Random thoughts on whatever JRPG you're currently playing?

[Viata]

I love FFIX, it's my second favorite FF. But there is only one thing I hate in that game: it takes too long to start a battle, holy shit.

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

Hey I'm playing Growlanser 2 (has anybody heard about this game besides me?), and I have some questions regarding its character building system (ahem).
1. Why would I need to increase mastery with a skill (by investing skill points gained on level-ups)?
2. How is mastery related to the skill level?
3. How does it affect effectiveness of skills?
4. What does becoming a master with a particular skill do? Does it improve character's performance with that skill?

Also, how does the Cycle up spell work? It does not seem to lower ATW score as it ought to (judging by the description).

 

[ryz]

Still playing Shin Megami Tensei for the SFC. It really is a (lighter) oldschool WRPG in JRPG disguise. You spend 80% first-person dungeon crawling mapping everything out and talking to demons hoping they don't fuck your shit up.

The game is quite tedious but super addicting at the same time - every new demon you see and encounter is a blast - trying to figure out if he fits your team, what fusions he might result in, etc. the artwork from Kazuma Kaneko is also superb and all demons look very unique and fresh.

I usually really dislike JRPG weeaboo stories, but this one is light and exotic/melancholic/scifi enough to keep me interested - lots of wacky japanese stuff, but in a good sense - at some point you fight a literal supercomputer AI console with a SPAS-12, fireballs and 3 other demons. You also fight a naked female human-spider with claw arms, her dangling from the ceiling with a thread of silk coming out of her vagene - and she manifested herself in the mind of a girl which you must explore with the help of a psycho-diver. I couldn't make this shit up if I wanted, literally plays like some japanese dude's shadowrun p&p campaign.

 

[Sigourn]

SMT has an excellent setting but it's a shame the game plays like ass. I could have done without 3/4 of the encounters in the game. There comes a point it feels like padding.

 

[Viata]

I guess I'm too much of a dungeon crawler fan because the only problem I have with old SMTs is that they are too short.

 

[ryz]

SMT has an excellent setting but it's a shame the game plays like ass. I could have done without 3/4 of the encounters in the game. There comes a point it feels like padding.

It’s really not that bad. While especially the late-game (level 50+) has up to 3(!) encounters per tile, every other step.. at level 28 you can fuse Kushinada-Hime - she has the Estoma spell which literally removes random encounters from the game at will, any time.

The heroine also learns teleport to overworld and teleport to last save point. It’s quite soft compared to your average Wizardry.

Also recruited demons encountered will be super friendly and even gift you shit and fuck off politely

 

[Sigourn]

It’s really not that bad. While especially the late-game (level 50+) has up to 3(!) encounters per tile, every other step.. at level 28 you can fuse Kushinada-Hime - she has the Estoma spell which literally removes random encounters from the game at will, any time.

Doesn't this eventually become a problem, though? I admit I never put it in practice, but since fusions are tied to your max level, and given that (apparently) there's no easy way to grind out experience, doesn't it become counter-productive to skip random encounters altogether? That would mean you are stuck with a certain max fusion level. This is purely hypothetical, it's possible that bosses can be defeated at vastly different levels (e.g. 25-35 recommended), whereas consistently surviving an entire area requires a more narrow level gap (e.g. 30-35 recommended).

It's a shame either way that the game is somewhat barebones compared to the bigger games like Final Fantasy VI, because every plot-related NPC interaction was great. The "realistic" artstyle makes a huge difference in tone, with characters properly proportioned. It makes it feel like everything you see is real.

 

[Viata]

SMT 1 is broken. After you get the charm bullet(which you can charm even the final boss of any route), it gets so easy whenever I replay it I force myself to avoid them.

 

[ryz]

Doesn't this eventually become a problem, though? I admit I never put it in practice, but since fusions are tied to your max level, and given that (apparently) there's no easy way to grind out experience, doesn't it become counter-productive to skip random encounters altogether? That would mean you are stuck with a certain max fusion level. This is purely hypothetical, it's possible that bosses can be defeated at vastly different levels (e.g. 25-35 recommended), whereas consistently surviving an entire area requires a more narrow level gap (e.g. 30-35 recommended).

It's a shame either way that the game is somewhat barebones compared to the bigger games like Final Fantasy VI, because every plot-related NPC interaction was great. The "realistic" artstyle makes a huge difference in tone, with characters properly proportioned. It makes it feel like everything you see is real.

Theoretically you're right of course, but in practice random encounters don't really matter for XP because they don't give that much, less so the later in the game you are. bosses themselves grant ridiculous amounts of XP, easily 3-4 levels each if you're not grinding. and as viata says, you don't defeat them via outleveling but via status effect abuse.

SMT 1 is broken. After you get the charm bullet(which you can charm even the final boss of any route), it gets so easy whenever I replay it I force myself to avoid them.

SMT games in general are one of the few RPGs where status effects are really powerful and do matter - zio/bufu spells for example 99% inflict shock/freeze when hit (and they hit often) both for enemies and players. you have to abuse them because otherwise the enemies will and you ded

 

[Viata]

Yeah, I hate in most jrpg how they gives us a bunch of status effects skills, but when we get into important bosses, none of them works.

