Looking for a JRPG

[BeeGeenie]

Silly wabbits, Friendship is Magic!

lol, sorry.

OT: The Disgaea series is pretty fun, however, like you I find myself in the JRPG-less world of the 360.

 

[Cheesepower5]

Lost Oddysey, Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne, Persona 3/4, SMT Strange Journey, Dragon Quest IV, V, VI, VIII and IX and Fire Emblem on Gamecube, Wii or soon enough 3DS.

I restarted ToV for the first time in a year and a half yesterday, sure it's cliche but...

Spoiler: You get badass moments like this

Yuri killing those who avoid the law. It can be pretty mature if it wants to be.

 

[hazabaza1]

Persona persona persona persona persona.
It's a bit "Friendship=power" (well okay, very "friendship=power) but it's got great characters and some pretty damn fun gameplay.

You forgot to warn him that Persona 3 is very... slow.

You won't get to the good bits of the story until about 40 hours in. Even then you aren't even half-way done with the damn thing. I only finished The Hanged Man and I still believe I have another 20+ hours to go

It gets started quicker than that IMO. Sure, the late game is a lot better, but everything before is still really good.

 

[Guffe]

Well for the Wii Tales of Symphonia and Xenoblade Chronicles are good alternatives but they are both pretty "friendship based". I read that many have liked Fire Emblem, althou I haven't tried that myself, but it is certainly on my radar.

 

[Morthello]

For the 360 i'd say to try Lost Oddysey. Definitely more of a serious tone then tales but has a good amount of comic relief. The relationship of the characters are well developed and not overt and in your face like you described. All the characters are over the age of like 25(except 2) so you wont get the cutsie feel and it makes out for a more mature feeling game. Its made by sakaguchi(final fantasy creator) and the soundtrack is by Uematsu so you'll probably be able to appreciate the presentation and music.

I also cant stress enough how great the thousand years of dreams feature in this game is.

 

[Aurora Firestorm]

Alright, hear me out!

I use to love JRPG's. Final Fantasy up to, and including part 10, where my childhood.
But lately FF has left me feeling a bit sad. With uninteresting gameplay and characters.

So, I'm looking for something new.
I tried Tales of Vesperia on my Xbox360, and spend a great deal of time enjoying the game.
But... I just can't get over some of the cutsie dialogue.

I can't really give examples, but it's the sort of dialogue that really does it best to reminds you that FRIENDSHIP IS GREAT!. And while the word is in danger, they seem to spend more time worrying if their team-mates pretend guild is doing okay. The guild whom only members are the main characters anyway.

The final straw is hidden is this spoiler box

Spoiler

At one point, during a somewhat tragic moment, on of the characters reveals he's been a spy all along. He does this during a cave-in and as his way of saying sorry, he sacrifices himself to save the rest of the part. Cliché but not all that badly executed.
however, 5 minutes, LITERALLY 5 MINUTES later, he's back.
He "got away" and this isn't mentioned again!
They have this heart breaking moment of redemption, and he returns 5 minutes LATER!
At this point I was done.

I want a JRPG, with a fun setting, something that doesn't let me swing my a generic axe to a generic undead. But with some actual depth.
Characters who can't be summarized by "the ditz" "The serious one" and "the hyperactive one that people want to strangle"

A story that isn't based on "Together we're strong enough to fight satan, because we're friends!"

Now, I don't mind the occasional comic relieve, or some archtype usage, but is it really that hard to get a good JRPG that focuses on real characters and has more to offer then FRIENDSHIP IS THE BEST THING EVER?

It doesn't have to be dark and gritty, or depressing and soul-less, just something in between.
God, I'm hoping I'm getting my point across.

Please leave some suggestions on a nice JRPG for the Xbox360.

Uh...Welp, you're limiting yourself by this 360 thing. Get a PS2 or PS3 and then we'll talk.

I'm also not entirely sure that I'll find something free of tropes and without any trace of "THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP." I can only recommend games I liked. So I'll disregard the constraints and just give some JRPGs I liked.

Persona 3 (PS2) (long game, about 75 hours)
Persona 4 (PS2) (Same, about 75 hours)
Devil Survivor 2 (DS) (hard as hell but pretty fun)
Magna Carta Tears of Blood (PS2) (I'm pretty sure this one is more trope- and FRIENDSHIP-free than the others)
Xenosaga (PS2) (be warned, it's quite a movie)

For the record, I didn't like Tales Of...either. Any of them. For precisely the same "ugh, cute overload" reasons.

