Random thoughts on whatever JRPG you're currently playing?

[Puukko]

Arrived at the prison town in Xenogears. This is a prime example of a game where I knew what to expect and it hasn't let me down, but it just took me a long while to get to it. You can tell it is a product of passion and loose restraints. A lot of small details, varied gameplay and it never locks you into any single area for too long. It also really loves mixing up your party composition and Gear/out of Gear sections. A nice change of pace from the standard JRPG dungeon romp.

Now, I think the difficulty could be higher and enemies could have more to them. Obviously, this is a story driven game so in the end having the combat mostly be about flashy combos is fine.

Said story is paced pretty well and they keep a steady rate of new plot hooks to hold on to your interest. Fei isn't my favorite protagonist by any means, but the rough outline of who he is is pretty obvious by this point in the game and finding out more about that is definitely interesting. Citan is my favorite of the lot, I can't help but gravitate towards reasonable and well adjusted characters, especially in a genre that is this heavily reliant on tropes and one-dimensional caricatures. Generally speaking, I expect characters to not entirely be who they claim they are, or where they're from. Seems to be the general rule of things. I definitely enjoy the religious themes of this series even if they are little more than name drops at times.
On that note, the translation really isn't great. I know the translator was pushed for time and made some unfortunate localization choices on top of there being a laundry lists of badly translated names. One guy did it back in the day - I'm sure some dedicated fan could do a better job today.

I'll have to see if I can import my saves to Duckstation from Beetle HW. It has enough graphical issues on that emulator that it's on par with your average PS2 game. Definitely the most out of any PSX game I've played.

 

[Fluent]

back into Labyrinth of Yomi a bit and having a blast. What a game! Tons of RPG features and stuff to see and do, really slickly polished and just a joy to play. Finished the first floor and now have options on where to go next. Very fascinating lore in the game as well. Thumbs up!

 

[Fluent]

Hey guys. I have a thought about another JRPG i'm playing right now, Wizardry: The Five Ordeals. I'm playing an English translated module and it's very good, but what strikes me about Five Ordeals is that the devs continually patch it and seem to really care about it. Not only that, but it has so many tiny details that showcase the love the devs have put into it, that it all adds up to make this game, imo, the ultimate Wizardry title on the market right now. IF the tools take off with the English crowd as well as we get translations of Japanese modules, the sky is the limit for this game being a sort of "platform" game much like Neverwinter Nights is/was and games like that. In other words, u play the OC but u come there for the user modules. It shows a lot of promise because of that attention to detail in all the tiny features that add up to something big. Just my 2. Hope u guys are doing well! <3

 

[Grampy_Bone]

This is a prime example of a game where I knew what to expect

Tower of Babel/Solaris is the difficulty spike.

 

[jrpglover]

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC (7/10) - I got the impression that I've seen a good shōnen, but as befits the genre, it has a lot of clichés, cringe, pissing characters, etc. The game has a very interesting combat system, a good system of quartz, slots, etc., but there is so little gameplay in the game that all this quickly fades into the background. The game is very outdated in terms of gameplay (no waypoints, etc., but at the same time, we have a turbo mode, without which I probably would have abandoned the game), plus I hate these sprites instead of normal 3D models. The plot seemed interesting to me, but nothing fancy, of course, the characters also, in general, I would characterize the whole game like this: good, but nothing fancy. But this is just the first impressions, because, the SC is still ahead, and then we had the 3rd. Perhaps by the end of the trilogy my opinion about this game will change dramatically and it will really become a masterpiece for me.

Ys: Memories of Celceta (6/10) - Average in everything. Sometimes boring, sometimes interesting. The game loses Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana and Ys IX: Monstrum Nox in everything. I expected more, at least more interesting gameplay. The game is sorely lacking in variety, a better storyline, well-written characters, etc.

