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StarTopic RPGs |ST| Our Home Base For All Role Playing Game Discussions!

xghost777

xghost777

Magical Girls <3 #TeamJRPG #TrustTheProcess
Moderator
Welcome to the RPGs ST! We have a lot great STs already here on Famiboards, but until now no all encompassing thread for RPG discussion! In this thread feel free to talk about all of the RPGs you are playing right now, both new and old, and all of the ones you are looking forward to! There are many kinds of RPGs from the old turn based classics, to action RPGs, strategy RPGs, and so much more. We have plenty of awesome games to discuss not to mention all of the cool characters you meet, systems you engage with, and big story moments. Feel free to discuss any RPG adjacent games as well if you aren't sure if they count! Any extra RPG media and community stuff (anime, books, movies, character goods, and more!) are cool to talk about here as well!

Famiboards is a small, tight community, at least as we start out here so this is an especially great place to discuss RPGs that don't have active STs. Absolutely feel free to discuss the games both big and small, but if you want to dive deeper or ask for specific help with those big games I'll compile notable STs as they come. Please feel free to suggest games and communities to add!

Individual Game STs

Shin Megami Tensei V
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl
Pokemon Legends: Arceus
Elden Ring
Triangle Strategy
Chrono Cross
Live A Live
Xenoblade 3
Trails From Zero (Unofficial)
Mario and Rabbids Sparks of Hope
Persona 5
Harvestella
Tactics Ogre: Reborn
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
Dragon Quest Treasures
Crisis Core FF7 Reunion
Persona 4 Golden
Persona 3 Portable
Fire Emblem Engage
Octopath Traveler II
Trails To Azure
Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed
Honkai: Star Rail
Genshin Impact
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection
Diablo IV
Final Fantasy XVI
Trails Into Reverie
Starfield
The Legend Of Nayuta Boundless Trails

Community STs

Retro Games
Xeno Series Community
Visual Novels
Anime
Yakuza
Pokemon
Life Simulation
Fan Art
Kiseki/Trails

This is my first ST, so if there is anything you think I should add let me know. If this is your first time here, I did prepare a few guidelines to hopefully make this the fun, welcoming thread it should be. If they need updating, let me know and I'll threadmark any notable changes if need be. Other than that, have fun Fami!

1 Be Kind

RPG discussion can get pretty exciting and emotional as some of these games and franchises we put hundreds of hours into. You can disagree with people without being rude or assuming the worst of them for liking/disliking something you don't.

2 Help Be The Place You Want To Be In

If we want this to be a fun, welcoming place, post like you do, because that's the place it will become.

3 Focus On Your Own Opinions And Those Of The Community Directly / No Metacommentary

There are some longstanding RPG debates out there and as we kick off this thread here few topics are off limit, but please do not frame any post in metacommentary discussion. Don't make this thread the frontlines of any RPG war, you aren't here to win anything. Similarly there is no need to bring in every hot take you read or discuss any ongoing meltdowns you feel exist on the internet, whether it's from Twitter, another gaming message board, or professional and user reviews, This thread is about the games and us, the actual community you are participating in, so focus on sharing your own thoughts and opinions. Don't make up imaginary groups and assume the worst of them either.

4 Don't Be Bad Weird Or Give Off Bad Weird Vibes

RPGs are fun and it's great to dive in deep with discussions. Some games have varying degrees of problematic content, even from Nintendo. Xenoblade 2 says hi for example. As long as you aren't being "bad weird" or dismissive of others concerns about games and also just in general, have fun discussing whatever. Keep in mind that engaging with games that have varying degrees of problematic content isn't necessarily reflective of the person (same goes for liking/disliking characters) and also keep in mind that Fami isn't a boys only club and the thread should be safe to view in public.

5 Not Every Game Is For You / If You Love A Game Not Everyone Has To Love It As Much As You

Most of the biggest RPG and video game debates come at the core of not internalizing these two ideas. Keep these in mind when you post. We will all be happier if we do.

6 Don't Be Overly Defensive/Negative About Upcoming Games Or Focus Too Much On Reviews And Sales

Look if you haven't played it yet, the game could be awesome, it could suck, or likely some mix of good and bad. This also isn't a review or sales thread. Don't use either reviews or sales to justify your purchase or opinions of a game. Don't be that weirdo.

