Random thoughts on whatever JRPG you're currently playing?

[Maxwell's Demon]

The 3 dimensional cube dungeon near the end was really good though. Definitely a highlight that'll stick in my memory.

I've always thought Cube (1997) should be made into a survival horror game or dungeon crawler.

 

[AdamReith]

Credits rolling on Okage, very confused yet strangely satisfied.

I don't even know what that game is, despite it getting mentioned as a hidden gem here and there.
Might giving me a quick rundown?

Yeah it's kind of hard to figure out from screenshots too, also as I understand it it was never released in Europe. I've heard it called "what would happen if Tim Burton made a JRPG" which isn't too far off the mark. Some of the character design and the dark themes being explored definitely have a Nightmare before Christmas feel.

The music is very excellent for this sort of game where usually the battle theme gets turned off pretty fast. It actually does the Banjo Kazooie thing a few times where different melodies are applied based on where you are in the town. I liked all the music in this game.

It's got final fantasy style combat, active time battle stuff. The skills you are learn are very Dragon Questy and really the combat is probably not the star but I did enjoy it decently. The last dungeon was pure pain and a testament to how much I liked it otherwise but that's to be expected.

The basic premise is a dark lord's shadow possesses your shadow and you proceed to serve him but things kind of weird from that point. You are joined by a hero that wants to the see the dark lord born again so she can defeat him and a Princess who negotiates with the dark shadow a percentage deal on whose slave you should be. You travel the world killing other false dark lords and taking back their power. Putting on my thematic analysis hat I would say it's a comedic deconstruction of the role a "hero" in one of these games and how they have basically no agency, are told what they are etc.

The incidental animation and interactions with the characters are stellar, it's probably the best work I've seen in a 3D game. It really felt like one of those classic 2D games with how much the characters moved around and added so much personality despite making it feel like a world where everybody's just eaten their own weight in sugar.

The translation is incredible, I'm a sucker for anything where the bad guys and good guys team up so all the bickering was very amusing to me. Your average insult in this game is something like "you stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid evil king", or one of Evil Lord's hilarious put downs for the hero is to call her "Washbag woman" or something similar.

It does lose steam but doesn't outstay its welcome.

The child in me just loved it. Otherwise it was a very competent TB JRPG that didn't attempt anything more than it could deliver.

 

[Thac0]

"what would happen if Tim Burton made a JRPG"

Bought, what is 10€ against that pitch?

It's got final fantasy style combat, active time battle stuff. The skills you are learn are very Dragon Questy and really the combat is probably not the star but I did enjoy it decently. The last dungeon was pure pain and a testament to how much I liked it otherwise but that's to be expected.

I have no problem with generic SNES style tb. Dragon Quest and FF became classics for a reason. Sure innovative turn based is the best, but I take a generic DQ rip like Mother over any action rpg save the top of the crop.

It really looks better in motion, would have never checked it out based on screenshots.

 

[Sentinel]

Started playing Dragon Quest VI (DS).

Enjoying it more than the others (IV, V, VII, VIII and IX). I don't think I'm very far into it so we'll see how it progresses. However, the reason I write this is just to point out that this game is Koichi Sugiyama at his peak. Every single song in the game is absolutely fantastic. Best town theme, best castle theme, great combat songs.

 

[AdamReith]

I have no problem with generic SNES style tb. Dragon Quest and FF became classics for a reason. Sure innovative turn based is the best, but I take a generic DQ rip like Mother over any action rpg save the top of the crop.

Yeah, first time battle came up I was worried this was going to be another Koudelka where the combat would be a bizarre curiosity buried in what was otherwise a masterpiece but it's far more serviceable here. It does the usual sins of giving you the best abilities at the very beginning and so on but at least I had some idea of what was going on most of the time.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

I'm playing Caligula Effect : Overdose.

Game decent. 6, maybe a 7/10 so far. The budget was clearly negative , so overall presentation is less than average, graphics , animations , literaly no lip movement and even the UI is quite bland but i don't mind that much and the combat is really fun, i really enjoy planning the whole combat ahead and seeing playing out , it's by FAR the best aspect of the game and i never gets bored even if it's easy (Hard or Insane difficulty are a must in this game , otherwise is a cakewalk). If wasn't for the combat, this game would be like 2 at best.

Music is good (coming from someone that doesn't like that much JPOP/Idol/Vocaloid stuff) and the story is okay so far, has some good questions and the ''villians'' don't have the worst argument, you can actually see their point.

Spoiler

Reminds me of P5 Royal's Maruki, kinda... Of course is like Matrix but without the whole evil robots but with characters that actively think that being in Mobius forever is better than suffer all the pain of IRL life

Hyped for the sequel that seems much better..

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

Been looking into Dragon Star Varnir too, but good heavens, these DLCs.

Apparently a Switch version just got announced that is uncut with all DLCs included.

 

[Thac0]

Been looking into Dragon Star Varnir too, but good heavens, these DLCs.

Apparently a Switch version just got announced that is uncut with all DLCs included.

I was never so happy to delay getting a game before, I much prefer playing JRPGs on console than on PC.

 

[Malamert]

Apparently a Switch version just got announced that is uncut with all DLCs included.

