What JRPG are you playing right now?

[TYRANITARR]

WOW.

Just finished Chapter 12 in Remake. This game got back on track! I was real fired up for the first ~6 chapters of the game, then my enthusiasm really slowed down once I hit Wall Market and went through that whole scenario (I played the OG and I knew that was coming)

I'm excited to see how this thing plays out. I feel like if I remember correctly the story goes full runaway train from this point on until we head out of Midgar.

 

[TYRANITARR]

Play Royal over vanilla. No question. If you can't afford it now then just wait until you can.

P5 is a long, long game whether you play vanilla or Royal. So value your time and get the superior version with the QOL additions.

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Get p5 now. It's amazing. Then in 2022 get royal for cheap.?

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I just pre-ordered Xenoblade tonight. I'm not struggling for JRPGs this summer. Maybe after I wrap up Remake and Xenoblade at the end of summer Royal will be on sale in the Fall (shouldn't be any major JRPGs out then, right...? Unless YsIX is this Fall?)

 

[Xita]

I just pre-ordered Xenoblade tonight. I'm not struggling for JRPGs this summer. Maybe after I wrap up Remake and Xenoblade at the end of summer Royal will be on sale in the Fall (shouldn't be any major JRPGs out then, right...? Unless YsIX is this Fall?)

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It's Atlus, so yeah Royal will be on sale pretty soon.

 

[Sasliquid]

Unsure what to start next, options are:
Persona 5 Royal - P5 is one of my favourite games ever but I've obviously played most of the content for this already
Rogue Galaxy - Something I've wanted to play for a long time but never got round to
Ni No Kuni 2 - Not as well regarded but shorter than the others?

 

[Lanaka]

Finished the Zero no Kiseki Geofront translation, and what a fantastic chapter of the series it was. I especially adore the ending, and how it closes a long running story arc, while reaffirming why Estelle is my favorite character in this series, with Joshua right behind her. Simply lovely.
Gonna start a replay through NG+ to find anything I missed the first time through, then moving on to Ao no Kiseki. Many thanks to Einherjer for linking the updated translation patch, which I am planning to use for it.

 

[Weiss]

Before I get Bug Fables I'm gonna clear out some more games, one of which will be an RPG. Which of the following should I do? Preferably something on the shorter side since I hear Bug Fables is about 40 hours long.

- Terranigma
- Final Fantasy V Advance
- Live A Live
- Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
- Nostalgia

 

[Zaber]

Before I get Bug Fables I'm gonna clear out some more games, one of which will be an RPG. Which of the following should I do? Preferably something on the shorter side since I hear Bug Fables is about 40 hours long.

- Terranigma
- Final Fantasy V Advance
- Live A Live
- Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
- Nostalgia

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Live A Live is both cool and fairly short. It'll take you 20 hours to beat, give or take an hour or two.

 

[NioA]

Xenoblade Definitive Edition, it's the nth time that I play this masterpiece and I never get tired of it
I feel kinda bad for starting this in the middle of my Cosmic Star Heroine, which was kinda fun.
You can feel the developer's love for old JRPGs (like, the ispiration from CT visuals and cs) and I respect them for coming up with this pretty good battle system, I had a lot of fun during battles. I stopped basically near the end when

Spoiler

when Alyssa & co. get back on the spaceship after having a clash with the villain, i suppose it's a part where the player can tackle some sidequest like the one with Sue's son

I'll probably come back to it, it has some flaws but it would be a shame to left it uncompleted

 

[Have a Nice Day]

I'm 20 hours in Shadow Hearts 3, I started my playthrough at the beginning of May. it's my second playthrough of the game overall and I'm enjoying the game a lot.

 

[Scruffy8642]

Xenoblade DE. Atm, the characters are better than XC2 but that's about it. Guess it mostly depends on how the story progresses, but right now this is far from a masterpiece.

 

[Mechaplum]

Just started Zero no Kiseki and um, this is much better than Cold Steel at least the start. Might be my fav Falcom game 5 hours in. The writing, characters are so much better and less tropey.

 

[Weiss]

Live A Live is go.

Hope I like it. The style and omnibus format is definitely interesting.

EDIT: Oh god my first fight is against puppies no no no

 

[zoodoo]

Is there any version of Dragon Quest 2 without the old english dialog? I am not a native english speaker it bothers so much.
Is dragon quest 3 the same?

