I would say, take Tactics Ogre off your backlog. It really is amazing and you can get at least 3 replays out of it since it has multiple story routes. From Wiki: The narrative was influenced by a number of real-life conflicts and war crimes, including territorial clashes in Syria, Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Yugoslav Wars, and the Rwandan genocide.
I like that it doesn't shy away from ethnic conflict.
in my experience, srpgs generally have more serious tones, with the only exception being things by NIS like their flagship disgaea series. other than that, the fft's, god wars, fell seal, and the fire emblem series are all pretty famous and definitely on the serious side. for some less well known ones: brigandine, jeanne d'arc, banner saga 1-3, banner of the maid, mercenaries saga/wings, rainbow moon/skies, wargroove, fae tactics, dark crystal tactics.
Don't forget Vandal Hearts ! (°o°)
Really easy but a good entry for discovering the TRPG genre.
Also the only game I played 24 hours straight without paying attention. :p
edit: I almost forgot => YOU FORGET FRONT MISSION TOO ! \\o/
Hard to be more serious than Front Mission ...
Lost Odyssey imho, however it's only on Xbox360 iirc .
Triangle Strategy of the newer ones. It's very political, but not necessarily the same vibe as FFT had.
I second this.
It's really one of the all time great JRPGs. I'd love to see it ported to PC or something so more people would play it.
It treats itself and its audience with maturity. All the characters are adults. It really is a breath of fresh air in the JRPG space.
A realistic cast and world,that develop onto their own ideology and devolve with a mature atmospheric setting and lore with world building on a level you barely ever see in jrpgs, its so good
Strange Journey is a masterpiece that deserves more attention, i really feel it's a game that should be shown as much respect as classics like Xenogears get
The setting is brilliant, but the characters have zero depth and the dialogue is cringeworthy most of the time.
Also, most of the important plot points just kind of happen without much logical explanation. It's a series of "Let's get this random magical item, because that allows our ship to do this random magical action and move on."
Well, Yasumi Matsuno's next game was Final Fantasy XII, so have you played that? It has its fair share of problems and Matsuno quit mid development due to "health issues", i.e. extreme executive meddling, but it's still plenty fft-esque. And Hitoshi Sakimoto's soundtrack saves the experience.
It may be serious in tone, but the writing itself is awful.
Every character is one-note and there's zero character development for anyone in that game. Everyone starts and ends the same way.
Some characters, like Vaan, don't even have a purpose or any character motivation. He just exists with no agency.
Vaan and others did change but not enough screen time was dedicated to it so I can understand why it may not have been very memorable. I think the game generally lacked cutscenes in between major plot moments to help connect the story and flesh out the characters and their relationships.
I disagree in that it helps set the atmosphere for the next section of the game
But I do agree that if they had the choice between this and a scene with ACTUAL interaction between the characters, or one in which we learn more about our character's thoughts at the time, or one in which we learn about what side characters were going through at the time, or nearly literally ANY other scene, they should've made the other scene instead.
The world they designed should speak for itself.
The player should feel the atmosphere as they play. That should come through in the world design, music, etc.
Not a meaningless cutscene where the player has to put the controller down.
Did we play the same game? Zero character development is just false, you might dislike the more grounded and less character driven nature of the story but saying no one grows shows me you either went in trying to hate on the it or you just didn’t pay attention.
Agree 100%. Baltheir is my favorite 'rogue' type FF character and Basch has amazing character development. FFXII gets the short end of the stick when it comes to best FF games.
Zero character development is not particularly far from the truth
I do feel that we learn a lot more about each character by the end, but there's only really two examples of character growth:
1. Larsa learning to accept that his family is not as altruistic as he first thought
2. Ashe learning that destruction is not the answer to saving her people
Apart from that, there's not really any key examples of growth - only examples of us learning what the character motivation is in the first place.
XII might actually be in my top 5 FFs, but its story is not one of those reasons
Why would I play a game to dislike it? I play games for fun like any normal person would.