 

[MpuMngwana]

Been in a jRPG mood lately, so I'm playing a bunch.

Final Fantasy II (fan-translated NES) - Initially I liked it quite a bit, but it becomes even more repetitive than typical jRPGs, made worse by the fact that your characters doesn't change the targeted enemy if the previous target is killed, so you have to micromanage every single group of goblins. Learn-by-use system is somewhat interesting in theory, but even if we set aside exploits like leveling up by hurting yourself, it makes character progression feel less impactful, and there are no milestones like achieving a new spell level or getting a class upgrade from the original Final Fantasy. Also, so far I've encountered few interesting enemies, it seams weaker then FF1 in this regard. It's getting pretty tedious, and I doubt anything interesting will happen to shake up gameplay, so I'm on the verge of dropping it and moving on to FF3, which introduces the job system and might be fun to play around with.

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth - I'm quite near the end, all that's left is a bunch of ridiculous optional superbosses and the endgame. Though, if I'm gonna tackle the superbosses, extended grinding will probably be necessary. The game is quite enjoyable overall, monster raising mechanics are great and the combat system has potential. Unfortunately, normal difficulty is beyond easy, and hard is exponentionally harder, to the point that few Digimon remain viable. I've been slowly making my way through this game over the last couple of months, so I'm pretty sure I'll finish it eventually, though I'm not sure how much time it will take.

Xanadu Next - Started this recently, so far it's pretty great. Combat-wise it is Diablo-esque hack-and-slash, but exploration is great, there are some light puzzles and metroidvania elements, and is overall very addictive. It has a really strong Vagrant Story vibe, which doesn't hurt.

 

[Reinhardt]

Finished Atelier Ryza and it's not just easiest Atelier game, but, probably, easiest jrpg i've ever played. Final boss and most optional post-game bosses just died to auto-attacking before i got bored. And my equipment is not even endgame-tier - my accessories are actually still same as at the start of the game just with few ingots slapped on top. Didn't even bothered with combat items crafting - most of them are not even unlocked.
Don't think i will ever revisit it like i did with previous Gust games.

 

[Puukko]

Playing Nocturne Hardtype. A bit silly I returned to this less than a year later but hey, it's the definitive experience. My initial plans of playing the Chronicle version met an abrupt end due to a rather major bug where demon swapping doesn't work correctly, when the mod has been tuned with swapping in mind. I'll just play the Raidou bits since I can load my saves in either version.

I also definitely want to play at least one, preferably more of the SNES SMTs this year. They're quite intimidating due to my lack of experience with games of that era.

Luckily I've got a buddy who's very close to where I left my Soul Hackers playthrough before my saves got deleted so I'll at least be able to continue that with his save.

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

Was watching a Growlanser 2 playthrough (there seems to be the only one on Youtube, small wonder really), and it turns out I missed a great deal of story detail, which is going to make my own playthrough rather incomplete... What do I do? The game is pretty mediocre (though there's still hope that the subsequent games did improve on its basis), very janky and low-budget, would rate it no more than 6/10 due to rather weak main plot and absolutely unremarkable bestiary, so much detracting from already not exceptional combat system, still I feel the urge to replay it with all the knowledge I have now and get a better ending (I hope it will pass).
Do you know other jrpgs where depending on your choices or how you handled certain missions or quests (for example, failed to achieve some of the secondary objectives) you are going to have some important characters killed or saved (or otherwise end up with a different party) and where it's possible to miss some worthwhile content if you're careless/lazy? Tactics Ogre is the other jrpg I played and it has this peculiar feature as well, I really enjoy such things and would like to play more jrpgs providing similar experience.

 

[Garbage]

I've finally gotten around to playing The Last Remnant again after putting the PC version off and on for so long. I played it back on the Xbox 360, but got walled at several occasions due to poor planning.

I don't know if I've changed, but all this autism behind the scenes in game is actually pretty nice. I'd like to play more games that require me to read up 10 hours just to slightly understand the core mechanics.

 

[Lincolnberry]

Playing two currently -

Dragon Warrior 7 (PS1) - Still my favorite of all the Dragon Quest games and this is my second time thru (first time was >15 years ago). The vignettes the series is known for are much stronger than most of the games in the series, especially pre-Dharma temple. That's somewhat countered by a weaker cast (particularly the Hero), but overall it's been very enjoyable. The best part about the game in my opinion is the class system, and in particular the way masteries of certain classes unlock intermediate and then advanced (and even higher if you go Monster) classes. Super fun to go along that power creep curve. Just got Melvin and working my way through the monster classes with Gabo using the Hearts you find in chests as you go along. The high priest that's the last boss in Dharma in the past, Gracos/Underwater Temple and especially Gracos 5 in the present were legit challenges for my party. Really looking forward to unlocking some of the intermediate classes and skills. Would highly recommend to anyone who can take one look at a screenshot of the graphics and not be turned off by the idea of playing literally that for 100 hours. 9+/10 for me.