 

[Sadnarav]

Finished Final Fantasy X a couple weeks ago

Now I'm playing Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition and just got Riki and Clara Oswald in my party and I am liking it, playing in casual mode

And I'm still thinking if after that I go to FF X-2, XII or Tactics. Probably will play X-2 to finish Yuna's story and them go to a Ivalice ride and play FF Tactics, XII and Vagrant Story

 

[ghibli99]

Just started Fire Emblem: Three Houses if that counts. I like how the daily life stuff feels like I'm playing Persona. The battles almost feel like a distraction from the part of the game I'd rather play. Kinda like how I feel about Persona. LOL

 

[teague]

XENOBLADE BBY

 

[super etrian odyssey]

probably doesn't count because it's not japanese, but bug fables is a really nice little game and everyone everywhere should play it because it's nice.

 

[Misterhbk]

Xenoblade DE. Enjoying it so far. I dont love Shulks design but I HATED Rex. From the name to his look it was all God awful. So thats improvement and being able to change the Armour look is awesome. I change my teams look daily lol gotta stay fresh on the journey.

 

[Xeteh]

A while back I added Xanadu Next to my wishlist and saw it was on sale at GOG so I grabbed it. It wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be (thought it'd be a bit more fast paced like Ys) but while I wasn't sure if I was going to much like it at the start I'm nearly 3 hours in and really digging it.

Just started Zero no Kiseki and um, this is much better than Cold Steel at least the start. Might be my fav Falcom game 5 hours in. The writing, characters are so much better and less tropey.

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I just finished it a few days ago, I really enjoyed it... the game has some great story moments.

 

[Pilgrimzero]

The original FF7, it has not aged well.

 

[Nayishiki]

Doing some challenges in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on Bringer of Chaos while waiting for my Xenoblade DE to show up.

 

[FinalMiracle13]

20 hours into Xenoblade DE and it's nowhere near the quality I expected. Seems to be a fairly average experience in every respect, but not a masterpiece like expected. I'm still having a good time, but I've tempered my expectations for Monolith Soft moving forward.

 

[Zaber]

20 hours into Xenoblade DE and it's nowhere near the quality I expected. Seems to be a fairly average experience in every respect, but not a masterpiece like expected. I'm still having a good time, but I've tempered my expectations for Monolith Soft moving forward.

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I had my fill of the original game after 25 hours. Put up the game for sale and recouped my losses.

 

[Mechaplum]

20 hours into Xenoblade DE and it's nowhere near the quality I expected. Seems to be a fairly average experience in every respect, but not a masterpiece like expected. I'm still having a good time, but I've tempered my expectations for Monolith Soft moving forward.

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Same here I'm 20 hours in and thinking of dropping for awhile. Fun game, but I find myself going back to Trails of Zero more.

 

[angelgrievous]

Two at the moment.

The Granstream Saga. So far it's been pretty easy, the gameplay is entertaining enough to get the story, which is why I'm sticking around. Pretty standard stuff but sometimes the familiar is what I want. Btw, the music reminds me of Chrono Cross in a way.

Legend of Dragoon. I played this game at launch but never got too far. The last thing I remember is defending a wall or bridge or city/castle. Anyway,I've not caught up to that point, I'm in some sort of cave after rescuing shana from the prison. I really like the game, it's dated sure and the battle system, while unique in its time, is more annoying and padded now. The battles just take too long for trash. Also, the writing is really cringe worthy. I guess this adds to the charm? But I seriously laughed for a good 3 minutes at one part. Super silly.

I picked up Kings Field II and Guardian Crusade aa well so I'm looking forwards to playing those.

 

[Motorcycle Dork]

"Welcome to my world"

Ahh Shin Megami Tensei: if…

Gameplay
The battle system is almost the same as SMT II with a few new additions. The Guardian System is a mechanic that employs demons to be playable characters' guardian (prototype personae). Aside from stat buffs, the system is useless for the MC as they can't use magic/skills.

SMT if's battles are slightly tougher than older SMT games. Magic attacks are less effective and bullet capacity exist, so you've got to be resourceful. Encounter rates are lower but doesn't help the little xp gain, meaning substantial grinding is required. The QoL improvements is a step up, places marked on maps aid navigation greatly. The dungeon crawling is a drag, it's non-stop walking backnforth. End-game dungeons can be intense (but still not as agonising as SMT II's).

Story
Short and simple. The themes of the dungeons fit the game's narratives. I decided to go with Reiko's route as it had more to tell (I watched the others online). Characters are somewhat relatable. Demons are fun to interact with. Hazama is a well-written bitchassprickmotherfuckershitstain, a classic scoundrel.

The demons bidding their farewells to Tamaki at the end is a nice touch.

Other
Short duration. Little backtracking. Nice sprites. Good music, mostly remixes of SMT I&II. Numerous routes, replay factor is there. The final dungeon and cosmic-abomination-foetus-Hazama looks amazing.