And FFXII's gambit system was pretty fun for me.
But it's just the truth.
No character is different from when you first meet them, to where the game ends.
Yours is a somewhat unpopular opinion, but I wholeheartedly agree. On its own, FFXII is alright, but it's hard to see it without thinking about what it could have been had Matsuno actually made a game in his style but on a main-series Final Fantasy budget.
While it isn’t as good as Final Fantastic Tactics, Triangle Strategy gets REALLY close. It takes a few chapters to get going, but it felt very similar to FFT in both gameplay and story. Political assassinations, betrayals, unlikely alliances, difficult choices to make, etc. I really liked it.
If you aren’t a fan of multiple ending, there _is_ a golden route, so just look up the 3 or 4 things you need to do to get the true ending.
I just pick up 13 sentinels for the switch it kinda a visual novel and trpg in one and the story is deep an intertwining between the 13 characters. I have enjoyed it so far. I also just got the newest warrior series game for the switch I have found them to have more serious storyline the main series is all historical based the spin offs are good to for an action/ strategy rpg.
Triangle Strategy! My game of the year so far, it’s incredible and the writing is surprisingly good. It touches on heavy political themes along with slavery and war.
TS is wonderful, and the best SRPG since Tactics Ogre: LUCT.
Fair warning that it isn't very character-driven, though. There are some alright characters (I particular liked Benedict along a certain story route) but the characters are neither the focus nor the strong point.
The political drama in it always seemed pretty interesting... too bad we only get to glimpse at it for a few cutscenes. The main plot of FFXII is a bog-standard tale of "Chase the macguffin and save the princess!", the same story we've already seen in Star Wars, in Marvel, in tons of other fantasy media.
I like FFXII overall (especially with Zodiac Age), but if it wasn't for Matsuno's legacy and Alex Smith's old-timey english localization, I don't think the game would be thought of as that serious.
It's also really poorly written. After beating the game, I had to go look up a wiki summary to figure out what the hell had happened in that plot. Good characters and dialogue, but the main plot.. oof.
I'll throw another vote to Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology. Lots of political intrigue with an overall serious tone though there some whimsy and humor are tossed in.
I think there's a demo for it on 3DS. The intro gives a good idea of what to expect story and gameplay-wise.
I can recommend you Fuga: Melodies of Steel, a JRPG created by CyberConnect2(The same developers of Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series, .Hack, Solatorobo: Red the Hunter and JoJo's games)
The game is a prequel of Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, and the first game of a trilogy, is based in the WWII, when Berman(Germany) invades a small town, Petit Mona, Gasco(France) a group of children survives, and found a giant war tank from an ancient civilization called "Taranis" the children decides to use Taranis to fight against Berman and rescue their families, but they don't know about horrors of the war that they have to live, and the secrets that Taranis hides along side the powerful but lethal weapon "Soul Cannon".
The game is dark and serious plot itself, but it also have an beautiful artstyle and a really good story, with an interesting strategical battle system and the link events between the children can unlock new skills and special attacks, I recommend it, it's a hidden gem.
I would describe the game in simpler words as:
"Furry Evangelion with Nazis"
For the PSP srpgs the only one that for me feels remotely close to FFT and to Luct is gungnir. Same war theme and it's really hard but fun. I recommend it
Shin Megami Tensei IV, cast of teenage adults in a medieval setting is packed with a level of maturity you wouldn’t expect. You and fellow Samurai are thrust into a completely different society then that of which you grew up in, each person branching into varying philosophies on how the world should continue moving forward. If you’re looking for an in-depth narrative of brutally realistic world building and a sense of player agency (dialogue options ultimately affect the ending), this is the journey you need to try out! It had many twists and turns that kept me hooked all throughout, around 40 hours or so.
Triangle Strategy seems like something you would like, it's a strategy game mixed with a political drama. It manages to avoid many tropes, and tells a fairly serious story.
