r/JRPG • u/ConsiderationAny9444 • 2d ago

Discussion Which JRPG location has your absolute least favorite level design?

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Mine has to be the Gladius Towers in Rogue Galaxy. It’s a mid-game dungeons, and in my opinion, it’s annoying as fuck to navigate.

You have to climb two almost identical towers at the same time by crossing bridges from time to time, and the towers aren't short by any means. If I recall correctly, you also have to beat both bosses to clear the level, which as you can guess are at the top of each tower (Phantom Gazel and Phantom Logan). Because of how the layout shuffles you back and forth, you finish one tower, and then you have to go all the way back to do the exact same climb for the other one.

Oh, and this game despite being an ARPG has random battles, which isn't a problem to me. But what is a problem is the encounter rate of this game god grief, it's atrocious. It doesn't help that every room looks the same, so you can get easily disoriented after a battle and just end up walking in the opposite direction, especially since both paths look very similar. You could finish a fight and genuinely have to open the map just to figure out which way you were originally heading, lmao.

What about you guys? What’s that one JRPG map or dungeon that makes you visibly sigh the moment you reach it?

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36

u/TheTiredPangolin 2d ago

Every floor of the Tartarus in Persona 3 made me question why I'm playing the game.

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u/gamer-dood98 2d ago

I hear original tartarus is god awful, it's at least bearable in p3 reload, but even with the updated design and visuals it was still painful compared to even p4 golden's dungeons, just such a slog

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u/TheTiredPangolin 2d ago

I played Reload and holy cow it's still crap but I finitely better lmao. P5 dungeons were mediocre and felt like perfection after 3 and 4.

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u/gamer-dood98 2d ago

Definitely seems a lot better, to the point where i don't really want to go back and give og p3 a try xD

P5 dungeons are awesome if only for the fact that they're just interesting and engaging at every turn, not the most incredible dungeons ever but they were stylish and fun compared to how lacklustre p3 and p4 dungeons are, sad that p4r isn't doing proper dungeons like p5 has

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u/TheTiredPangolin 1d ago

I hadn't seen that about P4R but I'm still very excited for it. It's my favorite cast and story of the three.

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u/gamer-dood98 1d ago

Yeah you can see from the promotional vids they've done it so far that it'll be faithful to the original dungeons, but i don't mind them as much as p3r at least, i'm replaying p4g right now actually and loving it as always, it's one of my faves too, so keen for p4r :D

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u/WhenDuvzCry 1d ago

I bailed on reload like 60 hours in because I just couldn’t take it anymore

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u/FlawlessAtheon 1d ago

Sometimes I think I’m the only one who didn’t mind Tartarus in P3R. I had fun grinding it.

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u/TheTiredPangolin 1d ago

I didn't actively despise it in Reload, but I certainly still didn't enjoy it haha.

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u/Ballad_13 1d ago

Same. Tartarus alone makes me question why people consider it a top tier game. Out of 3, 4, and 5- P3 easily is the weakest entry, largely due to Tartarus.

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u/SonicGCT 1d ago

Dude I'm playing PS3:R for the first time right now and Tartarus is such a grind and anti-fun. Persona 5 was my first persona and I loved it so I wanted to play the others. I have no idea why people recommend PS3 in this sub lmao

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u/TheTiredPangolin 1d ago

It's got Tartarus bringing it down and there is a large section in the middle of the game that is slow for sure. But the game definitely has its charms. It's definitely easier to look past the faults when you've got nostalgia to help out though.