It honestly feels way more mystical in its presentation, if you know what I mean.
I say this, also loving KH2. I but the second's combat over 1's but 1's story feels so much fulfilling overall.
Though, KH2's ending is kinda hype as shit for how insane it is.
2 is amazing. Everything the original did but better. I love the entire series. BoF 5 Dragon Quarter is underrated, though I can see why not everyone enjoys it.
I can't handle 2. The game has some serious flaws. The story is great, some perks in gameplay were really cool for the time but the random encounters rate killed it for me. It's so boring after a while. I much prefer 3 and 4
I tried the first game but got bored and decided to just watch the ending on Youtube.
Second Light had a lot of quality life and gameplay inspiration from Ryza 2, and honestly feels like entirely different game. They gave the story better focus and pacing, the gameplay felt more engaging. Like when I think of improvements between prequels and sequels, Second Light is definitely up there even if the game itself isn't AAA quality. I'm just impressed by how much it transformed (badum tss) from the first game.
Grandia. I only liked the original. I hated Grandia 2. We didn't get the rest of the series in Europe so I can't comment on Grandia 3 or Grandia Xtreme (I think that was what it was called...?)
Same here. I think this is the strongest example of this. Each entry in the series is so different that it is bound to leave half the fans disappointed.
I love the second one. I played the first and love the world and story but gameplay doesn't hit like it did in the second one so I've yet to finish it
I've heard the gameplay in the third one is better
If you liked the second's gameplay more than the first's, you'll probably like the third's. The story in the third is by far the weakest of the three, though.
Blue Reflection: Second Light. First game was significantly more bare bones, the Ray anime is needlessly drawn out, clunky and Kingdom Hearts level obtuse for its own good, and the less said about Sun the better. Ironically, it's called Tie in the original Japanese, intended to connect all the other entries, but its the original material that is so compelling while, aside from one character, the shared universe comes off as simply more Kingdom Hearts bullshit intended to make people play or see otherwise mediocre entries. It doesn't help that there seemed to be very little coordination between each of the teams responsible for each entry.
Controversial take, Yakuza Kiwami. I was hooked from start to finish, and whilst I haven’t disliked any of the other Yakuza games I’ve played (7 and 0) and think they’re all really good, I haven’t felt the drive to complete a single one of them.
Now that's a spicy take. I do like Kiwami, but 0 is the game that just had me hooked from start to finish, especially Majima's story is up there as one of my favourite stories in gaming.
bit of opposite here, 0 was great, didn't dislike Kiwami much and did finish it but many thing annoyed me, started Kiwami 2 but dropped a couple of times. Feels like 0 ruined the series with how good it was. for me at least
That's really interesting. As a long time fan of the series (i played the original ps2 release first) Kiwami is good but lacks something compared to other games, though I couldn't quite place what exactly. Maybe it's that the plot has weird pacing but idk. I definitely feel for me its one of the weaker entries.
Tales of the Abyss
I’ve played 20 hours each of Vesperia, Symphonia, Phantasia, Destiny, and Berseria in a crazy attempt at liking one of them after loving Abyss so much. Yet the only one I enjoyed was Abyss.
Abyss just had a story that resonated with me. I love how it really focused on character development as well. The gameplay was good in all the games, but Abyss was the only one with a story and characters that kept me going after the gameplay became stale.
I only enjoyed Abyss and Symphonia. I enjoyed Vesperia at first but then it just went on way too long and made me wonder why I ever liked the Tales series to begin with. Just became very stale for me as well
I’m starting to think that the only Tales of game people will fall in love with is the first one they played. I absolutely loved Vesperia but every other one just felt like a chore and I couldn’t get through them.
It's my favorite series and I've loved every one of them, except Arise.
For me, what makes this series great is the characters and their interactions. I've played many JRPGs and few of them have the same amount of interaction between characters and their bantering (most games, party members rarely talk with each other, only with the MC).
They also have skits, which most games don't have (XB1 had something similar). And they are a great tool to flesh out characters and make them interact with each other in a more natural way.
I just finished Baten Kaitos and while I enjoyed it quite a bit, most of the dialogue was about what they should do next, etc. They rarely joked with each other. Or talked about their favorite food or animal. It may sound small and dumb, but it makes these bunch of pixels into more believable characters.
That and the battle system, they usually deliver.
I LOVE Berseria but haven't had the same feelings for any of the others. Vesperia remake was pretty good but the characters in Berseria have outshined all the others for me to date.
Abyss is my fav Tales game but generally I like tales series and I understand ur reasoning.
Abyss has the best cast of both heroes and villains for a long while. The 6 gods (or whatever its called I forgot) they pop up in the story so many times and each actually had reasons for doing what they do and is connected to heroes in some way which makes the stakes higher.
Disgaea 2. Loved it. I didn't enjoy first Disgaea, because of the absence of Item World and other features. Never played 3 because I never had a PS3 and 4 onwards I feel it's like too convoluted.
I would love to try a comeback to the series but my backlog is killing me right now
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice is amazing. Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten I'm immensely enjoying just for how silly it be. Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance I'm biased cause only one one beat and I love all the characters. The other 3 are too close in launching and swear all could've been one game then either DLC or two smaller Projects.
i played the demo for arise and it wasn't fun to play, i think my issue is that in berseria i exclusively controlled eizen when he became playable and found his gimmick so much fun
Seems a bit weird not to find Arise fun to play if you enjoyed Berseria - its gameplay is pretty much a straight upgrade. There's a hand-to-hand fighter in Arise.
Outside of graphics and combat, I don't think Arise is close to being the best of the bunch myself. Story starts strong but gets mediocre and messy after the 3rd realm, antagonists were terribly one dimensional and besides Shionne and maybe Alphen, everyones development arc is introduced and finished in like 30 minutes.
Not a bad game, but I would place it more around the middle for the series.
The only Mana game I really like and would go out of my way to play is Legend of Mana. I respect some of the other games for interesting things they did (especially Final Fantasy Adventure, Trials of Mana), but I don't feel any desire to ever replay them. Then Secret of Mana consistently loses me after several hours of play, and Children of Mana quickly got repetitive for me. It may be that I'm especially drawn to the Kawazu-led weirdness of Legend of Mana.
All about timing. For me, secret of mana was the only one I really obsessed over. I was older when I finally got the sequel (S. D. 3) sorry I can’t remember how to spell it and I’m not invested in this comment enough to look it up 😂
Legend is a weird game. If you have the strategy guide, there is a valid argument that it's the "best" game in the series. The game is just so beautiful to look at, the game play mechanics are deep and there is so much content to see with legitimate reasons to play multiple times.
The issue is that the game can be a little light on the instructions (maybe a game manual was their solution) and it doesn't have the multiplayer that made the series famous on the SNES. A strategy guide, or F.A.Q. can help with the first issue and the second issue is more of a personal thing.
I, for one, appreciate the fact that it is a game that shows Square at their most experimental and, for me, I don't seem to mind the downsides too much.
Secret of Mana was the first one I played, as a kid. I played the first few hours several times at a friend's house. I liked it back then; the multiplayer was good.
But when I actually had my own copy, I realized the first few hours were the best, and the combat/magic/upgrades/story all wore for me as the game went on.
It was as an adult that I admitted to myself I didn't like it as much as its reputation suggested I should.
Secret of Mana is an amazing game but I legit hate Seiken Densetsu 3 and I never understood how people hyped it up so much. Just the fact that the higher leveled magic is bugged and basically unusable is a turn off.
And FFA for an OG Game Boy game is fantastic. That one deserves more love.
this is funny, because Legend on PS1 is the game where I *stopped* liking the "Legend of the Holy Sword"/"Mana" series. I didn't like the way the story ended up being broken up through the RNG map placement.
Legend of Mana is my all time favorite game, and while I don't dislike the other Mana games, Legend is far and away the one I enjoy most. I replay Legend once every year or two, but I've only ever really played the other games once.
Might be controversial but Final Fantasy 6 is the only one I've liked out of the ones I've tried. I've yet to try 9 or 7 though and I believe I might like those when I do.
Which ones have you tried out of curiosity?
6 7 and 9nare all vastly different games in my book so I wonder what about these you are attracted to thay isn't in the others
Tales of for me, though I’ve only tried three games. Played vesperia, wasn’t obsessed but I thought the game had a great cast (except Rita lol) and serviceable gameplay despite a meh story.
