Random thoughts on whatever JRPG you're currently playing?

[n0wh3r3]

Started Mary Skelter 2. Just built HQ. Liking it very much until this moment. The story is very intriguing. Anyone else played it?

 

[Suicidal]

Started Mary Skelter 2. Just built HQ. Liking it very much until this moment. The story is very intriguing. Anyone else played it?

I played MS 1 and thought it was kinda shit so never bothered with 2. Is it any better?

 

[deuxhero]

deuxhero thanks for the info, then I guess I'll wait till I have the first ultimate persona of whatever arcana, register it, make the weapon, check it out then buy the persona again

Cu Chulainn only needs level 40, and it's very good for when you get it (260 attack when normal spears won't have 200, plus has evade wind ).

While unique+black frost are by far the best, the fusion weapons are comparatively powerful to what you normally get, especially if you know the breakpoints (the weapon's stats are based on which level range the Persona falls into, with no variance within that range. Level ranges start at 17, 26, 32, 39, 47, 55, 60, 65, and 70). Also since you're playing P3P, Atavaka, Kartikeya, Alilat, and Skadi get unique weapon fusions as well.

https://gamefaqs.com/boards/937269-shin-megami-tensei-persona-3-fes/42468519

 

[n0wh3r3]

Started Mary Skelter 2. Just built HQ. Liking it very much until this moment. The story is very intriguing. Anyone else played it?

I played MS 1 and thought it was kinda shit so never bothered with 2. Is it any better?

Mary Skelter 2 is actually Mary Skelter Nightmares + Mary Skelter 2. In my opinion is one of the most unique drpg that I ever played (not played a lot) with many interesting systems. Also the story is captivating. Why did you hate it?

 

[e-mailio estevez]

I started playing Persona 5 (original) again. I don't think I ever finished it back when it first came out. Typically I hate anime shit but there's something cool about this game. It oozes style from top to bottom, like literally every few seconds it's doing something that's visually impressive and the music is great. It helps that the turn based combat is a bit more interesting than in other jRPGs. I dig it.

The dialogue is pretty hit or miss though. Sometimes it's laugh out loud hilarious and other times it reeks of cringe anime style schmaltz.

Check out Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance when you get a chance. Take the combat and customization of Persona 5 and multiply it by 2-3. It's fantastic. Ball-bustingly difficult on Hard mode sometimes too. Much more focus on gameplay rather than tons of dialogue.

If you end up liking V Vengeance, I'd highly encourage you to check out SMT III Nocturne afterwards.

Honestly, I'm finding the 'social' aspect of SMTV Vengeance more enjoyable than most of the Persona games, on top of all that.

The incidental conversations you have with your demons in the Pocket Plane grotto where you get to speak with them are more enjoyable than talking to high school kids in the Persona games. Maybe it'll lose its charm in subsequent playthroughs, but each and every demon seems to have a lot of dialogue, and differing dialogue depending on which region you're speaking to them. I'm only in the second world, and there've already been demons I've held off on fusing almost out of guilt- either due to how charming they are in conversations or because they've just been helpful in key moments. I kept Pellaidh on my team well beyond his expiration date due to this.

I have a tendency to cheat myself money in all of the SMT and persona games so I can keep my player level low, while being able to strengthen my demons with unbridled fusions without care of the compendium costs and leverage their builds instead. It'll be interesting to take the starter demons to the later stages of the game and see if they have unique dialogue there.

 

[JoacoN]

deuxhero thanks for the info, then I guess I'll wait till I have the first ultimate persona of whatever arcana, register it, make the weapon, check it out then buy the persona again

Cu Chulainn only needs level 40, and it's very good for when you get it (260 attack when normal spears won't have 200, plus has evade wind ).

While unique+black frost are by far the best, the fusion weapons are comparatively powerful to what you normally get, especially if you know the breakpoints (the weapon's stats are based on which level range the Persona falls into, with no variance within that range. Level ranges start at 17, 26, 32, 39, 47, 55, 60, 65, and 70). Also since you're playing P3P, Atavaka, Kartikeya, Alilat, and Skadi get unique weapon fusions as well.

https://gamefaqs.com/boards/937269-shin-megami-tensei-persona-3-fes/42468519

Thanks a lot for the info man, most of the links bout this stuff I found are either really old by other newbies or just recommending some wiki, so this cleared up a lot of stuff

 

[Suicidal]

Started Mary Skelter 2. Just built HQ. Liking it very much until this moment. The story is very intriguing. Anyone else played it?

I played MS 1 and thought it was kinda shit so never bothered with 2. Is it any better?

