JRPGs for people who hate JRPGs

Paulrus_Keaton

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Stop me if you've heard this rant before.

So nowadays my brother is playing Rouge Galaxy for the P'Station 2 because he didn't finish it through last time. I tried to play it, but it felt dull and had the tragedy of being a RPG. Standard JRPG flair: random battles, large cities with few people, worlds with fewer save points, women who are either barely legal or snuggly fitting into their GGG cups, and cinemas that won't END and should be mocked by Unskippable with a passion of the Christ.

The last JRPG he played was Fire Emblem for the GameCube, which twice as boring, removed the tits in favor of werewolf-beast-beast-turning-into-thingies and had an excessive amount of textual, unvoiced cutscenes that ruined gameplay flow (if there was any) that I had to listen to ALL DAY.

End rant. Begin actual topic.

I've tried a few JRPGs in my time. Mostly bad and boring that only my gay Japanophile friend would like. (ha ha. I unintentionally called all JRPG fans homosexual.) But then there were a few that I actual got into and, for one example, can call myself a fan of.

Kingdom Hearts, SquareEnix's successful Disney fanfic, was fun to play because of the whole "travel to Disney worlds" gimmick. Also, the battles were not turned based. However, I still haven't completed the game because I just can't do a lot after that last save point. I tried it a few times, but I failed and just gave up. I would play the sequel, but only because I want to see the Steamboat Willie and Mulan worlds and also it has Stitch as a summon.

Then there's Skies of Arcadia: Legends for the GameCube. We rented it once and it just drug me in. It had the standard JRPG problems like talking and random turn based fighting, but the characters and dialogue were likable. The exploration aspect, while tainted by the constant occurrences of -GODDAMN- Loopers, was enjoyable and fulfilling. Unlike Kingdom Hearts, I finished this one... I think about three times.

Also, how can one NOT think that Gilder's "Gunslinger" special move is badass?

For those of you who skipped here, here's the topic that I spent a good 10 minutes staring into space to get to. For all those who consider JRPGs to be near the bottom of their "favorite genre" list, or maybe play them off and on (though don't enjoy them often) are there any JRPGs that you like or would at least try?
 

Eldritch Warlord

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Paper Mario and Pokémon count as JRPG's right? They're made by a Japanese developer. I'm also a fan of the Fire Emblem series.

But with me it's not so much that I don't like JRPG's it's just that I don't play them.

(also, when pluralizing and acronym use " 's ")
 

Jeronus

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I liked Skies of Arcadia. My only complaint is tha Vyse was the only one who could do any actual damage and some of the lower enemies had Death Spells that always worked on us no matter how many levels we had on them.
 

Paulrus_Keaton

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MaxTheReaper said:
There are tons of JRPGs for people who hate JRPGs.
They are called RPGs.
This is how I separate the two:

RPGs: Western. Elder Scrolls, WoW, Witcher, and all those other games that I don't play except for the occasional Elder Scroll.
JRPGs: Japanese. Final Fantasy, Xenosaga, Paper Mario, and all the other that I don't like except Skies of Arcadia.
 

Paulrus_Keaton

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Jeronus said:
I liked Skies of Arcadia. My only complaint is tha Vyse was the only one who could do any actual damage and some of the lower enemies had Death Spells that always worked on us no matter how many levels we had on them.
Oh wow, they also looked devastation with their animation. Watching one of them can result to peeing one's pants. If they didn't work, it was a "OH THANK YOU JESUS". If they did, it was another controller embedded into the ceiling.
 

Souplex

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Well you don't like fire emblem, so you are clearly dead inside and therefore incapable of feeling joy.
 

Leorex

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you might like Tales of Symphonia, or one of the Tales series, but the do have a chessie storie line.

PS, you might like it because the fighting is like kingdome hearts.
 

Paulrus_Keaton

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MaxTheReaper said:
Paulrus_Keaton said:
MaxTheReaper said:
There are tons of JRPGs for people who hate JRPGs.
They are called RPGs.
This is how I separate the two:

RPGs: Western. Elder Scrolls, WoW NO, Witcher, and all those other games that I don't play except for the occasional Elder Scroll. Also, KotOR, Baulder's Gate, etc.
JRPGs: Japanese. Final Fantasy, Xenosaga, Paper Mario, and all the other that I don't like
except Skies of Arcadia.
Pretty much, yeah.
Yeah... I just listed the ones that came to mind. I was hesitant about listing WoW. But yeah.
Western = Orcs and Elves
Japanese = Osaka vs. the Magic Space Monsters
 

FloodOne

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Maybe Final Fantasy X. It is turn based with the random battles, but the battle system is incredibly easy to use, leveling is stranmlined, and there isn't very much text w/o voice acting.

But if you hate JRPG's, there is very little out there that would sway you to the darkside
 

Paulrus_Keaton

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Souplex said:
Well you don't like fire emblem, so you are clearly dead inside and therefore incapable of feeling joy.
*witty comment*
Anyways, I didn't get into Fire Emblem because the gameplay wasn't my taste/was boring and that the sound that played when there was talking is not embedded in my skull since my brother didn't know what a "skip" button was.

Leorex said:
you might like Tales of Symphonia, or one of the Tales series, but the do have a chessie storie line.

PS, you might like it because the fighting is like kingdome hearts.
Rouge Galaxy had Kingdom Hearts style combat so, most likely not.

FloodOne said:
Maybe Final Fantasy X. It is turn based with the random battles, but the battle system is incredibly easy to use, leveling is stranmlined, and there isn't very much text w/o voice acting.

But if you hate JRPG's, there is very little out there that would sway you to the darkside
Final Fantasy looks interesting, I'll give it that, but I have yet to try it outside of Kingdom Hearts. And, true, there are little ways to convert a gun-toting, mic-spamming anti-JRPG advocate into suddenly adding "Kupo" to his sentences.

I don't know, are JRPGs starting to stray away from the whole turn-based thing?
 

Jeronus

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Paulrus_Keaton said:
Jeronus said:
I liked Skies of Arcadia. My only complaint is tha Vyse was the only one who could do any actual damage and some of the lower enemies had Death Spells that always worked on us no matter how many levels we had on them.
Oh wow, they also looked devastation with their animation. Watching one of them can result to peeing one's pants. If they didn't work, it was a "OH THANK YOU JESUS". If they did, it was another controller embedded into the ceiling.
I want to meet the man who said," Hey, let's make all the lower level enemies capable of killing the player no matter how strong they get. It'll be so much fun. I mean who doesn't like having their party members killed halfway through the game by enemies you were first fighting when you started." I just want to make him suffer for every time I had to ressurect a lvl 30 character who died at the hands of some lvl 5 beast who could cast Death.
 

Paulrus_Keaton

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Jeronus said:
Paulrus_Keaton said:
Jeronus said:
I liked Skies of Arcadia. My only complaint is tha Vyse was the only one who could do any actual damage and some of the lower enemies had Death Spells that always worked on us no matter how many levels we had on them.
Oh wow, they also looked devastation with their animation. Watching one of them can result to peeing one's pants. If they didn't work, it was a "OH THANK YOU JESUS". If they did, it was another controller embedded into the ceiling.
I want to meet the man who said," Hey, let's make all the lower level enemies capable of killing the player no matter how strong they get. It'll be so much fun. I mean who doesn't like having their party members killed halfway through the game by enemies you were first fighting when you started." I just want to make him suffer for every time I had to ressurect a lvl 30 character who died at the hands of some lvl 5 beast who could cast Death.
I want to meet the guy who thought of the Looper. It'll be fun before he decides to run from battle at the last minute.