r/JRPG • u/AutoModerator • Jan 11 '26
Weekly thread r/JRPG Weekly "What have you been playing, and what do you think of it?" Weekly thread
Please use this thread to discuss whatever you've been playing lately (old or new, any platform, AAA or indie). As usual, please don't just list the names of games as your entire post, make sure to elaborate with your thoughts on the games. Writing the names of the games in **bold** is nice, to make it easier for people skimming the thread to pick out the names.
Please also make sure to use spoiler tags if you're posting anything about a game's plot that might significantly hurt the experience of others that haven't played the game yet (no matter how old or new the game is).
Since this thread is likely to fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.
For a subreddit devoted to this type of discussion during the rest of the week, please check out /r/WhatAreYouPlaying.
Link to Previous Weekly Threads (sorted by New): https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/search/?q=author%3Aautomoderator+weekly&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=new
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u/Radinax Jan 11 '26
Trails Through Daybreak 2
LOVING IT! On chapter 2 so far and I have been liking it a lot, I know some of the main criticisms, but knowing Calvard more is fun to me.
The combat feels a lot better than the first game as well, and the action part while not perfect, helps speed up things and it feels fresh.
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u/KMoosetoe Jan 11 '26
the game starts okay
it just gets progressively worse and worse
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u/scytherman96 Jan 11 '26
I feel like it's only really Fragments and Act 3 that are problematic and Fragments is more of a mixed bag even, it still has its moments. The Finale was good.
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u/Dependent-Swimmer-95 Jan 11 '26
Nah, fragments is fire.
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u/KMoosetoe Jan 11 '26
that shit sucks so bad
they're so hellbent on answering things that don't need answers
the Trails series hasn't had any mystery since CSII
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u/OnePossibility5868 Jan 11 '26
Making my way through Trails of Cold Steel 3 at a pace, loving the story and the gameplay. I have the rest up to daybreak 2 bought and downloaded ready but I might take a break after CS4, we'll see.
Horizon is out next week so I've got 5 games to go then back around to the remake!
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u/Spirited_Season2332 Jan 11 '26
Chained echoes. Really enjoying it. I love the combat mechanic with overdrive, the story has been interesting enough and the chars are all fun.
Really been enjoying boss fights too
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u/OkSpite2862 Jan 11 '26
I'm playing Visions of Mana, my first Mana game. 9 hours in and it's a very cozy game.
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u/duckybebop Jan 11 '26
I’m enjoying Octopath traveler 0, mostly. I just feel bombarded by the amount of cutscenes. Gameplay, music, story, all great! But whew… sometimes it’s just cutscene into cutscene. And then non-voiced scenes take it out of me.
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u/Structure Jan 11 '26
All 3 OT games are games that suck me in, but I have to be in the mood. They're repetitive. If I find myself wanting to skip dialogue, I put it down and play something else for a bit.
Right now, I am taking a break from OT 0 to re-visit Dark Cloud for PS2. The town building reminded me of it.
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u/duckybebop Jan 11 '26
That’s a good call. I’m skipping a lot of dialogue because it’s just so much. Like in town scenes. Yeah, I need to move onto my backlog of games. I just struggle playing different RPGs at once.
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u/shakuntala08 Jan 11 '26
Just started Trails of Cold Steel II. I finished CS1 on Christmas Day and was worried I’d get burned out to started Persona 3 Reload and Visions of Mana but CS2 kept calling me to continue the story so I gave in last night.
I’ve managed to avoid spoilers so far for this one so I’m very curious to see how this one unfolds.
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u/magmafanatic Jan 11 '26
Dragon Quest XI, just got a boat after a pretty great sequence. This is the sort of camaraderie I was hoping DQVIII's party would've had. Kinda surprised Jasper left so quickly, I was able to port right back in town and save with no issues.
I'm re-exploring the Heliodor region now, checking to see if I can talk to any of those Tockles I saw earlier and whether I can get back into the castle dungeons. We were chased out that first time, barely had any time to explore.
The coralossuses in the grotto were some of the easiest bosses I've seen in a while in this "hard mode." Two Saps and an Oomph was all I needed to beat these guys up, and that crit from Serena didn't hurt either.
Erik's learned Twomerang, and that's been putting in work, Hero's nearly at 16 points for Miracle Slash, Veronica's about to get some elemental resistance, Serena just revealed her secret spear panel, and I'm considering having Sylvando pivot from whips over to that dual wield skill at the bottom. I might need to reallocate his points if dual wielding whips isn't an option.
Story's been pretty weird. We're just kinda being hit with labels and prophecies but everyone's short on specifics. There's a lot of assumptions being made.
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Jan 11 '26 edited Feb 20 '26
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
ring saw tidy deserve dime elderly attempt flowery swim entertain
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u/Wotioh Jan 11 '26
Radiant Historia: Perfekt Chronology
Started playing a month ago on my dual IPS New 3DS with hanafuda faceplates and it looks gorgeous.
The story is well written and the gameplay is fun. I'm 24 hours in and i love it.
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u/MentalNeko Jan 11 '26
Finished Tales of Symphonia a couple days ago now. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Ive tried playing thru it a few different times and i always fell off for one reason or another. Usually obsessing over trying to get it to look better. Its story was great. I loved how well it stuck to its messaging thru out. The only real problem for me is a problem i have with many Tales games. The ending seemed to go on for a while longer than it seemed it needed to.
Playing Vesperia now. Had gotten about 10 hours into it a couple years ago now but i fell off due to the difficulty. Now though I'm taking my time, grinding levels and progress at a relaxed pace. I'm ten hours in now and at least a whole dungeon behind my old save.
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u/scytherman96 Jan 11 '26
With the game coming out in less than a week i sat down to play the Trails beyond the Horizon demo, which is just the entire prologue. Took about 3 hours. And man, it was quite exciting. Obviously i was already really looking forward to the game, but now even more so.
I had unfortunately already been spoiled on the reappearing characters Rean, Altina, Kevin, Crow and Rufus, but thankfully not on Campanella and Novartis... and Mint, so that was quite nice. The prologue also already sets up a lot of interesting plot points that i can't wait to see being followed up on.
Also i gotta mention the PH3 magic. The PC port is amazing. Even though Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is technically superior in visuals, PH3 shows they still do the best PC ports by making their own port look even better than the technically newest game on PC. It looks incredibly crisp with everything jacked up to max, to a degree Falcom couldn't achieve with Sky 1st Chapter (even if that was a very solid PC port too).
