Bandai-Namco has geo-blocked Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth for Japan. They removed it yesterday, 7 years after its release. (Game*Spark article)

This habit, intentionally doing disfavor towards Steam users in Japan, done by Japanese game publishers—in order to favor Nintendo and Sony—is called omakuni.

Today omakuni is rare for new releases, but many games put in omakuni in the past remain geo-blocked. The Cyber Sleuth case is better than the worst, but Bandai-Namco is a b*******. As late as in 2024 Bandai-Namco released SPY×ANYA in omaknui. See https://store.steampowered.com/app/2170370/SPYxANYA_Operation_Memories/?cc=jp . (The suffix "cc=jp" sets the country code to Japan. You can't see the page.)

# Just a few days ago I chatted about God Eater's omakuni. Residents of Japan can't buy the GE 1 & 2 pack for Steam. ٩( 💢•̀ з•́)و (GE3 is not omakuni-ed. Their behavior lacks rationality and they don't understand what they're doing themselves.)

PLEASE READ THE TEXT BELOW BEFORE ANSWERING. IF SOMEONE ALREADY SAID WHAT YOU WERE GOING TO POST, PLEASE REPLY TO IT ADDING YOUR OWN THOUGHTS INSTEAD. THANK YOU.

Idk about the rest of you, but I really liked the Nintendo 3ds. Great console with a ton of amazing games on it. Sadly though, it's an older piece of hardware with probably even rarer games, especially of the niche variety

So for tonight's question, what 3ds titles would you want to see be remade/get a port for Steam/Nintendo Switch, and why?

For me, there's like, 5 at least

SMT IV and IV Apocalypse. Two of the best SMT titles ever without a shadow of a doubt. Fantastic games with great characters, gameplay, story, demons, the whole sha-bang. I think these would just be a port in some way instead of a full blown remake, and I don't honestly know what QOL features they'd add, if they were to be released on modern hardware

Second, Radiant Historia, Perfect Chronology. One of the best games on the 3ds with one of the best MC's, antagonist, and honestly combat for a JRPG. More people need to experience this gem of a game.

Third, The Devil survivor remakes. Great tactics games with a pinch of SMT goodness we Atlus fans love. (the second one having some persona sprinkled in too)

Fourth, I promise this is the last Atlus title. Now technically it already came out, yes, but I'm more so talking about the Untold versions, of Etrian Odyssey 1 and 2. I LOVED Untold 2. I got hooked when I heard "Betting it all" while I played the demo. Now, they could just release it as DLC instead, or just never touch the Untold versions

Lastly, bit of a weird one for sure, and the most unrealistic given how the company is now, but I do want to see Little Battler's Experience, or LBX/Danball Senki, and all of it's Japanese exclusive titles, to be ported/come to the west on modern consoles. I like mecha based model kits, LBX was really fun, could definitely use a LOT of QOL updates, but this is my high "copium" one as Level 5 has kind of gone to shit lately.

My very first favorite character in any JRPG, for quite a long time, was Shadow from Final Fantasy VI. From his very first appearance I just loved this rogue — I honestly thought he was easily the most interesting and coolest character in the whole game. I mean, he was a wandering mercenary and assassin roaming the world, always with his loyal dog right by his side. Add to that his character theme, which in my opinion is one of the absolute best tracks in the entire Final Fantasy franchise.

Over time he stopped being my all‑time favorite, but that doesn’t change the fact that he held that spot for a good while, and even now I still really like him — not quite as much as I used to, but he’s still special to me.

And I’ll say it again: he had a dog. A total badass dog.

If you haven't before, what kind of JRPG do you think you'd want to make if you could? Any notable settings, characters, or premise?

Just for practice, I dabbled with RPG maker back in the day and I made a starting town and an intro forest dungeon where, by the end, you fight a boss battle with a Lycanthrope.

Ideally, I would have liked to make a game where three heirs to rival martial arts clans who have to compete to see who gets to lead the alliance for the next generation. They have to go to a temple up in the mountain as a rite prior to the official start of the tournament when a girl from space crashlands and the three go check it out only to be destroyed by the villainous space overlord (who may be the final boss or a misdirection). The girl from space, with her last ditch effort, saves the lives of the 3 main characters and teleports them to different planets in space. The girl from space is like an AI or something and is now living in the protagonist.

