Requesting some JRPG recommendations.

[Andyman Messiah]

Earthbound shouldn't have to be recommended.

And play Radical Dreamers instead of Chrono Cross.

 

[Carrie Underwood]

They're two entirely different games. It's not an either or situation.

 

[crufty]

Shadows of the Colossus

 

[J1M]

Lufia 2.

 

[Mojo]

Only 1 recomendation for Earthbound? D'oh!

Skip FF8. It's worse than FFX.

You know, FFVIII was my favorite Final Fantasy game after FFVI. It looked better ( graphics were amazing for a psx game at the time) and looked more mature ( I say looked because that's all it did. It was still a childish jap emo thing like the others). The story wasn't too bad at the start was well ( it got horribly retarded midway). I personally liked the "school feeling" thing. But then again I think I was 14 or 15 when I played it so what do I know

Panzer Dragon RPG was a great action jrpg. I don't know if there are good sega saturn emulators though.

 

[Gragt]

And play Radical Dreamers instead of Chrono Cross.

Or play both.

 

[Murk]

Lufia 2.

worth it for the dungeon-puzzles and the retarded end labyrinth - otherwise its 'meh' but with hints of maturity in the story

 

[Elhoim]

Vagrant Story

Very good game. Too bad it didn't have a sequel...

 

[J1M]

Lufia 2.

worth it for the dungeon-puzzles and the retarded end labyrinth - otherwise its 'meh' but with hints of maturity in the story

Well, yeah. All JRPGs are meh when it comes to story. That's why I recommended one with (some) gameplay.

*J1M ducks as the weeaboos throw final fantasy dolls at him*

 

[Lemunde]

Don't play Chrono Cross if you already played Chrono Trigger! You'd hate it; I did.

It's not the worst, naturally. On your list, FFT isn't a JRPG; it's a tactical combat game, like Tactics Ogre, but it's very good. If you want the jRPG experience, FF9 is likely the best of these .isos.

Xenogears is supposedly very very good, but it has almost only cinematics with little to no gameplay.

If you're going to play Xenogears don't bother getting the second disk. It is absolutely nothing but abridged cut scenes that you won't even be able to follow anyway. Essentially it goes straight down hill once you hit disk 2.

I think you should check out Wild Arms. The combat's not that great but it's got a lot of Zelda-like puzzles and an excellent story. Lunar 1 and 2 are pretty good but they're about as J as JRPGs get. If they seem too big to download you could try the Sega CD versions. Star Ocean 2 is another good one.

Well, yeah. All JRPGs are meh when it comes to story. That's why I recommended one with (some) gameplay.

*J1M ducks as the weeaboos throw final fantasy dolls at him*

Meh, you pretty much have to like anime to like jRPGs because the story styles are pretty much the same. Half-assed translations don't help matters.

 

[J1M]

Well, yeah. All JRPGs are meh when it comes to story. That's why I recommended one with (some) gameplay.

*J1M ducks as the weeaboos throw final fantasy dolls at him*

Meh, you pretty much have to like anime to like jRPGs because the story styles are pretty much the same. Half-assed translations don't help matters.

I know at least two people that know Japanese and like anime, mostly for the art style. According to them, the prooblem has a lot more to do with the source material than the translation.

 

[FrancoTAU]

It takes a while to get used to how different Chrono Cross is compared to Chrono Trigger, yes.

Chrono Trigger has a very strong narrative and incentive to actually do stuff. Chrono Cross, on the other hand, doesn't have any of those things and as a result you'll just run along and do stuff because you enabled said stuff to be done.

edit: I'll be sure to make Xenogears my second LP.

I dare you to do a Xenogears LP. This way, maybe I can see how the game ends. I remember loving that game when it first came out. That was until I hit the dreaded Disc 2. It must've been a 3:1 cutscene to gameplay ratio from there on out. There's no way you can make a cohesive LP out of it.

What is this Radical Dreamers game? I've never even heard of it

 

[Murk]

Radical Dreamers is some spin off type of semi-prequel to the chrono series that's entirely text based.

you can find the translated rom for the SNES somewhere another.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

It takes a while to get used to how different Chrono Cross is compared to Chrono Trigger, yes.