7 Strike The Right Balance On Spoilers

We have to strike a good balance here between being RPG fans that don't like to be spoiled and also realize this is an enthusiast public message board where we should be comfortable to freely talk about the latest games. In general, things in marketing aren't spoilers, they want you to know about these characters, story beats, or gameplay systems. The immediate premise of the game isn't a spoiler either. If you are an absolute spoilerphobe, you might not want to be here near the big game releases and rereleases that you highly care about. You don't get to complain about your media blackout status being ruined if you come here, that's not how a public space works. No complaining about the sequel's marketing spoiling the prior game you haven't played yet either, time cruelly marches on and we can't play everything in a vacuum. There's way too many games/media out there and you made your choices what to prioritize. The big exceptions are for games like Trails where the world at large has to wait a few years or more to play that game. You 100% have to put discussions of those games in spoiler tags. If there is a fan translation or other sensitive import releases, making a separate thread to discuss them is probably the best call. At least walking into this thread, I don't really want to set any hard guidelines beyond that. Use your best judgment on a case by case basis and take advantage of all of the awesome spoiler hiding tools we have at our disposal on a message board. Keep in mind how far out we are from release, how big the release is, and be conscious, but not weird about rereleases.
 
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Thanks for making this ST. Perfect timing with SMT V right around the corner.
RPG has been my favourite genre since forever and Switch is simply amazing in that regard.
Now that I’m already here, might as well ask how’s Alliance Alive HD? It was on sale a couple of days ago. Not sure if it still is.
Also, at it’s initial launch on PC, I fell off The Outer World once I hit Monarch. Has the game improved since then? How does it run on Switch now?
 
Elven_Star said:
Thanks for making this ST. Perfect timing with SMT V right around the corner.
RPG has been my favourite genre since forever and Switch is simply amazing in that regard.
Now that I’m already here, might as well ask how’s Alliance Alive HD? It was on sale a couple of days ago. Not sure if it still is.
Also, at it’s initial launch on PC, I fell off The Outer World once I hit Monarch. Has the game improved since then? How does it run on Switch now?
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Yeah! All the RPGs coming out this and next week like SMTV, Blue Reflection 2, Star Wars, and Pokemon made me realize the smaller games especially had no home for discussion yet!

RPGs are also my favorite genre and Switch is an awesome home for them and only getting better :)
 
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Great thread! By far my favorite genre and this would be a fantastic place to discuss smaller releases that won’t get much coverage on the boards, as well to discuss already existing games and get recommendations.

I’m looking for some DROG recommendations. I bought Labyrinth of Refrain a few months ago, but god, the party mechanics are so overly complicated with the way it is set up. A game like Etrian Odyssey has the right balance of depth to me, but Refrian was overkill with the covens, dolls, and limited battle skills in general.

I’m thinking of picking up Stranger in Sword City or Undernauts for a DRPG. Anyone have experience with those? Less bloated?
 
Clix said:
Great thread! By far my favorite genre and this would be a fantastic place to discuss smaller releases that won’t get much coverage on the boards, as well to discuss already existing games and get recommendations.

I’m looking for some DROG recommendations. I bought Labyrinth of Refrain a few months ago, but god, the party mechanics are so overly complicated with the way it is set up. A game like Etrian Odyssey has the right balance of depth to me, but Refrian was overkill with the covens, dolls, and limited battle skills in general.

I’m thinking of picking up Stranger in Sword City or Undernauts for a DRPG. Anyone have experience with those? Less bloated?
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Thank you!

I have a blind spot for first person dungeon games. I usually have a great time beating the first big area/dungeon and then stopping even though I always enjoy it. So I never finished it, but if you liked the Etrian games and haven’t played it, Persona Q is a lot of fun since it also is one.
 
xghost777 said:
Thank you!

I have a blind spot for first person dungeon games. I usually have a great time beating the first big area/dungeon and then stopping even though I always enjoy it. So I never finished it, but if you liked the Etrian games and haven’t played it, Persona Q is a lot of fun since it also is one.
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Played and beat. Loved it so much. Possibly more than Etrian due to the themed dungeons and the fantastic music :)
 
Oh yeah my favorite genre gets a home. I'm currently playing Trails of Cold Steel 2. I played the first with japanese synchro without ever checking out the english dub since i heard it wasn't good. But i started the second game with the english dub and really like most of the voices, Fie's especially. Now i wish i played the first game with english dub as well. I missed out. Oh well whatever. Game is just as good as the first one and there isn't too much fanservice yet. I have heard that it gets real pervy with the third and 4th game though which is a shame really but i weathered through Zero and Ao no Kiseki and those games were really awful with this stuff. Great games still but yeah i can't fault anyone who would never play a Falcom game again after that.

I'm also replaying FF13 and having a good time. It takes way too long til you have a full party but the battle system is still awesome and the game has some beautiful sceneries.
 
Aniki said:
Oh yeah my favorite genre gets a home. I'm currently playing Trails of Cold Steel 2. I played the first with japanese synchro without ever checking out the english dub since i heard it wasn't good. But i started the second game with the english dub and really like most of the voices, Fie's especially. Now i wish i played the first game with english dub as well. I missed out. Oh well whatever. Game is just as good as the first one and there isn't too much fanservice yet. I have heard that it gets real pervy with the third and 4th game though which is a shame really but i weathered through Zero and Ao no Kiseki and those games were really awful with this stuff. Great games still but yeah i can't fault anyone who would never play a Falcom game again after that.

