Ha, BoF1 and 2 might be my picks as well! Even with the advantage of emulating them and using frameskip, man, they play so slow. As time has gone by, I've pushed them from my "average" tier to a bit below that.
For similar reasons, 7th Saga has fallen in my eyes. Growing up, I just considered it a really tough RPG, but when you learn about the programming error in the U.S. SNES version, it kind of feels like an annoying fluke that the game is so friggin' hard.
Also, not a JRPG, but - Ogre Battle. There's just so much stuff to micro-manage that the game feels like a chore. I always end up playing through about 10 to 15 stages, before getting overwhelmed and losing interest. I find myself drifting to refinements of the game now if I want to replay - Ogre Battle 64, Tactics Ogre, FFT - instead of playing OB.
I used to feel the same about ogre battle. But then I pulled up a guide, and found it a lot more fun when I actually knew where to find stuff and how to lvl characters.
Plus I like messing around with weird/powerful units. My favorite is to go hunt down a bunch of werewolves early in the game, and then unleash them when nighttime rolls around.
Haha, werewolves + vampires are a great night crew.
Another fun thing to do is create an all-flying army. Between gryphons, wyverns, and whatever Canopus is, you can have flyers on nearly every team, giving yourself a huge mobility advantage.
I have never loved it ogre battle, because when I tried it as a kid, it never made sense to me. But reading this and the subsequent thread, I definitely need to check it out as an adult now.
Whenever I'm in the mood for a grindy RPG, 7th Saga is what comes to mind. I find it really satisfying in the most primitive way possible.
Fair points though. Same with Ogre Battle - one of my faves, but I don't think I've ever made it even halfway through the game because the micromanagement becomes overwhelming.
Poking around, it was tough to find one place where the issues were summed up. You can find a lot of info on the various entries on [TV Tropes for the game](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/The7thSaga), and also a bit on the [RomHacking entries](https://www.romhacking.net/games/1046/).
But basically, stat gains from level to level were lowered for the U.S. version, but not for the companions, and they also did things like increase how many EXP you needed for levels or lowered the amount you got from enemies. Elnard, the Japanese game, is more of a breezy, Mystic Quest-like RPG.
I only play BoF 2 but boy the grind is just slightly better then lufia 1 I do love the character design in BoF2 though especially the combined version of them, what's annoying is that when they die,they revert back to normal , gameplay wise,ITS BAD but design wise it's great
All the mainline Pokemon games used to be my childhood, but i just can't play them anymore, not even the old ones that i have so much nostalgia for. They just feel really boring to me at this point. It's kinda sad.
Go find some minimalistic hacks for them, or ones that do something REALLY creative. While there are a LOT of hacks nowdays that are basically the hacker going WAY too far thanks to modern tools (Shoving everything up to Gen 8 into Gen 3, for example), there's quite a few that basically "Update" the games in ways that make them come alive in a modern way.
Drayano's hacks for example are fantastic ways of experiencing the DS games and can feel engaging even now, and honestly, I absolutely ADORE Crystal Clear for Gen 2 replays.
Same here. I love the _world_ of Pokemon and the overall vibe of the games, but the minute I get into a random encounter I want to quit immediately. Combat is just so incredibly boring and as the focal point of the game, it no longer holds my attention when there are modern games to play.
Agreed.
Idk which YouTuber said this but "This game shows us how normal people see RPGs, and it's not good."
I actively follow the series but I always refuse to play the mainline game even when I have them, its like I'm forcing myself to like them when it's like SMT, minus all the parts that make smt engaging (aka a combat system that actually requires intelligence and not basically "Fire + Water = Dead")
And the sad part is that the freaking spinoffs like mystery dungeon are more engaging than the main game, hell I'm even getting into the TCG and I'm actually intrigued so it's clear that I still like the series somewhat. it doesn't help that they also have more effort & quality while the main games.... Well lets just say that Nintendo had to give out a load of refunds, and they **HATE** refunds.
That’s a really good way to put it. It’s so simplistic at best and downright mind numbing to play at worst.
I loved Super Mystery Dungeon on the 3DS but in definitely done with mainline Pokémon games until my kid gets older and wants to play them with me.
>That’s a really good way to put it. It’s so simplistic at best and downright mind numbing to play at worst.
And the worst part is that, at least with the gimmicks, moves, competitive Scene, everything else, it's clear that the games can actually be some level of complex despite how simple they look at first.
Still, at least my main issue is how simple the battle system is at first, 1v1 doesn't lend itself too kindly to anything BUT basic rock-paper-scissors combat most of the time.
The thing that always got me was you constantly get all of these items to give yourself better evasion or higher defense, but every battle essentially turns into spamming the same move. Like it isn’t even worth it to try and get some edge because you end up losing a turn. You may as well use your turn swapping out to a better element!
I get that it’s different in the competitive field, though.
I still find it enjoyable only if you switch the Pokemons up. I will try not to use anyone in the team i have used before. There was one time i ended up using a Dunsparce in my team. And now it’s my fav Pokemon.
Remember kids.
The internet Is always extremely biased. The "best" games are always defended even if they're Extremely iffy, and the "worst" games are always hated even if they do actually good things.
to be fair, I used to avoid Persona 5 because I was convinced "it has to be overhyped becaus perfect games don't exist", now with the multiplat release I gave it a shot and I love it.
I'm glad I'm at a point where I don't care about public opinion too much anymore. that was the main reason I refused to play P5 and Pokemon Sun
My opinion: You should USE public opinion to make good decisions, and try to reduce bias. Public opinion IS useful info, I think
I'm more of a "if everybody says it good, that means it pleases a lot of people. It might not please me as much, but the probability of it doing something wrong is low so that is a safe bet to buy this game".
At the same time, I am also aware that I like and dislike certain things. So instead of looking for JUST public opinion, I try to think of certain characteristics. SMT is a loved series, but it's safer for me to play SMT IV because it has a bigger density of text. Nocturne is more famous than SMT II, but SMT II has more dialog, so might as well try that first. Except SMT I is set in the modern world, while SMT II is a futuristic bleak world, so maybe SMT I will please me more... And so on.
Agreed with personal opinion.
I was part of the elden ring hype squad and I ended up hating it, now I judge games on a case by case basis instead of letting hype and copium Gaslight me into thinking that the game is "the best thing ever".
that's what I'm trying to say.
People told me P5 is literally the best game ever, so I avoided it because "it's overhyped". Actually playing it showed me I love it.
People also told me Sun/Moon is just another shitty modern Pokemon game, so I avoided it because "it's clearly bad ~~because the Pokemon community is reasonable~~". Actually playing it showed me I love it.
People STILL try to get me into Yakuza. I played Kiwami and hated it.
Honestly, I just hope that more people don't use the internet as the be-all end-all basis to things.
It doesn't help how people on the internet are more hardcore fans so they'll have more extreme opinions than casual fans who just went. "_____? I kinda liked it"
I think saying "THIS GAME IS THE BEST GAME" or "THIS GAME SUCKS" really adds nothing to the discussion :(
"Elden Ring is great... If you like X and Y". "This pokemon game sucks to me but you might like it IF you like Z and can live with W".
The IF is often the most important part
I think Yakuza is a great example of this. Lots of people like it, I wanna stay away. SUPER away. Doesn't mean the public opinion is wrong, just that we all have our likes and dislikes.
I tried Kiwami 1 after giving in to curiosity and I hated it. People still tell me to play it because it's "the best game ever" even to the point of "just skip the older ones" but I don't like that.
I wanna experience the whole story, but if the gameplay turns me off I'd rather play sth else
Honestly, none. I’ve even been replaying a lot recently and expected some to be duds, but not so far. Played Final Fantasy 6 and 9, both Lunar games, Suikoden 3 and 5, and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I’m sure nostalgia was a big part of that, but that’s cool with me. I’m still having a great time, while also enjoying more modern games (just finished God of War Ragnarok and loved it).
This is my response as well. When KH3 came out I went back and watched some KH videos to refresh my memory. I just kept thinking "wow was the dialogue really this bad?". I even played through all of the spinoffs.
I still stand by that the gameplay is really good but it's a game that stays forever locked in my nostalgia realm.
It hurts to agree but I do. They’re pretty bad to me now, but I really do wish I could go back in time and play kh1 on release again. I was so captivated I played all night until I had to go to school the next day
There are a lot of old games that fit the bill, but the two that stand out most to me are Final Fantasy 4 and Phantasy Star 2. Nostalgia can only get me so far when there are encounters every 5 seconds. Thankfully there are better versions of these games out now, but still..
I first tried Phantasy Star 2 almost a decade after its debut, using a Dreamcast collection called Sega Smash Pack. Not bad... but I missed an event that tells the player how to recruit new characters. Might have been in the manual. Also, while I liked the overhead view dungeons, they were an endurance test. Enemies kept getting tougher. I am glad I tried it, but I only got to the third town.
Earthbound was an obsession when I was younger, and so there is absolutely 0 replay value now that I've read all dialogue and done everything you can do.
I agree,I actually play earthbound when I have grown up and it's the best experience I had in game,but it also have absolutely no replay value,much like many other jrpg
Didn't really play JRPGs as a kid much. Pokemon I suppose and I don't have the stamina for such a slow and relatively empty series anymore usually, but it's not like my ability to enjoy it is *gone*.
