Random thoughts on whatever JRPG you're currently playing?

[IceyD]

It is. Pretty much plays like an Atelier with less focus on crafting and more on battles and some light home base upgrading.

 

[IceyD]

Suikoden 2 - I am very glad I killed Luca Blight and I hope I never have to suffer through his anime tropey dialogue again. I literally just killed him so please, no spoilers. I've already had both Suikoden games spoiled in some form

I need to start Suikoden 2 again since I didn't get far. I remember the first scene with Luka was pretty dark and dramatic though. They didn't really take his character anywhere besides being pure evil?

 

[mushaden]

Yeah, exactly. I realized my post could be spoilers in itself, sry. Dunno how to block out the quote.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

They didn't really take his character anywhere besides being pure evil?

Spoiler

Side materials give background on why he is batshit insane evil but in general no, he is a mad insane tyrant kind of character.

 

[Grauken]

Who designed the bosses from SMT Strange journey?

Serious, get that guy fired. Who thought give aoe status effecg + aoe insta death spell for a boss? Ouroboros aint hard, just bullshit.
This game can't be anymore than 7/10 just because how badly desgined boss are. I thought Asura was just misstep and wouldnt happen again. I was wrong.
Also the combat is not even close to be as good as SMT4 or 4A.

Edit: I just defeated Ouroboros after 5 tries. I legit never want to play this game again because of it.

Seriously, git gud

 

[spekkio]

BROS, I've started BoF - Dragon Quarter recently and I'm blown away pleasantly surprised. I don't remember the last time I was having so much fun playing "jrpg".

I mean:

• fantastic combat system (TB + truly tactical), where almost everything matters (movement, AP, AoE spells, buffs, status-changing spells / attacks),
• decent "action" elements (initiating battles, setting traps / mines on the battlefield),
• no random encounters,
• interesting world & lore, surprisingly good writing,
• roguelite mechanics,
• decent difficulty right from the start (most enemies can kill your characters in 2-3 hits).

The only thing I hate is the ultra-limited inventory. But this can be fixed with cheats.

Just don't use pcsx2 quicksaves, 'cuz they corrupt the memory card saves, which are essential when using "restart" mechanics. Not a big problem, as you can make a "quicksave + quit" memory card save anytime and getting killed just means going back to latest save + losing some money / exp. And items required to make "normal" saves can be hexedited...

 

[newtmonkey]

Estpolis Denki aka Lufia & the Fortress of Doom (SFC)
I am roughly 8 hours in and loving it. It's basically what I was expecting (and hoping) Breath of Fire to be (i.e. a no-frills combat-focused console RPG with minimal story).

It's not a very difficult game so far, but it's not easy either. Enemies can do massive damage with their spells, and bosses often require some experimentation to defeat (without just resorting to grinding out levels). It feels like a breeze getting around after the hellish combination of slow walking speed and encounters every 6-7 steps in BoF. The dungeons are pretty good also, with branching paths and—every once in a while—treasure that's worth seeking.

The only thing it lacks is a good set of buff/debuff spells early on. You've got spell that reduces enemy defense, but other than that you are relying on consumable items to boost your damage and defense. You do collect a nice assortment of rings that act as buffs/debuffs as long as they are equipped, but these are mostly useful for bosses. Sadly you cannot seem to change your equipment during battle, which means most first attempts at difficult bosses are just throwaways for learning their strengths and weaknesses.

Anyway, I'm enjoying it a lot more than I did BoF, so I'll probably play this one to the end before deciding what to tackle next (possibly Phantasy Star II).

 

[Grauken]

Estpolis Denki aka Lufia & the Fortress of Doom (SFC)
I am roughly 8 hours in and loving it. It's basically what I was expecting (and hoping) Breath of Fire to be (i.e. a no-frills combat-focused console RPG with minimal story).

It's not a very difficult game so far, but it's not easy either. Enemies can do massive damage with their spells, and bosses often require some experimentation to defeat (without just resorting to grinding out levels). It feels like a breeze getting around after the hellish combination of slow walking speed and encounters every 6-7 steps in BoF. The dungeons are pretty good also, with branching paths and—every once in a while—treasure that's worth seeking.

