JRPG thread: save the drama for yo mama

Wyborn · December 2015

Japanese RPGs have nice music, don't they? Lots of them have really nice music, and many times the themes are meant specifically to enhance or describe the experience of playing the specific game they're in!

You want to play a game where your character is a genderfluid space hero who flies around in a giant robot in a universe where the Earth has been destroyed? Xenoblade Chronicles X has you covered for all your thematically appropriate musical needs!

Want to play the newest entry in Bamco's venerable action RPG series? Then Tales of Melancholia has you covered! It's got some music too, buddy.

I hear Persona 5 is coming out soon! I haven't got a theme song for that one. Maybe this?

Do you have any JRPG music you really enjoy, any themes you think super fit?

Let's talk about JRPGs.

Gundi · December 2015

I have... OPINIONS... about Xenoblade X's quest design.

Virgil_Leads_You · December 2015

I love Don't Worry.
It's basically a contemporary christian worship song.

Wyborn · December 2015

I like a lot of the themes

I have a soft spot for Wir Fliegen because hearing German sung with J-rock tones tickles me pink

vagrant_winds · December 2015

I miss the Wild Arms soundtracks. Most of it was sweet western music, but then they'd shift into electronica/trance/etc during Sci-Fi moments. And for heavy battles they'd bust out the rock.

Wyborn · December 2015

I'm slowly getting to the point where my character build is kind of... congealing? In its endgame form, more or less. I don't have augments but I know approximately how the whole thing is going to work

A big part of that is down to how Overdrive works, and in terms of getting perpetual Overdrive I think the Dual Guns/Dual Swords combo might be one of the easiest? Side Slash can be fired off three times in rapid succession, and builds up huge amounts of TP as the counter climbs. Zero Zero and Hundred Shells are both huge in terms of the number of hits they allow you and the weapons have access to buffs that raise your TP directly, so that going Ghostwalker -> Zero Zero -> Blood Sacrifice -> Hundred Shells (or reverse that, so you do Hundred Shells first) can put you at nearly 50 count, which makes you way more powerful and more capable of perpetuating the Overdrive state

Also I finally started crafting my teams' Arts loadouts to be more combat effective instead of just focusing on myself, and it's made a world of difference. Now I just need to set up my Soul Voices

Man

Man this game feels good

Maddoc · December 2015

Gundi wrote: »

I have... OPINIONS... about Xenoblade X's quest design.

They're bad

That game has bad quests

Kwoaru · December 2015

Forget all these new game, I just started ff13-2 and the changes to paradigm switching and being able to avoid encounters are such huge quality of life improvements over ff13 it is ridiculous

Wyborn · December 2015

Kwoaru wrote: »

Forget all these new game, I just started ff13-2 and the changes to paradigm switching and being able to avoid encounters are such huge quality of life improvements over ff13 it is ridiculous

how's the music

Kwoaru · December 2015

Wyborn wrote: »

Kwoaru wrote: »

Forget all these new game, I just started ff13-2 and the changes to paradigm switching and being able to avoid encounters are such huge quality of life improvements over ff13 it is ridiculous

how's the music

For the 20 minutes I played it was pretty neat (the loading times were killing me before I remembered I hadn't moved it to my SSD yet)

hearing lots of violins still I think, no complaints so far

Maddoc · December 2015

Just wait until you ride a chocobo

turtleant · December 2015

Wyborn wrote: »

Kwoaru wrote: »

Forget all these new game, I just started ff13-2 and the changes to paradigm switching and being able to avoid encounters are such huge quality of life improvements over ff13 it is ridiculous

how's the music

FF 13-2 has Crazy Chocobo, so fantastic.

PaperLuigi44 · December 2015

Maddoc wrote: »

Gundi wrote: »

I have... OPINIONS... about Xenoblade X's quest design.

They're bad

That game has bad quests

What are you talking about?

Now go find me 5 Silver Bear Claws in North America.

CorporateLogo · December 2015

Maddoc wrote: »

Gundi wrote: »

I have... OPINIONS... about Xenoblade X's quest design.

