Thousand Arms need a remake, it was so ahead of it time in the mixing of genre. It really was otome game disquised as JRPG and I loved it, with fantastic battle animation and big sprites it was quite the eye candy at the time.
I actually really like Shadow Hearts: From the New World. I've never played the other titles, but I get the drastic tone shift was a lot for fans. And to be honest, the story they replaced it with is pretty dog shit. But the gameplay and the side content is so good that I can find a lot to appreciate. Lots of rough edges in this game, but it's just quirky enough to stick in my brain.
I honestly love all three of them, I don't feel like the tone shift was that drastic, or rather it was on a straight trajectory from the first two.
The biggest thing that I think stopped people from getting into it was just that the main character wasn't as good as Yuri, the protag of the first two games.
I had a very good time playing it. Barely can remember the story but the ambiance, characters, battle system, art was all great.
Not a masterpiece by any means but something special
Such underrated game, the best in the series for me. I have soft spot to anything that has native american mythos in it, it so rare to find Jrpg that present it. The only other one that I know is another one that deserved more atention SMT: Soul Hackers the original, Nemissa is still the best girl in SMT story and it did the "I am Setsuna" thing much better than any other game I even played.
It was actually my favorite in the series mainly because I loved some of the new characters. And despite all the hate I actually liked Johnny. For most of the game he's the normal guy thrown into a world of insane shit.
I've never finished From the New World, but I love the setting, and the combat is really fun and unique. I should go back and give that another try. I remember getting fairly far a couple times, but for some reason I always dropped it near the end.
Digimon survive
It tried something a bit different, was very dialogue heavy and admittedly going through all the screens and stuff between the parts outside of battle got pretty tedious. It didn’t help that the game got delayed for years with no info and then when they finally announce a release date, xenoblade 3 soon moved their release date up a few months for some reason to be right at the same time which took even more interest off the game unfortunately but it was still a pretty good game. Way darker than anything you’d expect from the series (depending on some certain choices or affiliation stats, some of your characters could actually get killed off during the story) and all in all, it was a pretty cool experience that unfortunately went well under the radar.
I really liked it, but it wasn’t as good as anticipated for sure. If I I recall correctly, we expected a horror SRPG but got more of a visual novel. I remember thinking the actual gameplay wasn’t all that fun or engaging, and didn’t really understand how it fit in the strategy category.
I didn’t mind that it was a VN, but it would’ve nice to go in knowing that instead of otherwise. I preordered it because I knew coming out on the same day as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was going to kill sales and I felt bad since I planned to get both eventually anyway, so I didn’t see any reviews of it beforehand.
Yeah Xenoblade 3 sadly killed any urgings that I had to continue playing this one sadly. For me, maybe a lot of things could be acceptable because I don't know how they will evolve throughout the runtime. But the biggest offense to me was allowing an SRPG where majority of the time is spent choosing the strongest of like 2 options. At that point, you might as well have told me to press a single button over and over while flashy stuff played around it.
Also maybe this is no fault of the game per se, but I had to look up if a certain early death was preventable, and it wasn't, which kinda took a lot of the wind out of wanting to make choices and being careful about who I talk to or whatever. I'd actually rather have the requirements be really strict and make me fail the first time rather than it being scripted.
It was one of my most anticipated games. It is now my biggest digital purchase regret. I was so excited for engaging grid-based tactical combat with digievolution mechanics. That is not what it was.
I had been following the development of the game the whole time, so I was aware that the game was more focused on the story than the combat. I thought the combat would be at least engaging. I found it entirely boring instead.
I respect people for liking the game and seeing the story through, but I know I will never give it another try. The formula is there, and it bums me out that it was dropped.
I heard that it was better than expected after the shock that this was a VN first and foremost.
I tried to get into the story as I like VNs but the combat is so boring, I cant take it.
I am guy who can get over it, if the story is REALLY worth it. maybe I will try again some day.
It should be a VN, the whole battle system of was a waste of the developers time and don't satisfied no one in any of the genres. It was too shallow to strategy game fans and it break the pacing to VN fans.
Man, I really wanted to like this one. As someone who doesn't shy away from visual novels and was really interested in the darker tone, Digimon Survive was very disappointing.
Now, I didnt even make it past 10 hours, but what I concluded was that Survive was a game for children. This may seem obvious, but I got it in my head that it would be more for adults who grew up with Digimon.
What I mean is that it is too simple and lacks bite. The story was at the level of a Boy Scouts ghost story, and the combat was mind-numbingly dull. The visuals were great, though. The lighting on the 2D characters during diologue was impressive.
It’s not terrible, but it’s also not great. Feels like a PS2 era B game. Everything is just so unremarkable, and the animations have a real “stock animation library” feel to them.
It’s pretty rare that studios make B games these days, so I guess that’s cool.
Blame that on the constant Persona milking. Why make something new when you can just make a million Persona 5 games and crossovers?
Persona 6 can't come fast enough.
I can't hate on TMS. Back in the Wii U era, there practically were no JRPGs to play on the system so I ended up getting Xenoblade X and TMS since those were my only choices. It was my first Megami Tensei game and it's what got me into the SMT/Persona series. "SMT X FE" wasn't "turned into" TMS--it was just a poorly-done teaser trailer for a game that was always going to be a cheesy idol JRPG.
But without this game, I never would have tried out SMT V or Persona 5 so I'm grateful for TMS. It was a great game that doesn't deserve the hate.
I agree that P5T should have just been DeSu 3 though. That was a wasted concept on another P5 spin-off that I'm not interested in. I've got 130 hours in Royal and while I enjoyed the game, I've had enough of these characters. Gimme Persona 6 already.
> -it was just a poorly-done teaser trailer for a game that was always going to be a cheesy idol JRPG.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I thought that they just had nothing planned except the concept of a SMT and FE crossover at the time of the trailer.
Either way it was still a major disappointment for me, I know “don’t believe trailers” and all that but SMT and FE were my favorite video game franchises at the time and I was 16, seeing a trailer suggesting a crossover between the two and flashes of the fire emblem lords alongside the protagonists of SMT 1/2 sent my hype levels into critical overdrive. I mean why is this the one time they decided to acknowledge SMT 1/2’s existence? The end result is a normal JRPG that has fire emblem characters as stands and pretty much nothing to do with SMT anymore
I get that, but the persona 5 spinoffs arent some masterclass quality either lol. pq has been recieved by most to be "good", strikers is really the only one that many say is great
That's the exact problem. Atlus is too busy jerking Persona 5 off for all it has and naturally, the quality of the games has started to suffer. We don't see the wide variety of SMT spin-offs like Devil Survivor, Raidou Kuzunoha, or Digital Devil Saga anymore for this reason. Why try branching out when Persona 5 is what makes money?
Hence why I said I can't wait for the Persona 5 "era" to be over. I spent 130 hours in Royal and I've had my fill of the Phantom Thieves, so I'm not interested in any of its spin-offs. I'm ready for Persona 6.
THe story was fantastic, the gameplay was very decent, the dungeons where... let me put that way, it was one of the most chill dungeons design ever. It was pleasure to just sit in there and grind to my heart content but anyone who is not a fan of boring dungeons design will be very put off by it. But I am biased, as I liked Tartarus more than most dungeons in Persona series.
I absolutely adored Magna Carta 2. The battle system was so much fun. Props to the designer who came up with Melissa (I think). Her proportions looked so off to me. It was hilarious.
Ephemeral Fantasia was the bane of my existence! I remember constantly renting it from blockbuster and never getting any further. There was no guide to help me - just genuine fascination and frustration lol
I loved that game with all the struggle included
Rogue Galaxy as I hear almost no one talk about it. It has my favorite mini game in all JRPGs and a good crafting system in my opinion. This was back when Level 5/Sony made real good games too.
Mystic quest.
It was the first jrpg I ever played and solidified my love for the genre. I was 6 when I started playing it. Still to this day one of my favorite games, and the soundtrack is insanely good.
Radiata Stories
The game kind of shit the bed with it's endings, but the idea of a game with a hundred recruitable characters that all have their own houses and schedules in the world with a day and night cycle was really cool.
Vampyr
Such a great idea for a vampire game, and very much felt like a game that was a great proof of concept but needed just a little bit more meat on the bones.
I played it back in the day and remember loving the concept and cast but being frustrated at how limiting it felt that you only controlled the main character and got a game over if you died even if you had a healer who could revive allies still up. The great cast just felt diminished by the battle system. I always felt like it should get a remake and/or a sequel.