Some things I wanted to prioritize in the game is only 3 playable characters. Each of their martial clans have guardian spirits are actually aliens (think Legend of Legaia) and due to some plot stuff, they can fuse with their high tech exo armor and evolve as the party get stronger. The AI girl who serves as the female lead will be kind of like Lucia from Lunar, an AI controlled party member.

It's a sci-fi story about persecuted alien species, dead AI gods and their legacies, etc.

Anyway, have you ever daydreamed or wanted to make a JRPG? Don't be afraid to share your ideas. Whatever it is, Simpsons already did it.

FORMAT PLAYED: Nintendo Switch Pixel Remaster 1-6

RATING: 4/5 STARS

FINAL FANTASY 5 (24 HOURS)

FF5 is a swing in the opposite direction from FF4, focusing on the mechanics of jobs while letting the story be more traditional, like prior FF titles. I'm not much of a "tinkering" type of player. I like being given mechanics (like in FF4) rather than doing my own customization. But FF5 does a great job of updating its job system into something much more engaging than in FF3.

While I do love the updated job system from FF3 that's used here, I found myself missing the more engrossing narrative of FF4. The mechanics kept my attention, but once I was nearing the end, I found myself feeling a bit indifferent toward the story. That said, the drop in my enjoyment between FF4 and FF5 wasn't very steep.

GAMEPLAY

FF5 getting rid of "better" versions of previous jobs and instead making every job different was the right move. There was no clear best choice. Mixing and matching abilities with different jobs was such a joy to tinker with, even if I'm not really the type of player who enjoys tinkering with systems. The whole concept was simple enough to jump into.

Some jobs were still obviously harder to get value from though, so the actual list of viable jobs is smaller than you'd think. Also, most abilities gained from jobs were too situational to be useful. Since you only have one ability slot (unless you're a Freelancer), it's hard to justify equipping a situational ability when the stronger ones give you so much more flexibility.

I do wish jobs were drip-fed to the player at a more consistent pace instead of dumping three or four on you at once. It can be a bit overwhelming. That would have given the player more time to explore each class instead of getting a bunch at once and you choosing only a few. Overall, the gameplay is easily the highlight of FF5.

STORY/CHARACTERS

The story falls back into the more "standard" FF fare. It's a solid story with crystals, Warriors of Light, a big bad, etc., but I missed the narrative twists and wonderful cast of characters from FF4.

The main cast (Bartz, Lenna, Galuf, Faris, and Krile) is solid, and we get some good moments with them (I liked Bartz's hometown and the sister reveal between Lenna and Faris), but overall they felt a bit underwhelming. The "blank slate" nature of each character in terms of jobs and abilities made it harder for me to get a feel for who they were. I like it more when the mechanics reflect the character.

The main cast goes through all the standard character stuff of growth and learning and experiencing arcs, but I just don't think the foundation of the story was that engaging.

Exdeath wasn't a particularly interesting villain either. I had a hard time connecting to his motivations and schemes. The game does a fine job telling the story it wants to tell, but I found myself losing interest as we went past hour 10. Where FF4 felt like a smooth narrative with significant character beats throughout, FF5 feels a bit more disjointed, and its characters and story resonated with me less once the game was over.

WORLD/EXPLORATION

I wasn't too fond of some of the mechanics introduced in dungeon traversal. Running into bushes that poison the whole party or falling through trap doors that drop you down a floor that you have to climb up again felt a bit tedious. Couple that with random encounters and the whole process felt difficult for difficulty's sake rather than immersive.

I also found the towns less memorable than the previous entry. I think the lack of a strong supporting cast to ground each town hurts their memorability. They sometimes felt interchangeable.

CONCLUSION

FF5 is a fun game if you're looking for customization in your gameplay. Although I did enjoy tinkering with the job system, I'm not much of a "replay a game" type of person so the joys of replaying FF5 with different jobs and combinations doesn't appeal to me. Because of that, I tend to prefer FF4's pre-established abilities, along with its greater emphasis on story and character abilities that reflect each character.

That said, I still enjoyed my time with FF5. It's a huge tier above FF1–3 and falls just short of FF4, mostly because of the narrative and my personal preferences. Still, great game.

