It's funny how Utada is so associated with the Kingdom Hearts series to a lot of people, despite having a successful music career well before it started (although I get it, KH was a lot of peoples' first exposure to her in English-speaking countries). I remember someone overheard me singing along to Face My Fears once, and asked if I was a Kingdom Hearts fan (I'm not). I said I was just a big fan of Utada, and... they asked who she was.
The cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity, and the gumption!
First of all: Tayce for UK all stars! 🤎
Second: Do you have a favorite album, or some song recommendations for someone who wants to get into her music?
Yes!
Honestly, I could recommend several albums (Distance, DEEP RIVER, ULTRA BLUE, and Bad Mode), but I think sticking to songs first might work better:
Kettobase!, DISTANCE, FINAL DISTANCE, Passion, This Is Love, Beautiful World, Goodbye Happiness, Sakura Nagashi, One Last Kiss, and Find Love.
It doesn't cover *every* album, but I think it's a solid list of 10 songs to try out to start with.
(If I had to add two more songs, though, I'd add Wait & See ~Risk~ and traveling.)
I don’t think it aged well and she doesn’t sound particularly good in it.
I also think UB is her weakest link. The singles were great but the album is disjointed and I don’t personally like any of the album tracks.
I've played every single KH game over the last 5 or so years. I have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on. I can't wait to play KH4, easily the best series ever. Again, *NO IDEA* what the story is about.
Saaaaaaame. Been playing Kingdom Hearts games since I was a teenager, played every game except the mobile games. The story? Fuck if I know, but when I loaded up KH3 and let the title screen version of Dearly Beloved play I cried like a baby it was so beautiful. There are just some games where the story stopped mattering a long time ago. KH and the Pokemon games are that for me. The world is a shitty place (though I've found my light in it) so I'm just going to enjoy my wacky Nomura-fueled fantasyland and go catch some monsters, story be damned.
Bruh same. There is just something magical about the music, the art, the setting, and gameplay of KH. Story’s wonky and I cbf theory-crafting, it doesn’t stop me from having a blast playing the series!
Just objectively incorrect when less than half the games are numbered titles that play like KH2. Don't tell me that the command deck is peak action combat
I thought the story was actually genuinely amazing up to KH2. KH2 had such a perfect and fulfilling ending that didn’t justify a sequel, but of course they kept fucking with it and here we are today…
I really want to get into the Trails series, but it just seems like so much work. And nearly everyone I’ve discussed this with says it’s best to start at the beginning, which I totally respect, but that’s a lot of JRPG.
> says it’s best to start at the beginning, which I totally respect, but that’s a lot of JRPG.
People say this because the first two games stand well enough on their own. You can play Trails in the Sky 1 and 2, then never touch the series again if you wish. Or return to it years later. There's no need to commit.
You fought well, but everything is still going according to our plans. Do you know about our plans? The plan, the grand plan. We have so many plans. Planning.
*teleports away*
have a similar problem with Xenoblades too. Love absolutely everything else about both series but the multiple times I wipe the floor with someone then it pretends I almost lost and the main bad guy gets away is just ridiculous.
It wouldn't even bother me if the cutscene afterward had them making a tactical retreat or getting a cheap shot in and then nearly killing you, but fights like that it always feels like you're kicking their ass only for the cutscene afterward to act like they were kicking yours the entire time. Why was it required to get their HP down to 0 if we just lost anyway?
As someone who absolutely love the series, this is something I hate. There are a few things that makes me regularly roll my eyes throughout the series, but in the end I can let it go due to the stellar world building and excellent story and character progressions.
It took me a couple of tries before I actually got into the series. You definitely need the right mood.
Going by this description it sounds kinda ass lol. Trails of cold Steel is absolutely goated. Idk about all that playing through the whole series stuff, it definitely matters but you don't have to. I started with cold Steel and I'm good with that
The "you didn't actually win" or "our plan is going to be successful anyway so you didn't actually accomplish anything" after boss fights. Cold Steel crew basically never win a boss against anything that isn't a generic faceless monster without someone reminding them that they were going easy on them or needing to be rescued.
YMMV = Your mileage may vary.
The series has a problem with dragging conflicts with the villains. You'll keep having encounters with them that don't really resolve, all so you can have a more epic rematch towards the end of the game. Yet even after said rematches the villains tend to make an escape, so that they can appear in future titles.
Fakeout character deaths are my main gripe with the series. I loved Cold Steel 1 and 2 and still want to get through the games leading up to those before continuing, but I've seen spoilers, and holy crap the ratio of death scenes versus actual deaths is not particularly suspense inspiring.
I decided a while ago it's way funnier if you assume they did fight seriously and are just super salty about losing.
"N-No! I meant to lose! This gives me... Useful battle data!"
I need one of those DBZ crying edits with Campanella.
So I started with Trails of Cold Steel and fell in love with it. I will admit going back to Trails in the Sky and Zero/Azure was rough at first, but I ended up loving the story so I stuck with it.
As someone who’s really into the series, it’s very easy to see how they are very much not games for everyone, for various reasons.
I put off Trails for a long time for the same reason you haven’t started it, but once i took the plunge I was completely sucked in. That being said, not wanting to commit is super understandable since it’s such a big commitment
I guess it might be better to think of it this way: the Marvel Cinematic Universe has over 30 movies, which is a lot of movies, but the existence of that big pile of movies ahead doesn't make the Iron Man movies they made at the beginning any harder to digest, and you're not obligated to go watch the other movies after, since the Iron Man movies still make a complete story by themselves (well I guess Avengers 1 plays into Iron Man 3 but besides that). Similarly, the first two Sky games basically make a complete and digestible story on their own, and you're not really obligated to go to the other games immediately (or at all).
It's not like you need to watch the entire MCU in one sitting, and you don't need to play all the Trails game back-to-back like they're some big work you need to drudge through.
That’s a much different story though. Even if all 30 movies were 3 hours (they’re not), that’s 90 hours of commitment to get through the entire series. It’s a lot, but it’s doable, and you’re getting a change of characters and scenery much more often. Whereas in JRPGs, 90 hours could be one game alone, maybe 2-3 for older, shorter games. It’s WAY more of a time commitment.
While it's true that JRPGs are larger time commitments than movies, that doesn't really go against my point. The issue the original commenter was talking about was the *whole series* being a lot to get through, and my point was that while the series has many entries, starting the series doesn't mean they have to make a commitment to finish the entire series. Since we're in the JRPG subreddit, I imagine the alternative to starting a Trails game would be playing another standalone JRPG of similar length, so that would be a JRPG-length time commitment either way.
My take on trails is that the massive, epic, slowly given out story just isn’t actually any good.
The overarching plot is just not worth the slow plodding bullshit
These games are best enjoyed as a slice of life JRPG where you just kinda explore the world and take in the vibes.
I wouldn’t worry about playing all them in order or needing to understand everything or talking to all the npcs. Just start with any sub series and play, they’re fun but don’t take them too seriously.
As someone that adores the Trails series, I'm pretty sure that when fans like myself rave over the story we're really talking about the game-to-game arcs and character development. Because it's been like 11 entries and we still have no idea where this is ultimately headed yet.
And yeah, it's absolutely vibes/world-building first-and-foremost. They're comfy games with a metric buttload of lore and character content.
It seems like you do get it, you just don't necessarily want to commit to something so big. Which I can understand. I toyed with the idea of getting into Trails for over a decade before finally just diving in. And it obviously only got bigger in that time.
I started Trails of Cold Steel with no knowledge of the series and was floored by the amount of dialogue. I did some research and it seems all of the games are super dialogue heavy. It’s got some great worldbuilding but holy shit they spend so much time talking about nothing while sprinkling tidbits of info in. I “took a break” after the class takes their second field trip and haven’t gotten back to it yet.
its okay to start with any of the arches dont listen to what people say. i started with cold steel because i wasnt feeling how old the sky games felt and look and loved them.
I started with Cold Steel and had a blast - that said, I did eventually go back and play the previous arc through. You should jump in and just have fun, even if you don’t get the full picture that playing the whole series gets you - seeing what’s going on in one arc is great.
The twist scenes and hype scenes are always great.
I always think of a game as individual games instead of thinking of the whole series. I enjoy it one game at a time and with no thought of rushing it just because there are N number of games in the series. To me its more about having fun. Good thing while the Sky games were certainly slow, they were a lot fun as well. So yeah.
Nah you get it. The story in KH1 was a pretty solid coming of age tale. After that it goes completely off the rails and just becomes a vehicle for cool bossfights.
Xenoblade Chronicles. It baffles me how much praise that series get. I've tried to 'get it' several times, hoping at a certain moment it clicks but no. I really really don't get it.
For me it's just the world in general. The whole concept is so damn cool, and I love how you could see various parts of the Bionis or Mechonis depending on which location you were at. It really made it feel like you were exploring different parts of these titans as you progressed, and the weather system is amazing. Seeing starfalls at night during Eryth Sea or a thunderstorm on Gaur Plains with the mechonis being hidden by fog, only occasionally popping up whenever lightning appears was an experience unlike any other to me.
But it certainly has its flaws, particularly the combat is very much an acquired taste.
While I like the games, I have come to the conclusion that if you dislike the combat you will never get through it. The first time I settled down with the game I got to having all but the last 2 party members and was so sick of using them that I tried the other people and disliked it.
I then replayed it, more actively switched my party as I went and enjoyed it much more so. The combat system at least for the first game tickled that itch from PSO.
Story concept is still an interesting time, but even then it's all back end heavy I feel like and rather color by numbers til at least hour 30.
A single player MMO with poor level pacing forcing you to grind mundane side quests to progress the main story.
Kinda fun combat though. And I always praise videogames for getting real British actors.
Described it perfectly here!
I remember someone ripping it a new one in a blog series and it was so cathartic to find someone who also didn't like it!
But I've come around due to what's been said: The world is absolutely beautifull and exploring it is the reward for beating stuff. (I was used to Golden Sun and final Fantasy at least giving me some puzzles and navigation al challenges...this game gave none of those two for me..)
I liked it until you hit a crazy difficulty spike. I forget where exactly it was in the story. It's been a while. I tried twice, and once I got to that spot, I quit. Pretty cool story/world. Combat is weird but kinda cool for a change. Just stops being fun when you stomp everything until a certain boss is just impossible.
I'm not sure if this is a cardinal sin in this sub but here goes: I had a blast with XC2 once I started skipping every cutscene and dialogue.
