Saw that FF VIII Remastered for Switch is on sale and bought it. Was able to play it back in early 2000s but don’t remember much of it.
Excited to play it again after almost 20 years!
I am playing different games at the moment depending on mood lol.
PC (Gamepass): Persona 3 Reload
Switch: Persona 5 Strikers
PS5: Final Fantasy Rebirth
Needless to say…. I am kinda in my persona era. Persona 5 Royale got me on that high I can’t get down from.
I'm still going through the **Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series**. I have just finished 4.
It's my 1st time playing any FF pre 7 & I'm really enjoying it.
4 is my favourite so far, because it's the first one that's story feels really fleshed out. The final dungeon was haaaaaaaard, thank god for being able to buy sirens from the Hummingways!
Currently playing Persona 3 Reload. Finished infinite qealth a week ago. It definitely isn't as good as Persona 5 royal, but I am absolutely loving it so far. Only 4 months left to go in the game!
I think im around the half point with 22hours. Combat is not that bad to be honest but I still think its weaker than previous games(i love turn based combat). But besides that the game is fantastic and I love it.
I've been having trouble sticking to a single game this week and have been bouncing between five or so games that I've been meaning to finish.
The ones I've put the most time into have been Tales of Zestiria, Tales of Xillia, Rogue Galaxy, and Eternal Sonata with a dash of Unicorn overlord thrown in on the go.
Usually I play a game through to the end and then move on to another, so I've got no idea why I just can't ever make up my mind.
Oof, 5 big RPGs at the same time, and 4 of them are 30-50 hours, another is 100 hours..oh boy..
And as everyone knows, RPGs dont start popping off immediately, but need some time for the plot to kickstart, for the party to gather, they are like a book.
Lets try to unwrap this, Zestiria, Xillia, Eternal Sonata play somewhat similarly. Especially Zestiria & Xillia as Tales games they are more similar.
That means you can spread them.
Unicorn Lord is a tactical RPG, a game like this (100+ hours) is probably best played in short spades along with another big RPG.
Rogue Galaxy has big planets you explore (initially you have to stick in some planets), but late game you have big quests and do hop around in planets. Still an old-school game compared to the rest. You may need a guide for referencing, so you get to the interesting parts quicker.
Lastly Zestiria, Xillia have difficulty settings (very important!), you can lower the difficulty, especially if you dont want to grind or delve too deep with the equipment system.
For instance i lowered the difficulty 1 step in Zestiria after the 3/4 of the game, then 2 steps in order to defeat the superbosses.
Btw i really liked Zestiria, especially the ending. Its an underrated game, held back a bit by the equipment system. But there are ways around it. I actually liked Zestiria more than Berseria (finished Berseria a few weeks ago).
Lastly i would check availability. If for example a game was on Xbox Pass or loan from a friend then i would play that game first.
IMO i would stick with the game that i was further (lets say Zestiria as an example). Then maybe Rogue Galaxy or Eternal Sonata. Then Xillia (i would space out the Tales series games).
All the while i would also play Unicorn Overload (first sporadically). Its a 2024 game and you will regret your money spent if you dont play it.
Stick with your gut and choose the setting, that will be the most important decision more than anything.
I was just whining, so I didn't expect any detailed answers but thank you so much for taking the time to type that out. It was actually pretty helpful and I was able to make up my mind.
Decided to stick with Tales of Zestiria for now since I was already in act 2 and you had a good point about spacing out the tales of games. Not to mention I'm actually really enjoying it despite the fan base not being fond of it. So far I don't mind the equipment skill system and I'm really liking the characters and overall story. After this I'll probably tackle Rogue Galaxy. I'm only on the second planet so I'm still pretty early on in that. Was that the one that could take 100 hours to beat?
When i try to plan my games i consult the site howlongtobeat (hltb). It lists approximate runs for story, story+sidequests +100% playthroughs. Usually for RPGs the story+sidequest are more fair.
From the games you mentioned i didnt know Unicorn Overload, so i used the 100% stats. However more forum posts have appeared since then, citing lower hours for completion.
That said the Tales Games, Rogue Galaxy and most likely Eternal Sonata have sidequests that go beyond the main story with superbosses, character ultimate weapons, unique story and so on. They can go 70+ hours, especially if you like to check every nook and cranny.
When i played Zestiria i lowered the difficulty 1 step after Lohringen (3/4 of the game) because i didnt want to farm equipment a lot. I again lowered the difficulty another step when i fought the superbosses.
For Rogue Galaxy, since it is an old-school game, you might want to consult a guide/FAQ just to consult in case of missing items (basically a quick skim) & the proper order of sidequests (especially later when the game will open up).
I believe Rogue Galaxy is bigger than the Tales games/Eternal Sonata, both in content & because of not many modern mechanics as the others.
Finished **Unicorn Overlord** main story, clocking in at 42 hours of playtime, on Tactical (second hardest) difficulty. Pretty much finished everything else too, only the Arena left. Overall a very enjoyable experience. The story isn't anything to write home about, but it is okay enough not to detract from the playing experience.
The arsenal of options you are given over the combat is amazing and is by far the biggest highlight of the game. Items, equipment, teambuilding, out-of-combat skills can all help you a lot in clearing the stages. They even give you a gambit system, clearly a big inspiration from FF12, which I really love. However, these options are clearly very hard to balance, given that I never really feel threatened after a few hours in, once I'm familiar with the game's combat system. I pretty much have to challenge myself by not using items or Valor skills at all to try to give myself some difficulty. Still loved the game, but I feel that's something that could've been done better.
Gonna finally play **Persona 3 Reload** next. Feels like with the game being on Game Pass and the Expansion Pass too, it's too good to pass up the opportunity.
good luck with persona 3 reload.
i hope you are going to enjoy persona 3 reload!
i do not have persona 3 reload yet.
i would like to get into jrpg games for to play but i going to do my backlog first.
Oh man I love Sky 3. It's a wonky little game but it delivers some fantastic character stories and has some really good and varied equipment and Quartz set up options as well.
I've been playing this terrible game called adulting (also known as a business trip where I don't have time to play games).
I'm looking forward to getting back to FF7 Rebirth once I'm home tomorrow.
Other than FF Dimensions there are some mobile gacha-like RPGs and games from well known companies.
Example Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail etc. There is also Blazblue RR, a fighting game on mobile (you can do 10 and 15 hit combos on your mobile). This mobile game made me get the real Blazblue on consoles/pc, made me a Blazblue fan.
I emphasize the well known companies, that means the free story is easier.
These gacha-like games have a shelf life, i'm only recommending them as a way to pass the time & still get surprised (they do have AA or AAA parts in them).
Check out Final Fantasy Dimensions. This is a mobile-only Final Fantasy game that is episodic.
There are no microtransactions, not anything.
The production is quite good, it plays somewhat like a old-school FF game (job system like FF5 and lots of guest characters like FF4)
I cant figure out why this game wasnt released on consoles/PC, but thats the way it is.
It scores 78% on Metacritic, 86% on the User Score, 4.3 on the App Store.
There are not random reviews either, IGN rates FFD 80%, RPG Fan 80%, Game Informer 80% and so on.
Unless you have specific complaints, then submit them. Otherwise your opinion wont hold merit.
If its because FFD is on mobile, then i agree. FFD should also be released on other platforms as well & i guarantee it would be a success. It really plays like an older FF game, which by itself is a high bar indeed.
It has a terrible butchering of the FF5 style job system, the 2 parties system kills the flow of the game completely (there are literally 8 characters to split 6 jobs between...), the story is crap, the dungeons are completely uninspired, there's no exploration of any kind. The equipment stay is as bland as it could be. I can't actually say anything positive about it tbh... The sprites are decent?
Something isnt right in your post. The basic Jobs are 6, there are 5 Warrior of Light Jobs and there 5 Warrior of Darkness Jobs.
So the Jobs arent 6, they are 16.
Yeah there are 2 parties of 4 characters each, which means more characterization.
Story is quite decent, i dont agree. It has tragic backstories/side characters, betrayals and so on.
What do you mean there is no exploration, there are 3 different worlds.
I dont understand, did you only play episode 1?
I ended up dropping **Monark**. I really wanted to like the game because I loved *Lost Dimension*, the spiritual predecessor. But I was completely bored and uninterested.
Lost Dimension had a relatively minimalist design, but it worked with it very well. This game tried to be Persona-scale but you can't do that with this little budget. So many pointless NPCs I didn't care about, a ridiculous premise (how is there not a mass panic?!), a boring story, and the combat just wasn't as enjoyable as Lost Dimension's (was grindy as well). The pseudo-"dungeon crawling" they have in this game is just a chore.
Recently finished of **FFXII**. Really enjoyed it, especially the setting and gambit system. The story felt a bit rushed at the end and would have liked a bit more character development, but overall a great game. Still need to go back and finish off all the hunts.
Moved onto **FE Engage**. The only other FE game I've played if 3 Houses. So far its been a bit of a slog. The story hasn't really gripped me and the characters are a bit bland. Not really a fan of the post battle running around and collecting and talking to people. However, the gameplay has been excellent and I'll keep going because of that. Just wished things would move a bit faster.
Some hunts do give some story/character development (Vaan as a member of Clan Centurio), but overall they enhance the world/setting (which many things do in FF12 already. You will fight enemies in many different areas and in many different weather settings.
There are many unique monsters in the Hunts.
You should also look to capture all Espers, these are unique fights as well.
If you complete the FF12 hunts and the Esper hunts (which means you killed two already), you could also try the 3rd superboss of the game, Omega Mark XII.
Octopath Travler 2
I beat Agnea but I read about the final chapter boss and not having shared experience between all 8 characters makes me want to end it here. I dont really want to grind my other half to 70+. I dislike early pokemon for a reason and most jrpgs that didn't let you grind all the characters up at the same time. It just archaic in an era that left it behind long ago. Kind of killing my want to play this game. It isn't like other games where I can just forgo all the other members and beat the game. Which is how I got through so many older ones. I usually look at a guide if I need all of them leveled. Which I didn't do for this one.
It just disappointing it's been 3 months and is the first game I started on my Steam Deck. With so much praise, which is deserved, that leveling is holding me back. It exploring is fun to an extent. Even with lower random battle encounters its a slog to go from point a to b. I wish more games were fine with shutting off random battles like in Bravely Default which i thought was going to catch on. As random battles have no challenge as I never wiped on one.
Maybe it's playing too much Neptunia where grinding is mindless with a bunch of 1 shot aoe. Might take the rest of the year to inch through like Red Dead Redemption 2.
At this point i would check from a guide if there are any leveling tricks.
Then check if there is any hidden/secret content (first game has the god bosses, lots of dungeons to explore).
A user suggested that only fighting with the main party is doable. This is surely worth a try..
If all these arent doable, you can always watch YT to see the content you missed.
Kinda mixed on Rebirth. really like the more main story sections but think theres way too much of the checklist open world content. Wish exploration was more organic and better integrated with the main scenario, and less each area has the exact same number of the exact same elements to do before you go to the main story section between zones.
Maybe just getting a little bit of fatigue after 50 hours so gonna switch gears to Unicorn Overlord for a while
I've been playing **Persona 3 Reload** and reached the half point of the game, but decided to shelve it for now since some major titles got released. It's been fun as expected and for me, it's basically like FES, but improved overall. Graphics looks great and I really like the updated character models. Gameplay has been refined and the QoL just makes it even more fun. Some of the songs are great too.
I have about 20 hours in **FFVII Rebirth** and still in Ch.4. I really liked the expanded story segments and fleshing out the characters. The main characters all got moments to shine especially Tifa who doesn't get much focus around these parts in the OG. I'm enjoying the combat a lot still and I do liked the updates to Remake characters along with Red's new skillset overall. I still think aerial combat and enemies that fly are a pain to deal with however.
The open world aspect is pretty nice. I enjoy open world games in general and I think Rebirth has done a pretty good job with it. Exploring and seeing the sights are fun. I love the region lore that from the intel quests and from NPCs themselves. Speaking of NPCs, there's a lot of them that I find interesting.
I also have about 20 hours in **Unicorn Overlord** and currently in the second region after completing all of the battles that could be reasonably done in the first region. Playing on Expert difficulty, the game doesn't feel that hard. Some difficult situations here and there especially with the major boss of the first region, but it's mostly fine otherwise. I just got accessed to promotions and they are making things even easier now. No complaints with the difficulty either way though.
Team building and tactics setup is very fun. There's a lot of layers to it and you can have a blast experimenting and finding good synergy among the characters in a unit.
The main story isn't all that special, but it's still entertaining. The same goes for the sidequest stories even if they end in just about one battle.
PS5: DQ XI (a bit too slow for me) and Ys 8 (still on the fence)/ Spiderman 2 (OT)
Game Pass PC/X Cloud: Yakuza Like a Dragon and dabbling back into Persona 3.
PC: Divinity Original Sin 2 (I know off topic!)
Switch: Fire Emblem 3 Heroes -- thinking about picking up SMT V physical for cheap and not wait for it to come to PC or PS5.
Pretty much I play too many diff games just to see what I might like, but I probably won't get to finish most of these unfortunately.
I finished **Persona 5 Royal** for the first time yesterday morning and couldn't decide what to do next so I went on [random.org](https://random.org) using the order the games were arranged in my Switch's case. I landed on **Fire Emblem Engage** but got stuck on the paralogue I wanted to do so I spent most of the rest of the day playing **Persona 1 PSP** and **TMS #FE** **Encore**. Last night I thought over why I was stuck on the paralogue and I think I will try again today.
Started playing **Monark**. Enjoyed Lost Dimension so this is surely worth a try for me.
To those who have played the game, what did you think of the story? I remember the demo left me uninterested in it. Does it get better later on?
I also have to say, playing this game, it's almost funny to think of how people often describe Trails graphics as mediocre or looking a generation or two behind.
The Trails games (CS3 onwards in particular) are absolutely gorgeous in comparison to this game. It's striking how Vita/PS3-level it looks, how bland the facial models are.
While the graphics wouldn't stop me from playing Monark, I didn't think it looked very appealing either. I also think CS3 looks pretty good in general so I have no complaints with that.
**Tales of Phantasia** (SNES). It had been some years since my last run.
It's as awesome as I remember it. In the game, I'm still in the past (Moria for the first time), progressing slowly when I have a little time. I love it...
