Anime Boy's first JRPG

[BrotherFrank]

Find a ps1 emulator and start with something like Grandia, Star Ocean 2 or Breath of fire 3 imo.

Or ff7 i guess, it was the first jrpg for a lot of people at the time.

 

[Frank Capicoli]

None of those are recent though.

Yes they are. In fact all of them are fairly close by a few years to the release of DQ11 which you recommended.

Also if you think SMT 4 is beginner friendly you really lack perspective.

It is by no means a hardcore game. It isn't overly punishing, you don't need outside game/meta knowledge, the systems are easy to pick up and are intuitive especially compared to previous SMT games.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Every time I attempted to play a Dragon Quest game I was hit with the realization: "This is the very epitome of weeaboo jRPG compulsive masturbation!" and I quit early.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Every time I attempted to play a Dragon Quest game I was hit with the realization: "This is the very epitome of weeaboo jRPG compulsive masturbation!" and I quit early.

Why? DQ is like the least weeaboo JRPG series out there.

 

[Modron]

"This is the very epitome of weeaboo jRPG compulsive masturbation!" and I quit early.

Early DQs were pure Wizardry clones.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

It is by no means a hardcore game

I didn't say it was hardcore, but it's still a million miles from dragon quest.

Setting aside the need to futz with emulation (you think he has a 3ds?), a game where you have to grind out and face quite a bit of luck to pass the first real boss is not beginner friendly (Don't you know codexers hate grinding?) I don't know any game listed in this thread with tougher early game bosses than minotaur and medusa.

Recommendations like this are why people try jrpgs, get confused by the wierd and unfamiliar systems, die and rage quit, then go on to say "jrpgs are easy games for casuals" as an ego saving tool for the rest of their lives.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Early DQs were pure Wizardry clones.

And Ultima clones. The town design in particular is straight from Ultima 3 and 4.

 

[LJ40]

I recommended Yakuza Like a Dragon because it's:
-Not anime

As long as you just mean graphically. Because that game is anime as fuck in all other respects.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Do NOT play Chrono Trigger like another poster recommended. If you give a single shit about gameplay you will never touch JRPGs again. It's mindless sellout garbage.

Very cool, stunning and brave.

Spoiler

ppppfffffrrrttttBWAAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA

 

[Ash]

Cry harder while exposing yourself as a mindless drone NPC. You have to be to enjoy that shite.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Be honest now, you hate it because it's popular.
GFX? Great.
OST? Good.
Story? Fun timetravel romp. Mu and Mammon machine are interesting RL hooks.
Characters? Mostly endearing.
Combat? It's a story jRPG, 'nuff said.
While we're at it, care to explain how it "sells out"? Did it sell out retroactively because everyone and their grandma knows about it by now? How exactly does that work?
inb4 cry/dilate/seethe etc.

 

[flyingjohn]

Combat? It's a story jRPG, 'nuff said.

And that is why people think it is overrated.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Combat? It's a story jRPG, 'nuff said.

And that is why people think it is overrated.

Anyone who says the combat is good doesn't know shit, agreed.

 

[Zarniwoop]

TIL why it's called Chrono TRIGGER. It triggers the shit out of retards.

It's honestly the best japenesru rorupuraying gameru ever made.

>Graphics detailed enough to be iconic, but not detailed enough to reveal most anime faggotry.

>Legendary soundtrack that's still regularly listed on "best game music of all time" lists.

>Typical JRPG combat that's simple but in this case almost never gets boring. Anything can still kill you.

>Storyline and setting that keeps you intrigued, not boring you with 17 thousand walls of text to wade through *cough*Final Fantasy 7*cough*

 

[Modron]

Virgin Chrono Trigger consumer versus Chad Lufia 2 enjoyer.

 

[Zariusz]

For a first one you could try Golden Sun on GBA, it has fun class system based on Djiin swaping to get different powers and stats. Exploration is also good since you have to use certain abilities out of combat to progress, find secrets etc. First one is more straight forward and second one has lots of secret bosses and ship exploration. The biggest weakness for many are the longass cutscenes filled with too much dialogue (especially Dark Dawn, lol that fucking beginning, but you can ignore that game), tbh i got accustomed to this long ago and i dont really care. Original Golden Sun and its sequel Lost Age are practically one game and you can transfer saves between them with password system.

 

[Morality Games]

I have never played a JRPG in my life. Ever. Not a single one. I'm not counting games like Dark Souls, because those are just action RPGs made by Japs, I'm talking about full-on JRPGs with everything that normally entails. Whatever that may be, since I am quite clueless on this topic.

What would be the best one to start with, out of the recently-released ones? Yakuza 0? Final Fantasy XVI? Shenmue III? Fursona 5?

Important: I do not play games where you're forced to play as a female (or """female"""), so those are not even worth considering. Also no Dragon's Dogma, I've already tried it and it's just an inferior Dark Souls.