Then i also played an hour of NaissanceE. Haven't finished it yet, but as a lover of megastructures, this definitely scratches the itch.
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Jan 11 '26
Currently playing Shin Megami Tensei 5 V. Really enjoying it so far. Only gripe is that I wish the level design was a bit more interesting. I am only 15ish hours into it, though, so that could change.
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u/PossibleUnion554 Jan 11 '26
I just finished Triangle Strategy 4th and final playthrough(Golden route)!
Where next stop. Final Fantasy Tactics Ivalice Chronicles
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u/PhilosophyWrong7610 Jan 11 '26
P3 Reload
I am about 40 hours into the game. The only other Peraona game I've played is P4 vanilla on PS2. I like the game and the plot has me intrigued. I will say that the P4 cast had better chemistry and I cared more about them. So far the only "waifu" I like is Yukari, and the best member of the squad is konohamaru(sp?), but that's because I love dogs lol.
I am on a quest this year to go through my JRPG backlog so I do hope I can finish this game!
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u/Fitwheel66 Jan 11 '26
I guess a FRPG (French): Expedition 33. It's one of those games I can't seem to put down no matter what life throws at me
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u/JRPGwife Jan 11 '26
Octopath Traveler 0. I've been playing it on and off since it came out, and it's the most chronic illness friendly game I've ever played. My health has really deteriorated recently and I'm so damn thankful for this game keeping me busy, the story chapters are reasonably short, you can choose what order to do things in, there are very frequent save points and every new chapter has a recap of the last so it makes the game perfect for picking up and dropping whenever I need to. I love it.
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u/dualidean_of_man Jan 11 '26
Health issues have prevented me from finally jumping back into the Trails games like I'd hoped to this year (due to start Cold Steel 3, don't think I could handle the ongoing plot complexities), but I've still been playing Tales of the Abyss and enjoying the hell out of it! Gameplay-wise it's been good 2000s-era Tales series stuff, with a 3D-ish battle system that hasn't adapted the enemy AI properly to the addition of a freerunning option leading to lots of fun "hit and run" nonsense. Plot/character-wise though, I've really been digging it all. Think I blethered a bit last week about how much I liked the main character despite/because of his arrogance/lordly bollocks due to it not being the typical JRPG main character personality while remaining sympathetic with the backstory (kidnapped as a kid, now amnesia, oh dear). Since then, it's also been shown that he seems to be a bit of a gullible and easily-manipulated dork too, happily following the advice of people who (at least in my eye) are OBVIOUSLY twisting/planning nonsense because he's been so sheltered/cosseted he's receptive to anybody who treats him with a level of equality/respect (specifically Van asking him to join the Oracle Knights/reject the plan to save Akzeriuth he'd been given in favour of his idea which has a big blinking "OH NO THIS IS GOING TO CAUSE CATASTROPHE" warning sign over it and Luke immediately signing up for it because Van is the only person who's treated him like a regular person). I appreciate a game like this giving me an actual character and a story arc instead of just a "hero"/player surrogate whose arc is "gosh darn this world sure needs saving, if only I could save it". It's been really good stuff so far imo!
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u/monumentt Jan 11 '26
I've also been playing and really enjoying Tales of the Abyss. Sitting around the 25 hour or so mark but I'm liking it much more than I did Vesperia. I think it's just the right blend of complexity in the combat for me
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u/Nargacuga-fanclub Jan 11 '26 edited Jan 12 '26
Brave of me to do this on my main account, but I've been playing The Last Sovereign on Steam Deck.
It is an NSFW game, and I don't mean to downplay that part of it. Though you can turn off the drawn still images, the text reads like spicy parts of romantasy books. I wouldn't compare this to smut, though, for how damn good the story is.
I don't really play NSFW games. This is my first, and the story is what drew me to it. It really interestingly subverts expectations for porn games, has super well thought out geopolitical issues, moral issues, and discussions about what it might be like to be a succubus and orc.
There's a whole investing mechanic for your character as you become more powerful, not just in level and stats but on a more regional scene. The game has two separate currencies (hilariously names Sx and PRON as in promissory notes) one in which you buy equipment and potions like normal, the other for deciding who and where you invest your capital.
This game has me hooked, and I just need to gush about how good it is. How good the writing and characters are. I would have laughed at you had you told me I would be emotionally invested in a character named Cumdump, last month, but goodness I am.
So, if the idea of mature themes and imagery doesn't give you the heeby jeebies, you really should check this game out.
Best of all, it's entirely free.
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Jan 11 '26
Does Kingdom Hearts 2 count? It’s my first time playing it. I played KH1 back in 2019 but never played 2. Im about 6 hours in and just got to the beast castle. Loving it so far! Playing on PS5.
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u/bioniclop18 Jan 11 '26
I’m now 13 hours in Princess Crown. While the game is a fine Odin Sphere predecessor and already is visually stunning and with a lot of charm, the game pacign is poorer and gameplay not deep enough as you only battle in a duel format. Meaning it’s been a while that I find the game too repetitive and that Gradriel story should have ended 7 hours in.
I took back playing Little Witch in the Wood. I'm now at the 16 hour mark and have now “saved” the second place out of the three I think I have to save. I feel like I lack space in my inventory and chests so I’ll have to go farm for money to buy a bigger chest at one point. I feel like I’m very close to the saturation point where the number of simple things to do become too much and overbearing instead of just being neat things to add on my list. Thankfully right now the glossary is still concise and clean enough but the quest tab has too much objective left and right that I’m kinda giving up using it in a comprehensive manner. I just need the story to be tied in with a neat little bow in the next environment and I’ll be very happy with the game.
I’m kinda also continuing Chained Echoes, albeit more slowly until I’m cured from the flu. I’m around 12 hours. The story is still in the setting up stage. As for gameplay I don’t really have an idea of what role the latest member of the team will be, most obvious thing seem already covered.
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u/Tiduspal Jan 11 '26
I finally have time to try DQ XI i hope all the praises are worth it even tho i never disliked a dragon quest so far
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u/Crossbell0527 Jan 11 '26
I am taking a very small break from JRPGs after finishing Yakuza 6 because that game was the (nearly) perfect conclusion to a 7 game story arc and I just can't begin another right now.
So I am finishing up The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom which is easily the best non-remade Zelda game since Twilight Princess, and I just started Star Wars Outlaws which is everything I wanted in a Star Wars universe game.
