Looking for a good JRPG to play

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:18 pm

Gimme some good suggestions, plzzzz. Doesn't matter what system, old or new (though preferably something on the PS1 or later because I haven't played very many of those yet). I've been very disappointed by some shitty RPG's lately, and I don't just want to buy anything random anymore.

Basically I want something with a storyline that actually has you involved in what happens (unlike FFXII where everything happened elsewhere while you were stuck getting another trinket from a boss at the end of a long boring as fuck dungeon, repeat 12 times, game finished). Character development would be nice as well, I don't require each character to have their own story arc or something like in Chrono Trigger and some of the FF's (though it would be nice), but no FFXII where you get six people and half of them had no role at all.

I'm sick of developers not including a world map because it's old or something. I don't want to be forced along a narrow path like in FFX, I want to explore and visit optional areas and stuff (like Yuffie's town), and generally feel somewhat free even though the storyline itself is linear. Also, not having a simplified world map seems to prevent airship travel (FFXII). I want a goddamn airship! Uhh... if possible. But I want a world map at least.

Speaking of towns, I hate it when they just put one screen with a nice background and call that a town. I want to go inside buildings, and not like FFXII where you get six identical boring shops and everything else is closed off (and most smaller towns in that game don't even have houses, you're treated to this elaborate FMV of the place and then you get to walk like one fucking alley). FFIX, for example, had awesome towns.

Good music is a plus. Again, FFXII failed horribly in touching any emotions at all with the exception of one or two songs.

Battle systems, I don't care. Anything is fine.

Oh and one more thing, the less the game feels like an MMORPG, the better.

Sorry if that was tl;dr.

So, yeah. Any RPG's like this? :p

Just for clarity, I've played the Final Fantasy series, Breath of Fire series, Zelda series, Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Symphonia, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, Lufia 1 and 2, Chrono Trigger, Grandia 1, Grandstream Saga, Skies of Arcadia, Guardian's Crusade, Wild Arms 1, Alundra 1, and I can't remember the rest off the top of my head. Not all of them were 100% what I'm looking for now though. I was also looking forward to Rogue Galaxy, but after reading some reviews it seems that game is precisely what I don't want. Oh well.

Post by **Agozer** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:19 pm

Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (towns can be a letdown)
Atelier Iris 1-3 (although only the first game has an oldschool world map).
Shadow Hearts/Covenant/From the New World
Suikoden V
Dragon Quest VIII
Magna Carta (if you can stomach the battle system)
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1/2
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
Persona 1/2
Grandia II
Vagrant Story

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:55 pm

Agozer wrote:Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner

Is that the one where they shoot themselves in the head to summon demons? :p It looks interesting, do you need to have played the other games to enjoy it? On how many fronts does it fit with what I posted above?

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 1:28 am

Given what you've already played, and what's been recommended already...
Tales of Destiny.
Crystalis.

I guess not Symphony of the Night, since it's all dungeon all the time. But it's still awesome.

Panzer88 · Post by **Panzer88** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 1:42 am

Skies of Arcadia for Dreamcast or Gamecube. It's a great game.

Tallgeese · Post by **Tallgeese** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:02 am

blackmyst wrote:
Agozer wrote:Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
Is that the one where they shoot themselves in the head to summon demons? :p It looks interesting, do you need to have played the other games to enjoy it? On how many fronts does it fit with what I posted above?

Persona 3. Do not fucking play it.

Try Wild Arms 5. Great world map.

adventure_of_link · Post by **adventure_of_link** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:15 am

...what the hell is a JRPG?

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:45 am

adventure_of_link wrote:...what the hell is a JRPG?

A class of mech. Stands for Junction of Rotational Precision Gardiens.

...

Or maybe it's a japanese role-playing game. Like the context of the thread, especially the game lists, strongly suggests(despite presence of a few japanese action-adventure titles in there).

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:19 am

Gil_Hamilton wrote:
adventure_of_link wrote:...what the hell is a JRPG?
A class of mech. Stands for Junction of Rotational Precision Gardiens.

...

Is it loaded with SWORDS or with SHOTGUNS?

On topic:
I would recommend Baten Kaitos, both of them. They don't have an overmap, but the towns are nice, and span multiple screens. They are a couple of island that work like an overmap, but there isn't much to do but move from point A to B.

The music is awesome. The Voice Acting in the first one is lacking though, I find it funny, some find it unbearable. The VA in the second one is quite good.

I would like to say that Origins is the better game of the two, but EWatLO is longer and has more scenarios. Origins has fewer characters, so they are better developed, I think. Still, there are some things you won't understand if you play Origins before EWatLO..