Downsides
Lots and lots of grinding. Grinding for Guardian points is aggravating. Some very terrible dungeons. Weapons are near unobtainable. Need to take specific steps to get the best ones and stronger gear are exclusive for males, which sucks if you're playing a female party. Item drop rate is significantly low.
…

Verdict: Not bad, not good. Mediocre.

To be blunt Hazama makes the game interesting, without him the game is nothing. In a way, he's the true protagonist of SMT:if as it's his story to tell.

As I am up to date with mainline here are my thoughts:

Spoiler

My ranking of mainline and some spinoffs

Favourite gameplay: Nocturne
Favourite story: SMT II
Favourite boss: Metatron (Nocturne) Too many good ones in Nocturne and I love SMT IV DLC bosses
Best dungeon: Amala Temple
Worst dungeon: Sealed Cave
Best setting: Tokyo Millennium
Best soundtracks: SMT IV, SJR, SMT I
Favourite mainline adaptation: DDS: Megami Tensei 1987 OVA (shit is gold) Strange Journey Redux trailer

If only the Nocturne CD Drama translations are available, it sounds really good.

Characters

Mostly based on likeability and how well-written some characters are.

(Edit: Fucked up my chart so I uploaded a new one. Jonathan deserved to be higher tbh not behind some supports and Flynn is better than Tamaki.)
(Edit: Fuuuuuuck...tiering characters is stressful than I thought. Gave Nanashi and Flynn more credit. Honestly, I'm salty how Apocalypse made Flynn a generic hero archtype. Alright, I'm done. I'm cool with this one.)
(Edit: I am at peace)

With some characters (Chiaki, Tayama), I don't agree with their views but rate them highly due to exceptional characterisation. I don't find Walter to be a good chaos rep in fact he's the worst, I just like his personality a lot. Pre-alignment he's a superior character. SMT:if Male MC is up there solely for the manga.

Alignment/reason reps

My judgement on how well they present their ideologies, not on agreement of said beliefs. Taking background, consistency and reasoning into account. I hear the ones in Devil Survivor are good which I plan to play soon.

I'm hoping SMT V shake up things. Law and Chaos is difficult to catch on overtime. And I hate the Neutral routes in the more modern games (barring SJR), they make less sense as they go on.

SMT V looks to be law inspired so it be interesting what they have in store for us. I hope they take on the 'reasoning system' as ideologies are better defined and has more freedom of choice.

 

[Imitatio]

Xenoblade Chronicles Defintive Edition.

More than 20h in, liking it a lot. Let's see if it can dethrone Xenoblade 2.

 

[Weiss]

How the hell does Live A Live even work?

I do like no damage and get savaged by enemies in the prehistoric chapter.

 

[JCal]

The one with that kid that's really feeling it.

Finally got into it last night. Pretty slow start, mostly because I take things slow. Just walking around Colony 9 took up a lot of my time. No strong opinions yet. The first field theme is a banger, though. Of that I am sure. Wow-eee!

 

[Naha-]

Finished Edelgard's route last night. It was okayish. I found Dimitri's route much better. Now I'm missing the Golden Deer route but I will play it later.

Now I'm ready to start Xenoblade DE in two days. I'm so excited!

 

[j7vikes]

FF 12 Zodiac age remastered for PS4.

played the og years ago (not zodiac age one) and loved it. Absolutely love the QoL improvements in this one and the job boards. I'll easily sink close to 100 hours in it again I'm sure.

 

[Lazybob]

Splitting my time between Xenoblade Definitive edition and SMT Nocturne. I really should just stick to one lol.

 

[Strings]

Finished Koudelka:

It was fantastic overall, and makes me miss horror JRPGs all the more.

 

[k0fighter]

Finished Koudelka:

It was fantastic overall, and makes me miss horror JRPGs all the more.

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Shadow Hearts next?

 

[Mandos]

Working on XBCDe on chapter 5 I think

 

[Leeway]

Right now I've been playing Dragon Quest XI S but I lost a bit of steam when Xenoblade came out recently, I should really get back to it and power through it, I don't even think I'm halfway yet..

I have Atelier Ryza and P5 Royal in the queue as well afterwards, but it's been hard for me to focus on long games lately so I might just do a shorter JRPG/game after DQXI.

 

[Woylie]

Just beat Kingdom Hearts 3 (does this count, being an action-RPG?) - just the base game, I have no interest in the DLC honestly.

