JRPG General - Video games were never meant to be shorter than 50 hours.

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Basically when you enter combat and you pick "Fight", turn order will commence. When one of your characters is up, press the Y button (or equivalent) to enter the "Tactics" menu which will then have an option for changing equipment mid-battle for that character.
That's weird. Why'd they do it like that? The other games do it just fine where you switch from the equipment menu in the command list.
I dont understand why writers today need to have so much profanity in their works. Most recent being dispatch, were every character say fuck, shit, bitch, every two lines just to get a point across. People call it a masterpiece but that makes me think the average consumer of that medium is either a teenager or a mouth drooling retard.

No, swearing dose not make a character cool, witty or mature. Thats the kind of mindset i had in my teenage years and locking back at that makes me cringe. Writers are just taking the easy/lazy way out.

Brevity is the soul of wit etc.
It can work if your game is from the PoV of a teenager or immature adult, or if a character is trying to look tough, but otherwise it reeks of the author's owb immaturity
 
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That's weird. Why'd they do it like that? The other games do it just fine where you switch from the equipment menu in the command list.

It can work if your game is from the PoV of a teenager or immature adult, or if a character is trying to look tough, but otherwise it reeks of the author's owb immaturity
The minds of Japanese UI/UX designers are an enigma.
It's doubly ass backwards too because the DQ1-3 HD2D remakes JUST came out and they're still JUST THE SAME AS USUAL
200 times. In a row.
Lulu is probably the least useful character in FFX come post-game when you've maxed everyone out, and Onion Knight is the worst Celestial Weapon, so you don't even really do that shit to beat every boss, only to satisfy your craving for 100% completion for its sake.
I did this and it's still probably the most fucked up thing a JRPG had me do for an ultimate weapon. It was worth it though you could 1 shot like every boss afterwards because I had her sphere grid nearly maxxed out.
 
Finished with Linda Cubed. It is an interesting concept of a game, but that's just about it. You have three routes in the game, the first two are cool albeit barebones stories with pretty cool shit happening but no explanation. Third scenario is mainly gameplay without any real plot events, with things just randomly working out and, at least from looking online and in let's plays, no real explanation to previous scenarios events.

The crux of the gameplay is that you are in semi scifi doomed planet need to fill Noah's arc with pairs of animals, so your task is searching the world for a set number of animal pairs to fill the arc before time runs out, some are just simple exploration, some related to dungeons and sidequests. The third scenario wants you to find all animals and was where I tapped out due to it having no plot, the gameplay being awful and you need to either use a guide or be exceedingly thorough to reach the goal.

Gameplay is classic rpg fighting the animals to capture them and bring them to the arc, if you overkill the animal it fucking explodes and you get nothing, not even experience. You can't set your attack strength besides unequipping your weapon or using special attacks or transformations that reduce attack, plus progression itself buffs your character, so rather than having a hard time against tough enemies, most of the time you are just getting griefed by being overleveled and needing to hope for partner AI or specific skills to line up so you don't overkill the animals you need to capture (with the tough enemies boiling down to either you one shotting them or vice versa). This in addition to hoping to get lucky that some animals even spawning in the correct gender and not as massive mobs to fuck you up. I can't fathom playing the game legitimately without save states or speedup since even the console rerelease it's still obnoxiously slow and sometimes you get dragged to fights that you literally can't get anything out of besides wasting your time. It's especially annoying when the game drops enemies designed to fuck with you like mobs of low health enemies that gang up on you and you have to wait a long time before it's your turn to interact.

The main issue is that the gameplay and the plot just don't mix, you could have the main characters do anything else inbetween plot moments and it wouldn't change anything, and after the dawning realization that the devs didn't bother to give any answers to the questions of previous scenarios, the novelty wore off completely. I saw some argue the game is trying to deconstruct other RPGs by being unfun, but, besides the MC still being the most important person in the world and fawned by multiple women, being a smarmy faggot doesn't mean you can get away with wasting people's time.

It's an excellent game for youtube essayists to put whatever interpretation they like and talking about how some moments triggered them, but for anyone else at most I would say to play the two first scenarios for some doze of 90's anime insanity and not expect anything to ever be explained.

Also really fucking bullshit all three endings are the same.

What about VP makes it so highly regarded? The sprite art and character designs were pretty cool, but I'm assuming there's more to it than that? Does the combat get more complex eventually and I just dipped out too early?
Really cool combat and nonstandard game design without falling to cliches (of that time). You pretty much have to use a guide to get the A ending, but that was the standard of that time, and it could have been far worse.
 