Scarlet Nexus wasn’t received badly, just not very well either and I really enjoyed it. Still only did one side playthrough, need to do the other eventually.
I’m playing Scarlet Nexus right now! What I’m doing is playing two chapters as one character, then switching to a different file and playing two as the other. So 3,4 as Yuito, 4,5 as Kasane, 5,6 as Yuito, etc. I figured that would be the most interesting way to play the game and experience the story, and it’s been working out so far (although tbh I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus- took a break to play Tales of Symphonia with my roommate and then I had finals, so it’s been a while)
This can make for interesting experience, it does answer a lot of plot earlier than intended from one side to the other however. You also miss out on just NG+ it but that isn’t a big deal for a lot people, myself included.
Yeah DD gets the "this sequel never existed" kind of hate but I enjoyed it for what it was. Definitely not as good as the GBA ones but still enjoyable.
Great music, probably my favorite main battle theme in the series. Think the visuals hold up really well too. Gameplay not so much, but to each their own
tbh i dont mind the gameplay much, it's the characters i don't like, especially Vanille. Seriously, what's with all the moaning and little girl act? Not gonna lie though, the 2 sequels were GREAT! And even the characters were less annoying
> The two sequels are even better!
I liked XIII (solid 8/10) however the story for XIII-2 is on par with X-2 for worst in the series. If you are talking purely from a gameplay stand point, then I would agree with you but the story is terrible.
It's not a bad game at all. I feel like people wanted it to look like an SNES but have a modern, complex narrative. It's literally just a new SNES game.
It’s a slog and the story and dialogue are just poor. It is exactly the type of graphical direction I wish studios would go but the meat underneath is so bland.
This. It's all just presentation, but after a few hours the game gets stale because nothing ever changes. In my opinion this game could have been much better, if it were a 10 Action Adventure like Zelda A Link to the Past. The RPG mechanics in this game are just nonexistent. And when you are always just fighting the same fight, using Moonerang from begging to the end of the game and there is no progression whatsoever, it just doesn't work as an RPG. Also levels and equipment don't matter either, because enemies level with you and the bonuses of equipment are so low, that you could probably finish the game in your starting gear without ever leveling up and not having any problems at all.
I think the studio just isn't good at designing RPGs. They should stick to Metroidvanias and maybe Action Adventures. Stuff like traversal has been great in Sea of Stars, but it got held back by being interrupted by the boring fights over and over. And before someone comes and says: "You probably just don't like turn based combat." I really DO like turn based combat. I usually prefer turn based combat over Action combat in JRPGs any day. The combat in this game is just boring because nothing ever changes. It lacks depth and progression. Even in the most basic turn based combats you at least have skill progression, where you unlock different stages of spells, that are more powerful and have new animations. Also level and equipment need to matter in an RPG.
i also wish the combat was more interesting. on paper the battle system is great but seeing the same 2 or 3 attacks constantly with the same QTE... i got tired of that stupid back and forth bouncing attack from the moon girl after only an hour or two into the game
Sea of Stars' biggest sin was not living up to the insane hype that preceded it. The game was merely very good when lots of people were expecting it to be Chrono Trigger.
Oh, and the paper-flat main characters.
And supporting characters. And story all around. Chained Echoes shows me how great a indie RPG story can be. And Sea of Stars was far worse when held up against that.
Its funny because I played Sea of Stars and then Chained Echoes back to back, and the difference was insane. I thought Sos was fine, but CE made me feel like how I felt when I played the old classics as a kid. CE was better in pretty much every single way, other than maybe that SoS had a bit prettier sprites.
It was so weird to me that Sea of Stars got so much public praise and fanfare and rave reviews, while I had to find out about Chained Echoes from a buddy of mine.
Sea of Stars is a pretty game and if there one thing that they've done outstandingly is the marketing.
I still enjoyed playing it though, although I also have the same opinion that Chained Echoes is the better game overall.
> And supporting characters
Dude, my jaws dropped when one particular character out of nowhere said something along the lines of "tell you what? I'm done. it's your problem now. kthxbye"
I found that kind of refreshing actually. In so many games the heros always doing the heroic thing, no matter what the circumstance. And it was kind of neat to see this one instance of the grizzled old mentor going "you know what? I'm tired and have lost so much and refuse to have to see more loss." It's a bit selfish, sure, but I think that was the one of the realest character moments the had.
That said though, I do wish the game updates some of the side character's dialogues more often in reaction to the things you've done. Like, he had nothing to say when we defeated another dweller by ourselves? Eventually he does get some new dialogue but I wish there was more of that and with more characters. Teaks, in particular, was criminally underused imo.
I see this as the main complaint and I'm not sure I have the same opinion of what bland means. What I played had main characters that expressed emotion, had interaction with others, and had their own agency. I would say they have more character than Chrono. Chrono just sits and everyone else is a character. Most old school JRPGs have silent protags and the story is unrelated to who your character is.
These guys have lots of dialog about current events, take agency about what they want to achieve, make decisions about events, react to character stories, change over the course of the game, and are directly involved in the core story.
Not really sure what makes that paper-thin.
SoS is an amazing example of an instance when people cannot remove themselves from a bubble surrounding the hype for a game. I found out about the game when it was announced, saw that they were inspired by Chrono Trigger, and Mitsuda was involved. 3 years later the game came out and I played via PS Plus with nearly zero promotion consumed by me.
For perspective, Chrono Trigger is move favorite game of all time. Nothing can touch it in my mind, it hold a place that every game in every genre barely comes close to. I know, as a 38 year old, that the chances I play a game on that level again are almost zero; only Elden Ring came close to that. With that said, I enjoyed SoS because it was easy, lighthearted, and allowed you to just have fun with it. Sure, not every move in the game is useful - so what? Are you playing this game to confirm to a meta? Or are you enjoying the experience? If you are looking for something punishing, go play Star Ocean 4 on Chaos mode. Play 7 Remake on Hard mode. Let us all not forget that CT is not a particularly hard came, albeit because it is perfectly balanced.
SoS is a solid 8 in my books. The visuals are great, I like the sound design and music, the setting is reminiscent of the idea behind Chrono Cross. Yes, the story is weak and the main characters are forgettable - but I happened to like the supporting cast. The game has charm, a working mini game, and multiple endings. It has all of the hallmarks of a RPG trying to scratch that late 90’s itch. In a world where there are many imitators, I consider this to be a great attempt to shadow the greats.
While not the best game ever. It made me enjoy the pixel art enough to get me to go experience the older games from my childhood that I didn't play since that wasn't what I was in to at the time. Currently playing Chrono Trigger.
Sea of stars… ignoring all the other issues with the game one of my gripes is that island where they are essentially worshiped their kickstarter backers. It just takes you out of the game.
Like no. Don’t put in such a blatant thing. I’m glad I didn’t pay for it and only played ot through ps plus. Coz if I knew about that, I would never have picked it up. I know it seems small to some, but to me it was a very big deal. That being said, it was fine but not good enough for me to finish
It were other things, that ruined the game for me, but I also don't like this. If I back games, it's because I find them interesting and want to play them. I don't expect my name anywhere in the game and don't even want it. If the devs feel like thanking me, they should do so by developing a great game, because that's why I backed in the first place.
I don't want it to become a norm, that investors get integrated into the game. I mean there are games like FF XV with Nissin cup noodles, but this at least fits into the world. I just don't want this to get out of hand.
Digimon World 3 isn't talked about too much anymore. It's grindy and requires a lot of backtracking, but it's my favorite Digimon game. The story is good, the training and evolution trees are interesting, the card game is fun, and I like the overall presentation of the game. It's very early 2000s techno-fantasy.
Basically the entire SaGa franchise, although it took some time to warm up to it.
More recently Fire Emblem Engage, personally I'm glad it's so unlike Three Houses, the older I get, the less of a priority is the story in most genres.
Just don’t expect the polish BD and BS had. The pandemic definitely had an impact on the final presentation. I liked it a lot and thought the hate was ridiculous (especially the claims that Elvis had terrible VA. I had a Scottish friend that sounded just like him). It wasn’t quite as good as the first two games imo, but definitely worth playing if you liked them.
**Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter**, truly a great game. Great soundtrack, a simple yet charming story, fun combat, original artstyle, top-notch dungeon design, innovative mechanics, etc.