I'm also replaying FF13 and having a good time. It takes way too long til you have a full party but the battle system is still awesome and the game has some beautiful sceneries.
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Yeah the English dub for the Cold Steel games is excellent. They do some heavy lifting at times for Cold Steel III’s script which got relatively hit hard as NISA’s first Trails release.

Unfortunately, yeah CSIII and CSIV definitely are worse than the first two games on the fanservice front. Shirley is back for starters :/ Great games otherwise though.
 
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I started Blue Reflection Second Light tonight and cleared the full prologue. I picked up both the Switch and PS4 versions (they both arrived a day late) and I decided to roll with the latter on PS5. If you played the demo, the full prologue goes just a bit after that into the first stealth section. It’s whatever honestly, but thankfully there is a Batman detective mode if you want to speed through it and if you get caught retries are instant. On a better front, I tried fighting the higher level monsters it tells you to evade in the tutorial prior to the stealth section. I always like games that let you get into trouble and yeah at this point in the game fighting all three of the tough monsters nearly wiped my party. Everyone was in single digits HP afterwards with no healing items lol. Excited to play more tomorrow!

Blue Reflection Second Light is the game I’ll be focusing on for a while. Anyone else pick it up this week?
 
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Awwww yisssss

RPG's! Love 'em. Can't wait to dive into SMT V tomorrow.

Looking at my collection of games... I have played way too many RPG's
 
I'm in the middle of an extreme Trails run started earlier in the year.

I've played pretty much back to back the Sky trilogy + Crossbell and now Cold Steel.

This series is taking my gaming life hostage, but at this point i can't stop and i won't stop lol Cold Steel 3 next lfg

Aniki said:
Oh yeah my favorite genre gets a home. I'm currently playing Trails of Cold Steel 2. I played the first with japanese synchro without ever checking out the english dub since i heard it wasn't good. But i started the second game with the english dub and really like most of the voices, Fie's especially. Now i wish i played the first game with english dub as well. I missed out. Oh well whatever. Game is just as good as the first one and there isn't too much fanservice yet. I have heard that it gets real pervy with the third and 4th game though which is a shame really but i weathered through Zero and Ao no Kiseki and those games were really awful with this stuff. Great games still but yeah i can't fault anyone who would never play a Falcom game again after that.

I'm also replaying FF13 and having a good time. It takes way too long til you have a full party but the battle system is still awesome and the game has some beautiful sceneries.
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I'm halfway through Cold Steel 2 as well, i enjoyed my time with CS1 quite a bit but i have mixed feelings about this one if i have to be honest. Still having a good time overall, but i have the feeling Falcom couldn't manage their ambitions for the Erebonian arc and it shows a little in the sequel.

Terrific soundtrack though, but that's not surprising really.
 
AngryNopon said:
I'm in the middle of an extreme Trails run started earlier in the year.

I've played pretty much back to back the Sky trilogy + Crossbell and now Cold Steel.

This series is taking my gaming life hostage, but at this point i can't stop and i won't stop lol Cold Steel 3 next lfg


I'm halfway through Cold Steel 2 as well, i enjoyed my time with CS1 quite a bit but i have mixed feelings about this one if i have to be honest. Still having a good time overall, but i have the feeling Falcom couldn't manage their ambitions for the Erebonian arc and it shows a little in the sequel.

Terrific soundtrack though, but that's not surprising really.
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Falcom OST's are almost always certified bangers, yeah. I need to start Cold Steel 3, I did basically what you did but got burnt out after CS2.

Also need to start Bravely Default 2 now that my mom is done with her copy of it, though there's part of me that wants to grab it on PC.
 
I'm considering trying out Cold Steel 1&2 this Christmas as I'll be traveling and am probably going to take my Vita to wrap up some of my backlog. I haven't played any previous Kiseki/Trails/Whatever games.
MRC-OSF said:
Great ST. I would like to use my first post here to ask WHERE THE F IS OMORI?
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I am waiting patiently. Maybe it'll get a Christmas release on consoles like it did on PC last year?
 
AngryNopon said:
I'm in the middle of an extreme Trails run started earlier in the year.

I've played pretty much back to back the Sky trilogy + Crossbell and now Cold Steel.

This series is taking my gaming life hostage, but at this point i can't stop and i won't stop lol Cold Steel 3 next lfg


I'm halfway through Cold Steel 2 as well, i enjoyed my time with CS1 quite a bit but i have mixed feelings about this one if i have to be honest. Still having a good time overall, but i have the feeling Falcom couldn't manage their ambitions for the Erebonian arc and it shows a little in the sequel.

