I've been playing JRPGs since I was a little kid. I started with Pokémon, but got into Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, SMT, Persona, etc. as the years passed. When I got older, I didn't have as much time for them, so I didn't play them as often. So when Trails in the Sky FC first came out on the PSP, I didn't get into it, even though the game was recommended by Jason Schreier at the time, and I knew from experience that he and I had similar tastes in JRPGs.

Fast forward a bit. I was no longer a student and had more free time. I saw Trails of Cold Steel marketing, and was really interested. It looked like Persona a bit, and I honestly didn't know it was related to Trails in the Sky at the time. Still, I didn't pick it up, because I had other games I was playing and didn't have a lot of extra money to just buy anything that caught my eye. But it stuck in my head as something I wanted to play someday.

Fast forward again. At the time I was in my late 20's. I didn't (still don't) have (or want) kids, but I now had the money to buy what I wanted for the most part. I was in between other games, so I decided to research something to play, and everyone on here and elsewhere online said to play the Trails games if you like classic JRPGs. I remembered Sky from my youth, and everyone said to start there. I really wanted to start with Cold Steel, since I had come to understand it was part of the same series, but I listened to the advice I kept hearing and started the series from its beginning. I didn't have a good PC to play Sky, just a Macbook, but I did the whole Bootcamp thing and got the game running anyway. Then I got a Steam Deck and played the rest of it there... And it was a slog. I didn't care much about the characters outside of Joshua and Olivier, and the slice of life storytelling and the glacial pace made it so I'd put the game down for weeks between sessions. Then the ending happened, and I was totally, finally engaged with the story. I couldn't wait to play SC, so I bought it and jumped right in... only to be met with backtracking, boring side quests and that same glacial pacing I had experienced for most of FC. Plus, a certain favorite character's situation made me not care as much about the party I was playing with. It was a real drag, so I ended up putting the game down.

Then there's now. I decided to move on to the Crossbell games and picked up Trails from Zero after its recent English localization. And so far, I'm enjoying Zero a lot more in terms of its gameplay and narrative than I did Sky (excepting the last few hours of FC). I like the characters, Crossbell is (to me) a more interesting setting than Liberl, but also, and I didn't realize how much this bothered me with Sky until I had it with Zero, the quality of life features added for Zero (like not having to hold a button down to speed things up and the overall faster pace of the battles) really just make it a better game for me to just pick up and enjoy. So, I'm doing that now. I know that there's a certain plot point that carries over from Sky, but I already know what it is, and I'm fine with that. I'm not going to say that spoilers don't ever bother me, but compared to a lot of people I think they bother me a lot less since plot is usually on the lower tier of things that keep me interested in a story; I'm way more of a character, lore, and systems kind of guy.

The reason I'm writing this post is because everywhere I see it recommended that you should start with Sky. And sure, that's probably the best way to play. But I think if I had forced myself to continue with SC, I would have dropped the series altogether. So, if you're in the same boat and not enjoying Sky, please do like I did and move on to a later title. Try it out on Steam or something so you can get a refund if you still don't like it. But the series is a good one, and I don't want to miss out just because I didn't like certain aspects of Sky. (All of that said, I am excited about the Sky remake, and I hope that they take on more than just FC because I would like to complete that arc with the quality of life improvements from the later games in the series.)

There are four purposes to this r/JRPG weekly thread:

• a way for users to freely chat on any and all JRPG-related topics.
• users are also free to post any JRPG-related questions here. This gives them a chance to seek answers, especially if their questions do not merit a full thread by themselves.
• to post any suggestion requests that you think wouldn't normally be worth starting a new post about or that don't fulfill the requirements of the rule (having at least 300 characters of written text or being too common).
• to share any JRPG-related media not allowed as a post in the main page, including: unofficial videos, music (covers, remixes, OSTs, etc.), art, images/photos/edits, blogs, tweets, memes and any other media that doesn't merit its own thread.

Please also consider sorting the comments in this thread by "new" so that the newest comments are at the top, since those are most likely to still need answers.

