By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
kupomogli on 24 March 2013
Edit Thread
Michael-5 said:

Hm... I think you have a somewhat different taste in JRPG's then me.

Fire Emblem introduced me to SRPG's, and since then I've only played Fire Emblem, Front Mission, Advance Wars (although not an RPG), FF Tactics, Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre, ASH, and Jeanne d'Arc. I've played them pretty faithfully, I own all localized games and even some Japanese ones and for the most part beat them. I've also recently tried out Disgaea and in a weird way, I do like it.

FF Tactics was my least favorite SRPG of them all, it really focused on one character and felt like a traditional RPG with tactics gameplay. I think I really like the war theme in Tactic style games, and I love seeing character development. FE is known for character development, and I really like Front Missions style of story.

I've played Vandal Hearts, I'll probably add that to my little "keep an eye out for" list. I dunno if I would like Growlancer or Yggdra. I'll keep an eye out for Brigandine, out of all the SRPG's we've mentioned, which do you think it plays most similar to?

I'm interested in Shining Force because it looks pretty similar to Fire Emblem, and it's made by the developers on Golden Sun, and those two are my favorite handheld series. Preferably, I'd be looking for SRPG's on the handheld because I usually play them at work (I have a job which involves lots of waiting), or on roadtrips.

---

As for other JRPG's I own all the Suikodens except for II and IV, own Grandia for PS1 and Grandia 2 for Dreamcast, and I own XenoSaga 1. I loved XenoGears and XenoBlade so I want to try XenoSaga, but it has such a slow start and from clips I've seen it looks a bit boring, so I'm not going to get Ep 2 or 3 until I play 1 long enough to know if I like this or not.

Anyway, like I said you have a bit of a different taste in JRPG's then me, my favorite series have been Chrono Trigger/Cross, Super Mario RPG, Drakengard, Baten Kaitos, Fire Emblem, Golden Sun, Tactics Ogre, Suikoden, Front Mission, Tales of ___, and Retro FF games.

Lol I have a good collection up to N64/Dreamcast. PS1 and older, my collection is lacking. Vandal Hearts, Threads of Fate, Alundra, Brave Fencer, Panzer Dragoon (Saturn), and Secret of ___ games are what I think I'm interested in.

Well.  I'm mainly trying to list RPGs that you might not have played that are also good games.  This gen if you're a fan of RPGs you already know of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and as popular as Fire Emblem has became recently, that as well.  Although seeing as you didn't finish any Dragon Quest titles and most of the Final Fantasy series, I'd agree with other posts that say you should finish atleast FF4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and Dragon Quest 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Brigandine is actually like no other TRPG than Dark Wizard, so it can't really be compared to anything unless you've played Dark Wizard.  Doesn't help that Dark Wizard was on the Sega CD so it's even less known than Brigandine is.

Since you like the Tales series, you might like the Star Ocean series.  Star Ocean First Departure and Second Evolution are remakes on the PSP.  Second Evolution is less of a remake as it's the same game but relocalized, fully voiced, and two extra melee attacks are added to character attacks.  I'd recommend the PSX version of Second Story over Second Evolution though, if only because when I say fully voiced dialogue on the PSP version means fully voiced and you can't skip any of it if you read faster than the audio and want to skip it.  And there is "a lot" of storyline in this game.  Star Ocean 1 and 2 are the best in the series.  I'd recommend skipping the other two.  The Tales games are better, but these are good games and are as similar to the Tales games as you'll get without actually being Tales of whatever, except for Radiata Stories which is made by the same developer, Tri Ace(I own it but can't tell you if it's any good as it's still in my backlog.)

If you don't like the first Xenosaga, don't worry about it, that's understandable because the gameplay is complete garbage.  It's got some great mini games if you can make your way to them(XenoCard is amazing,) but I'd recommend watching the storyline to the first game and second game and then skipping both of them altogether.  The gameplay to Xenosaga 3 changes to be more closely represented of the standard RPG play style with a few small differences in gameplay and is a major upgrade in terms of the first two.  Goes from crappy game series with great storyline and dungeon/town design, atleast for the first one, to an all around good RPG.  You also have skill trees so you slightly have control in how each character plays(very slight.)  It's a very good game and the first two are pretty terrible which I didn't bother mentioning them.  Although if you can force yourself through the first one to get to play XenoCard you should eventually do that sometime(best mini game ever.  Seriously.) 

The first Xenosaga was so good that Namco cut it and made a four hour bonus DVD for preorders of Xenosaga 2.  They cut out a lot of stuff that really wasn't required in the game.  The beach part and such could shed a little background on Shion and such, but so could going through the other games l ike normal.  Video game storylines usually suck, but watching through Xenosaga 1 is like watching through one of the entertaining B rated movies, Xenosaga 2, other than the beginning which was really good, I tend to try and not remember the game.

Xenosaga Full Movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvbXiOvWFp0

Xenosaga 2 Full Movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXGIkv6paY4

You should eventually try getting Suikoden 2 if you like the other games.  I prefer the first one, but the second one is more of the first game with more runes available, up to three runes equippable, and it's probably two to three times the length of the first one.  Other than that it's the same gameplay so if you really liked the first one you'll really like the second.  Pass on Suikoden 4. 

Also, depending on how far you played into FFTactics maybe you should play more of it and give it a chance.  I think that either a really good story( or really good gameplay is at the forefront of any game.  If the gameplay or story is good enough it can make up for the crappy gameplay(Xenosaga/amazing story,) or crappy story(Final Fantasy 10-2/amazing gameplay.)  FFTactics has a good story and gameplay, and while most of the game is about Ramza, especially early on, there is an underlying plot within it between multiple different characters.  The gameplay is also good and the job system in FFTactics allows for a more diverse gameplay than most TRPGs.