Yakoob on 7/4/2012 at 03:43
Thanks for all the stuff guys! While you were getting your replies ready, I started on the PS1 XenoGears; it seems to be pretty generic JRPG story and world wise so far, but the battle mechanic looks like it could have potential. Should I stick with it or drop for one of the suggestions (no one mentioned XenoGears yet)
Looks interesting but alas, no gamecube.
As for icemann's suggestions:
Grandia - looks very much like what Im looking for, will give it a chance!
Arc the Lad 1-3 - I've heard this mentioned a lot before, the weird graphics and battle system made me never look into it tho. How's the story on this one?
Star Ocean - another series i've heard a lot about but never played! Looking at the screenies on MobyGames makes me want to play it in Japanese to practice my language (I beat entire FF5 in Japanese woot woot) but the abundance of Kanji will probably be the death of me (I wish oldschool JRPGs had a hirigana-only mode :/)
Wild Arms - Japanese cowboys! that kinda makes it sound interesting, tho I hate cowboy movies so probably a pass....
Alundra - Eh I never been a fan of Zelda, so I'll take a pass on that. Didn't like Secret of Mana either. Guess Japanes action-rpgs don't do it for me.
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness - Looks a lot like FFT / Battle Ogre, is that right? I've been itching for FFT style game too (I was considering just replay FFT actually) and was thinking of checking out Ogre Battle as an alternative.
Azure Dreams - Sounds like Pokemon
Dark Cloud 1 - interesting...
The .Hack games - oi, I remember watching some of the series way way back and liking it, I should check the games out too!
Ugh, I hated FFT:A. Not only was the story retarded, the gameplay was horribly broken making the game laughaubly easy after halfway point. I just remember my ninja/samurai insta-killing half of the enemy team with backstabs each battle. Also something about dying hair...
Hmm as far as "tactics" types games, I've only played FFT. How does Fire Emblem, Ogre Battle and Disgaea compare? Which one should I go for if I need to scratch the jrpg tacitcal urge?
That has been on my to-play list since forever, but I could never find it anywhere. Now that it's on GoG I will be getting to it soon, just waiting when I feel like "wacky scifi adventure."
Eh tile-based 1st person dungeon crawler, not my type, sorry!
Another big name and definitely on my to-play-once-i-have-ps2 (with ICO, SoC, SH2 etc.)
Trance on 7/4/2012 at 05:00
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Star Ocean - another series i've heard a lot about but never played! Looking at the screenies on MobyGames makes me want to play it in Japanese to practice my language (I beat entire FF5 in Japanese woot woot) but the abundance of Kanji will probably be the death of me (I wish oldschool JRPGs had a hirigana-only mode :/)
If you're planning to play Star Ocean 2, get ready for a metric shit-ton of dialogue. There is so much goddamn talking in that game that you'll make your thumb sore mashing the skip button. Pretty fun otherwise.
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Wild Arms - Japanese cowboys! that kinda makes it sound interesting, tho I hate cowboy movies so probably a pass....
The connection to westerns is superficial. The art aesthetics resemble it somewhat, and some of the music channels the more well-known spaghetti western scores, but other than that there's really no relation. This one I also enjoyed (at least the first two titles for the PS1), though the battle mechanics are pretty dated.
Mr.Duck on 7/4/2012 at 05:35
Quote Posted by Ringwraith
Check out
Cthulhu Saves the World.
You are correct sir!
Ringy!
What's your Steam ID, man!? :D
Also, Yakoob, stick with Xenogears, the story's pretty interesting (mostly for the effedness of the characters and such) and the World opens up real nice later on.
:D
Renzatic on 7/4/2012 at 06:04
Quote Posted by Al_B
This is Renz we're talking about - he'll scrounge food from anywhere :)
Wow. My reputation proceeds me even here. :P
But, to get back on topic...
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Alundra - Eh I never been a fan of Zelda, so I'll take a pass on that. Didn't like Secret of Mana either. Guess Japanes action-rpgs don't do it for me.
