Could you list the chronological order of which they can be played bearing in mind I primarily play on PC.
Ys VIII is the best JRPG of at least the past five years. And I think I've played virtually all noteworthy ones.
- Thread starter Deleted member 2834
- Start date
But yeah, though I dig Ys VIII... I might have liked Celceta more (both paling to Origins and Felghana obv). And there's a fair few games I'd place above either from the last 5 years (DQXI, VC4, Berseria, EOU2, (maybe) Atelier Sophie, Persona 5, etc).
Last edited:
If you like Ys VIII, give the rest of the Falcom catalog a look (especially the Trails games) They're all fantastic games and are all on sale on Steam right now. Ys Origin, Trails the 3rd, Cold Steel 2, and Zwei the ilvard insurrection are my particular favorites of the bunch.
Trails in the Sky (sometimes called Trails FC)
Trails in the Sky SC
Trails in the Sky the 3rd
Cold Steel 1
Cold Steel 2
Trails in the Sky FC & SC are 2-parts of one story. Trails 3rd is kind of like a spin-off that includes characters from FC & SC. Cold Steel is a new sub-series that takes place in a different part of the world and characters from the earlier games sometimes show up.
Cold Steel 3 comes out later this year in English but a PC version hasn't been confirmed yet. Cold Steel 4 is already out in Japan but no English localization has been announced. Also there are 2 games between the Trails in the Sky trilogy & the Cold Steel series that take place in different parts of the game world that haven't been officially localized (but there's fan translations out there).
Sky Trilogy - Trails in the Sky FC -> SC -> The 3rd: all on Steam and GoG (and are the best versions)
Crossbell Duology - Trails from Zero -> Trails to Azure: both currently JP only, but there are some (mediocre) fan TLs of each game. People are hoping these games are one day brought to the west officially
Cold Steel - Trails of Cold Steel 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4: 1 and 2 are on Steam and GoG and are both amazing ports done by Durante himself. 3 is due out this fall on PS4 and hopefully with a PC port in the works, but NISA hasn't said anything yet.
I haven't played all the games on OP List.
I liked Octopath, but not as much as Xenoblade 2 or Etrian Odyssey IV.
I should try Ys VIII and FFXII...
On a similar note has anyone tried Valkyria Chronicles 4? How is it? I wanted to play some SRPG before Fire Emblem next month.
I liked Octopath, but not as much as Xenoblade 2 or Etrian Odyssey IV.
I should try Ys VIII and FFXII...
On a similar note has anyone tried Valkyria Chronicles 4? How is it? I wanted to play some SRPG before Fire Emblem next month.
I don't play much JRPGS usually because they need to invest a lot of time but this one has me interested because it looked quite accessible and fast paced.
Beat this game a few weeks ago. It was so generic and boring. The visuals are bad. The music is pretty great. Story is nothing special.
Glad you liked it though, but I am surprised to see people rank it so highly/as the best JRPG on Switch.
Glad you liked it though, but I am surprised to see people rank it so highly/as the best JRPG on Switch.
No problem! It seems to have gone under the radar for a lot of people.
Yeah, the first time I heard about it was maybe a week or two ago from a mention on this forum. And I tend to do a rather good job at hearing about the noteworthy indie JRPGs (although finding time to actually play them is another story).
Haven't played ys 8 yet but I was under the impression that Celceta was generally more liked. Especially going by the steam impressions? I loved ys7 so I was wondering which of the two to play next.
Also laughing at people here trying to shit on the Xenoblade games. Easily the best new rpg franchise in the last ten years, so much better than any persona game. Play Xenoblade X OP, you won't be disappointed.
Also laughing at people here trying to shit on the Xenoblade games. Easily the best new rpg franchise in the last ten years, so much better than any persona game. Play Xenoblade X OP, you won't be disappointed.
Ys VIII is the better game, but Celceta is the better port, hence the better Steam reviews. It's in a somewhat better place now, but calling the localization history and port job for Ys VIII a mess would be a massive understatement
Anyone like this deserves a gentle nod of acceptance and cameraderie.
