RPGs/JRPGs. Name your favourites.

[Phoenixmgs]

Yes you've said this before, but the problem is that a video game will never be as fluid as a tabletop. You are forever limited to the number of options and parameters the developers were able to code into the game. So expecting a video game to be like a tabletop is an effort in futility. The reality is that in video games, the classification of RPG, is, well for one thing, a ridiculously broad and nebulous term, and also generally just refers to a leveling system of character progression. Where advancement isn't based entirely on player skill (like shooters), but can be enhanced by character skill (ability/skill advancement). It's more often a hybrid term, like Action-RPG.

Dislike it all you want, but that's the reality of the video game genre.

You don't need the full-on "unlimited" options of tabletop, which in reality aren't nearly as unlimited as you think. A good GM subtlety guides the party down a somewhat set path. Disco Elysium is a prime example of a game that creates a tabletop game in the digital space. You don't need to literally have as many options as you do in a tabletop game to claim the main feature of the game is role-playing. Look at Mass Effect, I bet if you actually measure the time spent playing the game, you'd find a majority of the time you're playing the game is actually spent role-playing. I don't get why people classify it as a shooter when that isn't the main thing you do in the game. What you do most in any game should be what it's main genre is classified as. You wouldn't classify Mirror's Edge as a shooter because you shot people 10% of the time. That's what most video game RPGs are, you spend like 10% at best role-playing and the rest is spent doing stuff (like combat) that you do in like every other game. The reason video game RPGs lean heavily into combat, leveling, progression, and more is because that shit (basic number crunching) is easy to do. Giving the player actual agency in a game world and having the world reflect your actions is much harder, that's why it isn't done as much (it's why indie games use 1st-person or isometric views vs 3rd-person just because those are easier to develop for). You can just look at the previews for Cyberpunk and Gamedec and one of them is obviously attempting to be a full-on role-playing game and the other isn't. Something like Monster Hunter and Disco Elysium are obviously games delivering completely different (and even arguably opposite) experiences yet get put into the same genre just because both have character leveling...? Monster Hunter is obviously a looter / game-as-a-service type game (before those terms became commonplace), it's a really fucking awesome one of those type games but it's not an RPG.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Since one of my favs is obvious by now, i will mention a few games i feel are underlooked.

Xenogears.
Legend of legia
The Ys series

 

[Dalisclock]

Since one of my favs is obvious by now, i will mention a few games i feel are underlooked.

Xenogears.

Glad someone else remembers Xenogears, as weird and wonderful as it is.

Blatant religious references that don't quite make sense(because Japan), Plot twists piled on top of plot twists, an entire 2nd disc which to it's credit tried it's damest to finish the story even when the money ran low.

Also, being blocked from entering a door due to a stuffed animal being in the way, because video games.

 

[meiam]

Freaking loved xenogears, when I was a kid my video store xenogears was all scratched up, I couldn't enter into Dazil, the game would just crash. I kept trying for a long time until I figured out that the town was on both CD 1 and 2 and that I could swap the discs around when entering the town so the asset would be loaded from CD 2 and then if I swamped back to 1 I could actually enter the town. But everything was all screwed up in town and it took forever to actually do what was needed to advance the plot cause it kept crashing all the time. After spending half a day I was able to get trough it to other area that weren't as scratched on the disc.

I replayed it a few time in my life, but last time I couldn't make it very far, the gameplay has not aged well. Character have no customization and combat is very barebone so it gets very repetitive over time, so stretch that over 60 hours and it gets pretty boring even with the crazy story. But man that story is awesome, and I respect the crap out of disc 2, it almost work which is amazing in and of itself. I'd love a remake (with new gameplay, still turn base but less boring).

The trailer is freaking awesome too:



For those interested, they release a book about the world/lore in japan and it was eventually fully translated by fan, here's a link to it https://www.flickr.com/photos/29956195@N08/sets/72157616593453778/

And here's a few of my favourite track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-SLCfBSku0&list=PLvXMARe51eeYdj23J5zr8icsC9cpbf2A8&index=24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcP5sYn0JXo&list=PLvXMARe51eeYdj23J5zr8icsC9cpbf2A8&index=43

I replayed xenosaga not too long ago, it's also really fun with a great story/character. But here again the gameplay aged a bit (less than gears) and ep 2/3 aren't that great of follow up. The weird artsyle change from 1 to 2 is jarring (and pointless, I can't even imagine how much budget they wasted on that), the game is strangely barebone, with far less content than 1, the story focus on the less interesting aspect and the combat almost work but make every fight drag on way too long. Ep 3 had to condense 3 game worth of story into one and it really suffer for that.