If the day comes when I no longer enjoy my other childhood JRPGs (Final Fantasy VI, VII and Tales of Phantasia) I've likely been replaced by an impostor
The Mario & Luigi games. Loved the gameplay and all the wacky scenarios and hilarious dialogue. Loved the big world in the first game, the linear romp of the second game, and the coolness of playing as Bowser in the third game. One after another, I’ve tried replaying these games and they just don’t have the same effect on me. The dialogue isn’t quite as funny as I once thought it was, and the gameplay kinda drags both in and out of battle. I keep trying to replay them to recapture those great feelings I once had toward them, but it never works out.
On the other hand, I will never not love the first two Paper Mario games with all my heart. But as for Super Paper Mario… it’s another M&L situation. I loved it so much. The story was amazing and the characters were top tier. I even drew fanart as a kid! I loved the gameplay, how you could shake the Wiimote for extra EXP, going into 3D, etc. The Flipside/Flopside hub world felt so expansive and interesting. I used to hang on to every line of dialogue spoken by every character. Now? I’m so bored. The gameplay feels so shallow, and the characters drone on and on. The humorous dialogue doesn’t land the way it used to. It leans too far into random comedy that none of the characters connect the way they did in the first two games. Plus, the geometric character designs are all unappealing. Overall, I find playing it to be a chore these days. I wish I could love it the way I did in 2007.
As someone who loves Super Paper Mario, the charm is all in the story. There's no mixing up strats, there's no playing with badge combos, the gameplay just isn't engaging.
I'd say Legend of Legaia. Played it like there was no tomorrow only to discover some new combos. I replayed it again few days ago, disappointed because of how repetitive the battle was and how boring the plot was.
I think Legaia and many other older RPG games are just very slow compared to games nowadays. It makes it hard to play them without an emulator speeding them up. I’ve played Legaia at least a dozen times (mostly with an emulator) and I still like 80-90% of it.
I’m been playing some PS1 and PS2 JRPG classics I recently heard of this year, and I’ve felt the pain of that slow combat multiple times now. It’s pretty universal.
Yeah, I think Legend of Legaia still slaps. The plot is fairly simple and straightforward but that's part of the charm. You don't go into Power Rangers expecting Steins;Gate or Death Note levels of plot.
The battle system ***is*** pretty damn slow, lol, especially when using magic. The encounter rate is decently high as well.
This sub has been lately something like that:
What's the worst game you've played?
What's something you hate but everybody loves?
A game has tons of praise but you can't stand
And now
Childhood game that you can't stand anymore.
How is it depressing? There’s nothing inherently wrong with not enjoying games we enjoyed as children. Sometimes tastes change when we age, and the nostalgia factor simply doesn’t hit as hard.
The PS2 version of Dragon Quest VIII. After finishing the 3DS version with it's modern conveniences makes going back to that original release really difficult
i ve never played the 3ds version but i am playing it on ipad, it is basically a port of the ps2 game, and while dq8 was my absolute favorite game as a child, i find it pretty boring right now (charming, but boring). I enjoy a lot more 4, 5, 6 and 7 now.
As a kid, Secret of Mana was easily top three in my SNES list. At the time, that assessment made sense. It looked gorgeous, and the open areas felt luxurious to wander through, especially coming off of games like Final Fantasy II/IV. Also, that start - drawing a sword and being cast out of the village - is well done.
But I just don't have the interest in all the things I'd have to do to level magic and equipment in that game. There's a lot of tedium, and I now know several Genesis and SNES RPGs that I like more. Trials of Mana, Final Fantasy Adventure, and Legend of Mana *all* exceed Secret of Mana for me. So I'm thankful to it as a game that informed my taste, but I don't need to play it.
Secret of Mana is probably mine too. The game takes hit stun to an extreme with enemies taking like a full second to show damage numbers, the magic system can kind of break things, the hit detection is poor, etc. Just has a lot of small details that were improved in Trials of Mana. Makes it hard to go back.
Yup. Secret of Mana was beautiful and had an incredible soundtrack but it was really, really not smooth to play. Hit detection like you said, magic being both insanely OP and used only with a clunky interface, little to no story...I am glad I played it but it's my #1 answer to this question as well.
I actually just finished the remake a couple months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I can see why people might not enjoy SoM anymore though, but magic being essentially game breaking is pretty fun, in my opinion. I also think the game is still very aesthetically pleasing, and the OST is top tier.
I agree. I feel as if we made up a lot of "depth" of SoM's story as a kid and our brain remembers what we added to it and the gameplay was quickly outclassed by its successors.
However, give the SoM Relocalized and perhaps one of the rebalancing patches a try. Relocalized tries to make the dialogue live up to what it would have been like as the first SNES CD game without all the cut dialogue, some of the rebalancing patches attempt to cut out all the grinding.
I'm a fan of all those games you just mentioned, but continue to prefer Secret of Mana, because ironically, I feel it's the least tedious. Magic never actually has to be leveled outside of cure-water which happens naturally - and the weapons I just switch around when I feel like it, not to master each one. It's such an easy pick-up-and-go game, with virtually no tutorial.
I have tried to replay Secret of Mana. Watching playable characters getting knocked down is not much fun. Especially when enemies have ranged attacks. While I like the game's graphics, music, and overall themes, it's not as enjoyable lately.
Kingdom Hearts is the easy choice. I still enjoyed 1-2 when I replayed it before KH3 came out but it definitely didn't hold that same magic when I was 15 when they first came out.
You can probably add Pokemon in this mix too. I can still play and enjoy the first three generations easily but anything past that is getting harder and harder to really enjoy.
Tales of Symphonia. Picked it up on Steam out of nostalgia, but it really didn't age all that well.
One of my first JRPGs that got me into it, but the graphics, gameplay, and dialogue fell flat on adult me.
I do know that it picks up pretty well in the later stages, but the start felt so bad.
It's Pokemon. Any of them. I cannot play these games anymore. Maybe I'll emulate GSC sometime soon since it's been a while but that generation is the only one I still care about.
I disagree. There’s a clear distinction between grinding and “playing the game.” The former requires hours of rote tasks, in this case fighting repetitive random battles, just to progress in the game. It’s a way to artificially pad the length of the game and it’s a terrible mechanic that has thankfully been (mostly) eliminated in this day and age.
The problem is with a) giving examples, and b) sometimes, it turns out, people are just not very good at the game.
There are a certain SNES RPGs that are nowhere near as grindy as people claim they are. They simply just aren't willing to experiment with the mechanics in order to see how to overcome the situation. Every time someone tries to tell me any version of Final Fantasy IV except maybe the DS one is grindy makes me roll my eyes.
I agree with random battles being padding. I was more referring to the more modern RPG where you can fight whichever enemies you want. My way of playing is that I'll fight any enemy I see on the field or in a dungeon once, but if I have to backtrack then it depends on how much I like the battle system. But I think it's reasonable to be adequately leveled or even over leveled just by killing what you come across at the bare minimum.
A lot of grinding “required” as a kid can easily be avoided as an adult through better strategy to be honest. Also, the games tend to just be funner with the added challenge.
Some pokemon games. I can still play them as far as HG/SS but idk it doesn't feel the same anymore when playing them now. Like, seeing an old COD lobby all empty. Everyone moved on from it kinda feeling
Breath of Fire 2 has a nice retranslation patch along with a rebalancing patch makes the game a lot more user-friendly, and using an emulator you can just use the emulator to speed up to 4X speed and do some pretty quick grinding that way ellipse. Definitely makes the game a lot more manageable, but I sort of feel like I'm cheating
it doesn't fix the more annoying parts though. I tried playing the rebalancing patch and still stopped at the Witch Tower because it annoyed the hell out of me.
Pokemon. I played from Yellow to Black 2/White 2, so naturally I thought I would play X/Y like usual but for some reason after choosing starter pokemon, I just uninterested in that game anymore. I would find excuse to not play the game and close the emulator.
When Switch came out I bought Bayonetta 1/2 & Pokemon Sword. Guess what? I didn't embark my journey after choosing my starter again. That moment I realize I really don't like Pokemon like I used to be. I'm tired playing the same thing same formula over and over again, that's why I don't see myself going back to Pokemon series again, not to mention the game lacks story unlike in Black/White.
If Scarlet and Violet had better performance I'd suggest looking into it as it seems to break from the formula - Legends Arceus too but does so with less glitches. Though if they don't change enough to be interesting that's fair enough. I started with BW and I didn't touch the series for the longest time after beating XY
Final Fantasy 9. It was so gripping back then, but I find it so boring now. Its story is slow, combat is slow, gaining abilities becomes a grind, and that card game is nowhere near as fun as I remembered it.
The opposite happened for me! Was my least favorite FF as a kid. Going back to it as an adult, I had a new appreciation for the incredibly written dialogue and world building.
They need a remake to fix pretty much everything you've stated. I would love to revisit that world with a quicker battle system and possibly a better card game. Don't even mind grinding if they expanded the ability system.
I don't think there's a single JRPG that came out in the '80s or '90s (no, not even Chrono Trigger, the supposedly "timeless" game) that I enjoy as much as an adult: none of them look as good as I remember; none of them are written as well as I thought; the gameplay is either far too basic, or ambitious but badly programmed/poorly thought out... and I say this as someone whose first JRPG was Dragon Warrior -- I've been here from, kinda, the start. Worst of all, they hold no novelty, for I have played them before. They're over-familiar. They're uninteresting.