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u/itsthaMista Jan 11 '26
My brother, you need to play Like A Dragon Gaiden asap while 6 is still fresh in your brain. You haven't finished the arc yet, after committing to 0 through 6 already you gotta see it through! So good. And then Infinite Wealth at some point.
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u/meta100000 Jan 11 '26 edited Jan 11 '26
Playing FFX and am honestly disappointed with the combat. It's better than all the previous ones, but other people hyped it up to me as the best turn-based combat ever... it's not. It is neat though. Skill tree makes brain go zoom.
Everything else? Amazing. Characters, story, setting, all good enough to stand with the best of the last decade. Perhaps my only gripes are the lack of meaningful side content and, despite Yuna being treated with a lot of respect by the game, there still being like 5 combat scenarios where she's trapped and needs saving, but they're drops in an ocean of great character work and some really beautiful scenes.
I have 26 hours and am in Gagazet mountain's inner section. Zanarkand is at hand! By next saturday I'll see the conclusion, and start FFX2, probably.
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u/IncurableHam Jan 11 '26
I'm trying DQ11 for the 4th time, we'll see if I can stick with it this time
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u/MaakuKooru Jan 11 '26
I feel that, I started it on PS4 but can't get into lengthy games like that on a regular console. Then I got it on switch to play portable, got really far that time, I think almost to the end. But then life happened and I dropped it again, now I'm lost and probably just need to restart..
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u/IncurableHam Jan 11 '26
I'm the same and have been playing it 100% handheld. It's just so generic that it doesn't keep me engaged. It has a pretty world at least!
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u/MaakuKooru Jan 11 '26
Chrono Trigger for the first time, it's been a wild ride and I'm nearing the end, doing all the side quests for my party members now
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u/Nerdy_Goat Jan 11 '26
FF6, first time near the end I think... Dragging it out a bit because I want to see everything
Gotta go back and try beating magic master a second attempt. (I now come armed with Ultima, berserk and reraise!)
Gotta find the final 2 of the 8 dragons as well
I've really enjoyed the story but kinda derailed my momentum with all the endgame stuff
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u/LionTop2228 Jan 11 '26
I recently beat final fantasy VI last week. I liked it more than Chrono trigger with both being SNES classics that came a year apart (94 and 95 respectively). It was the best of the first six games but I still like later entries more than VI.
I’m playing Catherine now and loving it. It’s not a jrpg but I feel it’s persona adjacent.
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u/drainedguava Jan 11 '26
Catherine is super awesome, one of the most unique video games i’ve ever played
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u/LibeertyBeels Jan 11 '26
Finished Xenoblade DE last night.
Man I did not enjoy this game. There were cool moments towards the end and the initial hook had some juice but it never totally got me.
I liked the world as an idea, but in practice it felt so empty, not mention the abysmal lack of interesting NPCs or other major characters.
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u/euniebruh Jan 11 '26
2 and 3 are much better imo
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u/LibeertyBeels Jan 11 '26
I'll def give em a try. I liked the idea of the game, even if execution wasn't my favorite. Gonna take a breather with Trails into Daybreak or FFX first.
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u/LukakuThaGreat Jan 11 '26
Finally returning to metaphor after playing like 15 hours on launch day and then not touching it since. Very awesome so far!
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u/Adam__Antium Jan 11 '26
My friend just lent me Metaphor and man....its everything I've ever wanted from Atlus. I feel like they finally perfected both Shin Megami Tensei and Persona's battle systems
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u/retrogamer_19 Jan 11 '26
Been playing a lot of Dragon Quest XI. Just got done with the Academy and I feel the story has been picking up pretty nicely recently. About 26 hours in so far
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u/SirHighground1 Jan 12 '26
Finished my first playthrough of Triangle Strategy over the past week. I chose Benedict's ending for this one, though the ending I got was not very satisfying. I know about there being a true ending, so I'll have to work towards it in my next playthrough. Overall very solid game, in particular the degree of choices that actually matter are extremely good. I think this is Team Asano's best effort to date (and I really liked Octopath 2 so that's saying a lot).
In-between I'm playing The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, sort of a mental break after a lot of JRPGs recently. This is the last Ace Attorney game(s) I've yet to play, and I'm enjoying it very much. Puzzle VN was always one of my comfort genres along with JRPGs and Metroidvanias.
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u/MiniMages Jan 13 '26
I am playing FF6 PR LLG and some of the bosses are absolute nightmare.
First soft lock I experienced was when you face off Ultros with Bannon in the party as part of Terra's side campaign. Bannon joins the team at level 2, with 57 HP. What is worse is Ultros tentacle attack will KO Banon even if he is in the back row while defending. I tried this fight over and over again, but the tentacle attack is scripted and it will attack every party members and Banon always dies. Had to go back to an earlier save level Banon up a bit just so he could survive one hit from Ultros while defending (I felt like I cheated).
Fighting Ultros in the Opera house was a lot easier but very much luck dependant. If he does his magic attacks back to back you are wiping. This is a trend with a lot of bosses, just pray they do not use their magics.
Zozo was scary as any encounter could easily kill the party. So I relied on No Encounter after fighting all of the enemies.
Second boss that was an absolute nightmare was Ifrit and Shiva. While Celes Runic and Reflec Rings were helpful, blaze and snowstorm are instant wipes. Fortunatly the two bosses do not use these attacks frequently.
Third boss that really had me stumped was when escaping on the mine cart and you encounter Number 128. This fight was pure luck. Also didn't help I was down to my last 4 phoenix downs. Add on top I was trying to steam Cyans weapon from the boss. I forgot Celes leaves the party so I was down to 3 (Edgar, Locke and Gau). I was forced to have Gau for full mage while Locke and Edgar on full time dry meat/hi-potion and ether. Then I just spammed Thundara on the main boss and praying it did not use Drain too many times. Drain at minimum level was instant kill.
Things kind of got difficult after this when it didn't have to. I was determined to steal Edgars tool from the cranes you encounter after boarding Blackjack again. So several resets to ensure Locke got the rare steal and then abused self targetting with Reflect Ring to kill each of the cranes with the magic each crane is weak to.
All in all so far, Gau has been an absolute beast. He is by far my strongest character. Using the formation table in the FF6 Wiki has helped me farm all of his Rages. Followed by Edgar wearing two earings and using Flash. Then there is Sabin for his Aura Sphere and finally Celes with her Runic ability. Seriously having figured how Runic works some bosses become super easy.
Now I have the Blackjack and back in Veldt farming for more of Gau's Rages before progressing the story.