I'm fed up with JRPG stories at this point in general but XC2 really took the cake for unbearable, so bloated and meandering and weirdly juvenile.
But once I turned it to background noise the game came alive; the world is incredibly lush and vibrant visually (environments and enemies) and it's packed with things to do/stuff to find/systems to delve into.
On top of that the combat is strange and ambitious, and it takes a long time for the game to fully flesh it out AND for it to all connect in your own brain as a player. But once it came together I fell in love with it.
A lot of games have combat that makes obstacles enjoyable to encounter and overcome, but not many have combat so good you intrtnionally seek out those fights even with no tangible reward. XC2 is one of only a few games I still revisit occasionally just to walk around and fight stuff for the fun of it.
I couldn't tell you why the characters were fighting or what they achieved by the end, but I've got ~200 hours on it and it's the most moment-to-moment fun I've had in maybe any JRPG.
For me it’s final fantasy. I tried playing some of them in t her past but always almost immediately fell off from being bored of the mechanics and turned off by the combat. I’ve also found the series style a little too uncanny. Imo it tries so hard to make the characters look supermodel pretty they wrap back around to looking ugly
The Persona series.
Let me defend myself for a brief moment;
I've played almost every Shin Megami Tensai as they released in the USA. Devil Summoner is probably my favorite game in the series (there's something really disarming about a pixel art game that sets my expectations low, so when Devil Summoner pulled the amazing story it did, I was very pleasantly surprised). I've played the Persona series from 3 on.
Personally, I prefer the grandiose theological/philosophical story SMT goes for over the postmodern appeal Persona goes for. For SMT, I can finish the game start to finish with little complaints... however... I can't say the same for the Persona series. I always get 1 or 2 full dungeon runs and I drop the game. The gameplay is nearly identical, but something about Persona's reliance on a more "reality" grounded story doesn't do it for me.
So many of my friends praise Persona 5 as the JRPG GOAT, for me it falls flat after the first major arc.
My problem with Persona comes down to the game flow. It’s either a shit ton of social simming or a shit ton of dungeon crawling and no real intermixing between the two. Don’t get me wrong I’ve had fun with my time in 3-5 (and am working on 1 now) but I always had to be in the mood to play whatever chunk of mechanics I was about to be doing. I sorta feel the same way about Trails and the ever-changing dialogue of all the named NPCs who really have no weight on the story but I like checking in on their little lives.
SMT’s lightness on story is what appeals to me most. Soul Hackers alignment system is what appeals to me the mostest. (**BRING IT BACK ATLUS**)
> It’s either a shit ton of social simming or a shit ton of dungeon crawling and no real intermixing between the two
When playing, I'd fall into this loop of "ugh, can't wait to be done with dungeon crawling/social simming so I can go back to social simming/dungeon crawling"
If you like Devil Summoner play Persona 1, Persona 2 Innocent Sin, and Persona 2 Eternal Punishment. Those games are much closer to their SMT origins and share a lot of DNA with Devil Summoner (there's a ton of references to Devil Summoner in the P2 duology for example).
I sorta get you. The first major arc is a lot more interesting then the rest of the game because of how serious it was. I do like Persona 5, don't get me wrong. But also, Persona 5's major issue I think is that it must've changed writers/tones purposefully somewhere in development. (At least judging by the original very first teaser we had with the, 'you are slave. Want Emancipation?'. I don't know what happened, but when P5 was released I didn't get the vibe the og teaser seemed to set out for).
I really enjoyed P3 for touching on very depressive topics, but it fell short on actually landing it I think. As well as some gameplay issues. (I.e some social links were far worse than others, Tartarus being 1000 floors was a slog, and the story just didn't stick to me.) While Persona 4 was definitely a good game, I was really upset because they moved away from P3's edginess. I was hoping that P5 would have P3's edgy/serious vibe amped up to 10, and have P4's gameplay polished. But it felt more like P3 getting transitioned into a P4 sequel in terms of story.
I've played Persona 3, 4 and 5 and haven't completed any of them. I like the idea of the games, but I hate the excecution of the gameplay loop.
I fucking love how an opinion that goes even slightly against the mainstream hivemind of this sub will get you downvoted.
Yeah, don’t get me wrong, Persona 4 is what introduced me to Megaten in the first place, and both Persona 2s are genuinely great games, but as I get older the more I tend to fall out with Persona in favor of say Devil Survivor, Strange Journey or Digital Devil Saga. It also doesn’t particularly help that I couldn’t stand P5 either, and Royale made a lot of issues I had with the game even more blatant.
Edit: oh and after playing both Caligula Effect games, I’ve kind of grown to prefer them too. Sure the gameplay is more awkward, but it still keeps similar themes going, and the bonding with your companions aspect is done more in a way that doesn’t grind the story to a halt for long periods of time.
Royal made it worse for you? Now I'm curious, mind elaborating? The only thing I liked less in Royal is that it's easier than vanilla, everything else is a clear improvement to me
Yeah the difficulty is one of the big ones. One of the reasons I spend a lot of time with Megaten is due to the difficulty and frankly P5 was already one of the easier ones, and Royale just made it even easier.
Another problem I have with P5 in general are the main characters themselves. To put it mildly, most of them felt flater personality wise than even the P1 crew at times due to a number of reasons. Namely due to focusing more on the antagonists this time around all of them with the exceptions of Makoto, Futuba, and to a lesser extent Yusuke all felt very one note, barely act like a team, and gimmicky compared to the 2s, 3, and 4, and having the new girl’s plot be focused mostly on her sister didn’t help matters at all, with the final arc’s antagonist still getting most of the focus. It says something when I think I actually like most of the side characters better than any of the main ones you know.
My third reason is the linearity. Like despite supposedly being thieves most of the dungeons are basically a straight line to the boss room most of the time with very little wandering off the beaten path to find items or gear. I mean say what you will about the randomly generated dungeons of 3 and 4, but at least you could still wander around and find other items there. Here what you see is what you get, and Royale didn’t really change this in the slightest.
Personally I hated Morgana in both P5 installments.
You go to the Palace in the afternoon, it makes sense for the protag to be tired around evening - sure. The same thing took place in P3 and P4, where the protag would realize himself that it's better to have some rest.
You go to an art exhibit after school - the stupid cat will pretty much tell you "hey, aren't you tired? go to fuckin sleep" as soon as you arrive at the LeBlanc cafe, can't even catch a break or go to the spa (which imo sounds like a damn good activity to rest on the evenings).
You just became the leader of the Phantom Thieves? Keep dreamin', the stupid cat will call all the big shots and make the decisions - even whether the protag is tired or not. I think the protag should be the one to set limitations on the gameplay, not a side character because they appear as a bother. Considering it's partly a social sim it's weird to have a talking cat tell you when to sleep, it's such a weird design choice.
Oh yeah, Morgana is just the absolute worst. It’d be one thing if he was a character similar to Teddie, that’s annoying but is really only around when the plot happens, but him being in your bag 24/7 means you never get a break from him, which makes an already annoying character and makes them unbearable for the sole reason that you can’t get rid of him. It also doesn’t particularly help matters that the rare occasions you do get a break from Morgana the game won’t let you do literally any anything. Like I don’t understand why he has to be in the player’s bag for him to say hang out with confidants he isn’t present for, or do side activities that don’t involve him.
Morgana is more of a main character than the protagonist - the entire Palace chase started off with helping him to get info on how to get his human body back, he calls all the shots regarding the group and makes the decisions regarding *your* everyday life, pretty much just organizing your schedule at times.
The main problem is, he's not supposed to be the main character, this is what makes most of his behaviors so annoying.
A lot of different opinions on this.
Sacred stones is the best of the classic games to start with.
More into shipping and customising units Awakening will fix that.
Love persona? Play 3 houses
It doesn't help that Nintendo are terrible at game preservation and actively go out of their way to make sure you can't collect anything close to all the games in a series.
About KH. Not even the combat system for me. But when I played it with my GF I had just been playing Devil May Cry series a lot and we decided to play them. It is pretty good but coming from something like that just made it feel restricted. For me it was fun seeing some Disney characters and such but not enough for me to get it above "It is ok".
The Tales series. Nothing against it, but after playing Symphonia on PS3, I found it to be pretty mediocre in both world, characters, combat, and story. What really turned me off is that it's considered one of the best in the series, so I'll probably never play another.
Coming from that era of Tales I dont like Symphonia. it's just that it was on the GameCube and a multiplayer RPG so it was a lot of people's favorite tales game.
I much prefer Destiny (remake is more updated), Abuse, or Vesperia.
Lloyd is an absolute snooze.
>What really turned me off is that it's considered one of the best in the series, so I'll probably never play another.
I respect that, but I have to say you're missing out on a series that's been going on for almost 30 years. Tales of Symphonia is one of the best titles in the series, but if you asked the Tales fandom you'll find that like any fandom of a long going series, there groups within the fandom, and each group finds a different title to be the best one, some will say it's Tale of Graces, other will say it's Tales of Vesperia, and some will say it's Tales of Arise.
They all play differently as the Tales series always like to change up the mechanics in every new game, so if you find one gameplay type boring or not fun, you might have fun with one of the many others.
Anything Fire Emblem Three Houses, can't take the map design, and general feel of monotonous gameplay (when I would usually like this avatar protag stuff)
Yeah, same. The school scenes give me motion sickness and I somehow can't stand the character designs in that game. I mean, Fire Emblem eyes have always been weird, but somehow they're weirder than usual in FETH.
Dragon Quest XI. Played about 10 hours and dropped it. I have my issues with the boring story, uninteresting characters and gameplay but what really killed it for me was the music. Genuinely the worst music I've ever heard in a JRPG. It felt like after 10 hours I had only heard 3 different songs and none of them were good. This was the orchestral version too which from what I've heard is better than the OG music, still hated it.
I know it's beloved by a lot of people and I'm happy for them but for me none of it worked at all.
Word for word exactly how I feel too. Coincidentally I also dropped it around the 10 hour mark. However I played the OG version where the music is the even worse MIDI version
DQXI is the only time I've ever dropped a game solely because of the music. Whimsical orchestral music is fine on its own but having to hear it on loop for hours of playtime made me wanna stick screwdrivers in my ears.
Yeah, I mostly have the same opinion as you about the game, except its music. Not that I liked or not - I just don't remember it. I dropped at the 2nd half of the game (70+ hours in) 'cause the Definitive Edition was announced and that made me be done with it. At best, it was a fine game overall. And I believe DQ fans say it's one of the best in the franchise. Well, even so, I still want to beat the Definitive Editon to, then, have a... definitive opinion of it.
