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

Hello friends. Any JRPG recommendations for a JRPG novice? I tried the Monster Hunter Stories 2 demo and liked it, but I’m hesitant to buy it because the performance was absolutely atrocious.

I’ve also played some earlier Dragon Quest games on the DS back in the day and really liked them. Anything similar to that on the Switch?

I don’t really like Final Fantasy. I’ve tried a few of them and they’re just not my thing.

I love Pokémon, Fire Emblem, and Monster Hunter.
 
Hello friends. Any JRPG recommendations for a JRPG novice? I tried the Monster Hunter Stories 2 demo and liked it, but I’m hesitant to buy it because the performance was absolutely atrocious.

I’ve also played some earlier Dragon Quest games on the DS back in the day and really liked them. Anything similar to that on the Switch?

I don’t really like Final Fantasy. I’ve tried a few of them and they’re just not my thing.

I love Pokémon, Fire Emblem, and Monster Hunter.
If you liked the Dragon Quest games on DS and haven’t played Dragon Quest XI yet that’s a great place to start. It has a huge ten hour demo where your save transfers if you decide to get the full game.

I’m also strongly recommending every JRPG fan to check out Trails From Zero. I wrote a giant post recommending it in this thread:

 
If you liked the Dragon Quest games on DS and haven’t played Dragon Quest XI yet that’s a great place to start. It has a huge ten hour demo where your save transfers if you decide to get the full game.

I’m also strongly recommending every JRPG fan to check out Trails From Zero. I wrote a giant post recommending it in this thread:


Thanks! I’ve never heard of Trails from Zero but I just looked it up and it seems pretty interesting! Plus it has a great review score on Metacritic. I’ll check out your review.
 
Hello friends. Any JRPG recommendations for a JRPG novice? I tried the Monster Hunter Stories 2 demo and liked it, but I’m hesitant to buy it because the performance was absolutely atrocious.

I’ve also played some earlier Dragon Quest games on the DS back in the day and really liked them. Anything similar to that on the Switch?

I don’t really like Final Fantasy. I’ve tried a few of them and they’re just not my thing.

I love Pokémon, Fire Emblem, and Monster Hunter.
Branching off of what Ghost said, look for stuff that has a demo. Dragon Quest XI, Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy, Bravely Default II, and some of the Disgaea games all have one, and I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting.

If you’re willing to take a bit of a risk outside your comfort zone, then Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is a good shout as a beloved JRPG too.
 
Hello friends. Any JRPG recommendations for a JRPG novice? I tried the Monster Hunter Stories 2 demo and liked it, but I’m hesitant to buy it because the performance was absolutely atrocious.

I’ve also played some earlier Dragon Quest games on the DS back in the day and really liked them. Anything similar to that on the Switch?

I don’t really like Final Fantasy. I’ve tried a few of them and they’re just not my thing.

I love Pokémon, Fire Emblem, and Monster Hunter.
Persona 5 Royal drops on Switch this month, and that's one of the best jrpgs this generation
 
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Haven’t posted generally in a while so now seems like a good time as we enter the last three months of the year. I was very busy in September on a few fronts so I just didn’t have much time for gaming in general and most of it went to Splatoon so I wasn’t posting here. Walking into this month at least, my schedule is much more open and I’m done with Splatoon for now so I’m back on for RPGs!

I’m currently 7.5 hours into my Trails From Zero replay which is the game I most want to play right now. It’s a super cozy experience and even more so as it’s my second time enjoying it. I’m still early, as I haven’t even left Crossbell to head to Armorica Village yet, but I should set out soon. Just spent an hour in the casino to get some good early equipment and then I have to finish my second sweep of the city talking to everyone. The Arc En Ciel theme is perfect for them and the casino incidentally.

Beyond Trails I have a playthrough of Rhapsody started that I paused once I entered the September black hole of sorts I mentioned earlier. I want to get back to that soon since I enjoyed what I played, but worst case I’ll finish it before the end of the year. My high priority gaming for the rest of the year is Mario and Rabbids 2 (which I expect to be massive given how big the first game was), Bayonetta 3 (not an RPG, probably short), and Pokemon Violet (which I have no clue how into I’ll be or not, Arceus got me back on board, but this is different). I’m probably adding any other RPGs I pick up into my backlog, as I want to shift gears back into my 3DS deep backlog asap since the March eshop closure is less than six months away.



