Random thoughts on whatever JRPG you're currently playing?

[GhostCow]

About to start SMT: Nocturne. Any tips/advice for a newb to the series? Well, I played Persona 3 FES a long time ago and the high school shit made me want to die, but the combat was great (even if the dungeons were bland as fuck). Am I looking at the same sort of systems?

Never use the first demon you get, the pixie, as a sacrifice. You can always tell which demon was originally the pixie as that one will always be at the top of your list.

 

[SerratedBiz]

My advice for playing SMT III is don't spoil it and don't expect to finish it on your first playthrough. Otherwise, enjoy one of the finest games of its era.

 

[dreughjiggers]

I have about six hours in Undernauts, and after Strikers its the most fun I've had on the switch. My party must have very high acc, because I never miss. Any other good wiz games for switch?

 

[Brimruk]

My advice for playing SMT III is don't spoil it and don't expect to finish it on your first playthrough. Otherwise, enjoy one of the finest games of its era.

As someone playing for the first time, I agree to keep spoilers to a minimum! Except for one of the boss battles I've gone in completely blind and it's been great (I'm about 20 hours in so probably nowhere close to finishing)!

Something I will share, keeping spoilers to a minimum - if you run into a boss that just seems impossibly tedious, remember the advice about fighting bosses during the full moon

I have about six hours in Undernauts, and after Strikers its the most fun I've had on the switch. My party must have very high acc, because I never miss. Any other good wiz games for switch?

I am also curious about this - I've bought SMT 3 and 5 and Undernauts so far, so definitely looking to expand the wiz game library!

 

[Abu Antar]

I have about six hours in Undernauts, and after Strikers its the most fun I've had on the switch. My party must have very high acc, because I never miss. Any other good wiz games for switch?

May I ask how Undernauts performs on Switch? I have had my eyes on it.

 

[coldcrow]

About to start SMT: Nocturne. Any tips/advice for a newb to the series? Well, I played Persona 3 FES a long time ago and the high school shit made me want to die, but the combat was great (even if the dungeons were bland as fuck). Am I looking at the same sort of systems?

Never use the first demon you get, the pixie, as a sacrifice. You can always tell which demon was originally the pixie as that one will always be at the top of your list.

It really doesn't matter. The reward for keeping pixie comes at the end of the game. So it's that or an early free ankh magatama, which is quite valuable on hard difficulty.

 

[dreughjiggers]

I have about six hours in Undernauts, and after Strikers its the most fun I've had on the switch. My party must have very high acc, because I never miss. Any other good wiz games for switch?

May I ask how Undernauts performs on Switch? I have had my eyes on it.

I've noticed no stuttering or delays in combat, no graphical glitches in the maps. Sounds ok, too. I think there's an option to turn off the animated character cards, as well. Battery life? I must have played three hours, an my battery dropped to 70-ish %.

 

[ChaDargo]

I have about six hours in Undernauts, and after Strikers its the most fun I've had on the switch. My party must have very high acc, because I never miss. Any other good wiz games for switch?

I don't have a switch, but from what I understand there's most of Experience Inc's games (people who made Undernauts), like Demon Gaze, Sapphire Wings /Stranger of Sword City Revisted. There's also Mary Skelter 1/2 (in a bundle iirc). Labyrinth of Refrain (by the people who made Disgaea) is good.

Somewhat of a unique take on the genre (also on switch) is Potato Flowers in Full Bloom. You traverse everything in first person as a team of 3. When you come across enemies, it switches to a sort of 3D isometric view, but it just plays like JRPG combat (iirc). It looks great and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on it.

I'm sure there's even more suggestions to make (e.g., Chained Echoes is on switch I believe, and it looks like a great take on jrpg, not a blobber though), but I don't know much about switch!

 

[mushaden]

Lufia 2

character art is too weeb. towns are uninspired. too much romance story.

otherwise amazing

 

[ChaDargo]

Lufia 2

character art is too weeb. towns are uninspired. too much romance story.

otherwise amazing

I tried Lufia 2 and was completely turned off from the start by the negatives you named. Sell me on the "otherwise amazing" parts?

 

[Jasede]

Romance story? This is the only JRPG in which your teenage crush is coldly cast aside instantly for the hot Amazon chick which the hero proceeds to marry and have children with, which are then plot relevant. And the teenage crush is sent home never to show her face again. Based?!

First of all:

The game has great music.
It has the Ancient Cave, a roguelite mode that is worth the price of the cartridge alone.
It has some fun bosses and lots and lots of puzzles, some of which are pretty fun or difficult.
It also features some fairly interesting mechanics, such as the IP attack which I have not in this form seen in any other game, at least not executed the way it was in this one.

 

[spekkio]

the price of the cartridge

 

[mushaden]

put some spoiler tags up Jasede!

but yeah, everything Jasede is correct. some good puzzles and solid dragon quest combat/systems with additional mechanics. Combat is pretty easy but not always. So far there has been at least one boss that I found challenging. I can't think of any other good games that merged Zelda puzzles/dungeons with JRPG. And you get the ancient cave as well as the little optional pokemon (capsule monster) gimmick.

