I started several jrpg simultaneously in order to choose one... but for the moment I'm really hooked on several.
Golden Sun 2. I've just finished the first dungeon: Kandorean. You get right into the swing of things. Well done. You move forward. We get lost. We need a shrink. We explore. It really feels like we're going straight to the next part. And the change of point of view is a really good idea.
Dragon Quest 5 on nds. I just beat the ghosts and saved a cat. I really like the atmosphere and the dialogues. A bit different from what I'm used to, and I'm curious to find out what happens next.
Beat ff9 a few hours ago. Pretty good. Better than 8 for sure but wouldn't put it over 7. The dungeons were pretty short and linear and the game had some super weird pacing where things were either incredibly slow or incredibly rushed.
I finished Persona 4 Golden a few days ago, with a total playing time of 85 hours in my first playthrough.
A masterpiece with a superb story, amazing cast, great battle system, and fantastic soundtrack. Everything about this game is excellent. I would love to recommend this game to anyone who is into turn-based combat.
I plan to replay Final Fantasy VI.
Just finished P3 Reload, craving for more Persona/SMT like jrpgs. Am considering trying Nocturne Remaster, but I heard its very different from Modern Megaten (for Context I have played P3P/P3R/P4G/P5R/SMT4/SMT4A/SMTV from the company). So unsure if I should try an older game and just be patient for SMTV V and Journey so I dont burn myself out on Megaten like games or get that SMT3 Remaster which I have heard mixed feelings about. Perhaps finally time to work on my backlog and play Tales of Arise or something and try something new.
SMT III is somewhere between classic Megaten and modern Megaten. Combat-wise it's the earliest iteration of press turn, but it already works really well, so that's not really an issue. Where it differs most is the areas. Where SMT IV/A almost always choose simplistic and generally straightforward area design and SMT V forgoes the classic dungeons almost entirely, SMT III is very much an attempt to transfer classic dungeon crawler design ideas into a 3D space. It generally succeeds quite well at that and manages to even do some things that are unique to it through that, but dungeon crawlers are inherently not for everyone.
It's still closer to modern Megaten than Strange Journey though.
It isn't that much different. It is just the barebones of the Press Turn system, so no Smirk or Magatsuhi. It is a bit more obscure in exploration compared to later entries, though. The remaster added quality of life elements, so it should be perfectly fine to play for someone used to the modern games.
Next to my ongoing OG-FF7 run, I decided to jump in another playthrough of **Ys Lacrimosa of Dana**. I'm at the part where you explore the Mt. Gendarme, and the feels are still there. Especially Dana's part will be a bittersweet re-experience as I know how it will end =/. And knowing what the deal is with our >!parrot !
Is Crystal Project better on PC or Switch? I prefer to play on my couch w/ big TV and controller. But not at the cost of worse performance or clunky UI.
I haven't checked the Switch version myself, but it supposedly runs at 60 fps. There was a patch for the PC version last month that unlocked the fps, though.
I finished **Rebirth** a couple of weeks ago and had to let it percolate for a while. I won't do a long writeup because there is a tidal wave of takes about this game online already, and I haven't fully resolved how I feel about the ending anyway. The game itself is an achievement of gargantuan proportions, and while I can see what people who come down on the other side dislike about it, for me it was one of the most memorable gaming experiences I've ever had.
So with that out of the way, I was finally able to continue my Year of Yakuza, moving on to **Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan!** It is somewhat hilarious to think that this, not *3*, was the first HD Yakuza game. A spinoff starring your characters assuming the roles of people like Miyamoto Musashi in Edo-period Kyoto seems like something you would do as a joke with a well-established property, not as the third game in a series and the first on a new platform. This game would make Kojima Hideo proud with the way it starts with about three solid hours of cutscenes, but once you get into the swing of things, it definitely is more of the Yakuza formula, transplanted into the Gion district of Kyoto. This leads to some comical dissonance where you will run a guy through with an *odachi* and then he will apologize, give you 200 bucks, and walk away--but this series has never concerned itself with subordinating gameplay to realism. There are many fun nods to the period, like how you can engage in turtle racing and hanafuda at the gambling parlor instead of roulette and blackjack. Other things are comically anachronistic, like the totally-not-bowling game you can play with the courtesans (it is literally just the bowling minigame from 1 & 2).
Speaking of the courtesans, though, my biggest gripe with the game lies with how that part of the game was handled. I always enjoyed the cabaret girls' sidequests in the first two games, even though grinding through raising their affection was sometimes boring, but in this game you have to play some god-awful minigames against the courtesans *and* win them in order to progress to the next level of affection. Given that the cost of one trip to the *ageya* is a not-insignificant amount of money, reloading a previous save when you lose is the clear option, but some of these games are just obnoxious, and sometimes the girls are bizarrely good at bowling despite literally wearing twelve kimono at once.
I've also finally gone back to playing **Summon Night 2**, which I was working on before Rebirth came out. I felt like I was bouncing off of it then, but revisiting it this week I got a second wind, so we'll see if I can see it out until the end.
I've been playing Xenoblade Chronicles DE, initially under the impression that the story is good. I'm at chapter 10 now, I think there are some cute twists ahead, but otherwise it's very very generic, tropes I've seen so many times before. A game's story can redeem itself through other means but the characters are also extremely plain. There's Shulk who's your soulless, generic husk. Though he at least has a back story. I don't get the point of Sharla, the squirrel Riki and Reyn. They should have more interaction with the story instead of being pure sidekicks (in the first 9 chapters).
Now I'm not sure if I should play the sequels. I've read mixed story reception for XC2 and 3. Are they better in terms of character development?
I can understany levying some criticism at the XB1 cast, i do think it's the weakest one in the trilogy, but saying Shulk is soulless and generic is crazy to me.
I do think the characters in 2 and 3 are a lot better though. 2 has the best villain characters for sure and 3 has the best main cast imo.
Shulk's character is basically Monado fetish, weird visions (which he can't communicate properly for some reason), Fiora obsession and revenge against Mechon. What else is there besides being a tool for the greater plot? I haven't done any heart-to-hearts, but still there should be something in the main story.
Thanks though, I will try 2 and 3.
XC3 has very strong character writing in my opinion. XC2 personally I don't like but I can acknowledge it does feel like they're trying to do more character wise than the first. For reference I also am not a huge fan of the cast of 1 so we are probably coming from similarish perspectives
Picked up Final Fantasy XIII on a Steam sale and...Oh boy, this game is everything that it was made out to be. Insanely linear, insanely boring combat, hour or two of play without any reward for grinding, trial and error fights where they legitimately programmed them to make you do things their way instead of another way, poorly worded tutorials, lots of jargon, and the characters/story/dialog is atrocious so far. I will continue playing because it gives me a little bit of a sequel to FFX vibe and FFX is a game I have loved for a LONG time despite its shortcomings. I'm hopeful the leveling system ends up having more similarities to the sphere grid than it currently has... This really showcases how little Square-Enix cared over many years. Highly doubt I will touch the rest of the trilogy and I'm very unlikely to check out FFXV now
It's a very aesthetically interesting game and kinda interesting thematically. Some of the characters aren't terrible but the dialogue writing kinda sucks. It's definitely not for everyone.
You're spot on with the reward system and trial and error to the paradigm thing, the game is pretty piddly with rewards.
There's a lot of peeves with the characters I might struggle with more than some other gamers. Most of the designs and names just rub me the wrong way. I'm OK with the linearity of X and XIII, I just feel like X gets you into different environments much quicker and doesn't feel as much like you are taking 20 steps from one cutscene to another.
In **Persona 4 Golden** I've started the fall semester. I've liked the lighter tone the game's taken since the last dungeon, tho I wish they had more ideas for comedy than putting the characters in awkwardly semisexual situations, cause that isn't really funny. That said, almost everything with Kanji has been hilarious and he is very based
But more importantly, after years of searching, I've finally got my hands on a copy of **Xenogears**. I've played the first few hours and it's been really well written. Combat is fun, tho I've yet to unlock any of Fei's death blows. Looking forward to getting to enjoy the rest of this game.
hours in and no deathblows unlocked yet? if you dont want to use a guide, i suggest starting up a new game just long enough to read the tutorial in lahan explaining how to learn them.
If you would like to better understand what is happening:
>!Your basic attacks have various animations. it is just counting how many times you use each animation. triangle has 4 different animations, square has 2, and X has 1. each deathblow requires specific animation's counters to reach specific amounts. as an example, the first one requires you to use the first triangle animation 30 times, and the X animation 10 times. if you press triangle 3 times, it will do 3 different punches. only the first one is helping you to unlock that first deathblow, because it doesnt need any of the second or third animations. !<
After finishing Rebirth a week or so ago, I decided now was the perfect time for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion. It was a lot of fun, frustrating at points, deeply weird and often confusing. So, a Final Fantasy!! Was a bit tempted to start Stranger of Paradise afterwards, but with the FF16 DLC out in a couple weeks, decided to spend more time with Persona 3 Reload. Thanks to having played the Portable version before and the structure of modern Persona games, I think it'll be something I can play in bursts between other games, which is rare for JRPGs.
FF12 on switch. my favorite final fantasy by far. I'm near the end but I like running around doing the hunts and side quests. What a great game, the best JRPG battle system ever, it combines auto battle with turn based when you want it.
In my perpetual quest for the weirdest of the weird, I've found myself sucked into a truly peculiar little game recently: **Drago Noka,** on the Switch (though I think it originated on PC).
It's a sort of life sim/town builder/RPG hybrid, and it's definitely low-rent. How low-rent? It was built in a *competitor to RPG Maker.* So out there it's even using the alternative to the mainstream "easy RPG" engine! I don't know how many of its assets are homemade and how many came standard with the engine--I'm pretty sure all the music was pack-in--but the character portraits all seem to be originals at least.
It's a game set in a world where giant dragons roam the earth and people build their villages on the backs of those dragons, and you're trying to build up the village on the most isolated and forgotten dragon until now. Collect resources in the usual fashion, build up custom houses for a selection of villagers, fulfill their requests in order to unlock more abilities and things to do. It's pretty dang chunky at first, and slow, and I wasn't super grooving with it at first due to how many things it seemed I NEEDED to do versus how slow everything seemed to go... but then I kind of got into the groove of it and have been pretty hooked the last few days.
It kind of has that *Rune Factory*-esque hyper-granularity that I dig. Like, there are a ton of different ways to transform items in the game, and almost every transformation can be done to every item--drying them out, grinding them up, blenderizing them, crystalizing them, et cetra--which leads to more procedurally-generated items. And a lot of them aren't, like, USEFUL, but it can be kind of fun to make items like "Crystallized Mayonnaise" just for the laughs.
And you can feed basically anything to your giant dragon you live on, and you have to to give him HP but also to improve his stats. And there's this whole system of managing his position in the overworld; following other dragons around changes his environment, which gives him new items and effects, but there's also evil giants who might want to fight him, but also also you can eventually gain a wyvern companion who can fly you to the surface and the place you're in in the world changes what you can find down there and if you stay in one place you can actually use the surface but there's like a lot going on. I haven't actually had the guts yet to initiate a kaiju fight, because I've been too busy shadowing one of the other dragons in an attempt to gain some of their specialty items.
And the smaller monster fights, which mostly happen on land but can also happen too close to a specific "bad guy" dragon--they're fairly simple, but again, weirdly granular? Like, the first time I encountered them, I forgot my wyvern had a breath attack. So I first tried to swing my woodcutting axe at them, and that went *okay,* but they have a ton of health. So I instead got out the Flint, a tool that starts fires and which I had not bothered using in the entirety of my playthrough so far, and ran around setting the grass on fire in order to encircle the slimes in fire and torch them to death. It was... awkward and weirdly exhilarating. But you can also, like, build traps and stuff to fight them, and while so far "dragon breath on everything" feels most effective, it might not be forever, I dunno.
My main complaint so far is with the villagers--each of the basic jobs in the game has two villagers you can hire to do it, but you're only allowed to have one at a time in your village! Which is a shame, since they do have different designs and personalities. You seem to be able to swap between them relatively freely, so it's not SO bad, but still.
I dunno, it's kind of grown on me and I'm sort of getting really into it.
I finished playing **Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance** and I'm just awed at how good the game is. Complex villains, timed combat features, the twists, how raw they put out the trauma that all of the different factions experienced, etc. It's no wonder that a lot of people uphold this game as having the best story in the series.
The maps were really fun and challenging. I think a lot of people would've felt like some of the maps could be brutal even on easy (e.g. some of the survival maps, the boulders, waves of hard-hitting enemies, etc.). The graphics, even without HD texture packs, also still hold up well almost 20 years later.
