Septerra Core
Set on a dying planet that's basically a bunch of disjointed floating layers, a decent excuse for varied environments as things get more primitive the further down you go and vice versa, the destined saviour and his clan of high tech buttholes decide to accelerate the apocalypse so they can get a prophecy over and done with and rebuild civilisation sometime this lifetime. MC's a junkrat who gets swept up in it all, typical JRPG stuff
Combat is scuffed Chrono Trigger but it's serviceable, and gets really fast once you can start combining summons into all-target nukes (about halfway through the game)
Also it's got some devilish puzzles, the noisy drill one in particular had me stuck for a while but the solution was pretty good
It's worth noting that both of these games are american.
Septerra Core
Set on a dying planet that's basically a bunch of disjointed floating layers, a decent excuse for varied environments as things get more primitive the further down you go and vice versa, the destined saviour and his clan of high tech buttholes decide to accelerate the apocalypse so they can get a prophecy over and done with and rebuild civilisation sometime this lifetime. MC's a junkrat who gets swept up in it all, typical JRPG stuff
Combat is scuffed Chrono Trigger but it's serviceable, and gets really fast once you can start combining summons into all-target nukes (about halfway through the game)
Also it's got some devilish puzzles, the noisy drill one in particular had me stuck for a while but the solution was pretty good
I remember having a good time...and then started fighting the slowest zombies you ever seen. It was like knights of the round without the presentation as they slowly shambled forth to attack. It was actually bad enough to make me drop it.
I played this for a while and then dropped it on the swamp planet. Just not sure where to go.
I might pick it up again someday, the world was really unique, but yeah, it was kinda b-tier
It also has spell combo system that is never explained in-game (probably in a manual) that I accidentally discovered after I was bored of manual grinding and setup some macros.
Awesome jrpg with combat like a party of sabins from ff6, however it's many flaws knock it down to b tier.
Thats it. That's the thread.
adding Ara Fell to the list. Still the best thing to come out of RPGMaker (the updated version is Unity though)
Wild Arms 3
Cool cowboy aesthetic, good soundtrack, and a combat system + character building system that reward intelligent play. Riding the horse around while https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAZwGaRyWL4 plays is also a unique vibe. It has dynamic camera angles and effects during combat, which doesn't sound like much, but some of them are really cool. The critical hits in particular are super satisfying.
Wild Arms 3 is top 10 JRPGs of all time. It's S-tier.
Phoentopia's grown on me over time since I've finished it. Was really frustrated/wiener-blocked by the ending initially -- felt like a build up to a non-existant conclusion -- but everything else it does is strongly unique and polished. In a better world, it would've changed popularity rankings with Tunic.
if the ending wasn't so shit, this would be one of my all-time favorite games. they absolutely nailed the pacing of a Zelda like game, and the music and visuals are spectacular. the call to action was also amazing, but but it never gets resolved and I am still pissed about it two years later.
Cool cowboy aesthetic, good soundtrack, and a combat system + character building system that reward intelligent play. Riding the horse around while https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAZwGaRyWL4 plays is also a unique vibe. It has dynamic camera angles and effects during combat, which doesn't sound like much, but some of them are really cool. The critical hits in particular are super satisfying.
I would agree that this is b-tier. Great setting, great combat, the story is kinda fun.
But it suffers from the JRPG problem of "where the frick do i go". And it also makes it that much harder, because locations are hidden and you have to constantly be spamming the O button to use your sonar to see if there are any nearby on the overworld.
Also, the puzzles are poorly designed, and frustrated me enough to make me drop it. I remember one in particular had a set of moving walls that push you towards a ledge where if you fall off you die. There are a number of tools you have in your tool belt. I was stuck on the bombs for a while, because it just made sense. Dropped a bomb against a wall, nothing. No reaction that it did anything. Tried two or three on the wall, nothing. Tried one bimb for each of the three walls thinking that might work. Nope.
So I went back to my toolset, tried to see if there were any hidden walls or secret ledges below the stage. Nope.
So eventually I got frustrated and looked up the answer. Turns out, it was the bombs. You need six bombs (the max amount) to destroy the wall, without any indication that the bombs are the right way to go. Just felt purposeless and poorly QCd. A shame, since the rest of the game is good aside from the puzzles and findingbout where to go.
