Random thoughts on whatever JRPG you're currently playing?

[newtmonkey]

Ultima: Exodus (NES)
I spent a couple hours last night making my party (Dwarf Fighter, Elf Lark, Elf Thief, Bobbit Cleric), exploring, gathering information, and upgrading my equipment. I've purposely avoided leveling up as staying at level one ensures that overworld encounters will be limited to the easiest of enemies, which can all be killed for 0 MP with the Repel/Undead spells. This is the quickest way to make money early on outside of stealing or exploring dungeons, as a single combat can only give you a single treasure chest, which can only contain a maximum of 99 gold coins regardless of enemy level/difficulty.

So far, I'd rank it above Ultima: Quest of the Avatar in terms of how close of a port it is to the original computer versions. Of course, Exodus is a much simpler game than QotA, so less stuff had to be removed to make it playable on a gamepad.

It's really interesting to see how clearly influenced Garriott was by Wizardry in designing Exodus, even down to a party selected from a registry of characters who can be permanently killed. The only thing stopping it from being a total blobber is the top-down "tactical" combat and the fact that the overworld and towns are explored from a third-person perspective; since exploration is step-based, a fun project might be to turn Exodus into a full blobber (maybe something to do when I retire!).

 

[HoboForEternity]

finished Golden Sun: The lost age, 48 hours of gameplay. I enjoyed a lot more than i thought i would. The first Golden sun was a bit meh, but this one is legit. Very non-linear for a JRPG, full of secrets, fun puzzles and a simple but fun crafting system. Lots of exploration on a ship, gave me Dragon Quest 3 vibes, can be confusing on where to go/do though.

Almost everything about this game is good to great, even the story while not mind blowing, still has a bit of originality with the "perspective switch" twist and grey morality. My only complaint is that while the bosses are challenging, the random encounters are piss easy. There's a hard mode but only if you have already beaten the game, i recommend downloading a rom hack if you want more challenge.

Anyway, this game is legit, i recommend it, especially if you want a non-linear JRPG.

remember to avoid the dark dawn at all cost. like pretend it never exist, it will just ruin the memories

 

[Sreggin Etah I]

remember to avoid the dark sun at all cost. like pretend it never exist, it will just ruin the memories

Yes, i heard Dark Dawn sucks so i going to avoid it.

Already started Shining Force 2 right after finishing Golden sun 2. So far SF2 seems okay, plays and looks exactly like SF1 and SF:CD, i've already beaten both Shinning force 1 and CD.

 

[Exhuminator]

I ended up not liking Rune Factory so much, mainly because of interface issues which grew increasingly irksome over time. I don't consider myself done with the RF series, as I plan to check out later iterations, which hopefully refine the interface. The first RF was a good idea, just too unpolished for my taste.

Now I've started playing 2004's Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga on PS2. So far it is absolutely excellent, as expected by Atlus of that era.

 

[Puukko]

DDS is a treat. I'll probably replay them next year.

I finally seriously started Devil Survivor 2 and this is just a very solidly designed game with some unique systems like skill cracking. The difficulty is spot on, although I had to go do some free battles which you actually get punished for, but I failed at the Fumi mission twice and was a bit underleveled so eh.

Now, the character designs and art are pretty damn awful. It brings out the Kaneko fanboy in me even more than usual. Story is whatever so far. I really wish more SMT games employed adult casts like SJ and DDS instead of high schoolers.

 

[Sreggin Etah I]

Finished Shining force 2, probably took 35 hours of gameplay. good game ! but i don't think it's much better than SF1 and SF:CD. Gameplay wise, it was just more of the same, biggest change is the addition of difficulty setting, which adds replayability to the game. Still, the story and characters are a little bit better here than in SF1 and SF:CD, but not mind blowing and the ending was anticlimactic as fuck.

I would rate all these SF games as equally good, none of them stands out from the other, they are just too similar gameplay-wise and even story-wise.

Soon i'll try Shining Force 3 so i can finish my Shining Force saga.

 

[GhostCow]

I recently got around to playing Digital Devil Saga. The first game was ok. The gameplay was slightly above average and the story had some interesting mysteries. It felt incredibly unfinished at the end though. Went on the play DDS2 and the story got kind of shit and by the time I got to the final dungeon I just gave up and quit. Horrible level design and I didn't care enough about the story or characters at that point to even look up the ending on YouTube. I want to say it's the worst of the SMT games but that might not be accurate since I quit SMT IV far sooner.

