Recommend an MMORPG or JRPG.

[Coffeejack]

Good day.

Two genres I have never touched with a pikestaff up to this moment in time have been JRPGs and MMORPGs. They have both looked too tedious to get into before now. Each example I look at seems to be stunted by bad writing and unappealing combat systems, putting me right off them.

Can anyone recommend a JRPG or MMORPG out there that isn't like the others? Perhaps a JRPG that isn't held back by paraphilia, or an MMORPG that rewards exploration and co-operation?

I have had my eye on Guild Wars 2 for a while now because of its eye-catching screenshots and accolades. People say it's sufficiently different to stand out as a "game-changer" in its class, or to herald the death of World of Warcraft. Where should I begin my first foray into JRPGs or MMORPGs? I value intelligent and funny writing (on Dragon Age: Origins' level), exploration, co-operation and good combat systems, a good community and appealing visuals.

An example of what would be unacceptable:

Spoiler

EDIT: I must say that I'm pretty overwhelmed by the response here. I want you to know that I appreciate the suggestions you've given me, but I'm going to have to start narrowing the list down a bit - I'm downloading The Old Republic to try out as an MMORPG, and any suggestions for a JRPG will have to be for the PC. I really should have specified at the beginning, but the only platforms I own are a PC and PSP, and out of those two, I only really use the PC for gaming.

I'm investigating more JRPG options at the moment, specifically ones with open worlds and real-time combat. Preferably something that doesn't look too...improbable and wacky, like a lot of JRPGs and animes tend to do, if you know what I mean. Something that doesn't have overly-stylised characters, hairstyles, swords and such. Something that looks a bit more...realistic than your average JRPG.

EDIT #2: Thank you again for all of your suggestions. I think I may stumble upon a JRPG that I find myself enjoying some day in the future, but for now it does not seem to be gripping me as a genre. I will keep looking out there and monitoring this thread for the foreseeable future, though, so newcomers can feel free to add any suggestions of their own. Cheers!

 

[Baralak]

You may like Tales of Graces f, on PS3. It's story is, at the core,saving the world while learning the value of friendship, but I really enjoyed it. Final Fantasy XII on PS2 is a really political story, and is also really good. Xenosaga I honestly can't recommend because the combat system literally puts me to sleep. I mean, there's turn based, then there's Xenosaga turn based.

Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii is pretty good. I couldn't get into the combat, but it's pretty similar to Dragon Age: Origins, in that your characters auto attack while you select special attacks to use, with a wonderfully unique world (the entire world is actually 2 giant, eternally battling gods)and a really good story.

I'd also recommend Shadow Hearts, and Shadow Hearts: Covenant. It's been a long time since I played them, but the most "out there" I recall is a talking wolf. I'd recommend Covenant over "From the New World" which is a lot goofier.

Also, Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, is a turn based, jRPG-styled game, where you're a new group, who follow and help the Fellowship. It's on PS2, Xbox and Gamecube.

Chrono Trigger, and it's sequel, Chrono Cross, while not explicitly related (until the end, but you don't need to have played CT to get CC, you'll just understand a few more references, I played CC first) are really good, with CT dealing with time travel, and CC dealing with parallel worlds.

Also, earlier Final Fantasy titles. I'd personally recommend looking at 4 through 10.

4 is a personal favorite, dealing with the Dark Knight Cecil, as he becomes a Paladin, and fighting against the evil empire he once stood for. 5 is more lighthearted, dealing with a group of 4 people saving the world from an ancient evil by destroying the elemental crystals that held the world in balance. 6 is a bigger story, about a rebel group fighting against an evil empire, while said empire deals with the insane jester Kefka, who wants to become a god. 7 is rather similar, when described so simply, but is so different. It's a bit overrated, because of it's reputation, but it's still one of the best games I've ever played. 8 is about a man coming out of his shell at a military academy, and falling in love while on a mission. I also really enjoyed the story, but the combat was a step back from 7's, which was a more refined version of 6's. 9 was a complete throwback to the earlier fantasy titles of 1-5, as opposed to the more industrial, modern-ish worlds of 7 and 8. X is about a sports star from a futuristic world being devoured by a monster called "Sin" and being transported to a fantasy world full of swordsman and summoners, where technology is banned by Yu Yevon, the largest religion, while learning that something similar may have happened to his father, who abandoned him.

