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Best JRPGs

Rahdulan

Omnibus
Patron
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
5,105
FF6, wasn't that different from 7 really.

More true than some would acknowledge. Jokes aside, I wish they kept the ensemble cast setup going on a bit longer.

2451325_2443793_7547886474_ffplo.jpg
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
Jokes aside, I wish they kept the ensemble cast setup going on a bit longer.
I love that thing so much. It's a good alternative to full party creation in my book, while chosen one (created or pregenerated doesn't matter) + clerks is meh.
 

Zerth

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
406
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
For me, the biggest asset of a jrpg is its combat gameplay. This aspect must be a redeeming quality in contrast of long hours of mindless grinding, inane dialogues and npcs, and the obscenely lineal main guest progression. For that reason I didn't like Xenogears as a videogame, because, despite of an ambitious plot and a main character with many layers of complexity in a similar manner compared the Nameless one from PSTorment; most good ideas put into its TB combat felt wasted(everything boils down to spamming hard hitting combos and gg) the dungeon were uninspired empty hallways and the jumping mechanics were horribly inaccurate.

Anyway, here I'll list some franchises I enjoyed the most, besides chrono trigger. Perhaps for me these are the best, but is kinda understatement since I'm aware there are some CRPGs out there that did it better than those titles.

Dragon Quest (I, III, V, VIII)
Mediocre rpgs with a simplified wizardry blobber turn based combat. Is not very different from Final Fantasy, although is noticeably less pretentious in comparison. In fact, the DQ games are very simple, yet grindy, and straightforward blobbers, where magic nukes have fixed damage and some utility magic provides amusing effects (like the ability to transform into a dragon or making your foes dance). A DQ plot revolves around a set of heroes (or monsters) roaming around huge extentions of tiles land looking for mcguffins in order to access to the dominions of the current demon king, beat his ass and restore peace. Certainly not very compelling, although I found kind of interesting that the demon kings never show up until the very final encounter, just like the Castlevania Dracula.

Anyway, DQ I is curiously the only one that allows you to roam seamlessly around, the other ones always limit exploration to a certain extent until you advance further across the main quest. DQ III introduces several vocations, DQ V provides you with a personal caravan and let some monsters you defeat in battle to tag along; plus an obligatory waifu (between three choices). DQ VIII there are not classes but weapon specialization and the ability to use your arena monster champion team for a few turns.

Shin Megami Tensei ( III, IV)
The "Shin Megami Tensei" brand may even be so intertwined with Persona that people might mistake Nocturne for a game in the same franchise . An ironic fate considering "SMT" was added to Persona (and the less popular Digital Devil Saga and Devil Summoner games) for marketing purposes in the U.S. These titles use the same demon roster but still the target audience is different.

Personally, I think those are the pinnacle of standard JRPG gameplay: exploration via world map, dungeon crawling all day long, TB, and a long, involved story. Unlike many games, all these elements are set decently enough, with the emphasis being on gameplay (yay), coupled with a story that isn't overbearing via absurd exposition (not long and frequent scripted scenes). Some light C&C via an alingment system where you decide whether to side with lucifer and literally punch the jew god directly to the face and viceversa or follow a more neutral path. But the most of the fun resides within the Demon recruitment and fusion, you can either ask, beg, bribe, impress, or intimidate to convince certain monster to join your forces and eventually throw it into the blender in order to obtain a stronger guy.

There is also an interesting spinoff called Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoja. Is a Noir like jrpg with a messy real time combat.

Fire Emblem (Fire emblem GBA adaptation, Sacred Stones, Radiand Dawn, Path of Radiance)
With neat animation combat and a solid rock paper scissor weapon type triangle, the FE games are very amusing to play and behold. But this is not JA, is quite reliant on RNG and the tactics options are severely constrained, I mean, the game forces you one way to approach the enemy depending of the scenario: seize or survive waves of enemy units for X turn. You can't ambush or use any stealthy strategy, but you can exploit terrain advantages, which is the other strategic alternative to good positioning and overpowering your foe with ur strongest units. FE also is very fond of constantly putting pressure on the player by the arrival of unexpected reinforcements or waves of enemies after certain turn passed, this can be either a blessing since XP is a scarce resource or a nightmare because you realized that in the next turn they're going all in over your precious squishy units.

