Recommend Me a JRPG!

Off Topic
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Ok, so I’m always on the lookout for a slightly better JRPG every time I play one, and many are pretty good but some are just awful beyond comparison, so what I’m gonna do is list every JRPG I’ve played to completion (note: completion means beating EVERYTHING, not just the main story), and then a smaller list of things I like, things I’d prefer not to have but can stand, and things I hate.

After that, I ask for recommendations. So without further ado-

JRPG’s I’ve Beaten 100%-
Final Fantasy (NES, GBA, PS1, and GBA Modded)
Final Fantasy 2 (GBA)
Final Fantasy 4 (SNES, GBA, NDS, and PSP)
Final Fantasy 5 (GBA)
Final Fantasy 6 (SNES, GBA)
Final Fantasy 7 (PC)
Final Fantasy 9 (PS1)
Final Fantasy 10 (PS2, Soon to get International version)
Final Fantasy 12 (PS2, Soon to get International version)
Final Fantasy 13 (360)
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
Final Fantasy Legends 1 (GB)
Final Fantasy Legends 2 (GB)
Star Ocean 1 (PSP)
Star Ocean 2 (PSP)
Star Ocean 3 (PS2)
Star Ocean 4 (360, Getting the PS3 version soon)
Valkyrie Profile 2 (PS2)
Infinite Undiscovery (360)
The Last Remnant (360)
Romancing Saga (PS2)
Legend of Dragoon (PS1)
Xenogears (PS1)
Xenosaga (PS2)
Xenosaga 2 (PS2)
Lost Odyssey (360)
Magna Carta 2 (360)
Wizardry Labryinth of the Lost Souls (PS3)
Wizardry 8 (PC)
Breath of Fire 1 (GBA)
Breath of Fire 2 (GBA)
Kingdom Hearts 1 (PS2)
Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2)

Games I’ve played and not beaten or am playing currently-
Eternal Sonata (360)
Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
Final Fantasy 3 (DS)
Final Fantasy: Dissidia Duodecim (PSP)
Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2)
Final Fantasy 4: The After Years (PSP)
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PSP)
Tales of Vesperia (360)

Things I like in a JRPG-
Fast Paced Turn Based Combat (FF 10)
Free Roam Turn Based combat (FF 12)
Free Roam Real Time Combat (Star ocean 3 and 4)
Epic Save-the-world Stories (Nearly all JRPG’s)
Quicktime Events In Combat (Lost Odyssey, Legend of Dragoon)
Colorful Vibrant Worlds (Final Fantasy 10, Final Fantasy 9, Eternal Sonata)
High Level Caps, Above 99 (Star Ocean 3, Star Ocean 4)
No Level Systems (Final Fantasy 10, Final Fantasy 13)
Job System/All Characters gain All abilities (Final Fantasy 12, Final fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy 5)
Expansive Treasure/Monster Loot Hunting (Many JRPG’s but Star Ocean 4 and Final Fantasy 12 are my favorite types)
Insane Optional Bosses (Star Ocean 3, Star Ocean 4, Final Fantasy 12, Final Fantasy 10)

Things I prefer not to have but can deal with-
Sewer Levels (Eternal Sonata, Final Fantasy 12, lots of other games)
Monochromatic Games, Games with similar colors and environment through the entire story (Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy 12)
English Voice Acting (Any JRPG from the PS2 era on)
Kitty or Fan-service Characters (Star Ocean 4 [Meracle, Myuria], Final fantasy X-2 [all three characters], Final Fantasy 10 [Rikku])
Idiotic Weaponry (Final Fantasy 7’s Buster Sword, Final Fantasy 8’s Gunblade and Crossbow Puppy Launcher, Final Fantasy 10’s Blitzball and Moogle)
High Number Parties in Combat (Final Fantasy 4’s five person combat party, two - three person combat parties are my preference)
Unskippable Cutscenes (Many JRPGs)

Things I cannot Stand-
Enemy Level Scaling, i.e. enemies that are always at your level, and never higher or lower (Magna Carta 2)
Main Characters that are Entirely Irrelevant to the Story (FF10 Tidus, FF12 Penelo and Vaan, Final Fantasy 9 Quina, Final Fantasy 7 Cait Sith)
Tactics/Facing games (Final Fantasy Tactics)
Characters that are so god awful annoying, whiney and idiotic that they become the greatest argument for partial-birth abortions (Final Fantasy 10’s Tidus)
Repetitive Dull Grey Environments (Lost Odyssey)
Mechs (Xenogears)

So yeah, if you can make heads or tales of that huge-ass list, by all means, recommend me a JRPG.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

Xenoblade

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

A few questions about that-

One, is it possible to make the wii region free? This game hasn’t been released in NA and there aren’t any plans as of yet.
Assuming I can make it region free with relative ease, which version should I get? EU or AU?
Three, does it have english subtitles?
Four, can I make use of the wii-classic controller, or does it require the motion controller?

