[Recommend On!] JRPG'S!

The Cow King

So as the title says I'm looking for a JRPG. I'm not going to lie to you guys but its for Secret Santa at my work. 15$ is the minimum and the guy I picked is a pretty kick ass manager I work with who loves JRPG's.

You might all call me lazy but I was at EB looking and I don't want to get some shitty one and make him hate me forever I want to do a little research and this is seriously the best idea I have for secret santa. My plan was to get Lost Odyssey but it was 45$.

He has a PS3, 360, and a DS. PC isn't a option and he has every Sqaure Enix game ever I believe. And was talking about how he wanted a good old fashioned JRPG. I'm all out of ideas and JRPG's arn't really my thing any more so I well don't know whats good and bad.

Any recommendations would be great. Thanks!

Darth_Mogs

If he doesn't already have the Chrono Trigger DS remake, that's a very viable option. It's certainly good old fashioned since it's a pretty unchanged port. (Minus the pretty terrible new additions that are completely optional) I believe it's $20 standard now.

The Cow King

Darth_Mogs wrote: »

If he doesn't already have the Chrono Trigger DS remake, that's a very viable option. It's certainly good old fashioned since it's a pretty unchanged port. (Minus the pretty terrible new additions that are completely optional) I believe it's $20 standard now.

Yeah hes got that I kind of messed up the OP by all final fantasy I meant all Sqaure Enix JRPG's.

pyromaniac221

Tales of Vesperia can be had for cheap on Amazon.

Esh

pyromaniac221 wrote: »

Tales of Vesperia can be had for cheap on Amazon.

Is there word on a localization for PS3 for this? I want to play it so bad but I don't have a 360, only a PS3.

Gilder

If you don't mind getting two games, get him as a "joke" addendum to the main gift "The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road" for DS. It's actually a fairly old-school style RPG and it's harder than you'd think. It's also more fun than you'd think when you aren't frustrated at your inability to heal yourself half the time.

Kuratosu

For 360, if you're looking for an old school, turn based JRPG Blue Dragon might be worth a shot. You can find it fairly cheap now (probably sub 20 bucks). Tales of Vesperia might be worth looking into as well, but it's action based. I think it's also dropped in price.

For PS3, it's kind of slim pickings at cheap prices. You may be able to find Valkyria Chronicles at a cheap enough price, but maybe not. It's also not really a traditional old school JRPG, so...

As for DS, Etrian Odyssey II and Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor are worth a look.

Blackjack

Blue Dragon.

It's basically Final Fantasy 5+

edit: It's below your minimum on Amazon (11.49 new) so you could pick up an XBox Live point card for him, too, so he can get the DLC for the game, too.

Edit again: Amazon has Lost Odyssey for 27.98 so you could go with that instead.

The Cow King

Blackjack wrote: »

Blue Dragon.

It's basically Final Fantasy 5+

edit: It's below your minimum on Amazon (11.49 new) so you could pick up an XBox Live point card for him, too, so he can get the DLC for the game, too.

Edit again: Amazon has Lost Odyssey for 27.98 so you could go with that instead.

Is Blue Dragon any good? I saw it at EB for 15$ but I was unsure and unless its Amazon.ca your looking at the prices will vary wildly. Aka Tales of Vesperia being 50$ .

Since my brother works beside a EB I'm sending him over to see what they have so I'm making a list right now as we speak. And for the internet the party is next week and I was given very short notice so I'm not sure if I can do the internet this time around.

Thanks for all the suggestions though!

EDIT: Lost Odyssey for 19$-22$ all shipping from my province I might be able to pull it off.

So next question is it good? I forgot to mention his PS3 is backwards compatible because hes a dick like that .

joshofalltrades

By all Square Enix RPGs are you including The World Ends With You?

Because if not, there is no point in adding any other suggestions to this thread

Blackjack

Blue Dragon is incredibly good, if you (well, your boss, but you know what I mean) are able to accept a light-hearted, fairly cliche story. Great gameplay, really fun class system, and the best boss music ever.

The World Ends With You is phenomenal, josh, but I definitely wouldn't classify it under the "good old fashioned JRPG" heading.

Edit: Lost Odyssey is also great. I honestly couldn't tell you which I liked more. I liked the gameplay in Blue Dragon more, but the writing/plot in LO. Basically it comes down to "Does he prefer Final Fantasy I-V or VI-X?"

Kuratosu

The Cow King wrote: »

So next question is it good? I forgot to mention his PS3 is backwards compatible because hes a dick like that .

I would then suggest Persona 4. I see it for 30 on Amazon.

mora1

Kuratosu wrote: »

You may be able to find Valkyria Chronicles at a cheap enough price, but maybe not. It's also not really a traditional old school JRPG, so...

Gamestop is selling Valkyria Chronicles for 20 bucks new. I picked up a copy of it today.

joshofalltrades

Blackjack wrote: »

The World Ends With You is phenomenal, josh, but I definitely wouldn't classify it under the "good old fashioned JRPG" heading.

