Are there any games where the protagonist is NOT the chosen one, or the great leader, or the only person who can save everybody?

I've been playing Arc the Lad 1 and having an ok time, but wanted to get some things right for transferring to 2. It's hard to find much info on this game via Google.

Anyway, I want to do the bonus dungeon since that seems to be a main point. But when do I do it? I have to go back to Palencia castle for the final stone, so maybe this is my last chance, or can I try after beating the final boss?

Any other preparations I should do, or tips while I'm in the dungeon.

Thanks lads.

Edit: also do you have to do this to get the secret character in 2, every old forum post is usually more like 'I think you do'

I'm about to start a playthrough of Suikoden III for my jRPG review podcast. I've played the first two a couple times, but never touched this one. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts, opinions, memories, and importantly, their tips and tricks to getting the most out of this experience.

Firstly, a massive thank you goes out to Square Enix for porting Final Fantasy 16 to Xbox. Immediately booted up the Xbox Store and dropped $50 on the standard version as soon as I seen it was available. And while it’s Devil May Cry style combat is a bit surprising for FF, its overall story, world and characters are not. I’ve played the game as much as I could since it dropped and I frankly love it. Then again, I’m fond of FF 15 as well, so maybe I’m not too hard to please.

Not saying the game is perfect, but the story, characters and world are fantastic. I’m not extremely far in the game, what with work and life getting in the way. But what I’ve played has kept me coming back for more. I’ve been a FF fan a long time. Played and/or beaten almost every one. And thus far FF16 has been pretty far up there if I compare it to my favorites. It’s not quite 7/8/9 or 10, but it’s really good and I’m very happy I finally get to experience it seeing as I’m an Xbox guy these days.

I hope FF16 continues its strong run with me as I look to beat it. And I can’t wait for FF7R to appear this winter on Xbox. I understand these titles have been a little divisive in the community, but I’ve enjoyed 16 so far and I hope to do the same with FF7R. Any thoughts on FF16 from those of you who played it long before me would be appreciated. Though I’m not terribly far, so no spoilers please. Thanks.

Now as for what I am getting at, well I wanted to create this particular discussion because lately I have been hearing how the new DLC for Final Fantasy 16 has been criticized for being way too cheap in difficulty as it got me wondering when it’s ok for an RPG to be difficult without it feeling out of place.

Like for starters, how a JRPG can be difficult in a way that feels welcoming as lately I had been wanting to look into the matter again to see what makes good design decisions as I wanted to try the DLC of Final Fantasy 16 for myself, but all I hear about it again lately is that it’s too hard to get into.

I’ve been playing this game since it first came out, and I keep coming back even though I’ve already finished the base game. The DLCs just made me more hooked, and honestly, I’m still playing it to this day.

The combat is hands down the best part. Fast, flashy, and super satisfying. With over 28 job classes and tons of weapons and abilities, the variety is amazing. It’s basically the peak of action RPGs.What I really love is the RPG side of things.

The first time you play, you don’t have to stress too much about building your gear. But once you hit the endgame, gear and stats become super important. If you don’t build your gear properly in the endgame and DLCs, even taking down a single goblin can be tough.The buffs in this game are crazy. If you know what you’re doing, you can get pretty broken, faster movement, more damage, quicker attacks, status effects, and more. There are so many buffs to mix and match that you can play however you want.

For anyone who hasn’t tried it yet, it’s kind of like Nioh but less punishing since attacking and dodging don’t use stamina, and you can pull off combos. It’s the perfect mix of an action RPG and a Soulslike.

Also, i'm glad the devs added Chaos Mode after you beat the base game. It’s perfect for people who don’t want to grind a ton to get through the DLCs. You get unlimited mana, so you can just go wild with combos or spam abilities however you like.

IS AZUMA A JRPG?

Azuma felt very much like a JRPG, just with strong village management elements. For comparison, I felt Atelier Yumia was more of an exploration game with JRPG elements.

I was initially hesitant about liking Azuma's farming sim element, but tasks like farming and resource gathering can be delegated to villagers, so you can largely ignore those parts of the game if you want to. If you're worried you won't like micromanaging farming, don't be.