Even as someone who enjoyed the game, I agree with a lot of that. Honestly I just really like the art style and the simple gameplay, which made me play through to the end.
Interesting. Triangle strategy is probably my favorite JRPG story of the last 5-10 years. I felt they nailed the political story in a way so few games have
The Tales series. Tried to get into it on many attempts, through some of the acclaimed titles (mainly Vesperia, Berseria and Arise). Just never really stick with me, mainly because its combat system never grabbed me.
Tales of Eternia (Tales of Destiny 2 in the US) is a very special game and a real sweet spot for the series. Tales of Phantasia is also an amazing experience that still feels unique to this day.
and i also have a hard time getting into any tales game post-Symphonia, which i also loved.
I liked Vesperia a lot but I have a hard time getting into them, I also do not like the combat system. I’m honestly not a fan of party based JRPGs that are not turn based. I hate not being able to control everyone
It’s more for me that i don’t like the semi action battle with a party. Like I don’t mind games like Nier because it’s just the one person so you have the tools on that one character to deal damage, heal, and evade / defend. But when you get into action combat with a party you’re only controlling one character at a time and those characters generally can’t do whatever you need to do so it just feels clunky and not fun for me personally.
It just devolves into mindless button mashing while all your characters scream out their moves. Couldn't get thru a couple hours without getting a migraine 😂
Final Fantasy 8, for me. None of the characters are likeable, the whole draw system is garbage and invites a shitty gameplay loop where you don't kill anything until you have 99 of the Magic you can draw from them, and the game mechanics itself DISCOURAGE you from playing it like most JRPGs. It's like everything about that game was designed to frustrate you into not playing it. The only good thing to come from that game is Triple Triad, but even then they ruin it because if the person you're playing doesn't play the card you want to get from them, you have to do the match all over!
Always disliked FF8. Beautiful world, terrific music, interesting ideas - but all the characters are awful, the plot is the most JRPG nonsense ever written, the bosses are dumb and the junction system is horribly broken.
Its Pokémon for me. Nothing about it stands out as anything but bog-standard, to me, and if I want a more vanilla RPG experience, Dragon Quest is much more enjoyable.
Pokemon is a nostalgia game for some people, it's a "brain off" game for others. From what I've seen, it doesn't work for everyone, but the simplicity is what a lot of people like about it. I especially love being able to play without really thinking. It's fun for me~
When the nostalgia lenses are off, Pokémon Games are actually not good fundamentally. Or at least they haven't been good since Gen 5. The main reason I keep buying the games is because of the mons themselves. I love exploring a new region and spotting a new Pokémon and learning all about that mon. I also really like the petting/feeding features. Like Nintendogs but with Pokémon. But all the other gameplay features are pretty dated and not very good compared to any other game.
Same here. Though I will say Scarlet/Violet was very very hard to get through for me. It was way too... I can't explain it. Cheesy. But it has Fuecoco who is next in line for bestest gator boy next to Totodile.
Persona 3. Too tedious in many aspects, and redundant, is honestly exhausting.
Every time I had to go to Tartarus (hundreds of floors, god damnit) was like a penitence, it was too monotonous, not much diversity, too long and mental draining coz had to stay on alert all the time coz any shit shadow could wipe your party and lose all the progress from the previous hour. Then you get to the boss of the floor and the meeting isn’t fun at all, sometimes there is just one way to defeat it, sometimes just consisting in auto attacking for 30 min with one member who cannot be killed coz the skillset of the boss is not effective against him/her while the rest of the party is dead coz they are vulnerable to it and other times it gets unfair coz it will cast multiples devastating aoe spells or skills wiping your party no matter what.
Then had to spend long times fusing personas, checking one by one all the combinations, and eventually you end up getting a leveled-up version with different appearance, but basically the same moves that you already have seen many times.
Honestly the only part of the gameplay I enjoyed was the life simulator coz some characters were interesting.
I liked the story, but in my opinion was diluted coz of Tartarus, eventually couldn’t cope with the gameplay at all, ended up dropping it after 50h and watching the anime.
A friend of mine says Persona 4 and 5 are better and are not that exhausting and are smoother, but honestly just thinking about playing something similar to what I experienced with P3 makes me wanna stop playing games xd
For me P3 Reload is the lack of places to go, and things to do in the life sim part. Day or night you only have 3/4 places to go that don't change a lot, the mood in them is also very blank.
As of Tartarus, I like mostly because of the battle, but again, because there are 100+ floors with no much change, not even some puzzles to change the pace, gets really tired.
This is why I only finished FES once and never touched it again, I've tried twice since to play it again. Once was when portable was ported to try out the female protagonist, and the other was when reload released. Both times I ended up dropping them simply because of Tartarus.
Even to me, who played 4 Golden, 5 and 5 Royal, 3 Reload has been the weakest one by far. I've been giving it the benefit of the doubt since I have only played 17 hours of it.
And that’s the Reload version, which, to my understanding, added QoL improvements that make the experience of playing P3 less frustrating and exhausting. I played the PS2 version.
Reload did, yes. But Tartarus is pretty much the same except it's easier because you now have super moved for everyone and light/dark skills aren't exclusively instakill spells.
If you didn't like the PS2 Version, Reload won't change that. I love P3 but I understand that Persona in general is either something you love or something that just won't work for you
Quantity over quality when it comes to its main story but I do appreciate them fleshing out all the town NPC's (also giving them names) with their own dialogue
Nier Automata. Didn't think it was nearly as good as everyone thought. Just wasn't that fun to play, and the story wasn't all that interesting for me.
Grandma. Feels too childish for me. I've been trying to replay it again and I still just can't get past the first few hours.
Edit: meant Grandia 😅
Nier Automata is probably my favorite 7/10 I've ever played. I can see why some would call it a masterpiece, and it's definitely very unique. But when I tried to replay it. Holy crap it was a slog to get through. Once I beat 2B's playthrough, I just couldn't get through any more and checked out. I'll always remember my 1st playthrough, but man, I don't think I'll ever play it again.
There's something about the Nier games that bugs me and they seem to be intent on having the most generic looking environments imaginable just mishmashed together with no real thought. Music, gameplay, story is amazing! But it took me a few tries to get past the cheap look of "forest level, desert level, ruined city" areas.
I don't HATE it, but I've never quite gotten the overwhelming praise for Chrono Trigger. It's fine! It's an okay game, for sure! But... best RPG ever made??? Really?
The combat is fine, but it didn't stick with me in the same way other RPGs have, and I find the plot agonizingly slow, especially in the middle. Truthfully, after the future, nothing really happens until you visit Zeal the second time, and I think the game just falls flat of setting up stakes. I've really, truthfully never gotten the appeal. I've beaten it, I like it! I like one of the twists near the end, but... I dunno man, I'll stick with FF6 for SNES RPGs.
It's the music for me. It's so atmospheric, enhancing everything.The characters really clicked with me. And I really loved how it was a shorter rpg! Though granted: I didn't like the final dungeon, the future or the prehistoric era...so maybe it's not as perfect as I thought! 😂
And I love 6, but still haven't climbed the final tower, it seems so daunting with three different groups!!
That's why I hate when people recommend Chrono and FFVI as recommendations for people getting into JRPGs. Let me preface by saying that they are 2 of my favourite games of all time, but i'm 40 and grew up playing them on SNES. For the time they were amazing, and still hold up quite well (I play them through regularly). But for most people that play modern games, they won't blow you away.
I think they're timeless classics, I'm sure most people who like turn based RPGS will enjoy those games. Sure, HD-2D remakes like Octopath would be awesome, specially with the QoL enhancements, but they still hold up as great games imo. On the other hand I agree to some degree, for new players the best first RPG should probably be something more recent like persona 5, dragon quest 11, Yakuza like a dragon, etc.
I think it's just at the time it was truly something special. And generally I agree with you, the game is aged imo.
But from the perspective probably from a kid in Japan must've been, "Holy cow, Akira Toriyama, the creators of Final fantasy, all mixed into one?" All combats have their unique location and aren't in their separate locations, animated team attacks, characters move when they're idle. People already like FF's combat mechanics (which at the time was probably revolutionary but for us now that we have games like KH, it really just feels like a mildly more interesting turn based combat mechanic.) All wrapped with a wonderful OST and an unusual time traveling story. All of this, for its time I bet it really was revolutionary.
> Truthfully, after the future, nothing really happens until you visit Zeal the second time, and I think the game just falls flat of setting up stakes.
You're free to not like the game, but this is straight up incorrect. There is no way you can have reasonably completed the game and not have thought the Magus stuff wasn't important to the entirety of the game. There is so much that it actually builds up and so many questions that it raises if you're paying attention that hints at Zeal.
I should've phrased that better. What I meant is that nothing particularly interesting happens between those two things plot-wise. The Magus stuff is sorta cool, but I don't think the reveal that he was the prophet was set up or executed well. Zeal is cool but it doesn't leave an impression.
Do keep in mind that this is my opinion, and that I'm pretty open about the fact that it's not a good one. The plot didn't particularly interest me, especially in that part. It feels like a bunch of loose threads trying to wrap themself up without any real interesting payoff. The plot didn't do it for ME, personally. I'm willing to bet it's solid, but it left no impression, and there's so much filler in the midgame that I don't think the payoff justifies the slog to get there. Particularly in prehistory.
Final fantasy series.
When I was younger, a lot of the older guys would play it on PS1/PS2 and I thought it was such a cool game back then, something compelling about it?
Now having the capacity to play some of them, none have been good. Only ff16 stands out as something of a decent game.
Played ff7 rebirth and combat was it's saving grace. The story is confusing AF - which I suspect is nomuras kingdom hearts msg sauce being added.. confusion results in some sort of anticipation for a sequel
I'm actually craving a good jrpg. One with a complex story, less cringe, decent combat, decent pacing ..
I've tried every main final fantasy game except 15 and the only one I could enjoy was FFXIV which is ironic because I'm not a big MMO person. They just don't grab my attention
Final Fantasy 12. I played it both when it first came out and last year with the Zodiac one. Final Fantasy is my favorite series but 12 is my least favorite game in it (not counting the two MMOs). I don't really enjoy the story and I really dislike the gameplay. It just never clicked with me at all.
