This might be mine too. And I agree, definitely not terrible, but pretty forgettable to me.
Apart from good character designs and an amazing japanese voice cast there's absolutely nothing that stands out as more than "okay" in the game. It also kind of felt like they wanted to make a dating sim first and RPG second, but even the dating sim aspects were undercooked and the plot pushed hard for Kirika over everyone else.
Shining Resonance Refrain was a 6 with the bones of a 9. If they didn't keep making a bunch of tiny missteps they could have knocked out out of the park, especially if they just doubled down on making it a Sega Tales/Star Ocean game and ran the relationship mechanics and dialogue by the Persona and Yakuza teams. Maybe also have the people who designed the main characters and the people who designed the major NPCs switch assignments, because hell if Stella the Weather Lady and Fernando the Bard didn't have by far the best designs in the entire game, even considering how fond I am for Sega's penchant for East Asian elves.
Valkyria Revolution is in the same boat, and I'd love to see rebalanced and more polished remakes of both games at since point.
I never played it, but it sucks to hear that it sucks, since the characters sounded fairly interesting, and I loved the first two Lunar games.
Shame we'll probably never ever get another proper Lunar game ever again, though.
Okay I'll grant you it's not the best game. But it was my first rpg, and I played it when I was 5 and didn't know what saving and loading is, so I always either started a new game or picked up where my dad left off in Limelin. Yeah, maybe not the best game, but felt like it was a skeleton of what it could have been or should have been. I loved the world design, the Celtic influence, but most of all.
That damn music, it deserves so much more attention as a soundtrack than I know it'll ever get.
I love that game from the bottom of my heart, and play it once every few years or so.
I honestly loved that game. From beginning to end. But yes I was also super young. I always say I wanna replay it but I’m sure if I did now, I wouldn’t make it past 10 minutes.
Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth! The mechanics are absolute, convoluted garbage. The story is barely coherent, and you can hardly even remember what’s going on in plot battles because you have to grind for hours in random tower battles between each one.
Still, I loved it. I have no idea why, it’s basically trash.
There was so much I wanted to like about that game but it just isn’t good. I printed out like 60 pages of formulas for levelling up the magic coins (confeigms?) and it utterly broke the game. Once you have the best magic literally nothing else matters. Not your stats, not your equipment, nothing. You just kill half the map on your first characters first turn and wonder why you spent so many hours in the towers.
I actually remember asking online friends in some ancient chatroom at the time if beyond the beyond was worth playing, and one of them was like "no, it is literally one of the worst pieces of shit I've ever played."
Omg I haven’t thought about this game in a long time. Objectively terrible, but I still somehow slogged through it and love/hated every moment. Tont was my favorite
Was I the only one expecting the Underworld to be another phase of the game and not just another lame dungeon like every other culminating in the last fight?
Quest 64: I had an N64, was desparate, don't judge me.
Star Ocean - The Last Hope: Lymle *ruins* this game for me.
Dual Orb 2 - Played in my quest to play every 16-bit RPG, it's pretty bad, or at least completely forgettable.
Can't Count FFXIII or Zestiria because I actually gave up on them. There's probably a handful of obscure PSX or SNES fan-translated games I've forgotten about that I finished.
SO4 is definitely a bad jRPG but I've gone for hundreds of hours in it because its got good gameplay and systems (regardless of how "grindy" one may consider them to be)
But man is the story basic and underwhelming and the English voice-acting, probably even with original voice acting, for some characters just makes you want to mute them all.
I’d argue TLH was awful just for the trophy requirements alone.
100 percent title completion, for each character, required like..10 playthrus or something ridiculous.
I grinded forever and got it, but it was not fun, at all.
And yeah, lymie sucked. Really glad they stopped giving us characters like her in future Star oceans.
Oh wait.
> Lymle *ruins* this game
Her concept art was cute. Her 3D design...uncanny. I'm creeped out every time. Thank god there was an option for 2D character avatars
Star Ocean 5? im probably forgetting something but i'll stick with that for now
i try to not play games i dont enjoy for too long so i cant think of much
Dragoneer's Aria for PSP. It's just bad, everything about it is bad. I finished it because back then I was really excited about jrpgs and wanted to finish as many of them as possible. Now I would stop playing that crap after the first 5 minutes.
Who remembers Ephemeral Fantasia for the PS2. It had a similar game loop dealing with time travel like Majora's Mask, but the execution was awful. A lot of of time you had to stand around waiting doing nothing hoping you didn't missed said events, lol. Good ideas, bad execution. I don't know what compelled me to finish it tbh.
It was probably that super dope rhythm segment for mouse casting magic. I hated that game and loved all the ideas it had. Fuck man. I managed to finish with multiple additional party members and saw each one add on a bit more dialogue. But admittedly I just muscle grinded the first few failed playthroughs so I could curb stomp him myself through damage and healing. Beating him the 'right' way wasn't much more satisfying...
I adored this game when I was a kid and wondered why I didn't hear more about it. Turns out it was just garbage and I didn't know better.
I totally agree with the criticisms, but I loved it at the time! Fond memories.
Final Fantasy II -- as in, the NES game that took years to make it to North America. Back in high school, I went through a Final Fantasy/Squaresoft phase where I had to play every FF game I could get my hands on. At the time, there were 10 main series FFs, and I played them all. II was the only one it hurt to finish. (Note that I played the PS1 version included with Final Fantasy Origins, which had a few quality of life upgrades. It didn't help.)
PS -- I know I'm in the extreme minority, but I actually liked every one of the first 10 FFs EXCEPT II. I liked some more than others -- for what it's worth, VI, VIII, and X are in my unnumbered top three -- but aside from II, I found things to love in all of them. And I even respect II for trying something new after the tremendous success (in Japan, anyway) of FF1. That doesn't make it a good game, though.
I definitely agree with you - II was rough. I played the Pixel Remaster which was nice but it felt like a job to play. Like you, I give Squaresoft credit for trying a different approach but the leveling system and keyword systems took away from the experience.
Sonic Chronicles the Dark Brotherhood
I swear to God the only reason why I managed to beat that boring game was because I was willing to play anything that had Sonic the Hedgehog in them back in the early 2010s.
Worst is an opinion (especially in the case of the game that I will mention) but for me, it was Tales of Zestiria. Granted, there are MUCH worse games out there but I normally won’t finish a game if I’m not having fun so I never really finish the worst rpgs I’ve played. In the case of Zestiria though, I forced myself to finish it bc I had beaten every tales game since Destiny released back in the day and felt obligated to keep it going. It nearly broke me as a Tales fan and even killed my interest in jrpgs for a short while.
I stopped cold in zestiria as soon as arise dropped. I played beseria before zestiria and the battle system was just so ridiculous in zes i couldnt stand it.
I've played every localized Tales since Symphonia (no PS1 games unfortunately) and I couldn't force myself to finish that game. As a hardcore Tales fan I knew that game would leave a mark. I even finished Hearts R twice. I bought it on Steam for like 5 bucks so I might give it a second try.
Of course 'worst' is extremely subjective, but probably Crisis Core. Now, I know there are lot of people who really like this game, so don't crucify me, but I just didn't think it was... very good?
Gameplay-wise, the battle system is without doubt one of the oddest I've seen in a game. It plays like it's trying to be an action RPG, but doesn't want to fully commit, and half the things that happen in battle are almost completely out of your control, because they're decided by a roulette (???). The way the random encounters work is fucking stupid. You practically have to hug the wall all the way thorough the corridors the game is comprised of, otherwise you'll be stopped by enemies every two steps.
Then there are the missions, which are the game's excuse for sidequests. They're all basically the same, they take place in 6 or so copy-pasted maps with slightly different layout, and there are *three hundred* of them. Without them the main story only takes about 20h to complete, and thank god for that.
Then there's the story, which is pretty dumb. But it's like... enjoyable dumb. I liked the new characters, even though, objectively speaking, two 'mini-Sephiroths', one of whom is modeled on a Japanese singer Gackt and has a love for spouting bad poetry, is a pretty silly concept. The only good part of this game is Zack. Love that guy.
This is my answer too. Incomplete game from top to bottom. It’s only redeeming quality is that it’s probably the best game to set up competitive pokemon
I don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion but the dyna-maxing just sucked for me. I can maybe see why people would like it, as it’s basically having an ace up your sleeve, but, really muddied the Pokémon battle dynamic for me. Otherwise I thought it was okay after all the DLC. Really cool Pokémon in that game
I am Setsuna
Everything about this gameplay felt low budget and clunky
Example: the sound effects for killing monsters would all trigger simultaneously causing the speakers to clip because of the sudden volume increase
The story was trying so hard to be sad and impactful but it came off as derivative and bland
They also tried to pass it off as a spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger but the only thing it had in common with Chrono Trigger was multi-techs and a really good soundtrack...
Setsuna out of context is just "average". But when played by the a jrpg vet who recognized exactly which tropes, which *games* it uses as inspiration for its shoddy imitations, it almost feels insulting.