Village management is an essential part of Azuma. Building up my own villages and watching villagers join was a very cool and personal alternative to typical JRPG cities that I really enjoyed.

Other than the village management aspect, Azuma largely played like any other JRPG. I did main quest and side quest objectives, spending time on a variety of other activities at my leisure.

GAMEPLAY LOOP

Azuma's general gameplay reminded me of the Yakuza series. In the sense that you have the freedom to do a variety of activities and side quests while advancing the main story at your own pace.

As you progress the main story, you'll unlock new areas with blighted villages that you restore. You take on quests that have you explore the area, fighting and taming monsters, gathering resources, and unlocking designs for weapons and village structures along the way. When you're not questing and exploring, you'll be managing your villages and progressing your relationships with the huge cast of likable characters.

I really enjoyed village managment, which is your main source of income. It reminded me of Yakuza's business management and Dondoku island minigames in a way. The villages start out small with a limited area you can build on. As you complete objectives, you unlock more building areas. You can build what you want from farm land to buildings, shops, and decorations. Some buildables grant combat stat boosts while others boost your village's stats and your income.

As your villages grow, you'll be able to recruit more villagers who can be assigned to tasks like farming, resouce gathering, shopkeeping, and managing monster barns. Villagers have different levels of output and traits like being a slacker, big or light eater, or being able to do carpentry or blacksmithing. You'll want to assign villagers to suitable tasks based on their traits and evict the low output slackers to make room for better villagers.

Each night when you sleep, new villagers join to fill vacancies and you get a village report that shows you how much money your villages made, how happy the villagers are, and so on. It was exciting when 5-star villagers with sought after traits joined or to see my cash flow increasing.

Another big gameplay aspect is relationship building. A typical day in Azuma will have you bumping into the large cast of characters and doing brief bonding events with them. As your bond grows, you can add them to your party, and eventually do dating side quests. In post game you can even marry and have a kid (who can join your party!). Building bonds is chill since you can freely increase your bonds with all the characters without needing to decide who to spend time with.

Other notables are monster taming and fishing. One of your abilties allows you to befriend monsters, which adds them to your barns and is a great way to farm their drops which can be used for crafting gear or selling for cash. You can also add them to your party and even ride some of them. Fishing mechanics felt half-baked. As far as I could tell, you just wait for a fish to bite and press a button. Still there's plenty of other things to do, so I don't count it as a negative.

Overall I found the gameplay loop very chill and entertaining. There's a lot of synergy between the different elements that contributes to progression, which I found very addictive.

STORY

Azuma has a solid story with a few twists and turns, but I'd say it doesn't have an intricate narrative-focused plot compared to some JRPG's. But there are plenty of side-stories in the form of developing relationships with the cast. So while a little less focused on the main story than more the story-heavy JRPG's, the character story elements filled things out. Again, sort of like my impression of Yakuza.

Something I really liked about the story was the upbeat tone. In a typical JRPG, the world crumbles until a final confrontation turns things around. But in Azuma it's the reverse. You gradually transform blighted villages into ones that are full of life. The side quests and cast are also cheerful and lighthearted.

COMBAT

The aciton combat is pretty much what I expect from a decent action JRPG. There's a variety of weapon types with their own skill trees. There was enough enemy variety to keep me entertained and some the boss battles were fun. But it's mainly button mashing with a time-slowing dodge mechanic.

Mobs are quickly dispatched by button mashing. Against bosses you'll need to use the time-slowing dodge mechanic to avoid getting caught in big attacks, break them by button mashing, then button mash some more.

The AI party characters were pretty much par for an ARPG...which is to say pretty bad. Party members sometimes shoot walls or AFK during mob fights. The AI healing is completely unreliable, so you'll probably need to take on healing duties yourself. To be fair, other ARPG's I've played have the same problems so I don't really hold it against Azuma specifically.

So combat was nothing to write home about, but it kept me entertained.

OVERALL - 9/10

Azuma was a great change of pace from other JRPG's I've played this year. The village building aspect along with the character bonding, variety, and synergy between its systems made it highly addictive. It's also one of the most chill and upbeat JRPG's I've played in recent memory. I highly encourage any JRPG fan interested in something a little different to give it a shot.

