JRPGs for people who only like western RPGs

[jungl]

Are there any?

What I hate about JRPGs and why I bounced off every JRPG I tried:
- dialogues are non-interactive cutscenes, you rarely get any dialog choices (if at all) but have to click through line after line of pointless banter; to make it even more aggravating, the dialog is being typed out instead of displayed immediately, and you can't skip an entire conversation with one click; it's extremely annoying and I hate it
- your average classic JRPG has extremely simplistic combat which is basically early Wizardry or Might and Magic style, except with longer animations to waste your time; games with proper tactical combat aren't even considered JRPGs in Japan, they're SRPGs, a similar but separate genre
- JRPGs, especially older ones, tend to focus on grind a lot; tons and tons of random encounters you have to slay your way through, it's so fucking boring

I tried several JRPGs but they all suffer from these problems to some degree. A couple of Dragon Quest titles (they are all grindy as fuck), Phantasy Star (grindy as fuck), some of the Final Fantasies (7, 8 - grindy and filled with tons of lame cutscene-based storytelling), Chrono Trigger (it was ok, but again way too much non-interactive dialog spam)

I do enjoy the SRPG genre though. It still suffers from problem #1 (too many cutscene-like dialogs) and problem #3 (grind) but at least the gameplay is actually fun. Played Tactics Ogre and several Fire Emblem titles. I can deal with the annoying way of delivering the story if the gameplay is good and tactical like that.

Games like Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma aren't really JRPGs, they're action RPGs made in Japan.

Are there any games fitting the classic "JRPG" label that are actually fun and not just boring cutscene-fests with slow but simple combat and endless grind?

Dialogue choices in WRPGS are either "im a nice guy sure I'll do this quest" or "Grrrr im going to kill you guys for kicks" Nice a trash encounter with completely trash loot as a reward, totally worth it!

I recommend playing digimon world for ps1. It does not hold your hand and requires the player to get good and figure out how to progress by themselves. Avoid games like elex 2 if you hate classic jrpgs.

 

[PorkaMorka]

But then I keep wondering what people like AdvancedHero mean when they say "Not all JRPGs are like that" when even the subgenres of Japanese RPG I like (SRPGs) suffer from some of those problems (like Tactics Ogre and Fire Emblem, while having fun and tactical combat systems, also having a barrage of non-interactive dialog banter you are forced to click through line by line). Where are those JRPGs that are not like that?

Whenever I ask that question, I always get the same answer: Shin Megami Tensei... and that's pretty much it.

Some JRPGs do have choices and consequences, like picking between different sets of scenarios at several points in the game.

But they don't usually do the thing where the player has to constantly pick between different dialog options, in order to get a slightly different line of text in response.

Many classic WRPGs don't do that either, however. It's only recently that it became mandatory.

There are a lot of JRPGs that could be classified as "less irritating to WRPG fans" but I'm not aware of many that have Bioware style dialog.

 

[Maxie]

Are there any?

What I hate about JRPGs and why I bounced off every JRPG I tried:
- dialogues are non-interactive cutscenes, you rarely get any dialog choices (if at all) but have to click through line after line of pointless banter; to make it even more aggravating, the dialog is being typed out instead of displayed immediately, and you can't skip an entire conversation with one click; it's extremely annoying and I hate it
- your average classic JRPG has extremely simplistic combat which is basically early Wizardry or Might and Magic style, except with longer animations to waste your time; games with proper tactical combat aren't even considered JRPGs in Japan, they're SRPGs, a similar but separate genre
- JRPGs, especially older ones, tend to focus on grind a lot; tons and tons of random encounters you have to slay your way through, it's so fucking boring

I tried several JRPGs but they all suffer from these problems to some degree. A couple of Dragon Quest titles (they are all grindy as fuck), Phantasy Star (grindy as fuck), some of the Final Fantasies (7, 8 - grindy and filled with tons of lame cutscene-based storytelling), Chrono Trigger (it was ok, but again way too much non-interactive dialog spam)

I do enjoy the SRPG genre though. It still suffers from problem #1 (too many cutscene-like dialogs) and problem #3 (grind) but at least the gameplay is actually fun. Played Tactics Ogre and several Fire Emblem titles. I can deal with the annoying way of delivering the story if the gameplay is good and tactical like that.