Terrific soundtrack though, but that's not surprising really.
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For now i'm still having a lot of fun. I'm at the start of the second chapter and just got to see the story move forward after reuniting with everyone. With Falcom games i'm always having some issues with how they resolve all the major story threads by the end of their games, but i'm more of a "the journey is the destination" type of player and that's why it never bothered me too much.
 
I’m likely approaching the ten hour mark in Blue Reflection Second Light (there’s no in game clock) so I wanted to share some detailed impressions so far. This game is already a huge step up over the first game and is on track to becoming my favorite Gust game. The original was basically all girl Persona and had a similar day to day structure without a strict calendar (go to school, hang out with friends or fight demons, go home, repeat). Definitely pros and cons to this approach especially as the worst fan service came from following the day to day routine. In Second Light the basic premise is the new protagonist, Ao, has wandered into another world that’s basically just a school surrounded by endless water. There are three other girls with her who’ve only known living there who she immediately becomes friends with. Anyway the basic structure in this game is that this school is your home base that is linked to other worlds / dungeons that you explore. While there is a day and night cycle, it’s purely for flavor as you go between the school and the dungeons freely.

You explore the dungeons to fight monsters, level up, and find tons of crafting materials. Then you go back to the school for crafting items and facilities that grant constant buffs, and hang out with friends which give you fragments (accessories) and points to learn abilities. It’s a significantly more game-y structure than the first game as the links between activities are more clear and tighter and as a result Second Light is immediately much more appealing and satisfying to play. This is in large part too due to the dungeons being handcrafted and more grounded, but still surreal and interesting in design and filled with compelling combat (which I’ll touch on later). While the first game had you wandering the same directionless maps over and over stitched together by random portals, here there is a more defined and satisfying progression (decent verticality at times too). I’m playing on PS5 and yeah this is definitely Gust’s best looking game and it runs very smoothly. The world looks great and one of Gusts’s strengths, the character models, are more expressive than ever. The cutscene direction for the voiced scenes is also quite good and again a step up from the original. I’m not quite ten hours in so this could definitely change, but the amount of fan service content is significantly walked back from the first game which is very welcome. There’s still some there, but I’m optimistic it’ll relatively remain low.

Anyway this post is running long and I’d like to share more as I play, so I’ll just briefly say for now I’m digging the combat a lot already. This might be Gust’s best combat system as there’s tons of strategy in how you tackle battles as well as plenty of room for optimization as you keep track of the multiple, sometimes competing ideas/systems especially if you switch your teammates to manual control. I’m impressed with the difficulty so far too which is giving the combat plenty of opportunities to shine. I’m also really enjoying getting to know the characters so far and I’m impressed by how much time you can seemingly spend with them. The tone of this game so far is just significantly more positive and fun than the first game even amidst some looming mysteries and lots of fun little details further help sell it. I’m very excited to play more soon!
 
I like this thread. I have just started a new game in Shining in the Holy Ark. I never got too far before since I lost my save a few times.

Speaking of Sega Saturn rpgs, I’m glad I bought Grandia when I was in Japan in 2013, since it now has a translation patch :)
 
xghost777 said:
I’m likely approaching the ten hour mark in Blue Reflection Second Light (there’s no in game clock) so I wanted to share some detailed impressions so far. This game is already a huge step up over the first game and is on track to becoming my favorite Gust game. The original was basically all girl Persona and had a similar day to day structure without a strict calendar (go to school, hang out with friends or fight demons, go home, repeat). Definitely pros and cons to this approach especially as the worst fan service came from following the day to day routine. In Second Light the basic premise is the new protagonist, Ao, has wandered into another world that’s basically just a school surrounded by endless water. There are three other girls with her who’ve only known living there who she immediately becomes friends with. Anyway the basic structure in this game is that this school is your home base that is linked to other worlds / dungeons that you explore. While there is a day and night cycle, it’s purely for flavor as you go between the school and the dungeons freely.

You explore the dungeons to fight monsters, level up, and find tons of crafting materials. Then you go back to the school for crafting items and facilities that grant constant buffs, and hang out with friends which give you fragments (accessories) and points to learn abilities. It’s a significantly more game-y structure than the first game as the links between activities are more clear and tighter and as a result Second Light is immediately much more appealing and satisfying to play. This is in large part too due to the dungeons being handcrafted and more grounded, but still surreal and interesting in design and filled with compelling combat (which I’ll touch on later). While the first game had you wandering the same directionless maps over and over stitched together by random portals, here there is a more defined and satisfying progression (decent verticality at times too). I’m playing on PS5 and yeah this is definitely Gust’s best looking game and it runs very smoothly. The world looks great and one of Gusts’s strengths, the character models, are more expressive than ever. The cutscene direction for the voiced scenes is also quite good and again a step up from the original. I’m not quite ten hours in so this could definitely change, but the amount of fan service content is significantly walked back from the first game which is very welcome. There’s still some there, but I’m optimistic it’ll relatively remain low.