The only thing it lacks is a good set of buff/debuff spells early on. You've got spell that reduces enemy defense, but other than that you are relying on consumable items to boost your damage and defense. You do collect a nice assortment of rings that act as buffs/debuffs as long as they are equipped, but these are mostly useful for bosses. Sadly you cannot seem to change your equipment during battle, which means most first attempts at difficult bosses are just throwaways for learning their strengths and weaknesses.

Anyway, I'm enjoying it a lot more than I did BoF, so I'll probably play this one to the end before deciding what to tackle next (possibly Phantasy Star II).

Do you play the JP or the US version? There's a neat hack for the US one combining various fixes/improvements https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2744/

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Seriously, git gud

And i did. Just defeated

Spoiler

Mem Aleph

first try using Demonee-Ho + Pale Rider spamming Riot Gun (+Gun Amp and Boost) with a supporting White Rider/Zeus/Alice. Now i need to defeat the new last boss (Neutral Route).

8,5/10 game. Some really garbage bosses but still really good. Now i need to get level 83 and make a Dootrempeter Trumpeter

 

[Puukko]

I don't even remember that part of Ourobos. The most difficult part of that fight is overcoming the constant heal the boss does.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Just became DoomGuy and kicked god ass in Strange Journey. Final squad

Spoiler

https://imgur.com/gallery/QqPGKVD

. 8,5/10. Really good but flawed. Taking a break of SMT.

Fuck Chaosfags and Law fags , all my homies are Neutralads.

 

[newtmonkey]

Do you play the JP or the US version? There's a neat hack for the US one combining various fixes/improvements https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2744/

I'm playing the JP version for this. I'm a bit paranoid about gameplay changes in the US versions of console RPGs due to the likes of Working Designs (which notoriously inflated enemy HPs, etc.) and The 7th Saga (which Enix broke in their attempt to increase the difficulty while localizing Elnard).

 

[Grauken]

Do you play the JP or the US version? There's a neat hack for the US one combining various fixes/improvements https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2744/

I'm playing the JP version for this. I'm a bit paranoid about gameplay changes in the US versions of console RPGs due to the likes of Working Designs (which notoriously inflated enemy HPs, etc.) and The 7th Saga (which Enix broke in their attempt to increase the difficulty while localizing Elnard).

Yeah, I assumed as much. That said there were a few cases where IMHO the localization improved games (Shatterhand for example or the European versions of Contra were you had robots instead of humans as characters, but can't say the same about any RPG).

 

[newtmonkey]

Grauken
For RPGs, the only examples I can think of are:

Phantasy Star II - Replaced the drum instrument that plays in (pretty much all) music tracks with something WAY less obnoxious
Dragon Warrior 1/2 (NES) - Replaced password system with battery backup

 

[Sreggin Etah I]

Breath of Fire (SFC)
Finally finished this slog of a game.

Breath of Fire 2 is a slog too, it's a more interesting game than BOF1 but nothing mind blowing, above average at best, in my opinion. BOF3 and 4 are must play though.

But if you can endure Phantasy Star 2, then i guess any game is a cakewalk for you.

 

[kaisergeddon]

Breath of Fire 2 is my favorite besides Dragon Quarter, but I recommend playing it with the fan translation and a patch that allows you to reduce the battle rate by 50% or so. It's definitely miles better than the first one in anycase.

 

[newtmonkey]

I'm still making progress in Estopolis Denki; while I like this game a lot, it's very samey from location to location, so it's the kind of game I would play for 30 minutes here and there in between other games. These games are:

Secret of Mana <Turbo> (SNES)
I played and completed this back in the day and revisited it a short while ago but was surprised at how janky everything was. It was almost painful to play between waiting for the stamina gauge to fill in between attacks and getting stun-locked by enemies.
I was browsing something or other and people were talking up this "Turbo" ROM hack that basically made the game awesome. I am instantly wary of ROM hacks as most tend to just inflate enemy HPs or whatever... but SoM Turbo is EXCELLENT.

