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

[HexFag]

A Tales of Eternia remaster was listed on the official game rating site before being quickly removed.

So now we know we are getting Abyss, Xillia 2, Destiny, and now Eternia. I recognize the short haired Snow White esque girl in the orange dress. I believe she was one of the coliseum opponents in Symphonia (fuckin Meredy and her ACID RAIN yell....lol)

Also I caved and got Visions of Mana purely out of curiosity.

Image proof here:


Genuinely surprised they're actually bothering remastering anything that isn't stuck on the PS3, my expectations of Bandai Namco were extremely low. This remaster is actually pretty big because up until this point, the skits were never officially translated into English. If you wanted to get 90% of the character interactions in this game, you had to either learn Japanese or look up a video of them online. Hopefully TOSE takes this remaster and doesn't completely fuck it up.

 

[Mr. Bobby Brown]

Image proof here:
View attachment 8936337

Genuinely surprised they're actually bothering remastering anything that isn't stuck on the PS3, my expectations of Bandai Namco were extremely low. This remaster is actually pretty big because up until this point, the skits were never officially translated into English. If you wanted to get 90% of the character interactions in this game, you had to either learn Japanese or look up a video of them online. Hopefully TOSE takes this remaster and doesn't completely fuck it up

Wonder why the release date was changed.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

Wonder why the release date was changed.

Ratings body sites often use placeholders based on 3 or 6 months after the title submission from the publisher, and update it when the publisher asks them to.

 

[Grub]

Has anyone played this

Is it any good? It's been popping up on the mobile piracy sites I browse sometimes for the last few weeks and it seems like it has good reviews. I'm not really the biggest fan of Chrono Trigger but I played through it again a few weeks ago and I guess this games supposed to be similar or something.

I've played a bit through the intro so far and it feels like a game I don't know if I want to play or not. The character mechanics seem like they're basically lifted straight out of Chrono Trigger and that was probably my least favourite part of the game. Chrono Trigger though, as much as I hate the intro of the game, at least starts off fairly interesting and moves things along pretty quickly. So far Sea of Stars has been some pretty cliche anime tier 'special hero kids go to magic school' bullshit filled with way too much cringey writing.

I also find the art style to be a pretty mixed bag and kind of offputting. The background pixel art is really nice

But the sprite art isn't great and the character portraits

Almost seem deviantart level quality. The art style kind of reminds me of that Timespinners game and that game was pretty trash. The music so far sounds like someone poorly attempting to mimic the style of Chrono Trigger's music and the sound quality seems just kind of bad, maybe intentionally I dunno.

Does this game actually get better? Does the story at least improve or at least become better than a shitty anime? I'm assuming the gameplay is going to be fairly substandard but is it at least less tedious than Chrono Trigger? I feel like playing this game is just going to feel like playing a deviantart tier Chrono Trigger fangame with a current year writing level story but maybe I'm wrong. Has anyone here actually played this?

 

[X Prime]

Sea of Stars is very technically proficient but soulless, if that makes sense. High-grade gruel.

The storyline actually gets worse as it goes on, if you can believe it. Your assessment is correct, it is Current Year DeviantArt-style Chrono Trigger.

 

[00R-Gundam]

Looks like tumbler version of chrono trigger.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

Has anyone played this
View attachment 8941508
Is it any good? It's been popping up on the mobile piracy sites I browse sometimes for the last few weeks and it seems like it has good reviews. I'm not really the biggest fan of Chrono Trigger but I played through it again a few weeks ago and I guess this games supposed to be similar or something.

I've played a bit through the intro so far and it feels like a game I don't know if I want to play or not. The character mechanics seem like they're basically lifted straight out of Chrono Trigger and that was probably my least favourite part of the game. Chrono Trigger though, as much as I hate the intro of the game, at least starts off fairly interesting and moves things along pretty quickly. So far Sea of Stars has been some pretty cliche anime tier 'special hero kids go to magic school' bullshit filled with way too much cringey writing.

I also find the art style to be a pretty mixed bag and kind of offputting. The background pixel art is really nice
View attachment 8941541
But the sprite art isn't great and the character portraits
View attachment 8941542
Almost seem deviantart level quality. The art style kind of reminds me of that Timespinners game and that game was pretty trash. The music so far sounds like someone poorly attempting to mimic the style of Chrono Trigger's music and the sound quality seems just kind of bad, maybe intentionally I dunno.