Xenoblade Chronicles (3DS) - Mostly playing on airplanes during holiday travel. I'm pretty mixed on it so far - just finished Satorl Swamp, I'm around level 30. Pros: 1) Characters - they're tropish to a degree but well done, I also think the English voice acting is really good. 2) Story seems by the book so far but it's well told, and there are clearly hints even where I am that things are going to get more complicated. 3) Music is pretty darn good. Cons: 1) MMO style combat - cooldowns etc. There's enough new skills that get mixed in to the point where I am so far that it hasn't gotten completely stale, and I know there are more characters that come in that will potentially change things up - but it feels like something from 2004 and not necessarily in a good way. 2) Quests - I like the concept of making social connections and leveling up your reputation in various areas to unlock new quests/abilities, but in practice there are wayyyy too many and it's very frustrating to try to find various NPCs (and to a lesser degree, monsters you have to kill for the quests) due to the day/night cycle, spawn rates (enemies) and schedules (NPCs are available at certain hours, not just day/night). 3) Exploration - in truth this is a plus and negative. I like the environments and exploring a huge and varied world is pretty cool - I think exploration in RPGs is one of my favorite characteristics. But the collectibles they throw in, the zones being so huge when trying to find specific monsters - it starts to feel a little bit like a chore after awhile especially since the 3DS graphics aren't so good that it's easy to identify things from a distance on the small screen. I'd say I like it enough to keep going so far - but not one of the better JRPGs I've played given the above. 6.5/10 for the point in the game I've reached.

 

[Puukko]

I've finally gotten around to playing The Last Remnant again after putting the PC version off and on for so long. I played it back on the Xbox 360, but got walled at several occasions due to poor planning.

I don't know if I've changed, but all this autism behind the scenes in game is actually pretty nice. I'd like to play more games that require me to read up 10 hours just to slightly understand the core mechanics.

This has been on my radar for years, I never grabbed it when it was dirt cheap but I suppose modern SE doesn't deserve even pocket change. As it stands I think it'll stay in my backlog until I feellike I'm up for that specific kind of challenge.

 

[Sigourn]

As I replay Dragon Quest III (NES) which I never finished, I noticed something about Final Fantasy that I never paid much attention to. A lot of people say Final Fantasy constantly reinvents itself. But what's particularly interesting about Final Fantasy is that not even the first Final Fantasy resembles the Dragon Quest games that preceded and inspired it (after all, it was the success of console RPGs that made Square create the first Final Fantasy). You have this game with a very clear D&D influence, both in surface level elements (the monsters), and in deeper gameplay levels: the class system, the Vancian-like spell system (I would have preferred it if we could simply learn all Spells and choose, when we rested, which spells we wanted to memorize for the day), and its overall difficulty.

Playing Dragon Quest III by comparison is a much simpler, comfortable experience. Enemies, at least at the beginning of the game, don't pose a considerable threat. You can easily heal your party right away. Equipment is simply cheaper. Battles go MUCH faster. It's really something.

 

[Viata]

DQ, after all, was supposed to be an easy Ultima/Wizadry game.

 

[cosmicray]

I've finally gotten around to playing The Last Remnant again after putting the PC version off and on for so long. I played it back on the Xbox 360, but got walled at several occasions due to poor planning.

I don't know if I've changed, but all this autism behind the scenes in game is actually pretty nice. I'd like to play more games that require me to read up 10 hours just to slightly understand the core mechanics.

Sadly dropped this game when I realised I would never be able to directly control specific attacks/moves made by my units.

 

[Garbage]

I've finally gotten around to playing The Last Remnant again after putting the PC version off and on for so long. I played it back on the Xbox 360, but got walled at several occasions due to poor planning.

I don't know if I've changed, but all this autism behind the scenes in game is actually pretty nice. I'd like to play more games that require me to read up 10 hours just to slightly understand the core mechanics.

Sadly dropped this game when I realised I would never be able to directly control specific attacks/moves made by my units.

You actually can somewhat have a degree of control, it just requires you to disable arts you don't plan on using in the unit menu, make sure units of a similar fashion are bunched together so the one command does more or less what you want it to do, and select different hostile units if the command you want hasn't shown up.

There are still some issues, such as usually not being able to exactly control which Union gets revived if several are down (you'll see the Union number, but can't specify which one they should prioritise on). But other than that it makes it extremely better and more helpful.
Take my Rush's Union for example, initially I was struggling leveling herbs because he would use restoration arts instead... A quick visit to the unit menus to disable restoration arts for every member of the union, and now they can only use herbs when HP is low... Which means fast track to getting vivification herbs and an easy, early revive option.

Play it by ear only exists if you want units to choose between combat arts and mystic arts.

 

[Puukko]

Gottem!

 

[Viata]

You'll never play SMT 3 for the first time again.

 

[Puukko]

Hardtype enhances the game enough to make it almost fresh again.

Such as coming across an old acquaintance in the labyrinth:

 

[flyingjohn]

Super hydlide is super annoying.
As a thief i can't carry a dagger because it is too heavy and as priest i can't carry a sling because it is too heavy,unless i grind.
Money also has weight,oh joy.