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Decline What jRPG should I play?

oldmanpaco

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So I'm thinking I'll give one a whirl. See what the fuss is about and all that. What should I choose? And something I can get on steam - don't want to customize an emulator to play a 25 year old PS1 game.
 

Miner 2049er

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Dragon Quest XI. Classic, lovely animated combat. Meaningful character building. Memorable characters. Beautiful level design. Turning on draconian enemies is heavily recommended.
 

d1r

Busin 0 Wizardry Alternative Neo fanatic
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So I'm thinking I'll give one a whirl. See what the fuss is about and all that. What should I choose? And something I can get on steam - don't want to customize an emulator to play a 25 year old PS1 game.

What are you looking for to begin with? JRPG genre has a huuuge spectrum of games.
 

Falksi

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One of the following:
  • Shining Force 2 - Cheap (only 79p), brilliant, simple, fun. No nostalgia goggles needed, it's a brilliant game in it's own right.
  • Tales of Berseria - Brilliant party banter, some great characters, really cool story angle, nice game all round.
  • Tales of Zesteria - Not as funny as Berseria, but has more exploration. If you play both play this one last.
  • Final Fantasy X - Charmingly innocent & fun. Has a lot of magic about it.
  • Final Fantasy 7 - Been a while since I played it, but remember loving it.

Dragon Quest XI is OK but seriously fucking dull at times too, not my cuppa cha. Chrono Trigger is spectacularly overrated and pretty average without nostalgia glasses, as is FF6.
 

luj1

You're all shills
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Could never get into JRPGs but Chrono Trigger and FF VII and Xenogears have a good reputation
 

lightbane

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Final Fantasy 6 is mandatory once you have some EXP with JRPGs. Pick the SNES version or the GBA one. FF7, the original one, is worth trying for historical values. Avoid anything else related to FF7 though, they're pure cancer, especially the remake.
 

Siveon

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
  • Tales of Berseria - Brilliant party banter, some great characters, really cool story angle, nice game all round.
  • Tales of Zesteria - Not as funny as Berseria, but has more exploration. If you play both play this one last.
For recommendations sake Tales of Vesperia is easier to... stomach as compared to those titles and is overall more well received within the fanbase. Tales of Vesperia is also on steam.

  • Resonance of Fate is a great pick, cult classic, beautiful, fun to play.
  • Dragon Quest XI I've heard nothing but good things but it is also very normal JRPG. It might be a good intro if you want to see where most JRPGs trace their design philosophies.
  • Recettear is a Codex favorite but not really much like a normal JRPG at all.

My personal recommendation is Trails in the Sky. It's a game the definitely surprised me both in the writing and gameplay departments, and to me it's also amazing to look at.
 
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I'm not a big fan of JRPGs, but Chrono Trigger is outstanding. Brillant game, so much to experience and explore, interesting setting(s), beautiful art design, imaginative combat system with synergies depending on what party members you have, great boss battles and a very fulfilling finale. I played it on the NDS (it's the only reason I still have my DS!), don't know about the Steam-version.
 

oldmanpaco

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Dragon Quest XI. Classic, lovely animated combat. Meaningful character building. Memorable characters. Beautiful level design. Turning on draconian enemies is heavily recommended.

Had this on my wishlist. Almost bought it when it was like 50% off but always think there will be a better deal.

One of the following:
  • Shining Force 2 - Cheap (only 79p), brilliant, simple, fun. No nostalgia goggles needed, it's a brilliant game in it's own right.
  • Tales of Berseria - Brilliant party banter, some great characters, really cool story angle, nice game all round.
  • Tales of Zesteria - Not as funny as Berseria, but has more exploration. If you play both play this one last.
  • Final Fantasy X - Charmingly innocent & fun. Has a lot of magic about it.
  • Final Fantasy 7 - Been a while since I played it, but remember loving it.

I apparently own Takel of Berseria. Think I got it through Humble.

anachronox

$.97. Should probably pick this up.

Resonance Of Fate

P.S. That is....well.....if you don't mind raisins

Hmmm.

For recommendations sake Tales of Vesperia is easier to... stomach as compared to those titles and is overall more well received within the fanbase. Tales of Vesperia is also on steam.
  • Resonance of Fate is a great pick, cult classic, beautiful, fun to play.

  • Dragon Quest XI I've heard nothing but good things but it is also very normal JRPG. It might be a good intro if you want to see where most JRPGs trace their design philosophies.

  • Recettear is a Codex favorite but not really much like a normal JRPG at all.

ToV is $50 right now.
Recettear is about managing a shop with help from a fairy or something? And the codex likes this?

Chrono Trigger is outstanding

Well I just saw I already own ToB so maybe I will try that. Or maybe Chrono Trigger just so I can see what people have been going on about for the last 20 years. RoF also looks interesting.

Steam should be having a fall sale around thanksgiving (like maybe today) so hopefully some of them will be on sale.
 

Ebonsword

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Mar 7, 2008
Messages
2,326
Seconding Final Fantasy Tactics.