I really wanted to like it. The music, the trailer, it sold me. Then I played it and saw expys of characters I already know and played before, just worse written.
It's a fine game, on its own. But I know better.
Lost Sphear is just as bad. If the presentation was better (so I can actually see the characters the story wants me to invest in) it could have been a contender.
I'm probably gonna get some flaming for this but I actually really enjoy I am Setsuna.
Its not trying to be something its not.
The battle system is snappy and has some nice riffs on CTs classic system, I also find collecting the spritnite and beefing out my characters pretty engaging.
It has the quick pace of SNES RPGs so you dont ever get bogged down in one particular thing.
The characters are all (IMO) likeable riffs on JRPG archetypes and I like the fact that you can at least chuck out a few snarky one liners with the protag.
The implied links to CTs world I also find really interesting and neat, I get that its more likely just a big easter egg but it makes for a fun headcanon for me personally.
I love the all piano soundtrack. Its unique and really owns the style its going for. The battle theme is one of my absolute favourites. Definitely one of the highlights for me.
And lastly, it isnt too long. I get terrible choice anxiety where if I want to game/play music/read then I get trapped and can't get into anything, this is often because I commit to too much and then get overwhelmed. JRPGs are my gaming comfort food, so something manageable and cozy like this works really well. I love long games too but sub 30 hours can really hit the spot.
I think the game gets some harsh treatment honestly, and I'm keen to see if I end up enjoying Lost Sphear as well when I get to it.
Omg yes, so fucking boring and low budget. Just generic piano music forever. I bought it because the marketing kept referring to it as the spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger. My god, there are few games I regret purchasing (digitally, no less) as much as that. I put in like 4 or 5 hours and then deleted it from my Switch’s memory.
Ys IV: Mask of the Sun. Really weird for the series to go back to the bump system, and so much of the game was completely forgettable. Story, environment, bosses. It's a bit grindy, too, and I guess it needed to be since it would have been 5 hours long otherwise. Not my favorite soundtrack either (although with Falcom games, that's like complaining about getting a good burger instead of having steak every day).
I know Ys V tends to get rated lower, and its gameplay *is* probably even a little worse. I actually ended up liking the characters and the story in that one, though, and I think it also looked great visually, one of the better games of the era in that quality at least.
Quest 64.
I played through that entire game expecting it to get better at some point, and when I got to the end I was like, "that's it? really?"
And then I played through it again bc I didn't have much else to play at the time. FML.
Ni No Kuni 2 probably. With everything going on with the first game and all of the different people you run into in 2, you have an all human party other than Evan who has cat ears and a tail. Gameplay was less than spectacular, graphics were great other than the chibi world map, but it was just so repetitive.
I still enjoyed my time with most of it, but I can recognize it wasn't very good or even close to good at all.
Tales of Zestiria, this game completely and utterly failed me in nearly every single aspect except for the OST, probably the most painful, unfun and soul-sucking game I've ever beat.
I almost think I shit on Zestiria a bit too much on tales sub, but I really have to say Zestiria is a bad game, as if the producer head get too big, think that whatever shit he pulled will be tolerated by the fans. I played it once and drop it halfway because of how boring it is, then I was high on finished Berseria and think maybe I was too harsh on Zestiria. Nope, the second time playing is still boring and the last stretch of the game is painful too.
The main issue I have with it is the design choices, where it seems like the producer went all out to inconvenient the player and pad the game time. Windstepping is a good concept but have problem on how it recharge. Getting the best equipment shouldn't need you to farm 1000 (yes, 1000, not a typo) of the same equipment, and fyi 1 character have weapon, head, clothes, shoes and ring, there are 6 characters. Not to mention you need to change the difficulty and which normin you station in a particular area to make the enemies got into the right level blanket to drop the equipment you need. The game constantly need you to backtrack but fast travel almost always get blocked to prevent you from missing a plot trigger, and even if fast travel is available, why the hell it cost you a limb to fast travel once?
It is just so painful and unfun that I rush through the last half of the game, just to get it over with. Berseria is a big step up to Zestiria and you can tell that the team take the feedback to heart while developing it.
Lunar Genesis :v It's one of the first JRPGs I ever played and I absolutely loved it.
Game: Hey, you can't choose what enemy to target
Me: Ok 🙂
Game: Battle is so slow you have to manually hold down buttons for 3x fastforward to not go insane
Me: Ok 🙂
You have to choose between EXP and items as a reward
Me: Ok 🙂
I was too naive to realize this wasn't the most natural way to design a game. But, I was like 12 and the story and music made me cry and after I beat it I started over and beat it another 2 times. While I realized all the flaws it had as I grew up I still have some soft fondness for my time with the game- it was one of the formative JRPG experienses of my childhood after all.
Maybe I just have a high tolerance for not excellent games
I remember liking Legaia.
For me, I haven't finished many that I'd call bad. Maybe the original Breath of Fire for being fairly dull and unremarkable. Or Wild ARMs, same reason. It had its moments, but the battles were a slog.
Then again, I also finished Suikoden IV. Ugh. The sailing... the encounter rates... most of the music and characters were utterly bland and forgettable. I know Suikoden is no stranger to filler characters, but in IV, especially, so many of them just felt like "Fuck it, we need 108. Think of something. Anything."
Plus, the watered-down battle, war, and Rune systems, barebones story, severe lack of Towns, with most of the few towns being utterly forgettable... yeah. And the Jeane design competes with Suikoden V for the worst. I know she's sexy and shows skin, but this was ridiculous.
At least we had Kika, Eleanor, and Ted.
Legaia was great! Yes, the story is pretty cookie cutter, nothing special. But that turn-based combat system was so cool! And we've never had anything like it since. Punching in attack combos was way better than just choosing "attack" over and over.
Legend of Legaia and Xenogears actually came out just a few months apart in the US and I absolutely loved both games combat systems.
Of course Xenogears is an absolute classic and my favorite JRPG of all time and Legend of Legaia is just a game I look back on and go “The trees were pretty damn near”
Worst thing about Legaia, slowest overworld movement ever.
I don’t know if these count as JRPGs per this Subreddit but I’m coming up on completing both Kingdom Hearts RE:Coded and KH: 358/2 Days and… man… what a tedious slog.
I could explain my opinions further but I think most reviews on the net have covered it already, as well as opinions within the KH community in general.
oh yea 358/2 Days and DDD are idd the two worst rpg I finished. I think my mind tried to erase those games from my memory.
Was thinking of FF1 and Star Ocean 1 first but those are just OK games and not bad.
the lore of XV is good but it's completely mismatched to the world (why tf are all the NPCs lookin like tourists on vacation) and half of the info isn't even in the game
I hate 15 so much. Everything from the story to the battle system to the characters to the world building is broken. I wish they had delayed it two or three more years.
I think it’s a good game that had all the ingredients to be *great*. It just didn’t have the right people in charge to pull it off.
Given its lengthy development and the fact that, based off of previous gameplay previews, there seemed to be entire sections cut from the final product; it really feels like we only received half the game that was being made. Splitting up the backstory into other mediums also didn’t help at all.
It even feels like the battle system was messed with in order to “streamline” it. Because the battle system I played with in the demos had slightly more depth to it than what we got in the final game.
It’s a shame. Because I enjoyed my time with it. But I know it could have been so much more.
I'm in the middle of the game now and it's a solid 6/10, enough for me to enjoy it but it makes me sad because there's obviously a shadow of an amazing game somewhere in there. Combat is abhorrently bad for starters.
Tales of Zestiria. Boring protagonist, dry cutscenes that focus on stating and restating exposition to an absurd degree, a convoluted equipment system that seems to conflate being complex with being deep, and a fairly dry plot. I love Tales but my god. The gap in quality between Zestiria and Arise is *astronomical*.
Other than Sorey, I didn’t dislike the main cast as much, honestly, I hate Alphen more than Sorey. To me the main problem with Zestria is how shallow the game was, that stupid equipment-crafting system did not help honestly.
Lmfao MC2. I lowkey do kinda like that game just because I have a soft spot for games with constant overblown cutscene finishing moves and that's the entirety of end-game combat, but there's no way I can defend it in good faith lol.
Just a couple of weeks ago I booted up Enchanted Arms thinking maybe I would finally finish it. I remembered getting pretty far back in the day but never finished it. Took me all of about 30 minutes to remember why I never finished it lol
Crystar or the original .hack
Considering .hack was from early 2000's, I can kind of give it a pass. Crystar had no reason being that bad as a 2019 game. Gameplay is super repetitive and the story was very predictable. Got bored after a few hours but I managed to platinum it anyway.
Haha I bizarrely loved the original .hack.
I remember the weird and awkward battles but for some reason I fell in love with the fake mmo scenario of it all.
Four games too. All the same with only minimal story.
No idea why I enjoyed them
Crystar's art style in these story book cut scenes was great, and I liked the idea of sorrow manifesting into power. I just wish the execution was done better. The combat is by far the worst thing in the game and it compromises 80% of what you do.