Does this game actually get better? Does the story at least improve or at least become better than a shitty anime? I'm assuming the gameplay is going to be fairly substandard but is it at least less tedious than Chrono Trigger? I feel like playing this game is just going to feel like playing a deviantart tier Chrono Trigger fangame with a current year writing level story but maybe I'm wrong. Has anyone here actually played this?

Isn<t that the one they patched Jirard the Completionist out of?

If so, I played it. Mediocre and annoying, including the fact it limits character levelling, so if you don't feel like dealing with lame gimmicks in the battle system, you end up having to grind so much that the SEGA CD version of Lunar: Eternal Blue is worried about you.

 

[Grub]

Sea of Stars is very technically proficient but soulless, if that makes sense. High-grade gruel.

Yeah that's kind of the impression the first half hour or so gave me. I was hoping maybe I was just being too critical.

The storyline actually gets worse as it goes on, if you can believe it.

I can believe it. It's hard to make a story that starts that generic any good. For the amount of time I played for. If it was Chrono Trigger, I would have already gone through all the weird shit at the fair and travelled back in time. So far in Sea of Stars I watched a shitload of exposition and dialog talking about some fairly generic jrpg shit I mostly skipped through, a little scene where the kids meet the cool older guys who put them in their place, a fairly generic 'kids fuck around in a forbidden cave and find out' sequence, some more cutscenes about stars and studying taking years and then magic school time.

It seems like the writers were trying to capture that care free happy go lucky feel of the Millenial Fair section of Chrono Trigger with the kid characters but they all just feel kind of lifeless and generic. Crono had more personality and that motherfucker doesn't even speak.

Your assessment is correct, it is Current Year DeviantArt-style Chrono Trigger.

Looks like tumbler version of chrono trigger.

Yeah. I guess if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it probably is one.

Isn<t that the one they patched Jirard the Completionist out of?

No idea. I'd heard of it before but never really cared that much about it until I kept seeing it popping up everywhere to download.

If so, I played it. Mediocre and annoying, including the fact it limits character levelling, so if you don't feel like dealing with lame gimmicks in the battle system, you end up having to grind so much that the SEGA CD version of Lunar: Eternal Blue is worried about you

Well guess I can get 3GB of storage space back. That's a whole ps2 game.

 

[X Prime]

Legit, even the combat was tedious. I won't lie, I couldn't finish it either and I have a high tolerance for tedium. It was just the kind of thing where you couldn't really turn your brain off.

I once saw a video that summarized how I felt about Sea of Stars, try it and see if your thinking lines up:

 

[Flopper]

Yeah, that's the game that had a cameo appearance of The Completionist, then removed him after the controversy lmao

 

[Grub]

Legit, even the combat was tedious. I won't lie, I couldn't finish it either and I have a high tolerance for tedium. It was just the kind of thing where you couldn't really turn your brain off.

I once saw a video that summarized how I felt about Sea of Stars, try it and see if your thinking lines up:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ddlxA7gi-G4

I only watched the first 30 minutes or so of the video for now, i'll have to finish the rest later but so far everything he's said about the intro was basically exactly how I felt. There must have been an update to the game though because that first little intro part where they're adults didn't exist and it went straight from the story teller dude to them being kids outside the cave.

I don't even tend to care that much about stories in jrpgs. I'm pretty happy with something simple like the original Final Fantasy or something as long as it mostly stays out of the way but Sea of Stars seems intent on trying to be a story heavy game while having bad writing even for a jrpg to the point where you can't even just ignore it.

I liked that summary about the intro section of Chrono Trigger though. I always find that part of the game kind of annoying to play through but it does make me appreciate it a bit more even if the video guy is kind of exaggerating just how important any choices you make in Chrono Trigger actually are. He's also pretty on point about the characters and they really do manage to pack a lot of personality into Crono, Lucca and Marle just in that intro section. It's immediately noticable how bland the ones in Sea of Stars are by comparison.

 

[Gamepads]

He's also the CEO, and also trashed FF6's writing. It's kinda hard to have someone on the inside try and call out the writing when he's also a suit and sitting in a few other core positions as well.

 

[Croaking Spider]

1) I think nostalgia for IMOQ is way too strong. While I like the story and characters at a high-level, the pacing of the games really messes things up.

It doesn't help that the original saga had so much supplementary materials. One of the things that helped kill .hack as a property was Bamco's nature of turning everything into a vessel for merch. Even if you didn't play the games, you still had a couple anime series, audio dramas, a manga, vinyl figures and t-shirts. Kite, Blackrose and Balmung were all easily recognizable video game character staples for a while. The nostalgia is partially fueled by that merch overload from the time period. You're dead on about the late-game pacing though.