I'll give a shout out to dewprism/threads of fate which is probably my favorite action JRPG. There's nothing quite that special about it but everything is just fun about it, combat is simple but fast and responsive, there's enough secret to make exploration worthwhile without it being being a shore and the story and character are delightful, Mint is just so fun to follow.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I've never played Xenogears, but I've had it on my list for a while. Guess I'll have to finally crack into that, since everyone else here is getting pretty amped up about it.

Actually, while I'm here, has anyone mentioned Chrono Trigger yet? For a lot of people, that's the definitive SNES RPG, and it does a lot of pretty cool things, from the battles entirely taking place on the maps and making positioning important, to the two- and three-person skills that can seriously affect a battle if you're able to wait long enough for them. The PC port was originally not great, but Square's put a lot of work into improving it since then, so definitely check it out if you get a chance.

 

[Dalisclock]

I've never played Xenogears, but I've had it on my list for a while. Guess I'll have to finally crack into that, since everyone else here is getting pretty amped up about it.

It's got some definite flaws(such as a vertical platforming level in 3D in a game not designed for platforming....yeah), but it's quite unique and I and I've seen few other games like it.

If you're not aware, Disc 2 is where the game gets kinda nuts. Apparently the devs started running out of money so in order to finish the story, the essentially cut most of the remaing gameplay, so disc 2 is mostly a combination of Boss fights, Cutscenes and characters sitting in chairs narrating the story to the player with the occasional save point. Because it was apparently that or literally not reach the ending. DIsc 2 takes something like 10 hours, at least.

And since there was never a sequel, it was probably a good call on their part.

Also, the plot is still messy and confusing. It doesn't help plot twists will metaphorically dogpile on top of each other by midgame.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

JRPGs, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King and Tales of the Abyss for me.
Like Ni no Kuni as well, though that's mostly as a fan of anything Ghibli and/or Level 5 puts out.

 

[Gordon_4]

Mass Effect trilogy
DragonAge trilogy
Jade Empire
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
World of Warcraft

I think that’s all of them

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Some people have mentioned so far that Final Fantasy 10 is as good as turn-based JRPG combat gets. Though I agree that FF10 has a great battle system, here's another game that I think is just as good: Grandia 2.

The Grandia games have a system kind of like Final Fantasy 4-9's ATB, though with a single bar that shows when everyone is going to act next. About two-thirds down the bar is a 'COM' (short for Command) marker, at which you enter commands while the action is paused; when you reach 'ACT' at the end, you execute them. When an enemy is between COM and ACT, you can see who it's going to attack or use a skill on and plan around it.

Sounds simple enough, but this is where it gets interesting: each character has two types of basic attacks. A Combo attack hits multiple times to deal quite a bit of damage. A Critical attack only hits once, dealing less damage overall - but if it hits an enemy in between COM and ACT, their turn gets set back. Using Critical hits and skills with interrupts, it's possible to delay an enemy's turn to give your healer a chance to help an ally in need, or at the highest levels get through boss fights without a scratch.

For defense, besides interrupting enemies wherever possible, you can block attacks to take less damage, or try to dodge them. When you dodge, the character moves to another point on the map; while they're moving, they have a chance to not be hit by attacks. This seems like it isn't useful, but it's good for getting your characters into position to deal with AoEs, and your defensive moves allow your initiative to refill faster afterwards.

Even basic random encounters require more than just pressing the A button every time a turn comes up until you win, keeping you constantly engaged. Though Grandia and Grandia 2 have the same battle mechanics, I feel like 2 has a much better story and characters, as well as refining character advancement. They're both available on Steam if you want to check them out.