Get both, unless you dislike card-based games.

corronchilejano · Post by **corronchilejano** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 5:20 am

Baten Kaitos and sequel are seconded

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:15 am

Joe Camacho wrote:
Gil_Hamilton wrote:
adventure_of_link wrote:...what the hell is a JRPG?
A class of mech. Stands for Junction of Rotational Precision Gardiens.

...
Is it loaded with SWORDS or with SHOTGUNS?

CROSSBOWs, actually.

Post by **Agozer** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:26 am

Metatron wrote:Persona 3. Do not fucking play it.

What's wrong with Persona 3? I'm not seeing a PAL release anytime soon, so I'm just curious.

Tallgeese · Post by **Tallgeese** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:23 am

Personal preference, really.

FES was out in Japan before P3 even got over here... if you don't know what that is, think KH2 Final Mix and FFX International type releases on steroids. I utterly refuse on principle to get a lesser version of a game.

You basically get to go on a glorified date-sim-alike on a time schedule as an exercise in powering up Personas initially or unlocking certain new ones.

Your allies are AI controlled and their spells are basically fixed thus. That is ludicrous, supposedly the game would be easy if you could change their Personas or control them, and to that I'd have to say: "So what? Make the damn game harder." There was absolutely no problem with Persona 1 and 2's compatibility-per-character system, it was in fact superior to what P3 has. This stupidity is compounded in the fact that if your main character dies it is game over, which I don't mind in SMT3, but in this case it's idiotic as you can't really do much customizing of your team bar the main.

The ONLY point I can think of in P3's favor over P2 is the fact that you have a greater degree of Persona customization through fusion. Other than that? Meh I say, meh. Less fusion magic, less party combat... what's there to like gameplay wise over Persona 2? Also: LOL at the utter combat uselessness of the Jesus Persona, the highest level one in the original game. There's Christian bashing and then there's that eyebrow raiser (his abilities are absolutely terrible, the only reasons you'd want to summon him are for the items he can drop on being summoned and filling up the Compendium, you would be utterly stupid to use him in combat over the hilariously overpowered Lucifer...).

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 12:41 pm

Yeah, I guess I need to get more into the Tales games.

Panzer88 wrote:Skies of Arcadia for Dreamcast or Gamecube. It's a great game.

Played it, like I said in the first post. ;) The "world map" in that game was absolutely awesome. It was exactly the kind of thing I love, all sorts of optional stuff that comes across your path, all sorts of secrets to find, not to mention the fact that you get to go up and down as well as move in a flat plane! And you're not actually led by the hand and brought everywhere automatically by the game. You really feel free, while it still manages to keep that involving narrative. I'm pining for a SoA2.

Metatron wrote:Persona 3. Do not fucking play it.

Try Wild Arms 5. Great world map.

Wait, Persona 3 = Devil Summoner? Well anyway, seeing how your comments about the game mostly revolve around the battle system, I'll still try it, provided it has an interesting game world and story. I managed to vastly enjoy Skies of Arcadia despite its excruciatingly slow battles. :)

I loved the first Wild Arms and I do want to try 5, but I'm always worried with sequels that I'm missing stuff, even if it's just references. Is it a very, uhh... sequel-y game?

Joe Camacho wrote:On topic:
I would recommend Baten Kaitos, both of them. They don't have an overmap, but the towns are nice, and span multiple screens. They are a couple of island that work like an overmap, but there isn't much to do but move from point A to B.

The music is awesome. The Voice Acting in the first one is lacking though, I find it funny, some find it unbearable. The VA in the second one is quite good.

I would like to say that Origins is the better game of the two, but EWatLO is longer and has more scenarios. Origins has fewer characters, so they are better developed, I think. Still, there are some things you won't understand if you play Origins before EWatLO..

Get both, unless you dislike card-based games.

Well I've never really played any card based games really. The games do look great, but from what I've heard so far I'd rather try some others first. I'm really tired of games lately that restrict freedom and limit exploration to sell more to casual players.

Tallgeese · Post by **Tallgeese** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 12:48 pm

Eh, gameplay is almost everything for me, but I can't imagine the cliched 'Japanese schoolkid links up with friends TO SAVE THE WORLD FROM THE EVIL THOUGHTS OF MANKIND (yes this basically happens)' beats Persona 2's story for anybody with a brain... but I digress. Persona 3 is not Devil Summoner, Devil Summoner is an action-RPG with basically the same 'summon gods/demons' theme. Game world... well, to be blunt it has basically one big, randomly generated main dungeon, and a couple smaller, one-shot dungeons. When not dungeoning you go around parts of Japan talking to people to build up Social Links on a tight time schedule (this is the dating sim esque part, pick the right answers now...). I also liked Skies of Arcadia myself...

