Does anyone else here like JRPGS?

[Sakurazaki1023]

I am quite the Dragon Quest fan.

Most JRPGs I just stay away from. But every now and then, the occasional Baten Kaitos Origins, Golden Sun, or Dragon Quest V will come along to brighten my day.

I like all my games to be lighthearted. No angsty heavy blah blah Final Fantasy crudskies. I like the JRPGs that make you feel like the story was written for the player, instead of the other way around. Case in point, my favorite Final Fantasies are III and IV.

If you prefer your JRPGs with some humor in them, try Shadow Hearts: Covenant. It has so much humor in it that the only way to take it seriously is as a parody of JRPGs. The combat system is original and the plot is so hilariously overdone it's like nothing you have ever seen(one of your party members is a gay vampire professional wrestler who talks like a he got rejected from a super hero audition and another member is Anastasia Romanov... yes, that one).

Essentially it's what you would get if you took a history book, combined it with a JRPG plot and added in the Lovecraft mythos (Lovecraft is even a minor character in the third installment of the series) and a massive amount of references and homages to classic horror and literature.

Sounds like Eternal Sonata... Except instead of Chopin, there's H.P. Lovecraft.
I've never played Eternal Sonata, for the record. It looks GROSS. It's like tri-crescendo had some Sakuraba compositions left over from Baten Kaitos and decided to make a game about them.

Lighthearted does not equal humor. That is an important distinction to make. Lighthearted games can have humor, but they also know when to take themselves seriously. In my opinion, Dragon Quest VIII did this very, very well.

Gay wrestler vampire, eh?

I prefer Baten Kaitos Origins' androgynous two-voiced magic-casting ancient deadpan snarker robot puppet that looks and moves like the lovechild of Dr. Frank N. Furter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Soul Calibur's Voldo.

And he had an amusing personality, well written lines, an interesting backstory, and some of the most kickass attacks ever. Guillo for the win.

This is by no means lighthearted. It's actually a fairly dark game, it's just lightened up with a quirky sense of humor and some interesting set pieces (and a very sarcastic protagonist). Here is a couple of trailers for Covenant and it's sequel, From The New World. The quality isn't great, but it's Youtube so you can't expect much.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Chrislt]

Only the "Tales of..." ones and the Earthbound games. Everything else depresses me with slow boring combat and/or pointless stories.

EDIT: Keep in mind that I actually LIKE some others that I didn't list here, and that I haven't played every game ever. I WANT recommendations, but be sensible.

 

[stabnex]

I know Yahtzee just made this point today, but I've made it time and time again in similar threads. I used to enjoy them a LOT. But since I got a full time job I can't devote much time to them and thus I haven't finished a JRPG in nearly two years. My first game of FFX took me 97 hours to finish! My last game of FFVII took 107 hrs before I ventured into the final battles and that probably pushed it over the 120 mark.

All in all, they're fine games, but horribly time consuming.

 

[Mass B]

the only JRPG ive played (which i liked) was star ocean 2 for ps1, and i kind of miss it. Any suggestions on a newer game (besides FF13)?

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

yup love em, and agree with teh whole thing where the haters are just the ones that are more vocal, there are plenty of lovers just we dont go snazzin off about it, rage always is more vocal than love for anything

 

[DirgeNovak]

I hate a lot of things about JRPGs (pretty much anything Yahtzee whines about every time he talks about those games), but they generally don't keep me from enjoying the games. Then again, the only JRPGs I've really played are Final Fantasies and the two Chrono games...

 

[Nazulu]

If Pokemon is considered a JRPG then I like them.

 

[Brad Shepard]

I love JRPGs, persona and final fantasy to name a few of the brands i love.

 

[comet5002]

I LOVE JRPG's. I LOVE artsy things, especially when they're integrated into video games (I think I'm one of the only people alive who REALLY liked the Saboteur), and I really like slow paced story telling games. Call me weird but I do. Tales of Symphonia is my favorite game hands down, with FFVII and FFX coming at a close second. I love games where you get a length that actually is worth the money you paid for it. It irritates me when I can beat a game in one night.

 

[Cyenwulf]

Every JRPG I have ever seen has been a horrible mess of awkwardly disjointed dialogue. That compounded by the majority of the character archetypes, and dubious art design, I honestly struggle to see what the appeal of JRPGs actually is.

Bioware's games, particularly Mass Effect (and it's sequel) have stomped all over every JRPG ever prodcued - except perhaps in the cinematics department. But then again, if I wanted to watch a movie I would've just gone to the fucking cinema.

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

Most people love them here. Don't assume we're anything like Yahtzee just because we're on the same site.

 

[Zyxx]

Yep. I love 'em. Sure, a lot of them suck, but a lot of everything sucks.
I'm also an obsessive-compulsive completionist, and many JRPGs are rich in collection and min/maxing elements - a classic moth/flame relationship.

