Back 6 or 7 years ago, when I was living high on the hog in a cushy English teaching job, I played a lot of video games. Problem is, I bought even more than I played. Renting video games is illegal in Japan, so the country has a massive used video game market that puts GameStop and its ilk to shame. I had the (mis)fortune of living nearby one such store that was open until 2 am and on my way home from my favorite bar. This meant that I’d pop in every other week or so, pick up a recently released game I had my eye on and usually grab a couple of older games on the cheap ($5-$20). Now, since they didn’t stop making new games, I’d usually only play through perhaps half of the games I’d bought before heading back to the store to get more. This ultimately resulted in my owning about 60 PSX and PS2 games that I still haven’t really touched.
Recently I decided to dive back into those old games. In the hopes of doing so more effectively, I turn to the Dope. I’m in the mood to play a JRPG, so I’m going to list my backlog of unplayed games below. I’m interested in hearing any recommendations, comments, or reviews of the games. I’m sure some of them are terrible, so it might help me save some time I’m also open to recommendations not on the list. I think the only JRPG series I’ve played that isn’t mentioned below is Final Fantasy.
The Games:
Alundra (PSX)
Ar tonelico 2 (PS2)
Arc the Lad 2 (PSX)
Atelier Lilie (PS2)
Black Matrix (PSX) - Never released outside Japan.
Breath of Fire III (PSX), IV (PSX), V (PS2)
Chrono Cross (PSX)
Dark Cloud (PS2)
Growlanser I (PSX)
Koudelka (PSX), Shadow Hearts (PS2)
La Pucelle (PSX), Phantom Brave (PS2)
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue (PSX)
Parasite Eve 1 (PSX), 2 (PSX)
Popolocrois I (PSX)
Rogue Galaxy (PS2)
Shin Megami Tensei I (PSX), Persona I (PSX)
Summon Night 2 (PSX), 3 (PS2)
Tear Ring Saga (PSX) - made by the creator of the Fire Emblem series after he left Nintendo. Never released outside Japan.
Suikoden 2 (PSX), 3 (PS2)
Tales of Destiny (PSX), Eternia (PS2)
Venus & Braves (PS2) - Never released outside Japan.
Xenosaga Episode I (PS2)
I always play series in order when possible, so you can assume that I’ve already played any earlier games in the same series.
The best three games on that list are Chrono Chross, Lunar 2, and Suikoden 2. All are must-plays. After that there’s another half-dozen worth playing, but those three should come first.
Ones I’ve played:
Alundra - Don’t remember much about it, but it was pretty fun. It’s more of a Zelda clone than a “true” RPG.
Breath of Fire - I played III. I got kinda bored towards the very end, where the plot dragged. The fishing minigames that this series enjoys is actually pretty interesting.
Chrono Cross - I am going to be the naysayer and say this is disappointing, especially if you played CT. They traded a half dozen time periods for 1 time period and 1… slightly different reality. They traded a half dozen good characters for several dozen, of which you will only use maybe ten. Most are expies for CT characters: we have Ayla, except as a child and Frog gets split into a guy named Glenn and a anthropomorphic turnip. As for the time periods, I guess they didn’t want to have to explain why things would be different in the world, yet the actual geography looks nothing like CT. The CT characters get a brief mention, but there is little tying the worlds together. So YMMV I guess.
Nippon Ichi games - La Pucelle, Phanton Brave - If you’ve played any of their other games before, then you’ll know whether you’ll like these.
Parasite Eve - It’s a pretty quick play. The plot is dumb, but gameplay is fun. It’s more of an RPG, PE2 is more like Resident Evil.
Suikoden - Don’t remember these much at all to be honest, but it seems that some people love it and some don’t, so if you’ve played any others you might know.
I’m ignorant of most of the games on the list, though I think this thread contains more good things than I’ve ever seen about Chrono Cross anywhere else.
I’d vote for La Pucelle, which I liked a lot better than my other experiences with Nippon Ichi’s games.
A lot of love for Chrono Cross, which isn’t surprising, as I’ve heard good things about it. I did play Chrono Trigger and remember liking it, but that was at least 10 years ago so I don’t think that its likely to suffer in comparison.
That’s the case for a lot of the series on the list (Lunar, Suikoden, Breath of Fire…) I played the earlier titles are vaguely remember enjoying them, but it’s been so long.
How crazy is La Pucelle with bonus levels, level 9999 characters, alternate endings, etc.? I really liked Disgaea a lot, but never actually “finished” it (although looking at my old save I got closer that I’d remembered, with Laharl at lvl 1800).
It’s not, but Persona 1 is. Are 1, 2, 3 of the series skippable?
Just be warned that the last boss of Chrono Cross is widely considered to be utter bullshit due to the obscure manner in which you have to defeat it. Other than that it’s a great game though.
Persona 1 is skippable. Persona 2 and Persona 2 (One game for the price of two! … Except we only got half of it here) is good. Persona 3 and Persona 4 are some of the best things to come out of Japan at all.
Don’t even think of Chrono Chross as any way related to Trigger. Other than a few references it might as well not be. It stands on its own more than well enough - better, actually, since if the expectations are “more of the same”, you’re absolutely not getting that.
Agreed that Persona 1 and 2 are skippable, but 3 (the most recent edition you can get your hands on, there are at least three out there between PS2 and PSP) and 4 are excellent.
It has them if you want to do them. Actually, not alternate endings, I don’t think, but there’s a heap of ‘post game’ content that you can do if you really desperately enjoy the battle system. I didn’t do any of it though, so I can’t really address it. I’m not really into playing SRPGs just for levelling up, so Disgaea and it’s plot-lite-ness pretty much lost my attention. La Pucelle had, for me, a more compelling and interesting story, which kept me engaged through the end, and a battle system that was fun enough to play with without bogging me down.
I would also note that Suikoden II is worth $$$. (And I just realized I never did finish it before I sold my copy for like four times what I paid for it years previously… Oh well, I expect I’ll get a chance someday.)
I actually remember liking Alundra, myself. I’m surprised that you have only Arc the Lad 2, and not the pack that had like three Arc games in one.
It won’t. I’ll second the idea that you just play it as its own game and not think about Trigger much and you’ll find it delightful.
True, it doesn’t sink the game in any way. It’s just a very odd choice by the developers and a weird way to go.
All this talk about Cross is going to get me to get out my copy of it. I’ve played it three times on the same save(10 years between first and third play, too). Good memory card.
Xenosaga is worthless and a terribly unworthy follow up to the glory that was Xenogears.
So I’m going to cast my vote for Suikoden 2, the best game in a great series, though my big problem with it has always been that trying to get all 108 stars (characters) really does require using a guide (gamefaqs.com or whatever will work just fine, but yea). Not for the whole game, mind you, but at some point it opens up and you do recruitment stuff, and that’s when you’ll need the guide.
I’m also open to recommendations not on the list. I think the only JRPG series I’ve played that isn’t mentioned below is Final Fantasy.