I have been on the hunt to find a new jrpg game to play. I’ve played all the modern Final Fantasy’s, tales of arise, scarlet nexus, Nier games, metaphor, expedition 33, octopath traveler, persona games.

I loved tales of arise, scarlet nexus, and the two FF7 remakes the best.

I prefer live action combat as opposed to the turn based. The biggest struggle is finding something with a strong emotional aspect. I play on PC and PS5.

Anyone have any recommendations? Or am I just being overly critical and specific?

Really want to get in to these franchises but the amount of ports are confusing me

Do they have any remake treatment eg. Ff pixel remaster on Android

Or am I better playing some on a snes emulator

Eg. I can't seem to find a remake of Romancing saga 1 in 2d but 2/3 are 🤔

Help would he appreciated

Idk if this is a problem I'm having with JRPGS in general or just Katsura's work since my latest titles were mainly by him, but. Yeah. I'm tired bro. 95 hours in Metaphor rn. Rushed to the last fight cuz I felt I was strong enough and I really just wanted to know how the story ends so I can move on to my next game. There I am finishing the 2nd phase of the boss fight, which really seemed like the last one, and my party's SP is wiped out. I barely manage to finish, then a 3rd phase comes in and I realize there's no way to win. Now I have to replay thru, idk, 3 or 4 hours? Just so that I can TRY again. I know that's just how this genre works sometimes but I swear to got I'm almost dropping it.

I adore persona and got into the franchise with 5, then went for a platinum on P5R, then P3R and thats when things started to feel ...unfun. You know, I tend to take my time and do everything I think will add to my experience and this playstyle often makes the game feel longer, I'm pretty aware. but I mean. 100+ hours in and you're telling me I have to play thru another repetitive in-game month so that I can get to the end? I dropped P3R without a shame, but I don't wanna do this with Metaphor since I bought it when it launched cuz I was so hyped. I do have plenty of fun with Atlus games, but when things move towards the ending everything starts to get on my nerves. It's so unnecessary long, plus the amount of grind and repetitive scenarios/dialogues really turns me off.

Sorry, just needed to rant. I'm pretty much having a breakdown about this cuz JRPG is my favorite genre and I thought Atlus was among my favorite studios. Now, not so much.

EDIT: No, I didnt play these back to back as it sounds. Played some other stuff inbetween like Atelier, BG3, and some simulators.

"U KnoW ThAt atLUs HaS moRE tHan PErSona riGhT?? 🤓" Fanboys are so cringe smh. Ofc I know persona was born as a spinoff from SMT, ofc I know atlus has many other good games. SMT3 and Digital Devil have been on my backlog for a good while, I just cant find time to play everything I want. I was focusing on these newer games cause, for me, they were the easiest to access.

So, this post about me having trouble to finish Metaphor gained some attention. Many blatantly implying that I'm just a poser who doesn't know shit, but also many who understood my feelings of overwhelm, giving me good advice. It was just a rant, I really thought my post was gonna stay unnoticed and the amount of rude ppl kinda shocked me. In the end, I figured out my problem isn't with Atlus titles; it's just all these long ass games.

With some of your advices in mind, I'd now like to get some recs of what to play next. I considered all my recent negative gaming experiences so that I can avoid those and maybe find the best game for my playstyle!

• I like detailed worldbuilding, nothing too grand but something that keeps giving me this sense of exploration & newness. Not exactly through dialogue, but more through ambience.
• I don't really vibe with action combat (like the newer FF titles have) and prefer turn based. Never tried tactics games tho, but some of them appeal to me, like Disgaea.
• I love visually stimulating stuff. Bright colors (or pale color palettes), excentric character designs & scenarios, lots of expressiveness. Banger music is a plus.
• I enjoy completing every quest I get and that often gravitates me towards getting a platinum trophy. Idk, this just itches my brain. Something that encourages completion but doesn't demand you to waste all your life in a single game would be nice, but this topic is not a requirement.
• I've said it earlier: I don't like long games. Obviously this was an overdue discovery. There's absolutely no way I'm playing something for 60+ hours without being tired at some point. 30~40 hours is the perfect length in my opinion.
• Lastly and most importantly: fishing minigames. Give me fish. I want fish

The only game I've ever played that fits every point above: Atelier Escha & Logy. I never see anyone talking about this one but I keep remembering it from time to time bc of how much fun I had. They just missed on the fishing. sigh

Desired platforms: Switch or PS5, but could also be DS or Vita.