Mary Skelter 2 is actually Mary Skelter Nightmares + Mary Skelter 2. In my opinion is one of the most unique drpg that I ever played (not played a lot) with many interesting systems. Also the story is captivating. Why did you hate it?

Wouldn't say I hated it but I didn't find it fun. It's been a long time, but I remember not liking the combat (too few enemy types, no interesting boss encounters, the way roaming monsters work is nonsensical (they get their turns in real time), too easy to just stack debuffs and reduce the damage of whatever you are fighting to one), the character building options weren't that interesting and the game was just too easy in general. I remember liking a few ideas they had (traversal powers, managing your characters' insanity bars) but overall it was boring.

 

[n0wh3r3]

Started Mary Skelter 2. Just built HQ. Liking it very much until this moment. The story is very intriguing. Anyone else played it?

I played MS 1 and thought it was kinda shit so never bothered with 2. Is it any better?

Mary Skelter 2 is actually Mary Skelter Nightmares + Mary Skelter 2. In my opinion is one of the most unique drpg that I ever played (not played a lot) with many interesting systems. Also the story is captivating. Why did you hate it?

Wouldn't say I hated it but I didn't find it fun. It's been a long time, but I remember not liking the combat (too few enemy types, no interesting boss encounters, the way roaming monsters work is nonsensical (they get their turns in real time), too easy to just stack debuffs and reduce the damage of whatever you are fighting to one), the character building options weren't that interesting and the game was just too easy in general. I remember liking a few ideas they had (traversal powers, managing your characters' insanity bars) but overall it was boring.

Wow this a lot! While I can agree - from my initial impressions - on some points, would you mind tell me which other DRPGs you have played so I can get what your comparison standard is? I am not that experienced with the genre.

 

[Suicidal]

Started Mary Skelter 2. Just built HQ. Liking it very much until this moment. The story is very intriguing. Anyone else played it?

I played MS 1 and thought it was kinda shit so never bothered with 2. Is it any better?

Mary Skelter 2 is actually Mary Skelter Nightmares + Mary Skelter 2. In my opinion is one of the most unique drpg that I ever played (not played a lot) with many interesting systems. Also the story is captivating. Why did you hate it?

Wouldn't say I hated it but I didn't find it fun. It's been a long time, but I remember not liking the combat (too few enemy types, no interesting boss encounters, the way roaming monsters work is nonsensical (they get their turns in real time), too easy to just stack debuffs and reduce the damage of whatever you are fighting to one), the character building options weren't that interesting and the game was just too easy in general. I remember liking a few ideas they had (traversal powers, managing your characters' insanity bars) but overall it was boring.

Wow this a lot! While I can agree - from my initial impressions - on some points, would you mind tell me which other DRPGs you have played so I can get what your comparison standard is? I am not that experienced with the genre.

If we're talking Japanese blobbers, an easy comparison, and one that MS seems to take a lot of inspiration from, is Etrian Odyssey. I think EO is better than MS in almost every way. Better combat, more challenging enemies, more interesting dungeon designs, even if EO does lack MS's traversal skills, more interesting party building, more difficult overall.

 

[n0wh3r3]

Started Mary Skelter 2. Just built HQ. Liking it very much until this moment. The story is very intriguing. Anyone else played it?

I played MS 1 and thought it was kinda shit so never bothered with 2. Is it any better?

Mary Skelter 2 is actually Mary Skelter Nightmares + Mary Skelter 2. In my opinion is one of the most unique drpg that I ever played (not played a lot) with many interesting systems. Also the story is captivating. Why did you hate it?

Wouldn't say I hated it but I didn't find it fun. It's been a long time, but I remember not liking the combat (too few enemy types, no interesting boss encounters, the way roaming monsters work is nonsensical (they get their turns in real time), too easy to just stack debuffs and reduce the damage of whatever you are fighting to one), the character building options weren't that interesting and the game was just too easy in general. I remember liking a few ideas they had (traversal powers, managing your characters' insanity bars) but overall it was boring.

Wow this a lot! While I can agree - from my initial impressions - on some points, would you mind tell me which other DRPGs you have played so I can get what your comparison standard is? I am not that experienced with the genre.

If we're talking Japanese blobbers, an easy comparison, and one that MS seems to take a lot of inspiration from, is Etrian Odyssey. I think EO is better than MS in almost every way. Better combat, more challenging enemies, more interesting dungeon designs, even if EO does lack MS's traversal skills, more interesting party building, more difficult overall.