Depends if you are limited to PC or not. Most new JRPGS don't come to PC first (Final Fantasy 16 for example would probably be a good place to start, but it I believe it is console exclusive for the time being). Assuming you are limited to PC:

Persona 5 Royal is probably the hottest JRPG on Steam right now. A good and popular game (though I think it was ultimately a stepdown from Persona 4 and even 3), although the mechanics of the Persona games aren't for everyone. Persona 4 Golden is also on Steam and probably has the most interesting story of JRPG (while also being coherent), although its visuals are comparatively dated. There's Persona 3 Reload as well, which won't be so dated due to being a full remake, but isn't out yet.

If Persona's mechanics aren't for you, Final Fantasy VII Remake. It's a pretty choice take on what modern JRPGs are, for better or for worse.

If you can get behind the pixel style, Octopath Traveler II.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

When I played the Japanese version of the english FF4 (hard type) in SNES emulation, I was actually astonished to discover that in certain major boss fights you had to fully know and utilize the skills of certain members of your party (those cherubic twins, for example) to beat those bosses. Even FF6 (american release FF3) had nothing like that. It made me realize that while the combat in jRPGs was frequently simplistic, it didn't have to be. A few of the Digital Devil games were also like that, IIRC.

I played DQ 1 (I think) in NES emulation, and I don't recall it being a Wizardry clone. Looked more like an FF clone on the NES of that era. The DQ games on the Nintendo (3)DS seemed so simplistic I couldn't even get through more than a few minutes. Played a little of that DQ on the PS1 (DQVII?) that was over 100 hours and it was grotesque. Like I said - pure weeaboo masturbation.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Virgin Chrono Trigger consumer versus Chad Lufia 2 enjoyer.

I was gonna recommend Lufia (no 2 in EU in classic jRPG numbering fashion, stroke of luck since the ending works best blind methinks) to OP but figured it's dumb to start with the actual best jRPG, gotta leave something on the table.
Obligatory:

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Combat? It's a story jRPG, 'nuff said.

>Typical JRPG combat that's simple but in this case almost never gets boring. Anything can still kill you.

The real time positioning and combo attacks wasn't typical jrpg stuff for the time.

I guess Toriyama's sameface character design can repel people allergic to him, but that's really looking for something to be annoyed about.

 

[Falksi]

OK Skinwalker, so seeing as you've dismissed a lot of the pretty good suggestions in here for various reasons, go with this groovy little game:

• It's modern
• It's good
• It's only 10-15 hours long, so a great way to get a feel for the genre without wasting much time on it if you don't like it either:

Also, another suggestion which I've not seen would be Lost Odyssey. It's an older game but not an old game, and is basically the best Final Fantasy they ever made. It's certainly one of the most well rounded turn-based JRPGs out there and a great game overall, I just find the main character annoying.

 

[Ash]

For Final Fantasy, I would pick any Final Fantasy numbered 6 through 10. They had the highest production values for their time and aren't frustrating. They revolutionized the JRPG genre as we know it and set the expectations of the genre in terms of characters, plot structure, presentation, music, etc. You collect a band of quirky heroes and go on a journey to fight evil empires or megacoroporations, and then fight some god monster at the end. They are each 20 to 40 hours long. Pick whichever one appeals to you the most.

I have to disagree, FF7 can be really frustrating. First of all, there are the usual frequent random encounters. I haven't got any problem old cRPGs like Realms of Arkania or Might and Magic I, but as a western RPG guy, it was a painful aspect. The inventory management can be horrendous, too, especially in the late game with all the materias of the world. And I hate always-laughing so "evil" characters.

I see zero significant issues with random encounters when attached to fun combat & RPG systems. It's kind of the point. The same people that complain about random encounters are probably the same ones that complain about respawning enemies of any kind, period. Good games most commonly have combat, and a lot of it. Random encounters in particular punish bad navigational skills of the player, chipping away at resources through attrition (various healing items, revives, mana stock, etc) and great games take advantage of this fact, even in FF games at times though rare, especially particular dungeons with maze-like design. Of the FF games, You can see this simple concept most effectively in Final Fantasy 1, though it doesn't offer much else other than this basic concept capitalized on effectively. Extremely barebones game for my taste.
I assume those with no appreciation for respawning enemies or rand encounters generally don't have much appreciation for gameplay, more in it for the audio/visual/story/whatever else side of things. Yeah you could say FF7 in particular the random encounters may get annoying because the combat is too easy and therefore lacks true substance, but that doesn't explain hatred for random encounters in games with more testing combat. Also I will never stop recommending this: FF7 Hardtype Romhack

 

[Falksi]

For Final Fantasy, I would pick any Final Fantasy numbered 6 through 10. They had the highest production values for their time and aren't frustrating. They revolutionized the JRPG genre as we know it and set the expectations of the genre in terms of characters, plot structure, presentation, music, etc. You collect a band of quirky heroes and go on a journey to fight evil empires or megacoroporations, and then fight some god monster at the end. They are each 20 to 40 hours long. Pick whichever one appeals to you the most.