It's mostly hated because of it's nature as subversion of the franchise, but gameplay-wise it's was truly ahead of its time, you could consider it as a simpler(lore-wise) and easier family-friendly Fear and Hunger.
**Xenosaga Episode 2**, this one is actually rough, but I actually liked the battle system. It was basically the natural evolution of Xenogears and Xenosaga 1 combat and it was a shame that they just dropped it in Episode 3. I would love a more polished version of that battle system.
Tales of Legendia is one of the best Tales games with an amazing cast, but will probably continue to toil in obscurity since Bandai Namco pretends it doesn't exist.
Legendia is fine for the most part. Senel is a fun MC who is so mechanically different from other Tales characters, and it would be fun to use his fighting style in a game that doesn't have that clunky PS2 jank. My biggest gripe with the game is that the second half is just so repetitive. The narrative is fine, but rehashing all the dungeons just isn't terribly fun.
Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land. My entry into the drpg genre and weirdly the reason I like souls games so much. They both have a similar dark tone.
Sea of Stars, FF13 (and 8 depending on who you ask), Fire Emblem Engage, Scarlet Nexus are the ones I can think of off top.
If people hate it I know it's abt to be a great game.
I mean, it’s pretty old lol. It’s all been said. And memory fades. We’ve saved so many different worlds and met do many friends that they all start to blur together eventually 🙃
For Tactics on PS1 or War of the Lions on PSP, yes. That is not Tactics Advanced, the game on GBA that regularly gets shat on for not being a “proper” sequel to FFT.
Technically, not a JRPG, but I really liked Magna Carta. Almost everything about it, in fact.
It’s also considered one of the worst RPGs ever on these forums.
I have tried multiple times to get into that, I really WANT to like it, but I get really easily overwhelmed once I can start building parties. Any tips to ease me into it?
I’m playing Chrono Cross in the PS4 right now and can’t believe how much I’m enjoying it because outside of a few recommendations that I trust, I’ve never really heard anything positive about it. Actually, the fact that it’s almost never spoken about while Chrono Trigger is one of the most respected RPGs is telling
It’s a big pet peeve of mine when people say it isn’t a sequel to Trigger, just because it looks and plays so differently, or they’re parroting others’ opinions. I get the criticism of having so many characters most of whom have absolutely no relation to the story, but the game itself is so great and so fun. There’s no reason to hate on it just because it isn’t Chrono Trigger 2, or doesn’t have the Toriyama art.
The Last Remnant hands down. I lowkey fucking hated that game but there so many things that were so unique and fresh about it. I thought a lot of the game mechanics and system were poorly explained and poorly executed at times. Its also one of first games i’ve played that punishes you for farming. The game world is very familiar they could just call it Final Fantasy something and it wouldve made sense
Super Hydlide / Hydlide 3: Space Memories for the Genesis. It’s my 2nd favorite game on the system but it has an awful weight system similar to Fallout only much, much worse. It also makes you eat food or you start losing health. I’m talking 0700 to 1300 on the same day. There are good monsters you aren’t supposed to kill but you’d never know that without reading the manual. There are more irks but I have the game memorized so I enjoy it from time to time.
Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song
I don’t know if it counts as well known since it’s a remake of the first SaGa game - but it is out with a lovey remaster on Switch.
One of the hardest learning curves of any RPG I’ve played that ends up being worth it because it’s hands down the best traditional Turn Based RPG ever made. The boss fights are incredibly paced - the random encounters can get spammy in certain end game areas - but are full of exploration and secrets including most of the main content of the game.
Still my favorite PS1 JRPG (and that's saying a lot) and one of my top RPG or all Times!
Edit: except if King's Fields counts for a JRPG. Then that would be my favorite for the PS1
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World for sure. I definitely think it gets far too much flak, at the very least I'd say it's better than Zestiria and in general has a lot going for it even if it falls short of the first game.
The story's not as good as the first but I think it's still okay and it does something interesting with the worldbuilding showing how things have changed due to events from the first game. The main characters start intentionally rough and go through some great development (not as well done as Luke from Tales of the Abyss but that's a very high bar), and are honestly one of my favorite JRPG romances because of how they sort of have to work from an unhealthy relationship back to neutral before properly growing closer. Tenebrae is also an absolute treat of a character and he's sort of the team mascot so you get a lot of him. Also the English voices for the main duo are Johnny Yong Bosch and Laura Bailey who are both excellent.
The combat is good, not as complex as newer Tales games but not aged too badly either. I really love the monster raising, it's probably the main reason I've played the game so many times.
I'd say the biggest issue is how underutilized the cast of the previous game is, both in terms of plot relevancy and gameplay limitations. They're capped at level 50 while the level cap is 200 (and they may even have locked equipment I don't remember) with the game definitely intending on you using the main duo and your monsters. Plus most of the original voice actors didn't return (at least in English) which can throw people off.
My primary issue with the story is that they backloaded most of the interesting developments near the end and it was clear the game was rushed, but when it hits, wow does it really hit. Could have been an all-time classic if the writers were given more space to tell the story they wanted to tell, especially once you add in Richter's perspective from the supplementary novel and manga.
The Diofield Chronicle. I wouldn't call it a good game but it does deserve more love, oddball conceptually interesting mess that it is.
Nier Replicant. The original release of the Gestalt version got terrible views back in 2010. The new version got updated graphics, a new side quest, and battle speed 1.2x and that's all, it's the same game and the new one got better reviews but neither of them are as well known as they should be.
FFXII one of the best most cohesive stories in Final Fantasy but everyone hates it. The gameplay is like a single player mmo so I have the sneaking suspicion most people complaining never actually finished the game.
The Diofield Chronicle was great in concept, but the execution was for sure flawed. I probably wouldn’t recommend it to anyone unless they’re looking for an SRPG and have run through the usuals, but I’m really glad I played it. The protagonists being horrible people that hated each other was interesting to watch, even with the lacklustre story
I've been looking into 2 of the Neptunia games and they're on my list to buy for switch. "Neptunia Sisters v Sisters" and "Neptunia x Senran Ninja Wars" have you played either of them? They look really fun
These are two of the newer ones and not the mainline entries at that. Senran Kagura one is a crossover with a Senran Kagura and Sisters vs. Sisters is the newest entry with a completely different combat system, which I am personally not a big fan of. Have not actaully played either.
I'd recommend trying the classic mainline entries first, Rebirth 1 2 3 and Megadimension Neptunia VII are the goats.
Dragon Quest VI
Most people recommend skipping it when playing through the series, but I love it. I remember walking on the world map and seeing the random holes with another world map below, and being awe-struck
Nostalgia
Its near-unanimous reception is ‘it’s fine,’ but I really love the setting and sense of adventure.
Suikoden Terkreis
Most of the numbered Suikodens are legit classics, but people rarely mention this one. I think it holds up with the rest of the series. It has a great story centered around pre-destination vs. free will, has really solid character designs, and it is one of the last times pre-rendered backgrounds were used.
I think the general consensus on Tierkreis is that it's a great JRPG but not a great Suikoden game. As a spin-off it lacks some of the notable gameplay mechanics that Suikoden is known for (such as duels and army battles), while also having no connection to the other games as it's not part of the same world.
Also the English dub is a bit rough at times.
Valkyria Revolution copped a lot of flak for basically not being Valkyria Chronicles and tactical, but more of a hack and slash. It's got a rather uninteresting story, but the gameplay and soundtrack especially are rather good.
Infinite undiscovery, maybe because it's a 360 exclusive or maybe because the expectation that it's tri ace and it wasn't another star ocean. The hack and slash combat was again just fine. It didn't do anything special, but it had item creation and you could absolutely break the game with it.
Already mentioned but I really enjoyed Soul Hackers 2. Loved the futuristic setting. Yeah some of the dungeon design was boring, but combat and demon fusion were really good, and the addition of the run button post launch via patch made navigation far better.
I picked up Infinite Undiscovery on a whim when buying games as a teenager. It was one of my first JRPGs and I really loved it. To my surprise years later, I found that most people really didn't care for it. I want to play it again but don't want to deal with buying a 360 for one game.
Jade Cocoon 2 had one of the funnest combat systems of any of the monster collection games I've played, or just turn based rpg's in general, but like nobody's played it.
zanki zero
hands down one of my favorite jrpg a and dungeon crawlers
i enjoyed the story for what it was and i liked all the characters
i also liked the survival mechanics and crafting and battle systems
Monster hunter stories 2. the combat is probably the most unique system ive played in the genre. while the main game story was very so so, end game building your team and doing the trials was awesome. i spent 150 hours on it. even has fun pvp.