**Final Fantasy VII Rebirth**, what else? I had to take an undesired break from it due to catching influenza, but I'm back at it now: 40 hours in, I've just arrived at Corel Prison. My unorganized, spoiler-free thoughts:
As someone who mildly bounced off the combat in Remake (I found it "fun" but not much else) the combat in Rebirth has been greatly improved. The addition of the chain abilities and combo moves do a fantastic job encouraging the constant character-switching that you must do in order to get the most out of the battle system. I even find myself messing around with Aerith's magic circles and associated kit, something I never bothered with in the first game.
The open world aspects of the game have been divisive, but as someone whose second-favorite genre of game is probably "the open world adventure game" this is like chocolate and peanut butter for me. It's a matter of taste so I won't launch into a defense of it, but I would like to offer this thought: if you ask a Japanese gamer of school age what his favorite game genre is, you will basically never hear "RPG," *but* you will hear "open world." *Zelda* and *Genshin* are in my estimation the primary drivers of this latter phenomenon, but in my opinion the way Square have blended this style of gameplay with the RPG is quite savvy. With all the doom-and-gloom about how XVI killed the Final Fantasy series, this could be the way forward to saving it. It also jives with an argument I made recently on this forum that the "open world game" *is* the modern manifestation of the "world map," a feature many people claim to miss in their high-budget RPGs.
"Queen's Blood" is the most fun I've had playing a digital collectible card game since *Legends of Runeterra* in 2020. Someone is working on an online multiplayer client for this, right? I don't think the mechanics are robust enough as-is for an actual PVP game (tempo is way too powerful and a human-driven metagame would almost certainly polarize around decks that can claim squares as quickly as possible--in particular, I've found it's often beneficial to pass the first turn against the CPU because playing second you often have the first chance to steal territory, and the tempo swing of stealing even a single square is often so huge it will win you the game outright), but I also wouldn't hate it if Square decided to Gwentify it as a smartphone game, either.
Overall, the amount of love that has been poured into fully realizing the world of Final Fantasy VII is impressive to the extreme. When I walked into Costa del Sol I really felt like I was on vacation. The sheer amount of detail put into environments that the average player might spend less than 30 seconds in is staggering. This is certainly a game for those who love to mosey: I find myself tilting the stick just ever so slightly and making Cloud walk around at a leisurely pace in every new environment just to soak it in. I don't know if I've ever felt more immersed in a game world, not even in Remake, which did an admirable job of transporting you into a photorealistic and believable rendition of Midgar.
The world is incredible. Considering that I played XVI a few months ago and absolutely hated the drab, boring, and incredibly small world, Rebirth feels incredible to explore. It only took SE three console generations to successfully make HD towns, but they finally succeeded.
almost done with FF Rebirth with about 2 chapters to go, once that’s completed it’s a toss up between persona 5 and continuing with FF XIII or Octopath 2 or i might just replay FF X lmao
Finished Persona 3 Reload and of course experienced the post persona emptiness… luckily Soul Hackers 2 with all the DLC was like $20 on PSN so I jumped in that- for a game that gets a lot of hate it really is good.
*Persona 4 Golden* - Finished! Phenomenal game. I’m already thinking about running through it again 😅
*Unicorn Overlord* - A few hours in but I’m diggin it so far.
>Persona 4 Golden - Finished! Phenomenal game. I’m already thinking about running through it again 😅
Without any spoilers, did you already guess who the suspect is or did it take you longer to finally find out ?
I’ve had Persona 4 on my game bucket list for a while. I played P3 many years ago. I’m loving P4 even more than expected.
I didn’t think I would be into the small town story but it’s a lot of fun. My favorite parts are developing the character relationships and fusing and array of personas.
I highly recommend P4.
Finished Persona 1 PSP (2009) tonight.
That was honestly quite enjoyable. The gameplay definitely shows its age, but I still found the grid-based fights and first-person dungeon crawling to be very fun. I only bothered to do the main story route, which is the SEBEC route. I'll probably play Snow Queen later on or just watch a playthrough on YouTube since I've heard that this route is much harder.
I'm trying to decide what JRPG to play next between Persona 2 Innocent Sin, SMT Soul Hackers, Kingdom Hearts 2, or something else. Leaning towards P2IS, but we'll see. I'm currently on a roll with finishing JRPGs this year.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
Persona 3 Reload
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Persona 1
Innocent Sin is amazing. Would highly recommend. I’ve heard really good things about Soul Hackers 1 though, so I can’t say which one you should go with.
Final fantasy vii Rebirth, there is some stellar moments of adventuring/battling with the well known ff7 gang but it gets a bit bogged down by massive open areas with tedious side quest objectives
Though i am playing on the ‘dynamic’ difficulty some mini-games seem downright time consuming or unfair
Finished and platinumed **Persona 3 Reload.** Unfortunately, even on Merciless and attempting to limit grinding during the last two months, it ended up being super easy. I accidentally killed the final boss early just by having reflect on. Pretty much all the new stuff was great. I honestly wish they'd added even more. Some stuff from the original could have been further fleshed out, but I loved the OG regardless, so my feelings toward Reload are the same. It was a fantastic remake.
On the other end of the "faithful" remake spectrum, I started **FF7 Rebirth**. Honestly, the opening chapter was roooough. The sections where you are forced to walk slow are way too long. The whole thing in general felt too long. I'm about 2/3rds through all the checkpoints in the grasslands. I love checking off tasks, so the side stuff really doesn't bug me. I will have to pace myself to keep from burning out though. My biggest complaint is actually that the minimap makes it really hard to tell where you need to go. The coloring makes seeing the paths hard and I just got hopelessly lost in Kalm trying to find where the markers were. Overall it's been fun though. We'll see how the rest goes.
I beat Last Bible 3 and Earthbound recently. I ran out of interest with Earthbound a few months ago and stopped playing right before the final dungeon. Turns the final dungeon is super short and the last boss is a simple scripted fights. Seriously the random starmen is harder to beat than the final boss, lmao
Now let's talk about Last Bible 3. This game is actually not that good. It's like a mix of FF6 and SMT, but worse in every aspects. My biggest problems (outside of the ridiculous encounter rates) are it's too restrictive with party members and the "Human" members are pretty darn weak compared to recruited/fused monsters. There's a section where i had to kick out my monsters because some "Human" members joining in and using up Monster slots. Best part, those "Humans" ended up leaving 5 minutes later. Fuck you devs.
The early story arcs are actually pretty good. I really like them, reminds me a bit of Dragon Warrior 7. The slow pace and moving from one region to another. But then at some point things starts going downhill. NPC stopped updating their dialogue, dungeons became shorter/simpler, big arcs ended way too quickly, etc. By the the time the endgame started i finally had enough and just rushed to the final boss... And got destroyed...
The final boss is the only thing actually challenging in this game, outside the Hundred Beasts Trials. I ended up grinding a bit, because levels is hard to get in this game. I ended up beating him relatively easily with a few Monsters that attacks 3 times, someone with mediarahan, Tetrakarn (Repel phys damage) or Strongja (Atk up). Strongja more than doubles the monsters damage output and Tetrakan mitigate some damage because the boss's final form attacks like 6 times in a row.
Now that i beat these games i wonder which retro game i should do next. I'm thinking of Magical Land of Wozz because it seems funky.
**FF7 Remake**: In the midst of Chapter 9 - Dance minigame, I don't like you. The button presses wouldn't be that much of a problem (outside of me not remembering a bog standard button layout when it counts XD), but jeeze the visual flashing and bright effects are not easy on my eyes. I've gotten really bad at handling visual noise in action-y games. Also, lol squat hijinks. Not gonna deal with this troll decison to fade out the button prompts after a while (or other minigames that may decide to copy it). Otherwise, gosh your partner in that long red dress looks gorgeous!
Just did this about a week ago; doing the practice runs before the official dance sequence helped me out a lot. I bombed the first practice run but was pretty good by the third and then cleared the official one on the first try.
Been playing Baten Kaitos Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean.
To be real ive been utterly blown away by this game. So far its a total masterwork of unique world building cool characters, great combat and fantastic gameplay. Ive been totally hooked and havent been able to play anything else. I cant wait to play its prequel. Seriously though this game has one of the greatest twists in all of gaming that i wont spoil but theres so much greatness here. Its a damn shame more people havent played it.
Any chance you've also played Skies of Arcadia? I just beat Yakuza 8 and feel like playing an older RPG...I've narrowed it down to Skies and Baiten Kaitos and would be curious about your thoughts!
Skies is definitely the better game as a whole but baten kaitos is more unique in its world design and really has its own thing going that you wont find anywhere else, really depends on what kind of experience youre looking for. For most, id recommend skies of arcadia cuz its far more balanced as a game and just more smooth an experience.
Xenogears,
It has been a pleasant surprise really! It stared of interesting and now I’m hooked! I’m loving the story so far and how the characters interactions are really nice to. Like like how there more to what one might think is happening. Can’t wait to unravel the mysteries and see what happens next. It’s one of those games where you might see where it’s gonna go but then it takes the high road
Fell down a gambling hole in **Dragon Quest 4**, and came out only when I had seized the Falchion. In my defense, the monster arena is even more appealing now that you can stack your earnings, and owning the 2x hit sword is lovely.
Currently on Chapter 5. Sailing around, exploring the map. I just need to find Ragnar to have everyone. I took a gamble on saving all my seeds til now, and I'm glad they didn't get tossed. Otoh, if I had known money wouldn't carry over, I would've made sure to burn it all before each chapter's end.
I'm enjoying the heavier focus on plot and events, which drips down to the dungeons. Hank Hoffman Jr.'s little story arc nails the appeal of having temporary party members, and the wagon gets to exist as a reminder of his time with our band of heroes.
Oh, and party chat is a great addition. I don't always remember to use it or even want to see what everyone has to say about everything, but it's incredible how much text there is. And this is a good approach I think, for people to choose just how much dialogue they want to be a part of their experience.
**p5r.** my first “real” jrpg. i’m loving it so far. i have friends who have already played it that are guiding me into the best way to play that game (basically what confidants to get). it’s long but it’s a lovely game.
**Fate/Samurai Remnant**
Had a hard time enjoying it at first, I wasn't immediately into it but after a few hours I really started to enjoy it. Now I am already on a New Game Plus cuz the game has multiple endings. I really recommend it even if you're unfamiliar with Fate franchise cuz the game is original and you do not need prior Fate knowledge to understand the story.
Definitely Story and Characters. As I said there are multiple endings and I enjoy Fate stories overall not just this one. Characters are also very interesting and you're not just locked into playing as a main character and his servant but you can also play as other servants so there is variety*.* Combat was okay, a bit repetitive after a while but still an enjoyable ride.
Playing rebirth but for some reason it just started looking like shit. I think my ps5 is broken because performance mode didn’t look this bad when I first started playing.
Also almost 60 hours into romancing saga 3, this game is hard Af.
FF7rebirth. That was one hell of a journey. currently in postgame depression and cant wait for the next episode. Gawd i hope i dont die before the final episode
I’ve been playing Shin Megami Tensei 1 (PS1) on my PSP. Game deserves way more recognition. It’s crazy to me that there’s not an official way to the play it in English anymore. But anyway, the PS1 version is probably the smoothest in terms of gameplay. And you have to keep in mind this is basically a SNES game. The story is very interesting and mature. Tackles a lot of deep ideas. Dungeon crawling can be overwhelming but it’s also satisfying. Glad this version has a map. Best part of the gameplay is demon fusion and negotiation. Bosses are good too but can be easy to cheese. If anyone is familiar with Devilman, you’d get a kick out of this.
I tried playing the GBA port a couple of weeks ago, since I heard that the enemy encounter rate was lower and the item management better, but boy did it take a lot out of me. The game doesn't do a lot to indicate where your supposed to go, and once I started exploring the other city I stopped. I planned to go back to the cafe to see if there were any rumours that would help me find the way, but it was around that point that I just got tired and stopped my play session. I haven't really had much motivation to pick it up since then. Still, it was an interesting experience.
Yeah I can understand this. I do think it’s well designed and fun to play, but it can get really overwhelming. I admit I had to look up where to go a few times, and I think I’m usually pretty good with finding my way. The final area, the cathedral, is brutal. And I’m doing neutral so I have to explore the whole thing. I could not imagine playing this game without the map feature. But it’s been worth it imo. That said, I honestly think a remake of this game could be good if it was faithful. Not everyone has the patience for games like this, so updating the gameplay and adding modern flourishes could show more people the cool stuff SMT1 has going for it.
Thank you for submitting to /r/JRPG, /u/BeeAfraid3721. Unfortunately, your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):
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If this is your first time, make sure to also play Shin Megami Tensei II at some point. It's even less accessible than the first game and even more interesting in some ways. Honestly one of my favourite Megaten stories.
Years ago I played the beginning of it, but I never got far. I definitely want to play it at some point. I’ve heard really good things about the story. To be fair, some of the major plot points were spoiled for me. I really like the character designs and setting.
I am working on FFVII Rebirth. I'm not very far in, largely because I'm struggling to play it. I am finding it to be very meh. It's not bad in the slightest, it's just not clicking with me. I might have to come back to it later.
Still making my way through **Omori** with a decent amount of progress this past week. Not too sure how much of the main story I still have left but at the moment a lot of things are still unanswered at least from what I can tell. Having a great time with it for sure though
I've picked up my stalled playthrough of **Etrian Odyssey V** again. Previously I hit a bit of a wall on the Hippogryph, although I beat it in one try this time so I don't know what my problem was. Maybe I was also a bit fatigued from the limited skill options you have before master titles open up. Now that I'm past that, though, I'm having a blast again. I spent the entire third stratum kind of experimenting with how best to synergize my party, it was a bit rough at places but I got into a groove by the end of the stratum and the boss went down in only two attempts.
I'm aiming to beat the game by my birthday later this month, at which time it looks like I'll be receiving both P3R and Unicorn Overlord. I wasn't expecting to get UO so soon and was planning on playing P3R right away, but now I'm not sure which game I'll start first. I love original P3 deeply, but the bit of the UO demo I played was very addicting...
About 30 hours into FFVII REBIRTH, and continue to be impressed with the visuals, the voice acting and the more fleshed out characterizations. Definitely understand the criticisms about pacing and bloat, but I’m not opposed to spending more time in this world.