Has a strange but intriguing artstyle and some interesting music. Totally original setting with alien races and architecture. 2 slots are for permanent characters, but the other two are for a huge rotating cast of mercenaries of different races, some with unique equipment. The writing is pretty bland and poorly translated, but that kind of adds to the early 90s vibe. The Item names in particular are super truncated, like Ht = helmet and P fth = Purpbird feathers. The combat system is just slightly different in many ways, like using HP to cast spells or selecting a body part instead of an option like "item" or "attack" (this means you can headbutt, kick, somehow attack with your torso, etc.) If you like old JRPGs in particular, this might be worth a shot.
Yeah, there are a lot of janky bits that one might be stuck on. The directions for dungeons are fine early in the game, but become really bad when you get access to the sandcrawler (sandcrawler combat sucks too, but at least it's quick and easy). I also don't think they did enough with the cowboy aesthetic when it came to enemy design. There are cool Indian skeletons and undead cowboys, but not enough southwestern inspiration in other designs. Overall, though, every flaw is balanced by something cool or interesting, like the dungeon where you have to escape with the cursed ring that drops your HP to 1.
paladin's quest was fricking nuts aesthetically, it's a shame nobody's tried to do that kind of thing again with pixel art and we're instead getting more and more generic fantasy sloppa
i remember there was a phase somewhere in like 2015 where this game got a lot of renewed attention online. like a mini version of what happened with Metal Gear Rising a couple years ago. what was that all about?
I wasted like 100 hours on this shit, the least it could do was give me something that looked like a decent ending, and it couldnt even give me that.
Why was that dude so protective of the e-girl who essentially was a terrorist hit with mental moronation?
If a fricking 2005 game has been in your backlog this long, you weren't gonna play it homie.
But yeah it's a neat RPG with an absolute shitton of menuing and it's kind of average everywhere except music
Got spooked off my Ar Tonelico 1 playthrough after reading you could softlock the girl bonds/memory VN stuff by progressing it too fast, which I may have done
>softlock the girl bonds/memory VN stuff by progressing it too fast
AT1&2 do have buggy gamebreaking bullshit (especially 2) but I don't know about that one
>he thinks that's a CRT
A CRT can't even fit in a device that small. That's an LCD screen, but with a small enough pixel count you see that "grille" effect.
The biggest criticism I see of the gameplay is of the “repetitive menu-based combat”, which applies to almost any JRPG. The biggest issue it has is with pacing, so it ends up being a huge time investment to experience it properly. The prequel anime is basically required to understand the story but is not very warmly received even by fans of the series, and almost nothing relating to the main plot happens until the end of Infection. Overall it just isn’t made for everyone and you will either love it or hate it
it's a menu-based action game. none of the attack animations or animation in general look very good, and you don't have a lot of mobility.
Clearing areas can be a drag and the areas themselves are repetitive depressing pieces of garbage. The few merits it has is for its uniqueness; you are simulating an old-school style MMO and can browse the game forums, read messages from your friends, and trade items with "PCs" and all but it is an entirely skippable game. Oh, and I liked the character designs I guess.
I've seen this exact same post with Chrono Trigger as the game being circlejerked
Both good games for sure, but skill development systems in later JRPGs kill your point.
>Radiant Historia
Been meaning to play this for years because of the OST. Which reminds me, it sucks Signa Harmonics was never properly localized. It's like Square forgot about it when the music could have easily been a perfect fit for Theatrhytm DLC
Holy frick i thought i was the only one who played this game (and in ZSNES to boot).
Apparently it's real jap name is Slapstick. Comfy and fun times, despite being pretty average, with both repetitive tracks and great music.
BoF1's combat is horribly basic compared to the following games in the series but it still holds a special place in my heart, the music and world are top notch
It's incomprehensible how good this game was and how bad the sequel managed to be. Also godDAMN was Legaia a lot of game. One of those titles where you really felt like you got your moneys worth. There was so much content.
My first jrpg and first big video game I ever played. I remember beating the first mist factory when I was like 7 years old and my older brother and his friends couldn’t believe it.
