I've never played a JRPG! Suggestions?

[crisium]

Final Fantasy IV, VI, VII, and IX are the best of the FF series imo. VI is my favourite, forever and always. Now, besides those four games: VIII has a wonderful world and music like the other greats, but the gameplay leaves much to be desired. Contrast this with V and X which have the best battle systems, imo, but are lacking in other areas that somewhat limit them. The first three games are a bit archaic today, and only really enjoyable only once you have experienced most of the rest of the series, I'd avoid them for now. The games after X are, well, best avoided for all-time.

Chrono Trigger, along with FFVI and FFVII, usually takes the crown as the pinnacle jrpg (although I prefer VI). You owe it to yourself to complete a full playthrough.

But all these classics have been mentioned. What I want to mention is one of the best games from 2011: Radiant Historia for the DS. If it came out in 1995 it would be one of the all-time classics right behind Chrono Trigger. Don't overlook this one. Along with Xenosaga, it is the best jRPG of this decade so far. Hopefully someone else can vouch for me on Radiant Historia's worthiness to be played.

 

[exdeath]

But all these classics have been mentioned. What I want to mention is one of the best games from 2011: Radiant Historia for the DS. If it came out in 1995 it would be one of the all-time classics right behind Chrono Trigger. Don't overlook this one. Along with Xenosaga, it is the best jRPG of this decade so far. Hopefully someone else can vouch for me on Radiant Historia's worthiness to be played.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

I mentioned Radiant Historia on my first post. It's awesome. I still can't get the epic battle music out of my head. Gets you pumped for an epic journey.

 

[cl-scott]

Ah, Radiant Historia reminded me of Radiata Stories. Another B maybe B- level game. Controls were on the sloppy side, but they were consistently sloppy so after a few battles you learn to adjust. The human ending is also crap compared to non-human, but the multiple endings and a couple of unique levels depending on the faction you side with gives the game some replay value. Another PS2 game.

And FF8 was kind of an interesting experiment in a number of established JRPG fundamentals. In some ways it was kind of liberating not having to worry about leveling up, because enemies leveled up with you, but there were a few minor benefits to maxing out the levels. Plus, you can tell people what to do with the hotdogs in the Garden War! How can you not love that?!

 

[exdeath]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD9FevMw1_o

 

[Aikouka]

Just checked out the reviews for these games and they look excellent. I may pick up Xenoblade Chronicles in the near future.

You may need to look into where it's available. I see that you're in Canada, but in the US, it's only available at Gamestop, which is rather annoying.

Changing the fighting mechanics is a nice thought but its being implemented very poorly. Let's face it, I don't want to sit around waiting for a time bar to fill up to hit the A button anymore. That's a mechanic that's antiquated and rightfully done away with. I don't feel like FF13's style of combat is a bad thing, but square's implementation of it is so horrendous that that it drowned out the innovation. Not to mention the shift to "better graphics" has priority over a story and character development, apparently.

I prefer the ATB system, and I will and have skipped some newer RPGs because they have dumb battle systems that I don't like. You spend probably a third of your time in JRPGs in battles, you might as well enjoy the system. For example, I don't much care for the battle system in Lost Odyssey (among other things), which is why I quit playing it for the second time. I really liked everything about Tales of Vesperia... except the battle system. It feels like some huge Tekken fan decided to try and mix the two games together, and no me gusta.

 

[exdeath]

DS is a modern JRPG gold mine if you get hooked.

 

[dpodblood]

DS is a modern JRPG gold mine if you get hooked.

Makes sense. Portable gaming is still huge in Japan.

 

[exdeath]

Makes sense. Portable gaming is still huge in Japan.

That and the format lends itself well to 16/32 bit 2D games with beautiful pixel art.

 

[cl-scott]

Not sure how I could have forgotten them before, but it doesn't look like anyone has mentioned the Persona series. Persona 3 and 4 for the PS2 were both pretty good. I kind of put off playing them because the premise of normal high school kids by day and evil monster fighting heroes by night seemed kind of stupid, but somehow it works. Granted Persona 4 had Teddy, who was like a rusty nail on a chalkboard to me every time his character had a line to deliver, but if you can get past that it'd a pretty good game. I was somewhat amused by the enemy characters clearly based on Hulk Hogan.

