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CEO admitted that the company had been fighting to "westernize" in order to compete but he was committed to bringing back the classic Square feel and revitalizing old IPs that I started paying attention.
The "westernization" era of Japanese publishers was a Bad Time. It's going to be fascinating to see what games from the 360/PS3 era get fondly remembered starting around this time. I'm happy XIII is starting to see more acceptance lately.
 
While we’re talking about companies doing things this year, I’m really interested in what Atlus has next. After next week’s Persona ports they have nothing announced, right? Seems like prime Direct material, since I feel like they’re not usually prone to leaving things empty for long.
 
The "westernization" era of Japanese publishers was a Bad Time.
Agree. I wish we could see what the current landscape would look like if they hadn't gone that route.. but on the other hand, without that era we wouldn't have had the fans begging for a return to the classics and that begging very well may have given them the roadmap to be the way they are now. Dunno.

It's going to be fascinating to see what games from the 360/PS3 era get fondly remembered starting around this time. I'm happy XIII is starting to see more acceptance lately.
I mean, I honestly felt kinda weird while playing Nier Replicant because it retained so, so, so much of that era's flavor. 😅
 
While we’re talking about companies doing things this year, I’m really interested in what Atlus has next. After next week’s Persona ports they have nothing announced, right? Seems like prime Direct material, since I feel like they’re not usually prone to leaving things empty for long.
I feel like Project Re Fantasy has been kicking around so long it has to be that.
 
Agree. I wish we could see what the current landscape would look like if they hadn't gone that route.. but on the other hand, without that era we wouldn't have had the fans begging for a return to the classics and that begging very well may have given them the roadmap to be the way they are now. Dunno.
Perhaps. I will say that at least XIII didn't succumb to the "everything is brown" look of that era and produced some absolutely gorgeous scenes.

Stylistically and mechanically I think XIII is the culmination of what the 7 / 8 / 10 team was doing. So I think that game probably wouldn't have turned out that much different. Versus / 15 probably wouldn't have happened though, and that's really kinda key because I think having back to back non-MMOs that were Kitase/Nojima/Toriyama/Nomura joints (sorry Tabata) define the franchise for nearly a decade did a lot of damage to the perception of the series. Don't get me wrong, those games are fine but part of the appeal of Final Fantasy is that the series is constantly in flux and never really stayed in one place for too long until the PS3 era. It really needs to have multiple visions taking turns like with the run from VI -> VII -> VIII -> IX -> X -> XII each presenting vastly different settings and vastly different mechanics at each point.

With VII Remake Part Deux and 16 releasing in succession we're kinda getting back to that.

Which... kinda brings the whole discussion full circle back to the right/left side divide of the series heritage at this point.

It'd be kinda fun to map out the entire Square family tree at some point

I mean, I honestly felt kinda weird while playing Nier Replicant because it retained so, so, so much of that era's flavor. 😅
Well it is Taro and nothing says "depressing emo" like dour and drab.

I feel like Project Re Fantasy has been kicking around so long it has to be that.
I feel like that game has been in development so long that it's probably a vanity project Sega is willing to ultimately just write off if they don't produce anything, while they try to get a new team in place that can turn out new Persona games on a much more reasonable timeline. So I'm inclined to think we hear about Persona 6 this year.
 
I feel like that game has been in development so long that it's probably a vanity project Sega is willing to ultimately just write off if they don't produce anything, while they try to get a new team in place that can turn out new Persona games on a much more reasonable timeline. So I'm inclined to think we hear about Persona 6 this year.
Persona 6 kind of has to be one of the games that they wanted to reveal during the anniversary event and decided it wasn't ready, I would assume. And I believe the team that did Persona 5 Royal is on P6, I think? Which is a really good sign IMO.

That said I'm not expecting much of anything other than a very VERY brief teaser. Although it would really be something to get it in a Nintendo Direct and get actual confirmation of it being on a Nintendo platform (but I'm not holding my breath on that).
 
I was impressed by FFXIII even though it was different because I was captivated by the story, but I had already fallen off Square pretty hard by that point. I think FFX was the last time I was really interested in their output. It wasn't until their new (at the time) CEO admitted that the company had been fighting to "westernize" in order to compete but he was committed to bringing back the classic Square feel and revitalizing old IPs that I started paying attention. And shortly after that, Tokyo RPG Factory was formed and we got Setsuna. And I started watching. Then we got Octopath, then Trials of Mana, and the absolute blur of their Switch output and I can now finally say I'm a Square fan again. Only took a near two decades. 😅
I think the only thing from Square I really cared about between FFXII and the Switch was getting the Dragon Quest games released on DS/3DS. I’m finally back to picking up their games on a regular basis these days given their Switch output though.
 
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There are so many amazing RPGs released these days that I can't fathom investing time into worrying about Persona 6 especially given how long and drawn out the reveal to release was for Persona 5.

Also OP, as a longtime lurker, you make some of the best posts on this forum. Thank you!
 
There are so many amazing RPGs released these days that I can't fathom investing time into worrying about Persona 6 especially given how long and drawn out the reveal to release was for Persona 5.

Also OP, as a longtime lurker, you make some of the best posts on this forum. Thank you!
Thank you :) Glad to have you here! I used to lurk the prior two boards and was glad I finally joined here!
 
