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Random thoughts on whatever JRPG you're currently playing?

Valky

Arcane
Manlet
Joined
Aug 22, 2016
Messages
2,418
Location
Trapped in a bioform
Ys 8 is proving to be one HELL of a ride so far. I had no expectations since I've never played a game by Falcom before and it is absolutely blowing my mind how they were able to accomplish such a masterpiece. I'm very eagerly awaiting Monstrum Nox being localized drm free like the previous games.
 

Silentstorm

Learned
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
885
It is a fun series, though i will admit i am not that much of a fan of the first games, mostly because i find the bump system to be boring, once it became more of a standard action RPG with buttons to attack, the series became a lot more fun, also, love the soundtracks too.

Not that big on storytelling though, i mean, there is always a story, but they're mostly not too special because the main focus is exploration and combat, but they're fine, Falcom's RPG series that focuses on story is The Legend Of Heroes anyways.

Oh, and if you play anything made before Ys 7, don't expect party members, everything up till Ys VI had Adol being a solo character dealing with everything on his own, Ys 7 added something about the monsters in this new place having different weaknesses and many are resistant to slashing damage...which sucks as Adol is a swordsman being the reason for other people to join him, though Adol's best weapon is the one and only weapon in the game that ignores resistance and always deals normal damage.

So yeah, things start changing with Ys 7, a good example is Memories Of Celceta, which is basically a remake/reimagining of Ys IV(same villains, land and general plot threads) but you get party members you can switch to and play as while in both versions of Ys IV, you could play with Adol, and Adol, oh and we can't forget Adol.
 

ebPD8PePfC

Savant
Joined
May 13, 2018
Messages
225
Atelier Ayesha – It’s very similar to Sophie, which I stopped playing after a solid half of it. There’s nothing wrong with the game except for the lack of challenge, even optional one, but I don’t enjoy any of the content. I got to the end of the second year and realised I was playing mostly out of inertia. The game is great as background noise while I listen to stuff that requires some attention, but I can’t say I enjoy it too much. Is there some unexpected stuff in the third year might make me change my mind?
 

Sigourn

uooh afficionado
Joined
Feb 6, 2016
Messages
5,624
It is a fun series, though i will admit i am not that much of a fan of the first games, mostly because i find the bump system to be boring, once it became more of a standard action RPG with buttons to attack, the series became a lot more fun, also, love the soundtracks too.

Not that big on storytelling though, i mean, there is always a story, but they're mostly not too special because the main focus is exploration and combat, but they're fine, Falcom's RPG series that focuses on story is The Legend Of Heroes anyways.

I agree that the combat is pretty boring and the storylines are nothing special. Most of the time it's just a series of checklists, e.g. "get the Books of Ys", "get the Magic spells", "talk to all the Sages", "talk to the Five Disciples". It sucks because there's not much lore in the games, but what there is to be seen is pretty awesome but only used here and there.
 

Silentstorm

Learned
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
885
They could do a lot, apparently in his 100 journals Adol writes in the future, something like 95% happen in the same continent apparently, meaning there are a lot of ancient civilizations and threats out there across various ages that could have interacted with each other and that Adol discovers and faces...at least until he dissapears forever in his last adventure when he's 63 years old, something that Falcom will quite likely never reveal what it was.

But it still leaves a lot of adventures for bigger stories if they desire to go that route, Adol apparently never really takes a break in his entire life, dude must be a badass adult with all that experience under his belt.
 

Viata

Arcane
Joined
Nov 11, 2014
Messages
9,885
Location
Water Play Catarinense
For some reason I prefer the old Ys games over the most recent ones(VII and VIII). All games are interesting and still I recommend people to play any of them.
 

jungl

Augur
Joined
Mar 30, 2016
Messages
1,420
tried out hoshigami blue earth. Worst SRPG I played. Its very bare bones with only decent thing you could say about it is the character artwork. Mostly playing dragon ball attack of saiyans ds missed out on this one but played all the other shitty dbz ds games around the time they released. You can really tell the xenoblade guys made the game with how the skill and stat mechanics work.
 

Ysaye

Arbiter
Joined
May 27, 2018
Messages
771
Location
Australia
tried out hoshigami blue earth. Worst SRPG I played. Its very bare bones with only decent thing you could say about it is the character artwork. Mostly playing dragon ball attack of saiyans ds missed out on this one but played all the other shitty dbz ds games around the time they released. You can really tell the xenoblade guys made the game with how the skill and stat mechanics work.

