January 2025 General Game Discussion

[neogunhero]

• Don't enjoy watering your crops every day? Plant the crops that take the fewest days to fully grow and let them get irrigated by the rain. You might just have to water them one or two days near the end of the season if it was particularly dry.

We are so money focused that we could never do this haha. Our first spring season only rained one day, but then in summer it rained 3 days which was nice. As soon as we make money from selling crops, we go and spend it on more seeds to grow as many crops as possible for us at the time. We have sprinklers but they are level 1 so they aren't great at the moment. We've got a pretty good system of watering, eating, then heading to the mines for the rest of the day. I barely interact with any of the villagers besides completing the introductions mission.

Somehow we are both in the mindset that we need to make as much money as fast as possible. I'm just getting bored of our version of the grind but it's for a good cause!

 

[Zloth]

I quite loathe Final Fantasy. I've experienced quite a lot of its storytelling through completing 6 (which I hated) and playing a lot of 14 and it's exactly that, melodrama, just stuffed with it. I can't help but roll my eyes and sigh when folks talk about the deep storytelling in the series; it's utter nonsense.

No, it's fact. Your opinion doesn't enter into it. A story is deep if it goes into details exploring the characters and/or world, and these games do that. You can say you don't like it (FF8 also has plenty of depth, and I hated that game's story), but you can't deny that there's depth there.

Honestly, few RPGs get away without quite a bit of depth. Hours and hours of storytelling where you just concentrate on the present situation the entire time would be pretty hard to pull off.

 

[Johnway]

You are a person after my own heart. I'm only talking mt Stam account when I add in cost per game. I also count all dlc purchased in this. since getting steam in 2011, but not really using it till 2014, so 10 years I have just over 325 games, and at just over 1200 at last count. So a bit over 3 dollars a game but some are free, so I think it's about 3.50 per ib games I bought. Closer to 6 I'd you count games I've actually played

This year I only picked up about 10 games and some dlc for idle champions.
I have not added up total costs, but I typically buy things at 90%off. I budget 100 bucks a year to buy games. A few years I went a bit over by adding an extra 50. I splurged during the pandemic.

i didn't buy any DLC last year but i'll probably need to remember to add those to my list when it happens. i generally don't buy DLC separate as i like to play everything whilst its still installed. With such a large backlog of games i rarely spend time to go back to a game even if i wanted to. I bought Borderlands 2 GOTY update some years ago and still not played it. partly because i've completed BL2 once already and didn't want get to play the DLC. Another reminder to actually wait till a GOTY comes out.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I managed to beat ante 11, but my deck was too messy to beat ante 12. I very early got the legendary joker that copies a consumable and used that on the tarot that creates two random tarots, which worked pretty well, but I never managed to trim my deck down far enough to consistently get the hand I was trying to get. I probably should have tried to get the card that lets you remove cards instead.

I've only had the game for two days, so I don't really have a set strategy yet, but I'm starting to get more serious about editing my deck by removing, adding and changing the cards to more consistently get the hand(s) I'm specialising in. Especially at the higher antes you can't really afford to waste plays on hands that don't give you massive amounts of points.
Also, opening regular card boosters is the best way to get special editions, like foil, holographic or, most importantly, polychrome, as well as cards with seals. Since you can stack those with the enhancements you can (more easily) get from tarot cards it can make your hands a lot more valuable as well.

This requires a lot of money though, so at the start of the game I'll grab anything that lets me win blinds in a single hand, so jokers that add a bunch of chips or a large, flat modifier, as well as jokers that give more money. The main trick is then to switch those jokers out at the right time while trying not to overspend.

Interesting to hear how someone else comes to it! I think 12 is where I always got stuck on my best runs IIRC. Last few runs Ive given up after 8 because it counts as a win for unlocking the next Stake. Ive got the red deck quite far up and most others are on the second or third, the Black deck is quite hard so i think Ive only beaten the first one, theres a couple of later ones I havent really played at all, its pretty haphazard in my save.

Yea generally you have to play with what you get, but if I can swing a 2 Pair deck I usually go for it. It kind of scales well into Full House later fairly easily and it makes it simple when for planet cards because you know what youre going for. First two or three hands are always Flush for me, unless something else comes up by luck.