There are so many amazing RPGs released these days that I can't fathom investing time into worrying about Persona 6 especially given how long and drawn out the reveal to release was for Persona 5.
Yeah there’s loads, both last year and this. I want to pick up Chained Echoes but I likely won’t get to it until after Fire Emblem and Octopath II now. Really hoping we get a date for DQIII HD2D this year, but at this point I’ve got so many SRPGs and JRPGs to play that I’m not fussed at all.
 
Yeah there’s loads, both last year and this. I want to pick up Chained Echoes but I likely won’t get to it until after Fire Emblem and Octopath II now. Really hoping we get a date for DQIII HD2D this year, but at this point I’ve got so many SRPGs and JRPGs to play that I’m not fussed at all.

I used to roll my eyes a ton when I kept seeing people say there are "no games" or "2022 is a light year for gaming" when I literally wish I had enough time to play everything I bought on all platforms including mobile thanks to subscriptions and new games. Back to RPGs, I think Triangle Strategy might be climbing its way into my overall top 10 ever, but I'll replay it next year or so and see how I feel. Octopath 1 is definitely in there, so I hope Octopath 2 delivers.

I bought Chained Echoes but have not had time to start it yet. DQ III HD2D I expect in the September direct and SE will release it on the same systems as Octopath II / DQ Dai when they announce a Q1 2024 date I feel. Hopefully we get a CE for it, I need it for Switch.
 
Chained Echoes is really really good, didn't even know it was releasing untill i saw the news but it skyrocketed straight to number 2 in my goty list. I would consider it impressive even if it hadn't been developed by just a single person, which just blows my mind honestly.

I've been playing Stranger of Paradise lately and it's a ton of fun, even if i don't think all of it was intended lol
They really nailed the job system though.
 
Finished ancient China in live a live. All done. Nothing more to see here. yeah yeah, I know about the hidden chapter XD

IMG_6392.jpg
 
I have two RPG things to talk about. First, I’ve seen the first two episodes of the Trails of Cold Steel anime that’s airing this season. I’m definitely intrigued with what we have so far and I’ll keep it vague to avoid spoilers. This anime takes place during the gap between Cold Steel II and III so you’ll definitely want to have at least played through Cold Steel II before checking it out. This anime covers the biggest event not fully detailed between CS3 and CS4 at least, so I’ve been looking forward to it for a while. There’s a bunch of new characters to meet here which is exciting and some of them are cool enough to have earned titles like you’d expect in the Trails-verse like “The Aurora Phenomenon” (lol on this one). It felt a little forced in the first episode with a ton of “as you know” talk that can plague setting up an anime world, but at least in episode 2 it has settled into a better groove. By episode 2 you meet the main four characters. The main character, Lavi, and the red haired commander guy seem the most interesting so far. I think the four will make an interesting group for this show given the mission they are about to undertake that they seem ill-suited for. The animation is a bit rough in spots, but the direction of the show is fairly engaging and is doing a great job hiding / mitigating shortcomings. Seeing returning characters, even in a limited capacity, has been cool so far. Overall I still have some fears as anime based off games range in quality and the animation quality is concerning, but I’m more optimistic this will be worthwhile based off the first two episodes.

The other thing I want to talk about is that, while I’m not fully committed just yet, I think I’ve finally started my next RPG I’m playing. I had only briefly started it by clearing the first dungeon, but I picked up my save file from seven months ago for Breath of Fire. I’m playing on NSO, but this is ultimately working towards my big goal this year of clearing out my final Wii U Virtual Console games (I have 11 left, 9 RPGs). I grew up watching my brother playing Breath of Fire when I was super young and while I definitely played it here and there I certainly never beat it myself. It’s interesting that I do remember some key bits, like I’m very familiar with the third town, walking into the wizard’s dungeon on the world map, save rooms, the general battle screen, and Ryu’s sprite, but otherwise a lot of this game I don’t remember super well. I’ve always wanted to play this game, but never made the time, so I’m excited to see it through….eventually this year if not now. I say that because I’ve played up to getting the second party member and thus far I’m kind of unimpressed. The story / world feels a bit thin still though there is some promise. Two towns I’ve seen now have had some interesting differences between visiting them during the day and at night which is a cool touch. One called Romero had zombies pop up at night that you could talk to (good town name lol). More concerning than the story, at least thus far I feel like I’m just trading blows with little thought for the most part and that’s largely because I am. Ryu at least at this stage can only attack and while Nina has some spells, it’s pretty basic healing and buffs so far. I plan to play more soon and I’ll share more thoughts then.
 
Ryu at least at this stage can only attack and while Nina has some spells, it’s pretty basic healing and buffs so far. I plan to play more soon and I’ll share more thoughts then.
Yea, BoF is hard to recommend these days. There's some neat ideas in it like the transformations, overworld map abilities, and the ability to freely swap party members in/out during combat, but it's a pretty average game I think in hindsight. Also the second wind mechanic on bosses is neat the first time you see it but then it just makes every boss into a slog.

The main reason I picked BoF up back in the day was that Squaresoft handled the publishing instead of Capcom and I was looking to whatever was Square's next thing after Final Fantasy II, and there really wasn't a whole lot else on the horizon at the time (for whatever reason I thought Secret of Mana looked appealing but never sought it out as a kid). It would be another month or two before Nintendo Power went into full on hype mode for Final Fantasy III so BoF kinda hit at the right time.

Playing the rest of the games in the series has always been a bit of a gaming bucket list thing (I remember seeing BoF 3 on display outside a Babbages in the mall whcih made me realize all the SNES 3rd party franchises had jumped ship to Playstation) but it's certainly down towards the bottom in terms of priority.
 
