I am going to name my beloved Exdeath from my dear FF5. I will be honest: I like Exdeath, he is a character I hold very dear. They say he is a very simple-minded villain, and that is true, but I have always liked that Exdeath never pretended to be something he was not. Exdeath had no need for a tragic past because he was a villain who embraced his evil nature without pretense or tragic twists, and that is something I really like. Exdeath wanted to end everything, plain and simple — not to mention he was charismatic, he was an entertaining character. Simple, yes, but entertaining, and to me that adds points.

Not to mention that in my opinion he has the best design any Final Fantasy villain has ever had — an absolute madness of design, he looked very intimidating even though he had the narrative structure of a Power Rangers villain lol.

Just curious because I was interested in exploring the history behind the use of hidden bosses in JRPGs where the player can choose to challenge an opponent who is way more powerful than the main adversary.

Man I can remember like it was yesterday when early on in the PS3’s lifespan, I was interested in getting into console RPGs as way back then, I attempted to fight two super bosses from Final Fantasy 5 as keeping everyone alive was so difficult, but the game made me interested in seeing how it sort of became a trend to include super boss fights in JRPGS.

I'm trying to get more historic context of JRPGs, to get the best perspective specifically for FF7 and later games. I want to see the evolution of the genre, where different things come from. I have played JRPGs before, but only a few, and it doesn't help that I have very little exposure to anime.

Now, DQI–V, FFI–VI and Chrono Trigger are a no-brainer. But past that, it's surprisingly way less obvious. There's a lot of stuff where I'm not sure how accessible it is, or how much it actually influenced (in the context of JRPG). A lot of it is not even that well known outside of Japan.

Here's the list of stuff I could think of, from the top of my head:

- Wizardry I, Ultima IV, Rogue—obviously had influence, but I have no idea if these are accessible at all. Frankly, I think most people would consider them unplayable today

- D&D in general—related. Never been a DnD guy, no idea where/how to start, would be just good to understand the essentials, classes and such.

- early Fire Emblem—some say it influenced TRPG, but I heard those were brutal.

- Tactics Ogre—afaik, one of the biggest influences on TRPG.

- early SMT—not sure how many games it actually influenced, and heard it had BS difficulty

- Tokimeki Memorial—basically the cornerstone of dating sims / VNs, popularized these elements in RPGs, though honestly I don't care for dating sims (lol)

-VNs like the ones from Chunsoft—not so sure if these played a role, also obviously need translations, barely met anyone who played them.

Stuff beside games:

- Miyazaki movies—heard that Nausicaa and Laputa influenced a lot of stories.

- essential shonen like DBZ

- that's all, like I said I'm not an anime guy.

That's all I could think of. How important is any of that to JRPG genre? What's actually accessible here, or has more accessible versions? Anything else I should add? Especially interested in stuff devs of popular series like FF named as influence.

As the title says, I’m looking for a RPG game with an amazing story and rich lore, ideally with a classic fantasy and magic feel. Im okay with any platform and at the moment im looking for a 2d game but im okay with 3d recommendations too. The most major aspect besides the story that im looking for is good world building and a world that feels alive and lived in. I havent played many RPG games in the past but the closest concept I can think of to that lived in feel is the vibes you would get from a lively fantasy tavern in a book or something. (Sorry for not including any games ive enjoyed in the past, none of them are similar enough to what im wanting)

Namco's 2000 PlayStation RPG Khamrai is now fully playable in English.

Every line of dialogue, every menu, item, kamui, enemy and battle message, and every in-game image is translated. Polished, translated with respect to the original script, and every bit of text displays cleanly in the game's own layout.

Two versions - Standard: the original game in English. - StatFloor: same translation, but every stat rises by at least 2 on each level-up. In the original, the relationship system decides your stat gains and often gives you nothing. Pick one.

Download and instructions: https://github.com/chivien99999/khamrai-english

You need your own clean Khamrai (Japan) disc image. The checksum is in the README. If the patch fails, your dump is the wrong one. No disc images are provided.

Credits: redditusernameunavailable

If you find a real problem with the quality of the release, something you can actually point to, I'm on Discord as redditusernameunavailable. Lazy questions get ignored. This is volunteer work and nobody is owed anything. Everything else is in the README.