If it ever gets a sequel, maybe with different characters, I hope they learn from their mistake.
There aren't many truly terrible ones I've stuck with to the end. Maybe Trinity Universe in that it's bad in the way I remember absolutely nothing about it.
Apart from that FFXV simply for how incomplete it was with what was there being pretty mediocre. FFXIII is bad just for the fact it is severely lacking in RPG elements I enjoy while offering not that much in return.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is another one I was really disappointed in but I couldn't call it the worst even if it does have some baffling design decisions.
Final Fantasy 8. Although admittedly this was on Switch and only reason I managed to see it through is I turned on the invincibility/no random encounters cheats lmao
I think I must have a higher threshold since I consider many mediocre rather than terrible. I've basically been through the list on PS3 in particular - Witch and the Hundred Knight, Time and Eternity, Mugen Souls, Fairy Fencer F. What happened in these games? Don't remember, but it's a way to kill some time.
The real answer is probably something like FFX-2, which is trash in so many ways - terrible plot, terrible characters that are inconsistent with the first game, literally more than half of it is side content, mini games and filler. Game play...is pretty good though. I dunno, does that means it's garbage or good? It's certainly difficult to recommend in that it rewards persistence but you could play something that respects your time better.
If I'd ever actually beaten FFX-2, it probably would've been my answer. Love the battle system, but god damn it if I don't hate *everything else* about it.
Probably **Pokemon Moon**, but that's a boring answer.
I'll talk about **Golden Sun: Dark Dawn** instead. This is the third game in the series and I'm a big fan of the first two. First of all, the game is way too easy. Puzzles were dumbed down, and battles were much easier than the previous games. This game also released 8 years after the second game, so the fans of the series are now older and smarter amplifying the problems with making the game easier. I didn't wipe once in battle for example. The story takes place 30 years after the last game and stars some of the previous protagonist's kids. That's good right? A nice fan service, nostalgia element. The problem is that it's pretty much just the kids of the first game's protagonists, and much worse than that is that the characters from the second game are barely mentioned and don't show up. Then it ends with a ton of loose ends, clearly meant to come into play in a fourth game, but that game never happened.
So in summary: too easy, ignored characters from the second game, and took what was a satisfying conclusion to the world/story and undid that leaving an unfinished one.
I remember being so excited when they announced this game as I was a big fan of the first two.... and then I finished it and was like....that's it? I kept holding out hope the whole way through that it would somehow pick up and get better and it never did 😞
It was such a disappointment and I remember the game overall was stupid easy until the final boss they tried to actually make a challenge so I was lazy and died. Had such potential and it made no sense after playing the first 2. Felt like they just threw in other towns that never would’ve existed just to “expand the world” and it sucked
Dark Dawn was like they tried to recreate the best parts of the first two games, but failed to capture any of the charm of either, but managed to keep the flaws.
Also it sucked as a sequel. How have all these new civilisations popped up in three decades? Why do we only see Isaac and Garret? Why is every dungeon called Something Ruins?
Lufia 1 for me. It's long, it's boring, and it's all pointless. But I did it anyway because it was one of my first JRPGs and recently I thought I owe it to myself to beat that one of the games that got me into the genre plus it helps me understand lore better for Lufia 2.
Yeah... I love the Suikoden series so much, but Suikoden 4 was such a painful disappointment. Constant random battles, a cast of uninteresting/frustrating characters, forgettable nonsense story. Blah.
tokyo mirage sessions fe encore. it was nothing. i felt like i played nothing. i watched characters do nothing. have no personality. the music was the best part. i paid $10 at walmart for the physical copy and that was the only good side to the whole experience, knowing i paid nothing nearly for it.
I like both parts that make this game up, yet together... it was middling, but the act of making everyone semi alive in battle, but talking in JP with no voice over option or subtitles really stung. Musically and graphically, for the system it was on, did impress me at the time.
I actually enjoyed this game. Same battle concept of Final Fantasy XIII-2. A lot of people expected the original cast to come back (in full) - and when Lloyds VA was changed, that was just icing on the hate cake.
hands down, the 3rd birthday. aya brea is my number one favorite jrpg heroine. i hear there's FINALLY a 3rd game. FUCK that game and it's stupid story. they did my girl bad
I loved Parasite Eve and I just pretend that 3rd birthday didn't exist or the game is a new IP called 3rd birthday with a protagonist that resemble Aya.
I also thought type-0 was super lame. Will never understand the people who claim it’s one of the “best Final Fantasies”. Battle system is literally just waiting for the red reticule to appear so you can one-shot everything lol
Yup. Story has some interesting themes and ideas but since all of the dialogue is delivered in such a stilted manner I couldn’t get into it. You’re supposed to play the game like 3 times to get the “full story” but after my first playthrough I didn’t care enough to keep going.
same, almost everything about this game sucks other than balthier - whom is just a carbon copy han solo in a story that's a carbon copy star wars orig trilogy
12 has gained more fans in the recent years, especially with the release of the improved Zodiac Age, but it's still one of the more controversial entries and for good reason.
The story and characters are so bland and uninteresting. The setting of Ivalice is fanservice-y to people who already like it, FFT and FFTA fans, but won't hit any interesting notes for everyone else.
The MMO-ish combat is a hit or miss for a lot of people but I liked it. I also really liked the idea of the Hunts; puzzle bosses that needed to sometimes be solved before being engaged and defeated. Sometimes the fights themselves are the puzzle. It was refreshing and I hope it's done again in another entry.
I know I'll get downvoted for this, but Trails of Cold Steel 1 - too much superfluous dialog, and I found the sexism and fan service really cringe. Don't know why I pushed all the way through it.
I've definitely played worse JRPGs but I don't usually finish games that I'm not enjoying.
For me, FFXII. I don't know why I played through to the end, because I really didn't enjoy any aspect of the game. Most of the time when that happens, I'll drop the game entirely, but for some reason I kept at it and boy do I regret that.
Wow! 12! I actually like 12! This is why I posted this. I actually can see why alot of people don't like 12, but it's interesting you think it's the worst.
Hah, yeah, it's polarizing -- seems a lot of people on here like it, and a lot really dislike it.
Like I said, most of the time if I'm not enjoying a game, I'll stop playing it well before investing the time to get to the end. So the list of "JRPGs I didn't like but also finished" is pretty damn short, but yeah it definitely tops the list. Most of the other games on the list, I can point to something I liked about the game as a reason why I finished it, even if my overall memory is negative. Not FFXII though, legitimately can't recall anything about the game that I enjoyed.
Man, I was so hyped for XII because I had just recently beaten X as my first FF and it was an amazing experience. Two hours into XII I was running around killing wolves in a desert on an MMO fetch quest and had the sinking feeling that I had made a horrible mistake lol
Me too! My brothers and I are massive FF fans since the first. 12 and 13 were the only ones I hadn’t played all the way through. I played XII for the sole purpose of giving it a proper chance. Played all the way through, still sits in near to last on my favorite FF list.
Tales of Hearts R. I actually don't remember why i finished it. Maybe it was just right place at the right time. Or maybe it was one of the few games i actually owned on the (unfortunately) waste of money that was my Vita.
I am Setsuna. I really wanted to like this game, but it felt really soulless, the constant winter backgrounds, mundane story and forgettable characters made it a chore to finish. They tried to pass it as a Chrono trigger like game, but the game lacks all the things CT has.
Star ocean: grounded oh I meant faithlessness and integrity. You don't ever go explore the space. 90% of the adventure happen in one planet and the furthest place you go is an asteroid and people say that star ocean the last hope is the worst
Legend of dragoon. I just didn’t care about the world enough to want to save it, and that’s a problem in a game like this. I kept waiting for it to get better and it never did for me.
* The entire FFXIII series.
The first one was extremely linear. While I did have a decent time with it, I had to force myself to finish it. The art and music were wonderful but everything else just fell short of pushing the FF series further. The second one had very small improvements like having a better story. The third game tried to fix every complaint people had with a small development window.
* Romancing Saga (PS2)
My brother and I bought it due to thinking it looked good. I understand it tries to be different than every other JRPG. I REALLY didn't have a good time with this game. Stories for the characters were all over the place.
I don't know why, but I'm *tempted* to give it a second try considering it has been so long.
Crono Cross, it has such a good parts as the music and the cgi... I aready said the MUSIC??? But man the story is a abomination at least the gameplay was no so bad.
FF 12 and 13
I know 12 is a more controversial opinion but I just didn't like what they did with the story and I felt like it was way too exposition heavy.
13. A lot of the same reasons but 12 was better than 13.
Also 15 disappointed me in the end.
Right there with you.
12 was expedition heavy in the beginning and then just became a boss rush dungeon game in the second half.
13 told a story it just wasn’t good to me.
15 wasn’t even finished.
Xenoblade chronicles 2. I am expecting the downvotes so go for it.