Really cool combat and nonstandard game design without falling to cliches (of that time). You pretty much have to use a guide to get the A ending, but that was the standard of that time, and it could have been far worse.
I'm pretty sure that JRPG designers in the 90s were in cahoots with the guide/magazine writers. Hell, in Yuji Horii's and Game Freak's case, the guide/magazine writers went into the gaming industry themselves.

Speaking of Valkyrie Profile and guides - despite having an abysmally low print run and pretty bad sales, it somehow got an official Prima guide for the English release.

Behold:
1770489127858.png

"Unless you have good instincts" is a wild thing to say. Yeah man, my neanderthal ancestors evolved the capacity to sniff out hidden variables in videogames. It was essential to hunting mammoths.
 
I agree with half of what you have to say, but I'm going to run a bit of defense for Linda Cubed because I absolutely adore this game and what it was going for and Scenario C might arguably be my favorite route of the entire game.
The main issue is that the gameplay and the plot just don't mix, you could have the main characters do anything else inbetween plot moments and it wouldn't change anything, and after the dawning realization that the devs didn't bother to give any answers to the questions of previous scenarios, the novelty wore off completely. I saw some argue the game is trying to deconstruct other RPGs by being unfun, but, besides the MC still being the most important person in the world and fawned by multiple women, being a smarmy faggot doesn't mean you can get away with wasting people's time.
Scenario C answers a good amount of questions about the story and the world and even where the FUCK Ken's dad ends up but it's all sequestered away in side content. Scenario C is advertised as a free roam mode but it's anything but if you take the calls and look at the requests board. Linda Cubed is already a pretty cryptic game, but the side content in Scenario C is even more cryptic to the point where it's the only part of the game where I'd recommend hunkering down and finding a guide. The only issue is that there's literally ONE English guide of the game and it's not even fully complete. It's close, but even the guy admits he didn't do everything involved. Most of the major "plot" answers happen in Eden which is halfway into Scenario C as well as the teleporter areas that require the teleporter idols which are fuckrare. My only complaints about Scenario C are as you mentioned, the power creep makes killing anything weak in endgame VERY HARD unless you have a net or a trap, and some are autistically cryptic to find. The only part I savescummed in the entire game was when I had to whale grind because you can literally only get one spawn per year and if it isn't both species, you're SOL.

It's one of those games where I couldn't ever imagine beating it back in the day if you didn't autistically talk and note down everything every NPC ever said. I like it but I can see how a lot of people end up bouncing off of it.

Scenario C is also the funniest route in the game, especially when they reuse serious voice lines for goofy and stupid moments.
Also really fucking bullshit all three endings are the same.
It's a time loop. At some point in Scenario C you go to an abandoned shipyard where you see HUNDREDS of identical ships in order to find literally one animal. I always saw it as God fucking up and doing the same thing over and over again without ever realizing.
 
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"Unless you have good instincts" is a wild thing to say. Yeah man, my neanderthal ancestors evolved the capacity to sniff out hidden variables in videogames. It was essential to hunting mammoths.
You are somehow meant to realize that Seal rating should be minimized, while also giving away Lucian despite him being the one character who knows the character's past, which is completely contradictory. Maybe ending B has some scene where he keeps you from a reveal which would justify giving him away to sequence break.
Linda Cubed is already a pretty cryptic game, but the side content in Scenario C is even more cryptic to the point where it's the only part of the game where I'd recommend hunkering down and finding a guide
Looking at the Let's Play I saw how deep it goes and noped out, and needing a walkthrough just isn't worth it when you just repeat a checklist rather than explore freely. The only big reveal I read is a hologram with the dad that doesn't specify any real answers to what's happening. As for the time loop, it's pretty obvious from the original ending itself, my issue is that it isn't used to explain changes in circumstances between the scenarios why some things go catastrophically wrong. Or if there was a single mastermind behind everything's happening. Or what's the deal with Ken/Nek that they can seemingly survive nearly everything and can be used to cultivate clones. I also read some thing about Neo Kenya being the only planet where people can give birth(?) so post asteroid humanity goes extinct.

If you remember some plot reveals I'd be interested to hear.
 
The sprite art and character designs were pretty cool
It's because of that. It had full voice acting and stories for the Einherjar as well. However, only a few standout ones are remembered and most of the Einherjar are useless.

It was fairly novel for its time, but is almost completely carried by its presentation and certain characters like Lezard Valeth and Freya.
 
The main draw for me was the mystery regarding Valkyrie Lenneth and seeing the little stories of each Einherjar and how Lenneth starts feeling more human. Also never get tired of hearing "Nibelung Valesti". The whole "management" side of the game, that being prepping the einherjar to be send up to odin is annoying as fuck because you have to meet certain requirements which can lead you to "softlock". Combat gets interesting because you get more moves per character and if you align attacks well you can juggle the enemies which is what you want to be doing.