 

[Puukko]

I just had a big doofus moment happen in SMT if. The game uses a prototype of what would become Persona system in those games, where you get assigned a guardian demon every time you die that gives stats and in the case of your partner, skills (the MC obviously can't learn any). Normally it picks one based on how well you've been playing, but on full moon there's a 1/256 chance it picks one of the fiends (in this game, characters from SMT1 and a few misc demons, not the riders etc seen in other games). People familiar with how fiends work in the SNES games will notice this is similar to how you encounter fiends - stupidly low chance under a specific circumstance. Well, I got a guardian which I didn't recognize and I didn't know how/if I could access its info screen (turns out it's one of the face buttons) so I didn't catch its name, just noted it gave me good stats, but I didn't think much if it, died again, got a worse guardian and continued the game. I then browsed the SMT wiki a bit later to find out how fiends and guardians worked in this game only to realize the initial guardian had been this: https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Sadhu

So I got the 1/256 chance right at the start of the game, didn't realize it, lost that guardian and proceeded to save over my game and kept playing none the wiser. I'm reminded of back when in SMTII I encountered Alice in the no COMP zone of fairy town with none of my demons out so I couldn't fight it solo, and save states were no help. Perhaps third time will be the charm...

Now, if I really wanted one of the fiends, emulators do make it easier to set it up so that I can attempt to fish for one at full moon by repeatedly dying. Hmm...

 

[Hobo Elf]

remember to avoid the dark dawn at all cost. like pretend it never exist, it will just ruin the memories

Was gonna say this. It's aggressively bad and has very little respect for the player's time. Golden Sun was always wordy, but this game just outright wastes your time with each conversation.

 

[Falksi]

Finished Shining force 2, probably took 35 hours of gameplay. good game ! but i don't think it's much better than SF1 and SF:CD. Gameplay wise, it was just more of the same, biggest change is the addition of difficulty setting, which adds replayability to the game. Still, the story and characters are a little bit better here than in SF1 and SF:CD, but not mind blowing and the ending was anticlimactic as fuck.

I would rate all these SF games as equally good, none of them stands out from the other, they are just too similar gameplay-wise and even story-wise.

Soon i'll try Shining Force 3 so i can finish my Shining Force saga.

Which difficult did you play on? I know some folk opt for "Ouch!" when "Super" is actually the tougher difficulty because of how it's set up (think I have them the right way round)

Give it some time and I'd wager that you grow to like it the most out of the series. The last few hours of the game drag it down, and I think people come away from it a bit worn out. But once that's worn off it's quality for me shined through.

Best 16-bit console JRPG for me at the mo.

 

[Sreggin Etah I]

Which difficult did you play on? I know some folk opt for "Ouch!" when "Super" is actually the tougher difficulty because of how it's set up (think I have them the right way round)

Give it some time and I'd wager that you grow to like it the most out of the series. The last few hours of the game drag it down, and I think people come away from it a bit worn out. But once that's worn off it's quality for me shined through.

Best 16-bit console JRPG for me at the mo.

I played on normal, it was harder than both SF1 and CD. I liked the game a lot, but i just don't think it was a huge improvement over the other ones like people say.

Speaking of SF3, i managed to make it work on SSF. So far it's working surprising well, this emulator doesn't seems to be too demanding.

 

[Ebonsword]

I recently remembered that, a number of years ago, I had bought a Game Boy Player for my Gamecube for the express purpose of playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. At the time, though, I had just finished playing FFTA2 on the 3DS, so I was kind of burnt out on that style of game and never actually got around to playing it.

So, I dug out the Gamecube a few weeks ago and finally started playing FFTA. And I really enjoyed it. At first. Now, though, I'm like 30 hours in and I'm at the point where there's now three "laws" applied to every battle. If you're not familiar with the system, "laws" are basically restrictions on what skills/equipment you can use. So, you'll get laws preventing you from using swords or fire magic or time magic. Some of the more annoying ones prevent you from damaging animals (!) or using the same action twice in a row or having more than one character attack the same enemy. I didn't mind the laws so much at first, but having three of them active at once is super annoying. So, I end up wandering around waiting for a decent set of laws to come into effect before initiating every battle. Which feels incredibly tedious.

Anyway, what other SRPGs are worthwhile for the Game Boy Advance? (I already have Tactics Ogre: Knight of the Lodis, BTW.)

 

[Poseidon00]

Fucking laws are the worst. A nonsense arbitrary mechanic. FFTA1 and 2 utterly failed to live up to the quality of the first, although FFTA2 is a decent game on its own.