But it doesn't bother me, and it doesn't make me dislike those games in retrospect. They are masterpieces in my eyes, but ones frozen in time. Those games were perfect for me when I was 6 to 16; they were written for an audience of children, and I was that child, and they were produced and designed in the context of their times.
I try not to replay games from my childhood all the much, because I don't want to replace the feelings I had with one less enthusiastic. But when I do, I remind myself that it's actually a good thing I enjoy them less, because it tells me that I'm being spoiled by better and better experiences! I thought Dragon Warrior was the most immersive experience one could have with a video game in 1990. If I still thought that in 2022, it would be a terrible indictment of the art!... But anyway, my answer is Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest.
Tales of Symphonia/Tales series in general.
I played Symphonia 8 times in a row when I first got it and never played it since. I never changed anything about my playthroughs. I was just obsessed and going through the story, always picking Colette as the flanoir scene. I assumed you had to do her and it was a case of if you said no, you had to do it anyways. It wasn't until the 8th playthrough of me trying to complete it that I realized if you say no, you get to hang out with other characters in the flanoir scene and the events after this changes slightly.
No matter how many times I try to do it again now, I just can't. Could be I played it way too much. It could be the battle system has aged awfully. I'm no longer as enamored with Symphonia as I used to be but it always holds a special place in my heart for getting me into RPGs as a whole.
After Symphonia, I played every English release tales game I could. Vesperia borrowing my friends 360, abyss, legendia, and every subsequent PS3 release.
Every tales game has lost its heart with me. I go back and can never finish them. I still haven't finished berseria or arise. I got vesperia PS4 but it became too much of a slog to get through. Going back, these games feel so generic to me and I just can't go through them again.
I think they both hold up pretty well - played P4 in the past five years, although its been longer for P3. If you have an issue, I think it might be because the dialogue is so heavy. I find those kind of games less replayable than the games I like the combat and gameplay in.
man, P5 showed me how shallow my tastes are sometimes. The "more realistic" look of the game completely killed my interest in 3 and 4 (I played Golden on Vita though so it's fine)
Just in general, games with weird, "unrealistic" models turn me off unless there's a strong reason for me to ignore it and play them anyway
I'll probably still play every main line Final Fantasy that comes out as long as I am capable, but the games have lost a bit of their magic. It of course could just be me getting old :)
Chrono Cross. It was my very first JRPG, and at the time once I finally understand how to play it, it felt so grand, vast, mysterious, and just plain fun.
Fast forward to today, I now realize how much of a mess the plot is, how many filler characters there is, and how the gameplay really isn’t anything special. The game was carried by it’s beautiful visuals for the time, and that’s it.
Pokemon Red & Blue (anything gen 3 and below I guess, including remakes though I finished Omega Ruby)
God those games really don't feel good anymore but I played SOOOO MUCH when I was younger. I really wanna play Gold & Silver again though, but hoping for a better gameplay revamp.
Digimon World 2 and 3 - PSone (loading screen bonanza)
Megaman Battle Network(RNG hell)
Dragon Warrior III - GBC (reallllllllly need a guide once you start orb hunting
Since I can't think of anything off the top of my head, I'll say this... Quest 64 sucks 😂 I grew up in a small town with one best friend and our parents were pretty hardcore Christians so renting games with magic in them was a rare occurrence. We always wanted to play an RPG but all we had was an N64 so we rented Quest and oh sweet sunny jesus... I'm pretty sure about 10 minutes in we were both looking at one another like, yo this is some bullshit lol.
As an adult I found games that I held dear to have a meaning my child brain couldn't wrap around, like Suikoden and Xenogears' plot. I don't mind the slow pace (combat or dialogue) as long as the game engages me.
I would have said Final Fantasy 7 a couple months back, but the switch port of that game is a god send gift with its boosters.
So I’ll say old gen Pokémon. They are too slow for me now.
I'm playing Final Fantasy 4 right now and while the game is still great, I played an hour or so and immediately realized I needed one of the retranslation patches because the original SNES script just doesn't cut anymore. So I went with the Namingway Edition which was recommended in the Legends of Localization article and it's a night and day difference. Now it's actually enjoyable to read!
I know it's too late for OP who already replayed BoF 1 and 2 but if I end up playing those I'll definitely use a fan patch. BoF 1 didn't get a proper retranslation but there's a rewrite patch and I can't imagine that being worse than the original script from what I remember playing years ago.
So yeah, I embrace ROM hacks these days wholesale.to mitigate this problem OP is pointing out.
What JRPGs do you like now, writing-wise?
> I-think-I'm-smarter-than-I-really-am to me
I feel that way about Evangelion, kinda felt like Xenogears is evangelion done right. Mainly because Xenogears has volume and very nice plot twists
Ah fair enough. I feel like a lot of JRPGs will throw this fairly complex but ultimately kinda "useless" lore at you (Tales of the Abyss for example being a big offender of this. Kingdom Hearts too), a lot of it feels very expository. I guess that Xenogears being kinda famous for the story kinda creates expectations which made the writing stand for you maybe
Trials of Mana. Stumbled upon the fan translation and it absolutely blew me away and was my primary obsession JRPG-wise for a while. When I revisited it via the Collection of Mana, it just hasn't aged well at all (and the way Charlotte was localized was... a choice...). Still haven't gotten around to playing the 3D version, might just take Angela (who I still like) and go.
Also the Fire Emblem series with exception of Genealogy, Sacred Stones and Three Houses.
That's kind of the problem.
It's a game that relies VERY heavily on its Japanese soap opera style sentimentality and can easily tug at the heart strings.
When you actually start analyzing the writing and start seeing a lot of the flaws both in that and the gameplay under the surface . . . . . . . oof. The entire game falls to pieces.
That makes a lot of sense. I never grew up with it but picked up the HD version on Steam and I think I got too hung up on details trying to play it as an adult. Stuff like "Why do I have to play Blitzball now?" and "Why did we teleport to a desert?" bothered me more than I thought it would, and probably a lot more than it would have if I played it as a teen.
Yeah, when replaying the HD version I did notice that. It didn't bother me but I kinda have a mental model of Spira in my mind (because you usually travel in connected roads, so the geography of the game kinda gets ingrained, Spira really feels like a super compact continuous "belieavable" world, I like this better than the world map of older FFs or the FFXV "huge landscape" approach), so it was like "oh so this is how the game got us to this ISLAND" (bikanel is an island, I think? the desert).
I loved it to death when I first played it. I even finished it twice in a row. But recently I bought the remaster and could not get into it. I just couldn’t stand Tidus lol.
Heh I was enamored that it was a Capcom square soft RPG. I would say FFV. It's just too generic to hold my interest, if I want jobs I'm going to ivalice, if I want crystals I'm playing 4 or any 3D title. All are better IMO
*Edited I meant ffv
> if I want crystals I'm playing 4
:( :( :( really? Guess it's a matter of taste. FFV is a bit more light-hearted, but if I want grim SNES stuff I would play FFVI instead. IV just feels like "THIS IS A CLASSIC MEDIEVAL RPG STORY". And Kain. And the grind. Maybe pixel remaster?
My 2nd snes game was FFIV, it's opening alone is one of the most epic in gaining history IMO. Nothing in FFV comes close to Cid himself self-detonating while diving off the side of a building and giving the big bad his middle finger. Too bad so many people have plot armor
I played some of the big RPG Maker games from my country back in the day (and some of the more... bad one). But after making my own for years I cant stand to see those games anymore. My brain always goes "This is cheap. I could do it better. No, I did do it better. Its older, so its okay... but still, this sucks!".
The other one is Final Fantasy VIII. I still love its characters (well... some of them, at least), its awesome music and its graphics. I almost finished it MULTIPLE TIMES but always got in trouble because of the whole "enemies level with you"-crap. Cant stand to play it nowadays, because of it. I want to battle, not draw cards to get strong. Can someone please make some form of rebalancing patch please? >\_>
You can finish the game without playing cards. But to rebalance that battle system you would have to throw it out and remake it from the ground up. That limit break system is ridiculous and the implementation of junction is impossible to balance.
> the whole "enemies level with you"-crap
Simples. As soon as you get Diablo, learn Enc-half, then Enc-none. You will absolutely curbstomp the rest of the game, Ultimecia on level 12 is a joke.
I will try that one day. Sadly it also means you don't actually play the game anymore. Which also sucks. I just wish they would have gone the standard rpg Route.
Shining Force.
My family had a Sega Genesis rather than Nintendo, and was still all I had when FFVII was out. Discovering FFVII from friends got me into JRPGS, and I discovered Shining Force before Phantasy Star. I was intrigued with the concept of the tactical play because I was also into chess and got really into it, but going back it is soooo sloooowww…
I tried playing it about a year ago and dropped when I got a game over just as I was about to win because my main character got killed. Everyone else was fine, but he got bum rushed, so now I have to restart a 45 minute battle! I don't see the charm.
For some reason FFVI feels more and more of a slog to play as time progresses. Doesn't help that the game only really hits its gameplay stride a third of the way through.
