Incline free-roaming, nonlinear jrpgs?

[FrancoTAU]

I may regret this, but are any of the RPG Maker games worth playing? By that, I mean did anyone make a decent RPG with it? Playing the occasional AAA JRPG is enough for me already.

 

[Kz3r0]

Suikoden IV fits the bill, if i remembwe correctly, JRPG always bored me to death.

 

[Kavax]

Joining ONE of the mutually exclusive factions or joining all of them? Because that doesn't sound very mutually exclusive.

Depends. If you join the anarchist movement you can't join any other faction ever. Joining the mafia lets you join some of the business faction but you can't join the guards, and viceversa, and you can only join one business faction.

 

[Lemunde]

Actual free-roaming is a rare enough feature in western RPGs, it's even harder to find it in jRPGs. The SaGa series comes to mind but I don't really think it's what you're looking for. I can't really think of any that don't try to force you to follow the story in some way.

I didn't play very far into it but I think Suikoden is supposed to have some level of C&C in it. Chrono Trigger has a little but goes about it in a different way.

 

[Perishiko]

I may regret this, but are any of the RPG Maker games worth playing? By that, I mean did anyone make a decent RPG with it? Playing the occasional AAA JRPG is enough for me already.

RPG Maker 2 is worth it, in my opinion(There are massive differences between 1-3). The coding was open enough to create just about anything.

Of course, it's randomizer was based on how long a person was in a map, so getting a real "random" number is rather tricky.

Either way, I never got to finish the game I was making... I somehow lost the game when I moved.

Besides all that, there's not much of a point in buying it, since you have a computer and online capabilities, there are much better tools online.

 

[FrancoTAU]

I guess I meant more if there were any decent RPG Maker made games that went past just being SNES RPG clones with fanfic inserted

 

[Kavax]

I guess I meant more if there were any decent RPG Maker made games that went past just being SNES RPG clones with fanfic inserted

-The Way (Combat is not very important, there's no loot, weapon, or armors. There's even an option setting to turn combat off so the game plays like an adventure game. The story and characters are good)
http://www.crestfallen.us/download.html

-Alter Aila (Not freeroaming, but I liked the story and there are three different paths to complete the game. Post-apocalyptic setting)
http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?topic=66101.0

 

[deuxhero]

While it doesn't meet the rest of your requirements, Paper Mario 2 has fun but thou must, proviededing options such as "I am Bowser, businessman of legend, fear my accounting"

 

[Topdrunkee thy ILLnifique]

Free roaming non linear Jrpgs do exist.
It's just that most of them have not been translated into English.
The meager few that came to the West are already mentioned in this thread.
(Metal Max)
The problem here is that most Western Jrpg fans usually can't stand Jrpgs that differ from the norm. (The adventure game/movie hybrids.)

______________________
Here's a couple that I've played or owned.
Sword World & Sword World 2 for the Super Famicom: These games were based off of some Japanese D&D pen & paper knock off.
It's one of those games where you get to create your entire party & then get to explore the world around you.
While taking a couple of side jobs/side quests in between.
Hell I still have no idea what the hell the main quest was.

ZIll O'll & ZIll O'll infinite, Chaos World, Wizap,Dark Law, are some of the others that come to mind.

Taiko Risshiden V: Possibly the most open ended Japanese game that I've played.
I'm not even sure if it's considered an rpg by Japanese standards
This game is set in Japan during the sengoku jidai. It's one of the few console games I've seen where the game world reacts to your every action.
Your choices constantly affect the consequences of your character's every move.
In one game I was fired from the job, because I couldn't understand what the hell I was supposed to do, but it didn't matter.
I later ran into a girl (Nene, Hideyoshi's real life wife. I was playing as Hideyoshi.)
who was getting jumped by bandits.
I saved her & then she married me.

I then went around the entire country of Japan just mugging everybody I saw so I could sustain somewhat livable conditions for my wife.
I wanted to join the various ninja clans that offered me protection, but I didn't want to risk having them hunt me down in case I failed one of their tasks.
(Due to not being able to read wtf is going on in this game.
Even some Japanese natives have problems trying to read Koei strategy/rpg games, because of the advanced kanji that's used in the game.)
My game finally ended when I tried to jump a samurai.
Only to see him one hit kill my guy when he threw a big ass fireball at me.
(Which is surprising, because Taiko Risshiden is a mostly realistic game. Or at least it was until that fucka burned my ass up with his animu fireball.)

Note: You're supposed to try to unify Japan inTaiko Risshi den, but this is just one example of how open ended Taiko Risshiden series are.
You can make a living as a pirate, a gambler, warlord, a dancer, etc.
These games are very similar to Uncharted Waters.
Which is no surprise, because both of these games are created by the same guy.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII, & X: They're supposedly strategy games, but they feel more like bbs based text like rpgs.
You can start out as a merc, and eventually build yourself up to become the emperor of China.

I might try Tactics:Ogre or Romancing SaGa: Minstrel song, but judging what I read about them I don't have much hope I will enjoy it.

If by Tactic Ogre you mean "Let us Cling together", then yeah you need to try that game out.
It's one of the only tactical Jrpgs I played that actually had depth, and the plot for the game is far better than most of the tripe that I see coming from console games.

Minstrel Song is actually one of the only decent rpgs on the PS2, but it's mostly for the random ass battle system, the sountrack & the exploration.
However I'd much rather stick with the likes of Arcanum when it comes to non linear rpgs in general.
(minstrel song had no C&C, shit dialogue,& story.)

 

[aleph]

So, I tried Tactic Ogre :"Let us Cling together" the other day. Though I have not seen much yet, playing it was quite fun. The Battles were not bad and world does seem to be so silly as in most jrpgs (I know Tactics Ogre is not really an rpg but it feels close enough).
It is quite heart-wrenching thoug, when you mess up in a battle and your troops die one by one. Every one of them has a name and last words to utter. Makes care much more about them than about warrior#421.

btw. why do they only translate the crappy ones of the jrpgs? I should really put more time into learning japanese to get it to a level where I can play the untranslated versions.

 

[FrancoTAU]

During the SNES days, Japanese developers didn't think US fans were interested in their RPGs so only the big blockbuster games got translated. Around the time of Final Fantasy 7, they realized this wasn't true and have translated most of them. I think some tactical based, dating simulator, cutesy robot or local anime based ones don't.

 

[mondblut]

Free roaming non linear Jrpgs do exist.

Then they aren't jpgs, they are just rpgs that happened to be coded in Japan

This Taiko whatever stuff sounds interesting. Description reminds of Bandit Kings of Ancient China. KOEI = good.

 

[8utt3rs]

Metal Max Rocks!!!!

Its like a Fallout/wasteland with a JRPG basis. bad thing is, it havent released a English version or a translated version.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

go for suikoden, brah

 

[Murk]

Metal Max Rocks!!!!

Its like a Fallout/wasteland with a JRPG basis. bad thing is, it havent released a English version or a translated version.

mm2 is being worked on by agtp

http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=mm2