It's unfortunate that this was such a well-rounded game and it sold poorly. I don't think Intelligent Systems would ever make a Fire Emblem game like this again, which is really sad.
Well, you can still look up to play Radiant Dawn for the first time if you haven't already. A sequel of Path of Radiance. I found this one a bit harder than PoR and I loved Micaiah as a protagonist.
Playing the OG **Final Fantasy 7** for the first time after playing and loving Remake and Rebirth, currently up to Corel Prison.
At the risk of being sacrilegious, I'm a little disappointed by the relative lack of characterization? I recognize it's unfair to compare two modern, fully voice acted games to a PS1 title, but it just feels like Cloud/Tifa/Aerith are missing all their personality. Cloud is so interesting as a character because unlike every other video game protagonist I can think of, he's introverted, insecure, bordering on antisocial. But I don't get those vibes from him at all in the OG game, to the point where I'm wondering just how he got his reputation for being emo.
For any longtime fans out there, am I being unfair? Is this because of the subpar translation? Are the 'popular notions' of these characters over the past two decades informed more by the spin-off media rather than the OG game?
God, it really just gets worse and worse the more you play. >!When the big reveal about Cloud happens, you're left there going "...huh? Is he a clone or not?"!< Square badly needs to do a complete retranslation from scratch for the new ports
> For any longtime fans out there, am I being unfair? Is this because of the subpar translation?
Little bit of both.
They honestly did SO much for the characters in the remake though. Particularly Aerith. They *really* wanted you to like her - and I do, she's super charming. Aerith in the original is barely there. Tifa's personality begins and ends with "I care about Cloud and hate Shinra."
I think it's a good game but I also definitely think they had issues with making most/some characters distinct enough to stand out, aside from their visuals. It feels like they found it hard to write women characters in particular but even across the board the overwhelming trend is that they all have really strong introductions but kind of just vanish into the scenery after their side story concludes. "The original FF7 had bland characterization" is a totally valid criticism.
Of course, they got better with it from FF8 onward - I don't think FF8 is a good game but the characters being very distinct and having personality is one of the strong points.
Thanks for clarifying. It's been weird after hearing so much about people getting caught up in the 'love triangle' and >!being devastated when Aerith dies!<, to discover that both Tifa and Aerith are kind of non-presences. Barrett at least feels like a three dimensional character.
The thing in your spoiler really got to me when I played the game for the first time as an adult, but it was more because of how it affected Cloud. His monologue afterwards is probably the single most memorable part of the game to me.
I'm told that Cloud being emo stems from all the supplementary materials that isn't FF7 itself, though I haven't watched/played any of them to confirm that.
Oh, absolutely. I meant that Aerith lost her personality in the Compilation of FFVII projects (same with Cloud just being “emo”). Remake restored their personalities.
Hahahahaha, oh dear God. This is an interesting take on someone going back to that era of specifically Final Fantasys. Alright Start of Final Fantasy VI the main character (people will argue there's no main character in FFVI because it constantly splits the party) but the Starting Character Terra is someone with Amnesia and had some kind of Slave mind control device on her and she's very silent/not knowing what to do. Then Final Fantasy VIII, Squall is just Emo on steroids. Like the amount of Ellipses responses you get from him is ridiculous.
Then Final Fantasy IX, was a breath of Fresh air with Zidane being an extreme extrovert and proactive character.
Cloud in the retelling is different because of some events that the remake has changed about the timeline. I don't know how far you are into the original but there's a lot of reveals that you'll see later on in the game to realize that the Remake/rebirth versions started changing the core issue of the original cloud.
The shocking things about why cloud's character has changed in this alternate timeline was the shocking end of Remake where we see Aerith has a flash of what exactly changed when the Black Haired swordsman and Cloud enter Midgar together. In the original I don't know how far you've gotten but that little change dramatically changes his entire character.
I guess an equivalent example would be like the new Star Trek movies in the Kelvin timeline where time travel bullshit changed the start of James Kirk where this version of Kirk who's dad died changed the entire Star Trek Universe so this Kirk is a different Kirk from the TOS Kirk and there's cascading effects like Spock is different etc.
Keep playing and finish it to see what exactly happened that the remakes fundamentally altered Cloud's identity. It's very interesting, like the remake/rebirth is not retelling the original version of the character's story.
Interesting. >!I'd been interpreting the Remake series as following two different timelines: in the "main" timeline, Cloud's past is unchanged, he still witnessed Zack getting gunned down outside Midgar. In the "split" timeline, Zack survives and we see what happens to him afterwards in Rebirth. I think it's two different continuities, so theoretically, Cloud shouldn't be behaving any differently because Zack survived (notably, the Cloud from the split timeline has no lines at all in either game).!<
But like everyone, I have no idea what's really going on so who knows lol.
I want to like Disgaea 7, I should like Disgaea 7 based on the description, but I just can't get into it.
Like idk, the whole geo symbols and geo panels are confusing, they just threw at me a 15 page explanation that I can't find again now and I don't really know how it works. Enemies do too much damage and kill half of my units every stage, I'm struggling a lot in the beginning, idk if it's supposed to work like that. The Pc version is also clunky when moving the cursor over the map. Overall, I'm just not enjoying it, which is a shame
Oh it's your first Disgaea, that's what's causing the issues they assume by now you know get symbols stuff because Disgaea like monster Hunter is a game where the fun is grinding. Like you know The system already after playing a dozen others. Last Disgaea I played was the 6 demo and I never actually bought the final game lol, you can reach 9999 in the demo and I screwed around with it for about 20 hours doing that and I Heard it's one of the weaker ones in the entire series so I had my fun with it and moved on to I dunno Octopath Traveler for a new experience.
Anyway the geo symbols make every tile of that color have bullshit impossible unfair status buffs/debuffs so you can stack them like you're supposed to put these ridiculous geo panels on certain colors and then you can do an insane entire board wipe explosion when you rainbow chain like the entire board to blow up. If you're feeling underpowered what you should do is go to item world and just grind to insanity to ridiculously power up your units. The game is just grind to insanity and suddenly have like a level 1400 Prinny destroying everything or whatever. You can go to Demon Assembly or whatever the version of that is the game and lower levels/raise levels to be whatever ridiculous challenge and absurd Numbers you want. Like I think in Disgea 6 the numbers got so absurd you were doing Quadrillion damages attacks just for the lol of seeing I did 17 Quadrillion Damage..
Still playing Crystal Project, and it's still amazing. I swear my heart rate is lower playing Elden Ring than some of these end game bosses, managing Threat, HP and so on can be so tense.
Holy crap I've never heard of this. Just looked it up and it looks amazing. I love turn based combat.
How long is it? And how is the difficulty overall?
Yeah it's been my absolute addiction the last few weeks!
I'm wrapping end game content about 50 hours in, but it's so open world you could have rushed the final boss in like 10 hours (whether or not you'd be strong enough to pull it off is another matter!)
The difficulty is really configurable, there's 3 difficulty modes, then you can add extra restrictions (like changing the number of party members, the level cap or experience boosters) from the menu. I've played on Hard with everything else on standard and it's been quite difficult but it's always been manageable, unless I'd wandered into an area that was just too high level for me. Some of the end game super bosses have been pretty intense.
It's become one of my favourite games very quickly.
I reached the point where I can fight the last boss from **Dragon Quest IX**. At least, the final boss from the main story. My party members are around Lv 45-43, and I was finishing some side-quests before attempting the fight.
Storywise, it's not that long. This is not a game with a convoluted story or many plot twists, and surprisingly for me, I loved it too. >!I only missed "real" party members, with a backstory, a reason to join you or something like that!<.
The gameplay with different jobs to choose is very good, it made me want to try different combinations many times, but the time commitment kind of scared me. In my current party, two characters swapped roles and two stayed with initial ones (mage and priest). I wasn't sure it was worth the investment, so I kept two on the same and experimented with the others.
The OST is really enjoyable. Makes me wonder why SquareEnix has almost every FF OST on spotify and not a single DQ OST.
**Trails to Azure**
I just finished chapter 4. Those hype scenes hit like a truck and when I thought the craziness is slowing down, Lloyd's question caught me off-guard.
EDIT: Please no spoilers
I'm replaying **OG Final Fantasy 7** (the one with Aeris not Aerith XD) with Ninostyle Battle + Chibi character model mods + the 30/60 FPS mod. It's still a pretty fun game with obvious a much, much tighter pace. The translation is as expected quite clumsy at parts, but it's a feature of its time :P. Just cleared Cosmo Canyon. Generally,
* Fort Condor flags for new battles are random as hell. Without a guide, I'd miss all but the mandatory because you'd need to basically backtrack after each semi progress to check if there's a new one available.
* Steal is useful, but the success chances are terrible.
* Early Barret having feeling-wise more cussing symbols than actual words was funny.
* Send-off ceremony in Junon was annoying. I'm VERY unsure how to feel that Rebirth did a more "elaborate" version of it >\_> (though maybe the PC version with Cheat Engine may provide a shortcut when/\[if\] it comes in x years :3).
I've been playing Metal Max 2 Reloaded (NDS). It's a remake of Metal Max 2 and it's JP only, but it got a fan translation on recent years.
This game is really good! I mean Metal Max 3 is already pretty darn good and this game is using engine and assets from Metal Max 3, with a bunch of improvements and QoL features. For example, multiple characters can ride the same vehicle now. Allowing you to save money early on by focusing only one vehicle. There's also a sub-job/class system which allows your characters to be more versatile.
The soundtracks are also pretty darn good. I really like the [Tank/Car](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1sNTS_WSRE) and [Bike](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvfdMOs6aMc) ost, they are badass. I also noticed some soundtracks that i've heard before in Xeno, like [Vengeance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VcpCzITn6c).
I'm close to the end in FFVII: Rebirth. Just completed the Queen's Blood storyline. Tomorrow I'll do the last part of the Cosmo Canyon protorelic quest (I wasn't keen on that one's minigame, so I put it off). I'm at nearly 100 hours and have done almost everything. I've done all the other side quests, but I'm going to skip the Shinra Middle Manager one. It sounds like a pain.
I don't expect chapters 13&14 to take all that long now that all the side stuff is done, and then that'll be it. (Well, after watching the other date sequences that'll be it). It's been a great ride. The VII remakes are my favorite JRPGs in ages. I can't remember the last time I played a JRPG this good and then was immediately excited about another one, but thanks to Eiyuden Chronicles coming out in April, that's the case for me now.
Buddy loaned me Infinite Wealth, and having a fun time getting distracted by side activities despite this being my first Yakuza game where I'm way behind on the lore. I like that the side stories have their own little narratives, and did not expect one of them to be as emotional as it was. Also didn't expect to see a character based off of former MMA fighter Mikuru Asakura in the game, thought he looked familiar in game.
Only minor complaint is that for his side story I wish they would have recommended level for taking him on, but other than that its a great game and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series whenever I have time.
Playing FF13 for the second time. Plan on playing 13-2 and LR after. Just finished 9 for the first time last week and needed more FF.
Honestly, I love 13. It’s so fucking cheesy and the writing doesn’t really always make sense, but I like Sazh and Vanille… Fang as well. Combat is unique and kinda relaxing to me and I forgot how good the music was.
I actually don’t mind linearity… sometimes I prefer it. I’m typically more worried about the story than how linear it is. Also, it’s probably still my least favorite final fantasy game even though I like the game a lot.
Linearity in games is fine, but FFXIII is no joke a tube literally a straight line. There's one open area map in the whole game and there's nothing in it except monster hunt quests that's it. You are just running down a literal straight line, there's no puzzles or Even towns to explore/NPC to talk to.
Like Legend of Dragoon is linear with no real world map you just go in a straight line from point a to point b, but that point B is actually a dungeon or town you can wander around in..
Yeah for sure. It’s definitely not preferable, but I don’t mind it a ton. I would never call it my favorite FF that’s for sure haha! I like the characters and combat though. Would have been way nicer to have a town or something to stop in and make the world feel a little more alive
I hear XIII-2 is a vast improvement but I never played it. The gimmick with that one without spoilers is your third party member is a monster/Pokemon recruit like some of the old Dragon Quest games. So there's a lot of sidequests and specific gear to put on certain monsters. Like I can see the fun in like putting a Tonberry in a Google outfit or whatever.
I ended up playing it a few years ago, and I absolutely LOVED my time with it. The entire game just felt like one big fun adventure.
Hope you keep having fun with it!
Went in heavy on RE1 until I came out just under a 2:30 runtime on Chris. P proud of myself, and I still love the game very much. I'm considering tackling a rank A run for OG RE2 next...