5) I don't like either series' combat all that much, but I feel like G.U. gives big fights the appropriate amount of oomph while still not turning every single dungeon into a slog. But I can definitely understand the fondness for how much richer IMOQ's systems are (I just wish they didn't crawl as much).

My fondness for the originals came from a mix of how much the game truly felt like a single player MMO at times, warts and all. I was used to the slow back-and-forth tab combat in MMOs of the time so it didn't bother me. I enjoy the more action-focused gameplay of GU, but it lacks the atmosphere the overworld and dungeons had in the originals. Even though they were kind of barren, they all looked nice and felt fun to run through. I don't think they ever explained the rotating mummies in the sky emitting odd noises, but that's part of the charm.

6) As a formerly edgy teenage boy and presently chuunibyou-approaching-middle-age, I feel like I understand Haseo a lot more than I understand Kite.

They're both interesting for different reasons, partially because Haseo was actually a character in the original version of The World. The events of GU are a sort of ironic comeuppance seeing as how Haseo's original character was a PvP character, only for the same type of behavior to be what shapes his experiences in GU. The original is good because it was one of the first and best cracks at the "stuck in game isekai" formula. The originals are pretty solemn in tone at times and there are real-world implications to essentially being comatose in a headset. It's one of those things Sword Art Online/Log Horizon/whatever never could capture because .Hack has always loomed over them as an example of "I did the first and better".

 

[Nigger Cattle]

Image proof here:
View attachment 8936337

Genuinely surprised they're actually bothering remastering anything that isn't stuck on the PS3, my expectations of Bandai Namco were extremely low. This remaster is actually pretty big because up until this point, the skits were never officially translated into English. If you wanted to get 90% of the character interactions in this game, you had to either learn Japanese or look up a video of them online. Hopefully TOSE takes this remaster and doesn't completely fuck it up.

>Still no Tales of The Abyss remaster (Fuck the 3DS remaster)

 

[Fcret]

Sea of Stars is very technically proficient but soulless, if that makes sense. High-grade gruel.

The storyline actually gets worse as it goes on, if you can believe it. Your assessment is correct, it is Current Year DeviantArt-style Chrono Trigger.

Saw so many people glazing this but everything I saw was like, "what if someone made a JRPG but didn't understand any of the subtleties that made JRPGs truly great"

 

[X Prime]

View attachment 8943110
He's also the CEO, and also trashed FF6's writing. It's kinda hard to have someone on the inside try and call out the writing when he's also a suit and sitting in a few other core positions as well.

The thing is, the absolute reality is that most people don't actually care about moment-to-moment writing quality, even in a JRPG.

What matters is what we call the "hype" or "aura moments" nowadays. So in a cynical way it kinda worked out for 'em.

 

[Setzer Gabbiani]

Fucking hell. Sea of Stars was such a letdown for me. The art looked nice, and some of the music was pretty great. But that story...ohhhh that fucking story. Didn't help that you had to play through again to get the 'good' ending and if you want to know what happens to several of the antagonists you have to play The Messenger to find out (they appear as bosses because Sea of Stars, a JRPG, is somehow a prequel to a Ninja Gaiden-style game).

On the other hand I would recommend Chained Echoes. Still got to get around to playing the DLC at some point but I absolutely loved it. Story got a bit up its own ass sometimes and there's a writing choice in the ending I didn't care for. But I overall I still liked the game enough that it was tied with Infernax for my GOTY back in '22.

 

[Grub]

The thing is, the absolute reality is that most people don't actually care about moment-to-moment writing quality, even in a JRPG.

A lot of the moment to moment writing in jrpgs isn't really that good and never has been. That tends to be why I prefer jrpgs with good gameplay systems over ones with a flashy story. Dragon Quest is pretty good at the moment to moment stuff with its vignettes and town adventures sometimes but jrpg writing generally tends to suffer from the same problem anime has, the ideas are cool but the execution of them usually requires so much suspension of disbelief to enjoy that it breaks down with even the slightest hint of any kind of logical analysis.

Even games with good writing have some pretty bad moment to moment story parts. I guarantee when people think of Chrono Trigger, it's not the part of the game between leaving the future for the first time and getting to Magus's castle they're thinking of because that whole mid-section of the game is pretty bland and forgettable. I only replayed the game a month ago and I barely remember what happens. I know there was cave men and getting a pterodactyl, something to do with Frog's sword and some fetch quests, more wandering through areas that are unnecessarily winding and full of repetitive encounters. I dunno honestly I had trouble remembering even by the time I got to Zeal during the playthrough.

