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I had a good feeling! Celebrating 40 Years and 108 JRPGs of Destiny
- Thread starter Lokii
- Start date
Hey, I logged into the forums to post, so this must be a good thread.
Glad it started, looking forward to it. FF7 Remake was on my list, Rebirth was absolutely not. Might need to take a gander at Lost Odyssey now.
Glad it started, looking forward to it. FF7 Remake was on my list, Rebirth was absolutely not. Might need to take a gander at Lost Odyssey now.
It's not clear, but I think Chestnut was referring to Clair Obscur.
The Kids would've bothered me less if one of them didn't share a voice actor with some of the literal Rugrats.
On the other hand, most of the rest of the party are adult-coded adults, and not just the amnesiac immortals. They have pre-existing relationships! Two of them have been married for a long time! One of the party members, who would have been called Cid if intellectual property law allowed, is an old man who's the son of one of the immortals, and he's a total mama's boy.
On the other hand, most of the rest of the party are adult-coded adults, and not just the amnesiac immortals. They have pre-existing relationships! Two of them have been married for a long time! One of the party members, who would have been called Cid if intellectual property law allowed, is an old man who's the son of one of the immortals, and he's a total mama's boy.
I called him the soul of the company! I feel like that's already pretty high praise?
That’s what I meant! Sorry for the confusion.
Sarge
hardcore retro gamin'
I do think as @Falselogic mentioned, Xenia can get you to the end of Lost Odyssey with a few quirks along the way. Runs well on the Steam Deck apparently.
98. Wild Arms
MediaVision, 1996: PSX. Points: 168 Votes: 6
Wild Arms holds up remarkably well. Aside from the iconic spaghetti-whistling of ‘Into the Wilderness,’ the combination of well realized sprite art and cozy low-poly battles create a timelessness that has aged with charm and grace. Which is surprising. In 1996 the chibified combat felt like growing pains as developers hungry to exploit the potential of polygonal spectacle worked out the practicalities. These days the mixing of 2D and exaggerated 3D elements feels like a confident aesthetic stance rather than the wishy-washy compromise it seemed back then. And the Speculative-Western remains a genre setting that has mostly gone ignored in the decades since, making this game and its sequels essential if you want your roots and toots accompanied by mystic crests, ancient battle golems, and sad anime robots.
~
98. Soul Blazer
Quintet, 1992: SNES. Points: 168 Votes: 6
Heaven and Earth at its most pure. Soul Blazer is a simple game of finding a spot to stand and letting monsters impale themselves on your heavenly blade. But Quintet takes this gameplay nugget and expands it into a tidy ten hours of dopaminergic joy. Popping monster lairs is as satisfying as working your way across a sheet of bubble wrap, and the back-and-forth dungeon-town heartbeat is impeccably paced—not just for forward momentum but for that rich satisfaction that comes with repopulating a mole community or sunken mermaid paradise. A classic experience; Soul Blazer bursts with Quintet's trademark charm, quirky presentation, and spiritual meditation.
~
98. Triangle Strategy
Artdink, 2022: Switch. Points: 168 Votes: 4
Triangle Strategy (a perfect name, let no one tell you otherwise) was initially positioned as the second coming of Final Fantasy Tactics. Thank goodness Square Enix was confident enough to let Artdink chart their own course. While superficially similar, Triangle trades FFT’s complex class trees and skill management for a roster of strictly defined but completely unique units. Success comes from exploiting synergies among these units and finding creative uses for their niches, engendering a sense of budding command as player and protagonist Serenoa navigate dangers both martial and political.
I’ve been sitting on a copy of Wild Arms (and most of its sequels) for decades and never managed to find time to take the plunge. How big of a mistake have I been making for most of my life?
Well, if nothing else, you would appear to have invested an unreasonable amount into media that you will never consume.
Hey, I've actually played these ones! They're good ducks!