Just bought Mary Skelter 2 and Finale, Etrian Odysssey HD Collection, Saviors of Sapphire Wings & Stranger of Sword City Revisited. My choice fell on Mary Skelter 2 as it looked like a good starting point. Being more story focused I could see myself wanting more instead of dropping it before even playing it at its full potential. What do you think about my choice and purchases?

 

[Suicidal]

Just bought Mary Skelter 2 and Finale, Etrian Odysssey HD Collection, Saviors of Sapphire Wings & Stranger of Sword City Revisited. My choice fell on Mary Skelter 2 as it looked like a good starting point. Being more story focused I could see myself wanting more instead of dropping it before even playing it at its full potential. What do you think about my choice and purchases?

Well if you're new to the genre maybe MS would actually be a better starting point since it's easier and not too autistic. EO games are good but they are very samey, so I don't recommend binging them all one after another. You'll get sick of them. I play a different EO game every 1-2 years and by then they feel fresh enough to not get boring. Stranger of Sword City is ok. Haven't played Sapphire Wings.

 

[n0wh3r3]

Just bought Mary Skelter 2 and Finale, Etrian Odysssey HD Collection, Saviors of Sapphire Wings & Stranger of Sword City Revisited. My choice fell on Mary Skelter 2 as it looked like a good starting point. Being more story focused I could see myself wanting more instead of dropping it before even playing it at its full potential. What do you think about my choice and purchases?

Well if you're new to the genre maybe MS would actually be a better starting point since it's easier and not too autistic. EO games are good but they are very samey, so I don't recommend binging them all one after another. You'll get sick of them. I play a different EO game every 1-2 years and by then they feel fresh enough to not get boring. Stranger of Sword City is ok. Haven't played Sapphire Wings.

But does MS get better? I just beat the water dungeon and there is practically no challenge... I do not know if it is me or what, but I tend to get bored easily of games. This would be the third in a row I would drop without completing it. At this point I am starting to wonder if I am able to choose games at all or if they are still for me. Maybe not. What do you think?

MS has been such a chore to play, because after the prologue the challenge vanished. I can just spam attack and destroy any normal foes. While the 3 stage boss battle took me less than 5 minutes...

 

[Suicidal]

But does MS get better? I just beat the water dungeon and there is practically no challenge... I do not know if it is me or what, but I tend to get bored easily of games. This would be the third in a row I would drop without completing it. At this point I am starting to wonder if I am able to choose games at all or if they are still for me. Maybe not. What do you think?

MS has been such a chore to play, because after the prologue the challenge vanished. I can just spam attack and destroy any normal foes. While the 3 stage boss battle took me less than 5 minutes...

Well I did say it was boring, now you see why

 

[n0wh3r3]

But does MS get better? I just beat the water dungeon and there is practically no challenge... I do not know if it is me or what, but I tend to get bored easily of games. This would be the third in a row I would drop without completing it. At this point I am starting to wonder if I am able to choose games at all or if they are still for me. Maybe not. What do you think?

MS has been such a chore to play, because after the prologue the challenge vanished. I can just spam attack and destroy any normal foes. While the 3 stage boss battle took me less than 5 minutes...

Well I did say it was boring, now you see why

I'll go as farther as I can, anyway. Let's see if it improves. DRPG are not for me, maybe? Or Etrian Odyssey is an entire different beast?

 

[n0wh3r3]

Anyone played Mato Aomalies? It doesn't seem to be so bad as it has been reviewed. Is somebody missing something or is Mato Anomalies just a bad game?

 

[Suicidal]

But does MS get better? I just beat the water dungeon and there is practically no challenge... I do not know if it is me or what, but I tend to get bored easily of games. This would be the third in a row I would drop without completing it. At this point I am starting to wonder if I am able to choose games at all or if they are still for me. Maybe not. What do you think?

MS has been such a chore to play, because after the prologue the challenge vanished. I can just spam attack and destroy any normal foes. While the 3 stage boss battle took me less than 5 minutes...

Well I did say it was boring, now you see why

I'll go as farther as I can, anyway. Let's see if it improves. DRPG are not for me, maybe? Or Etrian Odyssey is an entire different beast?

Well as I said EO is better in nearly everything. Since you said you've already bought the collection might as well give it a shot. Out of the ones I've played so far, I liked 3 the most.

 

[n0wh3r3]

But does MS get better? I just beat the water dungeon and there is practically no challenge... I do not know if it is me or what, but I tend to get bored easily of games. This would be the third in a row I would drop without completing it. At this point I am starting to wonder if I am able to choose games at all or if they are still for me. Maybe not. What do you think?