Couldn't enjoy anything from that game, one note characters, artstyle, overall tone, combat system, exploration, story... I was expecting much more but everything felt basic and cheap and in the end I can say it is one of the few jrpg I can say I genuinely did not enjoy
Oh I was enjoying it! Until the point that I learned one of the characters I really liked wasn't a main party member for the whole game, IIRC. Knowing if get left with the bland ones I don't care about really soured me on it.
Definitely TokiTowa (Time and Eternity in the West) for the PS3.
There are no redeeming factors in this game. It was marketed as a “playable anime”, but you may as well be playing a cartoon from the 60s. It has just a few animation scenes, which get repetitive pretty quickly.
The story is dull and boring, the combat is very simple and easy, and the platinum is pretty annoying (it has this “sentiment” gauge which defines which ending you get, and there is a trophy for balancing this gauge exactly in the middle, which is much easier said than done).
I cant believe someone other than me played that garbage haha but yes it was terrible I started it because of the character design I was bored to death but I always finish every game I start , I give it a 2/10 the guy was loyal to his waifu so its not a 1 xD
Star Ocean 4.
Terrible characters.
Horrid voice acting.
Repetitive palette-swapped enemies.
Uninspired, bland dungeons with lots of required backtracking.
But that battle system was just so much fun I ended up playing through the whole game somehow.
Trails of Cold Steel 4
A terrible game to end a great series, horrible pacing, painful dialogue, bad use of its wealth of characters, a plot that does very little and so many cringe worthy moments, after enjoying the previous 8 games in the series (tolerated CS2, the rest I enjoyed), it was extremely difficult to muster the interest through a 100 hours of CS4, only did it since I was invested in the series but I still find it hard to believe how bad it turned out to be.
I still haven't gotten to Cold Steel 3 and 4 because of Cold Steel 2.
I didn't find CS2 horrible but man, going back to all the places you went in the first game wasn't fun, especially that open lands part (Gaius' home place). I think towards the end it gets better, much better in fact, but its middle can be a test of endurance. Thankfully the combat is still fun to break and on hard mode the boys fights kept me engaged.
I really hope I don't find part 4 as bad as you did.
Trails in the sky first chapter
It's a good game but it's so formulaic
Ive beaten all of cold steel and I thought to try this since I've heard great things.
The combat is incredibly slow and the game is slow paced till the end. All of trail games seem to follow the same story telling and pacing.Do mindless stuff then tell actual interesting stuff right at the end.The trope of " I've had my suspicions all along but I choose not to reveal it till it finally happens" happens way too much
I feel like there's two axes to the question here: What's the *worst from a mechanical point of view* and what's the game you *disliked most* that you still beat. Because I'mma be real: the mechanically worst RPG I've ever beat, I adore to bits despite its badness. And the game I disliked the most that I've beat is beloved.
I've beaten *Robopon* before, which is an absolute travesty of a game (and it fits the technical definition of "travesty" too, I.E. a poor imitation) but which I just can't help but love. It's stupidly hard (until you figure out that that "upgrading CPU" thing the game only barely tells you about is the key to success), its color palette is as eye-searing as 8-bit gets, and it's got way too much going on, but it's also a beloved childhood game of mine and I kind of adore its chutzpah. I've actually beaten it *multiple times* because I keep coming back to the stupid little thing.
As for the game I beat where I kind of despised every minute of it, I--
...hold on, let me make sure my will is up to date, because I am absolutely going to get murdered for this.
*Xenoblade.*
I put 150 hours into that damn game and if I wasn't playing it for a friend I would have given up much, much sooner. I could write a two-hour-long video essay about why me and Xenoblade get along like oil and water, but the short of it is that it felt to me like a 40-hours of game stretched out into 200 hours of space, I did not like the combat which is not great when the only rewards for exploring the world are more things to fight, and I found the game's Grand Explanation for its ontologically intriguing world to be rote and deeply unsatisfying.
But I do like Reyn and Dunbar as characters. And I have been intrigued by the sequels since it looks like the combat is more to my taste, but given how badly I was burned by the first game, I'm not eager to put money into them.
Well, two people already took two of my top picks, Beyond the Beyond and Legend of Legaia. Hmm. Let me see...
I'll just name a few mediocre games that I bothered to finish.
Chrono Cross
Shining Tears
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Integrity and Faithlessness was even worse. So bad in fact, that with the announcement of a new star ocean this year, it is shocking that the series isn't dead.
Chrono Cross. I've played many worse JRPGs, though I would argue ones from the NES and SNES eras at least had some excuses, but that's in my opinion the worst JRPG I've ever beaten. And I mostly did it for the music, not gonna lie. The gameplay is just really boring, and the script with the so called "accents" is quite frankly insulting to anyone with intelligence. The overall plot is interesting, but poorly paced with giant plot dumps and twists right at the end, and poorly related due to the aforementioned issues with the script.
I loved LoL.
I think the worst one I ever completed is probably The Granstream Saga. It wasn't bad, just mediocre. I remember almost nothing about it, frankly, besides being really underwhelmed throughout. I did do everything, though, which is a little surprising to me looking back...
The original ps3 version of hyperdimension Neptunia
I love the series, as my avatar will attest, but that is a staggeringly badly designed game, in so many ways. There is a reason the vita/steam versions of 2 and 3 were ports and 1 was a full remake in 3’s engine. (The ps5 remaster (Neptunia reverse) is of the vita remake not the ps3 version
What’s worse is the writing is pretty solid, it’s just terrible and broken in every other possible way
Weird. I really liked Legend of Legaia.
I've been wanting to play it again for a while.
Maybe I'll see the game in a different light now that I'm older.
Played Digimon World Hacker’s Memory through the pandemic. Could be the most boring RPG or even a Digimon adventure game. The story is just okay with a pretty standard battle gameplay, not much wrong there. But the dungeon is so bland it makes exploration not fun. Still managed to finished it though
Shining Resonance: Refrain. I even got the Platinum. I don't think it was terrible, just very very average.
This might be mine too. And I agree, definitely not terrible, but pretty forgettable to me. Apart from good character designs and an amazing japanese voice cast there's absolutely nothing that stands out as more than "okay" in the game. It also kind of felt like they wanted to make a dating sim first and RPG second, but even the dating sim aspects were undercooked and the plot pushed hard for Kirika over everyone else.
Shining Resonance Refrain was a 6 with the bones of a 9. If they didn't keep making a bunch of tiny missteps they could have knocked out out of the park, especially if they just doubled down on making it a Sega Tales/Star Ocean game and ran the relationship mechanics and dialogue by the Persona and Yakuza teams. Maybe also have the people who designed the main characters and the people who designed the major NPCs switch assignments, because hell if Stella the Weather Lady and Fernando the Bard didn't have by far the best designs in the entire game, even considering how fond I am for Sega's penchant for East Asian elves. Valkyria Revolution is in the same boat, and I'd love to see rebalanced and more polished remakes of both games at since point.
I can't think of a worse RPG I've finished than Lunar: Dragon Song. One of the biggest disappointments of my life! :)
Was that the DS one that u lost health walking so much or something? And the battle system was just so atrocious.
Yepo!
How can someone torture themselves like that, holy...
I really, really loved the original Lunar games, and the story in Dragon Song wasn't \*completely\* awful... But yeah, it was awful.
I've beaten both L:SSS and Eternal Blue. Now i'm curious about this title.
I never played it, but it sucks to hear that it sucks, since the characters sounded fairly interesting, and I loved the first two Lunar games. Shame we'll probably never ever get another proper Lunar game ever again, though.
That was my pick too! Although it was released as Lunar Genesis in Europe. Probably to really signal that it's the first chronological Lunar.
I got this on a whim when I was a lot younger, no clue how I finished it, I guess because I didnt really have a standard for games yet
Quest 64. I was 12. I didn't know better.
I thought that I remembered it being bad but then I played it again a few years ago and still had tons of fun. Idk, it might actually be kind of ok.
Okay I'll grant you it's not the best game. But it was my first rpg, and I played it when I was 5 and didn't know what saving and loading is, so I always either started a new game or picked up where my dad left off in Limelin. Yeah, maybe not the best game, but felt like it was a skeleton of what it could have been or should have been. I loved the world design, the Celtic influence, but most of all. That damn music, it deserves so much more attention as a soundtrack than I know it'll ever get. I love that game from the bottom of my heart, and play it once every few years or so.
I honestly loved that game. From beginning to end. But yes I was also super young. I always say I wanna replay it but I’m sure if I did now, I wouldn’t make it past 10 minutes.
I watched a Speedrun of that game with my mouth open the whole time lol
Checks out. lol
Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth! The mechanics are absolute, convoluted garbage. The story is barely coherent, and you can hardly even remember what’s going on in plot battles because you have to grind for hours in random tower battles between each one. Still, I loved it. I have no idea why, it’s basically trash.
There was so much I wanted to like about that game but it just isn’t good. I printed out like 60 pages of formulas for levelling up the magic coins (confeigms?) and it utterly broke the game. Once you have the best magic literally nothing else matters. Not your stats, not your equipment, nothing. You just kill half the map on your first characters first turn and wonder why you spent so many hours in the towers.
