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Random thoughts on whatever JRPG you're currently playing?

Malamert

Arcane
Edgy
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
2,466
Finished Star Ocean The Last Hope Remaster. It was a superb, lovely, charming and wholesome space adventure. Enjoyed it immensely and took my time playing it. Got around 129 hours out of it and it was rad from beginning to end.
The gameplay's good stuff, solid action combat that can get really flashy and grand at times. It is, unfortunately, a tad too easy on normal difficulty and it's another one of those games where you need to beat it in order to unlock higher difficulties. Ah well, at least the post-game dungeons and bosses offer quite a challenge and require the usage of crafting and some decent party setup. The AI for your party can be legit retarded at times and you'll often encounter situations where party members are standing still for up to 5 seconds while a giant end of the world battle is taking place around them. The AI is even worse when it comes to healers and you might see your team getting decimated in the post-game while the healer's casting buffs on herself or waiting until everyone's almost dead to cast a party wide heal. I just ended up setting healers to manual control during post-game boss fights and switched constantly to them to cast heals between massive attacks. Anyway, the low difficulty during the main game and the dumb AI aside, it's still great stuff. Boss fights in particular are spectacular at times, especially the post-game superbosses.
Let's discuss the characters in this game and why they're all boatloads upon boatloads of radical and tubular fun. The protagonist's name is Edge Maverick and later on an edgelord space elf by the name of Arumat P. Thanatos, who calls himself death incarnate, joins the party. I could just stop with that as it's enough to tell you just how much silly fun you're in for. The crew of the Calnus has everything you want in a game like this: childhood friend, cute loli, friendly iron giant, cute catgirl, ditzy bird girl, tiddy elf and edgelord. They're all over the top and lead to a good deal of hilarious scenarios. Character events strike a good balance between normal dialogues and cutscenes. Lymle's so great, she's easily the best character in the game.
When it comes to the graphics you may want to consider downsampling the game since its only anti-aliasing option is FXAA and at anything lower than 4k it just isn't enough. You may also want to turn off depth of field and motion blur. Seriously, the depth of field in this game is way too exaggerated. It blurs just about everything a few feet in front you, it's insane. Anyway, the game generally looks good. Combat animations are nice and smooth, but the space ships are animated rather bizarrely during cutscenes, they look like they're spazzing around erratically from time to time. Character designs are beautiful, unfortunately the environments are a mixed bag. The first planet is pretty neat at the beginning, but then you have to go through some very ugly looking caves that just ruin the experience a bit. With the exception of the final planet, it's pretty much the same everywhere else: great outdoors, mediocre dungeons.
It's a tri-Ace game, so the soundtrack is the real deal. Enough said.
The story isn't anything new or unheard of, but it works and it leads to some really amazing setpieces with grand space battles and scenarios. You know how it goes, you're exploring for habitable planets one day and then the next you're saving all life from annihilation with the aid of all the friends you've made along the way.
So, yea, had an absolute blast playing this game and I'm probably going to give it another playthrough on the higher difficulties. Definitely going to have to play the other Star Ocean games too eventually.
 

Jermu

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Aug 13, 2017
Messages
1,354
Played 5 hours of The Cruel King and the Great Hero. Art, setting and shit is cool but encounter rate, backtracking & combat is too tiresome so I'm dropping this game. Wish they would have translated Labyrinth of Galleria: Coven of Dusk instead of this one.

Also tutorial is quite short but I nearly quitted because of it
 
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Malamert

Arcane
Edgy
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
2,466
Nappy time with Lymle is perfect with the Jap voice over.
Really disappointed that the game doesn't have alternate costumes. Wouldn't mind having Lymle running around destroying entire enemy groups in a swimsuit.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
The only thing i remember about Star Ocean The last Hope was the fucking dub.


