Topic: General JRPG Thread

Just started up Star Ocean: the Divine Force on PS5 last night.

Never played anything in the series before, but I've heard this one is a bit better than the last couple & I love the idea of infusing more outright sci-fi elements into a JRPG, so I decided to give it a shot. Not too far in yet (just arrived at the obligatory mineshaft dungeon), but I do like zipping around with the "D.U.M.A.".

I've been playing that quite a bit, @RR529 .... It's certainly better than the only other one available on Steam! We're still waiting for 2nd Evolution to come to Switch, since 1st Departure did ages ago & those 2 are both worth playing

@Eagly Thank god an english release is happening. I really want to know more about the original game's world.

@Eagly The book is actually where ending E originated from, but I heard the original Ending E of Replicant was different from the one in the remake.

I'm playing Shadow Hearts and digging it. The battle theme might be in my top 5. The dialog and setting are great but some of the mechanics feel a little half-baked. For example you build up "Malice" when you kill enemies and when the meter is full each encounter has a chance of spawning an insane super-boss. In order to lower your Malice you have to go to a graveyard (accessible via save points) and kill a spirit to reset the gauge. I like the idea but unless you're doing some hardcore grinding you don't have to worry about it too much as save points are somewhat common. Shadow Hearts II is supposed to be a near-masterpiece, according to my peers, so I'm excited to get to that eventually.

Random poster trivia: I used to get Vandal Hearts and Shadow Hearts mixed up in my mind and still do sometimes. I played Vandal Hearts last year and wrote up a review. It was alright.

Integrity and Faithlessness was one of the most unpleasant JRPGs I've played but Divine Force looks cool. Might pick it up on the PS4 if it goes on sale for $30 or so.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika Eh, I feel like for that Price you could just buy SMT IV if you own a 3DS, and that game is way better.

That's a steal for the amount of content thats in SMT V, It's one of my favorite games on the Switch, I recommend you go give it a try.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika Oh my bad should've read up earlier lol.

Why not both? Especially if you have a modded 3ds like me.
I beat SMT V already and now I'm playing SMT 4.

@iLikeUrAttitude I mean, you could get both. Personally I just couldn't get into V, but I really enjoy IV.

Copying and pasting this post from another thread before I go to sleep:

A bit late but I thought this was something to bring up here and to look forward to:

https://www.siliconera.com/new-dragon-quest-game-trailers-to-...

Since they specifically stated we're getting new Dragon Quest Game trailers I'm hoping we finally get another DQ3 remake trailer with a release date, it seems likely to come out since there are no other HD2D games to clog dev time, plus it's been over a year since the reveal.
I doubt we're getting anything new DQ12 wise though, but hopefully I'm wrong.

Finished up Star Ocean: the Divine Force (PS5) today.

It's not GOTY material or anything, but it's nice JRPG comfort food.

Notable Pros:

• I felt the sort of Star Trek-ish world building gave it a unique feel in comparison to it's contemporaries.
• flying around with "D.U.M.A." made exploration & combat really fun.
• The board game mini-game, E'sowa, is actually really fun (the pieces are based on characters from past games too, so there's a bit of that kinda fan service for established series fans too), and it's worth it to play as the pieces you earn double as accessories you can equip to your party members, some of which have really useful effects.
• Very unrepentantly Japanese/embraces the sillier elements of the genre. It's too bad this'll likely go under the radar as it kinda runs counter to those who fear Japanese games are being westernized too much (for example, on the topic of "fan service", Elana & Marielle have the most active "jiggle physics" I've seen in a big-ish JRPG since certain Blades in XC2).

Notable Cons:

• It's apparently not optimized very well. TBH I played it on "fidelity mode" so it was probably capped at 30 FPS or some such in order to push the graphics and I didn't have many issues, however there were times it obviously fell below that (luckily they were usually cut scenes for some reason, so it really had no impact on gameplay). Apparently "performance mode" is worse, as while it targets 60 FPS, it has a harder time hitting it consistently than it does hitting 30 FPS in "fidelity mode". Of course last gen versions apparently perform even worse & the PC release isn't well optimized either.
• I can't help but feel it's lowish budget limited it's scope. It still feels like a complete game (took me between 30-40 hours to complete & I didn't do all side quests), but without getting into spoilers, it feels like there could have been more to later game areas compared to the environment(s) you're in for the first half of the game.
• Any time someone leaves the party all their equipment is removed and re-added to your inventory. This would normally a good thing (so you don't lose anything good), but the game has a bad habit (particularly in the early hours) of officially removing characters from your party for really small amounts of time (like for 5 or 10 minute periods), so you constantly have to refit them out. It becomes less prevalent as the game goes on though.