Don't forget to check our subreddit wiki (where you can find some game recommendation lists), and make sure to follow all rules (be respectful, tag your spoilers, do not spam, etc).

Any questions, concerns, or suggestions may be sent via modmail. Thank you.

Link to Previous Weekly Threads (sorted by New): https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/search/?q=author%3Aautomoderator+weekly&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=new

So I'm feeling like sinking my teeth into a new game, but since I rarely seek out games outside of my comfort zone, I'm not sure what to play, so I'm coming to reddit for help.

I have heard good things about the following games:
-Chrono Trigger
-Octopath Travelers 2(I heard the second one is a lot better than the first, can anyone tell me if I have to play the first to enjoy the second fully?)
-Secret of Mana
-Metaphor Refantazio

Also, here's a list of games that I already played/already own that I liked, so don't suggest those please:
-Final Fantasy 1-8(Are all games I own but have not started/finished), 10, 12(Started, not finished), 13, 15
-Persona 4 Golden, 5 Royal and 5 Strikers
-Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door + Super Paper Mario
-Does Kingdom Hearts count? If it does, I've played all of them

I really liked the gameplay of ff10, P5R, and most of the kh games.

I have a budget of about 200-400 CAD to drop on this, I have a pretty good pc, a switch and a ps4. Any suggestions are appreciated!

Pardon me if this was asked here before, but I was wondering about the concept of an RPG with a demon who is interested in doing good deeds as he is not out for power, but rather wants to protect his land.

I don’t know how well it would work in gameplay if such a game were to exist, but the core concept is basically the protagonist is Anti Laharl where said protagonist actually treats his minions with respect by giving them things such as money or treasure.

To put it simply, I have been curious if an RPG can revolve around a demon who is not a jerk, but at the same time is not fully clean as some of his methods for doing justice can come off as questionable, so depending on the player’s choices, he can be somewhere between good and amoral.

The game was very easy, and didnt get somewhat hard until the very end. The areas that you traverse through that contain enemies were tedious and not very interesting. Certain parts were a bore. Final boss was uneventful. However, Mallow and Geno are very cool characters. Nimbus Land was a very neat city to explore. Axem Rangers were cool too.

I want some eye candy to look at but I feel like I know most of the well known ones and was wondering if anyone has any recommendations of not well known games that have hot guys so like any indie games or underrated ones. a plus if the main character is male too. Oh and please stick to steam please!

It's my first time experiencing or playing it, and I only got the fourth one. A "co-worker" dropped a ton of games in our chat, and I managed to get Persona 4 Golden (there were no other Persona games, most were niche games,and there were even a ton of leftover codes lol). I'm not really sure what to expect or if I need to play other parts before this (not that I can afford it right now, but I can wait).

I've seen multiple posts on here (and even some professional reviewers) talking about how you can't pick actions for your party members in battles. There's actually a very simple fix for this. At the beginning of a battle, on the screen where you have the option to fight and flee, you can choose Tactics. In that menu, you can set your party's tactics, and one option is to make your characters Follow Orders.

Now you can select their actions like you're used to in a turn-based JRPG.

By and large the most popular and beloved Dragon Quest games outside of Japan are 8 and 11. The two games that went behind the back third person with voiced linear narratives and parties of fixed characters.

But there's a new edition of Dragon Quest 3, a game that has a ton of nonlinearity within it and a freeform build a party. And that game rips! People are loving it!

We are almost certainly within 12 months of DQ 12 being shown based on when it was first announced. Has playing DQ 3 changed what anyone is necessarily expecting or hoping to see from that? Would you be disappointed if DQ 12 has a more open design and a blank slate build-a-party?

I think everyone in this sub at least goes through the hard moment where you cant decide what to play. Atm im going through it, just beat trails in the sky fc and it was great, but i need a break of it in between to jump to sc. Got a bunch of jrpgs in my steam waiting for me but everyone has different "taste", so not being specific with titles, what or how do you guys pick your next jrpg to play? Thanks for your time 😁

Background of this post is that I'm finishing up Final Fantasy X, which I decided to replay for the first time since 20 years ago. This is one of the finest examples of me wondering why games used to be so awesome, vs games of today. FFX is so epic, but also fundamentally cheery and heartwarming, from the sunny beaches of the islands, to the uproarous blitzball events, to the woman who will sacrifice everything and the man who will stop at nothing to make her happy.