Ive found editing the deck is a bit flaky, half the time you end up not getting Spectral or Tarot packs and when you do its 50/50 whether you actually get the things you need so you have to wing it anyway. Even if you manage to get enough money to buy them all at every shop. At a certain stake level (I forget which) early on it often makes more sense to skip the first blind in a hand because you dont get money for remaining discards, and it sometimes guarantees a Polychrome or Negative joker in the next shop, then you start to get Eternal Jokers thrown in that you cant switch out and you have to weigh up whether you can afford to keep them forever or not. Great game!

 

[Pifanjr]

We are so money focused that we could never do this haha.

It never ceases to amaze me that people see this game about escaping the daily grind to live on a farm and decide that they cannot live without grinding to make as much money per day as possible.

Interesting to hear how someone else comes to it! I think 12 is where I always got stuck on my best runs IIRC. Last few runs Ive given up after 8 because it counts as a win for unlocking the next Stake. Ive got the red deck quite far up and most others are on the second or third, the Black deck is quite hard so i think Ive only beaten the first one, theres a couple of later ones I havent really played at all, its pretty haphazard in my save.

Yea generally you have to play with what you get, but if I can swing a 2 Pair deck I usually go for it. It kind of scales well into Full House later fairly easily and it makes it simple when for planet cards because you know what youre going for. First two or three hands are always Flush for me, unless something else comes up by luck.

Ive found editing the deck is a bit flaky, half the time you end up not getting Spectral or Tarot packs and when you do its 50/50 whether you actually get the things you need so you have to wing it anyway. Even if you manage to get enough money to buy them all at every shop. At a certain stake level (I forget which) early on it often makes more sense to skip the first blind in a hand because you dont get money for remaining discards, and it sometimes guarantees a Polychrome or Negative joker in the next shop, then you start to get Eternal Jokers thrown in that you cant switch out and you have to weigh up whether you can afford to keep them forever or not. Great game!

I've gone back to the checkered deck because I had a great run on it, but I can't manage to do it again. It takes too long to get my deck to a point where I can do anything besides flushes reliably and those simply do not get me enough points with the Jokers I'm getting.

 

[neogunhero]

It never ceases to amaze me that people see this game about escaping the daily grind to live on a farm and decide that they cannot live without grinding to make as much money per day as possible.

I can’t help it, my brain see number go up, my brain happy. I’m treating the game almost like Factorio or Satisfactory, in the way that I want to automate everything and make my money skyrocket. Or maybe a better comparison would be Minecraft, even there we were both so focused on the grind for an excessive surplus of resources that we didn’t bother to take in the relaxing elements of the game.

 

[Johnway]

On the hand held front, i'm still playing trails of Cold steel and just finished the 2nd chapter and that final boss was nothing but a slog. i spent FORTY minutes in one battle, absolutely harrowing stuff. I must be missing a beat as i absolutely struggled through that fight and it took forever to finish. But i'm all done now and we got to chapter 3 and it starts off with midterm exams and its nothing short of obnoxious. Why? i have to answer questions on fictional history and whereas persona gives you a chance to learn the material, Cold steel does not. All you can do is exam cram and speak to everyone and get as much info as possible. The annoying thing is that i can only ask 3 of the 6 groups...

Screw it, i'll take a middling score its not like its going to impact me that much.

 

[ZedClampet]

It's definitely a lot better in co-op. I would say it's one of those games you can't play on your own without missing out on the majority of the intended experience.

I played it with a friend recently and we made it to the space biome, but with checkpoints enabled. I think we died twice.

I must have missed the option for checkpoints. I definitely would have done that. When I died I accidentally trapped myself between the train and the bottom of the map and just had to stand there and watch it run out of track. I had a bot, but he wasn't much help.

 

[Pifanjr]

I must have missed the option for checkpoints. I definitely would have done that. When I died I accidentally trapped myself between the train and the bottom of the map and just had to stand there and watch it run out of track. I had a bot, but he wasn't much help.

We took the ghost wagon after getting stuck or having our tools unreachable a couple of times. We also got the milk wagon, which helps a ton with the snow, and the dynamite.
Nothing quite like blowing up an entire section of a forest or mountain, taking a sip of milk and carrying all the materials in one go while plowing through snow as if it isn't even there.

 

[ZedClampet]

We took the ghost wagon after getting stuck or having our tools unreachable a couple of times. We also got the milk wagon, which helps a ton with the snow, and the dynamite.
Nothing quite like blowing up an entire section of a forest or mountain, taking a sip of milk and carrying all the materials in one go while plowing through snow as if it isn't even there.