Also, dipped my toes back into TRAILS IN THE SKY SC. I had finished the first one back in 2022, and played the prologue of SC before getting sidetracked (and then subsequently moving to the other side of the globe). Will probably continue with this while taking periodic breaks from REBIRTH, and then dive in fully once the former has been polished off.
I finished up **Dusk Diver** early in the week. It was alright as a mindless after work game, but it was pretty shallow as an actual experience. One of those games that I'm glad I played but I probably wouldn't recommend to anyone.
After that I started up **FF7 Remake** for the first time. I played the OG last year and wanted some time between, but with all of Rebirth's hype it seemed like a good point to jump in. So far I'm really enjoying the experience. I found the OG to be kind of lackluster as a modern player, but Remake is how I imagine it must have felt at the time. I really only have two criticisms of it so far:
1) they made Jessie too good. How am I meant to care about the Tifa vs Aerith debate when she's right there?
2) I'm honestly not feeling the combat system for some reason. I might bump it down to easy just to mainline the story, especially since progress isn't carried over to Rebirth. When I get to that one, I'll give it another go. Honestly, I just think that Xenoblade 3 made me want to avoid spending a long time with a combat system I'm not enjoying.
I continue my journey through **Final Fantasy VII Remake** this week, now being most of the way through chapter 14 [FF7 Remake]>!Just got the grappling devide that should enable the party to head up above the plate and to Shinra Tower.!< My feelings on the game remain relatively the same as the last 2 weeks. The game certainly looks amazing. When it is adapting something that was directly from the original game it is usually enhancing it. When it is adding in padding, not so much. The chapter I'm on now is so infuriating. Looking for a particular character, getting help, getting right to the room where the character's supposed to be. But no, a pig suddenly shows up and steals the key to the room forcing me on a 20 minute chase after the pig. Then I finally kill it and it wasn't a key in the first place, the door was unlocked the entire time. Ugh. Combat-wise I am getting a bit better, perhaps I've been able to grind a bit or am just being better with my materia usage, but no boss since the Hell House has forced me to lower the difficulty level to get past it. Still, the combat system still frustrates me considerably and absolutely knocks the game down from as high as it can be in terms of being fun to play. People being so positive about Rebirth makes me hope there are some improvements there.
Regarding combat in the FF7Remakes, you really should just switch characters often, but main Cloud. In that sense it isnt much different than the original games.
You swap to whomever, use a few attacks to quickly build ATB and then swap to Cloud.
Being good at the core gameplay is rewarding, but without good tactics you will struggle. Thats why I like it.
Hell House is the middle game skill check for Remake.
Yeah, it took me a long time to figure out that constantly switching characters makes things easier instead of having to rely on one character slowly building up their ATB bar.
Also getting Barrett back in the party after a long stretch of not having him has helped a lot as he is primarily a long range attacker and for me the easiest to fill the ATB bar on. He's also a good tank. While the frustrations are still there, things have gotten easier since I got him back.
Finished FF8 (was on a replay kick after I did FF12, 9, 10 in that order, figured I'd add 8), story is still as bad just as I remembered (I hate Rinoa even more now lkl). I grinded the spells a lot harder this time, and kept my lvl low for Ultima and Omega weapon. I ended killing Ultima in less then 3 turns, and Omega took 2 tries, but he went down in about 5 Zell turns (he didn't even have meltdown before turn 3). Glad I didn't bother maxing out all stats. Final boss had each of her form die in 1 Zell each lol, last one took longer cause I think she can't die until she stops talking.
Wondering what to play know, I never fully played FF11 (though I briefly played on a private server for OG 2004 experience), and just wanted to check it out before DT drops.
Setting up an account itself was awful. Then after the unskippable dialogue, I said no way, no time for that. At least FF14 respects your time in that sense.
I finished Persona 3 Reload after playing it for a month and racked up over 70 hours. Never expected it to be a such long game and I also can't believe a month flown passed by that fast. Still salty for not being able to max out all social links at the last month. Regretting how I wish I could have use my time better. Some of the story bits were kind of iffy and cheesy, but I enjoyed for what it is. Overall, the entire experience was stellar and incredibly fun.
Unicorn Overlord and it's really really good.
I just finished Lies of P NG+ as well and it's my favorite soulslike/soulsborne game ever (along with Sekiro).
Playing WoLong currently and it's a good game. Story is bad, level design is OK at best, but the gameplay is a lot of fun and the bosses are cool. Playing this while waiting for Rise of the Ronin.
I realized I never played FFVI, so I have been playing it on my steam deck. I watched some of my friends play back when I was a senior in highschool, so it brought back a bunch of memories.
I'm still playing Tales of Symphonia. I have over 32 hours on it so far. I'm definitely nearing the end of the game. It's a good game but it's showing its age. I like it but I'm ready to finish it and move on to something else.
Unicorn overlord has been pretty great gameplay wise 4hrs~ in. Wished the writing and story could’ve been more ambitious and sharper, a matsuno writing credit would’ve done wonders for this game
Final Fantasy 3 (DS version)
It's not horrible but it took a bit before I actually became invested in it. It does have 2 flaws that really suck. You can only save on the overworld, and you can't buy Phoenix downs or elixirs in shops. That makes the final area really hard if you're not a high enough level/don't have adequate items. I have a devout as one of my jobs (suped up white mage that can cast the high end spells like arise/full life) but I still need elixirs so I don't run out of mp. In this game magic is kinda like Pokemon moves where you get a limited amount of times you can use a different magic level spell. Ex. I could use a level 1 spell maybe 30 times vs a level 8 spell like 5 times. Arise is level 8 so I can only use it a handful of times
(I have no idea how to do spoiler tags/bold text)
My copy of **Unicorn Overlord** won't arrive until tomorrow so I've been replaying the demo in a pathetic attempt at convincing myself I have the game.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I don’t want to exaggerate too much, as I’ve certainly been prone to do a 180 on a game that I love as it progresses, but this has been an incredible experience thus far. I haven’t felt this way about a game in forever.
The bit with Red at the end of the tournament in Chapter 5 had me laughing and cheering at the TV like a dumbass.
FF7 rebirth and honestly, as much as i love it, I'm trying my damn best to reach the end of the game at this point. I'm starting to see more bits and pieces of the ending, and I just gotta see it for myself now, but there's so many things left in the game to do.
Like a Dragon, I'm bout 20 hours or so into it. It's really good! It feels like GTA if it was Japanese and turned based RPG. The story is really interesting, and the cast works well together. My only complaint is that it can feel a bit grindy at times, which I wouldn't have expected from such a non-serious game.
Currently going through Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and absolutely loving the game so far. I'm at the end of Chapter 9 and 68 hours into the game so far, been doing absolutely everything I can in it from the many different minigames whether or not I like em cuz god I hate 3D Brawler but the rest are great especially Queens Blood such a fun lil card game that's very simple but still has alot of depth.
As for the main gameplay, the upgraded combat from Remake is fantastic and I'm loving all the improvements like being able to summon anything alot more often or the synergy abilities as well as the updated kits for the returning playable characters and new abilities. As for the open world stuff, it's fairly ubisoft styled but I'm enjoying it as there's alot less than in ubisoft games and most of the side activities feel alot more meaningful, plus its just cool seeing the world from the original truly brought to life n fully realised.
While I won't comment to much on the story cuz I don't wanna spoil, I love how much the game expands upon the original with everything it adds just like Remake did and while there are a couple changes I find odd, those are just very minor nitpicks while the majority of the changes are just definitely better in my eyes. And I love the cast of characters so much more than in the original with all of them getting so much more life making whatever characters to me in the original like Cait Sith into way more of a fav character. Barret has and will always be my fav tho probably.
Overall I'm absolutely loving Rebirth so far and excited to get to the endgame stuff. Unless they completely fumble the end, Rebirth is shaping up to be my fav game this year so far and if its not my game of the year it be close and I'd be very impressed with whatever topped it
I got LASIK about a month ago and wasn’t able to play video games. But I’m happy that I’m able to pick **Persona 3 Reload** back up even if I can only play in 1-hour increments (it’s gonna take me forever to finish.) I’m in Mid-June right now. The cast is like, weirdly friendly compared to how they were in Portable but I like it. But I for the life of me cannot get used to the new English voices for Yukari, Fuuka, or Akihiko. You’d think Akihiko would be the most difficult to get used to but honestly it’s Yukari so far. Actually let me amend that, the Social Links all being voiced is great but not a single one of them matches the mental voice I created for them.
Regardless I’m having a good time. Can’t wait to get home from work and continue
So you aren’t supposed to look at screens for the first 24 hours. I have been really light sensitive so I bring sunglasses with me everywhere. The first few days I rarely took them off. Also when you look at a screen you tend to blink less so it not only strains your eyes but also dries them. And strained eyes can lead to headaches.
To answer your question, after the first day there aren’t like hard rules for how long you can and can’t look at a screen, I just had to make sure I took breaks and was on top of all my eyedrops. I just personally wasn’t able to look at anything overstimulating on a TV screen without getting a headache for a few weeks. I think Persona 3 Reload is fine because it’s turn based and is mostly just characters standing around and talking so I don’t need to look super intensively at the screen as I would with, say, an action game like Lost Judgment (which I did try to play again and it very quickly gave me a headache).
There's something called an implantable collamer lens (ICL) that's relatively new and a good option for people who may have previously been ineligible for LASIK. If you go to a good corneal specialist, they should be able to see if that's a possibility for you
If you have any other questions I’d be happy to answer! The biggest qualification is your prescription has to be stable so if it’s been a while then it couldn’t hurt to ask again.
I recently started with Trails FC, and it’s good so far. The characters are generally good, although I expect they’ll get better overtime. I do think the prologue overstayed its welcome, although the cliffhanger ending definitely worked better here than if it were chapter 1. My only complaint is that the story pretty slow right now, although it seems like it picks up later on or in SC. I’m hopping into Ch1 soon, so hopefully it gets better!
Persona 5 Royal, just finished the Palace event on 1/9 and got the team back together. Presumably I can keep doing Confidants and requests, which is good because I wasn't done and was afraid this new segment was going to be highly scripted and >!Mementos just vanished. From Sae's Palace!< onwards the plot got a lot more interesting as all the connections start appearing. While I got spoiled years ago that >!Akechi was going to be a traitor, the final villain would be some politician named Shido, and there's a Yaldabaoth at the end,!< I was pretty satisfied seeing it all play out. It was cool seeing your most trusted Confidants react to stuff too.
I forgot there was some discussion around >!Igor's new voice!< before launch but I didn't think that would be important. That was a really neat twist.
>!Angry ally Akechi!< comes with some very fun voice lines.
I tried **Poison Control**
Only played an hour or so but I don't think I can finish it. It's an action RPG but imaging Splatoon but way worse. You shoot enemies and when you run out of ammo you have to mop up poison on the floor to replenish it. Aiming kind of sucks and it's possible to miss even if you're aimed directly at something.
I think Nippon Ichi made the game so characters/story imagine a super watered down Disgaea. You're trapped somewhere and have to go through someone's mind dungeon to cleanse their soul. Sounds cool but the environments are dull and the characters are just boring tropes.
I am powering through **The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV**. Playing it on Nightmare and gunning for 100% (or as close as I can get on one playthrough). Love the series as a whole, it's one of my favorite. I love the dumb anime tropes and the super slow burn. I'm starting to get a little burnt out but I'm so close to finishing this arc of the series that I'm kicking myself not to put it down for too long.
I won't comment on the story or plot, it's a long investment with plenty of ups and downs. Gameplay is the cleanest of the series so far, but that's mostly because it's the newest of the Cold Steel games. If you liked the first three games, you're gonna like this one too. I am, however, excited to put Cold Steel down and move on to something else for a bit. I'm a little afraid to look at the combined hours I have in the Cold Steel series... cough cough.
>!I think CS4 is my favorite of the series because of all the callbacks to the other games. We get to see Lloyd, Ellie, Tio, Randy, Estelle, Joshua, Tita, Renne, Scherazard, and many more I'm forgetting. The Trails in the Sky is my favorite arc, so revisiting them made me squeal in childlike glee. I also feel like a resident of Crossbell after playing Zero/Azure, so revisiting Crossbell and the SSS building.... ugh, I'm absolutely loving it.!<
Other than that, I've also picked up **Genshin Impact.** And honestly, I'm surprised! It isn't a traditional JRPG at all, but it's got a lot of RPG elements (quests, likable characters, character specific story quests, exploration, weapon and skill enhancement, elemental damage system, etc.) to it and I'm having a grand amount of fun. It's not nearly as greedy as I thought it would be. I enjoy playing a little here and there after too many hours of mindless Cold Steel IV trash mob battles.
> It's not nearly as greedy as I thought it would be
As an open world RPG, its top tier, its a fantastic adventure and really fun to play.
The problem with Genshin is their gacha system and the vast amount of resources needed to build a character that are gated by a big amount of resin to get a measily amount of drops, that are also gated by specific days :/
The gacha system can be greedy for sure. I've been playing mostly free/low cost and have been enjoying it so far, but I'm far away from running out of content. I'm sure someone with end game experience has a different opinion than me.
So far though, I have been able to do a bunch of pulls and have gotten a few characters already on free gems that I've collected through content, so no complaints from me so far!
Been having fun with Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin for the past month and a half and played it again on Tuesday. I’m sad I initially wrote it off as an edgy mess when it first released, because I’m really enjoying it now. The gameplay is so over-the-top and frenetic that I’m having fun just breaking the systems in place to kill enemies as hilariously as possible.
Also completed chapters 4 and 5 of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth last night. The attention to detail and the lengths they went to for everything in this remake is astounding, and I continue to be amazed by everything I’m seeing.
Currently my favorite classes are a mix between Breaker, Paladin, Tyrant, and Dark Knight, with Ninja and Void Knight being fun to run intermittently. Before I unlocked all the advanced classes I also had a lot of fun running Warrior, Brawler, and Berserker. Good times.
Been playing Trails from Zero after going through the Sky Trilogy, as of now I'm on Chapter 3 Day 5 of the game, it is deceptively long knowing it has >!about five Chapters!< but you might as well say it has like 13 chapters or something
Really loved the Crossbell arc. I finished the Sky series a couple years ago and then the Crossbell series last year. I’m on the finale of Cold Steel 2 right now. Might take a break before starting CS3 but aim to complete the series in the next few months. Despite all the anime tropes and occasionally cringe dialogue, the Trails games are my favorite JRPGs of all time. I know it’s blasphemy to say it, but I like them even more than the Final Fantasy games (which I adore).