Like basically everyone else here, of course the intro to Wild Arms lives rent-free in my head, but it was a good game too! I love the way you pump money into improving your ARMs, and the weird grid-based magic crafting system is aces too. As Loki alludes to above, it's also the rare game that actually looks better than you remember? I remember the 3D looking kind of jank, but I find it positively charming now. It also bears the dubious distinction of being one of those games that hides important story content behind idling at the title screen not just once, but multiple times in a row. Good thing I was more patient than the average teenager!
The thing that stands out most in my mind, though, were the puzzles. Honestly, they were pretty typical for the genre; they were cute and fun (more games should involve solving puzzles with a cute mouse buddy), but nothing special, really. However, my cousin and I got hopelessly stuck on one in particular, and I'll never forget it. It was a room with 4 coloured statues, 3 floor switches, and a riddle on the wall. The riddle described which statue went on which switch, and we were sure we had it right, but it wasn't working! Fast-forward hours later, and it was like 2AM, after brute-forcing every combination, and my cousin was sleeping seated cross-legged beside me on his bedroom floor while I was just fucking around in a barely-awake haze, and at one point I started running around the screen like Bomberman, when *boom* one of the statues blew up. I excitedly shook my cousin awake and we were back to the races.
(I still think it was kind of bullshit, though. How on earth did the lock mechanism know if we'd destroyed that extra statue?)
I love basically every game that Quintet's ever made, but the Soul Blazer trilogy don't really feel like JRPGs to me (not knocking folks for voting for it; just explaining why I didn't).
As for Triangle Strategy, I have really complicated feelings about that one. I basically adored it while I was playing, but ended up leaving it feeling kind of sour? It reminded me a fair bit of Vandal Hearts (which will always be my gold standard for SRPGs, as it's one of my favourite games of all-time), with its varied mission set-ups and emphasis on battlefield tactics over character-building: this is a game with fixed character roles and promotion paths. And it certainly made a very strong first impression, when, in the very first battle, a Bandit Lord picked up a horse, twirled it over his head, and threw it over his shoulder!
That said, it is also possibly the most talky SRPG I've ever played, taking sometimes literal hours between battles. It throws a lot of nobles and kingdoms and history at you very fast too, although it also has a very cool live codex where you can pause at any time to see a short bio on whomever is speaking. And the voice acting itself is stellar (shout out in particular to Benedict). Some of the early choices aren't exactly nail-biters, but some of the final choices had me stewing in the best way, where no matter what I chose, I was going to feel bad, and a character I cared about was going to make me feel worse, and the elaborate voting system behind each choice is a fun mechanical novelty. Also, the story is refreshingly... mundane? I kept waiting for a shoe to drop where we have to up and kill a God or stop a demon invasion or something, but no, it's just kingdoms fighting over salt and iron resources and the struggles of an oppressed people.
As far as the actual battles go, it may have had the hardest Hard mode of any SPRG that I've ever played? I really enjoyed that about it for most of my playthrough, but by the end it started to feel pretty exhausting, requiring you to heavily exploit the enemy AI in ways that are sometimes really unsatisfying, and it really makes the enemies feel pretty spongey. One of my favourite things about the combat system was the "kudos", which is essentially a "do cool shit" currency that gives you a little hit of dopamine in the moment for doing stuff like backstabs, pincers, etc that you you can trade in later for special powers, promotion items, and lore. And more battle systems should have "guy with ladder". It's very fun to redraw the battlefield on your own terms by sticking a ladder in the middle of it.
Honestly, the more I type, the more I think that maybe I'm not all that conflicted after all? This game slapped. I wish I had parted on better terms with it, but it's super cool and novel and I want another one now.
ETA: Name still honks, though. There are plenty of better names it could have gone with instead.
