Recommend me a hard turned based JRPG .

[Keith K]

Fallout 1 and 2 are pretty tough, particularly at the beginning and such great games.

Final Fantasy Legend II on Game Boy is one of my favorites from back in the day and is a lot like Final Fantasy 2 in terms of systems, also pretty tough depending on how much you like to grind.

Dragonwarrior (Dragon Quest) or Earthbound 0 (available as fan translated ROM), if you're feeling particularly old school.

All that stuff you can pretty much only find on PC these days, maybe VC in a couple cases.

Final Fantasy 2, 3 & 5 are all pretty tough, depending on how much you want to grind away the edge. All three are available on PSP, although you didn't list that as an option. 2&3 are also on iPhone and Android. FF Origins and FFV are available on PSN for PS3 too.

 

[RyoScar]

I'd say Valkyria Chronicles, that game is hard as hell, to the point where it takes over 20 hours to complete.

and it actually has a really good story too in my opinion

 

[DRTJR]

Fire emblem 4: Seisen no Keifu

 

[Tastum]

Have to second Etrian Odyssey 4 - I just finished that the other day and pretty much couldn't put my 3DS down. Class trees are well thought out and there's something great about having an entire party of characters to customize, and then turning your well oiled machine on a brutal environment. Mapmaking is surprisingly charming too.

Nevermind about devil survivors, just reread your post...

 

[Marik2]

How about Kamidori? It is an eroge yes but it mostly focuses on the turn based gameplay and it is pretty challenging in some parts


plus the artwork is fantastic

 

[anthony87]

Resonance of Fate might be worth a look.

Easy to grasp, difficult to master, great voice acting, likable characters. Tough as hell too.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Fire emblem 4: Seisen no Keifu

and by that, you mean Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.

OT: really any fire emblem becomes real challenging when you crank the difficulty up to it's highest level. anything on Lunatic mode is near impossible w/o great luck & gaming the system.

Also, anything in the shin megami tensei series and valkyria chronicles.

 

[go-10]

any of the Dragon Quest games, VIII is the best though
Shin Megami Tensei, chose whichever one you like
Ogre Tactics Let Us Cling Together (PSP/VITA version is the best one)
Etrian Odyssey, they're all hard as hell
Sengoku Rance VII, there's an english version for PC it has some questionable scenes and story is mostly humor but goddammit you're gonna have to start over again and again because acquiring and keeping your territories is REALLY difficult

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (DS) is the only turn-based JRPG I have ever bought but not beaten. It's isometric strategy a la Final Fantasy Tactics, but every battle after Chapter 2 is like the Riovanes Castle battles in that game. So if that's your cup of tea, go for it.

I would consider Breath of Fire 3 (PS1) to be the hardest one of the series, at least early game when it's just Ryu and Nina. It's also my favourite of the series. Final boss is quite tough, and I have yet to beat the game's two bonus bosses (one of whom actually HEALS you as a cruel mercy). One Tip: Learn the Influence skill from the Boss Goblins in the early game, it'll really help later. Same for the Jump skill used by one of the first bosses.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

An oldie but a goldie (if you can find it) would be SAGA Frontier 2... great story but SUPER HARD, partially because it's nearly impossible to grind... so you'd better be able to take things on with the levels you have.

In that same vein Romancing Saga for the PS2 is also fairly challenging.

Dragon Quest 8 is also nice and challenging but not truly "hard" if you grind... which is easy to do if you find a good source of Liquid Metal Slimes.

I found Final Fantasy 13 to be really hard... but I may be one of the only people... I guess I just didn't "get" the battle system?

Xenoblade has a fairly solid amount of challenge if you don't go out of your way to offset the difficulty with sidequests.

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of The Lions is a good challenge, even if you level... that makes the random encounters harder.

Resonance of Fate is very, very hard and very, very interesting.

Edit: Oh yeah, Final Fantasy 4 remake for the DS, a great new take on a classic that is perfectly happy to kick your ass over and over again.

 

[mitchell271]

The original Final Fantasy. It's not that hard but it's $4 on iTunes right now if you have an iOS device.
The original Disgaea (my favourite of the series) get really tough in the late game.

 

[DRTJR]

Fire emblem 4: Seisen no Keifu

and by that, you mean Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.

OT: really any fire emblem becomes real challenging when you crank the difficulty up to it's highest level. anything on Lunatic mode is near impossible w/o great luck & gaming the system.

Also, anything in the shin megami tensei series and valkyria chronicles.

If you go Blind into Seisen no Keifu then it's going to be harder post Chapter 5 than Thracia 776. but why limit yourself to one fire emblem when you could go for all the fire emblem, Hector hard mode anybody.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

Lost Odyssey is fairly challenging because they have this anti-grind mechanic, I remember tearing my eyebrows out at some bosses. It has a great story too!

 

[Reyold]

If you're into emulation, or just have an SNES lying around, The 7th Saga should tickle your fancy. You need to do a LOT of grinding, but then the game caps you a bit too soon. And the max party size? TWO. FRIGGIN'. PEOPLE.

 

[Maximum Bert]

OT: Ar Tonelico II, you can play 1 or 3 but I haven't personally and they change the battle system with every game. I'd also say Star Ocean but it varies from person to person, a lot say they're easy but I found them to be more difficult than some SMT games.

Edit: I just noticed turn based so scratch Star Ocean off that...