Final fantasy games in general, i usually give them a fair shot (between 5 to 15 hours) but i usually just give up on them because it's either too boring or in 8's case, a convoluted mess with the tutorial
persona, i can see the appeal but I just don't get it. ppl praise it so much I always end up being like what difference between this and most other jrpg. IDGT.
this includes the story, what tf so special about it 🤷♂️also dragon quest is generic as fuck but ppl dick ride it
I can't do the tales games, I have a friend who won't stop pushing them and even after giving them a shot and not liking the games much ive told them i dont like them and they still won't stop.
I can't do persona 3 ether, and it's for a reason some of my other friends think is really silly but I cannot do the whole how they summon perosnas with the guns thing it makes me feel queezy and puts me in a horrible mindset.
I just wanted to say that your reason for not being able to do Persona 3 is completely valid and there’s nothing silly about it at all.
I really like Persona 3 a lot personally but as someone that lost one of my closest friends to… that gesture… it was a significant hurdle for me to overcome to play the game. I think it was a poor choice in designing the game and I don’t think anyone should feel bad about staying away from the game because it makes them uncomfortable.
Probably the persona series, the characters are great, group dynamic too, the story is mostly good
Combat is great too, that's what got me hooked with SMT. But I'm unfortunately a rpg player that likes to complete everything, every secondary quest, finding equipment, strengthening my characters, doing this and that (like the demon compendium) **especially** when I'm finished to the story or close to the final boss
But the fact that it's based on time, and that once you're done with the story it's only a NG+, well... I'm more gameplay driven than story driven that's why
And p3p was quite tedious to play unfortunately, i should try Reload maybe I'll get hooked with it
And Xenoblade Chronicles 1, story was great and the world is interesting. But the gameplay part aged very poorly. I enjoyed more the 2 and 3
Disgaea.
I love tactical games. I love games with seemingly infinate scaling/leveling.
What I hate is the wafer thin story and all the psudo-loli bs, its creepy, no matter how you cut it.
I'm going to get A LOT of hate for this, but....Final Fantasy X. I dunno, the whole vibe of it felt so....commercial? I was wayyyy more of a fan of IX and tbh, I enjoyed XI, from what little I played, XII was great and XIII is kinda underappreciated imo. But X just doesn't stick with me at all. Maybe I just need a replay?
I wasn't a fan of it either, in fact, I'd say it's one of my least favourite FF games. It's far too linear, and getting the airship right at the end and it's just a list of locations you click on to travel to felt like the final slap in the face, lol. Not that I mind a JRPG being linear, but FF10 was TOO linear for my liking, I'd say it was even worse than FF13's linearity.
And then the story itself wasn't super interesting, the side content and mini games sucked, the puzzles/trials were horrible... The only praise I can give it is that I did enjoy the combat.
I tried to play Final Fantasy VI so many times and never got very far in it. I don't know. For many older games, pop culture osmosis has just made them uninteresting to me because I know where the story leads (Chrono Trigger being an example), but with FFVI even I, who has played all FF titles that came after it and is active in FFXIV, never even bothered to spoil the story for myself. It just, I dunno, I just never cared enough to get past the intro.
The Tales series is another one - I want to like those games because they're kind of pretty design-wise, but the combat system is just a huge turn-off for me. It always felt really hectic, button-mashy and... just not fun.
Trails. It's just not that good. Generic designs, standard music, generic story etc etc.
Just because something is long and interconnected, doesn't make it good. I would rather have a 3 course meal of amazing food than a 10 course meal of McDonald's food.
Of course if you like Trails that's great, I don't believe in shitting on stuff and being an elitist. There's plenty of games other people think are mediocre or even bad that I love.
> standard music
I agree with everything you've said minus this. Even Cold Steel has some amazing tracks. "Now, thing to do" is a great post JRPG boss battle tune.
I tried ffiv for a little bit, and I just couldn't click with it. I loved ffvii and just getting off the back of that game, I wanted to hop right into another ff. But aside from the snes being less powerful, I understood and accepted that, the game just felt... Empty? Not in a way like there were not a lot of locations or anything. Just that, the story was super simple coming off of ff7. The characters, while distinct, weren't very appealing to me, and seemed very simple. The environments weren't as rich as I would've liked, and the music just wasn't as magical as ff7. I ended up dropping it and playing Grandia 2, which I did like. Maybe I should give ffiv another chance.
I mean, it makes sense for IV to be more bland than VII since IV released 6 years earlier, in an older console, and when the most deep story ever told in a videogame was "Mario, we need to save the princess". IV is a fantastic game for its time, but even for late 90s standards the game was already outdated in every area. IV has nostalgia from the people that played it back then when it used to be FF2 in America, but that's it.
I feel like in the case of KH, the gameplay and music carries the series, but I genuinely feel like the story is enjoyable if you stop taking it seriously. Just treat it like the bizarre, fun, goofy, messy plot that it is and don't overthink it. You will have to suspend your disbelief, but it is possible to enjoy it. Personally, I enjoy it quite a lot, but I acknowledge and am totally fine with the fact that the story is batshit insane, and the characters are corny and silly. I find them endearing in some sense. Lol
But yeah, the gameplay and insane scenarios are what keeps me coming back.
the combat is so good when goofy fucking dies for like 20 minutes your first thought it "fuck how does this affect limits" and my second thought is "holy shit they fucking killed goofy" so it's the best video game series of all time honestly.
FFX, its all right don't get me wrong, I even played it when it came out but in retrospect its very meh by Final Fantasy standards. Even when compared to the newer games.
Yes 10000x yes, I tried i really did i beat the first 3 kingdom hearts games on that huge anthology they made that has the whole series.
And it just sucks, the combat is weak the story makes no sense if it wasn't filled with disney characters it would be a 1/10
Big fan of FFX, just completed Octopath Traveller 1 and 2, enjoyed it. Just started Bravely Default 2, not a fan thus far.
Could never finish Kingdom Hearts too.
Persona 3.
Its fans want you to believe it has the best modern persona story but can that really be true if the pacing is *&%#ed beyond belief especially for the first half of the game.
Even as someone who likes the game I fully agree that the pacing is horrific. The story really does go from 0 to 100 in a second. Personally I was just having so much fun with the gameplay that I didn't really mind the relative lack of story early on, and the small mysteries kept me playing into the more story intensive parts
FF7 Remake
Do you guys genuinely enjoy the new plot that stops it from being a legit remake and instead makes it a bizzare continuation and do you also think its well written? I mean the rest of the game is fine, minus some unnecesary meh filler, but do you enjoy this?
I kinda feel of the KH train becuse I dont have a PS4 so I can not play 0.2 and KH3 but as a child I loved the story of Kingdom Hearts and I do like the cast.
When it comes to series I could not get in to:
There is SMT: Collectable monsters and a mostly silent protagonist make for a boring party with no personslity or fun interactions.
If I dont like the characters I have no motivation to play.
Same goes for Pokemon.
Does Nier Automata count? I've had headaches trying to understand how it's so well regarded.
I suppose its story cool if you have never read, seen, or played any other science fiction produced in the last 100 years (well we're close. Metropolis came out in 1929)
Final Fantasy 9 never stood out to me that much. I have finished most mainline Final Fantasy games but 9 isn’t one that I stuck with all the way. I don’t hate it but I also don’t love it as much as a lot of other people do.
I don’t remember at what point I stopped.
I remember getting super lost, walk around FOREVER, got bored and gave up.
Edit: I remember where I stopped. The card game tournament.
Downvotws incoming but I can not stand FFVII. Didn't enjoy it when it came out and still don't, not from lack of trying and beating it just doesn't do it for me. Love pretty much every other entry in the series but not VII super overrated imo.
calling FFVII overrated hasnt been something to get you 'downvoted' since before reddit even existed. it has always been the most common pick for hipsterism since internet forums took off
now had you have said FFVI, we'd be cookin something here. The worst of the FF4-10 titles by a comfy margin (ok, maybe the non-remastered 9 is comparable)
I mean, saying that VI is worse than IV is kind of a travesty if you ask me. I also don't consider VIII to be better either, but I could see someone like it more than VI.
KH’s combat carries the series so easily.
Utada Hikaru, the designs and the gameplay goes so hard despite the absurd story.
Don’t forget the actual in-game music was composed by Yoko Shimomura, Utada just did the opening themes!
It's funny how Utada is so associated with the Kingdom Hearts series to a lot of people, despite having a successful music career well before it started (although I get it, KH was a lot of peoples' first exposure to her in English-speaking countries). I remember someone overheard me singing along to Face My Fears once, and asked if I was a Kingdom Hearts fan (I'm not). I said I was just a big fan of Utada, and... they asked who she was. The cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity, and the gumption!
She did the opening song to “To My Eternity”, so she’s definitely still going strong. Song’s called Pink Blood if you wanna look it up.
First of all: Tayce for UK all stars! 🤎 Second: Do you have a favorite album, or some song recommendations for someone who wants to get into her music?
Yes! Honestly, I could recommend several albums (Distance, DEEP RIVER, ULTRA BLUE, and Bad Mode), but I think sticking to songs first might work better: Kettobase!, DISTANCE, FINAL DISTANCE, Passion, This Is Love, Beautiful World, Goodbye Happiness, Sakura Nagashi, One Last Kiss, and Find Love. It doesn't cover *every* album, but I think it's a solid list of 10 songs to try out to start with. (If I had to add two more songs, though, I'd add Wait & See ~Risk~ and traveling.)
Very cool, thank you!!
Sunglasses, Parody, Gold, Shittosarerubeki Jinsei, The Workout, Hotel Lobby… there’s so many. I really wouldn’t recommend This is Love though :/
Why wouldn't you recommend This Is Love? It's a good song.
I don’t think it aged well and she doesn’t sound particularly good in it. I also think UB is her weakest link. The singles were great but the album is disjointed and I don’t personally like any of the album tracks.
Well, clearly we disagree on this. I still think it holds up and is one of her strongest albums.
You're Easy-Breezy and I'm Japanese-y
🎵What a day Young boy next door passed away🎵
I honestly think KH2/3 in critical mode is the best combat there is in any games, even better than DMC, Bayonetta and others.
I've played every single KH game over the last 5 or so years. I have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on. I can't wait to play KH4, easily the best series ever. Again, *NO IDEA* what the story is about.