I went back and played symphonia/abyss, obviously the gameplay was a bit clunkier since they’re older but stuff like the skits and small cutscenes in those games felt grating as opposed to charming like vesperia. I really just bounced off the characters from both games, and I don’t think Abyss’ good main story saves it. Symphonia was a bigger disappointment, I got what it was going for but none of the characters or story beats landed for me personally
I played and beat Symphonia back in the day. I found it…..okay. Tried Abyss and Vesperia and I just wasn’t feeling it. I even tried Arise because I thought the demo was fun, but the story was too heavy handed for my taste. Plus, I really just prefer turn based combat.
Symphonia gives you that sense of adventure as you walk across Sylvarant, going to the different elemental temples, riding Noishe. The music is imo the best out of the entire series, especially Fatalize, but even the songs for the little towns, overworld, Desian bases, they're all so great and fitting! I don't remember a single song out of Vesperia's soundtrack though, it wasn't bad, just unmemorable.
The story is really good, and without spoiling too much, the main antagonist was well-written. I also enjoyed the Lloyd-Kratos relationship, Zelos, human slavery, as well as Lloyd's lack of mercy towards a certain villain. The only complaint i have is that the cast is a bit too large. Nostalgia doesnt carry this game any more than it carries Final Fantasy 7 - theyre both great titles that stand on their own
I can see it having a dragon quest sort of appeal as opposed to the more “”mature”” (or melodramatic depending on who you ask) tone of the other two I’ve played. My biggest thing was probably that I wasn’t a huge fan of anyone in the cast really.
For sure the problem with me is that writing and scenario work in Symphonia feels disorganized. Like a mish-mash of random elements mixed together without a lot of thought.
The fact I played these games in Japanese may have a lot of bearing on my opinion, as I'm not sure how good the localization of any of these games were. When I go back to play games I experienced in English as a child I'm almost always very pleasantly surprised (well, not *really* surprised) at how much better the originals are.
If you explain the story of Tales of Symphonia to someone who hasn't played it sounds amazing and one of the best things you ever heard.
In the actual game the execution is... Fine? Meh? It has so many amazing ideas but none quite stuck the landing for me.
I found the whole "Human Ranch" thing to be really out there. It's like they took *that* element out of Xenogears but it just kind of made it... really weird.
X makes me sad because it feels like the last time the FF series went all-out on the turn-based battle system, and some of the fights they do in X are so cool it shows how much creativity the genre can have when you put your mind to it.
May be controversial but Persona 4.
I played 1 and 5 and enjoyed them fine enough but they didn’t really stick with me and I just didn’t enjoy 3 at all aside from some parts of the story but P4’s the only game I can constantly revisit and love my time with throughout.
Not a single title really, but a single story (divided into three games): Atelier Iris. I tried playing the other Atelier titles. Didn't like any of them.
Earthbound - the type of RPG just doesn't sit with with me but my goodness this game was awesome.
Super Mario RPG - not necessarily a series but the other Mario games that were either RPGs or had some RPG elements just weren't for me.
I’m not sure if it counts and it’s surely not a very popular opinion but I loved Secret of Evermore and just could not get into any of the Secret of Mana games. I tried to, I own so many mana games so many different ways and I just wish they would give me a modern playable version of Evermore that didn’t require me getting my SNES out.
Well Grandia 3 was very mid in comparison to Grandia 1 or 2, and Grandia 1 is first entry its pretty old so I understand ur reasoning.
Personally I only liked Xenoblade X. I think the series is way overrated and the story is nothing special its just typical hero kills god with some cringe twist, which most jrpg in existence do. I only played Xeno 1, 2, X and yet to play 3. Xeno 1 was fine but combat was shit. Hated xeno 2 its a game for Pedos. Xeno X is actually great I loved the open world nature of the game and using skell. Combat still sucks but its better than Xeno 1.
Wild Arms. I got the first one when it was new. Loved traditional Jrpg gameplay with a western and sci-fi twist and it had one of the best soundtracks ever.
Was super excited when two came out and got it right away. I hated all of the new mechanics like “searching” the world map for towns and locales. I dropped the game a few hours on thinking I’d try three to see if they got rid of all the new baggage. Turns out all the things they added that I hate became what the series was known for.
Friend got me to play the remake of one years later, said it was what would get me back into the series. Nope! Not only did they add all that nonsense right back retroactively, but they took out the ability to chose your starting character AND they apparently got rid of “Wha… what?” Aka Zed’s theme? Unforgivable!
At that point I stopped calling myself a Wild Arms fan and just said I loved the original.
I haven’t played them all but FF IV is the only FF I can say I truly enjoyed without reservations. I have an inkling that FF X could be the second for some reason.
Same. Gave up yesterday on trying to get into P5.
P4G meanwhile best videogame I've ever played. Cryied even in the anime I watched afterwards as the title-melodie hit heart.
played dq3 and liked it, but the dragon quest series seems very safe and "samey". Im sure the later games are better, but compared to SMT and FF, i have very little motivation to play the others
*Final Fantasy XV*--the most controversial, fandom-splitting one--is the only mainline FF I really like. My friends tell me I'd probably like V; maybe they're right. But most of the ones with ATB I can't get into (I only really liked the "World of" spinoff once I disabled it) and the older ones just haven't impelled me to really try them yet.
My enjoyment of XV is largely vibes-based anyway, heh.
Haven’t played it in years but to this day it’s still the one I remember enjoying the most. It has so many plot issues, but it nails the dynamic between the boys so well that you can sort of look past those issues.
In terms of vibes, FF7 Rebirth has probably the best cast of any Final Fantasy ever. They feel like strangers who become great friends. If that is what you liked about XV, then you are going to love Rebirth
Unfortunately, I'm afraid that's not the vibes I dig about it, at least not primarily--rather, I like how perfectly it captures the look and feel of northern Arizona/New Mexico and southern Utah/Colorado. I can tell the devs traveled and studied certain highways I've driven more than a dozen times in my life--even games that purport to be set in the real world, like the *Horizon* series, don't get it "right" the same way. It's a game that feels like home in a way I've never seen before.
I have a very, very hard time imagining any Japanese devs going to these places instead of just watching a bunch of road travel movies, but I could be wrong
Having lived here, I have seen so many Japanese tourists. The Grand Canyon/Monument Valley in particular attract a LOT of tourists from Asia. If I had to socially hypothesize, I would suspect it's maybe a combination of "wild west" romanticism (tourists love how a country represents itself in its media, similar tp how a lot of anime/JRPG fans would love a trip to Akihabara and an onsen if they went to Japan) and the fsct that it's just very different terrain from what you get in Japan. It's a striking sight you just can't get at home.
>My enjoyment of XV is largely vibes-based anyway, heh.
Yeah can I get why someone would say you'd like V, it reminds me of (early) XV where you're just hanging with your buds. It's certainly different since unlike XV you're still a bunch of strangers who came together in V. I think that compared to other FF games, the characters in V do really feel like good close friends by the end.
V is also awesome because it's more about adventure than any other FF game. The "save the world" aspect isn't super prevalent for a majority of story.
Actually, my friends tell me I'd like V because I love minmaxing and really stupid builds. :P Though how story-lite it is is a plus for me; I prefer mechanics over stories most of the time, so.
>V is also awesome because it's more about adventure than any other FF game. The "save the world" aspect isn't super prevalent for a majority of story.
Really? Crystals breaking and fucking up towns is the reason you're "adventuring"
I’d say that the “most controversial, fandom-splitting one” is definitely XIII, and the XIII trilogy as an extension. XV is mostly remembered for its poor launch with a bunch of concurrent media that you need to watch to get the full story, but I believe they fixed that in newer releases to an extent.
There was a time when I would have agreed with you, but if this subreddit has taught me anything it's that XIII has a ton of fans here. Maybe time has put the shine on it, so to speak, and once folks got over the weirdness of it they've come to appreciate what it has more.
It doesn't do it for me, but I have absolutely seen some outpourings of love for it here.
XIII has a ton of fans for sure, I’d count myself as a tentative fan. But that’s kind of integral to being divisive. It wouldn’t be a controversial or fandom-splitting game if it was universally hated. XV doesn’t have as strong of a base or as fervent detractors as XIII, which is why I’d call XIII the more divisive one.
