Help me lose my JRPG virginity.

[Mamoulian War]

FFVI is the greatest jRPG ever made IMHO, but it's also very long, as are pretty much all the Final Fantasy games, so I'm not sure if it's an ideal entry point into the genre.

 

That is the reason, why I have recommended FFIX as a first jRPG to try. Even my girlfriend, which never played any other game than Mahjong, got pretty far in the game. Story is imo interesting, can hold your attention, and the graphics still looks good, despite being game from 2000.

[Urthor]

The lack of Falcom love in this thread is disappointing.  Trails from the Sky SC/FC duology is honestly better than Chrono Trigger IMO.

  

Tales of XXXX games are pretty disappointing in my experience would not play. 

 

 

But yeah, FF6 is probably the longest Final Fantasy but it's still a better start point that Chrono Trigger because it's slightly more linear IMO.  Chrono Trigger can get difficult to follow.

 

Trails from the Sky games are very easy to start with but be warned they are some of the hardest games to platinum solely due to the achievements being asinine, and some hidden quests are guide dang it.  

 

ones to focus on are

 

FF6/Chrono Trigger

Trails from the Sky SC/FC (if you play Trails games you must play them in order be warned, if you do not follow chronological release date exactly you will burn in the fires of hell)

Suikoden 2 (imported save data and a guide to getting all 108 characters essential)

FF9 

SMT Nocturne (be warned, best SMT/Persona game is also the most complicated and nutso JRPG ever made)

 

Radiant Historia hasn't been mentioned here but the narrative for that game is absolutely outstanding, pity about the DS' limitations, but it is incredibly underrated.  

Edited April 24, 2018 by Urthor

[Amentep]

While I'd played earlier Computer RPGs (Phantasie for the C64 for example). A disastrous experience with Phantasy Star III cooled my interest in jRPGs¹, positive word of mouth on FFVI (back when it was still FFIII) led me to play it and it was the game that kind of cemented my continuing interest in video games; I'm not sure if I'd primarily stayed as a platformer/brawler/fighter player I'd have stuck around as long as I did.

 

¹ I actually retried Phantasy Star III after FFVI and came to like it; I'd gotten frustrated that I couldn't trigger a specific event to advance the story during one of the scenarios; by the time I went back to it, I was able to use USENET to figure out what I was missing (I wasn't walking on the right part of the map, go figure) and ended up liking the game overall.

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

Could one of you old timers tell me what this thing is about?   

There is definitely some history to it as I've seen you fellas write that here quite often.

 

 
Gromnir. Gromnir is what its about.  Its his sign off; like his posting style, it will be in each of his posts and has been AFAIK since the late 1990s. If other people use it, its probably in direct relation to Gromnir using it.

[Katphood]

Speaking of jrpgs, any of you guys/gals ever played The Last Remnant? I noticed that I own that game on Steam.

 

 

Also, holy crap! The PSone version of FFVI has sweet sweet FMV movies. I'll take that.

Edited April 24, 2018 by Katphood

[Keyrock]

Speaking of jrpgs, any of you guys/gals ever played The Last Remnant? I noticed that I own that game on Steam.

 

 

Also, holy crap! The PSone version of FFVI has sweet sweet FMV movies. I'll take that.

I've played The Last Remnant. I really like the battle system which features one of the best uses of QTEs I've ever seen in a game (and I hate QTEs generally). Here's the thing, though. If you do play it, just play it and don't try to power game it and/or min/max your characters. This game has, quite possibly, the most confusing and least intuitive character advancement system ever created. Trying to understand it is a foray into madness that Lovecraftian eldritch horrors couldn't begin to compete with. Seriously, there are guides out there trying to decipher the system that are in excess of a dozen pages long. Whoever came up with the system is a sick and twisted individual.

[Skazz]

I apologize for contributing zilch to the discussion, but is it crazy that I'm getting weirded out every time I see the topic title?

 

EDIT: Also - not sure if it counts, but I'd say Final Fantasy Tactics is an awesome game.

Edited April 24, 2018 by Skazz

[M4xw0lf]

Do... do Castlevania and Golden Sun count as JRPGs?