MS has been such a chore to play, because after the prologue the challenge vanished. I can just spam attack and destroy any normal foes. While the 3 stage boss battle took me less than 5 minutes...

Well I did say it was boring, now you see why

I'll go as farther as I can, anyway. Let's see if it improves. DRPG are not for me, maybe? Or Etrian Odyssey is an entire different beast?

Well as I said EO is better in nearly everything. Since you said you've already bought the collection might as well give it a shot. Out of the ones I've played so far, I liked 3 the most.

When and if I'll get tired of Mary Skelter (my initial plan was to play through the entire trilogy, that's right, I also bought Mary Skelter Finale) I'll jump on Etrian Odyssey as my next DRPG. But not as my next game. Better to take a break from the genre to not get burnt out. What are you playing these days?

 

[Suicidal]

But does MS get better? I just beat the water dungeon and there is practically no challenge... I do not know if it is me or what, but I tend to get bored easily of games. This would be the third in a row I would drop without completing it. At this point I am starting to wonder if I am able to choose games at all or if they are still for me. Maybe not. What do you think?

MS has been such a chore to play, because after the prologue the challenge vanished. I can just spam attack and destroy any normal foes. While the 3 stage boss battle took me less than 5 minutes...

Well I did say it was boring, now you see why

I'll go as farther as I can, anyway. Let's see if it improves. DRPG are not for me, maybe? Or Etrian Odyssey is an entire different beast?

Well as I said EO is better in nearly everything. Since you said you've already bought the collection might as well give it a shot. Out of the ones I've played so far, I liked 3 the most.

When and if I'll get tired of Mary Skelter (my initial plan was to play through the entire trilogy, that's right, I also bought Mary Skelter Finale) I'll jump on Etrian Odyssey as my next DRPG. But not as my next game. Better to take a break from the genre to not get burnt out. What are you playing these days?

Mostly Gothic and Elden Ring DLC atm. I'm also finishing Etrian Odyssey 3 myself. I already beat the game, but I want to kill the optional superboss but he's not very well balanced and requires a certain type of party to kill so I had to make some new characters.

 

[n0wh3r3]

When I think that I have interrupted my The Last Remnant playthrough to play The Alliance Alive I wanna kill myself.

 

[Puukko]

I'll be grabbing SMTVV soon enough, but between that and having cleared the Elden Ring expansion, I'm dabbling in some Caligula Effect 2. This is one of those niche JRPGs with a small but autistic dedicated fanbase. It's Hatsune Miku's Wonderland where everybody is carrying a dozen people's worth of baggage.

I never played the first game, and as I understand Overdose made some unsavoury changes, so there's like the one game I could see myself trying out Vita emulation for down the line.

The game so far is heavily carried by its style and especially soundtrack. On a technical level it's sub par at best, with very stiff and repetitive animations, models that are a bit off, and janky cutscenes. I don't know if this even qualifies as AA, more like A+. It's the sort of stuff you just overlook for the actual meat of the game.

The combat has potential but comes with some annoyances I can only hope get sorted later. It's ATB with semi-free movement and area-based attacks. You can delay your attacks to counter enemies and get a bigger party wide hit counter. You can even see the outcome of an attack beforehand. Thing is, the ATB gauge when doing so moves slooow and in real time meaning that when you test if delaying an attack by 5 seconds has the best outcome, nope, make that 6 seconds, repeat, you have to wait every time before it shows the outcome. Furthermore, for comboing you'd want to fine tune each party member in tandem, but once you've locked in one character, you can't change it anymore, so you may change to another character and realize a small tweak on the other would have been perfect, but now you've just got to wing it. I'm very early in the game so it could be these things get addressed, but I'm not holding my breath.

Technical note, I couldn't get most changes in ini files to work with this game, so I just grabbed the UE4 unlocker and used the console to tweak the resolution scale since even at 4K with maximum AA the jaggies were pretty bad. It's prone to turning the game into an unplayble stuttery mess depending on the phase of the moon if I try anything else, but attempting to improve games until they break is exactly up my alley. Also, grab the translated lyrics in battle mod from Nexus, it's a bit hard to read depending on the scenario but definitely worth it.

 

[Rean]

Puukko https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/caligula-effect.144315/

Had the same thoughts about the soundtrack. It rocks (but not as much as Crymachina's which is out of this world good).

 

[n0wh3r3]

I'll be grabbing SMTVV soon enough, but between that and having cleared the Elden Ring expansion, I'm dabbling in some Caligula Effect 2. This is one of those niche JRPGs with a small but autistic dedicated fanbase. It's Hatsune Miku's Wonderland where everybody is carrying a dozen people's worth of baggage.

