JRPG Appreciation Thread

[Metalhead]

The first JRPG I ever played was Wild Arms on the PlayStation. It got me hooked in very quickly. FFVII came out not long after that, and it made me a JRPG junkie for life.

Whether it is Xenosaga, FF, Star Ocean, Neptunia, Tales of, Lunar, Y's, SMT, Persona, or anything else that is a JRPG, I am not picky. I also loved Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey on the 360.

This thread is for JRPG appreciation and love. What is your favorite JRPG?

 

[Giraffes]

No idea what JRPG is Help!!!!!!

 

[Metalhead]

No idea what JRPG is Help!!!!!!

Japanese Role Playing Game.

 

[Rabscuttle]

No idea what JRPG is Help!!!!!!

Japanese Role-Playing Games, or more accurately, Japanese-style Role-Playing Games (as not all of them come from Japan), but that would be JSRPG, and there's no way to easily pronounce that. It refers to a subtype of video game featuring elements codified by a group of Japanese developers back in the late 80's to mid 90's.

Actually, Kagamine, it's funny you bring this up. I was just thinking about the time that Tom Hall said that if Anachronox 2 didn't get made in the next ten years, he'd come forward with what the plot would've been; I think that was about 2010...

 

[unperson]

We were just chatting about this in another thread

 

[unperson]

'Is it possible my ASD has something to do with this' in the computers section is a similar current discussion, if your interested.

 

[Ken S.]

Not an anime (Or as we called it in art school Japanamation) fan. Its origins are anti white and makes fun of "Roundeye." Racism is racism no matter who it is directed at.

 

[Misery]

I used to play these a fair amount. Not so much now. Problem with recent ones for me is that A: they're just stuffed full of unnecessary cutscenes, and B: they're too easy. There's also to a degree C: some of them are getting obsessive over fanservice, but.... ehhh, that's just how it goes, I dont mind that TOO much.

I was always more into the older ones. The original Final Fantasy (as in, the NES one, not one of the remakes) or games from that era. Tended to be challenging as heck (just say the words "Marsh Cave" to anyone that's played FF1 and you're almost guaranteed a reaction) and were usually more than a bit confusing. They dont make 'em like that anymore.

I didnt play the SNES ones quite as much, but I still had some.

PS1, I didnt have a PS1 for ages. Come to think of it, once I started getting ahold of PS1 games, I had a PS2 to run them on. And yeah, Wild Arms was one of them. It's one of the ones I remember the most fondly. It's been so long though that I cant quite recall too much. Though I remember there were alot of tough optional bosses. Most of the games I played through that era though were proper PS2 games. The big standouts are Shadow Hearts 2 and Okage.

These days, I rarely touch the genre. I dunno, even beyond the non-stop unnecessary exposition, the genre just seems to have lost something along the way. The tendency to avoid turn-based combat in recent games doesnt help. Well, at least for the "major" games. Lately I've been kinda wanting to hop back in, but that'd be with less mainstream stuff. I actually picked up Mary Skelter 2 (one of the fanservice-y ones, but also a proper dungeon crawler) on the Switch, havent gotten to it yet.

I'd also love to get emulated copies of some of the DS ones that I couldnt play through (the DS wrecks my arm, you see...) There was Dark Spire, which was freaking AMAZING but I had to give up on it due to that bloody device. Dungeon crawlers in particular can tend to be quite unique, but there's nothing else like Dark Spire. Particularly in the music department. Easily my favorite battle & boss themes. Well, one of my favorite soundtracks period. Also the difficulty in that game was utterly brutal. That was one of those really old-school sorts. Like, the kind of thing where a part of it might involve having to find a secret passage, but not even the slightest visual clue exists (older dungeon crawlers really liked doing that). And then even when you found your way, there'd be some boss or even just a normal enemy encounter that'd rip your face off (random battles in proper dungeon crawlers tend to be hard). I always used to refer to the boss music as the "you're totally screwed" theme. Because that's basically what it meant when you heard it. Seriously though, anyone that hasnt heard of that game should have a look. There's nothing else like it.