I never finished the game so it can't have been that good but, having played some of the more recent utterly dross JRPGs, on reflection I did actually quite enjoy it to a certain degree. Part of the reason being that it was so horribly dubbed that scenes like that would make me chuckle to myself, not to mention wind up the ex-missus. Nothing better than playing this in front of her, then spending the rest of the day finishing each sentence with "'Kay?" on the end.
 
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Unwanted
Dumbfuck
Joined
Dec 14, 2020
Messages
803
Nappy time with Lymle is perfect with the Jap voice over.
Really disappointed that the game doesn't have alternate costumes. Wouldn't mind having Lymle running around destroying entire enemy groups in a swimsuit.
Did she finished her sentences with ね or です with jap voices? Too lazy to look it up, and i wonder what they translated to "kay".
 
Unwanted
Dumbfuck
Joined
Dec 14, 2020
Messages
803
Can't finish a single game lately, so i put every single game i have installed in how long to beat and used the randomizer to select one and this came out.
1GJ0s4a.jpg


I have literally never seen anyone talk about it and i don't trust youtube niggers, how is it?
 

spekkio

Arcane
Joined
Sep 16, 2009
Messages
8,278
BROs, decided to abort my playthrough of Fire Emblem - Fates (Hoshido, Hard).
Which means that FE14 has an "honour" of being the 1st Fire Emblem (since FE3 on Snes) I didn't complete.

:decline:

Good:
  • Some traditional FE elements are still visible beneath all the new shit.
  • Characters design and models are generally decent, at least as far as "newshit-animu" goes. Could've been worse (see upcoming Soul Hackers 2).
  • A lot of various crap to do (regular battles, two types of "grinding" battles, DLC missions, castle, forging, minigames, 3 routes).
Bad:
  • Too many systems modified, most all of them for the worse:

    a) new itemization, with better weapons having increasingly severe "penalties" for using them is IMO totally inferior to the old "better weapons have less uses than worse ones" system.

    b) weapon triangle practically doubled (new bows-shirukens-magic on top of an old swords-axes-lances), with no clear gain, except making things more complex.

    c) job / skill list doubled as well (hoshido / nohr use "different" jobs), which again only adds to the bloat (many new jobs and skills are totally useless / inferior to the old ones).

    d) promotion made unnecessary complex (master, heart, partner, friendship, eternal seals + "bonus" items for special jobs). Yeah, I get it - the more reason to grind for money, the better ("longer game!", "more content!").

    e) forging is much worse and more convoluted than in previous games (requires two "base" weapons + resource, gives only slightly better weapon).

    f) new "coliseum" (fight to get money) is fucking disgrace to the original concept (fight to get EXP).

    g) "revamped" pair up system is worse than the one introduced in Awakening, and IMO the most important problem with the game:

    g1) Offensive Stance (two units standing next to each other) makes planning defensive actions overly difficult. In previous games you could've used some strong unit to cockblock some entrance, knowing that (as long as this unit won't kill the enemy, which was another problem, but that's what weak weapons are for), it will be hit up to two times (close range + long range). Awakening didn't change this, since enemies couldn't use stances, only you could (maybe "unfair", but at least shit had worked).

    Unfortunately in Fates, even if your unit is exposed only from one side + attacker is in a "bottleneck", your fag can be attacked up to four times:

    D7ycQ2K.png


    And if enemies can support themselves to their full potential (4 units):

    LLcFztJ.png


    They can attack up to 8 times. :roll: This is just pure retardation, since only a superunit can survive 8 hits from enemies. AND if your fag kills any of these 4 enemies, another ones will join the attack.

    This shit is maybe not that bad on Easy, but on Hard, where all enemies can rush you at once, it's unbearable. You have to either try to keep some distance from enemies, or use "superunits", able to withstand/dodge multiple attacks.

    OFC this mechanic also applies to you (you can do the same to the enemy), problem is, enemy casualties aren't a problem, while yours are (not only on "Classic", loosing too many units on "Casual" also means Game Over on higher difficulties).

