JRPGs with free-form exploration that doesn't suck

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Such a JRPG exists? By JRPG I mean any RPGs made in Japan, could be any game where you progress not just with player skill but growing skills, stats etc.

I know of Romancing Saga for instance but that has level scaling bosses and other fuckery that makes me not want to touch it.

Most JRPGs have some hidden stuff here and there but it's almost always "here, have a potion so you don't feel like you wasted your 10 minutes walking down this corridor!". All FFs are like that AFAIK, FFX12 gives you some some illusion of freedom but ultimately it's another story corridor, nowhere near Gothics where you could just explore and find massively useful herbs, stumble across and get eaten by a shadowbeast etc or Fallouts or BG1/2 even. I thought Dark Souls could be close but that turned out just the old linear platforming trial-and-error "learn the optimal way to do things and do it" action gameplay with a bit of RPG flair.

 

[Hobo Elf]

FFX12 gives you some some illusion of freedom but ultimately nowhere close to Gothics where you could just explore and find massively useful herbs, stumble across and get eaten by a shadowbeast etc

But that's exactly what the exploration in FF12 is like..

 

[an Administrator]

Freedom is an illusion, even in video games.

 

[index.php]

Metal Max Returns

 

[Hyperion]

Xenoblade Chronicles. But even that's basically FF12 with actual cooldown-based MMO combat.
Dragon's Dogma
Uncharted Waters: New Horizons
Dragon Warrior 1
The Last Remnant. The game pretty much forces you to do side content the entire time.
Legend of Legacy.

 

[Damned Registrations]

The FF's tend to be better about exploration the older they get. Even in the relatively newer ones you still get stuff like new summons or the best weapons by exploring well in the late game. In the earlier ones (I'd say 1-5) you can find entire towns and such out of sequence, and a lot of the hidden/sidequest items are really powerful, unique items. Chrono Trigger is like that too, although it's so easy it doesn't matter much. Lufia 2 has a similar problem; secret items are often immensely powerful for when you get them, but they're moving the bar from 'only an idiot would get a game over' to 'everything dies in one hit'. The first few 'Tales of' games also fit this bill. Star Ocean 2 goes so far as to give you mutually exclusive secret characters for your party, but the default difficulty is again pretty low (it's actually decent on the hardest setting, but I'm pretty sure that's not an option on the first playthrough.)

SMT: Nocturne might be your best bet. There's no equipment to speak of, but the game is challenging enough that finding decent chunks of money or rare consumables feels like a pretty nice reward and some of the better magatama are hidden iirc. It's just a really solid game in general, and the fiends are very worth exploring for.

 

[Momock]

Golden Sun 2 let you explore the world a do quests with a lot of freedom in the order you choose to do it, but you have to get certain powers to reach certains places/solve dungeons (metroidvania style, but in an open world). AND the game is great.

Edit: I forgot to mention that you obtain your powers by "equiping" little elemental creatures called "djinns" that you find on the world map or in villages and dungeons. There is a set amount of these creatures in the world but and they are all identicals. So if, for example, you need to froze water to get somewhere and the spell requiers three water djinns, what three water djinns you found first does't matter while you have three. It's why you have more freedom in the way you explore than in a metroidvania where each power is in a unique place.

 

[TigerKnee]

Lunatic Dawn series whenever it gets a fan-translation.

I know of Romancing Saga for instance but that has level scaling bosses and other fuckery that makes me not want to touch it.

Your loss.

 

[Ebonsword]

Xenoblade Chronicles. But even that's basically FF12 with actual cooldown-based MMO combat.
Dragon's Dogma
Uncharted Waters: New Horizons
Dragon Warrior 1
The Last Remnant. The game pretty much forces you to do side content the entire time.
Legend of Legacy.

Here's another vote for Dragon's Dogma. You're hemmed in a bit at first, but very soon the world opens up and you can go almost anywhere. You can find some quite good loot early on if you head to areas beyond where the game is directing you (of course, you'll likely die horribly on the way, but that's part of the fun).

 

[buru5]

You're barred off from some places at the beginning, but eventually it opens up into a completely explorable world with 100s of sidequests, multiple jobs, crafting, etc. Action based combat. Full character creation. Somewhat kiddie, but it's enjoyable in a very relaxing way. This game surprised me, became one of my favorite 3DS games very quickly.

 

[Haplo]

Final Fantasy 7 was quite good at this. Some of the best items/abilities (several orders of magnitude better then "regular"ones) can only be gotten trough entirely optional exploration. Like regular summons/spells will do up to 9999 damage, but if you reach Knights of the Round, that will be up to 13 x 9999 damage. You pretty much need those OP abilities if you want to take on 2 optional hidden bosses.
But the extreme exploration isn't easy / free. You need better transport vehicles if you want to reach every nook and cranny. For example to reach the mentioned KotR, you need to first breed a Golden Chocobo who can traverse all kinds of terrain. In order to breed such a rare specimen you need racing minigame champion parents of appropriate rare colours, also bred before.