Of course the OP list is horrible thing to read in it's own stance with omissions from 3DS such as Bravely games and other notable masterpieces.
But to each of their own. I will forever wage my crusade against the undeserved praise of XC2.
I love this game and Ys in general, but I wouldn't put it in the same genre as games like Persona or DQ (which I enjoy way less).
That said, as much as I liked it, I think the harder difficulties have felt sloppier and sloppier with each of these games while the scope of each game has increased, and it's not a direction I like for the series. Felghana and Origin are still the peak, to me, and I don't expect to ever see Ys games like that again.
That said, as much as I liked it, I think the harder difficulties have felt sloppier and sloppier with each of these games while the scope of each game has increased, and it's not a direction I like for the series. Felghana and Origin are still the peak, to me, and I don't expect to ever see Ys games like that again.
Last edited:
Definitely, previous games don't have much of a bearing on it and most Ys games are about self-contained adventures featuring the same main character.
Fuck I need to finish this. I loved memories of celceta and this game is just as fun. I just need to buckle down and play it even though the switch gets put on the back burner for me.
Also P5 is too bloated. Sure the first playthrough is good but I couldn't even make it past the second. Hopefully Royal cuts the excess and adds in more fun events to break up the monotony.
Also P5 is too bloated. Sure the first playthrough is good but I couldn't even make it past the second. Hopefully Royal cuts the excess and adds in more fun events to break up the monotony.
Yeah, every game is its own self-contained adventure. The framing is that they're basically all chapters in the life of a famous adventurer.
So is it worth it to get the 8 port on steam over the Celceta one? I had heard that 8s port had issues and since I only have the ability to play it on steam I always held off on it until it had been fixed or something.
In terms of pure chronological release
1. Trails in the Sky 1, 2, 3 - all available on pc, (1 & 2 also available on PSP/VITA)
2. Crossbell duology- this is tricky, as its never been released out west. The only solution is to learn Japanese, or It is possible to download the Chinese PC release and some unofficial English fan translations of dubious quality, but supposedly there is a better fan made translation also in the works. Alas, we may never see these "officially" come over. I personally never played it as I don't do PC gaming (or the whole mod scene), but made myself aware of its key events through online resources and whatnot.
3. Trails of Cold Steel- 1 & 2 are out now for PC & Vita, and recently just released enhanced version son PS4. 3 & 4 are out only in Japan right now, but PS4 is getting part 3 out west in September, and hopefully they will announce 4 sometime soon as well.
Ideally, it would be best to take these in via the above order. In terms of in-game timeline, the Sky games happen first, then the 2 Crossbell games and the first two Cold Steel games happen concurrently in their respective region, with Cold Steel 3 & 4 happening after and containing characters from all games that came before (but still centered around the Cold Steel protagonist)
However, each series CAN be picked up by someone new coming in and enjoyed for the most part by starting with each 1st respective game since they do introduce new protagonists/stories/regions(though some minor references/side characters might not have the significance they could have because you might have seen them make an appearance before in a previous game). Just make sure you start with the first game of each respective series (don't even think about starting with Trails 2 or Cold Steel 2 since both are direct sequels that take places right where previous game left off)
Last edited:
It's a ymmv situation. If you're interested, buy it on Steam during the sale and if you have crashing issues within the first 2 hours don't be scared to hit the refund. Otherwise, I'd wait for a sale on the PS4 version which is much more stable. On the other hand, Celceta is a fantastic game on it's own and an amazing port. I highly recommend it, even if it's not quite as good as VIII.
I heard there's a mod for the PC version of VIII that fixes some of the issues, but I can't find it anywhere myself
OP
OP
And you know what the best thing about YS VIII is? That it's not even the best Ys game released in the last 10 years. I personally found both Felghana and Origin to be vastly superior in pretty much every way, but particularly in their pacing, which makes VIII feel like a huge slog in comparison.
Although honestly, most of Falcom's catalog is pretty godlike. People already brought up how good the Trails games are, but then you also have games like Xanadu Next (which is basically Ys + Diablo + Dark Souls) or even Nayuta no Kiseki (which is basically just a stealth Ys game anyway). And if you go by western release dates, all of them were released in this decade.