 

[meiam]

Loved Grandia 2, but it was waaaaaaaaay too easy. Once you'd max out the special attack that could cancel enemy attack it would be instantaneous so you could easily nullify all the bosses attacks whenever they'd try to do anything. That was a shame cause the game had good level of depth and some nice character customization, loved when you'd get far enough and your guy would just teleport around the battlefield and do these crazy 5+ hit combo.

The story is a blast and I'll say it's one of the few game I think the english voice acting is superior to the Japanese, entirely for Millenia voice actress which just seem to be having a blast the entire game.

1 was fine, but yeah the story wasn't as much fun and the gameplay wasn't as develop, main character was fun, although later there's a really awkward attempt to make a love story between him (who's like 12) and some woman (who's like 20). 3 was disappointing, a few cool spot in the story but the only character who was interesting leave the game about 10 hours in and no one else is remotely able to carry the story forward, I'm not surprised they didn't bother porting it to steam. There's also grandia xtreme, which is sorta like a rogue like, with very little story but just a massive dungeon to explore and randomized loot. Gameplay wise it's the most advanced, but there's essentially no story and replaying the same few dungeons area over and over again gets so repetitive, it's "Grinding: the game".

While I was looking for some video of the grandia one of the side video on youtube was of Bahamut Lagoon, since it was never officially ported to the west I imagine a lot of people never played it, which is a shame (there's well done full translation online for SNES emulator). It has a really fun concept like a tactics, except every "character" on the board is actually a team of 4 character. You can use long range magic on the board or get close to the a traditional JRPG combat using the full team. Every "character" also as an associated dragon with them who you have limited control over and just goes around wiping everything out, you also have to upgrade and evolve the dragon to get your character stronger since the ability they can use are determined by your dragon stats. You can also modify the terrain in tactics mode, like freeze lake to walk over them, burn forest to change terrain and hurt enemy in it or destroy wall with lighting. Story is also pretty cool, the setting are these floating continents and you fly around on an airship trying to liberate a kingdom and a princess. The princess story is great since the entire game everyone just assume she's in love with your main character, but when you show up to help her she just goes "hey thanks for saving me, have you met my boyfriend BTW?" which I found hilarious.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

1 was fine, but yeah the story wasn't as much fun and the gameplay wasn't as develop

I tried so hard to get into Grandia 1. I got past the church sequence where you break the green haired girl out from something I forget was going on, I think it was an arranged marriage, and I kinda just started feeling eh. For a game that kept yelling ADVENTURE at me it didn't always feel like it was anything that amazing. Which is too bad cause it had some excellent ideas

 

[Dreiko]

Too many to list so I'll just pick random stuff that comes to mind.

SMT/Persona Series

Legend of Heroes series (trails of cold steel 4 is coming out in 2 weeks!!!!!!, the conclusion to Rean's story finally is upon us)

FF series

Legend of Dragoon

Breath of Fire (except 6, go away phone game, nobody likes you)

Xenosaga/gears

Grandia

7th Dragon

Ar Tonelico/Ar Nosurge (this is my most "needs new game in series" pick, so much untapped potential!)

Atelier series (especially Atelier Meruru)

Dragon Quest series (XI is like the perfect orthodox Jrpg)

Fate EXTRA

Utawarerumono

Tears to Tiara series (TtT2 is my fav standard fantasy story in any medium ever)

Bravely series

I think that's good enough for now or I'll keep going forever lol.

 

[Neuromancer]

There is no game out there as narratively satisfying as Planescape: Torment. A weird setting, an eclectically weird cast of characters, and an absolutely gripping plot that ties up into the best RPG ending I've played. As the Nameless One, a perpetually resurrecting amnesiac, you journey through Sigil -the City in the Center of the Planes- and various planes in search of yourself. Almost every quest, however minor, is tied to one of your past lives, and can evoke a memory that you relive. The writing is stellar; few games have given more chills than one memory you recover from the Sensate vault, and, if you've played your cards right, the final part of the game that leads to the final boss offers a great sense of catharsis.

KOTOR 2. The Star Wars game for people that don't like Star Wars. Having had a very mildly enjoyable time with the first , I found the second immediately gripping. The galaxy it portrays has fallen into moral myopia. Its villains, far from the childish Malak of the first, are interesting at worst, and some of the best writing examples in a video game at best. KOTOR 2 takes the whole "Light Side/Dark Side" silly dichotomy and turns it on its head. The way it references the first game actually makes the first game look better written than it actually was.