Not an anime (Or as we called it in art school Japanamation) fan. Its origins are anti white and makes fun of "Roundeye." Racism is racism no matter who it is directed at.

....hweh?

Somehow, at this point, I really, REALLY doubt that's even remotely a factor in terms of purpose. Whatever the origins may be, those origins are long dead (regardless of whether or not the word is still used, heck if I know). Hell, I've been into this stuff for decades now, and your comment there is the one and only time I've *ever* heard about that.

Besides: it goes the other way around, too. Something with supposedly "innocent" origins can be twisted into something awful. Frequently happens.

An artstyle is merely that: an artstyle. It's what you do with it that matters.

 

[Raggamuffin]

My experience is quite limited. When I was younger I played Final Fantasy 7, 8 and 10.

The biggest amount of time played of any games was in the Phantasy Star series. Namely Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast and years later on the Gamecube. On the DC my dad limited me to 2 hours online a week. Miraculously for an MMORPG it had an offline mode. For the world's first console MMO it was quite ingenious. On the GC you could even play offline split screen. I rediscovered it on private servers around 2008. Probably sunk well over 10,000 hours on that game.

Then came Phantasy Star Universe on PC. Played that religiously until the servers shut down. Then went onto the Japanese one to continue. Several years after the official server shut down, work began on PSU Clementine. Currently offline as they finish the last few aspects of the game. It had been in a playable alpha state for over a year prior to the shut down in January.

Finally, Phantasy Star Online 2. Whilst a western release has only occurred this year, I've been playing on the Japanese server for nearly 8 years. Thankfully a dedicated group of coders and translators have made a 3rd party executable that regularly patches and translates the game.

I've tried a lot of proper MMO's over the years. But never enjoyed any half as much as the PS series. Whilst the original Genesis games were turn based, PSO onwards became a hack and slash style, instance based online experience. It's been some of my happiest moments in gaming playing that game.

One thing I will say however is that PSO2 has moved slightly away from the relaxing gameplay style that PSO and PSU were. It's more frantic on PSO2, but the combat technicality and graphics are hugely improved. There's only one big issue, which is that I don't like anime anymore and PSO2 is 101% anime.

Anyone interested in the game should give it a go as its free to download and play.

Ed

 

[Ken S.]

Hell, I've been into this stuff for decades now, and your comment there is the one and only time I've *ever* heard about that.

It was one of the first things they taught in history of animation class at the Art Institute of Dallas.

 

[Misery]

My experience is quite limited. When I was younger I played Final Fantasy 7, 8 and 10.

The biggest amount of time played of any games was in the Phantasy Star series. Namely Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast and years later on the Gamecube. On the DC my dad limited me to 2 hours online a week. Miraculously for an MMORPG it had an offline mode. For the world's first console MMO it was quite ingenious. On the GC you could even play offline split screen. I rediscovered it on private servers around 2008. Probably sunk well over 10,000 hours on that game.

Then came Phantasy Star Universe on PC. Played that religiously until the servers shut down. Then went onto the Japanese one to continue. Several years after the official server shut down, work began on PSU Clementine. Currently offline as they finish the last few aspects of the game. It had been in a playable alpha state for over a year prior to the shut down in January.

Finally, Phantasy Star Online 2. Whilst a western release has only occurred this year, I've been playing on the Japanese server for nearly 8 years. Thankfully a dedicated group of coders and translators have made a 3rd party executable that regularly patches and translates the game.

I've tried a lot of proper MMO's over the years. But never enjoyed any half as much as the PS series. Whilst the original Genesis games were turn based, PSO onwards became a hack and slash style, instance based online experience. It's been some of my happiest moments in gaming playing that game.

One thing I will say however is that PSO2 has moved slightly away from the relaxing gameplay style that PSO and PSU were. It's more frantic on PSO2, but the combat technicality and graphics are hugely improved. There's only one big issue, which is that I don't like anime anymore and PSO2 is 101% anime.