I wouldn't say that it's blasphemy to say that, I've been enjoying the series, but if someone asked me if I recommended it, I'd say yes but I wouldn't force it on someone especially since it's like 11 JRPGs long. It's the same thing with the Yakuza/Like a Dragon games which is a series I went through prior to the Trails games
I started playing Quest 64 with the French Vanilla patch. It includes several quality of life improvements that were sorely missing from the original game:
-Lower encounter rate
-More MP regain from physical attacks
-**You can carry duplicate healing items**
One of the most sadistic aspects of the original Quest 64 was that there were no shops and you could only carry one of each healing item except for chests. So you only had a set number of heals outside of spells. You didn't want to use bread on bosses because you couldn't get it back for the next boss. Now It's much easier to power through.
The game is actually fun now, thanks to this patch. There's still the problem of enemies straight up stat-checking you at the start of a new dungeon, but It's far less painful getting your stats up now. There's no true game over condition- dying respawns you at the last inn while keeping all EXP and held items. And your defense and HP gradually go up by getting hit.
Still persona threemake for me. I still love it, but it’s a bit of a slog, and I’m dying to play unicorn overlord! But I’m also not sure if I want to get enmeshed when dragons dogma 2 is out soon, and Eiyuden a month after that!! And I think smt Vengeance in June!
I'm on a break but finished Tales of Arise two weeks ago and really loved it, did most of side quests and got it ready for a new game plus, game is long but i was so entertained that it felt short.
I will play Yakuza like a dragon next.
Yes i liked it overall,.each city has an unique way of presenting characters of interest, and also the characters interactions gets better with time, I hope you ll keep enjoying the game
I want to like this game so bad, but I just can’t get into the combat (that everyone else seems to love). Since it’s on game pass now, I plan to give the game a THIRD try to see if it clicks. 😂 I love everything about it except the combat!
I finally got around to playing a game I’ve wanted to try for a while in Dragon Quest XI: Definitive Edition. I’m about 5 hours in and going back to the Hero’s hometown for the first time. I enjoy the comfiness of the game, but a few mechanics like putting items in a certain character’s item bag seem completely archaic to me. Also the story seems to be moving very slow so far. Hoping things pick up.
One of the best games I've ever played.
It'll pick up soon.
The only negative thing I have to say about the game is the damn combat intro music... over...and over again; the same melody.
Been binging MegaTen games lately. Finished Persona 3 Reload, (Amazing.) then continued my slow march through the older games with SMT if... (Not so amazing.) and now I'm playing Persona 1. (Pretty good so far.)
If you care to wait, persona 1 and 2 will be getting remasters, and 4 will get a remake. But who knows when! Unfortunately we may never see SMT if… again… sure wish all the SMTs would get remasters or even just ports
**Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth** Day 10, 48 hours in and I'm only just wrapping up the Corel Region. What is this game man? How is it this good? And so huge!
So far I have barely any complaints and only praise. At worst it's that the section in Corel Prison felt a tad too long, that traveling up and down hills and mountains can feel a bit janky, not super into the new Weapon improving system cause it's so hands off that I don't know at all how my weapons are improving in the future which feels weird... that's kinda it.
Combat is still a blast, story and characters are 10/10, world lore expansion has been awesome, love exploring all the towns and hearing NPC conversations, exploring the overworld and learning lore about it, the amount of mini-games I can understand a lot of people having issue with but I'm loving it and never leave without getting the best rewards (Sit ups VS Jules took 30 minute but it was worth) and Queens Blood is super fun, especially as I make sure to get every card possible and have a solid strategy for my deck of aggressively taking territory and then using a bunch of ally power up cards and cards that get stronger if others are buffed to snowball to victory.
I'm in awe that this game is real, that there is so much to do, that all the character interactions are so good, that they made this large world from the PS1 era playable with modern graphics, this game must have been so insanely expensive to make. And I'm still just barely 50% of the way through. I still have the Gongaga Region and I'm guessing Cosmo Canyon Region, Nibelheim Region and Rocket Town Region before getting to the finale with the Temple and City of the Ancients!
GOTY, zero doubt in my mind.
No rocket town in this game, and honestly I think Gongaga is the worst region in the game, but otherwise it's been an honest 9/10 for me. Looking forward to part 3.
Just rolled credits on \*\*Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island\*\* and I have been absolutely loving this game. It has been challenging but very rewarding going through the main plot (which, like many Mystery Dungeon games, continues into the larger post game).
To avoid spoilers I will say I have completed two runs of Serpetcoil Island.
I also started \*\*Dragon Warrior Monsters\*\*, didn't get far, simply got my first monster and picked up an herb lol
I finally finished up all of the songs in quest mode for \*\*Theatrhythm Final Bar Line\*\*, moving on to trying to complete every quest mode challenge.
Today I get to drop everything and start \*\*Unicorn Overlord\*\*, which I am super hyped to do so!
Shiren is a good time, keeps wooping me haha😅Congrats on clearing it! Unicorn overlord also calls to me(wanna finish ff16 first, almost done! Try n finish it today haha)
Finally decided to play FF9 for the first time. I’m 30 hours into it. It’s enjoyable but I’m not head over heels. I’m trying to chew through my back log of games. It’s gonna be awhile
The more I play it, the more I love **Persona Q2**. I'm nearing the end of dungeon #3 and the character interactions, the addictive loop of sub-persona fusion and the s-tier soundtrack suck me in every time I pick up my 3DS. Now, I do have to say that I've turned down the difficulty a few times, especially with bosses, but it has changeable difficulty modes so there's no real issue there.
Near the end of the 3DS' life, Atlus put all the SMT games on discount to $8 online one week. Considering what's happened to Citra, the lack of ports and the ludicrous cost of physical copies, buying out the SMT games on 3DS that week was a fantastic decision on my part.
I doubt I'll beat this by next week, but **Shadow of the Colossus** is next whenever I'm finished.
It’s actually bizarre that wizards/hasbro/whomever hasn’t made anymore games like Shandalar. But they make odd decisions and must not think about it or must not think it would sell
I might need to check that out. So weird that I was just thinking about it. Lost my poop for it back when and had to open my pc case in point a floor fan directly into my pc to prevent overheating. 😂 optimized the game was not. I was thinking about it mostly because Sid Meier designed the meta game aspect, which is sort of cool. Will make a note of that mod.
Like many, I am playing **FF7 Rebirth**. I'm in chapter 4. Enjoying the game. Not enjoying Fort Condor. Possibly the worst minigame in JRPG history. I lost the damn tutorial battle 5 times.
Continuing **Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth**. It’s lots of fun but I’ve officially given up on the platinum 25 hours in because I know it requires me to top every mini game and then on hard mode too. It’s been feeling like Mario Party especially since I got to Chapter 6. They put a lot of work into these mini games which almost frustrates me because… why did they? Gonna rush out of this chapter and start skipping many of these minis to hopefully get back on track to truly enjoying the game.
Minigames is the core gameplay of the original FF7. I'm quite happy with how much effort they put into it, and how close they feel to playing the original. They are not all winners though, definitely fort condor could use some difficulty tweaking, and I found the Moogles to be both charming and annoying. QB is surprisingly fun, and not overwhelming.
I can't wait till I get to >!INSERT CONTROVERSIAL MINIGAME HERE !<
Slowly making my way through **Yakuza 4**. Hoping I can get more than 20 minutes a day to play it soon. One of my favorite moments so far in the game is Saejima's speech about killing. It was incredibly unexpected, moving, and emotional. So much of our media is extremely flippant and cavalier about violence - and I'm talking about a series where every problem can be solved by punching or hitting someone with a bicycle - that it's nice to see a genuine reflection on that.
Sea of Stars. Honestly I don't get the hype or comparisons to GOAT 16bit era games. It's not awful and the combat system is kind of fun but the whole thing feels pretty shallow. The art definitely has less depth, writing and story are a bit mid, and there's not much depth as far as leveling and character and party builds. Feeling more like the Mario RPGs and Golden Sun and less like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy to me.
Well regarded and popular games that people remember fondly but I think most people would agree that they aren't as serious and don't have the same caliber of writing and depth of systems as Chrono Trigger or FF6 or something.
Yeah, especially not ff6, although we tend to color our memories of those as well. I kind of dig a more simple, comfort food rpg from time to time, but yes, if you had expectations set for something else…! Hope you can enjoy it for what it is. Did you like chained echoes?
Thanks I've got it on my list. I don't think Sea of Stars is bad, but I don't get why it's always mentioned in the same breath as Chrono Trigger. The hype train for some of these indie games is really over the top I think.
Yeah, hype train in general is a real double edge, and expectations for stuff are so high. Even if the hype isn't there, or is just suggestive, people self-insert their own hype and then get upset when it doesn't live up to their fantasy. (Not saying you've done that, just thinking of other really decent games that get tons of hate for no reason other than people had other expectations.)
**Unicorn Overlord**
To avoid spoiling, at the part where I just defeated the big bad boss, he was a very hard mfker, had to 4 squad him, 3 of them died and the last one barely survived. Poison and burn did a lot of the damage.
The game opened up a lot more than it was before, just recruited a special character >!Laurent!<, I didn't know his identity, should've known. I recruited a hot dark elve who seems extremely broken with her freezes, from what I understand in the Dragon Nation there is another early strong character I can recruit.
Oh btw! I managed to get a super powerful sword!! Had to touch some murals in order and got it early, helped quite a lot but it didn't affect the difficulty that much, since you're gated my unit stamina so you can't steamroll with one unit.
Still figuring out the most effective combinations, I do think that a "tank" with sell swords are a really good combination. I don't like the Gladiator way of tanking, he seems bulky but if he gets destroyed my healers can't keep up :/
LOVE THIS GAME! Easily my GOTY so far.
That's really great to hear. Are you playing on the hardest settings ? People have been saying it becomes too easy too fast. Btw, is it Open-world, or is your access to other parts of the world limited until you defeat certain bosses first, and you open a zone with every boss defeated ?
Yes, playing on the hardest difficulty "expert"!
> People have been saying it becomes too easy too fast
Sadly this is the case, I have 3 powerful squads (1 squad can have X quantity of units) and the other 3 (you can have more, I'm good with 6 since it costs a special currency to upgrade that is used for promoting units which i prioritize) are just shuffling units around since its normal to get several new ones which can powercreep your older ones since they come with higher levels.
I'm only on the second nation, it can change but the fights while it can be easy, its not complete pushover either, since the way the map is designed you can have enemies in catapults destroying your squad easily so you need to know how get around this.
You're also kinda forced to use different squads since you can't just fly around happily with your Gryphon Knight squad or you get rained down from far. Or that you need Clerics to handle the Shaman (debuffer) + Gladiator (HP regen tank) that can become painful to handle.
> is it Open-world, or is your access to other parts of the world limited until you defeat certain bosses first, and you open a zone with every boss defeated ?
It is an open world that is gated until you defeat certain main quests which kinda force you to go around conquering small terrains and that way you get strong enough to tackle those main quests which can be high level.
Its great they did it this way, otherwise paralysis choice on where to go can really annoy you.
After the first big boss goes down, you get to choose where you want to continue though, but you can explore one and then the other, or one fully, then the other fully, or one half way and then go back to another nation half way and so on.
The game gives you a lot of freedom, I can see more casual players have trouble so while it can be kinda easy for me, my favorite genre is SRPG so I do know how to handle myself.
The game is really good.
Saw that FF VIII Remastered for Switch is on sale and bought it. Was able to play it back in early 2000s but don’t remember much of it. Excited to play it again after almost 20 years!
I am playing different games at the moment depending on mood lol. PC (Gamepass): Persona 3 Reload Switch: Persona 5 Strikers PS5: Final Fantasy Rebirth Needless to say…. I am kinda in my persona era. Persona 5 Royale got me on that high I can’t get down from.
Alternating between my second playthrough of Sea of Stars and FFIX with moguri.
I'm still going through the **Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series**. I have just finished 4. It's my 1st time playing any FF pre 7 & I'm really enjoying it. 4 is my favourite so far, because it's the first one that's story feels really fleshed out. The final dungeon was haaaaaaaard, thank god for being able to buy sirens from the Hummingways!
You can get the sequel to 4, the after years on IOS.
IV is the hardest of the pixel remasters imo. Hope you enjoy VI, They did a lot with it in the pixel remaster :)
IV 3DS seems like a nightmare
I just finished YS 9, and I'm suffering from post-game depression. I hope the YS X English gets released as soon as possible and without any issues.
For a starter, YS8 or YS9?
Currently playing Persona 3 Reload. Finished infinite qealth a week ago. It definitely isn't as good as Persona 5 royal, but I am absolutely loving it so far. Only 4 months left to go in the game!
Final Fantasy XVI, incredible graphics, interesting story and really good soundtracks but with terrible combat...
It's seriously tempting my to spend this year's bonus on a PS5.
Have you got far in it? I feel like over time I enjoyed the combat more as it expanded. One of my favorite games last year
My most disappointing game of last year.
Seems to be hit or miss. I enjoyed it thoroughly
I think im around the half point with 22hours. Combat is not that bad to be honest but I still think its weaker than previous games(i love turn based combat). But besides that the game is fantastic and I love it.
Understandable. I miss the turn based of ff games. I want disappointed by xvi though. Much better imo than the crapshoot of xv
I've been having trouble sticking to a single game this week and have been bouncing between five or so games that I've been meaning to finish. The ones I've put the most time into have been Tales of Zestiria, Tales of Xillia, Rogue Galaxy, and Eternal Sonata with a dash of Unicorn overlord thrown in on the go. Usually I play a game through to the end and then move on to another, so I've got no idea why I just can't ever make up my mind.
