Recommend me a good JRPG that ISN'T Final Fantasy

Bat Vader

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I'm sure it has already been mentioned but I am going to have to recommend Tales of Xillia and Tales o Xillia 2. I have always loved the Tales games because of how they don't use turn based combat.
 

nightmare_gorilla

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There's a pretty good xbox 360 old JRPG called ENCHANTED ARMS that's pretty fun. I mean it's fairly standard JRPG but it does what it's supposed to do very well.
 

Bad Jim

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You can get Phantasy Star 2,3 and 4 in one reasonably priced package on Steam, along with a few other Genesis games.

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/14445/

I haven't played them, but they do get some praise. I'm thinking about whether to buy . . .
 

TheArcaneThinker

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Pokemon ? Its Japanese and a rpg.....
Its really a good series if you can look past its childish design...
Emerald is the best imo , followed by fire red....
I highly recommend it.

Others which I have not played but often hear of are....
Chrono Trigger
Harvest moon
Golden sun
Earthbound
Fire emblem
Legend of zelda a link to the past , majoras mask and four swords .
 

Madmonk12345

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Seconding the Mother 3 recommendation.

If you've played it once, I'd recommend playing it a second time actually. Lots of little details are hidden in the background that completely change in meaning once the final big twist is revealed.
 

Gizmo1990

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Zeras said:
I'm going to recommend Lost Odyssey (360/PS3), made by Mystwalker (bunch of guys who broke away from Square-Enix); the story is good, the characters are fleshed out, and the text-only "Memories" can be just as or more poignant than anything else you'll ever read.
Thank you! Lost Odyssey really dosen't get the love it should. I love damn near everything (the kids are a little iritating at times) about that game and it is easily my favorite jrpg of the last gen along with Valkyria Chronicals.
 

Ygrez

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I'd recommend Earthbound and Lufia 2 if you're up for some SNES RPGs.
 

False Nobility

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Xenoblade Chronicles, as someone else mentioned.

It has great visuals and characters with a lot of weight to them. The plot doesn't get complicated until a few hours in, but the characters and their struggle is interesting from the start, and the gameplay is deep without being intimidating. There's a lot of frantic strategy to positioning yourself and taking advantage of various situations. You can do more damage or inflict status effects by using skills from certain angles, and one character can have an ability to make a foe loose balance and another character can then use a skill that topples them over, making them more vulnerable. It's tactical and never got repetitive. The story can be a downer, but the sense of hope the characters have makes them relatable and they have a very powerful friendship in my opinion.
 

volcanblade

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The ones I would recommend:
Shin Megami Tensei Series cool units, interesting plot with a lot to do.

Persona Series Usually very interesting with the depth they go into human personality and thoughts

Disgaea Series Extremely goofy and fun to play, way over the top with everything, but can have s fair bit of strategy if you don't grind.

Ar Tonelico Series One of my personal favorites. The characters are likable, the combat system is different, and to get new magic you travel into the heroine's heart to heal mental wounds among other things. The art is beautiful as is the music and they created a new language just for the game.

Mana Khemia Series Related to the Atelier series you play an alchemy student and go out make new recipes, fight monsters, and complete various plot related jobs. It is very fun and the characters are all quirky and unique.

Tales Series Great series with a lot of depth to the world and characters. I would highly recommend these games.
 
Jan 27, 2011
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*cracks neck*

Chrono Trigger (SNES/DS): This is THE most perfect oldschool JRPG ever made. It's got a good plot with memorable characters, a fun combat system, and it's just all around a ton of fun. If you can get the DS "remastered" version, get that one. The translation job is MASSIVELY improved, no matter how much the purists miss "ye olde english" speaking Frog.

Essentially, it's a story about a trio of teens living in a pseudo-post-medievalish world who accidentally discover time travel, and find out that their world will end in a horrible disaster in about a thousand years. So, for lack of anything better to do, they set out to change the future by traveling to several other time periods to discover a solution.

The World Ends With You (DS): A JRPG that feels totally unique and fresh. It's got a modern setting, a battle system that's not turn based at all, and is incredibly tricky to master, but so much fun that you will seek out battles just for entertainment.

Basic premise is that the main characters are paired up in a sort of supernaturally-twisted version of Shibuya, and need to accomplish specific missions each day or they'll be erased from existence. And just when you think "Man, this game is
insanely short", BAM, you realize you're just at the beginning...

