UPDATED: In need of JRPGs with good combat (preferrably tactical combat)

[Sigourn]

Why no emulation? That seems kinda arbitrary.

Being 100% honest: it is completely arbitrary. Maybe I want to escape the fact that there are many consoles I can't properly emulate (PSOne, PS2, PS3, among others), either because of true maximum emuration (PSone, PS2) or because it isn't emulated properly yet (PS3 and others).



So I decided to keep it "available on PC", but even then I had to remove quite a few games because a lot of them had very shitty ports (like my beloved Final Fantasy series), so I settled for the following games which were either developed exclusively for PC, released simultaneously on PC, or are just too good to pass up:

- Dark Souls
- Dark Souls II
- Dark Souls III
- Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
- Elminage: Gothic
- Generation XTH 1: Code Hazard
- Mind Zero
- Stranger of Sword City
- Wizardry Chronicle
- Wizardry Empire II PLUS : Oujo no Isan - Legacy of the Prince
- Ys I & II Chronicles+
- Ys: Memories of Celceta
- Ys Origin
- Ys: The Oath in Felghana
- Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC
- Chantelise - A Tale of Two Sisters
- Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale
- Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book
- Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone
- Labyrinth of Touhou
- Labyrinth of Touhou 2
- Princess Maker 2 Refine
- Tale of Wuxia (侠客风云传) (Not JRPG, but whatever)
- The Last Remnant
- Valkyria Chronicles
- Xanadu Next

 

[Sigourn]

So, if I were to ask for japanese games that resembled Western RPGs, which ones would you guys recommend? For example, a lot of people agree Dark Souls is very un-JRPG, and the same we could say about basically the Wizardry-"clones" like Elminage: Gothic and Stranger of Sword City.

 

[laclongquan]

Parasite Eve2 is very unlike jRPG. Set in USA. US name.

I think Chronos Cross is western.

Suikoden 1, 2, 3.

 

[Jacob]

persona 4 is better than all the bioware games
dragon's dogma is like gothic, i guess, and with character creation, but i don't really get its charm
dragon quest ix have party creation and you can customize the character model too, but unfortunately akira toriyama's human character design is a bit lame
way of the samurai has command & conquer and branching story
elona is a japanese roguelike

too good to pass up

rance vi & sengoku rance

 

[CryptRat]

akira toriyama's human character design is a bit lame

Wut?

 

[Sigourn]

persona 4 is better than all the bioware games
dragon's dogma is like gothic, i guess, and with character creation, but i don't really get its charm
dragon quest ix have party creation and you can customize the character model too, but unfortunately akira toriyama's human character design is a bit lame
way of the samurai has command & conquer and branching story
elona is a japanese roguelike
rance vi & sengoku rance

Alright, you've sold me out on the Rance games and Way of the Samurai. What about Way of the Samurai 3? Everyone talks about 4, but apparently 3 is much more controversial.

 

[Great Deceiver]

true maximum emuration (PSone)

What?

 

[Sigourn]

true maximum emuration (PSone)

What?

What I mean is: I've heard emulation is pretty much flawless when it comes to NES, SNES, and the different gameboys. Everything else goes from "very good" to "mediocre" or downright impossible (PS3, XBOX, amongst others).

 

[Great Deceiver]

PSX (PSOne) emulation through Mednafen (preferrably the Retroarch core) is pretty much perfect.

 

[Drax]

Bunch o stuff I didn't know about, thanks.

 

[Drax]

Also, Lucas9 you make huge lists of games to play like every month or so, how much fucking time do you have to play games?

 

[Sigourn]

Also, Lucas9 you make huge lists of games to play like every month or so, how much fucking time do you have to play games?

I'm afraid my time to play games will be drastically reduced in this year (college, and will have to look for my first job at 24 if not 25).

I lived the good life for far too long.

 

[Sigourn]

Thanks to everyone for their replies! I admit the "no emulation" rule is stupid, so I decided I will play the following console games, as some of them are widely considered to be the best JRPGs of all time:

- Chrono Trigger
- Earthbound
- Final Fantasy IV
- Final Fantasy VI
- Final Fantasy Tactics
- Tactics Ogre let us Cling together
- Elminage Original
- The Dark Spire
- Wizardry Gaiden 4: Throb Of The Demon's Heart (Taima No Kodou)

Again, thank you! If you could do one last thing, however: should I play the PSP versions of both Tactics games?

 

[Sigourn]

Sorry for the triple post, but in need of some advice. Thread title and OP should tell you everything you need to know. Thank you!

 

[an Administrator]

Sorry for the triple post, but in need of some advice. Thread title and OP should tell you everything you need to know. Thank you!