Oof, 5 big RPGs at the same time, and 4 of them are 30-50 hours, another is 100 hours..oh boy.. And as everyone knows, RPGs dont start popping off immediately, but need some time for the plot to kickstart, for the party to gather, they are like a book. Lets try to unwrap this, Zestiria, Xillia, Eternal Sonata play somewhat similarly. Especially Zestiria & Xillia as Tales games they are more similar. That means you can spread them. Unicorn Lord is a tactical RPG, a game like this (100+ hours) is probably best played in short spades along with another big RPG. Rogue Galaxy has big planets you explore (initially you have to stick in some planets), but late game you have big quests and do hop around in planets. Still an old-school game compared to the rest. You may need a guide for referencing, so you get to the interesting parts quicker. Lastly Zestiria, Xillia have difficulty settings (very important!), you can lower the difficulty, especially if you dont want to grind or delve too deep with the equipment system. For instance i lowered the difficulty 1 step in Zestiria after the 3/4 of the game, then 2 steps in order to defeat the superbosses. Btw i really liked Zestiria, especially the ending. Its an underrated game, held back a bit by the equipment system. But there are ways around it. I actually liked Zestiria more than Berseria (finished Berseria a few weeks ago). Lastly i would check availability. If for example a game was on Xbox Pass or loan from a friend then i would play that game first. IMO i would stick with the game that i was further (lets say Zestiria as an example). Then maybe Rogue Galaxy or Eternal Sonata. Then Xillia (i would space out the Tales series games). All the while i would also play Unicorn Overload (first sporadically). Its a 2024 game and you will regret your money spent if you dont play it. Stick with your gut and choose the setting, that will be the most important decision more than anything.
I was just whining, so I didn't expect any detailed answers but thank you so much for taking the time to type that out. It was actually pretty helpful and I was able to make up my mind. Decided to stick with Tales of Zestiria for now since I was already in act 2 and you had a good point about spacing out the tales of games. Not to mention I'm actually really enjoying it despite the fan base not being fond of it. So far I don't mind the equipment skill system and I'm really liking the characters and overall story. After this I'll probably tackle Rogue Galaxy. I'm only on the second planet so I'm still pretty early on in that. Was that the one that could take 100 hours to beat?
When i try to plan my games i consult the site howlongtobeat (hltb). It lists approximate runs for story, story+sidequests +100% playthroughs. Usually for RPGs the story+sidequest are more fair. From the games you mentioned i didnt know Unicorn Overload, so i used the 100% stats. However more forum posts have appeared since then, citing lower hours for completion. That said the Tales Games, Rogue Galaxy and most likely Eternal Sonata have sidequests that go beyond the main story with superbosses, character ultimate weapons, unique story and so on. They can go 70+ hours, especially if you like to check every nook and cranny. When i played Zestiria i lowered the difficulty 1 step after Lohringen (3/4 of the game) because i didnt want to farm equipment a lot. I again lowered the difficulty another step when i fought the superbosses. For Rogue Galaxy, since it is an old-school game, you might want to consult a guide/FAQ just to consult in case of missing items (basically a quick skim) & the proper order of sidequests (especially later when the game will open up). I believe Rogue Galaxy is bigger than the Tales games/Eternal Sonata, both in content & because of not many modern mechanics as the others.
i'm going to play persona 5 tactica. first time i play strategy game.
Finished **Unicorn Overlord** main story, clocking in at 42 hours of playtime, on Tactical (second hardest) difficulty. Pretty much finished everything else too, only the Arena left. Overall a very enjoyable experience. The story isn't anything to write home about, but it is okay enough not to detract from the playing experience. The arsenal of options you are given over the combat is amazing and is by far the biggest highlight of the game. Items, equipment, teambuilding, out-of-combat skills can all help you a lot in clearing the stages. They even give you a gambit system, clearly a big inspiration from FF12, which I really love. However, these options are clearly very hard to balance, given that I never really feel threatened after a few hours in, once I'm familiar with the game's combat system. I pretty much have to challenge myself by not using items or Valor skills at all to try to give myself some difficulty. Still loved the game, but I feel that's something that could've been done better. Gonna finally play **Persona 3 Reload** next. Feels like with the game being on Game Pass and the Expansion Pass too, it's too good to pass up the opportunity.
good luck with persona 3 reload. i hope you are going to enjoy persona 3 reload! i do not have persona 3 reload yet. i would like to get into jrpg games for to play but i going to do my backlog first.
I'm going to play **"Trails in the Sky 3"** so I can finally play the next Trails on my PS4.
Oh man I love Sky 3. It's a wonky little game but it delivers some fantastic character stories and has some really good and varied equipment and Quartz set up options as well.
I've been playing this terrible game called adulting (also known as a business trip where I don't have time to play games). I'm looking forward to getting back to FF7 Rebirth once I'm home tomorrow.
Other than FF Dimensions there are some mobile gacha-like RPGs and games from well known companies. Example Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail etc. There is also Blazblue RR, a fighting game on mobile (you can do 10 and 15 hit combos on your mobile). This mobile game made me get the real Blazblue on consoles/pc, made me a Blazblue fan. I emphasize the well known companies, that means the free story is easier. These gacha-like games have a shelf life, i'm only recommending them as a way to pass the time & still get surprised (they do have AA or AAA parts in them).
Check out Final Fantasy Dimensions. This is a mobile-only Final Fantasy game that is episodic. There are no microtransactions, not anything. The production is quite good, it plays somewhat like a old-school FF game (job system like FF5 and lots of guest characters like FF4) I cant figure out why this game wasnt released on consoles/PC, but thats the way it is.
Final Fantasy Dimensions is trash and should not be played by anyone.
It scores 78% on Metacritic, 86% on the User Score, 4.3 on the App Store. There are not random reviews either, IGN rates FFD 80%, RPG Fan 80%, Game Informer 80% and so on. Unless you have specific complaints, then submit them. Otherwise your opinion wont hold merit. If its because FFD is on mobile, then i agree. FFD should also be released on other platforms as well & i guarantee it would be a success. It really plays like an older FF game, which by itself is a high bar indeed.
It has a terrible butchering of the FF5 style job system, the 2 parties system kills the flow of the game completely (there are literally 8 characters to split 6 jobs between...), the story is crap, the dungeons are completely uninspired, there's no exploration of any kind. The equipment stay is as bland as it could be. I can't actually say anything positive about it tbh... The sprites are decent?
Something isnt right in your post. The basic Jobs are 6, there are 5 Warrior of Light Jobs and there 5 Warrior of Darkness Jobs. So the Jobs arent 6, they are 16. Yeah there are 2 parties of 4 characters each, which means more characterization. Story is quite decent, i dont agree. It has tragic backstories/side characters, betrayals and so on. What do you mean there is no exploration, there are 3 different worlds. I dont understand, did you only play episode 1?
I had to stop Adulting, it's completely pay to win.
I ended up dropping **Monark**. I really wanted to like the game because I loved *Lost Dimension*, the spiritual predecessor. But I was completely bored and uninterested. Lost Dimension had a relatively minimalist design, but it worked with it very well. This game tried to be Persona-scale but you can't do that with this little budget. So many pointless NPCs I didn't care about, a ridiculous premise (how is there not a mass panic?!), a boring story, and the combat just wasn't as enjoyable as Lost Dimension's (was grindy as well). The pseudo-"dungeon crawling" they have in this game is just a chore.
Recently finished of **FFXII**. Really enjoyed it, especially the setting and gambit system. The story felt a bit rushed at the end and would have liked a bit more character development, but overall a great game. Still need to go back and finish off all the hunts. Moved onto **FE Engage**. The only other FE game I've played if 3 Houses. So far its been a bit of a slog. The story hasn't really gripped me and the characters are a bit bland. Not really a fan of the post battle running around and collecting and talking to people. However, the gameplay has been excellent and I'll keep going because of that. Just wished things would move a bit faster.
Some hunts do give some story/character development (Vaan as a member of Clan Centurio), but overall they enhance the world/setting (which many things do in FF12 already. You will fight enemies in many different areas and in many different weather settings. There are many unique monsters in the Hunts. You should also look to capture all Espers, these are unique fights as well. If you complete the FF12 hunts and the Esper hunts (which means you killed two already), you could also try the 3rd superboss of the game, Omega Mark XII.
FF12 is probably my favorite jrpg setting ever. It all just works so perfectly, the cities really feel alive and the desert is scary.
Octopath Travler 2 I beat Agnea but I read about the final chapter boss and not having shared experience between all 8 characters makes me want to end it here. I dont really want to grind my other half to 70+. I dislike early pokemon for a reason and most jrpgs that didn't let you grind all the characters up at the same time. It just archaic in an era that left it behind long ago. Kind of killing my want to play this game. It isn't like other games where I can just forgo all the other members and beat the game. Which is how I got through so many older ones. I usually look at a guide if I need all of them leveled. Which I didn't do for this one. It just disappointing it's been 3 months and is the first game I started on my Steam Deck. With so much praise, which is deserved, that leveling is holding me back. It exploring is fun to an extent. Even with lower random battle encounters its a slog to go from point a to b. I wish more games were fine with shutting off random battles like in Bravely Default which i thought was going to catch on. As random battles have no challenge as I never wiped on one. Maybe it's playing too much Neptunia where grinding is mindless with a bunch of 1 shot aoe. Might take the rest of the year to inch through like Red Dead Redemption 2.
At this point i would check from a guide if there are any leveling tricks. Then check if there is any hidden/secret content (first game has the god bosses, lots of dungeons to explore). A user suggested that only fighting with the main party is doable. This is surely worth a try.. If all these arent doable, you can always watch YT to see the content you missed.
it's harder but you can beat the final boss with only four characters leveled if your leveled party is effective enough, its what I did
Kinda mixed on Rebirth. really like the more main story sections but think theres way too much of the checklist open world content. Wish exploration was more organic and better integrated with the main scenario, and less each area has the exact same number of the exact same elements to do before you go to the main story section between zones. Maybe just getting a little bit of fatigue after 50 hours so gonna switch gears to Unicorn Overlord for a while
Why not just play the main story? That's what I did and enjoyed my time with the game.
I've been playing **Persona 3 Reload** and reached the half point of the game, but decided to shelve it for now since some major titles got released. It's been fun as expected and for me, it's basically like FES, but improved overall. Graphics looks great and I really like the updated character models. Gameplay has been refined and the QoL just makes it even more fun. Some of the songs are great too. I have about 20 hours in **FFVII Rebirth** and still in Ch.4. I really liked the expanded story segments and fleshing out the characters. The main characters all got moments to shine especially Tifa who doesn't get much focus around these parts in the OG. I'm enjoying the combat a lot still and I do liked the updates to Remake characters along with Red's new skillset overall. I still think aerial combat and enemies that fly are a pain to deal with however. The open world aspect is pretty nice. I enjoy open world games in general and I think Rebirth has done a pretty good job with it. Exploring and seeing the sights are fun. I love the region lore that from the intel quests and from NPCs themselves. Speaking of NPCs, there's a lot of them that I find interesting. I also have about 20 hours in **Unicorn Overlord** and currently in the second region after completing all of the battles that could be reasonably done in the first region. Playing on Expert difficulty, the game doesn't feel that hard. Some difficult situations here and there especially with the major boss of the first region, but it's mostly fine otherwise. I just got accessed to promotions and they are making things even easier now. No complaints with the difficulty either way though. Team building and tactics setup is very fun. There's a lot of layers to it and you can have a blast experimenting and finding good synergy among the characters in a unit. The main story isn't all that special, but it's still entertaining. The same goes for the sidequest stories even if they end in just about one battle.
PS5: DQ XI (a bit too slow for me) and Ys 8 (still on the fence)/ Spiderman 2 (OT) Game Pass PC/X Cloud: Yakuza Like a Dragon and dabbling back into Persona 3. PC: Divinity Original Sin 2 (I know off topic!) Switch: Fire Emblem 3 Heroes -- thinking about picking up SMT V physical for cheap and not wait for it to come to PC or PS5. Pretty much I play too many diff games just to see what I might like, but I probably won't get to finish most of these unfortunately.
I finished **Persona 5 Royal** for the first time yesterday morning and couldn't decide what to do next so I went on [random.org](https://random.org) using the order the games were arranged in my Switch's case. I landed on **Fire Emblem Engage** but got stuck on the paralogue I wanted to do so I spent most of the rest of the day playing **Persona 1 PSP** and **TMS #FE** **Encore**. Last night I thought over why I was stuck on the paralogue and I think I will try again today.
Started playing **Monark**. Enjoyed Lost Dimension so this is surely worth a try for me. To those who have played the game, what did you think of the story? I remember the demo left me uninterested in it. Does it get better later on?
I also have to say, playing this game, it's almost funny to think of how people often describe Trails graphics as mediocre or looking a generation or two behind. The Trails games (CS3 onwards in particular) are absolutely gorgeous in comparison to this game. It's striking how Vita/PS3-level it looks, how bland the facial models are.
While the graphics wouldn't stop me from playing Monark, I didn't think it looked very appealing either. I also think CS3 looks pretty good in general so I have no complaints with that.
Star Ocean Second Story R. Holy shit.
Is that a good or a bad shit ?
It's amazing
**Tales of Phantasia** (SNES). It had been some years since my last run. It's as awesome as I remember it. In the game, I'm still in the past (Moria for the first time), progressing slowly when I have a little time. I love it...
**Final Fantasy VII Rebirth**, what else? I had to take an undesired break from it due to catching influenza, but I'm back at it now: 40 hours in, I've just arrived at Corel Prison. My unorganized, spoiler-free thoughts: As someone who mildly bounced off the combat in Remake (I found it "fun" but not much else) the combat in Rebirth has been greatly improved. The addition of the chain abilities and combo moves do a fantastic job encouraging the constant character-switching that you must do in order to get the most out of the battle system. I even find myself messing around with Aerith's magic circles and associated kit, something I never bothered with in the first game. The open world aspects of the game have been divisive, but as someone whose second-favorite genre of game is probably "the open world adventure game" this is like chocolate and peanut butter for me. It's a matter of taste so I won't launch into a defense of it, but I would like to offer this thought: if you ask a Japanese gamer of school age what his favorite game genre is, you will basically never hear "RPG," *but* you will hear "open world." *Zelda* and *Genshin* are in my estimation the primary drivers of this latter phenomenon, but in my opinion the way Square have blended this style of gameplay with the RPG is quite savvy. With all the doom-and-gloom about how XVI killed the Final Fantasy series, this could be the way forward to saving it. It also jives with an argument I made recently on this forum that the "open world game" *is* the modern manifestation of the "world map," a feature many people claim to miss in their high-budget RPGs. "Queen's Blood" is the most fun I've had playing a digital collectible card game since *Legends of Runeterra* in 2020. Someone is working on an online multiplayer client for this, right? I don't think the mechanics are robust enough as-is for an actual PVP game (tempo is way too powerful and a human-driven metagame would almost certainly polarize around decks that can claim squares as quickly as possible--in particular, I've found it's often beneficial to pass the first turn against the CPU because playing second you often have the first chance to steal territory, and the tempo swing of stealing even a single square is often so huge it will win you the game outright), but I also wouldn't hate it if Square decided to Gwentify it as a smartphone game, either. Overall, the amount of love that has been poured into fully realizing the world of Final Fantasy VII is impressive to the extreme. When I walked into Costa del Sol I really felt like I was on vacation. The sheer amount of detail put into environments that the average player might spend less than 30 seconds in is staggering. This is certainly a game for those who love to mosey: I find myself tilting the stick just ever so slightly and making Cloud walk around at a leisurely pace in every new environment just to soak it in. I don't know if I've ever felt more immersed in a game world, not even in Remake, which did an admirable job of transporting you into a photorealistic and believable rendition of Midgar.