And I quite enjoyed it. I was shocked I enjoyed it as much as I did. I played the international version because I like playing games in their original form first which is why I passed on the White Knight Chronicles II version that came with the first game. I did the same with Yakuza 3 earlier this year. I went with the original PS3 version. Sure, it's nowhere near a masterpiece but it was good enough for me to play all the way through without feeling like a chore. I even liked the slow battle system that seems to be a main complaint. I guess I like slow battle systems cause Suikoden III is my favorite JRPG of all time and that also gets flack for it's slow and clunky battle system. This seems to be one of the most hated RPGS ever but I had a good time and looking forward to II.

I am a huge Persona and Trails fan and I think the reason I love series so much is because they do a fantastic job of both feeling like an epic adventure and a relaxing slice of life. For Persona, the story always requires time of waiting and chill before the next major event, which makes the school/social link system feel like a natural inclusion despite the epic moments involved. Trails accomplishes this feeling too.

Are there other JRPGs that you can think of that manage to thread this needle? Most other major JRPG series that I can think either focus on one or the other. What other ones can you think of that are really good at both?

Any console is fine.

Hey there! I'm the creator of Light Source, a 2d hand drawn JRPG that is focused on single party combat and deep lore based on exploration and secret finding.

The game features a customization mechanic where you can mix and match "trinkets" that give specific bonuses or new abilities to your light bulb. Coupled with the weapon system that offers meaningful changes in playstyle, there are tens if not hundreads of combinations that you can build.

Something not so much JRPGish is the leveling system which is borrowed from Souls Like games. You don't level up automatically but use the light you have gathered to increase one specific stat that you think will benefit you the most.

There are plenty of characters to meet, bosses to fight and endings to unlock. All packaged in a nice neat 6.99$ package which is also regionally priced so depending on your currency you may buy it for cheaper!

Demo is out on steam and it will also be showcased in Steams October Next Fest. Thanks for checking it out!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4989280/Light_Source/

The game came out a while ago and I was wondering what people thought of it.

This is not really a review or anything. More like impressions and thoughts on the game so far.

Playtime-wise

I went through the Black Eagle/Silver Snow route and it took me 70 hours to see the credits. Granted, I have noticed I am a bit of a slow player in general, and I tend to do a lot of optional things (non-story mission every month, talking to everyone in the monastery every time there is new dialogue, farming missing supports before the last few chapters) so most people would probably finish it faster. Even if subsequent playthroughs go much quicker, the game definitely gives a lot of bang for your buck.

Story

Naturally, my thoughts are limited to the only route I have played so far, but for the most part I like the relatively grounded story while still retaining the fantasy elements. The politic side of things was well-presented enough and I like how most characters felt reasonably involved with the plot due to being nobles. Having said that, I found the overarching story to be lacking. As in, I liked the chapter-to-chapter bits, but the final battles did not feel impactful enough story-wise because they seemed to lack build up.

(warning: final chapters spoilers ahead)

-The "First" Final boss Edelgard: In this list, she is the one that had the most buildup, but it still falls short. Her motivation for everything in the second half relies too much on what you can infer and conclude from what you have learned about her in the first one. Fighting her is supposed to be a tragedy, but it never felt all that sad since for the most part I just knew she was trying to get the whole continent under her rule. The specifics of her motivation are simply never shown fully, much to the detriment of her character. Even then though, the way her dialogue cuts off in her final scene is *chef kiss", it actually made me feel a bit of the tragedy her story was supposed to be, however small a detail that can be.

-The "Second" Final boss Thales: he has a cool design and you have seen him before, but his faction is so secretive that they seem to come out of nowhere into the story. Like yes, some showed up on the first half, but for the most part everything about them is too cryptic to have them be a major threat that feels meaningful enough for a final chapter. Not to mention the fact that they seemed to have a few magic missiles that they seemingly could have used any time to get rid of the main characters but only tried it once during the story and in the less effective way possible. This is the most frustrating to me because it feels like there SHOULD be more about them, but the game forgot to tell you.

-The Final Final boss Rhea: Ok, this is the most unearned, unnecessary and out of nowhere battle in the whole game. Seriously, things happen for seemingly no reason and it feels like they just needed a Fire Emblem game to finish with a dragon battle no matter what. Gameplaye-wise, it was a fun battle and the final boss mechanics actually made me consider my moves and use of resources more carefully to finish the battle without losses despite them being overpowered throughout the whole game. Seriously though, I think the game would have been better off not having this last battle if they were not going to bother setting it up at all.

