Old/obscure/underrated JRPGs

[Kem0sabe]

Still my favorite Sega Saturn game and imminently playable to this day.

Spoiler

 

[nomask7]

The 7th Saga.

 

[Dreaad]

Some good stuff here. I would definitely nominate Rudra No Hihou.

A very solid SNES JRPG, that requires a fan translation patch.

The story is actually quite intresting. Essentially a certain god creates a bunch of different races of creatures, lets them live for a while, then destroys most of them, letting his "favorite" race live on. So it becomes a sort of cycle of the races trying to gain his favor so as not to be destroyed and live through another cycle. Obviously this time humans are in the mix and they do not much like the idea of living under this sort of tyranny so they fight back. Throughout the game you pick up allies from some of the elder races to help you out. It story has a certain element of mystery to it, which is actually quite fun to unravel (I haven't spoiled anything).

Another interesting thing, is that the story is told from 4 different POV. When you start, you get to name 4 chars, then you pick which char's story you want to play through. You can also save and switch char's at any time, advance their story for a while before switching back, which makes it much easier to not burn out on a particular story thread. Each of the 4 main char's get their own different party of allies and of course they encounter the other parties at key moments. It's all done very well, links all the story threads together very nicely.

The graphics are well, an interesting mix of a pretty bad overworld map, but fantastic combat/dungeons on par with FF6. Combat animations are very nice, with unique attack/spellcasting for each of the 20+ chars (quite a feat). Music is good, memorable.

By far the most amazing thing in this game is the unique magic system. You essentially make spells from words which you type from an alphabet (you can save the spells you make, so you don't have to type them out repeatedly). For example "Ig" creates a weak little flame spell, add "ga" to the end of a spell and it makes a stronger version of that spell. There is a shit load of spell combinations, all of which you can make from the start of the game, if you know what letters are required to make them. The limit to abusing this system is that stronger spells cost more mana, so low level char's won't be able to cast them.

Anyway I highly recommend you check it out if you've never played it.

 

[Whisky]

Totally forgot about Rudra. I stopped playing for no reason years ago, I should really beat it.

Combat animations were really good for the SNES.

The 7th Saga.

7th Saga was pretty damn cool, but the ending was a major letdown, namely, it being the same for every main character.

 

[Koschey]

TotR also features a pretty neat soundtrack. Regarding the mantra system, there are basically 3 types of mantras: The syllable-based ones Dreadd mentions, where you have basemantras determining the elemental affinity as well as pre- and suffixes to modify power, cost, number of targets, wether it's an attack or shield spell, and so on. Then there's some special mantras produced by actual words, like PHOENIX granting the auto-life status; these differ from the aforementioned mantras in that the pre- and suffixes don't work with them. Finally, if you spell out a mantra that fits neither of the first two categories, it's not refused, but instead has a quasi-random effect (that is, its effect is determined by some obscure algorithm). Good stuff.
Props to Gideon Zhi (the fan translator) for modifying the mantra system to use a western alphabet.


Talking of 7th Saga, there's also Mystic Ark from the same developer. It didn't get released in the west, but there are two translation patches out (Aeon Genesis and Dynamic Designs). Graphics- and gameplay-wise the ties to 7th Saga are immediately obvious, though Mystic Ark is a LOT less grindy than 7th Saga.
In the intro you see some people become transformed into wooden figurines and appearing in a shrine or temple. The game starts with a voice calling out to your (silent) main character (male or female) , also a wooden figurine. You manage to recall you true self by an act of will, the first person to ever do so. Turns out, the temple is on an isolated island and both temple and island are devoid of any people. This island is some kind of dimensional hub and in trying to find your way back home, you travel to many different worlds. Like the Dragon Quest series, the focus here is more on the locations you travel to and the people living there than on the main characters personal quest. The first world you'll visit is inhabited be two feuding crews of cat pirates, living in their land-bound ships.
I haven't actually completed the game yet or gotten very far, but intend to play it to completion in the near future. It has a nice atmosphere and there's quite a bit to discover if you keep your eyes open.

 

[Valestein]

Some good news for lesser known/obscure PC JRPG fans.

