I totally want to talk about JRPGs.

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I'm hopelessly addicted, and I am living in a totally lame family who are all anti-gaming and stuff. I don't know, maybe they'd be less uptight if they relaxed and got lost in a good game? Anyhow...

I really like weird, obscure JRPGs from the 90s. I've been playing Breath of Fire III again. I have such an intense love-hate relationship with it. Some characters are near perfection, but others make you wonder what hallucinogens the developers were taking before approving those messes.

Anyhow, what are some games in that genre that you guys like? Don't worry if it's super obscure- I may have even heard of it and am a superfan already. If not, I'm always looking for little gems to go in my gaming collection and I love hearing about why people love certain games.

I like JRPGs as well, my favorite series is a tactical RPG called Fire Emblem! I played Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword(The first Fire Emblem to come out outside of Japan.) like 5 times!

I played Breath of Fire 1 but I got lost somewhere and couldn't figure out what to do.(IIRC I think it was around some golden looking town.) I play the Final Fantasy series, Atelier series and Phantasy Star. I play others as well just didn't want to make a list.

Have you ever played Phantasy Star?

I haven't played Phantasy Star, but I've heard that it's really good. I was thinking of getting into Fire Emblem games, though I'm not sure what would be a good one to start out with.

I never got a chance to play Breath of Fire I, but I've seen people play both the first and second game and know the plot. I love III because there are some really cool mechanics introduced, like the "Master" system that teaches your characters skills while building and lowering certain skills. It's a good risk-reward system.

I have to ask: Which Final Fantasy game do you like best? For me, it's always going to be about VI.

I grew up with Breath of Fire 3! That and FF7, Grandia, Wild Arms and Suikoden. I might be biased due to nostalgia, but I think that Grandia is the most charming RPG that I've played and the best Game Arts game, it's just a shame that the graphical style of the game is ugly as sin. Suikoden 1 and 2 are amazing, 2 is especially great and can be played without the first game but there are plenty of recurring characters and the first game isn't bad either, despite the awful translation. Wild Arms is more difficult to recommend but it's roughly on the level of Breath of Fire 3, a decent game with a very interesting flavour, it's sort of a mix of wild west and sci-fi in a way that makes absolutely no sense and the tone is desolate yet hopeful... it's really difficult to explain. They remade it on the PS2 as Wild Arms: Alter Code F and that version is also recommended.

FF7 is the best Final Fantasy game in my opinion, but that may also be nostalgia influencing my opinion.

That's awesome! I don't think I've ever talked to another person (besides my brothers) who's even heard of Breath of Fire III!

I've never heard of Grandia, but I did do a quick search on it. The reviews for it are fantastic, and it really looks interesting. I'll have to try it! The way you're describing how you feel about Grandia sounds very much like how I feel about a game called Legend of Legaia: it's a fantastic game with a really interesting combat system and its own charm and lots of good foreshadowing, but the graphics are so ridiculously outdated.

Also, don't worry- Final Fantasy VII is my second favorite. Square really captured a charm with it that they just couldn't get again with some of the later games in the series. I've heard that XV is pretty good, or at least better than the last 4 or 5. My older sister has recommended that I play FFIV and I have a copy, but I've been working on other games.

Xenosaga series for PS2. I wish they would do a PS4 remaster of them but they are not popular enough I think.

I've heard of Xenosaga, but I don't know much about it.

Yes, my favourite JRPGs are Chrono Trigger (SNES), Final Fantasy VI (SNES), Final Fantasy VII (PS1), Dragon Quest VIII (PS2), and Persona 4 Golden (PS Vita). Growing up and well into my teens I loved JRPGs; I even imported a SNES and PS2 from the USA (I live in Australia) so I could play games like Final Fantasy VI, Xenogears, Xenosaga, Chrono Cross which never released here. Even repurchased a bunch of really badly PAL-optimised games like Final Fantasy X so it didn't feel like I was playing them in slow motion through a letterbox slot.

Currently I am playing through Persona 5 (PS4). I have really enjoyed what I've played so far. I like the cast and the story, but I am finding the combat a little easy compared to previous Persona titles. It is probably the first JRPG I've played that I've really enjoyed since Persona 4 Golden.

On mobile I have just started playing Granblue Fantasy. I have heard a lot of good things about this title, and it had the art and music directors from the older Final Fantasy games. So far what I have played is good, but I suspect that I will find things I won't like about it given it is a free to play gacha game and thus representative of a lot of things I hate about mobile gaming.

There are also a lot of games that I've loved despite never having finished. Grandia I loved every moment of, I put about 20 hours into it but I eventually dropped it because the PS1 version I played constantly crashed, and I would lose tons of progress each time. Really charming setting, goofy Saturday morning style voice acting (I know people probably generally hated it), awesome battle system.