The PC version is also uncensored. Don't know why they'd censor Dragon Star Varnir on the PS4. It's pretty tame. Nothing too lewd or exaggerated.

 

[Malamert]

Mugen Souls, now that's an Idea Factory game that really got butchered by censorship. Somewhere around 100+ CGs and a mini-game removed. The mini-game's similar to the one in Mary Skelter where you purge corruption back at the base. Simply dreadful.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

The PC version is also uncensored. Don't know why they'd censor Dragon Star Varnir on the PS4. It's pretty tame. Nothing too lewd or exaggerated.

Sony relocated its PlayStation headquarters to California a few years back and instituted a ban on content that doesn't meet "global standards" (i.e. local Californian standards). Any content that would raise the eyebrows of the local Californian wokesters even in games that were not intended for release outside of Japan got removed.

 

[Malamert]

Just finished CRYSTAR. Took me around 50 hours or so. Had an absolute blast playing it.
The gameplay isn't anything too complex, it's some pretty simple action combat. Some of the bosses are quite a joy to fight though. It does get a bit repetitive halfway through the game, but after you unlock some of the more powerful abilities and enemies become stronger, it gets much better in my opinion. I enjoyed it a good deal, but if you're looking for something more in-depth and complex, you're probably better off looking elsewhere.
Story wise it's amazing. The characters are all great fun, there's a lot of twists and turns and things get pretty nuclear in the end. It's a bit like E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy in that you need to beat the game three times to get the real ending, just that here it doesn't restart you from the beginning of the game, it sends you back to the last three chapters. It also changes the story in the next playthroughs. The changes are quite radical, so you're in for quite a few surprises.
The graphics are surpringly good. Environments are simply resplendent and awe inspiring at times. Character designs are superb and the enemy designs are pretty neat too. A bit disappointed though that the game doesn't use Live2D. Characters are pretty much just cardboard cutouts during conversations, but at least the art is great, so it's fine in the end.
Not much to say about the soundtrack other than it's simply grand, it fits the game perfectly and it has quite a good number of tracks, so it never really gets repetitive.

So, yea, pretty much everything except for the combat is the real deal. If you can stomach some easy (even on hard) and repetitive gameplay then this is definitely worth a play.

Nanana best girl by the way.

 

[Puukko]

Been playing FE Three Houses and... really liking it. The setting is pretty unique in that it's a combined monastery and military academy. The Persona-style side activities work well with the setting in mind and make sense from the perspective of the MC being a professor looking to cultivate relationships with her students and fellow faculty. The writing is certainly a step up from Awakening which was my first entry into the series and while the characters are certainly still tropey, they're also far more fleshed out. I'm a bit unsure what I think about battalions - it's a bit silly when a basic thief turns out to be leading 10 fully armored knights. The difficulty drops after the very beginning but I understand I should expect spikes after the timeskip. Dedue quickly became my most trustworthy bro.

I wrote about my emulation experiences in that thread but as a reference, the game appears entirely playable. A current or previous gen CPU should be able to handle it with the 60 fps patch and slightly older ones at 30.

 

[jungl]

beat stranger of sword city revisited. I played the game 4 years ago and lost interest by the ice palace. The game is alright as drpgs goes. The worse thing about it is the dungeons are boring for the most part and the game is grindy. The ending I got sucked apparently they all suck. I'm not going to bother with the post game because the game becomes super grindy and the novelty has worn off. The best thing about the game was finding new items but this is also its biggest weakness. Grinding hiding spots is boring its a lot more enjoyable getting loot naturally from exploring dungeons like in elminage games.

elimange and labyrinth refrain have a lot more interesting dungeon exploration but the combat is kind of crappy compared to stranger of sword city. drpgs in general have simplistic combat systems compared to jrpgs like final fantasy and later dragon quest titles. Is there other any drpgs that are worth playing released in the past 5 years?

 

[Miner 2049er]

Starcrawlers, Bard's Tale IV Barrows Deep, Mary Skelter: Nightmares, Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls

 

[Removal]

Ys Seven
the last of the Ys games that I have to beat before IX is released. Still manages to scratch that itch of adventuring around and fighting bosses that the Ys games do so well. Music is top tier as well. I don't think the party based games are as good as earlier entries in the series, but they're still absurdly fun.

 

[Thac0]

Starcrawlers, Bard's Tale IV Barrows Deep, Mary Skelter: Nightmares, Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct..._Lost_Souls/&usg=AOvVaw1gIpzAshIDVlM3E2M15Wkz

2 Western, 2 Jap ones eh?
Which ones did like most?

 

[Miner 2049er]

Starcrawlers, Bard's Tale IV Barrows Deep, Mary Skelter: Nightmares, Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls

2 Western, 2 Jap ones eh?
Which ones did like most?

I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. Starcrawlers has amazing combat / build synergies. Bard's Tale is a high production value classic dungeon romp. Mary Skelter has excellent combat and an unique setting. A modern Wizardry. What's not to like ? I forgot to mention Operencia: The Stolen Sun. Also released in the last few years.