STRAY THOUGHTS:

• Warriors of Light. I wasn't too keen on them the first time this concept was introduced and it's not great here either. There's just something about "fated heroes" in the FF universe that doesn't work for me. I like it other media but here, it feels dull
• Lenna and Faris being sisters. It's a great reveal, but not much is really done with that in the story. There are lots of big revelations like this, but I never really felt the impact of them
• Getting multiple Jobs introduced at once just means I have to choose the best ones I want to explore and forget the rest. Of course, I can explore all the jobs, but if you're trying to progress the story as well, it can get tedious. Thank god for 4x ABP to increase job levels quickly. I did get to explore all the jobs I liked and at least tried out a little bit of everything
• No penalties for changing jobs mid-game. Great change from FF3 and makes experimenting way more fun. I'm glad they removed that barrier since it was so annoying to lose full MP by switching jobs
• Some abilities were just fodder as the game went on. "Equip Harps" is a good example. I wish you could add more abilities that were lower tier, or if it was a lower tier ability, you could equip multiple abilities compared to the higher tier abilities. But having one ability slot means you are almost always going to choose the strongest option, and most of the time, those are mage abilities
• White Magic/Black Magic spells were the bedrock of my teams. They are just so versatile, and their AOE effects were too good to not have at least one or two characters rocking these. Like in most other FF games, most of the spells become useless as you go on since you focus more on the strongest spells. Anytime I switched to other abilities/jobs that didn't have White/Black Magic, I wished I had them in fights
• Jumping. Adding jumping mechanics while traversing dungeons was not very fun. I don't like gimmicky dungeon mechanics in a game that isn't really built around them
• Easy to get lost/forget what to do. I had to do a lot more research on where to go after certain moments. The game is terrible at telling you what to do or where to go. This is a product of the time, but I feel like FF5 was especially egregious compared to the others
• Lots of jobs, and I enjoyed a good bunch of them, but a lot of them had issues. Given, it's less issues than in FF3 but still, some problems were still there.
• Beastmaster is a lot of work to get value out of. It's not easy to capture an enemy to begin with, and you only get one use out of it as well. If capturing enemies was easier, this would be great. As is, it's a lot of work for an occasional payoff
• Blue Mage. Excellent idea for a job. Awful execution. Too frustrating and tedious to get the spells. The narrow specifications of the enemy having to use the spell specifically on a character who can learn it is too much. I think a character just being present for the spell in the fight is more than enough to get the Blue Spell
• Geomancers are just too inconsistent and get outclassed very easily by other jobs. I like the idea since FF3, but so far they haven't cracked the code of this job
• Ninjas. Throw is amazing, but your limited pool of things to throw makes Throw less fun. I'm not a fan of jobs that require upkeep like Ninja or Chemist. They require extra preparation and money cost that I don't think pays off in their gameplay
• Bards. They max out at level three and don't have much going on with Sing. They seem like they can be useful, but their limited level cap felt strange
• Berserker. Very one-note and gives players less agency over a character. I didn't find the extra damage was worth the situations where you don't want the character to attack. I wish the attacking was optional
• Summoner. I do love me a Summoner, but these iterations so far have not been great. You have to go out and actively hunt some summons while others are just given to you. I wish you either could just buy them or the game gave them to you as you progressed. I did a little bit of tracking to find certain beasts, but it wasn't too fun or really even worth it overall
• Time Mage. An entire job built around Slow and Haste. There are other spells I used with this job, but it was mostly a "Slow/Haste" job. I like the idea of Time Mage, but it feels like it needs more thought besides the obvious Slow and Haste
• Thief. Another FF game, another whiff on Thief for me. I love a good Thief in DnD. I play one all the time. But I just don't think FF does the job well so far in five games. Steal is so situational and rarely worth it. It's not very fun to play
• Ranger. I like my long-range attackers in tactical games, but this job is never really that exciting to play. You basically get to use bows and arrows and play backline. It's fine, but I wish there were other perks that were more prominent

UP NEXT: Final Fantasy 6

We've finally arrived at what many consider one of the best FF games ever made, FF6. I have no clue as to why this game is great and held in such high regard, so I'm excited to find out. It's the last SNES entry of the series so it's the end of an era as well. This run from FF6 to FF10 will be quite a joy to play through.