Without a co-op partner it was very difficult for me to go after the stuff that let you get new cars and upgrades, and I never saw either the milk wagon or the ghost wagon. This is the first I've heard of them. I'm guessing that must be randomized.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I've gone back to the checkered deck because I had a great run on it, but I can't manage to do it again. It takes too long to get my deck to a point where I can do anything besides flushes reliably and those simply do not get me enough points with the Jokers I'm getting.

Thats the beauty of 2 pair, if you get a couple of planet cards or any + multi joker that helps it out in the first ante then its fairly easy to find 2 pair with a discard or 2 and it out scores base flush. Also fairly often while your digging for another pair you end up with a Full House or 3 of a kind instead so its worth levelling those as well. If you run out of discards then play a high card and throw away the 4 extra cards least likely to have a pair in there left at the same time and hope for the best.

 

[ZedClampet]

Probably had to be there, but even though I love Atlas, this is one of the truest game memes I've ever seen. I rarely laugh out loud at a meme, but I did when I saw this one. Your NPC pirate crew is always bizarre looking.

 

[BeardyHat]

No, it's fact. Your opinion doesn't enter into it. A story is deep if it goes into details exploring the characters and/or world, and these games do that. You can say you don't like it (FF8 also has plenty of depth, and I hated that game's story), but you can't deny that there's depth there.

Honestly, few RPGs get away without quite a bit of depth. Hours and hours of storytelling where you just concentrate on the present situation the entire time would be pretty hard to pull off.

It's cliche and overwrought then. But then again, I feel that way about most game stories.

 

[ZedClampet]

It's cliche and overwrought then. But then again, I feel that way about most game stories.

@Zloth BeardyHat is exactly right. JRPG stories that I've been inflicted with have all been dreadfully painful and very hard to endure. That being said, I have mostly avoided them due to that reason and so I don't have as much experience as you do with them. If you have suggestions for good ones, I'd be more than happy to give them a try.

 

[ZedClampet]

My hopes and dreams are dead.

In Center Station Simulator, I unlocked the "Automatic Cash Machine" which is actually an automatic cash register. Unfortunately, customers still go to the register that I have to run myself, so I can't just open the store and go craft more stuff to sell. What's almost just as bad is that it takes almost a full minute for the customer to check out using the automatic register.

 

[BeardyHat]

@Zloth BeardyHat is exactly right. JRPG stories that I've been inflicted with have all been dreadfully painful and very hard to endure. That being said, I have mostly avoided them due to that reason and so I don't have as much experience as you do with them. If you have suggestions for good ones, I'd be more than happy to give them a try.

I would have previously described myself as a JRPG hater, but after reflecting back over the last couple of years, I've realized that I've actually played and enjoyed quite a few of them, though rarely completed them. I've come to the conclusion that I just hate Final Fantasy as a group of games, though I do generally regard JRPG combat as pretty boring, but I can sit through a lot of it, apparently. So here's a short list of the ones I've played and enjoyed, in no particular order

Felvidek - Just played this this year and it's not really a traditional JRPG in that it's made by Eastern Europeans and set in 15th century Slovakia. It also doesn't have random battles, something I generally dislike in the genre, but the story is decent and the characters are full of depth and interest, plus it's generally just hilarious. It's only about 6-hours, so I highly recommend it. It was one of my favorite games this year.

Dragon Quest - I've played quite a bit of Dragon Quest, including 50-hours of 8, completed 4, started and played about 10-hours of 5 and am currently working through 3 on Gameboy Color. What I generally like about Dragon Quest is that it foregoes the melodrama of Final Fantasy and tries to tell a fairly basic story and isn't constantly hitting you over the head with dialogue and cutscenes. In fact, in the earlier games, cutscenes are pretty few and generally quite short. 8 has more of them and has more characters in it, versus something like 3 where you are the Hero and then create a party around the hero of pretty much blank faced members. That said, the characters in 8 are fun and characterful, maybe a little over the top. I also very much appreciate Dragon Quests' music, sense of humor and art style. People do generally regard the stories (especially 1-3) as having quite a lot of depth and interest, but frankly, it's not something I really explore.