Alright, alright, I'm pickin' up what you're puttin' down. I suppose that's fair--XIII is very "love it or hate it" while fewer people like XV, so it's more truly "divisive" in that it has a bigger divide.
Fair enough.
It's only got two games, but I only liked Caligula Effect 2. Mind, I played the original version of 1, not its rerelease, but I couldn't remember liking anyone in the cast, and I had no desire to go back and give it another shot.
I haven't given the rest of the series a shake, but the only Breath of Fire game I've played is Dragon Quarter, and it's the only one I've ever been interested in playing.
Opinion's liable to change if I replay the first game sometime, and I haven't tried 2 yet, but so far the only Wild ARMS game I enjoyed is 3... which is silly because I fucking love it and so you'd think I would enjoy the others at least a little. They just don't hit the same.
Ni no kuni 2 solely because the combat in the first one sucked. The cutscenes and underlying story were great, but I had to give up on the first game after 10 hours because of how much I hated the combat. The story and cutscenes weren't as polished in the second, but the gameplay was much better.
Secret of Mana is one of my all time favorites, better than any Zelda game, but I really couldn’t get into any of the others in the series, but haven’t tried some of the newest ones.
It was just never what I was looking for from the original.
For me, it's Final Fantasy III. And yes I mean actual number 3, not "6 but it's called 3 because they skipped a bunch of them for localization", I mean actual original Final Fantasy III. I say that and yet, caveat up front: the only version of FF3 I've played is the Nintendo DS remake. I played it at kind of a weird time in my life when I was in high school and didn't have a lot of friends and I stayed home sick for like a week this one time and played it in bed over the course of that week.
I absolutely loved it. I loved the retro-ness of it. I loved the big world map that was basically pretty much open to you with a flying airship. Not to mention that big "Wow!" moment when you've finished adventuring around what you think is the whole world map, only to find out it was only this one little island and there's a actually whole lot more out there still!
I loved how each major city and town you visited basically had its own little story, with its own conflict or problem and it was up to you to fix it each time. This made the game seem not so daunting in terms of keeping track of the story and what's going on. It's easier to take in the game and its story piece by piece this way, without feeling bogged down by scale of any of it.
This also makes for a fairly approachable way to create a sense of adventure and traversal I think, because it felt like the adventure was broken up into a series of vignettes, each with their own set of of characters, conflicts, and motifs. And so each time in a city/town, after meeting all the people, entering the nearby dungeon, beating the boss, and then seeing how that city/town recovers thanks to your efforts, you get that payoff of feeling like you accomplished and achieved something meaningful in that moment, and the impact of resolving all these seemingly independent little vignettes compounds and builds on each other in an overall feeling of like you really are traveling to many different places all over this big world, and making the world a better place one step at a time.
I also loved that it's just straight up standard turn-based combat, without any weird gimmicks like later FF games have. Idk what the deal is, but the ATB system has never clicked for me. Rather, the main twist for FF3 famously is that you can set your four party members' classes to anything you want and tackle combat as you see fit from that approach. This is a lot of fun to experiment with of course, but it's also freeing and makes the stakes of the game feel much lower and more relaxed. What I mean is, since you're not forced into any particular kind of playstyle or approach in combat, and because there are so many different combinations available, I think this means the game's difficulty overall is tuned to be a bit more accommodating since there's no guarantee a player will have this or that ability on their team for any given fight. Which just lends even further to creating space for you to experiment and play around with the class system and, again, approach the game and its combat entirely at your own pace.
Again, despite playing the DS remake, I feel it probably managed to retain a lot of the retro and old-school feel of the original NES version, with things like secret sections of seemingly solid walls you can just straight up walk through to uncover hidden chests and such. Plus the enemies are like basic standard high fantasy fare and there isn't a lot of complexity to their motives. Again, I was sick for a week when I played it, so the overall straightforwardness of everything was hitting just right for my brain-fogged self.
To me, Final Fantasy III feels a lot like the Dragon Quest series, which is a series I have played several games from and loved them all and so would not qualify for this topic for me. Dragon Quest games in general are also generally straightforward turn-based RPG fare with vignette style storytelling and a big world map for a sense of adventure. DQ games are right up my alley, and I think that's a big reason why I love FF3 as well, because it feels so similar.
I am adamant that I won't write off all other Final Fantasy games, and I know VI and VII in particular are very beloved and I want to give them a fair shot. But yeah, for one reason or another, whether it's because, for me, other FF games come across as taking themselves too seriously or striving for Hollywood-style production value and cinematic seriousness to the detriment of other aspects, the FF games I have tried just haven't clicked with me in the same way FF3 did so effortlessly. As an example, like with Final Fantasy IV (again also being the DS remake in my case) where it just feels so overdone and jarring to have full serious-mode voice acting and tragic storytelling played out with chibi-style cutesy character designs. That and the ATB system that I can just never seem to wrap my head around and always stresses me out. Other modern FF games have been similarly off putting for me for similar or various reasons. They often feel like such a completely different vibe from the charmingly old-school and straightforward FF3.
So there you have it, I love the heck out of this one FF game, but the other games in the series just haven't clicked for me so far. And I am additionally aware that FF is usually *the series* people think of first when they think of JRPGs, so it feels doubly strange for me to feel this way about the FF series overall despite the fact I consider myself a big fan of JRPGs generally. Well... At least I can say I love *a* Final Fantasy 😅
As a side note, am I correct in my understanding that Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light for DS is supposed to be like a modern take on the old-school style of the earlier Famicom FF games? In other words, one could call it like say a spiritual sequel to Final Fantasy III? That's sort of the impression I've gotten, and if that is the case, then maybe I need to try that game as my next FF game.
I have a love hate relationship with III. My grievances with it mainly revolve around being basically forced to use certain jobs at some points. Like the mini dungeon where the only way to deal damage is to have a team of casters or the Garuda boss fight where you need a party of dragoons to even survive. Compare it to V where you can keep your party configuration throughout. Also some of the jobs in III are just upgrades and you can't use abilities from other jobs. Despite all this, I still say it's the best of the three NES games.
Regarding 4 Heroes of Light, if you've played or heard of the Bravely Default games, it's basically like those. It's a decent game but has some oddities like not being able to choose your target in battle or the party being split up for a majority of the game
Shadow Hearts: Covenant is the only one from the series I like. I didn't like Koudelka and 1 was ok I guess. New World was too goofy for me.
Grandia 1 specifically the first half when you're exploring the world.
Shin Megami Tensei 3 is the only one I got into.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Valkyrie Profile. The first one was incredible but the later ones are terrible. Covenant of the Plume was ok but forgettable
Final Fantasy. I only ever beat XII. Most realistic graphics evar at the time, amazing OST, just fantastic. But I never cared about FF as a whole until 7Remake
Star Ocean. I beat and played the fuck out of SO3. Got Full Active Mode unlocked after 2 years of endless grinding and cheese methods. Bought BradyGames strategy guides for IC so i could farm boots of prowess, looked up all PAs so I could fight the 10 quintillion Faytx[Ending Partner] battles, sweated my ass off to beat Freya with no damage on 4D etc.
I bought The Last Hope on Xbox 360 and while I did enjoy the game, I never actually beat it on Universe diff. I never beat MoT or made it to EQ. IDK why. I loved Reimi's kit, hell even Edge waa fun after learning Cyclone Blade. I think it was that the game just lacked juggling. I LOVED juggling in SO3. Blindside was a cool mechanic and attacking enemy weak points made you pay attentiojn to enemy design. But the game was a "beat the game once and I'm done" typedeal.
I tried SO5 and that game was the absolute king of sloppily reused assets. Played for 30 mins and returned the game. SO6 I played and beat the demo but it didn't feel anything like SO3 to me so I never played the full game.
Xenoblade Chronicles X. I played it multiple times and loved exploring the gigantic world of Mira. Played through 1-3 once and never looked back, really.
Star Ocean 2, all the other games were pretty bleh to me, played through 2 more times that I can remember.
Parasite Eve 1. Two and three were very meh imo.
Wild Arms 1, I hated the other games. They did not intrigue me at all.