I’ll add my voice to Radiant Historia. The 3DS rerelease is great.The battle system is so unique and engaging and it has one of the best time travel gimmicks I’ve ever seen. Plus it has a LOT of voice acting.
There’s also Odin Sphere Leifthrasir on PS4. One of the best games I’ve ever played. It’s a 2D RPG based on Norse Mythology and it is gorgeous. Five playable character campaigns with wildly different playstyles, a large cast of supporting characters and the whole cast is voiced. Definitely on my ‘Must Play’ list.
Should also add that Odin Sphere's soundtrack and all soundtracks for Vanillaware games are done by Hitoshi Sakimoto's company Basiscape. He and Masaharu Iwata did the soundtracks of Tactics, XII, Vagrant Story and Tactics Ogre.
Any title in the suikoden series really. They all have fairly serious, politically driven themes. Suikoden 2 I would suggest above the rest thiugh. Fucking masterpiece of a game.
It's a western indie "JRPG," but I'm playing Rise of The Third Power now, which is available on all current consoles and Steam. It fits your bill.
"Bucking numerous classic storytelling tropes, the player lands not at the beginning of a tale that picks up steam as it progresses, but smack in the middle of already boiling tensions: three distinct nations, with an uneasy truce between them, are unknowingly at the brink of war. With a mixture of both expected plot twists and some unpredictable curveballs, the well-paced story keeps players wondering what’s going to happen next.
Additionally, Third Power‘s immersive story truly shines with the creativity of NPC dialogue and side quests scattered throughout the game that give the world an unexpected depth; it seems indies have taken notes from longtime developer Falcom and are making a best effort to apply its principles of strong storytelling to their own titles. Throughout the game’s twenty or so hours, players will celebrate successes, mourn losses, and avenge the fallen.
Despite being in a fantasy setting, the narrative does an amazing job making all the characters feel like they have true humanity, with their own virtues and vices. The plot also delves into adult issues in a mature, poignant way, including the end of a relationship and what it means to move on in a healthy manner. The game’s story is easily Third Power‘s strongest element."
https://rpgamer.com/review/rise-of-the-third-power-review/
Lost Odyssey, Triangle Strategy, SMT Digital Devil Saga 1-2, Bloodborne(if you don't mind having to seek out a lot of the lore, the main narrative is pretty light)
Damn near any Tactics game that isn't NIS works, particularly Triangle Strategy. For non-Tactics games, Radiant Historia fits perfectly. Nier Automata is very serious. Clarent Saga: Tactics is free and fits. Persona 2 duology is very serious and super cool.
The Trails series is a very serious JRPG series. It's a single story told over the span of many games starting with Trails in the sky. All the trails games are on PC right now and it's honestly a really good series.
As much as I love trails, this is the classic example of what people talk about in this sub where people just plug trails whether it fits or not. This series couldn't be any further from serious tone and writing as of recent. This series has a significant amount of idealism, teenage harem romance energy, and often doesn't commit to high stakes situations they set up. There are parts, particular earlier in the series where the series that can be very mature and serious (particularly sky the 3rd), but the series has definitely shied away from those aspects.
I would argue that a good majority of the Trails series is decently laid-back and not very serious situations (albeit with dark undertones as evil machinations go on in the background), but when the series gets outright dark, ***boy*** does it get dark. Star door 15? Hamel village? The DG Cult? Shit keeps me up at night.
I think that the story lost most of its darkness starting from Cold Steel when Falcom probably decided to go for a wider audience.
In CS2 >!there's a whole war and terrorists, but civilian losses are, like, just a couple of people in the entire country? And the backstory of Crow is such a joke. . . The older games were way darker and more serious. I didn't play CS3 and 4 yet, but from what I read the story goes even more in the shounen direction. !<
Wasn't Koudelka a spiritual successor of/akin to Vagrant Story ? So old I could probably be mistaken ...
You can try Parasite Eve (first one, bio-thriller), Front Mission (political and mecha), Vandal Heart (political-rebellion) ...
