Random JRPG News Thread

[Gangrelrumbler]

Even if the writing is a bit cheesy and a bit shitty at times and 2 out of 3 waifus are a bit garbage

Isn't that par for the course for Eushully games?

I don't know since it's the first and (as of today) the only game of theirs I've played.

The game is much more vanilla oriented than Rance.

I meant more so in the sense that you H every female char (and they happen to comprise your S units), less so the manner in which you do it.

Yes but a dynamic is a bit different. In Rance the fucking happens pretty fast after meeting a new characters, and multiple games begin with Sil getting fucked or being ready to be fucked ASAP. In Kamidori the first sex scene happens after something like 20 hours of gameplay and after you are locked into a specific route. I thought that it might be important for some people in this thread.

 

[aweigh]

the problem i have with Hentai games is they feature too much text.

their stories and characters are absolutely terrible and boring and very much what i consider "bad anime story and characters" and they 100% feature 20x the amount of text, dialog and cut-scenes that one needs to button-mash through than "regular" games (which i am already usually impatient with).

it's not that i don't like reading it's that i've played way too many RPGs over the last two decades and, well it's the same reason avid book readers read less books as they age. doesn't mean they appreciate books less quite the contrary.

buuuuut then again i haven't played many of the good H games, for example i've never played the Rance series, it's just that i have zero desire to spend even 1 second of my time button-mashing through bad anime writing.

most recently i gave up after a half hour of playing dungoen travelers 2, that H 'crawler with Wiz-clone mechanics. i gave it up after the 1st dungeon immediately triggered a further slew of non-stop dialog (after having had to button-mash through a very lengthy introductory expositional sequence and dialog).

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

the problem i have with Hentai games is they feature too much text.

their stories and characters are absolutely terrible and boring and very much what i consider "bad anime story and characters" and they 100% feature 20x the amount of text, dialog and cut-scenes that one needs to button-mash through than "regular" games (which i am already usually impatient with).

it's not that i don't like reading it's that i've played way too many RPGs over the last two decades and, well it's the same reason avid book readers read less books as they age. doesn't mean they appreciate books less quite the contrary.

buuuuut then again i haven't played many of the good H games, for example i've never played the Rance series, it's just that i have zero desire to spend even 1 second of my time button-mashing through bad anime writing.

most recently i gave up after a half hour of playing dungoen travelers 2, that H 'crawler with Wiz-clone mechanics. i gave it up after the 1st dungeon immediately triggered a further slew of non-stop dialog (after having had to button-mash through a very lengthy introductory expositional sequence and dialog).

Playing Kamidori or Rance only for the sex scenes is pretty much one of the most pointless things in the universe but if you want to play a modern (post 2000 at least) Japanese game utilizing a visual novel format for dialogue then there should be a switch in options menu that lets you skip the unread text (it's always turned off by default). After turning it on you should be able to go through any unwanted dialogue by either holding ctrl or in some cases pressing "skip" button somewhere around the dialogue menu. This should make any button mashing unnecessary.

It's also good that you've stopped playing Dungeon Travellers 2 since the game is an exclusive to consoles, which means that the H-scenes you wanted to get to simply weren't there.

 

[aweigh]

i don't care about H scenes i only started playing it because Dorarnae said it was a great dungeon crawler. i can't imagine myself ever wanting to play through a visual novel nowadays i mean, i'd rather watch the anime or read the manga or play a text-heavy western RPG like the upcoming torment sequel.

the stories and characters in most RPGs are absolute garbage except when one is younger (teen to 20's) one has more mental energy and focus to expend. then again perhaps it doesn't really have that much to do with age at all and simply with lowering quality of writing. all you have to do is compare a recent "good" JRPG like those Trails in the Sky games to a PS1-era equally anime-ish RPG, like say... Xenogears, and there is simply no comparison. Xenogears is a gripping yarn that deals with contains thematic depth whereas Trails in the Sky is the equivalent of a mediocre anime series.

the same holds true for western RPGs as well, i mean of the last 16 years i would say the only two text-heavy RPGs worth reading were Planescape and Shadowrun: Dragonfall. Returns and Hong Kong were a severe drop in writing quality which is why i never finished them. games with quality writing are simply rare and for good reason, these are diamonds in the rough and the type of games that come along once every 5 or 10 years.

however games with good gameplay are much more frequent because aping solid gameplay mechanics from years past (or making one's own) is much simpler and easier than writing. my problem lies with the games that have decent-to-good gameplay but still force the player to "experience" their shitty script.