Chrono Trigger has a very strong narrative and incentive to actually do stuff. Chrono Cross, on the other hand, doesn't have any of those things and as a result you'll just run along and do stuff because you enabled said stuff to be done.

edit: I'll be sure to make Xenogears my second LP.

I dare you to do a Xenogears LP. This way, maybe I can see how the game ends. I remember loving that game when it first came out. That was until I hit the dreaded Disc 2. It must've been a 3:1 cutscene to gameplay ratio from there on out. There's no way you can make a cohesive LP out of it.

Cutscenes are nothing as long as you treat them with disrespect. You don't have to show every little thing just to do an LP. I'll say this: in the FF7-lp, I practically fly right past the cutscenes and generally just sums them up as witty as pie.

Anyway; Well, I guess I have a new mission. Kiefer! Colin! Pack my saddlebags and abandon FF7! (Not!) We're off to fight evil Gods with enormous kung-fu mechs and annoying battle cry voice samples!

And they both answered: "Do we have to?"

What is this Radical Dreamers game? I've never even heard of it

Radical Dreamers is the game Chrono Cross was originally supposed to be based on. I think. If someone could enlighten further, I'd be happy to read.

 

[mahdi]

Radical Dreamers (SNES) is a text based JRPG and a psuedo-prequel to Chrono Cross. Play after Chrono Cross.

I'm pretty sure that Chrono Cross is a retelling/retcon of Radical Dreamers. Radical Dreamers ceased to be canon when Chrono Cross came out. Trust me on this, I'm older than you.

 

[Carrie Underwood]

What is this Radical Dreamers game? I've never even heard of it

Time for a history lesson.

Radical Dreamers was the first DLC. It was released only in Japan for people who had the Satellaview addon for their SNES. Needless to say, it's obscure as fuck. There is a fan translation out there, which requires you to hunt down the ROM first, then apply the patch they provide. I wouldn't even know about it if it had not been for my vain attempt to learn what the hell happened in CC.

It's a pseduo-sequel to Chrono Trigger and was retconned with CC came out. Kind of. CC had this whole "alternate worlds" idea that the game is based around, and RD could just be another alternate world. Indeed, there are some theories on this, but I stopped reading that crap a long time ago, so I can't remember any of them. There's even a Torment type solution where everything did happen but the characters act like it didn't.

Either way, no one outside of a small market in Japan had the Satellaview, so it didn't matter what the devs thought of RD when they went into production of CC. It also doesn't matter because neither game really makes any fucking sense or ties in with CT (RD does do these things slightly better than CC, however).

CT - Classic JRPG with great gameplay
RD - After Darklands, one of the best text games ever, defines atmospheric
CC - Beautiful atmosphere, artistic design, and music

 

[Zomg]

Oh, another recently fan-localized SRPG for SNES to check out is Der Langrisser. It's more in the Fire Emblem school of SRPGs.

 

[Gragt]

Bitches, Chrono Cross is great!

Anyway the concensus about Radical Dreamers is that it indeed became a possible storyline when Chrono Cross came out. It isn't part of the canon but it isn't dismissed at the same time.

 

[Topdrunkee thy ILLnifique]

If you're into dungeon crawlers. I suggest

Hungry Ghosts
http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=_BWuXHZ_Y9s
http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=_igav34zVT0
&
Shadow Tower Abyss.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 5066739690
Unfortunately these beauts are stranded in Japan.

That new Elminage game looks promising too.
http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=5PeejWT6Ru0

Don't listen to weeaboo love for Shin Megami Tensei and spinoffs, they're terrible. - at least the pre-PS2 incarnations.

Hah hah, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, and I'm assuming that you never played the Ps2 Megaten's before.
The megatens on PS2 are the most gayed up, pretentious,overrated animu pos I've ever came across, and I'm saying this as an old school megaten fan since '95.
The only good PS2 Megaten was SMT Nocturne, because it was the only one that looked, felt, sounded, & played like a megaten game.
The rest of the PS2 megatens are either philosophically retarded emo bullshit like Digital Devil Saga, or corny ass dating sim rpg hybrids like Persona 3.
(Devil Summoner 3 was just shit all together so I won't even bother with it.)