Anyway this post is running long and I’d like to share more as I play, so I’ll just briefly say for now I’m digging the combat a lot already. This might be Gust’s best combat system as there’s tons of strategy in how you tackle battles as well as plenty of room for optimization as you keep track of the multiple, sometimes competing ideas/systems especially if you switch your teammates to manual control. I’m impressed with the difficulty so far too which is giving the combat plenty of opportunities to shine. I’m also really enjoying getting to know the characters so far and I’m impressed by how much time you can seemingly spend with them. The tone of this game so far is just significantly more positive and fun than the first game even amidst some looming mysteries and lots of fun little details further help sell it. I’m very excited to play more soon!
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Thanks for your impressions. I was always interested in trying out the previous game and reading what an improvement the sequel makes it all the more likely i will make time dor it.
 
xghost777 said:
I’m likely approaching the ten hour mark in Blue Reflection Second Light (there’s no in game clock) so I wanted to share some detailed impressions so far. This game is already a huge step up over the first game and is on track to becoming my favorite Gust game. The original was basically all girl Persona and had a similar day to day structure without a strict calendar (go to school, hang out with friends or fight demons, go home, repeat). Definitely pros and cons to this approach especially as the worst fan service came from following the day to day routine. In Second Light the basic premise is the new protagonist, Ao, has wandered into another world that’s basically just a school surrounded by endless water. There are three other girls with her who’ve only known living there who she immediately becomes friends with. Anyway the basic structure in this game is that this school is your home base that is linked to other worlds / dungeons that you explore. While there is a day and night cycle, it’s purely for flavor as you go between the school and the dungeons freely.

You explore the dungeons to fight monsters, level up, and find tons of crafting materials. Then you go back to the school for crafting items and facilities that grant constant buffs, and hang out with friends which give you fragments (accessories) and points to learn abilities. It’s a significantly more game-y structure than the first game as the links between activities are more clear and tighter and as a result Second Light is immediately much more appealing and satisfying to play. This is in large part too due to the dungeons being handcrafted and more grounded, but still surreal and interesting in design and filled with compelling combat (which I’ll touch on later). While the first game had you wandering the same directionless maps over and over stitched together by random portals, here there is a more defined and satisfying progression (decent verticality at times too). I’m playing on PS5 and yeah this is definitely Gust’s best looking game and it runs very smoothly. The world looks great and one of Gusts’s strengths, the character models, are more expressive than ever. The cutscene direction for the voiced scenes is also quite good and again a step up from the original. I’m not quite ten hours in so this could definitely change, but the amount of fan service content is significantly walked back from the first game which is very welcome. There’s still some there, but I’m optimistic it’ll relatively remain low.

Anyway this post is running long and I’d like to share more as I play, so I’ll just briefly say for now I’m digging the combat a lot already. This might be Gust’s best combat system as there’s tons of strategy in how you tackle battles as well as plenty of room for optimization as you keep track of the multiple, sometimes competing ideas/systems especially if you switch your teammates to manual control. I’m impressed with the difficulty so far too which is giving the combat plenty of opportunities to shine. I’m also really enjoying getting to know the characters so far and I’m impressed by how much time you can seemingly spend with them. The tone of this game so far is just significantly more positive and fun than the first game even amidst some looming mysteries and lots of fun little details further help sell it. I’m very excited to play more soon!
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Don't know much about those games, but the second game does sound really good. From what I was watching, that soundtrack is really damn good too.
 
Aniki said:
Thanks for your impressions. I was always interested in trying out the previous game and reading what an improvement the sequel makes it all the more likely i will make time dor it.
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For sure! To be clear the first game is a mess and one I’d hesitate to recommend, but if you like trying unique RPGs, even when they have a range of quality, I think it’s worth trying at least. I ultimately walked away enjoying it and was thorough enough to get the platinum trophy, but most of its ideas don’t gel together very well and the fan service is excessive. Just want to give proper warning.

Most interesting parts were the spin on the Persona structure, some of the social link characters (there’s a good deal of unusual/unique ones past the first few), and occasionally the battle system (I rarely don’t play RPGs on normal difficulty, but playing on hard is a must here, you can swap anytime). The music is pretty good too. The main battle theme is great.
 
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Such an awesome thread.

Playing the astonishingly titled 7th Dragon III Code VFD this weekend. Just a slick, interesting dungeon crawler with an oddly sloppy translation? or writing? and great music and super fast battles.

Inspired by watching some footage of SMT V (which I will get and play soon) and pondering how slow the combat seems to be compared to SMT IV. 3DS had its share of really snappy turn based battle systems.
 
chrkrhc said:
Such an awesome thread.

