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Help me figure out which bullshit JRPG I want to play
- Thread starter Gaer
- Start date
Does DQXI count? It even has a 2D mode.
Alliance Alive is something you'll wanna avoid if you wanna avoid Kawazu-esque elements (i.e. random stat-ups), but it IS very very good.
Ara Fell was originally an RPG Maker game that was lauded amongst that community as Extremely Good back in its time, and I don't imagine much has changed about that. Hard for me to say, though, because I've never played it either.
Also Shadows of Adam is good. The story is a bit shallow, but it is a FFMQ-em-up that does its thing pretty well.
Alliance Alive is something you'll wanna avoid if you wanna avoid Kawazu-esque elements (i.e. random stat-ups), but it IS very very good.
Ara Fell was originally an RPG Maker game that was lauded amongst that community as Extremely Good back in its time, and I don't imagine much has changed about that. Hard for me to say, though, because I've never played it either.
Also Shadows of Adam is good. The story is a bit shallow, but it is a FFMQ-em-up that does its thing pretty well.
muteKi
Geno Cidecity
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/761/ you hit this one yet gaer
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Off-topic but I want to address this.
I argued about this on the old forum but I still cite Octopath Traveler as one of the most accurate representations of being a sex worker. The characters acknowledge the cold reality of it being the only job available for the women who have been put in a position by the world's economic and social situations and chronicles that they really are abused. Most other games just seem to be like "tee hee I am a prostitute because I have a sexy body and am cute or want to make money to buy X" but hell no for this one.
This does not improve the recommendation for your case as it is brutal, triggering and depressing, but the "heart of gold" thing that is a trope that the game does away with REAL QUICK. She's a goddamn force of nature and a cold calculating bitch (very intentionally using that word) and I love her. It makes me sad how many people write off the game because they think her character is like so many others in games. Definitely agree the trailer could have made that clearer, but then it would be upsetting so I get why they didn't. There's probably a better middle ground.
Nostalgia or Suikoden Tierkreis for DS? I think both of them are solid, pretty traditional JRPGs.
7th Dragon III Code: VFD seems to also hit a lot of your bullet points.
(not a real suggestion) Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars?
7th Dragon III Code: VFD seems to also hit a lot of your bullet points.
(not a real suggestion) Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars?
From that page: "This is a very Final Fantasy V type of game," and later "it involves a girl who pretends to be a guy." Now I've not played this game, but I think Gaer might be interested (I know I am).
OH, THE 7TH DRAGON SERIES, SPECIFICALLY THE PSP AND 3DS GAMES, GAER, OMG
I hate playing on PC but I loved Trails of Cold Steel so much I hooked my laptop up to my TV and used Steam Big Picture mode + Dual Shock 4 to play through Trails in The Sky 1-3. Totally worth it.
I've played Ara Fell on Switch and can recommend it for someone seeking JRPG Bullshit! It has every bullet point you want and lacks every bullet point you don't want. It has the good sense, like TITS 1&2, to make the plucky tomboy the protagonist instead of the sidekick. It has a mysterious but sexy bard guy whose backstory includes being the ex of nearly every other major female character. It has the totally nonsense setting idea of Elves vs. Vampires.
7th Dragon III: Code VFD (it is mandatory to say the entire title each time it's mentioned) is fun bullshit too. (I've played about 10 hours of the OG DS game and haven't tried the PSP ones yet and so can't really say how it compares except that it's way less of a grind than the OG DS game.) It has you field up to nine party members at a time, or sometimes split them into three parties of three so you can do three things at the same time, geez where have I heard that one before! It has time travel and solves time travel problems by saying, "well history doesn't record exactly what happened at this specific point so that means we can do whatever we want, right?" It is aggressively pansexual (a bit too aggressive at times in a JRPG Bullshit way but mostly well meaning and more progressive than you'd expect). It has Fated Rivals and Dramatic Betrayals and Battles At The End Of the Universe. It has excellent music.
7th Dragon III: Code VFD (it is mandatory to say the entire title each time it's mentioned) is fun bullshit too. (I've played about 10 hours of the OG DS game and haven't tried the PSP ones yet and so can't really say how it compares except that it's way less of a grind than the OG DS game.) It has you field up to nine party members at a time, or sometimes split them into three parties of three so you can do three things at the same time, geez where have I heard that one before! It has time travel and solves time travel problems by saying, "well history doesn't record exactly what happened at this specific point so that means we can do whatever we want, right?" It is aggressively pansexual (a bit too aggressive at times in a JRPG Bullshit way but mostly well meaning and more progressive than you'd expect). It has Fated Rivals and Dramatic Betrayals and Battles At The End Of the Universe. It has excellent music.
The side benefit to this thread is that now I’ve added Arafell to my own backlog and have opted to give Shadow of Adam another shot.
Gonna second Tokyo Mirage Sessions if you haven't played that. Kylie would third me, if she were here.
And, Lost Sphear! Even though I find the Tokyo RPG Factory games to be pretty hollow, they're still a nice chewy JRPG at the end of the day. Definitely fits the "bullshit JRPG" criteria.