The cast is great, and each performance feels genuine, from the welcoming and passionate Wakka, to the kind and caring Yuna. They all are fantastic characters that grow while always being fundamentally kind. That kindness rears its head across all characters, even those that might initially appear to be bad, are typically trying their best to make the world a better place. Their kindness is often juxtaposed by the impending doom and threat of death that is Sin, which often makes their kindness so much more heartwarming. That someone can be excited for blitzball, fully knowing their entire village might get leveled tomorrow?

I'm really tired of worlds that are pain and death, misery and depression at the forefront. Bland and dark backgrounds. I'm also not excited by games with squeaky and annoying casts, or games that are just obnoxiously bright. FFX combines maturity with kindness in a way that I seem to have trouble finding elsewhere. Please someone help me out! Playable on Modern Consoles(PS4/5, Switch) or PC are preferred.

I don't suppose anyone here might be able to help me find a game called Oddventure for the Nintendo Switch, could they? I tried looking on Nintendo Eshop, but it wasn't there. I searched on Google, but nothing showed up when I tapped the shopping tab. Even when I didn't include Nintendo Switch in my search, nothing came up. Can anyone here help me out with this?

I've always enjoyed RPG games but for whatever reason never truly ventured into JRPGs (except for dipping my feet into the waters of a couple FF games and a few others like Grandia back in the days). I was more of a text adventure game guy mixed in with a decade of WoW.

Now, I have rekindled my love of RPGs and for whatever reason especially JRPGs.

There is something about the often very well developed stories that pull me in - and coupled with combat systems that I enjoy.

I mostly play emulated games and do so up to PS1/PSP.

Anyway, I put together the games I'm playing/have tried/will have to try and it's clear that I have been bitten by the JRPG bug :D

https://preview.redd.it/9rfo7r9qm45e1.jpg?width=1563&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=01652ec03714bee141879273f267b850bf2284c4

I'm on chapter 16 right now and the game is getting a little bit repetitive.

You don't recruit new characters?

There's barely any story or plot, just small dialogs and some cutscenes.

The game flow is only mission > 2 minutes dialog > mission rise and repeat until the ending?

How a Fire Emblem ripoff don't have any mages?

Just an honest question.

Basically, never got a game AT ALL, WHATSOEVER, (even a shovelware like game).

Even the nichest of the nichest have still seem to have gotten a game.

I'm asking this because I'm hoping stuff like Mecha Ude gets an action rpg.

Luffy, Zoro, Nami + 4th (Chopper/Usopp/Franky).

That would be my main party. The first three members of Strawhats is a must, they're the strongest and with most useful abilities.. and most fun!

Luffy as the best and solo Power type is enough, high damage, high tanking. Honestly Sanji is not needed, Luffy can take care all the Speed enemies quickly, fast sweep.

Zoro is the best Tech type, and he alone is enough for that type. Really high attack, tough enough. His later attack skills that can attack all is awesome!

Nami, a Speed type, can nullify any attack once is an OP skill of hers especially vs bosses, you can kept on casting that if you're fast enough after it's used up. Late game she learn a huge AOE all attacks, so good! Her attack is lower damage and more fragile compare to most other characters, but her usefulness is too good to ignore, huge advantages.

4th slot is always a switch between Chopper (you need to heal a lot in this game!) and Usopp (a speed type, for high attacking power, to balance Nami's lower damage output) in earlier game. Later Franky (join late!) would be my new main 4th member, he's really strong and have fun expensive skills.

1 Power, 1 Tech, and 2 Speed ideally.

Hitting LV100 with Luffy, Zoro, Nami and Franky is the easiest, toughest and fastest, because they can attack all/many at once and have highest chance to survive. Just set to auto battle, farming exps in the specific best area.