I have two RPG things to talk about. First, I’ve seen the first two episodes of the Trails of Cold Steel anime that’s airing this season. I’m definitely intrigued with what we have so far and I’ll keep it vague to avoid spoilers. This anime takes place during the gap between Cold Steel II and III so you’ll definitely want to have at least played through Cold Steel II before checking it out. This anime covers the biggest event not fully detailed between CS3 and CS4 at least, so I’ve been looking forward to it for a while. There’s a bunch of new characters to meet here which is exciting and some of them are cool enough to have earned titles like you’d expect in the Trails-verse like “The Aurora Phenomenon” (lol on this one). It felt a little forced in the first episode with a ton of “as you know” talk that can plague setting up an anime world, but at least in episode 2 it has settled into a better groove. By episode 2 you meet the main four characters. The main character, Lavi, and the red haired commander guy seem the most interesting so far. I think the four will make an interesting group for this show given the mission they are about to undertake that they seem ill-suited for. The animation is a bit rough in spots, but the direction of the show is fairly engaging and is doing a great job hiding / mitigating shortcomings. Seeing returning characters, even in a limited capacity, has been cool so far. Overall I still have some fears as anime based off games range in quality and the animation quality is concerning, but I’m more optimistic this will be worthwhile based off the first two episodes.

The other thing I want to talk about is that, while I’m not fully committed just yet, I think I’ve finally started my next RPG I’m playing. I had only briefly started it by clearing the first dungeon, but I picked up my save file from seven months ago for Breath of Fire. I’m playing on NSO, but this is ultimately working towards my big goal this year of clearing out my final Wii U Virtual Console games (I have 11 left, 9 RPGs). I grew up watching my brother playing Breath of Fire when I was super young and while I definitely played it here and there I certainly never beat it myself. It’s interesting that I do remember some key bits, like I’m very familiar with the third town, walking into the wizard’s dungeon on the world map, save rooms, the general battle screen, and Ryu’s sprite, but otherwise a lot of this game I don’t remember super well. I’ve always wanted to play this game, but never made the time, so I’m excited to see it through….eventually this year if not now. I say that because I’ve played up to getting the second party member and thus far I’m kind of unimpressed. The story / world feels a bit thin still though there is some promise. Two towns I’ve seen now have had some interesting differences between visiting them during the day and at night which is a cool touch. One called Romero had zombies pop up at night that you could talk to (good town name lol). More concerning than the story, at least thus far I feel like I’m just trading blows with little thought for the most part and that’s largely because I am. Ryu at least at this stage can only attack and while Nina has some spells, it’s pretty basic healing and buffs so far. I plan to play more soon and I’ll share more thoughts then.
Breath of Fire is a bit tough to go back to, but it does have some really cool ideas and go to some interesting places, especially for the time it came out. Definitely not helped by its translation and the horrendously limited character text which leads to things being really hard to figure out what it is or what it's talking about (things like abbreviated everything, like Earth Key being E.Key).

Speaking of the E Key, USE IT! One of the best pieces of advice is that a lot of items have use in battle, and stuff like the E Key that you get really early on does some kind of earthquake attack to all enemies and you can use it infinitely.
 
Yea, BoF is hard to recommend these days. There's some neat ideas in it like the transformations, overworld map abilities, and the ability to freely swap party members in/out during combat, but it's a pretty average game I think in hindsight. Also the second wind mechanic on bosses is neat the first time you see it but then it just makes every boss into a slog.

The main reason I picked BoF up back in the day was that Squaresoft handled the publishing instead of Capcom and I was looking to whatever was Square's next thing after Final Fantasy II, and there really wasn't a whole lot else on the horizon at the time (for whatever reason I thought Secret of Mana looked appealing but never sought it out as a kid). It would be another month or two before Nintendo Power went into full on hype mode for Final Fantasy III so BoF kinda hit at the right time.

Playing the rest of the games in the series has always been a bit of a gaming bucket list thing (I remember seeing BoF 3 on display outside a Babbages in the mall whcih made me realize all the SNES 3rd party franchises had jumped ship to Playstation) but it's certainly down towards the bottom in terms of priority.
Oh yeah that second wind was surprising, I didn’t expect it to be on every boss. Because my brother had Breath of Fire, I’ve also been interested in ultimately playing the rest of the games so I have the first four between Nintendo and PlayStation. I haven’t seen the rest at all. I plan to play BOF 1 and 2 ultimately this year.
Breath of Fire is a bit tough to go back to, but it does have some really cool ideas and go to some interesting places, especially for the time it came out. Definitely not helped by its translation and the horrendously limited character text which leads to things being really hard to figure out what it is or what it's talking about (things like abbreviated everything, like Earth Key being E.Key).

Speaking of the E Key, USE IT! One of the best pieces of advice is that a lot of items have use in battle, and stuff like the E Key that you get really early on does some kind of earthquake attack to all enemies and you can use it infinitely.
Wow I had no idea that you could use the keys or that they were unlimited in use! I’m excited to try that out! The limited character count is frustrating, though I like how creative they had to be at times with only four characters to name everything.
 
I haven't posted about it in this topic yet, but Chained Echoes is really, really good. I'm around 12 hours into it and it just keeps getting better. I have a few quibbles: So far the plot is a bit predictable, but it's well-written enough and seems to be leading toward some things that are going to be much more interesting soon; sometimes the action that happens on-screen or cutscene transitions are a bit abrupt and you have to fill in the gaps a bit (since not everything is animated or shown); and some other small stuff, but it's all very minor.