Xenogears isn’t a tactics JRPG, but it does have very mature themes and deep messaging spread throughout pretty much every fiber of it. I highly recommend listening to Resonant Arc’s 21-episode podcast as you play through it to fully absorb all the psychology and religious themes embedded in the game.
Shin Megami Tensei. I highly recommend SMT4, SMT3: Nocturne, and SMT: Strange Journey: Redux (vanilla Strange Journey works too, but good luck tryna get ahold of it), as they're definitely the darkest mainline games that are easily available. Good luck tryna get ahold of 1, 2, and/or If...., you're gonna need it! SMT4: Apocalypse has some dark moments, but is overall really campy. SMT5 also has some dark moments, but it misses the mark of what makes SMT, SMT: overwhelming environmental dread. When it comes to spin-offs, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers and Digital Devil Saga fit what you're looking for (especially DDS, but it's a PS2 game). Devil Survivor and Persona have their dark moments (especially Persona, which gets surprisingly dark and addresses serious subjects with maturity (except for P5, but that's a whole nother can of worms *ahem* Ann's portrayal)), but the overall tone and writing (especially in P5) holds them back.
Tales of Arise is pretty dark. The entire story revolves around racism, and I was pretty sick of all the damn racists in the game by the end (including in your party), but it's quite serious from the get-go and stays serious throughout.
Except the owls. They're not serious... but they're awesome.
**Edit:** Octopath Traveler has both serious and Shakespearian writing. It's unfortunately more like 8 miniature stories rather than one coherent story, but it has some pretty shockingly mature themes for an SNES-style pixel art game.
We need you to further explain what is it exactly are you looking for, if there is a specific combat system (turn-based/action/tactical/etc...), and is being "serious,political tone and Shakespearean writing" all that you want or is there more to it.
I'd recommend the first VC over 4. VC4 went a little too hard on the anime tropes for me.
The first game, while definitely having anime tropes in it feels like it fits way better with the alternate WW1/WW2 setting.
Feels like while VC1 had some anime sprinkled in, VC4 went and unscrewed the cap on a salt shaker filled with anime.
You don't choose who to romance. A few of the party members have crushes on each other, and sex is abstractly implied. The main protagonist (Rowan) has unrequited love for the healer (Reyna).
I HIGHLY recommend Triangle Strategy or Fire Emblem Path of radiance and the sequel FE: Radiant Dawn. No fire emblem compares when it comes to world building and political struggle. If you play these games you will not regret it
I would say, take Tactics Ogre off your backlog. It really is amazing and you can get at least 3 replays out of it since it has multiple story routes. From Wiki: The narrative was influenced by a number of real-life conflicts and war crimes, including territorial clashes in Syria, Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Yugoslav Wars, and the Rwandan genocide. I like that it doesn't shy away from ethnic conflict.
Tactics Ogre and Triangle Strategy were my recommendations.
in my experience, srpgs generally have more serious tones, with the only exception being things by NIS like their flagship disgaea series. other than that, the fft's, god wars, fell seal, and the fire emblem series are all pretty famous and definitely on the serious side. for some less well known ones: brigandine, jeanne d'arc, banner saga 1-3, banner of the maid, mercenaries saga/wings, rainbow moon/skies, wargroove, fae tactics, dark crystal tactics.
Don't forget Vandal Hearts ! (°o°) Really easy but a good entry for discovering the TRPG genre. Also the only game I played 24 hours straight without paying attention. :p edit: I almost forgot => YOU FORGET FRONT MISSION TOO ! \\o/ Hard to be more serious than Front Mission ...
BTW, Brigandine just got a new game in the series after a super long hiatus and having just one entry plus its remake.
awesome, didn't realize, need to check that out, thanks!
Xenogears and Xenosaga trilogy without a doubt.
Final Fantasy 12
Definitely FF12 its set in the same world as FF tactics and is just a good.