EDIT: and, btw, i absolutely agree that ALL text should be skippable and then archived for the player inside the menu system where a player can read it at their leisure later on if needed to or wanted to.

 

[duanth123]

i gave it up after the 1st dungeon immediately triggered a further slew of non-stop dialog (after having had to button-mash through a very lengthy introductory expositional sequence and dialog)

You're really missing out. It has a post-game that approaches E: Gothic.

And no I am not joking.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

i don't care about H scenes i only started playing it because Dorarnae said it was a great dungeon crawler. i can't imagine myself ever wanting to play through a visual novel nowadays i mean, i'd rather watch the anime or read the manga or play a text-heavy western RPG like the upcoming torment sequel.

the stories and characters in most RPGs are absolute garbage except when one is younger (teen to 20's) one has more mental energy and focus to expend. then again perhaps it doesn't really have that much to do with age at all and simply with lowering quality of writing. all you have to do is compare a recent "good" JRPG like those Trails in the Sky games to a PS1-era equally anime-ish RPG, like say... Xenogears, and there is simply no comparison. Xenogears is a gripping yarn that deals with contains thematic depth whereas Trails in the Sky is the equivalent of a mediocre anime series.

the same holds true for western RPGs as well, i mean of the last 16 years i would say the only two text-heavy RPGs worth reading were Planescape and Shadowrun: Dragonfall. Returns and Hong Kong were a severe drop in writing quality which is why i never finished them. games with quality writing are simply rare and for good reason, these are diamonds in the rough and the type of games that come along once every 5 or 10 years.

however games with good gameplay are much more frequent because aping solid gameplay mechanics from years past (or making one's own) is much simpler and easier than writing. my problem lies with the games that have decent-to-good gameplay but still force the player to "experience" their shitty script.

EDIT: and, btw, i absolutely agree that ALL text should be skippable and then archived for the player inside the menu system where a player can read it at their leisure later on if needed to or wanted to.

That lengthy explanation was a bit unnecessary and I don't really get what's it's all about, but I've checked that Dungeon Traveller thing out of curiosity. It turned out that you can skip all the text with R button, at least on a PSP. The entire dialogue before the first dungeon took like 30 seconds with it (perhaps less). Now you can enjoy the dungeon crawling without all the dialogue. There probably is some way to read the skipped dialogue later (I didn't check) but it's a dungeon crawler/pantsu hunter hybrid so I doubt anyone cares.
BTW: There is no upcomming western-made Torment sequel. Unless you mean Torment: Tides of Numenera, Torment's spiritual """"""""""sequel"""""""""".

 

[LESS T_T]

Retroism releases a boxed limited edition of NepNep trilogy for PC: https://www.amazon.com/Hyperdimension-Neptunia-Birth-Limited-Trilogy-Pc/dp/B01F04ZDQQ/

 

[aweigh]

such a waste of such gorgeous Sprite Art on the abominable Moe art. Sigh

 

[CryptRat]

Well if we're talking about box limited edition of Neptunia I may as well share this one :

There's a one-shot combat system so maybe it's fun, no idea judging by the trailer. It's available on Dreamcast, PS1 and PC. The guy also made two small Myst-clones which look vaguely interesting.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

such a waste of such gorgeous Sprite Art on the abominable Moe art. Sigh

What gorgeous sprite art?

 

[LESS T_T]

NIS America will bring a sandbox ecology sim Birthdays the Beginning for Steam and PS4 in early 2017: http://store.steampowered.com/app/525700/



It's the new game from Harvest Moon creator and developed by Arc System Works.