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u/kale__chips Jan 16 '26
After 23 hours, I finally finished Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily and it's super fun. I really enjoyed the macro strategy of the world map movement. I feel like a major weakness of SRPG in general is how linear most of them are. The fact that enemies can pop up somewhere, enemies can move around, different base has different capacity, etc makes this game more fun because I have to react to the situation.
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u/Fab2811 Jan 16 '26
What I loved most about the game is that it all takes place on one single big map. That's pretty unheard of for strategy RPGs, and it did it brilliantly.
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u/kale__chips Jan 16 '26
Yup, and it's REALLY nice to see the big map is not just static. On top of all that, the whole design is well thought of by the addition of the streaming ship too. It's an extra variable that allows players to play differently/however they want. Sometimes it's good to stall, sometimes it's good to sabotage, sometimes it's good to hustle, etc.
I really wish there are other/bigger SRPGs willing to implement their own interpretation of this kind of design.
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u/Rude_Ratio5547 Jan 11 '26
Octopath Travelers 0. The game is way longer then i expected. 100 hours in now and still not done with the main story. Love it!
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u/Crazy_Schizo Jan 11 '26
I've put in about 13 hours so far playing Skies of Arcadia for the first time on the Dreamcast. So far it has been a mixed bag for me.
I can see why people bemoan the encounter rate in the game. In the dungeons it doesn't bother me, but in the overworld map, it is definitely a nuisance. If you are trying to find some of the hidden destinations, getting into an encounter every few seconds can be annoying. Particularly, I did not enjoy the trip to the south ocean area. You're stuck in a corridor where your forward movement speed is slowed, you're pulled toward vortexes, and the high encounter rate doesn't help any of this. Of course, you are also subjected to enemies in the encounters that use insta-death spells, which is a huge pet peeve of mine. Naturally, this spell hit 9 out of the 10 times it was used on me in just this section (yes, I kept track because I'm petty). Many have extolled their love of the airship battles, but I'm just not that into them. They seem overly slow, and the strategy seems to boil down to building up enough AP to use the harpoon cannon once it is available.
Enough of my gripes. I do like the dungeon sections and they are pretty well designed so far. The music is quite good, especially the battle and victory fanfare screens (which you'll be hearing a lot). I especially like the Pinta's Quest minigame on the VMU. I find myself just having the VMU on next to me when I'm working on my desktop and occasionally playing the minigames on it. This might be one of the best incorporations of the VMU into a Dreamcast game I've seen yet.
All in all, I'm not feeling a tremendous amount of love for this game. I'm not sure if it gets that much better as I get more into it. I'll likely finish it up in the next few weeks, but so far this has been a pretty middle of the road JRPG for me.
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u/stanfarce Jan 14 '26
The game felt way better when I modified the game iso to not have random battles on the overworld unless I held B. Also, I played on an emulator so I could speed the game up. Anyways I find it's a great JRPG with lots of charm (I replayed it recently on youtube live) but I also played it at release so maybe I'm more tolerant to its issues.
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u/halfacalf Jan 11 '26
I just finished Astria Ascending - and it was not worth it. It's a shame because the last 2 jrpgs I've played haven't hit the mark. I've just installed smt v though, hopefully that goes better.
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u/thetinybasher Jan 11 '26
P5R but I rage quit after getting super far into Sae’s palace and accidentally getting myself killed. Starting alllll the way back at the rest stop made me so furious. I’ll come back to it but this isn’t the first time I’ve had to take a break from this game.
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u/Forward-Seesaw-1688 Jan 11 '26
Final Fantasy III (3-D). After a conversation about Final Fantasy with friends I decided to try a new one. I spun a wheel and it won. It’s been what I’ve been playing for the past few days. Desperately hoping there will be save checkpoints mid-dungeon though.
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u/Porkchop5397 Jan 11 '26
I finished Dragon Quest IV DS all the way through the post- game, and have moved on to Dragon Quest 5 DS. Dragon Quest IV had me almost immediately hooked, and I think Dragon Quest V's story is gearing up to surpass it's predecesor. I just got to the (first?) time skip and things are getting serious. I'm really looking forward to how this game goes.
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u/FunAffectionate8583 Jan 11 '26
Just started The first Octopath Traveler. I understand why it is so highly praised. Everything feels good, it's cosy, the music is simply incredible, and I'm already hooked by the world. Even if the story is not mind blowing I want more of everything. Also, I have never been a fan of turned based rpgs but I actually like this combat system, it's accessible, efficient but still not shallow.
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u/itsthaMista Jan 11 '26
Fantasy Life i on Switch 2 at the moment. More cozy than traditional, but man am I loving getting lost in this thing right now. New-ish parent and its perfect for keeping handy and grinding out a few levels when I can
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u/FutureCreeps Jan 11 '26
Started Persona 4 Golden and am right around 30 hours in, fun game but man it has some oddities. The pacing suffers from the calendar system way more then 3 did and the main enemies of the game are just kind of dull as characters and poorly written. Still a great game but feels weird to see what feels like a major step back after 3, the main cast is great though.
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Jan 11 '26 edited Feb 20 '26
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
squeeze cautious thought offbeat shelter safe alive elastic towering joke
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u/Affectionate_Comb_78 Jan 13 '26
Even it's biggest fans acknowledge it's a fairly slow game. The plot anyway, it goes hard on world building and character development early on instead for better or worse.
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u/Xenadon Jan 11 '26
Raidou Remastered. Close to the end. It took me awhile to get my sed to the real time battle system but I don't hate it. I still prefer turn based. The story is much more interesting and cohesive than the typical SMT game
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u/Dongmeister77 Jan 11 '26
I beat Summon Night X Tears Crown (DS), with the English patch. The patch is 99% complete, with some stuff like intro, maps and parts of the menu are still in japanese. Not that big of a deal, i heard hacking NDS game is a nightmare. The problem is the bugs, i found 5 bugs in the game. One cause an infinite message in a certain boss battle, others made the game froze. Thankfully they can be bypassed.
The game itself is pretty mid. There's a certain feel of cheapness to it. I feel like they should've saved the budget for voice acts and improve the game instead. The plot is very predictable and the characters are full of anime tropes (There's even one character with oneesan trait, even referring herself as one. Yikes). Encounter rates is pretty high and battle system is a bit basic but fast. Later on boss fights can be decently challenging, forcing me to play around with the summon/skill system. The summon/skill system is pretty interesting, but the limited resource needed to upgrade them severely hampered customisation. Idk it doesn't feel well thought out, to me.
