So far loving the game. It isn't wasting any time with exposition. It's beautiful and charming. The battles are snappy.

But damn it's been difficult. Long backtracks for full restore too. I've been spending most of my money on health potions just so I don't gotta go back so often. I also purposely drag out easier battles so Dorothy can heal the party with her special skill.

I've been utilizing enemy weaknessness as well, but sometimes for instance Tin Man is too slow against a tree-type enemy. They'll hit him thrice before he hits em once. Lion is slow too.

Are there recommended levels for areas? Do I just simply grind?

With the success of Metaphor Re Fantazio, popularity of stuff like Dragon Quest, Yakuza:Like a Dragon/ Infinite Wealth, Persona, SMT etc, do you think Square will ever make another mainline Turn-based Final Fantasy?

This thread will be filled with spoilers of many varieties from throughout the whole game, so please don't read if you don't want to be spoiled.

tl;dr: I think the concept is very interesting but the execution is lacking that it couldn't reach the height it could've.

As someone who really enjoys political plot and tournament arc in JRPG, Metaphor's competition to become the new king is really interesting to me and it's definitely the main reason why I ended up buying the game. It's very rare that we get to play a game to try becoming the king! Now that I have some time to think about the story a few days after finishing the game, I really wish the story could've been done differently. There are two major issues for me.

The first major issue for me is us entering the tournament. When we first entered the tournament, the goal was to get enough reputation so we can get close to Louis so that we can kill him to break the Prince's curse. This is an okay reasoning and purpose on its own based on what the characters know at the time. But is it good?

• Plot-wise, it's a bit weak there is no long-term plan because once we kill Louis, then Forden will become the king. Do we want that? I can somewhat accept the focus on short-term goal of breaking the curse because that's the highest priority, but that led to my next point.

• If we are focusing on short-term goal of just killing Louis to break the curse, why do we not just align our pretend entry with his? It makes no sense to try to get Louis' attention by being goody-goody candidate.

• Gameplay-wise, it makes no sense either that we are entering the tournament just to get close to Louis without us wanting to win, especially with how in-your-face the game is with the rankings.

It really feels like the story is written backwards so that it only makes sense if you knew what the end would be like. Forden becomes the king is not a problem when we know he's going to be killed. Being goody-goody to get close to Louis is not an issue when we know that we're going to be a real candidate so we have to be good. Gameplay issue not an issue if we know that MC is the Prince so he'll become number 1. To me, it just feels like the story doesn't grow organically. The plot doesn't feel like it move forward based on what happened. I still want us to enter the tournament, but I really wish it's done better than what we got

My second major issue is worse for me. The opera house mission and its subsequent events. So we all know what happened, basically in short we killed Louis and he isn't dead. But there's more than just that.

Now before I go any deeper into my issue, I want to start by saying that when we killed Louis at the rooftop of the opera house, he asked something along the line of "but why are you trying to kill me?" as he fell to his death. This is one of my favorite moments of all time in my video gaming experience because I thought it would've led to something amazing. There was genuine bewilderment in Louis' question (or at least the English VA, not sure intentional or not) that really made me question "is he really not involved with the Prince's curse?" which then made me think it has to be Forden and this is the moment where we switch the main villain from Louis (the brash in-your-face baddie villain) into Forden (the pretend-to-be-good evil mastermind behind the curtain). This would've been great for me, but unfortunately it didn't happen. Instead, what happened next are some of the biggest let-downs in my video gaming experience. This went from 100 to 0 real quick.

• Louis is still alive. Because Zorba is also still alive. I'm generally not a fan bringing back the dead because it really invalidated the previous experience. While this one has reasonable explanation that Zorba is the kind of character that plays with the dead/undead, it gave me the same impression as my previous major issue that it feels things are written backwards. We only get to kill Louis and Zorba because they are going to get resurrected. All of the impact that Louis left with his dead are immediately thrown out of the window.

• To make things even worse, Forden is immediately killed by Louis. This is among the worst things that could've happened right after Louis' resurrection. What is even the point of having Forden as rank 1 throughout the whole game, showed enough of dodgy behavior both by himself and the church to make us question him, only for him to just die like that? Forden's role in the game ended as a major character who did almost nothing at all. Boom and he's gone.