I also want to mention, I did make a Team JRPG club. I threw it out as a joke in the Clubs announcement thread, but after receiving some interest I decided to make it official. The heart of the team is JRPGs, but any RPG fan is welcome to join! I also made a Team Squid Club and a Famiboards Anime Club as well. You can join all three if you want!

 
I've been enjoying a lot SAO AL. Despite the heavy graphical cutbacks the style of the game works very well in the context of the series (this is my first SAO game, I know about the others but always find the Aincrad story a little boring and wasn't interested in the shooting with GGO) and I don't know how to express it, it has a certian skymrish feel in how the quests and the rpg elements works, which I liked a lot. The combat also has a lot of deep mechanics but I'm still at the tutorial chapter so I'm not seeing them too much as monsters at this point doesn't need specific tactics.

The only thing I find weird is the store, and there are two types, one with real money and another one with gacha obtained from quests. They sell a lot of things, like costumes (of course the goddam swimsuits), expressions and boost items (like gain more xp, etc). I guess it's expected from Bamco but the first time I logged in the store was like "the hell? this is on the same level like KT DoA DLC" except here it doesn't seem you can buy anything in batch, which maybe or not a good thing. At least all the costumes are universal (as in you don't have to buy it for earch character) if you want anything, but it seems a little excesive to me
 
Bravely Default series 10th Anniversary Stream happening 10/11:



I'm not personally expecting anything new with Team Asano being busy with OP II and DQ3R but this is the time of 1000 Square-Enix games so who knows anymore

Wouldn't be surprised if Bravely Default 2 gets ported to PS4 or something
 
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Bravely Default series 10th Anniversary Stream happening 10/11:



I'm not personally expecting anything new with Team Asano being busy with OP II and DQ3R but this is the time of 1000 Square-Enix games so who knows anymore

I'm not really expecting anything new here either, but I'm pretty sure Asano is working with an expanded team of producers at this point. Team Asano is working with many external studios on these projects, so I wouldn't be surprised to see more projects sooner rather than later.
 
Pop Team Epic Season 2 started airing and had a very fun RPG thing in episode 1. Most recommend watching it in context of the full episode so I’ll put it behind a spoiler tag:



If it gets taken down, they worked with Square again and had a very silly found footage segment where Popuko and Pipimi get chased in the woods at night by a chocobo. They then do a dance with one with the theme going. It was very silly lol.
 
If you liked the Dragon Quest games on DS and haven’t played Dragon Quest XI yet that’s a great place to start. It has a huge ten hour demo where your save transfers if you decide to get the full game.

I’m also strongly recommending every JRPG fan to check out Trails From Zero. I wrote a giant post recommending it in this thread:


Hey. I'm just chiming back in to say I read your post, and you convinced me to buy Trails From Zero. I started the game and I'm about ~30 minutes in and just got to the first battle sequence in the tunnel, and I am really loving it. The art style is great! This is my first Trails game (actually, I had never even heard of Falcom before this) and I'm excited!
 
Hey. I'm just chiming back in to say I read your post, and you convinced me to buy Trails From Zero. I started the game and I'm about ~30 minutes in and just got to the first battle sequence in the tunnel, and I am really loving it. The art style is great! This is my first Trails game (actually, I had never even heard of Falcom before this) and I'm excited!
Awesome I’m glad :)
 
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Bravely Default series 10th Anniversary Stream happening 10/11:



I'm not personally expecting anything new with Team Asano being busy with OP II and DQ3R but this is the time of 1000 Square-Enix games so who knows anymore

Yeah seems a little early for any big announcements, the most we'll get is a Yuji Hori-ish off-hand comment like: "the game is in pre-production" or something, which Asano has kind of already done, stating in a recent interview that the series will continue. But maybe we'll be all surprised, who knows. Also this is where I admit I have yet to play a BD game, waiting for a bigger sale on BDII. (Please forgive me 😅)

On an unrelated note, kind of cross-posting from the E-Shop thread but, is Cat Quest II worth it? Not expecting anything mind-blowing, just a fun time ahah.
 
On an unrelated note, kind of cross-posting from the E-Shop thread but, is Cat Quest II worth it? Not expecting anything mind-blowing, just a fun time ahah.