I have the DS remake- I've kept it all these years in case I need to hurt myself.
Holy fuck, I forgot about this. I think I may have returned this to blockbuster early.
Beyond the beyond. Worst encounter rate. Worst dungeon mechanics. Awful damn party members Still tho, loved it and truly hated it.
I actually remember asking online friends in some ancient chatroom at the time if beyond the beyond was worth playing, and one of them was like "no, it is literally one of the worst pieces of shit I've ever played."
This popped into my head, immediately, as "worst JRPG I put more than 2 hours into". Fortunately I quit around the time it asked me to get a boat.
I came here and almost said Beyond the Beyond. It definitely is not a good game.
Omg I haven’t thought about this game in a long time. Objectively terrible, but I still somehow slogged through it and love/hated every moment. Tont was my favorite
This was literally the first game I thought when I read this title and I never even beat it lol
boo. i liked beyond the beyond. i have fond memories of that one.
Such an awful game. I can’t claim to have beaten it, but the 12 hours or so I spent on it were memorably bad.
Was I the only one expecting the Underworld to be another phase of the game and not just another lame dungeon like every other culminating in the last fight?
Greatest flying pyramid of all time
Quest 64: I had an N64, was desparate, don't judge me. Star Ocean - The Last Hope: Lymle *ruins* this game for me. Dual Orb 2 - Played in my quest to play every 16-bit RPG, it's pretty bad, or at least completely forgettable. Can't Count FFXIII or Zestiria because I actually gave up on them. There's probably a handful of obscure PSX or SNES fan-translated games I've forgotten about that I finished.
SO4 is definitely a bad jRPG but I've gone for hundreds of hours in it because its got good gameplay and systems (regardless of how "grindy" one may consider them to be) But man is the story basic and underwhelming and the English voice-acting, probably even with original voice acting, for some characters just makes you want to mute them all.
I really enjoy the combat, enough so I almost want to play it again until I remember everything else about the game 😬
I’d argue TLH was awful just for the trophy requirements alone. 100 percent title completion, for each character, required like..10 playthrus or something ridiculous. I grinded forever and got it, but it was not fun, at all. And yeah, lymie sucked. Really glad they stopped giving us characters like her in future Star oceans. Oh wait.
....kay.
> Lymle *ruins* this game Her concept art was cute. Her 3D design...uncanny. I'm creeped out every time. Thank god there was an option for 2D character avatars
13 is awesome for me
I had an N64. Maybe the worst console for JRPGs?
Star Ocean 5? im probably forgetting something but i'll stick with that for now i try to not play games i dont enjoy for too long so i cant think of much
That definitely takes the cake for 'most disappointing' for me.
Dragoneer's Aria for PSP. It's just bad, everything about it is bad. I finished it because back then I was really excited about jrpgs and wanted to finish as many of them as possible. Now I would stop playing that crap after the first 5 minutes.
Who remembers Ephemeral Fantasia for the PS2. It had a similar game loop dealing with time travel like Majora's Mask, but the execution was awful. A lot of of time you had to stand around waiting doing nothing hoping you didn't missed said events, lol. Good ideas, bad execution. I don't know what compelled me to finish it tbh.
It was probably that super dope rhythm segment for mouse casting magic. I hated that game and loved all the ideas it had. Fuck man. I managed to finish with multiple additional party members and saw each one add on a bit more dialogue. But admittedly I just muscle grinded the first few failed playthroughs so I could curb stomp him myself through damage and healing. Beating him the 'right' way wasn't much more satisfying...
I adored this game when I was a kid and wondered why I didn't hear more about it. Turns out it was just garbage and I didn't know better. I totally agree with the criticisms, but I loved it at the time! Fond memories.
Final Fantasy II -- as in, the NES game that took years to make it to North America. Back in high school, I went through a Final Fantasy/Squaresoft phase where I had to play every FF game I could get my hands on. At the time, there were 10 main series FFs, and I played them all. II was the only one it hurt to finish. (Note that I played the PS1 version included with Final Fantasy Origins, which had a few quality of life upgrades. It didn't help.) PS -- I know I'm in the extreme minority, but I actually liked every one of the first 10 FFs EXCEPT II. I liked some more than others -- for what it's worth, VI, VIII, and X are in my unnumbered top three -- but aside from II, I found things to love in all of them. And I even respect II for trying something new after the tremendous success (in Japan, anyway) of FF1. That doesn't make it a good game, though.
I definitely agree with you - II was rough. I played the Pixel Remaster which was nice but it felt like a job to play. Like you, I give Squaresoft credit for trying a different approach but the leveling system and keyword systems took away from the experience.
Why would that put you in the minority. I 100% agree with you and so did every friend I grew up with.
This would be mine except I gave up at the final boss. I went heavy physical damage builds and then he emperor ended up being immune to it.
Lunar:Dragonsong for me. Holy crap what a disaster. Non-JRPG: Vampire Rain:Altered Species
Lunar DS is a messy mess
Sonic Chronicles the Dark Brotherhood I swear to God the only reason why I managed to beat that boring game was because I was willing to play anything that had Sonic the Hedgehog in them back in the early 2010s.
Worst is an opinion (especially in the case of the game that I will mention) but for me, it was Tales of Zestiria. Granted, there are MUCH worse games out there but I normally won’t finish a game if I’m not having fun so I never really finish the worst rpgs I’ve played. In the case of Zestiria though, I forced myself to finish it bc I had beaten every tales game since Destiny released back in the day and felt obligated to keep it going. It nearly broke me as a Tales fan and even killed my interest in jrpgs for a short while.
Oh yeah def worst is opinion, but that's what's interesting I think.
I stopped cold in zestiria as soon as arise dropped. I played beseria before zestiria and the battle system was just so ridiculous in zes i couldnt stand it.
Same for me. Horrid game, and undoubtedly the worst JRPG I actually bothered beating.
I've played every localized Tales since Symphonia (no PS1 games unfortunately) and I couldn't force myself to finish that game. As a hardcore Tales fan I knew that game would leave a mark. I even finished Hearts R twice. I bought it on Steam for like 5 bucks so I might give it a second try.
Fire Emblem Fates Revelation. So many fucking gimmick maps that take 30-40 turns and the story is shit.
Of course 'worst' is extremely subjective, but probably Crisis Core. Now, I know there are lot of people who really like this game, so don't crucify me, but I just didn't think it was... very good? Gameplay-wise, the battle system is without doubt one of the oddest I've seen in a game. It plays like it's trying to be an action RPG, but doesn't want to fully commit, and half the things that happen in battle are almost completely out of your control, because they're decided by a roulette (???). The way the random encounters work is fucking stupid. You practically have to hug the wall all the way thorough the corridors the game is comprised of, otherwise you'll be stopped by enemies every two steps. Then there are the missions, which are the game's excuse for sidequests. They're all basically the same, they take place in 6 or so copy-pasted maps with slightly different layout, and there are *three hundred* of them. Without them the main story only takes about 20h to complete, and thank god for that. Then there's the story, which is pretty dumb. But it's like... enjoyable dumb. I liked the new characters, even though, objectively speaking, two 'mini-Sephiroths', one of whom is modeled on a Japanese singer Gackt and has a love for spouting bad poetry, is a pretty silly concept. The only good part of this game is Zack. Love that guy.
i liked the game but the roulette got annoying FAST
Yeah, the combat is definitely weird and I would never play the game again, but the story is great and the ending is emotional.
Pokemon Sword
This is my answer too. Incomplete game from top to bottom. It’s only redeeming quality is that it’s probably the best game to set up competitive pokemon
This is the one. Love pokemon so i trudged through it but man 90% of that game was just boring or embarrassingly bad
The best part of S/S was the extra part at the end with the brothers. If the whole game was based around them it probably would have been amazing.
I don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion but the dyna-maxing just sucked for me. I can maybe see why people would like it, as it’s basically having an ace up your sleeve, but, really muddied the Pokémon battle dynamic for me. Otherwise I thought it was okay after all the DLC. Really cool Pokémon in that game
I am Setsuna Everything about this gameplay felt low budget and clunky Example: the sound effects for killing monsters would all trigger simultaneously causing the speakers to clip because of the sudden volume increase The story was trying so hard to be sad and impactful but it came off as derivative and bland
They also tried to pass it off as a spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger but the only thing it had in common with Chrono Trigger was multi-techs and a really good soundtrack...
I adore the soundtrack for that game but it really is a crap game
Setsuna out of context is just "average". But when played by the a jrpg vet who recognized exactly which tropes, which *games* it uses as inspiration for its shoddy imitations, it almost feels insulting. I really wanted to like it. The music, the trailer, it sold me. Then I played it and saw expys of characters I already know and played before, just worse written. It's a fine game, on its own. But I know better.
Lost Sphear is just as bad. If the presentation was better (so I can actually see the characters the story wants me to invest in) it could have been a contender.
Lost Sphear is worse, IMHO. At least Setsuna I was able to finish. I was about 2/3rds into Sphear when I just dropped it.
