Random thoughts on whatever JRPG you're currently playing?

[Puukko]

I'm a massive sucker for the dialogue.

 

[Puukko]

SMTII beat. I'm glad I finally got to this game to see where the series more or less started, but it is certainly not my favorite entry. It threw a bit of a curveball there in the end by not giving the opportunity to visit a healing spring or heretic mansion for new demons so I was still running some lvl 35-45 ones for YHVH. They definitely got a better hold of game balance as the series went on, YHVH was more or less the only boss that could hit my dudes for more than 1/5 of their HP a turn.

There's an optional post game dungeon with the Amatsu gods as bosses but not going to bother with that.

 

[Silentstorm]

Well, decided to play an Alicesoft game, Evenicle, and just beat it...pretty meh honestly, aside from the fact that there are many porn scenes it just felt like a normal JRPG, just not a particularly amazing one, doesn't help the game isn't very hard and it needed more fights like the giant cockroach one, AKA, fights where the enemy had gimmicks that required something different.

Also, one of those games where i mostly just attacked and rarely bothered with magic and special moves since items to restore BP could get expensive pretty fast, probably for the best because some of those skills take a lot of health out of enemies, oh, and it's worth having Aster use the ability to remove Rage from the foes, the last boss packs a wallop when furious.

And yeah, i can see why this doesn't get as much mention as the Rance games, it's just...not that memorable, and Aster felt pretty boring a lot of the time, just a regular pervert that sometimes became a traditional hero to a point of saving even a male bad guy, honestly, one of the very few times i liked Aster or found him entertaining was when he was talking to an old villain and saying the guy probably can't get his stuff up anymore and it's why he's trying to destroy the world...and Aster was just being empathetic, that actually made me chuckle.

 

[GhostCow]

Playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses right now and super pissed that I missed a conversation with Edlegard that decides the next half of the game and don't have any previous saves to go back to. Now I'm stuck playing the same route I did last time as my fourth playthrough. I got so mad that I wanted to throw the controller. I haven't been this pissed at a game for a while. It's my own damn fault for not checking a guide or keeping multiple saves but FUCK. Over 200 hours in this game since release. I'm going to have to take a break for a few months before I go back to it. I might not even play the final dlc that comes out this month for quite a while. Guess it's back to GMDX and then maybe Street Fighter when the next update hits on the 13th.

 

[ebPD8PePfC]

SMT4 Apocalypse – Finished it on War difficulty. It’s good for an SMT game, but it’s a very standard and linear JRPG. It shares the same basic combat system with Strange Journey and Devil Survivors, but in those games the overall structure was far more interesting. I didn’t play SMT4 because I heard the gameplay was worse.

- The dungeons are bad. It’s easy to avoid encounters and the dungeons are tiny, so you can try to rush past them, but that’s hardly a compliment.
- An exception to this is the final dungeon, which takes way too long and repeats the same boring floors over and over again, along with recycled bosses. It should only be played on an emulator at +400% speed, or better, skip it entirely and watch the ending on Youtube. It really is bad.
- Useful tip – in encounters, if you have only the avatar with no demons, than you’ll have a 90% chance to escape.
- The game is too long, around 60 hours long, mostly because of the dungeons. It would have been way better as a 40 hour game.
- The combat is great, and it really shines in boss fights. These are challenging in tactics rather than numbers, and no grinding is required to beat them. Wish the game was more about boss and mini boss fights, because that’s clearly the best part of the game.
- Several boss fights in a row with no saving. Blah.
- You can’t see enemy hp, and more specifically, boss hp. This means there’s no tension build up during fights.
- I like the Smirk system. Essentially, when you crit or abuse an enemy weakness your character gets a Smirk buff that changes some of your abilities, usually by giving them some debuffing effect. It’s an elegant way to hand out debuffs, and adds some depth to the skills. Wish they went a bit more wild with it, since most skills don’t have a Smirk effect.
- The game has you partnered with an AI, a Partner, who does a random action at the end of the turn. It should be at the start of it, so that the player could account for the randomness of the AI. It starts out kinda boring, but then you get five of them, each partner with its own abilities, and you have to pick which one to take with you to boss fights. It’s a good system.
- Wish there was a quest marker for the side quests. The world isn’t interesting to explore, and finding them takes too long. I ended up skipping almost all of them.
- Demons have affinities, which basically means that a fire demon is going to be better at casting fire spells, so it’s another thing to consider when fusing demons and choosing what spells to give them. It makes the fusion system more interesting, and the demons more unique. I liked it.
- The linear jrpg structure is boring, but that’s mostly due to the tiny dungeons and the generic side content. Considering the story they were going for with a bunch of warring factions and a weak overarching story, designing it like a simple strategy game would have been far more interesting, but it is what it is.
- Some would tell you that the writing is passable at best, but that’s a lie. A 14 year old girl turns into a fertile mother goddess, and then she yells for Master (her favorite nickname for the player) to impregnate her and give her endless children. 10/10 writing, true masterpiece.