I liked it a lot, its very simple but you still can get some equipment and magic combinations that makes the combat more interesting, and has a LOT of dog and cat jokes. Also once you finish it you can unlock new game with modifiers for enemy levels, game speed, etc, for more replay value. The only thing to consider is that the gameplay works better when playing co-op, but it's still enjoybable as a single player
 
I liked it a lot, its very simple but you still can get some equipment and magic combinations that makes the combat more interesting, and has a LOT of dog and cat jokes. Also once you finish it you can unlock new game with modifiers for enemy levels, game speed, etc, for more replay value. The only thing to consider is that the gameplay works better when playing co-op, but it's still enjoybable as a single player
Nice, thank you. I MIGHT even manage to play it co-op ahah. Will pick it up for sure.
 
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14 hours and finally finished SAO AL tutorial, and now that the real game starts the game throws you more advanced mechanics that I still don't understand, and a nice thing you can customize Kirito's avatar

Also I can see why they add the option to skip to chapter 2 for new content as for someone that already knows the story the last part of chapter 1 is just a boss rush with long story segments


I thought the original story would be before Administrator as the original character is introduced way earlier, but no, the 1st chapter is the complete story of Alicizarion project, and they change the ending after beating Administrator
 
Good to see Zeboyd has a new game on the way. I was wondering recently what they'd been up to lately, and a Shakespearean JRPG is something I can get 110% behind.



 
Good to see Zeboyd has a new game on the way. I was wondering recently what they'd been up to lately, and a Shakespearean JRPG is something I can get 110% behind.




Finally, was wating for the release date. I really like they make clear its a short RPG
 
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Good to see Zeboyd has a new game on the way. I was wondering recently what they'd been up to lately, and a Shakespearean JRPG is something I can get 110% behind.




Lol, a game tailor-made for my wife.
 
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Yeah, good to see a release date so soon! I also appreciate knowing the game length will be 4 - 5 hours. I can't sit still for a long playthrough on PC. But a couple hours I can do!
 
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Playing through Crystal Project on my Steam Deck right now

You know how there are games that seem to be made for a very specific audience? Crystal Project is one of those, and that audience is exactly me
 
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Good to see Zeboyd has a new game on the way. I was wondering recently what they'd been up to lately, and a Shakespearean JRPG is something I can get 110% behind.




Been looking forward to this one for a while. Hope the inevitable Switch port isn’t too far away.
 
I hate fishing related quests. Continuing playing SAO AL and every map has a fisherman that ask for certain fish.

99% of the times is a rare fish that requires level 10+ in fishing (I'm almost 30 hours in with level 7 in fishing) and has a 5% drop rate. And of course you can't hide markers in the global map, so everytime I look at it every region has the "unfinished quest here" and reminds me my fishiing level sucks
 
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I was hoping to finish Trails from Zero before Mario + Rabbids comes out... haha, not a chance. 30 hours in and maybe a bit over halfway done? At my current pace I probably need another week or two.
 
I‘ve been itching for a good old WRPG lately, and Dragon Quest Inquisition wasn't hitting the spot. Nor am I in the mood for another Skyrim playthrough just yet.

So instead I picked up Oblivion on sale, which I have not played in well over 10 years.

The nostalgia is so real. It's almost like I never left.
 
This is my new favorite Trombone Champ video:


This is perfect lol

Continuing with SAO AL , cant help to think that with more budget they would have been able to make the game prettier regarding graphics. The exploration works similar to any xenoblade as is open world, but its divided in areas, but none of the maps are really big (which helps as you have a lot of quests to do) so they definitely could optimize the graphics there.
 
Anyone here excited for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope?
Only had time to Yeah! earlier, but yes I’m pretty excited for Mario and Rabbids 2. It, Bayonetta 3, and surprisingly for me Pokemon are my most anticipated games for the rest of the year. The first game was a ton of fun and I’m intrigued by the more open structure and tweaks to gameplay like removing the grid. It also has Bowser who is generally the best Mario RPG party member, so I really hope he shines here.

I was hoping to finish my Trails From Zero replay before it, but I’m barely entering Chapter 3 so I think I have a good 30+ hours left the way I’m playing. I’ll have to decide my plan if I’ll drop, juggle, or focus on Trails when Mario arrives on Thursday. Persona 5 Royal and Star Ocean are likely both straight into the backlog for me at this point.
 
I'm super excited for Star Ocean 6 but I don't think that should surprise anyone at this point.