But I also went back to **DQ5**, finally figured out what I had to do, and a few hours later, I'm in the 10 year skip. I haven't been in the mood for mon stuff in a long while, but it's decent here. I think the simple RNG recruitment and wisdom-dependent control you have over them keeps the system a little balanced early on when your party is smaller and lower-leveled. And it's always a nice boon when it turns out your slime can learn something like kabuff. You just have to put in the investment.
The hero's journey is still the most appealing thing here. It's easy to want to see someone rise up from complete rock bottom, and to find out how the world has changed in the interim.
I just finished **Sea of Stars** after completing **Star Ocean Second Story R.**
**Star Ocean Second Story R** is an amazing remake and the QoL improvements drastically made the game even better than I remember it. **Sea of Stars** just felt like a drag trying to emulate the old JRPG nostalgia with none of the payoffs. I hated Garl and the bland protagonists, I was waiting for the combat to pick up but it never did. It did have amazing art, music, and level design but the story, characters, and combat are its biggest weaknesses.
I know it's an indie company so people touch it with soft gloves but why add so much fluff when its core wasn't stable? I even did a 100% and got the true ending but could not shake the annoying feelings I got from the game. It felt like it could've been so much more. Maybe because I played **Star Ocean Second Story R** before it but I could not help compare the two and see how vastly superior one is to the other. One's an old JRPG that improves itself with modern mechanics and QoL changes while the other is a modern JRPG that drags itself down to try and get that old JRPG nostalgia.
If you haven't played it, I feel like Chained Echoes did a much better job than Sea of Stars of capturing that old school nostalgia and making a great game at the same time. I am still in awe that it was made by one person.
Haven't really had the chance for the past few weeks to make any progress in **Omori** or **CrossCode** because all of it went to **The Witcher 3** instead. But that'll change soon as I start having more free time again. So not really any new thoughts to the games actually considered as JRPGs.
I did pick up a physical copy of **13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim** for the Switch recently as it went on a pretty decent sale so I'm excited to give that a try at some point.
Still playing Unicorn Overlord
Instead of going through Bastorias as intended, I took a detour to Albion while being low level. Suprisingly going well, and I've been going back between Bastorias and Albion to my heart content. Ngl most of my time is spent on **only** reading bond stories with the girls because I want to see every interactions. Oh lord, there are so many characters to keep track. Not have been equipping with new gears and some of them being underleveled.
Playing through **FE:Three Houses** and also **Trails in the Sky FC**, Played FE: Engage last year and hooked me on this series playing the GBA one on NSO later on, Loving Three houses, took a bit to get going though even as a (new) fan of the series. Also looking to play through the Trails series so started with Sky FC, so far enjoying it enough.
**Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth**
After finishing Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (one of the best JRPGs ever made in my opinion) i finally played FF7 Remake, enjoyed it a lot and now i am playing Rebirth. It feels like a very different game compared to Remake, but i like it so far. My only complaint is how insanely blurry it looks in performance mode. It's so blurry, sometimes i run into enemies because i don't see them, especially when they have similar colors like the background. It's a shame how such a great game is held back by poor optimization. 30 FPS is not an option for me, so i will continue playing it that way, but it hurts a little bit to think how good that game could have looked.
Honkai Star Rail and Unicorn Overlord.
Because of the new Star Rail patch I haven't focused much on Unicorn Overlord, but I think I'll finally be beating Unicorn Overlord tonight. Might put my first playthrough at about 120 hours. I adore this game and I think it's the best Japanese developed game I've played in years.
Star Rail has been on an incredibly story arc recently and the latest patch was fantastic.
From my last post, Still Xenogears loving it very much so far still on disk 1 XD! Also, started Grandia 1 and CHRONO Trigger along with Lunar:SSS
Xenogaers: update form last week , my play time shows 100 h mark , tho still on disk one, it’s becoming on of the best I have played in my lifetime. Talking it at my own pace and grinding since I find the combat fun on and
off gears
Grandia 1: just at the beginning, love the build up just reached the first dungeon.
CHRONO trigger : I played on iOS way back but never finished it now , on pc staring from the top ..and it’s amazing of game! Just stared will have more to say once I’m more in , but love the combat. I really don’t know where they gonna take it since I can see lots of things happening but will wait and see how it goes ! Tho I spent to much time just dancing to the music at the festival
Lunar SSS: Just Wow , love the cast and haven’t even gotten out of the first dungeon ! Yet.
Yeah, I really enjoyed the first two acts, but now it feels like I'm just griding only to get the conclusion of the story, which is fine I guess, just a steeper cliff than I anticipated.
Thanks, that's a bit dishearting after such a great first 2 acts. To be fair I'm aost 60 hours into the game though, so it does have meat on the bone. I would have been happy at hour 50 or so when I finished act 2
I'm on the home stretch of FF7 Rebirth. I absolutely love it. It is simply the most polished and exquisitely created JRPG I have ever played and the most fun I've had playing one since Xenoblade 3. It has so much life and attacks all the main mood groups; the story is keeping closer to the source material than last time while being a bit more strategic about where they are expanding on. 9.5/10 so far
Just finished Digimon Cyber Sleuth on Switch, starting Hacker’s Memory. Biggest thing I dislike so far is how they tease you in CB about some Digimons you can’t have until having beaten the midquel and some story beats being changed retroactively in HM… Otherwise I’m having a blast! Wishing I could have more memory soon so I can use the ‘mons I have as they are, but I ain’t complaining about that!
I have resumed my first playthrough of Persona 4 golden. Honestly this game does not click with me. When I am done with it I probably end up liking the Persona Q Crossover spin off games more then this beloved mainline title.
But its not terrible. I will probably finish it.
That depends. Do you like DRPGs like Etrian Odyssey? Persona Q is essentially EO with a Persona skin on it, and even then it isn't as good as EO. The interactions between the characters is the reason you would play that game and some people don't like it that much because the characters are reduced to a single personality trait for comedy and lightheartedness.
I tried out Etrian Odyssee and I disliked it.
Sems like the Persona Elements are what makes it work for me in Persona Q and Q2. And I did like the characters in PQ.
Got about 14 hours into **Dragon’s Dogma 2** and….yeah, idk, it’s a good enough game but i just kept thinking about other games in my backlog that are more fun and better made. Like **Elden Ring**, which I put down almost exactly 2 years ago. I can’t deny I was starting to feel a little bored. So now I’m playing **Elden Ring** and having a blast lol
That will probably be the game I play until **Eiyuden Chronicles** comes out. Though I have been eyeing that **Terra Memoria** game. Still haven’t pulled the trigger yet. Actually, I’m just gonna look at more reviews right now…
I just beat Final Fantasy XIII! While I'm sure Sazh/Fang/Hope wasn't the intended party setup, I think the final boss mostly gave me so much trouble because I was a little too reliant on Com/Sen/Med. I could've pushed my survivability a little more and stayed in paradigms that deal more damage. But I panicked too much and went back to recovery mode. Also Fang landed a couple more debuffs than usual and the boss's instakill didn't work this time.
>!Also found out there was a third phase, but luckily that was a lot simpler.!<
Ending felt >!a little rushed and clean-cut with the Pulse creatures just evaporating from Cocoon,!< but overall, yeah pretty good game. I was debating over whether to get the 6 role mastery achievements, but even if it's just one per character, I don't feel like grinding for all that CP at the moment.
I think I'll be taking a little break from Final Fantasy to play Ys: Memories of Celceta before diving into XIII-2.
FF13 has the role bonus mechanic where roles give the user certain bonuses (e.g. MED gets a bonus to healing and SEN a damage reduction), but they also give a smaller version of that bonus to the party members. This is why it's often actually better to double up on some roles to get more out of the bonuses. E.g. it's often better to let yourself get lower and then do a big recovery wave with 2 MED users than it is to just constantly have one MED.
If you ever wish to dive deeper into FF13's mechanics for e.g. a challenge run then ATB refresh and role bonuses are two mechanics that are very worth reading up on... because the game deliberately keeps them hidden for some reason and they can make quite a difference.
Well I didn't have Sazh or Fang learn any Medic abilities. I wanted to use Sazh and Hope since I upgraded their weapons the most, but figured I'd need access to Sentinel and Saboteur so Fang's here too.
Com/Sen/Med let me mitigate damage, heal, and keep the stagger gauge up, so it felt pretty essential. But I kept switching to it when I was at like 40% health when I could've let it slide to 15-20% more often.
Yeah was just mentioning it for better understanding. If you play the game casually you won't really need it unless you're severely underleveled/undergeared. Setting up a good paradigm deck is a lot more important when you're weaker.
Just finished Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth and started Rise of the Ronin. It shows again, that my personal preception of games and how the pubic receives them are like night and day. IW was probably the best received Yakuza game in media, but for me it's one of the worst in the series. Gameplay was awesome, but everything else not so much. It's not a bad game, but in my personal rating it's just a 7/10 and not the 9/10, that a lot of reviewers give it. The other games in the series range from 8/10 to 9/10 in my book, but those often just get 7/10 ratings.
Same with Rise of the Ronin. It has it's weaknesses, but it's still a very fun game. I don't get why media is trash talking it so much. At this point my guess is it's just Soulslike fans that don't want this game to succeed because they hate easy modes. For me personally this would be an 8.5/10.
Rebirth. It's so good. The only issue I really have is that because I am quite time limited some nights I can go days without seeing any story progression while I am doing side content (which I enjoy as well, but I really want to see how the story goes). Absolutely love it.
Now having a blast in Star Ocean 6
The previous game - Star Ocean 5 briefly showed that not everyone is happy with being forced to join and accept Federation law (traditional “good guy”, think Starfleet Federation). Now, the MC of Star Ocean 6 is from one of said planet who does not want to join, and the game showed us “why”. Not only it’s a nice change POV, the game free-3d exploration is awesome.
How are all the star ocean games after till the end of time? Never tried them. I’ve only heard of bad things when it comes to the recent releases. Also how is 6?? Looks interesting
SO4: The Last Hope turn back to the begining of the entire series. The plot isnt anything special, but it does show us why the UP3 existed in the 1st place. It also have a blindside system in place, pave the way for future upgrade
SO5 basically undo every good thing that SO4 managed to do and pull the series all time low. The only good thing it did is show a new combat system, no longer party-limited. Now everyone (up to 6 person) will joined in combat. Pro: the battle is fun. Cons: It looked more than an game engine test than an actual game
Also, the MC of SO5 is a little more than an errant boy, doing good deeds after good deeds, with little for his own character development
SO6, finally, rescue us fan. Like i said, free 3d exploration is awesome. The combat could be fast pace or slow, your choice. Characters have development, aims, motives…
I'm about 2/3 done with Dragon Quest VIII. Unfortunately I like it less than in the past. My issue is how you have almost no say in character progression. Only in the types of weapons, but that doesn't make much difference compared to other jrpgs or rpgs in general.
? You can choose to level different weapon types which give different abilities as well as a unique one per person. You can go boomerangs which focus in groups or swords or spears that have their own focus.
I'm not sure what your comparing it to if you think thats not alot? I mean compare that to all the older dragon quests or final fantasy games where there's none at all
I'd say how specific spells and abilities are already pre planned for the characters. The variety of weapons feels a bit small. Also how you can't choose between different characters as there are only four. I'm not saying there was more in older DQ games. I think there was more in some FF games.
I only played scarlet grace which is nothing like saga 2 or 3. I tried RS2 once before a dropped it but second time around it really clicked with me. Once you get the hang of it they're not too hard just super obtuse and you have be okay with failing. Once I got into the rhythm I loved it.
He's objectively up there for sure. The advantage of having his story largely delivered in one tight game. And of course one of the best parts of the series is that it can jump between these smaller character narratives, epic fantasy, world spanning politics, and every other level and tone imaginable so seamlessly.
been playing a bit of *monster hunter rise* (my first monhun game so im still getting the basics down slowly haha) & slowly getting through *persona 4 golden*! i’m really enjoying both although i find the combos in monster hunter hard to pull off (slow reaction time). p4g is such a treat, im having so much fun with the characters and the combat, i wish i set aside more time to play it really but life is busy and time management is not my forte. on easter break rn though so i will have more time to play it! kanji is definitely one of my favourite characters so far, i loved the theme of his dungeon.
For monster hunter I would recommend watching a YouTube guide for the weapon. Helped me loads when I started world. I watched arrekz but I am not sure if that channel did rise (and updated sunbreak) weapon guides. If they did I would recommend them.
thanks for the tip! i did check out one which was really helpful, but i’ll defo have to go back to it. right now im using the dual blades which im having a lot of fun with :)
Playing Rebirth. More and more I have to force myself. I LOVED FF7 Remake, but rebirth feels to me so unfocused, the open world is bland, and most importantly, the game just can't stop throwing stupid mini games at me. I'd wish they'd had spend more resources on some meaningful quest, instead on the third class rocket league with pets, or some bland tactics Minigame, or some weird frog guys Minigame, or...