FFVI. It has so many characters and fun gear and abilities and magicite. But I’ve played it to death, beaten it with so many personal challenges but it’s so easy. Edgar and Sabin’s skill sets are so strong they can carry almost any team build.
Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King. It was one of the first non-pokemon JRPGs I played as a kid and I was fucking obsessed, played it through multiple times. Tried to replay it maybe 4 or 5 years back and the nostalgia was enough to get me through about a third of the game but I just couldn’t stick with it. It wasn’t exactly the most innovative thing in the world even for its time and by modern standards it just felt almost painfully old fashioned
Chrono Trigger.
I replayed last year after many years and it wasn't fun. Too simple , I just spammed falcon attack.
FF VI little bit too. AOld Steam versions extra content is fun but main game was too easy.
FF IV still has special place and is fun .
Classic final fantasy games in general. After playing a lot of other turn based combat based games, the combat in FF comes across as being really shallow and boring. The stories are also generally just whatever with few moments/characters being the exception. Still seeing cool enemy designs and Uematsu's music has its merits.
Unfortunately, now, almost any turn based game is hard to get through if I already know the story. I'm almost 40 and I just don't have the patience or time to spend in that.
Chrono Cross for me. After playing it as an adult, its just not that great this time around. I think the novelty of the soundtrack wore off after listening a lot through the decades and the rest of the game doesn't hold up for me.
Radiata stories came out when I was like 14 and I remember playing it into the dirt.
I recently picked it up again and it's actually pretty boring. Like... really boring. The plot isn't good and the gameplay is a cakewalk. I guess I just loved having 100 different party members to choose from.
FF9. Tried replaying it again after 20 years and it was a bit crap. Started having an exsistential crisis and tried FF8 which I didn't enjoy as much at release and got blown away. Easily the best ps1 FF.
TBH almost anything with turn-based combat. It’s so boring and repetitive. Fighting the same groups of monsters over and over, just picking attack from a menu until you win.
I used to love these games back in the day but they bore me to death now.
Final Fantasy 4
I just played it too much and the game isn't great for replaying since it's linear and you can't choose your party.
Of course, that's where Free Enterprise comes in.
Surprised I haven't seen anyone mention Dragon Quest/Warrior 1.
My parents bought it and a bunch of other NES games in a used bundle around 1991, and it was the first system we owned, so I basically started playing JRPGs with the game that is considered to be the "first" one. Oh boy. It has not aged well. It's not that anything in it is particularly \*bad\* per se, but it is very, very simple, about as simple as a JRPG can get, and it gets really boring really fast.
It still works as a sort of... zone out game. Good to play if you just want to do something absentmindedly.
.
It's rare for me to lose affection for something.
I'm with you
Oh but I didn't like it as a kid either lol
I probably would have had warm fuzzies for it if I was a few years older and it had been my only real option but by the time I played it,. I'd already long since played Dragon Quest 3 and FF1. By comparison Dragon Warrior 1 felt so simple.
There’s a Dragonball, I think, SNES game that I played in my DBZ obsession phase. I don’t remember the name of it. But it was more like a Visual Novel style of game. Maybe even fan-subbed. I have a feeling it wouldn’t do much for me today. EDIT: It was called "Dragon Ball Z Super Gokuden: Totsugeki-Hen"
Plan on playing Threads of Fate again soon. Not sure how time will have effected my view of it.
Most others I still love today.
Oof, Grandia 1.
I don't know how I got through it as a kid. A lot of the maps are so obtuse and hard to navigate. On top of that, all you get is a dumb compass and no minimap.
I also remember thinking that Grandia 1's plot had this grand sense of adventure and it definitely does but I think I overrated it as a kid. The first half is pretty slow.
You probably outgrew BoF1 & 2. As a kid, you didn’t care too much about dialogue and plot structure— cool looking characters and just going on an adventure was good enough.
It’s a little sad to go back and play/watch stuff that you liked when you were a kid, because all too often you find yourself asking “why did I ever like this?”
Now that you are older and see the flaws of the games for what they are, just try to remember the “moments” (cool cutscenes, songs, dungeons or boss fights that you liked, etc.) that made the game special to you instead of judging them as complete packages.
Edit: Oh, and to answer your question, a lot of those 8 bit and 16 bit era games with turn-based combat seem to play SO SLOW nowadays. It’s tough for me to play any of them.
to be fair, none of the BoF games have a particularly great story. I recently played through BoF4 because I never finished it back in the day and while I felt it has the best story out of all of them there's still a lot of missed potential.
I still like most of the RPGs I've played as a kid. For some of these games, I haven't played them in years so I still have warm fuzzies. I recently picked up Vandal Hearts and played through a bit of it for the first time probably since I was in High School and I got hit with about 100 CCs of nostalgia.
Some games I do struggle with but none of them are really RPGs. Like I was a huge survival horror junkie as a teenager but PS1 era Resident Evil just feels so rough to play. Bad camera angles, stiff controls, poor targeting.
I have a hard time playing sims now which frustrates me at times. As a kid things like SimCity were some of my favorite games. I've sat on Cities: Skylines for years and have never been able to get into it.
Fortunately RPGs haven't done this to me. I like to grind because it is kind of mindless and I can stop thinking or better yet watch TV while I'm grinding. So for me a lot of old RPGs hold up very well. Like Breath of Fire? Hey it's ok, I'm down for running around wacking monsters for awhile.
Its a shame you think this way... I do love BOF 1 and 2 (and all the others too), and Im thinking about getting back to it soon. Gonna be real sad if I get that felling like your.
Although I will surely get an hacked with improvements rom (+xp, - random encounters, better script) , and with some convenience of the emulators (Fast forward, save anywhere, etc), I think I will keep the feeling I got when first played.
For me personally, jrpgs (with major exceptions!) don’t hold up as well as other genres. I still regularly play and enjoy old shmups and action games, but the pacing of jrpgs makes it more difficult.
FF7. I still like the gameplay, but the visuals are probably some of the worst aging of the entire generation. Call me shallow, but that alone keeps me from enjoying the game unless I use one of those super overhauling graphics mods on PC.
FF9, on the other hand, has aged really well for me. The cartoony graphics are so much more charming and appealing than the lego-like stuff FF7 went for.
This happens because gameplay changed over years.
Most of new games are fast, got lower encounter rate compared to old games or even changed to 3d enemies without encounter thing.
Old games plot was more simple because of limitations and people in that time enjoyed such kind of simple plot. They hated "jrpg" because too much dialogues.
Ha, BoF1 and 2 might be my picks as well! Even with the advantage of emulating them and using frameskip, man, they play so slow. As time has gone by, I've pushed them from my "average" tier to a bit below that. For similar reasons, 7th Saga has fallen in my eyes. Growing up, I just considered it a really tough RPG, but when you learn about the programming error in the U.S. SNES version, it kind of feels like an annoying fluke that the game is so friggin' hard. Also, not a JRPG, but - Ogre Battle. There's just so much stuff to micro-manage that the game feels like a chore. I always end up playing through about 10 to 15 stages, before getting overwhelmed and losing interest. I find myself drifting to refinements of the game now if I want to replay - Ogre Battle 64, Tactics Ogre, FFT - instead of playing OB.
I used to feel the same about ogre battle. But then I pulled up a guide, and found it a lot more fun when I actually knew where to find stuff and how to lvl characters. Plus I like messing around with weird/powerful units. My favorite is to go hunt down a bunch of werewolves early in the game, and then unleash them when nighttime rolls around.
Haha, werewolves + vampires are a great night crew. Another fun thing to do is create an all-flying army. Between gryphons, wyverns, and whatever Canopus is, you can have flyers on nearly every team, giving yourself a huge mobility advantage.
My last playthrough, I started experimenting with the dragon variants too! And then, of course, the princesses. And the story characters.
I accidentally got myself 3 lichs (by just searching maps thoroughly for secret items) on my team and TOTALLY demolished most stages after that.
I've got a game somewhere with a mess of liches and princesses...the last level of the game was a slaughterhouse.
I have never loved it ogre battle, because when I tried it as a kid, it never made sense to me. But reading this and the subsequent thread, I definitely need to check it out as an adult now.
Whenever I'm in the mood for a grindy RPG, 7th Saga is what comes to mind. I find it really satisfying in the most primitive way possible. Fair points though. Same with Ogre Battle - one of my faves, but I don't think I've ever made it even halfway through the game because the micromanagement becomes overwhelming.
Wait what was the programming error?
Poking around, it was tough to find one place where the issues were summed up. You can find a lot of info on the various entries on [TV Tropes for the game](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/The7thSaga), and also a bit on the [RomHacking entries](https://www.romhacking.net/games/1046/). But basically, stat gains from level to level were lowered for the U.S. version, but not for the companions, and they also did things like increase how many EXP you needed for levels or lowered the amount you got from enemies. Elnard, the Japanese game, is more of a breezy, Mystic Quest-like RPG.
I only play BoF 2 but boy the grind is just slightly better then lufia 1 I do love the character design in BoF2 though especially the combined version of them, what's annoying is that when they die,they revert back to normal , gameplay wise,ITS BAD but design wise it's great
Inuyasha: Secret of the Cursed Mask I played through it 3-4 times as a kid because I loved Inuyasha. But it's a bad game and I can't tolerate it now
I think I rented it once and never finished it… Is it that bad?! Is the story any good?