Playing the astonishingly titled 7th Dragon III Code VFD this weekend. Just a slick, interesting dungeon crawler with an oddly sloppy translation? or writing? and great music and super fast battles.

Inspired by watching some footage of SMT V (which I will get and play soon) and pondering how slow the combat seems to be compared to SMT IV. 3DS had its share of really snappy turn based battle systems.
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Thank you! I was always on the fence about picking 7th Dragon Code VFD up. Curious to hear your thoughts as you play. I have a mountain of 3DS RPGs to play through, so adding another one would be very irresponsible of me lol.
 
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Used to dislike RPG's as a kid and in my teens (Even though I played and enjoyed Pokemon, Golden Sun and Megaman Battle Network/Star Force)

Now, its easily my favorite genre.

Too bad most are incredibly long and time is fleeting >.>
 
Started Tales of Arise this morning, this is great so far. Not expecting much in the story department, its a Tales game, but the art and environment design are great and the battle system feels great.
 
I've always enjoyed rpgs, but after last year with the pandemic, I ended up going on a long rpg binge to the point where I can say they are the majority of my games played on the Switch. DQ11, Three Houses, both Xenoblades, Trials of Mana, TMS#FE, NEO TWEWY, and hopefully SMTV in the future. Some of these are honestly some of my favorite video games ever. I just love to immerse myself in these types of stories.
 
Definitely an outlier year, but this is the list of RPG's I've played this year (So far)

Persona 5 Royal
Persona 5 Strikers
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade
Scarlet Nexus
Tales of Arise
Neo TWEWY
Dragon Ball Z Kakarot
Neptunia Reverse
Megadimension Neptunia VII
(If you consider them RPG's) Judgment & Lost Judgment

It was hard to determine which one I liked the most, but if I had to choose, it'd probably be Persona 5 Royal, but for RPG's out this year specifically, probably Neo TWEWY or Lost Judgment, with special attention directed towards Arise.
 
@Brawlz The Yakuza and Judgment games are RPGs in my book :) Lost Judgment was spectacular this year with an awesome main story and all the cool variety with the school stories. The boxing gym was the standout school story and gave me huge Hajime No Ippo vibes.
 
xghost777 said:
@Brawlz The Yakuza and Judgment games are RPGs in my book :) Lost Judgment was spectacular this year with an awesome main story and all the cool variety with the school stories. The boxing gym was the standout school story and gave me huge Hajime No Ippo vibes.
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I wasn't the biggest fan of some of the school stories, but the main campaign, combat, ending sequence, characters and overall tone was immaculate.
 
I think after I beat SMTV, which might be sooner than expected, I'll go on an SMT binge.

Going to replay Soul Hackers (been years), IV, IV:A. Will play Devil Survivor Overclocked and some of the older SNES/PSOne games as well (including Persona 1 & 2). Unfortunately have no way to play the PS2 titles, even illegally, so no DDS 1 & 2, but I'll watch an LP of them probably.

Let's go!
 
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I have so many rpgs on my backlog!!

While I finally got around to finishing Tales of Arise yesterday (AMAZING GAME), so now I can finally hop on SMT V now!


After finishing that I'll probably go back to my backlog to tackle CS2 and NTWEWY!

Man I love JRPGS xD
 
So, initial impressions of BDSP:
  • The art has improved, but a lot of the characters still look pretty weird, and I'm still not a big fan of chibi sprites translated to 3D.
  • There's a whole lot of random stuff about the game's interface that feels off and generally not as polished as Game Freak's games. The boxes in particular feel really bad to use.
  • The battle status page is inexplicably gone, which just leaves me baffled. I really thought we were beyond the days where you just needed to remember every detail about the current state of the Pokémon and field.
  • Roark gave me a bit of a challenge, which I wasn't expecting
  • Moving diagonally does not interact well with the game's collision
  • I had to restart the game because my Pokétch glitched into a state where I couldn't actually interact with it.
  • If we really had to keep the dumb Mystery Gift unlock thing, surely there was a better way to handle that than this:
    wif1xG1.jpg
Overall this really makes me appreciate just how good Game Freak is at tight, responsive controls, because man does this game just feel kinda bad to interact with.
 
@Pokemaniac sounds like the game is really fighting you here with the UI/QOL/control downgrades. Is it still fun or should people just dig out their old copies of Diamond and Pearl? I never beat my DS copy of Diamond, but I’ve always wanted to make the time someday. It’s one of my few unbeaten DS games.
 
