I already read, that people think 2023 was not the stronges year for this genre. But maybe you have still something that surprises you in a positive way or you play and older game again?
- Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion: The First day i finished at the start of the year was Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion. I think Zack is such a nice Char and i don’t know if it good they add him to the Remake, but maybe i will like it. Still this game is so broken, i was a glas canon. One hit everything but got one hit as well. Had fun with it but only finished 80% of the big big big side content because it got to repetetive.
- Forspoken: Ohh i like this battle system…still the game has so much flaws…but the boss battle were so nice. I had fun, nothing much more to say, i can’t defend this game but like it.
- Fire Emblem Engage: My personal game of the year. I played it more than 200 hours and think it is one of the best Fire Emblem, because instead of three houses, it’s main focus, the tactical gameplay is so good again.
- Valkyrie Profile Lenneth: Hmmm, i don’t thik this game age very well to be honest. Some things are good, but wasn’t that happy about to play it.
- Final Fantasy XVI: Still need to finish that game what will happen over christmas holidays for sure. Well…not a to big fan of that game but at the same time i think it is well made. I haven’t finish it so far because of the mmropg like side quest and the low boring parts between the exiting parts.
- Redemption Reaper: I start that game because i wasn’t in the mood for FFXVI anymore. Just need anything with tactical or turn based battle system and randomly choose this game. It looks bad, it’s rather a simple game, not the best tactical game. But i like the music of the game, that makes me happy playing it and i was satisfied with the ending of the game. Story was simple but the ending let me leave the game with a good mood.
- Soul Hackers 2: Startet this game in 2022, played it for 20 hours this year again until i got bored by the reallly really bad dungeon desgin. Story is good enough, so i want to finish it some day, i’m almost at the end.
- Start Ocean the First Depature R: Don’t like the battle system, but kind of liked the game as a whole.
- Star Ocean the Second Story R: Battle system got a little bit better, the characters got a bit better, the gaphic is quite nice and the story is better writen than the remake of the first.
- Tales of Arise Beyond the Dawn: I don’t know why they made this low effort DLC with lot lot of side content and a short, but nice, story. I like the base game and it’s more of the same if you play the story, but the side content is just unnessesary.
I started Rogue Galaxy. PS2 game. It’s got a nice cell shaded style. The battles are pretty much like FF12. Haven’t got very far yet.
I just look up some images, but this style seems to be like something that’s can’t get really old. But if you say FF12 battle system i probably don’t want to play it. FF12 just played itself while running arround in my opinion and i could even beat most bosses without doing something. Is this here different?
Replayed Final Fantasy 9 and played Persona 5 for the first time!
Sea of Stars. A lot has been said recently on this game, don’t feel I need to say more. Thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. Well worth the price and hours spent to me.
Oriental Blue: Ao no Tengai. This game was very interesting. Released in Japan only for the GBA, I had to find a fan-translated version. It has a lot of interesting mechanics, like a gem-slotting mechanic on all of your weapons and armour to vastly improve them, and other things going for it. It doesn’t hold your hand, and you can accomplish some things in different orders. That can be frustrating for some, but I enjoyed the freedom and felt it allowed me to explore more.
Truthfully there were points where it was a bit confusing, but I don’t hold that against the game. I’d recommend any JRPG fan to give this one a try.
Final Fantasy IV. Speaking of giving things a try, I’ve tried to play FFIV several times over the years. People really recommend the game, and I honestly can’t see why. This latest attempt I made it just over an hour in before calling it quits. The amount of random battles is annoying, and how specific some of those battles needs to be is annoying. For example, you’ll run into a pack of 6 zombies. Magic is the only thing to hurt them, and fire is the magic that’ll do the most damage. So one of your characters can’t do anything but 1 damage, since they just have physical attacks. Your other character doesn’t have fire magic, so it takes them at least 2 attacks to down a zombie, using 10 of your 50-70mp for one enemy, and the other character can down them in 1 with their fire and being slightly higher level. And thats just one example. It’s just… the combat feels poorly designed to me, and like something I want to just get through, not enjoy my time with.
However, I’ve been playing Final Fantasy VI now, and I’ve made it much further in. This one is a lot more enjoyable (so far).
I love FF4, but I think at this point it’s more historically important than anything. Random battles in general aren’t always popular and it’s very much a prototype for later JRPG design. The reason for encounters like that is FF4 was the first time Square made an RPG where the player character roles were set in stone. They felt they could make encounters more targeted towards a certain character class, or make them puzzly in general. I think it’s mostly fine (the encounter design creates a contrast between going up and going down a certain mountain that I think is pretty cool), but it can also be kind of a disaster. Looking at you, Magnetic Cavern. It doesn’t help that the 2D versions are among the easiest JRPGs ever made, so it’s less of a challenge thing and more going through the motions.
FF6 is great for getting more of the party involved, though. One of my overall favorites in the genre.
I definitely understand it’s a game that pioneered a lot of concepts, so I don’t necessarily blame it or think it’s bad, but future games improved a lot on it to make it manageable. I don’t have a problem with random battles, either. But these ones were definitely testing my patience. Thank you for the little history lesson! If I make it through FF6 I’m interested to try the 3D ones for the first time.
Sea of Stars and Chained Echoes are both fantastic takes on the genre.
I also played Persona 5 Royal this year, which was a total vibe. Had me playing the music driving around.
The only two I played that actually came out this year were Trails to Azure and Trails into Reverie. And those were replays for me since I’d already played them before this year’s official release. Also replayed Xenogears, which I’m happy to say is still my favorite story in the genre. That gameplay, though. Oof. Does not age well.
I also finished:
- Persona 5 Royal. Also mostly a replay since I played the original a while back, but the Royal changes/refinements were so worth it. Love this ending now.
- Triangle Strategy. I wasn’t impressed with the story, but the gameplay was very good. This one almost didn’t feel like a JRPG with how thin/different the character advancement and equipment systems are. And what the hell is up with Team Asano’s English dubbing? The voice acting in this was seriously rough, again.
- Atelier Rorona. Was nibbling at this for a while and finally finished it in May. Enjoyable once I finally got into the groove. Hilarious dialogues; Atelier is definitely my go-to now when I need something funny.
- Shin Megami Tensei IV. Played as part of my Discord server’s Game of the Month book-club style event. Incredibly frustrating at times, but I’m still glad I played through it.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2. This was my surprise of the year. I’d heard so much about the fan service in this game, but it was really…tame? It’s virtually only the women character models that are ridiculous and just a smidge of the writing here and there (Tora’s maid fetish mostly). There’s even a hot spring scene without the usual nonsense. I found the gameplay to be nothing special but I loved, loved Pyra. Haven’t liked a new character this much in a long time. Really enjoyable story.
- Atelier Totori. Mostly same good vibes as Rorona. Wasn’t expecting the story to go in the directions it did, surprisingly touching.
Overall, among the JRPGs I played this year, I had the best time with Persona 5 Royal. Not a big surprise since I’ve really come to love this series. Excited about what’s next from Hashino with Metaphor next year.
Baten Kaitos Origins was disappointing. It felt cozy early on since I have (mostly) fond memories of the original game. Between the new stuff (an enby character!) and the combat feeling much better, I had a good feeling early on, but I just couldn’t handle the dungeon design. Didn’t make it very far.
I have started another attempt to play Chrono Trigger again. I have never played it all the way through because of new games coming out and my general disinterest in games with turn-based combat. But I keep restarting hoping that maybe the next time I will finish the game.
If Alundra counts as a JRPG, I have been enjoying that. I never owned PlayStation, so I am playing through games on that lately.