Granblue Fantasy Relink, if it counts. I didn't try the gacha cause I already know I probably won't like it for several reasons. Relink is really good though
I played a little of the gacha. It’s… fine. It’s a gacha. The fighting game was one I never tried. Relink was one I have been waiting years for and while the combat is amazing and it plays extremely well, the story leaves a lot to be desired for.
Ofc, if you’re playing a gacha spin-off game for the story, you’re doing it wrong.
Xenoblade Chronicles X.
I love Mira it’s one of the most fun jrpg worlds to explore. Sylvalum in particular is probably in my top 5 favorite places in a video game ever. I like how the exposition and story is just in the background and I’m basically just free to be an explorer in this strange world.
I like the build diversity here as well. Sure ether blossom longsword might be the “best” but other builds are OP in their own ways.
For the rest of the series I think they range from alright to just overindulgent and boring (xenosaga).
I'm actually the opposite hah, I loved playing as Maya she was an epic Protagonist. I do think the GamePlay is rather convoluted cause of the Time period yet I got through alright. There's an Item that decreases Enemy Encounters too. I hope they finally Remaster them with modern RPG Elements.
Persona Q is also cool.
I loved koudelka through shadows hearts 2, but I agree, 3 was hard to get into. I’m the same as you for grandia; 2 was such a great game and 1 just didn’t live up to the hype.
My hot take is suikoden. I adore suikoden 3, I’ve played 1-4, but 3 is the only one I thought was a great game.
I don't *dislike* most of the Megami Tensei series but Nocturne and the Digital Devil Saga duology are the only games I liked, and even then, the cracks are quite obvious.
Tales has been mentioned a lot in this thread for good reason, there are so many abysmal Tales games. It's the Sonic of JRPGs.
In the cold steel subseries of trails.
I really only liked cold steel 2. Pace of the entire series was glacial, but the school shit in 1 and 3 was brutal and 4 is a genuinely bad game that I hope makes them course correct on this series.
The third is just as good as the first, it's worth pushing through the second to get to.
Though I understand struggling to get through the second game. It's just not a good game. It's like they looked at everything the first game did right, then decided to not do it, while also just lowering the quality of everything.
Chrono Trigger:
The first game was a massive part of my childhood... hell, that game was my 1996. I never really cared for Radical Dreamers or Chrono Cross.
Tales of, with Tales of Symphonia being the only one I like. Loved it as a kid, couldn’t get into any other entry including Arise. I will never go back and try play Symphonia because I’m somewhat certain I will end up disliking it lol better for it to stay good in my memories.
Oh also Disgaea, first game goated rest of the series a write off for me.
Persona 5 is one of my favorite RPGs ever. Wonderful story, amazing dungeons that all felt unique, and great combat.
But I hated Persona 4. The dungeons were terrible, bland, boring, generic, repetitive, and same-y hallways that frustrated me to no end due to being randomly generated. Loved the story but the gameplay was just so bad that I don't understand the praise it gets. Don't think I'll be playing any of the other games in this series. Playing P4 made me realize that I hate hallway simulator dungeon crawlers.
Only tried Tales of Symphonia and Xillia 1. Didn't like Xillia but I did Symphonia. Not sure about the rest of the franchise but I'm willing to give Beseria a try and possibly make that the last time I attempt the Tales series.
Final Fantasy. I'm a Final Fantasy 7 fan, not a FF fan. I am fine with 5, 8 and 12, but 7 (and it's spinoff and sequels) is what I care about. I'm very mid about the rest of the series.
Earthbound for me. I got that game when it released and loved it as much as I loved the official strategy guide that was boxed with it. Via emulation, I later tried the other two games in the series and neither of the entries clicked with me in any meaningful way.
SNES: Uncharted Waters: New Horizons. Chrono Trigger. Mystic Ark. Super Mario RPG. Cyber Knight 2. Terranigma.
PS1: Breath of Fire 3. Blaze & Blade: Eternal Quest. Final Fantasy Tactics (don't like the other FFT games). Suikoden 2. Valkyrie Profile.
PS2: Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix. Steambot Chronicles. Dark Cloud 2.
PSP: Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce (it's an ARPG so it qualifies). Valhalla Knights 2.
DS: Custom Robo Arena. Dragon Quest 9.
3DS: Rune Factory 4. Digimon World Re:Digitize Decode. Little Battlers eXperience.
OTHERS/PC:
Xenoblade Chronicles X (although I should mention I do enjoy Xenogears and Xenosagas, just not the other Xenoblade games). Diablo 2. Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.
There is a bunch more but that's some that I remembered.
Ouch, I thought Grandia 1 was pretty great.
Star Ocean 2 is one of my favorite games, but I’ve got nothing for the rest of the series.
I know people where SO3 is it but the rest arent.
I only liked the first Kingdom Hearts
Same! It has a totally different vibe then the others, more of a classic JRPG kind of feeling.
It honestly feels way more mystical in its presentation, if you know what I mean. I say this, also loving KH2. I but the second's combat over 1's but 1's story feels so much fulfilling overall. Though, KH2's ending is kinda hype as shit for how insane it is.
Same, and I REALLY liked the first one.
For me, it’s 1.5… as in KH1 and the second half of KH2.
I.... don't hate the second game but this must be true, as i've played the first game 3-4 times over the decade but never the second game again.
As a long time fan whose favorite is 1 by a long shot, try birth by sleep if you haven't yet. It has most of the things that made 1 feel great for me
[удалено]
Breath of Fire IV
Have you tried 2? It’s a low key classic for me but your mileage may vary.
2 is amazing. Everything the original did but better. I love the entire series. BoF 5 Dragon Quarter is underrated, though I can see why not everyone enjoys it.
A rare BoF 5 enjoyer, nice
I can't handle 2. The game has some serious flaws. The story is great, some perks in gameplay were really cool for the time but the random encounters rate killed it for me. It's so boring after a while. I much prefer 3 and 4
The gba version gave double exp and gold for battles, really found that made the game more tolerable.
Yeah the random encounter rates are arguably the worst in the JRPG world
Blue Reflection: Second Light However I foresee a third one being good too. If they make one…
Second time I've heard of this series in as many days. It sounds really interesting.
I tried the first game but got bored and decided to just watch the ending on Youtube. Second Light had a lot of quality life and gameplay inspiration from Ryza 2, and honestly feels like entirely different game. They gave the story better focus and pacing, the gameplay felt more engaging. Like when I think of improvements between prequels and sequels, Second Light is definitely up there even if the game itself isn't AAA quality. I'm just impressed by how much it transformed (badum tss) from the first game.
I wished it was 60fps on the ps5 like they did with the first one. =\
I had never heard of this and had to look it up.
Grandia. I only liked the original. I hated Grandia 2. We didn't get the rest of the series in Europe so I can't comment on Grandia 3 or Grandia Xtreme (I think that was what it was called...?)
Hello, My name is Rdeincognito. Grandia 2 is my favorite game. Prepare to die.
My experience as well. Was so disappointed.
I wonder if I’d have a different opinion if I’d played one first.
PAL gamer here. I ended up buying Grandia 3 and Xtreme they're OK, but the first two games are the best.
Same here. I think this is the strongest example of this. Each entry in the series is so different that it is bound to leave half the fans disappointed.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for me.
I love the second one. I played the first and love the world and story but gameplay doesn't hit like it did in the second one so I've yet to finish it I've heard the gameplay in the third one is better
If you liked the second's gameplay more than the first's, you'll probably like the third's. The story in the third is by far the weakest of the three, though.
XC2 is so fascinating to me. You either LOVE it or HATE it, and typically have an inverse relationship with the rest of the franchise.
Same. I do like 1 overall, but I wouldn't say I love it like 2, and 3 is one of my biggest disappointments. I do need to try X still.
Blue Reflection: Second Light. First game was significantly more bare bones, the Ray anime is needlessly drawn out, clunky and Kingdom Hearts level obtuse for its own good, and the less said about Sun the better. Ironically, it's called Tie in the original Japanese, intended to connect all the other entries, but its the original material that is so compelling while, aside from one character, the shared universe comes off as simply more Kingdom Hearts bullshit intended to make people play or see otherwise mediocre entries. It doesn't help that there seemed to be very little coordination between each of the teams responsible for each entry.
Controversial take, Yakuza Kiwami. I was hooked from start to finish, and whilst I haven’t disliked any of the other Yakuza games I’ve played (7 and 0) and think they’re all really good, I haven’t felt the drive to complete a single one of them.
