First off, Sky is my favorite arc in this series and Sky SC is in my top 10 games of all time, so savor this experience.
Trails to Zero is in my top 3 favorite entries in the series. Many good moments here (the ending will hit you like a ton of bricks if you played Sky), the music is on point as usual (Get Over the Barrier being my favorite standard battle theme in the series), and Crossbell City is just such a cool and unique setting.
Azure is a spectacular follow up and is often a fan favorite, but there are a select couple of plot twists that are just so silly. However there are a ton of āsetpieceā moments, a lot being some of the best moments in this series, in this series that make this entry very worth playing
As for Cold Steel 3 and 4ā¦ Yeah, the bloat is real, and the story in Cold Steel 3 doesnāt particularly get interesting till near the end. You should play them though, the gameplay is addictingly good and is very refined by this point. Cold Steel 4 has moments that are very rewarding for those who played every game so far (almost every character is here). Thereāsā¦ a plot twist that maybe ruins the series for some in it thoughā¦
And Iāll just add, Trails into Reverie (aka Cold Steel 5) got rid of a lot of the bloat. This game has 3 different protagonist stories that are pretty linear and to the point, but with a massive trove of side content for fans who feel like tackling it.
Kuro no Kiseki, the newest entry, is a massive improvement over the āslumpā the series hit with Cold Steel , 3 and 4. The writing is drastically improved over those and the protagonist is quite unique for a JRPG being a mid-20s man with āan attitudeā. They also introduced real time battle elements to deal with common grunt enemies, but keep the turn based battling for powerful enemies and boss fights.
Iām not the biggest JRPG fan out there and have only completed three of them in my entire gaming history which started with NES. Going through the posted list of games that I have at the very least played -
Scarlet Nexus. Played the demo and it was fine. Just didnāt grab me enough to where I wanted to play the full game.
Nier Replicant. Played this late last year/early this year. Great game. Completed it. Rated it an 8.0/10. Howeverā¦
Nier Automata. Played this about 2/3rds through and wanted to rearrange that CPU thing in the game but doing so deleted my save. Basically, made a dumb ass mistake and im not going back to the game. I will say that based on what I played, itās easily better than Nier Replicant. Plays better, looks better and all the different types of genres that are in the game (from 2D to 3D to space shooting to isometric to hack and slash. Seriously, great game. Based on what I played, would rate it at least an 8.5/10.
Yās Origin. Played a few hours of this game and itās not bad. I simply got bored and dropped it.
Final Fantasy XV. Played a few hours and dropped. Wasnāt into it at all. And why the hell was a cover system in the game? Like seriously, WTF?
Octopath Traveler. Bought this when I owned Switch. Played as the Dancer. A few hours in and I couldnāt beat the first boss. This is when I realized that I couldnāt play turn based RPGās anymore.
Blue Dragon. Played this on Xbox 360. Went about 1/3rd though. Wasnāt bad. Just got bored and dropped it.
Trials of Mana Remake. Played this at launch. Completed it. 8.0/10 for me. Really enjoyed this game. Good combat system, enjoyed the exploration and world. Story was solid and kept me interested.
Granblue Fantasy Relink. Still have this on my list and am interested in it but itās taking too long to release. Depending on when it actually releases will determine if I play it or not.
Final Fantasy XVI. All in. Day one.
Final Fantasy VII Remake. Excellent 9.0/10 for me. Loved this game for the most part and the turn based combat thatās in this game is as far as im going with turn based because it doesnāt feel like turn based. This is the game thatās made me a Final Fantasy fan going forward. Donāt care about the older games. Like the above game, im all in day one. And will most likely be the same for Crisis Core game when it releases.
There are of lot of things wrong with this game. This was the dream game from Nomura. It was in development hell and Nomura had to manage FF versus 13 and KH at the same time. In the end Nomura was moved full time to KH and Tabata had to fix FF versus 13.
Thatās why we have FF15 in this weird state (Empty open world, fetch quests, ect.) and Kh4 looks like FF versus 13 with Nomura as the director.
Main character of FF15: Noctis means night in Latin
Kingdom Hearts character: Yozora means night sky in Japanese.
Even the location of KH 4 looks like Insomnia, city in FF15.
I donāt know if it is they right place for it or not butā¦ Iām playing FF7 Remake right now and boy is it hard/annoying to get used to how linear and constrained
this game is. I think the high fidelity graphics donāt help the situation either.
Itās kinda annoying to not be able to enter a door that is cracked partially open, or to have to find a route to get somewhere when you see the destination and the only thing between you and it is like a 1 foot rail. Or to have to go through some long puzzle sequence because people canāt just swim across like 2 feet of water.
Doesnāt bother me in a game like Persona, but Iām guessing the realism here makes it stand out more?
25 years ago I still played every JPG that released in the West, The first one I ever played was the OG Final Fantasy. FF13 was game that reduced my interest in the genre to āmildā, but despite my super love for Western RPGs now, no other game has surpassed Xenogears as the best console game ever for me.
Great thread! Super detailed, itās good to have a thread for this with all the JRPGs weāre gonna get in the future.
Havenāt played any JRPGs lately but Iām quite excited for Soul Hackers 2 in a few weeks and later, Persona 5 Royal on Xbox. This one hasnāt quite been formally announced yet, but Iām also very hyped for Yakuza 8. Loved Like a Dragon and I canāt wait to see where the story goes next.
I love to see all the Xenogears love. Another top 10 game of all time for me.
While I wasnāt born 25 years ago, I still do highly enjoy the classics. I played Xenogears only a couple years ago on my PSP. I was so blown away and I still often think about this game, I want to replay it in the near future.
Other classics I highly enjoyed were, of course, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Grandia 1 (I played the Saturn version which is still by far the best version), Skies of Arcadia (which I dream of XGS partnering with Sega to reviveā¦), and some others.
I really need to get around to playing the Suikoden gamesā¦ With Konami doing all kinds of retro bundle releases I wish this was on their bucket list but Iām not sure thatās happening.
I had these problem with the original FF7. The painted 2D back drops with a low poly 3D character didnāt sit well with me. I had to turn on the āhelpā option that put a marker on every transition point. Really broke the immersion.
Despite all the raving about the game, I thought the story and plot were fairly forgettable. I have read that the original translation didnāt do the plot any favors so I was open to a revisit of the remake. But the āon railsā design bugs me in JRPGs. Itās one of the major reasons I didnāt enjoy FF10.
Oof, tough choice. XC3 is the new hotness in the JRPG circle, so if youāre into forum discussion of games, I guess go with that so you can discuss it with others online, like us here
I remember as a kid being very heavily into JRPGās on my DS. Even super niche, even badly reviewed games. Couple of ones I really enjoyed in particular were Glory of Heracles, and especially, Magical Starsign, anyone else play those games?
Problem is I also am considering Dragon Quest 5, Nioh 2, Monster Hunter Stories, Persona Q2, and Shadowverse Champions lolā¦ too much choice is proving a detriment!
Oh the woes of so many good games Of those, a recommendation towards MHS, really good, upbeat, happy game, not talked about enough. Obviously heavily overshadowed by the mainline games.
I do consider KOTOR a console game, itās the reason I bought an OG XBOX, itās a top 8 game ever for me, KOTOR 2 could have been a top 5 if Obsidian had a chance to finish it. These are of course Western RPGs.
Although most people prefer Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross is in my top 5 games of all time and of course number 2 in terms of JRPGs.
Of those, a recommendation towards MHS, really good, upbeat, happy game, not talked about enough. Obviously heavily overshadowed by the mainline games.