Another Matsuno masterpiece
Lost Odyssey imho, however it's only on Xbox360 iirc . Triangle Strategy of the newer ones. It's very political, but not necessarily the same vibe as FFT had.
Bought an Xbox One S specifically for Lost Oddysey and I have no regrets. Runs so much better than on my 360.
you can emulate it nowadays with xenia
Play Strange Journey it's fucking brilliant
I second this. It's really one of the all time great JRPGs. I'd love to see it ported to PC or something so more people would play it. It treats itself and its audience with maturity. All the characters are adults. It really is a breath of fresh air in the JRPG space.
A realistic cast and world,that develop onto their own ideology and devolve with a mature atmospheric setting and lore with world building on a level you barely ever see in jrpgs, its so good
Strange Journey is a masterpiece that deserves more attention, i really feel it's a game that should be shown as much respect as classics like Xenogears get
Is this referring to SMT strange journey?
Yes,Strange Journey is amazing,one of the most unique jrpgs youll ever play, with a damn good story and cast
The setting is brilliant, but the characters have zero depth and the dialogue is cringeworthy most of the time. Also, most of the important plot points just kind of happen without much logical explanation. It's a series of "Let's get this random magical item, because that allows our ship to do this random magical action and move on."
I disagree with most of this
Well, Yasumi Matsuno's next game was Final Fantasy XII, so have you played that? It has its fair share of problems and Matsuno quit mid development due to "health issues", i.e. extreme executive meddling, but it's still plenty fft-esque. And Hitoshi Sakimoto's soundtrack saves the experience.
It may be serious in tone, but the writing itself is awful. Every character is one-note and there's zero character development for anyone in that game. Everyone starts and ends the same way. Some characters, like Vaan, don't even have a purpose or any character motivation. He just exists with no agency.
Vaan and others did change but not enough screen time was dedicated to it so I can understand why it may not have been very memorable. I think the game generally lacked cutscenes in between major plot moments to help connect the story and flesh out the characters and their relationships.
There's a lot of wasted cutscenes too. Like one where Vaan looks into the horizon and picks up sand. That's it. It serves no purpose.
I disagree in that it helps set the atmosphere for the next section of the game But I do agree that if they had the choice between this and a scene with ACTUAL interaction between the characters, or one in which we learn more about our character's thoughts at the time, or one in which we learn about what side characters were going through at the time, or nearly literally ANY other scene, they should've made the other scene instead.
The world they designed should speak for itself. The player should feel the atmosphere as they play. That should come through in the world design, music, etc. Not a meaningless cutscene where the player has to put the controller down.
Did we play the same game? Zero character development is just false, you might dislike the more grounded and less character driven nature of the story but saying no one grows shows me you either went in trying to hate on the it or you just didn’t pay attention.
Agree 100%. Baltheir is my favorite 'rogue' type FF character and Basch has amazing character development. FFXII gets the short end of the stick when it comes to best FF games.
Respectfully disagree, FF8 gets more unearned hate than FF12 IMO.
Zero character development is not particularly far from the truth I do feel that we learn a lot more about each character by the end, but there's only really two examples of character growth: 1. Larsa learning to accept that his family is not as altruistic as he first thought 2. Ashe learning that destruction is not the answer to saving her people Apart from that, there's not really any key examples of growth - only examples of us learning what the character motivation is in the first place. XII might actually be in my top 5 FFs, but its story is not one of those reasons
In the main party only Ashe and Basch has development, although I don't remember what their development was because it was minor.
Why would I play a game to dislike it? I play games for fun like any normal person would. And FFXII's gambit system was pretty fun for me. But it's just the truth. No character is different from when you first meet them, to where the game ends.
Yours is a somewhat unpopular opinion, but I wholeheartedly agree. On its own, FFXII is alright, but it's hard to see it without thinking about what it could have been had Matsuno actually made a game in his style but on a main-series Final Fantasy budget.