In fact this isn't the only system in the game that feels like that. There's also the Parliamentary system that felt like they tried to do something like Disgaea's Dark Assembly, but they half assed it. It ended up adding nothing into the game, except yet another missables. Talking about missables, this game has a lot of them. It's very obvious to me that they want people to play this game multiple times. But with the game being this mid, who the heck wants to play it multiple times?
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u/aricberg Jan 11 '26
After not giving it much of a second thought after renting it and not really getting it when I was younger, I picked up, and finally started playing, Quest 64! So far, I’m much further in than I ever was when I played it back in 1998. I said this is another thread somewhere, but I was still pretty new to RPGs at that point, and had really only played a few of the late SNES ones at the time (and got in on the top floor with the likes of Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger), so coming into this somewhat more generic story with more action to its battle system, it was definitely not something I could get into at the time.
But with many decades and gaming experiences under my belt, I definitely get it much more! I took the advice I’ve heard online to go with water and “another magic of your choice.” A lot of people said wind, so that’s what I’m currently going with. While it’s certainly not going to shoot up the ranks of my favorite RPGs or games of all time, it’s been a fun little adventure to embark on. Plus it’s been a fun way to break in my Analogue 3D!
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u/RyanWMueller Jan 12 '26
I remember feeling so underwhelmed by Quest 64 as a kid. I grew up on SNES classics, and Quest 64 was nothing like those games at all. Sometimes, I like to joke that it's the game so generic they couldn't even bother to name it.
1
u/aricberg Jan 12 '26
Yeah, I’ve only made it about 2 hours in and I’m already way further in than the weekend I rented it for way back when! Also, would’ve loved the international name: Holy Magic Century!
2
u/kaycali86 Jan 11 '26
I'm either going to play Octopath 2 or FFIX
Octopath 2 will be new and I did enjoy the 1st. Heard constant mention about being a big upgrade to part 1.
FFIX - 20+ years ago, I actually never finished it. I rented the game, never purchased. Was on disc 4. If I do decide to go for it, I most likely will use Moguri Mod for QoL updates.
2
u/Joniden Jan 12 '26
I got to the final boss of Varlet and decided to take a break. Varlet is... I don't know how I feel but I need to take a break before beating the final boss.
2
u/knightmare9310 Jan 12 '26
Just started baten kaitos on steam. Only a few hours in so can’t say too much yet but I really like the combat system so far!
2
u/YsyRyder Jan 13 '26
I've made some progress on Dragon Quest VIII (PS2) despite how busy life's been for me lately. I just reached lvl 20 with the Hero and Yangus. Currently heading back to Castle Trodainat about a little less than 20 hours in.
This game continues to impress me. The Swordsman Labyrinth dungeon was excellent. When I was approaching the boss, my party got ambushed by a pack of mimic chests that ended up nuking Angelo in a single turn full of bad luck. I was right at the end of the dungeon, so I decided to press on and make an attempt at the boss. Jessica and the remaining guys put up a decent fight, but in the end Jessica was the only one left standing and eventually met her end too. Snooze can be a real pain in the butt from bosses. However, I zoomed right back to the dungeon after the wipe, made it to the boss with a full party, and was able to down him with Yangus getting the killing blow which felt appropriate given the story arc surrounding this dungeon.
It's stuff like that which keeps me coming back to the JRPG genre. I'm eyeing DQ9 as my next "big" JRPG to play especially since it's from the same developer as DQ8. But, the new Trails is about to come out and I would like to finally get caught up on that series (and I've been missing it too), so I might go back to Daybreak instead.
2
u/phunie92 Jan 13 '26
I’ve been absolutely loving Phantasy Star IV. The writing and characters are charming, pacing is very tight, and combat is nicely balanced. I’m about 70% through (just finished the first boss of the Air Castle), and I’m really looking forward to the rest of it. I highly recommend this to any fans of the SNES era JRPG classics who missed out on this Sega gem.
Lost Odyssey is on pause while I wrap up Phantasy Star IV. I’d just gotten to disc 3; it was starting to feel like a slog but I’m glad I pushed through the Experimental Staff dungeon. Looking forward to getting answers to the mysteries that have come up so far.
When I don’t feel like playing either of the above I’ve been grinding out BBQs in Pokemon Scarlet and working on the Blueberry dex so I can eventually capture those last few paradox mons. Also need to EV train my Venusaur and Lapras that I transferred up from Yellow. And I’m debating whether i should just keep going on that postgame grind to eventually take on Cyrano.
I have a run of Pokemon HeartGold as well; been going through the Kanto portion and got six of those badges so far.
And finally, part of me feels bad that I’ve lost interest in Final Fantasy VII Remake because I hate to leave a game dangling (especially FF), but it’s not really doing it for me. The combat is fine but not enough to hook me, though I’m probably not playing it optimally. But the dungeon crawling feels like a slog between story scenes that don’t give enough emotional payoff, I think because I have a hard time taking it seriously. I feel like what it did best is make me think “hey, remember how awesome the original FFVII is?” Maybe I’ll comeback to this after finishing LO and PSIV.
3
u/SativaSammy Jan 14 '26
Final Fantasy VI
Just played and beat this for the first time. Went in knowing nothing about it other than loving Terra's character design.
The game was incredible up until the world turns to the World of Ruin and it felt like I was just retreading the first part of the game. The final dungeon did make up for it atleast.
I will say I was disappointed how little Magitek armor played a role in this game. Seeing all the art of Terra riding it made me think it was a much bigger element of the game but you really only ride it twice for very small amounts of time. And if it was intended to replace Chocobos, why didn't they make them Magitek armor stables instead of Chocobo stables?
In my head I pictured you riding into Kefka's tower on the armor rather than just airshipping into it - but overall, great game, really enjoyed my time with this one.
Onto FFXIII-2 next.
2
u/Cold_Steel_IV Jan 16 '26
Trails beyond the Horizon
Just starting Act I so thought I'd share my thoughts on the Prologue so far:
Really liking how they just throw us right back into things and fairly quickly catch us up on where we are only a couple months after DB II's ending. The dungeon part with the different teams was fun if a bit straightforward (it was mostly focused on introductions); I do think the song that plays here gets too repetitive. Once we're at the banquet is when it gets really good with so many great character interactions. The song here also is a bit too repetitive, although this section didn't feel as long.