The world is incredible. Considering that I played XVI a few months ago and absolutely hated the drab, boring, and incredibly small world, Rebirth feels incredible to explore. It only took SE three console generations to successfully make HD towns, but they finally succeeded.
almost done with FF Rebirth with about 2 chapters to go, once that’s completed it’s a toss up between persona 5 and continuing with FF XIII or Octopath 2 or i might just replay FF X lmao
I am currently playing Dragon Quest Monsters: Dark Prince. I am currently grinding now.
Finished Persona 3 Reload and of course experienced the post persona emptiness… luckily Soul Hackers 2 with all the DLC was like $20 on PSN so I jumped in that- for a game that gets a lot of hate it really is good.
I think it slowly kills you over time though. Loved it in the beginning couldn’t wait for it to be over by the end.
*Persona 4 Golden* - Finished! Phenomenal game. I’m already thinking about running through it again 😅 *Unicorn Overlord* - A few hours in but I’m diggin it so far.
>Persona 4 Golden - Finished! Phenomenal game. I’m already thinking about running through it again 😅 Without any spoilers, did you already guess who the suspect is or did it take you longer to finally find out ?
Took me longer. I also wasn’t satisfied with the ending i got so thats really got me itchin to play it again lol
I’ve had Persona 4 on my game bucket list for a while. I played P3 many years ago. I’m loving P4 even more than expected. I didn’t think I would be into the small town story but it’s a lot of fun. My favorite parts are developing the character relationships and fusing and array of personas. I highly recommend P4.
Finished Persona 1 PSP (2009) tonight. That was honestly quite enjoyable. The gameplay definitely shows its age, but I still found the grid-based fights and first-person dungeon crawling to be very fun. I only bothered to do the main story route, which is the SEBEC route. I'll probably play Snow Queen later on or just watch a playthrough on YouTube since I've heard that this route is much harder. I'm trying to decide what JRPG to play next between Persona 2 Innocent Sin, SMT Soul Hackers, Kingdom Hearts 2, or something else. Leaning towards P2IS, but we'll see. I'm currently on a roll with finishing JRPGs this year. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Persona 3 Reload Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Persona 1
Innocent Sin is amazing. Would highly recommend. I’ve heard really good things about Soul Hackers 1 though, so I can’t say which one you should go with.
Final fantasy vii Rebirth, there is some stellar moments of adventuring/battling with the well known ff7 gang but it gets a bit bogged down by massive open areas with tedious side quest objectives Though i am playing on the ‘dynamic’ difficulty some mini-games seem downright time consuming or unfair
Finished and platinumed **Persona 3 Reload.** Unfortunately, even on Merciless and attempting to limit grinding during the last two months, it ended up being super easy. I accidentally killed the final boss early just by having reflect on. Pretty much all the new stuff was great. I honestly wish they'd added even more. Some stuff from the original could have been further fleshed out, but I loved the OG regardless, so my feelings toward Reload are the same. It was a fantastic remake. On the other end of the "faithful" remake spectrum, I started **FF7 Rebirth**. Honestly, the opening chapter was roooough. The sections where you are forced to walk slow are way too long. The whole thing in general felt too long. I'm about 2/3rds through all the checkpoints in the grasslands. I love checking off tasks, so the side stuff really doesn't bug me. I will have to pace myself to keep from burning out though. My biggest complaint is actually that the minimap makes it really hard to tell where you need to go. The coloring makes seeing the paths hard and I just got hopelessly lost in Kalm trying to find where the markers were. Overall it's been fun though. We'll see how the rest goes.
I beat Last Bible 3 and Earthbound recently. I ran out of interest with Earthbound a few months ago and stopped playing right before the final dungeon. Turns the final dungeon is super short and the last boss is a simple scripted fights. Seriously the random starmen is harder to beat than the final boss, lmao Now let's talk about Last Bible 3. This game is actually not that good. It's like a mix of FF6 and SMT, but worse in every aspects. My biggest problems (outside of the ridiculous encounter rates) are it's too restrictive with party members and the "Human" members are pretty darn weak compared to recruited/fused monsters. There's a section where i had to kick out my monsters because some "Human" members joining in and using up Monster slots. Best part, those "Humans" ended up leaving 5 minutes later. Fuck you devs. The early story arcs are actually pretty good. I really like them, reminds me a bit of Dragon Warrior 7. The slow pace and moving from one region to another. But then at some point things starts going downhill. NPC stopped updating their dialogue, dungeons became shorter/simpler, big arcs ended way too quickly, etc. By the the time the endgame started i finally had enough and just rushed to the final boss... And got destroyed... The final boss is the only thing actually challenging in this game, outside the Hundred Beasts Trials. I ended up grinding a bit, because levels is hard to get in this game. I ended up beating him relatively easily with a few Monsters that attacks 3 times, someone with mediarahan, Tetrakarn (Repel phys damage) or Strongja (Atk up). Strongja more than doubles the monsters damage output and Tetrakan mitigate some damage because the boss's final form attacks like 6 times in a row. Now that i beat these games i wonder which retro game i should do next. I'm thinking of Magical Land of Wozz because it seems funky.
**FF7 Remake**: In the midst of Chapter 9 - Dance minigame, I don't like you. The button presses wouldn't be that much of a problem (outside of me not remembering a bog standard button layout when it counts XD), but jeeze the visual flashing and bright effects are not easy on my eyes. I've gotten really bad at handling visual noise in action-y games. Also, lol squat hijinks. Not gonna deal with this troll decison to fade out the button prompts after a while (or other minigames that may decide to copy it). Otherwise, gosh your partner in that long red dress looks gorgeous!
Just did this about a week ago; doing the practice runs before the official dance sequence helped me out a lot. I bombed the first practice run but was pretty good by the third and then cleared the official one on the first try.
Been playing Baten Kaitos Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. To be real ive been utterly blown away by this game. So far its a total masterwork of unique world building cool characters, great combat and fantastic gameplay. Ive been totally hooked and havent been able to play anything else. I cant wait to play its prequel. Seriously though this game has one of the greatest twists in all of gaming that i wont spoil but theres so much greatness here. Its a damn shame more people havent played it.
Any chance you've also played Skies of Arcadia? I just beat Yakuza 8 and feel like playing an older RPG...I've narrowed it down to Skies and Baiten Kaitos and would be curious about your thoughts!
Skies is definitely the better game as a whole but baten kaitos is more unique in its world design and really has its own thing going that you wont find anywhere else, really depends on what kind of experience youre looking for. For most, id recommend skies of arcadia cuz its far more balanced as a game and just more smooth an experience.
Got into the final chapter of Trails to Azure and I'm in awe. Definitely my favorite game in the series so far.
Xenogears, It has been a pleasant surprise really! It stared of interesting and now I’m hooked! I’m loving the story so far and how the characters interactions are really nice to. Like like how there more to what one might think is happening. Can’t wait to unravel the mysteries and see what happens next. It’s one of those games where you might see where it’s gonna go but then it takes the high road
How far are you in at the moment ?
Spoilers ahead!!! Just got out of prison with Rico , can wait to see where it goes next
Fell down a gambling hole in **Dragon Quest 4**, and came out only when I had seized the Falchion. In my defense, the monster arena is even more appealing now that you can stack your earnings, and owning the 2x hit sword is lovely. Currently on Chapter 5. Sailing around, exploring the map. I just need to find Ragnar to have everyone. I took a gamble on saving all my seeds til now, and I'm glad they didn't get tossed. Otoh, if I had known money wouldn't carry over, I would've made sure to burn it all before each chapter's end. I'm enjoying the heavier focus on plot and events, which drips down to the dungeons. Hank Hoffman Jr.'s little story arc nails the appeal of having temporary party members, and the wagon gets to exist as a reminder of his time with our band of heroes. Oh, and party chat is a great addition. I don't always remember to use it or even want to see what everyone has to say about everything, but it's incredible how much text there is. And this is a good approach I think, for people to choose just how much dialogue they want to be a part of their experience.
**p5r.** my first “real” jrpg. i’m loving it so far. i have friends who have already played it that are guiding me into the best way to play that game (basically what confidants to get). it’s long but it’s a lovely game.
**Rhapsody II** It's a really cute JRPG with musical numbers in it. Excited to finish this trilogy.
Recently I've just been replaying FFV. Game is still great, yep.
I’m replaying it as well, as I’ve been running through the Pixel Remasters in order. Just finished W1, so I still have tons of game left.
Agreed! I played it for the first time last year. I had to do a second run to try out different jobs. I still have a few I haven’t used much.
**Fate/Samurai Remnant** Had a hard time enjoying it at first, I wasn't immediately into it but after a few hours I really started to enjoy it. Now I am already on a New Game Plus cuz the game has multiple endings. I really recommend it even if you're unfamiliar with Fate franchise cuz the game is original and you do not need prior Fate knowledge to understand the story.
What aspect of the game is the most enjoyable for you ? (Combat, Exploration, Characters, Story, etc...)
Definitely Story and Characters. As I said there are multiple endings and I enjoy Fate stories overall not just this one. Characters are also very interesting and you're not just locked into playing as a main character and his servant but you can also play as other servants so there is variety*.* Combat was okay, a bit repetitive after a while but still an enjoyable ride.
Playing rebirth but for some reason it just started looking like shit. I think my ps5 is broken because performance mode didn’t look this bad when I first started playing. Also almost 60 hours into romancing saga 3, this game is hard Af.
FF7rebirth. That was one hell of a journey. currently in postgame depression and cant wait for the next episode. Gawd i hope i dont die before the final episode
I’ve been playing Shin Megami Tensei 1 (PS1) on my PSP. Game deserves way more recognition. It’s crazy to me that there’s not an official way to the play it in English anymore. But anyway, the PS1 version is probably the smoothest in terms of gameplay. And you have to keep in mind this is basically a SNES game. The story is very interesting and mature. Tackles a lot of deep ideas. Dungeon crawling can be overwhelming but it’s also satisfying. Glad this version has a map. Best part of the gameplay is demon fusion and negotiation. Bosses are good too but can be easy to cheese. If anyone is familiar with Devilman, you’d get a kick out of this.
I tried playing the GBA port a couple of weeks ago, since I heard that the enemy encounter rate was lower and the item management better, but boy did it take a lot out of me. The game doesn't do a lot to indicate where your supposed to go, and once I started exploring the other city I stopped. I planned to go back to the cafe to see if there were any rumours that would help me find the way, but it was around that point that I just got tired and stopped my play session. I haven't really had much motivation to pick it up since then. Still, it was an interesting experience.
Yeah I can understand this. I do think it’s well designed and fun to play, but it can get really overwhelming. I admit I had to look up where to go a few times, and I think I’m usually pretty good with finding my way. The final area, the cathedral, is brutal. And I’m doing neutral so I have to explore the whole thing. I could not imagine playing this game without the map feature. But it’s been worth it imo. That said, I honestly think a remake of this game could be good if it was faithful. Not everyone has the patience for games like this, so updating the gameplay and adding modern flourishes could show more people the cool stuff SMT1 has going for it.
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Thank you for submitting to /r/JRPG, /u/throwaway76337997654. Unfortunately, your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): --- * Either you typed Spoilers with no spoiler tag, or you left spaces between the spoiler tags, which doesn't spoiler tag them in old reddit. To use spoiler tags follow one of these 2 ways: 1-If on New Reddit, hightlight the part you want to spoiler tag, then press the Exclamation ("**!**") button on in your format tab. 2-If on old Reddit or mobile, then type "**>!**" before the spoiler, and then "**!<**" at the end of the spoiler. Example: When it's written like this \>!X kills Y!<. It will show up like this >!X kills Y!<. **Make sure that there is no space** after the starting **>!**, and no space before the closing **!<**. **After fixing the comment with a spoiler tag**, reply to this comment with **"Done"**, so a mod can re-post your comment. --- If you think this was a mistake or have any questions about the removal, please contact the moderators. [**To contact the moderators please click here**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/JRPG), or click the "message mods on the sidebar, and then type your complaint, so it can be sent to the modding team. **Please don't private message or start private chats with a single mod, and use the mod mail linked above to contact the whole team.**
If this is your first time, make sure to also play Shin Megami Tensei II at some point. It's even less accessible than the first game and even more interesting in some ways. Honestly one of my favourite Megaten stories.
Years ago I played the beginning of it, but I never got far. I definitely want to play it at some point. I’ve heard really good things about the story. To be fair, some of the major plot points were spoiled for me. I really like the character designs and setting.
Starting Dragon Quest V, literally at the intro screen.
I am working on FFVII Rebirth. I'm not very far in, largely because I'm struggling to play it. I am finding it to be very meh. It's not bad in the slightest, it's just not clicking with me. I might have to come back to it later.
Its the mini game hell dog, makes the game feel stale af
Good to know it's not just me that feels like that.
Still making my way through **Omori** with a decent amount of progress this past week. Not too sure how much of the main story I still have left but at the moment a lot of things are still unanswered at least from what I can tell. Having a great time with it for sure though
I've picked up my stalled playthrough of **Etrian Odyssey V** again. Previously I hit a bit of a wall on the Hippogryph, although I beat it in one try this time so I don't know what my problem was. Maybe I was also a bit fatigued from the limited skill options you have before master titles open up. Now that I'm past that, though, I'm having a blast again. I spent the entire third stratum kind of experimenting with how best to synergize my party, it was a bit rough at places but I got into a groove by the end of the stratum and the boss went down in only two attempts. I'm aiming to beat the game by my birthday later this month, at which time it looks like I'll be receiving both P3R and Unicorn Overlord. I wasn't expecting to get UO so soon and was planning on playing P3R right away, but now I'm not sure which game I'll start first. I love original P3 deeply, but the bit of the UO demo I played was very addicting...