The really interesting thing to look at is what this game is pulling from in terms of other games, since it's very clearly taking a lot of cues from older RPGs (but in a good way!). The biggest, most obvious ones are Chrono Trigger and FF6, but there's also some amount of FF12, Xenoblade, and others in here. Actually a lot of the big open areas you can explore remind me somewhat of CrossCode, too.

Anyway, I can definitely say that if you like turn-based RPGs that draw from a lot of the classics, Chained Echoes is probably going to click with you. It also has really nice graphics (a mix of bright and hand-drawn/cartoon look with really good pixel art), great music, and just feels well-crafted across the board.
 
I haven't posted about it in this topic yet, but Chained Echoes is really, really good. I'm around 12 hours into it and it just keeps getting better. I have a few quibbles: So far the plot is a bit predictable, but it's well-written enough and seems to be leading toward some things that are going to be much more interesting soon; sometimes the action that happens on-screen or cutscene transitions are a bit abrupt and you have to fill in the gaps a bit (since not everything is animated or shown); and some other small stuff, but it's all very minor.

The really interesting thing to look at is what this game is pulling from in terms of other games, since it's very clearly taking a lot of cues from older RPGs (but in a good way!). The biggest, most obvious ones are Chrono Trigger and FF6, but there's also some amount of FF12, Xenoblade, and others in here. Actually a lot of the big open areas you can explore remind me somewhat of CrossCode, too.

Anyway, I can definitely say that if you like turn-based RPGs that draw from a lot of the classics, Chained Echoes is probably going to click with you. It also has really nice graphics (a mix of bright and hand-drawn/cartoon look with really good pixel art), great music, and just feels well-crafted across the board.
I fully agree. Chained Echoes is amazing.

I finished Final Fantasy VII remake, so much better than I dared to hope for. Fun battle system, incredible graphics, very interesting story, fleshed out characters, superb music... Just a 10/10
 
I was not expecting Chained Echoes to expand as much as it just did, dang. Feels like once you finish ‘Act 1’ (it’s not labeled that but it’s what it feels like) the game really lets you go wild, and it’s awesome.
 
I’ve only played about an hour more since I last posted, enough to explore and beat the next dungeon, but I have to thank @SammyJ9 for the big tip on using the Earth Key in Breath of Fire. Together with Ryu’s Boomerang I picked up at the end of the last time I played I was mowing down mobs left and right. Nina does like five damage by herself right now to one enemy, while the infinite use Earth Key does 30 damage to everyone! Obscene stuff.

Before I really dove into combat and the dungeon today I realized I am committing at this point to Breath of Fire as I’m in the mood for this type of experience. I just got a third party member, Bo, who of course wields a bow, but more importantly can also cast offensive spells so I’m hoping combat will become a tad more interesting from now on where I’m not just trading blows still.
 
I’ve only played about an hour more since I last posted, enough to explore and beat the next dungeon, but I have to thank @SammyJ9 for the big tip on using the Earth Key in Breath of Fire. Together with Ryu’s Boomerang I picked up at the end of the last time I played I was mowing down mobs left and right. Nina does like five damage by herself right now to one enemy, while the infinite use Earth Key does 30 damage to everyone! Obscene stuff.

Before I really dove into combat and the dungeon today I realized I am committing at this point to Breath of Fire as I’m in the mood for this type of experience. I just got a third party member, Bo, who of course wields a bow, but more importantly can also cast offensive spells so I’m hoping combat will become a tad more interesting from now on where I’m not just trading blows still.
From what I remember, the Earth Key always does 30 damage to everything, forever. So it’s incredibly OP super early in the game and gradually gets less and less useful over time. But it still has uses for a surprisingly long while!

And yeah poor Nina is an E Key machine early on, lol
 
The "westernization" era of Japanese publishers was a Bad Time. It's going to be fascinating to see what games from the 360/PS3 era get fondly remembered starting around this time. I'm happy XIII is starting to see more acceptance lately.
Yes. Back then, it felt like the only route forward for enjoying Japanese games was on handhelds. I still rememeber people trying to convince me that Ni no Kuni and Tales of Vesperia were comparable to the classics. FF13 is amazing. I'm glad more people are seeing it now.
Agree. I wish we could see what the current landscape would look like if they hadn't gone that route.. but on the other hand, without that era we wouldn't have had the fans begging for a return to the classics and that begging very well may have given them the roadmap to be the way they are now. Dunno.


I mean, I honestly felt kinda weird while playing Nier Replicant because it retained so, so, so much of that era's flavor. 😅
NieR Replicant's new version is so amazing, that I put off replaying it after Xbox and Steam Deck to wait for a Switch version. I also love the new Kaine and old one.
I feel like Project Re Fantasy has been kicking around so long it has to be that.
I hope so, but I'm not expecting it. I feel like this year will see Atlus give some update on it, but do more ports (SMT5 more platforms, SH2 Switch).
I think the only thing from Square I really cared about between FFXII and the Switch was getting the Dragon Quest games released on DS/3DS. I’m finally back to picking up their games on a regular basis these days given their Switch output though.
Square Enix had such an amazing 2022 across smaller and larger titles. I liked almost everything (not babylon and chocobo). Not an RPG but did you play The Centennial Case? What an amazing game.

