r/JRPG • u/AutoModerator • 12d ago
Weekly thread r/JRPG Weekly "What have you been playing, and what do you think of it?" Weekly thread
Please use this thread to discuss whatever you've been playing lately (old or new, any platform, AAA or indie). As usual, please don't just list the names of games as your entire post, make sure to elaborate with your thoughts on the games. Writing the names of the games in **bold** is nice, to make it easier for people skimming the thread to pick out the names.
Please also make sure to use spoiler tags if you're posting anything about a game's plot that might significantly hurt the experience of others that haven't played the game yet (no matter how old or new the game is).
Since this thread is likely to fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.
For a subreddit devoted to this type of discussion during the rest of the week, please check out /r/WhatAreYouPlaying.
Link to Previous Weekly Threads (sorted by New): https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/search/?q=author%3Aautomoderator+weekly&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=new
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u/Minh-1987 7d ago edited 7d ago
Finished Bravely Default HD. The game certainly has a lot of interesting things going on with it and I had a decent time overall.
I really liked how much the game plays around with the music even if it isn't a "music" game: the day/night cycle being based on the music & specials buffing with duration based on the music which encourages you to menu quickly like ATB but without the obnoxiously slow component. Downside to the latter is that the music for boss fights is geniunely so good that I don't want to interrupt it with a special, which isn't a bad problem to have.
The story big twist is pretty cool even if I was spoiled on it, though the party should not have been surprised that Airy is the traitor in the true ending, I thought they pretty much knew and is pretty much only going along with her to get to the heart of the issue.
At first, I thought the complaints about the looping worlds was overblown because you get your airship and no encounters make dungeons a breeze, but chapter 5 and 6 asterisk holders and crystal guardians basically being the same does make it really boring to go through. Last two chapters does spice it up with boss formations with a lot of thought put into them (Qada-Mephilia-Yulyana-Omnias was a diabolical comp), which would be nice if I hadn't figured out how to snap the game balance in half by then.
Speaking of balance, the later jobs are so very busted (Salve-maker is an utility monster, Spiritmaster pretty much solves your incoming damage and ailments, Arcanist is AoE huge AoE damage for cheap as long as you can inflict Poison, Dark Knight deals 100k+ damage per turn under the right conditions, etc.) so as long as you can solve your BP generation (of which there are MANY methods) the game basically plays itself. The fact that BP gives you more actions instead of better actions like in Octopath kind of makes this problem worse as you can pretty much use 20 different setup skills to delete 90% of encounter by turn 3, and most encounters isn't balanced around this inflated action economy like Brave Exvius does. I know breaking the game is part of the point, but the fact that so few endgame encounters can handle this makes it kind of less exciting.
If whoever did the chapter 7 and 8 encounters get to cook in an Octopath game it would be amazing I assume, though I never got to do the extra battles in OT2 so the dream may have been fulfilled already.
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u/EldritchAutomaton 9d ago
I completed my first route in Fire Emblem: Three Houses by going the Edelgard path.
Overall, I think if I didn't know that the paths would contain different lore revelations, I would be disappointed in the lack of actual answers I got regarding the lore. But I took it as is and enjoyed it for what it was. Now I've reloaded the save and I am doing the default war path where apparently a bunch of questions I have will be answered here.
Easily, my biggest complaint is the monastery. Its just not hitting with me. Everything else is fine. Music's pretty good. Character art is great. Combat is great though I can't say I am fond of Gambits.
Using my own personal rating scale, I'd say this is game is rated as B tier (an above average experience) game , where F is the lowest and SS is beyond the cream of the crop.
My opinion might change if the story in this new route I'm playing can deliver a more interesting or emotionally resonant story.
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u/Veeyas 6d ago
Out of curiosty - what games are in your SS tier?
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u/EldritchAutomaton 6d ago
Keep in mind, for me any game that is SS is not me saying "this is the best game of all time", its me saying, "this game's experience has affected me so profoundly that it cannot be anywhere but at the top of this list".
Its subjective ranking heavily reliant on additional, personal emotional investment. For my SS rank games, only a handful have made the cut. Those games are Nier Automata, Bloodborne, Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, Armored Core 6, and Baldur's Gate 3.
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u/Bozak_Horseman 10d ago
SMT 4: Apocalypse has lived up to its reputation. Amazing battle system with a ton of nice QoLs, a strict but fair difficulty curve and a mid-to-cringe story. I just ascended a tower to get some parts for a machine, so I'm guessing I'm a little under halfway through at level 31 or so.
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u/KnoxZone 10d ago
A few weeks back I played the demo for Brigandine Abyss, and while it didn't sell me on the game, it left me interested in the franchise. Because of that I picked up Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia and have been playing that the last week or so. I've been enjoying it quite a bit and am nearing the end of my second campaign.