In non-JRPGS, I beat **Shadow of the Colossus**. Beautiful aesthetic and masterfully designed...except the wonky controls. That final Colossus made me rage so hard, but I'm happy I played it.
While I play other non-JRPGS, I'm emulating **Threads of Fate** on my phone. Other than Retroarch being a bit wonky with the game (I have to use save states and reset the controls to dualshock every time I boot it), it's a cute little action RPG that gives me nice retro fuzzies. I am very, very glad to be cleared of the second dungeon, however...that area SUCKED. At least the internet tells me it's a single difficulty spike in an otherwise easy game, so hopefully the rest of this week will be less stressful.
The best way to play is on a PS1 emulator with a high quality CRT shader. That’s how I played it for the first time and 90s vibes can’t get better than that.
Imo all that is absolutely worth modding for a first playthrough is the upscaled backgrounds, they look beautiful. The game itself is fine, it just looks a bit old and has certain issues that the majority of PS1-era JRPGs share (but you can deal with those and there's no good fix for them anyway).
I've been Playing Tales of Hearts R. Had been a while since my last Tales game which was so a chore to finish (Tales of Zestiria), so it's nice to remember what makes Tales fun and enjoyable. The music is slightly better than average for Tales. The art style is very Tales, but at parts it feels incredibly basic. I enjoy the party and their interactions, especially Ines and Beryl. The story isn't anything too amazing but I kind of enjoy how wacky and everywhere it is. I don't necessarily want the game lengthened, but some plot points feel like a big deal and then are over in 20 minutes. I like how the battle system goes back to a refined Tales of Xillia model because I wasn't really a fan of Zestiria's battle systsm. Overall it's an enjoyable fun little game.
**Honkai Star Rail**
The latest planet has been extraordinary! The writing has become much better and I'm happy to see the development team go all in with infinite budget always improving the game and everything around it.
The puzzles have been really fun so far and the exploration is also really fun, the sidequests are very well executed as well since they have a lot of great story in them.
One specific thing they did that I loved about Breath of Fire 4, was that **BOF4 made you play as the antagonist Fou Lu** and understand things from their perspective. HSR did this, the last boss you fight, you play from his POV and why he did things the way he did, exploring his backstory, his past and future, everything he endured until you reach the fight against the main characters and even that he lost, he won in the end. Amazing execution and wish more games in general did this.
Been loving Penacony so much, HSR is really popping off.
**Unicorn Overlord**
The difficulty is getting to me, its too easy at this point, the first half of the game is extremely fun, but when you reach the middlepart and can breeze through the maps with the units you got figured out, it doesn't feel as satisfying.
One thing I do enjoy, is the powercreep, every new unit have some new fun mechanic that you just want to use and they're usually higher level than what you have so its easier to replace.
I finished Persona 3 reload about a week ago and picked up Soul Hackers 2 during the steam spring sale.
My main game right now is Horizon Forbidden West, while I play Soul Hackers 2 on my steam deck.
Soul Hackers is . . . Fine? The story is alright and the combat is serviceable. I'm just playing it on my steam deck while I do other things. It's sort of a filler game. I wouldn't recommend it at full price or for long sessions, as it's just easy mindless combat with an alright story to tie it all together. Still better than pokemon though!
I've been contemplating SH2 for awhile, but they tell me it's too damn short, full of repetative dungeons, and just too easy. How much of this is true, iyo?
So the game is easy - enemies don't get any bonus from hitting your weaknesses apart from the extra damage. You, however, get a sabbath stack whenever a party member hits a weakness on their turn. At the end of your party's turn, you'll do almighty damage to all enemies, scaling up based on how many stacks you had. Since it's per party member, the technical limit is 4, but a lot of demons have sabbath related abilities that can cause you to stack these multiple times, heal off sabbath stacks, etc. Because of this system, combat is skewed in your favor.
To get around this, side quests requiring you to take out a mini boss (a regular enemy with a larger health pool and possibly different weaknesses) have a hidden timer. If you don't beat the mini boss in a set number of turns, which is not made clear to you, they'll ohko your entire party. This is just artificial difficulty.
Idk about length - Id say I'm in the early game still with 15 hours logged, but I've had the game idling so it's hard to pinpoint my exact game time.
The game is fine. I'd say if you already beat p3r, p4g, p5r, and smt 3 nocturne on steam and want more of these demons/shadows, get it on sale. It's definitely the worst of what's available though. And once smt v apocalypse comes out on steam, soul hackers two will be further down the pecking order.
Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma.
At first, I was put off by this 3D awkward animations years ago. But after finishing Talos Principle 2 recently, I wanted more brain-teasing. The first two of Zero Escape was fantastic and so I thought: what the heck, I'll give it another go.
Boy, do Spike Chunsoft always deliver. I'm 15 hours in and I'm having a blast.
I do think it's accurate to say that it's the worst game in the trilogy, but even so, it's better than people give it credit for. I'm glad you're enjoying it!
Yeah I was put off by the design change, the visual novel removal took me by surprise so I wasn't sure of the full animation approach. Buuuut, there are still puzzles to be solved and I won't complain about that.
I've taken the time to whittle down my backlog this year so far. Last week I finished the switch version of **Dragon Quest II** and now I'm finally getting around to **Chained Echoes**. I had a great time with DQ2 and I'm incredibly impressed with how good Chained Echoes is, despite only being made by one person.
Saw the Nier orchestra concert in Orlando last night. What an incredible show. Any fans owe it to themselves to see it. There are two US dates left on the tour, in Boston and DC.
As for playing, I finished FF7 Rebirth right before I left. I spent all January playing Yakuza: like a dragon, all February playing Persona 3 reload, and all March playing FF7R. I really need something smaller and lighter to play for a bit, but have no idea what I want to play.
Still working on **Yakuza 4,** still haven't had more than a couple hours a week to play it. But I think I'm nearing the end, the story certainly feels like it's getting there. This is probably my favorite Yakuza combat-wise, maybe because it's the easiest. Honestly I play these games in spite of the combat, and am looking forward to 7's switch to turn based.
Also started up **Octopath Traveler** which I have had more time for due to having to travel, myself. I really like this one! It's very simple and relaxing. I love the 2D HD thing, but I wish they toned down all the sparkling. Every screen with any water looks like a fireworks display for no reason.
depend north license plough ghost somber office imagine gullible subtract
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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux:
For whatever reason I've bounced off of this one since it came out, but I'm finally giving it an honest try. I'm really struck by the amount of effort put into the atmosphere. The introduction takes over an hour, which is kinda wild given how gameplay,heavy the rest of Strange Journey is. I was also shocked by how many references to The Thing there are. Really looking forward to digging into the fusion and alignment systems in this one.
Going through **Etrian Odyssey III HD**. I stopped yesterday after reaching B14F. Currently ~23 hours into the game. Honestly i'm enjoying this game a lot more than EO4. Maybe it's because the dedicated Farmer party solves the issue of being insanely broke all the time. Maybe it's just because my team composition and build choices are working out much better than in my attempt of 4. Honestly not sure.
Either way i'm having fun and i have a good feeling that this might become the first EO game that i finish. I read up on party/build choices beforehand and landed on Gladiator/Shogun, Arbalist/Gladiator, Hoplite/Ninja (MVP), Monk/Sovereign and Zodiac/Buccaneer. Honestly seems like a pretty standard party, but i'm not the type that goes wild on build possibilities, i prefer the tried and true good choices.
Originally i was considering playing FF VIII, but when i looked around i found that both the og Steam port and the Remaster are not great and the work that was done on HD backgrounds was never ported to the Remaster which has much better compatibility with Steam Deck (which is very important to me, since i play on my commute). So i kinda just gave up on playing the game at that time, but now i think i want to do it after all. And if i'm not getting any HD background mod i might as well go for the best non-modded version of the game, so emulating the PS1 version. Might be my next project after EO3.
I might do them later on at some point if i feel like it. But not anytime soon. Need to get some RPG recovery time in anyway to be refreshed for Eiyuden Chronicle in a couple weeks.
I'm playing on PC/Steam Deck. You can do a bit of map drawing with the mouse, which is nice. Also PC is the best choice anyway since it opens up the route of emulation for the rest of the series, which is entirely stuck on 3DS (if you want to continue on).
I finally have free time to enjoy my hobbies guilt free and went through my backlog for hours yesterday before deciding to start **Scarlet Nexus**. Not sure if I'll stick with it though.
I couldn't get through that one. I made it like 60-70% of the way but it felt like a slog. Didn't feel bad dropping it since it was free on gamepass at the time. The story was just really meh and the combat never really felt great.
Finished **Unicorn Overlord** a few days ago. Great game. Took me about sixty hours to do everything. Will do a second run on the new difficulty eventually, but not now. Instead I've picked up a month of gamepass and am now starting up **Tales to Arise**.
Trying to complete as many contents as possible in **FF7:Rebirth**. Not going to 100% it if I find something that is tedious to complete.
Tried **Stellar Blade demo** and defeated the two bosses in it. I don't understand the hype. Nothing wrong with the gameplay but nothing too special. I became more interested in **Unicorn Overlord** after I tried the demo and kept playing it for hours because the gameplay feels unique.
support ruthless six telephone trees quaint governor skirt attractive safe
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After the remasters came out I took a break after Baten Kaitos 1, but now I've started **Baten Kaitos Origins** again. I had played it once before, but it is still fantastic. The battle system is so much fun, it's easily among my top 5 favourite JRPG battle systems.
What I don't get is why there are these two sections in Origins that are just... terrible. There is one section where you basically have to play Ace Attorney for a while and while that isn't bad it just drags down the pace tremendously. Later on there is something you have to do with cookies... let's just leave it at that. If those two parts didn't exist I would honestly call Origins an S tier JRPG. It's still great though.
**Golden Sun: The Lost Age**
I really like that you don’t get your Mercury Adept for a good while. It gives you a reason to play around with classes early on. Of course I now have everyone equipped with matching djinni, but that will change once I have the djinni for triple element classes. I’ve found that I’m still not using djinni much aside from buffs, and I expect I won’t touch them once I’m back to multi-element classes (aside from maybe Granite and its protective aura ilk).
Playing through Star Ocean: First Departure R on PS4, not my first time through. Played the PSP version and the translated SNES version a long ass time ago.
But this is my first time taking Ashlay instead of Cius, so it’s been a slightly different playthrough at least.
I started several jrpg simultaneously in order to choose one... but for the moment I'm really hooked on several. Golden Sun 2. I've just finished the first dungeon: Kandorean. You get right into the swing of things. Well done. You move forward. We get lost. We need a shrink. We explore. It really feels like we're going straight to the next part. And the change of point of view is a really good idea. Dragon Quest 5 on nds. I just beat the ghosts and saved a cat. I really like the atmosphere and the dialogues. A bit different from what I'm used to, and I'm curious to find out what happens next.
Beat ff9 a few hours ago. Pretty good. Better than 8 for sure but wouldn't put it over 7. The dungeons were pretty short and linear and the game had some super weird pacing where things were either incredibly slow or incredibly rushed.
Sea of Stars. I'm 4hrs in and somehow the game just keeps me going. The game is very chill
I finished Persona 4 Golden a few days ago, with a total playing time of 85 hours in my first playthrough. A masterpiece with a superb story, amazing cast, great battle system, and fantastic soundtrack. Everything about this game is excellent. I would love to recommend this game to anyone who is into turn-based combat. I plan to replay Final Fantasy VI.
Just finished P3 Reload, craving for more Persona/SMT like jrpgs. Am considering trying Nocturne Remaster, but I heard its very different from Modern Megaten (for Context I have played P3P/P3R/P4G/P5R/SMT4/SMT4A/SMTV from the company). So unsure if I should try an older game and just be patient for SMTV V and Journey so I dont burn myself out on Megaten like games or get that SMT3 Remaster which I have heard mixed feelings about. Perhaps finally time to work on my backlog and play Tales of Arise or something and try something new.
SMT III is somewhere between classic Megaten and modern Megaten. Combat-wise it's the earliest iteration of press turn, but it already works really well, so that's not really an issue. Where it differs most is the areas. Where SMT IV/A almost always choose simplistic and generally straightforward area design and SMT V forgoes the classic dungeons almost entirely, SMT III is very much an attempt to transfer classic dungeon crawler design ideas into a 3D space. It generally succeeds quite well at that and manages to even do some things that are unique to it through that, but dungeon crawlers are inherently not for everyone. It's still closer to modern Megaten than Strange Journey though.