All I can say is that I finished this game while I have yet to finish Sword of Mana, why is Mana such a big franchise while the adventures of kid and his dog got forgotten in the snes?
rented this game, got it bugged out somehow in a puzzle so I was stuck in a little pyramid hallway and couldnt get out. had to bring it back to Blockbuster without consummation. feelsbadman
Azure Dreams
Monster-raising rougelike with town building and dating sim aspects. I remember it being pretty challenging. Played it to death when I was a kid.
Mystic Ark. you are trapped in a strange mansion where you find entrances to other worlds. has a very alice in wonderland feel to it. combat is simple and the elemental spirits arent clearly explained in function and i bet thats all in the physical manual
Anachronox.
It's worth noting that both of these games are american.
Someone needs to post Sudeki and the trinity of western JRPGs will be complete
Septerra Core
Set on a dying planet that's basically a bunch of disjointed floating layers, a decent excuse for varied environments as things get more primitive the further down you go and vice versa, the destined saviour and his clan of high tech buttholes decide to accelerate the apocalypse so they can get a prophecy over and done with and rebuild civilisation sometime this lifetime. MC's a junkrat who gets swept up in it all, typical JRPG stuff
Combat is scuffed Chrono Trigger but it's serviceable, and gets really fast once you can start combining summons into all-target nukes (about halfway through the game)
Also it's got some devilish puzzles, the noisy drill one in particular had me stuck for a while but the solution was pretty good
I remember having a good time...and then started fighting the slowest zombies you ever seen. It was like knights of the round without the presentation as they slowly shambled forth to attack. It was actually bad enough to make me drop it.
if you can kill them quickly those encounters go faster. That section isn't particularly long either.
I played this for a while and then dropped it on the swamp planet. Just not sure where to go.
I might pick it up again someday, the world was really unique, but yeah, it was kinda b-tier
Phantasy Star 4. A super kino game that unfortunately is stuck on the genesis.
It's available on the switch genesis emulator. You need to grab a .pdf of the manual to figure out the fusion spells though.
>fusion spells
damn I beat the game not knowing this
I love everything about this game except the spell names + lack of descriptions, why the frick did they name every spell some completely random shit
It also has spell combo system that is never explained in-game (probably in a manual) that I accidentally discovered after I was bored of manual grinding and setup some macros.
>b tier
It's one of the best RPGs of its gen, kind of a stretch to call it b-tier
Seconding these:
adding Ara Fell to the list. Still the best thing to come out of RPGMaker (the updated version is Unity though)
Wild Arms 3 is top 10 JRPGs of all time. It's S-tier.
its on those collections you can buy digitally. i played it on psp. really good writing, i was moved to tears when [character] died
Phantasy Star 4 is not B tier at all, it's by far the best Genesis JRPG.
Sega genesis collection on ps4 has it
Legend of legaia.
Awesome jrpg with combat like a party of sabins from ff6, however it's many flaws knock it down to b tier.
Thats it. That's the thread.
love that game
I got filtered by the minotaur boss.
I don't feel like typing. But it's good. Kind of a gem, since it didn't sell enough to get a sequel. But the quality is there.
these visuals speak to me
reminds me of knytt (that's a good thing)
Phoentopia's grown on me over time since I've finished it. Was really frustrated/wiener-blocked by the ending initially -- felt like a build up to a non-existant conclusion -- but everything else it does is strongly unique and polished. In a better world, it would've changed popularity rankings with Tunic.
The sprites are cute but I bet this is an indie goyslop with tumblr art and a bunch of black people.
Not an jrpg.
if the ending wasn't so shit, this would be one of my all-time favorite games. they absolutely nailed the pacing of a Zelda like game, and the music and visuals are spectacular. the call to action was also amazing, but but it never gets resolved and I am still pissed about it two years later.
theres something about shit endings that just completely ruin games
Mass Effect 3 being another game in that number
fran is my wife
you want to know a jrpg I think is good but not great, and you want me to trick you into thinking it's better than it is?
no
You forgot the name moron
I gotchu though it's Guardian's Crusade for PS1
It's a cute little JRPG
I came here for Golden Sun
It's been a long ass time since I finished this one. But I remember being hooked and completing it faster than any jrpg I played before.