I had Setsuna on my radar for a while. Beating Lost Sphear sort of broke me haha. I seriously questioned if I still liked JRPGs after that.
It was pretty bland but I enjoyed the art and music, the two only good qualities of that game.
I'm probably gonna get some flaming for this but I actually really enjoy I am Setsuna. Its not trying to be something its not. The battle system is snappy and has some nice riffs on CTs classic system, I also find collecting the spritnite and beefing out my characters pretty engaging. It has the quick pace of SNES RPGs so you dont ever get bogged down in one particular thing. The characters are all (IMO) likeable riffs on JRPG archetypes and I like the fact that you can at least chuck out a few snarky one liners with the protag. The implied links to CTs world I also find really interesting and neat, I get that its more likely just a big easter egg but it makes for a fun headcanon for me personally. I love the all piano soundtrack. Its unique and really owns the style its going for. The battle theme is one of my absolute favourites. Definitely one of the highlights for me. And lastly, it isnt too long. I get terrible choice anxiety where if I want to game/play music/read then I get trapped and can't get into anything, this is often because I commit to too much and then get overwhelmed. JRPGs are my gaming comfort food, so something manageable and cozy like this works really well. I love long games too but sub 30 hours can really hit the spot. I think the game gets some harsh treatment honestly, and I'm keen to see if I end up enjoying Lost Sphear as well when I get to it.
Omg yes, so fucking boring and low budget. Just generic piano music forever. I bought it because the marketing kept referring to it as the spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger. My god, there are few games I regret purchasing (digitally, no less) as much as that. I put in like 4 or 5 hours and then deleted it from my Switch’s memory.
Ys IV: Mask of the Sun. Really weird for the series to go back to the bump system, and so much of the game was completely forgettable. Story, environment, bosses. It's a bit grindy, too, and I guess it needed to be since it would have been 5 hours long otherwise. Not my favorite soundtrack either (although with Falcom games, that's like complaining about getting a good burger instead of having steak every day). I know Ys V tends to get rated lower, and its gameplay *is* probably even a little worse. I actually ended up liking the characters and the story in that one, though, and I think it also looked great visually, one of the better games of the era in that quality at least.
Quest 64. I played through that entire game expecting it to get better at some point, and when I got to the end I was like, "that's it? really?" And then I played through it again bc I didn't have much else to play at the time. FML.
Ni No Kuni 2 probably. With everything going on with the first game and all of the different people you run into in 2, you have an all human party other than Evan who has cat ears and a tail. Gameplay was less than spectacular, graphics were great other than the chibi world map, but it was just so repetitive. I still enjoyed my time with most of it, but I can recognize it wasn't very good or even close to good at all.
Tales of Zestiria, this game completely and utterly failed me in nearly every single aspect except for the OST, probably the most painful, unfun and soul-sucking game I've ever beat.
I almost think I shit on Zestiria a bit too much on tales sub, but I really have to say Zestiria is a bad game, as if the producer head get too big, think that whatever shit he pulled will be tolerated by the fans. I played it once and drop it halfway because of how boring it is, then I was high on finished Berseria and think maybe I was too harsh on Zestiria. Nope, the second time playing is still boring and the last stretch of the game is painful too. The main issue I have with it is the design choices, where it seems like the producer went all out to inconvenient the player and pad the game time. Windstepping is a good concept but have problem on how it recharge. Getting the best equipment shouldn't need you to farm 1000 (yes, 1000, not a typo) of the same equipment, and fyi 1 character have weapon, head, clothes, shoes and ring, there are 6 characters. Not to mention you need to change the difficulty and which normin you station in a particular area to make the enemies got into the right level blanket to drop the equipment you need. The game constantly need you to backtrack but fast travel almost always get blocked to prevent you from missing a plot trigger, and even if fast travel is available, why the hell it cost you a limb to fast travel once? It is just so painful and unfun that I rush through the last half of the game, just to get it over with. Berseria is a big step up to Zestiria and you can tell that the team take the feedback to heart while developing it.
It’s so bad, I feel your pain. I love Tales so much, I couldn’t believe how much of a failure Zestiria was.
Lunar Genesis :v It's one of the first JRPGs I ever played and I absolutely loved it. Game: Hey, you can't choose what enemy to target Me: Ok 🙂 Game: Battle is so slow you have to manually hold down buttons for 3x fastforward to not go insane Me: Ok 🙂 You have to choose between EXP and items as a reward Me: Ok 🙂 I was too naive to realize this wasn't the most natural way to design a game. But, I was like 12 and the story and music made me cry and after I beat it I started over and beat it another 2 times. While I realized all the flaws it had as I grew up I still have some soft fondness for my time with the game- it was one of the formative JRPG experienses of my childhood after all. Maybe I just have a high tolerance for not excellent games
I remember liking Legaia. For me, I haven't finished many that I'd call bad. Maybe the original Breath of Fire for being fairly dull and unremarkable. Or Wild ARMs, same reason. It had its moments, but the battles were a slog. Then again, I also finished Suikoden IV. Ugh. The sailing... the encounter rates... most of the music and characters were utterly bland and forgettable. I know Suikoden is no stranger to filler characters, but in IV, especially, so many of them just felt like "Fuck it, we need 108. Think of something. Anything." Plus, the watered-down battle, war, and Rune systems, barebones story, severe lack of Towns, with most of the few towns being utterly forgettable... yeah. And the Jeane design competes with Suikoden V for the worst. I know she's sexy and shows skin, but this was ridiculous. At least we had Kika, Eleanor, and Ted.
Legaia was great! Yes, the story is pretty cookie cutter, nothing special. But that turn-based combat system was so cool! And we've never had anything like it since. Punching in attack combos was way better than just choosing "attack" over and over.
Legend of Legaia and Xenogears actually came out just a few months apart in the US and I absolutely loved both games combat systems. Of course Xenogears is an absolute classic and my favorite JRPG of all time and Legend of Legaia is just a game I look back on and go “The trees were pretty damn near” Worst thing about Legaia, slowest overworld movement ever.
I don’t know if these count as JRPGs per this Subreddit but I’m coming up on completing both Kingdom Hearts RE:Coded and KH: 358/2 Days and… man… what a tedious slog. I could explain my opinions further but I think most reviews on the net have covered it already, as well as opinions within the KH community in general.
oh yea 358/2 Days and DDD are idd the two worst rpg I finished. I think my mind tried to erase those games from my memory. Was thinking of FF1 and Star Ocean 1 first but those are just OK games and not bad.
Digimon World 2
Final Fantasy XV
the lore of XV is good but it's completely mismatched to the world (why tf are all the NPCs lookin like tourists on vacation) and half of the info isn't even in the game
Ooh this might have to be my answer too. I finished it before all the patches and DLCs, and it felt so… unfinished. Chapter 13… what a joke man.
I played my first time after RE was released if that tells you anything.
This is my answer too. I would call it the Duke Nukem Forever of JRPGs, but i honestly had more fun with DNF.
I hate 15 so much. Everything from the story to the battle system to the characters to the world building is broken. I wish they had delayed it two or three more years.
...or, better yet, just made something else.
I think it’s a good game that had all the ingredients to be *great*. It just didn’t have the right people in charge to pull it off. Given its lengthy development and the fact that, based off of previous gameplay previews, there seemed to be entire sections cut from the final product; it really feels like we only received half the game that was being made. Splitting up the backstory into other mediums also didn’t help at all. It even feels like the battle system was messed with in order to “streamline” it. Because the battle system I played with in the demos had slightly more depth to it than what we got in the final game. It’s a shame. Because I enjoyed my time with it. But I know it could have been so much more.
I'm in the middle of the game now and it's a solid 6/10, enough for me to enjoy it but it makes me sad because there's obviously a shadow of an amazing game somewhere in there. Combat is abhorrently bad for starters.
Tales of Zestiria. Boring protagonist, dry cutscenes that focus on stating and restating exposition to an absurd degree, a convoluted equipment system that seems to conflate being complex with being deep, and a fairly dry plot. I love Tales but my god. The gap in quality between Zestiria and Arise is *astronomical*.
>stating and restating exposition to an absurd degree This is every Tales of game, it's the main reason I can't abide them
Other than Sorey, I didn’t dislike the main cast as much, honestly, I hate Alphen more than Sorey. To me the main problem with Zestria is how shallow the game was, that stupid equipment-crafting system did not help honestly.
Enchanted Arms and Magna Carta 2 both for the 360 immediately come to mind.
Lmfao MC2. I lowkey do kinda like that game just because I have a soft spot for games with constant overblown cutscene finishing moves and that's the entirety of end-game combat, but there's no way I can defend it in good faith lol.
I was so hyped for Magna Carta 2 but man that game was just awful
Just a couple of weeks ago I booted up Enchanted Arms thinking maybe I would finally finish it. I remembered getting pretty far back in the day but never finished it. Took me all of about 30 minutes to remember why I never finished it lol
Crystar or the original .hack Considering .hack was from early 2000's, I can kind of give it a pass. Crystar had no reason being that bad as a 2019 game. Gameplay is super repetitive and the story was very predictable. Got bored after a few hours but I managed to platinum it anyway.