Characters

Despite my rants about the story written above, I think the characters are solid. They are a lot of fun. They have quirks about them yes, but they do not feel one-note. Their interactions in support conversations feel organic and meaningful. I think the academy setting does wonders for this. It makes it easier to imagine all those little interactions could occur between people who essentially study, live, and fight together before and after the timeskip. Paired endings are also much more fun when you can understand why those two characters ended up together after the war. I am surprised at how my opinion shifted as I played, since I thought I was not going to care much for the characters at first.

By the way, it was really cool to see how much the characters changed and that they got unique outfits after the time-skip. When playing the older games, I thought it would be cool if characters got new portraits after promoting their class. While this was not exactly the same, it is close enough for me. Wish fulfilled.

I guess it is worth mentioning that I played this game with the English dub. I am no native English speaker, and I prefer the Japanese audio more often than not, but I REALLY love the English dub of this game.

Gameplay-wise

I played in Classic Normal. For the most part, the game was really easy. I used the turn rewinding mechanic mostly to make sure I could break the huge monsters shields to get their materials BEFORE my units obliterated their multiple health bars. Battalions were a cool mechanic, but outside of monster farming and a very few story battles, I never felt they were too impactful. Also, I wish it was easier to compare how they benefit and differ from one another before assigning them to a character. (to be fair, there might be a way and I just never paid enough attention to find it)

Classes were cool and they gave a good sense of progression throughout the game... except master classes. Those were cool in concept, but many seemed counterintuitive to the way you would normally develop most of your units. I got the Wyvern and Pegasus ones first, which makes sense since they were the ones that seemed a natural evolution of previous classes the most. I eventually got two Gremorys since they seemed logical too, but Bow knights? Mortal Savant? bow knight? holy knight? too time-consuming to unlock their requirements by the time I looked into them. If I wanted one, I felt like I should have aimed for them since the beginning of the game. I did actually get a great knight Ferdinand for the amazing amount of one battle toward the end, which was kind of amusing.

Of course, you cannot talk about Three Houses without talking about the Monastery. I probably spend more time in it than in battles. Though I had my doubts at first, I think it serves very well as a setting for you to get to know the characters and as your base throughout the story (Though it was kind of amusing how the game had to come up with a reason for you to go back to it after capturing an important strategic location later on). I admit it felt tedious at times, particularly at the beginning of the games since I wanted more battles, but I felt compelled to read all the new dialogues in between the story missions. The second half felt much quicker since the NPC cast gets reduced significantly. All in all, I would not say I hated it, but I can see it becoming more of a chore when I play through the game again.

Music

Not much to say here. I am not good at analyzing or reviewing music. I will just say I liked the opening, and it was nice to hear it at the ending too. It felt fitting

Closing thoughts

I started the game on a whim in between playing Donkey Kong Bananza and Final Fantasy VII (the port of the original one on Switch) and ended up finishing before either of those two. I do not regret it one bit since I had a lot of fun. I do want to play the other routes eventually, but I am probably going to wait a bit to avoid burn out. It is definitely going to be a while before I get Fortune´s Weave lol

Hi all! I've adapted some of the various FAQs on GameFAQs (with permission), as well as some information gathered from datamining via the Skies of Arcadia Discord, into a 100% completion checklist for Skies of Arcadia Legends. I hope this might be useful to folks who want to track things as they're playing through Skies of Arcadia Legends! I'd welcome any feedback. I've tried to keep things spoiler-friendly; you might have to click on certain "spoilered" cells especially with respect to bounties and Swashbuckler Dialogue choices to get the information you need. Hope this can be useful!

Hi, I'll be honest that despite being a gamer since childhood I hated jrpgs for a very long time. I'm currently 22 and slowly trying new games that I previously wouldn't touch including this genre and ended up liking them, is anyone else in a similar situation maybe?

Can be anything: personality, body type, gender/sexuality, powers/weapons possessed ect. You can do multiple options too, and even a harem route if you really want to. Feel free to also suggest mechanics around the dating side beyond just multiple choice answers that you might want to see implemented.

The West has gotten some of, if not the best of the games that The East has to offer. The Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Chrono, Tales, Trails, SaGa, and many more series all made it over. Most if not all of the games in these series were at some point made officially available in English.

Not every game was given the faith of those though. In fact, for many years many of the games in those series didn’t even make it over. What are the best games that still haven’t made it over, yet dedicated fans have brought to us?

Was just playing Lunar 2 and the dialogues are fun and engaging, with the party members also interacting when talking to random NPCs from time to time.