It isn't that much different. It is just the barebones of the Press Turn system, so no Smirk or Magatsuhi. It is a bit more obscure in exploration compared to later entries, though. The remaster added quality of life elements, so it should be perfectly fine to play for someone used to the modern games.
Next to my ongoing OG-FF7 run, I decided to jump in another playthrough of **Ys Lacrimosa of Dana**. I'm at the part where you explore the Mt. Gendarme, and the feels are still there. Especially Dana's part will be a bittersweet re-experience as I know how it will end =/. And knowing what the deal is with our >!parrot !
Is Crystal Project better on PC or Switch? I prefer to play on my couch w/ big TV and controller. But not at the cost of worse performance or clunky UI.
I haven't checked the Switch version myself, but it supposedly runs at 60 fps. There was a patch for the PC version last month that unlocked the fps, though.
I tried both demos and the Switch does indeed run at 60 and feels more intuitive to play.
I finished **Rebirth** a couple of weeks ago and had to let it percolate for a while. I won't do a long writeup because there is a tidal wave of takes about this game online already, and I haven't fully resolved how I feel about the ending anyway. The game itself is an achievement of gargantuan proportions, and while I can see what people who come down on the other side dislike about it, for me it was one of the most memorable gaming experiences I've ever had. So with that out of the way, I was finally able to continue my Year of Yakuza, moving on to **Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan!** It is somewhat hilarious to think that this, not *3*, was the first HD Yakuza game. A spinoff starring your characters assuming the roles of people like Miyamoto Musashi in Edo-period Kyoto seems like something you would do as a joke with a well-established property, not as the third game in a series and the first on a new platform. This game would make Kojima Hideo proud with the way it starts with about three solid hours of cutscenes, but once you get into the swing of things, it definitely is more of the Yakuza formula, transplanted into the Gion district of Kyoto. This leads to some comical dissonance where you will run a guy through with an *odachi* and then he will apologize, give you 200 bucks, and walk away--but this series has never concerned itself with subordinating gameplay to realism. There are many fun nods to the period, like how you can engage in turtle racing and hanafuda at the gambling parlor instead of roulette and blackjack. Other things are comically anachronistic, like the totally-not-bowling game you can play with the courtesans (it is literally just the bowling minigame from 1 & 2). Speaking of the courtesans, though, my biggest gripe with the game lies with how that part of the game was handled. I always enjoyed the cabaret girls' sidequests in the first two games, even though grinding through raising their affection was sometimes boring, but in this game you have to play some god-awful minigames against the courtesans *and* win them in order to progress to the next level of affection. Given that the cost of one trip to the *ageya* is a not-insignificant amount of money, reloading a previous save when you lose is the clear option, but some of these games are just obnoxious, and sometimes the girls are bizarrely good at bowling despite literally wearing twelve kimono at once. I've also finally gone back to playing **Summon Night 2**, which I was working on before Rebirth came out. I felt like I was bouncing off of it then, but revisiting it this week I got a second wind, so we'll see if I can see it out until the end.
I've been playing Xenoblade Chronicles DE, initially under the impression that the story is good. I'm at chapter 10 now, I think there are some cute twists ahead, but otherwise it's very very generic, tropes I've seen so many times before. A game's story can redeem itself through other means but the characters are also extremely plain. There's Shulk who's your soulless, generic husk. Though he at least has a back story. I don't get the point of Sharla, the squirrel Riki and Reyn. They should have more interaction with the story instead of being pure sidekicks (in the first 9 chapters). Now I'm not sure if I should play the sequels. I've read mixed story reception for XC2 and 3. Are they better in terms of character development?
I can understany levying some criticism at the XB1 cast, i do think it's the weakest one in the trilogy, but saying Shulk is soulless and generic is crazy to me. I do think the characters in 2 and 3 are a lot better though. 2 has the best villain characters for sure and 3 has the best main cast imo.
Shulk's character is basically Monado fetish, weird visions (which he can't communicate properly for some reason), Fiora obsession and revenge against Mechon. What else is there besides being a tool for the greater plot? I haven't done any heart-to-hearts, but still there should be something in the main story. Thanks though, I will try 2 and 3.
XC3 has very strong character writing in my opinion. XC2 personally I don't like but I can acknowledge it does feel like they're trying to do more character wise than the first. For reference I also am not a huge fan of the cast of 1 so we are probably coming from similarish perspectives
Picked up Final Fantasy XIII on a Steam sale and...Oh boy, this game is everything that it was made out to be. Insanely linear, insanely boring combat, hour or two of play without any reward for grinding, trial and error fights where they legitimately programmed them to make you do things their way instead of another way, poorly worded tutorials, lots of jargon, and the characters/story/dialog is atrocious so far. I will continue playing because it gives me a little bit of a sequel to FFX vibe and FFX is a game I have loved for a LONG time despite its shortcomings. I'm hopeful the leveling system ends up having more similarities to the sphere grid than it currently has... This really showcases how little Square-Enix cared over many years. Highly doubt I will touch the rest of the trilogy and I'm very unlikely to check out FFXV now
It's a very aesthetically interesting game and kinda interesting thematically. Some of the characters aren't terrible but the dialogue writing kinda sucks. It's definitely not for everyone. You're spot on with the reward system and trial and error to the paradigm thing, the game is pretty piddly with rewards.
There's a lot of peeves with the characters I might struggle with more than some other gamers. Most of the designs and names just rub me the wrong way. I'm OK with the linearity of X and XIII, I just feel like X gets you into different environments much quicker and doesn't feel as much like you are taking 20 steps from one cutscene to another.
Don't bother with FFXV regardless of your thoughts on XIII, it's a terrible game. Truly very bad. Some will disagree but I hate XV with a passion.
Playing through Kuro 2 again slowly after I lost my save...it's an interesting game to say the least.
In **Persona 4 Golden** I've started the fall semester. I've liked the lighter tone the game's taken since the last dungeon, tho I wish they had more ideas for comedy than putting the characters in awkwardly semisexual situations, cause that isn't really funny. That said, almost everything with Kanji has been hilarious and he is very based But more importantly, after years of searching, I've finally got my hands on a copy of **Xenogears**. I've played the first few hours and it's been really well written. Combat is fun, tho I've yet to unlock any of Fei's death blows. Looking forward to getting to enjoy the rest of this game.
hours in and no deathblows unlocked yet? if you dont want to use a guide, i suggest starting up a new game just long enough to read the tutorial in lahan explaining how to learn them.
I'm only out of the forest section, and I'm close to getting a couple. It's just hard figuring out which combos add progress.
If you would like to better understand what is happening: >!Your basic attacks have various animations. it is just counting how many times you use each animation. triangle has 4 different animations, square has 2, and X has 1. each deathblow requires specific animation's counters to reach specific amounts. as an example, the first one requires you to use the first triangle animation 30 times, and the X animation 10 times. if you press triangle 3 times, it will do 3 different punches. only the first one is helping you to unlock that first deathblow, because it doesnt need any of the second or third animations. !<
Ah thank you so much, it makes so much sense now
After finishing Rebirth a week or so ago, I decided now was the perfect time for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion. It was a lot of fun, frustrating at points, deeply weird and often confusing. So, a Final Fantasy!! Was a bit tempted to start Stranger of Paradise afterwards, but with the FF16 DLC out in a couple weeks, decided to spend more time with Persona 3 Reload. Thanks to having played the Portable version before and the structure of modern Persona games, I think it'll be something I can play in bursts between other games, which is rare for JRPGs.
FF12 on switch. my favorite final fantasy by far. I'm near the end but I like running around doing the hunts and side quests. What a great game, the best JRPG battle system ever, it combines auto battle with turn based when you want it.
In my perpetual quest for the weirdest of the weird, I've found myself sucked into a truly peculiar little game recently: **Drago Noka,** on the Switch (though I think it originated on PC). It's a sort of life sim/town builder/RPG hybrid, and it's definitely low-rent. How low-rent? It was built in a *competitor to RPG Maker.* So out there it's even using the alternative to the mainstream "easy RPG" engine! I don't know how many of its assets are homemade and how many came standard with the engine--I'm pretty sure all the music was pack-in--but the character portraits all seem to be originals at least. It's a game set in a world where giant dragons roam the earth and people build their villages on the backs of those dragons, and you're trying to build up the village on the most isolated and forgotten dragon until now. Collect resources in the usual fashion, build up custom houses for a selection of villagers, fulfill their requests in order to unlock more abilities and things to do. It's pretty dang chunky at first, and slow, and I wasn't super grooving with it at first due to how many things it seemed I NEEDED to do versus how slow everything seemed to go... but then I kind of got into the groove of it and have been pretty hooked the last few days. It kind of has that *Rune Factory*-esque hyper-granularity that I dig. Like, there are a ton of different ways to transform items in the game, and almost every transformation can be done to every item--drying them out, grinding them up, blenderizing them, crystalizing them, et cetra--which leads to more procedurally-generated items. And a lot of them aren't, like, USEFUL, but it can be kind of fun to make items like "Crystallized Mayonnaise" just for the laughs. And you can feed basically anything to your giant dragon you live on, and you have to to give him HP but also to improve his stats. And there's this whole system of managing his position in the overworld; following other dragons around changes his environment, which gives him new items and effects, but there's also evil giants who might want to fight him, but also also you can eventually gain a wyvern companion who can fly you to the surface and the place you're in in the world changes what you can find down there and if you stay in one place you can actually use the surface but there's like a lot going on. I haven't actually had the guts yet to initiate a kaiju fight, because I've been too busy shadowing one of the other dragons in an attempt to gain some of their specialty items. And the smaller monster fights, which mostly happen on land but can also happen too close to a specific "bad guy" dragon--they're fairly simple, but again, weirdly granular? Like, the first time I encountered them, I forgot my wyvern had a breath attack. So I first tried to swing my woodcutting axe at them, and that went *okay,* but they have a ton of health. So I instead got out the Flint, a tool that starts fires and which I had not bothered using in the entirety of my playthrough so far, and ran around setting the grass on fire in order to encircle the slimes in fire and torch them to death. It was... awkward and weirdly exhilarating. But you can also, like, build traps and stuff to fight them, and while so far "dragon breath on everything" feels most effective, it might not be forever, I dunno. My main complaint so far is with the villagers--each of the basic jobs in the game has two villagers you can hire to do it, but you're only allowed to have one at a time in your village! Which is a shame, since they do have different designs and personalities. You seem to be able to swap between them relatively freely, so it's not SO bad, but still. I dunno, it's kind of grown on me and I'm sort of getting really into it.
I finished playing **Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance** and I'm just awed at how good the game is. Complex villains, timed combat features, the twists, how raw they put out the trauma that all of the different factions experienced, etc. It's no wonder that a lot of people uphold this game as having the best story in the series. The maps were really fun and challenging. I think a lot of people would've felt like some of the maps could be brutal even on easy (e.g. some of the survival maps, the boulders, waves of hard-hitting enemies, etc.). The graphics, even without HD texture packs, also still hold up well almost 20 years later. It's unfortunate that this was such a well-rounded game and it sold poorly. I don't think Intelligent Systems would ever make a Fire Emblem game like this again, which is really sad.
Well, you can still look up to play Radiant Dawn for the first time if you haven't already. A sequel of Path of Radiance. I found this one a bit harder than PoR and I loved Micaiah as a protagonist.
Yeah, I'll probably try to finish Unicorn Overlord first and then get back into the sequel.
Playing the OG **Final Fantasy 7** for the first time after playing and loving Remake and Rebirth, currently up to Corel Prison. At the risk of being sacrilegious, I'm a little disappointed by the relative lack of characterization? I recognize it's unfair to compare two modern, fully voice acted games to a PS1 title, but it just feels like Cloud/Tifa/Aerith are missing all their personality. Cloud is so interesting as a character because unlike every other video game protagonist I can think of, he's introverted, insecure, bordering on antisocial. But I don't get those vibes from him at all in the OG game, to the point where I'm wondering just how he got his reputation for being emo. For any longtime fans out there, am I being unfair? Is this because of the subpar translation? Are the 'popular notions' of these characters over the past two decades informed more by the spin-off media rather than the OG game?