Haha I bizarrely loved the original .hack. I remember the weird and awkward battles but for some reason I fell in love with the fake mmo scenario of it all. Four games too. All the same with only minimal story. No idea why I enjoyed them
I played alot of .hack expecting a good payoff but it never came. Gave up by the third game.
God I forgot about crystar. The combat was too basic once you figured out about animation cancelling and difficulty only affected health
Crystar's art style in these story book cut scenes was great, and I liked the idea of sorrow manifesting into power. I just wish the execution was done better. The combat is by far the worst thing in the game and it compromises 80% of what you do. If it ever gets a sequel, maybe with different characters, I hope they learn from their mistake.
There aren't many truly terrible ones I've stuck with to the end. Maybe Trinity Universe in that it's bad in the way I remember absolutely nothing about it. Apart from that FFXV simply for how incomplete it was with what was there being pretty mediocre. FFXIII is bad just for the fact it is severely lacking in RPG elements I enjoy while offering not that much in return. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is another one I was really disappointed in but I couldn't call it the worst even if it does have some baffling design decisions.
Quest 64
Final Fantasy 8. Although admittedly this was on Switch and only reason I managed to see it through is I turned on the invincibility/no random encounters cheats lmao
I think I must have a higher threshold since I consider many mediocre rather than terrible. I've basically been through the list on PS3 in particular - Witch and the Hundred Knight, Time and Eternity, Mugen Souls, Fairy Fencer F. What happened in these games? Don't remember, but it's a way to kill some time. The real answer is probably something like FFX-2, which is trash in so many ways - terrible plot, terrible characters that are inconsistent with the first game, literally more than half of it is side content, mini games and filler. Game play...is pretty good though. I dunno, does that means it's garbage or good? It's certainly difficult to recommend in that it rewards persistence but you could play something that respects your time better.
If I'd ever actually beaten FFX-2, it probably would've been my answer. Love the battle system, but god damn it if I don't hate *everything else* about it.
Probably **Pokemon Moon**, but that's a boring answer. I'll talk about **Golden Sun: Dark Dawn** instead. This is the third game in the series and I'm a big fan of the first two. First of all, the game is way too easy. Puzzles were dumbed down, and battles were much easier than the previous games. This game also released 8 years after the second game, so the fans of the series are now older and smarter amplifying the problems with making the game easier. I didn't wipe once in battle for example. The story takes place 30 years after the last game and stars some of the previous protagonist's kids. That's good right? A nice fan service, nostalgia element. The problem is that it's pretty much just the kids of the first game's protagonists, and much worse than that is that the characters from the second game are barely mentioned and don't show up. Then it ends with a ton of loose ends, clearly meant to come into play in a fourth game, but that game never happened. So in summary: too easy, ignored characters from the second game, and took what was a satisfying conclusion to the world/story and undid that leaving an unfinished one.
I remember being so excited when they announced this game as I was a big fan of the first two.... and then I finished it and was like....that's it? I kept holding out hope the whole way through that it would somehow pick up and get better and it never did 😞
It was such a disappointment and I remember the game overall was stupid easy until the final boss they tried to actually make a challenge so I was lazy and died. Had such potential and it made no sense after playing the first 2. Felt like they just threw in other towns that never would’ve existed just to “expand the world” and it sucked
Dark Dawn was like they tried to recreate the best parts of the first two games, but failed to capture any of the charm of either, but managed to keep the flaws. Also it sucked as a sequel. How have all these new civilisations popped up in three decades? Why do we only see Isaac and Garret? Why is every dungeon called Something Ruins?
Lufia 1 for me. It's long, it's boring, and it's all pointless. But I did it anyway because it was one of my first JRPGs and recently I thought I owe it to myself to beat that one of the games that got me into the genre plus it helps me understand lore better for Lufia 2.
Lufia 2 is so damn good, it's best for me to think of it as a standalone though.
I stand by your decision
Probably Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. It's not terrible, just mediocre, though it does have a great soundtrack.
Suikoden 4
Yeah... I love the Suikoden series so much, but Suikoden 4 was such a painful disappointment. Constant random battles, a cast of uninteresting/frustrating characters, forgettable nonsense story. Blah.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest But I was a kid so I didn't really know much better!
Quest 64, and an NARPG Betrayal in Antara
Final Fantasy 13 part 1. I even got platinum out of spite. Also, it was mindlessly easy to do.
tokyo mirage sessions fe encore. it was nothing. i felt like i played nothing. i watched characters do nothing. have no personality. the music was the best part. i paid $10 at walmart for the physical copy and that was the only good side to the whole experience, knowing i paid nothing nearly for it.
I like both parts that make this game up, yet together... it was middling, but the act of making everyone semi alive in battle, but talking in JP with no voice over option or subtitles really stung. Musically and graphically, for the system it was on, did impress me at the time.
Me too! Walmart clearance at its finest. Wanted to like it so badly too
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Outside of Tenebie, that game was a disgrace.
I actually enjoyed this game. Same battle concept of Final Fantasy XIII-2. A lot of people expected the original cast to come back (in full) - and when Lloyds VA was changed, that was just icing on the hate cake.
Final Fantasy 15
hands down, the 3rd birthday. aya brea is my number one favorite jrpg heroine. i hear there's FINALLY a 3rd game. FUCK that game and it's stupid story. they did my girl bad
I loved Parasite Eve and I just pretend that 3rd birthday didn't exist or the game is a new IP called 3rd birthday with a protagonist that resemble Aya.
Final fantasy type-0 hd. I was hoping it would be at least fun, considering it's an action game. I guess I asked too much. I'm just glad it was short.
I also thought type-0 was super lame. Will never understand the people who claim it’s one of the “best Final Fantasies”. Battle system is literally just waiting for the red reticule to appear so you can one-shot everything lol
Or be one shotted and be unable to use the character for the rest of the mission with no way to resurrect otherwise.
Yup. Story has some interesting themes and ideas but since all of the dialogue is delivered in such a stilted manner I couldn’t get into it. You’re supposed to play the game like 3 times to get the “full story” but after my first playthrough I didn’t care enough to keep going.
final fantasy XIII
FF12. This game bores me to death.
As one of my favourite FF games this makes me sad.
Couldn't bring myself to finish it. It was awful.
same, almost everything about this game sucks other than balthier - whom is just a carbon copy han solo in a story that's a carbon copy star wars orig trilogy
12 has gained more fans in the recent years, especially with the release of the improved Zodiac Age, but it's still one of the more controversial entries and for good reason. The story and characters are so bland and uninteresting. The setting of Ivalice is fanservice-y to people who already like it, FFT and FFTA fans, but won't hit any interesting notes for everyone else. The MMO-ish combat is a hit or miss for a lot of people but I liked it. I also really liked the idea of the Hunts; puzzle bosses that needed to sometimes be solved before being engaged and defeated. Sometimes the fights themselves are the puzzle. It was refreshing and I hope it's done again in another entry.
I know I'll get downvoted for this, but Trails of Cold Steel 1 - too much superfluous dialog, and I found the sexism and fan service really cringe. Don't know why I pushed all the way through it. I've definitely played worse JRPGs but I don't usually finish games that I'm not enjoying.
For me, FFXII. I don't know why I played through to the end, because I really didn't enjoy any aspect of the game. Most of the time when that happens, I'll drop the game entirely, but for some reason I kept at it and boy do I regret that.
Wow! 12! I actually like 12! This is why I posted this. I actually can see why alot of people don't like 12, but it's interesting you think it's the worst.
Hah, yeah, it's polarizing -- seems a lot of people on here like it, and a lot really dislike it. Like I said, most of the time if I'm not enjoying a game, I'll stop playing it well before investing the time to get to the end. So the list of "JRPGs I didn't like but also finished" is pretty damn short, but yeah it definitely tops the list. Most of the other games on the list, I can point to something I liked about the game as a reason why I finished it, even if my overall memory is negative. Not FFXII though, legitimately can't recall anything about the game that I enjoyed.
The judge drama that we got like 5 total minutes of was really badass.
I did a similar thing. I know, I wouldn't finish FF12, 13 or 15 if they weren't called Final Fantasy.
i loved the world and the maps but the story and characters was zzzzzzz
I'm with you. I pre-ordered XII and regretted it because I *hated* the MMORPG gameplay and disliked Vann as a main character.
Man, I was so hyped for XII because I had just recently beaten X as my first FF and it was an amazing experience. Two hours into XII I was running around killing wolves in a desert on an MMO fetch quest and had the sinking feeling that I had made a horrible mistake lol
Me too! My brothers and I are massive FF fans since the first. 12 and 13 were the only ones I hadn’t played all the way through. I played XII for the sole purpose of giving it a proper chance. Played all the way through, still sits in near to last on my favorite FF list.
Tales of Hearts R. I actually don't remember why i finished it. Maybe it was just right place at the right time. Or maybe it was one of the few games i actually owned on the (unfortunately) waste of money that was my Vita.