It's up there sharing the top spot on my "best RPGs ever" list with Chrono Trigger. Both games are incredibly wonderful and you really should play them.

The "Etrian Oddyssey" series: (DS/3DS)

It's a first person dungeon crawler series, where you create your own party of 5 explorers of various classes, and you explore a giant labyrinth, literally drawing your own map on the bottom screen. It's also BRUTAL. Almost every floor has at least one miniboss, often MANY (called F.O.E.s), which patrol specific routes and if they catch you, they will probably utterly destroy you because they're magnitudes stronger than anything you'll find in that general area.

So you explore, you kill monsters, bring their parts back to town, sell them for money (and to unlock new gear in the shop), so you can go deeper into the maze and find new shortcuts so you can eventually make it to the next boss as fresh as possible. It's a fantastic series. I'd recommend starting with EO4 on the 3DS, since it's the most accessible of the bunch. And then if you somehow can, pick up the 3rd game. That one had the best damn story in the series, I tell you.

Xenoblade chronicles (Wii) is fantastic as well. If it wasn't for the fact that it drags on a liiiitle too long at the very end, and the fact that the difficulty ramps up suddenly at the end, with next to no sidequests left to help yourself level up right near the end, this would be my favourite JRPG of all time. It's amazing. Get it.

And if you're looking for more crazy-hard RPGS:

Anything in the Shin Megami Tensai series, by Atlus. It's the same publisher as the EO series mentioned above, but the SMT series does NOT hold any punches back. It WILL crush you mercilessly and frequently unless you know what you're doing.

The Persona sub-series of the SMT games are a bit less harsh and are definitely worth playing (Persona 4 was fantastic, IMO) as well.

And I'd like to recommend one of my own RPGs, or several RPGmaker games made by some people I know are good at it...but I can't link to them in a topic, that feels too much like advertizing. Lemme know if you want links via PM.
 
Jan 27, 2011
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Hawki said:
Golden Sun. Played all 3, and while 3 doen't hold a candle to 1 and 2 IMO, all 3 are still worth playing.
As much as I loved the first two games, the third one just...falls so very flat for me.

I'm trying to avoid combat as much as possible, and I've got all my djinns turned off to lower my stats as much as I can to make things a challenge, and I'm still utterly wrecking things so hard that I got bored and stopped playing it. :s

It also barely feels like the same world anymore, and I'm annoyed at how much it seems like the main cast split up. What happened to GaretXMia? ShebaXFelix? JennaXIsaac? It's like all the characters split up to try to have as many kids on their own as possible to make as many new party members as possible for the 3rd game. :S
 

Hawki

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aegix drakan said:
Hawki said:
Golden Sun. Played all 3, and while 3 doen't hold a candle to 1 and 2 IMO, all 3 are still worth playing.
As much as I loved the first two games, the third one just...falls so very flat for me.

I'm trying to avoid combat as much as possible, and I've got all my djinns turned off to lower my stats as much as I can to make things a challenge, and I'm still utterly wrecking things so hard that I got bored and stopped playing it. :s

It also barely feels like the same world anymore, and I'm annoyed at how much it seems like the main cast split up. What happened to GaretXMia? ShebaXFelix? JennaXIsaac? It's like all the characters split up to try to have as many kids on their own as possible to make as many new party members as possible for the 3rd game. :S
Actually, I liked the worldbuilding. Something I've noticed with the GS games is that more of the world is fleshed out in each installment, and given the 30 year jump, plus the effects of alchemy being returned, the changes are understandable.

As for the pairings, let's face it, they were always in the realms of fan preference - I supported IsaacxMia way back in the day for instance. But GS3 is very much a "new generation" story (cue TNG music), so I didn't mind.

I know what you mean about the lack of challenge as well, but I didn't find it lacking to the extent that I couldn't find enjoyment from it. Like I said, not as good as the first two, but I'd still call it a "good" game.
 

Lazule

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Chrono Trigger (Considered the best RPG of all time), Chrono Cross, Valkyrie Profile 1 & 2, Secret of Mana (Seiken 3), Dark Cloud 2, Rouge Galaxy, Radiata Stories... holy moly almost forgot! The Last Remnant.

Edit: Pokemon is good but the story wont satisfy your mind anymore, its too simple and dumb.

Tales of Series: Good choice if you like basic Japanese arcade fighting game mechanics combined with RPG. They tend to have a nice story and likeable characters since they actually develop more and more through the story: they fail, they break, they recover, etc. But don't expect them to be masterpieces.