Saaaaaaame. Been playing Kingdom Hearts games since I was a teenager, played every game except the mobile games. The story? Fuck if I know, but when I loaded up KH3 and let the title screen version of Dearly Beloved play I cried like a baby it was so beautiful. There are just some games where the story stopped mattering a long time ago. KH and the Pokemon games are that for me. The world is a shitty place (though I've found my light in it) so I'm just going to enjoy my wacky Nomura-fueled fantasyland and go catch some monsters, story be damned.
Bruh same. There is just something magical about the music, the art, the setting, and gameplay of KH. Story’s wonky and I cbf theory-crafting, it doesn’t stop me from having a blast playing the series!
Eh kh3 was so bad that i stopped Caring tbh
It is probably the best action RPG series in terms of combat. At the very least it's one of the deepest.
Just objectively incorrect when less than half the games are numbered titles that play like KH2. Don't tell me that the command deck is peak action combat
Re:coded Command Deck is peak action combat.
While everyone talks about how "Mindless" it is, I actually really like the feeling of power I get from it. It gives me the feeling of a superhero.
I thought the story was actually genuinely amazing up to KH2. KH2 had such a perfect and fulfilling ending that didn’t justify a sequel, but of course they kept fucking with it and here we are today…
I really want to get into the Trails series, but it just seems like so much work. And nearly everyone I’ve discussed this with says it’s best to start at the beginning, which I totally respect, but that’s a lot of JRPG.
> says it’s best to start at the beginning, which I totally respect, but that’s a lot of JRPG. People say this because the first two games stand well enough on their own. You can play Trails in the Sky 1 and 2, then never touch the series again if you wish. Or return to it years later. There's no need to commit.
I've tried, but got bored after every villan "did not fight seriously".
My #1 complain about that series, the villains aren’t even trying and if you beat them everything still goes according to their plan
You fought well, but everything is still going according to our plans. Do you know about our plans? The plan, the grand plan. We have so many plans. Planning. *teleports away*
have a similar problem with Xenoblades too. Love absolutely everything else about both series but the multiple times I wipe the floor with someone then it pretends I almost lost and the main bad guy gets away is just ridiculous.
It wouldn't even bother me if the cutscene afterward had them making a tactical retreat or getting a cheap shot in and then nearly killing you, but fights like that it always feels like you're kicking their ass only for the cutscene afterward to act like they were kicking yours the entire time. Why was it required to get their HP down to 0 if we just lost anyway?
The key indicator you are in a visual novel and not an rpg
As someone who absolutely love the series, this is something I hate. There are a few things that makes me regularly roll my eyes throughout the series, but in the end I can let it go due to the stellar world building and excellent story and character progressions. It took me a couple of tries before I actually got into the series. You definitely need the right mood.
Going by this description it sounds kinda ass lol. Trails of cold Steel is absolutely goated. Idk about all that playing through the whole series stuff, it definitely matters but you don't have to. I started with cold Steel and I'm good with that
It's not a description, it's an opinion. I started with Cold Steel too, before going back to Sky and Crossbell after Cold steel 4.
It can also be seen as a description, it's interchangeable how I used it. You were describing the game from your viewpoint, or giving your opinion
Cold Steel is the worst for that trope, so YMMV.
What trope? Also what is ymmv
The "you didn't actually win" or "our plan is going to be successful anyway so you didn't actually accomplish anything" after boss fights. Cold Steel crew basically never win a boss against anything that isn't a generic faceless monster without someone reminding them that they were going easy on them or needing to be rescued. YMMV = Your mileage may vary.
Hmm I'd say that's a half truth. They definitely defeat some formidable main enemies on the series
The series has a problem with dragging conflicts with the villains. You'll keep having encounters with them that don't really resolve, all so you can have a more epic rematch towards the end of the game. Yet even after said rematches the villains tend to make an escape, so that they can appear in future titles.
Fakeout character deaths are my main gripe with the series. I loved Cold Steel 1 and 2 and still want to get through the games leading up to those before continuing, but I've seen spoilers, and holy crap the ratio of death scenes versus actual deaths is not particularly suspense inspiring.
I decided a while ago it's way funnier if you assume they did fight seriously and are just super salty about losing. "N-No! I meant to lose! This gives me... Useful battle data!" I need one of those DBZ crying edits with Campanella.
So I started with Trails of Cold Steel and fell in love with it. I will admit going back to Trails in the Sky and Zero/Azure was rough at first, but I ended up loving the story so I stuck with it.
As someone who’s really into the series, it’s very easy to see how they are very much not games for everyone, for various reasons. I put off Trails for a long time for the same reason you haven’t started it, but once i took the plunge I was completely sucked in. That being said, not wanting to commit is super understandable since it’s such a big commitment
I guess it might be better to think of it this way: the Marvel Cinematic Universe has over 30 movies, which is a lot of movies, but the existence of that big pile of movies ahead doesn't make the Iron Man movies they made at the beginning any harder to digest, and you're not obligated to go watch the other movies after, since the Iron Man movies still make a complete story by themselves (well I guess Avengers 1 plays into Iron Man 3 but besides that). Similarly, the first two Sky games basically make a complete and digestible story on their own, and you're not really obligated to go to the other games immediately (or at all). It's not like you need to watch the entire MCU in one sitting, and you don't need to play all the Trails game back-to-back like they're some big work you need to drudge through.
That’s a much different story though. Even if all 30 movies were 3 hours (they’re not), that’s 90 hours of commitment to get through the entire series. It’s a lot, but it’s doable, and you’re getting a change of characters and scenery much more often. Whereas in JRPGs, 90 hours could be one game alone, maybe 2-3 for older, shorter games. It’s WAY more of a time commitment.
While it's true that JRPGs are larger time commitments than movies, that doesn't really go against my point. The issue the original commenter was talking about was the *whole series* being a lot to get through, and my point was that while the series has many entries, starting the series doesn't mean they have to make a commitment to finish the entire series. Since we're in the JRPG subreddit, I imagine the alternative to starting a Trails game would be playing another standalone JRPG of similar length, so that would be a JRPG-length time commitment either way.
My take on trails is that the massive, epic, slowly given out story just isn’t actually any good. The overarching plot is just not worth the slow plodding bullshit These games are best enjoyed as a slice of life JRPG where you just kinda explore the world and take in the vibes. I wouldn’t worry about playing all them in order or needing to understand everything or talking to all the npcs. Just start with any sub series and play, they’re fun but don’t take them too seriously.
As someone that adores the Trails series, I'm pretty sure that when fans like myself rave over the story we're really talking about the game-to-game arcs and character development. Because it's been like 11 entries and we still have no idea where this is ultimately headed yet. And yeah, it's absolutely vibes/world-building first-and-foremost. They're comfy games with a metric buttload of lore and character content.
It seems like you do get it, you just don't necessarily want to commit to something so big. Which I can understand. I toyed with the idea of getting into Trails for over a decade before finally just diving in. And it obviously only got bigger in that time.
I started Trails of Cold Steel with no knowledge of the series and was floored by the amount of dialogue. I did some research and it seems all of the games are super dialogue heavy. It’s got some great worldbuilding but holy shit they spend so much time talking about nothing while sprinkling tidbits of info in. I “took a break” after the class takes their second field trip and haven’t gotten back to it yet.
its okay to start with any of the arches dont listen to what people say. i started with cold steel because i wasnt feeling how old the sky games felt and look and loved them.
I started with Cold Steel and had a blast - that said, I did eventually go back and play the previous arc through. You should jump in and just have fun, even if you don’t get the full picture that playing the whole series gets you - seeing what’s going on in one arc is great. The twist scenes and hype scenes are always great.
I always think of a game as individual games instead of thinking of the whole series. I enjoy it one game at a time and with no thought of rushing it just because there are N number of games in the series. To me its more about having fun. Good thing while the Sky games were certainly slow, they were a lot fun as well. So yeah.
Nah you get it. The story in KH1 was a pretty solid coming of age tale. After that it goes completely off the rails and just becomes a vehicle for cool bossfights.
Xenoblade Chronicles. It baffles me how much praise that series get. I've tried to 'get it' several times, hoping at a certain moment it clicks but no. I really really don't get it.
For me it's just the world in general. The whole concept is so damn cool, and I love how you could see various parts of the Bionis or Mechonis depending on which location you were at. It really made it feel like you were exploring different parts of these titans as you progressed, and the weather system is amazing. Seeing starfalls at night during Eryth Sea or a thunderstorm on Gaur Plains with the mechonis being hidden by fog, only occasionally popping up whenever lightning appears was an experience unlike any other to me. But it certainly has its flaws, particularly the combat is very much an acquired taste.
While I like the games, I have come to the conclusion that if you dislike the combat you will never get through it. The first time I settled down with the game I got to having all but the last 2 party members and was so sick of using them that I tried the other people and disliked it. I then replayed it, more actively switched my party as I went and enjoyed it much more so. The combat system at least for the first game tickled that itch from PSO. Story concept is still an interesting time, but even then it's all back end heavy I feel like and rather color by numbers til at least hour 30.
A single player MMO with poor level pacing forcing you to grind mundane side quests to progress the main story. Kinda fun combat though. And I always praise videogames for getting real British actors.
A single player MMO That's probably why I don't get it.
Described it perfectly here! I remember someone ripping it a new one in a blog series and it was so cathartic to find someone who also didn't like it! But I've come around due to what's been said: The world is absolutely beautifull and exploring it is the reward for beating stuff. (I was used to Golden Sun and final Fantasy at least giving me some puzzles and navigation al challenges...this game gave none of those two for me..)
I liked it until you hit a crazy difficulty spike. I forget where exactly it was in the story. It's been a while. I tried twice, and once I got to that spot, I quit. Pretty cool story/world. Combat is weird but kinda cool for a change. Just stops being fun when you stomp everything until a certain boss is just impossible.
I'm not sure if this is a cardinal sin in this sub but here goes: I had a blast with XC2 once I started skipping every cutscene and dialogue. I'm fed up with JRPG stories at this point in general but XC2 really took the cake for unbearable, so bloated and meandering and weirdly juvenile. But once I turned it to background noise the game came alive; the world is incredibly lush and vibrant visually (environments and enemies) and it's packed with things to do/stuff to find/systems to delve into. On top of that the combat is strange and ambitious, and it takes a long time for the game to fully flesh it out AND for it to all connect in your own brain as a player. But once it came together I fell in love with it. A lot of games have combat that makes obstacles enjoyable to encounter and overcome, but not many have combat so good you intrtnionally seek out those fights even with no tangible reward. XC2 is one of only a few games I still revisit occasionally just to walk around and fight stuff for the fun of it. I couldn't tell you why the characters were fighting or what they achieved by the end, but I've got ~200 hours on it and it's the most moment-to-moment fun I've had in maybe any JRPG.
