General JRPG topic

They are basically prototypes of Trails. Each game is set in one country and lots of internal and external politics and such, they have continuity porn style storytelling as well as all the game's countries are not far from each other.

Cold Steel 2 is the most like Suikoden really, but I am pretty sure you havent played it yet so I won't explain why lol.

They are also one of those RP Gs you want to play with at least a character hint guide open, there are so many missable party members in the game... like well over 70 optional characters many with small windows of opportunity to get them.

From what I've seen Suikoden's character design is a whole lot more interesting than the Trails game. Sometimes to the games' detriment, considering a lot of characters have weird, anachronistic or out of place outfits, designs, or concepts, like the heroes of the 1st, 2nd, and 5th games looking like Chinese martial artists in mostly western European fantasy settings.

Well each game required like 150 unique character designs per so they had to get unusual at times.

Never was the biggest fans of the designs outside the MC and his sister in 2 really. The sprite work in 2 was great for its day IMO, it isn't up to the quality of say Trails in the Sky but they showed their emotions quite clearly.

I always felt that the character art in Suikoden games ^note the first two, anyways was a bit drab and generic personally, even though the sprites themselves were well-animated and detailed.

Trails games have more vibrant designs (the face portraits changing with different expressions helps a bit in this regfard), but also on the generic side. Neither of the two series is really all that strong in this department, IMO.

I watched an LP of Suikoden 2.

I wasn't as fond of it as a lot of people are (the cast being so huge means a lot of them, even the ones that get more focus, aren't all that interesting, just for one thing that stuck out to me), but it's a pretty solid JRPG and especially compared to a lot of narratives in the genre nowadays it's a pretty worthwile story.

edited 7th Dec '17 9:52:59 PM by Draghinazzo

I like the artwork in the Suikoden games.

So, I purchased Grandia 3 from the Play Station store. I have no experience with the Grandia series so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

Be prepared to hear one crappy town theme.

I keep waiting for the main part of the song to kick in...and it just never does. EDIT: Holy crap, I think the pipes or whatever those are might actually be on a different tempo from the drums. The song has two parts and they don't line up correctly.

Anyway, Grandia III could be described as incomplete. The first disc is fine, but the second disc practically implodes on itself and two major characters just disappear entirely. Battle system's great though.

If you at all enjoy it, the original Grandia is really fun and Grandia 2 is outright great. Grandia Xtreme is okay. It's basically a dungeon-focused spinoff, but Mark Hamill's in the dub so there's that.

edited 13th Dec '17 12:20:48 PM by Zendervai

The main thing Grandia 3 has going for it is Yoh Yoshinari's gorgeous character art.

So it was a complete bomb then?

It's considered kind of a trainwreck as far as I know. Nobody really talks about it much, it's all about Grandia 1 and 2.

I've seen people mention the ridiculously peppy opening theme.

I don't have any experience with the Grandia series, but I know that in Japan Grandia III is universally considered a trainwreck. It's the kind of game were if you enter it's name in Japanese into Google, the first autofill result is "kusoge" (shit game), and it has multiple articles on different sites that just list everything wrong with it. The first line in Niconico's article on it is "Grandia III is a frisbee that can also be used a video game (lol)."

Grandia 1 and 2 were pretty good, they have hardly aged well though. Grandia Extreme was basically we got a decent battle system.... shove out 1 more game with it but don't put effort into it aside from that, 5 dungeons should be enough for 40 hours of grinding our WONDERFUL battle system!

I wouldn't go that far. It's not very good, but it's at least functional. I've played jrpgs that barely work or are so barebones they're practically meaningless (Last Rebellion or Time and Eternity, anyone?).

I been playing Grandia 3 for the past few days. My verdict so far is that it's pretty decent. I have about five hours on it so far. I'm currently in Mendi city. I'm really liking the combat system. It's very fast-paced and overall fun. The characters are decent. While they're not the most original, I think they're alright. Miranda is probably my favorite characters so far. My opinion might change, but so far I kind of like the game.

Update on my progress in Grandia 3:

I'm back on Randoto Island. I just got finished fighting two high level monsters to get some lem fruit so Captain Schmidt can build me another airplane. I have over 7 hours on the game so far. I still like it.

Here's another update on my progress in Grandia 3:

I'm back in the Baccula settlement. I just got finished beating the double bosses of Kornell and Violetta. I spent last evening and most of today trying to beat these guys and I am so happy that I was able to finally win. I can rest easy.

edited 26th Dec '17 6:18:42 PM by pointless233

This is random but all the talk about turn-based vs. ATB in the FF Thread made me think back on all the JRPG's I've played.

What the hell would Baten Kaitos 1 be called? I mean, there are still clear "turns" where you go and then the enemy goes but you actually are doing stuff during the enemies' offensive turn just as much as you do stuff during your offensive turn. Also it's all timed and there's a weird mechanic with numbers that I absolutely never even tried to figure out because it wasn't necessary.

Baten Kaitos was very good and unique and I wish I could play it again.

So out of love for the space opera genre, that I'd heard good thing sabout the first two games in particular, and the bits I've seen are giving me classic Phantasy Star vibes, decided to try out Star Ocean. Specifically, the second game's remake on the PSP.

It's just, all the recruitable characters and mechanics seem intimidating. What's the best way to go about playing it? Get what characters I can and split the mutual exclusives for another playthrough, or go for a guide? I don't want to miss so many that I can't even fill a party at least. Also not sure where difficulty can be set, I do know that's a feature.

Yeah 2 is one of those games you gotta be glued to a guide. 3 and 4 less so.

Baten Kaitos is a hybrid of a turn-based system and an esoteric card battle system. It's still good, too bad about the terrible dub.

As a kid I missed EVERY optional character in Star Ocean 2 (playing as Rena) except Precis and Noel, and cause they weren't in the manual i got super excited cause I thought they were secret.

I somehow wound up with only seven characters in my Claude playthrough of SO2. :/

guys holy crap octopath traveler is amazing

Nikkolas, you still need to play Origins. :D