The Wild Arms games do not suffer from sequel-itis, but they DO have reference-itis. What I mean is, there's a lot of name and concept reuse, like Final Fantasy... an example in those games being Bahamut being in multiple games in some way or being otherwise referred to. That's about the extent of its sequel-itis, name holdovers and cameos. You won't miss a damn thing story wise except going "Ooh, this dungeon has the same name as that dungeon from WA1' or "Hey, this guy looks like WA1's Rudy!"

Post by **Agozer** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:00 pm

Persona 3 is not Devil Summoner. Shin Megami Tensei and Persona are different game series despite having truckloads of similarities. Eh, I could say that they are like spinoffs of eachother, or something.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:09 pm

Wait, uhh... then why the name Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3? Ehh whatever, I'll take your word for it.

All the Persona games look interesting, they're basically old FF style RPG's with world map and towns and crap except a different theme? That's good I guess.

I also thought Vagrant Story was more of a battle game with a level structure more than anything? If it's really a full fledged RPG I'll definitely have to give it another look.

Post by **Agozer** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:02 pm

Vagrant Story is really far from the traditional JRPG style. I just threw it on my list because I feel that it needs attention.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:20 pm

Oh. So uhh, how many of those games on your list are actually not what I'm looking for at all but were thrown in there for attention? Heh. :p
It's not that I don't still want to get Vagrant story in the future, it looks good. But I don't feel like playing that kind of game at this point in time. That's why I made this thread. ;)

Anyways, I think I could've foregone writing that long ass first post up there, and could've just asked which RPG's have controllable airships (or regular ships). Because now that I think of it, simply having an airship seems to imply a whole lot of other things about an RPG as well that I find enjoyable.

So, I'll just ask: which RPG's let you manually control airborne or aquatic transportation?

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:59 pm

SON OF A MOTHERFUCKER!

I forgot to plug Lunar: Eternal Blue. Only on SegaCD. I'm not sure WHERE that PlayStation box with Lucia on it came from.

Tallgeese · Post by **Tallgeese** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:12 am

blackmyst wrote:Wait, uhh... then why the name Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3? Ehh whatever, I'll take your word for it.

All the Persona games look interesting, they're basically old FF style RPG's with world map and towns and crap except a different theme? That's good I guess.

I also thought Vagrant Story was more of a battle game with a level structure more than anything? If it's really a full fledged RPG I'll definitely have to give it another look.

Atlus USA is prefixing all the SMT spins with that as a brand.

Persona 3 actually deserves it, because unlike the other three Persona games it steals most of its demon designs from the mainline SMT series.

No, Persona 1 and 2 do not play like Final Fantasies, nor did I mean to imply such... they have vastly better mechanics in my book. They emphasize monster and your own elemental or physical weaknesses and dealing with them. Persona 2 also emphasizes lining up spells in order with your allies in order to launch fusion magic... luckily P2 helps this by allowing you to customize your turn as you please.

Wild Arms 5 does not play like a Final Fantasy either, it's unquestionably more involved combat-wise and actually has some vague platforming elements and some non-vague puzzle-solving elements to either proceed or net decent items.

As for transportation... well, its world map in particular kind of argues against needing air travel, as it is extremely explorable and hides invisible chests you need to employ a scanner to detect and open. Some earlier ones had a flying mecha dragon named Lombardia you can control, and WA5 has a giant walking/hovering golem... eo can also fight for you.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:28 am

Well like I said, I don't really care much what kind of battle system a game has, I was battle-hardened (excuse me) by 16 bit RPGs so I can stomach and even enjoy pretty much any set of combat mechanics. :) I'm more about the adventure part. Persona games look to have a really cool atmosphere to me, if that was coupled with the "real world" feeling that the kind of exploration in pre-PS2 FF's provides, I would go for it in an instant.

WA5 I'm gonna try to get hold of.

Johan_H · Post by **Johan_H** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:59 am

Treasure of the Rudras

Tallgeese · Post by **Tallgeese** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:43 am

blackmyst wrote:Well like I said, I don't really care much what kind of battle system a game has, I was battle-hardened (excuse me) by 16 bit RPGs so I can stomach and even enjoy pretty much any set of combat mechanics. I'm more about the adventure part. Persona games look to have a really cool atmosphere to me, if that was coupled with the "real world" feeling that the kind of exploration in pre-PS2 FF's provides, I would go for it in an instant.

Persona 2 encourages exploration vis a vis talking to people for rumors, and filling in all of the dungeon maps of certain areas for prizes.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:12 pm

Hmm, so what I gather from some other places on the interwebs, P2 is a dungeon-heavy game with some sort of city as a central "hub"? Definitely not in the mood for anything like that right now. The reason I made this thread was because I wanted to avoid getting into something like that. Don't mean to knock the game or anything.