I really enjoyed the combat and trying to mix up demons to create the perfect team to take down specific bosses, but than there’s the rest of the game which isn’t up to par. It’s a fun game for fans of the series, but if you’re new to it than there are better games to start with, some released on the same console.

 

[Lincolnberry]

SMT4 Apocalypse – Finished it on War difficulty. It’s good for an SMT game, but it’s a very standard and linear JRPG. It shares the same basic combat system with Strange Journey and Devil Survivors, but in those games the overall structure was far more interesting. I didn’t play SMT4 because I heard the gameplay was worse.

- The dungeons are bad. It’s easy to avoid encounters and the dungeons are tiny, so you can try to rush past them, but that’s hardly a compliment.
- An exception to this is the final dungeon, which takes way too long and repeats the same boring floors over and over again, along with recycled bosses. It should only be played on an emulator at +400% speed, or better, skip it entirely and watch the ending on Youtube. It really is bad.
- Useful tip – in encounters, if you have only the avatar with no demons, than you’ll have a 90% chance to escape.
- The game is too long, around 60 hours long, mostly because of the dungeons. It would have been way better as a 40 hour game.
- The combat is great, and it really shines in boss fights. These are challenging in tactics rather than numbers, and no grinding is required to beat them. Wish the game was more about boss and mini boss fights, because that’s clearly the best part of the game.
- Several boss fights in a row with no saving. Blah.
- You can’t see enemy hp, and more specifically, boss hp. This means there’s no tension build up during fights.
- I like the Smirk system. Essentially, when you crit or abuse an enemy weakness your character gets a Smirk buff that changes some of your abilities, usually by giving them some debuffing effect. It’s an elegant way to hand out debuffs, and adds some depth to the skills. Wish they went a bit more wild with it, since most skills don’t have a Smirk effect.
- The game has you partnered with an AI, a Partner, who does a random action at the end of the turn. It should be at the start of it, so that the player could account for the randomness of the AI. It starts out kinda boring, but then you get five of them, each partner with its own abilities, and you have to pick which one to take with you to boss fights. It’s a good system.
- Wish there was a quest marker for the side quests. The world isn’t interesting to explore, and finding them takes too long. I ended up skipping almost all of them.
- Demons have affinities, which basically means that a fire demon is going to be better at casting fire spells, so it’s another thing to consider when fusing demons and choosing what spells to give them. It makes the fusion system more interesting, and the demons more unique. I liked it.
- The linear jrpg structure is boring, but that’s mostly due to the tiny dungeons and the generic side content. Considering the story they were going for with a bunch of warring factions and a weak overarching story, designing it like a simple strategy game would have been far more interesting, but it is what it is.
- Some would tell you that the writing is passable at best, but that’s a lie. A 14 year old girl turns into a fertile mother goddess, and then she yells for Master (her favorite nickname for the player) to impregnate her and give her endless children. 10/10 writing, true masterpiece.

I really enjoyed the combat and trying to mix up demons to create the perfect team to take down specific bosses, but than there’s the rest of the game which isn’t up to par. It’s a fun game for fans of the series, but if you’re new to it than there are better games to start with, some released on the same console.

Agree almost across the board. Wish it had the love and care that SMT4 did or vice versa, if SMT4 had built on a better battle system like 4A and a less deliberately confusing map. In 4A, I especially liked the unique abilities certain demons had - think Alice & Die For Me. Very strong abilities that work well with the affinity system and have cool additional effects, but don't pass on thru fusion which enables some level of balance. The story, unfortunately, was utter trash.

