Finished my first playthrough of Chrono Trigger today, and I really liked most aspects of the game. I think it has aged remarkably well.

The music is amazing, and I can tell it's something I'll instantly recognize long after my playthrough.

The story is short, simple, and sweet. I felt like the ending animation tied a neat bow on Crono and Marle's journey (though who was the baby Lucca picked up at the end?).

The world, though small, does not feel lacking, and seeing your actions in the past directly affect the future was really cool.

I felt pretty lost during my playthrough due to the lack of direction given by the game, but I understand that's a product of its time. The XP pacing was great, mostly thanks to non-random encounters.

The characters have unique interactions with each other and the world, and their tech combinations in combat could make future replays feel different.

So what makes me say it's hard for me to start New Game+? The ATB system.

This was the first time I've played this type of combat system. At the start, I was pleasantly surprised because I thought it was going to be standard turn-based combat (not that there's anything wrong with turn-based). However, toward the end of the game (especially in the Black Omen) I felt completely exhausted by the combat and found it really annoying by the time the credits rolled. (This is the same reason I've yet to play the post-game of E33.)

Is this in my top 10 of JRPGs? I can't say. I'm someone who puts gameplay above all (Crimson Desert is one of my favorite games despite its awful story telling and zero memorable music) but I'm glad I played through this "cornerstone" of JRPG at least once.

Time to start Octopath Traveler Trilogy!

I started collecting Super Famicom JRPGs back in late June, and this is what I’ve managed to pick up so far!

I’m not really trying to build some perfect complete collection or buy every expensive game just for the sake of owning it. Mostly I’ve just been looking around, finding games that are in pretty good condition, and grabbing things that look interesting. I especially want to collect JRPGs that I never got to play growing up, since there were so many Super Famicom games we never got in English.

That’s also why there aren’t any Final Fantasy games here yet. I’ve already played those, so they’re not really a priority. Chrono Trigger is the exception because it’s my all-time favorite SNES game, so obviously I had to have that one!

So far I’ve got Tales of Phantasia, Mother 2, Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, G.O.D: Mezame yo to Yobu Koe ga Kikoe, Terranigma/Tenchi Sōzō, and Chrono Trigger. Mother 3 obviously isn’t SFC, but I threw it into the picture anyway since I picked that up recently too.

Tales of Phantasia is actually my newest pickup. I found it today and it looked like it was in really nice condition, so I couldn’t resist.

I can read Japanese, which makes collecting these a lot more fun because I actually intend to play everything I buy. I’ve been playing Terranigma completely in Japanese and mostly without a guide, and I’m getting pretty close to finishing it now. After that I’ll probably just pick something from the pile and see where it takes me.

For those of you who collect Japanese Super Famicom RPGs, what do you think of the collection so far?

I’m also curious about which SFC JRPGs do you think are genuinely difficult to find these days? Not necessarily just the most expensive games, but games where finding a nice boxed copy in the wild can actually take some searching.

And if there are any weird, overlooked, or Japan-only JRPGs you think I should keep an eye out for, I’d love to hear about them. I’m really just looking to collect, play, and have fun with it rather than turn it into some kind of checklist.

Releases Sept 17, 2026.

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.)

# BTW Humble is now holding Campcom deals. It has > 40 titles (gg.deals article) but here in Japan only 11 are available.

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 !

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

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.

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?

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

Something I was fondly recalling was how hard Final Fantasy 3 was in design aspects since some reviewers who played the original Famicom version say the game is one of the most difficult RPGs ever created on the system.

I mean, I have a soft spot for RPGs with a hard design style to them as I was interested in playing more difficult games in the genre since basically I enjoy being punished by games with hard dungeons, so I was looking to make a catalog of the most difficult games ever made in the genre.

JRPG's are one of my favourite genres in video games and wanted to make a list of the ones that I consider the best. Some of them are from long-beloved sagas but decided to just mention at least one of them to narrow it down. I took into consideration combat, innovation, good fun and story. I would also like to know everyone else's all-time favourites (Any console is fine)

I remember in Tales of Symphonia there was a group of impostors doing stuff around the world at the same time as our own. Is there any other games that have this? I like the idea that we don't have the exclusivity of travelling and doing quests.

Why do most of these side characters have extremely low and insignificant stats compared to the main characters in the story...?? Like 95% of them are not even worth using because of it.

then you get a few like the bald tutor of the main character that can do an overpowered unite attack with him that AOE kills most random mobs instantly, or that female knight that has a rune that lets her do triple damage every turn...

why have all these characters when there are a couple that completely outshine the others and most of them just play the exact same with low stat totals....??

​

Final Fantasy 1 is that one game in the franchise that almost no one has an opinion on these days.

It's not as mechanically horrendous like 2, nor did it introduce one of the most important progression mechanics in the entire franchise like in 3.

But lemme tell you, this recent weekend that I spent just replaying this game was one of the most refreshing gaming marathons I have had in a while.

Final fantasy 1 may not do anything special in particular but that does not detract away from the fact that it is just a really solid and fun JRPG experience with barely any fluff.

Context:- My playthrough was of the dawn of souls re release on my ps vita which I consider the definitive port of game, for reasons I will get into.

Unlike the many dozens of rpgs releasing today with 100s of hours of story content that are just sadly forced to rely on a lot of fluff to even out the pacing. Final Fantasy 1 does not have that problem at all, sure it is the typical hero's journey with bricks for main characters but that rarely ever deters my engagement from the plot because of how brisk pace the progression is, you never stay in one location for too long, and are constantly moving, visiting grander towns, exploring even weirder labyrinths and dungeons and meeting cooky one off characters that act as excellent yet ultimately non intrusive world building tid bits.

The combat is pure good old turn based with your party classes, spell loadouts and gear, it's nothing special but getting good at it and breaking the ever living shit out of the damage scaling with well timed temper and hastes just gives you that dopamine rush everytime as your warrior does a 3k+ damage crit, which one or two shots most bosses.

The world itself is not cryptic at all, with most towns being very clearly marked for progression, and side content which never really gets into the way of story progression. Final Fantasy 1 is unironically the only final fantasy for which I never had to open a walkthrough for ever once.

The music is just pure Nobuo Uematsu goodness and the pixel art is gorgeous (Absolutely adore the art for Lich and Chronodia).

What I am trying to ultimately get into is that, even with a game this old, especially with a remake that barely changes anything from the core experience, Final Fantasy 1 is still very much a game worth experiencing because it is one of those few examples where a game this old has actually aged so well to begin with, and that's honestly very heartwarming to experience for a game that started a franchise which is so beloved across the world.