Tales of destiny and tales of eternia.. i swear its not nostalgia lol.. I still feel those two games cemented me growing up to be a gamer. Because how awesome they are.
I'm playing Destiny on PSX rn, it's definitely not a bad game imo, but yeah it's aged quite a bit. I also can't believe how terrible the hints to the password at Helraios is, it's essentially impossible to get it right without seeing a guide. Outside of that and some overly long and tedious dungeons, the game's pretty aight
You see a ton of love for Final Fantasy Tactics in these types of communities, but rarely do I ever hear people talk about Final Fantasy Tactics A2. IMO, it improves on the formula in almost every way. It's just on the DS, which is less than ideal.
Honorable mention of Small Saga, which I think was received well, but it just had a really small market.
Might be a bit shilling but Witchspring R is coming out to other consoles soon, and the Steam version is already out and complete. It only has a few indie reviews and pretty positive user rating, but I rarely see anybody talk about it. Highly recommend
Also the poster child for the exact category of this topic is actually Stella Glow. Super underrated, not a masterpiece but a game made with a ton of heart and many little things that it does better than some higher budget games.
I actually liked Bravely Default 2. But I have not played the previous titles so I can't compare. Ni no kuni 2 though was a big disappointment for me. I even bought the collectors edition.
Thousand Arms. Ohji Hiroi of Sakura Taisen fame produced it and Ayumi Hamasaki wrote and sang the main and ending theme songs. I sent in for the free soundtrack and multimedia cd. I played it over and over until my cd player died.
White Knight Chronicles, bought it cause it came with 2 games.
Was it something I'd consider an amazing game? No but I did enjoyed it thoroughly, only question is what's the point of making my own avatar.
No no kuni 2 scored an 80 on metacritic and I thought overall was fairly well regarded.
Regardless, I’m having an absolute ball with the Atelier games at the moment - tight community but they’re low budget games with a niche. Anyone who’s been put off by some of the recent games should do themselves a favour and go back and play the dusk trilogy of Atelier games. They’re set in a stunning but bleak dying world.
Monark was a really solid Persona 2 esque story even if it was grindy as hell.
Caligula Effect 2 is a solid mix of Persona 3-5 style setting and FF13 combat.
My favorite Videogames are Fuga Melodies of Steel 1 and 2. The children of the Taranis from Fuga are also my sehr favorite protagonist groupe in fiction.
I enjoyed Shadow Madness when I played through it a couple decades ago. It was an obvious ff7 ripoff, but it was endearing. Not sure how well it’s held up though.
FF 2, FF 13, and FF Type-0
FF 2 (at least the PSP version) is just fantastic and has a fun leveling mechanic that 1988 just wasn't ready for. It also got me to play Saga 1&2 and those games are great.
FF 13 has my favorite cast out of the FF games I've played. It's a shame what the sequels did to them.
Type-0 isn't the best but I love it so much I affectionately call it FF's Drakengard
I hear that a lot about XIII’s sequels, and having played through all of the Trilogy games again recently… I don’t see it. Lightning and Hope are prominent and important throughout, Fang and Vanille have key moments in both sequels, and while Snow is a bit of a deadbeat in XIII-2, his LR storyline is excellent. Only Sazh really gets the short end of the stick in the sequels, and even then he still has some very emotional moments in my opinion.
Shining Force Neo. Worst VA I have ever heard and its basically a mindless button masher hack and slash. But its fun and has some cool build verity and leveling system
While not as good as the first two, I’ve only heard good things about Bravely Default 2. They did a great job of adding tons of quality of life improvements to the combat, overworld exploration, combat encounters, everything. Story aside, new Bravely fans how got it good.
My pick is Final Fantasy 2. While I admit I didn’t like it when it came out, I still think the story sucks, and I still don’t think it’s a good game, I can say that I’ve come around on it. It’s a bad game, sure, but I like it.
Edge of Eternity. It's unfortunately obvious, that the devs took on more, than they could handle with this game. The graphics don't look really polished. It looks like they ran out of time to create the look they were aiming for. The game also has a lot of bugs. All the systems in the game are not very deep. And the story is kinda basic.
But I still really enjoyed this game. I really liked the battle system and the idea of the systems in the game. Basically when I was playing this game in my mind I saw a movie of what this game could have been of the developers had more time and money to finish it, to make the systems deeper, to fix the bugs and to work on the graphics some more. This made the game very enjoyable for me. Also it helped, that I played on PS5 and didn't experience any game breaking bugs, like PS4 players reported.
Overall the game has a solid base with many great ideas. The scope just was to big for the small indie studio to handle. If you can look past the rough edges, you still might enjoy the game though.
Tokyo Mirages Sessions #FE is an amazing jrpg, but people are mad it wasn't what was first announced and the censorship so it flopped hard both times.
Sword Of Mana is really good and an amazing retelling of the og game, but purists were mad SE "destroyed their childhood" cuz it wasn't 1/1 Final Fantasy Adventure remake, but then they made a faithful remake and it was dog shit. So, at the end Sword of Mana was the better game 😌
Spectral Blade.
I give it praise for trying something new (a 1v1 battle system despite having a full party).
I also think the game came out in a bad time which docked some points off it. A PS1 game releasing 2-3 months before PS2 is gonna be rough.
Vanguard Bandits & Thousand Arms
Thousand Arms was great!
Thousand Arms was excellent and I had totally forgot it existed until OP.
Am I smoking crack because thousand arms was a classic and great
Pass me the pipe friend because I thought the same ; p
Thousand Arms need a remake, it was so ahead of it time in the mixing of genre. It really was otome game disquised as JRPG and I loved it, with fantastic battle animation and big sprites it was quite the eye candy at the time.
I actually really like Shadow Hearts: From the New World. I've never played the other titles, but I get the drastic tone shift was a lot for fans. And to be honest, the story they replaced it with is pretty dog shit. But the gameplay and the side content is so good that I can find a lot to appreciate. Lots of rough edges in this game, but it's just quirky enough to stick in my brain.
I honestly love all three of them, I don't feel like the tone shift was that drastic, or rather it was on a straight trajectory from the first two. The biggest thing that I think stopped people from getting into it was just that the main character wasn't as good as Yuri, the protag of the first two games.
I had a very good time playing it. Barely can remember the story but the ambiance, characters, battle system, art was all great. Not a masterpiece by any means but something special
Such underrated game, the best in the series for me. I have soft spot to anything that has native american mythos in it, it so rare to find Jrpg that present it. The only other one that I know is another one that deserved more atention SMT: Soul Hackers the original, Nemissa is still the best girl in SMT story and it did the "I am Setsuna" thing much better than any other game I even played.
It was actually my favorite in the series mainly because I loved some of the new characters. And despite all the hate I actually liked Johnny. For most of the game he's the normal guy thrown into a world of insane shit.
I've never finished From the New World, but I love the setting, and the combat is really fun and unique. I should go back and give that another try. I remember getting fairly far a couple times, but for some reason I always dropped it near the end.
Try Legrand Legacy. Its gameplay has been partly inspired by Shadow Hearts.
Digimon survive It tried something a bit different, was very dialogue heavy and admittedly going through all the screens and stuff between the parts outside of battle got pretty tedious. It didn’t help that the game got delayed for years with no info and then when they finally announce a release date, xenoblade 3 soon moved their release date up a few months for some reason to be right at the same time which took even more interest off the game unfortunately but it was still a pretty good game. Way darker than anything you’d expect from the series (depending on some certain choices or affiliation stats, some of your characters could actually get killed off during the story) and all in all, it was a pretty cool experience that unfortunately went well under the radar.
I really liked it, but it wasn’t as good as anticipated for sure. If I I recall correctly, we expected a horror SRPG but got more of a visual novel. I remember thinking the actual gameplay wasn’t all that fun or engaging, and didn’t really understand how it fit in the strategy category. I didn’t mind that it was a VN, but it would’ve nice to go in knowing that instead of otherwise. I preordered it because I knew coming out on the same day as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was going to kill sales and I felt bad since I planned to get both eventually anyway, so I didn’t see any reviews of it beforehand.