 

[Schfifty Five]

You do have to be willing to kind of overlook the graphics on Tales of Symphonia a little. It's not that they're bad, but even by GameCube standards they were a bit sub-par.

I disagree completely. ToS graphics were phenomenal for a GC game. I liked the animation/style (cel-shaded).

 

[BenSkywalker]

Overall I agree with the theme of this thread, 16bit era was the pinnacle of JRPGs, but wanted to throw out Dragon Quest VIII as I think it is the best JRPG released in a long time and I haven't seen anyone mention it yet(not taking away anything anyone has brought up, just hadn't seen that gem mentioned).

BTW- If you are looking to play one or two PS2 games but don't want to drop the money to do so, you can use an emulator on your PC and put the game in the DVD drive and play away(even in high res on many games). Kind of a pain to get working, but it lets you buy the used game for $5 and play it without having to buy the entire console.

 

[Ashenor]

Thinking about picking up a 3DS XL, been a bit since i played some DS games.What are the best JRPG's for it do you think?

 

[exdeath]

For 3DS:

Ocarina of Time 3D
Tales of the Abyss 3D
Kingdom Hearts 3D

For DS.... too many to list. There are seriously too many to list. Not including remakes of classics.

Radiant Historia is probably one of the best. Pretty much anything by Atlus, the new Squaresoft for JRPGs.

I recommend picking up a regular DSi XL to be dedicated to standard DS games due to the native resolution difference and the aspect ratio difference between them. Regular DS games will be letter boxed (defeating the purpose of the XL model) or it will scale... ugh we do not want scaling with pixel art. DSi XL and not 3DS will give you the largest native resolution display of standard DS games. Should be a cheap pickup with everyone dumping them to go 3DS.

 

[Ashenor]

How is Kingdom Hearts 3DS?

Never played the other onese, does it play well stand alone?

Was thinking of getting this or Tales, really just waiting for Entrian Odyessy 4.

 

[SandEagle]

Overall I agree with the theme of this thread, 16bit era was the pinnacle of JRPGs, but wanted to throw out Dragon Quest VIII as I think it is the best JRPG released in a long time and I haven't seen anyone mention it yet(not taking away anything anyone has brought up, just hadn't seen that gem mentioned).

BTW- If you are looking to play one or two PS2 games but don't want to drop the money to do so, you can use an emulator on your PC and put the game in the DVD drive and play away(even in high res on many games). Kind of a pain to get working, but it lets you buy the used game for $5 and play it without having to buy the entire console.

agreed. DQ8 was and still is amazing.

 

[Aikouka]

How is Kingdom Hearts 3DS?

I heard the 3DS game is decent. I was always cautious over the mobile games, because the original one(s) had card-based battles, which I didn't want. Although, it looks like the 3DS one is not like that and I think the previous (DS) one isn't either.

 

[Ashenor]

Ended up picking up a Assassins Creed Vita bundle last night mainly because i wanted to play Ragnorok Odyessy. I am going to wait for a deal on a 3DS XL, or new bundle since the main game i want Entrian Odyessy 4 comes out next year.

I am going to watch Craigslist for a Dsi XL though.

 

[exar333]

Honestly if you really think you like JRPGs, you owe it to yourself to pick up a SNES and play Final Fantasy II, III, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia, Earthbound, Secret of Evermore, Breath of Fire I, II, Lufia I, II, Robotrek, Secret of the Stars, Soul Blazer, Super Mario RPG, etc SNES is super hot in the collector scene right now and all these games are very expensive for 20 year old 16 bit cartridges, so get a Super Everdrive flash cart if you have to. But the biggest reason for a flash cart is all the unofficial fan translated ROMs for a TRUE JRPG experience, such as Bahamut Lagoon, Dragon Quest series, Final Fantasy V, Seiken Densetsu 3, Tales of Phantasia, Star Ocean, Treasure Hunter G, Treasure of the Rudras, Front Mission, many many more.