Nowadays I just use the FFTPatcher and mod FFTactics however I want. Usually I buff the monsters because I like using them as units.

Rebelstar: Tactical Command is an interesting GBA tactics game. It tries to be a realistic shooter type of tactics game and it actually kinda works. You can play a few different kinds of melee builds if that's your thing, too.

 

[spekkio]

^
Seconding Rebelstar: Tactical Command. It was a long time ago, but I remember having fun with it.

 

[Empary]

Ranger Kommando in FFTA2 made game piss easy. Or Scholars with Item Lore and loads of mp curatives

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Tacos & Muffins

 

[lightbane]

I suppose that since I like JRPGs and can enjoy them without having to dismiss them due their art style, I should post my thoughts here. The incoming Nocturne Remaster game has put me in the mood to finish playing the SMT games I haven't finished yet. I've begun playing Soul Hackers, it feels dated, but the cyberpunk feel is amazing.

I finally seriously started Devil Survivor 2 and this is just a very solidly designed game with some unique systems like skill cracking. The difficulty is spot on, although I had to go do some free battles which you actually get punished for, but I failed at the Fumi mission twice and was a bit underleveled so eh.

I also began that one too, the expansion for the 3DS to be precise. I didn't know that STR + VIT is actually a good build that works in most games of the franchise. Once I tried it, my MC can wipe out most enemies once I get some good physical techniques.

f you're not familiar with the system, "laws" are basically restrictions on what skills/equipment you can use.

Then the postgame introduced a plot about corrupted judges that was cooler than the main story. Alas, it was too little and too late by then.

 

[newtmonkey]

Phantasy Star II (MD)
A fucking masterpiece. Hard as nails but doesn't require grinding (so far). It just requires you to make multiple attempts at each dungeon. It really does require you to set aside some time and seriously play the game. You have to map the dungeons but they do anything and everything to make them as hard to map as possible. I WISH these dungeons were first-person step-based like Phantasy Star 1, it would make things a million times easier.

I love the graphics and music in this game. It's anime like when anime was cool and unusual, when you would catch something like Akira or Vampire Hunter D on late night TV and be like WTF????? but before it became embarrassing and lame.

I had finished Phantasy Star I several years ago on my Megadrive (it was released on a Japanese MD cart) and enjoyed it, but felt the dungeons were lame. It's like Phantasy Star II was designed in direct response to my criticism. Best dungeons in a 16-bit console RPG by far, outside of uh Wizardry Gaiden IV I guess.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Which MD cart? I was thinking you used the power base converter for SMS carts.

The remasters were fun too. The only annoying thing about dungeons was some of that pipework and shit obscurring views. PSIV didn't have much of that. PSIII seemed weird at first but it was ok. Lot of playthrough you can do if you want to see each generation ending.

Shining in the darkness was cool to sate sone MD blobbering. More PSI dungeons could have been cool. Hell, mix it up.

I want to see some weirdness with dungeons like that, mixed with top down, mixed with side (like some exile games). Keep combat like PS2&4.

 

[Twizman]

I'm still playing Phantasy Star II as well, loving it. Reflecting on how inventory space and healing items could be changed to give a greater feeling of Wizardry tp management, similar to the Dragon Warrior games. Trimates heal 100% hp and can be stocked up in bulk.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Random thought: Is neptunia series considered a japanese game? Is it terrible? Is it just fanservice?

 

[GhostCow]

Random thought: Is neptunia series considered a japanese game? Is it terrible? Is it just fanservice?

Yes, no, no. The mainlain games are pretty good and there isn't that much fan service.

 

[newtmonkey]

Which MD cart? I was thinking you used the power base converter for SMS carts.

The original Phantasy Star got a Megadrive release in Japan:

It's just a straight port of the 8-bit game with nothing changed whatsoever.

 

[Dedup]

Been playing Demon's Gaze on the PSVita. I'm nearly finished and had fun with it for the most part but high hp regen on some of the bosses makes those fights tedious as hell. Fighting one of those battles last night I had to give up as I couldn't do enough reliable damage to overcome the regen. At this point I'm going to grind for equipment to strengthen my current weapons or hopefully find something stronger.

 

[Removal]

Went through Tales of Symphonia, was pretty okay, it managed to nail the sense of adventure pretty well, but holy shit it was way too long and the game's pacing was all over the place. I'd probably never play it again and I have no clue how people tolerate doing NG+ runs with it. The one thing I did like was how they did healing items, it heals a percentage rather than a flat amount, so even late game some of the basic healing items could be useful.