[majestic]

Woah, there is a Secret of Mana 2 and 3?! I always thought Legend of Mana was some sort of spiritual sequel to Secret of Mana, never knew there was a Secret of Mana 2 and 3. Thanks for the recommendations, I also remembered Secret of Evermore which was rather unique for its time.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Could one of you old timers tell me what this thing is about?   

 

There is definitely some history to it as I've seen you fellas write that here quite often.

 

Secret of Evermore was developed by an American team of Square so technically it's techincally not a JRPG.

 

And Gromnir is Gromnir because of Bioware. The Baldur's Gate manual stated that Wisdom would be a decent stat for fighters to have because it boosts saving throws - and indeed in AD&D that should have been the case, but the Infinity Engine only supported one special effect per stat table, and so wisdom ended up giving divine casters bonus spells and no bonus to spell saving throws*.

 

Gromnir has made his fighter dumb but wise. For naught, as it turned out. So he started posting like Gromnir posts demanding that Bioware fix the wisdom table. Alas, as you can imagine, they never did. And Gromnir still hasn't given up posting as Gromnir does even after Bioware made him into a Bhaalspawn boss in Throne of Bhaal. And that's been going on for something like 20 years now.

 

HA! Good fun!

 

PS: At least that's the story as I remember it. Details might be off or things not entirely correct but it's really been almost 20 years. As TNO once said: Time lays waste to all things.

 

*Actually spells that were mind controlling in nature, it's not a flat bonus to all saving throws regarding spells. AD&D was... complicated.

Edited April 24, 2018 by majestic

[Skazz]

Gromnir has made his fighter dumb but wise. For naught, as it turned out. So he started posting like Gromnir posts demanding that Bioware fix the wisdom table. Alas, as you can imagine, they never did. And Gromnir still hasn't given up posting as Gromnir does even after Bioware made him into a Bhaalspawn boss in Throne of Bhaal. And that's been going on for something like 20 years now.

 

I have a hunch that Gromnir would make a great professional wrestler.

[Keyrock]

 

 

I have a hunch that Gromnir would make a great professional wrestler.

 

His dedication to kayfabe is admirable.

[Humanoid]

I'm not much better in that the last JRPG I finished was FF7, and Super Mario RPG before that. I asked a similar sort of question to this back when I bought my 3DS, got a few recommendations (for multiple consoles), but to be truthful none of them really stuck. Bravely Default I found tedious and the characters mostly unlikeable. Trails in the Sky lost me on the usual rat-slaying tutorial. Secret of Mana was an unpleasant grind.

 

That said, I tried the Octopath demo on my sister's Switch a few months back and I admit it looked fairly promising. Feels like it got right exactly what Bravely Default got wrong, even though they have a superficially similar approach of saving up turns. That, plus the characters (so far) aren't insufferable and entitled little kids. (The full game isn't out until July)

[Drowsy Emperor]

3DS JRPG's are trashy grinds reminiscent of the worst of the PS2 JRPG selection, except with weaker graphics. There's not a single good one in the modern sense of the word.

[Pidesco]

A little late to the party, but the best, while also accessible games in that list are Chrono Trigger and FFVI. Play those first in that order. If you enjoy them move on to other games in your list, but if not, don't bother.

 

That said, the best game in your list is Vagrant Story, but its convoluted systems are not for the faint of heart. You can also give FFXII a whirl if you want as long as it is the remake.

 

I'm the best person to tell you about the SMT games, but there are those that swear by the series.

 

The Suikoden games are all bad games, with the exception of the first one which goes beyond that and is one of the worst JRPGs anyone has ever designed.

 

I also noticed you mentioned the Last Remnant, and that's a pretty good game if you invest loads time in understanding the system, enjoy grinding, manage to survive the gameplay hump that is the first 5 or 6 hours of game, and, most importantly don't mind ignoring the story completely. I think it's one of the games on my Steam library with more hours played.

[Mamoulian War]

Wow, I have finally met the first person, who does not like Suikoden. I thought it's the same case like with Unicorns.