I'm so, so terribly disappointed in you, Yak. :nono:
Though on the plus side, Grandia, Xenogears, and Persona 3 are fairly decent games. Not decent enough to make up for your horrible decision to neglect the absolute majesty that is Alundra, but...yeah, they're good.
...just not as good as Alundra.
...in case you can't tell, I'm subtly suggesting you reconsider your decision on Alundra.
edit: ...and Wild Arms, which isn't so much a straight up western as it is a fantasy post-apocalyptic JRPG anime style things with western overtones.
Yakoob on 7/4/2012 at 06:16
Well I played some more Xenogears and just got out of the forest after you destroy your village, meet Elyah and kill a dinosaur. What started as super-generic cutesy JRPG is getting interesting with some of the "wtf?" cutscenes pointing there's some psycho-shit going on. Also some of the dialog is equally wtf, like Dan commenting on his sister being well endowed or one of the women in the village saying she wishes she were a man.
Renzatic on 7/4/2012 at 06:25
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Well I played some more Xenogears and just got out of the forest after
you destroy your village, meet Elyah and kill a dinosaur. What started as super-generic cutesy JRPG is getting interesting with some of the "wtf?" cutscenes pointing there's some psycho-shit going on. Also some of the dialog is equally wtf, like Dan commenting on his sister being well endowed or one of the women in the village saying she wishes she were a man.
Xenogears gets flat out grim and incredibly strange roughly 4 hours into it, and has one of the most overly complicated plots you'll ever see in...well...any game ever. By the end of it, you'll have to draw out a flow chart and read up on any supplemental material you can get your hands on to make any sense of it.
icemann on 7/4/2012 at 08:45
Quote Posted by Yakoob
The .Hack games - oi, I remember watching some of the series way way back and liking it, I should check the games out too!
Their worth a play trust me. Just be warned that if you want to play the games properly it means playing through SIGN, then GU which requires a significant time investment. Worth it, but just letting you know beforehand. Quite a significant amount of side stuff to do (endless technically).
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Azure Dreams - Sounds like Pokemon
Sortof yes. You do raise the monsters (via battle in the tower) which leads to them evolving into better forms.
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Arc the Lad 1-3 - I've heard this mentioned a lot before, the weird graphics and battle system made me never look into it tho. How's the story on this one?
Story is quite good. Combat is done in a turn based Final Fantasy Tactics style sortof with you moving your party members across a grid. I forgot to mention that you carry over your saved games from game to game with these games also. The side quests are the primary thing you'll be spending the majority of your time on with these games. I thoroughly enjoyed the 3rd game the most.
The fourth game in the series (Twilight of the Spirits) on the PS2 wasn't bad either, though none of the side quest stuff of the earlier games is present.
Aerothorn on 8/4/2012 at 08:00
Chrono Cross is the best JRPG ever made, if you ask me. It's not perfect (I'm not sure a JRPG *can* be perfect) but it tries a lot of news things, including a brilliant system to eliminate the need for grinding. Inevitably, this system and most of its other advances were completely ignored by every other JRPG and the series hasn't seen another entry since.
Resonance of Fate and Persona 3 would be worth giving a shot, if they both wern't twice as long as they should be (a problem quite common in the genre). Persona 3 would have been an excellent 40 hour game - and that's hard to pull off - but it decides to have a running time of 90 fucking hours and it devolves into a ridiculous soap opera (with ye same olde combat) dozens of hours before the finale. RoF has one of the best JRPG combat systems but is, again, repetitive to the point of being ritualistic.
Sulphur on 8/4/2012 at 08:12
Yes, but Chrono Cross's narrative devolved into a muddy, ridiculous mulch somewhere around disc 2, complete with denouement delivered via infodump that soured quite a bit of the ending. The gameplay and music were fantastic, but a masterpiece it isn't. I will fondly remember it as the best thing I played on the Playstation apart from MGS1 and Silent Hill, but its writing wasn't economical or focused enough to appeal as much as, say, Chrono Trigger or FFVI.