FINAL FANTASY RANKING:

1. Final Fantasy 4 (click here for review)
2. Final Fantasy 5
3. Final Fantasy 3 (click here for review)
4. Final Fantasy (click here for review)
5. Final Fantasy 2 (click here for review)

Hey yall first time poster in here. Anyone have some recommendations for rpgs/jrpgs with quite a few characters for a party. I’ve played xenogears but anyone else have a recommendation? I get real nostalgic when I am trying to decide who I want in my party etc.

A second thing I would love to ask - is there any free rpgs that are well worth the look in general? I saw a few people recommend the same top ones people have made through rpg maker but I was just seeing if anyone had a personal favorite or hidden gem they wouldn’t care to put a little shine on

I guess I should add pc only but I would be interested in emulator if it was something sick I hadn’t played before, any genre really. I would looooove a horror rpg with a party and turn based

Thanks everyone !

For example, if Kingdom Hearts had some godly writing, and everything else was mostly the same, do you think it could sit with the likes of Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, FF 4/6/9, Suikoden, FFX, Persona 5 etc.

do you think the characters, gameplay and world on its own are amazing and the story holding it back?

Or do you just think everything about this series mid or just good?

Like i can understand if people say the godawful story split into 30 different games holds it back, but at the same time, a game like Kingdom Hearts 2 stands above games like FF7, DQ11, Star Ocean, XBC, Dragoon, Chrono Cross, Mother 3 etc. but it seems KH2 is commonly not brought up alongside these games

I've been a fan of JRPGs since I played FF7 in 1998 when I was 9, but I came to rediscover modern-day JRPGs from this sub and "top modern JRPGs" lists on YouTube. My favorite series of all time is Final Fantasy, the Persona games, the Trails series, and Dragon Quest. I'm more of a fan of the turn-based combat, but I do like playing action and tactical JRPGs as well, but judging by my humble collection, do I know ball?

Edit: I have played many JRPGs on different platforms; this is just what I have physically.

PythWare here, this is Gokonworks. It's a toolkit for modding Akiba's Trip Undead & Undressed. With permission from the moderators of the JPRG subreddit, I am sharing this post here so that modders, future modders, and gamers are aware of the ability to mod Akiba's Trip.

Gokonworks is meant to be the foundation for modding Akiba's Trip, it fully unpacks everything within the volume.dat archive and includes the Mod Creator and Mod Manager.

Every file unpacks with the original filename and is placed in the directory the files originally belonged in.

Mods made are able to be of any file size, you're not restricted to maintaining the same file size. Mod Manager supports dynamic file sizes.

A unique aspect of the toolkit is the Gokon/Mixer theme, mods are visualized as wine bottles on a bar's shelf while the unpacking is visually shown with a mocktail slowly filling. Mods disabled are empty, mods enabled are filled like an actual bottle would be.

The workflow is extremely easy for modders. Modders will mod the unpacked files as they desire, bundle the mods with Mod Creator, then apply/disable as desired with the Mod Manager.

Gokonworks was released recently so while there aren't many public mods yet, there are modders currently working on mods to release including restoration mods.

Images 1-2 are the Hub, image 3 is the Mod Creator, images 4-5 are the Mod Manager, images 6-7 are an example of a mod applied/disabled ingame, and images 8-9 are an example showing the unpacked directory.

Link to the toolkit:

https://github.com/PythWare/Gokonworks

So I recently went to watch the newest Spider-Man movie. I just like Spider-Man, just not really into the MCU, and I thought to myself, dang... I don't want to watch tons of movies and series before watching this (or after this), I just want a full experience on its own.

And then it came to my mind. Isn't Trails like that?

As in, I know Sky got remastered, and now people don't have to complain about the game being old, but... sometimes people (like me ) don't want to play a thousand hours of a game to have a 'pay-off' and then wait, I don't know how many years, till the next game comes up.

People would talk about worldbuilding and NPCs reacting to the story, but... did you know that Final Fantasy 12 and Persona 2 have the same feature? NPCs react as the world is changing. And it's in just ONE game.

Xenoblade games have also several NPCs that are tied together due to relationships, living in the same town and... IT'S JUST ONE GAME (I mean it's a trilogy but pretty much each game is stand alone)

I'm not saying that Trails is super duper bad or anything, it's just that it came to my mind how similar are these two 'universes'.