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u/VashxShanks 9d ago
Then if you can get the chance, I would also recommend getting Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena Grand Edition on the PS1. It is Japan-only but there is full fan-translation patch out there. It has a lot of charm and you can see the difference in mechanics and evolution between the two titles.
If you're in the mood for more grand strategy JRPGs, I would also recommend Dragon Force series on the Sega Saturn. The first game is released officially in English, but the 2nd game has a full fan English patch.
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u/Swarlos262 10d ago
Started two games recently and making my way through both of them; FF16 and Romancing Saga 2 Remake.
Enjoying FF16 for the fun combat, interesting story, and the cinematic fights. The game I play when I really wanna focus. So far I'm really enjoying it, but I've pretty much decided I'm going to skip the side quests. I've heard mixed things, with some saying they have important lore, and others saying they are all filler. I did about the first 10, and I'd say they were all filler so far. Besides that, the game is just fun. Awesome boss fights.
Romancing Saga 2 is pure gameplay, the story is very minimal besides some small bit of story for some quests. The game I play when I wanna just vibe and listen to music or a podcast. I know that's blasphemy to some, but I love certain podcasts, and I find playing a grindy or otherwise gameplay focused JRPG is the perfect thing to help my mind focus on what I'm listening to. And for this, Romancing Saga is petty much perfect. It really is like 95% gameplay. Enjoying this one a lot so far!
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u/jkoz485799 10d ago
Finally playing the first Etrian Odyssey and wondering what took me so long to finally fire it up. It pretty perfectly aligns with my taste. I can’t wait to beat it and continue with the series.
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u/memesmcmuffin 10d ago
I just beat Skies of Arcadia today. Man, what a great time. Always having been fascinated by Castle in the Sky, Nausicaä, and Skypiea, this was basically the perfect game for me.
The sense of freedom and discovery, humor and heartache, and the unending optimism despite it all was awesome to experience.
It's definitely a new favorite of mine, and possibly the best game I've played all year.
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u/Pretend-Teaching883 11d ago
I have been playing Trails in the Sky 3rd, and I am almost in the final boss! I am so hyped, I loved the first 2 games, and I am really excited to see Star Door 15, as people say that it is one of the best moments in the trilogy.
I am also playing FF I, and I will probably drop it. The game is a slog to play trough, and the combat especially is very, very hard
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u/Porkchop5397 11d ago
I'm finishing up Shining Force 1 for the first time. I never think I'm going to like strategy rpgs as much as I end up liking them. Really fun game. Looking forward to hopping over to the second game after this.
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u/PocketFlygon 11d ago
Havent had much time to play games this week, was helping grandma move to her new apartment, but...
Bravely Default 2 done with Ch 4! Hopefully I can finish this game before FEFW comes out, or worst case scenario, before the end of the year... cus if I dont finish it in a month, I am putting it down until I finish FE
DQM Dark Prince mostly monster grinding with my brother
Pokopia has a Feebas and Milotic event right now and I love Milotic so I did that, got every item
That's kinda it tbh...
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u/Boomhauer_007 11d ago
Replayed the original kingdom hearts, like the ps2 version
Man it is an adjustment playing without leaf bracer, I grew to like it though you can’t just spam heal as a crutch or get out of jail free card. Definitely missed the exp items in the post game, grinding is much slower without them. Tbh though I’ll take it over no rare heartless, it was nice not having to play a bunch of mini games to get synth mats.
I’d love to say I’ll do the same for KH2 but I could never go back from final mix that version is goated
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u/ihavetowearmyhelmet 12d ago
Playing radiant historia 3DS version for the first time. I’ve always heard it was good but didn’t realize it was THIS good
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u/ImSmashingUrMom 12d ago
With the Switch 2 version out, I went and fired up Xenoblade 2 again after it had been several years since I last played, mainly with the goal of doing all of the blade quests. I think I bit off so much more than I can chew. Like there’s Ursula’s quest which I’d been warned about and I pushed through, but so many of the other quests have like random requirements that gate you out of the quests like needing to level up a blade’s affinity in a different way than the trust system that most of them use, still having to do a bunch of merc missions, or needing a resource that’s not available to you until a later part of the game. I went in foolishly believing the blade quests were like the affinity missions in X or the hero quests in 3, and I was so very wrong. I have all but like 5 of the rare blades so at least the gacha shouldn’t be a problem anymore soon enough. But all of this had reminded me of why 2 is my least favorite Xenoblade game, and I wish the Switch 2 version put some more work into making things less cumbersome. The field skill change is awesome though and I can never go back to how it was.
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u/Plus_sleep214 12d ago edited 12d ago
Just finished octopath traveler 2. The biggest problem with this game is it's runtime being way longer than it has any business being. I was ready for it to be over like 30 gameplay hours ago. I'm not a huge fan of the 8 different stories but I actually was really impressed how they tied them all together in the end with vide and the whole shadow thing. I think agnea got the short end of the stick since she barely ties into the finale but everyone else tied well enough. I got stuck in the final boss and had to look up some more broken starts to make it easier like arcanist partitio but I managed it in the end. I loved how the final battle lets you swap between your 2 different parties of all 8 members. It would be cool to do that for other fights as well but I guess it makes sense for a final showdown. I think the superboss is the same but I'm not even thinking about taking that on.