I never played the first game, and as I understand Overdose made some unsavoury changes, so there's like the one game I could see myself trying out Vita emulation for down the line.

The game so far is heavily carried by its style and especially soundtrack. On a technical level it's sub par at best, with very stiff and repetitive animations, models that are a bit off, and janky cutscenes. I don't know if this even qualifies as AA, more like A+. It's the sort of stuff you just overlook for the actual meat of the game.

The combat has potential but comes with some annoyances I can only hope get sorted later. It's ATB with semi-free movement and area-based attacks. You can delay your attacks to counter enemies and get a bigger party wide hit counter. You can even see the outcome of an attack beforehand. Thing is, the ATB gauge when doing so moves slooow and in real time meaning that when you test if delaying an attack by 5 seconds has the best outcome, nope, make that 6 seconds, repeat, you have to wait every time before it shows the outcome. Furthermore, for comboing you'd want to fine tune each party member in tandem, but once you've locked in one character, you can't change it anymore, so you may change to another character and realize a small tweak on the other would have been perfect, but now you've just got to wing it. I'm very early in the game so it could be these things get addressed, but I'm not holding my breath.

Technical note, I couldn't get most changes in ini files to work with this game, so I just grabbed the UE4 unlocker and used the console to tweak the resolution scale since even at 4K with maximum AA the jaggies were pretty bad. It's prone to turning the game into an unplayble stuttery mess depending on the phase of the moon if I try anything else, but attempting to improve games until they break is exactly up my alley. Also, grab the translated lyrics in battle mod from Nexus, it's a bit hard to read depending on the scenario but definitely worth it.

So should I devote my time to this? I have it on my shelf and actually tried to play it the other day but I couldn't even get past the introduction (uninteresting IMHO). Does it get better?

 

[Puukko]

I'll be grabbing SMTVV soon enough, but between that and having cleared the Elden Ring expansion, I'm dabbling in some Caligula Effect 2. This is one of those niche JRPGs with a small but autistic dedicated fanbase. It's Hatsune Miku's Wonderland where everybody is carrying a dozen people's worth of baggage.

I never played the first game, and as I understand Overdose made some unsavoury changes, so there's like the one game I could see myself trying out Vita emulation for down the line.

The game so far is heavily carried by its style and especially soundtrack. On a technical level it's sub par at best, with very stiff and repetitive animations, models that are a bit off, and janky cutscenes. I don't know if this even qualifies as AA, more like A+. It's the sort of stuff you just overlook for the actual meat of the game.

The combat has potential but comes with some annoyances I can only hope get sorted later. It's ATB with semi-free movement and area-based attacks. You can delay your attacks to counter enemies and get a bigger party wide hit counter. You can even see the outcome of an attack beforehand. Thing is, the ATB gauge when doing so moves slooow and in real time meaning that when you test if delaying an attack by 5 seconds has the best outcome, nope, make that 6 seconds, repeat, you have to wait every time before it shows the outcome. Furthermore, for comboing you'd want to fine tune each party member in tandem, but once you've locked in one character, you can't change it anymore, so you may change to another character and realize a small tweak on the other would have been perfect, but now you've just got to wing it. I'm very early in the game so it could be these things get addressed, but I'm not holding my breath.

Technical note, I couldn't get most changes in ini files to work with this game, so I just grabbed the UE4 unlocker and used the console to tweak the resolution scale since even at 4K with maximum AA the jaggies were pretty bad. It's prone to turning the game into an unplayble stuttery mess depending on the phase of the moon if I try anything else, but attempting to improve games until they break is exactly up my alley. Also, grab the translated lyrics in battle mod from Nexus, it's a bit hard to read depending on the scenario but definitely worth it.

So should I devote my time to this? I have it on my shelf and actually tried to play it the other day but I couldn't even get past the introduction (uninteresting IMHO). Does it get better?

Way too early for me to say, but the premise of the game becomes apparent pretty quickly, and if that is uninteresting to you...

 

[n0wh3r3]

Paused all my playthroughs to play through Dragon Quest XI S and, oh boy... I think I am falling in love with this game lol

 

[alexthegreat]

I am going through FF6 pixel remake and hoooo boy is it a breath of fresh air. they do not make games like this anymore. The music is amazing and at times sent chills down my spine. All the characters are likable and memorable, and Kefka as a villain is one of the best the series has to offer. I will write a more detailed review for fun once my playthrough is over.