Like basically everyone else here, of course the intro to Wild Arms lives rent-free in my head, but it was a good game too! I love the way you pump money into improving your ARMs, and the weird grid-based magic crafting system is aces too. As Loki alludes to above, it's also the rare game that actually looks better than you remember? I remember the 3D looking kind of jank, but I find it positively charming now. It also bears the dubious distinction of being one of those games that hides important story content behind idling at the title screen not just once, but multiple times in a row. Good thing I was more patient than the average teenager!
The thing that stands out most in my mind, though, were the puzzles. Honestly, they were pretty typical for the genre; they were cute and fun (more games should involve solving puzzles with a cute mouse buddy), but nothing special, really. However, my cousin and I got hopelessly stuck on one in particular, and I'll never forget it. It was a room with 4 coloured statues, 3 floor switches, and a riddle on the wall. The riddle described which statue went on which switch, and we were sure we had it right, but it wasn't working! Fast-forward hours later, and it was like 2AM, after brute-forcing every combination, and my cousin was sleeping seated cross-legged beside me on his bedroom floor while I was just fucking around in a barely-awake haze, and at one point I started running around the screen like Bomberman, when *boom* one of the statues blew up. I excitedly shook my cousin awake and we were back to the races.
(I still think it was kind of bullshit, though. How on earth did the lock mechanism know if we'd destroyed that extra statue?)
I love basically every game that Quintet's ever made, but the Soul Blazer trilogy don't really feel like JRPGs to me (not knocking folks for voting for it; just explaining why I didn't).
As for Triangle Strategy, I have really complicated feelings about that one. I basically adored it while I was playing, but ended up leaving it feeling kind of sour? It reminded me a fair bit of Vandal Hearts (which will always be my gold standard for SRPGs, as it's one of my favourite games of all-time), with its varied mission set-ups and emphasis on battlefield tactics over character-building: this is a game with fixed character roles and promotion paths. And it certainly made a very strong first impression, when, in the very first battle, a Bandit Lord picked up a horse, twirled it over his head, and threw it over his shoulder!
That said, it is also possibly the most talky SRPG I've ever played, taking sometimes literal hours between battles. It throws a lot of nobles and kingdoms and history at you very fast too, although it also has a very cool live codex where you can pause at any time to see a short bio on whomever is speaking. And the voice acting itself is stellar (shout out in particular to Benedict). Some of the early choices aren't exactly nail-biters, but some of the final choices had me stewing in the best way, where no matter what I chose, I was going to feel bad, and a character I cared about was going to make me feel worse, and the elaborate voting system behind each choice is a fun mechanical novelty. Also, the story is refreshingly... mundane? I kept waiting for a shoe to drop where we have to up and kill a God or stop a demon invasion or something, but no, it's just kingdoms fighting over salt and iron resources and the struggles of an oppressed people.
As far as the actual battles go, it may have had the hardest Hard mode of any SPRG that I've ever played? I really enjoyed that about it for most of my playthrough, but by the end it started to feel pretty exhausting, requiring you to heavily exploit the enemy AI in ways that are sometimes really unsatisfying, and it really makes the enemies feel pretty spongey. One of my favourite things about the combat system was the "kudos", which is essentially a "do cool shit" currency that gives you a little hit of dopamine in the moment for doing stuff like backstabs, pincers, etc that you you can trade in later for special powers, promotion items, and lore. And more battle systems should have "guy with ladder". It's very fun to redraw the battlefield on your own terms by sticking a ladder in the middle of it.
Honestly, the more I type, the more I think that maybe I'm not all that conflicted after all? This game slapped. I wish I had parted on better terms with it, but it's super cool and novel and I want another one now.
ETA: Name still honks, though. There are plenty of better names it could have gone with instead.
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So, like, what's the bad part.
vehemently disagree there's never been a better name
The Wild ARMS animated intro and song is STILL a pinnacle of human achievement. The game was charming and managed to make a name for itself even if elements of it felt like they were less original in a post-FF7 world.