Sorry I forgot to reply and agree to these posts before.
 
Sort of..

It was more like Chrono Trigger led to Chrono Trigger 2 which very quickly morphed into Xenogears and Square top brass cutting the game content short and telling the team they couldn't make their planned prequels/sequels led to a lot of the CT/XG team splitting off and forming Monolith.

The FF connection really only being that the story Takahashi, Saga, and Kato devised was initially a pitch for a potential FF7, which Square didn't like because it was too dark and too scifi so they said to make it a sequel to Chrono Trigger instead, and shortly after the CT team began development (this time with Takahashi in the lead instead of Tokita), opinions between top brass and Sakaguchi/Takahashi over what a "Chrono Trigger 2" should be fell apart, so they quickly reworked it into a standalone IP and then Square went and made Chrono Cross without a lot of the original team, while Takahashi et al prepared to split off into their own company.

But in spirit, yeah that all still belongs on the right imo.

Sorry, that was a shorter rant in my head. 😅
There's still a good amount of Xenogears who stayed behind to work on Chrono Cross and some even made the jump to MonolithSoft after it was done. Most notably are Yasuyuki Honne, Hiroshi Uchiyama, Koh Arai, and Norihiro Takami. All 4 worked on Xenosaga Episode 1 after CC and became key staff at MonolithSoft.
 
Yes. Back then, it felt like the only route forward for enjoying Japanese games was on handhelds. I still rememeber people trying to convince me that Ni no Kuni and Tales of Vesperia were comparable to the classics.
Well it's not too different right now with the number of Japanese games on Switch :LOL:

FF13 is amazing. I'm glad more people are seeing it now.
It's the rule of "wait a decade". It's just following in the footsteps of things like Wind Waker.

There's still a good amount of Xenogears who stayed behind to work on Chrono Cross and some even made the jump to MonolithSoft after it was done. Most notably are Yasuyuki Honne, Hiroshi Uchiyama, Koh Arai, and Norihiro Takami. All 4 worked on Xenosaga Episode 1 after CC and became key staff at MonolithSoft.
I think some of the Xenogears team went onto Final Fantasy XI as well?
 
I just bought Tales of Vesperia at sale, don't started play yet. What's the tips and what to expect this game? Never played any other Tales besides Symphonia on GC many years ago.
 
There are so many amazing RPGs released these days that I can't fathom investing time into worrying about Persona 6 especially given how long and drawn out the reveal to release was for Persona 5.

Also OP, as a longtime lurker, you make some of the best posts on this forum. Thank you!

Persona 6 and Dragon Quest XII are both gonna hang over top of the "turn based JRPG fan" hype cycle for a while, even with nothing or next-to-nothing revealed on both. We're rolling up on 6-7 years from the original Japanese release of both games' prequels, which are some of the finest JRPGs ever made, so it's natural that fans are starting to expect something to happen.
 
I just bought Tales of Vesperia at sale, don't started play yet. What's the tips and what to expect this game? Never played any other Tales besides Symphonia on GC many years ago.
Vesperia is actually pretty close to Symphonia on the gameplay front so if you remember that game vaguely enough you should have a good idea what to expect. Big new thing is you can hold one of the triggers to freely walk around the battlefield which can be helpful. Other than that, just know it is a bit of slow burn and it is quite long. I only played the original 360 version at launch so I can’t say what it’ll be like today exactly, but I did ultimately like it a lot back in the day.
 
Persona 6 and Dragon Quest XII are both gonna hang over top of the "turn based JRPG fan" hype cycle for a while, even with nothing or next-to-nothing revealed on both. We're rolling up on 6-7 years from the original Japanese release of both games' prequels, which are some of the finest JRPGs ever made, so it's natural that fans are starting to expect something to happen.
Yes, I can see that point of view, but I cannot imagine someone claims to be a fan of turn-based JRPGs, but will not be excited for Octopath Traveler II out next month first. Even if someone didn't like how the story was handled in the first game, Octopath Traveler II is a massively exciting release IMO!
 
Tonight in Chained Echoes:

I’m sorry what the actual fuck just happened? This is going places! Every time the story seems to be heading in a more standard direction something pops up or changes or mixes things up to throw me off again, and it’s great.
 
Persona 6 and Dragon Quest XII are both gonna hang over top of the "turn based JRPG fan" hype cycle for a while, even with nothing or next-to-nothing revealed on both. We're rolling up on 6-7 years from the original Japanese release of both games' prequels, which are some of the finest JRPGs ever made, so it's natural that fans are starting to expect something to happen.

Yep! Turn-based JRPG superfan. P6 and DQ XII are my golden goose games right now.

I hope they stay the course and stick to turn-based combat despite (what seems like) a rapidly decreasing amount of turn-based combat from more prominent IPs. (They haven't given me any reason to doubt I'm just voicing my desires.)
 
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I’m invested in Breath of Fire at this point and it’s currently now the only game I’m playing so I’m making some great progress. If the guide I’m glancing at occasionally to see how I’m doing is divided well, I’m getting pretty close to the halfway point. Today I got both the Dark and Light keys and now have the fourth party member. While most encounters are straightforward still, there’s enough going on now that I’m engaged often enough. I think today was when I finally learned Warp which is a great QOL bump which makes it easy to revisit areas. The fourth character is a thief and can open all of the locked doors you saw previously so I had fun running back and getting some gnarly equipment. The game’s story is often loosely sketched, but I thought the story of the giant golem was fairly interesting in how it played out. Seems to be an exception so far sadly, but I’m excited to keep going nonetheless.