    :decline:

    g2) Defensive Stance (two units are paired up) is almost useless, since the 2nd unit won't follow-up 1st unit's attack. It will only provide the "main" unit with stat bonuses and protect it from enemy follow-ups. Which isn't that useful due to the way Offensive Stance works (see above) - enemies will fucking kill your units, no matter their stance.

  • Game (at least on Hard and above) is visibly created with certain "solutions" to mission problems, which often can be achieved only by using certain (strongest) units. That's not tactics, that's solving puzzles.
  • Units come in three groups:

    a) totally fucking useless (low stats, shitty jobs / skills ),

    b) somehow useful (brawlers with low ATK/DEF, but high MAG, mages with high DEF but low MAG, etc), but not as strong as group c, so can't survive certain situations / missions,

    c) uberunits (royals, stats higher than other units, special weapons, special skills).

    What an actual fuck?

    :decline:
  • (more on) Superficial difficulty.

    I played on Hard, and inversely than in most older games, initial missions were very easy. Which made me worried, that the situation is going to change later. And it did. Starting from mission 10 (Hoshido, which is supposed to be the easiest route, from what I've read Nohr and Reve are even harder / more convoluted) game starts falling flat on its tits.

    - Chapter 11: typical "protect your ship from enemy fliers" mission. Unfortunately, it's actually a puzzle. If you decide to play defensively, waiting for the reinforcements to go to your position, at some point you will be overwhelmed, since after certain turn all remaining enemies will rush you. Solution: keep retrying till you "find the solution" or read some online FAQ. :roll:

    - Chapter 12: typical "get to the exit before uberunit(s) wipe you out" mission. Sadly, a really cheap one. First, only your leader has to get to the exit, not all of your units (in older FE games, the "left alone" units were killed in such missions - not here). Second, due to the weird map, there's only one viable solution to winning (get Corin on a flier and GTFO the moment Garon has any of your units in his range).

    - Chapter 13: finally a "regular" chapter. Problem is, enemy boss is (again) a "superunit", which requires combined attacks from multiple units to be put down. And the moment somebody goes into her (ultra high) attack range, all remaining enemies on map will rush you. Can be done, but is fucking painful (quickload galore).

    - Chapter 14: Your forces are surrounded from 3 sides, no mater what you do, by turn#2 almost all enemies will rush you. Solution: use superunits whom conveniently you just got (Ryoma and Scarlet).

    At this point I was like "sheet, Hard in this game is more like Lunatic in others, I should restart on Normal to have some fun. But wait - I hate almost everything about this game, so why should I bother?".

    :roll:

    Aborted.
Ugly:
  • Writing is meh/bad, but in a worse way than in Awakening (which had the worst writing in series, until Fates). In Awakening all supporting dialogues and other "optional" ones were fucking shit, but at least writing in main story was significantly better (still not great). Sadly, in Fates it's vice versa. Some supporting dialogues are decent, but everything that happens in main story is absolute fucking cringe (events, dialogues, etc).
  • My castle activities are total fucking waste of time (social meetings, forging, cooking).
That should be enough I think...

:1/5: , mostly for Orochi's and Kagero's bouncy boobs. First Fire Emblem I've dropped, definitely the worst game in series that I've played so far (only Echoes and Three Houses left).

Epic :decline:
 
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Jermu

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Aug 13, 2017
Messages
1,354
Can't finish a single game lately, so i put every single game i have installed in how long to beat and used the randomizer to select one and this came out.
1GJ0s4a.jpg


I have literally never seen anyone talk about it and i don't trust youtube niggers, how is it?

Its okay game but not as good as Etrian Odyssey games. Also you should play PQ1 first.
 

Grampy_Bone

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2016
Messages
3,640
Location
Wandering the world randomly in search of maps
My wife played through FF Mystic quest recently, and while everyone knows the game is gay as balls, I was amazed how it failed even as babbys first JRPG on account of so much forced grinding. Linear paths, enemies one after another, no running away. Yikes. Compared to a game like Chrono Trigger, where there are a handful of encounters per area and then you're done. Come to think of it that's the real beginners JRPG.