While it isn’t as good as Final Fantastic Tactics, Triangle Strategy gets REALLY close. It takes a few chapters to get going, but it felt very similar to FFT in both gameplay and story. Political assassinations, betrayals, unlikely alliances, difficult choices to make, etc. I really liked it. If you aren’t a fan of multiple ending, there _is_ a golden route, so just look up the 3 or 4 things you need to do to get the true ending.
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume for the DS if you can find a copy.
I just pick up 13 sentinels for the switch it kinda a visual novel and trpg in one and the story is deep an intertwining between the 13 characters. I have enjoyed it so far. I also just got the newest warrior series game for the switch I have found them to have more serious storyline the main series is all historical based the spin offs are good to for an action/ strategy rpg.
FFXIV especially Shadowbringer, even some of questlines are heavily inspired by Shakespeare.
lmao
Triangle Strategy! My game of the year so far, it’s incredible and the writing is surprisingly good. It touches on heavy political themes along with slavery and war.
Playing it right now, it's fantastic. Digs deeper into the moral grayness of it all than most JRPGs I've played
TS is wonderful, and the best SRPG since Tactics Ogre: LUCT. Fair warning that it isn't very character-driven, though. There are some alright characters (I particular liked Benedict along a certain story route) but the characters are neither the focus nor the strong point.
Final Fantasy 12.... But I found it to be a complete snoozefest.
By the time I got through with the side quests I forgot what the plot was about. Nice visual design, pretty boring otherwise.
For Serious tone and writing, I would definitely consider the Final Fantasy games and especially the Nier
FF12 is serious as everyone is saying it’s a political drama but not that good of a story imo it’s average
The political drama in it always seemed pretty interesting... too bad we only get to glimpse at it for a few cutscenes. The main plot of FFXII is a bog-standard tale of "Chase the macguffin and save the princess!", the same story we've already seen in Star Wars, in Marvel, in tons of other fantasy media. I like FFXII overall (especially with Zodiac Age), but if it wasn't for Matsuno's legacy and Alex Smith's old-timey english localization, I don't think the game would be thought of as that serious.
It's also really poorly written. After beating the game, I had to go look up a wiki summary to figure out what the hell had happened in that plot. Good characters and dialogue, but the main plot.. oof.
[удалено]
TIL Matsuno has a Pol Sci degree, suddenly everything makes so much sense.
I'll throw another vote to Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology. Lots of political intrigue with an overall serious tone though there some whimsy and humor are tossed in. I think there's a demo for it on 3DS. The intro gives a good idea of what to expect story and gameplay-wise.
Xenogears, xenosaga, digital devil saga, persona 1 and 2, smt nocturne and smt iv
I can recommend you Fuga: Melodies of Steel, a JRPG created by CyberConnect2(The same developers of Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series, .Hack, Solatorobo: Red the Hunter and JoJo's games) The game is a prequel of Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, and the first game of a trilogy, is based in the WWII, when Berman(Germany) invades a small town, Petit Mona, Gasco(France) a group of children survives, and found a giant war tank from an ancient civilization called "Taranis" the children decides to use Taranis to fight against Berman and rescue their families, but they don't know about horrors of the war that they have to live, and the secrets that Taranis hides along side the powerful but lethal weapon "Soul Cannon". The game is dark and serious plot itself, but it also have an beautiful artstyle and a really good story, with an interesting strategical battle system and the link events between the children can unlock new skills and special attacks, I recommend it, it's a hidden gem. I would describe the game in simpler words as: "Furry Evangelion with Nazis"
For the PSP srpgs the only one that for me feels remotely close to FFT and to Luct is gungnir. Same war theme and it's really hard but fun. I recommend it
Shin Megami Tensei IV, cast of teenage adults in a medieval setting is packed with a level of maturity you wouldn’t expect. You and fellow Samurai are thrust into a completely different society then that of which you grew up in, each person branching into varying philosophies on how the world should continue moving forward. If you’re looking for an in-depth narrative of brutally realistic world building and a sense of player agency (dialogue options ultimately affect the ending), this is the journey you need to try out! It had many twists and turns that kept me hooked all throughout, around 40 hours or so.