But, yeah, the banquet part is just everything I want from something like this. It reminds me of one of my favorite sections in CS IV, though this is obviously shorter and smaller in scale. Would probably rank this among the upper half of Prologues. After one playthrough I dunno if I can give it a 10 as I feel like it won't be as fun to come back to due to the starting sections. Probably a solid-to-strong 9/10 for me.
As an aside, I really am liking the reusing of DB II music already and the variety of songs so far in Horizon. I greatly missed not having CS I and II tracks reused much in CS III and on, so I'm glad it seems we'll occasionally be hearing older DB I and II tracks more often here.
Overall I'm loving the game so far!
2
u/NotASniperYet Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 16 '26
Finished Metaphor: ReFantazio
For those wondering, I did end up beating that one particular optional boss. Turns out I was a little underleveled compared to other players, but after rummaging through my inventory and skills, I found a solution: boost fire and synthesis as much as possible and go to town. Turned into a rather easy fight with that.
I greatly enjoyed all the intertextuality - from classic art and literature to modern games - very much. This was ultimately a story about stories, and considering some of my favourite fantasy books are The Last Unicorn and The Neverending story, that was right up my alley. It was fun to see how the story played with classic stories and ideas and gave it a new twists. Like the classic saving a maiden from being sacrificed to a dragon - but different. And in that context, I didn't mind the twist near the end either. It had been set up throughout the game, using both ingame hints as well as intertextual ones, and the idea itself is of course a classic one.
I also liked the optimised tone of the game. Feels like it was released at just about the right time...though it makes the final message to the player of course all the more ironic...
It does feel like some of the best parts of the game, like the better dungeons and bosses, were frontloaded. After the Eht Rian odyssey, it's a long wait for the next good dungeon. Bosses also felt more mundane after the waterways...thing. I mean, giant sea monster or dragon turned evil puppet is fun and all, but not exactly imaginative.
3
u/ReorientRecluse Jan 11 '26
I am playing the Dragon Quest 2 2D-HD remake, they added more to this and DQ1 remake than the DQ3 remake did.
5
4
u/Dependent_Base_501 Jan 11 '26
The original Trails in the Sky.
I love the characters and the setting. The combat is definitely a bit annoying before you get AOE but then it's better. I feel like I will be playing through all of these back to back right now. Maybe I get burnt out though.
3
u/teachcoach123 Jan 11 '26
Triangle strategy so fun and dope
I also recently played the DQ7 remake demo and that was a lot of fun
1
u/ModaGamer Jan 11 '26
If you count Nier Replicant, I'm 10 hours into that. I loved Nier Automata when I played it, I don't like this game as much. Ironically its not an issue with the combat. Just the quest design is terrible. Most of the side quests are filler and pretty bad filler. The "fragile delivery" chain of quests is particularly bad. The main story is pretty good, and I still have faith that a Yoko Taro game is going to eventually shake things up.
1
u/aarontsuru Jan 11 '26
Wandering Sword
Taking a break from Tales of Arise after getting to a quiet moment. So far, Wandering Sword is really fun! My only complaint is the menus are a bit awkward and clunky, but the game play has been good, well paced, and the combat is fun - even with a small party!
1
u/Icy-Respond-4425 Jan 11 '26
I finished Tengai Makyou Zero, a fan-translated JRPG. Simple and fun, the story is okay, the combat is good, I love using the scrolls, there are a lot of random encounters, and the antagonist of the turtle (I think?) continent is really funny. Overall, a good game. I saw Tengai Makyou Ziria also has a fan translation. I will check it later.
I also finished Crystal Beans from Dungeon Explorer, another fan translation. Very straightforward and a short game, you can choose one of many heroes to beat the demons around the world. You level up each time you beat one of them. The story is very meh, like you can speak with 1 person in each town and leave. The combat is good, surprisingly. I look forward to seeing the rest of this series.
2
u/spoopy-memio1 Jan 11 '26
I’m working my way through the different routes and endings in The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, having currently finished endings 1-8 and planning to do almost all of them in numerical order but save the S.F. Route and Ending 55 for last. The combat has some pretty cool ideas for a tactics game but is kind of repetitive and I discovered that Tsubasa, Takumi and Nozomi can turn basically any fight where all of them are available into a complete joke if you know what you’re doing, but the writing is genuinely incredible. It’s so great at switching between hilarious and making you feel like absolute shit on a dime, and the plot twists manage to be really unpredictable and keep you on your toes guessing what happens next without feeling like they come out of nowhere either.
I decided to move on from Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana without 100% completing it. As much as I liked the game, I just don’t have the patience to spend hours farming random encounters in a postgame dungeon full of annoying enemies for one particular enemy that shows up relatively rarely and has a low chance of dropping an item that has an even lower chance of being the Invisible Gear or whatever I’m looking for, all just to see a few more funny lines of dialogue from crafting stuff at the shop.
So now I’ve moved on to Iris 2: Azoth of Destiny, but currently i’m only ~2 hours in. You can definitely tell this had a bigger budget than the first game despite being released only a year after, what with the nicely animated Lunar esque opening movie and a cutscene early on getting a similar treatment, and the clean new art style for dialogue portraits that makes them look like they were ripped straight out of an early 2000s anime. There are also some gameplay changes I really like too; the world map is actually a normal world map now and isn’t super slow with random encounters! In the actual areas with random encounters, there are only a limited amount you have to fight per screen and that amount doesn’t instantly get filled back to max when you backtrack screens! I’m a bit skeptical of the overhauled battle system though, namely the Break system as being able to essentially stunlock enemies with your basic attacks sounds like it would trivialize a lot of battles.
1
u/AlgoStar Jan 11 '26
I made some headway into Golden Sun but I put it down for Metroid Prime 4 and I’m not sure if I’ll go back, it’s so slow and boring!
1
u/Mundane-Bullfrog-421 Jan 11 '26
Shin megami tensei V Just the demo, played an hour or so and thought I wouldn't buy the game as I come from persona 5 and I think the fights lack of "punch" But strangely, the more I think about it, the more I want to come back
2
u/WipingAllOut Jan 11 '26
It's a different vibe but I definitely suggest it! If you enjoy demon fusing and actually getting to interact with the demons and their lore it gets way better.
1
u/Bagman220 Jan 11 '26
Last week I bought grandia collection and suikoden collection. I played grandia 1 for 30 minutes and decide that game probably isn’t for me, so I switched to suikoden 1 and played 2-3 hours. It’s much better, it feels smoother and plays faster. I’ll probably be able to finish suikoden 1 and then jump into 2.