• Not satisfied with just killing Forden, of course this is the time for Fidelio to also die. His death is already very predictable with the tons of death flags on his character throughout the story (plus the gameplay hint: one Follower slot left, only Berserker archetype to unlock = only Basilio will join the party), but the way he died is a huge let down. I get that the purpose is to show his change and that his death is heroic, but the premise is so silly. With the chaos in the opera house where everyone in the audience was free to run away, these specific group of people chose to just do nothing throughout the long dialogue. The silliness of the premise really ruined Fidelio's sacrifice because the one thing that came to mind was "why did these people not just run before?"

• To end the misery of this sequence of event, we can only do so by talking about Rella. Now that Forden is dead, the church needed a new figure head in which they chose the Saint herself. A few seconds later, she's gone. Well not really a few seconds, but we went from her being appointed as the church's first option into her pretending to be a villain against the protagonists into her revealing that she's the one who cursed the prince into revealing that she's actually good anyway and then boom dead Rella in quick succession that she came and she went just like that. There was simply no time to build Rella at all.

All in all, if the game's villain is really just Louis anyway, I feel like it's such a waste of time to include Forden/church when they weren't given anything to do at all.

In the end, if I have to choose the main core reason as to why Metaphor's story didn't feel satisfying to me, I'd have to answer with the fact that they chose to make the game's structure like Persona when there is a big difference between the two games.

• In Persona, it works to go to 1 dungeon per month because the dungeon is usually personally tied to our 1 party member. Character development/relationship is tied to the story progression. The school year is also long enough to do this (though of course they still screw it up by having the last party member joining way too late)

• In Metaphor, it doesn't work at all because the plot is independent of our party members. Jamming in Heismay and Eupha into the plot/tournament felt very awkward because they were not related to the story at all but the game had to develop them as our future party members. Same to my earlier point, the writing felt backwards. It's even worse because Metaphor's calendar is shorter than Persona so there's less in-game time to properly develop the story.

To not end the post with rants, I want to give positive comment to the twist of MC being the prince. That was really unexpected and actually done well.

So now that you have some time to think about the game after you finished it, what are your thoughts about the story?

I've just finished the 2023 remake of Star Ocean 2. I played the game with no nostalgia for the original and without referencing guides. I don't think this is a good game!

The three core pillars of the JRPG loop are poor. The combat is absolutely braindead mashy. I've played Dynasty Warriors games where I had to pay more attention to timing and positioning. The soundtrack also underperforms. Loops are short, irritating, and reused frequently. There's one dungeon track that has a really good synth prog rock sound, but every other dungeon theme and ALL the town themes are irritating.

And the story? So bad. Any character who's not one of the main couple has zero relevant participation in any plot beat because they may or may not have been recruited. And the story between the two leads is the most tepid early 90's "boy meets girl, boy acts childish and immature, girl falls for him, things work out for the boy because he's a protagonist". There's a sequence of decisions made by Claude C Kenny at the midpoint of this game that defy all logic and self preservation and it all works out for him just fine because reasons. This is representative of the writing quality across the whole game.

There ARE cool ideas. I like the structure of a short game meant to be replayed with a party that will vary based on various triggers. I like that the skill system is really powerful, giving you multiple angles to attack progression from and multiple paths to powering up your characters. I like there being a ton of stuff for the player to discover both mechanically and just in there being a ton of optional content.

And the remake is also super well done! The new art is amazing, on field encounters are done super well, new graphics look great, the UI is suuuuper slick. Equip wizard when you get gear is great. Fast travel is great and extremely granular. The new stun bar in combat does a little to minimize the monotony of it all. This really feels like the best possible version of Star Ocean 2. Not a single thing stands out as something that was cut for budget or poorly integrated.

But... the best possible version of Star Ocean 2 still isn't a good game. Substance matters. This game lacks memorable places and faces, has boring combat, has a trite and largely nonsensical story, and has a soundtrack I'll be happy to never hear again.

If the structure and growth systems of this game were applied to a game that actually got the basic JRPG building blocks right then it would be a stone cold classic. As-is this is a retro JRPG I'm personally considering low tier and wish I had picked a different game to play in October.

Early today I beat a game called Fate/Extra for the PSP, It's part of the Fate series which spam across anime, manga and other media, however Fate/Extra is my first contact with the Fate series, and I can confidently say I am interest into knowing more about it.