Then my wife played Dragon Quest 1 and actually got way into it more. Even though some would call it more grindy than mystic quest, the grinding in DQ is more rewarding. She actually got pretty hooked and played through it in a couple days. Every level and item upgrade feels like a significant reward, so it keeps you engaged.

Mystic Quest has good music at least.

 

Reinhardt

Arcane
Joined
Sep 4, 2015
Messages
29,236
Near the end of chapter 4 in Evenicle 2 and i'm not sure i can finish it. Girls are gud, art is gud, main character is not. He's both bland and boring and annoying at the same time. I think i only liked 2 mcs in alicesoft games - Rance and guy from Daibanchou.
 
Unwanted
Dumbfuck
Joined
Dec 14, 2020
Messages
803
Playing Chrono Trigger for the first time, wanted to play a short rpg while playing the western release of Rune Factory 5. Sometimes i think that the Cd Rom invention was a fucking mistake, JRPGs started being too long after they got enough disk space and proceed ed to add to much padding, Chrono Trigger seems to go to the fucking point which is fucking refreshing after playing so many 80hs games these past years, my only complain is that i'm loosing IQ points after every encounter, they are fucking brainded but my hyphotesis is that they made the game easy because of the fixed encounters which means that retards can't brute force the game by grinding. I also must say that i finally decided to play this game after seeing it at the top of the JRPG list.
mrYXVJy.jpg
 

GhostCow

Balanced Gamer
Patron
Joined
Jan 2, 2020
Messages
3,994
I'm also currently playing Chrono Trigger since it was on sale on Steam and I thought it was interesting that they patched in ultrawide support a few days ago. I don't see what the big deal is. There's no character building, combat is on game journo mode, and the writing and characters are ok but nothing special. How the hell do people rank this as one of the greatest of all time?
 
Joined
Feb 3, 2022
Messages
944
I'm also currently playing Chrono Trigger since it was on sale on Steam and I thought it was interesting that they patched in ultrawide support a few days ago. I don't see what the big deal is. There's no character building, combat is on game journo mode, and the writing and characters are ok but nothing special. How the hell do people rank this as one of the greatest of all time?

Came out before the JRPG revolution that FF7 brought. When it came to story-based console JRPGs, it only really had to compete with DQ5, FF4-6, and Suikoden 1. So basically it was a relatively great game at the time, and still holds up today as @Carpincho Pampeano mentioned for not overstaying its welcome. Also keeps getting mentioned in top JRPG lists because most of the audience who grew up with it are the ones who still discuss JRPGs on internet forums, while people who grew up with later games tend to post on twitter or discord so their contrasting opinions don't usually appear in the same space.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
Playing Chrono Trigger for the first time, wanted to play a short rpg while playing the western release of Rune Factory 5. Sometimes i think that the Cd Rom invention was a fucking mistake, JRPGs started being too long after they got enough disk space and proceed ed to add to much padding, Chrono Trigger seems to go to the fucking point which is fucking refreshing after playing so many 80hs games these past years, my only complain is that i'm loosing IQ points after every encounter, they are fucking brainded but my hyphotesis is that they made the game easy because of the fixed encounters which means that retards can't brute force the game by grinding. I also must say that i finally decided to play this game after seeing it at the top of the JRPG list.
mrYXVJy.jpg

It's stupendously overrated, largely because of the reasons which you state. A proper entry-level RPG which I can understand pre-teens loving on the back of playing stuff like platformers in the 80's & 90's, but how any seasoned RPG player can think it's one of the greatest is beyond me. Its just piddle-piss easy and almost impossible to lose a group member during battle if you're equipped right, never mind see a game-over screen. And getting equipped properly really isn't hard at all either.