Yeah sorry I missed the good old fashioned in the OP

If the only requirement was JRPG though the thread would be over

The Cow King

Blackjack wrote: »

Blue Dragon is incredibly good, if you (well, your boss, but you know what I mean) are able to accept a light-hearted, fairly cliche story. Great gameplay, really fun class system, and the best boss music ever.

The World Ends With You is phenomenal, josh, but I definitely wouldn't classify it under the "good old fashioned JRPG" heading.

Edit: Lost Odyssey is also great. I honestly couldn't tell you which I liked more. I liked the gameplay in Blue Dragon more, but the writing/plot in LO. Basically it comes down to "Does he prefer Final Fantasy I-V or VI-X?"

Thanks a lot guys I work with him tomorrow all morning so I'll try and weasle info out of it and base it off what you have all suggested.

This would be a lot easier if I had found Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga earlier in the year cause then I could have just given it to him :P.

dclee

Suikoden Teirkreis for the DS is a pretty good standard JRPG.

Bartholamue

dclee wrote: »

Suikoden Teirkreis for the DS is a pretty good standard JRPG.

I would recommend it if there was no voice acting, or if there was a way to turn it off. Why was that guy talking way too fast?

Norfair

Dragon Quest IV on the DS is very old-fashioned, and a lot of fun. You can get it for under $30 around here, not sure what it would go for in Canada.

Cantido

I heard Air Tonelico is ridiculously perverted but awesome.

MAXIMUM PENATRATION!!!11

Chance

Demon's Souls. It's an RPG, and it's from Japan, but nobody thinks of Demon's Souls when they say JRPG.

Valkyria Chronicles. You either love it or you hate it, but I don't know anyone who's indifferent to it.

Tales of Vesperia. (only available on the 360 in NA, at the moment. The PS3 version is supposed to be stuffed to the gills with extra stuff, but alas - no localization yet.)

Chrono Trigger DS. It's Chrono Trigger - but on the DS.

Persona 3: Fes, Persona 4 - but those're PS2 titles.

pyromaniac221

I was going to say Demon's Souls but it's definitely not a traditional JRPG as stipulated in the OP

Kuratosu

It's also a bit out of the OP's price range.

Catshade

Nostalgia on the DS is also pretty old-school-ish.

EdS25

Catshade wrote: »

Nostalgia on the DS is also pretty old-school-ish.

Is there a thread for Nostalgia anywhere? I was looking for a place to complain about getting one-shotted in the air battles the other day and couldn't find one. Also, you'd be surprised how often we use that word on these forums.

On topic - Tales of Vesperia. Best JRPG in a long time (ever?) for me.

Blackjack

EdS25 wrote: »

Catshade wrote: »

Nostalgia on the DS is also pretty old-school-ish.

Is there a thread for Nostalgia anywhere? I was looking for a place to complain about getting one-shotted in the air battles the other day and couldn't find one. Also, you'd be surprised how often we use that word on these forums.

On topic - Tales of Vesperia. Best JRPG in a long time (ever?) for me.

Is Nostalgia any good?

It looked interesting, and I loved Skies of Arcadia, but I was looking at the characters and plot and, well, it seems like "cliche" would be kind.

Xagarath

Persona 4 is a pretty good choice to go with.

Interpreter

Blackjack wrote: »

EdS25 wrote: »

Catshade wrote: »

Nostalgia on the DS is also pretty old-school-ish.

Is there a thread for Nostalgia anywhere? I was looking for a place to complain about getting one-shotted in the air battles the other day and couldn't find one. Also, you'd be surprised how often we use that word on these forums.

On topic - Tales of Vesperia. Best JRPG in a long time (ever?) for me.

Is Nostalgia any good?

It looked interesting, and I loved Skies of Arcadia, but I was looking at the characters and plot and, well, it seems like "cliche" would be kind.

Nostalgia isn't bad. It is very "cliche" however(you have your traditional fighter, thief, black mage, white mage set up, and one is the last of an ancient line that is the key to everything, etc), so I find it best taken in small doses.

As for the topic, don't forget that the PS3 can play all PS1 games, so you can look into seeing if you can find some of those for cheap. Like Grandia, or Dragon Quest 7, or you can get him a $20 PSN card so he can get Wild ARMs 1 and 2 and Suikoden.

jaziek

Is there a remake / any way to play Breath of Fire 4 on the newer consoles?

If so, GET THAT GAME SO FAST.

Ragnar Dragonfyre

For the love of God don't get Blue Dragon. Lighthearted story actually means cookie cutter, cliche JRPG story with zero character development. I put maybe 10-20 hours into this game before it drove me nuts.

Lost Odyssey is a good game, but it just can't hold my attention all the way through. I made it almost fully through the second disc before the battle system wore on me. Also, the characters kinda suck.

If you want a great, current JRPG, get Tales of Vesperia.

It held my attention for over 100 hours and I still haven't completed everything that game has to offer. The story is kind of like FFVII in a way, without being as dark. The characters are interesting and actually develop. They are not the same people at the end of the game as they are at the start. The battle system is engaging and there's a lot of room for experimentation with attack combinations.

