Anyone else play JRPGs?

[sportscoach]

Chrono cross

Crono Cross is a ps1 game, but that is a very good one!

 

[PIP]

Which series do you like the most?

With something so good--- faves are just not an option

 

[Surge]

With something so good--- faves are just not an option

Facts.

 

[sportscoach]

Is the Shining Force series considered Japanese?

If so its my favorite game(s) of all time.

That one comes from Japan! I own the game boy advanced version of the game. It is somewhere at my parents house.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I don't play them too much any more, mostly because Western RPGs have largely overtaken them from a story-telling perspective. It used to be, if you wanted a great, epic story, you had to buy Japanese games. Now, though, there are dozens of great RPGs from the US and other Western countries that have generally surpassed what Japanese companies have been outputting. Games like Divinity: Original Sin and The Witcher 3 feel almost light years ahead of what most Japanese companies are doing these days. It's hard for me to even think of a modern Japanese RPG that compares to either.

My favorites from the old days are FFIX and Chrono Trigger. Two classics. I actually replayed FFIX recently when they released the Steam remaster. It was still great. Love all the characters in that one, and I liked how, unlike most modern Final Fantasy games, it actually felt like fantasy rather than the shitty sci-fi the single-player games have mostly veered toward since.

And I still really wish Square would make a fucking Steam version of Chrono Trigger. Literally free money for them. No idea why companies that have an absolute classic like that just refuse to re-release it on the PC. All that does is promote piracy when many, many people would just buy it.

 

[gourimoko]

With respect to the story being told, character development, and the gravity of the happenings in the game itself; Xenogears is the best JRPG ever...

Final Fantasy 10, 7, 12, 6, 4, 8 were great (in that order for me..)

Phantasy Star 4, 1, 2 also fantastic (in that order)

Star Ocean Til the End of Time was phenomenal... until.. well..

But yeah, as @Jack Brickman said, JRPGs have largely been overtaken by Western RPGs.

 

[Jack Brickman]

But yeah, as @Jack Brickman said, JRPGs have largely been overtaken by Western RPGs.

Yeah, I think the main thing is that Western RPGs just tend to have much, much better writing than your average JRPG because something always gets lost in translation. Granted, this is true of some Western RPGs as well (the first two Witcher games suffered from some things getting lost in translation, although the third game is damn near perfect as far as translation goes), at least the ones not originally written in English, but it's much less of an issue than with Japanese games.

Which makes sense, as Japanese culture is just so different from Western culture. Europe and the US are different as well, to be sure, but we still share at least a similar culture.

 

[gourimoko]

Yeah, I think the main thing is that Western RPGs just tend to have much, much better writing than your average JRPG because something always gets lost in translation. Granted, this is true of some Western RPGs as well (the first two Witcher games suffered from some things getting lost in translation, although the third game is damn near perfect as far as translation goes), at least the ones not originally written in English, but it's much less of an issue than with Japanese games.

Which makes sense, as Japanese culture is just so different from Western culture. Europe and the US are different as well, to be sure, but we still share at least a similar culture.

Couldn't agree more, especially with respect to the lost in translation aspect.

Coming from my experiences with Japan, Japanese language and people; there are massive cultural differences that get harder to bridge without making a conscious effort.. particularly as we get older.

I think, for me, it makes the games less enjoyable since I can no longer really relate to the character motivations any longer, again, without making a conscious effort to do so..

As a kid, it really wasn't much of a problem...

 

[melecoaze]

I don't really see a point comparing WRPGs and JRPGs right now because they've grown to be completely different genres.

Technically, you could say the new Zelda is the closest thing to a "hybrid" between those two.

Anyway, this generation has been pretty good with JRPGs, even with FFXV kinda sucking. Persona 5 is amazing, and we're still getting Ni No Kuni 2 and hopefully Dragon Quest XI in the near future. There's also Nier, Tales of Berseria, etc.

It's not for everyone though, and I can see why people have gone away from JRPGs.

 

[Surge]

With respect to the story being told, character development, and the gravity of the happenings in the game itself; Xenogears is the best JRPG ever...

Final Fantasy 10, 7, 12, 6, 4, 8 were great (in that order for me..)

Phantasy Star 4, 1, 2 also fantastic (in that order)

Star Ocean Til the End of Time was phenomenal... until.. well..

But yeah, as @Jack Brickman said, JRPGs have largely been overtaken by Western RPGs.

Final Fantasy VII was my favorite of the series. Just picked it up on Steam. In the queue after Shining Force 2 is finished.

Feeling retro.

 

[gourimoko]

Final Fantasy VII was my favorite of the series. Just picked it up on Steam. In the queue after Shining Force 2 is finished.

Feeling retro.

I used to feel the same way...

Final Fantasy VII and Street Fighter EX+alpha were my first two PSX games back in the mid-nineties. Couldn't believe my mom paid that kind of money... Unreal, even to this day..

But playing Final Fantasy VII was a mind blowing experience.... So yeah, it really was my favorite RPG for a few years... And definitely my favorite Final Fantasy for a good long while.

Few years later I played Xenogears, and my mindset was changed on "favorite RPG" simply because it was such a deeper game. The battle system was nowhere near as complex, and the grinding nowhere near as fun simply due to the lack of complexity. But the story and characters were more compelling if you're into games that question religion and spiritual/metaphysical concepts.