Triangle Strategy was good, but that TITLE. No, just... Just no. But the writing was excellent, the crises they managed to put you in and make you choose between were well thought-out and engaging, the battles and characters were well designed. Here is my seal of approval!
I never played Soul Blazer!
Triangle Strategy was good, but that TITLE. No, just... Just no. But the writing was excellent, the crises they managed to put you in and make you choose between were well thought-out and engaging, the battles and characters were well designed. Here is my seal of approval!
I never played Soul Blazer!
That the Venn diagram of people who like 2-3 hours of politics between gameplay segments and people who like horse-twirling/throwing bandits have a reasonably small overlap.
Or put more simply: I felt kind of guilty for recommending it to Octo based on latter before having a full sense of the earlier.
I just played through Soul Blazer for the first time, having beaten it 44 days after having submitted my list all the way back in November lol (sorry, Quintet fans). Looking at my list, I'd have put Soul Blazer somewhere on there most likely, as I adored it. A delight to play from start to finish with no ridiculous difficulty spikes and charming NPCs. Amazing music - check this track out - and excellent level design, I'm fairly confident it's my favorite Quintet game, and I just played through Illusion of Gaia recently too.
Strongly recommend Soul Blazer!
Strongly recommend Soul Blazer!
I didn't even think to add Soul Blazer but I do love the game.
Sarge
hardcore retro gamin'
Weirdly, Wild ARMs is the only game in the mainline series that I haven't beaten. I've finished Alter Code F, for crying out loud! But I think it's a great game, and the intro is so, so much better than the one they put into ACF. The music is iconic - I'll never forget it.
Soul Blazer rocks. It's such a blisteringly-paced game, like a proper ARPG version of Gauntlet or something, with some existential musings that don't always come through in the localization. It did show up on my list at number 30.
Soul Blazer rocks. It's such a blisteringly-paced game, like a proper ARPG version of Gauntlet or something, with some existential musings that don't always come through in the localization. It did show up on my list at number 30.
FelixSH
(He/Him)
I have a Wild Arms on my list, but it's not the first one. I remember it as a perfectly servicable game. It is charming and has cool ideas, though. And the music is so good, that even I recognized it.
Soul Blazer, though, was on my list. Number 41. Under the category "cool idea (story or concept)". I had to create different categories and rank them, to make it easier to rank the games. I mean, playing it is a joy, it's fast-paced, and killing monsters until they are all gone is a fun concept. But that's not the reason why I put it on there.
I just love the vibes and the world. That you are here to revive the world, that you can talk with things, animals and plants, that you learn about their grieve and sadness, which all feels so real.
I needed to look up what I wrote, and needed reminding. But yeah, the second world has tree stumps, that you can talk to. They are stuck in the ground, but birds tell them about the world. And you can go into the dream of one of the stumps. He dreams of being a bird, to fly around. Simple and touching. It feels great.
Also loved the third world, the underwater one. And apparently, i loved the music, which, together with the aesthetics, created a wonderful vibe. A shame, that I need to reread my writings, weird that I forgot the details. I loved being in that world. It all felt like an old sci-fi anime.
I DO remember the final area, basically moving through a space castle. Absolutely wonderful.
I'm rambling, so I'll stop now, but the game has a special place in my heart, after replaying it 1.5 years ago (what the hell, that long?). It's excellent.
Soul Blazer, though, was on my list. Number 41. Under the category "cool idea (story or concept)". I had to create different categories and rank them, to make it easier to rank the games. I mean, playing it is a joy, it's fast-paced, and killing monsters until they are all gone is a fun concept. But that's not the reason why I put it on there.
I just love the vibes and the world. That you are here to revive the world, that you can talk with things, animals and plants, that you learn about their grieve and sadness, which all feels so real.
I needed to look up what I wrote, and needed reminding. But yeah, the second world has tree stumps, that you can talk to. They are stuck in the ground, but birds tell them about the world. And you can go into the dream of one of the stumps. He dreams of being a bird, to fly around. Simple and touching. It feels great.