PS1 is also a great JRPG system with Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9 which are meh, but you get more Breath of Fire, Alundra, Dragon Quest series, Xenogears, Suikoden series, Lunar, Lunar 2, Arc the Lad, Chrono Cross, Threads of Fate, Final Fantasy Tactics, Grandia, Legend of Dragoon, Legend of Mana, etc. Parasite Eve, Saga Frontier, Star Ocean, the Namco Tales series, Vagrant Story, Valkyrie Profile, Vandal Hearts, Wild Arms, Ogre Battle, Granstream Saga, and of course the Final Fantasy Anthrology, Origins, and Chronicles which are 8/16 bit remakes (includes Chrono Trigger) etc. For LOTS of JRPGs on the cheap on a relatively modern system with still affordable used systems and games, cannot beat PS1. Xenogears = #1 on this system, forget the Final Fantasy 7 hype.

PS2 check out the Xenosaga series, very very awesome and highly underrated. Kingdom Hearts series is also a absolute must. More Wild Arms, more Star Ocean, more Suikoden, more Final Fantasy, many more lesser known ones, can't think right now.

The best modern system for JRPGs is actually the DS and/or GBA. Start with Radiant Historia, Golden Sun, SNES Final Fantasy ports if you dont want or can't afford the ridiculous prices of used SNES RPGs right now, etc. GBA and DS have ALOT of SNES ports that are much cheaper than the SNES originals and you can play anywhere, always a big plus. Note that a DS Lite is the last system that can play both DS and GBA games.

Then again it's a double edge sword if you come to love those games and realize that they don't make games like that anymore for current generation and probably never will again now that gaming is all mass market mainstream.

I'm typing this in a hurry and strangely can't think of more games, I'll provide a comprehensive list when I have time.

THIS.

 

[PowerYoga]

I prefer the ATB system, and I will and have skipped some newer RPGs because they have dumb battle systems that I don't like. You spend probably a third of your time in JRPGs in battles, you might as well enjoy the system. For example, I don't much care for the battle system in Lost Odyssey (among other things), which is why I quit playing it for the second time. I really liked everything about Tales of Vesperia... except the battle system. It feels like some huge Tekken fan decided to try and mix the two games together, and no me gusta.

I don't feel there's anything wrong with it, it's just old and there could be innovative improvements on the implementations of it. I like the concept of the queue system, but I just don't like how you can spend infinite time planning something. There should be consequences if you're being indecisive.

The brawling styles of most tales games is fun as well. Never played vesperia so I can't comment...

 

[exdeath]

BTW see first link in my sig for reason to play the Xenosaga series.

You want drama and tragedy, Final Fantasy 7 has NOTHING on Xenosaga.

 

[Aikouka]

I don't feel there's anything wrong with it, it's just old and there could be innovative improvements on the implementations of it. I like the concept of the queue system, but I just don't like how you can spend infinite time planning something. There should be consequences if you're being indecisive.

I think Final Fantasy VI was the first Final Fantasy game to introduce the No Wait setting where it was exactly like you mentioned... the timer bars weren't paused when you were prompted for an action.

I've seen a few games use the ATB system, but also include their own flare to it. Sometimes, I think the flare is nice if it's just the abilities in the game. For example, Blue Dragon added some extra things depending on what skills you chose (charging, etc.), which could be interesting at times (it affected your actual time when you used the ability). Other times, it just feels like a weird and annoying tacked on feature. The weird ring thing in Lost Odyssey felt like that to me, and I didn't care much for it.

The brawling styles of most tales games is fun as well. Never played vesperia so I can't comment...

I think the fighting style of combat in Vesperia is fairly similar to ther Tales games, but I believe they tweaked it a bit with a new feature or two.

 

[cl-scott]

BTW see first link in my sig for reason to play the Xenosaga series.

You want drama and tragedy, Final Fantasy 7 has NOTHING on Xenosaga.

I'll certainly second that. FF7 was a good game and all, just doesn't live up to all the hype people throw at it IMO. FF8 and even 9 beat out 7 on drama and tragedy IMO. Personally I'd say FFX or even Tales of the Abyss tend to beat out even Xenosaga for drama and tragedy, but then again Xenosaga was intended to be spaced out over several games, so by the time you get to the third game they really let loose when you get to the second disc. MOMO's side story is touching in a way, and Jin, Shion, and Allan in particular all have pretty charged story wrap-ups. They never really had the chance to fully explore Ziggy's story, but that had all the makings of being one of the most emotionally charged of the entire series if they had.

 

[dmoney1980]

FYI for all of those old school RPG fans that never got their hands on Pier Solar: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...-an-rpg-for-xbox360-pc-mac-linux-and?ref=live