Games like Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma aren't really JRPGs, they're action RPGs made in Japan.

Are there any games fitting the classic "JRPG" label that are actually fun and not just boring cutscene-fests with slow but simple combat and endless grind?

No, there are none, I allow you never to set your sight upon jRPGs

 

[janior]

metal gear solid series

 

[Great Deceiver]

Mentioned a few times in this thread already, but Vagrant Story. It's one of my favourite games of all time, no joke.

 

[Krraloth]

Crimson Shroud comes to mind.
Odd little 3DS game which is mostly excellent dice based combat and top down CYOA esque dungeon crawling inbetween, with some small cutscenes here and there.
I think it is close enough to the genre to be more classical JRPG than drpg, and it certainly hits 1-3, as it has high gameplay/story ratio, complex decision filled combat and fewer long high stakes fight instead of spamming 1 turn trash on you all the time.

Crimson Shroud suffers from insane drop rates for key items. I don't know what possesed the devs to think that an item required for progression had to be a random drop. I like the presentation of the game, the dice rolls and the skills but fuck me, I can't be arsed to grind for hours the same encounter cause a fucking key doesn't drop.
I'm still butthurt about it years later

Inviato dal mio A80S utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[Hyperion]

Mentioned a few times in this thread already, but Vagrant Story. It's one of my favourite games of all time, no joke.

Would have been an all-time classic if not for the constant menu cycling to switch gear. It would have benefited so much from a 'menu ring' like Secret of Mana on the SNES, or a few 'quicksets' of gear that you can cycle through without entering the status menu. Just wears down on you after awhile.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Mentioned a few times in this thread already, but Vagrant Story. It's one of my favourite games of all time, no joke.

Would have been an all-time classic if not for the constant menu cycling to switch gear. It would have benefited so much from a 'menu ring' like Secret of Mana on the SNES, or a few 'quicksets' of gear that you can cycle through without entering the status menu. Just wears down on you after awhile.

Yes, I suspect that the fact that you had to go into menus so often was a deterrent for many people from truly experimenting with what I consider to be the best weapon customization system ever, in any game. If there was ever a perfect candidate for a revamped UI, it's Vagrant Story - although I suppose we should be thankful Squeenix has forgotten about it, otherwise they might fuck it up beyond belief.

 

[Gastrick]

I'm asking because when I recently complained about JRPG fundamentals in shoutbox, AdvancedHero hopped in and said "you claim all JRPGs are like that, but they're not all like that".
If that is true, I want to find the JRPGs that are not like that, because I'm not opposed to games made in Japan, just to the regular JRPG tropes.

But other than SMT, there doesn't seem to be anything that looks enjoyable to me when it comes to traditional RPGs from Japan.

This post listed what you were looking for:

Final Fantasy Tactics is cool. There's the Ogre Battle series. Basically anything from Yasumi Matsuno's team is worth playing.

The SaGa series can be confusing for newcomers, but it is probably one of the series that I think would best suit people that like wrpgs.

If you don't mind action combat, I would recommend the Ys series, up to Ys 6.

Radiant Historia, could maybe, possibly be a game you could enjoy for a bit. The main cast are mostly adults that actually make sense.

Gungnir is a pretty cool game. Doesn't need much grinding, and the game isn't super long.

I don't know if you have tried the Shin Megami Tensei series. You could try the third one. If you don't like that one, avoid the series like the plague.

 

[Viata]

The problem with that list is that it doesn't include anything JarlFrank looks for in crpg. As an example, none of those allows you to create your party, hardly has any dialogue choices that really matters(in Radiant Historia, selecting all choices are the only way of finishing the game, it's not like you are making any choice since you are forced to go back and do the other choice now), etc.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

The problem with that list is that it doesn't include anything JarlFrank looks for in crpg. As an example, none of those allows you to create your party, hardly has any dialogue choices that really matters(in Radiant Historia, selecting all choices are the only way of finishing the game, it's not like you are making any choice since you are forced to go back and do the other choice now), etc.

In the SMT JRPGs the dialog choices and some of your actions matter, even if it is not apparent immediately. They cumulatively shape your philosophical views (chaos/law/neutral, etc.) and lead to different ending of the game.