It does the following:

• Completely removes the stamina gauge, making it play more like Legend of Mana (or Zelda, if you prefer).
• Adds a day-night cycle with different enemies showing up at night (HOW THE FUCK DID THIS GUY ACCOMPLISH THIS WITH A FUCKING ROM HACK???)
• Adds an actual "block" button that makes boss fights 100000% more enjoyable
• Fixes tile placement bugs
• Accelerates leveling up weapons
• A million other things, none of which are the typical ROM hack garbage like inflating monster HPs, etc
• Retains the "good for what it is" English translation by master linguist and karate man Ted Woolsey

It is simply unbelievable how much better the game is with this hack applied.

Final Fantasy IX (PSX)
I never cared much for this entry in the series as I found the characters to almost all be both hideous and unlikable, and the story and dialog to be very childish. I can now look past that stuff and enjoy the meat of the game, the combat and abilities system.

I hit a bit of a difficulty spike a few hours in (Gizamaluke's Grotto) where you aren't provided with a healer and even the regular enemies are capable of doing massive damage/ I'm either severely under-leveled or am doing something wrong, because the difficulty spike is pretty drastic. I was starting to get a bit frustrated, so put the game on the back burner for a bit to play...

Genso Suikoden (PSX)
I bought this back when it was first released in the US but never really got into it. My newfound fondness for JRPGs now has me enjoying it quite a lot some 24 years later. I really like the fast pace of this game, in only a few hours you've already explored several towns and dungeons. I also have to give the game props for giving you a five-person party almost right out of the gate! Combat itself is dead simple at this point and I have just been auto-battling through the game. I do like how zippy the battles are, with multiple enemies or allies attacking all at once at times to really speed things up. Overall, it seems like a nice "turn your brain off and just enjoy the ride" kind of RPG.

 

[e-mailio estevez]

Breath of Fire 2 is my favorite besides Dragon Quarter, but I recommend playing it with the fan translation and a patch that allows you to reduce the battle rate by 50% or so. It's definitely miles better than the first one in anycase.

Yeah, BOF2 is probably my favorite. This doesn't seem to be a common opinion. Bonus points for having the best Nina. It's actually quite fun if you actively avoid grinding. I found the combat pretty challenging and satisfying, and I like the party in this one.

BOF3, if anything, I found the most boring out of any of them. I really hated the fact that you're stuck as a baby for what feels like half the game.

 

[Hyperion]

Funny, I started replaying Suikoden as well. I've already got like 90 Stars and less than 20 hours in. I really do love thw fact that the first game is extremely focused, with little to no filler - it is wholly focused on the war, and all side events that occur, all dungeons you enter supplement it well. I'll probably be able to move to S2 with all 108 Stars in the next day or two.

To be honest, I'm mostly just excited to play 3 again, since combat peaked there. No need to farm double beat runes so melee attackers could hang with the hybrid fighters / casters which dominated the first two games. Just level up Swing, Parry, Shield Block, and watch Fred solo Yuber while he one shots everyone else, or see Emily get a 12 hit combo with 8 x3 damage hits.

 

[Sreggin Etah I]

Secret of Mana <Turbo> (SNES)
I played and completed this back in the day and revisited it a short while ago but was surprised at how janky everything was. It was almost painful to play between waiting for the stamina gauge to fill in between attacks and getting stun-locked by enemies.
I was browsing something or other and people were talking up this "Turbo" ROM hack that basically made the game awesome. I am instantly wary of ROM hacks as most tend to just inflate enemy HPs or whatever... but SoM Turbo is EXCELLENT.

i was enjoying Secret of Mana until the game gave me 2 party members, after that the game became a huge clusterfuck. i couldn't even tell who was dealing or taking damage in that mess. I've never touched this series again or any other party-based action JRPG.

But people keep saying that Secret of Mana 3 and Legend of Mana is a lot better gameplay wise. So, i still have hope in this franchise.

 

[newtmonkey]

Sreggin Etah I
The only game in the series that is worth playing, imo, is Legend of Mana. It plays nothing like either of the other games in the series, and is almost like a beat em up RPG dungeon crawler. People at the time criticized it for its mazey dungeons and lack of "good story" but it's actually got one of the best stories in a Japanese game imo. Instead of a central linear story, the entire game is basically side quests, each of which is its own self-contained story or links with other quests to tell a larger story.

It's also got tons of content which you probably won't see in a single playthrough, and lots of things to tinker with including a weapon forging system (that is completely unnecessary the first time through the game).