They're bad

That game has bad quests

There are a lot of bad things about Xenoblade X, so many that it is my most disappointing game of 2015

A duck! · December 2015

CorporateLogo wrote: »

Maddoc wrote: »

Gundi wrote: »

I have... OPINIONS... about Xenoblade X's quest design.

They're bad

That game has bad quests

There are a lot of bad things about Xenoblade X, so many that it is my most disappointing game of 2015

Are you going to expand on that premise or shall we flush that one down?

PaperLuigi44 · December 2015

Overall I love the game, but they could at least a) Be more specific about where to find items for gathering quests and b) Do a better job of showing you where mandatory side-quests are.

CorporateLogo · December 2015

I will, once 2016 arrives

Yukira · December 2015

Wyborn wrote: »

I'm slowly getting to the point where my character build is kind of... congealing? In its endgame form, more or less. I don't have augments but I know approximately how the whole thing is going to work

A big part of that is down to how Overdrive works, and in terms of getting perpetual Overdrive I think the Dual Guns/Dual Swords combo might be one of the easiest? Side Slash can be fired off three times in rapid succession, and builds up huge amounts of TP as the counter climbs. Zero Zero and Hundred Shells are both huge in terms of the number of hits they allow you and the weapons have access to buffs that raise your TP directly, so that going Ghostwalker -> Zero Zero -> Blood Sacrifice -> Hundred Shells (or reverse that, so you do Hundred Shells first) can put you at nearly 50 count, which makes you way more powerful and more capable of perpetuating the Overdrive state

Also I finally started crafting my teams' Arts loadouts to be more combat effective instead of just focusing on myself, and it's made a world of difference. Now I just need to set up my Soul Voices

Man

Man this game feels good

When I catch up to you, I'm gonna wanna discuss builds.

SCREECH OF THE FARG · December 2015

dont do gathering quests

Wyborn · December 2015

Yukira wrote: »

Wyborn wrote: »

I'm slowly getting to the point where my character build is kind of... congealing? In its endgame form, more or less. I don't have augments but I know approximately how the whole thing is going to work

A big part of that is down to how Overdrive works, and in terms of getting perpetual Overdrive I think the Dual Guns/Dual Swords combo might be one of the easiest? Side Slash can be fired off three times in rapid succession, and builds up huge amounts of TP as the counter climbs. Zero Zero and Hundred Shells are both huge in terms of the number of hits they allow you and the weapons have access to buffs that raise your TP directly, so that going Ghostwalker -> Zero Zero -> Blood Sacrifice -> Hundred Shells (or reverse that, so you do Hundred Shells first) can put you at nearly 50 count, which makes you way more powerful and more capable of perpetuating the Overdrive state

Also I finally started crafting my teams' Arts loadouts to be more combat effective instead of just focusing on myself, and it's made a world of difference. Now I just need to set up my Soul Voices

Man

Man this game feels good

When I catch up to you, I'm gonna wanna discuss builds.

I just got my first perpetual Overdrive in a timed mission fight from chapter.. 8? Somewhere in there

It was baller

PaperLuigi44 wrote: »

Overall I love the game, but they could at least a) Be more specific about where to find items for gathering quests and b) Do a better job of showing you where mandatory side-quests are.

They're generally pretty good about that, but the game does expect you to walk around New LA and find those red question marks sometimes

Most mandatory side-quests pop up on the terminal as Social, I think

SCREECH OF THE FARG wrote: »

dont do gathering quests

Well I mean you can, if you have the guide, or already have the items necessary. I only ever pick up gathering quests where I already have everything

turtleant wrote: »

Wyborn wrote: »

Kwoaru wrote: »

Forget all these new game, I just started ff13-2 and the changes to paradigm switching and being able to avoid encounters are such huge quality of life improvements over ff13 it is ridiculous

how's the music

FF 13-2 has Crazy Chocobo, so fantastic.

What song is this????