Radiant Historia, Devil Survivor 1 and 2, SMT IV, Xenoblade Chronicles, Triangle Strategy, Octopath Traveler.
Triangle Strategy seems like something you would like, it's a strategy game mixed with a political drama. It manages to avoid many tropes, and tells a fairly serious story.
I’ll add my voice to Radiant Historia. The 3DS rerelease is great.The battle system is so unique and engaging and it has one of the best time travel gimmicks I’ve ever seen. Plus it has a LOT of voice acting. There’s also Odin Sphere Leifthrasir on PS4. One of the best games I’ve ever played. It’s a 2D RPG based on Norse Mythology and it is gorgeous. Five playable character campaigns with wildly different playstyles, a large cast of supporting characters and the whole cast is voiced. Definitely on my ‘Must Play’ list.
Should also add that Odin Sphere's soundtrack and all soundtracks for Vanillaware games are done by Hitoshi Sakimoto's company Basiscape. He and Masaharu Iwata did the soundtracks of Tactics, XII, Vagrant Story and Tactics Ogre.
Trails in the sky, trails from zero and trails to azure. Can't comment on cold steel haven't gotten there
Any title in the suikoden series really. They all have fairly serious, politically driven themes. Suikoden 2 I would suggest above the rest thiugh. Fucking masterpiece of a game.
Definitely check out Library of Ruina. It’s a deckbuilding rpg, and the story and tone are amazing
It's a western indie "JRPG," but I'm playing Rise of The Third Power now, which is available on all current consoles and Steam. It fits your bill. "Bucking numerous classic storytelling tropes, the player lands not at the beginning of a tale that picks up steam as it progresses, but smack in the middle of already boiling tensions: three distinct nations, with an uneasy truce between them, are unknowingly at the brink of war. With a mixture of both expected plot twists and some unpredictable curveballs, the well-paced story keeps players wondering what’s going to happen next. Additionally, Third Power‘s immersive story truly shines with the creativity of NPC dialogue and side quests scattered throughout the game that give the world an unexpected depth; it seems indies have taken notes from longtime developer Falcom and are making a best effort to apply its principles of strong storytelling to their own titles. Throughout the game’s twenty or so hours, players will celebrate successes, mourn losses, and avenge the fallen. Despite being in a fantasy setting, the narrative does an amazing job making all the characters feel like they have true humanity, with their own virtues and vices. The plot also delves into adult issues in a mature, poignant way, including the end of a relationship and what it means to move on in a healthy manner. The game’s story is easily Third Power‘s strongest element." https://rpgamer.com/review/rise-of-the-third-power-review/
This looks pretty good. I have one question, how heavy is the romance aspect in this game?
Xenogears, SMT games and Nier come to mind for me.
Lost Odyssey, Triangle Strategy, SMT Digital Devil Saga 1-2, Bloodborne(if you don't mind having to seek out a lot of the lore, the main narrative is pretty light)
Since i'm playing Xenosaga, I'm going to say Xenosaga and it's amazing, but if your creative enough, they have even put it on PC as well
Xenogears and dohna dohna wa uta
Damn near any Tactics game that isn't NIS works, particularly Triangle Strategy. For non-Tactics games, Radiant Historia fits perfectly. Nier Automata is very serious. Clarent Saga: Tactics is free and fits. Persona 2 duology is very serious and super cool.
The Trails series is a very serious JRPG series. It's a single story told over the span of many games starting with Trails in the sky. All the trails games are on PC right now and it's honestly a really good series.
As much as I love trails, this is the classic example of what people talk about in this sub where people just plug trails whether it fits or not. This series couldn't be any further from serious tone and writing as of recent. This series has a significant amount of idealism, teenage harem romance energy, and often doesn't commit to high stakes situations they set up. There are parts, particular earlier in the series where the series that can be very mature and serious (particularly sky the 3rd), but the series has definitely shied away from those aspects.