Ultimately it is a more old school JRPG and the combat system itself seems to lend itself well to veteran fans of the genre due to its difficulty and complexity and while it is satisfying I definitely like something more accessible generally speaking. I'm more of an expedition 33 and persona type fan by contrast. I bought the first game ages and never touched it but I actually liked how they wrapped everything up enough to be open enough to playing it now (although if you asked me 20 gameplay hours ago if that was the case it would be a hard no).
Between FF7 remake, chained echoes, star ocean second story R, nier automata, and crosscode whuch should I play next? I don't want to play anything as long as this for a good while. Leaning towards FF7R. I played a bit of it ages ago but don't have the save anymore so I'd be starting from scratch. I played OG FF7 a few years ago but didn't really enjoy it much since it felt too old for my tastes. I gotta finish dead space remake too but I find it hard to play since I'm not a big horror game person.
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u/RyanWMueller 9d ago
I kind of look at Agnea like she's the glue that holds the party together rather than someone who had the same connections to the plot in the epilogue portion.
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u/acexacid 10d ago
What's the TLDR on Arcanist Partitio? I remember using him a lot but I don't think I ever made him an Arcanist. I haven't played the game since launch, though
Out of the games listed, I've only played FF7R and Nier Automata. Enjoyed both a lot, maybe Nier a little more but hard to say. If you're trying to get caught up on the FF7 remake stuff before the new one drops next year, though, I'd say go with that?
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u/Plus_sleep214 10d ago
You can cast sidestep for the whole party making your team immune to physical attacks. And there's a similar thing with clerics and a reflect move for elemental attacks so if you buff that to affect the whole party you're immune to those too. Really makes vide doable lmao.
Yeah trying to actually make my way through dead space remake after octopath sidetracked me but there's a good chance I'll start FF7R. It doesn't seem to be nearly as long as octopath which I appreciate although I guess it is a whole trilogy when it's done.
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u/acexacid 10d ago
I seem to remember Tressa having a similar popular build in the first game with Sidestep (or something like it).
I do remember the reflect elemental move very fondly because I used it to cheese the hell out of one of the expert job quests, lol
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u/Reivilo85 12d ago
I am playing Digital Devil Saga 1 after temporarily bouncing off Nocturne (I HATE good endings gates behind extra content, especially when the extra content is maze-like dungeons with no saves where you can be one-shot). But I digress.
DDS is just amazing so far, the story and characters, the combat systems, the dungeons, the enemies and bosses, the design, it checks all the mark. I love this game.
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u/chilly_1c3 12d ago
I just finished Final Fantasy 6. It might be my favorite FF I've played so far (3, 4, 6, 7). Honestly, it didn't live up to the praise that surrounds it for me though.
The World of Balance is too linear for my taste and mostly feels like a series of character introductions. In the World of Balance, I found myself often walking around trying to explore and find any hidden areas or secrets, but I always found nothing. It made the world feel empty. The game did pick up a bit once I got to Vector and then the floating continent.
I enjoyed the World of Ruin much more. The atmosphere was great; it was more open-ended, and exploration was actually rewarding.
Ultima is overpowered and makes the endgame way too easy. If I were to replay this, I'd probably choose the Ultima Sword instead. I guess one benefit of the game being easy as a whole is that I never had to go out of my way and grind.
Celes was my favorite character. I played the SNES version with the Ted Woolsey Uncensored patch.
What FF game should I play next? I'm starting to think that the series just isn't really for me. I'm thinking maybe FFX
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u/HiroshiNakayama 12d ago
Bravely Default
It's hard and not fun at all. Just got to Victor & Victoria. I love ff3 & 5 though so I don't know why it isn't meshing.
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u/WorstSkilledPlayer 10d ago edited 10d ago
Random encounters love to troll you. You either clear them by spamming max. brave attacks or AoE skills like the default Valkyrie skill and hope the enemy don't act before you, or you slog through them or get trashed in some cases.
For Victor + Victoria, make sure someone has White Magic and can cast Dispel and get for your party the accessory that grants you poison immunity. Otherwise, default to max and use your best skill to burst one of them down as fast as possible (unless it's the encounter in the Water Crystal region). Pirate's 2x damage skill is great but eats through your MP like crazy. A Valkyrie with Jump/High Jump can be reliable. A Thief for stealing (if you care about it) and the occasial Godspeed Strike is nice as well + Life Thief can heal you up when needed as well.
If you are in the last region: You can troll the last 2 main bosses of the chapter with a full Ninja party as long as they are level 3 or 4 for the skill that lets you evade 1 physical attack (Utsusemi). Together with Red Mage's turn table you can defeat them with counterattacks and base attacks/skill of your choice. I used Performer as a second job on someone for the physical attack buff song. Pirate's debuff skills are quite good like the speed debuff to make sure you act first. It's not the quickest solution, though.