Megaten used to be dark, & occult.
http://www.dokuganryu.com/scans/megaten/ii/02.jpg

Now it looks like some corny ass Weaboo wonder land pos.
http://www.atlus.com/persona4

I'd also throw out Persona and Persona 2. They're definitely atypical jRPGs with a really fucked up story. I'll second the Tactics Ogre recommendation, too. If you have access to a PS2 I'd suggest SMT: Nocturne.

I second this opinion. The original Persona, Persona 2 Eternal Punishment, & Nocturne are the only good megaten games that have ever been localized into english.
I don't have much of an opinion on SMT & SMT II, because I'd rather be playing something fun like Might & Magic.

I highly recommend the original Persona games if you liked Vampire Masquerade for it's characterization & dialogue.
If you thought Jeanette was insane for having a rivalry with her sister who was really just a split personality of herself.
Wait until you see how F'ed up in the head the cast of the original Persona games are.
(Stay away from Persona 3 & Persona 4, they're weaboo wonderland bullshit, and they'll give you genital herpes just from being in the same room as that dating sim game filth.)
One girl was a skanky model who kept imaging that she was being stalked by some fat guy, only to find out it was all in her head.

Persona was one of the most absurd games I've ever experienced.
It was like a gothic, Jungian, semi Lovecraftian Earthbound.
Persona 2 was so wack job insane that they even made Osama Bin laden jokes before 9/11 even occurred. (Supposedly Bin Laden was hiding out in Japan during 1999, according to Persona 2 at least.)
P2's atmosphere is similar to Masquerade.
Except it took place in a city that was loosely based off of Yokohama.
I remember that in P2 Eternal Punishment. (I'm going off of memory here, because P2's gameplay sucked. I only played it for it's insanely fucked up story.)
Most of the playable characters were actually adults, and they all constantly made fun of the lone teenager in the party, because he was always emo .
Even the main character Maya Amano smacked him across the face & started crying, because she couldn't stand his emoness anymore.
(I'm not making this up either. That scene happens halfway through the game.)

Here's some samples of the cornball dialogue.

Seriously this game was the shit.
It has urban Black kids WHO DANCED CRAZY!

Stuck up, snobby ass rich White boys.

SLutty ass nurses.

Hell yeah I'd bust a nut in her face.

The main character of P2 EP was messed up. She was actually a pedophile, and everybody in the game made fun of her for it.

The original Persona game had a battle system that was surprisingly complex for once.
The gameplay (From the original game at least.) itself appealed more to a mindset that relied more on micro management & tactical planning.
There was a formation grid similar to the one used in Temple of Elemental Evil.
In the original Persona game the mere placement of your character in the formation grid played an actual role in your battle strategy.
Your formation played a role in deciding which mode of attack was most effective. Persona,Gun, or Melee. There was no best attack. All that mattered was which attack gave you the most advantage during your turn.

I'm sure that's laughable compared to the depth that most Western rpgs have, but damn.
The original Persona felt like I was playing chess when compared to most Jrpgs.

Persona was so fucking insane, that it used to be one of my favorite Jrpgs of all time.
It also helps that I was growing up in Japan when they first came out. Which aided I in
getting a lot of the sub cultural inside jokes in the first three
"Persona titles, Be Your True Mind, Innocent Sin, & Eternal Punishment".
(Persona 3 is actually the 4rth game, and fuck that game because it's a piece of shit. That caters to console animu kiddies.)
Here's a small sample of some of the sub cultural references. (That I wrote in some other forum.)

That Olivia chick's life seems to be the background story for Lisa Silverman, but it's actually Lisa Silverman's friend who ended up with Olvia Lufkinish looks.
Olivia used to be part of a japanese pop girl trio called D&D. Muses seems to be a direct rip off. Considering that both groups consist of two j wenches & one foreigner.
Muses & D&D even made similar sounding music.
http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=I3dFfU5qnvE
The music sounds like shit, just like Muses. (Not that people ever listened to d&d for the music anyway. Shit, that Olivia girl looked good.)
Muses manager was a parody of some Jpop producer tard named Tetsuya Komoro who also licensed a song for the game.

I also liked how Megaten used to steal the image of real life celebrities, personalities.

Persona 2 Innocent Sin had a Blonde hair, blue eyed white girl, who was naturalized Japanese, but isn't japanese at all.
Who spoke in Catonese instead of speaking in English or Jap.
That's how much detail these games used to have when it came to characterization.

