Any good JRPGs on the PC?

[Jandau]

Several years ago I developed a special place in my heart for JRPGs while playing FF9. It continued through FF8 (until the terrible story turned me away) and I even managed to get my hands on some old ones for older consoles (Romancing Sa-ga 3 and Seiken Densetsu 3 come to mind). Also, I loved the Golden Sun games on GBA.

It's been a while since I played a JRPG, and the biggest issue I'm facing is the fact that I'm currently limited to my PC. I managed to get a used copy of FF7, but the character models make playing the game painful to me. Ironically, I have no problems looking at pixelated sprites in older games...

Are there any good JRPGs out there for the PC? Even half-arsed console ports might be sufficient.

Also, there's a slight chance I might be able to con a friend out of an old PSX, so anything on that platform I should keep my eyes open for? Aside from the Final Fantasy games, that is...

 

[Jandau]

I'm aware of PC's emulation properties, that's how I got to play the old console games. I'm always a bit reluctant about emulation PSX games since they tend to look and sound a lot worse than on the actual console, hence my attempts so secure an old PSX.

Thank you for the list, gives me a decent start

 

[AuntyEthel]

Try Grandia 2 if you can find it. Was officially released onto the PC a few years ago. It has a great battling and levelling up system, and though it can be a bit heavy going, it should be pretty cheap if you can pick it up somewhere.

 

[NovaStalker]

Ys: The Oath in Felghana

Japanese-only release but there's an English fan patch which comes with most torrents (buying it is impossible).

Of course the PC can always be used as a SNES/PSX/Genesis/Saturn emulator...

For PSX JRPGs there are four essential non-FFs (Valkyrie Profile, Saga Frontier 2, Xenogears, Vagrant Story) and several very good ones (Legend of Mana, Chrono Cross, Threads of Fate, Suikoden II, Star Ocean, Persona 2...)

Suikoden II should really be in your list of essentials. Yay for someone else who knows how utterly fantastic Vangrant Story was however.

 

[not a zaar]

Why PC? Why not go to the source? If you want jRPGs, get a PS2, that's where they're at. The PC is mostly bereft of jRPGs, thank God.

 

[-Seraph-]

Yeah I agree, they do tend to look & sound like shit most of the time. Plus you don't get to sit on a nice comfy couch. ^_^

hmm...I don't get that problem with my PSXE emulator. It all depends on your configuration that you set up for it, my games actually looks on par or better when I play. i am sure by now too people have good enough comps to run them too.

Oh and if your patient, last remnant will hit PC's either lat spring/early summer or somewhere along that line. I really wish there were more JRPG's o the PC, I am tired of shooters and RTS's. I have enough shooter games, I hate RTS's, and aside from guild wars, MMO's suck (for me that is). Thank god squenix is very friendly to us PSP owners

 

[Woe Is You]

Septerra Core, Final Fantasies VII and VIII were released on PC, most of the Ys games have PC ports too. In general, Japanese don't do PC gaming, so PC JRPGs are usually either western, and/or homebrew titles.

I'm aware of PC's emulation properties, that's how I got to play the old console games. I'm always a bit reluctant about emulation PSX games since they tend to look and sound a lot worse than on the actual console, hence my attempts so secure an old PSX.

My experience is that aside from 2D games, the filters make the games look better. Not like you can't disable the filters if you want to have experience it more like the real thing.

 

[Jandau]

Well, thanks to a local video store, their huge repository of games and a very kind owner, I've secured copies of Xenogears and Vagrant Story for what amounts to an indefinite period. Then, it was off to the Internet's somewhat shady areas to secure emulation software. Fast forward one hour of tweaking my ePSXe plugins and...

Vagrant Story is cool. The JRPG version of Diablo. The story seems interesting and the combat system is varied to say the least. There is just one issue: the game is BRUTAL! The combo attack system is fairly unforgiving to mistakes. It's like a constant quick-time event, but almost every weapon/attack combination is timed differently, so switching weapons means you need to get used to entirely new timings. And you get a split second to get it right. And the split second keeps getting shorter with each subsequent attack...

Add to this the fact that 2 hours into the game enemies are regularly almost immune to damage unless I hit them with a weapon attuned to their racial type. The only way to attune a weapon is to hit an enemy of a certain type. And when one type of attunement rises, most of the others drop. So I guess I'm supposed to carry one weapon for every type of baddie, and that's before I get into the elemental properties....

Add to this a deceptively simple crafting system and a very cramped inventory. The game's great, but I can see it'll take a lot of chamomile tea to calm my nerves when I get back in there...

Getting ready to fire up Xenogears...

 

[Mortified Penguin]

I don't understand the point of asking about JRPGs on the PC. As another poster said, PCs are an unpopular gaming medium in Japan largely thanks to a strong console market there. Emulator-wise however, pSX (that's how the name is spelt) is brilliant. It doesn't need any configuation with plug-ins and it emulates perfectly. As with all emulators, all you need is a bios and a game.

 

[Mstrswrd]

Square is releasing "The Last Remnant" for PC. If you have a good gaming PC, then any technical issues the XBOX 360 version had will probably be non-existant. Meaning it will be even more awesome then it already is.

 

[Jandau]

I don't understand the point of asking about JRPGs on the PC. As another poster said, PCs are an unpopular gaming medium in Japan largely thanks to a strong console market there. Emulator-wise however, pSX (that's how the name is spelt) is brilliant. It doesn't need any configuation with plug-ins and it emulates perfectly. As with all emulators, all you need is a bios and a game.

Well, I'm asking about them on the PC due to my lack of funds to afford a current gen console. Older stuff I can emulate, hence my dipping into the old PSX titles. I'll give the pSX emulator a whirl, can't hurt if its that easy to set up.

 

[geldonyetich]

Square is releasing "The Last Remnant" for PC. If you have a good gaming PC, then any technical issues the XBOX 360 version had will probably be non-existant. Meaning it will be even more awesome then it already is.

This is cool to know, especially since I haven't dumped any money on the console version yet.

Final Fantasy 7 and 8 also came out on the PC as well, although they're somewhat dated. Then there's Final Fantasy XI, which is a MMORPG.

I'm sure you can find an infinite number of flash games and ridiculous parodies (such as Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=11487701]). JRPGs aren't that hard to find on the PC, thanks in part to the RPG Maker [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rpg_Maker] series.