I can easily say it's my favourite current gen JRPG. That said, no other JRPG this generation has held my attention start to finish, so I may be biased.

Kuratosu

Ragnar Dragonfyre wrote: »

If you want a great, current JRPG, get Tales of Vesperia.

It held my attention for over 100 hours and I still haven't completed everything that game has to offer. The story is kind of like FFVII in a way, without being as dark. The characters are interesting and actually develop. They are not the same people at the end of the game as they are at the start. The battle system is engaging and there's a lot of room for experimentation with attack combinations.

I can easily say it's my favourite current gen JRPG. That said, no other JRPG this generation has held my attention start to finish, so I may be biased.

It kind of helps that Yuri is a fairly likeable protagonist as well, unlike a lot of recent mopey and whiney JRPG protags.

Fencingsax

Mario and Luigi 3 is pretty great, btw.

Maddoc

Ragnar Dragonfyre wrote: »

For the love of God don't get Blue Dragon. Lighthearted story actually means cookie cutter, cliche JRPG story with zero character development. I put maybe 10-20 hours into this game before it drove me nuts.

Lost Odyssey is a good game, but it just can't hold my attention all the way through. I made it almost fully through the second disc before the battle system wore on me. Also, the characters kinda suck.

If you want a great, current JRPG, get Tales of Vesperia.

It held my attention for over 100 hours and I still haven't completed everything that game has to offer. The story is kind of like FFVII in a way, without being as dark. The characters are interesting and actually develop. They are not the same people at the end of the game as they are at the start. The battle system is engaging and there's a lot of room for experimentation with attack combinations.

I can easily say it's my favourite current gen JRPG. That said, no other JRPG this generation has held my attention start to finish, so I may be biased.

No offense, but you may as well have just said "I hate old school JRPGs, which you have stipulated that your boss enjoys, but I love these other modern JRPGs."

Nostalgia is a pretty decent choice as far as "new old JRPGs" goes, provided he doesn't already have Dragon Quest 4 or 5 DS (5 being the far better choice in my opinion)

I'm assuming he does only because they are Square-Enix games.

Unco-ordinated

Chance wrote: »

Tales of Vesperia. (only available on the 360 in NA, at the moment. The PS3 version is supposed to be stuffed to the gills with extra stuff, but alas - no localization yet.)

Apparently someone asked one of the english voice actors about the PS3 port and he said they were going in to record new lines soon. I don't think he knew if it was specifically for the PS3 version but it's a pretty good assumption.

Anyway, assuming he has a PS2 I'd go with Persona 4. While I love a handful of the JRPG's this generation, I'd rate Persona 4 as one of the best JRPG's this decade (if not the best).

If he's thrown his PS2 away though, I don't know. I guess I'd go with one of Demon's Souls, Valkyria Chronicles or Tales of Vesperia. Most of the JRPG's I've played on the DS are from Square Enix, so he's probably already played them and the only one that wasn't was Suikoden Tierkreis, which was pretty mediocre.

Rex Dart

This may be cheating a bit, but the Ultimate Sega Genesis Collection on 360 or PS3 includes the Genesis Phantasy Stars, and the original Phantasy Star as an unlockable (I believe). They're undeniably old school, they're still extremely charming (in my opinion), but they are also brutally difficult.

Although I guess old school and brutal difficulty go hand-in-hand, right?

Pureauthor

You might want to hook him up with Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. If he has any love whatsoever for Super Mario it'd be a great choice.

The Cow King

Thanks for the help guys I won't be able to go out till Tuesday but this giangatic list makes me feel confident I will be able to get him something excellent for the price range I can spend.

The Cow King

Alright under more research and the recommendations in this thread I went with Persona 4. It came out to be 40$ but I'm in a festive mood and I figure giving a rad gift will make me feel satisfied with the inevitable 15$ for futureshop I get .

Mattakuevan

You've also doomed him to potentially go out and buy every SMT once he gets a taste of P4. It happened to me (was P3 for me), it happens to almost everyone. Hopefully he can deal with radically expensive ps2 games =P

Chance

The Cow King wrote: »

Alright under more research and the recommendations in this thread I went with Persona 4. It came out to be 40$ but I'm in a festive mood and I figure giving a rad gift will make me feel satisfied with the inevitable 15$ for futureshop I get .

:^: You did the right thing.

Kuratosu

The Cow King wrote: »

Alright under more research and the recommendations in this thread I went with Persona 4. It came out to be 40$ but I'm in a festive mood and I figure giving a rad gift will make me feel satisfied with the inevitable 15$ for futureshop I get .

Sweet! Probably the best choice you could make. Hope he enjoys it.

Rent

The Cow King wrote: »

Alright under more research and the recommendations in this thread I went with Persona 4. It came out to be 40$ but I'm in a festive mood and I figure giving a rad gift will make me feel satisfied with the inevitable 15$ for futureshop I get .

Since P4 is one of the best games ever made, good choice