 

[Zandarck]

I would have to say Radiant Historia for DS is a must play.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Well for the Wii Tales of Symphonia and Xenoblade Chronicles are good alternatives but they are both pretty "friendship based". I read that many have liked Fire Emblem, althou I haven't tried that myself, but it is certainly on my radar.

Depends what Fire Emblem we're talking about; the one for Wii probably one of the worst in the Series.

 

[Guffe]

Well for the Wii Tales of Symphonia and Xenoblade Chronicles are good alternatives but they are both pretty "friendship based". I read that many have liked Fire Emblem, althou I haven't tried that myself, but it is certainly on my radar.

Depends what Fire Emblem we're talking about; the one for Wii probably one of the worst in the Series.

is that so? Was it then the GameCube one that was very liked?
Not sure myself, just been reading a lot about them

 

[elvor0]

Lost Odyssey by far if you've only got a 360, reasonably good voice acting, and a well told and mature story, plus it's pretty much a Final Fantasy game, as it has most of the important dudes that used to work for Square back in the glory days, and the Thousand Years of dreams segment has some fantastic stories in there. Uematsu does the music as well, and does a stellar job as always, and you'll recognize the occasional bar from FF soundtracks thrown in for good measure Also, Cooke and Mac are blatant Palom & Porom rips, but those guys were awesome, still brings a tear to my eye when they do their thing in FF4.

My only issue is the loading times into a battle, it's almost a full 30 seconds, which adds up, I tell you.

I don't really know any more for the 360, it's a bit weak in that department. It might be worth picking up a gamecube, I know there;s bound to be loads of RPGs on there, of which I can wholeheartedly reccomend Tales of Symphonia, there are a few of the cliches in there, but it is really fun, and the combat is nice and fluid as well.

 

[Cheesepower5]

Well for the Wii Tales of Symphonia and Xenoblade Chronicles are good alternatives but they are both pretty "friendship based". I read that many have liked Fire Emblem, althou I haven't tried that myself, but it is certainly on my radar.

Depends what Fire Emblem we're talking about; the one for Wii probably one of the worst in the Series.

is that so? Was it then the GameCube one that was very liked?
Not sure myself, just been reading a lot about them

It really depends. One of those series where everyone has a favourite and least favourite.

FE9(Path of Radiance) on Gamecube is my personal best, but there's also 3 on GBA, 3 on SNES and 2 on NES. Also, 2 remakes on the DS. The second GBA title FE7(Fire Emblem in North America) is probably the most popular here, being the first to see a release. The Wii game, Radiant Dawn, is kind of controversial for being structured differently from previous games.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I strongly recommend Tales of Symphonia for the Gamecube, or Persona 3/4 for the PS2, And maybe Kingdom Hearts was well...

 

[D Moness]

if your Wii can play gamecube games try and find a cheap version of baten kaitos 1 (this is a really unappreciated rpg that was released for the gamecube 9warning though the voice acting is really bad at times)

 

[sextus the crazy]

Well for the Wii Tales of Symphonia and Xenoblade Chronicles are good alternatives but they are both pretty "friendship based". I read that many have liked Fire Emblem, althou I haven't tried that myself, but it is certainly on my radar.

Depends what Fire Emblem we're talking about; the one for Wii probably one of the worst in the Series.

is that so? Was it then the GameCube one that was very liked?
Not sure myself, just been reading a lot about them

GC one was one of the best US released ones. Wii's Radiant Dawn was one of the most disappointing sequels in a while.

 

[Vivi22]

Problem #1: You want to play JRPGs and you own a 360.

What would have been your suggestion if I had owned a wii or ps3?
or DS for that matter.

Sell them for a PS2 and Persona 3 & 4?

But no, in all seriousness, pretty much any of the Shin Megami Tensei series are worth playing. Catch being there's none on the current gen consoles yet. You could probably emulte the PS1 iterations, and I believe some came out on the DS as well. The PSP also got ports of some of the earlier Persona games up to Persona 3 and the Vita is getting Persona 4 eventually I guess.

Aside from those, the genre isn't what it used to be and much of what's come out in the last 6-7 years isn't really that great. I've heard reasonable reviews of Lost Odyssey and Xenoblade Chronicles. The Last Story also looks interesting and comes out soon on the Wii (who would have thought that 6 years later I'd be saying a Wii game looks interesting?). One of my favourite Japanese RPG titles of this generation is actually Valkyria Chronicles on the PS3 which is more of a SRPG though and a hell of a lot of fun.