I remember importing that game into my hacked psp and the file size was like 100 MB
Wild Arms 3
Cool cowboy aesthetic, good soundtrack, and a combat system + character building system that reward intelligent play. Riding the horse around while https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAZwGaRyWL4 plays is also a unique vibe. It has dynamic camera angles and effects during combat, which doesn't sound like much, but some of them are really cool. The critical hits in particular are super satisfying.
I would agree that this is b-tier. Great setting, great combat, the story is kinda fun.
But it suffers from the JRPG problem of "where the frick do i go". And it also makes it that much harder, because locations are hidden and you have to constantly be spamming the O button to use your sonar to see if there are any nearby on the overworld.
Also, the puzzles are poorly designed, and frustrated me enough to make me drop it. I remember one in particular had a set of moving walls that push you towards a ledge where if you fall off you die. There are a number of tools you have in your tool belt. I was stuck on the bombs for a while, because it just made sense. Dropped a bomb against a wall, nothing. No reaction that it did anything. Tried two or three on the wall, nothing. Tried one bimb for each of the three walls thinking that might work. Nope.
So I went back to my toolset, tried to see if there were any hidden walls or secret ledges below the stage. Nope.
So eventually I got frustrated and looked up the answer. Turns out, it was the bombs. You need six bombs (the max amount) to destroy the wall, without any indication that the bombs are the right way to go. Just felt purposeless and poorly QCd. A shame, since the rest of the game is good aside from the puzzles and findingbout where to go.
Also Paladin's Quest (Lennus in Japan)
Has a strange but intriguing artstyle and some interesting music. Totally original setting with alien races and architecture. 2 slots are for permanent characters, but the other two are for a huge rotating cast of mercenaries of different races, some with unique equipment. The writing is pretty bland and poorly translated, but that kind of adds to the early 90s vibe. The Item names in particular are super truncated, like Ht = helmet and P fth = Purpbird feathers. The combat system is just slightly different in many ways, like using HP to cast spells or selecting a body part instead of an option like "item" or "attack" (this means you can headbutt, kick, somehow attack with your torso, etc.) If you like old JRPGs in particular, this might be worth a shot.
Yeah, there are a lot of janky bits that one might be stuck on. The directions for dungeons are fine early in the game, but become really bad when you get access to the sandcrawler (sandcrawler combat sucks too, but at least it's quick and easy). I also don't think they did enough with the cowboy aesthetic when it came to enemy design. There are cool Indian skeletons and undead cowboys, but not enough southwestern inspiration in other designs. Overall, though, every flaw is balanced by something cool or interesting, like the dungeon where you have to escape with the cursed ring that drops your HP to 1.
paladin's quest was fricking nuts aesthetically, it's a shame nobody's tried to do that kind of thing again with pixel art and we're instead getting more and more generic fantasy sloppa
Kirkbride tried to bring the psychedelia and aesthetics of Moebius and other comic people into TES, but you know how things worked out.
>My fallen enemies and forgotten lovers outnumber the stars in the sky
i remember there was a phase somewhere in like 2015 where this game got a lot of renewed attention online. like a mini version of what happened with Metal Gear Rising a couple years ago. what was that all about?
It was 2018 and it was Steam release.
I wasted like 100 hours on this shit, the least it could do was give me something that looked like a decent ending, and it couldnt even give me that.
Why was that dude so protective of the e-girl who essentially was a terrorist hit with mental moronation?
Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song.
And I shall shill in the form of music.
thanks, I will delete this from my backlog because I don't want to waste my time on b-tier games
If a fricking 2005 game has been in your backlog this long, you weren't gonna play it homie.
But yeah it's a neat RPG with an absolute shitton of menuing and it's kind of average everywhere except music
The PC release was about a year ago
Rogue Galaxy for sure.
Last Remnant
The third in the series on PS3 but the first 2 on PS2 were pretty good also
Got spooked off my Ar Tonelico 1 playthrough after reading you could softlock the girl bonds/memory VN stuff by progressing it too fast, which I may have done
>softlock the girl bonds/memory VN stuff by progressing it too fast
AT1&2 do have buggy gamebreaking bullshit (especially 2) but I don't know about that one
i would shill you lufia 2 but that game is S tier so sorry not sorry
the gba screen had to CRT effect you tryhard homosexual
>he thinks that's a CRT
A CRT can't even fit in a device that small. That's an LCD screen, but with a small enough pixel count you see that "grille" effect.