In the meantime I've been watching my best friend (sorta hate-)play P5R while I work, and I have to admit I understand the appeal of the game even less than before. The gameplay looks pretty fun bar some bizarre game design decisions (par for the course for SMT) and the interface still gives me a headache (especially in combat) but the writing is consistently so much worse and so much grosser than I was expecting, and I was already bracing myself. The misogyny is just a constant, and there's so much both active and passive homophobia. I legitimately don't understand how many people (overall, I'm not trying to vague at anyone on Fami) just recommend it uncritically without warning for any of those things, or by downplaying them.
 
Azure is very soon!



Ys IX is coming to PS5 soon too.

Edit: Wanted to add the trailer. If you want to go in blind don’t watch.

 
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Currently breezing through the Dark Brotherhood questline in Oblivion, after having dealt with the Arena first. Will probably finish up all the guild quests and do my victory lap with the main quests.
 
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Is Azure closer to the psp Trials games, or the more recent Vita, Ps4 and Switch games?
Azure is closer to the PSP Sky games and its predecessor Trails From Zero. However, this is also where the tone of the series shifts and becomes an actual problem. There are at least two groping scenes that suck.
 
Finally picked up Trails from Cold Steel 3 from where I left off AND I JUST LOVE IT SO MUCH

I'm a sucker for cheesy stuff, so them hinting at older characters reappearing just has me insanely hyped as well!! Man the whole Trails cast is just so awesome!

And the amount of effort put into this hella long game series and its world building is just awesome too see l, especially when everything starts connecting!
 
I'm super excited for Star Ocean 6 but I don't think that should surprise anyone at this point.

In the meantime I've been watching my best friend (sorta hate-)play P5R while I work, and I have to admit I understand the appeal of the game even less than before. The gameplay looks pretty fun bar some bizarre game design decisions (par for the course for SMT) and the interface still gives me a headache (especially in combat) but the writing is consistently so much worse and so much grosser than I was expecting, and I was already bracing myself. The misogyny is just a constant, and there's so much both active and passive homophobia. I legitimately don't understand how many people (overall, I'm not trying to vague at anyone on Fami) just recommend it uncritically without warning for any of those things, or by downplaying them.
Wanted to reply earlier, but I needed some time to write a post. I feel like in general the core appeal is definitely the JRPG high school stuff where you can make friends and choose how to spend your time, with the after school dungeon crawling coming in second. I can’t speak for others here, but I feel like no game full on does what it does on its level on the social sim front and for some online there is an understanding you know what you are in for to get to the stuff you want from the game which does lead to whiplash for those who have yet to dive in when it’s ultimately far more messy than the high praise suggests.

I know I made the Will It Ever Come To Switch Thread, but despite that my enthusiasm for the series in general is relatively lower compared to others. I think the series has a lot of problems and Persona 5 in particular is extra trashy and more extreme on certain fronts. It also has an arc at the start that raises expectations, Kamoshida being a bully and an abusive creep, but is ultimately comically in a bad way uninterested in living up to the rejection it has for him in terms of being better to the extent it feels like that first part was written by a different team entirely. I think the modern games in general have this huge disconnect at their core as well where it’s battling being accepting of others against excluding others with its gay panic / homophobia for example.

To speak to your post more, I actually don’t recommend this game/series widely to people in person because it is so messy and occasionally straight up hurtful. I think it skated by more criticism from myself and others when it was a smaller series, but at least for myself with Persona 5 exploding the prominence of the franchise and as time goes on I know I’m going to continue to be more critical of the series and other Atlus games moving forward if it doesn’t improve. Unchecked homophobia and transphobia isn’t going to fly with me in future games at all and I’ll be skipping future games if they are present. After Persona 5 in particular, they definitely are aware of the criticisms from their own Western staff at least if not from fans and they have new people in charge so I’m hopeful at least for some positive change.

A bit of tangent to end on, I said in my first paragraph, no one does what they do best on the social sim front, but I really wish we would see a direct competitor come forth that has different values. We have games pulling from parts of Persona, namely the social links, but there is no other high school/college/life social sim out there quite like it. I’d love to have other alternatives for games about making friends and choosing how to spend your free time in real world and fictional settings where that’s the main focus rather than a side feature. Some farming games seemingly touch on this, but I don’t really like farming all that much lol.
 
Wanted to reply earlier, but I needed some time to write a post. I feel like in general the core appeal is definitely the JRPG high school stuff where you can make friends and choose how to spend your time, with the after school dungeon crawling coming in second. I can’t speak for others here, but I feel like no game full on does what it does on its level on the social sim front and for some online there is an understanding you know what you are in for to get to the stuff you want from the game which does lead to whiplash for those who have yet to dive in when it’s ultimately far more messy than the high praise suggests.