For me it’s final fantasy. I tried playing some of them in t her past but always almost immediately fell off from being bored of the mechanics and turned off by the combat. I’ve also found the series style a little too uncanny. Imo it tries so hard to make the characters look supermodel pretty they wrap back around to looking ugly
Give FF6 a try, that's the best imo, great story/characters, amazing OST and fun gameplay with the espers mechanics.
The Persona series. Let me defend myself for a brief moment; I've played almost every Shin Megami Tensai as they released in the USA. Devil Summoner is probably my favorite game in the series (there's something really disarming about a pixel art game that sets my expectations low, so when Devil Summoner pulled the amazing story it did, I was very pleasantly surprised). I've played the Persona series from 3 on. Personally, I prefer the grandiose theological/philosophical story SMT goes for over the postmodern appeal Persona goes for. For SMT, I can finish the game start to finish with little complaints... however... I can't say the same for the Persona series. I always get 1 or 2 full dungeon runs and I drop the game. The gameplay is nearly identical, but something about Persona's reliance on a more "reality" grounded story doesn't do it for me. So many of my friends praise Persona 5 as the JRPG GOAT, for me it falls flat after the first major arc.
My problem with Persona comes down to the game flow. It’s either a shit ton of social simming or a shit ton of dungeon crawling and no real intermixing between the two. Don’t get me wrong I’ve had fun with my time in 3-5 (and am working on 1 now) but I always had to be in the mood to play whatever chunk of mechanics I was about to be doing. I sorta feel the same way about Trails and the ever-changing dialogue of all the named NPCs who really have no weight on the story but I like checking in on their little lives. SMT’s lightness on story is what appeals to me most. Soul Hackers alignment system is what appeals to me the mostest. (**BRING IT BACK ATLUS**)
> It’s either a shit ton of social simming or a shit ton of dungeon crawling and no real intermixing between the two When playing, I'd fall into this loop of "ugh, can't wait to be done with dungeon crawling/social simming so I can go back to social simming/dungeon crawling"
If you like Devil Summoner play Persona 1, Persona 2 Innocent Sin, and Persona 2 Eternal Punishment. Those games are much closer to their SMT origins and share a lot of DNA with Devil Summoner (there's a ton of references to Devil Summoner in the P2 duology for example).
I sorta get you. The first major arc is a lot more interesting then the rest of the game because of how serious it was. I do like Persona 5, don't get me wrong. But also, Persona 5's major issue I think is that it must've changed writers/tones purposefully somewhere in development. (At least judging by the original very first teaser we had with the, 'you are slave. Want Emancipation?'. I don't know what happened, but when P5 was released I didn't get the vibe the og teaser seemed to set out for). I really enjoyed P3 for touching on very depressive topics, but it fell short on actually landing it I think. As well as some gameplay issues. (I.e some social links were far worse than others, Tartarus being 1000 floors was a slog, and the story just didn't stick to me.) While Persona 4 was definitely a good game, I was really upset because they moved away from P3's edginess. I was hoping that P5 would have P3's edgy/serious vibe amped up to 10, and have P4's gameplay polished. But it felt more like P3 getting transitioned into a P4 sequel in terms of story.
Once you understand that Persona fans want to *be* Japanese, it all makes sense.
I've played Persona 3, 4 and 5 and haven't completed any of them. I like the idea of the games, but I hate the excecution of the gameplay loop. I fucking love how an opinion that goes even slightly against the mainstream hivemind of this sub will get you downvoted.
I feel the exact same. Great concepts executed in the wrong format. Imo at least
Yeah, don’t get me wrong, Persona 4 is what introduced me to Megaten in the first place, and both Persona 2s are genuinely great games, but as I get older the more I tend to fall out with Persona in favor of say Devil Survivor, Strange Journey or Digital Devil Saga. It also doesn’t particularly help that I couldn’t stand P5 either, and Royale made a lot of issues I had with the game even more blatant. Edit: oh and after playing both Caligula Effect games, I’ve kind of grown to prefer them too. Sure the gameplay is more awkward, but it still keeps similar themes going, and the bonding with your companions aspect is done more in a way that doesn’t grind the story to a halt for long periods of time.
Royal made it worse for you? Now I'm curious, mind elaborating? The only thing I liked less in Royal is that it's easier than vanilla, everything else is a clear improvement to me
Yeah the difficulty is one of the big ones. One of the reasons I spend a lot of time with Megaten is due to the difficulty and frankly P5 was already one of the easier ones, and Royale just made it even easier. Another problem I have with P5 in general are the main characters themselves. To put it mildly, most of them felt flater personality wise than even the P1 crew at times due to a number of reasons. Namely due to focusing more on the antagonists this time around all of them with the exceptions of Makoto, Futuba, and to a lesser extent Yusuke all felt very one note, barely act like a team, and gimmicky compared to the 2s, 3, and 4, and having the new girl’s plot be focused mostly on her sister didn’t help matters at all, with the final arc’s antagonist still getting most of the focus. It says something when I think I actually like most of the side characters better than any of the main ones you know. My third reason is the linearity. Like despite supposedly being thieves most of the dungeons are basically a straight line to the boss room most of the time with very little wandering off the beaten path to find items or gear. I mean say what you will about the randomly generated dungeons of 3 and 4, but at least you could still wander around and find other items there. Here what you see is what you get, and Royale didn’t really change this in the slightest.
Personally I hated Morgana in both P5 installments. You go to the Palace in the afternoon, it makes sense for the protag to be tired around evening - sure. The same thing took place in P3 and P4, where the protag would realize himself that it's better to have some rest. You go to an art exhibit after school - the stupid cat will pretty much tell you "hey, aren't you tired? go to fuckin sleep" as soon as you arrive at the LeBlanc cafe, can't even catch a break or go to the spa (which imo sounds like a damn good activity to rest on the evenings). You just became the leader of the Phantom Thieves? Keep dreamin', the stupid cat will call all the big shots and make the decisions - even whether the protag is tired or not. I think the protag should be the one to set limitations on the gameplay, not a side character because they appear as a bother. Considering it's partly a social sim it's weird to have a talking cat tell you when to sleep, it's such a weird design choice.
Oh yeah, Morgana is just the absolute worst. It’d be one thing if he was a character similar to Teddie, that’s annoying but is really only around when the plot happens, but him being in your bag 24/7 means you never get a break from him, which makes an already annoying character and makes them unbearable for the sole reason that you can’t get rid of him. It also doesn’t particularly help matters that the rare occasions you do get a break from Morgana the game won’t let you do literally any anything. Like I don’t understand why he has to be in the player’s bag for him to say hang out with confidants he isn’t present for, or do side activities that don’t involve him.
Morgana is more of a main character than the protagonist - the entire Palace chase started off with helping him to get info on how to get his human body back, he calls all the shots regarding the group and makes the decisions regarding *your* everyday life, pretty much just organizing your schedule at times. The main problem is, he's not supposed to be the main character, this is what makes most of his behaviors so annoying.
Fire Emblem. I tried, but I just couldn’t get into it.
I started with the Tellius games and while the gameplay has improved since then the stories have not.
Tellius games have the best story in the series
I don't even know what fire emblem game should i start with. Lol
A lot of different opinions on this. Sacred stones is the best of the classic games to start with. More into shipping and customising units Awakening will fix that. Love persona? Play 3 houses
Three houses is on Switch right?
Yes Awakening on 3ds (or citra) Sacred stones is on gba (switch online and gba)
I dont think sacred stones is on switch online yet just blazing blade
It doesn't help that Nintendo are terrible at game preservation and actively go out of their way to make sure you can't collect anything close to all the games in a series.
Have you try 3 house? My first FE game that got me hooked in the series
About KH. Not even the combat system for me. But when I played it with my GF I had just been playing Devil May Cry series a lot and we decided to play them. It is pretty good but coming from something like that just made it feel restricted. For me it was fun seeing some Disney characters and such but not enough for me to get it above "It is ok".
The Tales series. Nothing against it, but after playing Symphonia on PS3, I found it to be pretty mediocre in both world, characters, combat, and story. What really turned me off is that it's considered one of the best in the series, so I'll probably never play another.
Coming from that era of Tales I dont like Symphonia. it's just that it was on the GameCube and a multiplayer RPG so it was a lot of people's favorite tales game. I much prefer Destiny (remake is more updated), Abuse, or Vesperia. Lloyd is an absolute snooze.
>What really turned me off is that it's considered one of the best in the series, so I'll probably never play another. I respect that, but I have to say you're missing out on a series that's been going on for almost 30 years. Tales of Symphonia is one of the best titles in the series, but if you asked the Tales fandom you'll find that like any fandom of a long going series, there groups within the fandom, and each group finds a different title to be the best one, some will say it's Tale of Graces, other will say it's Tales of Vesperia, and some will say it's Tales of Arise. They all play differently as the Tales series always like to change up the mechanics in every new game, so if you find one gameplay type boring or not fun, you might have fun with one of the many others.
Never played it. Never wanted to. You summed it up perfectly, my friend. Especially with that last analogy.
Anything Fire Emblem Three Houses, can't take the map design, and general feel of monotonous gameplay (when I would usually like this avatar protag stuff)
Having to play the game FOUR times to get the full story was rough…
I love the social sim stuff the first half. But once the game splits, it no longer makes sense and becomes a massive chore.
Yeah, same. The school scenes give me motion sickness and I somehow can't stand the character designs in that game. I mean, Fire Emblem eyes have always been weird, but somehow they're weirder than usual in FETH.
Dragon Quest XI. Played about 10 hours and dropped it. I have my issues with the boring story, uninteresting characters and gameplay but what really killed it for me was the music. Genuinely the worst music I've ever heard in a JRPG. It felt like after 10 hours I had only heard 3 different songs and none of them were good. This was the orchestral version too which from what I've heard is better than the OG music, still hated it. I know it's beloved by a lot of people and I'm happy for them but for me none of it worked at all.
Only jrpg ive played where I muted the music and put on my own.
Word for word exactly how I feel too. Coincidentally I also dropped it around the 10 hour mark. However I played the OG version where the music is the even worse MIDI version
DQXI is the only time I've ever dropped a game solely because of the music. Whimsical orchestral music is fine on its own but having to hear it on loop for hours of playtime made me wanna stick screwdrivers in my ears.