Also loved the third world, the underwater one. And apparently, i loved the music, which, together with the aesthetics, created a wonderful vibe. A shame, that I need to reread my writings, weird that I forgot the details. I loved being in that world. It all felt like an old sci-fi anime.
I DO remember the final area, basically moving through a space castle. Absolutely wonderful.
I'm rambling, so I'll stop now, but the game has a special place in my heart, after replaying it 1.5 years ago (what the hell, that long?). It's excellent.
Wild Arms wasn't a vote for me, but I do like it a lot. Played it for the first time about two years ago, as a palate cleanser of sorts at the time... and had to look through logs to refresh what exactly I thought about it, because it's already slipping. This is why I should always write something longer-form about media after experiencing it, for my own sake too. Anyway, here's an excerpt:
Naruke's music is great, particularly in utilizing leitmotif, there's a matriarchal archvillain critter emblematic of the medium in this era, Calamity Jane steals the show as far as individual characters, even Rudy as a silent protagonist has more interiority than customary for the role. It's such a firmly executed whole that the borderline memetic fixation on the opening animation almost detracts from awareness and appreciation of what the rest of the game is like.
--
Soul Blazer was a vote for me. Even amongst Quintet's catalogue its writing voice stands out. There just isn't a whole lot like it tonally in the medium, and it's precious for it.
Naruke's music is great, particularly in utilizing leitmotif, there's a matriarchal archvillain critter emblematic of the medium in this era, Calamity Jane steals the show as far as individual characters, even Rudy as a silent protagonist has more interiority than customary for the role. It's such a firmly executed whole that the borderline memetic fixation on the opening animation almost detracts from awareness and appreciation of what the rest of the game is like.
--
Soul Blazer was a vote for me. Even amongst Quintet's catalogue its writing voice stands out. There just isn't a whole lot like it tonally in the medium, and it's precious for it.
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Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I loved Triangle Strategy. Great writing, huge variety of maps, characters, etc and just damn fun. Thread is here if anyone wants to look through.
To the name-haters: please enjoy the ridiculous version of the theme with vocals when you beat a certain route.
To the name-haters: please enjoy the ridiculous version of the theme with vocals when you beat a certain route.
It worked for Karnov.
gorha
For the Ylory of Mankind
I didn't think that much of Soul Blazer the first time I played it, while its sequels impressed me much more. It's grown on me a lot, though. I've replayed the Heaven and Earth trilogy several times, and when I do, Soul Blazer is consistently the most fun of the three, mainly because it has almost no filler. It's just good ol' dungeon crawling, monster slaying and occasional puzzle solving that's over before its relatively simple gameplay can wear out its welcome. I didn't vote for it, but I wouldn't have needed many more slots for it to find its way onto my list. I'm second guessing leaving it out as it is, but I was kind of expecting that to happen many times over the course of this thread anyway.
Wild ARMs I remember as a really charming game, but honestly I don't remember it that well. Only played it once around 2012, so quite a long time ago now. I liked the solo sections with each character before they came together, and the western/fantasy/sci-fi mashup setting was cool.
Wild ARMs I remember as a really charming game, but honestly I don't remember it that well. Only played it once around 2012, so quite a long time ago now. I liked the solo sections with each character before they came together, and the western/fantasy/sci-fi mashup setting was cool.
I want to say I had a copy of Wild Arms at one point, but traded it off?
I was young and stupid.
I always waffled on Triangle Strategy, because my preferred style of TRPG is in the FF Tactics wheelhouse of building each unit up to do ALLLL THE COOL SHIT, even if that means having fewer units to work with.
I was young and stupid.
I always waffled on Triangle Strategy, because my preferred style of TRPG is in the FF Tactics wheelhouse of building each unit up to do ALLLL THE COOL SHIT, even if that means having fewer units to work with.