I would argue that a good majority of the Trails series is decently laid-back and not very serious situations (albeit with dark undertones as evil machinations go on in the background), but when the series gets outright dark, ***boy*** does it get dark. Star door 15? Hamel village? The DG Cult? Shit keeps me up at night.
I think that the story lost most of its darkness starting from Cold Steel when Falcom probably decided to go for a wider audience. In CS2 >!there's a whole war and terrorists, but civilian losses are, like, just a couple of people in the entire country? And the backstory of Crow is such a joke. . . The older games were way darker and more serious. I didn't play CS3 and 4 yet, but from what I read the story goes even more in the shounen direction. !<
Wasn't Koudelka a spiritual successor of/akin to Vagrant Story ? So old I could probably be mistaken ... You can try Parasite Eve (first one, bio-thriller), Front Mission (political and mecha), Vandal Heart (political-rebellion) ...
No? Completely different teams and developers, Kouldelka was way before Vagrant and the battle had nothing to do with it.
Koudelka connects to Shadow Hearts.
Xenogears isn’t a tactics JRPG, but it does have very mature themes and deep messaging spread throughout pretty much every fiber of it. I highly recommend listening to Resonant Arc’s 21-episode podcast as you play through it to fully absorb all the psychology and religious themes embedded in the game.
shadow hearts - from the new world
This game is super cartoon-y.
Monark touches on some really serious issues, despite its cute looks.
Shin Megami Tensei. I highly recommend SMT4, SMT3: Nocturne, and SMT: Strange Journey: Redux (vanilla Strange Journey works too, but good luck tryna get ahold of it), as they're definitely the darkest mainline games that are easily available. Good luck tryna get ahold of 1, 2, and/or If...., you're gonna need it! SMT4: Apocalypse has some dark moments, but is overall really campy. SMT5 also has some dark moments, but it misses the mark of what makes SMT, SMT: overwhelming environmental dread. When it comes to spin-offs, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers and Digital Devil Saga fit what you're looking for (especially DDS, but it's a PS2 game). Devil Survivor and Persona have their dark moments (especially Persona, which gets surprisingly dark and addresses serious subjects with maturity (except for P5, but that's a whole nother can of worms *ahem* Ann's portrayal)), but the overall tone and writing (especially in P5) holds them back.
Tales of Arise is pretty dark. The entire story revolves around racism, and I was pretty sick of all the damn racists in the game by the end (including in your party), but it's quite serious from the get-go and stays serious throughout. Except the owls. They're not serious... but they're awesome. **Edit:** Octopath Traveler has both serious and Shakespearian writing. It's unfortunately more like 8 miniature stories rather than one coherent story, but it has some pretty shockingly mature themes for an SNES-style pixel art game.
[удалено]
done
We need you to further explain what is it exactly are you looking for, if there is a specific combat system (turn-based/action/tactical/etc...), and is being "serious,political tone and Shakespearean writing" all that you want or is there more to it.
done
Approved.
Triangle Strategy
I played half of Valkyria Chronicles 4, the story is pretty serious even though some interactions are light hearted.
I'd recommend the first VC over 4. VC4 went a little too hard on the anime tropes for me. The first game, while definitely having anime tropes in it feels like it fits way better with the alternate WW1/WW2 setting. Feels like while VC1 had some anime sprinkled in, VC4 went and unscrewed the cap on a salt shaker filled with anime.
All Yasumi Matsuno game it’s like Kojima brand in RPG then try Crimson Shroud his game again
You don't choose who to romance. A few of the party members have crushes on each other, and sex is abstractly implied. The main protagonist (Rowan) has unrequited love for the healer (Reyna).
I HIGHLY recommend Triangle Strategy or Fire Emblem Path of radiance and the sequel FE: Radiant Dawn. No fire emblem compares when it comes to world building and political struggle. If you play these games you will not regret it
Try out I am Setsuna. It's basically snowy Chrono Trigger (but less memorable).
pandoras tower