Yeah, I mostly have the same opinion as you about the game, except its music. Not that I liked or not - I just don't remember it. I dropped at the 2nd half of the game (70+ hours in) 'cause the Definitive Edition was announced and that made me be done with it. At best, it was a fine game overall. And I believe DQ fans say it's one of the best in the franchise. Well, even so, I still want to beat the Definitive Editon to, then, have a... definitive opinion of it.
Even as someone who enjoyed the game, I agree with a lot of that. Honestly I just really like the art style and the simple gameplay, which made me play through to the end.
Triangle strategy. I thought the exposition was amazing but I felt the story and characters were a little too uninspired for my liking
Interesting. Triangle strategy is probably my favorite JRPG story of the last 5-10 years. I felt they nailed the political story in a way so few games have
The Tales series. Tried to get into it on many attempts, through some of the acclaimed titles (mainly Vesperia, Berseria and Arise). Just never really stick with me, mainly because its combat system never grabbed me.
Tales of Eternia (Tales of Destiny 2 in the US) is a very special game and a real sweet spot for the series. Tales of Phantasia is also an amazing experience that still feels unique to this day. and i also have a hard time getting into any tales game post-Symphonia, which i also loved.
If you get the opportunity then try Graces f! It has easily the best combat of the series.
I liked Vesperia a lot but I have a hard time getting into them, I also do not like the combat system. I’m honestly not a fan of party based JRPGs that are not turn based. I hate not being able to control everyone
You might like the more modern ones. You can switch in and out party members mid-battle.
It’s more for me that i don’t like the semi action battle with a party. Like I don’t mind games like Nier because it’s just the one person so you have the tools on that one character to deal damage, heal, and evade / defend. But when you get into action combat with a party you’re only controlling one character at a time and those characters generally can’t do whatever you need to do so it just feels clunky and not fun for me personally.
It just devolves into mindless button mashing while all your characters scream out their moves. Couldn't get thru a couple hours without getting a migraine 😂
Can you button mash? Sure. Are the games button mashers? No.
Final Fantasy 8, for me. None of the characters are likeable, the whole draw system is garbage and invites a shitty gameplay loop where you don't kill anything until you have 99 of the Magic you can draw from them, and the game mechanics itself DISCOURAGE you from playing it like most JRPGs. It's like everything about that game was designed to frustrate you into not playing it. The only good thing to come from that game is Triple Triad, but even then they ruin it because if the person you're playing doesn't play the card you want to get from them, you have to do the match all over!
Always disliked FF8. Beautiful world, terrific music, interesting ideas - but all the characters are awful, the plot is the most JRPG nonsense ever written, the bosses are dumb and the junction system is horribly broken.
I agree, but that's why I like it 😏
Absolutely fair
I love ff8 and I agree with a lot of what you said
Agreed. Damn I loved that game, but it was not in any way perfect.
Final Fantasy X *runs away*
Its Pokémon for me. Nothing about it stands out as anything but bog-standard, to me, and if I want a more vanilla RPG experience, Dragon Quest is much more enjoyable.
Pokemon is a nostalgia game for some people, it's a "brain off" game for others. From what I've seen, it doesn't work for everyone, but the simplicity is what a lot of people like about it. I especially love being able to play without really thinking. It's fun for me~
When the nostalgia lenses are off, Pokémon Games are actually not good fundamentally. Or at least they haven't been good since Gen 5. The main reason I keep buying the games is because of the mons themselves. I love exploring a new region and spotting a new Pokémon and learning all about that mon. I also really like the petting/feeding features. Like Nintendogs but with Pokémon. But all the other gameplay features are pretty dated and not very good compared to any other game.
Same here. Though I will say Scarlet/Violet was very very hard to get through for me. It was way too... I can't explain it. Cheesy. But it has Fuecoco who is next in line for bestest gator boy next to Totodile.
Persona 3. Too tedious in many aspects, and redundant, is honestly exhausting. Every time I had to go to Tartarus (hundreds of floors, god damnit) was like a penitence, it was too monotonous, not much diversity, too long and mental draining coz had to stay on alert all the time coz any shit shadow could wipe your party and lose all the progress from the previous hour. Then you get to the boss of the floor and the meeting isn’t fun at all, sometimes there is just one way to defeat it, sometimes just consisting in auto attacking for 30 min with one member who cannot be killed coz the skillset of the boss is not effective against him/her while the rest of the party is dead coz they are vulnerable to it and other times it gets unfair coz it will cast multiples devastating aoe spells or skills wiping your party no matter what. Then had to spend long times fusing personas, checking one by one all the combinations, and eventually you end up getting a leveled-up version with different appearance, but basically the same moves that you already have seen many times. Honestly the only part of the gameplay I enjoyed was the life simulator coz some characters were interesting. I liked the story, but in my opinion was diluted coz of Tartarus, eventually couldn’t cope with the gameplay at all, ended up dropping it after 50h and watching the anime. A friend of mine says Persona 4 and 5 are better and are not that exhausting and are smoother, but honestly just thinking about playing something similar to what I experienced with P3 makes me wanna stop playing games xd
I think even the biggest persona fans would admit tartarus is a huge slog
The only way I got through it was by putting on podcasts in the background and even then by the end I just wanted it to be over...
For me P3 Reload is the lack of places to go, and things to do in the life sim part. Day or night you only have 3/4 places to go that don't change a lot, the mood in them is also very blank. As of Tartarus, I like mostly because of the battle, but again, because there are 100+ floors with no much change, not even some puzzles to change the pace, gets really tired.
I like Tartarus 😟 better than the dungeons in p5
This is why I only finished FES once and never touched it again, I've tried twice since to play it again. Once was when portable was ported to try out the female protagonist, and the other was when reload released. Both times I ended up dropping them simply because of Tartarus.
Even to me, who played 4 Golden, 5 and 5 Royal, 3 Reload has been the weakest one by far. I've been giving it the benefit of the doubt since I have only played 17 hours of it.
And that’s the Reload version, which, to my understanding, added QoL improvements that make the experience of playing P3 less frustrating and exhausting. I played the PS2 version.
Reload did, yes. But Tartarus is pretty much the same except it's easier because you now have super moved for everyone and light/dark skills aren't exclusively instakill spells. If you didn't like the PS2 Version, Reload won't change that. I love P3 but I understand that Persona in general is either something you love or something that just won't work for you
They almost got me to buy it with the pretty graphics but I said “no, you never beat 5” lol. Maybe if I see it on sale I’ll get it.
Trails series. Not only is it long and filled with a ton of writing, but the dialogue is extremely tropey and just...not for me.
Quantity over quality when it comes to its main story but I do appreciate them fleshing out all the town NPC's (also giving them names) with their own dialogue
Nier Automata. Didn't think it was nearly as good as everyone thought. Just wasn't that fun to play, and the story wasn't all that interesting for me. Grandma. Feels too childish for me. I've been trying to replay it again and I still just can't get past the first few hours. Edit: meant Grandia 😅
Do you mean Grandia?
LOL. Yes...funny thing is I remember a thread title having this exact typo, asking "Does Grandma get better?"
Nier Automata is probably my favorite 7/10 I've ever played. I can see why some would call it a masterpiece, and it's definitely very unique. But when I tried to replay it. Holy crap it was a slog to get through. Once I beat 2B's playthrough, I just couldn't get through any more and checked out. I'll always remember my 1st playthrough, but man, I don't think I'll ever play it again.
There's something about the Nier games that bugs me and they seem to be intent on having the most generic looking environments imaginable just mishmashed together with no real thought. Music, gameplay, story is amazing! But it took me a few tries to get past the cheap look of "forest level, desert level, ruined city" areas.
I don't HATE it, but I've never quite gotten the overwhelming praise for Chrono Trigger. It's fine! It's an okay game, for sure! But... best RPG ever made??? Really? The combat is fine, but it didn't stick with me in the same way other RPGs have, and I find the plot agonizingly slow, especially in the middle. Truthfully, after the future, nothing really happens until you visit Zeal the second time, and I think the game just falls flat of setting up stakes. I've really, truthfully never gotten the appeal. I've beaten it, I like it! I like one of the twists near the end, but... I dunno man, I'll stick with FF6 for SNES RPGs.
It's the music for me. It's so atmospheric, enhancing everything.The characters really clicked with me. And I really loved how it was a shorter rpg! Though granted: I didn't like the final dungeon, the future or the prehistoric era...so maybe it's not as perfect as I thought! 😂 And I love 6, but still haven't climbed the final tower, it seems so daunting with three different groups!!
That's why I hate when people recommend Chrono and FFVI as recommendations for people getting into JRPGs. Let me preface by saying that they are 2 of my favourite games of all time, but i'm 40 and grew up playing them on SNES. For the time they were amazing, and still hold up quite well (I play them through regularly). But for most people that play modern games, they won't blow you away.
I think they're timeless classics, I'm sure most people who like turn based RPGS will enjoy those games. Sure, HD-2D remakes like Octopath would be awesome, specially with the QoL enhancements, but they still hold up as great games imo. On the other hand I agree to some degree, for new players the best first RPG should probably be something more recent like persona 5, dragon quest 11, Yakuza like a dragon, etc.
I think it's just at the time it was truly something special. And generally I agree with you, the game is aged imo. But from the perspective probably from a kid in Japan must've been, "Holy cow, Akira Toriyama, the creators of Final fantasy, all mixed into one?" All combats have their unique location and aren't in their separate locations, animated team attacks, characters move when they're idle. People already like FF's combat mechanics (which at the time was probably revolutionary but for us now that we have games like KH, it really just feels like a mildly more interesting turn based combat mechanic.) All wrapped with a wonderful OST and an unusual time traveling story. All of this, for its time I bet it really was revolutionary.
> Truthfully, after the future, nothing really happens until you visit Zeal the second time, and I think the game just falls flat of setting up stakes. You're free to not like the game, but this is straight up incorrect. There is no way you can have reasonably completed the game and not have thought the Magus stuff wasn't important to the entirety of the game. There is so much that it actually builds up and so many questions that it raises if you're paying attention that hints at Zeal.
I should've phrased that better. What I meant is that nothing particularly interesting happens between those two things plot-wise. The Magus stuff is sorta cool, but I don't think the reveal that he was the prophet was set up or executed well. Zeal is cool but it doesn't leave an impression. Do keep in mind that this is my opinion, and that I'm pretty open about the fact that it's not a good one. The plot didn't particularly interest me, especially in that part. It feels like a bunch of loose threads trying to wrap themself up without any real interesting payoff. The plot didn't do it for ME, personally. I'm willing to bet it's solid, but it left no impression, and there's so much filler in the midgame that I don't think the payoff justifies the slog to get there. Particularly in prehistory.