I have to disagree, FF7 can be really frustrating. First of all, there are the usual frequent random encounters. I haven't got any problem old cRPGs like Realms of Arkania or Might and Magic I, but as a western RPG guy, it was a painful aspect. The inventory management can be horrendous, too, especially in the late game with all the materias of the world. And I hate always-laughing so "evil" characters.

I see zero significant issues with random encounters when attached to fun combat & RPG systems. It's kind of the point. The same people that complain about random encounters are probably the same ones that complain about respawning enemies of any kind, period. Good games most commonly have combat, and a lot of it. Random encounters in particular punish bad navigational skills of the player, chipping away at resources (various healing items, mana stock, etc) and great games take advantage of this fact, even in FF games at times, especially particular dungeons with maze-like design.
I assume those with no appreciation for respawning enemies or rand encounters generally don't have much appreciation for gameplay, more in it for the audio/visual/story/whatever else side of things. Yeah you could say FF7 in particular the random encounters may get annoying because the combat is too easy and therefore lacks true substance, but that doesn't explain hatred for random encounters in games with more testing combat. Also I will never stop recommending this: FF7 Hardtype Romhack

Random encounters are fine, great even as they make replays less predictable. It's stupidly high encounter rates in certain games which kill them (e.g. Breath of Fire 2, Tales of Phantasia etc.)

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I find seeing the mobs on the field like in Trails, FF12, FF13, The Last Remnant, etc to be more interesting, especially when you can do fun stuff like stun them or get ambushed by them or you can chain link multiple trash mobs together into one huge tough battle, though you often run into an issue where the mobs are easy to dodge and thus you don't do trash fights often and thus a lot of the time and effort the artists spent on creating and animating trash mobs is wasted (unless it's a game like FF13-2 where the player can tame the trash mobs).

Random encounters are fine, great even as they make replays less predictable.

The Last Remnant tried to spruce things up by having different sets of mob spawn each time you entered a zone. So you might enter a zone and there might be bulls and seagulls, and then another time you load into that same zone there might instead be giant ravens with boss stats. I always dreaded seeing those giant birds at low levels. Unfortunately most of the game was sidequests that involved hunting particular mobs for particular drops, and since these mobs only have a random chance to spawn, this means that much of your playtime was spent zoning in and out of zones trying to get the mob you were hunting to spawn. So after a few dozen hours of doing this you would eventually just give up and download the TLRplanner mod to force spawn the mob you needed.

 

[Ash]

For Final Fantasy, I would pick any Final Fantasy numbered 6 through 10. They had the highest production values for their time and aren't frustrating. They revolutionized the JRPG genre as we know it and set the expectations of the genre in terms of characters, plot structure, presentation, music, etc. You collect a band of quirky heroes and go on a journey to fight evil empires or megacoroporations, and then fight some god monster at the end. They are each 20 to 40 hours long. Pick whichever one appeals to you the most.

I have to disagree, FF7 can be really frustrating. First of all, there are the usual frequent random encounters. I haven't got any problem old cRPGs like Realms of Arkania or Might and Magic I, but as a western RPG guy, it was a painful aspect. The inventory management can be horrendous, too, especially in the late game with all the materias of the world. And I hate always-laughing so "evil" characters.

I see zero significant issues with random encounters when attached to fun combat & RPG systems. It's kind of the point. The same people that complain about random encounters are probably the same ones that complain about respawning enemies of any kind, period. Good games most commonly have combat, and a lot of it. Random encounters in particular punish bad navigational skills of the player, chipping away at resources (various healing items, mana stock, etc) and great games take advantage of this fact, even in FF games at times, especially particular dungeons with maze-like design.
I assume those with no appreciation for respawning enemies or rand encounters generally don't have much appreciation for gameplay, more in it for the audio/visual/story/whatever else side of things. Yeah you could say FF7 in particular the random encounters may get annoying because the combat is too easy and therefore lacks true substance, but that doesn't explain hatred for random encounters in games with more testing combat. Also I will never stop recommending this: FF7 Hardtype Romhack

Random encounters are fine, great even as they make replays less predictable. It's stupidly high encounter rates in certain games which kill them (e.g. Breath of Fire 2, Tales of Phantasia etc.)

Luckily, I've not played enough J GAYRPGS to ever encounter that
Well, FF1 did drive me a little crazy with its HUGE mazes and somewhat high encounter rate, in addition to the gameplay being otherwise dead simple, but that's the only one that comes to mind. I don't really consider it a design flaw either, moreso just the game being too narrow-focused and held back by the hardware/I grew up with 90s games predominantly which generally are far more complex than 80s games. Otherwise I just hate random encounters when the combat isn't fun/RPG systems have no relevance. But that's not really hating random encounters that's hating bad combat, only the rand encounters make said bad combat more pronounced.