Also, if you have any interest in JRPGs, you should probably give the Persona/Shin Megami Tensei series a try at some point. So, I will also add a suggestion for Persona 4 Golden (it's on Steam). It's got a fairly interesting turn-based combat system, a very addictive demon-fusing system, and, oh yeah, you get to LARP being a Japanese high-school student.

latest
 

Paper

Educated
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Helsingia
Only on steam? Dragon Quest XI, Dark Souls, Nioh, Elminage, Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy XII and Wizardry Labyrinth of Lost Souls are all good. Still think its a better idea to emulate, NES and SNES emulators require basically no customization and cover a lot of good JRPGs.
 

Removal

Scholar
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Jun 23, 2017
Messages
204
gonna echo Dragon Quest XI, it's straight forward, high quality, and very much distilled jrpg
 

d1r

Busin 0 Wizardry Alternative Neo fanatic
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Stranger of Sword City - Great blobber, with a nice art style and multi-classing

RESONANCE OF FATE -
Very unique combat system with a great atmsophere

Yakuza 7 - Dragon quest in Tokyo :incline:
 

lightbane

Arcane
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Also, if you have any interest in JRPGs, you should probably give the Persona/Shin Megami Tensei series a try at some point. So, I will also add a suggestion for Persona 4 Golden (it's on Steam). It's got a fairly interesting turn-based combat system, a very addictive demon-fusing system, and, oh yeah, you get to LARP being a Japanese high-school student.

If you like manly dungeon crawlers, play the Megaten series and avoid Persona games past the 2nd one. To get them you'll require emulators for sure, but the SMT 1 and 2 can be played with SNESx, which is pretty much instant play. SMT3 is one of the best of the franchise, but you'll need a PS2 emulator. Supposedly the remaster of SMT3 might come out on Steam at some point, but no idea.
 

Shackleton

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
Stranger of Sword City - Great blobber, with a nice art style and multi-classing

I made this thread because I was looking at this on steam (80% off) but someone said in the comments a new version is coming out soon.

Oh wow, interesting. I wasn't aware of this.

Yes, but the remake, (like most remakes tbh), doesn't make the game better. Codex resident blobber expert Dorarnae gave his thoughts on it , https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/drpg-stranger-of-sword-city.105149/page-30#post-6103175 and prefers the original. Dumbs it down slightly with OP items and a new class with an OP skill.

The original has its flaws but it's still a decent entry into Jap blobbers, especially for 80% off.

Edit- I'd vote for DQXI personally. Really enjoyed it, as long as the art style doesn't put you off.
 

Deleted member 7219

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Trails in the Sky (and subsequent games)

Dragon Quest XI

Final Fantasy X
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Ysaye

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If you are after a "Japanese Wizardry Clone" then Stranger of Sword City, Operation Abyss / Babel (Experience Inc.) and Eliminage Original and Gothic (Starfish), Shining in the Darkness (Sega) are all available on Steam. My recommendation would be Elminage Gothic as it is hard core gameplay, great dungeon design and none of the minor fanservice that is in the Experience Inc games. Bear in mind though, these games are quite similar to Western Wizardry 5 - not that much has been tampered with (maybe a few additional classes and races and the like and maybe more care in dungeon design).

As far as traditional turn based JRPGs go in the last 10-15 years, I would suggest the Legend of Heroes: Trails series (starts with Trails in the Sky going onto Trails of Cold Steel). - again these are available on Steam, apart from the second series (The "Crossbell" trails which only has fan translations). One major characteristic of these is that there is a very strong lore and world building element that links all the games and hence it is often argued that you should play them in order. If you are looking for classics, Phantasy Star 4, Chrono-Trigger and Final Fantasy 6 are available on Steam. Dragon Quest XI is also built in a classic form with very basic JRPG gameplay) with highly updated (but very stylised) graphics.

If you are looking for japanese strategic RPGs - ones that are available on Steam include Shining Force 1 and 2 (2 is the probably the best one available) as well as (just recently re-released) Langrisser 1 and 2, all on Steam. Langrisser has fun tactical combat and a large branching story line.

And then there are japanese action RPGs - top of the list is Dark Souls and all of it's sequels but also Dragon's Dogma, classics like the Ys series and Monster Hunter series (I think only Monster Hunter: World is available on Steam though?).
 

TemplarGR

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Suikoden 1 and 2. You need an emulator of PS1 though. Sorry, if you want to play the best, you need to do some sacrifices. Also definitely try Final Fantasy IX, the best in the series and the one that was a farewell gift to fans by the original Final Fantasy team before they left the series to weeabu/animu retards for good in the PS2 era. Chrono Trigger is nice if you want something 16bit, plus Final Fantasy VI (III in murica at the time).

I am pretty sure you can find all those in other devices though. The final fantasies have been remastered and ported to a lot of devices, even in mobile phones, same with Chrono Trigger. As for the Suikoden games, well, i suppose you could find them as well in other devices, haven't tried though cause i prefer a PS1 emulator.

If you want something more modern, although it is not strictly a pure jrpg, you could try Fantasy Life for the 3DS. It is an AWESOME little gem for the device, very underrated. Kiddy friendly but great production values and lots of heart. I would definitely play it again. My guilty pleasure.
 

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