I never played a Final Fantasy. Which one you suggest to play on Nintendo Switch ? I have just finished shin megami tensei v and it was the first jrpg that I ever played. On internet the best FF recommended are FF VII, FF VIII, FF IX and FF X. Thanks in advance for any replay. Regards

I’m so bad at completing games. I get excited about one…play it a lot and then jump to another one just to repeat the process.

Sooo, I decided to “force” myself into a bit of a structure by tracking what I play, will play next and what I have my eyes on playing (just so I don’t forget about them) - and on what platform/emulator.

Found a free iOS that is very basic but allows me to do just that (there’s a slew of these type of apps out there this is just one of them).

What do you think of my “play list”? :)

So I don’t know too much about this particular studio, but it’s just that I was considering playing their games as they apparently helped create a series called Monster Girl Quest, which is known for having some racy imagery in them.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, I was wondering if anyone here was familiar with the studio’s games so that I could see how their games play mechanically as I saw some of the artwork of MGQ, but I have no idea on how those games work in general.

However, one concern I have is that I don’t know if the games themselves are available in English as I don’t speak Japanese too well, so I don’t know if that is a requirement for their games first off.

Every bookcase. Every house. Around every corner? I’m feeling like I want to explore and be rewarded for every single hallway I go down. Every pot or box I destroy. To the point that it’s just too much?

I’m curious to know of what games you guys find to be too much with how often you’ll find something? Not just the same 8-12 credits in every pile of rubble you sift through either.

PC/Steam/PS5

MegaTen turn-based systems such as Press Turn, One More reward you with extra turns for hitting weaknesses as well as punishing you with lost turns for misses or hitting immunities (iirc One More doesn't really punish but Press Turn does. One More also rewards with boosted teammate attacks thru Baton Pass and All-Out Attack). Ofc there's more to both systems (e.g. affinities in later Press Turn games) but essentially every battle is different in that you can't mindlessly spam the same strongest move (aside from Almighty) each time. Hitting a weakness or landing a critical hit is so satisfying for the extra turns

It's been kind of a while since I played FFX but I recall the turn order being unique and how certain moves change order up

Bravely Default ofc has its own high risk/reward system (spam several consecutive moves now but you'll be defenseless for several turns after). Unfortunately I never mastered this

What other interesting (but great, fun) turn-based systems have you come across

As the title says, I'm looking for some good RPGs where you have to level up abilities as you progress. They don't necessarily need to be the most popular ones, just any that you personally find enjoyable or the level-up system is really well done. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. Something that's similar to Genshin Impact would be great!

So lately I've been reading manhwa and manga about protagonists transmigrated as random nobodies into a fantasy high school with magic, swords, and stuff. I figured I wanna play something like that, but I don't know which game is like that. It could be a magic academy or swordsmanship academy, to be honest. Something that is not Persona, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy, or Harry Potter.

here are the criteria

• must be in an academy of some sort (be it magic or swordsmanship)
• i'd prefer not turn based based but i can live with it
• either PC or Nintendo switch

I've been hearing a lot of good things about OT2 and how much it improves over the original, still I'm hesitant to try it because I never finished OT1.

My issues with the first game were:

1. Lack of narrative focus. Story is super important to me in these sorts of long JRPG's. OT1's story never hooked me, even after 30 hours or so. I thought that the characters were bland too, not a lot of inter-party dialogue or development from what I saw although to be fair I never finished it.

2. Gameplay and level-scaling. Because I spent a lot of time exploring, I felt consistently over-leveled in story battles and random encounters. Even though I liked the battle system, I thought it never really challenged me. This was awkward because the game encouraged exploring but I felt like I was making the experience less fun by doing so.

That being said, I liked the game overall, enough to play it for like 30 hours, mostly because of the music and graphics. Still it didn't really click with me enough to finish it.

So is OT2 better in some of these aspects?

I haven't played Metaphor but holy crap the UI and general game aesthetics look amazing. Atlus has many titles with great art direction and UI design that I love both from new and old games.

There's other developers and games I feel similarly about but I'm really interested to hear opinions of others on game you find visually pleasing/unique. Music and sound design if it contributes too.

Character art, character models, level/background designs, music, UI whatever just hits a certain spot in those receptors.