Spoiler: KH3 spoilers

I liked the Disney stuff, but hooooooooooly shit the endgame is long, confusing, and honestly kind of boring if you haven't been keeping up with every KH game including the mobile game. I've played most of the main games (KH1, COM, KH2, DDD, mostly familiar with what happens in BBS) and I was still constantly having to Google stuff and finding out that such and such character was a big deal in the mobile game or some obscure game on the DS or flip phones or whatever. I genuinely feel like no other series has ever been so far up its own ass, and I have no idea how kids who signed on for Elsa singing Let It Go were meant to keep up with this.

Overall an experience that I won't forget, but I could have done with like five hours less of anime dudes hitting each other with keyblades and talking about the darkness. It was like seven straight hours of cutscenes and boss battles, with none of the exploration or Disney fanservice that I come to the series for. Considering it sounds like the DLC is just more of that, I think I'm ready to call it quits.

 

[tommyv2]

I'm 20 hours in Shadow Hearts 3, I started my playthrough at the beginning of May. it's my second playthrough of the game overall and I'm enjoying the game a lot.

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The end boss is stupidly difficult. Stopped me cold when I was cruising through the game. Not sure who playtests these things.

 

[Strings]

Shadow Hearts next?

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Nah, just started Keroro RPG: Kishi to Musha to Densetsu no Kaizoku since it's the only Namco Tales Studio game I haven't played:

Then probably From the New World after to cap off the Shadow Hearts franchise.

 

[tiesto]

A bit more RPG-adjacent (as it's a Zelda clone with side scrolling and overhead auto-scrolling areas) but I've been playing Golvellius for the Master System. It's a good game, one of the better on the console, but there are a lot of strange design decisions. The controls are stiff on the overworld map, since you can only move in the 4 cardinal directions, but in the overhead boss fights and autoscrolling sections, you can move diagonally. The stiff dpad on the SMS controller aggravates matters too.
Some other strange design decisions: You need to spend $$$ on "bibles" to raise the max amount of cash you can carry. Enemies constantly respawn on a screen. You can leave the side scrolling/autoscrolling areas and may be required to if you take a wrong turn. This adds an element of forced memorization that's not fun.

Every single screen on the world map has a hole you can go to (that becomes unlocked by stabbing certain rocks, killing a certain # of enemies, etc. like Zelda 1) where people sell you items, Randar (mainly known for his role in the Guardian Legend) heals you, and fairies give you arcane clues. I'm up to the final area, then after beating that area's boss, I can go and fight the final battle against Golvellius. Hoping to finish it tonight!

Then it's time for Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, another RPG-adjacent SMS title. I came SOOOOOOO close to beating it (made it to the final boss), but now it's time to finally gird my loins and finish it once and for all.

 

[FallenGrace]

Finally beat Digimon Cyber Sleuth Hackers Memory today.

It was terrible. glorified DLC with incredibly boring missions in the exact same locations. Ugh.

 

[ookiimarukochan]

Enjoying Yakuza 7, nice to have a JRPG protaganist who's older than me. Shame that Bashamichi was basically cut from the map, I was hoping they'd have an approximation of the place where I used to work but I guess they wanted to squeeze in Yamashita Park and the edge of Minato Mirai 21 somehow. Also they replaced the Baystars stadium with an old folks home, but the stadium is an available property in the business game?

 

[Supreme Leader]

I'm back playing DQ XI on PS4. I'm about 35 hours in and hoping to complete the game this go around.

 

[Slightconfuse]

Tales of Beseria was recently out on PS classic so it was $20

 

[h8bit]

just started up trails in the sky for the first time last night. what an awesome series i've been missing out on.

 

[Worldshaker]

About to start Ys: Celceta (PS4) today.

 

[HiLife]

Really interested in DQ11 since it's 20 dollars off on switch but I'm also worried I won't like it and will probably kick myself for not putting it towards TLOU2 which I know I will enjoy. But I also get my own money's worth out of a long JRPG.

 

[hanshen]

My first time playing FF7.

 

[OnanieBomb]

I tried the Bravely Default 2 demo and have almost nothing nice to say about it. I'm sure if I was familiar with the combat (never played the series) and potentially the context of the story it might have made a better impression. But all I got was chibis, crystals, characters who appear to have no business being together and long ass battles (that yes I am sure I was doing it wrong). Yuck. Only a very strong word of mouth can get my to give this game another shot.

 

[Deleted member 34949]

Playing through Tales of Symphonia (the PS3 version) and Pokemon Platinum since I've been running through a few Tales games and Pokemon third version releases for the past month or two.

I forgot how much Symphonia drags during the first third when its playing up the Dollar Tree FFX angle and how much things ramp up once you get to Tethe'alla.