I played FFVIII around the same time, really never got into it after the first few hours. Felt that game was a huge step down from VII and suffered because of it. It's a good game in it's own right, but, really doesn't compare to VII.

Never liked IX simply because it wasn't VII, and I know that isn't fair, because IX really returned Final Fantasy to being a game that's actually more "fantasy" than sci-fi... but coming from someone who loved VII so much, it kinda ruined my ability to appreciate IX for being a really good, classic-style JRPG.

X was a game that had to grow on me... When I first saw Final Fantasy X, I wasn't interested.. Tidus, Blitzball, and really the voice-acting.. man.. I hated it. I was also an adult by this time, and just couldn't relate to Tidus... at first. I ended up with a bunch of free time and I finally just played the game without judging it. Again, the religious components, compelling love-story, dynamic characters that really grow.... I think I had to just, grow up, to appreciate X for what it is. And I know this is a matter of opinion, but I think FFX is superior to FFVII in most ways, particularly with respect to the characters and the gravity of the story.

It took me awhile to finally just admit to myself that X was a better game.

X has a better battle system, better game mechanics, much more fluid gameplay (particularly with respect to battle transitioning), the voice-acting isn't horrible and actually adds more to the game than it takes away. The love story is ultimately more complex, as is the story in general. The sphere grid is massively superior to anything previously seen in Final Fantasy to this point, allowing an extreme degree of customization... Oh, and did I mention the battle system?

I've sent well over 100+ hours in FFX, which is something that's just not possible in FFVII. There's a shit ton of stuff to do in this game, particularly battling the monsters in the arena.

FFXI was just whatever.. not worth discussing...

And FFXII, which was largely a combination of Tactics and XI, I think, was a game that had a lot of promise, but a huge barrier of entry for most players. Totally different than any other non-Tactics game, based in Ivalice, and with the gambit system that most players never got used to (it took me hours to really appreciate why the gambit system is superior to anything that came before it). XII, to me, is the culmination of decades of trial-and-error when it comes to Final Fantasy/JRPG gameplay. As far as I'm concerned, FFXII has the best JRPG all around gameplay of any JRPG to date.

Really, XII is masterful in its execution... I mean, seriously.. This game is just a joy to play. I have it on my PC right now (PS2 "ROM" for 1440p upscaling, widescreen, shaders, etc). I have put in over 200 hours of gameplay into XII doing a very near 100% (~99%) playthrough, maxed out characters, best weapons for them, and optimal strats against the higher end monster quests including Yiazmat.

This is the very first JRPG game where I never ever got bored of the battles... and that's saying A LOT. Because in all of the aforementioned games, boredom would set in with the repetitive stream of monsters. In XII, that's never the case because they can swarm you and the number of monsters you're fighting while maintaining drop chains is very important so.. there's a degree of conscious manipulation going on all while managing your gambits... It's very relaxing actually... that is, until you fight a monster that's hard as fuck, which this game has plenty of.

To me, I was disappointed that XIII didn't pick up where XII left off in terms of gameplay, and I can't really say much more about XIII, XIV or XV because this is where I more or less left Final Fantasy. XIII was such a disappointment for me... It was a day one purchase that I ultimately felt was the biggest FF let-down of them all, especially having loved XII so much.

Anyway, if you've never played X or XII, I'd highly recommend both. Compared to VII, X I think is all-around better, if you're into stories based around the love of a woman as well as stories that delve into religious ideas; which, I've found, many folks are not actually into these kinds of stories at all and find them pretentious. XII's story doesn't hold a candle to VII's, like, at all... The characters seem more complex, but really that's just good voice-acting. VII's characters are definitely more complex and ultimately more compelling in their stories. But with that said, XII's gameplay is addictive... in the dungeon-crawler sense.. It's just, a very very fun game to play.

 

[melecoaze]

FFXII is great, anyone who never played should get the Zodiac Age remaster that will be out this week. It includes some great changes to the jobs system, along with the better graphics.

 

[gourimoko]

FFXII is great, anyone who never played should get the Zodiac Age remaster that will be out this week. It includes some great changes to the jobs system, along with the better graphics.

That's coming out this week?? Wow...

EDIT: I just saw they're re-releasing this game for $50?!?

Am I missing something?? Isn't this just a remaster of the FFXII International re-release? I own both the original US and the International release for PS2... I ... just went to purchase this and it's $50, and I'm kinda like.. man, for real B?

 

[melecoaze]

That's coming out this week?? Wow...

EDIT: I just saw they're re-releasing this game for $50?!?

Am I missing something?? Isn't this just a remaster of the FFXII International re-release? I own both the original US and the International release for PS2... I ... just went to purchase this and it's $50, and I'm kinda like.. man, for real B?

Yeah... fuck Square Enix. They added some things but it still doesn't justify the price for basically a PS2 game. I really want this but I'll have to wait for the price drop.

edit: and it's $70 here

 

[Man Called X]

Not posting. Go find one of the threads where Gour and I have debated on which PS1 era RPG was the greatest of all time. Xenosaga or Suikoden 2.

Also, gour and I have similar taste in games, but have very differing opinions on them.