Loved SH Covenant! Awesome game and interesting take on RPG combat!
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unique theme and art style too
Armed Fantasia & Penny Blood Kickstarter campaign got an update on their stretch goals.
Only $50k left so Xbox version is almost confirmed.
Playstation Japan just put up a really awesome promotion page for the Trails series, showcasing the worldbuilding, the timeline, a questionaire that decides which subseries you should start with, pointing out they have all the games on PS+. The page is only in Japanese of course but, sheesh, the things I’d do for Xbox to get the whole series like this and do a similar page.
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I want the whole Legend of Heroes series on Xbox so bad. By far my favorite JRPG series.
NISA chose violence today
They’re trying to make Zerofield put a stop to their spreadsheet translations of unlocalized Trails games, so that we stop buying Japanese/Asian versions and have to wait 3 years for NISA’s versions.
Seeing a lot of pissed fans. I’ve been planning to play Kuro 2 in Japanese anyway, to put my reading skills to an extreme test, but I would have loved to replay it with Zerofield’s spreadsheet afterwards because a lot will be lost on me.
I talked about how awesome the spreadsheet was back in April… Guess what, the overlay program doesn’t fucking work anymore.
Being a Western Trails fan is fun… 
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I thought of you when I read this, it sucks. Good luck with your JP playthrough of Kuro 2!
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It looks like the Gust game at TGS will be another Atelier game (not exactly a hard guess 
). The trailer ends with a blank picture which is probably what the next game will fill in
Whether that is Ryza 3 or a new Atelier, I’m not sure. Most of the time these games are trilogies so it’s probably the former.
I’d really like for the games to start coming to Xbox since MS is getting a little closer with Koei, but I’m not gonna get my hopes up.
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How important is the soundtrack to any of you JRPG fans out there? To me it’s literally the most important thing next to the gameplay. An amazing soundtrack that I will still listen to years after I finished the game can highly sway my opinion on a game in a positive way. I mean, look how much times I made sure to mention if the game had a good soundtrack in the opening posts of this thread.
It’s probably one of the reasons Falcom is one of my all time favorite devs. Their music just can’t be matched
This is the first song you hear after starting your adventure… Yeah, you’re in for a damn good game 
The final boss theme to Trails in the Sky SC… Quite possibly one of my most favorite tracks ever composed. Pure perfection. It tells the story of Trails in the Sky. Definitely the best final boss theme this series has ever had.
It’s not just battling music I care about. I love this track from Kuro no Kiseki. The “busy street” vibes are great and catchy. I loved wondering Edith to this tune lol.
But besides Falcom…
As a game I thought Octopath was okay, story didn’t even remotely hook me, but one thing to highly look forward to for me was fighting bosses at the end of the chapters so I could hear this amazing theme!
I wasn’t expecting Atelier music to be so memorable! The standard battle theme in Atelier Sophie made every fight feel like something to look forward to! 
SMT’s “you’re gonna get your ass kicked” style soundtracks is a highlight of the series for me 
.
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For JRPGs Story => Soundtrack > Gameplay
Personally I would rank Kingdom Hearts, Nier and FF over Ys/Legend of Heroes.
Favorite OSTs are Nier Gestalt, FF9, Chrono Trigger.
Favorite songs are probably Fisherman’s Horizon (FF8), Dearly Beloved (KH CoM), Schala’s Theme (Chrono Trigger), Kaine Salvation (Nier Gestalt) and To All People (Fragile Dreams).
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Mechanics are king for me. A game can have a mediocre story and soundtrack but if the systems work well and are engaging, I’m locked in.
Soundtrack can be extremely important but it always takes a backseat to story for me. A track that stays with me is one that makes me emotional because of its association with the event/theme it’s scoring.
I’m pretty bad at noticing it but I’m a total sucker for recurring themes and leitmotifs, so when they hit they hit hard. The only example that comes to mind right now is The Battle for Everyone’s Souls, the final boss theme from Persona 3.
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I’m in the camp gameplay is king as well except in JRPGs. Most of the time gameplay is very basic so I just take what they offer and enjoy story and soundtrack.
My standards for western RPGs are way higher. Morrowind, one of my favorite games every, has this broken hit/miss mechanics, but you can do so much broken stuff with magic and alchemy it makes the gameplay so much fun.
I agree that it’s important in WRPGs, but I’m talking about stuff like learning skills/abilities from equipment like in FFIX or FFTA, or the job system in FFV! I eat that shit up.
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FF12 comes to mind on this. One of my fav JRPGs. Bang average Story and characters though. But the Gameplay is godly. Spent over 200 hours+ on that game. Still got my 40 hour Xbox save I need to finish at some point.
One of my least favorite FF game. I didn’t like anything about it. Gameplay feels very passive because of the gambit system.
I love FF9, but gameplay was like this, at least for me:
- steal with Zidane to get equipment early and for the 9999 DMG for thievery.
- go kill Dragons with Freya for Dragons Crest
- use Steiner for Shock
- use Quina and eat a lot of monster for Blue Magic.
But for FF Tactics I agree. Strategic JRPGs have great gameplay.
Yeah, I think that that’s the distinction between mechanics and gameplay. FFV in particular has awesome flexibility because of its mechanics. There are optimal builds, but there’s fun to be had in gimmick runs too!
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Still waiting for SE to release the FF Pixel Remastered on console.
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Maybe this TGS… From what I heard, they had some bugs to start with so I don’t mind waiting if it means a more polished version. At this point though, I’ve played them all to death so 
SE announced their TGS lineup last week and Pixel Remastered is missing.
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