I love the story, the setting while begin set on a school is odd, I do like the holy grail with it's interesting plot points, I like almost all characters (with the exemption of that clown and Dracula), someone smarter than me can explain why the story of Fate/Extra is so good, but the fact that I was able to beat a game with terrible gameplay because of it speaks volumes for how good the story is.

Talking about gameplay, it might be one of the worst Turn base combat system I have ever played , but I will admit it's really bad in a unique way, most bad turn base JRPG fall into 2 categories, either it's TOOOOOOOO slow like most old school Turn base JRPG, in which battle animations take too long and the game's paces goes to a crawling halt or the battle system is too unbalanced and you have to grind for hours to be able to progress , Fate/Extra is neither I would go as far as to say it's bad in a fundamental level, because the other games above could be easily fixed by either making the battle animations go faster (Which you can already do with emulation) or re-balancing the game changing enemies stats to make it better game, but Fate/Extra is bad because of the simple fact that playing a rock paper scissor game, where you have to guess or look at a guide online to fight against enemies is not fun at all, you have to wonder WHO at Imageepoch or Type-moon thought this was a good idea, specially during weeks 6-8 where enemies panthers can be really complex and going through dungeons feels like a dice roll between surviving a enemy or dying to a common mob because you chose paper instead of rock.

Even with a guide looking through complex enemies panthers while having little to no clue as to what to do next is just frustrating, a guide is not only need to fight the enemies but it's necessary to progress the story correctly, having to switching between the game and my web browser every 5 seconds is not the most pleasant experience.

Going back to the positive aspect of this game, I really like the music of these game, while really short for a 20 hour long game having only 28 tracks EVERY single one of them is good, I just which it had more, because if it wasn't for that Fate/Extra could be easily be one of the best game OST of all time, every music in this game is a delight to hear, the game is also very pretty looking , being one of the best looking PSP games.

Fate/Extra fits perfectly the definition of a game with a good story and bad gameplay, and it will be the game on the top of my mind when a topic like that appears, I wouldn't judge anyone for not wanting to play this game and instead watching a gameplay on youtube or the anime adaption, I just hope the gameplay on the remake is as good as the story is because if that is the case the remake of this game will be one of the best games of 2025.

Hi, this is my first post on Reddit, so pardon me if there are any mistakes. I recently finished Metaphor and I'm looking for recommendations that could provide similar experiences to Tales of the Abyss, Metaphor, and Tales of Arise. Specifically, I’m interested in games where the items you equip—armor and weapons—actually show up on your in-game character. I don’t mind lackluster stories if the gameplay, aesthetics, and customization are good, but I wouldn’t want a game where good customization is its only strong suit. This might be very hyper-specific, but I would be really grateful if you all could help. I mainly play on PC, but I wouldn’t mind PlayStation recommendations as well.

Be it modern urban or high fantasy, I just feel like playing a JRPG-type that takes place mostly in and around a city or cities. PS, Switch, PC or even Xbox. Most any playstyle.

One of my all time faves is Radiata Stories, mostly because of how alive and vibrant the city felt.

This recent desire to play something like this has been spurred on by watching clips of Metaphor (can't afford) and the current season of Re:Zero

The year has been a great year for JRPG fans. We got the long awaited sequel to FF7 remake and then we got Metaphor which had been highly anticipated and teased before it's release. Both have highs and downs and both are genuinely loved by their representative fandom. There are some things that Metaphor doe better than FF7 Rebirth and vice versa. The question is which of them would you prefer? Which of the do you think is superior? Do you love Metaphor's fantasy world more? Or perhaps you enjoy playing a hand of Queen's blood more?

Pardon me for suddenly posting, but I was considering getting into the game as I am looking for a used copy of it on EBay, and basically I was interested in knowing what was so special about the PS3 version as I heard that it had some new features exclusive to it, and I wanted to know about key differences between it and the 360 version.

Like if the PS3 version is the definitive version for those new to the game as I want to give the game a try to see what it's like, but again I want to know what I am getting myself into first.

However, if this is the wrong place to ask about such about an old game, please let me know so that I can find out where to discuss PS3 based RPGs as I am really interested in giving the game a chance, but I didn't know where I could discuss such games basically.