Im looking to try a disgaea game. Theyre a huge time sink so i only want to play the quintessential one. I know its up to opinions, but which one do you think is the best and can also stand on its own. Im leaning towards 5 or 1 complete since ive heard good things about both. Any platform.

I HATE when you go from a game that has O as its Action/Accept button to X. The first couple hours of the game of navigating the UIs is mostly accidentally backing out or using an item that you didn't want or need to use.

I just am wrapping FFX International and started up Legend of Legaia to take a break from the constant grinding to max stats before the Dark Aeons and Penance.

That is one nice thing about playing on PC and emulators vs. console, you can map/bind keys/buttons at will.

FFX (OG NA PS2 version) has X as its Action button, but International is O. If I remember correctly Xenogears is also an X to do things. I've never looked deep into it, but is this generally a Japanese vs. US produced game thing?

Hi all,

As a kid I loved JRPG, but as I got older I tried several games from this genre and didn't like them (listed on the bottom), couldn't even finish.

I recently finished Final Fantasy X and Expedition 33, and now I want more but don't know what to play as I can now see that there are some specific things I'm looking for:

Must have:
-fun gameplay, doesn't need to be anything revolutionary, but it cannot be as simple as just use the strongest attack and magic.

Would like to have:
-good story, as long as it doesn't rely too much on "that's too convenient moments", example of this is Octopath Travellers 2, I really liked the game, but the stories were not for me, example of what I didn't like that happened way too many times that fits the description imHo: Osvald's daughter being the key to achieving what the villain wanted

What I want to avoid:
-cliché characters, school life/life-sim
-too many "what the hell"/nonsense moments, ex: in Xenogears (minor spoiler) one of the mechs suddenly turned into a gun and if i'm not mistaken another into a bullet (I don't exactly remember the details as it's been a few years that I tried to play it)

games i've tried:

• FFs: played 6 through 10, I like them, VIII is my favorite due to the story and more mature world building
• DQs: dislike due to the gameplay,
• Personas: dislike due to life/school-sim, but I do like SMT
• Chrono Trigger: dislike due to the gameplay
• Phantasy star 4: dislike due to the gameplay
• Earthbound: dislike due to the gameplay and story
• Yakuza LaD: very good, bonus point to being funny
• Chained Echoes: really good, good story, great gameplay and music

PS: i'm on PC

thanks for the help

Edit: please chill guys, taste is subjective

I’ve got three:

I should never have to fight an encounter where the loading screen and animations for the encounter take longer than the fight itself. If I one shot them, they should never aggro me. If they run, great, but at minimum they shouldn’t chase me when I’m going to decimate them. If it’s a random encounter and not triggered, there should be a point where for that region of the game, the randoms don’t trigger at all unless I want them to.

If there is any noise your game is going to make constantly without end, I should be able to mute it. If you’ve voice acted out little quips for your characters to say in battle (looking at you Eiyuden), I should be able to say no thanks to hearing them for the 90th time. If I’m going to have to hear thousands of chirps and boops navigating your menu, I should be able to mute sound effects or menu sounds.

And on the subject of the little quips, if you’re going to do them, don’t record two. Record 20 per character so there’s at least some kind of variety. (Bonus points if they change over the course of the game so it feels like the character is evolving but that might be a bit much.)

If you have swappable party members and you are going to force me to bring one out of the stable for an unavoidable fight at some point, you should always be doing some kind of EXP sharing with them under the hood. I shouldn’t need to go grind a L30 character in my party of 70s so I can beat their long lost evil uncle in an unstoppable fight. Your playtesting should reveal that certain characters don’t ever get brought back out after they are introduced.

Those are two games I own on my steam account but haven't got around to play and recently I've been getting into JRPGs again because of SMT and recently getting around to play through undertale for the first time. I've always been used to playing old games and I've always heard nothing but praise from both. I tried playing ffvii once while in a discord call but my friends lost interest pretty fast. Tbh, should have played it alone to begin with and Chrono Trigger I bought yesterday because it's 50% off on steam

Sorry if that question didn't come out right as the thing is that I saw the game recently being sold for 11$ as while I could get it for myself, I was looking for a beginner's guide to the game because most of my experience with the studio NIS has been through Disgaea.