Is your kind of game if you enjoy being resourceful since the game just goes forward from scenario to another, and these are the only chances you have to gain XP and make units stronger (given RNG doesn't screw your unit and gives few stat points every lvl up ) so every kill count. Although, this limitation also display bad game design since it makes most units you obtain during last chapters useless and generally weaker than the units you've been training since the beginning.

Finally, I can't recommend fates or awakening. The aesthetics are clearly targeted towards teenagers, with anime clichés, lighthearted romance and Loli characters on skimpy clothes. Yeah, Fate conquest can be challenging sometimes but is pretty forgettable in everything else.
 
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karoliner

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Oct 31, 2016
Messages
5,092
Location
Most skilled black nation
Soul Nomad & the World Eaters

All of NIS PS2 are recommendable but this one is my favorite. If they stick to their schedule NISA should be putting the remaster on steam this year.
 

Shackleton

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Messages
1,301
Location
Knackers Yard
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
what's Ghost Trick about? I could google it, but i'd rather get it from a fellow codexer.
Well it ain't a JRPG, for starters. Very story-focued puzzle game, I personally loved it.

Fists for all the Ghost Trick recommendations. I'd never heard of it until now but I've been playing it a lot on my phone and it's pretty awesome. A perfect phone game as well on an emulator. Trust the JRPG forum to provide some good advice. :obviously:
 

RuySan

Augur
Joined
Jul 11, 2005
Messages
777
Location
Portugal
No mention of xenoblade chronicles so far? Yes, I know combat is way to much mmorpeger, but it's such an awesome setting and great for exploration.

The graphics are kind of shit though, and I wished it was made with more powerful hardware in mind.
 

Zetor

Arcane
Joined
Jan 9, 2003
Messages
1,706
Location
Budapest, Hungary
Regarding Fire Emblem, I mostly agree with the GBA games being superior, but imo Fates Conquest is worth a play for a simple reason: the actual battle maps / mechanics. It just feels like it has a lot more tacticool depth than earlier titles (granted, I only played FE6/7), gives a lot more options to the player, and there's a pretty good variance of objectives and map-specific gimmicks to keep things fresh. It is also a lot more fair to a blind playthrough than something like FE6 with its lolrandom reinforcements that attack you immediately on spawn and proceed to one-round your squishies.

Most other new things in nu-FE are dumb (castle farmville minigame including marriage and chocobo pokemon child breeding, 'no permadeath' mode, pay-to-win DLC, ridiculously long 3D combat animations for ~immersion~), the story/writing is obnoxiously terrible, and the only characters that don't make me want to stab a kitten are the comic relief dudes and MAYBE 1-2 story characters. So yea, I wouldn't recommend Birthright or (from what I've read) Revelations / Awakening, but if you like tactical RPGs, Conquest is worth a look... as long as you are don't mind judicious use of the 'skip' button.
 
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Theldaran

Liturgist
Joined
Oct 10, 2015
Messages
1,772
I was the happiest kid on Christmas 1994 when I played Phantasy Star IV. It blew my mind. Fortunately, for newcomers it's available at Steam for a ridiculous price, with built-in Genesis emulation.

As I grew I was struck by the Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8 steamrollers. Very nice games, grandest of their time.

I also started to play FF9 but never got to finish it :( Entering university and whatnot. And I never got a PS2 so I didn't taste FFX.

Bravely Default for 3DS, can be nice for a lot of people, but I think it's far from perfect. Also, a big problem of FFs and most JRPG is the massive amount of grind you have to do. Even if you have the time, it's booooring.

Stella Glow: great tactical RPG for 3DS where they keep grinding to a minimum, I'll always recommend it.

Lots of games for the DS that sadly I never got (I planned to buy the console but never gathered the money). Emulation can help.

Fire Emblem, and Shining Force, staples.

Etrian Odyssey, but I didn't quite grew to like it. It has a lot of followers though. There are like 3 entries available in the West, plus Persona Q.

Anything with the Atlus label deserves to take a look at it. It's the true religion.

Plus Valkyria Chronicles, Skies of Arcadia, Grandia... the list goes on and on and spans at least from the 32-bit era till now.
 