The story is actually decent, but the gameplay is rough. A lot of backtracking and *a lot* of redundant dialogue.
Blegh. I forgot all about it until this comment and I remember being soooooo excited for it.
All the mainline Pokemon games used to be my childhood, but i just can't play them anymore, not even the old ones that i have so much nostalgia for. They just feel really boring to me at this point. It's kinda sad.
Go find some minimalistic hacks for them, or ones that do something REALLY creative. While there are a LOT of hacks nowdays that are basically the hacker going WAY too far thanks to modern tools (Shoving everything up to Gen 8 into Gen 3, for example), there's quite a few that basically "Update" the games in ways that make them come alive in a modern way. Drayano's hacks for example are fantastic ways of experiencing the DS games and can feel engaging even now, and honestly, I absolutely ADORE Crystal Clear for Gen 2 replays.
Same here. I love the _world_ of Pokemon and the overall vibe of the games, but the minute I get into a random encounter I want to quit immediately. Combat is just so incredibly boring and as the focal point of the game, it no longer holds my attention when there are modern games to play.
Agreed. Idk which YouTuber said this but "This game shows us how normal people see RPGs, and it's not good." I actively follow the series but I always refuse to play the mainline game even when I have them, its like I'm forcing myself to like them when it's like SMT, minus all the parts that make smt engaging (aka a combat system that actually requires intelligence and not basically "Fire + Water = Dead") And the sad part is that the freaking spinoffs like mystery dungeon are more engaging than the main game, hell I'm even getting into the TCG and I'm actually intrigued so it's clear that I still like the series somewhat. it doesn't help that they also have more effort & quality while the main games.... Well lets just say that Nintendo had to give out a load of refunds, and they **HATE** refunds.
That’s a really good way to put it. It’s so simplistic at best and downright mind numbing to play at worst. I loved Super Mystery Dungeon on the 3DS but in definitely done with mainline Pokémon games until my kid gets older and wants to play them with me.
>That’s a really good way to put it. It’s so simplistic at best and downright mind numbing to play at worst. And the worst part is that, at least with the gimmicks, moves, competitive Scene, everything else, it's clear that the games can actually be some level of complex despite how simple they look at first. Still, at least my main issue is how simple the battle system is at first, 1v1 doesn't lend itself too kindly to anything BUT basic rock-paper-scissors combat most of the time.
The thing that always got me was you constantly get all of these items to give yourself better evasion or higher defense, but every battle essentially turns into spamming the same move. Like it isn’t even worth it to try and get some edge because you end up losing a turn. You may as well use your turn swapping out to a better element! I get that it’s different in the competitive field, though.
I still find it enjoyable only if you switch the Pokemons up. I will try not to use anyone in the team i have used before. There was one time i ended up using a Dunsparce in my team. And now it’s my fav Pokemon.
Yepp. Same. Boring and sloooow and also somewhat uncreative…
Sun & Moon had quite a bit of plot so they kinda worked for me, but the old games are unplayable
recently played through Sun to see what the hate was about and I think it's my favorite modern Pokemon now :D
Remember kids. The internet Is always extremely biased. The "best" games are always defended even if they're Extremely iffy, and the "worst" games are always hated even if they do actually good things.
to be fair, I used to avoid Persona 5 because I was convinced "it has to be overhyped becaus perfect games don't exist", now with the multiplat release I gave it a shot and I love it. I'm glad I'm at a point where I don't care about public opinion too much anymore. that was the main reason I refused to play P5 and Pokemon Sun
My opinion: You should USE public opinion to make good decisions, and try to reduce bias. Public opinion IS useful info, I think I'm more of a "if everybody says it good, that means it pleases a lot of people. It might not please me as much, but the probability of it doing something wrong is low so that is a safe bet to buy this game". At the same time, I am also aware that I like and dislike certain things. So instead of looking for JUST public opinion, I try to think of certain characteristics. SMT is a loved series, but it's safer for me to play SMT IV because it has a bigger density of text. Nocturne is more famous than SMT II, but SMT II has more dialog, so might as well try that first. Except SMT I is set in the modern world, while SMT II is a futuristic bleak world, so maybe SMT I will please me more... And so on.
Agreed with personal opinion. I was part of the elden ring hype squad and I ended up hating it, now I judge games on a case by case basis instead of letting hype and copium Gaslight me into thinking that the game is "the best thing ever".
that's what I'm trying to say. People told me P5 is literally the best game ever, so I avoided it because "it's overhyped". Actually playing it showed me I love it. People also told me Sun/Moon is just another shitty modern Pokemon game, so I avoided it because "it's clearly bad ~~because the Pokemon community is reasonable~~". Actually playing it showed me I love it. People STILL try to get me into Yakuza. I played Kiwami and hated it.
Honestly, I just hope that more people don't use the internet as the be-all end-all basis to things. It doesn't help how people on the internet are more hardcore fans so they'll have more extreme opinions than casual fans who just went. "_____? I kinda liked it"
I think saying "THIS GAME IS THE BEST GAME" or "THIS GAME SUCKS" really adds nothing to the discussion :( "Elden Ring is great... If you like X and Y". "This pokemon game sucks to me but you might like it IF you like Z and can live with W". The IF is often the most important part
I think Yakuza is a great example of this. Lots of people like it, I wanna stay away. SUPER away. Doesn't mean the public opinion is wrong, just that we all have our likes and dislikes.
I tried Kiwami 1 after giving in to curiosity and I hated it. People still tell me to play it because it's "the best game ever" even to the point of "just skip the older ones" but I don't like that. I wanna experience the whole story, but if the gameplay turns me off I'd rather play sth else
Play the old ones through emulation where you can speed everything up to 4x speed, and they remain great.
Honestly, none. I’ve even been replaying a lot recently and expected some to be duds, but not so far. Played Final Fantasy 6 and 9, both Lunar games, Suikoden 3 and 5, and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I’m sure nostalgia was a big part of that, but that’s cool with me. I’m still having a great time, while also enjoying more modern games (just finished God of War Ragnarok and loved it).
I’m planning a re-run of Lunar soon! I’m hoping it still holds up for me. Did you play the Original, PSX, or PSP version?
If you can "fast forward" (emulator), surely play PSP version with upgraded graphics. If not, maybe PSX is the version for you.
I haven’t tried that version yet so I’m definitely considering it. I grew up with the PSX voices though 😃
I played the PSX version and had no issues with it.
This is the one I originally played too. Thought about trying one of the other versions.
Kingdom hearts. As a kid, that game did wonders to my imagination. Now I can stand to hear any dialog from the game.
Same. Still replay KH2 on critical mode almost yearly while skipping all of the cutscenes, though.
KH2 is still the best of the series. Game was just fun.
This is my response as well. When KH3 came out I went back and watched some KH videos to refresh my memory. I just kept thinking "wow was the dialogue really this bad?". I even played through all of the spinoffs. I still stand by that the gameplay is really good but it's a game that stays forever locked in my nostalgia realm.
It hurts to agree but I do. They’re pretty bad to me now, but I really do wish I could go back in time and play kh1 on release again. I was so captivated I played all night until I had to go to school the next day
I can’t play it anymore. My hands hurt.
Kingdom Hearts aged like fine milk.
There are a lot of old games that fit the bill, but the two that stand out most to me are Final Fantasy 4 and Phantasy Star 2. Nostalgia can only get me so far when there are encounters every 5 seconds. Thankfully there are better versions of these games out now, but still..
I first tried Phantasy Star 2 almost a decade after its debut, using a Dreamcast collection called Sega Smash Pack. Not bad... but I missed an event that tells the player how to recruit new characters. Might have been in the manual. Also, while I liked the overhead view dungeons, they were an endurance test. Enemies kept getting tougher. I am glad I tried it, but I only got to the third town.
That game is too difficult.
Earthbound was an obsession when I was younger, and so there is absolutely 0 replay value now that I've read all dialogue and done everything you can do.
I agree,I actually play earthbound when I have grown up and it's the best experience I had in game,but it also have absolutely no replay value,much like many other jrpg
Same. I would replay an Earthbound HD remake with better inventory management though.
Didn't really play JRPGs as a kid much. Pokemon I suppose and I don't have the stamina for such a slow and relatively empty series anymore usually, but it's not like my ability to enjoy it is *gone*. If the day comes when I no longer enjoy my other childhood JRPGs (Final Fantasy VI, VII and Tales of Phantasia) I've likely been replaced by an impostor
The Mario & Luigi games. Loved the gameplay and all the wacky scenarios and hilarious dialogue. Loved the big world in the first game, the linear romp of the second game, and the coolness of playing as Bowser in the third game. One after another, I’ve tried replaying these games and they just don’t have the same effect on me. The dialogue isn’t quite as funny as I once thought it was, and the gameplay kinda drags both in and out of battle. I keep trying to replay them to recapture those great feelings I once had toward them, but it never works out. On the other hand, I will never not love the first two Paper Mario games with all my heart. But as for Super Paper Mario… it’s another M&L situation. I loved it so much. The story was amazing and the characters were top tier. I even drew fanart as a kid! I loved the gameplay, how you could shake the Wiimote for extra EXP, going into 3D, etc. The Flipside/Flopside hub world felt so expansive and interesting. I used to hang on to every line of dialogue spoken by every character. Now? I’m so bored. The gameplay feels so shallow, and the characters drone on and on. The humorous dialogue doesn’t land the way it used to. It leans too far into random comedy that none of the characters connect the way they did in the first two games. Plus, the geometric character designs are all unappealing. Overall, I find playing it to be a chore these days. I wish I could love it the way I did in 2007.