One other RPG thing to talk about, I finally sat down and watched the first two episodes of the Nier Automata anime. I was a bit worried after the first episode of it feeling redundant and just capturing the surface of the game, but the second episode told an original story which was much more interesting following different characters while still weaving in the big beats. I’m feeling pretty hopeful this is going to be more worthwhile now. Also, every episode ends in a puppet show and they are awesome lol.
 
One other RPG thing to talk about, I finally sat down and watched the first two episodes of the Nier Automata anime. I was a bit worried after the first episode of it feeling redundant and just capturing the surface of the game, but the second episode told an original story which was much more interesting following different characters while still weaving in the big beats. I’m feeling pretty hopeful this is going to be more worthwhile now. Also, every episode ends in a puppet show and they are awesome lol.
This is a relief. I haven't started myself but I saw a loooot of negative fan feedback, even some people tagging Yoko Taro abd saying they can't believe he approved it and such. Happy to hear they started it bland but yanked the carpet out from under people quickly. 😅
 
Played a good deal more of Breath of Fire today and I’m definitely in the back half now. Started the day heading underwater and visiting Prima (an underwater town filled with fish people and tons of shops) which was one of the big parts I remembered from way back in the day especially with that wavy underwater effect. This stretch of the game was pretty solid as it has a good sense of adventure. I loved the underwater section and breaking into the fort and castle to rescue the villagers of Ox’s town and his wife. I also enjoyed that party members spoke up more with Gobi in particular having a fun personality.

The most satisfying development today was definitely acquiring my first transformation spell for Karn. I was aware he had them, but I was definitely surprised @shoptroll how it works in practice! I remembered the sprite for Shin, but had no idea it was tied to Karn or had to do with fusion. The big thing for those unfamiliar, with each spell he learns he can fuse with set characters and form one super character. In Shin’s case, he pulls in both Bo and Gobi which is excellent because Shin’s damage output is much higher than Bo’s best spell which is absurd and he gets a ton of HP (two to even three times more than the rest of the party members) and better defense in the process. There’s basically no downside here considering all three characters keep gaining XP normally except weirdly you have to reapply the spell after certain cutscenes. I think it’s a pretty cool way to make use of characters who’d otherwise sit on the bench now that I have more than four members. One last thing, with Shin and Ox in the party especially I’m getting to make use of auto battle more regularly which is a nice feature to speed past the battles/turns that don’t require any attention.
 
Tales of Arise sure did go on and on and on and on, but I finally beat the story. Had fun, but also had my fill, so I will leave finishing off the sidequests for a later date (maybe).
 
The most satisfying development today was definitely acquiring my first transformation spell for Karn. I was aware he had them, but I was definitely surprised @shoptroll how it works in practice! I remembered the sprite for Shin, but had no idea it was tied to Karn or had to do with fusion. The big thing for those unfamiliar, with each spell he learns he can fuse with set characters and form one super character. In Shin’s case, he pulls in both Bo and Gobi which is excellent because Shin’s damage output is much higher than Bo’s best spell which is absurd and he gets a ton of HP (two to even three times more than the rest of the party members) and better defense in the process. There’s basically no downside here considering all three characters keep gaining XP normally except weirdly you have to reapply the spell after certain cutscenes. I think it’s a pretty cool way to make use of characters who’d otherwise sit on the bench now that I have more than four members. One last thing, with Shin and Ox in the party especially I’m getting to make use of auto battle more regularly which is a nice feature to speed past the battles/turns that don’t require any attention.
Shin is also a lot faster on the bow than Bo when you're out on the overworld, so some of the hunting is significantly easier to do!

The only other thing I'll say about Karn's transforms is you may want to consult a walkthrough or Wiki for their locations. Shin was pretty easy to get but I recall some of the later ones are tucked away pretty good and they're nearly essential for some of the bosses or getting access to some good equipment.
 
Shin is also a lot faster on the bow than Bo when you're out on the overworld, so some of the hunting is significantly easier to do!

The only other thing I'll say about Karn's transforms is you may want to consult a walkthrough or Wiki for their locations. Shin was pretty easy to get but I recall some of the later ones are tucked away pretty good and they're nearly essential for some of the bosses or getting access to some good equipment.
That’s cool! Is hunting required at any point? I’m guessing it is how you get Meat at least. I’m glancing at a guide occasionally to make sure I don’t miss things while I mostly push forward. There’s been a few too many did you grab this not obvious thing for main quest progression moments. Hopefully I won’t miss out, but I also want to feel like I’m not staring at it the whole way lol.
 
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Quick Breath of Fire update: played a good amount today and just reached Mogu’s Dream World. This is the last part of the game I remembered walking in from watching my brother play decades ago. Enemies here are tough to the point Shin actually got one shotted once. Hoping to wrap this game up over the weekend.
 
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Well going into the Archons roost in dominion of hate in Live a Live with my level 19 team of ninja, psychic, Lei and wrestler hope I’m ready. I do have all their weapons from the bonus dungeons
 
Tales of Arise sure did go on and on and on and on, but I finally beat the story. Had fun, but also had my fill, so I will leave finishing off the sidequests for a later date (maybe).
That game's second act is the weakest part of the game, but man I LOVED Arise. Really looking forward to what's next for Tales of.
 
