Final Fantasy IX can get pretty dark if you look past the cartoon-ish art style to the meat of the story. It's also pretty amazing.
They aren't very but the Tales series has a dash of darkness(no, not their elemental attacks) thrown in here and there. Tales of the Abyss in particular is one of the darker titles in the series.
Then there's the obvious Shin Megami Tensei candidates.
Earthbound... It's dark, deep, and mildly hallucinogenic.
MASSIVE end game spoiler Example:
For the final boss fight you become a robot so you can travel back in time and abort the fetus of your enemy.
Also Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross are both really dark, One is about living in a reality in which you died as a child.
Well, for the other here's another massive end game spoiler alert:
You do die.
And if you couldn't read either of those, then let me just say that I'm a survival horror junkie, I have a good concept of what's mature. All of these games are wrapped up in cute Japanese-culture bows that look adorable, but belie the dark undertone going on.
I would equate their tone with that of Neon Genesis Evangelion; Grisly at times, but laced with cuteness and comedy that create this odd-but-great counter balance, but not in such a way as to distract from their significant weight.
Now i know a lot of escapists hate Jrpgs , so for added discussion value , if there was more dark/mature jrpgs , would you be more inclined to play them ? I'm sure there is a market for this . Please tell me i'm not alone in thinking this .
You mentioned Xenosaga, but have you ever played the original Xenogears?
There's plenty of blood in the cut scenes (a hallway covered in it at one point), the the main plot is very dark, the main villains are crazy dark, and some of the scenes are downright disturbing. The graphics are dated, but the story more than makes up for them.
If you've played all three Xenosaga games, but not Xenogears, then you owe it to yourself to play Xenogears, if only to get the other half of the story.
That is merely a theory that was disproved by the creators, the fetus was not intended (Still a great theory)
During this battle, players have been able to distinguish Giygas' shape as the battle progresses, and Giygas gets weakened more. Players have been able to distinguish the shape of Giygas as a human fetus.However this theory has been disproven.
I don't think it has, or at least a google search just brought up someone saying "no it isn't true", and unless it's the creator who said it (which at the moment I'm seeing a no comment, which leads me to believe it is true more than anything else, because if it's not you're going to say something, and you know he's been asked) then I'm not buying it.
It just makes too much sense based on how everything in those final scenes are laid out. Maybe if Ness' face didn't pop out of a giant
cervix
in addition to the shadow's shape and the plot weren't structured in such a way for that to make perfect sense (as I was noticing on a recent playthrough) then maybe I'd be more inclined to believe you.
That is merely a theory that was disproved by the creators, the fetus was not intended (Still a great theory)
During this battle, players have been able to distinguish Giygas' shape as the battle progresses, and Giygas gets weakened more. Players have been able to distinguish the shape of Giygas as a human fetus.However this theory has been disproven.
I don't think it has, or at least a google search just brought up someone saying "no it isn't true", and unless it's the creator who said it (which at the moment I'm seeing a no comment, which leads me to believe it is true more than anything else, because if it's not you're going to say something, and you know he's been asked) then I'm not buying it.
It just makes too much sense based on how everything in those final scenes are laid out. Maybe if Ness' face didn't pop out of a giant
cervix
in addition to the shadow's shape and the plot weren't structured in such a way for that to make perfect sense (as I was noticing on a recent playthrough) then maybe I'd be more inclined to believe you.
There is a persistent theory that Giygas is a fetus when encountered in the Cave of the Past that gained support by the fact that Ness traveled back in time to face Giygas and that one of the final undulations of Giygas's background during the battle makes the image appear to form the outline of a baby. However, the theory has been almost universally discarded due to Shigesato Itoi's explanation on the creation of Giygas and that the image is simply a coincidence.
See, I saw that too and went from there looking into what he said about the creation (based off of an early film about murder, specifically about the murder of a woman after sex [not rape]), but I still don't feel like that's conclusive enough to explain away a lot of the imagery, parts of it even working in it's favor for the sexual undertone.
Sadly we'll likely never know unless one of us should chance upon Itoi.
Though I shouldn't say sadly, makes me want to play the game again just to see! The joys of true art and it's many interpretations! You can't get interesting conclusions like that from a Call of Duty, that's for sure.
Xenoblade Chronicles has been mentioned before but it needs to be mentioned again. An early cutscene practically punches you in the soul for daring to think this is an ordinary JRPG.
Resonance of Fate too deserves another mention, especially when you realise the heroes barely aren't actually heroes and, well, the context for the opening movie.....
There's plenty of Mature JRPGs. It's just your definition of mature is inaccurate. You're painting "mature" as a label for grim, moody, limited colour palette, blood, gore, etc. as the defining traits. A far more accurate term for that is "emo".
Plenty of them are dark thematically with the number of apocalypses happening, but rarely dwell on it overmuch or focus on the gory bits. Even FFT is sparing with its shots of blood when people are killed in cutscenes. If that's really what you're looking for... maybe go watch Berserk?
Breath of Fire 3 has plenty of inferred stuff. The first boss is very durable and requires multiple phases to go down, and once it's dead you find the reason why: it was protecting its children from you. Its children who had already died of starvation (this takes place during a drought). A bit later on a mutant asks you to help it commit suicide upon realizing that its creation was an accident. One of your party members loses control of his rage-monster powers and paints a whole town red (a town of gangsters and drug dealers, but still). Oh, and also the world used to be much bigger until a war turned most of it into desert, only preserved by the efforts of a Goddess who turns out to be evil after all.
Try Koudelka on the playstation. The setting is really dark. A witch a priest and an American adventurer in a haunted castle. Some of the conversations are brilliant, talkeing about faith, discrimination etc.
Vagrant story is amazing on the playstation. Sqeenix should ditch the played out final fantasy and relaunch this. It was a work of genius.
Lost Odyssey was mature in a bleak, emo, bad goth poetry sort of way. I got bored on the 4th disc though and never finished it. Too much emphasis on 2 dimensional children with terrible voice acting.
I'll agree with others and recommend Lost Odyssey.
I remember playing it a few years back, had a few beers and was reading one of those particularly sad back stories. And before I knew it, out of nowhere, a sob escaped my lips. I quickly got myself under control. But till this day, I've still not been able to explain that MANLY sob. MEN just don't do that.
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