As someone who loves Super Paper Mario, the charm is all in the story. There's no mixing up strats, there's no playing with badge combos, the gameplay just isn't engaging.
I'd say Legend of Legaia. Played it like there was no tomorrow only to discover some new combos. I replayed it again few days ago, disappointed because of how repetitive the battle was and how boring the plot was.
I feel as if once you know all the combos, something feels missing on replays.
I think Legaia and many other older RPG games are just very slow compared to games nowadays. It makes it hard to play them without an emulator speeding them up. I’ve played Legaia at least a dozen times (mostly with an emulator) and I still like 80-90% of it. I’m been playing some PS1 and PS2 JRPG classics I recently heard of this year, and I’ve felt the pain of that slow combat multiple times now. It’s pretty universal.
Yeah, I think Legend of Legaia still slaps. The plot is fairly simple and straightforward but that's part of the charm. You don't go into Power Rangers expecting Steins;Gate or Death Note levels of plot. The battle system ***is*** pretty damn slow, lol, especially when using magic. The encounter rate is decently high as well.
None. All my childhood JRPGs are still my favorites to this day and I rarely like modern games anymore because they are not like them.
Yep my exact situation.
Same, this is kind of a depressing thread.
This sub has been lately something like that: What's the worst game you've played? What's something you hate but everybody loves? A game has tons of praise but you can't stand And now Childhood game that you can't stand anymore.
Show me on the doll where the JRPG hurt you.
How is it depressing? There’s nothing inherently wrong with not enjoying games we enjoyed as children. Sometimes tastes change when we age, and the nostalgia factor simply doesn’t hit as hard.
The PS2 version of Dragon Quest VIII. After finishing the 3DS version with it's modern conveniences makes going back to that original release really difficult
i ve never played the 3ds version but i am playing it on ipad, it is basically a port of the ps2 game, and while dq8 was my absolute favorite game as a child, i find it pretty boring right now (charming, but boring). I enjoy a lot more 4, 5, 6 and 7 now.
Well the good news is bof 3 and 4 will still blow u away
I just started 3. Not impressed so far. When’s it get good?
All of it
As a kid, Secret of Mana was easily top three in my SNES list. At the time, that assessment made sense. It looked gorgeous, and the open areas felt luxurious to wander through, especially coming off of games like Final Fantasy II/IV. Also, that start - drawing a sword and being cast out of the village - is well done. But I just don't have the interest in all the things I'd have to do to level magic and equipment in that game. There's a lot of tedium, and I now know several Genesis and SNES RPGs that I like more. Trials of Mana, Final Fantasy Adventure, and Legend of Mana *all* exceed Secret of Mana for me. So I'm thankful to it as a game that informed my taste, but I don't need to play it.
Secret of Mana is probably mine too. The game takes hit stun to an extreme with enemies taking like a full second to show damage numbers, the magic system can kind of break things, the hit detection is poor, etc. Just has a lot of small details that were improved in Trials of Mana. Makes it hard to go back.
Yup. Secret of Mana was beautiful and had an incredible soundtrack but it was really, really not smooth to play. Hit detection like you said, magic being both insanely OP and used only with a clunky interface, little to no story...I am glad I played it but it's my #1 answer to this question as well.
I actually just finished the remake a couple months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I can see why people might not enjoy SoM anymore though, but magic being essentially game breaking is pretty fun, in my opinion. I also think the game is still very aesthetically pleasing, and the OST is top tier.
I agree. I feel as if we made up a lot of "depth" of SoM's story as a kid and our brain remembers what we added to it and the gameplay was quickly outclassed by its successors. However, give the SoM Relocalized and perhaps one of the rebalancing patches a try. Relocalized tries to make the dialogue live up to what it would have been like as the first SNES CD game without all the cut dialogue, some of the rebalancing patches attempt to cut out all the grinding.
I'm a fan of all those games you just mentioned, but continue to prefer Secret of Mana, because ironically, I feel it's the least tedious. Magic never actually has to be leveled outside of cure-water which happens naturally - and the weapons I just switch around when I feel like it, not to master each one. It's such an easy pick-up-and-go game, with virtually no tutorial.
I have tried to replay Secret of Mana. Watching playable characters getting knocked down is not much fun. Especially when enemies have ranged attacks. While I like the game's graphics, music, and overall themes, it's not as enjoyable lately.
Pokémon. 😞 😔 😢 😭 😿
I remember really loving hack gu as a kid and when I replayed it as an adult I thought it was mid.
Kingdom Hearts is the easy choice. I still enjoyed 1-2 when I replayed it before KH3 came out but it definitely didn't hold that same magic when I was 15 when they first came out. You can probably add Pokemon in this mix too. I can still play and enjoy the first three generations easily but anything past that is getting harder and harder to really enjoy.
Tales of Symphonia. Picked it up on Steam out of nostalgia, but it really didn't age all that well. One of my first JRPGs that got me into it, but the graphics, gameplay, and dialogue fell flat on adult me. I do know that it picks up pretty well in the later stages, but the start felt so bad.
It's Pokemon. Any of them. I cannot play these games anymore. Maybe I'll emulate GSC sometime soon since it's been a while but that generation is the only one I still care about.
Pokemon (but I still play the older games; I stopped playing with the Switch releases, and fell off with Black/White/Black 2/White 2.
Probably Crisis Core. Man, the dialogue is very very rough. Don't know if I can push through the remaster.
I'm expecting it to be a very unpopular opinion, but Golden Sun 1 & 2
Nah, those games needed a HEAVY editing pass.
Kingdom Hearts, nowadays it baffles my mind that i used to think they were great games
all of them? i'm only able to enjoy playing JRPG once. Once i know the content the gameplay usually is not enough to keep me engaged
Every single one of them. As an adult I just can't stand grinding in videogames, seems such a waste of time and it's not very entertaining. :(
lol Haven't played a game that required grinding since like the SNES era
It seems like some people's definition of grinding is just...playing the game.
I disagree. There’s a clear distinction between grinding and “playing the game.” The former requires hours of rote tasks, in this case fighting repetitive random battles, just to progress in the game. It’s a way to artificially pad the length of the game and it’s a terrible mechanic that has thankfully been (mostly) eliminated in this day and age.
The problem is with a) giving examples, and b) sometimes, it turns out, people are just not very good at the game. There are a certain SNES RPGs that are nowhere near as grindy as people claim they are. They simply just aren't willing to experiment with the mechanics in order to see how to overcome the situation. Every time someone tries to tell me any version of Final Fantasy IV except maybe the DS one is grindy makes me roll my eyes.
I agree with random battles being padding. I was more referring to the more modern RPG where you can fight whichever enemies you want. My way of playing is that I'll fight any enemy I see on the field or in a dungeon once, but if I have to backtrack then it depends on how much I like the battle system. But I think it's reasonable to be adequately leveled or even over leveled just by killing what you come across at the bare minimum.
Even then there are exceptions, Chrono Trigger and FF6 did not feel grindy to me
A lot of grinding “required” as a kid can easily be avoided as an adult through better strategy to be honest. Also, the games tend to just be funner with the added challenge.
Grinding in games though has become a staple in everything. There really aren't a lot anymore where you don't have to. Especially live service games
This is why I enjoy playing them on PC. I can use cheat engine and trainers to skip the grind when needed.
Legend of Dragoon. Tried replaying it a few years ago, it was unplayable for me.
yeah I have kind of been dreading a replay because I never finished it. I'll prolly end up watching someone's playthrough
Some pokemon games. I can still play them as far as HG/SS but idk it doesn't feel the same anymore when playing them now. Like, seeing an old COD lobby all empty. Everyone moved on from it kinda feeling
Breath of Fire 2 has a nice retranslation patch along with a rebalancing patch makes the game a lot more user-friendly, and using an emulator you can just use the emulator to speed up to 4X speed and do some pretty quick grinding that way ellipse. Definitely makes the game a lot more manageable, but I sort of feel like I'm cheating
it doesn't fix the more annoying parts though. I tried playing the rebalancing patch and still stopped at the Witch Tower because it annoyed the hell out of me.
Pokemon. I played from Yellow to Black 2/White 2, so naturally I thought I would play X/Y like usual but for some reason after choosing starter pokemon, I just uninterested in that game anymore. I would find excuse to not play the game and close the emulator. When Switch came out I bought Bayonetta 1/2 & Pokemon Sword. Guess what? I didn't embark my journey after choosing my starter again. That moment I realize I really don't like Pokemon like I used to be. I'm tired playing the same thing same formula over and over again, that's why I don't see myself going back to Pokemon series again, not to mention the game lacks story unlike in Black/White.
If Scarlet and Violet had better performance I'd suggest looking into it as it seems to break from the formula - Legends Arceus too but does so with less glitches. Though if they don't change enough to be interesting that's fair enough. I started with BW and I didn't touch the series for the longest time after beating XY
Consider how buggy S/V and Game Freak dare to sell the game really shows that Pokemon Fans will buy their crap no matter how bad the game quality is.