Maddoc · December 2015

I like XCX

But if I were to describe each part of it to someone, they would likely come to the conclusion that I hate it

WeedLordVegeta · December 2015

At least this isn't a shadow hearts thread

CorporateLogo · December 2015

Nothing wrong with Shadow Hearts

turtleant · December 2015

Wyborn wrote: »

Yukira wrote: »

Wyborn wrote: »

I'm slowly getting to the point where my character build is kind of... congealing? In its endgame form, more or less. I don't have augments but I know approximately how the whole thing is going to work

A big part of that is down to how Overdrive works, and in terms of getting perpetual Overdrive I think the Dual Guns/Dual Swords combo might be one of the easiest? Side Slash can be fired off three times in rapid succession, and builds up huge amounts of TP as the counter climbs. Zero Zero and Hundred Shells are both huge in terms of the number of hits they allow you and the weapons have access to buffs that raise your TP directly, so that going Ghostwalker -> Zero Zero -> Blood Sacrifice -> Hundred Shells (or reverse that, so you do Hundred Shells first) can put you at nearly 50 count, which makes you way more powerful and more capable of perpetuating the Overdrive state

Also I finally started crafting my teams' Arts loadouts to be more combat effective instead of just focusing on myself, and it's made a world of difference. Now I just need to set up my Soul Voices

Man

Man this game feels good

When I catch up to you, I'm gonna wanna discuss builds.

I just got my first perpetual Overdrive in a timed mission fight from chapter.. 8? Somewhere in there

It was baller

PaperLuigi44 wrote: »

Overall I love the game, but they could at least a) Be more specific about where to find items for gathering quests and b) Do a better job of showing you where mandatory side-quests are.

They're generally pretty good about that, but the game does expect you to walk around New LA and find those red question marks sometimes

Most mandatory side-quests pop up on the terminal as Social, I think

SCREECH OF THE FARG wrote: »

dont do gathering quests

Well I mean you can, if you have the guide, or already have the items necessary. I only ever pick up gathering quests where I already have everything

turtleant wrote: »

Wyborn wrote: »

Kwoaru wrote: »

Forget all these new game, I just started ff13-2 and the changes to paradigm switching and being able to avoid encounters are such huge quality of life improvements over ff13 it is ridiculous

how's the music

FF 13-2 has Crazy Chocobo, so fantastic.

What song is this????

https://youtu.be/hEUOOgNzOv4

They turned the chocobo theme into butt metal when you (rarely) ride a red chocobo.

It is the absolute best kind of stupid.

Kwoaru · December 2015

Lotta vocals on this town music too

not bad though

vagrant_winds · December 2015

XIII-2 is my favorite FF soundtrack. Though, part of that is probably because it's so different than all the others.

Dragkonias · December 2015

Just bought the Atelier Shallie game cause it was on sale. Really liked Escha and Logy so I should like this too.

But I'm really just waiting for Fates to drop in February.

Though it comes out the same day as SFV so I will have to figure out how to split my time.

CorporateLogo · December 2015

Since it's 2016 somewhere in the universe, here's the reasons why Xenoblade X is my Most Disappointing Game of 2015 (there will be general spoilers)