I just finished Infinite Wealth (loved it) but now I really feel like playing something light and low stakes. Maybe a bit on the shorter side.

Do you have an recommendations for Steam or PS5?

(I am not picky about graphic style, battle style, sub genre etc)

Heya, guys. Sorry for the weird title. I'll try to explain what I mean here. A bit of a disclaimer before anything, I quite like RPGs. Certainly the genre I play the most, but I do have to say that JRPGs are usually not on my radar much. That's not to say that I dislike them though. Just that they usually don't offer what I'm looking for in a RPG, I guess. I'm only saying this because perhaps what I gonna to say might not be something that happens all the time since I haven't played as many JRPGs as probably some of you have or maybe what I gonna say isn't even something people consider an issue at all, but it bothers me slightly all the same. Anyway, here's what I mean and I hope I don't end up rambling too much lol:

So, I bought Metaphor Refantazio awhile ago. I actually quite enjoy Shin Megami Tensei, so I was looking forward for this one. Pretty good game so far! To prevent spoilers I'll try to be vague and not mention any of the characters names here, but will put in spoilers all the same. I believe that anyone that have played will know who I'm talking about however:

!Early in the game you help out a person in finding the fate of their friend. They don't join our party or anything, but it's mentioned that they are skilled in battle. They don't really see all that much though. They have an unique cool design, but you'll be hard pressed to think they are super powerful or anything of the sort. Later, when the plot advances a bit, this very same person becomes a miniboss. They fight your entire party alone (that at this point of this game is complete with 4 members). They keep going on and on in how strong your character is for defeating them and how our unique power is something to behold , but like, it was 4x1! And if you aren't prepared you might even lose this battle because they hit hard. I don't feel powerful for winning this fight. Not to mention, this also happens against even less remarkable characters that also function as minibosses in your travels. They fight alone, they are not meant to look impressive, but there they are holding their own against our so powerful protagonist and his full squad that all have unique powerful abilities. There's a certain disparity of how our character is perceived and what the gameplay is like!<

I mentioned this example, but this happens in many other games I have played. Super Mario RPG that I played a few months ago. The >!Jinx!< fight where your whole team fight them, a small little boss, and when you all three gang up upon them, you are this almighty fighter. Breath of Fire 2, that I played in my childhood and replayed not too long ago (really dislike this game, but that's beside the point), your character is also perceived as very strong, but usually the boss is fighting alone against your full team. The early Final Fantasy games are also like that. I just don't feel

I understand this seems like a very petty thing to be bothered with perhaps lmao, but per example, a game that I have been playing quite a lot these days. Baldur's Gate 3. Your team is often outnumbered. Even very strong bosses are often aided by many minions and other strong allies. At least for me, winning a fight in this game really makes you feel powerful, in contrast to those examples I mentioned. Also, I'm a huge fan of solo challenge runs. Mostly for the RP and power fantasy aspect and BG3 have some reactivity towards that. Speaking about SMT, while it's obviously a team based game, you can still try solo run challenges in some of them as well and I do enjoy trying them out.

I'm not sure where I'm going on with this, but I do wonder how you guys feel about what I said. Also, I wouldn't mind some recommendations of JRPGs that perhaps go against what I mentioned. That could be fun!

Cheers

I recently fell in love with Atlus, well kinda, just through smt. Played smtiv, a, v, nocturne, devil survivor 1&2 and overclocked and record breaker. Couldnt really get into soul hackers and persona can't really stand the school aspect or drawing paths/dungeons so no etiran odyssey. Also played luminous arc. I have a ds, 3ds, switch. Any other games I should check out by atlus? I saw a post recommending radiant historia and romancing saga? My friend recommended triangle strategy and ogre tactics.

I was hoping to get some game recommendations which I can play on my switch.