I know I made the Will It Ever Come To Switch Thread, but despite that my enthusiasm for the series in general is relatively lower compared to others. I think the series has a lot of problems and Persona 5 in particular is extra trashy and more extreme on certain fronts. It also has an arc at the start that raises expectations, Kamoshida being a bully and an abusive creep, but is ultimately comically in a bad way uninterested in living up to the rejection it has for him in terms of being better to the extent it feels like that first part was written by a different team entirely. I think the modern games in general have this huge disconnect at their core as well where it’s battling being accepting of others against excluding others with its gay panic / homophobia for example.

To speak to your post more, I actually don’t recommend this game/series widely to people in person because it is so messy and occasionally straight up hurtful. I think it skated by more criticism from myself and others when it was a smaller series, but at least for myself with Persona 5 exploding the prominence of the franchise and as time goes on I know I’m going to continue to be more critical of the series and other Atlus games moving forward if it doesn’t improve. Unchecked homophobia and transphobia isn’t going to fly with me in future games at all and I’ll be skipping future games if they are present. After Persona 5 in particular, they definitely are aware of the criticisms from their own Western staff at least if not from fans and they have new people in charge so I’m hopeful at least for some positive change.

A bit of tangent to end on, I said in my first paragraph, no one does what they do best on the social sim front, but I really wish we would see a direct competitor come forth that has different values. We have games pulling from parts of Persona, namely the social links, but there is no other high school/college/life social sim out there quite like it. I’d love to have other alternatives for games about making friends and choosing how to spend your free time in real world and fictional settings where that’s the main focus rather than a side feature. Some farming games seemingly touch on this, but I don’t really like farming all that much lol.
I totally understand the appeal of the social sim parts, and honestly the gameplay loop where the social sim half feeds into the JRPG half and vice-versa seems really well-tuned. That bit looks like a lot of fun and I can see how it's the kind of game where the 100+ hours fly by really easily. I think part of my frustration stems from that, the bits that look fun look really fun (and I can't think of many games with those hybrid mechanics) but some of the other bits are so awful that nothing can make me sit through them.

I knew to expect a good chunk of it since I'd heard about what happens with Kamoshida and Ann, and I'm already familiar with some of the shit P3/P4 and Catherine pull, but somehow I wasn't expecting quite as bad as it was given the general reception. It really does continue in the conservative theme of "be yourself! as long as yourself ends up conforming to society and becoming a cop" like the previous games where it thinks it's good for people to be unique but oh ew not that unique. And I don't think I've seen the game go more than ~10 minutes of dialogue or so without Cool Misogyny Moments (usually against Ann). Not to mention how aggressively the game tries to set you up with Kawakami, eugh.

I don't really expect them to get better on those fronts given their track history - I know one writer was responsible for a good chunk of it and he's moved projects since, but I don't expect he's the only one and it still leaves a lot of people who participated/allowed it. I'd love to be in for a surprise but I think it would take a big shake-up.

Social sim-wise, I know Trails of Cold Steel tried to copy the formula a bit, and it didn't all work (and there's... other unfortunate writing and whatnot at play there, but it never felt as cruel as anything I saw in P5) but it did do a pretty decent job overall. I'm not sure I can really think of any that go full-on on the social sim aspect that aren't just various dating sims though, and those are... a whole other beast haha.
 
Finally picked up Trails from Cold Steel 3 from where I left off AND I JUST LOVE IT SO MUCH

I'm a sucker for cheesy stuff, so them hinting at older characters reappearing just has me insanely hyped as well!! Man the whole Trails cast is just so awesome!

And the amount of effort put into this hella long game series and its world building is just awesome too see l, especially when everything starts connecting!
Despite some stuff I don’t like (Musse and Shirley namely), Cold Steel III is definitely my favorite of the Cold Steel games. Don’t know where you are at, but I generally really love New Class VII, the incredible array of long term series payoffs, and a lovable never ending parade of reunions. Such a cool game.
 
Still a PSP trails game.

Azure is closer to the PSP Sky games and its predecessor Trails From Zero. However, this is also where the tone of the series shifts and becomes an actual problem. There are at least two groping scenes that suck.
Thank you. Then I hav ehope that I might like the game. As much as I see any people loving it, I could not get into Trails from Cold Steel at all. And I tried maybe 3 times. Maybe I'm too old, it just feels too modern anime vhatty and power of friendship like.
 


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