Persona 3 Portable - I'd like to play the other Persona games, but I feel like I need to finish this one. That said, after something like 70-80-hours, I am dead bored of the combat, which there tends to be a lot of. The best part of the game is the social stuff; you're a teenage high school student and you have a limited amount of time in a day, so you need to choose what to do with it. You're generally obligated to attend class, but you then have to choose who you're going to hang out with and where you're going to go in the intervening hours. I find the story nothing to really write home about, but the characters are pretty fun to get to know and fun to hang out with and build bonds with, which help you out in combat situations. There's definitely some generic "Anime-Stuff" early in the game, but I feel that it mellows out and goes in different directions after a dozen hours or so. This is very much a different style of JRPG if you're mostly familiar with Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest.

Yakuza - Like a Dragon - This has to be one of my favorite games in recent years. The story is not about saving the world or felling the ultimate bad guy, but instead follows (pretty much) a team of losers as they fight to investigate Yakuza and other gang dealings within their own little world. Ichiban, the protagonist, has to be one of the best characters to grace the video game world in decades; he's genuine, kind and absolutely hilarious. He's obsessed with Dragon Quest as a game series and views almost everything in his world through that lens; his bat that he beats people with? That's the heros weapon with which he uses to fell evil. The game has an absolutely dark sense of humor; I've never played a game that is just so absurdly funny to me. For example, almost every RPG has mimics, right? Well, Like a Dragon has those as well, but instead of Mimics, they're "Degenerates" who hide in safes and closets, jumping out to attack you. You beat-up "Perverts" and get attacked by the "Hungry-Hungry Homeless." Yeah, it's not exactly...sensitive, but it's extremely funny and surprises me constantly.

There's just a few suggestions. Generally I think I favor character over story, though the Dragon Quest series is more lacking in that regard, but I tend to at least enjoy the gameplay and the world building there; plus I just find the rest of the game so damn charming, it's hard to not love.

 

[Johnway]

Resident evil 2 remake action. i've unlocked the unlimited pistol with my 3rd playthrough (clocking in just over 3 hours). Will play through leon's side of the story and see where we go from there.

i still haven't beaten the game on hardcore mode, but do i really want beat the game another 4 times? i think maybe one or more hardcore runs just to unlock the achievements, but... i mean its a bit pointless. Still have the survivor stories to complete, but whether i want to play the game on hardcore mode remains to be seen. The limited saves means i need to plan my time a bit more carefully. but that unlimited knife and pistol will help me a lot.

 

[BeardyHat]

I completed my project today, which I'm pretty happy about. Took me most of the day (between it and baking bread) and it was pretty much 95% successful. Can't wait to use it a little more to play some GTA V this afternoon after I pick-up the kids from school.

"Repairing" my 15+ year old Xbox 360 Gamepad

Just wanted to make this little post, as I'm happy with the work I've done. This thing was in a terrible state after using it for a decade and a half. This thing was used fairly extensively by myself and later my kids, who caused the damage to the cable. I'm not one to toss things in the garbage...

forums.pcgamer.com

 

[Johnway]

Persona 3 Portable - I'd like to play the other Persona games, but I feel like I need to finish this one. That said, after something like 70-80-hours, I am dead bored of the combat, which there tends to be a lot of. The best part of the game is the social stuff; you're a teenage high school student and you have a limited amount of time in a day, so you need to choose what to do with it. You're generally obligated to attend class, but you then have to choose who you're going to hang out with and where you're going to go in the intervening hours. I find the story nothing to really write home about, but the characters are pretty fun to get to know and fun to hang out with and build bonds with, which help you out in combat situations. There's definitely some generic "Anime-Stuff" early in the game, but I feel that it mellows out and goes in different directions after a dozen hours or so. This is very much a different style of JRPG if you're mostly familiar with Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest.

Yakuza - Like a Dragon - This has to be one of my favorite games in recent years. The story is not about saving the world or felling the ultimate bad guy, but instead follows (pretty much) a team of losers as they fight to investigate Yakuza and other gang dealings within their own little world. Ichiban, the protagonist, has to be one of the best characters to grace the video game world in decades; he's genuine, kind and absolutely hilarious. He's obsessed with Dragon Quest as a game series and views almost everything in his world through that lens; his bat that he beats people with? That's the heros weapon with which he uses to fell evil. The game has an absolutely dark sense of humor; I've never played a game that is just so absurdly funny to me. For example, almost every RPG has mimics, right? Well, Like a Dragon has those as well, but instead of Mimics, they're "Degenerates" who hide in safes and closets, jumping out to attack you. You beat-up "Perverts" and get attacked by the "Hungry-Hungry Homeless." Yeah, it's not exactly...sensitive, but it's extremely funny and surprises me constantly.

having completed Persona 4 first, Persona 3 portable on the PSP was disappointing. mainly for technical reasons. i would probably recommend the new persona 3 but i've not played it and it does lose the critical gameplay aspect of being able to play as a female lead. i did finish it, but it was tedious and boring and was glad to see the back of it. Fun fact: i levelled up all the characters to level 99 and i beat the game when i was in Poland (i was staying at the company apartment when we still had it).

but for JRPGs, can't go wrong with the persona series or the shin megami tensei series. And since no one asked. No, i've still not gotten over the fact that i lost my 60+ hour save game file to a freak accident with the SD card. It still hurts like hell.