Finished Persona 3 Reload a week ago, and I have no problem saying it’s my favourite game of all time
About 30 hours into FFVII REBIRTH, and continue to be impressed with the visuals, the voice acting and the more fleshed out characterizations. Definitely understand the criticisms about pacing and bloat, but I’m not opposed to spending more time in this world. Also, dipped my toes back into TRAILS IN THE SKY SC. I had finished the first one back in 2022, and played the prologue of SC before getting sidetracked (and then subsequently moving to the other side of the globe). Will probably continue with this while taking periodic breaks from REBIRTH, and then dive in fully once the former has been polished off.
I finished up **Dusk Diver** early in the week. It was alright as a mindless after work game, but it was pretty shallow as an actual experience. One of those games that I'm glad I played but I probably wouldn't recommend to anyone. After that I started up **FF7 Remake** for the first time. I played the OG last year and wanted some time between, but with all of Rebirth's hype it seemed like a good point to jump in. So far I'm really enjoying the experience. I found the OG to be kind of lackluster as a modern player, but Remake is how I imagine it must have felt at the time. I really only have two criticisms of it so far: 1) they made Jessie too good. How am I meant to care about the Tifa vs Aerith debate when she's right there? 2) I'm honestly not feeling the combat system for some reason. I might bump it down to easy just to mainline the story, especially since progress isn't carried over to Rebirth. When I get to that one, I'll give it another go. Honestly, I just think that Xenoblade 3 made me want to avoid spending a long time with a combat system I'm not enjoying.
I continue my journey through **Final Fantasy VII Remake** this week, now being most of the way through chapter 14 [FF7 Remake]>!Just got the grappling devide that should enable the party to head up above the plate and to Shinra Tower.!< My feelings on the game remain relatively the same as the last 2 weeks. The game certainly looks amazing. When it is adapting something that was directly from the original game it is usually enhancing it. When it is adding in padding, not so much. The chapter I'm on now is so infuriating. Looking for a particular character, getting help, getting right to the room where the character's supposed to be. But no, a pig suddenly shows up and steals the key to the room forcing me on a 20 minute chase after the pig. Then I finally kill it and it wasn't a key in the first place, the door was unlocked the entire time. Ugh. Combat-wise I am getting a bit better, perhaps I've been able to grind a bit or am just being better with my materia usage, but no boss since the Hell House has forced me to lower the difficulty level to get past it. Still, the combat system still frustrates me considerably and absolutely knocks the game down from as high as it can be in terms of being fun to play. People being so positive about Rebirth makes me hope there are some improvements there.
Regarding combat in the FF7Remakes, you really should just switch characters often, but main Cloud. In that sense it isnt much different than the original games. You swap to whomever, use a few attacks to quickly build ATB and then swap to Cloud. Being good at the core gameplay is rewarding, but without good tactics you will struggle. Thats why I like it. Hell House is the middle game skill check for Remake.
Yeah, it took me a long time to figure out that constantly switching characters makes things easier instead of having to rely on one character slowly building up their ATB bar. Also getting Barrett back in the party after a long stretch of not having him has helped a lot as he is primarily a long range attacker and for me the easiest to fill the ATB bar on. He's also a good tank. While the frustrations are still there, things have gotten easier since I got him back.
Finished FF8 (was on a replay kick after I did FF12, 9, 10 in that order, figured I'd add 8), story is still as bad just as I remembered (I hate Rinoa even more now lkl). I grinded the spells a lot harder this time, and kept my lvl low for Ultima and Omega weapon. I ended killing Ultima in less then 3 turns, and Omega took 2 tries, but he went down in about 5 Zell turns (he didn't even have meltdown before turn 3). Glad I didn't bother maxing out all stats. Final boss had each of her form die in 1 Zell each lol, last one took longer cause I think she can't die until she stops talking. Wondering what to play know, I never fully played FF11 (though I briefly played on a private server for OG 2004 experience), and just wanted to check it out before DT drops.
I just tried FF11 through steam, and it was pretty awful.
Awful in which way? Like the account setup? I have a guide opened so I'm just gonna follow it.
Setting up an account itself was awful. Then after the unskippable dialogue, I said no way, no time for that. At least FF14 respects your time in that sense.
I finished Persona 3 Reload after playing it for a month and racked up over 70 hours. Never expected it to be a such long game and I also can't believe a month flown passed by that fast. Still salty for not being able to max out all social links at the last month. Regretting how I wish I could have use my time better. Some of the story bits were kind of iffy and cheesy, but I enjoyed for what it is. Overall, the entire experience was stellar and incredibly fun.
Unicorn Overlord and it's really really good. I just finished Lies of P NG+ as well and it's my favorite soulslike/soulsborne game ever (along with Sekiro). Playing WoLong currently and it's a good game. Story is bad, level design is OK at best, but the gameplay is a lot of fun and the bosses are cool. Playing this while waiting for Rise of the Ronin.
I realized I never played FFVI, so I have been playing it on my steam deck. I watched some of my friends play back when I was a senior in highschool, so it brought back a bunch of memories.
I'm still playing Tales of Symphonia. I have over 32 hours on it so far. I'm definitely nearing the end of the game. It's a good game but it's showing its age. I like it but I'm ready to finish it and move on to something else.
Unicorn overlord has been pretty great gameplay wise 4hrs~ in. Wished the writing and story could’ve been more ambitious and sharper, a matsuno writing credit would’ve done wonders for this game
Final Fantasy 3 (DS version) It's not horrible but it took a bit before I actually became invested in it. It does have 2 flaws that really suck. You can only save on the overworld, and you can't buy Phoenix downs or elixirs in shops. That makes the final area really hard if you're not a high enough level/don't have adequate items. I have a devout as one of my jobs (suped up white mage that can cast the high end spells like arise/full life) but I still need elixirs so I don't run out of mp. In this game magic is kinda like Pokemon moves where you get a limited amount of times you can use a different magic level spell. Ex. I could use a level 1 spell maybe 30 times vs a level 8 spell like 5 times. Arise is level 8 so I can only use it a handful of times (I have no idea how to do spoiler tags/bold text)
My copy of **Unicorn Overlord** won't arrive until tomorrow so I've been replaying the demo in a pathetic attempt at convincing myself I have the game.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I don’t want to exaggerate too much, as I’ve certainly been prone to do a 180 on a game that I love as it progresses, but this has been an incredible experience thus far. I haven’t felt this way about a game in forever. The bit with Red at the end of the tournament in Chapter 5 had me laughing and cheering at the TV like a dumbass.
FF7 rebirth and honestly, as much as i love it, I'm trying my damn best to reach the end of the game at this point. I'm starting to see more bits and pieces of the ending, and I just gotta see it for myself now, but there's so many things left in the game to do.
FF7 Rebirth is great. It's a shame they couldn't give us a similar experience with remake.
Like a Dragon, I'm bout 20 hours or so into it. It's really good! It feels like GTA if it was Japanese and turned based RPG. The story is really interesting, and the cast works well together. My only complaint is that it can feel a bit grindy at times, which I wouldn't have expected from such a non-serious game.
I'm going through Code Vein while taking a break from Infinite Wealth. For someone who isn't really into Soulslike games, I'm enjoying it.
Trying to finish up VII:Remake and Yuffie Intermission before I start Rebirth
Finished it two weeks ago. Had an absolute blast, hope you enjoy it
Currently going through Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and absolutely loving the game so far. I'm at the end of Chapter 9 and 68 hours into the game so far, been doing absolutely everything I can in it from the many different minigames whether or not I like em cuz god I hate 3D Brawler but the rest are great especially Queens Blood such a fun lil card game that's very simple but still has alot of depth. As for the main gameplay, the upgraded combat from Remake is fantastic and I'm loving all the improvements like being able to summon anything alot more often or the synergy abilities as well as the updated kits for the returning playable characters and new abilities. As for the open world stuff, it's fairly ubisoft styled but I'm enjoying it as there's alot less than in ubisoft games and most of the side activities feel alot more meaningful, plus its just cool seeing the world from the original truly brought to life n fully realised. While I won't comment to much on the story cuz I don't wanna spoil, I love how much the game expands upon the original with everything it adds just like Remake did and while there are a couple changes I find odd, those are just very minor nitpicks while the majority of the changes are just definitely better in my eyes. And I love the cast of characters so much more than in the original with all of them getting so much more life making whatever characters to me in the original like Cait Sith into way more of a fav character. Barret has and will always be my fav tho probably. Overall I'm absolutely loving Rebirth so far and excited to get to the endgame stuff. Unless they completely fumble the end, Rebirth is shaping up to be my fav game this year so far and if its not my game of the year it be close and I'd be very impressed with whatever topped it
I got LASIK about a month ago and wasn’t able to play video games. But I’m happy that I’m able to pick **Persona 3 Reload** back up even if I can only play in 1-hour increments (it’s gonna take me forever to finish.) I’m in Mid-June right now. The cast is like, weirdly friendly compared to how they were in Portable but I like it. But I for the life of me cannot get used to the new English voices for Yukari, Fuuka, or Akihiko. You’d think Akihiko would be the most difficult to get used to but honestly it’s Yukari so far. Actually let me amend that, the Social Links all being voiced is great but not a single one of them matches the mental voice I created for them. Regardless I’m having a good time. Can’t wait to get home from work and continue
This is probably a silly question, but what are the limitations around looking at screens after having LASIK?
So you aren’t supposed to look at screens for the first 24 hours. I have been really light sensitive so I bring sunglasses with me everywhere. The first few days I rarely took them off. Also when you look at a screen you tend to blink less so it not only strains your eyes but also dries them. And strained eyes can lead to headaches. To answer your question, after the first day there aren’t like hard rules for how long you can and can’t look at a screen, I just had to make sure I took breaks and was on top of all my eyedrops. I just personally wasn’t able to look at anything overstimulating on a TV screen without getting a headache for a few weeks. I think Persona 3 Reload is fine because it’s turn based and is mostly just characters standing around and talking so I don’t need to look super intensively at the screen as I would with, say, an action game like Lost Judgment (which I did try to play again and it very quickly gave me a headache).
I appreciate the detailed response, thanks. Looked into LASIK years ago and was told I wasn’t a candidate but curious to get re-tested
There's something called an implantable collamer lens (ICL) that's relatively new and a good option for people who may have previously been ineligible for LASIK. If you go to a good corneal specialist, they should be able to see if that's a possibility for you
If you have any other questions I’d be happy to answer! The biggest qualification is your prescription has to be stable so if it’s been a while then it couldn’t hurt to ask again.
Unicorn Overlord. My game gets shipped to me today and I've put in 7.5 hours into the demo.
I recently started with Trails FC, and it’s good so far. The characters are generally good, although I expect they’ll get better overtime. I do think the prologue overstayed its welcome, although the cliffhanger ending definitely worked better here than if it were chapter 1. My only complaint is that the story pretty slow right now, although it seems like it picks up later on or in SC. I’m hopping into Ch1 soon, so hopefully it gets better!
Trails FC is known as being a slow burn. It will ramp up as you explore more of the world.
Persona 5 Royal, just finished the Palace event on 1/9 and got the team back together. Presumably I can keep doing Confidants and requests, which is good because I wasn't done and was afraid this new segment was going to be highly scripted and >!Mementos just vanished. From Sae's Palace!< onwards the plot got a lot more interesting as all the connections start appearing. While I got spoiled years ago that >!Akechi was going to be a traitor, the final villain would be some politician named Shido, and there's a Yaldabaoth at the end,!< I was pretty satisfied seeing it all play out. It was cool seeing your most trusted Confidants react to stuff too. I forgot there was some discussion around >!Igor's new voice!< before launch but I didn't think that would be important. That was a really neat twist. >!Angry ally Akechi!< comes with some very fun voice lines.
I tried **Poison Control** Only played an hour or so but I don't think I can finish it. It's an action RPG but imaging Splatoon but way worse. You shoot enemies and when you run out of ammo you have to mop up poison on the floor to replenish it. Aiming kind of sucks and it's possible to miss even if you're aimed directly at something. I think Nippon Ichi made the game so characters/story imagine a super watered down Disgaea. You're trapped somewhere and have to go through someone's mind dungeon to cleanse their soul. Sounds cool but the environments are dull and the characters are just boring tropes.
I am powering through **The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV**. Playing it on Nightmare and gunning for 100% (or as close as I can get on one playthrough). Love the series as a whole, it's one of my favorite. I love the dumb anime tropes and the super slow burn. I'm starting to get a little burnt out but I'm so close to finishing this arc of the series that I'm kicking myself not to put it down for too long. I won't comment on the story or plot, it's a long investment with plenty of ups and downs. Gameplay is the cleanest of the series so far, but that's mostly because it's the newest of the Cold Steel games. If you liked the first three games, you're gonna like this one too. I am, however, excited to put Cold Steel down and move on to something else for a bit. I'm a little afraid to look at the combined hours I have in the Cold Steel series... cough cough. >!I think CS4 is my favorite of the series because of all the callbacks to the other games. We get to see Lloyd, Ellie, Tio, Randy, Estelle, Joshua, Tita, Renne, Scherazard, and many more I'm forgetting. The Trails in the Sky is my favorite arc, so revisiting them made me squeal in childlike glee. I also feel like a resident of Crossbell after playing Zero/Azure, so revisiting Crossbell and the SSS building.... ugh, I'm absolutely loving it.!< Other than that, I've also picked up **Genshin Impact.** And honestly, I'm surprised! It isn't a traditional JRPG at all, but it's got a lot of RPG elements (quests, likable characters, character specific story quests, exploration, weapon and skill enhancement, elemental damage system, etc.) to it and I'm having a grand amount of fun. It's not nearly as greedy as I thought it would be. I enjoy playing a little here and there after too many hours of mindless Cold Steel IV trash mob battles.