I only read that you were trying that game out (the first sentence) and started grieving for you. Even the artwork you cited many of the characters appear androgynous and completely confusing; I would argue the only thing of interest there is Elena's boobs, even then in some of the (I think original game) artwork they look like they have put zero effort into her facial features.
 

kaisergeddon

Liturgist
Patron
Joined
Dec 28, 2018
Messages
243
Location
Texas
Insert Title Here Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
Crazy how we all agree on Hoshigami. Even the remake couldn't fully save it. I don't know what the hell happened with that game, it's just maddeningly broken. The same devs went on to make Stella Deus for the PS2 I THINK, which ended up basic but surprisingly functional while sharing a few of the same ideas.
 

kaisergeddon

Liturgist
Patron
Joined
Dec 28, 2018
Messages
243
Location
Texas
Insert Title Here Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
Yeah, it's Hoshigami Remix. No clue how Arc Sys got hold of it, or what lead to them deciding the game deserved a remake. Maybe some sort of dare or drunken bet lead to that mysterious decision. I heard the remake has multiple endings, maybe I'll LP it here eventually just to share the madness. No way I'm touching the PS1 version, though. Does that one even have an ending? Is there anyone on earth would could confirm it besides the original developers?
 

Silentstorm

Learned
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
885
I guess someone made a bet to see if they could make a good game out of it with a remake?

I have to say i haven't played the DS version, didn't even know it existed, but that could be it, unless there was a community of Hoshigami fans big enough to warrant a remake.
 

Ysaye

Arbiter
Joined
May 27, 2018
Messages
771
Location
Australia
I still HAVE a boxed copy of the DS remake version; I was considering giving it to some 2nd hand game store, but this discussion has reminded me it would probably be better just to burn it to save some innocent soul somewhere down the track half-thinking about giving this a go.

I also read that there are multiple endings...not that I got anywhere near them.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,176
Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
utawarerumono: mask of deception is great so far. very slow, but methodical worldbuilding they slowly drip to you. the first 15 hours or so are kinda slice of life isekai thing but add so much to the world despite the mundane jobs you do. it's 80% VN but with 20% turn based tactical combat. the combat is kinda boring but the story and character is great. the pacing reminded me of trails in the sky FC and uta will probably go full SC in mask of truth.
 

Miner 2049er

Scholar
Joined
Apr 27, 2016
Messages
185
The Legend of Legacy - 3DS / Citra Emulator

Perfect example of a game that was universally panned by critics that proves to be a hidden gem.
It's hard. It has no story. The characters have no personality and so on.
We're so used to chatty games feeding us their meaningless drivel, we don't recognize pure gameplay when we see it.
It's like flavor enhancers that reprogram what we think is tasty.

After finishing (rare these days) the wonderful The Alliance Alive HD Remaster I was interested in trying the predecessor.
It's much more simplistic in story presentation and gameplay, but it uses it to its adventage.
Example: In The Alliance Alive you have 5 party members, so everybody keeps to their role (tank/melee/range/mage/healing).
In TLoL you only have 3, so you're constantly changing roles and formations. That makes combat more dynamic.

After 25 hours I'd say it's not as good as TAA, but a mighty fine game in its own right.
If challenging combat and relativly free island exploration sounds appealing, it might be worth the 10 minutes it takes to get the emulator stuff running.
 

eric__s

ass hater
Developer
Joined
Jun 13, 2011
Messages
2,301
Nocturne is definitely one of the best jrpgs ever made but the amala labyrinth is also one of the worst dungeons I've ever had to slog through
Holy shit, I forgot about the part where you have to play tag with Dante. Thanks Dante, that's really badass.
 

Puukko

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
3,862
Location
The Khanate
Chrono Cross continues to captivate. This game does many unique things to set itself apart mechanics-wise. I don't remember where I read that traps are useless, but that's patently false when it allow you to acquire high level elements before the midgame. I like the enemy designs and element animations as well. The combat system is built from fairly simple blocks, but offers a good amount of depth when it comes to manipulating the battle in your favor via field effects. Some of the mid game bosses turn up the difficulty a bit, though I wish they were the rule rather than the exception. When the boss can hit your dudes for 85% of their HP in one turn unbuffed and with a neutral field, you'll reconsider tipping the elements in his favor. Funnily, the game is a bit inconsistent in what enemies it considers to be bosses - it played the regular battle theme for the highest HP enemy so far, as well as another unique enemy soon after, when they both behaved like proper bosses.