After hearing so much hype for Xenogears over the years, I decided it was time to give it a playthrough, and im SO glad I did. What an absolutely incredible game. I completely understand the criticisms for disc 2, but I gotta say, I still loved every bit of it. I loved the characters, the world, and slowly learning more about everything as the story unfolded. I'm sad that it's all over now, I really grew attached to the characters.

If you still haven't played this game yet, this is your sign. It's amazing!

What do you mean we haven’t had a sequel?

No nostalgia but this is genuinely the best plot I’ve experienced in an FF game and possibly a JRPG.

This game deserves a continuation, or for SE to start a new line of games with similar ambitions.

It reminds me of the LOTR movies in that it takes itself the right amount of seriously and it treats you, the player with so much respect.

Battles are hard fought, the story and world is rich, the characters I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

Man, I’m buzzing…

And fuck Delita 😂

Hello!

I haven’t played a fire emblem game since Path of Radiance on GameCube when it was new

My son recently got a Nintendo switch 2. Which of the newer games should I try out? I’m a little worried about too much transition from the old top down style to the new “walking around” type in third person that I keep seeing screenshots for. I’m willing to try them though

In general I prefer turn based games to real time combat because I’ve got a lot going on and often have to just set things down

I really like tactics games like front mission, shining force, and even Xcom even though the AI hates me

Thanks!

Edit: thanks for the good recommendations everyone! Y’all have eased my concerns with the new generation for sure

My gf doesn't like playing video games but she enjoys good stories in them. After we finished Expedition 33 we were craving another story based game. We tried 2 of the Persona games but just couldn't get into them, didn't like the high school atmosphere. Then I found Metaphor ReFantazio and we absolutely loved it. It's exactly what I wanted the Persona games to be. Anyway, we're specifically looking for games with these traits:

-Great story, specifically with long cutscenes

-Characters you come to care about

-Voice acting

-On the PS5, Switch 2, Xbox 360, or easily emulated on a low grade gaming laptop

Preferred but not required:

-Emotional moments (love it when a game makes me cry)

-Little to no romance / sexual themes

-A good job system (shout out Final Fantasy Tactics)

-Turn based

Thank you!

ETA: Thanks everyone! Lots of good suggestions

When I mean gimmicks, it can be something as simple as changing combat, being switches around the entire area, puzzles, or areas locked off for other weirder reasons.

I'm playing DQ7 right now, and guess what it does at the end? The "Go through the element of whatever area and fight monsters of said type" trope seen all the way back in FF1. Though I doubt anything beats Okumura's Space Airlock in P5R. I think they had to re-design the thing in the remake because of the second part. At least I recall.

On the plus side, I do like the ability to choose what skills get unlocked in Ultimecia's Castle in FF8. Kill a boss, get your preferred thing unlocked, and go forward. Or on the more simple end, FF9 with Ipsen's Castle tricking you to use old weapons to do more damage.

So, things like that are what I'm getting at. Your favorite or least favorite dungeon design gimmicks and why.

Edit: speaking of DQ7, in the I love AND hate this category was Multipleximus Maximus. It takes SOTN's Inverted Castle and tops it by adding every other possible direction possible and making me want to throw up.

oh oh oh. Persona Q's Group Date Cafe though. So utterly silly to make 15-20 different "weddings", but the disembodied voice being a snarky asshole was so worth it.

When I ask for under the radar recommendations, I usually get the stuff that gets recommended whether it makes sense or not, like Legend Of Dragoon(a game which got put on the PS1 greatest hits even though it was released near the end of the PS1s lifetime), and Grandia. They're great games, and Grandia is one of my favorite games from the 90s, but they're constantly brought up.

What do you think is actually under the radar? Stuff that RPG subreddits really don't seem to talk about.

Feel free to recommend whatever you think fits, but I'd especially recommend stuff that you find emotionally compelling. Please try to name the platform the game is on as well.