 

[Viata]

The dialogue only matters to decide what route you are getting for the ending. It hardly changes the plot outside the last part of the game. Devil Survivor gets the closest to many crpgs since any choice you make, including what place to go, consumes daily time(since the game takes place in a week or so, can't remember now) and thus going to one place makes you miss another place. Which was one of the cool things in that game.

 

[dacencora]

The dialogue only matters to decide what route you are getting for the ending. It hardly changes the plot outside the last part of the game. Devil Survivor gets the closest to many crpgs since any choice you make, including what place to go, consumes daily time(since the game takes place in a week or so, can't remember now) and thus going to one place makes you miss another place. Which was one of the cool things in that game.

It depends. You’re right that it doesn’t drastically change the plot, but Strange Journey has the extra alignment axis which makes every dialogue choice much more important.

 

[Hyperion]

Triangle Strategy just came out on Switch. Absolutely fantastic game, and much like Octopath should be on PC within the next year. Made by Artdink, same guys who made Lunatic Dawn that was linked here a couple lages back.

Grid-based combat, similar to Fire Emblem, but you can't cheese your way to victory through counterattacks like in FE. No superhuman units, everyone will get mogged if they try to face off against too many enemies, and every powerful unit has a weakness that can and will be exploited by the enemy.

First game I've played in years where I not only care, but legitimately enjoy the story. Every other chapter has you coming across a moral choice you need to make, and not necessarily an easy one, or an obviously 'good' or 'bad' one. Sometimes you need to make a strategic decision regarding how to take over a city (you're allowed to blow up a dam and flood your own capital you're trying to reclaim like an absolute bossnigga). Battles and alliances change, there are 4 endings, certain choices get you different characters, and some will cause you to lose a member permanently.

 

[Casual Hero]

If you have to ask this question, then you don't deserve jRPGs!

 

[AdolfSatan]

I recommend playing digimon world for ps1. It does not hold your hand and requires the player to get good and figure out how to progress by themselves. Avoid games like elex 2 if you hate classic jrpgs.

Right on the money. I thought it might have been nostalgia, but I replayed it last year and it's still an amazing game.
Plus, you have an excellent open world you're free to wander and get fucked in. Lots of cool secrets too.
Don't read any guides until you've beaten it, and stick to the game-provided save spots where possible, part of the fun is interacting with the mechanics and discovering what works and what doesn't when raising your monster.

Other than that, it's p much Tactics Ogre and FFT.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Another nice one is the megaman battle network series.

 

[Viata]

Digimon World 1 has some great backgrounds. Loved that game:

Spoiler

And many more. Most of them also have a morning, afternoon and a night version, but most are just a change of the "light" in the image to show it getting darker.

 

[flyingjohn]

Digimon world 1 is just beautiful.
-The town building system is simple yet rewarding,both visually and in features.
Most digimon provide you with services like food/bank/clinic,etc. Having a hint system behind a newspaper is just brilliant.
Even simple stuff like adding electricity adds plenty to the mood.
-Stats are very crpg like.
You get to dictate in which stats you digimon will be trained with.Also stats like intelligence dictate moves and commands,which makes sense.
There is also cnc in the form of killing your digimon if you overwork him.Or makign mistakes during raising and getting bad digimons.
-Exploration is implemented beautifully.
This game is linear in the form of where you can go,but each location offers its share of secrets and exploration and all that with a time system that actually changes stuff in terms of enemies and quests.
The secret areas are also well done,you are gonna have to actually search for them(or just use the newspaper hints).
-Actual curling as a mini game

The combat is a mixed bag because of the AI and the literal shitting should have been removed.
The ost is also not shabby:

 

[flyingjohn]

Digimon World 1 has some great backgrounds. Loved that game:
And many more. Most of them also have a morning, afternoon and a night version, but most are just a change of the "light" in the image to show it getting darker.

Man,those screenshots bring back memories.Time also changes enemies,npc encounters and some quests require a different time.

The payoff for the mansion mystery culminating with skullgreymon boss fight in a secret basement was awesome.

Kinda a weird image selection.It is just the begginign of the secret tournament area without anything there.Still that Seadramon fishing battle was pretty good,especially once he sends you to this area.

