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Crispy™ What are the best storyfag JRPGs?

Night Goat

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Men,

I played some of the more entry-level JRPGs like Chrono Trigger, Mario RPG and the SNES and PS1 Final Fantasies back in the day, but never got really in-depth with the genre. Lately I've started getting into Trails in the Sky, I'm in SC now and the immense amount of charm these games have keeps me going despite their considerable flaws. As a storyfag first and foremost, what other JRPGs might I enjoy?
 

Crane

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Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath
Try some of the Atlus games. Anarchronox is a classic if you count it as a JRPG. Nier and Nier Autonoma are good.
 

cosmicray

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Since they're quite popular you've probably heard already, but Personas 3+ are especially story-centric. Side-quests are date sim stories more or less.
 

Hyperion

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Suikoden. Most on the 'Dex and other places would recommend 2, but from a sheer storyfag perspective 3 smashes it to bits. Seeing the story from 3 different perspectives, watching Hugo and Chris grow, and Geddoe be a perma-badass was far more satisfying than anything 2 throws your way, except for maybe the little sister emotions derived from the plight of Pilika. From a gameplay perspective, I also find 3 much better, even though the combat system could feel a bit sluggish compared to the others at time. It had, imo, the series' best rendition of strategic combat as well. You may want to try playing Suikoden I first, if not in complete order, as it'll give you a bit of backstory and understanding when the villain reveal comes in 3. 4 is skippable, imo. 5 starts off excellent with 2 noble families plotting against the royal family (you), but fizzles out once the intrigue is gone.

Radiant Historia is a good place to go from Chrono Trigger if you like the Time Travel aspect. Unfortunately, I found the combat to get a bit rote, and boring after 15 - 20 hours or so, but maybe you'll think of it differently. And honestly, if you enjoyed Chrono trigger, just play Chrono Cross too. For some reason, it's really underappreciated and rather unloved. It did have some development woes which messed with the game a bit (i.e. Guile was supposed to be revealed as Magus, but it never happened). It's definitely flawed, and I would say the biggest flaw is you just get too many damn characters who either suck, or are all very samey, with very few who stand out from the rest. You get like 40 of the bastards but every endgame group is basically Serge + Glenn + whoever.

Lost Odyssey. It's a one and done from Sakaguchi, but goddamnit was it well written.

Tactics Ogre of course. My avatar says it all.
 
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Deflowerer

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Also, I think Vagrant Story is also great. The dungeon crawling is more of a meat of the game, but the story itself is very well told. One might have quips about the coherence of the plot, but the actual storytelling and presentation is fantastic. Even the opening cutscene that ends with the tutorial boss is incredibly directed. The fact that gameplay is top notch as well is just an icing on the storyfag cake.
 

Falksi

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Men,

I played some of the more entry-level JRPGs like Chrono Trigger, Mario RPG and the SNES and PS1 Final Fantasies back in the day, but never got really in-depth with the genre. Lately I've started getting into Trails in the Sky, I'm in SC now and the immense amount of charm these games have keeps me going despite their considerable flaws. As a storyfag first and foremost, what other JRPGs might I enjoy?

Shadow Hearts: Covenant would be a good place to start for you. Brilliant game, great mix of darkness & humour, not complex at all but a bit more in depth than those games you list.

Final Fantasy X is story-fag heaven too.

Best "modern" JRPGs I've played are Lost Odyssey & The Last Remnant.

And FFS don't skip Phantasy Star 4.
 

Wayward Son

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Men,

I played some of the more entry-level JRPGs like Chrono Trigger, Mario RPG and the SNES and PS1 Final Fantasies back in the day, but never got really in-depth with the genre. Lately I've started getting into Trails in the Sky, I'm in SC now and the immense amount of charm these games have keeps me going despite their considerable flaws. As a storyfag first and foremost, what other JRPGs might I enjoy?

Shadow Hearts: Covenant would be a good place to start for you. Brilliant game, great mix of darkness & humour, not complex at all but a bit more in depth than those games you list.

Final Fantasy X is story-fag heaven too.

Best "modern" JRPGs I've played are Lost Odyssey & The Last Remnant.

And FFS don't skip Phantasy Star 4.
Final Fantasy X was great, but be forewarned: it plays like some guys really bad trip. Which is a good thing.
 

cosmicray

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Final Fantasy X was great, but be forewarned: it plays like some guys really bad trip. Which is a good thing.
Damn, I really need to get around to replaying it. That whole sense of going on an adventure was awesome.
 

Wayward Son

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Final Fantasy X was great, but be forewarned: it plays like some guys really bad trip. Which is a good thing.
Damn, I really need to get around to replaying it. That whole sense of going on an adventure was awesome.
It definitely had some of there best adventurey feel to it of any JRPG I’ve played.
Btw Night Goat another good JRPG series is Dark Cloud. Has some decent dungeons despite most floors being random. The second one is the more storyfag game of the two, but also the worse one when it comes to a lot of other things imo. Their both ps2 exclusives tho, unless you want to emulate.
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

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Avoid Persona 3 and 4 like a plague unless you like emo boys and dream of getting a langschwang between your apfelpfannkuchens.

If you're craving for some Megaten and want storyfaggotry, go play Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner instead.
 

Jack Of Owls

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Hello storyfaggot. Final Fantasy III (VI in Japan) had a compelling steampunk theme that kept me interested all the way through. I've come to accept my latent storyfaggotry over the years only recently when I looked in the mirror and realized that Bard's Tale I & II (Remastered) were actually bad games because they are almost totally devoid of story that is more than hymen-membrane thick. Great combat though.
 

ghostdog

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SNES:
Secret Of Mana 2
Lufia 2: Rise Of The Sinistrals
Dragon Quest V

PSX:
Persona 1&2
Final Fantasy IX

PS2:
Shadow Hearts
Digital Devil Saga 1&2

PS3:
Nier
Resonance of Fate

PC:
Sengoku Rance
The Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky
 

Swigen

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Dec 15, 2018
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1,014
Xenogears. I’ve just recently started Trails in the Sky SC as well and while cute, I can’t help but think Xenogears deals with a lot of the same themes but does it in a far more mature and exciting way.
 

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