Yakuza - like a dragon i want to get. I'm still sitting on the fence whether to go for the standard edition or go for the complete edition. The latter DLC content doesn't see all the necessary and yet... i still can't let that go.

 

[BeardyHat]

having completed Persona 4 first, Persona 3 portable on the PSP was disappointing. mainly for technical reasons. i would probably recommend the new persona 3 but i've not played it and it does lose the critical gameplay aspect of being able to play as a female lead. i did finish it, but it was tedious and boring and was glad to see the back of it. Fun fact: i levelled up all the characters to level 99 and i beat the game when i was in Poland (i was staying at the company apartment when we still had it).

This is actually why I want to complete Persona 3 before I jump over to Persona 4; I've heard Golden is fantastic and I really do like P3P, it's just that tartarus is such a grind. I'll finish it at some point, though I think I started my save file sometime in like 2016ish, so it's been awhile...

but for JRPGs, can't go wrong with the persona series or the shin megami tensei series. And since no one asked. No, i've still not gotten over the fact that i lost my 60+ hour save game file to a freak accident with the SD card. It still hurts like hell.

This is also why I don't want to move over to Persona 3 via Steam. I have so much time in the PSP version already, I'd hate to lose all that progress and have to start over. I am still debating on 4 though; I love my Vita, but it's kind of become my wife's Heroes of Might & Magic 2 machine, so I might be inclined to play it on my Deck instead. Though, I can get it for, uh..."free" on my Vita.

 

[ZedClampet]

It's really annoying to me when people don't fix their reviews. I was glancing through some for a game the other day and came across one where the user said the game was bugged and that every time they logged in their character just started running to the left and couldn't be controlled. As luck would have it, they had comments turned on, so I hopped in and suggested that if they had a controller plugged in to disconnect it. They responded shortly afterward with, "That worked!" but they still haven't changed the review. Even if you want to leave the issue you had in the review in case someone else had the problem, you should at least add a little update to it.

 

[Zloth]

I can’t help it, my brain see number go up, my brain happy.

You're going to really enjoy playing golf!

On the hand held front, i'm still playing trails of Cold steel and just finished the 2nd chapter and that final boss was nothing but a slog. i spent FORTY minutes in one battle, absolutely harrowing stuff. I must be missing a beat as i absolutely struggled through that fight and it took forever to finish.

That's mighty long. I checked my old videos, but the big boss fights I saved only have the last few minutes recorded, so I don't remember how long they are likely to take. Make sure you're all powered up before fighting those things if you can.

Hehe.... bonding with Instructor Sara - got some funny screenshots out of that!

It's cliche and overwrought then. But then again, I feel that way about most game stories.

That I can see.

JRPGs are weird to me when it comes to target audience age. Cliche characters are easy-to-understand characters, and a lot of these games are making moral points that seem more aimed at children. Then you get lines like "stop feeling up Lady Luck!" and combat systems that take a lot of thought and planning. Enjoying those games can sometimes be eye-rolling through the childish parts to get to the fun parts.

Funnest ones for me:

Final Fantasy 7 (the original): Yeah, forget that 'kid stuff' thing here. The story is rather dark and deals with some harsh themes. The combat system is fun and sorta-turn-based. There's drama for sure, but I think it's mostly well earned.

The Last Remnant: OMG, the first half of the story is dreadful! Rush, the main character, is probably the most idiotic character I've played. The business of needing to go back and find ingredients for upgrading your weapons requires either an incredible memory or quite a few visits to the wiki pages. But I played through the game three times, because I love the combat system so much! Unfortunately, when the Playstation version of the game came out, Square de-listed the game for PC and no longer sells it.