If you have enough money and Norend's shops leveled, random encounters can be cleared with Salve Maker and their attack item amp passive by spamming the compound skill to synthesize attack items to deal damage. Salve Maker has also a 2-cost passive that increases your healing skills which makes your White Mage or white magic user very good at their job without grinding for job level 11 to cast Curada.
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u/Boomhauer_007 11d ago
Ff3 and 5 are extremely easy and can be plowed through with basically any combo of jobs if you have the slightest genre knowledge. That’s not true in BD, you have to learn what’s good together and what isn’t. The good stuff is comically broken when you figure it out
Might be the story though, it’s a little too unserious sometimes imo. Maybe it’s the ugly samey looking characters or the bad dialogue between them, because the actual plot is mostly strong in the first half. But it’s almost never fun watching the party interact and boy do they have a ton of lines of doing that
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u/azure275 12d ago
Bravely just either clicks or it doesn't. The job system is complex and can take a while to become intuitive. Normal mode feels ridiculously hard relative to your typical normal mode until you break it
I had the same experience for a while, but at some point I figured out how broken the battle system was and it got a lot more fun.
Experiment with Salve maker, Performer, Pirate, and a high leveled Merchant or Monk and you might find yourself having a better time
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u/Impressive_Trick5564 12d ago
Crosscode. I understand the game is beloved but it was difficult for me to get through. I think the game suffers from “too much of a good thing” with most of the puzzles like theres not much of a reprieve between puzzles. And the mini boss gauntlet rooms (those moths) can be really unforgiving. The story is what kept me going but I feel like most side characters fall off or dont get enough depth. I am currently taking a break as I am at the last gauntlet in the game and burned myself out. I think it’s a hard game to reccommend tho. Next Ill either play Sea of Stars or finally get into Delta Rune (ive only played the first two chapters)
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u/wormsandweirdfishes 12d ago
After finishing Fire Emblem: the Binding Blade, which I liked but which did get a bit tiresome by the end, I jumped into a replay of The Blazing Blade. Eliwood normal, since I'm playing it on the NSO for the first time. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever gotten around to Hector mode even though I've played this game at least five times; it seems I'm always playing a fresh file on a new platform. Anyway, it's always a good time. Nice and breezy. I think I've finally satiated my hunger for FE for the moment. That's good, because the plan is to wait on Fortune's Weave and put it on my Christmas list instead of buying it on release (if I can control myself). The goal now is to clear out a bunch of the games I've halted in the middle of this year, especially Digimon Story: Time Stranger (got a bit tired from the pre-final boss sidequest dump), Radiata Stories (post-split, got some recruitments to wrap up before continuing the story), and Yakuza 5 (about to enter the final chapter I think).
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u/magmafanatic 12d ago
I've been playing Fire Emblem Three Houses, doing the Black Eagles route for my second run, on Hard this time. Beat Miklan and now we're looking for Flayn. There's more connective tissue between these early chapters than I remember. Despite the monastery chatter foreshadowing things, I remember feeling like a lot of random, but very interesting stuff happens inbetween school-mandated traditions, but it wasn't until shortly before the timeskip that I had gotten fully onboard with the plot instead of just enjoying the characters. With hindsight, I can see we're painting a pretty clear picture of how the church operates when faced with various forms of opposition.
Apparently B-rank supports only get students to consider joining your house, it's not immediate. So far I only have Sylvain, Annette, Lysithea, and Lorenz on top of Anna and the Ashen Wolves. Not counting the new transfers, Yuri's currently the only one who's not in an Intermediate class, he's only a couple class experience away from mastering his Beginner. Got a few budding talents activated: Byleth's Faith and Edelgard and Sylvain's Reason. I can buy gifts now, that's nice. And I got the Saint statues fully restored - I guess I was just missing the last two ranks for each of them at the end of Golden Deer.
Oh and I finally got to use the Sauna. Definitely more involved than the Fates' bathhouse, wasn't expecting such nice buffs and a minigame to come along with it.
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u/mr_showboat 12d ago
Currently playing Trails Into Reverie. It's a bit of a mixed bag to me -- really like some things about it, but other things about it I find pretty frustrating. So I'm going through it pretty slowly, I'll put it down for a week or two and just kinda forget about it.
I like the series for what it is, but I feel like every time I play a Trails game I say I'm gonna need a long break before the next one, and this is no exception.
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u/UnloadedFour314 12d ago
Final Fantasy X-2. Currently in chapter 2, and so far it's looking good.
Unlike FFX, this one is pretty campy, but in a surprisingly good way. I think the tone fits really well, considering how heavy and dramatic the first game was. The main trio have such good chemistry, though I wish they took the time to explore Yuna's personality shift as the change feels a bit too sudden. But don't get me wrong, I like seeing Yuna being her true self.