 

[newtmonkey]

Legend of Dragoon (PSX)
I'm playing the Japanese version of this game, which turns out to be much more difficult than the international release (enemies and bosses have anywhere from 10-50% more HPs, do more damage, drop less gold, etc. etc.).

I had played this a short while back but got stuck a few hours into the game by saving myself into an unwinnable state, as I had foolishly been using just a single save slot... so I decided to restart the game last night.

Now that I understand how the combat works, this game is really quite interesting! It looks like a Final Fantasy VII ripoff in every way, but playing it like FFVII (or any traditional JRPG) will get you nowhere. The most infamous aspect of the combat is the "addition" system where you need to time button presses during chain attacks to do massive damage. Unlike with, say, Super Mario RPG, this is not optional; you will have no hope of making progress unless you master these.

More interesting is that you heal damage mostly through using healing items and by defending. Like in most games, defending reduces any damage you take. However, it also increases resistance to status effects and heals 10% of a character's max HP each turn. This means you won't be healing up in between battles like most JRPGs. This really makes boss encounters interesting, as instead of just attacking with your most powerful attacks/spells and healing as necessary as in most JRPGs, you are instead mostly defending with everyone to keep your HPs up, until you spot a chance to make a "safe" attack.

Even the additions system turns out to be pretty interesting. You have several ranks of additions with higher ranks having more hits and doing more damage, but also requiring more exact timing per hit. On top of that, enemies can counter if you miss the timing of a single hit. Finally, each rank of addition can be leveled up to do more damage each hit. This all means that you'll typically be working on leveling up your most powerful addition during normal combat, but then switching to a lower addition that's probably maxed out and easier to do, so that bosses have less of a chance of countering you. Since you've been practicing more difficult additions on regular enemies, going back to simpler additions on bosses feels like a piece of cake.

Not everything is wonderful though. The story and dialog is some of the worst stuff I've ever experienced in a JRPG. The characters are also completely uninteresting. The pre-rendered backgrounds are hit and miss. Sometimes they look amazing, other times it's like they didn't draw them with the limitations of the PSX in mind, and just scaled and compressed highly detailed and colorful artwork down into 24-bit 320x240 without any touching up. Like most PSX RPGs with pre-rendered backgrounds, the dungeons are typically small with few branching paths and most treasure chests containing boring stuff like a handful of gold or a healing potion.

 

[Puukko]

A couple hours into Xenosaga 2, I decided to drop it, watch a story recap and move straight onto 3. Replacing unique ethers with a generic list that seemingly allows anyone to learn anything and reducing the combat info down to symbols just weren't good moves and what comments I read seemed to reflect this - a lot of people really weren't fans of the combat, and when the meat and potatoes of the game isn't enjoyable, I might as well just spare myself the trouble.

That aside, I think the weakest part of 1 and 2 are the character designs, both from a technical and artistic perspective. 1 can be excused since it is an early PS2 game, but this shit is straight up prosperian:

Then with 2, they went with a soulless look, but I'll be fair and show the same character who actually looks pretty good due to benefiting the most from this change:

And then in 3 they finally got the designs down:

This series is well known for its management issues and underperformance leading to what was meant to be six games being reduced to three, but man, if you know you're starting a multi part series, lay down some art direction standards so every game doesn't have to reinvent the designs. Even then, I think inconsistency is an issue where you could tell me the characters were from three different series and I'd believe it. When you're trying to tell a fantastical space opera, having characters that look like someone's devianart OC reject doesn't help with immersion.

With those gripes out of the way, I'll get back to 3.

 

[Vyadhis]

I'm playing Xenoblade Chronicles on dolphin right now with high texture resolutions and 60fps cheat. Not too far but its pretty nice but can anyone tell me how it stacks vs the "definitive edition"? Everything I googled has people praising the QoL fixes which translates to me that they made the game easier for more people which is a demerit for my video games. Can anyone confirm?

 

[e-mailio estevez]

I haven't played definitive edition, but one feature I know it has is 'level selection', so to speak. So if you're L40 due to doing a bunch of sidequests and you're overleveled for whatever part of the mainquest you're on, you could manually choose to lower your level and make the game more challenging.

In other words, it sounds like definitive edition gives your more control over the difficulty. The QOL stuff from my understanding are things like quest markers.