Poorly developed characters - I've given up on ever getting a "good" A plot in a JRPG, so I come to these types of games for the characters. Xenoblade Chronicles had a nondescript main plot, but the party members were great. You spend a whole lot of time getting to know them and seeing what makes them tick, and with the heart-to-hearts got to see them bounce off other members, as well. Xenoblade X has a nondescript main plot and too many characters to properly flesh out. Elma and Lin are the ones you'll spend the vast majority of the game with, and you don't get to see much of them beyond "no-nonsense colonel" and "loves skells and eating sapient creatures." Irina , Gwin, Lao, and Doug get some face time, but less overall than the mascot character Tatsu. The affinity missions are fine, for the most part, but there's just not enough meat there to get a feel for the characters beyond very broad strokes. To bring in a criticism that was often leveled as Mass Effect, you never get the feeling that these characters actually interact with one another and that they exist solely to talk to your main character. Any character you bring along on story/affinity missions that is not required by the mission will stand around doing nothing during cutscenes and dialog breaks. I recognize that it is not feasible for the devs to account for every possible party combination in these missions. I would argue that they should have pared down the number of playable characters to a more manageable number to offset this problem. As an added plus could have worked in interparty affinity and heart-to-hearts to bring back an aspect of Chronicles that I really enjoyed.
Generally uninteresting character design - Aside from L and Celica, all of the possible party members are humans. (And even then, L and Celica are alien in the Star Trek manner) In a game that focuses so heavily on building a new home by working together with various alien races, you'd think there'd be a few more alien party members in the mix.
Silent protagonist - It did not work for me at all. When the player character is incapable of shutting up in battle, but says nothing in cutscenes/dialog, it threw me out of the game. I wish they had aped what Mass Effect (and Dragon Age 2 I think, but I never got around to playing that) did where you play as a specific person (with one VA per gender since it would not be feasible to do VA work for 8x2 leads) and you get to fill in the blanks with regard to background and such as you play the game.
Music - I don't have any specific animosity towards the music, just that it grates after hearing it for dozens about dozens of hours. Not being able to adjust the vocals or music volume seems like an oversight.
UI - This is the first time since switching to HD that I've actually had to sit next to my TV in order to read the text. The battle menu in X reads like they got a lot of complaints about how big the action bar was in Chronicles, so they decided to cut it down by half and then fill all that freed up real estate with much too tiny text.
Intel missions - The mission design in this game is largely boils down to Kill X, Turn in Y, and I don't have a problem with that. The intel missions, however, are a huge pain in the ass. They block out a huge circle on the map without giving you enough of an idea of where to find the NPCs with the yellow bubbles over their heads. The Follow Ball is of no help, either, as it points you to the center of the circle. Oftentimes, I would pass by the required NPCs simply because they had not loaded into the world because I was running around so quickly.

Viskod · December 2015

Man Shadow Hearts.

That series needs to come back. It was too good for the obscurity that befell it.

Daebunz · December 2015

CorporateLogo wrote: »

Since it's 2016 somewhere in the universe, here's the reasons why Xenoblade X is my Most Disappointing Game of 2015 (there will be general spoilers)

Poorly developed characters - I've given up on ever getting a "good" A plot in a JRPG, so I come to these types of games for the characters. Xenoblade Chronicles had a nondescript main plot, but the party members were great. You spend a whole lot of time getting to know them and seeing what makes them tick, and with the heart-to-hearts got to see them bounce off other members, as well. Xenoblade X has a nondescript main plot and too many characters to properly flesh out. Elma and Lin are the ones you'll spend the vast majority of the game with, and you don't get to see much of them beyond "no-nonsense colonel" and "loves skells and eating sapient creatures." Irina , Gwin, Lao, and Doug get some face time, but less overall than the mascot character Tatsu. The affinity missions are fine, for the most part, but there's just not enough meat there to get a feel for the characters beyond very broad strokes. To bring in a criticism that was often leveled as Mass Effect, you never get the feeling that these characters actually interact with one another and that they exist solely to talk to your main character. Any character you bring along on story/affinity missions that is not required by the mission will stand around doing nothing during cutscenes and dialog breaks. I recognize that it is not feasible for the devs to account for every possible party combination in these missions. I would argue that they should have pared down the number of playable characters to a more manageable number to offset this problem. As an added plus could have worked in interparty affinity and heart-to-hearts to bring back an aspect of Chronicles that I really enjoyed.

Generally uninteresting character design - Aside from L and Celica, all of the possible party members are humans. (And even then, L and Celica are alien in the Star Trek manner) In a game that focuses so heavily on building a new home by working together with various alien races, you'd think there'd be a few more alien party members in the mix.