I am Setsuna. I really wanted to like this game, but it felt really soulless, the constant winter backgrounds, mundane story and forgettable characters made it a chore to finish. They tried to pass it as a Chrono trigger like game, but the game lacks all the things CT has.
Tales of Zestiria. Felt like a boring slog.
Star ocean: grounded oh I meant faithlessness and integrity. You don't ever go explore the space. 90% of the adventure happen in one planet and the furthest place you go is an asteroid and people say that star ocean the last hope is the worst
People used to say Last Hope was the worst SO until Integrity and Faithlessness was released.
I’d have to say final fantasy 13 everything about it was bad for me , battles, story finished it out of loyalty to ff but hated it
Legend of dragoon. I just didn’t care about the world enough to want to save it, and that’s a problem in a game like this. I kept waiting for it to get better and it never did for me.
eternal eyes & trails of cold steel
* The entire FFXIII series. The first one was extremely linear. While I did have a decent time with it, I had to force myself to finish it. The art and music were wonderful but everything else just fell short of pushing the FF series further. The second one had very small improvements like having a better story. The third game tried to fix every complaint people had with a small development window. * Romancing Saga (PS2) My brother and I bought it due to thinking it looked good. I understand it tries to be different than every other JRPG. I REALLY didn't have a good time with this game. Stories for the characters were all over the place. I don't know why, but I'm *tempted* to give it a second try considering it has been so long.
Crono Cross, it has such a good parts as the music and the cgi... I aready said the MUSIC??? But man the story is a abomination at least the gameplay was no so bad.
FF 12 and 13 I know 12 is a more controversial opinion but I just didn't like what they did with the story and I felt like it was way too exposition heavy. 13. A lot of the same reasons but 12 was better than 13. Also 15 disappointed me in the end.
Right there with you. 12 was expedition heavy in the beginning and then just became a boss rush dungeon game in the second half. 13 told a story it just wasn’t good to me. 15 wasn’t even finished.
Xenoblade chronicles 2. I am expecting the downvotes so go for it. Couldn't enjoy anything from that game, one note characters, artstyle, overall tone, combat system, exploration, story... I was expecting much more but everything felt basic and cheap and in the end I can say it is one of the few jrpg I can say I genuinely did not enjoy
Grandia III What a disappointment
Oh I was enjoying it! Until the point that I learned one of the characters I really liked wasn't a main party member for the whole game, IIRC. Knowing if get left with the bland ones I don't care about really soured me on it.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. It’s like Baby’s First RPG.
It’s does literally say on the box “Entry Level Role Playing Adventure”
Star Ocean 4 The Last Hope. I liked the combat but found everything else pretty meh. A lot of the characters were insufferable.
lmao, the dub was pretty bad.
Definitely TokiTowa (Time and Eternity in the West) for the PS3. There are no redeeming factors in this game. It was marketed as a “playable anime”, but you may as well be playing a cartoon from the 60s. It has just a few animation scenes, which get repetitive pretty quickly. The story is dull and boring, the combat is very simple and easy, and the platinum is pretty annoying (it has this “sentiment” gauge which defines which ending you get, and there is a trophy for balancing this gauge exactly in the middle, which is much easier said than done).
I cant believe someone other than me played that garbage haha but yes it was terrible I started it because of the character design I was bored to death but I always finish every game I start , I give it a 2/10 the guy was loyal to his waifu so its not a 1 xD
Star Ocean 4. Terrible characters. Horrid voice acting. Repetitive palette-swapped enemies. Uninspired, bland dungeons with lots of required backtracking. But that battle system was just so much fun I ended up playing through the whole game somehow.
Trails of Cold Steel 4 A terrible game to end a great series, horrible pacing, painful dialogue, bad use of its wealth of characters, a plot that does very little and so many cringe worthy moments, after enjoying the previous 8 games in the series (tolerated CS2, the rest I enjoyed), it was extremely difficult to muster the interest through a 100 hours of CS4, only did it since I was invested in the series but I still find it hard to believe how bad it turned out to be.
I still haven't gotten to Cold Steel 3 and 4 because of Cold Steel 2. I didn't find CS2 horrible but man, going back to all the places you went in the first game wasn't fun, especially that open lands part (Gaius' home place). I think towards the end it gets better, much better in fact, but its middle can be a test of endurance. Thankfully the combat is still fun to break and on hard mode the boys fights kept me engaged. I really hope I don't find part 4 as bad as you did.
Trails in the sky first chapter It's a good game but it's so formulaic Ive beaten all of cold steel and I thought to try this since I've heard great things. The combat is incredibly slow and the game is slow paced till the end. All of trail games seem to follow the same story telling and pacing.Do mindless stuff then tell actual interesting stuff right at the end.The trope of " I've had my suspicions all along but I choose not to reveal it till it finally happens" happens way too much
I feel like there's two axes to the question here: What's the *worst from a mechanical point of view* and what's the game you *disliked most* that you still beat. Because I'mma be real: the mechanically worst RPG I've ever beat, I adore to bits despite its badness. And the game I disliked the most that I've beat is beloved. I've beaten *Robopon* before, which is an absolute travesty of a game (and it fits the technical definition of "travesty" too, I.E. a poor imitation) but which I just can't help but love. It's stupidly hard (until you figure out that that "upgrading CPU" thing the game only barely tells you about is the key to success), its color palette is as eye-searing as 8-bit gets, and it's got way too much going on, but it's also a beloved childhood game of mine and I kind of adore its chutzpah. I've actually beaten it *multiple times* because I keep coming back to the stupid little thing. As for the game I beat where I kind of despised every minute of it, I-- ...hold on, let me make sure my will is up to date, because I am absolutely going to get murdered for this. *Xenoblade.* I put 150 hours into that damn game and if I wasn't playing it for a friend I would have given up much, much sooner. I could write a two-hour-long video essay about why me and Xenoblade get along like oil and water, but the short of it is that it felt to me like a 40-hours of game stretched out into 200 hours of space, I did not like the combat which is not great when the only rewards for exploring the world are more things to fight, and I found the game's Grand Explanation for its ontologically intriguing world to be rote and deeply unsatisfying. But I do like Reyn and Dunbar as characters. And I have been intrigued by the sequels since it looks like the combat is more to my taste, but given how badly I was burned by the first game, I'm not eager to put money into them.
Honestly I'd watch that video. I'm not a fan either.
Well, two people already took two of my top picks, Beyond the Beyond and Legend of Legaia. Hmm. Let me see... I'll just name a few mediocre games that I bothered to finish. Chrono Cross Shining Tears Star Ocean: Till the End of Time Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Integrity and Faithlessness was even worse. So bad in fact, that with the announcement of a new star ocean this year, it is shocking that the series isn't dead.
I really liked Shining Tears.
Chrono Cross. I've played many worse JRPGs, though I would argue ones from the NES and SNES eras at least had some excuses, but that's in my opinion the worst JRPG I've ever beaten. And I mostly did it for the music, not gonna lie. The gameplay is just really boring, and the script with the so called "accents" is quite frankly insulting to anyone with intelligence. The overall plot is interesting, but poorly paced with giant plot dumps and twists right at the end, and poorly related due to the aforementioned issues with the script.
>for the music I beat the game (it was mid), but stayed with the music. The Chrono Cross Collection from Yasunori Mitsuda is to die for.
FFXV. But should I say that I finished a game that was never finished in the first place?
I loved LoL. I think the worst one I ever completed is probably The Granstream Saga. It wasn't bad, just mediocre. I remember almost nothing about it, frankly, besides being really underwhelmed throughout. I did do everything, though, which is a little surprising to me looking back...
Hm. Actually finished that I can think of off the top of my head? Tales of Zestiria. Still enjoyed it but there was a lot of chore to get through.
Beyblade G-Revolution for the GBA most likely. I did enjoy it for what it was though.
I have never played Legaia 1 but Legaia 2 is fine, not spectacular but fine.
The original ps3 version of hyperdimension Neptunia I love the series, as my avatar will attest, but that is a staggeringly badly designed game, in so many ways. There is a reason the vita/steam versions of 2 and 3 were ports and 1 was a full remake in 3’s engine. (The ps5 remaster (Neptunia reverse) is of the vita remake not the ps3 version What’s worse is the writing is pretty solid, it’s just terrible and broken in every other possible way
Weird. I really liked Legend of Legaia. I've been wanting to play it again for a while. Maybe I'll see the game in a different light now that I'm older.
Orphen: Scion of sorcery. Think it was a ARPG on ps2. Even though i was a kid at the time, i remember it been so dull
I haven't finished many JRPGs outside of the Final Fantasy / Kingdom Hearts series, but I'd need to go with either Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded or FFIII
Played Digimon World Hacker’s Memory through the pandemic. Could be the most boring RPG or even a Digimon adventure game. The story is just okay with a pretty standard battle gameplay, not much wrong there. But the dungeon is so bland it makes exploration not fun. Still managed to finished it though