Not only did the original Persona character deisgner seem to take inspiration from real world personalities.
He even stole their life stories.

Yuko Asano, a famous milf actress who often plays bitchy step mom roles. Not unlike Junko Kurosu from P2 IS, who's also a famous actress who happens to be a hardcore bitch to her son & ex.

Persona was one of those games that would prolly have been a cult hit in the West had they rewrote the game with Western sub cultural references/political satire/ & what not.
Kinda like what nintendo did with Earthbound.
Yeah yeah, I went over board with the Persona praise, but I can't stress enough how fucked up in the head the PSOne Persona's were.
This was one of the only Jrpgs that I actually played through more than once.
_________________________
For another absurd crazy ass post modern game that's similar to Earthbound, & the first two Persona games.
You can't go wrong with Linda 3. (It's supposed to be called Linda Cubed, but I suck at math, so screw it.)

This would be the part where I would post some crazy Linda 3 vids that I had hosted at Youtube, but them cunts suspended my account again.

Edit - Also, check out the list of translations at the fan group "Aeon Genesis".

I second this. AGTP translated a lot of Jrpgs that don't suck ass.

 

[Gragt]

Haha, anime Hitler, I must play that game!

 

[A user named cat]

Persona 2 is absolutely ruined by the shitty battle system. Add onto that you're shoved into random battles constantly, you'll just want to quit. For as interesting as the gameworld, concepts and story is -- just forget it.

There's also the retarded demon persuading too, which becomes so ball bustingly boring by the halfway point you just can't take anymore. It doesn't help that the entire persuasion system is incredibly senseless and stupid.

I'd suggest playing something with a fun battle system. Since the majority of jRPGs are mainly grinding and such, you might as well pick ones with enjoyable fighting. Star Ocean 2, Tales of Destiny 2 and Valkyrie Profile come to mind.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Persona 2 is difficult. Play something mind numbingly easy instead.

The games you mentioned aren't even worthy of anything other than button mashing during combat unless you crank the difficulty up; in which case they required timed use of the exact same attack over and over. Persona combat requires knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy. Neither the combat nor the persuasion is tedious unless you're just randomly picking options with no forethought. I've yet to find a jrpg with a more tedious compnent of the combat than the loading of the battle screen. If thats a negligible factor (Which it is for most 2d games) then the rest of the combat generally goes by very quickly unless you're being an idiot.

I like the games you mentioned, but not for the combat.

 

[ecliptic]

Persona 2 is absolutely ruined by the shitty battle system. Add onto that you're shoved into random battles constantly, you'll just want to quit. For as interesting as the gameworld, concepts and story is -- just forget it.

...

I'd suggest playing something with a fun battle system. Since the majority of jRPGs are mainly grinding and such, you might as well pick ones with enjoyable fighting. Star Ocean 2, Tales of Destiny 2 and Valkyrie Profile come to mind.

I heartily disagree. Turn off the battle animations and combat resolves itself quicker than any other PS1 RPG out there. Boss fights were just the right amount of challenging too.

 

[ecliptic]

My favorite PS1 RPGs are Star Ocean 2 and Persona 2.

Persona 2 had an awesome story and I loved it for letting you turn off combat animations, and making me set the controller down and go, "WHat the fuck??" at 88 hours of gameplay time.

I loved the private actions in SO2 and that you couldn't recruit more than half of the characters in one playthrough. The combat was also fast to resolve and played out like a strange and entertaining fighting game. Loved the music too.

 

[FrancoTAU]

Cutscenes are nothing as long as you treat them with disrespect. You don't have to show every little thing just to do an LP. I'll say this: in the FF7-lp, I practically fly right past the cutscenes and generally just sums them up as witty as pie.

Anyway; Well, I guess I have a new mission. Kiefer! Colin! Pack my saddlebags and abandon FF7! (Not!) We're off to fight evil Gods with enormous kung-fu mechs and annoying battle cry voice samples!

And they both answered: "Do we have to?"

The difference is that FF7 was a pretty straight foward story outside of the messy Cloud/Zack situation. Xenogears is non stop confusing for at least the last 2/3rds of the game.