Anyone interested in the game should give it a go as its free to download and play.

Ed

If PSO2 was on Windows already (currently XBONE only.... bleeeehhhh) I'd have already grabbed it (I usually wont touch 3rd party stuff... I've done that before and it usually only results in wanting to stab something). Had the GC game way back when. It was amazing. Just amazing. It was THE reason I had a Gamecube. Absolutely adored it.

I've played about a million MMOs since, and I could never figure out why more werent like that one. The combat was so good. A far cry from the "stand there and rattle off the same string of spells over and over" sort of combat that most MMOs use. Not that that sort of combat was bad. When done right, it worked very well. But it wasnt PSO combat.

Though PSO2, I wonder if it still has a solo mode? I haaaaaaaate dealing with other players these days. Even in other MMOs, usually the games I'd play had instanced areas, so I could have said zones entirely to myself to do quests/missions/whatever. Though I did group up every now and then, but... yeah I'd have more trouble with that today. Too many bad experiences with other gamers.

But yeah, I used to love that genre. I played so many of them. It's also what got me into beta testing (which I still do totay, but with indie games). And then WoW happened. It came, it conquered... it completely corrupted the genre. Destroyed everything I loved about it. Unique, interesting MMOs died fast. And new ones? Hah. Lame corporate idiots all made the same decision all at once: "WoW prints money, so if we copy WoW, WE will print money! HERP DERP BLERP SQUEEEEEE" and that went about as well as I thought it would. The ONE game that was truly different was City of Heroes, which I loved just as much as I'd loved PSO, but NCSoft was involved... that didnt end well for anyone. Bad company, that one, known for wrecking things that they touched. I *loved* CoH too. That had the best combat system and character customizing/building ever. It was amazing. I wish it was still around (as well as the other, earlier MMOs that were interesting, like Anarchy Online). But no. Only WoW clones now.

Aaaaaand after a quick nostalgia-fueled look, I find out just now that Anarchy Online is STILL FREAKING RUNNING. What? Okay, NOW I'm interested. That game was amazing back then. It had some really crazy ideas. Like one class, the Agent, that could sort of morph into any other class, which sounds crazy strong but it was a very hard class to use. Loved that one though. The game was good at solo content, too.

Seriously though, that game is *OLD*. Back when I played it, was when MMOs still cost like $15 per month to play. Free to play? Wasnt a thing yet whatsoever. That's how old it is.

And I immediately find some LP series of it in it's current form... yeah, gonna watch those. If it looks like it's still good, I just might jump back in. Sure didnt think I'd see THAT today.

Well, this thread has come in handy, then. I wouldnt have thought to so much as glance at that otherwise. I really do miss playing those. Well, the ones where soloing is viable, anyway.

You know what I also miss... Everquest. I mean the original. The older versions. I wonder how many MMO fans these days know what a "corpse run" is? Those words were every player's bane, back then. I dont think EQ uses that concept anymore (or much of the other stuff that made it crazy hard).

I wonder how the heck I got my mom to let me spend on those. All these years later, and I cant make sense of that.

 

[Ken S.]

@Misery Upon reflection since my last comment, it was the first and only time I ever heard that comment myself and since our instructor used no textbook and showed no evidence to back her claims up it could have been her personal opinion for all I know.
That aside I have never liked the over exaggerated large eyes in anime.

 

[Misery]

@Misery Upon reflection since my last comment, it was the first and only time I ever heard that comment myself and since our instructor used no textbook and showed no evidence to back her claims up it could have been her personal opinion for all I know.
That aside I have never liked the over exaggerated large eyes in anime.

Yeah, some of them draw them so big that they get a bit weird.

Personally I've always been partial to older series. The artstyles used back then were very different from what is popular now. There were series like Fist of the North Star that didnt do the large eye thing, but series that did use that style, didnt do so in the way that it's done today. I honestly think part of the problem with alot of modern series is the irritating obsession with cute girl characters; the eyes (and everything else) are drawn in such a way as to push that idea forward. And rather than get creative, most series just copy whatever is already popular.