Ar Tonelico 1 is a good game with a boring battle system Ar Tonelico 2 is good all round but I really dont know how anyone could call them challenging in 2 the only way you could die was very early on or taking on the lvl 9 Revatayles as soon as they were available (cant remember their levels but the top level ones and may have misspelt revatayles). As for the 3rd one I havent finished it I didnt like it as much but for the first 15 hours or so at least its very easy.

I know not everyone finds all games easy but if I had to put money on it I would say the OP would find them ridiculously easy.

I am not sure what to recommend but the post game stuff of the GBA version of FFV was solid as hell and 2 was as well but luckily I had one awesome character to pull me through in the second one. Trouble is FF2 is a horrible horrible game and while V was ok you still need to finish the games to get to the real difficult post game stuff.

Other ones are Cross Edge on PS3 which I personally disliked but its certainly challenging and there are also the Agarest games which I havent played but I hear they are difficult.

There is also Disgaea ofc but only the very very late game content that takes an age to get to and I suppose some Geo panel maps as the rest you can make very easy by over levelling but ofc you dont have to do that.

 

[TehCookie]

OT: Ar Tonelico II, you can play 1 or 3 but I haven't personally and they change the battle system with every game. I'd also say Star Ocean but it varies from person to person, a lot say they're easy but I found them to be more difficult than some SMT games.

I would wait with the AT2 recommendation, as the re-translation project is in its final stage. It is a beautiful game with great characters, plot and world, but the translation was a hack-job that quite often not only arbitrarily changed things, but downright mistranslated things to the point that they created plot-holes.
On the other hand, I wouldn't really recommend it as a gameplay title (not to mention it is not a TRPG either), as a good 80% of the game is about the story and it even has some pretty straightforward visual novel segments where you do nothing but read for hours. Absolutely wonderful game, but it's simply not for everyone...

I didn't know about the retranslation, it would be wise to wait for that. Though if someone enjoyed Persona enjoying Ar Tonelico isn't much of a stretch. Not to mention OP loves JRPGs so it's not like I'm recommending it to someone who's unfamiliar with the genre. I really enjoyed the different gameplay and the story, though if it's not a turn based what would you call it's system? You and your opponents take turns wailing on each other.

 

[GabeZhul]

I didn't know about the retranslation, it would be wise to wait for that. Though if someone enjoyed Persona enjoying Ar Tonelico isn't much of a stretch. Not to mention OP loves JRPGs so it's not like I'm recommending it to someone who's unfamiliar with the genre. I really enjoyed the different gameplay and the story, though if it's not a turn based what would you call it's system? You and your opponents take turns wailing on each other.

It's an ATB system. A TRPG (I presumed that's what the OP was looking for) is more along the line of the Disgaea games, with an overhead perspective and a grid to move on, possibly involving action points and, you know, actual "turns".

Also, if we are still at the AT series, I would heavily recommend playing the first game before the second, not only because of the obvious reason (canonical order, duh.) but because one of the heroines in AT2 makes a million more times more sense (and practically THE most compelling character in that game) only if you know her origins from AT1.
Sadly, AT1 is the easiest game I have ever played, to the point where you can train and upgrade your characters to the point where they can one-shot mid-bosses with ease even without trying to be a munchkin at all, and the final boss was a joke. That said, the first game still had really good story and characters, but it was noticeably weaker than the second game in all aspects.

As for the third game, I don't know as I don't own a PS3, but as far as I have heard from others that played it, the combat system is a convoluted mess and the writing was much weaker than its predecessors, so I really don't know if I would recommend it...

 

[TehCookie]

I didn't know about the retranslation, it would be wise to wait for that. Though if someone enjoyed Persona enjoying Ar Tonelico isn't much of a stretch. Not to mention OP loves JRPGs so it's not like I'm recommending it to someone who's unfamiliar with the genre. I really enjoyed the different gameplay and the story, though if it's not a turn based what would you call it's system? You and your opponents take turns wailing on each other.

It's an ATB system. A TRPG (I presumed that's what the OP was looking for) is more along the line of the Disgaea games, with an overhead perspective and a grid to move on, possibly involving action points and, you know, actual "turns".

Also, if we are still at the AT series, I would heavily recommend playing the first game before the second, not only because of the obvious reason (canonical order, duh.) but because one of the heroines in AT2 makes a million more times more sense (and practically THE most compelling character in that game) only if you know her origins from AT1.
Sadly, AT1 is the easiest game I have ever played, to the point where you can train and upgrade your characters to the point where they can one-shot mid-bosses with ease even without trying to be a munchkin at all, and the final boss was a joke. That said, the first game still had really good story and characters, but it was noticeably weaker than the second game in all aspects.

As for the third game, I don't know as I don't own a PS3, but as far as I have heard from others that played it, the combat system is a convoluted mess and the writing was much weaker than its predecessors, so I really don't know if I would recommend it...

According to the atb definition, chrono trigger and ff, the posterchild of turn based jrpgs, aren't even turn based. Hell if you're going to get specific disgaea is a sjrpg not a pure jrpg so he wouldn't like that either. Not to mention i think op can do a quick googling and see if it's for him.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Xenogears (PS1) is turn-based, and (particularly if you don't grind overly much) turns very brutal at points. Highly recommended.

Also Grandia 2 and Grandia 3 (both on PS2). Both are great games story-wise, both are turn-based with an initiative chart so you can plan your moves based on when the enemy will go, and I believe both have adjustable difficulty. Note: Do NOT play Grandia 1 or Grandia X. Just... don't.

Those are my turn-based recommendations. Well, unless you wanna play FF Tactics (with character perma-death).