 

[Miner 2049er]

Memories of Celceta is a low tier Ys. For me the series kicked into greatness with The Ark of Napishtim and peaked with The Oath in Felghana and Origin.
While Dana and Monstrum transformed the series more into full-fledged RPGs, which I totally absorbed, the challenging gameplay of the Napishtim engine triology is unmachted.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...p/B0009EFFTS&usg=AOvVaw36o6Y78aFhX55W_X-GSX-j

 

[Endemic]

The game is very outdated in terms of gameplay (no waypoints, etc., but at the same time, we have a turbo mode, without which I probably would have abandoned the game)

Well, it is an old game. A 2004 PC title ported to the PSP several years later, and then ported back again for the English release (which is when the turbo mode was added).

 

[jrpglover]

The game is very outdated in terms of gameplay (no waypoints, etc., but at the same time, we have a turbo mode, without which I probably would have abandoned the game)

Well, it is an old game. A 2004 PC title ported to the PSP several years later, and then ported back again for the English release (which is when the turbo mode was added).

I know that the game was released in 2004 on PC, but for comparison, the following games were released in the same year:
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Etc.

And on the PC in 2004 we had:
Half-Life 2
Far Cry
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines
Etc.

Perhaps this is due to the lack of manpower and budget, or else they wanted to fully concentrate on the story. But the attempt was a success anyway, considering how many games in this universe came out after that.

 

[MpuMngwana]

Playing Radiant Historia. I like it a lot so far.

For those unfamiliar, the gist of the game is - you're an agent of a friendly local theocracy, stuck in an endless war against a friendly local evil empire over dwindling resources. After a mission goes terribly wrong, you're greeted by two mysterious beings, who inform you that the already present unnatural desertification will only get worse, and it's up to you to stop it - with the help of a book that allows you to travel to specific points in time. From there, you have to navigate two separate timelines and figure how to deal with the impending apocalypse.

The plot is interesting and full of intrigue. Neither of major factions are monolithic, they both have conflicting sub-factions with varying, often conflicting goals. Add to that a couple of smaller nations and someone who's using the same powers you have to alter the timeline for their own goals, and you've got a nice web of moving parts and conflicting interests to untangle. Characters tend to feel fairly low-key for the genre, and it does a surprisingly good job at maintaining a quite mature mood. Character portraits are also gorgeous.

Gameplay is fine. It uses visible encounters on the field, but thanks to small view area they can on occasion ambush you, and preemptive attacks don't often let you wipe the enemy without giving them a chance to act (*cough* SMTIV *cough*); I think it's one of my favorite implementation of that system. Combat, in addition to standard attacks, buffs and status effects, has a gimmick where you can push enemies around a grid and even stack them to deal more damage. You generally want to use this gimmick even during regular encounters to end them efficiently; you'll pretty much never be just spamming basic attacks.

Overall, I'm having a great time. I'm well aware the time-travel plot will eventually completely overtake the more intriguing political stuff, but hopefully it won't detract from the experience.

 

[Reinhardt]

Finished first playthrough of Super Robot Wars V. 80 hours of fun.

 

[deuxhero]

Finished Trials of Mana. Final boss was underwhelming. Only 1.5 forms (it starts the fight over with a new appearance and a single new attack when at 75% health. Meh) and it's one of the easier fights. Started doing the new content. Rise's bonus boss is rather novel (big normal enemy with a few potent minions that respawn), but Angela's is just a bitch. It's the only hard fight in the game (never had a game over before this) but it's hard for the wrong reasons. It's a 1v1 mirror match between a pure mage and a copy of her where you either get one shotted by the boss unless you time the i-frames for the dodge perfectly and/or abuse certain items.

 

[Rean]

The game is very outdated in terms of gameplay (no waypoints, etc., but at the same time, we have a turbo mode, without which I probably would have abandoned the game)

Well, it is an old game. A 2004 PC title ported to the PSP several years later, and then ported back again for the English release (which is when the turbo mode was added).

I know that the game was released in 2004 on PC, but for comparison, the following games were released in the same year:
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Etc.

And on the PC in 2004 we had:
Half-Life 2
Far Cry
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines
Etc.

Perhaps this is due to the lack of manpower and budget, or else they wanted to fully concentrate on the story. But the attempt was a success anyway, considering how many games in this universe came out after that.