With older series though, they typically didnt go for that, and so even when the larger eye design was used, it looked very different from what it is now. I compare pretty much any modern series to something older like Armitage the 3rd, which drew the eyes kinda large-ish maybe but the cutesy aspect wasnt used. The characters look so much better to me overall. Well, EVERYTHING about it looked much better.

Boy do I miss that era of anime. There's really just something missing from the more modern ones. I cant really get into a series if I dont like the artstyle.

 

[Ken S.]

@Misery Especially since they do it to villains in the stories. Why would you want that cutsey trait attributed to them?

 

[Metalhead]

Yeah, some of them draw them so big that they get a bit weird.

Personally I've always been partial to older series. The artstyles used back then were very different from what is popular now. There were series like Fist of the North Star that didnt do the large eye thing, but series that did use that style, didnt do so in the way that it's done today. I honestly think part of the problem with alot of modern series is the irritating obsession with cute girl characters; the eyes (and everything else) are drawn in such a way as to push that idea forward. And rather than get creative, most series just copy whatever is already popular.

With older series though, they typically didnt go for that, and so even when the larger eye design was used, it looked very different from what it is now. I compare pretty much any modern series to something older like Armitage the 3rd, which drew the eyes kinda large-ish maybe but the cutesy aspect wasnt used. The characters look so much better to me overall. Well, EVERYTHING about it looked much better.

Boy do I miss that era of anime. There's really just something missing from the more modern ones. I cant really get into a series if I dont like the artstyle.

I grew up watching anime in the ‘90s, and what I miss the most about it is the fact that many of the protagonists back then were real men who never whined about anything that came their way. The Golgo 13 movie would never get produced today, for example.

 

[Fino]

They gave me something to do when I had no friends as a kid, which made me hardly even notice I had no friends!

 

[Misery]

@Misery Especially since they do it to villains in the stories. Why would you want that cutsey trait attributed to them?

Depends on the story and the writers.

For some, it's not because it serves a purpose, but more because it focus tests better. Thus, the really generic sort of series that rarely do much to stand out.

Others though, might have different reasons. Like, I've been watching My Hero Academia recently. Pretty darned good so far. One thing about it that I noticed right away is that the villains in it tend to be really... messed up. And they usually LOOK messed up. Crazed expressions, dead eyes, twisted appearance, that sort of thing. Except for one, which is Himiko Toga. She's definitely got a sort of almost-cutesy look to her, and her demeanor isnt much different. But then you see what she's actually like, and some of the awful things she's done, and as you learn more about her... the "cute" aspect only serves to show just how demented and dangerous she truly is. Instead of making her not look like a villain, it instead just makes her appear to be even more of a creepy deranged killer than most of the other villains (which is quite the feat considering how freaking nasty the bad guys are in that series). She's hardly the first character in anime to do this, but it's one of those things that's not easy to pull off. And of course, alot of series dont even bother trying stuff like that these days. But yeah, it really can work in the series favor if done right (and if done for the right reasons).

I grew up watching anime in the ‘90s, and what I miss the most about it is the fact that many of the protagonists back then were real men who never whined about anything that came their way. The Golgo 13 movie would never get produced today, for example.

Wasnt just the males either. Protagonists & heroes in general, back then, tended to be like that. Occaisionally you got one that wasnt, but when that was the case there was usually an actual reason for it (or it was a pure comedy series). But yeah, they all tended to be alot more "serious" and such. If I compare the protagonists of many series today, to something like Outlaw Star for instance, it just ends up being kinda a silly comparison.

Though, I think it wasnt so much the characterization alone that does it. Older anime tended to be WAY more focused on the actual story and theme. Modern anime tends to be, well... cliches and girls with their clothes constantly falling off, because that's what sells. I think it's pretty obvious which tends to lead toward better storytelling and character development.