Here you are

 

[Sigourn]

Here you are

How about something less moe now?

 

[Drax]

Just fire up that Chrono Trigger, man, it's all you need.

 

[Sigourn]

Just fire up that Chrono Trigger, man, it's all you need.

But I've played it before. I don't remember the ins and outs of the combat, though. I think it was more complex than Final Fantasy, but not that much more complicated.

 

[Drax]

Oh.
Well, it's still better than playing PoE.

 

[tet666]

Baka Gaijins calling western style Action RPGs Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma JRPGs again...

 

[Sigourn]

Baka Gaijins calling western style Action RPGs Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma JRPGs again...

Read the OP again. I specifically said I wasn't interesting in JRPGs as a genre, but rather, in japanese role playing games (Dark Souls isn't a JRPG genre-wise, but it is a japanese roleplaying game nonetheless).

Also, fuck it. JUST GIVE ME GAMES TO PLAY. As long as it isn't EarthBound or anything like it.

 

[Emmanuel2]

- Stardew Valley: was voted pretty high in the Codex's poll.
- Tales of Berseria
- Tales of Symphonia HD
- Tales of Zestiria
- Disgaea PC
- Disgaea PC 2

Zestiria > Berseria >>> Symphonia > Abyss if you're looking for actual depth. But since you're open to emulation now, I suggest looking into Narikiri Dungeon X with the menu patch, it has by the far one of more technical combat in the entire series where I think Graces F or Innocence R are the only ones that surpasses it.

If you're going to play Berseria, avoid playing as the main protagonist and you'll find enough depth. Otherwise, I found using the main protag can make the game easy even at Intense diff. and 10 levels below the random encounters so far.

Stardew Valley is, mechanically-wise, basically a Rune Factory-lite but with a couple more farming options and ugly waifus.

Disgaea is a min-maxer's/Grinder's paradise, you won't find JA2-levels of combat nor even FFT/TO:LUCT. If you're not into powerlevelling your characters, eventually becoming godlike then resetting to level 1 to get bonuses, one-hitting shit, grinding hundreds of hours, then this is not for you.

Valkyria Chronicles, but I don't know if II & III should be must plays too.

I < II, III I haven't played yet but have it. III has the best combat mechanics of them all and has the most content from what I've heard.

Again, thank you! If you could do one last thing, however: should I play the PSP versions of both Tactics games?

Yes.

 

[Ash]

Baka Gaijins calling western style Action RPGs Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma JRPGs again...

Lol, inform yourself. Dark Souls is a Japanese console game through and through, aside from everything being traced back to the earliest of wRPGs (e.g Wizardry).
Kings Field, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Onimusha DoD etc, it's in that vein of Japanese ARPG which was commonplace in the 90s/early 00s. Meanwhile you've got Gothic or Blade: Severence of Darkness as the only wRPGs that come close to that style of game.

The Japanese are allowed to make games without animu art style and still have it be classified as Japanese. there's a shit ton of non-animu games they've made, thank god.

 

[Declinator]

Meanwhile you've got Gothic or Blade: Severence of Darkness as the only wRPGs that come close to that style of game.

If Severance is an RPG then the moniker RPG means nothing. It has levels so it is an RPG? No.

However, I agree that of western games Severance is the most similar to Dark Souls (unless of course you count the Souls derivative Lords of the Fallen.)

The Japanese are allowed to make games without animu art style and still have it be classified as Japanese. there's a shit ton of non-animu games they've made, thank god.

Yes, the art style should not even enter the discussion when considering what genre or sub-genre a game is.

 

[tet666]

Baka Gaijins calling western style Action RPGs Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma JRPGs again...

Lol, inform yourself. Dark Souls is a Japanese console game through and through, aside from everything being traced back to the earliest of wRPGs (e.g Wizardry).
Kings Field, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Onimusha DoD etc, it's in that vein of Japanese ARPG which was commonplace in the 90s/early 00s. Meanwhile you've got Gothic or Blade: Severence of Darkness as the only wRPGs that come close to that style of game.

The Japanese are allowed to make games without animu art style and still have it be classified as Japanese. there's a shit ton of non-animu games they've made, thank god.

JRPG defines a genre that has nothing to do with japanese made (western style) action rpgs.
Oh and Kings Field the predecessor of Dark Souls was very much inspired by the Ultima Underworld series.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Onimusha DoD are action adventures (with some light rpg elementsd) btw they have nothing to with this anyway.
Just watch these extra credits episodes if you are still confused about the JRPG genre:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_rvM6hubs8