Glad to see The Alliance Alive getting recommended here. Its Kawazu tendencies are incredibly minor and otherwise it feels like a SNES/PSX era JRPG
chady
(He/him/his)
Trails! You should at least finish Trails in the Sky 2 on a PSP, it's so good. I love all of the Trails games, but Sky 1 and 2 are really special.
After that: The 3rd is more of a side story, it has some ongoing series lore in it but it's not a MUST play, imo. I certainly didn't play it before jumping into Cold Steel, and I've still never finished it (because PC), though I did read a Let's Play for some story stuff.
And then the Zero/Ao duology is really good, but there's not an easy way to play them. You could go straight into Cold Steel 1+2 and not miss a whole lot. (I would encourage you to to play Zero and Ao before going into Cold Steel 3, but if you finish Sky 2 and Cold Steel 1+2 my guess is you'll be completely hooked and seek out a way to play the others.)
I was going to recommend Moon. But, I think it is the anti-bullshit JRPG?
The main character is a little girl with a pair of Infinity Gauntlets; so that ain't nothin'
I'll second Octo's recommendation, Kemco's stuff is likely the closest you're gonna get to what you're looking for unless some random obscure localized jRPG pops up on NESflix or SNESflix.
I'd also be interested in this list, though I will say I prefer my jRPGs less stupid and am more open to non-standard stuff like sci-fi.
KEMCO publishes games from four major developers, and though they're all retro-jrpgs, they each have their own style and evolution, which I've conflated in some places and becomes clearer as I've played more of their games.
EXE-Create made the Asdivine and Alphadia series, as well as the contents of the second KEMCO Humble Bundle (Fanatic Earth, Illusion of L'Phalcia, Journey to Kreisia, Revenant Saga). Their games tend to be longer, have multiple difficulty levels, rely less on IAP, and have the best translations. That said, their characters tend to be identical and the plot sequences, sidequests and worldbuilding don't change much from game to game. They have been steadily improving; I should probably try a few of their most recent offerings (75% of KEMCO's output in the last 3 years is EXE-Create games; the rest are Hit-Point). Illusion of L'Phalcia or Dragon Lapis are good ones to try.
Hit-Point tends more towards games with monster companions and a variety of ways to grind. Several of their offerings (Crystareino, Justice Chronicles) were on Amazon Underground and I bought several others in their holiday sale (Soul of Deva, Chronus Arc). If you need to grind for materials to craft weapons, it's a Hit-Point game. On the other hand, they're most likely to to put actual puzzles into the dungeons. Their IAP is usually there to reduce grinding time. CRYSTAREINO is a decent choice to try out. They also made a tactical rpg, Lenga Tactica, which isn't bad.
Magitec tries the hardest to get creative with their plots, often to the point of cramming in too many twists. They also had a bunch of Amazon Underground games (Grace of Letoile, Soul Historica, Dead Dragons) and a bunch I got in the holiday sale (Covenant of Solitude, Chrome Wolf, Shelterra the Skyworld). They tend to go in for class systems, mission-based plot sequences, and very standard space-filling dungeons that have the same half-dozen styles (take the long way around to hit a switch; one-way doors/traps; sliding ice/walkways; damage floors you need items to avoid, etc). They'll often have cool stuff in their IAP, though sometimes it breaks the game more than others. Soul Historica is probably the best of their games.
WorldWideSoftware provided the first KEMCO Humble Bundle (Eclipse of Illusion, Aeon Avenger, Fortuna Magus, Silver Nornir, Symphony of the Origin, Eve of the Genesis). They're most likely to hide story content behind IAP (if you aren't playing a Humble version), and their translations are sometimes rocky. They've gotten better at designing dungeons in later games, but it's not hard to improve from three open screens with two arrangements of enemies, which was the standard in their earliest offerings. Symphony of the Origin is pretty solid; it's from a point when they started hitting their stride.
Marenian Tavern Story (or the earlier Adventure Bar Story) are odd stand-outs in that they're cooking-based gathering games rather than proper adventure rpgs. If you like completing lists of mini-tasks, they're good for that. (I enjoyed them both.)
This probably isn't really the thread to discuss this but: I'm tired of women being hurt, victimised, or outright killed in videogames for their character development (or the development of the person they're close to). Even my beloved FFXIV does this way too often, and they're incredibly progressive otherwise. Her prologue just really gave a bad taste in my mouth, especially when I played the prologue of whats-his-nuts Knight afterwards, where he not only saves the town but reforms the bandits and saves the kid.
Like what the fuck? You know?
As for all the other suggestions: yes good! Keep them coming! I decided to get Ara Fell, and I will report back with my findings.
I'm honestly thinking of trying to find a hardware Steam Link for my TV. Streaming options may not be the absolute best in my bedroom because of the concrete walls, but to play TiTS 2 etc, I could at least be on the couch.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Got it and totally understood. It absolutely would be nice in really any form of media honestly.
Haven’t sunk enough time into it to judge it fully, but The Longest Five Minutes is very much a Junky JRPG in all the good ways, with the hook that it’s also basically the Memento of the genre; the hero gets amnesia in the middle of the final boss fight and has to be reminded of every step of the journey as quickly as possible, presented in the order that his other party members remember them.
It winds up playing like a WHOLE BUNCH of tiny tiny RPGs
It winds up playing like a WHOLE BUNCH of tiny tiny RPGs