Personally if the combat interested you, there are similar games out there:
-Project X Zone(you get to play with characters from Namco, Sega and Capcom)
-Super Robot Wars Endless Frontier(humans and mechs, personal favorite)

Theres also VP 2: Silmeria although the 3d designs killed me. VP: Covenant of the plume which not many like but i enjoyed. Valkyrie Elysium... we dont speak about that.
Alright, might give it another shot, then. Sounds like the story and characters are more of a slow burn than what I'm used to, but as long as I know it's going somewhere good eventually, I can probably stick it out. Good to know the combat improves because having one attack per character made me feel like I was playing that awful Final Fantasy ATB mobile game. (Not Record Keeper)

The Pixel Remaster is based on the GBA version primarily, they just changed back to the old MP system and made the final boss stronger to try to compensate for how high level you get in these later versions. I guess that technically makes it closer to the original than the GBA version is, but overall PR is closer to the GBA/PSP versions than it is the NES/PS1 versions.
I did notice Chaos gave me more of a challenge than the GBA one, but I could swear the damage ranges and status ailment rates were way more out-of-tune in the PR. Ah well. The other complaint I forgot to voice with it is the removal of the FF2 post game story, whatever it was called. Soul of Rebirth, iirc. I have a soft spot for FF2 even in spite of its idiosyncrasies and I really liked getting some closure with the character who died over the course of the story. Really a great way to add to the story without needing to change or detract from the story of the original.
 
You are somehow meant to realize that Seal rating should be minimized, while also giving away Lucian despite him being the one character who knows the character's past, which is completely contradictory. Maybe ending B has some scene where he keeps you from a reveal which would justify giving him away to sequence break.
Not simply minimized - you have to know the way different things will affect the seal rating to keep it low but not so low that you trigger the C ending. You also have to know about the various locations you absolutely must visit and when.

I also don't think there's really a way to know you're supposed to give him away other than a one-off comment about him seeming to be too attached to Lenneth.

You could probably figure it out if you committed to five or so different playthroughs doing all the different permutations of stuff after finding Lucian if you also realized that his presence in the prologue cinematic is a hint that he's a very important character to the game's true ending.

The whole thing is nonsense in any case. I don't know anyone who's ever accidentally stumbled upon that ending and from the few Japanese people I've seen talking about it online, they all seem to have either used the printed guide or learned from someone who had read the printed guide. The "zero guide" mindset is something that's very western and I notice that Japanese people are a lot more comfortable discussing strategies and sharing tips among themselves without it turning into a 4chan-esque "you didn't beat the game" struggle session.
 
Not simply minimized - you have to know the way different things will affect the seal rating to keep it low but not so low that you trigger the C ending. You also have to know about the various locations you absolutely must visit and when.

I also don't think there's really a way to know you're supposed to give him away other than a one-off comment about him seeming to be too attached to Lenneth.

You could probably figure it out if you committed to five or so different playthroughs doing all the different permutations of stuff after finding Lucian if you also realized that his presence in the prologue cinematic is a hint that he's a very important character to the game's true ending.

The whole thing is nonsense in any case. I don't know anyone who's ever accidentally stumbled upon that ending and from the few Japanese people I've seen talking about it online, they all seem to have either used the printed guide or learned from someone who had read the printed guide. The "zero guide" mindset is something that's very western and I notice that Japanese people are a lot more comfortable discussing strategies and sharing tips among themselves without it turning into a 4chan-esque "you didn't beat the game" struggle session.
I fucking hated guides when they were mandatory, extremely easy to spoil yourself on plot progression and plot if you looked at the wrong place. One of the things that are good that went away, though probably today you can just feed it to ChatGPT so it could give you the cliff notes.

I think the worst I had was Suikoden 5 where I lost like 8 hours because I missed a star.
 
I fucking hated guides when they were mandatory, extremely easy to spoil yourself on plot progression and plot if you looked at the wrong place. One of the things that are good that went away, though probably today you can just feed it to ChatGPT so it could give you the cliff notes.

I think the worst I had was Suikoden 5 where I lost like 8 hours because I missed a star.
I'm fine with missables somewhat when there's indications in-game (even if it's just an NPC conversation) that give you some kind of hint. JRPGs of the 2000s were the worst though in this regard - I think it was Brionac in Tales of Vesperia that hinged entirely on seeing an event that required you to go back two towns immediately after finishing a certain town but before you started the next one. And I'm pretty sure there's literally nothing in the game pushing you to backtrack at that point at all.
 
