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I had a good feeling! Celebrating 40 Years and 108 JRPGs of Destiny

i agree but i'm inclined to say it was a perfectly sensible and reasonable decision because it does sound extremely like a horse game title in english

i think "chronicles" is like usual the part that i'm not totally thrilled about (i always just say "xenoblade" too) but it's not the worst choice to convey the sort of looseness of the game's pacing and activities
 
Directly calling your piece of art "Metaphor" without at least 85% irony levels raises my heckles a bit, using "Re" for something that is not a remake and slightly odd punctuation are small annoyances but barely raise Weird Title Attention for me these days. That said, the game looks pretty boss.
 
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71. Koudelka
Sacnoth, 1999: PSX Points: 230 Votes: 5
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I’m really glad this game has gotten a reassessment. When it first released, I eyed it any number of times at Ye Olde Gameshoppe but was always talked out of it by magazine reviews, friends, or clerks. It just had a reputation as a bland and short stinker. And even I, a guy who was happy to waste his money on any PlayStation game as long as it was a RPG, still turned up his nose. What a fool! Koudelka is a charmingly janky hidden gem, a mashup of survival horror exploration and JRPG mechanics, which packs a lot into its svelte runtime and generally hits a higher register of tone than its contemporaries. My favorite detail is that Koudelka’s sassy sidekick is Edward Plunkett a.k.a. Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, the 18th Baron of Dunsany and grand patriarch of modern Fantasy fiction. The game never makes a point of it, but apparently in his twenties he played at being an aristocratic adventurer-thief and his strange experiences at Nemeton Monastery led him toward a life of letters and speculative imagination. And if you doubt this is supposed to be the same guy, note that company name Sacnoth comes from Dunsany as well.

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71. Lunar: Eternal Blue
Game Arts, 1999: PSX Points: 230 Votes: 7
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A consummate sequel: bigger, longer, refined, and even more FMVs and voice actings, but still retaining that Lunar charm and appealing sense of character and camaraderie. Both Lunars were narratively ambitious games, taking advantage of the CD format not just for graphics and sound, but also for copious amounts of text dialog. This focus is particularly focused on NPCs, who often have several things to say when first encountered, and will update their dialog after major events. But more importantly, included in these NPC interactions are tons and tons of lines from party members commenting on or responding to these no-name townsfolk. This adds verisimilitude to the setting and content to the experience of course, but more importantly it creates a sense of a living, engaged party. One that doesn’t dissolve into stats and gear once they’re incorporated into the gameplay, but remains active in the goings-on down to the level of simple fact-finding or sightseeing exploration. This facilitates a feeling of companionship with these goofballs, which though can be felt in many JRPGs, is really brought to the forefront here in a notable way, and something that would remain a core feature of Game Arts’ design as they proceeded to the Grandia games. It’s such an effective technique that it’s surprising that Dragon Quest wouldn’t incorporate its version of this “party chat” until VII and Final Fantasy wouldn’t approach the idea until the incidental carboys chatter in XV.

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They should have called it Persona: Non Grata, and called it a day. (I have never played a Persona game. Like everything else I say, I have no idea what I'm talking about.)
 
I did not vote for Koudelka, but it wasn't far off the list. The combat is astoundingly slow, but everything else about the game is top notch, including the characterization and voice acting. Seriously, for this era, they knocked it out of the park.

I did vote for Lunar: EB, though, as that is legit one of my favorite games of the 16-bit era. I feel that version in particular outshines the remake on PSX because of changes to that remake - in short, random battles were better than the on-field stuff shoehorned in. I highly recommend folks that haven't played it give that version a go!
 
WisteriaHysteria said:
Never managed to get very far into Lunar 2. I bet I would like it a lot more as an adult. So long as the Working Designs localization was dialed back.
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I finished the remastered version on PS1. I was a young-ish adult back then so the WD stuff didn't bother me. I wonder if that would be different nowadays.

(Lunar 2 was #34 on my list.)
 
Ahhh, Lunar. I had both of the special editions of the PS1 releases (but not the super special edition with the punching puppet). I feel like SSSC left a deeper impression than EBC, but I did like both of them quite a bit. The battle systems felt good to me, I liked the character designs and anime aesthetics and cutscenes... and my teenage self appreciated the partial nudity.
 
Never managed to get very far in L:EBC. Maybe an hour or two, tops? For whatever reason it didn't grab me like L:SSSC did. I bought the Lunar re-release collection from last year mostly to finish EB. EB is still on my, "I need to get around to this eventually" list but eventually hasn't come so far. Maybe one day.
 