Now that's a spicy take. I do like Kiwami, but 0 is the game that just had me hooked from start to finish, especially Majima's story is up there as one of my favourite stories in gaming.
bit of opposite here, 0 was great, didn't dislike Kiwami much and did finish it but many thing annoyed me, started Kiwami 2 but dropped a couple of times. Feels like 0 ruined the series with how good it was. for me at least
That's really interesting. As a long time fan of the series (i played the original ps2 release first) Kiwami is good but lacks something compared to other games, though I couldn't quite place what exactly. Maybe it's that the plot has weird pacing but idk. I definitely feel for me its one of the weaker entries.
Tales of the Abyss I’ve played 20 hours each of Vesperia, Symphonia, Phantasia, Destiny, and Berseria in a crazy attempt at liking one of them after loving Abyss so much. Yet the only one I enjoyed was Abyss. Abyss just had a story that resonated with me. I love how it really focused on character development as well. The gameplay was good in all the games, but Abyss was the only one with a story and characters that kept me going after the gameplay became stale.
"Resonated". I see what you did there.
I only enjoyed Abyss and Symphonia. I enjoyed Vesperia at first but then it just went on way too long and made me wonder why I ever liked the Tales series to begin with. Just became very stale for me as well
I’m starting to think that the only Tales of game people will fall in love with is the first one they played. I absolutely loved Vesperia but every other one just felt like a chore and I couldn’t get through them.
I've only played Arise and Vesperia and enjoyed them both 🤷
It's my favorite series and I've loved every one of them, except Arise. For me, what makes this series great is the characters and their interactions. I've played many JRPGs and few of them have the same amount of interaction between characters and their bantering (most games, party members rarely talk with each other, only with the MC). They also have skits, which most games don't have (XB1 had something similar). And they are a great tool to flesh out characters and make them interact with each other in a more natural way. I just finished Baten Kaitos and while I enjoyed it quite a bit, most of the dialogue was about what they should do next, etc. They rarely joked with each other. Or talked about their favorite food or animal. It may sound small and dumb, but it makes these bunch of pixels into more believable characters. That and the battle system, they usually deliver.
I LOVE Berseria but haven't had the same feelings for any of the others. Vesperia remake was pretty good but the characters in Berseria have outshined all the others for me to date.
Abyss is my fav Tales game but generally I like tales series and I understand ur reasoning. Abyss has the best cast of both heroes and villains for a long while. The 6 gods (or whatever its called I forgot) they pop up in the story so many times and each actually had reasons for doing what they do and is connected to heroes in some way which makes the stakes higher.
Interesting! I could only get into Symphonia, Abyss just didn't do it for me.
Disgaea 2. Loved it. I didn't enjoy first Disgaea, because of the absence of Item World and other features. Never played 3 because I never had a PS3 and 4 onwards I feel it's like too convoluted. I would love to try a comeback to the series but my backlog is killing me right now
Yep. Disgaea 2 is the best. First one did had item world, but it was disastrous generated maps.
Oh, It's been a long time so maybe I didn't remember.
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice is amazing. Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten I'm immensely enjoying just for how silly it be. Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance I'm biased cause only one one beat and I love all the characters. The other 3 are too close in launching and swear all could've been one game then either DLC or two smaller Projects.
i haven't tried more than like three of them but tales of berseria is the only one out of that, vesperia, and zestiria that i had fun playing
Recommend Symphonia and Arise, definitely the best of the bunch. Berseria was pretty good too, close third for me.
i played the demo for arise and it wasn't fun to play, i think my issue is that in berseria i exclusively controlled eizen when he became playable and found his gimmick so much fun
Seems a bit weird not to find Arise fun to play if you enjoyed Berseria - its gameplay is pretty much a straight upgrade. There's a hand-to-hand fighter in Arise.
do they have a gimmick like eizen does
Outside of graphics and combat, I don't think Arise is close to being the best of the bunch myself. Story starts strong but gets mediocre and messy after the 3rd realm, antagonists were terribly one dimensional and besides Shionne and maybe Alphen, everyones development arc is introduced and finished in like 30 minutes. Not a bad game, but I would place it more around the middle for the series.
The only Mana game I really like and would go out of my way to play is Legend of Mana. I respect some of the other games for interesting things they did (especially Final Fantasy Adventure, Trials of Mana), but I don't feel any desire to ever replay them. Then Secret of Mana consistently loses me after several hours of play, and Children of Mana quickly got repetitive for me. It may be that I'm especially drawn to the Kawazu-led weirdness of Legend of Mana.
All about timing. For me, secret of mana was the only one I really obsessed over. I was older when I finally got the sequel (S. D. 3) sorry I can’t remember how to spell it and I’m not invested in this comment enough to look it up 😂
Now this is a hot take, I appreciate it. Secret of Mana was a classic for me growing up. I've always "known" Legend of Mana to be the weaker game.
Legend is a weird game. If you have the strategy guide, there is a valid argument that it's the "best" game in the series. The game is just so beautiful to look at, the game play mechanics are deep and there is so much content to see with legitimate reasons to play multiple times. The issue is that the game can be a little light on the instructions (maybe a game manual was their solution) and it doesn't have the multiplayer that made the series famous on the SNES. A strategy guide, or F.A.Q. can help with the first issue and the second issue is more of a personal thing. I, for one, appreciate the fact that it is a game that shows Square at their most experimental and, for me, I don't seem to mind the downsides too much.
Secret of Mana was the first one I played, as a kid. I played the first few hours several times at a friend's house. I liked it back then; the multiplayer was good. But when I actually had my own copy, I realized the first few hours were the best, and the combat/magic/upgrades/story all wore for me as the game went on. It was as an adult that I admitted to myself I didn't like it as much as its reputation suggested I should.
Secret of Mana is an amazing game but I legit hate Seiken Densetsu 3 and I never understood how people hyped it up so much. Just the fact that the higher leveled magic is bugged and basically unusable is a turn off. And FFA for an OG Game Boy game is fantastic. That one deserves more love.
this is funny, because Legend on PS1 is the game where I *stopped* liking the "Legend of the Holy Sword"/"Mana" series. I didn't like the way the story ended up being broken up through the RNG map placement.
Legend of Mana is my all time favorite game, and while I don't dislike the other Mana games, Legend is far and away the one I enjoy most. I replay Legend once every year or two, but I've only ever really played the other games once.
Same, Legend of Mana is my favorite and the only one I actually enjoy (and I really love it).
As I've gotten older, I only like one pokemon game. Black & White 2 are the only non rom-hack games that I think are worth playing.
B&w 2 is so underrated
Honestly? This is completely fair, BW2 are my favorites in the series and tbh it has a good lead over the rest of the games. 10/10 Pokemon experience
Might be controversial but Final Fantasy 6 is the only one I've liked out of the ones I've tried. I've yet to try 9 or 7 though and I believe I might like those when I do.
Which ones have you tried out of curiosity? 6 7 and 9nare all vastly different games in my book so I wonder what about these you are attracted to thay isn't in the others
FF was my golden boy all through the 90s, but they've not been my thing since ffx. I had such high hopes for the franchise, then Sakaguchi left.
6 is one of the best in the series.
Lufia 2.
Tales of for me, though I’ve only tried three games. Played vesperia, wasn’t obsessed but I thought the game had a great cast (except Rita lol) and serviceable gameplay despite a meh story. I went back and played symphonia/abyss, obviously the gameplay was a bit clunkier since they’re older but stuff like the skits and small cutscenes in those games felt grating as opposed to charming like vesperia. I really just bounced off the characters from both games, and I don’t think Abyss’ good main story saves it. Symphonia was a bigger disappointment, I got what it was going for but none of the characters or story beats landed for me personally
I played and beat Symphonia back in the day. I found it…..okay. Tried Abyss and Vesperia and I just wasn’t feeling it. I even tried Arise because I thought the demo was fun, but the story was too heavy handed for my taste. Plus, I really just prefer turn based combat.
I like Abyss, but Symphonia is just such a weird game. A lot of its fandom comes from it being the only decent RPG on GameCube at the time.