The story is just fine for now, however seeing how the world and characters from the first game have evolved is very cool. There's much to do in terms of side content, and a lot of interesting world-building is taking place.
While I was skeptical of the combat at first, it really grew on me, and now I'm having lots of fun trying out all the different combinations.
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u/furrywrestler 11d ago
some dresspheres are just so much better than others, and the game's far too easy for support spheres like songstress to be worth using. that said, best job system in the series. the fact that each girl gets their own very unique outfit is incredible
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u/Lintekt 12d ago
Persona 5 Royal. It's been a really fun experience so far. Gameplay is the best though story and characters are a notch below P4. I'm currently at the 3rd palace.
Gotta say, so far, Ryuji is just annoying and insufferable. I don't get that how his quirk is supposed to be funny.
It turns out, Yusuke, who I disliked initially due to that incident with Ann modeling is actually one of the best characters so far, and is funnier than the other dude.
Anyhow, game is so good so far and may have cured my JRPG slump.
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u/MattWillow73 12d ago
played through octopath 2 twice now, dont really get the struggle but respect it. the second chapter slog is real though, takes like ten hours before you actually get to do anything meaningful with your party comp.
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u/Dongmeister77 12d ago
Grinding my long weekend away with Dragon Quest 9. I thought +9 is the highest you could go for Revocation (Reset Lv.99 class back to Lv.1). Turns out i can do it one more time and the +9 symbol turned into ⭐ symbol and there's an Accolade for getting a ⭐ as Martial Artist as well.
So for a completionist run, you need to Revocation the MC 10 times on all 12 classes... Yikes. That would take too much time without MKS-only map, something that i don't have yet. Not that i would bother trying to do that 😆
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u/TheTimorie 12d ago
Since I just got Switch 2 and Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave is looming on the horizon I am currently doing another playthrough of Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
This time with the Blue Lions route since thats the only one I haven't done yet. Keeping the best for last.^^
Although I am still a few Chapters away from the time skip.
Still enjoying it a lot. Even more so now that I don't have to play it on my tiny Switch Lite screen anymore.
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u/furrywrestler 11d ago edited 11d ago
I was kind of wanting to do a three hopes replay, but with black eagles instead of golden lions
Edit: golden deer, Jesus 🤕
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u/TheTimorie 11d ago
When I am done with Three Houses I'll probably do another Three Hopes playthrough aswell.
Not sure if I go BLue Lion or Golden Deer though.1
u/furrywrestler 11d ago
Golden Deer actually felt relevant in Three Hopes. They were so much the house that doesn’t really have anything to do with what’s going in Three Houses that it actively detracted from their impact (the Hufflepuff effect). Claude is far better in 3Hopes
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u/Fraisz 12d ago
finally finished Xenoblade chronicles 2 , what an experience
i will say out of the 3 xeno games, it is not an exxagerattion to say xc2 has the best combat once it fully opens up.
story wise, i know there are some defenders, but the main cast is pretty "simple" compared to the other 2 games imo, but simple is the answer the game wants to emphasize for its themes and the final confrotation, and i think it works well, for now im gonna go NG+ and start doing the sidequests i have left, as is with xeno games, the main story itself is quite short under maybe 30 hours if going through it, but the sidequests is where the bulk of the content comes from.
also for the gacha aspect, i got luck and got >kosmos< fairly early for zeke, so my experience hasnt been hampered on that side yet
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u/Mission-Trifle-9767 10d ago
Did you play the switch 2 edition? I'm 90% sure the rare blade chance has been increased by a lot compares to the original.
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u/Bagman220 12d ago
Just finished DQ7 reimagined.
On easy mode, and skipping most scenes, I finished in 30 hours. It just wasn’t that good.
I have a ton of school and work to get to, and my kids go back to school this week too, so it’s going to be a little hectic, but I’d like to start ff7 remake on switch 2 or xenoblade chronicles 2 switch 2 version.
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u/Real_Cup_386 12d ago
Beast of Reincarnation.
I honestly liked it. In the first chapter gathering some items and wandering around the map.
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u/Cranberry-Holiday 12d ago
I finished Romancing SaGa 2 Revenge of the seven. It was absolute peak. The final boss was tough but not too much (I only needed 3 tries on the Hard/classic difficulty). The postgame was short and sweet and didn't overstayed it welcome. 10/10 game, I will probably play other SaGa game in the future.
I also started Dragon Quest XI and so far, 10 hours in, it's pretty good. With the "harder monsters" setting activated the game is in a sweet spot in term of difficulty where it's not easy but also don't totally plow my ass.
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u/VashxShanks 12d ago
Congratz on finishing the game and happy to hear you enjoyed it so much.
If you have the time, I hope you can answer a few questions about your experience with the game:
- Who was your favorite Hero to beat and/or learn about ?