What I am looking for in a game:

• Turn based
• Good storyline + likeable characters
• Would prefer games with more modern graphics

Games that I have played which I liked:

• Fire Emblem Three Houses and Engage
• Dragon Quest XI S Definitive Edition
• Harvestella (I really like the art style of that game)
• I am Setsuna

Games I have played which I did not like:

• Unicorn Overlord (I didn't really like the battle mechanics)

• Person 5 (I have played 8 hrs and at that point I think the pace was a bit slow, but I want to get back into it)

• Atelier Ryza (I was not into the storyline and I didn't really get into the alchemy aspect)

Games I am planning to get:

• Valkyria Chronicles
• Romancing Saga 2
• Rune Factory Guardians of Azuma

So spoiler warning for the very beginning of the game

!So the lady who just killed the captain seems like shes going to be one of the main Chara tears. Please tell me she isn't. She killed the captain for such a stupid reason I hate her. I don't care if she has back story to somehow justify it, it's not justified regardless and I have zero interest in playing as her. Please tell me she's like an enemy you keep seeing or something. I mean she resembles the other main so I kinda don't think she is but I don't have much to go in yet so wanted to ask since I might just refund this well I still have time on steam or whatever! <

This list will include all the newest mainline game for each of these series. I don't consider Rebirth a mainline game, just a sequel to FFVII Remake.

If I'm honest I don't think any of these titles are bad, which heavily surprised me ESPECIALLY in terms of Star Ocean, although I do think the text is wayyyyy too small and really annoying. Everything else I've seen praised for it though.

Ys X I haven't played yet, but excited to start, love the Ys games.

Don't even have Arise or FFXVI but heard they're great. Loved Trials of Mana but haven't seen much of Visions, hope it's actually good.

Discuss!

View Poll

My wife loves Diablo 3 and 4. I am looking for a jrpg to help her get into jrpg. She is new to anime and jrpg. What would be a good start to help her fall in love with jrpg or rpg in general. We have a switch ps5 and gaming pc

She probably needs something easy and looks modern. She has also like fable. She also loved animal crossing. She is also a big fan of Alice wonderland so if there an jrpg with that it would be awesome.

I know the Top 3 best selling franchises are:

1. Pokémon

2. Final Fantasy

3. Monster Hunter

But those are by franchises, as wholes. My question is what is the SINGLE best-selling JRPG game of all time? I couldn’t find any answer online.

I'm thinking that if I play it on the PS5 on graphics mode it should still perform fine since it doesn't seem like it should be the most demanding game.

I'm honestly not even sure why there are two different modes but maybe they just have those two modes for PS5 even though they don't need them and those two modes are mainly for the switch version. Thoughts?

I have never been able to get into SaGa games in the past. Something has always held me back from digging in deeply. Getting lost, feeling underpowered and poor, and just not understanding what the heck I was doing.

But this new remake my guys - it is immaculate. The interfaces are amazing. The graphics are crisp. The gameplay is addictive and the right amount of challenge.

This game has a hold on me deeply right now. I never played this one in the past. Man parts of this game REALLY remind me of Suikoden 2 - in that you're building up your empire (base) and recruiting lots of different people to join you, although the premise is different. The game isn't super story focused but what's there is really interesting.

Anyway this game has surprised me in a big way. It's shockingly good. Right after Metaphor and before DQ3 H2-2D this game comes in and competes with these on quality. Damn.

The developer, Xeen Inc. is also the team behind the recent Trials of Mana remake as I understand it. That game was awesome too! Seriously.

If this is the level this team can bring then I say this: Square Enix you should give this team the keys to the kingdom. Romancing SaGa 3 remake. But even more. Let this team do Chrono Trigger. Holy shit they do a great job and I think it would do it justice.

Just spewing my thoughts here.

Please use this thread to discuss whatever you've been playing lately (old or new, any platform, AAA or indie). As usual, please don't just list the names of games as your entire post, make sure to elaborate with your thoughts on the games. Writing the names of the games in **bold** is nice, to make it easier for people skimming the thread to pick out the names.

Please also make sure to use spoiler tags if you're posting anything about a game's plot that might significantly hurt the experience of others that haven't played the game yet (no matter how old or new the game is).

Since this thread is likely to fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.

For a subreddit devoted to this type of discussion during the rest of the week, please check out /r/WhatAreYouPlaying.

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

I don't like playing video games but I'm very interested in the aesthetics and worldbuilding of Persona but I'm not willing to sit through the gameplay (even on Youtube playthroughs). Do you think Persona 3's or Persona 4's story would be engaging enough so as to keep me to the end? Also this is an extra question but how interconnected are Persona titles? Do I have to start with one another before moving on to the next on or can I just start with whatever title interests me the most?

Hello folks,

Being jaded towards modern gaming, I have recently gotten back into JRPGs because it is one of the few genres, that still has much love and passion put into making the games as opposed the other rehashed garbage on the market.