I'm fine with missables somewhat when there's indications in-game (even if it's just an NPC conversation) that give you some kind of hint. JRPGs of the 2000s were the worst though in this regard - I think it was Brionac in Tales of Vesperia that hinged entirely on seeing an event that required you to go back two towns immediately after finishing a certain town but before you started the next one. And I'm pretty sure there's literally nothing in the game pushing you to backtrack at that point at all.
Tales loved that bullshit of going backwards after every plot happening. But I was mainly salty about endings, yeah losing a sidequest was annoying but you usually don't have shortage of content, but the gulf in ending content can be massive and that was before you could just see the true ending on youtube.
 
Bro you dont get it, i have to avoid lighting 100 times to get the venus sigil for lulu's celestial weapon.
I used to believe those types of quests were placed on purpose to help you come to realize not to get too involved with games and just go outside. After the xth time playing freaking Blitzball, maybe you'd look to the ceiling and wonder out loud "what the hell am I doing with my (very brief) life?"
 
Starting up Metaphor: Refantazio and there's so many issues I have off the bat:
1) The diversityslop messaging.
2) Immediately tossing the player into allocating stats. In WRPGs/CRPGs, stat allocation is an interesting way to build your character for what kind of content you're going to do. This entire gimmick needs to go away in (most) JRPGs because the reality is that the game's linearity is going to culminate in one or two being good and the rest being useless dump stats. It either ends up being pointless or it creates a new player trap that shouldn't exist.
3) The fucking graphical effects during combat. Menus have so many half-transparent effects that the entire screen turns into a noisy clusterfuck
4) All the fake fantasy terms for races. It's not an 'elf', it's a 'roussainte'

Maybe I'm just too old and cynical

EDIT: Metaphor's almost certainly going to be a drop for me. I don't know how this game got anything higher than a 7/10.
 
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Starting up Metaphor: Refantazio and there's so many issues I have off the bat:
1) The diversityslop messaging.
2) Immediately tossing the player into allocating stats. In WRPGs/CRPGs, stat allocation is an interesting way to build your character for what kind of content you're going to do. This entire gimmick needs to go away in (most) JRPGs because the reality is that the game's linearity is going to culminate in one or two being good and the rest being useless dump stats. It either ends up being pointless or it creates a new player trap that shouldn't exist.
3) The fucking graphical effects during combat. Menus have so many half-transparent effects that the entire screen turns into a noisy clusterfuck
4) All the fake fantasy terms for races. It's not an 'elf', it's a 'roussainte'

Maybe I'm just too old and cynical

EDIT: Metaphor's almost certainly going to be a drop for me. I don't know how this game got anything higher than a 7/10.
I'm saying this as someone who hasn't started Metaphor yet, so maybe when i do start the game, i'll start understanding what you mean.

I kinda feel like nowadays, you can't really tell a story about racial divides because of how obnoxious shit is about now in the real world. It's a shame too beacuse there's alot of good stories and games that have themes stuff like that.

Also, i'm kind of a sucker for stat allocation in RPG's, I understand the whole new player's trap thing that can happen, which is why i perfer it when games allow you to respec your character's stats or skills. Though there are also people who like the "Every decision counts" feeling with games that don't let you repec your stats. I always felt like there's always gonna be certain stats in games that are just not gonna matter all that much.

I don't really mind the whole fake fantasy names stuff personally. Sometimes i roll my eyes whenever something does stuff like that, but it's just whatever.
 
I kinda feel like nowadays, you can't really tell a story about racial divides because of how obnoxious shit is about now in the real world. It's a shame too beacuse there's alot of good stories and games that have themes stuff like that.
I think stories like this are fine to tell, but the issue is that modern writers (especially Japanese ones I've noticed) really struggle to understand the driving forces behind prejudice. Groups always have in-group and out-group preferences, but hardnosed systemic racism is something that emerges over a long period of time where historical events ossify the relationship between two groups. A story where a bunch of different groups randomly dislike each other just doesn't really make sense except in a Saturday morning cartoon.

Not to go too millennial, but one of my major annoyances with Harry Potter is how J.K. never really contextualizes why the purebloods hate the muggles. It's just, "pureblood supremacists is bad people and that's why they hate muggles"

Games that have it as a side theme tend to do it better imo.

Also, i'm kind of a sucker for stat allocation in RPG's, I understand the whole new player's trap thing that can happen, which is why i perfer it when games allow you to respec your character's stats or skills. Though there are also people who like the "Every decision counts" feeling with games that don't let you repec your stats. I always felt like there's always gonna be certain stats in games that are just not gonna matter all that much.
Forewarning - there's no respeccing in Metaphor.
 
Don't think too hard about it, they don't really tackle the topic either. At best you'll get one party member who will bring up good points against the message during bond events, or a nig- I mean a paripus wanting free gibs but that's about it. Once you go through the game, you'll notice that they really had too much on their plate to delve deep into anything.

Basically, just kill Louis.
 
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