The Messenger to find out (they appear as bosses because Sea of Stars, a JRPG, is somehow a prequel to a Ninja Gaiden-style game).

What an odd crossover. I never got into The Messenger. I bought it a long time ago and played through a bunch of levels but just didn't like it. I used to play the hell out of the nes ninja Gaiden games when I was a kid too and still enjoy them but the Messenger just didn't do it for me.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

A lot of the moment to moment writing in jrpgs isn't really that good and never has been. That tends to be why I prefer jrpgs with good gameplay systems over ones with a flashy story. Dragon Quest is pretty good at the moment to moment stuff with its vignettes and town adventures sometimes but jrpg writing generally tends to suffer from the same problem anime has, the ideas are cool but the execution of them usually requires so much suspension of disbelief to enjoy that it breaks down with even the slightest hint of any kind of logical analysis.

Even games with good writing have some pretty bad moment to moment story parts. I guarantee when people think of Chrono Trigger, it's not the part of the game between leaving the future for the first time and getting to Magus's castle they're thinking of because that whole mid-section of the game is pretty bland and forgettable. I only replayed the game a month ago and I barely remember what happens. I know there was cave men and getting a pterodactyl, something to do with Frog's sword and some fetch quests, more wandering through areas that are unnecessarily winding and full of repetitive encounters. I dunno honestly I had trouble remembering even by the time I got to Zeal during the playthrough.

I think it could be argued for every long form media, unless you have a genius of a writer, a good chunk of the game will be padding or build up for the next big moment. JRPGs main issue is being more on rails so you don't have a freedom like in WRPGs to pick and choose what to focus on, but when WRPG turns into a slog it's way worse.

 

[Retarded Weeb]

I guarantee when people think of Chrono Trigger, it's not the part of the game between leaving the future for the first time and getting to Magus's castle they're thinking of because that whole mid-section of the game is pretty bland and forgettable.

I'll defend Chrono Trigger as a masterpiece to my dying breath, so take it from me however, but I don't see anything wrong with that portion of the game. The cave you go through in the Present is kind of just filler, though getting tossed out a whirlpool at the end of it was a little neat. It makes sense to have from a gameplay perspective since it gives the player more time to get acquainted with their new magic abilities, which IIRC the enemies in that cave are particularly weak to. The monster village and Melchior just before the cave serves as set up for stuff in the Middle Ages.

Then revisiting the Middle Ages has the whole cool bridge sequence ending in the giant skeleton fight, which gets you more into how the war between humans and monsters is an actual war. Then you start looking into the fake hero and meet Frog again. You climb up the mountain to find Masamune, which is then one of the tougher boss fights up to that point and I think the first one to use the alternate boss battle music. Then you go back to the Prehistoric era to get the material to fix Masamune, where your party gets shitfaced with Ayla and you trudge through the jungle and a cave fighting dinosaurs to get your stuff back. Then finally you get Masamune fixed and give it Frog, where you finally find out his entire backstory and we get the scene with him cleaving a cliff in half to open the way to Magus' Castle.

You could say that inserting the Prehistoric section here is odd, but I think I get what they're going for. Both Frog and Ayla join you temporarily for sections before they join you permanently, and that gives you time with them and their eras' respective conflicts that helps set them up in your mind better than focusing on one era at a time. The Prehistoric section here is a diversion from the Middle Ages plot, but this helps the pacing by breaking things up for you a bit so you're not getting worn down on the Middle Ages stuff for so long, and allows you go into the Prehistoric stuff after Magus with the set-up out of the way and without having the player possibly get worn down on too much Prehistoric stuff for too long.

Basically, there's a pretty functional momentum to the plot here. Party finds about Lavos in the Future and wants to stop it. > Get told by monsters in the Present that Magus summoned Lavos to win the war in the Middle Ages. > Go to Middle Ages to fight Magus, but find your big potential weapon against him is broken. > Diversion into Prehistory to get the material needed to fix it, setup Ayla and the caveman/dinosaur war. > Head back to recruit Frog and reach the climax to his and Middle Age's plot by fighting Magus. > But it turns out Magus didn't create Lavos, he was trying to kill it, so where did Lavos come from? > Back to Prehistory by chance where the camevan/dinosaur conflict is heating up, so you recruit Ayla and reach the climax of her and Prehistory's subplot. > Answer your current question about Lavos by seeing it landed from space and wiped out the dinosaurs. > Find a portal to Antiquity where more further setups get their payoffs and more questions you might have are answered.