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[Long-er post warning, opinions are (and can only be lol) my own]

Alrighty, Ryza 2 done, and yes, I will in fact now rant about it at length, and HERE.

Never have I succumbed to sunk cost fallacy more than I have for this game. For starters, obviously, and I mean obviously, the game is competently done. It works, it looks and sounds nice, and, in this direct sequel to what is a semi-annualized looong-running series, they sure made an effort to switch things up... but Christ, it is massively flawed, and I'm honestly surprised people don't seem to care that much?

I feel like the game has three main problems: the first (and by far the biggest one), its narrative, and by narrative I mean everything relating to its writing, not just the main story. Second, its exploration, somehow often praised. And third, its tutorials.

When it comes to the narrative department Atelier, at least in my limited experience (I had only played the first Ryza before 2), goes for a moderately slice-of-life approach with a worldendingclassicjrpgstakes side dish. Unfortunately, I must say, it's hard to parse what exactly the writers wanted to do with 2, or rather, I'd say they tried to do both (once) again but this time failed spectacularly at both.

First thing's first, the plot is non-existent. I'll try to keep it decently spoiler free (not that there's anything to spoil, and re-reading my post this is basically it), but the gang goes from ruin to ruin a la Indiana Jones looking for Crystals to drain their energy. At first this happens by pure chance, while later on voluntarily (to "save" Fi). After the 4th/5th ruin they realize they've fucked up and unleashed danger upon their world, they then kill the baddy and save the day. Ah yes, there's a deus ex machina too at the end. Not that anybody cares anyways.

Now, in a way the main climax of the story is Ryza's relationship with Fi, I get it. And that in itself would be fine, I wasn't even particularly annoyed by the mascot-cute pet character as others were! Problems arise though when the story's pacing proves itself to be absolutely abysmal, and as boring and predictable as can be, given that nothing of note happens BETWEEN or TO the characters during said story.

The thing is, it feels like the writers didn't care about the game's actual story, they likely felt that having a lore backdrop play out as a mystery the player pieces together (i.e. having the ruins tell the past of an ancient civilization's fall to demise) was interesting. It is not. Not only it kills the pacing of the exploration, meaning, "now please backtrack and pick up the sparkling thingies as you try to dodge/face the enemy encounters", but the dialogue delivered by said thingies, either in universe by floating ghosts, or by annoyingly having to match in your exploration diary option "A" to "2", C to 8, etc. (putting together an extremely simple puzzle, which is nothing but tedium*), feels needlessly oblique (probably? I stopped caring incredibly quickly) and of NO weight whatsoever. Why on earth would I care about some random ancient civilization that has pretty much no bearing on the ACTUAL characters of the story, please. Not only that, it pretty much has no bearing on the world itself either.

After the second ruin I was kinda done, though I didn't drop the game, as I'd imagine anybody who has any semblance of self-love would do.

Now then, why did I say narrative and not just story? Because not only the main plot is awful and poorly paced, but the slice of life moments/quests of the main cast (add to that a couple of "main" extras) are incredibly average too. All as basic as it gets, with terribly dry dialogue most of the time. The unexpected offender though? They are all voiced! So you can have fun either mashing through the characters' half delivered lines/grunts or sit back and enjoy the insanely mid anime playing out in front of you. As if that wasn't enough I can't help but wonder how on earth do you have so many scenes and STILL manage do the bare minimum for your characters. Did I mention how you could remove two out of the three new playable characters (synonym with main characters here) and the entire narrative department would be unaffected? Yeah, 'cause that's a thing too. Clifford and Serri might as well not have been a part of the game for all they do with them, heck, maybe they could have used their screen time to do more with the rest of the cast.

Oh yeah, one other thing that bothered me quite a bit: why are half of the systems in the game absolutely useless for an average playthrough? And more importantly, why is the game so bad at tutorials? How come I have to pick up on half of the mechanics of the combat system through a YouTube video? Why do I learn of new things (on my own) literally in the final dungeon of the game?

A smaller nuisance to conclude, Gust, could you lovely folks tone down the bloom**?! When it's too much it can feel sooo garish, and amplify rather than diminish the (understandable) cheapness of the game.

Yeah there's more to say, both positive and negative, but the game doesn't really deserve it either way. Side note: I'm in awe of peeps like @xghost777 who manage to write so many long posts with their impressions and insights, it's kind of a draining activity ahahah, though to be fair useful and rewarding in and of itself


* though maybe it's the epitome of the RPG. Do nothing of note and watch the numbers increase! Marvel at that completion bar filling up!
** I played the game on PS4 so maybe visuals being paired back on Switch might actually help
 
Hi fellow RPG fans. It has been (gasp) six months since I posted here???? That is far to long. I haven't really been playing RPGs of late. Well that is about to change. Fire Emblem arrived a short while ago and I will be diving deep very soon.

Besides that, I have a few other RPGs on the "to play" list for early 2023. Looking forward to yapping about all of it here!
 
[Long-er post warning, opinions are (and can only be lol) my own]

Alrighty, Ryza 2 done, and yes, I will in fact now rant about it at length, and HERE.

Never have I succumbed to sunk cost fallacy more than I have for this game. For starters, obviously, and I mean obviously, the game is competently done. It works, it looks and sounds nice, and, in this direct sequel to what is a semi-annualized looong-running series, they sure made an effort to switch things up... but Christ, it is massively flawed, and I'm honestly surprised people don't seem to care that much?