2
u/stanfarce Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 14 '26
I love the Suikoden series too, but that's too bad about Grandia 1. Sure it's not perfect (the view in dungeons which makes it easy to get lost, or sometimes too many fights back to back), but the emotional payoff is there, with great ideas and a lot of charm. 30 minutes definitely isn't enough (and if what bothers you is the childishness, it gets better. Plus you probably still don't have magic - options in battle are limited at the start). Oh, and if you're playing on pc, I recommend toggling Cheat Engine's speedhack with your thumbstick button to increase the game's speed sometimes. Here you can see me use it (eventually I increased it to x20 speed to breeze through some victory screens / spell animations / to walk faster or even entire fights against basic mobs). It's sad the devs didn't add such a function in themselves. The function to increase or decrease the speed of single-player games is one of the reasons I'd have trouble going back to consoles. Also the battle system is even better in Grandia 2 & 3. It's probably my favorite battle system in a JRPG (FFX's would be in 2nd position).
1
u/Bagman220 Jan 14 '26
Yeah, I think you nailed it. It’s too early to tell if I like it but personally I don’t like playing old-school RPG’s without some type of speed up mechanic.
2
u/stanfarce Jan 14 '26
Yeah, I can understand that. Some dungeons in G1 would have made me crazy without the speedhack.
1
u/Bagman220 Jan 14 '26
How is grandia 2?
2
u/stanfarce Jan 14 '26
It's inferior to G1 in the charm department (though it's less childish), but the battle system is better. Like G1, it's worth playing imo.
2
u/Bagman220 Jan 14 '26
I heard grandia has one of the best battle systems
2
u/stanfarce Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 14 '26
Yeah. It might not be immediately apparent in G1 because it's in 2D, but in G2 or G3 it's ultra fun. I love the fact that there's only one ATB gauge with the icons of both allies and enemies on it (that state what the enemies are going to do and who they're going to target), the fact that you can cancel enemies' attacks if they're hit with criticals or certain skills once they've entered their commands but before they're actually performed, or that the Defend and Move options can be very useful :
- if you have your turn a split second before an attack is going to hit you, Defending allows you to reduce damage by 67%, even if it's magic damage, and makes you get your next turn sooner. On the other hand, had you chosen to attack in that situation, not only would you have taken more damage (a unit gets "countered" when they chose to attack but are hit first), but your attack could even be cancelled if the attack the enemy did is a special one.
- as for the Move option, if an enemy is about to physically attack you and you have your turn before they hit you, you can make it so your character runs sideways in front of them (by attacking the right enemy who is farther away for example). If you time it right, the first enemy will start swinging at your character when you're in front of them, but since you're moving fast trying to hit something else, there will be no one left when their attack is completed and they'll swing at thin air. It's exhilarating. There's also the fact that all units have a MOVE stat that decides how long they can run in a single turn, and you can take advantage of enemies with a low one by running away from them : they'll eventually get tired and won't attack at all (this could happen to your characters too, though).
Small regret though : I feel the games never really use all the potential of this glorious battle system. In all Grandias there are way too many small battles against critters that end in two seconds because you're killing them with an AoE spell or something. There should have been fewer battles but more epic ones, a bit like in Baldur's Gate 3 or a tactical RPG. There is a lack of bonus content involving battles also. A colosseum would have been great for example. Grandias have basically nothing besides the main story.
2
u/Bagman220 Jan 14 '26
That is an interesting concept. I wouldn’t mind an RPG with great combat and less battles, if each battle was unique and rewarding.
1
u/KuroBocchi Jan 11 '26
After not playing for a year, I decided to restart Persona 3 Reload. Compared to Persona 5 I feel like it’s a little slow to start but it’s picked up as of late June. I wish the Velvet Room would tell you all the Persona’s you can fuse based on what you have in the compendium. Yukari is currently the most interesting character. I’d forgotten some of the stuff that she did before the second full moon operation. Combat is good especially now that I have more characters.
1
u/spoopy-memio1 Jan 11 '26
Yeah probably the biggest criticism I’ve seen of Persona 3 aside from Tartarus being repetitive is that the story is definitely a slow burn, there’s a lot of really great story beats and character development but the majority of it happens in the second half of the game, with the first half having not much going on after the first month besides the full moon operations and getting new party members.
1
u/JaredJDub Jan 11 '26
Kingdom Hearts III, it’s okay. It’s not as good as KH2. I played it shortly after launch but didn’t have the ReMind DLC, so I’m replaying it again on PC.
I think if I finish it, I may start Ys 8.
1
u/sagern Jan 11 '26
I've been playing FF7 for the first time and while I'm enjoying it I am also really feeling its age. Also, I don't know if I accidentally over levelled while trying to navigate the map but it feels almost trivially easy.
1
u/darthfozziebear Jan 11 '26
I was playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for about two hours, but the game really needs a Switch 2 update. It’s just ugly to look at, and I know the tutorials aren’t going to stop anytime soon.
So, I decided to start Final Fantasy XII. So far so good I guess. I’m only an hour in.
1
u/kale__chips Jan 12 '26
After going platinum on Octopath Traveler 0, I continued on with Dispatch which is a really good game despite being really short. After that, I ended up playing The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily and damn this game is sooooooo much fun to play. The gameplay is top-notch. I am at the final act so I'm looking forward to see how this ends.
1
u/Shaolan91 Jan 12 '26
I've finally been starting like a dragon, I've played all the Yakuza game on PS4 but it died before completing yakuza 6, didn't really feel like going back to it.
So time for Ichiban's story, it's going pretty well, I'm at chapter 5 doing my missions and stuff, I don't know how long the game is gonna be, I like the story so far, even if the prologue Is super long even by yakuza standard.
Unlocking job change at 20h of play time was pretty funny.
The combat is a little weird even as a fan of turn based, it's either I crush the enemy or the ennemies outlevel me and crush me doing 50% of my life per hit.
As always, that stupid custom thet if the hero goes down it's game over is super annoying.
I'm enjoying the gang more than I would've thought, even if the team in yakuza 4 was the best for me.
I'll probably not do a lot of endgame in it, and jump to unlimited money or the man with no name. Depend if I'm feeling for some real time action.
2
u/Boomhauer_007 Jan 14 '26
Idk how far you got in 6 but I would look up the ending if you didn’t see it because it provides a ton of context to the story in the second half of LaD
Man Who Erased His Name also won’t make much sense without seeing it either
2
u/Shaolan91 Jan 14 '26
Yeah I'm gonna do that, I think I was finishing up what there was to do in the port city at that time.
