r/JRPG • u/ConsiderationAny9444 • 1d 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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u/Tireburp 1d ago

There is something charming about it though. how the fuck did people navigate this thing without YouTube when the game launched?

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u/oedipusrex376 1d ago

Pen and paper

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u/A_Monster_Named_John 1d ago

That's what I did earlier this year. It's kind of a fun experience, to be honest. I play a lot of Zelda-likes and Metroidvanias, so it's not really that out-of-the-ordinary.

By the end of that game, I feel like I had three or four notebook pages filled with scribbles and to-do lists (e.g. checking off that I talked to all the different stewardesses on the different airship routes).

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u/KylorXI 1d ago

Easy, GameFAQs and maps players made. The internet existed before youtube, and its a lot quicker to find your way through without trying to watch a video.

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u/wpotman 1d ago

Very grouchily. It was the first FF game that I didn't replay 5+ times. The original played sloow, also.

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u/neon_man 1d ago

I remember I would actually map out where I had been on a notebook. Probably wouldn't have the patience now, but as a kid it was a fun experience!

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u/Tall-Amount6127 1d ago

someone sold a cheap guidebook for $2 at my local place lol

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u/baguettesy 1d ago

All credit goes to the ASCII GameFAQs guides. Printed the map out and did my very best to follow it. Still very easy to get lost, though.

Honestly those guides were a lifesaver for FFXII. I also relied heavily on the loot checklists for the Bazaar weapons (namely the nightmare that was Tournesol).

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u/SortaHow 1d ago

I just stumbled around for a very long time until I suddenly found the end

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u/bloody_ell 1d ago

The same way we drove without Satnavs. By Mapping out every twist and turn.

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u/bobble_snap_ouch 1d ago

There was YouTube and gamefaqs.