And there we have the actual super secret tournament.If i remember correctly it does require specific type which i couldn't change because my copy came with a trainer so my phoenixmon never died.

Bleh,never liked this location.Too sterile and boring,that is even with the factory level.

Approaching this level as a kid was spooky.Look great even today.The game try to trick you into believing you need specif types for future content thanks to Bakumon npc ,which is only a mystery mansion thing unfortunately.

Ah yes,the solo fight against the wolf area.It was piss easy though,considering most of my combat commands were either attack or do stuff on your own anyway.

Where else can you get cards,horses and ufo's in one place.Remember getting a card and wondering if there will be a card mini game,Didn't happen to my disappointment.

Horsy clinic. Didn't see much use of this thanks to the trainer.Plus,there are medicine items anyway.

 

[Viata]

literal shitting should have been removed

Shitting is there just so you can make a Sukamon to clean the town.
Also, for those images, it was just some random ones I found from google. It's been more than 15 years since I last played this game, so I don't remember most locations. I still hate the minigame where you have to sell items to some digimons, though. Always sucked at that one as a kid.

 

[Falksi]

The SEGA Megadrive set of strategy RPGs are where it's at for me, simply because I think they cut out a lot of the bullshit you're talking about JarlFrank and have good gameplay.
- Shining Force 1 is worth trying, but a bit slow paced.
- Shining Force 2 is fucking excellent all round. Great balance between battles, exploration and dialogue/cut-scenes (no C&C tho)
- Warsong is pretty much all strategy battles with a bit of tat story thrown in there. Great game though.
- Langrisser 2 is the sequel to Warsong and a definite step up, albeit still thin on the ground with story.

And Phantasy Star 4 is a faster paced JRPG than most of them, whilst still being a traditional JRPG. I love it, but it doesn't tick many of the boxes you're after. It's FAR more accessible and advanced than previous entries, WAY less grindy too. Fantastic game.

 

[MurkrLurkr]

AliceSoft and Eushully games

 

[Alan]

Earthbound was eminently set on the western world. Super Mario RPG seems also appealing for the western audience, just as much as any Mario game

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Also you are a faggot for calling Dragon's Dogma and Dark Sould a western RPG, that's the typical excuse of the fags on RPG general everytime they are caught liking a JRPG "Wait wait they are really not JRPG please don't take away my steet cred ahhhhhhh" even if a game doesn't have moe aesthethic it doesn't automatically make it a western game. The day will come when i hear someone call Tactics Ogre a western game, only a matter of time.

They're not western games, but they're not JRPGs either.

Just like how Wizardry and Might and Magic are a different subgenre from Fallout and Arcanum are a different subgenre from Morrowind and Gothic. They're all RPGs, but different subgenres.

JRPG is a subgenre. From Software's games do not belong to that subgenre.
Just like how Tactics Ogre is not a JRPG, but an SRPG. Even the Japanese themselves make that distinction.

Oh you are just retarded or baiting, shouldn't have put that much effort in my post.

No, I'm applying proper categorization of subgenres. "JRPG" doesn't mean "RPG made in Japan", it's a specific genre to which even some western-made games belong, like Anachronox.

JRPG literally just means Japanese Role Playing Game. There is no further genre distinction beyond that. It's like how anime in the west means cartoons from Japan. Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy Tactics, Parasite Eve, Grandia, Tales of Destiny, and Panzer Dragoon Saga are all JRPGs that came out fairly close to one another that all play pretty different from one another. There's kind of an idea of what a JRPG is, broadly speaking the idea is turn based combat in the mold of Wizardry like Final Fantasy used to have and like Dragon Quest still does. But there's all kinds different styles of JRPGs. It's like, at the same time those JRPGs were coming out the original Fallouts, Return to Krondor, Baldur's Gate, and Might and Magic 6 were the CRPGs coming out; none of those CRPGs play alike either.

Anachronox isn't a JRPG. It is a homage to Japanese Role Playing Games, but it isn't actually a Japanese Role Playing Game since it was made by Dallas based Ion Storm. Disciples: Sacred Lands, and the previously mentioned Return to Krondor both have strong resemblance to JRPGs too, but that doesn't make them JRPGs either.