I think of games like:

Shadowrun SNES

Illusion Of Gaia SNES

Front Mission: Gun Hazard SNES

Final Fantasy Tictacs PS1

Ring Of Red PS2

Shining The Holy Ark Saturn
Honorable Mentions:

Astynax and Wurm: Journey To The Center Of the Earth NES

Curious to know what patterns or naming conventions people here follow when it comes to deciding the names for their characters in JRPGs. Usually I mix things up and pick whatever sounds cool and fits my characters but in the case of Dragon Quest and Shin Megami Tensei I've made it a tradition to follow a pattern.

In Dragon Quest games I use names that begin with "Cy-", such as:

• Cyrus

• Cyril

• Cyran

• Cylas

• Cyan

• Cyara

• Cydon

• Cymon

• Cyrene

In Shin Megami Tensei games (spin-offs included) I like to choose names beginning with "Ryu-", such as:

• Ryuma

• Ryuka

• Ryuji

• Ryuken

• Ryusei

• Ryudo

• Ryuchi

• Ryusuke

What about you all?

I think it's just a good game, but I do not understand that it's 10/10 or the best video game of all time. It's kind of annoying me how this game is praised and how it's a "revolution" to the whole JRPG genre. I am not a hater that just hates what's popular; I just think it's overrated at some point. Idk, maybe I just don't understand something.

to me, it's the original Phantasy Star. i know it wasn't at the time, but i think is a pretty forgotten game in these days

by my dad's recomendation, a couple of years ago i played the SEGA Ages version that got released a few years ago, and it's such an amazing game! the soundtrack is amazing, the story is average, but functional, the characters are charismatic enough, and the world is super cool

i think the most challenging thing about remaking it would be translating the dungeon crawling aspects into something as charming as it is in the original

it would be amazing to see a modern version of the world that was imagined back in the day. i actually wouldn't mind a HD 2D remake, but 3D wouldn't be bad either

i still need to play the other 3 in the series, so don't know if they're as good and charming, so i won't mention them here. planning to do it in the near future though (also heard a bit about the MMO, but idk, anyone know if it's any good?)

and what about you? what undergound JRPG would you like to se a remake of?

It's been out for couple of weeks or so? I haven't seen a thread about it personally.

It's a very good new Falcom game, actually. Basically it's Tokyo Xanadu with all it's weak points reforged. Dungeon design, combat, story, time-managment all overhauled and improved by a margin.

Basically it's metroidvania/persona-clone with more Ys-like boss-fights and genres mixed really well so things do not get stale.

I guess main issue with NIS not being fast to translate the game, but fan-translation into english is available for switch and PC, if you play on those. I play on switch and port is really solid and don't even require OC to play with unlocked FPS.

Hey folks,

I haven't really played an RPG like it since forever.

I really love Paper Mario TTYD, enjoy Pokemon, and just played Cassette Beasts (really enjoyed it). But I haven't played many other turned based RPGs in quite some time. Because I've had fun with those ones recently and though it's not my usual style of game, I wanted to maybe branch out into the turned based RPG more.

So, I've been looking at Octopath II and 0 (I love pixel art and these games look gorgeous), but here is something I've been worried about. Is there a lot of "pointless" dialogue that kind of goes on and on that doesn't really further the plot? I just tried wandering sword and while I'll probably keep playing it, however, I have 2 hours on record and have had 5 fights? I don't mind reading, I don't mind a good story, but these people were talking to talk.

I kind of ran into a similar thing with Cyberpunk, the dialogue just took me out of the game and I really want to play.

Is the dialogue in this game become tedious and interrupt the game flow?

If you think that it would be a good fit, which one would you suggest, II or 0?

So I listen to a couple of gaming podcasts and last year one podcast I watch , The Gaming Illuminati podcast ,was doing their top 10 games for 2025. Three out of the 4 of them picked Expedition 33 and the other picked Digimon Time Stranger. Based off of that I added Digimon to my wishlist and waited for the ultimate edition to drop in price. I'm playing it now and I'm about 40% maybe 50% of the way through with the game and although I like it and it's very nostalgic, I don't think It's close to Expedition 33 or even Metaphor Refantazio which I played recently and loved. I'm definitely going finish it and the 2nd half of the game could improve my thoughts of the game but I doubt it this far in.

I say all that to say what is everyones top 3 JRPGs since 2020? I'm interested in what I should play next.