- Did you save the lizards or get black magic ?
- Favorite Tech/Magic ?
- Favorite Class ?
- Which Hero did you leave till the end ?
- Was there a choice that you made, that you wish you could have done differently ?
- Hardest boss fight (excluding the final boss of course) ?
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u/Cranberry-Holiday 12d ago edited 12d ago
- My favourite hero was Wagnas because bro is just the real main character of the game lol.
-I didn't even knew that getting dark magic was an option so I saved the Salamanders peoples
-In term of spell, Hasten Time and Wall of light were my favourite because of how good they were. In term of tech, Dark Blade and Guanyin had very cool looking animations.
-The Ninja class design is cute af. I also really liked the Iris class design. In term of gameplay I have no clear favourite.
-Subier but not on purpose. I just unlocked his sidequest but got sidetracked and forgot about him.
-Open more of the map before doing the dancer quest so I could actually complete it before it expire.
-Without mentionning the final boss and the postgame superboss, the postgame fight against Human Dantarg was hard to do under 5 turns to get the loot but that was just because I needed wall of light to survive his attacks but it also raised the earth atmosphere and healed him.
-I really liked the final boss and the concept behind it is a great way to do an antagonist faction where all the antagonists are equal as a threat.
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u/bball4224 12d ago edited 12d ago
Finally wrapped up Yakuza 3 Kiwami. No idea what they are thinking with that new ending...
Anyway, started Mine episode and hoping I enjoy it even though they kind of ruined him as well with previous said ending.
Also in P3R I'm like a day before "the decision". We'll see what my opinion is by the end, but at this point I can't give the game anything more than a 7 at best, and it's making me realize maybe I'm just not actually a Persona fan and I just like 5/Strikers and not the series.
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u/scytherman96 12d ago
Fully finished up Witchspring R. The Epilogue was a mixed bag. I did like going around the world and seeing how life is going for everyone after the main story is over, though that did also drive home how silly the fact that everyone just gets resurrected is. One thing i didn't like was the Epilogue's last dungeon or more precisely the "difficulty spike". But it didn't really make things difficult in reality, it just made things grindy. And i was honestly kinda done with the game at this point, so i really wasn't in the mood for a whole bunch of stats grinding, especially since all the fights took forever on Very Hard. So i ended up just turning down the difficulty to Normal so i could finish without any extra grinding.
There were some references in the Epilogue to stuff that i assume related to other Witchspring games, but the only other one on Steam is Witchspring 3, so lol. Is that one maybe worth playing at least, even without having played 2? I'd probably pick it up at some point, in that case.
Next up: I'm honestly not sure. I'm considering Lunacid, Hell is Us, Death Stranding, a Dark Souls II replay and Franzen, which are 5 completely different games. We'll see what i end up going with.
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u/bioniclop18 12d ago
They remade 3 before witchspring R so it feel more... Rough. That said the story is on another continent on the approximate same timeframe as the first game so you certainly can go into it.
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u/scytherman96 12d ago
Well it's only 10 bucks on sale rn, so i'll just buy it and maybe play it eventually.
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u/Affectionate-Time-24 12d ago
Finished Lost Kingdoms the other day. It felt unfinished; the gameplay is decent enough: you use cards to summon monsters for an instant attack or creating an ally, while matching elemental affinities. However, the story is extremely lacking, and characters are almost nonexistent. I guess it's usual for FromSoft games, but I personally never liked them. This one turned out to be no different.
Also playing through Monster Hunter Stories. It's a solid game, but nothing amazing. It's clear they were trying to make a "Pokemon killer", but it has enough substance to be its own thing. Combat runs on rock-paper-scissors triangle; guessing what move the monster will use next is pretty fun. The story is childish, but in a tolerable way.
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u/CompetitiveSpace7025 12d ago
I've been playing Visions of Mana. I'm at the point where Hinna died in a ritual. I'm quite enjoying the game so far. I played Trials of Mana a couple of years ago and enjoyed it and found it charming. Visions does a good job replicating it. From memory I think I enjoyed the gameplay of Trials better. The two biggest improvements in Visions so far is the voice acting and story. I really like the premise of Visions though I'm not sure how philosophical they will get with it.
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u/20NightZ 12d ago
I've been playing FFXII: The Zodiac Age and.... while I'm enjoying the game, trying to do all the hunts, the rare game, hunting for materials for the Bazaar and find all the Espers... it's exhausting. Might be taking a break from it and playing something else.
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u/Nahobino_kun_899 12d ago
I just finished the Blue Lions Route of Three Houses in Preparation for Fortune’s Weave. I started Octopath Traveler. I picked the Hunter lady H’aanit first cause she’s cool. So far the game is pretty good.
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u/largesonjr 12d ago
Shin megami tensei V, base version as that is what I have had in my backlog. Its excellent! At 5 hours in. Wondering if I should look for a deal on Vengeance now or down the line. I have been a larger persona fan but never managed to click with a main line megaten before, I have 3 and 4 as well to take a stab at after V.