 

[brunothepig]

I have liked the JRPG's I've played so far. (Final Fantasy XII, X-2, I think it was I and II [that I played on GBA], Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2)
Oh, I only liked X-2 for the combat lol. Combat was excellent, one of my favourite mechanics I've seen, but everything else was just awful lol. That said, I prefer WRPG's, because I feel they give a lot more freedom, which is why I play RPG's usually, that and the satisfaction of "Ding! Level up."
X-2 had the potential to be 'free-er' if I could hvae just flown to random places and explored for spheres. Say a case of, there's a sphere on the land mass, and that one to the west. Let's go. Just for a case of side quests. Give us some rewards, you know, they may reveal locations of items, how to access certain places. Whatever.
This has gotten off topic. Yeah, we're here lol.
Also, although I don't like being that guy, this thread, and variations on it, are here fairly often...

 

[CmdrGoob]

JRPGs this generation have been mediocre at best (except for Demon's Souls). Chronotrigger and FF6 are so much better than modern JRPGs it's not funny.

Have you ever wondered why that might be?

There are a lot of theories, you know. Personally, I think it's because all their "seriousness" got lost in translation when they came from Japan to here. Melodramatic fantasy games shouldn't take themselves nearly as seriously as today's do.

Look at villains, even:
FF6 had Kefka, a mad clown who destroyed the world and killed people for the lulz, as the big bad and Ultros, a weird squid thing, as a recurring irritant. The party's friendship speech just before the final battle earns them a mocking laugh and the line "You all sound like pages from a self-help book!"

FF7 had Sephiroth, an emo-fied prettyboy version of Kefka with a backstory, a six-foot sword, and a longcoat, as the big bad and the Turks, some sort of hired badasses, as recurring irritants. The party doesn't really do anything in the way of a friendship speech before the final battle, they just sorta groan and lurch forward.

FF7 is about as much of an epic tale as Neon Genesis Evangelion is a deeply philosophical one--which is to say, not one at all, despite taking itself more seriously than the majority of them.

Yeah, I know what you mean. At least JRPGs are trying different things gameplaywise, but the writing has just fallen into a rut. Far too many irritating cliche characters, so much preachy, pretentious psuedo-philosphical bullshit and so much failed melodrama that just falls flat because the characters aren't engaging. It's all so forced and unsubtle.

Chronotrigger is like a breath of fresh air because it's just simply a straightfoward tale with likeable human characters, and the emotion of the game just arises naturally from liking the characters. It doesn't try to force in "depth" with unsubtle preachy bullshit, it doesn't try to force in "emotion" with over the top forced melodrama and it doesn't try to shoehorn its characters into tired stereotypes.

 

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

a lot of people on here wish they were yahtzee, so they do the hip thing in hating jrpgs. i like jrpgs, shouldn't hate on a blanket.

 

[Devi Darkside]

I enjoy them on occasion but I have to admit I liked them a lot more in middle and high school. After Final Fantasy 10 I got bored with that whole franchise but on occasion I'm happy to find that there's plenty beyond Square Enix.

But to answer you question: Yes, but in some moderation.

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

I like JRPG's but i've thought that Final Fantasy has been going down hill for years (ever since they merged with enix) and 13 is the worst thing they've put out so far. The last few Final Fantasy games seem to be about taking away control of the game so it feels like the games playing it's self. almost like there afriad that if they let people play too much then they'll get in the way of all the lovely graphics. it's not about hating jrpgs its just that FF 13 isn't a good game. but folks are so wrappped up in the graphics or are just too loyal to a cancer ridden franchise to realize it.

I'm mainly a fan of Atlus games like nocturn and persona but i like plenty of others and in fact FF 7 was the game that really got me into RPG's in general so i don't hate on FF games because it's popular but because they're not that good anymore. prettier than ever but not good games.

 

[Kiju]

Hmn...I view it as this:

There is no such thing as a JRPG. There are only RPGs, and the ones that have a certain artistic flair and gameplay-design to them.

Wow, that's a very unique way of looking at it. It's both stupidly obvious and obviously stupid at once.

First off, the "J" stands for "Japanese". It's not just an arbitrarily-chosen letter, so saying "there are no JRPGs" is sort of like saying "there is no American food" or "there is no British literature". There are also "western" RPGs (there's no "W" because "W" takes three syllables to say).

Yeah...no shit, Sherlock. My point is that they are still RPGs that revolve around leveling up a main character and his/her allies, it's just they tend to have a different mode of play and art style, as you said. If you'll notice, not all JRPGs are menu driven, however. Some of them function like your average Western styled RPG (Tales of Symphonia, for example). And yet they are still lumped under the title of 'JRPG' simply because of the art style. Why not just say they're all RPGs?

I suppose it is a bit off topic, though. JRPGs, if you want to call them that, are all in all fairly stock and standard with their settings and plot. Of course, so are Western RPGs. So I suppose what I'm trying to point out is I don't think it's the region it comes from that matters, so much as if it's a good game or not; JRPG, Western RPG, or whatever...it doesn't matter where it came from. i.e. 'Do you enjoy RPGs?'

Perhaps I do lump things under one genre in general. I could say that, using your examples, some literature came from West Europe instead of East, or perhaps it's Mandarin Chinese cuisine. But, I'm just expressing my view, and I've said it, so I'll just stop now. (Mainly because my argument was made moot, admittedly. But, I'm a stubborn jerk, so mleh!.)