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

Yes, and it’s very easy.
EU and AU I believe are exactly the same, but I went with EU for what it’s worth.
Yes, there’s English and Japanese voices and multiple subtitle languages
Yes and there is not a single motion gesture in the game.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

Thanks. I’ll have to check it out.

I’m a little averse to the auto-battle it has as wiki says it’s comparable to FF13, but otherwise it looks like fun.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

Shadow Hearts: Covenant. I’d be tempted to tell you to play the first game first, but that one is just so much better in every way… It has my favorite story of any JRPG, memorable characters, lots of stuff to do and find, great music and a fun, fast paced battle system that I think I’ve heard is similar to Legend of Dragoon’s, but I don’t know for sure, since I never played that game. It’s also different from a lot of JRPGs in that its set in something relatively close to the real world, and in the somewhat recent past (ie, not faux-medieval times).

The Digital Devil Saga games are fun, too, and perhaps a good introduction to the larger Shin Megami Tensei series, since they’re more like a regular JRPG than the main entries in the series or the Persona games. They can be pretty difficult, though.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

Added Shadow Hearts Covenant and From the New World to my gamefly list. The combat system looks amazingly similar to Lost Odyssey, and while I like quicktime events during combat (i.e. you press a button at the right time to gain extra attacks or damage or something), Legend of Dragoon broke it horribly.

In Lost Odyssey, it was a nice little boost to damage that helped but didn’t hurt you if you missed. In Dragoon, it was almost necessary to try and beat some of the bosses.

Plus, after viewing a quick youtube video of the game, I like that one of the lead female characters wears frigging NORMAL LOOKING CLOTHING! I am so sick to death of impractical, uncomfortable, and most of all, titty-showing clothing/armor for female characters.

Digital Devil on the other hand, not so sure about. I might try and find a cheap ebay copy but Gamefly is so expensive and slow at shipping that I do kinda need to be selective about what I get. (Seriously can’t fucking wait for Quickster)

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

I do have to wonder why you never played Blue Dragon…although I think it does have a few of the things you dislike…for one, it has English voices…

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

Covenant is pretty good about putting the characters in fairly realistic costumes, at least compared to most games. From the New World is… less so. It’s still fun, but it’s a very different game all around, other than the battle system. It’s not bad, but if you happen to get it first, know that Covenant’s story is much better, and better at balancing the goofy elements.

You might be able to get away with only playing the second Digital Devil Saga, which has a level up system quite similar to Final Fantasy X’s. There might be some things you miss out on, story-wise, from not playing the first, but probably not too much, really.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

Two words. Akira Toriyama.

I hate that art style with a passion. I realize that’s incredibly biased, and that Blue Dragon may indeed be a great game, but the art style is so idiotic looking that I just can’t will myself to go on in it.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

Hmm, one addendum to one of the things I like.

While I enjoy higher level caps than 99, I’ve discovered that the game Disgaea has a level cap of 99,999, and the newest Disgaea game has a level cap of 999,999. That’s kinda ridiculous, it presents one of two problems-

1- You level so fast in certain areas, like 40-50 levels at any given time or so that the level-up system then becomes pretty much meaningless.

2- You level up so slow that no one in their right mind would even attempt going beyond maybe a few hundred.

I think my limit on level caps would probably be 1000 or something. But 255 like in star ocean is a pretty good solid number (for the life of me I don’t know why it’s not just 250 but whatever), as it implies that if you can beat the game at level 60-70ish, then the remaining 180 levels are pretty much fun bonus content that will last a while but not an insane amount of time.

Still trying to beat Lillith in Star ocean 3. She’s frigging HARD!

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

After seeing this list I can whole-heartedly recommend Radiata Stories for the PS2. The level cap is 99, but there is a guaranteed second play through combat very similar to Eternal Sonata just with no action bar, it’s a square enix game so there just had to be an incredibly hard bonus dungeon. All in all great game that any RPG fan should have been glad to have played.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

Yeah, a lot of people are recommending Radiata stories to me for some reason.