Crystal Project has been a laff and a half so far. Turn-based class combat with a semi-open world that rewards exploration. It gets pretty challenging too, which incentivizes you to mix thing up wwith the like 20-something classes (unlocked over the course of the game). Not keen on the graphics but the charming script and an above-average soundtrack rounds it out. Afaik it's only on Steam for now but it would fit like a glove on the Switch.

Started up One Piece Odyssey over the weekend.

Starts out super easy (in the first couple dungeons I could one shot most enemies, and even the bosses would go down in 3 hits or so), however I've just arrived in the first memory world and the enemies seem a bit more hardy (not to the point of being challenging or anything, but feel "right" for early game encounters).

In terms of vibe it feels kinda Dragon Quest like, though I feel Oda'a character/monster designs can be a bit more quirky/odd than Toriyama's. Battles are turn based with a bit of a twist (your party & enemies can be scattered apart in up to 3 different "areas", which can limit who is able to target who. It isn't very complicated in practice, and the game very generously lets you swap around characters as much as you want during your turn with no penalty. You just can't swap a character after you've had them make a move).

Currently playing Blue Reflection (Steam) & Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (PS5).

Blue Reflection is kinda dull, NGL. Most of your time is spent walking around school talking & bonding with your friends, with only brief dungeon crawling segments (at least the day isn't "timed", and you can speak to everyone instead of having to pick & choose. Only mechanic of such nature is only being able to invite only one friend out once you choose to leave school for the day). What few bosses I've fought have absolutely killer designs though, I'll give it that. Apparently it's a pretty short game though (for the genre), so I'll probably push through.

Just started Ys IX so not much to say about it yet (was just instructed to go check out the shantytown). Looks really clean & smooth on PS5 though.

Since there's nothing coming out on PS5 that I'm super excited about until FFVII Rebirth in February (& I just finished SM2), I decided to get Valkyrie Elysium since the digital deluxe edition is on sale for $30 (it comes with one of the older Valkyrie Profile games as a bonus).

You can definitely tell it's a budget project, but it's been fine so far. Not too far in yet (just completed chapter 2), so we'll see how it goes.

Also got Super Mario RPG pre-ordered. Getting pretty excited the closer it gets.

Also, since my last post I have completed Blue Reflection & Ys IX, as well as Final Fantasy XVI & the "Episode Intermission" expansion of FFVII Remake.

XVI was a decent game, although I wish that they did better than what we got. Especially given that XIV was so good. I guess it was mostly because XVI's writer was the heavensward writer, so there were issues with the writing mainly caused by that being the case. Either way, I kind of hope that if CBU III makes another FF, they get Ishikawa as the writer.

Picked up One Piece Odyssey in a Black Friday deal and I don't remember the last time I was all in on a game like this. I think I played almost ten hours in one day over the weekend. 😬

I know I am in the minority, but I love turn based games and kinda hate that outside of the indie space, it feels like turn based games are going extinct. A lot of traditional turn based franchises are moving away from turn based games, and I think almost all of them are worse for it. I hope for more franchises like Yakuza that go in the other direction instead.

So like is One Piece Odyssey even that good as like an RPG or a One Piece game? I honestly dunno, but I just love that One Piece has no real time elements in battle, no "perfect inputs" and other such novelty gimmick crap. Like maybe that is a weird reason to go all in on a game, but I dunno the last time I just got to just sit down and enjoy a turn based JRPG like this that wasn't some pixel art indie title on my Steam Deck. I guess I just didn't realise how much I was missing this type of game in my life, and just really got stuck in.

Valkyrie Elysium has actually grown on me quite a bit. It's not a GOTY level title or anything like that, but the battle system is pretty fun (especially once you start getting party members). Kinda feels like a faster paced, lower budget, anime GoW.

Also finished up Super Mario RPG last weekend. A lot of the elements that made it special back in the day are pretty standard procedure by today's standards (no random encounters, linear with no overworld, battle system with more active player input), or simply haven't aged that well (the kinda clunky platforming elements), but it's still quite a solid game at it's core, the humor holds up, and looks lovely with the graphical upgrades, so I'm glad I gave it a go. Controversial take, Geno is quite boring & one of the least interesting OG characters in the game.

@Pizzamorg, OP Odyssey was one of the first games I played this year. Pretty decent, though you can definitely kinda tell budget constraints held it back as it went on (Alabasta is by far the largest most realized of the memory worlds, and even within that there's one location which is just three small rooms. One of the latter memory worlds is literally just 3 or 4 battle encounters in a row separated by cutscenes, and you don't even get to explore the "overworld" part of it until after the fact for sidequests).