Xseed Looking To Bring More Games, “Especially JRPGs,” To PC

Hopefully this means we'll be getting Falcom's Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and Xanadu Next on Steam.

 

[Coriolanus]

Some obsure-ish jRPGs (in a VERY broad sense):

Alcahest [SNES, 1993] - Zeldalike with an arcade game feel (Golden Axe + Crystalis?), simple but very action-packed. You get an AI partner - an actually useful one, too.

Dream Maze [SNES, 1994] - A very simple dungeon crawler with a few original ideas (pretty good ones, at that), but also very charming with its over-the-top silliness - a great game to relax with when you're having a break from some more sadistic crawler (sort of like what DoomRL is to more serious roguelikes, if that comparison makes sense). You get to kick plush rabbits in the face (literally)!

Some other relatively obscure ones that I haven't had a chance to try properly but heard good things about: Inindo - Way of the Ninja (SRPG? not sure), Jyuitei Senki, Monstania (looks like a fun SRPG), Torneko's Great Adventure (Shiren look-alike), Treasure Hunter G (SRPG, controls like Monstania).

If anyone could share feedback/impressions on these, that would be sweet.

Some obscure PSX RPGs, some not so good:

Hoshigami - Ruining Blue Earth - some cool ideas in an SRPG (+ high difficulty, as the odds are always stacked against you) ruined by terrible interface that asks you to confirm literally every action you take; if you have a lot of patience, the payoff might be worth it.

Kartia - SRPG with a great story and cool art (Amano, uncensored), but the gameplay ... not my cup of tea. May be of historic interest to some.

There's also a Torneko game on PSX, apperently it's quite good.

I haven't had much spare time lately, but once I do I'll make sure to play more of these games and do a more satisfying write-up.

 

[yes plz]

Speaking of Dragon Force, I loved Albert Odyssey, which was also for the Saturn and localized by Working Designs. It was a fairly standard JRPG with turn based battles, the usual level-up system, a world map, towns, and even a fairly typical 'save the world' type of plot. What made it special was Working Designs' localization, they managed to add a ton of character to the game.

I know a lot of people bitched and complained about their translations not being accurate enough, but I fucking loved them.

 

[Cool name]

It has two sequels, but I did not play them.

 

[Whisky]

Laplace had two sequels? Really?

I mean, the game was alright, I remember the translation patch was buggy.

 

[Karmapowered]

Hopefully this means we'll be getting Falcom's Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and Xanadu Next on Steam.

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

Very good game that one, hardly old/obscure/underrated however

I've played it on my PSP and I would recommend it.

There is hope they'll also consider porting the whole series if it has any success (which it should).

 

[Valestein]

Hopefully this means we'll be getting Falcom's Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and Xanadu Next on Steam.

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

Very good game that one, hardly old/obscure/underrated however

I've played it on my PSP and I would recommend it.

There is hope they'll also consider porting the whole series if it has any success (which it should).

Xseed has been trying to localize the sequel at a slow pace.

I want more of Olivier and his antics.

 

[eric__s]

Speaking of Dragon Force, I loved Albert Odyssey, which was also for the Saturn and localized by Working Designs. It was a fairly standard JRPG with turn based battles, the usual level-up system, a world map, towns, and even a fairly typical 'save the world' type of plot. What made it special was Working Designs' localization, they managed to add a ton of character to the game.

I know a lot of people bitched and complained about their translations not being accurate enough, but I fucking loved them.

Ahahaha, Working Designs was the worst company. I remember there was a little video disc that came with the Playstation version of Lunar that had like 5 seconds of Albert Odyssey footage on it but I never knew what the game actually was. It looked so cool at the time, but it seems like the kind of game I wouldn't be able to tolerate anymore. Anyway, thanks for helping me figure out what that game was. Maybe I'll give it a try.

 

[Cool name]

Laplace had two sequels? Really?

Yup. パラケルススの魔剣 (I think that's Magic sword of Paracelsus, though I have remember seeing 魔剣 translated as Cursed Sword once or twice so maybe it is Cursed Sword of Paracelsus instead. If I do not remember it wrong the Kanji taken individually would be 'Demon Sword,' so maybe the usual translation as 'Magic Sword' is actually kind of freeform...) and 黒き死の仮面 (Something along the lines of Mask of Black Death).

