ocean First Departure R
FFIX
FFVII (Replay - finishing Remake made me want to revisit this after not playing it since basically it was originally released)
FFXII
hi sorry for the late replyYeah!
Suikoden 1 is a brisk 20 hours, yet it still feels really epic when you are done. You build up a home base with eventually the "108 Stars of Destiny" and that is the basic premise for all 5 games. There are indeed lots of politics in all the games, and the soundtracks are O M G.
Suikoden 2 is a lot of people's favorite. It's like the first game, but now a 50 hour epic RPG with a huge world, refined battle system, and some characters you really grow to love. The base building (that is also home to various minigames and events) is even better and bigger in 2.
Suikoden 3 was a 3D game, so a huge departure. It's really different than the rest and follows the story of 3 people while you switch between them and see what's happening in the world. You still have a base, and battles are sorta similar, but it's a different game. I still liked it, but 1+2 are far superior.
We don't talk about Suikoden 4. Just pretend it does not exist.
The last game, Suikoden 5, released on PS2 and is...probably my favorite even over 2. This game is just...so...so great. The graphics are still Suikoden style but in 3D, the base building is great, the music is wonderful, battles are still fast and similar to 1+2 but with of course more refinements. This game focuses on a kingdom led by women, where the men can never be the leader, and follows some people in and around the Queen of the kingdom. Again, it's very political, and spans a huge world. It's just an incredible game all around.
So I highly recommend if you like 1 to play 2, and then 5 for sure. 3 maybe sometime, and never ever 4 lol!
Have fun. This is one of the great RPG series ever :)
do you like it!
A lot, i am 20 hours in already, highly recommended if you like jrpg :)
Oh man, is it your first Igavania in general? There is sooooo much good stuff to check out if so.I tried to get back to Trails of Cold Steel 3 since I like to remain optimistic and want to try Hajimari whenever it comes out in English, but this game is just ugh, urgghh, eugh. Argh. Ugh. Blergh. I'll just youtube it and CS4 so I'm at least on top of things going into Hajimari.
So now I'm playing Castlevania Symphony of the Night for pretty much the first time ever - it's JRPG-y enough in my book - and it's really goddamn good. Having an absolute blast with it. I'm familiar with metroidvanias, but I'm definitely gonna take another proper look into this genre after SOTN.
Oh man, is it your first Igavania in general? There is sooooo much good stuff to check out if so.
I loved his run animation "gotta go fast" lol.The story in Suikoden 4 isn't as bad as people make out, it's just not as good as the rest of the series. What it does have though is a really annoying world map which is made worse by how often you revisit old towns in Suikoden for recruiting characters. You only have 4 characters in battle as well instead of the usual 6, no idea why they did that. The main character running animation is the worst I can remember seeing, like worse than Grandia 2
i agree. It's not a bad game but clearly the worst mainline Suiko. Tactics improves IV somewhat. Tactics is also superior.The story in Suikoden 4 isn't as bad as people make out, it's just not as good as the rest of the series. What it does have though is a really annoying world map which is made worse by how often you revisit old towns in Suikoden for recruiting characters. You only have 4 characters in battle as well instead of the usual 6, no idea why they did that. The main character running animation is the worst I can remember seeing, like worse than Grandia 2