Yakuza 0: Incredibly bonkers side quests somehow mesh with incredibly intense main story. The opening is exposition heavy, and it takes a while before they teach you how to save the game (use the phone booths), but once you understand what you're doing, this thing is great! Using fighting game mechanics for the battle system reminds me of Jade Empire.

Dragon's Dogma 1: Technically a JRPG, but it feels like its own thing. The story takes an interesting twist but mostly is just OK. It's the combat, character building, and interesting pawn system that carry the game.

Final Fantasy X: Start of the story is good. Then gets into a notoriously weak teenage romance story. Then pulls out of it and gets very interesting. The battles are good, too. It's a pretty far drop from FF7 down to here, though.

(Skipped Valkyria Chronicles. It's listed as a JRPG, but there's practically no RPG to it at all. I would call it a squad tactics game, more like a 3D XCOM with a lot of story.)

 

[ZedClampet]

You're going to really enjoy playing golf!

That's mighty long. I checked my old videos, but the big boss fights I saved only have the last few minutes recorded, so I don't remember how long they are likely to take. Make sure you're all powered up before fighting those things if you can.

Hehe.... bonding with Instructor Sara - got some funny screenshots out of that!


That I can see.

JRPGs are weird to me when it comes to target audience age. Cliche characters are easy-to-understand characters, and a lot of these games are making moral points that seem more aimed at children. Then you get lines like "stop feeling up Lady Luck!" and combat systems that take a lot of thought and planning. Enjoying those games can sometimes be eye-rolling through the childish parts to get to the fun parts.

Funnest ones for me:

Final Fantasy 7 (the original): Yeah, forget that 'kid stuff' thing here. The story is rather dark and deals with some harsh themes. The combat system is fun and sorta-turn-based. There's drama for sure, but I think it's mostly well earned.

The Last Remnant: OMG, the first half of the story is dreadful! Rush, the main character, is probably the most idiotic character I've played. The business of needing to go back and find ingredients for upgrading your weapons requires either an incredible memory or quite a few visits to the wiki pages. But I played through the game three times, because I love the combat system so much! Unfortunately, when the Playstation version of the game came out, Square de-listed the game for PC and no longer sells it.

Yakuza 0: Incredibly bonkers side quests somehow mesh with incredibly intense main story. The opening is exposition heavy, and it takes a while before they teach you how to save the game (use the phone booths), but once you understand what you're doing, this thing is great! Using fighting game mechanics for the battle system reminds me of Jade Empire.

Dragon's Dogma 1: Technically a JRPG, but it feels like its own thing. The story takes an interesting twist but mostly is just OK. It's the combat, character building, and interesting pawn system that carry the game.

Final Fantasy X: Start of the story is good. Then gets into a notoriously weak teenage romance story. Then pulls out of it and gets very interesting. The battles are good, too. It's a pretty far drop from FF7 down to here, though.

(Skipped Valkyria Chronicles. It's listed as a JRPG, but there's practically no RPG to it at all. I would call it a squad tactics game, more like a 3D XCOM with a lot of story.)

Probably just me, but regardless of where it is made, I don't consider anything a JRPG unless it has turn-based combat. In fact, I don't take where it's made into consideration. If I see characters lined up for turn-based combat, then it's a JRPG even if it's made in France, like Expedition 33.

But from my limited experience, there isn't much RPG in JRPG. From my fading memory, I wouldn't call either of the Final Fantasy games I've played, VII and XIII, RPGs.

 

[BeardyHat]

JRPGs are weird to me when it comes to target audience age. Cliche characters are easy-to-understand characters, and a lot of these games are making moral points that seem more aimed at children. Then you get lines like "stop feeling up Lady Luck!" and combat systems that take a lot of thought and planning. Enjoying those games can sometimes be eye-rolling through the childish parts to get to the fun parts.

This is actually why I felt pleasantly surprised with Persona 3. It felt like it was going in a very typical, cliche direction, but felt like things took a different turn furhter into it and it didn't do the typical anime cliche; though, I suppose it still has plenty. Aigis is quite a clear case of Born Sexy Yesterday.

Funnest ones for me:

Final Fantasy 7 (the original): Yeah, forget that 'kid stuff' thing here. The story is rather dark and deals with some harsh themes. The combat system is fun and sorta-turn-based. There's drama for sure, but I think it's mostly well earned.