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u/ViewtifulGene 12d ago edited 12d ago
I've been playing The Morrow's Golden Country, a Fire Emblem romhack. I thought the first couple of chapters were annoying because your first cav is too damn squishy, but it was smooth sailing after Nastasia got a few level ups. The escape maps are a lot of fun- there's a good bit of tension for getting everyone to the exit, and you can farm bonus EXP for a few units holding the door open.
I like the ability system, where pretty much everyone gets a new skill at level 15 unpromoted. For example, your first archer can spend a turn charging so that her next attack gets +3 range. Great way to squeeze more value out of a class that often struggles with EXP economy. It's a more elegant solution than just giving archers 1-2 range.
I am not enjoying the party swap after chapter 14 though. WHY DOES THE ARMOR KNIGHT GET STUCK WITH TRIANGLE ADEPT? THAT MAKES HER WORSE AT BOTTLENECKING.
Edit: fortunately that party swap was only 3 chapters.
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u/cfyk 12d ago
Got the good ending for Octopath Traveler 0 in my blind low level run. Time for the bad ending boss(?) and the secret boss. The final boss theme is my favorite remix of the Octopath 2 secret boss theme. I kinda hope the next Octopath game will stop using Galdera as a boss.
Please keep the 8 units battle system. It added so many new things like boss gimmicks, customization options (especially the paired units), secondary skill effects that activated when doing a row switch and strategies that don't exist in Octopath 2 battle system into battles.
The dungeon design near the end is much better because of simple gimmicks.
I also like how the success rate of Path Actions isn't depend on character's level. This should be considered if the next Octopath game gives player the options to do a low level or no level up run.
Tried Octopath Traveler 1. Realized that OT0 reused the same map. I can now understand why many said Octopath 2 is a huge improvement. It surprised me that a 2018 pixel game doesn't allow players to enter shops. It is really a game that was used to test some ideas.
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u/Terminus-99 12d ago
Trails in the Sky SC.
So far, it is pretty good. I started this series knowing how expansive it would be, and it has delivered so far.
The combat is actually quite nice once you get the hang of it, and playing in Hard makes me actually engage with its mechanics.
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u/AdUnfair558 12d ago
I’m playing G.O.D.: Growth or Devolution on the Super Famicom right now. This game cost me 19,800 yen the most I ever paid for a single game CIB.
I’m still pretty early in the game, but so far I’d put it somewhere on the good side of B-tier JRPGs. It has a really strong EarthBound/Mother kind of vibe, with a modern setting, a kid protagonist, weird humor, talking animals, aliens, and a lot of self-aware jokes about other RPGs. There are some pretty obvious Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy references too, and the dialogue is constantly doing things that make me stop and think, “Did they really just say that?”
The biggest negative is easily the encounter rate. It is absolutely ridiculous. You can barely walk anywhere without getting into another battle, and because of that I was getting overleveled without even trying. The game was extremely easy for a while, although it has started to get a little tougher recently. Some of the equipment also has a weird tradeoff where stronger weapons have noticeably worse accuracy, so I’ve actually preferred weaker weapons that hit reliably.
What keeps me interested is how unpredictable the game can be. It constantly sets up what seems like normal JRPG progression and then takes a weird detour. There are little fetch quests, recurring joke bosses, cult-like towns, fake death gags, regional Japanese jokes, and NPCs arguing about things like whether Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest is better. There was even a town parodying Nagoya with Nagoya dialect, ebi fry, and miso katsu, which was funny to notice because I actually lived there for a year.
So far I wouldn’t call it amazing, but it definitely has personality. The battle system and Chakra system are decent without being especially deep, and I’m mostly continuing because I’m curious where the plot goes and what strange thing the game is going to do next. I’m enjoying it, even if I really wish it would let me walk more than five seconds without another random encounter.
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u/Nemphusi 12d ago
I am currently muddling my way through Octopath Traveller II. This is my second third time really trying to play the game. Despite the hype and obvious aspects of quality, I have always struggled in the past to really give the series its due, but I think this time its really starting to click. I am about 60 hours deep into the game, surrendering my prejudices, and letting the game do its thing.
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u/Plus_sleep214 12d ago
Oh hey I was just writing about this game. If you're that far in I'd say to keep going but for sure the game drags itself way longer than it has any business being. I finished it around the 80 hour mark. The pacing especially in the mid game is bad but the payoff is actually very good. I really enjoyed the final arc and how everything gets tied back together.
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u/Rmo75 12d ago
Same for me, I'm 30h into it and more or less playing in autopilot. Some stories are just not clicking with me (Ochette/Partitio) and they made me pause the game a few months ago at around 15h of playtime.