I watched the Unskippable Riff of the opening cutscene and dear god is the acting and overall feel of it bad. does the chibi-cuteness ever go away? I.e. does it actually get more mature as the game goes on, or can I expect cringe-worthy comedic fails like that all throughout the game?

On a different note-

Tales of Vesperia is AWFUL. Yuri has about the only competent voice actor, the plot is basically making NO sense, the characters are all idiots except for maybe Repede who can’t frigging talk, the side quests are laughably stupid (Seriously, one side quest starts with the phrase “There are strange objects all over the world, sometimes it might be the wonder-chef in disguise and if you discover him, he’ll give you a new recipe.”)

The combat is VERY frigging repetitive and dull, and overall it’s becoming a REALLY unpleasant experience.

I’ve heard that this is the worst “Tales of” game in the franchise, and I may give another one a try because this is so bad that the only direction you can go in quality is up.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

No chrono-trigger/cross? Should definitely give that a go. At one point it seemed that all my friends were playing chrono trigger on snes emulators. Beautifully scored.

Also Grandia (psx), I’ve only played the first in the series, it has a great story with some nice character development. Appears on plenty ‘top 10’ lists.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

Unfortunately, just like before one of the main issues with me trying to get behind the game Chrono Trigger was Akira Toriyama. I’m sure it’s a great game, a lot of people say that its easily one of Squaresoft’s best, but that art style is just so awful that I can’t seem to really enjoy the game.

As for Grandia, I have been meaning to give that a try so I’ll probably download a copy.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

So…I just got Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the new world, and Tales of The Abyss.

Tales of the Abyss went back in the case almost as quickly as I got it out, it was so unbelievably painful to listen to. When they waste voice acting talent on the tutorial, especially one that breaks the fourth wall, it almost immediately makes me shut the game off, and this was no exception.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is slightly better and more tolerable, so I’m gonna see if I can grudge through the game considering the main character is actually more of a pussy than Tidus from Final Fantasy X. But after this, I think I’m done with the “Tales of” series.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

[quote=Jaclyn link=topic=4801.msg47724#msg47724 date=1316798693]
Yeah, a lot of people are recommending Radiata stories to me for some reason.

I watched the Unskippable Riff of the opening cutscene and dear god is the acting and overall feel of it bad. does the chibi-cuteness ever go away? I.e. does it actually get more mature as the game goes on, or can I expect cringe-worthy comedic fails like that all throughout the game?

At around the midway point the game takes on a darker tone. The plot turns more into a war fought along the lines of racism and you choose which side to support. The cuteness is kind of annoying after awhile but I think it’s a small downside to an overall great game.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

Just an update-

Returning Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Next up on my Gamefly Queue are Dungeon Siege 3, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, and Radiata Stories.

I just bought Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the PS2, Star Ocean 4 International for the PS3, and I just received Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby’s Epic Yarn (AMAZING FUCKING GAME), Rogue Galaxy (Also AMAZING), and super smash brothers brawl from the library.

So for now, I’ve got a HUGE roster of games to choose from. I’ll probably be quite busy for the next few weeks.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

So far, Rogue Galaxy has it’s ups and downs.

I like it’s gameplay mechanics and I REALLY like that it’s competently dubbed and voice-acted. But so far, my main issues are that they are placing a LOT of faith in the main characters abilities, so much so that it hinders the game if he dies.

To give you an example-

Jaster (the main character) is the only character capable of using guns. The third major boss battle of the game is against the Individer, who can only be hurt if frozen. The ONLY freezing weapon in the game is a freeze gun, so only Jaster can use it.

Thus, if Jaster dies, and there’s no resurrection elixers, then you cannot win against the boss despite having two other completely capable characters.

This was a bad design decision in my opinion. The game is still pretty good but it’s frustratingly hard too, making it difficult to continue picking up the controller for it.

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Re: Recommend Me a JRPG!

@Riggnarok

I gotta be honest dude, Radiata Stories was…terrible.

I appreciate the suggestion and all but it’s definitely not the game for me. The combat system is choppy and unrefined, the ultra chibi nature of the game doesn’t dissipate (I watched a playthrough of the last few areas), and they even break the 4th wall with the fayt costume you can have.

It’s hard for me to get emotionally invested in a game that so casually breaks the 4th wall.