I have so far bought and played through FF7 remake, Playing FF7 Rebirth (half way done), I have Metaphor lined up and I just ordered all 3 Xenoblade games because good people here have raved so much about them. I have also bought Judgement 1 and 2 because I really loved Shenmue back in the day.

I am now looking at maybe Shin Megami Tensei Vengeance and Persona 5 Royal.

I have seen a lot of general comments saying Royal is a masterpiece, one of the best games ever made etc.

On the surface, it doesn't look interesting to me. I like Sword and sorcery type fantasy, but I am open minded and wouldn't mind trying something, I just wanna know what makes the game so good? Is the story great? Gameplay?

Thanks.

I’m curious to hear opinions on things like minimaps, waypoints, and instructions pointing you to the next objective in JRPGs.

Modern games often lean into guiding the player heavily, with markers and text to ensure you never feel lost. For most (?), that’s probably preferable, especially in todays larger, more complex worlds. But perhaps for others it feels like it takes away the thrill of exploration and discovery.

So, which of these styles do you prefer?

• Constant Guidance: Minimap, pointers, and objectives always visible on screen.
• On-Demand Help: Minimap/pointers/objective appear briefly when pressing a button.
• Classic No-Guidance: No guidance at all, relying on exploring, talking to NPCs, and figuring things out on your own.

Are there any JRPGs you feel do a good job of this? Interested in your thoughts.

Hi everyone, JRPGs are some of my favorite video games but I find that the writing and dialogue between characters is sometimes lacking or comes off not very natural / over dramatic. I tend to prefer more subtly when it comes to writing. Also nothing makes me more absorbed in a story than well written and realized characters. I’m curious which JRPGs you think has this writing and characterization?

Edit:

Thanks for all the responses, you guys are awesome

###[Atelier Elie GB - English fan translation patch]

A huge thank you to Mayday, on reddit as user u/_mday, for making and releasing the English patch for Atelier Elie GB for the Game Boy Color.

​

~ Description ~

After graduating from the academy and opening up a alchemy shop, Elfir Traum is requested by the fairy tribe's elder to take care of an apprentice fairy

(This part is taken from the fandom page (Link))

​

#~ The Links ~

• Here is the Github patch link.

• Here is the English patch announcement thread on r/Atelier

​

#~ The Team ~

• Mayday - Translation

Finally as always please drop a thank you to people who worked on this patch, it takes years of hard work doing hacking, programming, translating, editing, and testing to bring these patches to the JRPG community, and all of it is done for free, so if you're going to use it or hell even if you won't, a thank you wouldn't cost you anything.

As the title suggests, I'm looking for a good turn-based RPG to play. PC is my platform and I'd highly prefer buying from Steam, I'm open to other store fronts as long as they don't require a launcher (Ex GOG).

Features I'd like:

Turn based combat in the sense of Final Fantasy, not Tactics Ogre/X-Com, I think what I mean is not Isometric? I don't want to movement and positioning to be a major factor.

Flashy looking spells / skills - The spells and Summons of games like FF9 are a huge selling point for me

Prefer modern visuals over Anime / Cartoon / Chibi, but I realize most games go with one of these.

Class based character progression, bonus points if you can interchange skills between multiple classes to create hybrids.

HUGE preference for high-fantasy setting similar to classic FF games, Knights and Magic and such. Think D&D. Other settings are not a dealbreaker.

I like Legend of Dragoon's Quick time event style attacks, but I think that's the only game that does those? Rest of the game was kinda meh (did not finish).

Some of the games I've liked:

Final Fantasy 9 - Favorite in the series, love the visuals and story, also I like Class systems.

Metaphor ReFantazio - Still playing through it but I love the Archetype and Turn-press systems. The dungeons are a bit bland, and I could really do without the Social skills and forced time limit. This doesn't mean I dont like developing the relationships or speaking with party members, I just don't want to have "abstract stat X at level Y" to continue the conversation.

Final Fantasy 7 - Better item system than 9 but I prefer pretty much everything else 9 did.

Baldur's Gate 3 - Beat it and am playing through it again with my SO, not exactly what I'm looking for combat-wise from this post though.

Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2 - See above.