 

Nice to meet you

[Drowsy Emperor]

I'm kind of with him there, I played Suikoden 3 for some 5-10 hours and then never again.  But it really boils down to whether you like the extremely combat and grind heavy JRPG gameplay or not - at the end of the day, the games are all quite similar.

 

I liked FFX because it had a good story, despite how incredibly tiresome combat became 40+ hours in. 

[Mamoulian War]

Well most of the JRPG fans have no issues or even like that kind of mechanic. I have spent 750 hours on Star Ocean 4 alone for all the trophies. Even though the story sucked, the combat alone was good enough to keep my attention. And there was some kind of grind as well. But it is possible to beat the game without going for more than 20 Battles, if you pick up the proper chests for loot.

[Pidesco]

I'm kind of with him there, I played Suikoden 3 for some 5-10 hours and then never again.  But it really boils down to whether you like the extremely combat and grind heavy JRPG gameplay or not - at the end of the day, the games are all quite similar.

 

I liked FFX because it had a good story, despite how incredibly tiresome combat became 40+ hours in. 

 

The problem with Suikoden I was that the combat was not good, not that it was grindy. The game had no gameplay worth playing through, apart from collecting the mooks for your castle, and the plot barely existed. The art direction was dire too. As far as JRPGs are concerned I reckon the first Suikoden is at about at the same level as such uniquely horrible games as Secret of the Stars, Tales of Destiny or Breath of Fire. With this in mind, I never could understand how the Japanese green-light sequels for so much obvious dreck.

 

And this brings me to Suikoden 2, which I guess seems good, if you live your whole life in a sensory deprivation chamber with only a playstation, a TV, and the first game. For that limited group of people it must have seemed a revolutionary advancement as it had some gameplay and a plot in there. Note that Suikoden 2 is, for many people to this day, still the best the series has to offer.

[Katphood]

I played an hour of FFVI and it sure is a nice game. I wish all games made the tutorial this fun and engaging.

I also nooticed that I have Fire Emblem: Awakening on the 3DS but:

3DS JRPG's are trashy grinds reminiscent of the worst of the PS2 JRPG selection, except with weaker graphics. There's not a single good one in the modern sense of the word.

HA! Good fun!
 

The Suikoden games are all bad games, with the exception of the first one which goes beyond that and is one of the worst JRPGs anyone has ever designed.

The second part of your sentence is better than any shocker/twist I have seen in recent video games.     

Edited April 27, 2018 by Katphood

[Pidesco]

 

The Suikoden games are all bad games, with the exception of the first one which goes beyond that and is one of the worst JRPGs anyone has ever designed.

The second part of your sentence is better than any shocker/twist I have seen in recent video games.     

 

 

At the very least it's better than Suikoden's writing.

 

Sorry, no more bashing Suikoden games. Some people do enjoy them.

[Amentep]

I loved Suikoden and Suikoden II at the time (haven't played them in years so no clue what I'd think of them) but was gutted by how horrible I thought Suikoden III was - three protagonists and I hated every one of them.

[Humanoid]

I also nooticed that I have Fire Emblem: Awakening on the 3DS but:

3DS JRPG's are trashy grinds reminiscent of the worst of the PS2 JRPG selection, except with weaker graphics. There's not a single good one in the modern sense of the word.

 

Fire Emblem is not an RPG really, it's more like, uh, XCOM-lite? But with romance between missions.

 

Some people like to call the genre SRPG but I think that's a nonsensical term.

Edited April 28, 2018 by Humanoid

[Drowsy Emperor]

Fire Emblem is a tactics/strategy game. It's pretty good for what it is.

Edited April 28, 2018 by Drowsy Emperor

[HoonDing]

always wondered how in 80s-90s Japanese even managed to play these never-ending grindfests when they were either at work or at school 12 hours a day then after work/school drinking/homework until 2 am

Edited April 28, 2018 by HoonDing

[Humanoid]

They didn't, turns out the entire genre is just a prank they played on the west.

[Drowsy Emperor]

always wondered how in 80s-90s Japanese even managed to play these never-ending grindfests when they were either at work or at school 12 hours a day then after work/school drinking/homework until 2 am

 

You can squeeze in a lot of time wasting activities when you have no social life.