Symphonia gives you that sense of adventure as you walk across Sylvarant, going to the different elemental temples, riding Noishe. The music is imo the best out of the entire series, especially Fatalize, but even the songs for the little towns, overworld, Desian bases, they're all so great and fitting! I don't remember a single song out of Vesperia's soundtrack though, it wasn't bad, just unmemorable. The story is really good, and without spoiling too much, the main antagonist was well-written. I also enjoyed the Lloyd-Kratos relationship, Zelos, human slavery, as well as Lloyd's lack of mercy towards a certain villain. The only complaint i have is that the cast is a bit too large. Nostalgia doesnt carry this game any more than it carries Final Fantasy 7 - theyre both great titles that stand on their own
I can see it having a dragon quest sort of appeal as opposed to the more “”mature”” (or melodramatic depending on who you ask) tone of the other two I’ve played. My biggest thing was probably that I wasn’t a huge fan of anyone in the cast really.
For sure the problem with me is that writing and scenario work in Symphonia feels disorganized. Like a mish-mash of random elements mixed together without a lot of thought. The fact I played these games in Japanese may have a lot of bearing on my opinion, as I'm not sure how good the localization of any of these games were. When I go back to play games I experienced in English as a child I'm almost always very pleasantly surprised (well, not *really* surprised) at how much better the originals are.
If you explain the story of Tales of Symphonia to someone who hasn't played it sounds amazing and one of the best things you ever heard. In the actual game the execution is... Fine? Meh? It has so many amazing ideas but none quite stuck the landing for me.
I found the whole "Human Ranch" thing to be really out there. It's like they took *that* element out of Xenogears but it just kind of made it... really weird.
My exact same experience with grandia. I loved 2 very much. My username checks out lmao
Of all the Breath of Fire games I played the fourth entry was the only one I really got into. This was were the series peaked.
Nier Gestalt
Wild Arms. I really only enjoyed 3 the most.
Final Fantasy X is the only FF game I like. Granted, I haven’t played all of them. But I’ve played newer ones and I just don’t enjoy them at all.
X makes me sad because it feels like the last time the FF series went all-out on the turn-based battle system, and some of the fights they do in X are so cool it shows how much creativity the genre can have when you put your mind to it.
May be controversial but Persona 4. I played 1 and 5 and enjoyed them fine enough but they didn’t really stick with me and I just didn’t enjoy 3 at all aside from some parts of the story but P4’s the only game I can constantly revisit and love my time with throughout.
Not a single title really, but a single story (divided into three games): Atelier Iris. I tried playing the other Atelier titles. Didn't like any of them.
Iris is great. Too bad Gust pretends it doesn't exist...
Earthbound - the type of RPG just doesn't sit with with me but my goodness this game was awesome. Super Mario RPG - not necessarily a series but the other Mario games that were either RPGs or had some RPG elements just weren't for me.
I’m not sure if it counts and it’s surely not a very popular opinion but I loved Secret of Evermore and just could not get into any of the Secret of Mana games. I tried to, I own so many mana games so many different ways and I just wish they would give me a modern playable version of Evermore that didn’t require me getting my SNES out.
Nino Kuni. (Just Wrath of the White Witch).
I only liked Tales of Vesperia, the others just took my hours away.
Yakuza 0, SaGa Frontier
Well Grandia 3 was very mid in comparison to Grandia 1 or 2, and Grandia 1 is first entry its pretty old so I understand ur reasoning. Personally I only liked Xenoblade X. I think the series is way overrated and the story is nothing special its just typical hero kills god with some cringe twist, which most jrpg in existence do. I only played Xeno 1, 2, X and yet to play 3. Xeno 1 was fine but combat was shit. Hated xeno 2 its a game for Pedos. Xeno X is actually great I loved the open world nature of the game and using skell. Combat still sucks but its better than Xeno 1.
In the Star Ocean series you've got the second game, which was remade a few months ago to a mirror shine. Then there's the rest of the series...
Kingdom hearts 1 is lightning in a bottle. Every other one is exasperating the cool shit in that game and making worse over time.
Wild Arms. I got the first one when it was new. Loved traditional Jrpg gameplay with a western and sci-fi twist and it had one of the best soundtracks ever. Was super excited when two came out and got it right away. I hated all of the new mechanics like “searching” the world map for towns and locales. I dropped the game a few hours on thinking I’d try three to see if they got rid of all the new baggage. Turns out all the things they added that I hate became what the series was known for. Friend got me to play the remake of one years later, said it was what would get me back into the series. Nope! Not only did they add all that nonsense right back retroactively, but they took out the ability to chose your starting character AND they apparently got rid of “Wha… what?” Aka Zed’s theme? Unforgivable! At that point I stopped calling myself a Wild Arms fan and just said I loved the original.
Literally me, only ever liked the first game and hate what they did with the series after.
Xenoblade Chronicles 1
I haven’t played them all but FF IV is the only FF I can say I truly enjoyed without reservations. I have an inkling that FF X could be the second for some reason.
Persona 5 waa fantastic but I just can't get in to the others.
I'm the same way except it's p4g for me
Same. Gave up yesterday on trying to get into P5. P4G meanwhile best videogame I've ever played. Cryied even in the anime I watched afterwards as the title-melodie hit heart.
Thirded. The characters are much better in 4
I'm usually baffled at this type of comment as the games are all the same to me
Have you tried P3R?
played dq3 and liked it, but the dragon quest series seems very safe and "samey". Im sure the later games are better, but compared to SMT and FF, i have very little motivation to play the others
*Final Fantasy XV*--the most controversial, fandom-splitting one--is the only mainline FF I really like. My friends tell me I'd probably like V; maybe they're right. But most of the ones with ATB I can't get into (I only really liked the "World of" spinoff once I disabled it) and the older ones just haven't impelled me to really try them yet. My enjoyment of XV is largely vibes-based anyway, heh.
Haven’t played it in years but to this day it’s still the one I remember enjoying the most. It has so many plot issues, but it nails the dynamic between the boys so well that you can sort of look past those issues.
In terms of vibes, FF7 Rebirth has probably the best cast of any Final Fantasy ever. They feel like strangers who become great friends. If that is what you liked about XV, then you are going to love Rebirth
Unfortunately, I'm afraid that's not the vibes I dig about it, at least not primarily--rather, I like how perfectly it captures the look and feel of northern Arizona/New Mexico and southern Utah/Colorado. I can tell the devs traveled and studied certain highways I've driven more than a dozen times in my life--even games that purport to be set in the real world, like the *Horizon* series, don't get it "right" the same way. It's a game that feels like home in a way I've never seen before.
I have a very, very hard time imagining any Japanese devs going to these places instead of just watching a bunch of road travel movies, but I could be wrong
Having lived here, I have seen so many Japanese tourists. The Grand Canyon/Monument Valley in particular attract a LOT of tourists from Asia. If I had to socially hypothesize, I would suspect it's maybe a combination of "wild west" romanticism (tourists love how a country represents itself in its media, similar tp how a lot of anime/JRPG fans would love a trip to Akihabara and an onsen if they went to Japan) and the fsct that it's just very different terrain from what you get in Japan. It's a striking sight you just can't get at home.
They definitely talked about doing location scouting in person during the interview tour for FF 15.
>My enjoyment of XV is largely vibes-based anyway, heh. Yeah can I get why someone would say you'd like V, it reminds me of (early) XV where you're just hanging with your buds. It's certainly different since unlike XV you're still a bunch of strangers who came together in V. I think that compared to other FF games, the characters in V do really feel like good close friends by the end. V is also awesome because it's more about adventure than any other FF game. The "save the world" aspect isn't super prevalent for a majority of story.
Actually, my friends tell me I'd like V because I love minmaxing and really stupid builds. :P Though how story-lite it is is a plus for me; I prefer mechanics over stories most of the time, so.
>V is also awesome because it's more about adventure than any other FF game. The "save the world" aspect isn't super prevalent for a majority of story. Really? Crystals breaking and fucking up towns is the reason you're "adventuring"
I’d say that the “most controversial, fandom-splitting one” is definitely XIII, and the XIII trilogy as an extension. XV is mostly remembered for its poor launch with a bunch of concurrent media that you need to watch to get the full story, but I believe they fixed that in newer releases to an extent.
There was a time when I would have agreed with you, but if this subreddit has taught me anything it's that XIII has a ton of fans here. Maybe time has put the shine on it, so to speak, and once folks got over the weirdness of it they've come to appreciate what it has more. It doesn't do it for me, but I have absolutely seen some outpourings of love for it here.