Chrono Trigger on the other hand... the story is based off on some biblical chapters and the book of revelations, etc. Its the best classic RPG you will find.

Edit 2:
Action J-RPGs
Castlevania: Symphony of The Night, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 and Demon Souls.
 

beastro

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Jo mention of Mario RPG??? The game that perfectly encapsulated the Mario series and it's story in one game???

Also recommend Parasite Eve - nice, short story - IMO, it wouldn't take much to turn it into a good movie.

Olrod said:
Considering every Final Fantasy game is different, I don't quite get what your "Isn't Final Fantasy" is supposed to mean.

Every Final Fantasy game "isn't" Final Fantasy, compared to the one before it.
This is a joke, right?

The whole series is remaking essentially the same game only with different, yet still similar aesthetic (since FFVII), and keeping several things around like airships, moogles and shit.
 

Bad Player

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DS: Chrono Trigger
3DS: Bravely Default
Gamecube: Baten Kaitos (only if you're able to stand endearingly terrible voice acting), Tales of Symphonia
Wii: Xenoblade
PS3: Tales of Graces f

I've never played a PS2, but Persona 4 is supposed to be good, and then there's also Golden for Vita.
 

Lunar Templar

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DOOM GUY said:
Lightspeaker said:
Was my first thought as well because I'm actively playing it currently. Definitely worth a look. I went out of my way to buy a controller for my PC just to play this and I'm having an absolute blast.
Oh nice, I'm glad the PC version has gotten more people into the series.

The original game was very flawed, but the characters and setting were so great, and when mk2 came out I absolutely fell in love with the series. I gotta say, it's my favorite new series of the decade.
I for one welcome more Neptunia to my PC >.> so long as they work the bugs out faster next time.

OT:

Hyperdimensio Neptunia Re Birth 1.

It's not deep, has really nothing to say. But its fun, silly and for once they pull off the 'amnesic protag' trope off in a way that isn't completely stupid or cliche. Also, from everything I read its also a 're-release' done right as instead of just giving it a face lift and kicked out the door, they took the time to implement the improvements from latter titles into it.

and sticking to the anime theme!
The recently released
Dragon Ball Z Xenoverse.

While not an RPG in the traditional sense like most, being more of a 3rd person action brawler then a fighting game or RPG in the tradition sense, you do get to make and name your own character, you level them up and you learn new skills over the course of the game, so fuck it, I'm adding it to the list.

Cause while your probably thinking 'yay anther DBZ game ... can't wait to go through the Sagas again, and beat Frieza on Namek again ...' which is totally justified, cause >.> you do, they took the time to change everything just enough that its the same but different, and THAT is because the story, while ... still DBZ level ... is about you hopping through time and fixing the time line so things happen like the should, like this
The fight with Raditz is changed so Gohan's flying head but misses, thus Raditz is never weakened enough for Goku to hold him down long enough for Piccolo to finish him off. so you drop in to help set things right, by beating the shit out of Raditz enough to have things end like they should
just don't expect to go online with it reliably right now ...

other then that

stuff like ... SMT Nocturne/Digital Devil Saga, Persona 4, Shadow Hearts 1 an 2, countless non FF games by square like Parasite Eve, Secret/Legend of Mana, Breath of Fire 3, Legend of the Dragoon ... I could really go on with the classics, all of which are probably on the first page :3, so take your pick and enjoy.
 

Mister K

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Apr 25, 2011
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You can't go wrong with Shin Megami Tensei series and it's spin-off series Persona. ESPECIALLY Persona.

Other than that, Chrono Trigger, obviously. Did you know that there is literally no grinding in Chrono Trigger?

Does Valkyria Chronicles count as JRPG? If yes, then play it, if not, well, still play it. It's a good game.

Also, games I did not play but heard good things about: Dragon Quest, Wild Arms, Xenogears, Grindia, Vagrant Story.

Lazule said:
holy moly almost forgot! The Last Remnant.
Is this game good? I mean, I remember that I was younger I wanted to buy it, but review scores were low, so I dropped the idea.
 

CrazyGirl17

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Sep 11, 2009
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These have all been said before, but I still recommend:

-Shadow Hearts
-Tales of Symphonia/the Abyss/Vesperia
-Chrono Trigger
-Xenoblade Chronicles
-Earthbound
-Persona 4

Enjoy!