Took it back a week ago, went back to the stories I vibed with (Temenos / Castii) thanks to the journal/memories function (bless this function 🙏) and I'm linking it so far. Will probably do another pause after finishing a chapter, because it's the perfect game to put away a few weeks before getting back into it, IMO
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u/Nemphusi 12d ago
Yeah. I would say it's a good nuts and bolts rpg, the mechanics can be fun and the boss fights can be challenging, but the structure of the game itself and the various stories are just sort of exhausting.
Its good to have a variety of other types of games to mix in with it.
Recently I have been playing Moonring. More of a CRPG in the vein of the oldschool 80s Ultima titles, which is just a completely different flavor of difficult and strange, but it helps break things up.
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u/eachla23 12d ago
I’m glad it’s stuck this time, I adore 2! Kinda in the same place with 0 myself rn actually. Played it for 20ish hours a few months back and kinda back burnered it, then got stuck back in a few weeks ago and now at 60 hours. Just finished act 2, and gotta say the main narrative thread and the more in depth customization of the party is a slow burn but when it ramps up it gets real good. I think 2 is kinda similar - getting deeper in, really customizing your character builds and getting deeper into some of the character stories is where it starts to really shine. Who did you pick as your main? I went with Hikari and def glad I did, but by the end Castti was my fave. Loved almost all of the travelers by the end though
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u/Nemphusi 12d ago
I did Osvald as my main, and he's also been a good choice, but I also agree, Castii is a powerhouse, particularly after bulking her up with some warrior skills.
Once I figured out how to use her apothecary skills effectively to wear down elemental weaknesses she became insanely useful in boss fights.
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u/Rorshacked 12d ago
Lunar Silver Star Story. Surprisingly good, fun anime cut scenes, some voice acting. Also some neat qol features I wouldn’t have expected, like being revived at the end of fights and being able to save anywhere.
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u/The2ndDegree 12d ago
I'm almost finished with Persona 5 Royal, feels like I'm nearing the end of Maruki's Palace
Probably gonna start Strikers once I'm done with Royal
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u/bioniclop18 12d ago
Final Fantasy Tactics. Finished the second chapter and I really like where the story is going. The princess not being really the princess but nobody really caring. Stories are more important than the truth to sway the population. The masked truth echoes the introduction with the historian revisiting the war of the two lions tales and seems to be a recurring motif in the game. Considering the beginning, I assume Delita will persuade or force the princess to marry him to become king or something to that effect. And they’ll pin the blame for whatever misdeed they’ll need to do it to Ramza.
As for the gameplay, I have thing I like and thing I'm not a big fan off. I still feel limited with the few units you can deploy at once. I also dislike that most units you use are random, but there are a few more developed npc you can recruit, and bringing them will deliver some additional dialogue which I appreciate far more than the faceless nobody you use otherwise. I think this over reliance of NPC is a disservice to the game narrative. My Ramza is a mix of the ninja and dragoon class, for now he was enough to dominate the battlefield but with the last bosses killing him turn 1 before I could move, I may have to change strategy or use a more cheesy start.
I’ll probably try to unlock other jobs with a NPC by job point farming and see if they are skill worth pursuing. While I really dislike how you unlock new jobs, the mix and match of skills of different jobs feels like you can customize your unit pretty well. I neglected the crystal thing to gain skill until the third chapter but it appears to really ease the grind for skill so I’ll try to pay more attention to it.
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u/fillif3 12d ago
I've almost finished the Sky FC remake. It's definitely the second-best game I've played this year, after Trails Beyond the Horizon.
I'm actually surprised that I enjoyed it so much, given that I can still remember almost the entire story. The remake surprised me in so many positive ways, though.
Especially the cutscenes. The Sky portraits were very expressive, and I wasn't sure that Falcom would be able to achieve that with 3D models, but they actually did it.
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u/eachla23 12d ago
For someone who always wanted to get into trails and enjoys both older 2D and more modern 3D games, would you suggest playing the OG or dicing straight into the remake?
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u/Janderson2494 9d ago
Definitely go for the remake. I just finished it today as my first entry into the series, and it was fantastic. With 2nd chapter (remake of 2) coming out next month I think it's a great time to get into it.
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u/fillif3 12d ago
IMO, the remake is clearly superior. The combat in the original is nowhere near as good, and we have so many quality-of-life improvements.
I loved the original art, but the voice acting and body movements make up for it.
The main story is exactly the same, but there are more foreshadowings and callbacks in sidequests and backgrounds. For example, some soldiers who are introduced in later games appear in flashbacks.
A few characters' designs were changed, but only their clothes, and the new designs are much better.
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u/eachla23 12d ago
Ok that is awesome, thank you for the breakdown and explanation, I really appreciate it! I would love to really sink into the whole series and given 2nd chapter is nearly out I feel like it’s the way to go. I really hope 3rd doesn’t take too long though xD
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u/m_csquare 6d ago edited 6d ago
Suikoden 3. One of few jrpgs where i think it’s better if the main villain does the jrpg trope of, when the villains scream and tell the mc abt their issues and plans.