Perkel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,810
Bravely Default for 3DS, can be nice for a lot of people


A lot of what you said rings true. But what the fuck dude. Fuck yourself with hundret dirty 100inch nails for next milion years. Anyone who proposes BD as good jrpg is like proposing Auchszwitz as good summercamp. You are truly evil man.

BD despite good looks and for a few hours interesting combat is very definition of BAD jrpg. What is worse you play same fucking game about 4-5 times in row because they couldn't fucking make more than 5 cities which all are basically just 10 screens. Dungeons are fucking #1 worst designed crap i ever seen. Only thing that mostly works for jrpg aka either story or journey of characters is uber bad. Aside from combat for few hours there is nothing even media-core about this game.

Seriously. I played Lunar Silver Star Harmony (or whatever it was called) and despite clishes it managed and crappy old jrpg combat in most clishest of ways managed to actually have hearth inside it and something to remember.

Only thing anyone will remember BD for will be fucking 5 times in row playing same game. Newgrounds is max where that game should be displayed. Hell even it is way to below flash games.
 

Theldaran

Liturgist
Joined
Oct 10, 2015
Messages
1,772
Bravely Default for 3DS, can be nice for a lot of people


A lot of what you said rings true. But what the fuck dude. Fuck yourself with hundret dirty 100inch nails for next milion years. Anyone who proposes BD as good jrpg is like proposing Auchszwitz as good summercamp. You are truly evil man.

BD despite good looks and for a few hours interesting combat is very definition of BAD jrpg. What is worse you play same fucking game about 4-5 times in row because they couldn't fucking make more than 5 cities which all are basically just 10 screens. Dungeons are fucking #1 worst designed crap i ever seen. Only thing that mostly works for jrpg aka either story or journey of characters is uber bad. Aside from combat for few hours there is nothing even media-core about this game.

Seriously. I played Lunar Silver Star Harmony (or whatever it was called) and despite clishes it managed and crappy old jrpg combat in most clishest of ways managed to actually have hearth inside it and something to remember.

Only thing anyone will remember BD for will be fucking 5 times in row playing same game. Newgrounds is max where that game should be displayed. Hell even it is way to below flash games.

You're very right. I was deceived when I first bought it. I thought it was a console-seller. At first everyone praised it and it looked fine under the naked eye. But, truth is I haven't found the time to finish it in 3 years, and that's all the proof you need.

The world is indeed barren, it operates as a very watered down classic Final Fantasy. Combat is probably its best feature, but it has grinding (you won't get too far turning off the regular encounters). Characters are lifeless. Story is cookie-cutter stuff. It's just a FF effort done 15 years after Square's age of glory. I bet it's the same with "Shitsuna". Who the heck are working today at Squeenix?

I won't address the farce in the late game, but all I hear is upsetting.

I just mentioned it because some people have been known to tolerate its deep blemishes. Also second part, which is more of the same, features a prominent waifu. Censure and all... what could possibly go wrong...
 

Sigourn

uooh afficionado
Joined
Feb 6, 2016
Messages
5,625
On a scale from 1 to weaboo, where do the following franchises land at?

- Suikoden (I, II, III)
- Breath of Fire (I, II, III, IV, V)
- The Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky (I, II, III)

I'm interested in great gameplay, but not at the cost of cringy stories like those of Final Fantasy.
 

flyingjohn

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2012
Messages
2,945
On a scale from 1 to weaboo, where do the following franchises land at?

- Suikoden (I, II, III)
- Breath of Fire (I, II, III, IV, V)
- The Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky (I, II, III)

I'm interested in great gameplay, but not at the cost of cringy stories like those of Final Fantasy.

The order you listed them as.
 

Sigourn

uooh afficionado
Joined
Feb 6, 2016
Messages
5,625
On a scale from 1 to weaboo, where do the following franchises land at?

- Suikoden (I, II, III)
- Breath of Fire (I, II, III, IV, V)
- The Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky (I, II, III)

I'm interested in great gameplay, but not at the cost of cringy stories like those of Final Fantasy.

The order you listed them as.

Very insightful, thank you. I found the following two threads that seem to appeal to my tastes, in case anyone's interested:

- jRPGs that might appeal to wRPG fans
- JRPGs more appealing to the western eyez...
 