 

[GhostCow]

I'll probably get a lot of hate for saying this but Nocturne, P4, and P5 are the only good SMT games imo. SMTIV was a huge disappointment for me. It was the main thing I bought the 3ds for but everything about it was just shit to me. Really hoping that SMTV turns out to be awesome. Some of the interviews about it have given me some high hopes.

 

[Viata]

Talk about a shit taste, mate.

 

[GhostCow]

Talk about a shit taste, mate.

For what it's worth I haven't played all of them but it seems like a lot of the ones I haven't played are first person RPGs with tile based movement and I'm just not a fan of that genre. I guess Devil Survivor was ok but it wasn't near as good as the others I mentioned.

 

[Latro]

Talk about a shit taste, mate.

For what it's worth I haven't played all of them but it seems like a lot of the ones I haven't played are first person RPGs with tile based movement and I'm just not a fan of that genre. I guess Devil Survivor was ok but it wasn't near as good as the others I mentioned.

At least play the original Strange Journey.

 

[Grauken]

Well, decided to play an Alicesoft game, Evenicle, and just beat it...pretty meh honestly, aside from the fact that there are many porn scenes it just felt like a normal JRPG, just not a particularly amazing one, doesn't help the game isn't very hard and it needed more fights like the giant cockroach one, AKA, fights where the enemy had gimmicks that required something different.

Also, one of those games where i mostly just attacked and rarely bothered with magic and special moves since items to restore BP could get expensive pretty fast, probably for the best because some of those skills take a lot of health out of enemies, oh, and it's worth having Aster use the ability to remove Rage from the foes, the last boss packs a wallop when furious.

And yeah, i can see why this doesn't get as much mention as the Rance games, it's just...not that memorable, and Aster felt pretty boring a lot of the time, just a regular pervert that sometimes became a traditional hero to a point of saving even a male bad guy, honestly, one of the very few times i liked Aster or found him entertaining was when he was talking to an old villain and saying the guy probably can't get his stuff up anymore and it's why he's trying to destroy the world...and Aster was just being empathetic, that actually made me chuckle.

How bad was the stuff Sseth mentioned with the girls getting murdered?

 

[Grauken]

I'll probably get a lot of hate for saying this but Nocturne, P4, and P5 are the only good SMT games imo. SMTIV was a huge disappointment for me. It was the main thing I bought the 3ds for but everything about it was just shit to me. Really hoping that SMTV turns out to be awesome. Some of the interviews about it have given me some high hopes.

Strange Journey beats all those

Edit: ninjaed by Latro

 

[GhostCow]

Talk about a shit taste, mate.

For what it's worth I haven't played all of them but it seems like a lot of the ones I haven't played are first person RPGs with tile based movement and I'm just not a fan of that genre. I guess Devil Survivor was ok but it wasn't near as good as the others I mentioned.

At least play the original Strange Journey.

I'll probably get a lot of hate for saying this but Nocturne, P4, and P5 are the only good SMT games imo. SMTIV was a huge disappointment for me. It was the main thing I bought the 3ds for but everything about it was just shit to me. Really hoping that SMTV turns out to be awesome. Some of the interviews about it have given me some high hopes.

Strange Journey beats all those

Edit: ninjaed by Latro

That was one I was really interested in until I found out it was a first person tile based movement game. I guess I'll give it a shot just for you guys since you asked nicely. I'll put it on the list to be played shortly after I finish GMDX.

 

[Grauken]

Well, maybe you're just not a blobber fan

 

[Lyre Mors]

Well, maybe you're just not a blobber fan

Time for him to realize most JRPGs are blobbers, first-person or not.

AKA get over silly stuff like first-person vs third, tile movement vs not and enjoy good games.

 

[GhostCow]

I thought being first person and tile based is what makes a blobber a blobber and now I'm confused. I had never even heard the word blobber until I came here and had to look it up. I'm pretty sure I just don't like the genre though. I couldn't get into Wizardry 8 as a teenager and most recently I played Mary Skelter and didn't like it either. That kind of gameplay just feels lazy and lame to me.

 

[Lyre Mors]

I thought being first person and tile based is what makes a blobber a blobber and now I'm confused. I had never even heard the word blobber until I came here and had to look it up.