Suikoden 3
I played it not long after finishing Final Fantasy Tactics and it was pretty alright.
Want to play .hack but heard the gameplay is awful. Is it true?
its ok but .hack is amazing for other reasons
The biggest criticism I see of the gameplay is of the “repetitive menu-based combat”, which applies to almost any JRPG. The biggest issue it has is with pacing, so it ends up being a huge time investment to experience it properly. The prequel anime is basically required to understand the story but is not very warmly received even by fans of the series, and almost nothing relating to the main plot happens until the end of Infection. Overall it just isn’t made for everyone and you will either love it or hate it
it's a menu-based action game. none of the attack animations or animation in general look very good, and you don't have a lot of mobility.
Clearing areas can be a drag and the areas themselves are repetitive depressing pieces of garbage. The few merits it has is for its uniqueness; you are simulating an old-school style MMO and can browse the game forums, read messages from your friends, and trade items with "PCs" and all but it is an entirely skippable game. Oh, and I liked the character designs I guess.
The JRPG genre peaked with Golden Sun
It came in an era where developers were already experimenting with jrpgs.
Golden Sun is pure and perfected jrpg
>Golden Sun is pure and perfected jrpg
The second game is, yeah. First game feels like a glorified tutorial.
>Friend filtered by first GS game
I didn't have the heart to tell him it was pants-on-head moronicly easy.
I've seen this exact same post with Chrono Trigger as the game being circlejerked
Both good games for sure, but skill development systems in later JRPGs kill your point.
The djinn mechanic made the combat so damn good.
I wish they made more of it
No pic cuz i'm lazy but Knights in the nightmare on psp was good, had an intersting story but i never got a hang of the combat system
I'm not sure I'd count these as b tier but all of these are pretty great, just not as good as the top classics
Shadowhearts 1 & 2
Radiant Historia
4 Heroes of Light
Grandia Xtreme
Jade Cocoon 2
Wild Arms 4
>Radiant Historia
Been meaning to play this for years because of the OST. Which reminds me, it sucks Signa Harmonics was never properly localized. It's like Square forgot about it when the music could have easily been a perfect fit for Theatrhytm DLC
The Lunar duology is pretty charming.
>duology
You can pretend it doesn't exist all you want but it does.
(this is not a recommendation the game is terrible)
Robotrek.
>shill me
Gif related
Holy frick i thought i was the only one who played this game (and in ZSNES to boot).
Apparently it's real jap name is Slapstick. Comfy and fun times, despite being pretty average, with both repetitive tracks and great music.
BoF1's combat is horribly basic compared to the following games in the series but it still holds a special place in my heart, the music and world are top notch
Make way for the king of B-Tier RPGs
It's incomprehensible how good this game was and how bad the sequel managed to be. Also godDAMN was Legaia a lot of game. One of those titles where you really felt like you got your moneys worth. There was so much content.
Legaia Dual Saga was so disappointing in comparison. I want a remake of Legend of Legaia so bad, or at least an HD remaster.
My first jrpg and first big video game I ever played. I remember beating the first mist factory when I was like 7 years old and my older brother and his friends couldn’t believe it.
best game in the Mana series
All I can say is that I finished this game while I have yet to finish Sword of Mana, why is Mana such a big franchise while the adventures of kid and his dog got forgotten in the snes?
I finished mana
i could not finish evermore
After I saw the ending on a save state i was glad i never finished it
rented this game, got it bugged out somehow in a puzzle so I was stuck in a little pyramid hallway and couldnt get out. had to bring it back to Blockbuster without consummation. feelsbadman
Azure Dreams
Monster-raising rougelike with town building and dating sim aspects. I remember it being pretty challenging. Played it to death when I was a kid.
Golden sun is such a comfy game
Golden Sun is F tier.
Star Ocean is basicaly THE perfect B-Tier JRPG series.
ENTER
>boys dress as girls pedo fantasy game
pass
Mystic Ark. you are trapped in a strange mansion where you find entrances to other worlds. has a very alice in wonderland feel to it. combat is simple and the elemental spirits arent clearly explained in function and i bet thats all in the physical manual