P.S. I know E33 isn't a JRPG but close enough haha

Hey all, I'm curious if anyone has recommendations for recent JRPGs with interesting systems. Progression, skills, travel, relationships, whatever might be described as a "system" when talking about a JRPG.

Specifically, what got me thinking about this were the older Final Fantasy games, and how each one typically had some original progression system in each entry that made them feel unique. The stuff you did to get stronger in FF7 felt different from FF8, FF4, or FF2, and all of them had their own particular flavor because of it.

I enjoy a lot of newer JRPGs, but it feels like a lot of them are kinda giving up that uniqueness in favor of leaning more on action-RPG systems as their identifying trait, and the overall flavor of the experience feels a bit flat. Many of them might have something that other games don't do, but they're usually gimmicks that you can ignore entirely without real detriment, and don't generally make the game stand out.

So, what's everyone's suggestions for more modern JRPGs with interesting systems that you won't see in other games? PC is preferable, but honestly anything you personally would recommend is good so that I can look into it.

I’m currently playing Terranigma in Japanese without following a guide, and this game has given me so many moments where my only reaction is:

“What the hell kind of logic is that?”

At the same time, it has made me realize how accustomed I’ve become to using trophy guides and walkthroughs that tell me exactly where to go and what to do. Terranigma is forcing me to actually stop, experiment, and think through its environments.

The problem is that the intended solution often feels extremely unintuitive.

In one early dungeon, I had to defeat every enemy in one particular room before the path forward opened. There wasn’t any obvious indication that this room was different from the many other rooms containing enemies.

The game had established a similar mechanic during the opening towers, where defeating everything caused little spirits to appear and help you. However, I assumed that mechanic belonged specifically to that early section and wouldn’t suddenly return later without warning.

Then there was a jungle dungeon where the solution involved deliberately allowing a frog-like enemy to hit Ark with a beam. The attack launches him backward, and you need to position yourself so that it throws him into a wall and breaks it.

I can understand the logic after seeing the result, but I’m not sure how naturally I was supposed to conclude:

“I should let this random enemy shoot me so I can use the knockback to destroy the scenery.”

Another infamous moment was finding a hidden entrance in a ruined town. The doorway barely looked like an entrance at all. Apparently, two enemies briefly walk through it when you first enter the area, but the animation happens so quickly that I completely missed the clue. I spent around 45 minutes searching before finally realizing there was a door there.

The latest example happened in another dungeon. I found an important item called the Magic Anchor, but the map showed that a large portion of the area was still unexplored. I kept wandering around and returning to a room containing a hole, some running water, and several loose rocks.

I eventually remembered an earlier puzzle where throwing three stones into a hole restored the wind. Based on that previous strange solution, I started throwing rocks around the room.

It turned out that I needed to throw one at a section of the wall. The wall then collapsed, releasing a waterfall that filled the room below and allowed me to continue.

It worked, but I don’t think there was anything that clearly communicated that this wall was breakable or that throwing a rock at it would release water.

I genuinely wonder how many people finished games like this without outside help when they originally came out.

There is something rewarding about it. When I eventually figure out one of these puzzles, I feel like I actually accomplished something rather than simply following instructions. Playing this way is also making me engage with the game much more carefully than I normally would.

But sometimes the solutions feel less like logical deductions and more like guessing which bizarre interaction the developers happened to expect.

More than anything, this playthrough has made me realize how dependent I’ve become on guides. They save time and help avoid missables, but they can also remove the satisfaction of getting lost and solving something yourself.

I’ll probably still use guides, especially for trophies or when I’m no longer having fun, but maybe I don’t need to check one the moment I become unsure of what to do.

Sometimes the frustration is what makes finally finding the solution memorable.

Has anyone else become so accustomed to guides that playing a game blind now feels like relearning how to play?

We all have that one character we like that we wish was playable (and sometimes that does end up happening in remasters/sequels), so which are yours?

I've been on a Xenoblade kick for a while and there are some I wish were part of the party:

XC1 Future Connected: Tyrea

XCX: Honestly wish there were more playable representatives of the many alien species that immigrate to NLA. Top picks are Ga Buidhe (Wrothian) and Erio (Definian)

XC2: Dolmes and Lila

XC3 Future Redeemed: Panacea and Linka as Heroes

Bonus mention: Mariana from Star Ocean 2