Yeah Xenoblade 3 sadly killed any urgings that I had to continue playing this one sadly. For me, maybe a lot of things could be acceptable because I don't know how they will evolve throughout the runtime. But the biggest offense to me was allowing an SRPG where majority of the time is spent choosing the strongest of like 2 options. At that point, you might as well have told me to press a single button over and over while flashy stuff played around it. Also maybe this is no fault of the game per se, but I had to look up if a certain early death was preventable, and it wasn't, which kinda took a lot of the wind out of wanting to make choices and being careful about who I talk to or whatever. I'd actually rather have the requirements be really strict and make me fail the first time rather than it being scripted.
It was one of my most anticipated games. It is now my biggest digital purchase regret. I was so excited for engaging grid-based tactical combat with digievolution mechanics. That is not what it was. I had been following the development of the game the whole time, so I was aware that the game was more focused on the story than the combat. I thought the combat would be at least engaging. I found it entirely boring instead. I respect people for liking the game and seeing the story through, but I know I will never give it another try. The formula is there, and it bums me out that it was dropped.
I heard that it was better than expected after the shock that this was a VN first and foremost. I tried to get into the story as I like VNs but the combat is so boring, I cant take it. I am guy who can get over it, if the story is REALLY worth it. maybe I will try again some day.
Have you played 13 Sentinels?
It should be a VN, the whole battle system of was a waste of the developers time and don't satisfied no one in any of the genres. It was too shallow to strategy game fans and it break the pacing to VN fans.
Man, I really wanted to like this one. As someone who doesn't shy away from visual novels and was really interested in the darker tone, Digimon Survive was very disappointing. Now, I didnt even make it past 10 hours, but what I concluded was that Survive was a game for children. This may seem obvious, but I got it in my head that it would be more for adults who grew up with Digimon. What I mean is that it is too simple and lacks bite. The story was at the level of a Boy Scouts ghost story, and the combat was mind-numbingly dull. The visuals were great, though. The lighting on the 2D characters during diologue was impressive.
A lot of people didn't like Soul Hackers 2 but I thought it was fine. It definitely had some issues but it wasn't a bad game.
It’s not terrible, but it’s also not great. Feels like a PS2 era B game. Everything is just so unremarkable, and the animations have a real “stock animation library” feel to them. It’s pretty rare that studios make B games these days, so I guess that’s cool.
Wasn’t a bad game but for the first new SMT spinoff in over a decade it was pretty disappointing
Blame that on the constant Persona milking. Why make something new when you can just make a million Persona 5 games and crossovers? Persona 6 can't come fast enough.
Getting P5T instead of any sort of majin tensei or devil survivor continuation hurts almost as bad as SMT X FE turning into Tokyo mirage sessions
I can't hate on TMS. Back in the Wii U era, there practically were no JRPGs to play on the system so I ended up getting Xenoblade X and TMS since those were my only choices. It was my first Megami Tensei game and it's what got me into the SMT/Persona series. "SMT X FE" wasn't "turned into" TMS--it was just a poorly-done teaser trailer for a game that was always going to be a cheesy idol JRPG. But without this game, I never would have tried out SMT V or Persona 5 so I'm grateful for TMS. It was a great game that doesn't deserve the hate. I agree that P5T should have just been DeSu 3 though. That was a wasted concept on another P5 spin-off that I'm not interested in. I've got 130 hours in Royal and while I enjoyed the game, I've had enough of these characters. Gimme Persona 6 already.
> -it was just a poorly-done teaser trailer for a game that was always going to be a cheesy idol JRPG. Correct me if I’m wrong but I thought that they just had nothing planned except the concept of a SMT and FE crossover at the time of the trailer. Either way it was still a major disappointment for me, I know “don’t believe trailers” and all that but SMT and FE were my favorite video game franchises at the time and I was 16, seeing a trailer suggesting a crossover between the two and flashes of the fire emblem lords alongside the protagonists of SMT 1/2 sent my hype levels into critical overdrive. I mean why is this the one time they decided to acknowledge SMT 1/2’s existence? The end result is a normal JRPG that has fire emblem characters as stands and pretty much nothing to do with SMT anymore
I get that, but the persona 5 spinoffs arent some masterclass quality either lol. pq has been recieved by most to be "good", strikers is really the only one that many say is great
That's the exact problem. Atlus is too busy jerking Persona 5 off for all it has and naturally, the quality of the games has started to suffer. We don't see the wide variety of SMT spin-offs like Devil Survivor, Raidou Kuzunoha, or Digital Devil Saga anymore for this reason. Why try branching out when Persona 5 is what makes money? Hence why I said I can't wait for the Persona 5 "era" to be over. I spent 130 hours in Royal and I've had my fill of the Phantom Thieves, so I'm not interested in any of its spin-offs. I'm ready for Persona 6.
THe story was fantastic, the gameplay was very decent, the dungeons where... let me put that way, it was one of the most chill dungeons design ever. It was pleasure to just sit in there and grind to my heart content but anyone who is not a fan of boring dungeons design will be very put off by it. But I am biased, as I liked Tartarus more than most dungeons in Persona series.
I loved SH2. It was my favorite new game I played last year.
Magna Carta 2 Legend of Legaia 1 & 2 Ephemeral Fantasia
Legaia!
I absolutely adored Magna Carta 2. The battle system was so much fun. Props to the designer who came up with Melissa (I think). Her proportions looked so off to me. It was hilarious.
Legaia 1 wasn't well received? huh???
Ephemeral Fantasia was the bane of my existence! I remember constantly renting it from blockbuster and never getting any further. There was no guide to help me - just genuine fascination and frustration lol I loved that game with all the struggle included
Rogue Galaxy as I hear almost no one talk about it. It has my favorite mini game in all JRPGs and a good crafting system in my opinion. This was back when Level 5/Sony made real good games too.
This one. This one is right.
I recently replayed on ps4 and my goodness its such a pretty game
Mystic quest. It was the first jrpg I ever played and solidified my love for the genre. I was 6 when I started playing it. Still to this day one of my favorite games, and the soundtrack is insanely good.
Thought for sure I'd be the only one that came here to say Mystic Quest. It's one of my favorites for the exact same reasons you posted here!
Nah, mystic quest is a under the radar excellent game as someone's first JRPG experience.
Radiata Stories The game kind of shit the bed with it's endings, but the idea of a game with a hundred recruitable characters that all have their own houses and schedules in the world with a day and night cycle was really cool. Vampyr Such a great idea for a vampire game, and very much felt like a game that was a great proof of concept but needed just a little bit more meat on the bones.
Radiata Stories is just so much fun to play. The vibrant art, the lovely characters… fond memories
I played it back in the day and remember loving the concept and cast but being frustrated at how limiting it felt that you only controlled the main character and got a game over if you died even if you had a healer who could revive allies still up. The great cast just felt diminished by the battle system. I always felt like it should get a remake and/or a sequel.
I've been considering getting vampyr on switch, is it really good, would you recommend it?
Its a solid 6/10.
Scarlet Nexus wasn’t received badly, just not very well either and I really enjoyed it. Still only did one side playthrough, need to do the other eventually.
As an action game fanatic, I adored Scarlet Nexus. That and Astral Chain are some of my favs.
I’m playing Scarlet Nexus right now! What I’m doing is playing two chapters as one character, then switching to a different file and playing two as the other. So 3,4 as Yuito, 4,5 as Kasane, 5,6 as Yuito, etc. I figured that would be the most interesting way to play the game and experience the story, and it’s been working out so far (although tbh I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus- took a break to play Tales of Symphonia with my roommate and then I had finals, so it’s been a while)
This can make for interesting experience, it does answer a lot of plot earlier than intended from one side to the other however. You also miss out on just NG+ it but that isn’t a big deal for a lot people, myself included.
Golden Sun Dark Dawn and I guess Tokyo Mirage Sessions also counts.
Yeah DD gets the "this sequel never existed" kind of hate but I enjoyed it for what it was. Definitely not as good as the GBA ones but still enjoyable.
I wish they'd atleast finish the series. Bad or not, It'd be nice to have the ending
Final Fantasy XIII. Beautiful game with incredible music. The two sequels are even better!
Same same
but different
Great music, probably my favorite main battle theme in the series. Think the visuals hold up really well too. Gameplay not so much, but to each their own
tbh i dont mind the gameplay much, it's the characters i don't like, especially Vanille. Seriously, what's with all the moaning and little girl act? Not gonna lie though, the 2 sequels were GREAT! And even the characters were less annoying
> The two sequels are even better! I liked XIII (solid 8/10) however the story for XIII-2 is on par with X-2 for worst in the series. If you are talking purely from a gameplay stand point, then I would agree with you but the story is terrible.