The term in its essence is tied to the fact that your party moves as one (or as a "blob") until combat is initiated. So games like Nocturne, P4, and P5 are still very much so blobbers at their core.

 

[Grauken]

Blobber usually means your part acts like a monolithic unit, a blob. Some people like Jinn argue that holds true for a lot of jRPGs as you have no positioning and your part is basically one person on the map, hence they are blobbers as well, but I'm not buying it

That said, he's right, that most of those distinctions don't really matter all that much, a good game is a good one independently of what kind of game it is

 

[GhostCow]

In that case I guess I don't dislike blobbers. In fact I love them. The reason I don't like games like Wizardry and Mary Skelter is because the tile based movement is so sluggish and the dungeons usually look very samey, making them boring and easy to get lost in. I also don't like first person combat in turn based RPGs because it mostly just seems like an excuse to not have to make decent combat animations. The only turn based RPG with first person combat I ever really got into was Earthbound and even then the lack of good looking combat animations really stood out and took a bit away from my enjoyment.

 

[Lyre Mors]

In that case I guess I don't dislike blobbers. In fact I love them. The reason I don't like games like Wizardry and Mary Skelter is because the tile based movement is so sluggish and the dungeons usually look very samey, making them boring and easy to get lost in. I also don't like first person combat in turn based RPGs because it mostly just seems like an excuse to not have to make decent combat animations. The only turn based RPG with first person combat I ever really got into was Earthbound and even then the lack of good looking combat animations really stood out and took a bit away from my enjoyment.

Hmmm, it seems like you might be on the younger side. Either way, I would urge you to try to look past the more superficial things keeping you from first person Dungeon Crawler Blobbers (which would be my more concise classification of things like Wizardry and Strange Journey, Grauken ), especially if you're a fan of challenging JRPGs. There's a whole world of excellence there to be enjoyed.

 

[Grauken]

In fact I love them. The reason I don't like games like Wizardry and Mary Skelter is because the tile based movement is so sluggish and the dungeons usually look very samey, making them boring and easy to get lost in.

Some people like me like blobbers because we love making maps or appreciate mazey dungeon design

it mostly just seems like an excuse to not have to make decent combat animations

that's usually not a concern of mine

 

[GhostCow]

In that case I guess I don't dislike blobbers. In fact I love them. The reason I don't like games like Wizardry and Mary Skelter is because the tile based movement is so sluggish and the dungeons usually look very samey, making them boring and easy to get lost in. I also don't like first person combat in turn based RPGs because it mostly just seems like an excuse to not have to make decent combat animations. The only turn based RPG with first person combat I ever really got into was Earthbound and even then the lack of good looking combat animations really stood out and took a bit away from my enjoyment.

Hmmm, it seems like you might be on the younger side. Either way, I would urge you to try to look past the more superficial things keeping you from first person Dungeon Crawler Blobbers (which would be my more concise classification of things like Wizardry and Strange Journey, Grauken ), especially if you're a fan of challenging JRPGs. There's a whole world of excellence there to be enjoyed.

I'm 36. I grew up playing action games on PC like Quake, Interstate '76, and Mechwarrior 2. Later in my teenage years I got into jrpgs through playing Final Fantasy on emulators. Baldur's Gate 2 is what got me into PC RPGs. It's not that I didn't try those types of games in the old days. When I played Wizardry 8 it was a new release. It just felt very low budget/quality compared to what I was used to even in 2001.

 

[Viata]

The dungeon part is the best thing in those games. No wonder they are called "dungeon crawler".

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Dungeon and combat are just filler in modern JRPG

Sometimes the filler is very good like Noctrune, sometimes not so much.

Exception of course are Wizlike which is released every now and then.

 

[Latro]

Blobber usually means your part acts like a monolithic unit, a blob. Some people like Jinn argue that holds true for a lot of jRPGs as you have no positioning and your part is basically one person on the map, hence they are blobbers as well, but I'm not buying it

That said, he's right, that most of those distinctions don't really matter all that much, a good game is a good one independently of what kind of game it is

blobber + 1st person movement = Wiz-like, to me. don't know of many 1st person blobbers that don't follow grid-maps, but I could be wrong. RT blobbers are, of course, RT blobbers