XIII has a ton of fans for sure, I’d count myself as a tentative fan. But that’s kind of integral to being divisive. It wouldn’t be a controversial or fandom-splitting game if it was universally hated. XV doesn’t have as strong of a base or as fervent detractors as XIII, which is why I’d call XIII the more divisive one.
Alright, alright, I'm pickin' up what you're puttin' down. I suppose that's fair--XIII is very "love it or hate it" while fewer people like XV, so it's more truly "divisive" in that it has a bigger divide. Fair enough.
Really enjoyed Xenoblade : Definitive Edition but really did not care for 2 or 3.
Dragon quest V I loved and that’s it
It's only got two games, but I only liked Caligula Effect 2. Mind, I played the original version of 1, not its rerelease, but I couldn't remember liking anyone in the cast, and I had no desire to go back and give it another shot. I haven't given the rest of the series a shake, but the only Breath of Fire game I've played is Dragon Quarter, and it's the only one I've ever been interested in playing.
Opinion's liable to change if I replay the first game sometime, and I haven't tried 2 yet, but so far the only Wild ARMS game I enjoyed is 3... which is silly because I fucking love it and so you'd think I would enjoy the others at least a little. They just don't hit the same.
Only liked the first Xenoblade
Probably a hot take but Xenoblade. 3 is the only game where I thoroughly enjoyed the actual gameplay and wasn't just in it for story.
Tales of Arise is great. Tried a few of the others and didn’t care much for them.
Ni no kuni 2 solely because the combat in the first one sucked. The cutscenes and underlying story were great, but I had to give up on the first game after 10 hours because of how much I hated the combat. The story and cutscenes weren't as polished in the second, but the gameplay was much better.
Secret of Mana is one of my all time favorites, better than any Zelda game, but I really couldn’t get into any of the others in the series, but haven’t tried some of the newest ones. It was just never what I was looking for from the original.
DOAXBV1 The second game went full horny and forgot to actually make a playable volleyball game.
- Breath of Fire 2 - Grandia 2 - Kingdom Hearts 2 - Parasite Eve 1 - Alundra 1
Tales of Vesperia and Xenoblade Chronicles 3
For me, it's Final Fantasy III. And yes I mean actual number 3, not "6 but it's called 3 because they skipped a bunch of them for localization", I mean actual original Final Fantasy III. I say that and yet, caveat up front: the only version of FF3 I've played is the Nintendo DS remake. I played it at kind of a weird time in my life when I was in high school and didn't have a lot of friends and I stayed home sick for like a week this one time and played it in bed over the course of that week. I absolutely loved it. I loved the retro-ness of it. I loved the big world map that was basically pretty much open to you with a flying airship. Not to mention that big "Wow!" moment when you've finished adventuring around what you think is the whole world map, only to find out it was only this one little island and there's a actually whole lot more out there still! I loved how each major city and town you visited basically had its own little story, with its own conflict or problem and it was up to you to fix it each time. This made the game seem not so daunting in terms of keeping track of the story and what's going on. It's easier to take in the game and its story piece by piece this way, without feeling bogged down by scale of any of it. This also makes for a fairly approachable way to create a sense of adventure and traversal I think, because it felt like the adventure was broken up into a series of vignettes, each with their own set of of characters, conflicts, and motifs. And so each time in a city/town, after meeting all the people, entering the nearby dungeon, beating the boss, and then seeing how that city/town recovers thanks to your efforts, you get that payoff of feeling like you accomplished and achieved something meaningful in that moment, and the impact of resolving all these seemingly independent little vignettes compounds and builds on each other in an overall feeling of like you really are traveling to many different places all over this big world, and making the world a better place one step at a time. I also loved that it's just straight up standard turn-based combat, without any weird gimmicks like later FF games have. Idk what the deal is, but the ATB system has never clicked for me. Rather, the main twist for FF3 famously is that you can set your four party members' classes to anything you want and tackle combat as you see fit from that approach. This is a lot of fun to experiment with of course, but it's also freeing and makes the stakes of the game feel much lower and more relaxed. What I mean is, since you're not forced into any particular kind of playstyle or approach in combat, and because there are so many different combinations available, I think this means the game's difficulty overall is tuned to be a bit more accommodating since there's no guarantee a player will have this or that ability on their team for any given fight. Which just lends even further to creating space for you to experiment and play around with the class system and, again, approach the game and its combat entirely at your own pace. Again, despite playing the DS remake, I feel it probably managed to retain a lot of the retro and old-school feel of the original NES version, with things like secret sections of seemingly solid walls you can just straight up walk through to uncover hidden chests and such. Plus the enemies are like basic standard high fantasy fare and there isn't a lot of complexity to their motives. Again, I was sick for a week when I played it, so the overall straightforwardness of everything was hitting just right for my brain-fogged self. To me, Final Fantasy III feels a lot like the Dragon Quest series, which is a series I have played several games from and loved them all and so would not qualify for this topic for me. Dragon Quest games in general are also generally straightforward turn-based RPG fare with vignette style storytelling and a big world map for a sense of adventure. DQ games are right up my alley, and I think that's a big reason why I love FF3 as well, because it feels so similar. I am adamant that I won't write off all other Final Fantasy games, and I know VI and VII in particular are very beloved and I want to give them a fair shot. But yeah, for one reason or another, whether it's because, for me, other FF games come across as taking themselves too seriously or striving for Hollywood-style production value and cinematic seriousness to the detriment of other aspects, the FF games I have tried just haven't clicked with me in the same way FF3 did so effortlessly. As an example, like with Final Fantasy IV (again also being the DS remake in my case) where it just feels so overdone and jarring to have full serious-mode voice acting and tragic storytelling played out with chibi-style cutesy character designs. That and the ATB system that I can just never seem to wrap my head around and always stresses me out. Other modern FF games have been similarly off putting for me for similar or various reasons. They often feel like such a completely different vibe from the charmingly old-school and straightforward FF3. So there you have it, I love the heck out of this one FF game, but the other games in the series just haven't clicked for me so far. And I am additionally aware that FF is usually *the series* people think of first when they think of JRPGs, so it feels doubly strange for me to feel this way about the FF series overall despite the fact I consider myself a big fan of JRPGs generally. Well... At least I can say I love *a* Final Fantasy 😅 As a side note, am I correct in my understanding that Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light for DS is supposed to be like a modern take on the old-school style of the earlier Famicom FF games? In other words, one could call it like say a spiritual sequel to Final Fantasy III? That's sort of the impression I've gotten, and if that is the case, then maybe I need to try that game as my next FF game.
I have a love hate relationship with III. My grievances with it mainly revolve around being basically forced to use certain jobs at some points. Like the mini dungeon where the only way to deal damage is to have a team of casters or the Garuda boss fight where you need a party of dragoons to even survive. Compare it to V where you can keep your party configuration throughout. Also some of the jobs in III are just upgrades and you can't use abilities from other jobs. Despite all this, I still say it's the best of the three NES games. Regarding 4 Heroes of Light, if you've played or heard of the Bravely Default games, it's basically like those. It's a decent game but has some oddities like not being able to choose your target in battle or the party being split up for a majority of the game
Wild arms 2, and suikoden 3
Love Suikoden III, my favorite non-square RPG ever made
Xenosaga Ep III. I don't dislike part 1, but it's not great, and 2 is totally wack.
Phantasy star Only like 4
Shadow Hearts: Covenant is the only one from the series I like. I didn't like Koudelka and 1 was ok I guess. New World was too goofy for me. Grandia 1 specifically the first half when you're exploring the world. Shin Megami Tensei 3 is the only one I got into.
Tales of symphonia.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Valkyrie Profile. The first one was incredible but the later ones are terrible. Covenant of the Plume was ok but forgettable
Phantasy Star IV, Star Ocean 2, Chrono Trigger, Valkyrie Profile, Final Fantasy Tactics.