 

[Puukko]

Went back to finish route A of Nier Replicant, and started route B along with the diary side content. I'm glad I did, because this is very neat stuff, and I had never seen anything past ending A myself. I had listened to the remixed songs a lot outside the game over the years so getting to heae them ingame was likewise cool.

This got me in the mood for also finishing Automata which has been a real eternity project of mine. It's up to route C.

 

[Lincolnberry]

SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambitions - In a word, wow. My first SaGa game, and it's incredible. Whoever designed this deserves a medal in my book. The game is heavily refined to a small group of core elements and then just pushed to the max degree on quality. Combat is turn based but hugely challenging and tactical. Sidequests galore to chase down new characters or items. Almost nothing in the form of guides on the internet so you don't even have much help if you wanted it. Easily the best JRPG gaming experience I've had in many years. 5/5, play this game. I will be spending time on the other routes and then devouring other games in the series.

Xenoblade 2 - I did enjoy Xenoblade 1/DE, and this one in many ways unfortunately feels like a step back. From the music, to story to gacha mechanics it feels like a less complete package to me than the previous iteration. I believe I'm past the halfway point but a lot of small irritations are definitely adding up. Unlike Scarlet Grace, this game just doesn't respect my time. The quests are less of a pain to find than the first one but similar in forcing you to run around all over the place. Think I'll finish it and I've heard the DLC is pretty good, but I was hoping for more. So far, 3/5 - play only if you liked the first one.

 

[Bohrain]

I have Xenoblade 2 on my library, but it couldn't hold my interest for long. Think I dropped it around the time there was the mini boss fight against the girl with the dumb hat that you later on recruit to your party. Game felt like a poor offline MMO, I just don't understand what people saw in it.

 

[Late Bloomer]

SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambitions - In a word, wow. My first SaGa game, and it's incredible. Whoever designed this deserves a medal in my book. The game is heavily refined to a small group of core elements and then just pushed to the max degree on quality. Combat is turn based but hugely challenging and tactical. Sidequests galore to chase down new characters or items. Almost nothing in the form of guides on the internet so you don't even have much help if you wanted it. Easily the best JRPG gaming experience I've had in many years. 5/5, play this game. I will be spending time on the other routes and then devouring other games in the series.

How is the enemy scaling handled?

 

[Lincolnberry]

I believe it uses the Battle Rank system common among the SaGa games. As it's my first SaGa game, I'm not sure I can really compare to others. Getting all the win conditions on many if not most of the battles is a real challenge, though. And I am probably overgrinding a bit just to try to figure out how the game works.

 

[Lincolnberry]

I have Xenoblade 2 on my library, but it couldn't hold my interest for long. Think I dropped it around the time there was the mini boss fight against the girl with the dumb hat that you later on recruit to your party. Game felt like a poor offline MMO, I just don't understand what people saw in it.

This is a very appropriate framing and it's the biggest turn off of the game (and frankly, the prior one too) by far. The world is beautiful to explore, the story at least has my attention, and while the characters in the first game were better I still am getting enough out of it to continue for the moment. But your criticism is spot on.

 

[lametta]

I believe it uses the Battle Rank system common among the SaGa games. As it's my first SaGa game, I'm not sure I can really compare to others. Getting all the win conditions on many if not most of the battles is a real challenge, though. And I am probably overgrinding a bit just to try to figure out how the game works.

bought a bunch of saga games last sale. (RomancingSaga 3, Minstrel Song, Scarlet Grace, Saga Frontier) guess ill give this one a try aswell.
Can you softlock yourself through grinding in Scarlet Grace or miss quests?

 

[Late Bloomer]

Someone on a Steam review said that the more battles you fight the stronger the enemies get.

That just doesnt sound very fun. I'll look more into that when I am able.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

The problem with Scarlet Grace is with some character starts you can't actually grind and you're forced into some fairly tough battles with minimal prep, which ends up just being a toss up. OTOH, I don't believe any quests are missable purely via battle rank ala Minstrel Song, though you can make some C&C type decisions with various trade offs. It's not a bad game.

The battle system seems cool but 100% of the challenge involves getting unite attacks. Just focus fire on whatever enemy is between your characters in the turn order -> activate unite attack -> you won. That's it. Unite combos reduce the BP cost of your moves, which allows you to beat the action economy balancing like a red-headed step child.

 

[Kuruwin]

Shining Force EXA

Very simplistic and uneven game, but personally i like these sort of fast paced hack and slash/beat em up style games. Doesn't blow anyones mind but does it's job. Characters look really nice in cutscenes and it's shame that there's not many of them.

 

[koyota]

Was playing Star Ocean 1, I find the most enjoyable parts of modern JRPGs is when I accidently go to dungeons in the wrong order and just barely survive using everything I have to get through.
So

Looking for (Game Suggestion - Not Souls-Like)
RPG with scare resources or where you are resource constrained, where finding that potion is going to make you jump for joy and you are really going to need to use it.

 

[Raghar]

I'm thinking about reinstalling emulators, but that always brings me to thinking about installing new CPU, and I like my current i5-6600K. I moded it to be both fast and eat practically no energy.