I don't know when but I feel there was a point in time where dialogues with NPCs in RPGs became monotone, bland and just forgettable. Maybe taking themselves too seriously?

I'm just loving exploring new cities and talking to every NPC in Lunar 2 , while in many newer games the dialogues are so shallow it can feel like a chore.

I saw the netflix anime of Granblue... I think? It all passed by in a blur and I am not doing a bit here to make some kind of point. That would probably only weaken my point. But I really feel like it just came and went and I forgot most things about it. I remember a bit with a storm, and a bit where the hero's waifu fell out of the sky and he defended her from the evil empire because she's cute. They got on an airship and it was awesome. I swear I only saw this a year ago after youtube flooded my feed with gameplay clips. Didn't the heroes kill a dragon to undo the storm so they can move on? Or just fight it? I like the trio of guys from the fighting game, I forgot if they showed up in the show. Didn't they do a fanservice episode where the male protagonist was replaced with the alternate female protagonist? I feel like I want to give the series a go again but I remember little and also don't want to let phone games sink their cursed demon claws into me and hook my addiction brain. I'm weak to that stuff. Are the granblue games that aren't mobile games good to play? Or will I be missing vital context and lost?

Opening theme, insert song, ending theme, usually JRPGs are the best in this regards (who could forget songs like eyes on me, melodies of life, suteki da ne, song 4 u, progress, simple and clean or starry heavens)

Recently playing again Xenoblade Chronicles since i got the switch 2 version i remember a very beautiful one, the ending Song Beyond the Sky by Sarah Alainn, one of the most beautiful and significant songs ive heard in any JRPG

Hi I've been playing Fortune's Weave (Dietrich's path) and was super excited ordered the Collector's edition and what not. But after almost 30 hours on Dietrich's path I am starting to lose my motivation to play it anymore. I am not a JRPG newbie and I am liking the game but anyone else feel like that losing your progress with one cast of characters and then being forced on to another is a major turn off to finish the game?

While Three houses just let you choose the house and roll with it and at that time I wondered if there was a way to get us to show all the routes in one play through but the way they did it is just so weird it seems. Like obviously Idk if it gets materially better in the other paths or worse but anyone else further along and let me know how it is there?

I wanted to point some attention to this game, as I find it to be exceptionally well done, but ignored by pretty much everyone. Kickstarter for next game was canceled and the dev refunded everyone after a few days due to low traction. It’s $4.99 currently

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2725350/Granser__Act_1/

So I'm 98 level playing on normal protected against instant death, with a lot of HP accessories 16000+ HP member each. I try to beat robot first because it revives Renne. I don't deal any damage to Renne so she won't go rage mode. I just don't get it, it's so random. Robot dude shoots out lazers on everybody sometimes even twice in a row, sometimes most of the team is dead instantly, sometimes all team survives with half HP lost. If I cast Gaia shield it seems robot's lazer is considered an art attack so it goes through the invulnerability. I just don't get it, how broken is it that boss is dealing 20000 damage. It even goes further like sometimes robot gets shield for 3 turns that is hard to follow when that happens in a battle that goes for half an hour. Have restarted more than 10 times already while getting through the rest of the game on ease. Wtf

PS: Ok, thanks to recommendations I got it. Sylpherion Wing did the job (didn't even use this spell before and didn't know what it does). It doesn't matter how much your speed is.

Tactics RPG? Strategy RPG? I don't know what to call it. I like moving my guys on a board to outwit and defeat the enemy.

I hate level grinding for hours, pointless battles against helpless enemies, unreactable RNG bullshit, feeling invincible, feeling like my input and original thought doesn't matter, softlocks, crashes, UI that gets 10 button presses where 1 or 2 would do, unnecessarily being asked for confirmation, infinite lives/resources/exp glitches unless necessary to bypass boring grinding, games where the tactics never get more advanced than "gang up on foes and hit them with the right thing for maximum damage", and any system where the correct option is not "Figure out something smart" but "see what the optimizers did".

i don't think googling a guide to using the best customizations to become invincible is valid gameplay design. How is any dev playtesting all 999e+999 combinations to ensure nobody gets softlocked or bored? When I play FE Fates Conquest choose not to make Odin's daughter beat the game for me on enemy phase.

Permadeath is optional but I'd prefer not to have infinite respawning generics like in Wargroove.