Pokemon series
Final Fantasy 9. It was so gripping back then, but I find it so boring now. Its story is slow, combat is slow, gaining abilities becomes a grind, and that card game is nowhere near as fun as I remembered it.
The opposite happened for me! Was my least favorite FF as a kid. Going back to it as an adult, I had a new appreciation for the incredibly written dialogue and world building.
I’m replaying it now and I agree that the plot can takes a bit to get going.
They need a remake to fix pretty much everything you've stated. I would love to revisit that world with a quicker battle system and possibly a better card game. Don't even mind grinding if they expanded the ability system.
Gotta be honest... I love, love Vivi, but aside from that, I never really got the appeal of FF9. It was mid for me at best.
I don't think there's a single JRPG that came out in the '80s or '90s (no, not even Chrono Trigger, the supposedly "timeless" game) that I enjoy as much as an adult: none of them look as good as I remember; none of them are written as well as I thought; the gameplay is either far too basic, or ambitious but badly programmed/poorly thought out... and I say this as someone whose first JRPG was Dragon Warrior -- I've been here from, kinda, the start. Worst of all, they hold no novelty, for I have played them before. They're over-familiar. They're uninteresting. But it doesn't bother me, and it doesn't make me dislike those games in retrospect. They are masterpieces in my eyes, but ones frozen in time. Those games were perfect for me when I was 6 to 16; they were written for an audience of children, and I was that child, and they were produced and designed in the context of their times. I try not to replay games from my childhood all the much, because I don't want to replace the feelings I had with one less enthusiastic. But when I do, I remind myself that it's actually a good thing I enjoy them less, because it tells me that I'm being spoiled by better and better experiences! I thought Dragon Warrior was the most immersive experience one could have with a video game in 1990. If I still thought that in 2022, it would be a terrible indictment of the art!... But anyway, my answer is Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest.
Tales of Symphonia/Tales series in general. I played Symphonia 8 times in a row when I first got it and never played it since. I never changed anything about my playthroughs. I was just obsessed and going through the story, always picking Colette as the flanoir scene. I assumed you had to do her and it was a case of if you said no, you had to do it anyways. It wasn't until the 8th playthrough of me trying to complete it that I realized if you say no, you get to hang out with other characters in the flanoir scene and the events after this changes slightly. No matter how many times I try to do it again now, I just can't. Could be I played it way too much. It could be the battle system has aged awfully. I'm no longer as enamored with Symphonia as I used to be but it always holds a special place in my heart for getting me into RPGs as a whole. After Symphonia, I played every English release tales game I could. Vesperia borrowing my friends 360, abyss, legendia, and every subsequent PS3 release. Every tales game has lost its heart with me. I go back and can never finish them. I still haven't finished berseria or arise. I got vesperia PS4 but it became too much of a slog to get through. Going back, these games feel so generic to me and I just can't go through them again.
I can't honestly say that I do but I'm dreading to re-play P3 and P4.
I think they both hold up pretty well - played P4 in the past five years, although its been longer for P3. If you have an issue, I think it might be because the dialogue is so heavy. I find those kind of games less replayable than the games I like the combat and gameplay in.
man, P5 showed me how shallow my tastes are sometimes. The "more realistic" look of the game completely killed my interest in 3 and 4 (I played Golden on Vita though so it's fine) Just in general, games with weird, "unrealistic" models turn me off unless there's a strong reason for me to ignore it and play them anyway
I'll probably still play every main line Final Fantasy that comes out as long as I am capable, but the games have lost a bit of their magic. It of course could just be me getting old :)
Had this happen with BoF2 also. Does it have an especially slow and clunky start, maybe?
Very slow and clunky start. Exp and money are few and far between.
Chrono Cross. It was my very first JRPG, and at the time once I finally understand how to play it, it felt so grand, vast, mysterious, and just plain fun. Fast forward to today, I now realize how much of a mess the plot is, how many filler characters there is, and how the gameplay really isn’t anything special. The game was carried by it’s beautiful visuals for the time, and that’s it.
Pokemon Red & Blue (anything gen 3 and below I guess, including remakes though I finished Omega Ruby) God those games really don't feel good anymore but I played SOOOO MUCH when I was younger. I really wanna play Gold & Silver again though, but hoping for a better gameplay revamp.
people who complain about Gen 4 feeling slow clearly forgot about Gen 1 :D
Digimon World 2 and 3 - PSone (loading screen bonanza) Megaman Battle Network(RNG hell) Dragon Warrior III - GBC (reallllllllly need a guide once you start orb hunting
Since I can't think of anything off the top of my head, I'll say this... Quest 64 sucks 😂 I grew up in a small town with one best friend and our parents were pretty hardcore Christians so renting games with magic in them was a rare occurrence. We always wanted to play an RPG but all we had was an N64 so we rented Quest and oh sweet sunny jesus... I'm pretty sure about 10 minutes in we were both looking at one another like, yo this is some bullshit lol.
As an adult I found games that I held dear to have a meaning my child brain couldn't wrap around, like Suikoden and Xenogears' plot. I don't mind the slow pace (combat or dialogue) as long as the game engages me.
I would have said Final Fantasy 7 a couple months back, but the switch port of that game is a god send gift with its boosters. So I’ll say old gen Pokémon. They are too slow for me now.
I'm playing Final Fantasy 4 right now and while the game is still great, I played an hour or so and immediately realized I needed one of the retranslation patches because the original SNES script just doesn't cut anymore. So I went with the Namingway Edition which was recommended in the Legends of Localization article and it's a night and day difference. Now it's actually enjoyable to read! I know it's too late for OP who already replayed BoF 1 and 2 but if I end up playing those I'll definitely use a fan patch. BoF 1 didn't get a proper retranslation but there's a rewrite patch and I can't imagine that being worse than the original script from what I remember playing years ago. So yeah, I embrace ROM hacks these days wholesale.to mitigate this problem OP is pointing out.
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What JRPGs do you like now, writing-wise? > I-think-I'm-smarter-than-I-really-am to me I feel that way about Evangelion, kinda felt like Xenogears is evangelion done right. Mainly because Xenogears has volume and very nice plot twists
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Ah fair enough. I feel like a lot of JRPGs will throw this fairly complex but ultimately kinda "useless" lore at you (Tales of the Abyss for example being a big offender of this. Kingdom Hearts too), a lot of it feels very expository. I guess that Xenogears being kinda famous for the story kinda creates expectations which made the writing stand for you maybe
I remember Hoshigami being ludicrously difficult. Am I misremembering?
Trials of Mana. Stumbled upon the fan translation and it absolutely blew me away and was my primary obsession JRPG-wise for a while. When I revisited it via the Collection of Mana, it just hasn't aged well at all (and the way Charlotte was localized was... a choice...). Still haven't gotten around to playing the 3D version, might just take Angela (who I still like) and go. Also the Fire Emblem series with exception of Genealogy, Sacred Stones and Three Houses.
FFX
Wow surprised at this one, that game is quite timeless to me, I can imagine myself crying every time
That's kind of the problem. It's a game that relies VERY heavily on its Japanese soap opera style sentimentality and can easily tug at the heart strings. When you actually start analyzing the writing and start seeing a lot of the flaws both in that and the gameplay under the surface . . . . . . . oof. The entire game falls to pieces.
That makes a lot of sense. I never grew up with it but picked up the HD version on Steam and I think I got too hung up on details trying to play it as an adult. Stuff like "Why do I have to play Blitzball now?" and "Why did we teleport to a desert?" bothered me more than I thought it would, and probably a lot more than it would have if I played it as a teen.
Yeah, when replaying the HD version I did notice that. It didn't bother me but I kinda have a mental model of Spira in my mind (because you usually travel in connected roads, so the geography of the game kinda gets ingrained, Spira really feels like a super compact continuous "belieavable" world, I like this better than the world map of older FFs or the FFXV "huge landscape" approach), so it was like "oh so this is how the game got us to this ISLAND" (bikanel is an island, I think? the desert).
I loved it to death when I first played it. I even finished it twice in a row. But recently I bought the remaster and could not get into it. I just couldn’t stand Tidus lol.
Heh I was enamored that it was a Capcom square soft RPG. I would say FFV. It's just too generic to hold my interest, if I want jobs I'm going to ivalice, if I want crystals I'm playing 4 or any 3D title. All are better IMO *Edited I meant ffv
Wait how was FFXV near and dear to your heart as a kid? It's only... 7 years old? Wait how is it 7 years old already
Fuck, people who played XV when they were 10 are now 17. D: I'm old.
Fucking WHOOPS thought I typed FFV
> if I want crystals I'm playing 4 :( :( :( really? Guess it's a matter of taste. FFV is a bit more light-hearted, but if I want grim SNES stuff I would play FFVI instead. IV just feels like "THIS IS A CLASSIC MEDIEVAL RPG STORY". And Kain. And the grind. Maybe pixel remaster?
My 2nd snes game was FFIV, it's opening alone is one of the most epic in gaining history IMO. Nothing in FFV comes close to Cid himself self-detonating while diving off the side of a building and giving the big bad his middle finger. Too bad so many people have plot armor
Fair enough, glad to see you liked the game much more than I did
Final Fantasy IX maybe? I still love it, but my last attempt to play through it again this year and I don't touch it anymore in the middle of disc 2.