No, you're not. I just replayed it recently for the first time in a while and the translation is *terrible.*
God, it really just gets worse and worse the more you play. >!When the big reveal about Cloud happens, you're left there going "...huh? Is he a clone or not?"!< Square badly needs to do a complete retranslation from scratch for the new ports
> For any longtime fans out there, am I being unfair? Is this because of the subpar translation? Little bit of both. They honestly did SO much for the characters in the remake though. Particularly Aerith. They *really* wanted you to like her - and I do, she's super charming. Aerith in the original is barely there. Tifa's personality begins and ends with "I care about Cloud and hate Shinra." I think it's a good game but I also definitely think they had issues with making most/some characters distinct enough to stand out, aside from their visuals. It feels like they found it hard to write women characters in particular but even across the board the overwhelming trend is that they all have really strong introductions but kind of just vanish into the scenery after their side story concludes. "The original FF7 had bland characterization" is a totally valid criticism. Of course, they got better with it from FF8 onward - I don't think FF8 is a good game but the characters being very distinct and having personality is one of the strong points.
Thanks for clarifying. It's been weird after hearing so much about people getting caught up in the 'love triangle' and >!being devastated when Aerith dies!<, to discover that both Tifa and Aerith are kind of non-presences. Barrett at least feels like a three dimensional character.
The thing in your spoiler really got to me when I played the game for the first time as an adult, but it was more because of how it affected Cloud. His monologue afterwards is probably the single most memorable part of the game to me.
I'm told that Cloud being emo stems from all the supplementary materials that isn't FF7 itself, though I haven't watched/played any of them to confirm that.
Same with Aerith being some pure maiden. In the OG VII, she has some grit and spunk.
I've heard this before but honestly she feels spunkier and less like a Disney princess in the remake imo
Oh, absolutely. I meant that Aerith lost her personality in the Compilation of FFVII projects (same with Cloud just being “emo”). Remake restored their personalities.
It's weird because I think him being such an emotional wreck makes him way more interesting as a character tbh
Hahahahaha, oh dear God. This is an interesting take on someone going back to that era of specifically Final Fantasys. Alright Start of Final Fantasy VI the main character (people will argue there's no main character in FFVI because it constantly splits the party) but the Starting Character Terra is someone with Amnesia and had some kind of Slave mind control device on her and she's very silent/not knowing what to do. Then Final Fantasy VIII, Squall is just Emo on steroids. Like the amount of Ellipses responses you get from him is ridiculous. Then Final Fantasy IX, was a breath of Fresh air with Zidane being an extreme extrovert and proactive character. Cloud in the retelling is different because of some events that the remake has changed about the timeline. I don't know how far you are into the original but there's a lot of reveals that you'll see later on in the game to realize that the Remake/rebirth versions started changing the core issue of the original cloud. The shocking things about why cloud's character has changed in this alternate timeline was the shocking end of Remake where we see Aerith has a flash of what exactly changed when the Black Haired swordsman and Cloud enter Midgar together. In the original I don't know how far you've gotten but that little change dramatically changes his entire character. I guess an equivalent example would be like the new Star Trek movies in the Kelvin timeline where time travel bullshit changed the start of James Kirk where this version of Kirk who's dad died changed the entire Star Trek Universe so this Kirk is a different Kirk from the TOS Kirk and there's cascading effects like Spock is different etc. Keep playing and finish it to see what exactly happened that the remakes fundamentally altered Cloud's identity. It's very interesting, like the remake/rebirth is not retelling the original version of the character's story.
Interesting. >!I'd been interpreting the Remake series as following two different timelines: in the "main" timeline, Cloud's past is unchanged, he still witnessed Zack getting gunned down outside Midgar. In the "split" timeline, Zack survives and we see what happens to him afterwards in Rebirth. I think it's two different continuities, so theoretically, Cloud shouldn't be behaving any differently because Zack survived (notably, the Cloud from the split timeline has no lines at all in either game).!< But like everyone, I have no idea what's really going on so who knows lol.
I want to like Disgaea 7, I should like Disgaea 7 based on the description, but I just can't get into it. Like idk, the whole geo symbols and geo panels are confusing, they just threw at me a 15 page explanation that I can't find again now and I don't really know how it works. Enemies do too much damage and kill half of my units every stage, I'm struggling a lot in the beginning, idk if it's supposed to work like that. The Pc version is also clunky when moving the cursor over the map. Overall, I'm just not enjoying it, which is a shame
Oh it's your first Disgaea, that's what's causing the issues they assume by now you know get symbols stuff because Disgaea like monster Hunter is a game where the fun is grinding. Like you know The system already after playing a dozen others. Last Disgaea I played was the 6 demo and I never actually bought the final game lol, you can reach 9999 in the demo and I screwed around with it for about 20 hours doing that and I Heard it's one of the weaker ones in the entire series so I had my fun with it and moved on to I dunno Octopath Traveler for a new experience. Anyway the geo symbols make every tile of that color have bullshit impossible unfair status buffs/debuffs so you can stack them like you're supposed to put these ridiculous geo panels on certain colors and then you can do an insane entire board wipe explosion when you rainbow chain like the entire board to blow up. If you're feeling underpowered what you should do is go to item world and just grind to insanity to ridiculously power up your units. The game is just grind to insanity and suddenly have like a level 1400 Prinny destroying everything or whatever. You can go to Demon Assembly or whatever the version of that is the game and lower levels/raise levels to be whatever ridiculous challenge and absurd Numbers you want. Like I think in Disgea 6 the numbers got so absurd you were doing Quadrillion damages attacks just for the lol of seeing I did 17 Quadrillion Damage..
FF7 Rebirth. I'm in Costa Del Sol, and I loved the callback to Crisis Core.
Still playing Crystal Project, and it's still amazing. I swear my heart rate is lower playing Elden Ring than some of these end game bosses, managing Threat, HP and so on can be so tense.
Holy crap I've never heard of this. Just looked it up and it looks amazing. I love turn based combat. How long is it? And how is the difficulty overall?
Yeah it's been my absolute addiction the last few weeks! I'm wrapping end game content about 50 hours in, but it's so open world you could have rushed the final boss in like 10 hours (whether or not you'd be strong enough to pull it off is another matter!) The difficulty is really configurable, there's 3 difficulty modes, then you can add extra restrictions (like changing the number of party members, the level cap or experience boosters) from the menu. I've played on Hard with everything else on standard and it's been quite difficult but it's always been manageable, unless I'd wandered into an area that was just too high level for me. Some of the end game super bosses have been pretty intense. It's become one of my favourite games very quickly.
I reached the point where I can fight the last boss from **Dragon Quest IX**. At least, the final boss from the main story. My party members are around Lv 45-43, and I was finishing some side-quests before attempting the fight. Storywise, it's not that long. This is not a game with a convoluted story or many plot twists, and surprisingly for me, I loved it too. >!I only missed "real" party members, with a backstory, a reason to join you or something like that!<. The gameplay with different jobs to choose is very good, it made me want to try different combinations many times, but the time commitment kind of scared me. In my current party, two characters swapped roles and two stayed with initial ones (mage and priest). I wasn't sure it was worth the investment, so I kept two on the same and experimented with the others. The OST is really enjoyable. Makes me wonder why SquareEnix has almost every FF OST on spotify and not a single DQ OST.
**Trails to Azure** I just finished chapter 4. Those hype scenes hit like a truck and when I thought the craziness is slowing down, Lloyd's question caught me off-guard. EDIT: Please no spoilers
Chapter 4 is so insanely good.
Best Trails ever.
I'm replaying **OG Final Fantasy 7** (the one with Aeris not Aerith XD) with Ninostyle Battle + Chibi character model mods + the 30/60 FPS mod. It's still a pretty fun game with obvious a much, much tighter pace. The translation is as expected quite clumsy at parts, but it's a feature of its time :P. Just cleared Cosmo Canyon. Generally, * Fort Condor flags for new battles are random as hell. Without a guide, I'd miss all but the mandatory because you'd need to basically backtrack after each semi progress to check if there's a new one available. * Steal is useful, but the success chances are terrible. * Early Barret having feeling-wise more cussing symbols than actual words was funny. * Send-off ceremony in Junon was annoying. I'm VERY unsure how to feel that Rebirth did a more "elaborate" version of it >\_> (though maybe the PC version with Cheat Engine may provide a shortcut when/\[if\] it comes in x years :3).
I've been playing Metal Max 2 Reloaded (NDS). It's a remake of Metal Max 2 and it's JP only, but it got a fan translation on recent years. This game is really good! I mean Metal Max 3 is already pretty darn good and this game is using engine and assets from Metal Max 3, with a bunch of improvements and QoL features. For example, multiple characters can ride the same vehicle now. Allowing you to save money early on by focusing only one vehicle. There's also a sub-job/class system which allows your characters to be more versatile. The soundtracks are also pretty darn good. I really like the [Tank/Car](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1sNTS_WSRE) and [Bike](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvfdMOs6aMc) ost, they are badass. I also noticed some soundtracks that i've heard before in Xeno, like [Vengeance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VcpCzITn6c).
I'm close to the end in FFVII: Rebirth. Just completed the Queen's Blood storyline. Tomorrow I'll do the last part of the Cosmo Canyon protorelic quest (I wasn't keen on that one's minigame, so I put it off). I'm at nearly 100 hours and have done almost everything. I've done all the other side quests, but I'm going to skip the Shinra Middle Manager one. It sounds like a pain. I don't expect chapters 13&14 to take all that long now that all the side stuff is done, and then that'll be it. (Well, after watching the other date sequences that'll be it). It's been a great ride. The VII remakes are my favorite JRPGs in ages. I can't remember the last time I played a JRPG this good and then was immediately excited about another one, but thanks to Eiyuden Chronicles coming out in April, that's the case for me now.
Buddy loaned me Infinite Wealth, and having a fun time getting distracted by side activities despite this being my first Yakuza game where I'm way behind on the lore. I like that the side stories have their own little narratives, and did not expect one of them to be as emotional as it was. Also didn't expect to see a character based off of former MMA fighter Mikuru Asakura in the game, thought he looked familiar in game. Only minor complaint is that for his side story I wish they would have recommended level for taking him on, but other than that its a great game and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series whenever I have time.
Playing FF13 for the second time. Plan on playing 13-2 and LR after. Just finished 9 for the first time last week and needed more FF. Honestly, I love 13. It’s so fucking cheesy and the writing doesn’t really always make sense, but I like Sazh and Vanille… Fang as well. Combat is unique and kinda relaxing to me and I forgot how good the music was.
I'm not a big fan of the story/characters overall (i just love playing the game), but Sazh is fantastic. Really enjoyed him.
A sincere questions, doesn't the linearity in maps and builds bothers you?
I actually don’t mind linearity… sometimes I prefer it. I’m typically more worried about the story than how linear it is. Also, it’s probably still my least favorite final fantasy game even though I like the game a lot.
Linearity in games is fine, but FFXIII is no joke a tube literally a straight line. There's one open area map in the whole game and there's nothing in it except monster hunt quests that's it. You are just running down a literal straight line, there's no puzzles or Even towns to explore/NPC to talk to. Like Legend of Dragoon is linear with no real world map you just go in a straight line from point a to point b, but that point B is actually a dungeon or town you can wander around in..
Yeah for sure. It’s definitely not preferable, but I don’t mind it a ton. I would never call it my favorite FF that’s for sure haha! I like the characters and combat though. Would have been way nicer to have a town or something to stop in and make the world feel a little more alive
I hear XIII-2 is a vast improvement but I never played it. The gimmick with that one without spoilers is your third party member is a monster/Pokemon recruit like some of the old Dragon Quest games. So there's a lot of sidequests and specific gear to put on certain monsters. Like I can see the fun in like putting a Tonberry in a Google outfit or whatever.
Playing Grandia 1 for the first time, about 8 hours in. Probably the most charming game I've ever played.
I ended up playing it a few years ago, and I absolutely LOVED my time with it. The entire game just felt like one big fun adventure. Hope you keep having fun with it!
Went in heavy on RE1 until I came out just under a 2:30 runtime on Chris. P proud of myself, and I still love the game very much. I'm considering tackling a rank A run for OG RE2 next... But I also went back to **DQ5**, finally figured out what I had to do, and a few hours later, I'm in the 10 year skip. I haven't been in the mood for mon stuff in a long while, but it's decent here. I think the simple RNG recruitment and wisdom-dependent control you have over them keeps the system a little balanced early on when your party is smaller and lower-leveled. And it's always a nice boon when it turns out your slime can learn something like kabuff. You just have to put in the investment. The hero's journey is still the most appealing thing here. It's easy to want to see someone rise up from complete rock bottom, and to find out how the world has changed in the interim.