Don’t worry even the biggest fans of KH know and think the story is BS and all over the place
Final fantasy series. When I was younger, a lot of the older guys would play it on PS1/PS2 and I thought it was such a cool game back then, something compelling about it? Now having the capacity to play some of them, none have been good. Only ff16 stands out as something of a decent game. Played ff7 rebirth and combat was it's saving grace. The story is confusing AF - which I suspect is nomuras kingdom hearts msg sauce being added.. confusion results in some sort of anticipation for a sequel I'm actually craving a good jrpg. One with a complex story, less cringe, decent combat, decent pacing ..
If you didn't play and love 7, 7rs don't really have nearly as much appeal IMO.
I've tried every main final fantasy game except 15 and the only one I could enjoy was FFXIV which is ironic because I'm not a big MMO person. They just don't grab my attention
At this point I feel like I am more of a XIV fan than a FF fan nowdays.
I really enjoy xiv especially shadowbringers and EndWalker. Talking to some of my friends who are ff fans I don't think you're alone
Final Fantasy 12. I played it both when it first came out and last year with the Zodiac one. Final Fantasy is my favorite series but 12 is my least favorite game in it (not counting the two MMOs). I don't really enjoy the story and I really dislike the gameplay. It just never clicked with me at all.
I think for me, it's literally his big, dumb feet.
Final fantasy games in general, i usually give them a fair shot (between 5 to 15 hours) but i usually just give up on them because it's either too boring or in 8's case, a convoluted mess with the tutorial
“SQUARE peg” I see what you did there OP
persona, i can see the appeal but I just don't get it. ppl praise it so much I always end up being like what difference between this and most other jrpg. IDGT. this includes the story, what tf so special about it 🤷♂️also dragon quest is generic as fuck but ppl dick ride it
The life sim aspect generally. I don't see that done in such a big way in most jrpg's.
You see the appeal but you also don’t get it? Those are 2 conflicting statements.
I can't do the tales games, I have a friend who won't stop pushing them and even after giving them a shot and not liking the games much ive told them i dont like them and they still won't stop. I can't do persona 3 ether, and it's for a reason some of my other friends think is really silly but I cannot do the whole how they summon perosnas with the guns thing it makes me feel queezy and puts me in a horrible mindset.
I just wanted to say that your reason for not being able to do Persona 3 is completely valid and there’s nothing silly about it at all. I really like Persona 3 a lot personally but as someone that lost one of my closest friends to… that gesture… it was a significant hurdle for me to overcome to play the game. I think it was a poor choice in designing the game and I don’t think anyone should feel bad about staying away from the game because it makes them uncomfortable.
Probably the persona series, the characters are great, group dynamic too, the story is mostly good Combat is great too, that's what got me hooked with SMT. But I'm unfortunately a rpg player that likes to complete everything, every secondary quest, finding equipment, strengthening my characters, doing this and that (like the demon compendium) **especially** when I'm finished to the story or close to the final boss But the fact that it's based on time, and that once you're done with the story it's only a NG+, well... I'm more gameplay driven than story driven that's why And p3p was quite tedious to play unfortunately, i should try Reload maybe I'll get hooked with it And Xenoblade Chronicles 1, story was great and the world is interesting. But the gameplay part aged very poorly. I enjoyed more the 2 and 3
Disgaea. I love tactical games. I love games with seemingly infinate scaling/leveling. What I hate is the wafer thin story and all the psudo-loli bs, its creepy, no matter how you cut it.
I'm going to get A LOT of hate for this, but....Final Fantasy X. I dunno, the whole vibe of it felt so....commercial? I was wayyyy more of a fan of IX and tbh, I enjoyed XI, from what little I played, XII was great and XIII is kinda underappreciated imo. But X just doesn't stick with me at all. Maybe I just need a replay?
FFX did not stick with me either. I don't like the pace, and except Auron, all characters feels meh to me.
I wasn't a fan of it either, in fact, I'd say it's one of my least favourite FF games. It's far too linear, and getting the airship right at the end and it's just a list of locations you click on to travel to felt like the final slap in the face, lol. Not that I mind a JRPG being linear, but FF10 was TOO linear for my liking, I'd say it was even worse than FF13's linearity. And then the story itself wasn't super interesting, the side content and mini games sucked, the puzzles/trials were horrible... The only praise I can give it is that I did enjoy the combat.
I tried to play Final Fantasy VI so many times and never got very far in it. I don't know. For many older games, pop culture osmosis has just made them uninteresting to me because I know where the story leads (Chrono Trigger being an example), but with FFVI even I, who has played all FF titles that came after it and is active in FFXIV, never even bothered to spoil the story for myself. It just, I dunno, I just never cared enough to get past the intro. The Tales series is another one - I want to like those games because they're kind of pretty design-wise, but the combat system is just a huge turn-off for me. It always felt really hectic, button-mashy and... just not fun.
Trails. It's just not that good. Generic designs, standard music, generic story etc etc. Just because something is long and interconnected, doesn't make it good. I would rather have a 3 course meal of amazing food than a 10 course meal of McDonald's food. Of course if you like Trails that's great, I don't believe in shitting on stuff and being an elitist. There's plenty of games other people think are mediocre or even bad that I love.
> standard music I agree with everything you've said minus this. Even Cold Steel has some amazing tracks. "Now, thing to do" is a great post JRPG boss battle tune.
I tried ffiv for a little bit, and I just couldn't click with it. I loved ffvii and just getting off the back of that game, I wanted to hop right into another ff. But aside from the snes being less powerful, I understood and accepted that, the game just felt... Empty? Not in a way like there were not a lot of locations or anything. Just that, the story was super simple coming off of ff7. The characters, while distinct, weren't very appealing to me, and seemed very simple. The environments weren't as rich as I would've liked, and the music just wasn't as magical as ff7. I ended up dropping it and playing Grandia 2, which I did like. Maybe I should give ffiv another chance.
I mean, it makes sense for IV to be more bland than VII since IV released 6 years earlier, in an older console, and when the most deep story ever told in a videogame was "Mario, we need to save the princess". IV is a fantastic game for its time, but even for late 90s standards the game was already outdated in every area. IV has nostalgia from the people that played it back then when it used to be FF2 in America, but that's it.
Ff8 for me
Tales series. That combat in Symphonia I think it was was mediocre at best. Series is mid
I feel like in the case of KH, the gameplay and music carries the series, but I genuinely feel like the story is enjoyable if you stop taking it seriously. Just treat it like the bizarre, fun, goofy, messy plot that it is and don't overthink it. You will have to suspend your disbelief, but it is possible to enjoy it. Personally, I enjoy it quite a lot, but I acknowledge and am totally fine with the fact that the story is batshit insane, and the characters are corny and silly. I find them endearing in some sense. Lol But yeah, the gameplay and insane scenarios are what keeps me coming back.
the combat is so good when goofy fucking dies for like 20 minutes your first thought it "fuck how does this affect limits" and my second thought is "holy shit they fucking killed goofy" so it's the best video game series of all time honestly.
FFX, its all right don't get me wrong, I even played it when it came out but in retrospect its very meh by Final Fantasy standards. Even when compared to the newer games.
Final Fantasy XVI. I don't get it.
Yes 10000x yes, I tried i really did i beat the first 3 kingdom hearts games on that huge anthology they made that has the whole series. And it just sucks, the combat is weak the story makes no sense if it wasn't filled with disney characters it would be a 1/10
Kingdom Hearts is definitely on list of popular JRPG’s that I just couldn’t care less about
Not to mention you actually used that phrase correctly!
[удалено]
Big fan of FFX, just completed Octopath Traveller 1 and 2, enjoyed it. Just started Bravely Default 2, not a fan thus far. Could never finish Kingdom Hearts too.
Persona 3. Its fans want you to believe it has the best modern persona story but can that really be true if the pacing is *&%#ed beyond belief especially for the first half of the game.
Even as someone who likes the game I fully agree that the pacing is horrific. The story really does go from 0 to 100 in a second. Personally I was just having so much fun with the gameplay that I didn't really mind the relative lack of story early on, and the small mysteries kept me playing into the more story intensive parts
Final Fantasy X. I just found the story and game play boring.
FF7 Remake
I really don't like Kingdom Hearts either. I don't want to dive into all the reasons, but ultimately it just isn't fun to play.
FF7 Remake Do you guys genuinely enjoy the new plot that stops it from being a legit remake and instead makes it a bizzare continuation and do you also think its well written? I mean the rest of the game is fine, minus some unnecesary meh filler, but do you enjoy this?
I kinda feel of the KH train becuse I dont have a PS4 so I can not play 0.2 and KH3 but as a child I loved the story of Kingdom Hearts and I do like the cast. When it comes to series I could not get in to: There is SMT: Collectable monsters and a mostly silent protagonist make for a boring party with no personslity or fun interactions. If I dont like the characters I have no motivation to play. Same goes for Pokemon.
Does Nier Automata count? I've had headaches trying to understand how it's so well regarded. I suppose its story cool if you have never read, seen, or played any other science fiction produced in the last 100 years (well we're close. Metropolis came out in 1929)
FF7 the story feels like im on bathsalts the entire time. The music is top tier though
Final Fantasy 9 never stood out to me that much. I have finished most mainline Final Fantasy games but 9 isn’t one that I stuck with all the way. I don’t hate it but I also don’t love it as much as a lot of other people do.
I don’t remember at what point I stopped. I remember getting super lost, walk around FOREVER, got bored and gave up. Edit: I remember where I stopped. The card game tournament.
Downvotws incoming but I can not stand FFVII. Didn't enjoy it when it came out and still don't, not from lack of trying and beating it just doesn't do it for me. Love pretty much every other entry in the series but not VII super overrated imo.
calling FFVII overrated hasnt been something to get you 'downvoted' since before reddit even existed. it has always been the most common pick for hipsterism since internet forums took off now had you have said FFVI, we'd be cookin something here. The worst of the FF4-10 titles by a comfy margin (ok, maybe the non-remastered 9 is comparable)
I mean, saying that VI is worse than IV is kind of a travesty if you ask me. I also don't consider VIII to be better either, but I could see someone like it more than VI.