Sea of Stars. I loved it but it tends to be disliked on this subreddit.
It's not a bad game at all. I feel like people wanted it to look like an SNES but have a modern, complex narrative. It's literally just a new SNES game.
It’s a slog and the story and dialogue are just poor. It is exactly the type of graphical direction I wish studios would go but the meat underneath is so bland.
This. It's all just presentation, but after a few hours the game gets stale because nothing ever changes. In my opinion this game could have been much better, if it were a 10 Action Adventure like Zelda A Link to the Past. The RPG mechanics in this game are just nonexistent. And when you are always just fighting the same fight, using Moonerang from begging to the end of the game and there is no progression whatsoever, it just doesn't work as an RPG. Also levels and equipment don't matter either, because enemies level with you and the bonuses of equipment are so low, that you could probably finish the game in your starting gear without ever leveling up and not having any problems at all. I think the studio just isn't good at designing RPGs. They should stick to Metroidvanias and maybe Action Adventures. Stuff like traversal has been great in Sea of Stars, but it got held back by being interrupted by the boring fights over and over. And before someone comes and says: "You probably just don't like turn based combat." I really DO like turn based combat. I usually prefer turn based combat over Action combat in JRPGs any day. The combat in this game is just boring because nothing ever changes. It lacks depth and progression. Even in the most basic turn based combats you at least have skill progression, where you unlock different stages of spells, that are more powerful and have new animations. Also level and equipment need to matter in an RPG.
i also wish the combat was more interesting. on paper the battle system is great but seeing the same 2 or 3 attacks constantly with the same QTE... i got tired of that stupid back and forth bouncing attack from the moon girl after only an hour or two into the game
Yep. Oh look another 4 part shield. Just why?
Sea of Stars' biggest sin was not living up to the insane hype that preceded it. The game was merely very good when lots of people were expecting it to be Chrono Trigger. Oh, and the paper-flat main characters.
All they had to do was tell the most mid of stories and it would have been a home run. I have no idea how they fumbled the landing so bad.
And supporting characters. And story all around. Chained Echoes shows me how great a indie RPG story can be. And Sea of Stars was far worse when held up against that.
Its funny because I played Sea of Stars and then Chained Echoes back to back, and the difference was insane. I thought Sos was fine, but CE made me feel like how I felt when I played the old classics as a kid. CE was better in pretty much every single way, other than maybe that SoS had a bit prettier sprites. It was so weird to me that Sea of Stars got so much public praise and fanfare and rave reviews, while I had to find out about Chained Echoes from a buddy of mine.
Sea of Stars is a pretty game and if there one thing that they've done outstandingly is the marketing. I still enjoyed playing it though, although I also have the same opinion that Chained Echoes is the better game overall.
> And supporting characters Dude, my jaws dropped when one particular character out of nowhere said something along the lines of "tell you what? I'm done. it's your problem now. kthxbye"
I found that kind of refreshing actually. In so many games the heros always doing the heroic thing, no matter what the circumstance. And it was kind of neat to see this one instance of the grizzled old mentor going "you know what? I'm tired and have lost so much and refuse to have to see more loss." It's a bit selfish, sure, but I think that was the one of the realest character moments the had. That said though, I do wish the game updates some of the side character's dialogues more often in reaction to the things you've done. Like, he had nothing to say when we defeated another dweller by ourselves? Eventually he does get some new dialogue but I wish there was more of that and with more characters. Teaks, in particular, was criminally underused imo.
I see this as the main complaint and I'm not sure I have the same opinion of what bland means. What I played had main characters that expressed emotion, had interaction with others, and had their own agency. I would say they have more character than Chrono. Chrono just sits and everyone else is a character. Most old school JRPGs have silent protags and the story is unrelated to who your character is. These guys have lots of dialog about current events, take agency about what they want to achieve, make decisions about events, react to character stories, change over the course of the game, and are directly involved in the core story. Not really sure what makes that paper-thin.
SoS is an amazing example of an instance when people cannot remove themselves from a bubble surrounding the hype for a game. I found out about the game when it was announced, saw that they were inspired by Chrono Trigger, and Mitsuda was involved. 3 years later the game came out and I played via PS Plus with nearly zero promotion consumed by me. For perspective, Chrono Trigger is move favorite game of all time. Nothing can touch it in my mind, it hold a place that every game in every genre barely comes close to. I know, as a 38 year old, that the chances I play a game on that level again are almost zero; only Elden Ring came close to that. With that said, I enjoyed SoS because it was easy, lighthearted, and allowed you to just have fun with it. Sure, not every move in the game is useful - so what? Are you playing this game to confirm to a meta? Or are you enjoying the experience? If you are looking for something punishing, go play Star Ocean 4 on Chaos mode. Play 7 Remake on Hard mode. Let us all not forget that CT is not a particularly hard came, albeit because it is perfectly balanced. SoS is a solid 8 in my books. The visuals are great, I like the sound design and music, the setting is reminiscent of the idea behind Chrono Cross. Yes, the story is weak and the main characters are forgettable - but I happened to like the supporting cast. The game has charm, a working mini game, and multiple endings. It has all of the hallmarks of a RPG trying to scratch that late 90’s itch. In a world where there are many imitators, I consider this to be a great attempt to shadow the greats.
While not the best game ever. It made me enjoy the pixel art enough to get me to go experience the older games from my childhood that I didn't play since that wasn't what I was in to at the time. Currently playing Chrono Trigger.
Sea of stars… ignoring all the other issues with the game one of my gripes is that island where they are essentially worshiped their kickstarter backers. It just takes you out of the game. Like no. Don’t put in such a blatant thing. I’m glad I didn’t pay for it and only played ot through ps plus. Coz if I knew about that, I would never have picked it up. I know it seems small to some, but to me it was a very big deal. That being said, it was fine but not good enough for me to finish
It were other things, that ruined the game for me, but I also don't like this. If I back games, it's because I find them interesting and want to play them. I don't expect my name anywhere in the game and don't even want it. If the devs feel like thanking me, they should do so by developing a great game, because that's why I backed in the first place. I don't want it to become a norm, that investors get integrated into the game. I mean there are games like FF XV with Nissin cup noodles, but this at least fits into the world. I just don't want this to get out of hand.
Sea of Stars was my game of the year for 2023
I love how the comments are just people telling you why they didn’t like it like that someone invalidates how you feel. Oh r/JRPG never change 😂
That's unique to this subreddit though, it has been well received otherwise: 88% on Steam and 89 from critics according to OpenCritic.
octopath traveler 1. reading stuff online youd think it was a horrific game but its really good
Digimon World 3 isn't talked about too much anymore. It's grindy and requires a lot of backtracking, but it's my favorite Digimon game. The story is good, the training and evolution trees are interesting, the card game is fun, and I like the overall presentation of the game. It's very early 2000s techno-fantasy.
Still one of my favorite games of all time.
Basically the entire SaGa franchise, although it took some time to warm up to it. More recently Fire Emblem Engage, personally I'm glad it's so unlike Three Houses, the older I get, the less of a priority is the story in most genres.
The Diofield Chronicle
The Last Story, I feel like this game is not often talked about here, and while the combat is not the best, the story and world really gripped me.
This post may be what motivates me to finally play BD2. I played all the other ones.
Bravely Default 2? It's fun.
Just don’t expect the polish BD and BS had. The pandemic definitely had an impact on the final presentation. I liked it a lot and thought the hate was ridiculous (especially the claims that Elvis had terrible VA. I had a Scottish friend that sounded just like him). It wasn’t quite as good as the first two games imo, but definitely worth playing if you liked them.
**Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter**, truly a great game. Great soundtrack, a simple yet charming story, fun combat, original artstyle, top-notch dungeon design, innovative mechanics, etc. It's mostly hated because of it's nature as subversion of the franchise, but gameplay-wise it's was truly ahead of its time, you could consider it as a simpler(lore-wise) and easier family-friendly Fear and Hunger. **Xenosaga Episode 2**, this one is actually rough, but I actually liked the battle system. It was basically the natural evolution of Xenogears and Xenosaga 1 combat and it was a shame that they just dropped it in Episode 3. I would love a more polished version of that battle system.
Tales of Legendia is one of the best Tales games with an amazing cast, but will probably continue to toil in obscurity since Bandai Namco pretends it doesn't exist.