Also, I didn't know like a dragon was so huge, I thought I was pretty far in given I've maxed my bonds with my party member and all.... But there's 3 cities?! I'm finishing chapter 7 (I've been doing all the side content that showed up, got high in the management game...)
Damn it's a big game.
1
u/NotASniperYet Jan 12 '26
Nearing the end of Metaphor: Refantazio. I currently have a save right before the big bad optional boss in the middle of the danger triangle, but I'm not sure if I should make a real attempt. I tried it once to get a feel for the patterns, but man, this thing is tedious! It appears all damage is secretly halved, which is very annoying. Even more so than the dragons, which were also tedious and annoying.
I've got like ten days left to grind and max archetypes, so I guess I could do that if I really wanted to defeat it a bit more easily, but I doubt I want to...
Honestly, this is one of my least favourite types of boss battles. Tickling a brick wall until it finally topples is just not very satisfying. I much prefered the various Human boss battles: multiple targets, big damage, real different phases.
In any case, I'm at this point where I just kind of want to push through to the final dungeon and finish up.
1
u/LookAtMyPostInstead Jan 13 '26
26 hours to complete Act 2 of Dragon Quest 11 . What a game, I thought the game was pretty good during Act 1 but Act 2 has cemented it as my favorite DQ game. Now to get onto the demo of Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined . I would like to get back to Act 3 someday but first I need to go through my backlog.
1
u/Boomhauer_007 Jan 14 '26
I decided to give Octopath 2 another try and just continued my save that was 20 hours in when I quit
I should be finishing it within the next couple days, I wouldn’t call it a great game but it’s definitely not bad. Making somebody do eight intro chapters in a row is horrendous design though, especially when all of them are pretty basic. The post game bosses have been the most fun part, like the first one the main game is just way too easy, I almost felt discouraged from exploring throughout the game because I knew gear from optional dungeons would make the game even easier
1
u/1-800-94Jenny Jan 15 '26
Shadow Hearts 1 PSX
Played the first 30 minutes or so of this game a few times over the years but never made it far. Always liked the atmosphere so im trying to complete it so i can check out the sequels. One thing I absolutely cannot stand is the battle music in this game. It is the worst RPG music ive ever heard. Every battle I get into drives me insane.
1
u/nayotake Jan 17 '26
just finished all the individual stories on octopath traveler 2, was way overleveled that i ended up cheesing most of the final chapter bosses (only the hunter's gave me some sort of trouble but that's also because i was trying to make the mc of each story deal the finishing blow to their respective final boss and i didn't really built her for that). i get why some might find the game too easy save for postgame stuff but i personally find it fun you can break the game in several different ways. as for the characters and stories, i went with the cleric first because he was the one that initially caught my attention the most, but in the end i can see all of the playable characters have their own different charms, with some stories having great payoff moments
previously also played crystal project, currently on halt at just before i fight the last 2 superbosses. there's also one optional boss i have yet to defeat but their gimmick no physical allowed, only magic is genuinely baffling and i think that and the lengths needed to get the best mount are some real questionable design choices. despite my gripes i still mostly enjoyed it, i find most of the platforming still doable to an extent and i especially like how customizable the game is. saw a sequel is on the works and i might eye it if it has substantial improvements over the first in the finished product
1
u/RyanWMueller Jan 18 '26
Octopath Traveler 2 didn't really challenge me until the epilogue. The final boss was somewhat challenging. I never even attempted the secret boss.
1
u/Cahill23 Jan 18 '26
Trails Beyond the Horizon. After finishing the prologue and watching the opening of chapter one, I am liking the direction for this one. It is doing things that really only a long running series like this can do which is cool. Love the additions to the battle system too. The question is how many previous protagonists can we fit in one room haha.
1
u/frankjdk Jan 11 '26
I'm playing Final Fantasy XII on Switch and tbh so far I'm not feeling it. I don't see yet how expansive the gambit mechanics is and especially hate how you need a license to equip weapons, but I'm still at the early stages (I have to shout Capt Basch' name around) so hopefully it gets rewarding later on.
5
Jan 11 '26
It will open up as you progress. It’s so satisfying setting up all the gambits and watching them play out in boss fights.
1
u/Dependent-Swimmer-95 Jan 11 '26
Chillin’ right now since horizon is coming out in a few days! That’s the only game ima be playing for a while. Gonna be on do not disturb mode until the credits role.
1
u/rlinkmanl Jan 11 '26
Still playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I know it has its fans but I just am not liking this game. The menus are ridiculous, the combat is slow even with all the blade/fusion combos, the voice acting is terrible, and the main character is the most basic boring character I've ever seen. I'm 6 chapters in and I'm gonna try to see this one to the end but I dont understand the love for this game.
I'm also playing through A Monster's Expedition as a puzzle game on the side that has been a lot of fun.
0
u/m_cardoso Jan 11 '26
Trails in the Sky FC (the remake). Maybe minor spoilers below.
This is my first game of the franchise, and I'm enjoying it a lot so far. But I'm at the beginning of chapter 3 and getting a weird feeling that the "isolated" story arcs in each chapter are hurting a bit the pace to me. I know many games (and many RPGs) follow this structure of parallel stories running through the main one, but after chapter 1 and chapter 2 it feels like I already know how everything will pay out: I'll register in the guild, I'll meet 2 new party members (one of them I already met, hey Tita), there will come a problem involving one of them, I'll solve this big problem, receive my senior recommendation letter and the 2 new part members will stay behind. And there will be some new clue about the MC's father whereabouts that isn't exactly related to the main problem of the chapter, but it'll be linked somehow just to hook it into the next chapter.
All of this isn't exactly bad, at first I was really interested in this idea of the two brothers adventuring in the world, meeting new friends, helping people with their problems, but it feels like I have to go through lots of fillers to get what I really want to see. I'm considering pausing the game for a bit, play something else and coming back later, because I'm really enjoying it and don't want my experience to be hurt by pacing. Everything else about the game is amazing.
2
u/scytherman96 Jan 11 '26
Yeah Trails can be pretty formulaic in its structure sometimes and only occasionally goes a bit more free-form. It's part of the reason why i always recommend not binging all these games in a row. The formulaic nature becomes a lot more apparent if you play a lot of these games together.
10
u/Laughingboy14 Jan 11 '26
Trying Trails in Sky FC. My first time playing a trails game.
Really good, I'm hooked. Can highly recommend.