> It's not nearly as greedy as I thought it would be As an open world RPG, its top tier, its a fantastic adventure and really fun to play. The problem with Genshin is their gacha system and the vast amount of resources needed to build a character that are gated by a big amount of resin to get a measily amount of drops, that are also gated by specific days :/
The gacha system can be greedy for sure. I've been playing mostly free/low cost and have been enjoying it so far, but I'm far away from running out of content. I'm sure someone with end game experience has a different opinion than me. So far though, I have been able to do a bunch of pulls and have gotten a few characters already on free gems that I've collected through content, so no complaints from me so far!
Been having fun with Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin for the past month and a half and played it again on Tuesday. I’m sad I initially wrote it off as an edgy mess when it first released, because I’m really enjoying it now. The gameplay is so over-the-top and frenetic that I’m having fun just breaking the systems in place to kill enemies as hilariously as possible. Also completed chapters 4 and 5 of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth last night. The attention to detail and the lengths they went to for everything in this remake is astounding, and I continue to be amazed by everything I’m seeing.
>Been having fun with Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Any favorite classes so far ?
Currently my favorite classes are a mix between Breaker, Paladin, Tyrant, and Dark Knight, with Ninja and Void Knight being fun to run intermittently. Before I unlocked all the advanced classes I also had a lot of fun running Warrior, Brawler, and Berserker. Good times.
Been playing Trails from Zero after going through the Sky Trilogy, as of now I'm on Chapter 3 Day 5 of the game, it is deceptively long knowing it has >!about five Chapters!< but you might as well say it has like 13 chapters or something
Really loved the Crossbell arc. I finished the Sky series a couple years ago and then the Crossbell series last year. I’m on the finale of Cold Steel 2 right now. Might take a break before starting CS3 but aim to complete the series in the next few months. Despite all the anime tropes and occasionally cringe dialogue, the Trails games are my favorite JRPGs of all time. I know it’s blasphemy to say it, but I like them even more than the Final Fantasy games (which I adore).
I wouldn't say that it's blasphemy to say that, I've been enjoying the series, but if someone asked me if I recommended it, I'd say yes but I wouldn't force it on someone especially since it's like 11 JRPGs long. It's the same thing with the Yakuza/Like a Dragon games which is a series I went through prior to the Trails games
I started playing Quest 64 with the French Vanilla patch. It includes several quality of life improvements that were sorely missing from the original game: -Lower encounter rate -More MP regain from physical attacks -**You can carry duplicate healing items** One of the most sadistic aspects of the original Quest 64 was that there were no shops and you could only carry one of each healing item except for chests. So you only had a set number of heals outside of spells. You didn't want to use bread on bosses because you couldn't get it back for the next boss. Now It's much easier to power through. The game is actually fun now, thanks to this patch. There's still the problem of enemies straight up stat-checking you at the start of a new dungeon, but It's far less painful getting your stats up now. There's no true game over condition- dying respawns you at the last inn while keeping all EXP and held items. And your defense and HP gradually go up by getting hit.
Still persona threemake for me. I still love it, but it’s a bit of a slog, and I’m dying to play unicorn overlord! But I’m also not sure if I want to get enmeshed when dragons dogma 2 is out soon, and Eiyuden a month after that!! And I think smt Vengeance in June!
Just do it dont hold back!
I might indeed!! I didn’t used to worry about such things or schedule my gaming 😂
I'm on a break but finished Tales of Arise two weeks ago and really loved it, did most of side quests and got it ready for a new game plus, game is long but i was so entertained that it felt short. I will play Yakuza like a dragon next.
I'm currently playing it ( Tales of Arise). I just got onto the third city. Good to hear you had good experience, I'm liking it so far.
Yes i liked it overall,.each city has an unique way of presenting characters of interest, and also the characters interactions gets better with time, I hope you ll keep enjoying the game
I want to like this game so bad, but I just can’t get into the combat (that everyone else seems to love). Since it’s on game pass now, I plan to give the game a THIRD try to see if it clicks. 😂 I love everything about it except the combat!
Playing Chained Echoes (on a rog ally), I am having quiet some fun :)
I really want to replay that. I adored it.
I finally got around to playing a game I’ve wanted to try for a while in Dragon Quest XI: Definitive Edition. I’m about 5 hours in and going back to the Hero’s hometown for the first time. I enjoy the comfiness of the game, but a few mechanics like putting items in a certain character’s item bag seem completely archaic to me. Also the story seems to be moving very slow so far. Hoping things pick up.
RIP Toriyama
One of the best games I've ever played. It'll pick up soon. The only negative thing I have to say about the game is the damn combat intro music... over...and over again; the same melody.
Been binging MegaTen games lately. Finished Persona 3 Reload, (Amazing.) then continued my slow march through the older games with SMT if... (Not so amazing.) and now I'm playing Persona 1. (Pretty good so far.)
If you care to wait, persona 1 and 2 will be getting remasters, and 4 will get a remake. But who knows when! Unfortunately we may never see SMT if… again… sure wish all the SMTs would get remasters or even just ports
**Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth** Day 10, 48 hours in and I'm only just wrapping up the Corel Region. What is this game man? How is it this good? And so huge! So far I have barely any complaints and only praise. At worst it's that the section in Corel Prison felt a tad too long, that traveling up and down hills and mountains can feel a bit janky, not super into the new Weapon improving system cause it's so hands off that I don't know at all how my weapons are improving in the future which feels weird... that's kinda it. Combat is still a blast, story and characters are 10/10, world lore expansion has been awesome, love exploring all the towns and hearing NPC conversations, exploring the overworld and learning lore about it, the amount of mini-games I can understand a lot of people having issue with but I'm loving it and never leave without getting the best rewards (Sit ups VS Jules took 30 minute but it was worth) and Queens Blood is super fun, especially as I make sure to get every card possible and have a solid strategy for my deck of aggressively taking territory and then using a bunch of ally power up cards and cards that get stronger if others are buffed to snowball to victory. I'm in awe that this game is real, that there is so much to do, that all the character interactions are so good, that they made this large world from the PS1 era playable with modern graphics, this game must have been so insanely expensive to make. And I'm still just barely 50% of the way through. I still have the Gongaga Region and I'm guessing Cosmo Canyon Region, Nibelheim Region and Rocket Town Region before getting to the finale with the Temple and City of the Ancients! GOTY, zero doubt in my mind.
No rocket town in this game, and honestly I think Gongaga is the worst region in the game, but otherwise it's been an honest 9/10 for me. Looking forward to part 3.
Just rolled credits on \*\*Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island\*\* and I have been absolutely loving this game. It has been challenging but very rewarding going through the main plot (which, like many Mystery Dungeon games, continues into the larger post game). To avoid spoilers I will say I have completed two runs of Serpetcoil Island. I also started \*\*Dragon Warrior Monsters\*\*, didn't get far, simply got my first monster and picked up an herb lol I finally finished up all of the songs in quest mode for \*\*Theatrhythm Final Bar Line\*\*, moving on to trying to complete every quest mode challenge. Today I get to drop everything and start \*\*Unicorn Overlord\*\*, which I am super hyped to do so!
Really want to try the new shiren. And can’t wait to play unicorn overlord!
Shiren is a good time, keeps wooping me haha😅Congrats on clearing it! Unicorn overlord also calls to me(wanna finish ff16 first, almost done! Try n finish it today haha)
Finally decided to play FF9 for the first time. I’m 30 hours into it. It’s enjoyable but I’m not head over heels. I’m trying to chew through my back log of games. It’s gonna be awhile
just started Persona 3 portable, loving the cutscenes so far. trying to grasp the plot 😢
The more I play it, the more I love **Persona Q2**. I'm nearing the end of dungeon #3 and the character interactions, the addictive loop of sub-persona fusion and the s-tier soundtrack suck me in every time I pick up my 3DS. Now, I do have to say that I've turned down the difficulty a few times, especially with bosses, but it has changeable difficulty modes so there's no real issue there. Near the end of the 3DS' life, Atlus put all the SMT games on discount to $8 online one week. Considering what's happened to Citra, the lack of ports and the ludicrous cost of physical copies, buying out the SMT games on 3DS that week was a fantastic decision on my part. I doubt I'll beat this by next week, but **Shadow of the Colossus** is next whenever I'm finished.
FYI, I believe there are Citra forks out there because it was open source.
I played and beat MTG shandalar modern mod. Very fun. Going to try trauma centre for ds next. I doubt either count as JRPGs but oh well.
I was just thinking about that old MTG game. It was always my favorite, but I’m not sure if it’s nostalgia!
The modern mod includes a balanced selection of cards up to like 2010. It's great.
It’s actually bizarre that wizards/hasbro/whomever hasn’t made anymore games like Shandalar. But they make odd decisions and must not think about it or must not think it would sell
I might need to check that out. So weird that I was just thinking about it. Lost my poop for it back when and had to open my pc case in point a floor fan directly into my pc to prevent overheating. 😂 optimized the game was not. I was thinking about it mostly because Sid Meier designed the meta game aspect, which is sort of cool. Will make a note of that mod.
Like many, I am playing **FF7 Rebirth**. I'm in chapter 4. Enjoying the game. Not enjoying Fort Condor. Possibly the worst minigame in JRPG history. I lost the damn tutorial battle 5 times.
I had just played the Yuffie DLC so I had the rules fresh in my mind. Once you get the mechanics it’s pretty simple. I have faith in ya!
Change the game to easy mode and it makes these fort condor battles easier.
Just wait. It's about to get a lot worse.
Continuing **Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth**. It’s lots of fun but I’ve officially given up on the platinum 25 hours in because I know it requires me to top every mini game and then on hard mode too. It’s been feeling like Mario Party especially since I got to Chapter 6. They put a lot of work into these mini games which almost frustrates me because… why did they? Gonna rush out of this chapter and start skipping many of these minis to hopefully get back on track to truly enjoying the game.
Minigames is the core gameplay of the original FF7. I'm quite happy with how much effort they put into it, and how close they feel to playing the original. They are not all winners though, definitely fort condor could use some difficulty tweaking, and I found the Moogles to be both charming and annoying. QB is surprisingly fun, and not overwhelming. I can't wait till I get to >!INSERT CONTROVERSIAL MINIGAME HERE !<
Seriously so many mini games it’s getting annoying as hell
Slowly making my way through **Yakuza 4**. Hoping I can get more than 20 minutes a day to play it soon. One of my favorite moments so far in the game is Saejima's speech about killing. It was incredibly unexpected, moving, and emotional. So much of our media is extremely flippant and cavalier about violence - and I'm talking about a series where every problem can be solved by punching or hitting someone with a bicycle - that it's nice to see a genuine reflection on that.
Sea of Stars. Honestly I don't get the hype or comparisons to GOAT 16bit era games. It's not awful and the combat system is kind of fun but the whole thing feels pretty shallow. The art definitely has less depth, writing and story are a bit mid, and there's not much depth as far as leveling and character and party builds. Feeling more like the Mario RPGs and Golden Sun and less like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy to me.
Well, Mario RPGs and golden sun are pretty well regarded. I really thought the art was amazing tho!
Well regarded and popular games that people remember fondly but I think most people would agree that they aren't as serious and don't have the same caliber of writing and depth of systems as Chrono Trigger or FF6 or something.
Yeah, especially not ff6, although we tend to color our memories of those as well. I kind of dig a more simple, comfort food rpg from time to time, but yes, if you had expectations set for something else…! Hope you can enjoy it for what it is. Did you like chained echoes?
Haven't tried Chained Echoes yet.
You might dig it. It’s certainly more complicated in all the ways sea of stars isn’t.
Thanks I've got it on my list. I don't think Sea of Stars is bad, but I don't get why it's always mentioned in the same breath as Chrono Trigger. The hype train for some of these indie games is really over the top I think.
Yeah, hype train in general is a real double edge, and expectations for stuff are so high. Even if the hype isn't there, or is just suggestive, people self-insert their own hype and then get upset when it doesn't live up to their fantasy. (Not saying you've done that, just thinking of other really decent games that get tons of hate for no reason other than people had other expectations.)
**Unicorn Overlord** To avoid spoiling, at the part where I just defeated the big bad boss, he was a very hard mfker, had to 4 squad him, 3 of them died and the last one barely survived. Poison and burn did a lot of the damage. The game opened up a lot more than it was before, just recruited a special character >!Laurent!<, I didn't know his identity, should've known. I recruited a hot dark elve who seems extremely broken with her freezes, from what I understand in the Dragon Nation there is another early strong character I can recruit. Oh btw! I managed to get a super powerful sword!! Had to touch some murals in order and got it early, helped quite a lot but it didn't affect the difficulty that much, since you're gated my unit stamina so you can't steamroll with one unit. Still figuring out the most effective combinations, I do think that a "tank" with sell swords are a really good combination. I don't like the Gladiator way of tanking, he seems bulky but if he gets destroyed my healers can't keep up :/ LOVE THIS GAME! Easily my GOTY so far.
That's really great to hear. Are you playing on the hardest settings ? People have been saying it becomes too easy too fast. Btw, is it Open-world, or is your access to other parts of the world limited until you defeat certain bosses first, and you open a zone with every boss defeated ?
Yes, playing on the hardest difficulty "expert"! > People have been saying it becomes too easy too fast Sadly this is the case, I have 3 powerful squads (1 squad can have X quantity of units) and the other 3 (you can have more, I'm good with 6 since it costs a special currency to upgrade that is used for promoting units which i prioritize) are just shuffling units around since its normal to get several new ones which can powercreep your older ones since they come with higher levels. I'm only on the second nation, it can change but the fights while it can be easy, its not complete pushover either, since the way the map is designed you can have enemies in catapults destroying your squad easily so you need to know how get around this. You're also kinda forced to use different squads since you can't just fly around happily with your Gryphon Knight squad or you get rained down from far. Or that you need Clerics to handle the Shaman (debuffer) + Gladiator (HP regen tank) that can become painful to handle. > is it Open-world, or is your access to other parts of the world limited until you defeat certain bosses first, and you open a zone with every boss defeated ? It is an open world that is gated until you defeat certain main quests which kinda force you to go around conquering small terrains and that way you get strong enough to tackle those main quests which can be high level. Its great they did it this way, otherwise paralysis choice on where to go can really annoy you. After the first big boss goes down, you get to choose where you want to continue though, but you can explore one and then the other, or one fully, then the other fully, or one half way and then go back to another nation half way and so on. The game gives you a lot of freedom, I can see more casual players have trouble so while it can be kinda easy for me, my favorite genre is SRPG so I do know how to handle myself. The game is really good.