The Last Remnant: OMG, the first half of the story is dreadful! Rush, the main character, is probably the most idiotic character I've played. The business of needing to go back and find ingredients for upgrading your weapons requires either an incredible memory or quite a few visits to the wiki pages. But I played through the game three times, because I love the combat system so much! Unfortunately, when the Playstation version of the game came out, Square de-listed the game for PC and no longer sells it.

Yakuza 0: Incredibly bonkers side quests somehow mesh with incredibly intense main story. The opening is exposition heavy, and it takes a while before they teach you how to save the game (use the phone booths), but once you understand what you're doing, this thing is great! Using fighting game mechanics for the battle system reminds me of Jade Empire.

Dragon's Dogma 1: Technically a JRPG, but it feels like its own thing. The story takes an interesting twist but mostly is just OK. It's the combat, character building, and interesting pawn system that carry the game.

Final Fantasy X: Start of the story is good. Then gets into a notoriously weak teenage romance story. Then pulls out of it and gets very interesting. The battles are good, too. It's a pretty far drop from FF7 down to here, though.

(Skipped Valkyria Chronicles. It's listed as a JRPG, but there's practically no RPG to it at all. I would call it a squad tactics game, more like a 3D XCOM with a lot of story.)

In spite of my dislike of the Final Fantasy series, I've actually been meaning to give 7 on PSX a go, just because it's so widely lauded. Though, that didn't pan out for my complete playthrough of 6, so...

Also, do you consider Yakuza 0 a JRPG? I don't think it really shares much lineage with them, especially the fact that you're playing a singular character (though that is also the case for DQ1) and combat isn't even remotely turn based. Same goes for Dragons Dogma, really. But again, I'm not much of an aficionado.

I actually have played a good amount of Valkyria Chronicles both on PSP and on my Steam Deck (So 1 and 2 respectively); they definitely feel more akin to a JRPG than something like Dragons Dogma or Yakuza 0. Feels like it shares a lot of DNA with Persona.

Probably just me, but regardless of where it is made, I don't consider anything a JRPG unless it has turn-based combat. In fact, I don't take where it's made into consideration. If I see characters lined up for turn-based combat, then it's a JRPG even if it's made in France, like Expedition 33.

But from my limited experience, there isn't much RPG in JRPG. From my fading memory, I wouldn't call either of the Final Fantasy games I've played, VII and XIII, RPGs.

I forgot to mention a series I've also played extensively (well, one game for like a 140 hours), which is Etrian Odyssey. Not much RPG to it, I suppose, though you technically do acquire and complete quests, but your party is all made up by yourself and there's not really a whole lot of story to speak of, but mapping dungeons and figuring out the fairly challenging combat is a good time.

 

[Johnway]

That's mighty long. I checked my old videos, but the big boss fights I saved only have the last few minutes recorded, so I don't remember how long they are likely to take. Make sure you're all powered up before fighting those things if you can.

Hehe.... bonding with Instructor Sara - got some funny screenshots out of that!

If it helps it was those 2 guard hounds at the end of chapter 2. They have 18000 health each and they're pretty much resistant to everything except one form of attack, either chopping swords or ballastics (hence why machasis and Jusis have to be in the fight). magic is mostly ineffective doing 20% damage to them. The other problem is that with only 4 characters one is always on medical/support duty and i have to hope to god that somehow the other clean up. A possible strategy would be to run away and rope them all onto the same side and then bracket them with over lapping attacks. Perhaps focussing on the one vulnerable to projectiles as Machasis breaker skill reduces defense so should speed up wearing it down.

At least in theory, the bosses strong defenses and being able to do serious damage makes the whole thing bloody annoying.

In spite of my dislike of the Final Fantasy series, I've actually been meaning to give 7 on PSX a go, just because it's so widely lauded. Though, that didn't pan out for my complete playthrough of 6, so...

perhaps the FF7 remake might be a better option? i haven't played FF7 myself and i'm more inclined to play the remake so that its more playable.

JRPGs are weird to me when it comes to target audience age. Cliche characters are easy-to-understand characters, and a lot of these games are making moral points that seem more aimed at children. Then you get lines like "stop feeling up Lady Luck!" and combat systems that take a lot of thought and planning. Enjoying those games can sometimes be eye-rolling through the childish parts to get to the fun parts.

That would probably be the anime route i guess. The "trying to be indepth but not so complex that people can't understand you". Valkyria chronicles pushed my buttons really badly when it came to that. Saturday morning cartoon villains with a "war is hell" slant but falls flat on its face. its more evil empire tries to take over swiss-france to win a war against the republic.