On that note, the soundtrack is phenomenal - I only wish it had a bit more variety in the battle themes. When the majority of areas have unique themes, I'm sure they could've reused a couple and snuck in different battle themes in their place. I particularly like the eerie atmosphere in this current location - you enter an area known as the Dead Sea, only to find out it is rather literal - the waves are motionless and you walk on the water surrounding the ruins of a futuristic city with weird apparitions and hologram ghosts about and not a living soul in sight. The presentation is simply great.
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
Patron
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
5,105
Glad you're enjoying it.

unnamed.gif
 

flyingjohn

Arcane
Joined
May 14, 2012
Messages
2,945
Chrono Cross continues to captivate. This game does many unique things to set itself apart mechanics-wise. I don't remember where I read that traps are useless, but that's patently false when it allow you to acquire high level elements before the midgame. I like the enemy designs and element animations as well. The combat system is built from fairly simple blocks, but offers a good amount of depth when it comes to manipulating the battle in your favor via field effects. Some of the mid game bosses turn up the difficulty a bit, though I wish they were the rule rather than the exception. When the boss can hit your dudes for 85% of their HP in one turn unbuffed and with a neutral field, you'll reconsider tipping the elements in his favor. Funnily, the game is a bit inconsistent in what enemies it considers to be bosses - it played the regular battle theme for the highest HP enemy so far, as well as another unique enemy soon after, when they both behaved like proper bosses.

On that note, the soundtrack is phenomenal - I only wish it had a bit more variety in the battle themes. When the majority of areas have unique themes, I'm sure they could've reused a couple and snuck in different battle themes in their place. I particularly like the eerie atmosphere in this current location - you enter an area known as the Dead Sea, only to find out it is rather literal - the waves are motionless and you walk on the water surrounding the ruins of a futuristic city with weird apparitions and hologram ghosts about and not a living soul in sight. The presentation is simply great.

Are you using the turn color element on your best physical hitter?
Turn element(on your hitter or the enemy) +strengthen/genius makes any character into a monster.

Also there is a lot of stuff that the game that doesn't tell you:
-The last element color that entered the filed gets more bonuses then the others one, not by much but still more then the other two.
-When every single character has negative stamina,the game acts weird and you get extra stamina recovery
-Specific character elements deal physical instead of magical dmg
-
Weak attack = 1 unit of time
Medium attack = 2 units of time
Strong attack = 3 units of time
Element = 7 units of time
Defend = 1 units of time

It is somewhat rng after how much time enemies actually take their turn.


I said traps and summons are not worth your time,which is somewhat true.Low level spells with weak minded + full field effect of the opposite boss color do the job very well without using much stamina.
Frog prince on the other hand is a amazing exception,it does amazing damage and you get it early.

Edit:Also before you finish the game,there are two secret bosses you can fight.
 

ebPD8PePfC

Savant
Joined
May 13, 2018
Messages
225
VenusBlood FRONTIER International – Finished the second chapter and a bit playing on the hardest difficulty. Story is obnoxious crap so I stopped reading shortly after the prologue. Gameplay is similar to Sengoku Rance. You need to conquer the map, which is divided into territories. You do it with a bunch of units you assign to team, and those teams fight enemy teams. The game is divided into chapters where you fight one or two armies.