I was initially going to get frustrated with your take on Sky FC and go full fanboy, but you had an honest reaction. A lot of things in that game are reliant on getting hooked on the plot and characters immediately, as the gameplay is quite raw and not too polished. The fact you gave it a 7/10 despite your criticisms seems generous and shows that, yes, you'll probably have more fun with SC. As you've correctly identified, the trilogy needs to be fully completed for a more complete opinion. The development and improvements of both the story and gameplay they've slowly made over the years is part of what makes the saga so enjoyable. It just oozes hard, committed work. I hope you stick with it.

 

[Endemic]

Perhaps this is due to the lack of manpower and budget, or else they wanted to fully concentrate on the story. But the attempt was a success anyway, considering how many games in this universe came out after that.

Yeah, that. Falcom's approach is to release a lot of games on a relatively low budget. The Ys series might be more to your liking.

 

[jrpglover]

I love how they create their game worlds.

Game of the year at least.

Another reason to replay XC2.

 

[jrpglover]

Perhaps this is due to the lack of manpower and budget, or else they wanted to fully concentrate on the story. But the attempt was a success anyway, considering how many games in this universe came out after that.

Yeah, that. Falcom's approach is to release a lot of games on a relatively low budget. The Ys series might be more to your liking.

I love how they improve with every game. I recently watched the videos of Kuro No Kiseki and I really liked it. The gameplay seems to be very interesting, visually the game also looks good. It's just a pity that they have problems with localization. I hope it will be translated by the time when I complete Trails in the Sky, Crossbell and Trails of Cold Steel.

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

As someone that dropped Kuro, the fanbase has stocholme syndrome. The payback for the things they set up during multiple games is underwhelming, i have put at least a thousand hours into the series so i will probably pick up kuro again. Don't get into the series, that's my only advice.

 

[Rean]

As someone that dropped Kuro, the fanbase has stocholme syndrome. The payback for the things they set up during multiple games is underwhelming, i have put at least a thousand hours into the series so i will probably pick up kuro again. Don't get into the series, that's my only advice.

 

[Miner 2049er]

Rise of the Third Power - the new game from the team that made Ara Fell. If you have the slightest heart for stunning pixel art, turn based combat, overworld exploration and great party chemistry, consider giving it a try. I think there is a demo. My preferable way of playing is, Yuzu emulation, because I can turn on the gaussian filter to make it even more beautiful.

 

[Abu Antar]

Ara Fell was okayish. Rise of the Third Power demo turned me off the game.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Rise of the Third Power demo turned me off the game.

What didn't you like about it? Just discovered the game yesterday and thought it looked pretty cool.

Edit: Abu Antar, just in case of quote summons not working.

 

[Abu Antar]

Rise of the Third Power demo turned me off the game.

What didn't you like about it? Just discovered the game yesterday and thought it looked pretty cool.

Edit: Abu Antar, just in case of quote summons not working.

Sorry, man. I read this and I was intending to respond. I completely forgot.

The combat didn't really grab me. HP spongy enemies, but not difficult. In general, I just didn't feel the general flow of it all. I didn't love the place the demo put you in. Looked very ugly. Maybe (hopefully), the full game will be better.

Maybe the full game will be better.

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

A year or so ago i got memed into playing Luminous Arc, dropped it after one hour. People online told me "Nah bro, first one is trash, 2 is the good one" so i decided to play Luminous Arc 2, it's mediocre and eded up dropping it after two hours, never trust anyone that tells you to play the series because they are full of shit. I'm going to play Radiant Historia now, it better be good.

 

[Abu Antar]

It's no really even time travelling. I'd call it dimension hopping.

 

[Reinhardt]

Finished first playthrough of Super Robot Wars V. 80 hours of fun.

Almost finished second. Still took 40+ hours because i played as second mc and picked other routes and other robots. Game is YUUUUUUGE! Lots of hidden stuff, different reactions depending of combat participants, dozens of voiced mini-events when you just quit game, some are hilarious. Music is gud too. Sometimes i just enable animations for one battle and attack with character so his theme will play for the rest of the turn.

 

[lightbane]

Which SRW game of the latest ones is better to start with? 30? V? I only played the OG ones from the GBA decades ago. Regarding Radiant Historia, is the 3DS remake worth it if you played the OG game? How's the new storyline?