Say what you will about Working Designs, the inclusion of Lucia's pendant in the special edition is a chef's kiss. It's not a plot important MacGuffin like the significant pendants in FFVI or Chrono Trigger. It's just a part of her outfit design and for 95% of the game it feels a little extraneous they put a replica in the box. But then when a thing happens. Whew. Whew! What a stroke of genius.
 
I wish I had that pendant - my copy didn't have it, and when I had a chance to rebuy a copy for cheap that included it, a school colleague who just happened to come with me to the pawn shop that day managed to snap it up before I could. 🫠
 
Lokii said:
71. Koudelka​
... It just had a reputation as a bland and short stinker
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Who in the world ever called Koudelka BLAND? I can kinda get someone somehow not seeing that being only like 12 hours long is a blessing (especially compared to the bloated RPG megafauna of the latter days of the PSX, like no offense Xenogears and DQ7 but you need to slim down!) Bland though? Janky, sure. Music that's surprisingly compromised in fidelity to the original contributions considering the composer was also the head of the whole studio? Yeah. But I've never heard of anyone skipping it for looking bland, just being too weird for the room, and frankly, ahead of its time in a lot of ways. Real good one to go back to now and then and replay. It's surprisingly open and your party is surprisingly customizable.

Lokii said:
71. Lunar: Eternal Blue
Game Arts, 1999: PSX Points: 230 Votes: 7​
Click to expand...
If we're going with the original game, that should really be 1995: Sega CD, and while I still haven't had the pleasure, back when the Saturn/PSX remake (Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete) hit, someone I used to work with absolutely drilled into me that you REALLY want the original there. First game's fine, but the second game, I'm told, ended up with quite a lot cut out of it largely due to the switch from a proper overworld to a Chrono Trigger style map screen.
 
Well, it's later now. Koudelka is fascinating and super unique. I want to mention again that calling it bland is beyond baffling. You have a really fun main character (who is also a very competent woman), together with this dude, and they can't stand each other. But later on, they meet the third party member, and they both REALLY can't stand him, because he is the worst kind of priest ever. It's just such an interesting dynamic, having a team where everyone despises each other. The inclusion of for-real historical characters is amazing, I love it. The vibes are amazing, the castle is a Place, you can feel the atmosphere and its history. And it's short. Like, if you want to experience a unique, interesting, different rpg, play this. The combat is pretty slow, yes, but I think it's absolutely worth it, if you can accept a level of jank. Great game.

I played Lunar: Eternal Blue over ten years ago, directly after playing the first game for the first time. I only have vague memories of it, but definitely enjoyed it. I unfortunately don't remember much more. Afaik, for EB, the version doesn't matter that much? I certainly never read about a lot of stuff being cut out from the PS1 version, and checking now, I didn't find anything on that.
 
I think the way Koudelka is bland is the sluggish combat. But that's really the only thing holding it back. That game with Shadow Hearts' combat would be aces.

Some gripes about Lunar: EB behind the spoiler so those that don't want to read that stuff can avoid, haha.
My primary gripes with Lunar: EB on PSX is how they have on-field encounters, but in a lot of areas they cluster because the maps weren't designed for it. So you have to slog through a zillion battles just to get where you want to go. And unlike Silver Star, they also make you move more slowly with a limited dash, and that dash is generally only as fast as monsters' default speed. So avoiding battles is incredibly difficult. Random battles at least space out the encounters. The other change is that everything has greater range in battle. Sure, that helps you get to enemies quicker with your melee dudes, but it also means enemies can just blaze towards your spellcasters right off. I know, I'm quibbling hard on this one, so ignore the rantings of this madman.

*gets off soapbox*

It's still a very good game even on PSX, just not (in my opinion) all it could have been.
 
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70. Crystal Project
RiverRunGames, 2022: PC Points: 237 Votes: 6​

I’m delighted this idiosyncratic indie game from a tiny developer made the list. Any opportunity to sing its praises is a welcome one. But to be honest, its placing is far too low. If I had my druthers it would be far higher up (I voted it at #10). Perhaps I oversell it, but my time in Sequoia was so pleasurable that I’d hate to see Crystal Project lost in the haystack of retro-styled indie RPGs.

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Crystal Project is a mashup of FFV style combat and job class progression with structureless open world platforming exploration. It achieves both halves with great depth and integrates the two tightly. The game opens with you creating a team of four from the classic FF1 job roster, then sets you off without preamble or motivation into a vast 3D world created from voxels, like Minecraft but seen from a bird’s-eye view. As you explore this land of Sequoia you come to learn two things:

First, the goal is to adventure, but only in order to find crystals. And if you’re not finding crystals, you’re doing it wrong and risk banishment. Luckily, crystals grant you new job classes for the rich character building system, which is like a smartly expanded FFV with loads of unique jobs and potential synergies. Second, you can go anywhere. There is no prescribed sequence of progression and no out-of-bounds. If you can see somewhere, and are clever or brave enough, you can get to it. This makes for a wonderfully expansive open world with plenty of opportunities for hidden secrets, tantalizing branching paths, playful verticality, and tests of player resourcefulness.