Zerth

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
406
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
On a scale from 1 to weaboo, where do the following franchises land at?

- Suikoden (I, II, III)
- Breath of Fire (I, II, III, IV, V)
- The Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky (I, II, III)

I'm interested in great gameplay, but not at the cost of cringy stories like those of Final Fantasy.

Breath of Fire III and IV are pretty rough. Enemies are generally smart and tough to deal with at first, although I admit those will become a pushover after you get the hang of it, or grind like a Korean NEET. BoF III has better gameplay, but BOF IV offers a more "atypical" story.

Allow me to elaborate. As you going farther through the story , you realize that everything points towards a direction,which is about an inevitable confrontation, but at the same time you cannot get rid of the feeling that there are another more urgent things to do. And yet, you know that you can't do shit, since your role in the history - like Ryu- is very different. Both in those climatic moments you experience as Ryu, or incarnated as Fou-lu, we shall helplessly witness real injustices that are quite rare to see within a JRPG story. The gap between what truly defines a heroe or a villain is pretty narrow, and the protagonist's motivations are uncomfortable. BOF 4 was criticized by its approach on the sense of urgency; and all the forced harsh situations you have to deal with. But I sincerely believe that it is without a doubt its greatest virtue. I have not played any other JRPG -except perhaps, Xenogears- to convey such an atypical feeling.
 

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
6,235
Now it's widely accepted that ff6 is a good RPG? What happened to the codex I knew? Mainstream jrpg s used to be the epitome of decline.

I like ff6 by the way, even if it's not among my favourites.

Non-autistic members started speaking their minds as well. FF6 is top-notch.

Indeed. JRPGs were simply different. Pre-canned scripted stories (not necessarily a concept that is better or worse than player-driven ones). Gamey gameplay: notable focus on mini-games, and general heavily abstract elements for the sake of just providing fun without autistic focus on immersion and realism. None of this is a obvious bad thing, just different. Modern RPGs of pretty much any kind otoh are just pure shit.

The many best of old school wRPG and JRPG are both generally variably good, and are considered classics for a reason. The thought of modern RPGs going down in history as a positive thing thanks to cuck game journos and the inexperience of mainstream gamers is unsettling.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
13,999
Location
Platypus Planet
BoF III has better gameplay, but BOF IV offers a more "atypical" story.

They are nearly identical, the only difference between BoF3 & 4 is with the dragon systems. In BoF4, Ryu has a set list of Dragons he can morph into. In BoF3 you collect genes that you can mix and match to create your own variations of dragon forms, which is theoretically great, but it still comes down to using the Kaiser form only in either case, because it's the strongest.
And in BoF3's case, you wont even get to use the gene splicing until the later half of the game.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,539
Location
Nottingham
Love JRPGs, gunna have to read some of the recommendations when I've some more time later.
Have to say though, wasn't keen on the BOF games which I played. Not bad by any means, but not particularly enjoyable either.
 

RuySan

Augur
Joined
Jul 11, 2005
Messages
777
Location
Portugal
When it comes to settings, i don't think any jrpg has beaten Phantasy Star (all of them except 3). It had the fantasy meets sci-fi aspect spot on. Xenoblade Chronicles has also a great setting, with a world made of two frozen giants fighting. Well...now that I think of it, most settings in jrpgs are actually more intriguing and interesting that in wrpg's. It's the cringe dialogues and grindy gameplay that drag many of these games down.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,539
Location
Nottingham
When it comes to settings, i don't think any jrpg has beaten Phantasy Star (all of them except 3). It had the fantasy meets sci-fi aspect spot on. Xenoblade Chronicles has also a great setting, with a world made of two frozen giants fighting. Well...now that I think of it, most settings in jrpgs are actually more intriguing and interesting that in wrpg's. It's the cringe dialogues and grindy gameplay that drag many of these games down.

Phantasy Star 4 still holds up as a great RPG today IMO. I loved the idea behind PS3 and various other aspects too including the story. Would love to see a reboot/remake of PS3 + sequels.
 

RuySan

Augur
Joined
Jul 11, 2005
Messages
777
Location
Portugal
Wasn't the grinding for the most part optional?
 

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