 

[shrekfan246]

Dark Souls is technically a JRPG, though it plays like an Action-RPG and has a very minimalistic story.

Gee, I'm not really sure where the best place to dip your feet into the JRPG morass would be. For (relatively) uncomplicated ones, you could look through any Final Fantasy game between VI-XII (XI is an MMO, I think it's still alive on the PC but I've never played it myself). You might like XIII as well, especially since you have no experience with the franchise beforehand. My personal recommendations are VII, IX, and XII.

If you're not too put-off by anime cliches or looks, you could always check out either the Tales of franchise or Shin Megami Tensei. My personal recommendations for starting points would be Tales of the Abyss (for the PS2 or Nintendo 3DS) and Persona 4/Persona 4 Golden (for the PS2 and PS Vita, respectively), but those are also somewhat of high points for their respective franchises.

EDIT: The Tales games have the same "parallel box universe" thing for combat that a lot of JRPGs do, but the combat itself is fast-paced and more like an action game, while the majority of the Shin Megami Tensei games, including the Persona franchise, use turn-based combat.

Resonance of Fate (Xbox 360 or PS3) is a non-typical JRPG in the way that the actual battle system plays out, and the setting is very interesting, a sort of future-steampunk type thing. Pretty steep learning curve, though.

Also on the PS2 is Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, which are Action-JRPGs with Disney characters and worlds, and Final Fantasy characters.

For the Nintendo DS, there's The World Ends With You, which had a very odd combat system, and I won't say any more.

The ever-popular Pokemon franchise is also technically a JRPG, though if you haven't played any of those by now I'm not sure if you'd find the charm in them.

More Action-JRPGs with an interesting premise of a "game within a game", there's the .hack and .hack//G.U. games for the PS2. I don't believe G.U. is connected to the originals in story, and generally I think they're an improvement all across the board.

Chrono Trigger, originally released on the SNES and re-released on practically everything else by now, and Chrono Cross for the Playstation (it's on the PSN, I believe). They're both typically lauded by people who are into JRPGs.

As far as MMOs go, World of Warcraft is probably the most solid hotkey-based MMO you'll find, but it's a massive pain if you don't already know a few people when you start playing. Other than that, I haven't really played many MMOs.

Guild Wars 2 is generally regarded as "pretty fun, but gets boring quickly" from what I've heard from people who played it, and most of the other fantasy MMOs are just not as tight as WoW.

Star Trek Online is fun for me as a fan of both Star Trek and the old Starfleet Command PC games, and it's definitely not a "typical" MMO experience, but the amount of "end-game" content was pretty limited when I was playing last. It is free-to-play, though.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well as far as MMO's go:
- Tera, has a great hack&slashy combat and awesome art but everything else is repetitive as hell, you will shot yourself within a month of playing that, possibly with your pants down

- World of Warcraft, really old lock on and grind forever combat but it comes with some actual story, but the story telling is worse then any non MMO game, and you will end up spending a fortune on it

- Guild Wars 2, is the middle child there, combat is spanked up from the old stuff but it still relies mostly on locking targets, and they offer a bunch of different gameplay swaps that will mix things up, sadly the story is oddly put together so even if you manage to follow it things will make little sense

- SW:The Old Republic, gameplay is identical to WoW, and the story is KOTOR intermixed with regular MMO stuff ("collect 100 bear jedi asses"), and by story I mean lots of Bioware drama but nothing of importance seems to actually happen

 

[jebara]

Get Persona 4 and Dark Souls.
Those are the two that matter.