Wanted to share some more detailed Blue Reflection Second Light impressions now that I’m farther into the game. I finished chapter 6 tonight so I’m either approaching or have roughly reached 2/3 into the game if trophies are good to go by. My initial impressions on the significant tonal shift are holding. There’s seriously like 90% less in fan service in this game compared to the first one which is super welcome. I’m really enjoying the greater focus on hanging out with all of the characters who join you over the course of the adventure. In addition to the story and location/landmark cutscenes that focus on groups of characters, there are one on one hangouts called dates. These replace the more traditional social link stuff from the first game. You basically just escort someone to wherever they want to go around the school. While you can teleport to where you need to go, I do think there is value in walking to it especially as there’s often optional scenes to see with the big ones marked on the map. Once you reach your ultimate location you get a scene with branching dialogue that sometimes gives you different accessories depending on how they go as well as TP that you can use to unlock skills. While an individual date may not be that relatively exciting, there are a ton of them (I’ve seen over 50 so far) and collectively I think there is some really fun roleplaying here. You’ll learn different sides to the characters you hang out with and interestingly the main protagonist as well. At big milestones in raising your TP rank from dates and side quests you get more serious heart to heart cutscenes and thus far I’ve been impressed by them. I hope other games that do social links take a look at what works here because there’s some cool ideas here that make them feel more special than the usual standard.

I’m glad I waited to make this post as long as I did since I can better talk about the combat. The first three chapters have a real sweet spot with the difficulty bringing out the best in combat. Chapter 4 however completely falls off a cliff as bizarrely it’s a lot of one on one fights. Chapter 5 is a bit better and chapter 6 welcomely brings the pain again and hopefully this holds. The basic idea here is you have your three main characters that you pull from a growing team as well as a support character helping you out in battle. As time passes your ether gauge advances along a timeline marked by 1,000 point milestones up to 5,000. You are initially capped at 1,000 points (gear 1) which is enough for a basic attack. Each attack is essentially leveling up an unseen gauge that unlocks the next milestone cap and speeds up your gauge (at gear 3 you transform into a Reflector/Magical Girl form). All moves cost different points and increase your speed differently at different levels. The other most important feature is there is a growing combo multiplier that you raise after every attack and it can make a colossal difference in damage output before long. This is just a super cool system when it’s balanced as it should and if you decide to manage it all yourself because there’s so much strategy in picking your attacks, when to act early (you can see enemy attacks being queued), and considering when to build or defend your meter. Other systems stack on top of this including knockdowns which lead to one on one duels, building up to an ether tide/limit break, and finally the support character who gives you buffs at regular intervals, can use healing items so you don’t have to waste an action, and can swap out with another member as needed. My biggest complaint is there is no hard mode to freely swap to at launch since it’s coming as a free update in December.

Anyway, that’s a huge wall of text. I’m having a ton of fun as you can tell and I’ll definitely write a wrap up post when I beat the game. It’ll likely be shorter than my first two here.
 
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xghost777 said:
@Pokemaniac sounds like the game is really fighting you here with the UI/QOL/control downgrades. Is it still fun or should people just dig out their old copies of Diamond and Pearl? I never beat my DS copy of Diamond, but I’ve always wanted to make the time someday. It’s one of my few unbeaten DS games.
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If you're going to play the originals, I'd generally recommend playing Platinum instead. The original Diamond and Pearl have some issues that Platinum fixes.

The control issues probably wouldn't bother you as much if you don't have such a clearly crystallized sense of what a Pokémon game should feel like. It's not unplayable, but it's pretty deeply suboptimal, and I really hope they fix some of these issues in upcoming patches.
 
I'm right now struggling with whether to stick with Monster Hunter Stories 2's post-game through completion or drop it. And everytime I play, my mood is shifting closer to dropping.

I took a break from the game after finishing the story and hoped I'd be reinvigorated when I returned to take on the bonus challenges. But I'm still constantly miffed at the fights, because the only way MHS2 finds to create difficulty is by not engaging with the core of its own combat system. And the long, repetitive nature of enemy encounters is the worst fit for the required grind for eggs and gear and experience. Really, the only concern holding me back from not giving up in frustration just yet is that there's still some possibly fun stuff further ahead on the checklist which I might want to try later but by then the online community might be dead and I'd find myself practically locked out of content balanced for multiplayer.
 
Here to confirm that Blue Reflection Second Light is actually a good game. Its predecessor was hot garbage for a variety of reasons, but this has an actually engaging story with a much more fleshed out cast to follow. Sidequests are much less of a slog thanks to the improved world design and all around better writing. Combat isn't amazing, but since you're here for the story it works fine enough. Though maybe it would be decent if it wasn't a snoozefest in difficulty. It builds on both the first game and its anime predecessor properly without requiring you to have played/seen them, so that's a big plus. Ao goes on lots of dates with the girls, so if you're into that there is plenty to dig into. If the subject matter interests you, I'd say it's worth a shot.

Switch version works perfectly well in case anyone is worried about that.
 
I want to drop in and say SMT V is such a gem of a game that deserves support from any person who enjoys playing Jrpgs.