I feel like the game has three main problems: the first (and by far the biggest one), its narrative, and by narrative I mean everything relating to its writing, not just the main story. Second, its exploration, somehow often praised. And third, its tutorials.

When it comes to the narrative department Atelier, at least in my limited experience (I had only played the first Ryza before 2), goes for a moderately slice-of-life approach with a worldendingclassicjrpgstakes side dish. Unfortunately, I must say, it's hard to parse what exactly the writers wanted to do with 2, or rather, I'd say they tried to do both (once) again but this time failed spectacularly at both.

First thing's first, the plot is non-existent. I'll try to keep it decently spoiler free (not that there's anything to spoil, and re-reading my post this is basically it), but the gang goes from ruin to ruin a la Indiana Jones looking for Crystals to drain their energy. At first this happens by pure chance, while later on voluntarily (to "save" Fi). After the 4th/5th ruin they realize they've fucked up and unleashed danger upon their world, they then kill the baddy and save the day. Ah yes, there's a deus ex machina too at the end. Not that anybody cares anyways.

Now, in a way the main climax of the story is Ryza's relationship with Fi, I get it. And that in itself would be fine, I wasn't even particularly annoyed by the mascot-cute pet character as others were! Problems arise though when the story's pacing proves itself to be absolutely abysmal, and as boring and predictable as can be, given that nothing of note happens BETWEEN or TO the characters during said story.

The thing is, it feels like the writers didn't care about the game's actual story, they likely felt that having a lore backdrop play out as a mystery the player pieces together (i.e. having the ruins tell the past of an ancient civilization's fall to demise) was interesting. It is not. Not only it kills the pacing of the exploration, meaning, "now please backtrack and pick up the sparkling thingies as you try to dodge/face the enemy encounters", but the dialogue delivered by said thingies, either in universe by floating ghosts, or by annoyingly having to match in your exploration diary option "A" to "2", C to 8, etc. (putting together an extremely simple puzzle, which is nothing but tedium*), feels needlessly oblique (probably? I stopped caring incredibly quickly) and of NO weight whatsoever. Why on earth would I care about some random ancient civilization that has pretty much no bearing on the ACTUAL characters of the story, please. Not only that, it pretty much has no bearing on the world itself either.

After the second ruin I was kinda done, though I didn't drop the game, as I'd imagine anybody who has any semblance of self-love would do.

Now then, why did I say narrative and not just story? Because not only the main plot is awful and poorly paced, but the slice of life moments/quests of the main cast (add to that a couple of "main" extras) are incredibly average too. All as basic as it gets, with terribly dry dialogue most of the time. The unexpected offender though? They are all voiced! So you can have fun either mashing through the characters' half delivered lines/grunts or sit back and enjoy the insanely mid anime playing out in front of you. As if that wasn't enough I can't help but wonder how on earth do you have so many scenes and STILL manage do the bare minimum for your characters. Did I mention how you could remove two out of the three new playable characters (synonym with main characters here) and the entire narrative department would be unaffected? Yeah, 'cause that's a thing too. Clifford and Serri might as well not have been a part of the game for all they do with them, heck, maybe they could have used their screen time to do more with the rest of the cast.

Oh yeah, one other thing that bothered me quite a bit: why are half of the systems in the game absolutely useless for an average playthrough? And more importantly, why is the game so bad at tutorials? How come I have to pick up on half of the mechanics of the combat system through a YouTube video? Why do I learn of new things (on my own) literally in the final dungeon of the game?

A smaller nuisance to conclude, Gust, could you lovely folks tone down the bloom**?! When it's too much it can feel sooo garish, and amplify rather than diminish the (understandable) cheapness of the game.

Yeah there's more to say, both positive and negative, but the game doesn't really deserve it either way. Side note: I'm in awe of peeps like @xghost777 who manage to write so many long posts with their impressions and insights, it's kind of a draining activity ahahah, though to be fair useful and rewarding in and of itself


* though maybe it's the epitome of the RPG. Do nothing of note and watch the numbers increase! Marvel at that completion bar filling up!
** I played the game on PS4 so maybe visuals being paired back on Switch might actually help
The main issue with the general scenario in 2 is that Gust decided to change the main writer, which is why it feels that a lot of things are disconnected (he also was the main scenario director of Atelier Shallie which IMO was also the weakest one of the Dusk Trilogy and I think it share some of the same issues of where the story is going) Thankfully the original Ryza 1 writer returns for Ryza 3
 
The main issue with the general scenario in 2 is that Gust decided to change the main writer, which is why it feels that a lot of things are disconnected (he also was the main scenario director of Atelier Shallie which IMO was also the weakest one of the Dusk Trilogy and I think it share some of the same issues of where the story is going) Thankfully the original Ryza 1 writer returns for Ryza 3
Glad to hear that in case I actually decide to (ever) pick up 3. Though yeah, it will undoubtably undergo severe scrutiny should I consider finishing the trilogy.
 
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Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but does anyone know if the Xenoblade Chronicles DE Switch soundtrack was ever announced/released? I own the wii game soundtrack, but we never got the new arranged / remix songs did we?
 
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My grinding in Ni No Kuni 2 is so aggravating. I am facing enemies 6-8 levels ahead of me with my tactic tweaker set and barely getting exp for most of my party thats behind. I just don't like the loop of this game. ANytime I want to go forward to make progress in the main story it feels like it wants me to stop. Like the barrier to start going to Dropleaf being needing to wait to get town guild to build in my hometown the ship yard? YUCK.
 


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