I would love that all party members could used together... the worse part of having only half is that you keep leveling the same team and them when you are mandated to use the under powered rest of the team you are very much screwed and have to find a pocket of grind to be able to pass that area, several times being stuck on it because there is no pocket available.

The curve for XP is such a thing that it's always better to push forward as bad as you are because the next spot will always be better to level up, so if you can survive don't waste time.

That is a good point on FF IX, if you play it straight and not even detour or get lost, doing just the minimal battles you can still keep a decent level to play the whole main game without grinding, just need to know the strategy. Only hidden and special bosses need grinding, which is funny in its own right. Like, you just saved the world from the worse enemy on history, but he is just a low level moron when compared to special monster.

My main one has to be grinding for the sake of grinding. If you come upon a story based boss I shouldn't have to backtrack a few tens of fights just so I can level up and beat said boss. WRPGs tend to eliminate grinding by giving a large amount of experience for side quests which I generally prefer (although this can also result in the flaw of over-used fetch quests). This is exacerbated when games add in lots of easy encounters just to buff up the content.

What is with the Japanese's obsession with Digital Food outings? I feel like in all the JRPGs I have played in the last 3 years there is some excessively drawn out situation where the main characters dine at an inn and they go through all this meaningless discription of how good the food is. I.....DONT.....CARE!!! I am not actually eating it! Denote it, then quickly move on. It is very uninteresting. As much as I love The Legend of Heroes series they are riddled with this.

And Speaking of that same game, JRPGs should stop dwelling on word count and stop padding their story. The game has a phenomenal plot but you could maybe cut the dialogue in half and get the same exact point across. Yet they have this fascination with increasing word volume like books. It isn't benefiting the story. In fact....I would say it detracts from the skillful plots. Eliminate half of the long food outings.


This is an RPG issue in general, and bad design choice. Do NOT make the ultimate weapons behind a bunch of secret boss fights that would have been perfectly suited to USE said weapons against. It is a question of by the time I achieve the weapons I should have a bevy of enemies still to face and sharpen my new toy on. If I have to collect materials to make said weapons.....I shouldn't have to fight the toughest enemies in the game to get it. It's counter productive.

The Anime Tropes of large variety need to just die. I have never been a fan of "chosen one" plots. I despise damsel in distress female characters and have been let down by several of the last JRPGs I played for portraying them that way.

Yeah but at least when I can see the enemies on the field I can mentally prepare myself for the encounter.  But when I'm walking around, exploring the world, and a random battle just "happens" out of the blue, that's just annoying.

Lack of diversity. Would be nice if for once, just once, the main character didn't look how I expected him to look.

The games are made to the public that likes it. We aren't the core aim, but we go there and buy it.

But I agree it's moronic that the best weapon or skill is obtained after you kill the strongest boss and then won't need it anymore.

No strategy if you know what's coming. "Oh look a fire based enemy, I'll just equip my ice blade and fire absorbing armour before I even go into the battle so the battle has no threat."

Do you not remember the sheer terror of meeting a Malboro in certain locations in FF games, knowing your die from it. Now you just walk around.

Yet in a game with random battle, no battle is out of the blue, you know they are coming as the game has random battles. The worst fights are prolonged multiple boss fights you don't know about on first play through. You think that the boss fight you are on is it but then bam, here's another, screw the fact you are on 50% HP/no MP and no healing left, win this fight. That takes real strategy.

Sorry but LoD isn't a JRPG....

It is a JSRPG, Japanese Super RPG. or JBRPG, Japanese Best RPG.

1. Agree

2. Sort of agree. Most games offer a way to get the short version if it's a problem. I love the spectacle, but yeah, I don't want to see it all the time.

3. Agree

4. Sort of agree. I hate the idea of losing a character I was invested in, but the roleplaying part requires you to deal with things that happen. If the gameplay doesn't reflect what's going on with the story, it's kinda a bad RPG in my mind.

5. Sort of agree. I liked Final Fantasy XI. It had crazy dungeons and no hud. You could find or buy maps but even then, it wasn't so easy to navigate (like looking at a map). But because the dungeons had a purpose and you worked with others, there was strategy to what you're doing. It wasn't just a maze to get through to move onto the next area without dying. So for 99% of the RPGs, I hate windy dungeons with no hold handing.

6. Definitely disagree. I am so tired of the hold handing in games. The older RPGs had an element of exploration. Sure, it could be frustrating some times, but most of the time I enjoyed finding what to do next on my own. Now, everything has a triangle over the head (beat this thing) or some icon on a map to travel to. No sense of roleplaying or existing in that world whatsoever.

One of my issues with JRPGs is the melodrama. Sure, many of these games have great stories, but they can get a little hammy and silly. Some parts can make me feel like I'm playing a soap opera. But most of the parts in between keep me invested.