A game as well-made as this deserves lots of success.
 
I finished Blue Reflection Second Light early this morning. Overall, I really loved it. The difficulty did sadly fall off a cliff again after chapter 6 and never recovered. This is a shame since it had so many cool ideas and systems that never got a chance to shine and it meant you didn’t have to engage with the cool systems outside it like leveling up facilities and the accessories. I actually hit level cap with every character before I entered the final dungeon and I never went out of my way to grind which meant I just walked past everything from then on. Lame! Thankfully though the story really picked up in interesting ways and carried this part of the game and the big moments and reveals were effective. The connections to the first game were really cool and most surprisingly Second Light even made watching the anime feel worthwhile, which it definitely did not feel when I was watching it. I enjoyed the ending even though there’s an element to it that’s unsatisfying. I’m aware there is a true ending for a second playthrough that I’m guessing is probably satisfying, but I still think it was the wrong decision to set it up that way thematically even though I enjoyed it for what it was. The final boss was rad.

So yeah again overall I really loved Second Light. Even with the battle system imploding, I still think this is Gust’s best game. It’s their most satisfying gameplay loop and the story and characters are really great. I can’t believe how much meaningful time you get to spend with everyone and how much is fully voiced and well directed (Ao, Kokoro, Yuki, Hinako, and Uta were my favorite characters). The music is also very good overall. I really dug the second battle theme, the boss battle theme, and the field theme for chapter 7’s dungeon. Hopefully Gust will patch the game to let you play on Hard and Deathwish from the start instead of locking them behind New Game+ as that would quickly solve my biggest issue with the game and make this the easy recommendation it should be. Even still, this a dramatic leap forward for Gust and I really think any fans of theirs should check this out. It’s their most confident game yet and it largely succeeds what it sets out to do. I’m glad they moved away from all girl Persona and virtually completely ditched the fan service of the first game. This is what it should have been from the start. I hope Second Light finds an audience and we get a third game or follow up of some kind, they largely really nailed this one.

Now that I’m done, I have to pick a new game to play. I do plan to start a Death Wish run of Second Light, but it likely won’t be my focus game anymore. I’m thinking of playing Tales of Arise, Shin Megami Tensei V, or Dungeon Encounters.

It’s been a while since the last post, what RPGs are you all enjoying?
 
Aostia82 said:
Not sure if this is the right topic but...

Monster Hunter stories 2 is great
But I can't beat the Nergigante
Some advice?
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Yeah this a good topic to ask for RPG help in. I haven’t played MHS2 myself, so hopefully someone can chime in!
 
Aostia82 said:
Not sure if this is the right topic but...

Monster Hunter stories 2 is great
But I can't beat the Nergigante
Some advice?
Click to expand...

Which Nergigante? The story boss? My recollection isn't great, so if there's a particular thing giving you trouble, you'll have to jump-start my memory.

But fortunately I can consult my notes for some basic advice as a start: Nergi's attack pattern goes Tech in the default form, Power in the first enrage state marked by the spikes coming out, Speed once it enrages further and stays spikey. While the spikes are white Nergigante will attack twice each turn; both times damage can be mitigated by the right rock-paper-scissor move. As the spikes turn darker, Nergigante begins to mix in uncounterable neutral attacks. When all but the tips are black and there's no head-to-head tell, it'll fire off a powerful group-wipe attack and afterwards revert back to docile default mode. The latter is probably what wipes you?

Be in the saddle or at least at full health for the big AoE. Nergigante is giving plenty opportunities to build up kinship via double attacks. Try to break the spikes if you can. Rotate through monsties to get more than one ready to ride. With a couple extra 100/100 gages in reserve, you might even afford spending on Hammer weapon skills to help break monster parts.

Weakness is Thunder, if you happen to have decent weapons on hand to take advantage, and Nergigante itself inflicts non-elemental damage in case you want to armor up accordingly. I paid no attention to that stuff on my main playthrough, so don't think it's necessary to beat this fight.
 
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Aostia82 said:
Great tips, thanks!
I was able to beat it, finally, also thanks to some ancient potions to regain some hearts
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Ride On!

The willingness to spend prescious ressources will serve you well in the post-game. There's some cheap heart-bursting bastards awaiting you, but they're much more tolerable if you cheese right back with the exploit known as "healing items".
 
I didn’t want to create a whole new topic; but for anyone who might care

Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate

Is the perfect Switch rpg in my opinion. And also the best rogue lite I have played. I already enjoyed and finished Chocobo Dungeon, but Shiren has that «just one more run» addiction. It also has a bank, storage for items, skills you can learn that you won’t forget if you fail a run, help from strangers if you die and npc characters you can befriend that can help you.

So starting from level 1 feels like just «ok, this time I’ll get further». I love it! I play it in small bursts every night.
 
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