 

[LESS T_T]

Mystery Chronicle: One Way Heroics is out now yo: http://store.steampowered.com/app/409000/

Looks like most negative reviews are about port issues (fps cap, stuttering, limited resolution options, crashes, no mouse support, etc.).

http://steamcommunity.com/games/409000/announcements/detail/812161191705757064

A number of reported crashes were caused because the GPU is not DirectX 11 compatible. We have made it so that the game will launch with older versions of DirectX. However, be aware that this may cause performance issues. We strongly recommend a GPU with DirectX 11 or above.

NOTES ON ONGOING ISSUES

• Use/Throw
  Currently the command to Use/Throw items directly from the menu does not work. We will fix this in a future patch
  
• Game pad prompts
  We will add game pad prompts in a future patch.
  
• Localization
  We are working with the localizers, AGM Playism, to fix syntax errors and improve quality of the script.
  
• Resolution Options
  To properly upscale sprites, the resolution must be doubled. Otherwise graphics and text will become blurry.
  We have locked the resolution at the following options to preserve graphical fidelity:
  480x270, 960x540,1920x1080.
  
• Frame Rate Issues/Stuttering
  When your character takes an action, all enemies/NPCs in the world, even those off screen, also take an action. Your character can’t move again until these animations finish, so if an enemy/NPC triggers a trap/attacks/takes an extra action, you will be “stuck” for a moment. This is why the game appears to “stutter,” especially when dashing. This is how the title was designed and also occurs in the PS4/Vita version.
  Screen scroll speed and animations are based on 30FPS. Switching to 60FPS will be a difficult process that may introduce new issues. We have no plans to switch to 60FPS.
  With that said, we are looking into causes and solutions of true frame rate drop/performance issues.

Wat, people perceived turn-based movement as stutter?

 

[Damned Registrations]

No, I've played the game and it really is laggy and awful. The 60fps thing isn't the real problem either. The old game had a setting like most roguelikes for how many frames of delay between walking, running, etc. The new one has no such setting and everything is unbearably slow. Lockpicking a chest, for example, used to be a matter of hitting the shortcut for that skill and having the animation instantly play for maybe 10 frames or so. Now though, you hit the shortcut wheel button, wait 10 frames for the menu to finish opening, cycle over to the right shortcut, select it, wait ten frames for it to close, then play the animation. This might sound like a small issue but for some characters you'll be lock picking chests constantly, like 1 a minute or so, and they often require 4-5 attempts each. The dialogue also can't be skipped very quickly, which again, adds up a lot when you're meeting dozens of npcs/merchants over the course of a run. I'd estimate runs now take 2 to 3 times as long, purely because of these kinds of needless delays.

 

[duanth123]

Yeah, it still boggles my mind that developers don't pay more attention to the inherent speed of their gameplay.

As a point of JRPG comparison, look at the Etrian Odyssey Untold games. They have several speed options to make the sort of bulk gameplay, the grinding incredibly more bearable.

And, having played Mystery Chronicles for a few hours now, the gameplay becomes a complete chore with these starts and stops.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Yep, I've sunk many hours into OWH+, and the pace is what saves it from being a total grind. Even if you are just mindlessly massacring enemies in very simple combat, the fact that you're always finding something noteworthy every few minutes keeps you engaged. Space those bits of interesting stuff too far apart, and it turns to ash.

 

[LESS T_T]

As more doujin game developers are coming to Steam, more Japanese perversions we see in Steam.

HEBEREKE!: March! Red Army Girls' Brigade, a WWII themed turn-based strategy game with anime girl dating sim and erotic scenes, will be available for free on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/531190/

On September 1939,
The biggest war in the history, WWII broke out.
You are a commander of Soviet Union Independent Girl Brigades.
Fight over 5 years battle against Nazi, and bring Victory to the mother country!
Урааааааааааааа!!!

Hardcore SLG, user friendly RPG and Dating Sim are combined into one Tactical RPG!
Eastern Front with huge battlefield and Various weapons are expressed by cute pixel arts.
In tactilal phase, develop strategy, purchase weapons, and train officers.
In the battle phase, command units according to the various elements, Stealth and Search, Zone Of Control, Direction, Air support etc…

• 8 cute and sexy characteristic heroines.
  