Also, since you have Devil Survivor on your list, the same team also worked on several other games, most notably Growlanser Generations. Which I'd honestly say is the better game, although not by much.
Although honestly, most of Falcom's catalog is pretty godlike. People already brought up how good the Trails games are, but then you also have games like Xanadu Next (which is basically Ys + Diablo + Dark Souls) or even Nayuta no Kiseki (which is basically just a stealth Ys game anyway). And if you go by western release dates, all of them were released in this decade.
Also, since you have Devil Survivor on your list, the same team also worked on several other games, most notably Growlanser Generations. Which I'd honestly say is the better game, although not by much.
Neither of those released in the last ten years. Both phenomenal games though :P
I played Ys 8 not long ago, on PC, and damn it was such a huuuge surprise!
Granted I'm not sure I'd group action RPGs and canonical jRPGs together (but I reckon the dividing line between them has thinned out over the years) I agree it's one of the best "generic japanese RPG" I've played over the last few years.
Maybe thanks to my low expectations, maybe thanks to the fact it's such a boon to play, to move, to hear (that OST! damn!).
Loved it thoroughfully.
That sense of being lost on an island, the growing hub, the feeling of having to slowly explorer someone.
PURE GOLDEN.
I know many won't agree because of the plethora of japanese aestethic stereotypes (way less than in many other games, if you ask me) or for the technologically old engine (which is still full of very smart solutions to give a sense of "continuity" while not being open world), but it's truly magnificent.
Granted I'm not sure I'd group action RPGs and canonical jRPGs together (but I reckon the dividing line between them has thinned out over the years) I agree it's one of the best "generic japanese RPG" I've played over the last few years.
Maybe thanks to my low expectations, maybe thanks to the fact it's such a boon to play, to move, to hear (that OST! damn!).
Loved it thoroughfully.
That sense of being lost on an island, the growing hub, the feeling of having to slowly explorer someone.
PURE GOLDEN.
I know many won't agree because of the plethora of japanese aestethic stereotypes (way less than in many other games, if you ask me) or for the technologically old engine (which is still full of very smart solutions to give a sense of "continuity" while not being open world), but it's truly magnificent.
First Ys game I played and I absolutely loved it. I'd highly recommend it.
You almost had me hooked until I saw Persona Q was so high on your list and you neglected greats like Persona 5 and Dragon Quest XI. I take it this is just vastly different tastes more than anything else.
Also, to further the Falcom love- there is also Tokyo Xanadu- the expanded PS4 version isavailable right now on NA PSN for $12. This game sort of mixes the dialogue/social interaction & structure used in the Cold Steel games, with the action combat system of the Y's games, put into a modern real world high school setting (which gives it a sprinking of a Persona vibe). I also found this to be brilliant and for $12 its like the best value purchase someone can make right now. Falcom is also rumored to be looking to make this a series out of this, so I fully recommend everyone to check this out.
Last edited:
Totally agree OP—YsVIII was way better than I expected. Music, story, and combat were on point. I think I enjoyed DQXI a little more but one of the best jrpgs I've played in quite a while.
OP
OP
I loved Ys VIII, it became my favorite game in the series, finally booting Oath in Felghana to the curb. My favorite game of 2016. The mix of exploration, crafting, a great fast-paced combat system, and pretty good music (previous games in the series have had better music) made me really enjoy the game for its entire (long) length.
I was going by their English release dates, and Wikipedia lists them as 2010 (for Felghana) and 2012 (for Origin). Obviously they came out earlier in Japan, but that's not really that relevant to the English speaking audience. Same for Trails and Xanadu Next.
Also for PC players, almost the entire Falcom catalogue is on sale on Steam right now. Including all the older Ys games as well as Ys VIII (although that's not really a great platform for it, because the port is terrible. Even after all the patches, it still crashed for me somewhat regularly).
I was looking at Tokyo Xanadu (the Steam version is similarly reduced) but a lot of people were criticising the writing compared to other Falcom games?