Edit: Though maybe calling them 'sequels' may be somewhat misleading. All I know is that the three games went by the name of 'Ghost Hunter Series' so maybe is more of a thematic grouping instead of them being direct sequels or so.

 

[Night Goat]

Google Translate says that パラケルススの魔剣 is Magic Sword of Paracelsus, and 黒き死の仮面 is Masque of the Black Death. Unfortunately, Google told the NSA that I was translating something from Japanese, and now I'm in an internment camp

 

[SCO]

That legend of heroes game has actually a very good translation and somewhat lowkey story; that either indicates that normal translations are absolutely shit or that the guys that did the original game had the right idea. Pity it relies on linear triggers.

 

[Valestein]

That legend of heroes game has actually a very good translation and somewhat lowkey story; that either indicates that normal translations are absolutely shit or that the guys that did the original game had the right idea. Pity it relies on linear triggers.

Trails in the Sky reminded me a lot of the original Witcher game with the act/hub structure, monster/guild contracts and how main story tends to fade into the background for most of it.

 

[Coriolanus]

Are the story elements in Part 1 worth it, assuming we never get to see 2 and 3 in English?

How is it difficulty-wise, and does combat offer more variety later on?

 

[Azrael the cat]

Some good stuff here. I would definitely nominate Rudra No Hihou.

A very solid SNES JRPG, that requires a fan translation patch.

The story is actually quite intresting. Essentially a certain god creates a bunch of different races of creatures, lets them live for a while, then destroys most of them, letting his "favorite" race live on. So it becomes a sort of cycle of the races trying to gain his favor so as not to be destroyed and live through another cycle. Obviously this time humans are in the mix and they do not much like the idea of living under this sort of tyranny so they fight back. Throughout the game you pick up allies from some of the elder races to help you out. It story has a certain element of mystery to it, which is actually quite fun to unravel (I haven't spoiled anything).

Another interesting thing, is that the story is told from 4 different POV. When you start, you get to name 4 chars, then you pick which char's story you want to play through. You can also save and switch char's at any time, advance their story for a while before switching back, which makes it much easier to not burn out on a particular story thread. Each of the 4 main char's get their own different party of allies and of course they encounter the other parties at key moments. It's all done very well, links all the story threads together very nicely.

The graphics are well, an interesting mix of a pretty bad overworld map, but fantastic combat/dungeons on par with FF6. Combat animations are very nice, with unique attack/spellcasting for each of the 20+ chars (quite a feat). Music is good, memorable.

By far the most amazing thing in this game is the unique magic system. You essentially make spells from words which you type from an alphabet (you can save the spells you make, so you don't have to type them out repeatedly). For example "Ig" creates a weak little flame spell, add "ga" to the end of a spell and it makes a stronger version of that spell. There is a shit load of spell combinations, all of which you can make from the start of the game, if you know what letters are required to make them. The limit to abusing this system is that stronger spells cost more mana, so low level char's won't be able to cast them.

Anyway I highly recommend you check it out if you've never played it.

Reminds me of one of my favourite and under-used story structures in crpgs, despite being used a LOT in adventure games (Grim Fandango, Under a Killing Moon, Azrael's Tear in some ways, arguably also I have no mouth in some ways): start the player with a moderate objective (PS:T example - solve who you are and find a way to die, perhaps undoing the curse your immortality has brought upon the world; MoTB - rid yourself of the curse), then slowly tempt the player with the idea that there is some greater goal that they can achieve - right the wrongs of Sigil, either undo the wall of the faithless or replace it with something fairer, live happily ever after with Annah/FFG, etc. But make the 2nd goal intrinsically linked to your character's failures - not necessarily the player's failures, but these are tragedies caused in part by your character. They are attempts to right major wrongs that your character has created.