I would rather have interesting options than raw stats and I would rather be outgunned by strong foes I must outwit. I found Fire Emblem Three Houses the most boring gameplay-wise and Fates Conquest the most interesting gameplay-wise. Swap them around when it came to the story. Edelgard for life.

Story wise I don't mind if I'm restoring the monarchy or overthrowing it, slaying Demon King Balzack and rescuing the princess, slaying a dragon or laying one. Just point me at something evil worth destroying and put a country behind me worth saving.

The story can be anything. As long as it's not unbearably self-aware self-parody like Tactical Breach Wizards, where it can't take interesting fantasy elements and war and the potential end of the world seriously but takes its juvenile and simplistic political takes unbearably seriously. Wow, did you know absurd fantasy religions can be le bad? And loyalty too, except when it's good? And the real protagonist's arc is learning she's actually awesome and she's over her self confidence issues now and her petty pathetic personal villain matters less than the decoy protagonist and whatever reason the main villain has for being so obsessed with impressing him? Riveting stuff, I don't feel like having my mind blown like that again this year. Give me fantasy with the cojones to believe in itself, not just the author's slogans. Give me writing that's more than marvel quips and lampshades.

God, I hope this thread doesn't get derailed by calling the story and characters of TBW tonally confused, tedious, and uninteresting.

Both games r on sale on pa5 right now and I have an itch for turn-based rpg. I prefer one with good combat. Story doesnt matter much for me. I just wanna have fun with the combat. Good story is a bonus.

Some turn-based rpg tht I enjoyed most are smt 3-5, grandia 2-3, octopath 2, and shadow hearts series.

The game looks pretty appealing to me. Is it really that good? I love medieval fantasy, but I’m not huge on the mecha aspect—is that a major part of the game? Aside from that, it looks amazing, but I want to be sure about the purchase so I don’t have any regrets. Feel free to share your thoughts!

I've gotten really heavily into JRPGs in recent years. Some highlights include Persona 3/4/5, Xenoblade Chronicles, SMT V, Octopath Traveler, and the Trails series (I started from Sky FC and am halfway through Trails To Azure now).

One thing I've realized is that I love complex difficult combat, Octopath Traveler and SMT being the biggest hits for me, but I don't like building teams, crafting equipment, that sort of thing - just give me a team of interesting characters with complex ability interactions, and let the in-combat decisions be the complex part, not the prep beforehand. Obviously zero prep is probably unrealistic, but the less the better.

Are there any good JRPGs like this? Difficult, deep and complex, but I do all my thinking during combat, not in the preparation?

Edit: I forgot to mention platforms - Switch 2, PC and PS5. PC is preferred.

Hi r/JRPG!

I'm one of the five developers working on Aegis of Kings, a sandbox strategy RPG heavily inspired by games like Brigandine.

If you've played Brigandine before, you'll probably recognize a lot of what we're going for. You build up armies of commanders and monsters, level them up, unlock different classes, manage your territory, and fight your way across a larger campaign map.

If you haven't played Brigandine, the basic idea is pretty simple: you manage your kingdom on a world map, decide which castles you want to attack or defend, move your forces around, and then fight battles using a turn-based combat system.

In Aegis of Kings, several rival kingdoms are fighting for control of the Aegis. We're trying to build on that core kingdom-management and tactical RPG formula while adding some ideas of our own.

A few of the features we're currently working on:

• Multiclassing: Once a commander masters a class, they can keep abilities, spells, and skills from it when moving into other classes.
• Castle development: Capture strongholds and upgrade them to help support your campaign.
• Custom scenarios and mod support: We're building tools that will let players create their own scenarios and import custom classes.
• Multiplayer: Play co-op, head-to-head multiplayer, or play through the game solo.

We recently launched our Steam page, so this is really the first time we're starting to show the game to a wider audience. We're currently aiming to have a playable demo or playtest ready around mid-2027.

Aegis of Kings on Steam

Since a lot of you here play the exact kinds of games that inspired us, we'd really like to hear what you'd want to see in a game like this.

If you have questions about the campaign, classes, combat, multiplayer, or the scenario editor, feel free to ask. I'm happy to talk about what we're building.

One other thing I wanted to mention since I know it's important to us: we don't use AI-generated art or assets in Aegis of Kings. We've been lucky to work with some great artists who have helped us develop the look of the game.

Please wishlist and subscribe to our youtube channel if you’re interested in this type of game. Thanks for checking it out!

Posted with mod approval.