I've bought all the portable Fire Emblem games since The Blazing Blade on the GBA but I've never finished any of them, despite loving them to bits. I'm not sure why, I guess they're pretty long games. I do dislike the greater amount of micromanagement you have to deal with as the game progresses, particularly when you end up with a huge roster of characters, only half of which you plan on using, and having to deal with all their inventory and resource management. I think it could do with some streamlining, like perhaps removing the equipment durability and inventory management. Regardless I highly recommend the series; I don't know if I'd call it a JRPG but more a strategy game with some RPG elements. Also if you enjoy Fire Emblem then Front Mission I would also highly recommend, it's similar but is set in a modern setting with mechs (with just as much if not more micromanagement).

I did play Xenosaga back in the day, in fact it was probably a driving reason for me to import the US PS2. Played through the first game, loved it even despite its PS1 era graphics. I stopped playing it during the second game though because I remember it switched perspectives to some other characters whose arc I didn't find compelling, and so many other things changed - the combat was weird (even more than the first game's) and arbitrarily complex, character designs had all dramatically changed, voice actors changed, and the music took a huge nosedive. It felt like the series had been a bit overly ambitious and it led to some pretty huge inconsistencies that detracted from the experience.

I was hoping someone would bring up Chrono Trigger on here! I don't think I can accurately put into words just how much I love that game. I didn't have it as a kid, so my first chance at actually being able to play it was about four years ago. It's now up in my top ten favorite games of all time. I even have the entire soundtrack on my iPhone because the music is just so good!

Also, thank you for the detailed descriptions and your experiences playing some of the games I said I'd check out. This is totally why I made the thread in the first place! I have a question about Fire Emblem, though. Isn't it true that if a character dies, it's a permadeath?

I'm quite fond of Legend of Heroes : Trails in the sky.
I wasn't sure I was going to like it at first, but it kept getting better and better as I played.

I like it for several reasons.
The characters start off generic, but grow as you get to know them.
The story is set in a really detailed world, so it feels more "real" than most game worlds.
Which is something I personally like.

Hm, I have sort of a love-hate relationship with this genre, but it depends on the era.

Modern JRPGs? Ugh. I dont like them at all. They're extremely obsessed with cutscenes and are WAY too drawn out, and what's more, are usually very easy. I get bored so freaking quickly.

Now, go back to the older ones though, and it's different. My personal favorite is the very first Final Fantasy. The story and dialogue are to the point rather than unnecessarily drawn out. Very succinct, and told via text boxes, so I can read at my own pace rather than wait for actors to very slowly read lines. What's more, the game's difficulty level is very high. You used to have to actually put effort into these games, you see. And the original FF was one of the mean ones. Even all these years later, my knowledge of the game hasnt really faded, particularly when it comes to the different enemies in the game, as recognizing them and what each could do was critical to not being dead. In modern games, random encounters are.... padding, at best. You're not going to lose to normal enemies or even come close, nor will they slowly wear you down over time. But in the original FF, and in many old RPGs, the opposite was true. Healing was limited, magic was REALLY limited, and dungeons were long; being efficient and careful was a must because you'd get more and more beat up over the course of the dungeon. Or, rather frequently, you'd meet up with things that could just shred your party in a single fight. Enemies with insta-kill abilities werent exactly uncommon, or things of that nature. The only problem I really had with that game was that it is *really* buggy. Like, to the point of being a bit absurd. It's practically legendary for the sheer amount of glitches that it has.

Games like Final Fantasy 4 (the JP version anyway, the localized one that we got in the US was made much easier) and Earthbound also provided good challenge, if not quite as much. I still remember the tree monsters in Earthbound. Where after a very short time they'd detonate (because that makes sense) dealing ridiculous damage, usually enough to kill the entire party, and you had to rush the rest of the fight, trying to win before the HP countdown finished and everyone died.

These days though it's so much more rare that I get into anything. Pokemon is one exception; the competitive nature of the game means that if you want a challenge, it's there waiting for you. And recently there's a game called Siralim that I got into. It's a JRPG without the "J" (in that it's not actually from Japan) but it plays like so many older ones used to. But it's got TONS of depth and challenge in it... the learning curve is pretty nasty, it's low on story (it's a monster-collecting/fighting game like Pokemon, except the entire team fights at once and it's a heck of alot more complicated) and uses alot of procedural elements, so it's not for everyone, but I still really like it.

I cant remember any other particularly recent ones that I got into. But I sure do remember way more older ones. Anywhere from the NES era, to that of the PS2. It's just now occurred to me just how freaking long ago the PS2 era was. Ugh. I could have done without realizing that.

Fire Emblem does have permadeath, yes. Though in newer ones you can turn it off by playing in 'casual mode'.

I want to play Legend of Heroes. I have it on Steam, I just have yet to play it and I want to finish a bunch of other things first. When I finish Clannad I'll probably play it on my mobile PC.

What's Legends of Heroes like?