 

[Thac0]

Starcrawlers, Bard's Tale IV Barrows Deep, Mary Skelter: Nightmares, Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls

2 Western, 2 Jap ones eh?
Which ones did like most?

I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. Starcrawlers has amazing combat / buiild synergies. Bard's Tale is a high production value classic dungeon romp. Mary Skelter has exellent combat and an unique setting. A modern Wizardry. What's not to like ? I forget to mention Operencia: The Stolen Sun. Also released in the last few years.

Oh nice. I played all of those aswell, except Wizardry Labyrinth of Lost Souls.
I dislike Stawcrawlers tho, and did not finish Bard's Tale IV but found it ok. Rest I liked very much, particularily Operencia is a very overlooked hidden gem.
Those Japanese blobbers are really picking up steam currently, there are like three different games awaiting localisation.
Idk if you know, but the Japanese term for the subgenre DRPG (Dungeon RPG) is picking up steam. So searching for stuff like 10 best drpgs can find you more.

 

[Miner 2049er]

Yes, I know that term. There are really a lot of them. Especially if one does step into emulation. E.g. the Etrian Odyssey series. What didn't you like about Starcrawlers ? The structure of the game ? The graphic style ? I remember enjoying combat and character/party building ecstatically.

 

[Thac0]

Etrian Odyssey

Those are wonderfull. Sadly I never finished one, since I lost all my saves when my last 3DS died. I am currently replaying EOIV for that reason.

What didn't you like about Starcrawlers ?

Structure and combat actually. The randomly generated missions did not feel meaningfull enough for me. And for playing it as a pure combat game the combat was too slow for my taste. It was all centered around using shields to absorb long term damage iirc, which is not really my taste.
After 3 hours it got too repetitive for me, and I first stopped playing it, then uninstalled. But I am still in the market for their new single character crawler, maybe that one will be more my taste.

It was not really a bad game, but since DRPGs are usually right down my alley I was a bit disappointed that I did not like it. Same thing with experience inc games (Sword City, Operation Abyss, etc) although I hope to get into those properly when their new games Labyrinth of Yomi and Monyu get localised. I really dig the setting for both.
I am most excited for Labyrinth of Galleria and this shitpost called Live in Dungeon about being a livestreamer in a dungeon being localised.

 

[Miner 2049er]

Fair enough, but I think its combat is much more than just putting up shields. It's about party synergies. I guess it heavily depends on the classes you have chosen. Perhaps you made an unlucky selection.

Labyrinth of Galleria looks like a follow-up to Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk. That Disgaea DRPG. Wonderful game. Those squad mechanics were unique and fun. I will definitely keep an eye out for Galleria.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

I Played Neo: The World Ends With You Demo and was pretty freaking good.

Pro:
- The artstyle was on point. The 2d art still great, the 3d art is just REAL good and Cutscene/In-egine scenes looks liked animated comic book. 10/10 Even in the Nintendo Switch Lite that game looks great even if resolution when zoom out is not the best... Edit: The Fixed camera in overworld might not to be everyone but i think was good call because enchance the rest of the artstyle.
- Perfomance was mostly real good asides from..(1)
- Combat was really fun, it plays great, the whole Drop the beat mechanic is quite fun to mess around and i can't wait to play with 300 pins to see how i combo with each other. Multitask with 3 while not taking damage can be quite hard , so i think this game going to be great when you playing with Low Level on Hard/Ultimate difficulty.
- The higher drop rate on higher difficulty and lower level mechanic is back and it's real good.
- Music is all bangers and amazing.
- The characters are quite enjoyable , the localization is great , dialogue is well writen , story seems quite interesting so far and all well voiced acted but..(2)
- Overall really polished. No major perfomance issues , no bugs, etc.



Cons:

- (1) When you use scan, frame rate drops to 20 or 17

-(2) Not for everyone. The dialogue is not for everyone even if has great localization. It has a shiton of slangs and rarely some memes. Characters go hard into their quirky personality , so not for everyone.

- If the combat doesn't get deeper, it can be a problem , because it can be quite button mashing if you don't play on harder and low level.

Spoiler

Rindo and especialy Fret seems strangely ok with being dead , at least seems they still in denial mode at the end of chapter 2. I hope they get a wake up call that they're actually dead.

Really highs hopes for this game. Any perfomance issues are Switch only. PS4 and PS5 , the game runs like a dream. 60FPS , High Res , Smooth af. When drops at PC probably too.

Spoiler

 

[dacencora]

Currently playing through Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. More tactical than RPG, I know, but it’s pretty sweet so far. The battles have become a bit repetitive now, though Alm’s Sluice Gate battle definitely had an interesting mechanic to it. Overall, so far, I would recommend it if you’re really into Fire Emblem. Otherwise, there are probably better entries to play through, like Three Houses. Some of the maps are fun, but they are very samey. Hopefully Act 4’s battles are a bit more varied.

 

[Endemic]

The battles have become a bit repetitive now.

Not sure what the thought process was at IS there. "Let's remake a NES game and change everything except the scenario\map design"? In fact, I'd argue some of the changes were a downgrade. Warp got nerfed, so the larger maps become a slog. As for the story rewrite, sometimes less is more. At least the UI is an improvement.