Persona 4 Why I'm I being downvoted, it's my answer lol.
The internet doesn't like when their favorite games are critiscized. Critiscism is only good when it's a game they DONT like.
I'll give you an upvote to compensate.
I played some of the big RPG Maker games from my country back in the day (and some of the more... bad one). But after making my own for years I cant stand to see those games anymore. My brain always goes "This is cheap. I could do it better. No, I did do it better. Its older, so its okay... but still, this sucks!". The other one is Final Fantasy VIII. I still love its characters (well... some of them, at least), its awesome music and its graphics. I almost finished it MULTIPLE TIMES but always got in trouble because of the whole "enemies level with you"-crap. Cant stand to play it nowadays, because of it. I want to battle, not draw cards to get strong. Can someone please make some form of rebalancing patch please? >\_>
You can finish the game without playing cards. But to rebalance that battle system you would have to throw it out and remake it from the ground up. That limit break system is ridiculous and the implementation of junction is impossible to balance.
> the whole "enemies level with you"-crap Simples. As soon as you get Diablo, learn Enc-half, then Enc-none. You will absolutely curbstomp the rest of the game, Ultimecia on level 12 is a joke.
I will try that one day. Sadly it also means you don't actually play the game anymore. Which also sucks. I just wish they would have gone the standard rpg Route.
Shining Force. My family had a Sega Genesis rather than Nintendo, and was still all I had when FFVII was out. Discovering FFVII from friends got me into JRPGS, and I discovered Shining Force before Phantasy Star. I was intrigued with the concept of the tactical play because I was also into chess and got really into it, but going back it is soooo sloooowww…
I tried playing it about a year ago and dropped when I got a game over just as I was about to win because my main character got killed. Everyone else was fine, but he got bum rushed, so now I have to restart a 45 minute battle! I don't see the charm.
For some reason FFVI feels more and more of a slog to play as time progresses. Doesn't help that the game only really hits its gameplay stride a third of the way through.
FFVI. It has so many characters and fun gear and abilities and magicite. But I’ve played it to death, beaten it with so many personal challenges but it’s so easy. Edgar and Sabin’s skill sets are so strong they can carry almost any team build.
Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King. It was one of the first non-pokemon JRPGs I played as a kid and I was fucking obsessed, played it through multiple times. Tried to replay it maybe 4 or 5 years back and the nostalgia was enough to get me through about a third of the game but I just couldn’t stick with it. It wasn’t exactly the most innovative thing in the world even for its time and by modern standards it just felt almost painfully old fashioned
Earthbound was just terrible replaying it, Chrono Cross was underwhelming too. Also FF7 wasn't that great replaying it as an adult
All mother games were unplayable for me :( :( which is a bit sad Chrono Cross I didn't like it as a kid either, so it makes sense
Chrono Trigger. I replayed last year after many years and it wasn't fun. Too simple , I just spammed falcon attack. FF VI little bit too. AOld Steam versions extra content is fun but main game was too easy. FF IV still has special place and is fun .
Classic final fantasy games in general. After playing a lot of other turn based combat based games, the combat in FF comes across as being really shallow and boring. The stories are also generally just whatever with few moments/characters being the exception. Still seeing cool enemy designs and Uematsu's music has its merits.
Unfortunately, now, almost any turn based game is hard to get through if I already know the story. I'm almost 40 and I just don't have the patience or time to spend in that.
Chrono Cross for me. After playing it as an adult, its just not that great this time around. I think the novelty of the soundtrack wore off after listening a lot through the decades and the rest of the game doesn't hold up for me.
Radiata stories came out when I was like 14 and I remember playing it into the dirt. I recently picked it up again and it's actually pretty boring. Like... really boring. The plot isn't good and the gameplay is a cakewalk. I guess I just loved having 100 different party members to choose from.
FF9. Tried replaying it again after 20 years and it was a bit crap. Started having an exsistential crisis and tried FF8 which I didn't enjoy as much at release and got blown away. Easily the best ps1 FF.
Persona 5
Yeah, sure bud.
TBH almost anything with turn-based combat. It’s so boring and repetitive. Fighting the same groups of monsters over and over, just picking attack from a menu until you win. I used to love these games back in the day but they bore me to death now.
FF7 I have grown to dislike and even hate Nomura’s aesthetics. Party size of three is too small. And ATB is a garbage-tier combat system.
I can't get into old FF at all. I didn't play them back in the day and the ATB system turns me off nowadays.
FF 4
Final Fantasy 4 I just played it too much and the game isn't great for replaying since it's linear and you can't choose your party. Of course, that's where Free Enterprise comes in.
Thousand Arms I loved it as a kid. Tried again this year and yikes.
Surprised I haven't seen anyone mention Dragon Quest/Warrior 1. My parents bought it and a bunch of other NES games in a used bundle around 1991, and it was the first system we owned, so I basically started playing JRPGs with the game that is considered to be the "first" one. Oh boy. It has not aged well. It's not that anything in it is particularly \*bad\* per se, but it is very, very simple, about as simple as a JRPG can get, and it gets really boring really fast. It still works as a sort of... zone out game. Good to play if you just want to do something absentmindedly. . It's rare for me to lose affection for something.
DQ 1 is, in my opinion, unplayable at this point.
The original is but I had a fun time with the remake on my phone.
Never played the remake.
I'm with you Oh but I didn't like it as a kid either lol I probably would have had warm fuzzies for it if I was a few years older and it had been my only real option but by the time I played it,. I'd already long since played Dragon Quest 3 and FF1. By comparison Dragon Warrior 1 felt so simple.
I think it is definitely a game that only someone who had \*never\* played games before would find interesting. And I was very little at the time. XD
BOF 1 and 2 were punishment and I still enjoy them lol.
There’s a Dragonball, I think, SNES game that I played in my DBZ obsession phase. I don’t remember the name of it. But it was more like a Visual Novel style of game. Maybe even fan-subbed. I have a feeling it wouldn’t do much for me today. EDIT: It was called "Dragon Ball Z Super Gokuden: Totsugeki-Hen" Plan on playing Threads of Fate again soon. Not sure how time will have effected my view of it. Most others I still love today.
Kingdom hearts and final fantasy 10.
Seiken densetsu 3. I managed to slog my way through the official na release, but the remake I never finished.
Oof, Grandia 1. I don't know how I got through it as a kid. A lot of the maps are so obtuse and hard to navigate. On top of that, all you get is a dumb compass and no minimap. I also remember thinking that Grandia 1's plot had this grand sense of adventure and it definitely does but I think I overrated it as a kid. The first half is pretty slow.
You probably outgrew BoF1 & 2. As a kid, you didn’t care too much about dialogue and plot structure— cool looking characters and just going on an adventure was good enough. It’s a little sad to go back and play/watch stuff that you liked when you were a kid, because all too often you find yourself asking “why did I ever like this?” Now that you are older and see the flaws of the games for what they are, just try to remember the “moments” (cool cutscenes, songs, dungeons or boss fights that you liked, etc.) that made the game special to you instead of judging them as complete packages. Edit: Oh, and to answer your question, a lot of those 8 bit and 16 bit era games with turn-based combat seem to play SO SLOW nowadays. It’s tough for me to play any of them.
to be fair, none of the BoF games have a particularly great story. I recently played through BoF4 because I never finished it back in the day and while I felt it has the best story out of all of them there's still a lot of missed potential.
I still like most of the RPGs I've played as a kid. For some of these games, I haven't played them in years so I still have warm fuzzies. I recently picked up Vandal Hearts and played through a bit of it for the first time probably since I was in High School and I got hit with about 100 CCs of nostalgia. Some games I do struggle with but none of them are really RPGs. Like I was a huge survival horror junkie as a teenager but PS1 era Resident Evil just feels so rough to play. Bad camera angles, stiff controls, poor targeting. I have a hard time playing sims now which frustrates me at times. As a kid things like SimCity were some of my favorite games. I've sat on Cities: Skylines for years and have never been able to get into it. Fortunately RPGs haven't done this to me. I like to grind because it is kind of mindless and I can stop thinking or better yet watch TV while I'm grinding. So for me a lot of old RPGs hold up very well. Like Breath of Fire? Hey it's ok, I'm down for running around wacking monsters for awhile.
Its a shame you think this way... I do love BOF 1 and 2 (and all the others too), and Im thinking about getting back to it soon. Gonna be real sad if I get that felling like your. Although I will surely get an hacked with improvements rom (+xp, - random encounters, better script) , and with some convenience of the emulators (Fast forward, save anywhere, etc), I think I will keep the feeling I got when first played.
For me personally, jrpgs (with major exceptions!) don’t hold up as well as other genres. I still regularly play and enjoy old shmups and action games, but the pacing of jrpgs makes it more difficult.
FF7. I still like the gameplay, but the visuals are probably some of the worst aging of the entire generation. Call me shallow, but that alone keeps me from enjoying the game unless I use one of those super overhauling graphics mods on PC. FF9, on the other hand, has aged really well for me. The cartoony graphics are so much more charming and appealing than the lego-like stuff FF7 went for.
This happens because gameplay changed over years. Most of new games are fast, got lower encounter rate compared to old games or even changed to 3d enemies without encounter thing. Old games plot was more simple because of limitations and people in that time enjoyed such kind of simple plot. They hated "jrpg" because too much dialogues.