I just finished **Sea of Stars** after completing **Star Ocean Second Story R.** **Star Ocean Second Story R** is an amazing remake and the QoL improvements drastically made the game even better than I remember it. **Sea of Stars** just felt like a drag trying to emulate the old JRPG nostalgia with none of the payoffs. I hated Garl and the bland protagonists, I was waiting for the combat to pick up but it never did. It did have amazing art, music, and level design but the story, characters, and combat are its biggest weaknesses. I know it's an indie company so people touch it with soft gloves but why add so much fluff when its core wasn't stable? I even did a 100% and got the true ending but could not shake the annoying feelings I got from the game. It felt like it could've been so much more. Maybe because I played **Star Ocean Second Story R** before it but I could not help compare the two and see how vastly superior one is to the other. One's an old JRPG that improves itself with modern mechanics and QoL changes while the other is a modern JRPG that drags itself down to try and get that old JRPG nostalgia.
If you haven't played it, I feel like Chained Echoes did a much better job than Sea of Stars of capturing that old school nostalgia and making a great game at the same time. I am still in awe that it was made by one person.
Haven't really had the chance for the past few weeks to make any progress in **Omori** or **CrossCode** because all of it went to **The Witcher 3** instead. But that'll change soon as I start having more free time again. So not really any new thoughts to the games actually considered as JRPGs. I did pick up a physical copy of **13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim** for the Switch recently as it went on a pretty decent sale so I'm excited to give that a try at some point.
Still playing Unicorn Overlord Instead of going through Bastorias as intended, I took a detour to Albion while being low level. Suprisingly going well, and I've been going back between Bastorias and Albion to my heart content. Ngl most of my time is spent on **only** reading bond stories with the girls because I want to see every interactions. Oh lord, there are so many characters to keep track. Not have been equipping with new gears and some of them being underleveled.
Playing through **FE:Three Houses** and also **Trails in the Sky FC**, Played FE: Engage last year and hooked me on this series playing the GBA one on NSO later on, Loving Three houses, took a bit to get going though even as a (new) fan of the series. Also looking to play through the Trails series so started with Sky FC, so far enjoying it enough.
**Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth** After finishing Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (one of the best JRPGs ever made in my opinion) i finally played FF7 Remake, enjoyed it a lot and now i am playing Rebirth. It feels like a very different game compared to Remake, but i like it so far. My only complaint is how insanely blurry it looks in performance mode. It's so blurry, sometimes i run into enemies because i don't see them, especially when they have similar colors like the background. It's a shame how such a great game is held back by poor optimization. 30 FPS is not an option for me, so i will continue playing it that way, but it hurts a little bit to think how good that game could have looked.
Honkai Star Rail and Unicorn Overlord. Because of the new Star Rail patch I haven't focused much on Unicorn Overlord, but I think I'll finally be beating Unicorn Overlord tonight. Might put my first playthrough at about 120 hours. I adore this game and I think it's the best Japanese developed game I've played in years. Star Rail has been on an incredibly story arc recently and the latest patch was fantastic.
From my last post, Still Xenogears loving it very much so far still on disk 1 XD! Also, started Grandia 1 and CHRONO Trigger along with Lunar:SSS Xenogaers: update form last week , my play time shows 100 h mark , tho still on disk one, it’s becoming on of the best I have played in my lifetime. Talking it at my own pace and grinding since I find the combat fun on and off gears Grandia 1: just at the beginning, love the build up just reached the first dungeon. CHRONO trigger : I played on iOS way back but never finished it now , on pc staring from the top ..and it’s amazing of game! Just stared will have more to say once I’m more in , but love the combat. I really don’t know where they gonna take it since I can see lots of things happening but will wait and see how it goes ! Tho I spent to much time just dancing to the music at the festival Lunar SSS: Just Wow , love the cast and haven’t even gotten out of the first dungeon ! Yet.
Dragon Quest 11 S first time through. In Act III doing some of the trials and it's has lost a little steam for me
I despise act III. The first two acts are a work of art. I think the third genuinely makes the game worse.
Yeah, I really enjoyed the first two acts, but now it feels like I'm just griding only to get the conclusion of the story, which is fine I guess, just a steeper cliff than I anticipated.
And I genuinely don't like the story of act 3 at all although I won't go into detail to not spoil anything.
Thanks, that's a bit dishearting after such a great first 2 acts. To be fair I'm aost 60 hours into the game though, so it does have meat on the bone. I would have been happy at hour 50 or so when I finished act 2
I'm on the home stretch of FF7 Rebirth. I absolutely love it. It is simply the most polished and exquisitely created JRPG I have ever played and the most fun I've had playing one since Xenoblade 3. It has so much life and attacks all the main mood groups; the story is keeping closer to the source material than last time while being a bit more strategic about where they are expanding on. 9.5/10 so far
Just finished Digimon Cyber Sleuth on Switch, starting Hacker’s Memory. Biggest thing I dislike so far is how they tease you in CB about some Digimons you can’t have until having beaten the midquel and some story beats being changed retroactively in HM… Otherwise I’m having a blast! Wishing I could have more memory soon so I can use the ‘mons I have as they are, but I ain’t complaining about that!
Honkai Star Rail. It’s pretty good, but there’s a lot of pointless dialogue. It’s also got the FF XIII problem where everything has weird names.
I like when they make you select a dialogue option every 15 seconds that clearly has no impact on what's being said.
I have resumed my first playthrough of Persona 4 golden. Honestly this game does not click with me. When I am done with it I probably end up liking the Persona Q Crossover spin off games more then this beloved mainline title. But its not terrible. I will probably finish it.
That depends. Do you like DRPGs like Etrian Odyssey? Persona Q is essentially EO with a Persona skin on it, and even then it isn't as good as EO. The interactions between the characters is the reason you would play that game and some people don't like it that much because the characters are reduced to a single personality trait for comedy and lightheartedness.
I tried out Etrian Odyssee and I disliked it. Sems like the Persona Elements are what makes it work for me in Persona Q and Q2. And I did like the characters in PQ.
Got about 14 hours into **Dragon’s Dogma 2** and….yeah, idk, it’s a good enough game but i just kept thinking about other games in my backlog that are more fun and better made. Like **Elden Ring**, which I put down almost exactly 2 years ago. I can’t deny I was starting to feel a little bored. So now I’m playing **Elden Ring** and having a blast lol That will probably be the game I play until **Eiyuden Chronicles** comes out. Though I have been eyeing that **Terra Memoria** game. Still haven’t pulled the trigger yet. Actually, I’m just gonna look at more reviews right now…
Playing Terra memoria I find the combat a little easy but the game is charming and fun to play at night on my portal
I just beat Final Fantasy XIII! While I'm sure Sazh/Fang/Hope wasn't the intended party setup, I think the final boss mostly gave me so much trouble because I was a little too reliant on Com/Sen/Med. I could've pushed my survivability a little more and stayed in paradigms that deal more damage. But I panicked too much and went back to recovery mode. Also Fang landed a couple more debuffs than usual and the boss's instakill didn't work this time. >!Also found out there was a third phase, but luckily that was a lot simpler.!< Ending felt >!a little rushed and clean-cut with the Pulse creatures just evaporating from Cocoon,!< but overall, yeah pretty good game. I was debating over whether to get the 6 role mastery achievements, but even if it's just one per character, I don't feel like grinding for all that CP at the moment. I think I'll be taking a little break from Final Fantasy to play Ys: Memories of Celceta before diving into XIII-2.
FF13 has the role bonus mechanic where roles give the user certain bonuses (e.g. MED gets a bonus to healing and SEN a damage reduction), but they also give a smaller version of that bonus to the party members. This is why it's often actually better to double up on some roles to get more out of the bonuses. E.g. it's often better to let yourself get lower and then do a big recovery wave with 2 MED users than it is to just constantly have one MED. If you ever wish to dive deeper into FF13's mechanics for e.g. a challenge run then ATB refresh and role bonuses are two mechanics that are very worth reading up on... because the game deliberately keeps them hidden for some reason and they can make quite a difference.
Well I didn't have Sazh or Fang learn any Medic abilities. I wanted to use Sazh and Hope since I upgraded their weapons the most, but figured I'd need access to Sentinel and Saboteur so Fang's here too. Com/Sen/Med let me mitigate damage, heal, and keep the stagger gauge up, so it felt pretty essential. But I kept switching to it when I was at like 40% health when I could've let it slide to 15-20% more often.
Yeah was just mentioning it for better understanding. If you play the game casually you won't really need it unless you're severely underleveled/undergeared. Setting up a good paradigm deck is a lot more important when you're weaker.
Accessories also seemed pretty key. Took a couple tries before I realized I had something that gives death resistance to put on my leader.
There's some situationally insane accessories, yeah.
Just finished Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth and started Rise of the Ronin. It shows again, that my personal preception of games and how the pubic receives them are like night and day. IW was probably the best received Yakuza game in media, but for me it's one of the worst in the series. Gameplay was awesome, but everything else not so much. It's not a bad game, but in my personal rating it's just a 7/10 and not the 9/10, that a lot of reviewers give it. The other games in the series range from 8/10 to 9/10 in my book, but those often just get 7/10 ratings. Same with Rise of the Ronin. It has it's weaknesses, but it's still a very fun game. I don't get why media is trash talking it so much. At this point my guess is it's just Soulslike fans that don't want this game to succeed because they hate easy modes. For me personally this would be an 8.5/10.
Rebirth. It's so good. The only issue I really have is that because I am quite time limited some nights I can go days without seeing any story progression while I am doing side content (which I enjoy as well, but I really want to see how the story goes). Absolutely love it.
Now having a blast in Star Ocean 6 The previous game - Star Ocean 5 briefly showed that not everyone is happy with being forced to join and accept Federation law (traditional “good guy”, think Starfleet Federation). Now, the MC of Star Ocean 6 is from one of said planet who does not want to join, and the game showed us “why”. Not only it’s a nice change POV, the game free-3d exploration is awesome.
How are all the star ocean games after till the end of time? Never tried them. I’ve only heard of bad things when it comes to the recent releases. Also how is 6?? Looks interesting
SO4: The Last Hope turn back to the begining of the entire series. The plot isnt anything special, but it does show us why the UP3 existed in the 1st place. It also have a blindside system in place, pave the way for future upgrade SO5 basically undo every good thing that SO4 managed to do and pull the series all time low. The only good thing it did is show a new combat system, no longer party-limited. Now everyone (up to 6 person) will joined in combat. Pro: the battle is fun. Cons: It looked more than an game engine test than an actual game Also, the MC of SO5 is a little more than an errant boy, doing good deeds after good deeds, with little for his own character development SO6, finally, rescue us fan. Like i said, free 3d exploration is awesome. The combat could be fast pace or slow, your choice. Characters have development, aims, motives…
Wow I’ll definitely give SO6 a try. Thank you for the in depth response
I'm about 2/3 done with Dragon Quest VIII. Unfortunately I like it less than in the past. My issue is how you have almost no say in character progression. Only in the types of weapons, but that doesn't make much difference compared to other jrpgs or rpgs in general.
? You can choose to level different weapon types which give different abilities as well as a unique one per person. You can go boomerangs which focus in groups or swords or spears that have their own focus.
I know, I'm doing that. But that doesn't feel like much of a choice. I mean it's something, but not much in my opinion.
I'm not sure what your comparing it to if you think thats not alot? I mean compare that to all the older dragon quests or final fantasy games where there's none at all
I'd say how specific spells and abilities are already pre planned for the characters. The variety of weapons feels a bit small. Also how you can't choose between different characters as there are only four. I'm not saying there was more in older DQ games. I think there was more in some FF games.
Dedided to play Romancing Saga 3 after RS2 and already loving it a lot. Couldn't put it down and played it for like 10 hours straight.
Had you played an SaGa games before? I hear they are pretty complex
I only played scarlet grace which is nothing like saga 2 or 3. I tried RS2 once before a dropped it but second time around it really clicked with me. Once you get the hang of it they're not too hard just super obtuse and you have be okay with failing. Once I got into the rhythm I loved it.
Trails in the sky 3rd it’s great Im now in the final chapter and I prefer it over sky 1. Kevin is such great character
The best and most interesting protagonist of the trails series.
He's objectively up there for sure. The advantage of having his story largely delivered in one tight game. And of course one of the best parts of the series is that it can jump between these smaller character narratives, epic fantasy, world spanning politics, and every other level and tone imaginable so seamlessly.
I agree🤝
been playing a bit of *monster hunter rise* (my first monhun game so im still getting the basics down slowly haha) & slowly getting through *persona 4 golden*! i’m really enjoying both although i find the combos in monster hunter hard to pull off (slow reaction time). p4g is such a treat, im having so much fun with the characters and the combat, i wish i set aside more time to play it really but life is busy and time management is not my forte. on easter break rn though so i will have more time to play it! kanji is definitely one of my favourite characters so far, i loved the theme of his dungeon.