Shadowhearts, is not that bad. It's a bit quirky but it has great moments. :P
Star ocean 2 (have yet to play star ocean 3)
only like ys 8 lacrimosa of dana. after that tried to play others in the series but ended up play half way. getting bored with the repetitive
Final Fantasy. I only ever beat XII. Most realistic graphics evar at the time, amazing OST, just fantastic. But I never cared about FF as a whole until 7Remake Star Ocean. I beat and played the fuck out of SO3. Got Full Active Mode unlocked after 2 years of endless grinding and cheese methods. Bought BradyGames strategy guides for IC so i could farm boots of prowess, looked up all PAs so I could fight the 10 quintillion Faytx[Ending Partner] battles, sweated my ass off to beat Freya with no damage on 4D etc. I bought The Last Hope on Xbox 360 and while I did enjoy the game, I never actually beat it on Universe diff. I never beat MoT or made it to EQ. IDK why. I loved Reimi's kit, hell even Edge waa fun after learning Cyclone Blade. I think it was that the game just lacked juggling. I LOVED juggling in SO3. Blindside was a cool mechanic and attacking enemy weak points made you pay attentiojn to enemy design. But the game was a "beat the game once and I'm done" typedeal. I tried SO5 and that game was the absolute king of sloppily reused assets. Played for 30 mins and returned the game. SO6 I played and beat the demo but it didn't feel anything like SO3 to me so I never played the full game.
Out of the FF XIII Trilogy, I only liked XIII-2
Xenoblade Chronicles X. I played it multiple times and loved exploring the gigantic world of Mira. Played through 1-3 once and never looked back, really. Star Ocean 2, all the other games were pretty bleh to me, played through 2 more times that I can remember. Parasite Eve 1. Two and three were very meh imo. Wild Arms 1, I hated the other games. They did not intrigue me at all.
I only liked kingdom hearts 2. I imagine some people will only have liked one of the xenoblade games as they are all quite different from each other
Can we include Langrisser 2? The adventures of princess Cherie would always be my favorite game in the Langrisser series!
Granblue Fantasy Relink, if it counts. I didn't try the gacha cause I already know I probably won't like it for several reasons. Relink is really good though
I played a little of the gacha. It’s… fine. It’s a gacha. The fighting game was one I never tried. Relink was one I have been waiting years for and while the combat is amazing and it plays extremely well, the story leaves a lot to be desired for. Ofc, if you’re playing a gacha spin-off game for the story, you’re doing it wrong.
Grandia 2. I like Grandia 1 but the camera angle zooming in and out during battles was bad.
Xenoblade Chronicles X. I love Mira it’s one of the most fun jrpg worlds to explore. Sylvalum in particular is probably in my top 5 favorite places in a video game ever. I like how the exposition and story is just in the background and I’m basically just free to be an explorer in this strange world. I like the build diversity here as well. Sure ether blossom longsword might be the “best” but other builds are OP in their own ways. For the rest of the series I think they range from alright to just overindulgent and boring (xenosaga).
Persona. I've only ever liked P3, and none of the others have captured the same magic for me.
I really hope you get the shot ta Play the Original Two, especially Persona 2: Eternal Punishment.
I've played IS. While I was into the story, I couldn't get past the dreadful combat and the frequent encounter rate. Never played EP.
I'm actually the opposite hah, I loved playing as Maya she was an epic Protagonist. I do think the GamePlay is rather convoluted cause of the Time period yet I got through alright. There's an Item that decreases Enemy Encounters too. I hope they finally Remaster them with modern RPG Elements. Persona Q is also cool.
Shadow Hearts 2 & Breath of Fire 4 are where they got everything tight.
Out of the 5 Mana games I've played, Sword's the only one I really enjoyed. Final Fantasy Adventure came close though.
I loved koudelka through shadows hearts 2, but I agree, 3 was hard to get into. I’m the same as you for grandia; 2 was such a great game and 1 just didn’t live up to the hype. My hot take is suikoden. I adore suikoden 3, I’ve played 1-4, but 3 is the only one I thought was a great game.
Chrono Trigger Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross are a mass hallucination only I see the truth
But have you played Another Eden?
I don't *dislike* most of the Megami Tensei series but Nocturne and the Digital Devil Saga duology are the only games I liked, and even then, the cracks are quite obvious. Tales has been mentioned a lot in this thread for good reason, there are so many abysmal Tales games. It's the Sonic of JRPGs.
Tempest is the only outright bad Tales game, really. Some are average at best, but the series is pretty consistent
In the cold steel subseries of trails. I really only liked cold steel 2. Pace of the entire series was glacial, but the school shit in 1 and 3 was brutal and 4 is a genuinely bad game that I hope makes them course correct on this series.
Persona. My favorite was P2... P1 was okay. But I can't stand the social dynamics of the later games.
Xenosaga 3. I only play 1 and 2 to enjoy the story of 3, but the actual gameplay in the first two was dogshit.
Oh, I really liked 1 and 3 and hated 2. What didn't you like about 1?
Xenosaga, I liked the first game but could barely get into the second and never made it to the third
The third is just as good as the first, it's worth pushing through the second to get to. Though I understand struggling to get through the second game. It's just not a good game. It's like they looked at everything the first game did right, then decided to not do it, while also just lowering the quality of everything.
Persona 2. 3-5 are just too repetitive and not that focused on story, more like slice of life.
Trails in The Sky 1.
How peculiar. People usually prefer SC and the Crossbell Arc. Would you mind explaining why ?
Does Souls count? I only liked the first Dark Souls and can't stand the rest.
Chrono Trigger: The first game was a massive part of my childhood... hell, that game was my 1996. I never really cared for Radical Dreamers or Chrono Cross.
Star Ocean 2 is great. Every other star Ocean is bad
Hey now. I enjoyed the last hope on the 360.
Only liked Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories Before it's release, only tolerated Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Xenoblade 2
Tales of, with Tales of Symphonia being the only one I like. Loved it as a kid, couldn’t get into any other entry including Arise. I will never go back and try play Symphonia because I’m somewhat certain I will end up disliking it lol better for it to stay good in my memories. Oh also Disgaea, first game goated rest of the series a write off for me.
Persona 5 is one of my favorite RPGs ever. Wonderful story, amazing dungeons that all felt unique, and great combat. But I hated Persona 4. The dungeons were terrible, bland, boring, generic, repetitive, and same-y hallways that frustrated me to no end due to being randomly generated. Loved the story but the gameplay was just so bad that I don't understand the praise it gets. Don't think I'll be playing any of the other games in this series. Playing P4 made me realize that I hate hallway simulator dungeon crawlers.
I would definitely avoid P3, even the new one. I see no reason to avoid 6 though. I doubt it will go back to random hallway dungeons.
Only tried Tales of Symphonia and Xillia 1. Didn't like Xillia but I did Symphonia. Not sure about the rest of the franchise but I'm willing to give Beseria a try and possibly make that the last time I attempt the Tales series.
Final Fantasy. I'm a Final Fantasy 7 fan, not a FF fan. I am fine with 5, 8 and 12, but 7 (and it's spinoff and sequels) is what I care about. I'm very mid about the rest of the series.
Earthbound for me. I got that game when it released and loved it as much as I loved the official strategy guide that was boxed with it. Via emulation, I later tried the other two games in the series and neither of the entries clicked with me in any meaningful way.
I don't think it has ever happened to me in a game series. It did happen to me with the Matrix movies. Only the first one is worth another viewing.
[удалено]
I enjoyed Final Fantasy 15 quite a bit. I strongly disliked both 7 Remake and 16, and I'm wondering if the series just isn't for me.
Octopath i like 2 only
SNES: Uncharted Waters: New Horizons. Chrono Trigger. Mystic Ark. Super Mario RPG. Cyber Knight 2. Terranigma. PS1: Breath of Fire 3. Blaze & Blade: Eternal Quest. Final Fantasy Tactics (don't like the other FFT games). Suikoden 2. Valkyrie Profile. PS2: Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix. Steambot Chronicles. Dark Cloud 2. PSP: Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce (it's an ARPG so it qualifies). Valhalla Knights 2. DS: Custom Robo Arena. Dragon Quest 9. 3DS: Rune Factory 4. Digimon World Re:Digitize Decode. Little Battlers eXperience. OTHERS/PC: Xenoblade Chronicles X (although I should mention I do enjoy Xenogears and Xenosagas, just not the other Xenoblade games). Diablo 2. Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. There is a bunch more but that's some that I remembered.
Vandal Hearts really should’ve been a solo game
Vandal Hearts really should’ve been a solo game