Games I've tried but didn't really stick:

Persona 5 Royal - I really dislike the Pokemon style feature of this game where you gotta collect all the demons to get their masks and then blend them together to make stronger ones. I find it incredibly tedious and dull, and I don't like guessing my way through the interactions to capture them. I also don't care for the time limit similar to Metaphor's issues for me, I don't like feeling rushed. I do find the combat in this game to be excellent and fun, and I played up through finishing the first castle. I don't really care for the setting in the real world but the Persona world is cool and fun. Castle exploring is great.

Trails in the Sky and Trails of Cold Steel - Sky felt too slow paced, Cold Steel I probably didn't give as much of a chance as I should, but I just remember not finding the initial setting to be very compelling.

Octopath Traveler 2 - I loved it at first but the story started feeling way too spread out and tedious.

My dislike of Persona's monster taming has lead me to steer clear of the Shin Megami tensei series altogether, as from what I understand it's a central pillar of the game, but I have not otherwise tried it.

Sorry for how long this is, I'd love some recommendations if you made it this far.

That game is nowhere mentioned enough when i would say its easily top 3 one of the best status system in any RPG ive played. The game is nearly 10 years old and it manages to master the elemental/status system before everyone else because the dev feel like an actual JRPG fan that know the in and out of how the system work. Anyone who want to design a status system in the future i HIGHLY recommend playing EBF5.

Con:

-This is not a Japanese game, this is made by a western dev who love playing JRPG.

-This is technically also count as a parody an reference game. The game have ALOT of references and jokes, alot of which are probably outdated.

-If you are looking for a good story then sadly i have to say that the series isnt really known for having any amount of story. BUT if you want to experience one of the best combat system for a turn based RPG then i highly recommend it

Now with that out of the way, let me tell you just how good this system is. Element, Status and debuffs work very intertwinably in this game.

-water attack inflict Wet status which do nothing like burn but Increased upcoming ice and electric attacks while HALVED upcoming fire damage

- Earth attack inflict Tired, Reduce accuracy and evade every turn and take more poison damage.

-Ice attack inflict chill. Chill: take more damage from water and ice, half poison damage. double the chance of getting freeze by ice attack. Cleansed by fire damage

+wet + chill = instant freeze. Freezed unit can be left there and lose their next turn, if they are attacked, they take DOUBLE damage but thaw instantly; OR they can also thawed by healing

-most Fire attack can cause burn status, burn status have the typical reduce hp per turn. Burn status can be cleansed by water attacks

-Some fire attack instead of inflicting burn, inflict dry instead. Dry: take more damage from fire and bomb damage, higher chance of being inflicted with burn and a chance to be inflicted with "scorched" that can reduce a target's max hp. Cleansed by water damage.

-There is also a "weather" system where either the characters or the enemy can change the weather that is inside the combat. The unique weather will inflict a status every single turn. You can set it to rain every single turn, you can set it to burn every single turn, you can set the weather to randomly give any unit a double turn next turn, you can set it to have a chance to cleanse next turn.

-Some status do Damage per turn, some status instead inflict stat debuff or buff every turn. Some increase this and reduce that damage and vice versa, some negate all of this type of damage but double the other type. ALOT of them are STACKABLE, mind you, and you can set up where an enemy can take 10 times damage by your next attack. I can go on and on about how good the game is.

Trust me, once you try it out, almost every other element/status system feel outdated(sorry Atlus). And if you are worrying about there's too much status to keep track off, then the game also have one of the best UI in any JRPG, every info can be hover over to see more detail. You can see enemy's stat any time you want and you can change party member any time you like without having to pop up 3 or four windows/tab to check

Edit: i forgot to mention you can technically capture 99% of the enemies including bosses. Alot of them provide very unique uses that the players normally dont have, stuffs like full cleanse, full negate certain type of damage, a whole extra turn, unique statuses

Hear me out. All these examples have been proven to be hits in one way or another going past the video game media. We can even add in totally meta meme humor to get viral clout for better or worse.

So have I created the formula to making JRPG's great again or is this just some weird shower thought?

I have finished FF7 Remake & Rebirth, thinking to understand the story more and wanted to dive into FF7 OG, but i don't really like the graphics.. (i mean is 1997..) and turn based combat.. Tried to play Crisis Core but the game suck too.. How did yall get over the graphics of OG and play it?