• Voices by Japanese voice actress.
  
• About 70 existent weapons!
  T-34, Mosin-Nagant, Katyusha, etc…
  
• About 20 Maps!
  Maps are based on famous battles in Eastern Front, such as Battle of Moscow, Battle of Kursk, etc…
  
• School Phase between chapters.
  Heroines teache you Russian History, Weapon, and miscellaneous knowledges about Russia.
  
• Comedy story, that fools hell of the war!
  
• Adjustable difficulty.
  
• BGMs are arranged Russian martial songs.
  
• About 15 hours total playtime (till the 1st ending).
  
• Additional maps and Addtioanl challenges.
  
• Support gamepad.
  
• FREE TO PLAY.
  No charge from game start till ending.

*1 All the characters in this game are older than leagal drinking age!
*2 This game supports only Japanese language at the morment.
*3 This game cntains some Mature Contents(service scenes).

Only available in Japanese, at least initially.

 

[Excidium II]

Needs meatier girls.

 

[an Administrator]

mother country!

These illiterate faggots can't even spell the Motherland correctly.

 

[StaticSpine]

Heroines teache you Russian History, Weapon, and miscellaneous knowledges about Russia.

:russia::russiastronk:

 

[LESS T_T]

Dungeons & Darkness was announced last year, and now English version is coming next week: http://store.steampowered.com/app/479990/



Japanese version was released last year and I see the user reviews are mostly negative. Most reviews point out it's very repetitive and simplistic (and plays nothing like King's Field). Some say it's got somewhat better with patches.

An English demo is available on Playism.

 

[Rahdulan]

Could be interesting and it's already on Steam Greenlight.
http://thedragonloft.blogspot.hr/

Explore a steam-powered ancient Greece as Artemis' Arktos, her chosen bear warrior, on a mythological quest of technology and magic...

In this turn-based tactics RPG, you’ll rewrite the history of an ancient Greece transformed by an industrial revolution. Customize your party's skills and navigate a labyrinthine storyline where your choices affect the path you take, the battles you fight, and the allies you meet along the way.

Key Features

• Old-school tactics combat, enhanced - Familiar Tactics mechanics coupled with pushing, tossing, bouncing, and obstacles. A new battle system that encourages experimentation and careful planning with an interface simple enough for players new to the genre.
  
  
• Unique steampunk world - See how an industrial revolution transformed the cultures of ancient Greece. From the luddite mobs threatening Athenian democracy to the great railroad of Thebes, Hellenica brings steamwork wonders to a brand new setting.
  
  
• Reimagined history of ancient Greece - Help Plato and Socrates maintain order in an Athens shaken by change, fight alongside the technologically augmented king of Sparta against rebels committed to tradition, or join Cyrus the Persian prince on a quest to liberate his people.
  
  
• Customizable party abilities - Unlock party abilities and customize your load out before each battle. Abilities never grow obsolete, but instead provide new tactical options for every situation.
  
  
• Labyrinthine branching story - Live multiple lives, making different choices and exploring different facets of the world. Will you seek guidance from the Oracle or form an alliance with a shadowy network of spies? Stow away on a pirate vessel or follow a mysterious foreigner? Investigate a rebellion in Sparta or seek the aid of the enigmatic enchantress, Circe?
  
  
• Custom narrative experience - Thousands of custom dialog lines ensure that characters recognize and respond to the actions you've taken on each of the paths through Hellenica’s story.
  
  
• No pants - They weren't even invented yet!

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Rahdulan
Voted Yes. Looks like FFT clone, but I'm all for cloning good games + branching paths sound interesting.

 

[CryptRat]

Awesome.
Rahdulan This totally deserves its own thread, you should just create one.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Oh, and there's not nearly enough narrative-driven games in pseudo ancient settings.

 

[Siveon]

Looking forward to those CYOA adventure branching paths thing they're implying. As long as they're not Telltale simple.

Also, I'm almost positive that bear is a player character. Which I approve.