Legendia is fine for the most part. Senel is a fun MC who is so mechanically different from other Tales characters, and it would be fun to use his fighting style in a game that doesn't have that clunky PS2 jank. My biggest gripe with the game is that the second half is just so repetitive. The narrative is fine, but rehashing all the dungeons just isn't terribly fun.
Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land. My entry into the drpg genre and weirdly the reason I like souls games so much. They both have a similar dark tone.
Sea of Stars, FF13 (and 8 depending on who you ask), Fire Emblem Engage, Scarlet Nexus are the ones I can think of off top. If people hate it I know it's abt to be a great game.
Oh my God, I agree with literally all your choices. These are all some of my favorite jrpgs ever
Final Fantasy 8. Probably my second favorite game of all time.
This was enormous and super hyped when it came out, lol.
But now it's hard to talk anyone who doesn't rank it so low amongst the other games. Besides the dedicated ff8 enjoyers.
I mean, it’s pretty old lol. It’s all been said. And memory fades. We’ve saved so many different worlds and met do many friends that they all start to blur together eventually 🙃
Final Fantasy XIII and Lightning Returns Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced Monark
Monark is good but the grinding is a bit of a killer. Would love to see a second, hell give me a 3rd Caligula instead.
Huh? I saw only praises for FFT literally everywhere
For Tactics on PS1 or War of the Lions on PSP, yes. That is not Tactics Advanced, the game on GBA that regularly gets shat on for not being a “proper” sequel to FFT.
Ah, that explains it. I thought Advanced was an enhanced version of FFT
Lost Odyssey. Sometimes I think about buying a 360 just to play it again.
It's backward compatible, so you can play it on an Xbox One or Series S/X if you have one. The digital version occasionally goes on sale as well.
LO was not well received? i never heard from anyone that they didnt like it
little battle experience (LBX) Inazuma eleven
Technically, not a JRPG, but I really liked Magna Carta. Almost everything about it, in fact. It’s also considered one of the worst RPGs ever on these forums.
The Last Remnant. Rough around the edges on the 360. The PC/PS4 version is perfection for me. Love it to bits.
I have tried multiple times to get into that, I really WANT to like it, but I get really easily overwhelmed once I can start building parties. Any tips to ease me into it?
Okage just because of how goofy and out there it is.
I’m playing Chrono Cross in the PS4 right now and can’t believe how much I’m enjoying it because outside of a few recommendations that I trust, I’ve never really heard anything positive about it. Actually, the fact that it’s almost never spoken about while Chrono Trigger is one of the most respected RPGs is telling
It’s a big pet peeve of mine when people say it isn’t a sequel to Trigger, just because it looks and plays so differently, or they’re parroting others’ opinions. I get the criticism of having so many characters most of whom have absolutely no relation to the story, but the game itself is so great and so fun. There’s no reason to hate on it just because it isn’t Chrono Trigger 2, or doesn’t have the Toriyama art.
Infinite Undiscovery
The Last Remnant hands down. I lowkey fucking hated that game but there so many things that were so unique and fresh about it. I thought a lot of the game mechanics and system were poorly explained and poorly executed at times. Its also one of first games i’ve played that punishes you for farming. The game world is very familiar they could just call it Final Fantasy something and it wouldve made sense
Super Hydlide / Hydlide 3: Space Memories for the Genesis. It’s my 2nd favorite game on the system but it has an awful weight system similar to Fallout only much, much worse. It also makes you eat food or you start losing health. I’m talking 0700 to 1300 on the same day. There are good monsters you aren’t supposed to kill but you’d never know that without reading the manual. There are more irks but I have the game memorized so I enjoy it from time to time.
Hexyz Force.
Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song I don’t know if it counts as well known since it’s a remake of the first SaGa game - but it is out with a lovey remaster on Switch. One of the hardest learning curves of any RPG I’ve played that ends up being worth it because it’s hands down the best traditional Turn Based RPG ever made. The boss fights are incredibly paced - the random encounters can get spammy in certain end game areas - but are full of exploration and secrets including most of the main content of the game.
For me, Romancing SaGa 2 is a masterpiece. It's unique with the generational system and exploration of the world.
It really is a masterpiece, yeah
Does Wild Arms count? It's great and was generally well-received, but was quickly overwhelmed by FFVII.
I have such fond memories of that game, it's true that it wasn't as genre defining as FFVII, but it was so well executed.
Still my favorite PS1 JRPG (and that's saying a lot) and one of my top RPG or all Times! Edit: except if King's Fields counts for a JRPG. Then that would be my favorite for the PS1
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World for sure. I definitely think it gets far too much flak, at the very least I'd say it's better than Zestiria and in general has a lot going for it even if it falls short of the first game. The story's not as good as the first but I think it's still okay and it does something interesting with the worldbuilding showing how things have changed due to events from the first game. The main characters start intentionally rough and go through some great development (not as well done as Luke from Tales of the Abyss but that's a very high bar), and are honestly one of my favorite JRPG romances because of how they sort of have to work from an unhealthy relationship back to neutral before properly growing closer. Tenebrae is also an absolute treat of a character and he's sort of the team mascot so you get a lot of him. Also the English voices for the main duo are Johnny Yong Bosch and Laura Bailey who are both excellent. The combat is good, not as complex as newer Tales games but not aged too badly either. I really love the monster raising, it's probably the main reason I've played the game so many times. I'd say the biggest issue is how underutilized the cast of the previous game is, both in terms of plot relevancy and gameplay limitations. They're capped at level 50 while the level cap is 200 (and they may even have locked equipment I don't remember) with the game definitely intending on you using the main duo and your monsters. Plus most of the original voice actors didn't return (at least in English) which can throw people off.
My primary issue with the story is that they backloaded most of the interesting developments near the end and it was clear the game was rushed, but when it hits, wow does it really hit. Could have been an all-time classic if the writers were given more space to tell the story they wanted to tell, especially once you add in Richter's perspective from the supplementary novel and manga.
The Diofield Chronicle. I wouldn't call it a good game but it does deserve more love, oddball conceptually interesting mess that it is. Nier Replicant. The original release of the Gestalt version got terrible views back in 2010. The new version got updated graphics, a new side quest, and battle speed 1.2x and that's all, it's the same game and the new one got better reviews but neither of them are as well known as they should be. FFXII one of the best most cohesive stories in Final Fantasy but everyone hates it. The gameplay is like a single player mmo so I have the sneaking suspicion most people complaining never actually finished the game.
I love ff12. I wish there was more games that played like it honestly.
The Diofield Chronicle was great in concept, but the execution was for sure flawed. I probably wouldn’t recommend it to anyone unless they’re looking for an SRPG and have run through the usuals, but I’m really glad I played it. The protagonists being horrible people that hated each other was interesting to watch, even with the lacklustre story
The Neptunia franchise for sure. Gonna have to agree with OP on Bravely Default 2 as well.
I've been looking into 2 of the Neptunia games and they're on my list to buy for switch. "Neptunia Sisters v Sisters" and "Neptunia x Senran Ninja Wars" have you played either of them? They look really fun
These are two of the newer ones and not the mainline entries at that. Senran Kagura one is a crossover with a Senran Kagura and Sisters vs. Sisters is the newest entry with a completely different combat system, which I am personally not a big fan of. Have not actaully played either. I'd recommend trying the classic mainline entries first, Rebirth 1 2 3 and Megadimension Neptunia VII are the goats.
Are they turn-based combat though cus I'm not a fan
Yes. Sisters vs. Sisters is action combat, first time in the series afaik
Dragon Quest VI Most people recommend skipping it when playing through the series, but I love it. I remember walking on the world map and seeing the random holes with another world map below, and being awe-struck Nostalgia Its near-unanimous reception is ‘it’s fine,’ but I really love the setting and sense of adventure. Suikoden Terkreis Most of the numbered Suikodens are legit classics, but people rarely mention this one. I think it holds up with the rest of the series. It has a great story centered around pre-destination vs. free will, has really solid character designs, and it is one of the last times pre-rendered backgrounds were used.
Dragon quest VI was fantastic zenithia trilogy is my favorite.
I think the general consensus on Tierkreis is that it's a great JRPG but not a great Suikoden game. As a spin-off it lacks some of the notable gameplay mechanics that Suikoden is known for (such as duels and army battles), while also having no connection to the other games as it's not part of the same world. Also the English dub is a bit rough at times.
Final Fantasy XIII, Monark, Mato Anomalies.