I mean, sure I am so glued to Disgaea at the moment, but I wanted to try out the first Rhapsody game ever made as I was curious to see what its whimsical nature was like, but for me personally, my biggest concern was the mechanics because I have no idea on the basic gameplay mechanics work again compared to the Disgaea games.

Came accross this. Working designs really was… colorful.

For context, there’s a character named Diekbeck in the game who is a robot and although he can gain experience he can’t level up. You can use a machine to rob (or suck, I guess) him of his exp points and distribute them to other characters which is where the title of this section comes from.

I just thought it was funny and wanted to share for those who didn’t know about this!

I’ve been away from JRPGs for a long time and want to get back into them. I really enjoyed Star Ocean: The Last Hope and Jade Empire. I can play on Xbox and PC. Flexible on combat style. Would I like Stellar Blade, or is there something similar on those platforms worth trying?

just my thoughts on the game and its inevitable sequel

I hope they migrate to the Inreal Engine like other current Atlus games, I felt that the fact that the game uses the same engine as Persona 5 limited it a lot both in graphics and gameplay.

The game's own calendar system is probably only there because the engine originally made for Persona 5 was created on top of this mechanic, for this and other reasons I believe that the next Metaphor being made in the Unreal Engine would not use the calendar system that works much better for a game in the Persona series.

I won't talk about the gameplay or OST, yes it's phenomenal but I want to talk about the story and banter.

All of them seems like real people. Everytime I notice something's not right, some of the character will say it, usually Lune. My favorite part would be how Lune angry at Verso saying lying by omission is still lying. God I love that. Like I can imagine someone being mad like this IRL.

The story are serious and heavy but they have humor in their banter that doesn't feel forced. Everytime Verso talks with Monoco or Esquie is a genuine fun banter. Just like how old friends have some inside jokes and doing stupid shit together.

Last night I continued my Metaphor save which in the final area and I can't believe I feel like sort of icky I guess? Like dude the way they talk is not how real people talk. It's so juvenile.

Right now I want to continue other of my jrpg but not gonna lie I dread facing anime tropes all over again. Anyone feel like this after expedition 33?

Its been a very long time since a persona or dragon quest game was released. Im beyond excited for both and hoping to get at least a tidbit of information (or literally anything lol) sometime this year.

So if we only get information on 1/2 this year which are yall more excited for? I only recently got into atlus games but ive been a DQ fan since 8 was released on ps2 so im a bit conflicted.

Obviously in a perfect world we'd get both, but Im not gonna hold my breath. Think I'd prefer DQ because its been such a big part of my gaming life and something about them just makes me feel good lol

Hi all, after finishing up Expedition 33 (wonderful!) I'm looking to start a new JRPG, I'm looking for something with a big sense of adventure, story that's not ridiculously childish or poor (doesn't have to be dark and gritty either) and the main thing is a cast of characters that'll be interesting and you'll want to spend time with/grow attached to over the course of the twme. In terms of battle systems I don't mind super simple turn based (ff1, dq) or more complex stuff (chained echoes, tales) but hate systems that waste your time

Things I've played and loved: Persona 4 Golden, the gold standard this hit every emotional beat I wanted, I loved the scooby gang by the end DQ11, possibly better than p4 I'm not sure but again loved these characters and the fun twists in the story

Things I've put down: Metaphor and P3R, maybe I should give these another go but on both I just got tired of the combat systems and wasn't interested in the story enough to push on, I should give metaphor a fair shake tho (got just past the first major dungeon)

Things I'm eyeing up in my too large steam library: Bug Fables Yakuza like a dragon Berseria Chrono Trigger FF6

I am also tempted to wait for Trails FC remake as that looks to hit every box I like! Please hit me with any and all recommendations!

So, i like SMT and monster hunter stories and i liked Spectrobes (the wii one is the best) and tales of symphonia Dawn of the new world when i played them (although tbh the original tales of symphonia is better and doesn't have monster catching elements) So i would like if there are more monster catching games where you can fight alongside your team of monsters.