Silent protagonist - It did not work for me at all. When the player character is incapable of shutting up in battle, but says nothing in cutscenes/dialog, it threw me out of the game. I wish they had aped what Mass Effect (and Dragon Age 2 I think, but I never got around to playing that) did where you play as a specific person (with one VA per gender since it would not be feasible to do VA work for 8x2 leads) and you get to fill in the blanks with regard to background and such as you play the game.

Music - I don't have any specific animosity towards the music, just that it grates after hearing it for dozens about dozens of hours. Not being able to adjust the vocals or music volume seems like an oversight.

UI - This is the first time since switching to HD that I've actually had to sit next to my TV in order to read the text. The battle menu in X reads like they got a lot of complaints about how big the action bar was in Chronicles, so they decided to cut it down by half and then fill all that freed up real estate with much too tiny text.

Intel missions - The mission design in this game is largely boils down to Kill X, Turn in Y, and I don't have a problem with that. The intel missions, however, are a huge pain in the ass. They block out a huge circle on the map without giving you enough of an idea of where to find the NPCs with the yellow bubbles over their heads. The Follow Ball is of no help, either, as it points you to the center of the circle. Oftentimes, I would pass by the required NPCs simply because they had not loaded into the world because I was running around so quickly.

so far I've been really enjoying the soundtrack but for the same reasons I enjoy like, the sonic adventure 2 soundtrack

Wyborn · December 2015

So the Twin Dolls of Mystery Fight is kind of nuts

I'm not even sure that they're really tough but they have an aura that lets them avoid damn near anything

Took me about forty seconds to kill the first, and the second took ten minutes partially because it could dodge so much and partially because it could self-heal with a very low cooldown

If we hadn't nailed it with a topple just as Elma gave a melee command I don't think we would have killed it; as it was, I was barely able to keep my Overdrive up the whole time and a maximized Hundred Shells/Back Slash was barely able to take it down before it got back up

It only had like 200k health but that shit was baller-ass hard

Anybody got tips on how to get past those guys easier? Gotta be some kinda trick I don't know

Daebunz · December 2015

k now that I'm finally free for the night I'm gonna try to fight whatsherface again

I didn't even know she had a damage aura until you guys told me, I just knew we were dying and I couldn't tell what it was

Wyborn · December 2015

Blackbeard, adjust your soul voices so that you can get your guys to topple her more often, and set up their arts to do the same. If they have something that causes topple, put it on them. That shit will ruin her day something fierce

Edit: Also to save yourself grief later go ahead and plant a mining probe—high level if you can—on a spot that has White Cometite listed as an available mineral. There's at least one in Primordia that you should be able to plant

UnbreakableVow · December 2015

So with Rise of the Tomb Raider out of the way, XCX is now going to be my major focus

Start it up today and get into NLA

.......

What in the world is with this field music?

Tcheldor · December 2015

You better like silly vocals because this game is FULL of them. I like silly vocals.

Daebunz · December 2015

i had to lower the difficulty to beat whatsherface

i think i'm probably gonna shelve this one for now tbh, I'm just not enjoying slogging through it even when it does have a built in way to cheese past encounters

LockedOnTarget · December 2015

The NLA night theme is like the start of a rap song that never actually begins.

Like I'm waiting for someone to start rhyming and it never comes.

And that makes me sad.

PaperLuigi44 · December 2015

The NLA themes have grown on me over time. So far the only theme that hasn't won me over is the Skell battle one, I flip between smirking and shaking my head with every listen. I am eagerly awaiting the flight theme.

Also every time that otherwise likeable song drowns out a cutscene (you know the one) I start imagining that someone's ringtone is turned up too loud.

SyphonBlue · December 2015

Tcheldor wrote: »

You better like silly vocals because this game is FULL of them. I like silly vocals.

Oh god really? I was gonna get this game next, but uh

Probably not.

rhylith · December 2015

I played a tiny amount of Xenoblade Chronicles X earlier this week.

Is there any way to adjust font size? Everything is so damn tiny even on my TV, and it's flat out unreadable on the gamepad.

Whippy · December 2015

Holy shit holy shit there's a new summon night game localized? And nobody told me?

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