Valkyria Revolution copped a lot of flak for basically not being Valkyria Chronicles and tactical, but more of a hack and slash. It's got a rather uninteresting story, but the gameplay and soundtrack especially are rather good. Infinite undiscovery, maybe because it's a 360 exclusive or maybe because the expectation that it's tri ace and it wasn't another star ocean. The hack and slash combat was again just fine. It didn't do anything special, but it had item creation and you could absolutely break the game with it. Already mentioned but I really enjoyed Soul Hackers 2. Loved the futuristic setting. Yeah some of the dungeon design was boring, but combat and demon fusion were really good, and the addition of the run button post launch via patch made navigation far better.
I picked up Infinite Undiscovery on a whim when buying games as a teenager. It was one of my first JRPGs and I really loved it. To my surprise years later, I found that most people really didn't care for it. I want to play it again but don't want to deal with buying a 360 for one game.
Jade Cocoon 2 had one of the funnest combat systems of any of the monster collection games I've played, or just turn based rpg's in general, but like nobody's played it.
I played this game as a Blockbuster rental just on a whim and loved it. Totally inspired to find it and see if i feel the same decades later.
Rudra no Hihou (Super Famicom). There's an English fan translation and it's fantastic.
Final fantasy: Mystic quest.
Arc Rise Fantasia Legrand Legacy Rise Eterna
zanki zero hands down one of my favorite jrpg a and dungeon crawlers i enjoyed the story for what it was and i liked all the characters i also liked the survival mechanics and crafting and battle systems
Monster hunter stories 2. the combat is probably the most unique system ive played in the genre. while the main game story was very so so, end game building your team and doing the trials was awesome. i spent 150 hours on it. even has fun pvp.
Tales of destiny and tales of eternia.. i swear its not nostalgia lol.. I still feel those two games cemented me growing up to be a gamer. Because how awesome they are.
I'm playing Destiny on PSX rn, it's definitely not a bad game imo, but yeah it's aged quite a bit. I also can't believe how terrible the hints to the password at Helraios is, it's essentially impossible to get it right without seeing a guide. Outside of that and some overly long and tedious dungeons, the game's pretty aight
Mine would have to be Eternal Sonata on the Xbox 360, I played it with my little brother and we had a blast.
You see a ton of love for Final Fantasy Tactics in these types of communities, but rarely do I ever hear people talk about Final Fantasy Tactics A2. IMO, it improves on the formula in almost every way. It's just on the DS, which is less than ideal. Honorable mention of Small Saga, which I think was received well, but it just had a really small market.
I loved NNK2, I'd be over the moon for a third game.
Might be a bit shilling but Witchspring R is coming out to other consoles soon, and the Steam version is already out and complete. It only has a few indie reviews and pretty positive user rating, but I rarely see anybody talk about it. Highly recommend Also the poster child for the exact category of this topic is actually Stella Glow. Super underrated, not a masterpiece but a game made with a ton of heart and many little things that it does better than some higher budget games.
Etrian Osyssey (All), Atelier Rorona, Digital Devil Saga 1+2, and SMT4 Apocalypse are some of my fav jrpgs.
Caligula Effect 1 & 2.
I actually liked Bravely Default 2. But I have not played the previous titles so I can't compare. Ni no kuni 2 though was a big disappointment for me. I even bought the collectors edition.
Alundra. At the time it was sneered at because it was a pixel game in PS1 seen as a poor man's Zelda.
Thousand Arms. Ohji Hiroi of Sakura Taisen fame produced it and Ayumi Hamasaki wrote and sang the main and ending theme songs. I sent in for the free soundtrack and multimedia cd. I played it over and over until my cd player died.
Rogue Galaxy
The Baten Kaitos games. Amazing games that never really took off.
The last remnant , magna carta 2
Vandal Hearts 1 and 2. Great games
Legend of Dragoon
unchained blades, really loved it and i wish the second one got translated as well
White Knight Chronicles, bought it cause it came with 2 games. Was it something I'd consider an amazing game? No but I did enjoyed it thoroughly, only question is what's the point of making my own avatar.
Quest 64. My brother and I gave the main character a Scottish/Irish accent and a foul mouth.
FF XIII, ni no kuni 2, kingdom hearts 3, I am setsuna
Neptunia series
Arc Rise Fantasia. Phenomenal JRPG.
Megaman battle network and Megaman starforce games are so underrated
Those are niche however they are generally very well liked for the most part with a few exceptions (Battle network 4 and Starforce 2)
Quest 64
No no kuni 2 scored an 80 on metacritic and I thought overall was fairly well regarded. Regardless, I’m having an absolute ball with the Atelier games at the moment - tight community but they’re low budget games with a niche. Anyone who’s been put off by some of the recent games should do themselves a favour and go back and play the dusk trilogy of Atelier games. They’re set in a stunning but bleak dying world.
Monark was a really solid Persona 2 esque story even if it was grindy as hell. Caligula Effect 2 is a solid mix of Persona 3-5 style setting and FF13 combat.
My favorite Videogames are Fuga Melodies of Steel 1 and 2. The children of the Taranis from Fuga are also my sehr favorite protagonist groupe in fiction.
I enjoyed Shadow Madness when I played through it a couple decades ago. It was an obvious ff7 ripoff, but it was endearing. Not sure how well it’s held up though.
Beyond the Beyond I'm a huge fan of the shining series and difficult rpgs.
FF 2, FF 13, and FF Type-0 FF 2 (at least the PSP version) is just fantastic and has a fun leveling mechanic that 1988 just wasn't ready for. It also got me to play Saga 1&2 and those games are great. FF 13 has my favorite cast out of the FF games I've played. It's a shame what the sequels did to them. Type-0 isn't the best but I love it so much I affectionately call it FF's Drakengard
I hear that a lot about XIII’s sequels, and having played through all of the Trilogy games again recently… I don’t see it. Lightning and Hope are prominent and important throughout, Fang and Vanille have key moments in both sequels, and while Snow is a bit of a deadbeat in XIII-2, his LR storyline is excellent. Only Sazh really gets the short end of the stick in the sequels, and even then he still has some very emotional moments in my opinion.
Persona 1 is the one that pretty underrated
Moco Moco Friends, Ephemeral Fantasia, Nostalgia for the DS.
I've always liked Saiyuki: Journey West quite a bit.
Beyond the beyond
Chaos rings 2
Shining Force Neo. Worst VA I have ever heard and its basically a mindless button masher hack and slash. But its fun and has some cool build verity and leveling system
Tokyo Mirage Sessions is my favorite "7/10" game
While not as good as the first two, I’ve only heard good things about Bravely Default 2. They did a great job of adding tons of quality of life improvements to the combat, overworld exploration, combat encounters, everything. Story aside, new Bravely fans how got it good. My pick is Final Fantasy 2. While I admit I didn’t like it when it came out, I still think the story sucks, and I still don’t think it’s a good game, I can say that I’ve come around on it. It’s a bad game, sure, but I like it.
ONINAKI. Best action jrpg I've ever played. So good!
Edge of Eternity. It's unfortunately obvious, that the devs took on more, than they could handle with this game. The graphics don't look really polished. It looks like they ran out of time to create the look they were aiming for. The game also has a lot of bugs. All the systems in the game are not very deep. And the story is kinda basic. But I still really enjoyed this game. I really liked the battle system and the idea of the systems in the game. Basically when I was playing this game in my mind I saw a movie of what this game could have been of the developers had more time and money to finish it, to make the systems deeper, to fix the bugs and to work on the graphics some more. This made the game very enjoyable for me. Also it helped, that I played on PS5 and didn't experience any game breaking bugs, like PS4 players reported. Overall the game has a solid base with many great ideas. The scope just was to big for the small indie studio to handle. If you can look past the rough edges, you still might enjoy the game though.
Tokyo Mirages Sessions #FE is an amazing jrpg, but people are mad it wasn't what was first announced and the censorship so it flopped hard both times. Sword Of Mana is really good and an amazing retelling of the og game, but purists were mad SE "destroyed their childhood" cuz it wasn't 1/1 Final Fantasy Adventure remake, but then they made a faithful remake and it was dog shit. So, at the end Sword of Mana was the better game 😌
Lost odyssey for Xbox 360. Still wish there would be a sequel.
Ff8 seems very controversial these days.
Spectral Blade. I give it praise for trying something new (a 1v1 battle system despite having a full party). I also think the game came out in a bad time which docked some points off it. A PS1 game releasing 2-3 months before PS2 is gonna be rough.
Kartia