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The result is that exploration leads to crystals and in turn crystals expand exploration, making a wonderful feedback loop that compels the player to invest further into the game and systems, which reward with each new unfolding. Where the game truly succeeds in both aspects is through the sense of getting away with something. Whether through exploiting some job setup to elegantly waltz through a difficult boss fight or exploiting some bit of geometry to get to some scenery that seemed inaccessible, you get the rush of having broken the rules only to have the game confirm, yes you can do this; do what thou wilt.

What a strong personal stamp this puts on your experience with the game. Many open world titles presume such an ownership but only offer a superficial taste of it. But here the rewards of engagement are so pleasurable and essential to how the game operates both mechanically and thematically that it resonates at a high timbre. The connection you make with Crystal Project—like so many aspects of this game—runs deep.
 
Oh man, Crystal Project. I had a really weird engagement arc with this game!

For whatever reason, I was really determined not to give this game the time of day at first. I found the trailer videos on the Steam page absolutely repellant, for some reason. I don't know what it was, but something about the voxels and the floaty physics just rubbed me extremely wrong, so when it was first recommended to me I took one look and then decided it wasn't for me. And then someone else recommended it to me. And then someone else again. And finally it hit critical mass, and the demo was apparently giant, so I said "fuck it" and tried it anyway, and ended up basically 100%-ing on Hard mode and playing it for over 120 hours.

I'll say that I'm not sure that the game does a good job communicating what it is, but that's because what it is is pretty unique! It wears the skin of a survival crafting game (which I generally don't care for), but it is absolutely not one. Fortunately, if you're someone who, like me, isn't sure that you'll like it, the first thing to recommend it is that aforementioned demo-- I think it may be the most generous demo that I've ever encountered? I played the demo version for over 15 hours, and in those 15 hours I only found a single pay-wall, and I had to go well off the beaten track to find it. And then you can just seamlessly load up your demo save into the full game and you're off to the races (this is a joke for the Crystal Project heads).

Loki did a great job above describing what makes this game special, but I'd still like to dive deep on some of the game's core systems.

First off, and this isn't a comparison that I saw other people make, but I think that the game this reminds me most of is actually Alundra (not the combat, obviously, but the platforming). A lot of trying to judge heights and differences in 2D to make jumps. Perhaps also shades of the platforming/puzzle-solving of CrossCode's outdoor areas, to cite a more recent example. And that platforming is in service of exploration that is extremely rewarding. There's always a new secret hiding just around the corner or out of sight. It has DQ-style "you need to build this bridge to proceed" checkpoints, except that almost all of them can be circumvented if you're thorough and clever and want to go mash your face against enemies that you're not ready for yet.

The combat and class systems are also aces. Character-building has shades of FFV. Each class has a skill tree that it earns job points for, and each character can have a primary and secondary class skill set at any one time, but can equip any passive unlocked from any previous class (up to a point-- there's a passive capacity). Stat-ups are decided by the class you inhabit at level-up, but you can re-spec those class-ups for money later if you're unhappy with a build. Also, characters earn job points at 1/10 rate for being around other characters in that class (just one of many small clever touches this game has).

Combat has an AP resource that builds-up over time and resets between battles, so you can use your abilities as much as you like. It also introduces MMO-style threat management into its turn-based battles and it works super well! Rogues can only backstab if they're at the bottom of an enemy's threat list. Healing generates threat against whichever enemies are targeting the party member you healed. My party had a tank with taunt and cover abilities. One of my favourite strats was having my Wizard open up with a big fuck-off AoE, then having my Tank use Cover on him with a counter-attack passive. I've never seen anything quite like it before, but it all just works, and is rather intuitive to boot.

As I mentioned, I played Hard mode the whole way and can say that it was just perfect for me, and the end game super bosses, of which there were many (some of which can be found quite early), had teeth. The end/post-game content reminded me a bit of FFIV Free Enterprise, the FFIV randomizer, of all things, in the way that I'd try a boss, decide I didn't have the right kit, then go find another one in hopes of having better kit later.

Anyway, I'm glad everyone kept recommending this one to me, because it's a GOAT. Give it a try right now, for free!
 
Oh wow, Crystal Project made the list! I'm actually annoyed with myself that I forgot to put it on my list - the game is really, really good. I need to push through and finish it one of these days...!
 
I'm not the biggest FF5 fan, I think it's fine, but the do-anything go-anywhere exploration of CP has piqued my interest.
 
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