The last few hours do see the difficulty increase to a much better degree but, whilst I find the first act of the game fun when it's throwing new things at you, the middle act between 8-20 hours dull as dishwater, with the last act somewhere in the middle.

Amazing how many suckers also love it for it's time-travel overworld element, when that's just essentially lazy arse design meaning that SE didn't have to invent as many new areas, instead they could just tweak each one and label it as a different time zone. I get it doesn't matter as such in the context of the game, but again it's another reason it shouldn't be thought of as a true great.

It's a game worth playing once, and which can be quite enjoyable at times. But little more. I'd class it as a 7/10 game, maybe 8/10 if you aren't a gameplayfag.
 
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deuxhero

Arcane
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
11,326
Location
Flowery Land
Chrono Trigger's fixed encounters are actually one of its biggest flaws, not a strength. There's a lot of them that are 100% unavoidable and respawn on every screen transition (even those guarding screen transitions!), defeating the point of being able to avoid them.
 

Cromwell

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2013
Messages
5,443
Tried to play FF6 again on Bsnes. My god is that game slow. Every few steps I have a fucking rndm fight, wait for the fucking atb to be full then press a until the enemies dead. I feel like moving through a swamp and the dash mod or whatever that is doesnt really help.
 

deuxhero

Arcane
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
11,326
Location
Flowery Land
Don't all the ATB games have an option in the menu to control how quick the gages fill? Also make sure you have it set to fastest not slowest.
 

Cromwell

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2013
Messages
5,443
Don't all the ATB games have an option in the menu to control how quick the gages fill? Also make sure you have it set to fastest not slowest.

they have, I have everything on very fast. Its still slow but I meant the moving around to. Maybe its me and I am to old for these games.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
Don't all the ATB games have an option in the menu to control how quick the gages fill? Also make sure you have it set to fastest not slowest.

they have, I have everything on very fast. Its still slow but I meant the moving around to. Maybe its me and I am to old for these games.

You're not too old, it's just another overrated game for the reasons you mention.

The pacing of FF6 is sluggish in general, with the heavily scripted & railroaded first 4-5 hours and the constant character swapping makes it hard to settle into any rhythm.

I've never liked it myself, and playing it off the back of FF5 felt such a step backwards in the combat department especially.
 
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Yeoman

Educated
Joined
Aug 4, 2017
Messages
29
Recently started Berwick Saga, I have no experience with Fire Emblem and very little with SRPGs in general, but I'm thoroughly impressed by this game.

The mission scenarios are fun and challenging, there are always neat little twists like an enemy unit fetching a magic item to his ally that will make him far more dangerous, or having to skirt around a river with a crackerjack enemy horse archer on the other side harassing your units, and the main missions that I've played so far are so detailed and typically have multiple of these twists and surprises.

The gameplay systems are more detailed and complex than what I'd expect from a JRPG (equipment can get destroyed, units can get injured and captured, bows use ammo, horses have their own HP, mounted units can dismount/mount at will, hexes instead of tiles). Combat is a little RNG heavy, but I enjoy the tension that comes with it.

The animated sprites on both the map view and in close-up action are highly detailed and well done. I also really like the character portraits. I think the writing is very good and I like the balance between political intrigue and small, personal stories.

DGhW1ne.jpg

4OuARQb.jpg

ceXCyzd.jpg

xGSLluX.jpg

hz98AGO.jpg
 
Unwanted
Dumbfuck
Joined
Dec 14, 2020
Messages
803
You convinced to play the Kaga ps2 game, too bad i burned my last dvd with Romancing Saga Remake yesterday. I like kaga FE games but after he left they have much more cunny so i'm conflicted.
 

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
Yeah, from what I've played, Berwick Saga really seems to be Kaga's dream magnum opus. It's too bad he couldn't just take that engine and use it for his Vestaria Saga games. The first one is good, but would be even better if unshackled from the SRPG Studio engine, particularly into the glorious Berwick engine.
 

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