- The tutorial is excellent. There’s a manual accessible from the main menu that covers the basics, with pictures from the game, annotated by red boxes and arrows. I prefer this to an integrated tutorial that drip feeds the mechanics over 20 hours of gameplay.
On the other hand it isn't accessible once inside the game, so maybe it’s not that good.
- Every unit has its own stats, it belongs to several types, counters a couple other, and has abilities. Abilities are all passive, and are extremely strong. Attack an entire row, poison an entire row, poison that does 15% hp as damage, hit several times per turn, counter males / females, usual debuffs, night/day time affinity, buff stats of entire party, and a lot more. 5 pages of those. They are excellent, and make every monster meaningfully different.
- Every unit costs a bunch of medallions to recruit, which you get mostly from winning fights. Nice system.
- You can also spend up to two extra medallions when recruiting monsters, which gives them extra abilities. This is nice in theory, but in practice every medallion has 6-9 different skills it can give, so you get too many options which makes the decisions too arbitrary.
There are 20 medallions, so for every monster you get 6*20 + 6*19 = 234 options.
It’s too much. I would have made it so that each medallion had a few abilities, so you would get a bunch of clearly strong and useful abilities to chose from. It’s better to have few meaningful choices than a million choices that don’t seem to matter.
- You can also equip your units with weapons that give them more skills. You don’t run into the same problem as the medallions because you get new weapons slowly, and units can only equip specific weapon (e.g. swordsman can only equip swords and armor). The equipment system is better than 99% of RPGs.
- The game has six seasons that rotate in a cycle. Recruiting creature in their favorite season increases their stats. Waiting six turns in this game isn’t a lot of time, which means that you might as well wait it out before you recruit. This is simple enough, but it doesn’t add anything to the game. Seasons also impact stats in combat.
- Commanders are special units that can cast spells which drastically impact the fights. Mana is carried from fight to fight so you’re encouraged to store it on easy fights. Healing costs gold, which is very limited, so you have to be careful not to take too much damage. Both of these make every fight matter. Very nice.
- Regular fights are mostly automated. You get to decide what spell to use and what unit everyone will attack. You can’t split attacks, so even if half of your monster counters one enemy, and the other half counter another, you can only tell them to attack one enemy. If the enemy dies, your monsters will attack at random. Offensive spells are always used on the unit you attack. All in all, you don’t have a lot of decisions to make.
Fights are extremely hard to follow, with tons of factors that decide the outcome. Stats, skills, counter by type (“this unit counters reptiles”), counters by category (blade counters spear), crits, defenses, abilities, buffs and debuffs, land type, night / day time, morale. it all piles up to create a rather opaque system that you have little control over. Most of the fight is automatic, which makes it hard to pinpoint who did what, and the UI lacks basic features that lets you check what was the impact of each factor. On the other hand, the settings allow you to make fights resolve with a blobber-like speed where 6 units attack 6 other units in 5 seconds.
- The game would be way way easier to learn if you could see information on skills, abilities, counters, etc’ when you put your mouse over them.
- You might get attacked more than once per turn, and you can only defend one territory, with the outcome of the other fights being decided by Encounters Fights. These are completely automated fights between the attackers and your other teams. You have zero control over them, beside making sure that the teams you don’t control are strong. Moreover, you only see the outcome of the fight, without any details. I don't really know how they're resolved.
Encounter fights can also be done while attacking when there’s more than one enemy team defending, with you controlling one attacking team while the rest of your teams attack in Encounter Fights. If you want to play optimally and save as many turns as possible this is what you need to do.
- The encounter fights are a complete mystery to me. What do they add to the game? Why not let the player resolve them? What the fuck? I don’t have anything meaningful to say about them, they are just a very weird way to fuck with the player.
- Each conquered territory has a building. You can destroy that building and build something else, but most buildings are boring resource generators. Either make buildings interesting, or cut off the option to build them, so you have to rely on what you conquer.
- To get loot after fights you need a unit with Treasure Hunt / Bounty Hunter to survive the fight, and the higher those skills the better the loot. Loot includes medallions and materials to craft weapons, so it’s really important. I really like this aspect of the game. It forces you to balance whether you want loot or a strong team.

I enjoyed playing because the game tries a lot of stuff, and even when it doesn’t work it’s still interesting to mess around. But it feels like the outcome of battles are often out of your control. Both in regular fights and in encounter fights you lack control over what your units do, so most of the victory lies on composing proper teams ahead of time, only that in order to know what teams are good you need to understand how combat works, which is really hard because it’s all automated. It’s like a blobber party that runs into a boss fight, and all the player is shown in the result of the fight, rather than the actual combat. It’s hard to understand what goes on went under the hood. Even when I did get it, it still wasn't satisfying to have automated fights decide everything, and throw all feeling of strategy out of the window. That’s why I ended up dropping the game. Half of the fights are 100% automated, and those you control are 70% automated. If they changed this part the game would be worth playing.
Apparently there’s 11 games in the series, so maybe one of them gets it right. I just don’t know which one, and this is the only translated one as far as I know.
 
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