 

[Arafiro]

Yea, get Persona 4, that game is fucking great.
Grandia 1 & 2 are also both amazing, with frankly the best JRPG battle system of any title. To add to that, the stories are really well written and the soundtrack is flawless.
However, people seem to forget the Grandia titles which is a shame.

 

[thesilentman]

Get Persona 4 and Dark Souls.
Those are the two that matter.

There we go; I think we can call the /thread here.

I'll add Chrono Trigger and Demons' Souls (the precursor to Dark Souls) on that list.

I can't recommend any MMORPGs as the only MMO I play nowadays is Realm of the Mad God. It's a free to play MMO bullet hell game. If you're interested, I'd say check it out.

 

[Remerik]

I wouldnt recommend GW2, its just the same old mmo as all the others even though it claims to be different, but it does the same thing but in a different skin and i got bored out of my mind after 2 months. I recommend TSW caus its a really fresh and unique game, there really isnt anything like it on the market. The story is amaaaazing and the storytelling is next level. The immersion is the best part of the game imo. The combat on its surface may be the same as say wow or something like that but the core of the combat is also something new and fresh where you get to pick 7 passive skills and 7 actives out of some 520 ones and you arnt locked in to some class or role which is something that i really enjoy. And the whole game all in all requires some brains which is also something new compared to other mmos.

 

[Baralak]

Yea, get Persona 4, that game is fucking great.
Grandia 1 & 2 are also both amazing, with frankly the best JRPG battle system of any title. To add to that, the stories are really well written and the soundtrack is flawless.
However, people seem to forget the Grandia titles which is a shame.

Yeah, Grandia's pretty awesome. I loved 2, but I can't get into 1.

 

[Sixcess]

I value intelligent and funny writing (on Dragon Age: Origins' level), exploration, co-operation and good combat systems, a good community and appealing visuals.

If you like DA:O's writing then the obvious recomendation is The Old Republic. The gameplay is solid and the visuals are well made, if a little unadventurous. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as a good example of what an MMO can be - because quite frankly it's not - but it's not a bad game and would be a gentle intro to MMOs, in that it has a stronger than average story (8 of them in fact, one for each class) and while there is opportunities to group it is never essential to do so to progress or see the important stuff.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I'd stick to JRPGs for now. MMOs are still waiting for a game changer. WoW was the last one to have any real impact and still has the best feature depth. GW2 is more kinetic, but has the depth of a wading pool. TSW has an intriguing setting, but is wracked by tedium and bad design. TOR connects you to your character well, but is painfully anachronistic. And it goes on and on and on. If you don't already have a measure of affection for the genre, none of the current offerings are likely to change your mind.

 

[scorptatious]

Final Fantasy IX is my personal favorite JRPG. It has an awesome story, great characters, a neat battle system that makes it so that you can only learn certain abilities by using certain equipment and permanently learning it by earning enough ability points while wearing it. So it sorta discourages players from immediately going for the next best set of equipment and instead focus on earning an ability that could become useful in the long run.

I'd also recommend:

Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy VII
Xenoblade Chronicles
The Last Story
Chrono Trigger (preferably the DS version, of course that's just me)
Demon's Souls
Dark Souls

 

[Exius Xavarus]

JRPG:

Golden Sun - Nintendo Gameboy Advance
Golden Sun: The Lost Age - Nintendo Gameboy Advance
Tales of Symphonia - Nintendo Gamecube/Sony PlayStation 2(Japan only)
Tales of Destiny - Sony PlayStation/Sony PlayStation 2(Japan only)
Tales of Vesperia - Microsoft Xbox 360/Sony PlayStation 3(Japan only)
Tales of the Abyss - Sony PlayStation 2/Nintendo 3DS
Tales of Graces f - Sony PlayStation 3/Nintendo Wii(Japan only, does not include f chapter)
The Last Story - Nintendo Wii
Demon's Souls - Sony PlayStation 3
Dark Souls - Sony PlayStation 3/Microsoft Xbox 360
Mugen Souls - Sony PlayStation 3
Xenoblade Chronicles - Nintendo Wii
Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht - Sony PlayStation 2
Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse - Sony PlayStation 2
Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra - Sony PlayStation 2
Final Fantasy IX - Sony PlayStation
Final Fantasy X - Sony PlayStation 2
Final Fantasy XII - Sony PlayStation 2
White Knight Chronicles - Sony PlayStation 3
White Knight Chronicles II - Sony PlayStation 3(includes remastered copy of original White Knight Chronicles)
Resonance of Fate - Sony PlayStation 3/Microsoft Xbox 360
Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana - Sony PlayStation 2
Atelier Iris 2: Azoth of Destiny - Sony PlayStation 2
Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm - Sony PlayStation 2
Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland - Sony PlayStation 3
Atelier Totori: Adventurer of Arland - Sony PlayStation 3
Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland - Sony PlayStation 3
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona - Sony PlayStation (2/3/Portable/Vita), Microsoft Xbox 360
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey - Nintendo DS
Star Ocean: First Departure - Sony PlayStation Portable
Star Ocean: Second Story - Sony PlayStation/Sony PlayStation Portable(renamed to Second Evolution)
Star Ocean: Blue Sphere - Nintendo Gameboy Color
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time - Sony PlayStation 2
Star Ocean: The Last Hope International - Sony PlayStation 3/Microsoft Xbox 360(does not include International content)
Chrono Trigger - Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Sony PlayStation/Nintendo DS/Nintendo Wii(Virtual Console)/Sony PlayStation 3(Sony Entertainment Network)/iOS/Android

I've played lots, lots more, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

MMORPG:

ConquerOnline
Guild Wars
Guild Wars 2
Aion: Tower of Eternity
Heroes of Three Kingdoms

 

[Scarim Coral]

MMORPG- Guild Wars 2

JRPG- Xenbolade Chronicles

Both games took a new and interesting twist to the cliches to those genres.

 

[dimensional]

There have not been many great JRPGS this gen imo but Xenoblade Chronicles and the Last Story are two of the best JRPGS ever imo both for the Wii and in Xenoblades case I would say one of the best games ever.

Last Odyssey for the 360 is good but is more traditional.The top 3 JRPGS ever imo are:-

FFVII
Xenoblade Chronicles
Persona 4

As for MMorpgs I have no idea I dont play them much I have tried WOW Guild wars and Warhammer none kept me around for long.

 

[sanquin]

Guild Wars 2 isn't even as good as WoW, gameplay wise. It certainly isn't the gameplay revolution it claimed to be.

MMORPG as a genre is dead, a failed experiment.

GW2 never claimed to be the next gameplay revolution. Only the playerbase claimed it to be. All GW2 wants to do is bring an AAA mmorpg to the market that isn't a copy of WoW. And it succeeded in that.

Also, mmorpg is not 'an experiment' or dead. An experiment would imply it's short lasting and just done to see how thing go. But it's probably the largest gaming market in the world, if you count how many actually play mmorpg's. And dead would mean that no one is really playing it any more. Tens of millions of people are still playing mmorpg's. Hardly dead.

Anyway, for MMORPG I'd go with GW2, since you haven't played any mmorpg's yet. I will also advise you to stay away from WoW as far as possible. It really is like an addiction. Once you start getting into it, it's really hard to quit. Not because it's oh so good, but because it's like a drug that you need more of. GW2 also has no subscription, which is a huge plus.

As for Jrpg. While Xenoblade and Persona 4 are good games I would also like to suggest Star Ocean: The last hope. I feel like this game is overlook far too much. While the long times between save points is annoying, it's otherwise a great game with beautiful graphics.