And then pull the rug out from the character at the last minute. Let them win the original goal, but let the 'greater goal' play out as tragedy - a compromise between tragedy and game-winning. Also closer to the Elizabethan/Edwardian tragedy (that I greatly prefer to the Greek/Roman tragedies) - I always loved it that the hero can still kick ass in Elizabethan tragedy, and it can still qualify as a tragedy: Hamlet, McDuff (even the english prince that tries to take on MacBeth in the final battle only to find himself massively outmatched and killed), both Edward and Cordelia in Lear are all major badasses. And that's without even getting to the 'Revenge tragedy' models of the Edwardian/Victorian eras, where the 'tragic heroes' generally slaughter their way through every motherfucker who did them wrong. It's the idea that you can get the emotional pull of tragedy without having to have an 'everyone loses' ending - there's no end of examples in English and French writing, and PS:T and MoTB nailed it (as did a fuckload of adventure games).

The plotline you've suggested seems utter gold for that. Start with the idea that humans want to preserve their place, whether by defeating the other races or defeating the gods that are imposing the unfair system. But then slowly slip in the idea that you might be able to achieve something greater - that you might be able to not only survive this, but replace it with a fairer system. That you can not only defeat the old gods, but be better than them - create a better world than they could ever have managed.

Only for you to win your initial objectives, but finally have shoved in your face the obvious fact - that SHOULD be obvious, if not for the game actively working to distract you from it over the last half of the game - that humans are just as fucked up as the gods they're replacing, and that anything loftier than mere survival is as doomed to fail as the quest to destroy the wall of the faithless in MotB.

Not sure whether the game actually takes that path. But it seems like the kind of game that could do it well.

 

[Valestein]

Are the story elements in Part 1 worth it, assuming we never get to see 2 and 3 in English?

How is it difficulty-wise, and does combat offer more variety later on?

Part 1's main plot is resolved in the game but there's a major cliffhanger involving one of the two main characters in the ending, so outside of that issue it be taken as a standalone title. The cast is pretty enjoyable overall as well(Olivier Lenheim being one of my fave companions ever).

Difficulty-wise, it's not all too difficult provided you know what you're doing(ie have the proper spells and utilize crafts and s-crafts well) and do most/all of the side quests. Combat does get more varied later on due to the various spells set ups you can create and crafts that you unlock(character specific abilities that you can use with control points gained over the course of a battle) and the various enemies that prop up in due time.

 

[Dreaad]

Does Bahamat Lagoon count as a JRPG? Granted it didn't have the most riveting story. But man did I love the idea of living on a giant floating island/ship with a group of dragons. The game did have some interesting mechanics I believe (it's been a while). Something about feeding said dragons any item you want and making them change into different forms... + the usual turn based tactics gameplay.

 

[Valestein]

This is by far one of the most obscure and niche games I've heard of, Falcom's Japanese 2002 PC exclusive "Dinosaur: Ressurection", which is a remake of their '89 game "Dinosaur".

 

[nomask7]

Mystic Ark is a LOT less grindy than 7th Saga.

What do you mean by the 7th Saga being grindy? With the exception of Chrono Trigger, pretty much every JRPG has tons of random combat encounters that are as a rule rather difficult to escape from. The 7th Saga is about the only JRPG where random encounters added something to the game rather than distracted from it. The dungeons could actually be exciting.

Grinding a little bit on a few occasions was advisable, but more than that and you'd be shooting yourself in the foot because the bosses were level scaled but your equipment wasn't.

I've not beaten the game -- I guess I got something like half-way through -- but I almost never did any grinding.

 

[Damned Registrations]

From what I recall of 7th Saga (though I admittedly didn't play very far, maybe to the 2nd rune or so?) just getting to the boss was pretty much impossible unless you grinded before hand. Then you'd need to grind more so you could get to the boss relatively unscathed, instead of beaten to shit so you die in the first round.

There are other games with worse systems that require grinding (Inindo is retarded for the later bosses) but 7th Saga was not a game you could play through without making multiple trips through the same dungeon/grinding before you had a chance to kill the boss.

Final fantasy games, for example, you can generally just walk straight through, provided you aren't beelining for the boss while missing every treasure and encounter along the way. The same could be said of more than half of all jrpgs I think.

 

[nomask7]

Did you try to solo through it or something? Or maybe you chose a crappy companion.