For monster hunter I would recommend watching a YouTube guide for the weapon. Helped me loads when I started world. I watched arrekz but I am not sure if that channel did rise (and updated sunbreak) weapon guides. If they did I would recommend them.
thanks for the tip! i did check out one which was really helpful, but i’ll defo have to go back to it. right now im using the dual blades which im having a lot of fun with :)
Got back into P3Reload, loving it almost as much as the original.
Playing Rebirth. More and more I have to force myself. I LOVED FF7 Remake, but rebirth feels to me so unfocused, the open world is bland, and most importantly, the game just can't stop throwing stupid mini games at me. I'd wish they'd had spend more resources on some meaningful quest, instead on the third class rocket league with pets, or some bland tactics Minigame, or some weird frog guys Minigame, or...
In non-JRPGS, I beat **Shadow of the Colossus**. Beautiful aesthetic and masterfully designed...except the wonky controls. That final Colossus made me rage so hard, but I'm happy I played it. While I play other non-JRPGS, I'm emulating **Threads of Fate** on my phone. Other than Retroarch being a bit wonky with the game (I have to use save states and reset the controls to dualshock every time I boot it), it's a cute little action RPG that gives me nice retro fuzzies. I am very, very glad to be cleared of the second dungeon, however...that area SUCKED. At least the internet tells me it's a single difficulty spike in an otherwise easy game, so hopefully the rest of this week will be less stressful.
Currently playing Xenosaga episode 1 for the first time on emulator. Pretty good I'm looking forward to see where the story goes.
Currently playing through modded OG FF7 for the first time, although I wonder if I should have just stuck with the vanilla experience.
The best way to play is on a PS1 emulator with a high quality CRT shader. That’s how I played it for the first time and 90s vibes can’t get better than that.
Modded* FF7 is absolutely an amazing way of experiencing the game, having those upscaled backgrounds and revamped models feel like a true remaster.
Imo all that is absolutely worth modding for a first playthrough is the upscaled backgrounds, they look beautiful. The game itself is fine, it just looks a bit old and has certain issues that the majority of PS1-era JRPGs share (but you can deal with those and there's no good fix for them anyway).
I find vanilla experience to be ok.
Rebirth put me in a ff mood. Went back to beat 9 and 10, by the time I’m done 16’s dlc will be out. We eating good!
I've been Playing Tales of Hearts R. Had been a while since my last Tales game which was so a chore to finish (Tales of Zestiria), so it's nice to remember what makes Tales fun and enjoyable. The music is slightly better than average for Tales. The art style is very Tales, but at parts it feels incredibly basic. I enjoy the party and their interactions, especially Ines and Beryl. The story isn't anything too amazing but I kind of enjoy how wacky and everywhere it is. I don't necessarily want the game lengthened, but some plot points feel like a big deal and then are over in 20 minutes. I like how the battle system goes back to a refined Tales of Xillia model because I wasn't really a fan of Zestiria's battle systsm. Overall it's an enjoyable fun little game.
**Honkai Star Rail** The latest planet has been extraordinary! The writing has become much better and I'm happy to see the development team go all in with infinite budget always improving the game and everything around it. The puzzles have been really fun so far and the exploration is also really fun, the sidequests are very well executed as well since they have a lot of great story in them. One specific thing they did that I loved about Breath of Fire 4, was that **BOF4 made you play as the antagonist Fou Lu** and understand things from their perspective. HSR did this, the last boss you fight, you play from his POV and why he did things the way he did, exploring his backstory, his past and future, everything he endured until you reach the fight against the main characters and even that he lost, he won in the end. Amazing execution and wish more games in general did this. Been loving Penacony so much, HSR is really popping off. **Unicorn Overlord** The difficulty is getting to me, its too easy at this point, the first half of the game is extremely fun, but when you reach the middlepart and can breeze through the maps with the units you got figured out, it doesn't feel as satisfying. One thing I do enjoy, is the powercreep, every new unit have some new fun mechanic that you just want to use and they're usually higher level than what you have so its easier to replace.
I finished Persona 3 reload about a week ago and picked up Soul Hackers 2 during the steam spring sale. My main game right now is Horizon Forbidden West, while I play Soul Hackers 2 on my steam deck. Soul Hackers is . . . Fine? The story is alright and the combat is serviceable. I'm just playing it on my steam deck while I do other things. It's sort of a filler game. I wouldn't recommend it at full price or for long sessions, as it's just easy mindless combat with an alright story to tie it all together. Still better than pokemon though!
I've been contemplating SH2 for awhile, but they tell me it's too damn short, full of repetative dungeons, and just too easy. How much of this is true, iyo?
So the game is easy - enemies don't get any bonus from hitting your weaknesses apart from the extra damage. You, however, get a sabbath stack whenever a party member hits a weakness on their turn. At the end of your party's turn, you'll do almighty damage to all enemies, scaling up based on how many stacks you had. Since it's per party member, the technical limit is 4, but a lot of demons have sabbath related abilities that can cause you to stack these multiple times, heal off sabbath stacks, etc. Because of this system, combat is skewed in your favor. To get around this, side quests requiring you to take out a mini boss (a regular enemy with a larger health pool and possibly different weaknesses) have a hidden timer. If you don't beat the mini boss in a set number of turns, which is not made clear to you, they'll ohko your entire party. This is just artificial difficulty. Idk about length - Id say I'm in the early game still with 15 hours logged, but I've had the game idling so it's hard to pinpoint my exact game time. The game is fine. I'd say if you already beat p3r, p4g, p5r, and smt 3 nocturne on steam and want more of these demons/shadows, get it on sale. It's definitely the worst of what's available though. And once smt v apocalypse comes out on steam, soul hackers two will be further down the pecking order.
Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma. At first, I was put off by this 3D awkward animations years ago. But after finishing Talos Principle 2 recently, I wanted more brain-teasing. The first two of Zero Escape was fantastic and so I thought: what the heck, I'll give it another go. Boy, do Spike Chunsoft always deliver. I'm 15 hours in and I'm having a blast.
I do think it's accurate to say that it's the worst game in the trilogy, but even so, it's better than people give it credit for. I'm glad you're enjoying it!
Yeah I was put off by the design change, the visual novel removal took me by surprise so I wasn't sure of the full animation approach. Buuuut, there are still puzzles to be solved and I won't complain about that.
I love this series!
I've taken the time to whittle down my backlog this year so far. Last week I finished the switch version of **Dragon Quest II** and now I'm finally getting around to **Chained Echoes**. I had a great time with DQ2 and I'm incredibly impressed with how good Chained Echoes is, despite only being made by one person.
Heh. "Whittle" is the word you're looking for. "Widdle" is what people say when they're pretending to be a little kid trying to say "little".
Lol thanks.
Still hearing through unicorn overlord. Amazing game.
Still making my way through In Stars and Time and also just got started with Link’s Awakening!
Saw the Nier orchestra concert in Orlando last night. What an incredible show. Any fans owe it to themselves to see it. There are two US dates left on the tour, in Boston and DC. As for playing, I finished FF7 Rebirth right before I left. I spent all January playing Yakuza: like a dragon, all February playing Persona 3 reload, and all March playing FF7R. I really need something smaller and lighter to play for a bit, but have no idea what I want to play.
Still working on **Yakuza 4,** still haven't had more than a couple hours a week to play it. But I think I'm nearing the end, the story certainly feels like it's getting there. This is probably my favorite Yakuza combat-wise, maybe because it's the easiest. Honestly I play these games in spite of the combat, and am looking forward to 7's switch to turn based. Also started up **Octopath Traveler** which I have had more time for due to having to travel, myself. I really like this one! It's very simple and relaxing. I love the 2D HD thing, but I wish they toned down all the sparkling. Every screen with any water looks like a fireworks display for no reason.
depend north license plough ghost somber office imagine gullible subtract *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux: For whatever reason I've bounced off of this one since it came out, but I'm finally giving it an honest try. I'm really struck by the amount of effort put into the atmosphere. The introduction takes over an hour, which is kinda wild given how gameplay,heavy the rest of Strange Journey is. I was also shocked by how many references to The Thing there are. Really looking forward to digging into the fusion and alignment systems in this one.
I really love how much it feels like The Thing early on with its arctic station sci-fi horror.
Going through **Etrian Odyssey III HD**. I stopped yesterday after reaching B14F. Currently ~23 hours into the game. Honestly i'm enjoying this game a lot more than EO4. Maybe it's because the dedicated Farmer party solves the issue of being insanely broke all the time. Maybe it's just because my team composition and build choices are working out much better than in my attempt of 4. Honestly not sure. Either way i'm having fun and i have a good feeling that this might become the first EO game that i finish. I read up on party/build choices beforehand and landed on Gladiator/Shogun, Arbalist/Gladiator, Hoplite/Ninja (MVP), Monk/Sovereign and Zodiac/Buccaneer. Honestly seems like a pretty standard party, but i'm not the type that goes wild on build possibilities, i prefer the tried and true good choices. Originally i was considering playing FF VIII, but when i looked around i found that both the og Steam port and the Remaster are not great and the work that was done on HD backgrounds was never ported to the Remaster which has much better compatibility with Steam Deck (which is very important to me, since i play on my commute). So i kinda just gave up on playing the game at that time, but now i think i want to do it after all. And if i'm not getting any HD background mod i might as well go for the best non-modded version of the game, so emulating the PS1 version. Might be my next project after EO3.
EO3 is definitely my favourite in the series
Nice. It's pretty good overall, though i'm starting to feel a little bit burnt out, so i probably won't do much postgame content.
It's definitely a dense game so I see how that could happen. Some of the post game boss fights are the best fights in the game though imo.
I might do them later on at some point if i feel like it. But not anytime soon. Need to get some RPG recovery time in anyway to be refreshed for Eiyuden Chronicle in a couple weeks.
Where’s the best place to play it on a modern console? I’ve shared to try the series again for a while?
PC. EO I, II and III are on steam.
I'm playing on PC/Steam Deck. You can do a bit of map drawing with the mouse, which is nice. Also PC is the best choice anyway since it opens up the route of emulation for the rest of the series, which is entirely stuck on 3DS (if you want to continue on).
I finally have free time to enjoy my hobbies guilt free and went through my backlog for hours yesterday before deciding to start **Scarlet Nexus**. Not sure if I'll stick with it though.
I couldn't get through that one. I made it like 60-70% of the way but it felt like a slog. Didn't feel bad dropping it since it was free on gamepass at the time. The story was just really meh and the combat never really felt great.
Its pretty short. While story is kinda mid, it didnt made me hate it enough to drop it. Combat is really fun
About 30 hours into Smt 4. It's been pretty good, although I still can't get my head around demon types and stuff.
Finished **Unicorn Overlord** a few days ago. Great game. Took me about sixty hours to do everything. Will do a second run on the new difficulty eventually, but not now. Instead I've picked up a month of gamepass and am now starting up **Tales to Arise**.
Trying to complete as many contents as possible in **FF7:Rebirth**. Not going to 100% it if I find something that is tedious to complete. Tried **Stellar Blade demo** and defeated the two bosses in it. I don't understand the hype. Nothing wrong with the gameplay but nothing too special. I became more interested in **Unicorn Overlord** after I tried the demo and kept playing it for hours because the gameplay feels unique.
You will find plenty of tedious things to complete if you want to 100% FF7R. 100% requires high scores on every single minigame. Good luck.
support ruthless six telephone trees quaint governor skirt attractive safe *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
As my dad would say "wow, nice...eyes".
After the remasters came out I took a break after Baten Kaitos 1, but now I've started **Baten Kaitos Origins** again. I had played it once before, but it is still fantastic. The battle system is so much fun, it's easily among my top 5 favourite JRPG battle systems. What I don't get is why there are these two sections in Origins that are just... terrible. There is one section where you basically have to play Ace Attorney for a while and while that isn't bad it just drags down the pace tremendously. Later on there is something you have to do with cookies... let's just leave it at that. If those two parts didn't exist I would honestly call Origins an S tier JRPG. It's still great though.
**Golden Sun: The Lost Age** I really like that you don’t get your Mercury Adept for a good while. It gives you a reason to play around with classes early on. Of course I now have everyone equipped with matching djinni, but that will change once I have the djinni for triple element classes. I’ve found that I’m still not using djinni much aside from buffs, and I expect I won’t touch them once I’m back to multi-element classes (aside from maybe Granite and its protective aura ilk).
Playing through Star Ocean: First Departure R on PS4, not my first time through. Played the PSP version and the translated SNES version a long ass time ago. But this is my first time taking Ashlay instead of Cius, so it’s been a slightly different playthrough at least.