SMT 3: Nocturne. The best SMT bar none, Nocturne is a departure from the rest of the series in that it doesn't do the Law/Chaos alignment that every other SMT revolves around. As the most atmospheric of the series, it offers very interesting locations and some pretty tough challenges.

Though a definite stretch of the definition (Being an MMO-RPG), FFXIV's latest expansion, Shadowbringers, is absolutely stellar. I will go as far as to make the claim that it has the best writing in the entire series. Gameplay-wise, it offers the funnest and most interesting dungeons and bosses in the game yet.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

SMT 3: Nocturne. The best SMT bar none, Nocturne is a departure from the rest of the series in that it doesn't do the Law/Chaos alignment that every other SMT revolves around. As the most atmospheric of the series, it offers very interesting locations and some pretty tough challenges.

Fair warning to OP: 'pretty tough challenges' is an understatement. Nocturne will not hesitate to destroy you if you give it a chance, and because it uses a lot of RNG for just about everything, from attack accuracy to enemy actions to move inheritance on fused demons to whether you're even allowed to recruit a demon at all, to one particularly infamous boss who has an ability to give itself more turns infinitely, sometimes you don't even have to give it a chance - it'll just destroy you anyway. Oh, and if you try to level grind to get past a difficult area/boss, you can potentially permanently screw up the late-game due to how character advancement works and have to start all over.

The story and atmosphere are still really good, just don't feel bad if you need a walkthrough/give up.

 

[SilentPony]

Diablo 2
Mass Effect 1-3
Champions of Norrath
Warhammer 40k: Chaos Gate. Yes its an turn based tactical RPG
KOTOR 1. I've heard 2 is good, but also its basically been in early access for 15 years
I would be remiss to not list World of Warcraft. I won't touch the fucker these days, but I do have good memories of running around as a lvl 70 blood elf paladin with no guild and just doing my own shit.

 

[Shadyside]

I like Xenogears and Xenosaga. A couple of Final Fantasy games and Pokemon.

 

[CaitSeith]

In no particular order:

- Final Fantasy VI
- Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
- Mass Effect
- Neverwinter Nights
- Skyrim
- Persona 4 & 5
- Legend of Mana
- The World Ends With You

 

[Dalisclock]

I like Xenogears and Xenosaga. A couple of Final Fantasy games and Pokemon.

I never played Xenosaga. I heard it was supposed to be an attempt to act as a prequel to Xenogears but they didn't have the rights do make it an actual prequel and then each game had it's own notable issues up until the point only 3 of the presumed 4 ended up getting made(Because Xenogears was apparently Ep5 of 6 according to the Japanese universe/game guide Perfect Works).

I take it there are some redeeming characteristics to the Xenosaga games despite all of that.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Some of my fondest childhood memories come from...

Golden Sun (rest in peace you poor Nintendo forgotten franchise)
Wild Arms
The World Ends with You
Shin Megami Tensei - (Digital Devil Saga, I feel like it's the most creative and story driven of them all), Nocturne,
but overall a solid franchise no matter what game they put out.

FF9 is my absolute favorite Final Fantasy game
Tales of Vesperia and Abyss are my favorites of that series
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

Lost Odyssey (The story on it's surface seemed pretty standard, but when you get into the memories, that's some great writing).

...It's gotten really hard to find jrpgs this gen that hit me as hard as these did
the closest this gen has gotten has been Octopath Traveler, I will proudly list that game along with all these others.

(Someone once mentioned Okami as being a JRPG, I never considered it one at first, but when you break down all the elements, it has towns, npcs, shops, etc. If that counts then throw it in as a special game in my heart).

 

[BrawlMan]

Someone once mentioned Okami as being a JRPG, I never considered it one at first, but when you break down all the elements, it has towns, npcs, shops, etc. If that counts then throw it in as a special game in my heart).

Okami is more of a Zelda type game. An action adventure with some RPG elements. I can see why you and that other person would think that, so I don't blame you for it.