Is there a JRPG that's neither a war between countries, a looming world ending catastrophe, or a "punch God" situation? There's "mysterious conspiracy / agency", but usually that transforms to the latter two, I feel. (Use spoilers if necessary)
I think The World Ends With You gets close.
The motivation for most of the main characters is the chance to get brought back to life.
It does get revealed that the character that was secretly god was planning on erasing Shibuya from existence, but it does get resolved without attacking god.
Is there a JRPG that's neither a war between countries, a looming world ending catastrophe, or a "punch God" situation? There's "mysterious conspiracy / agency", but usually that transforms to the latter two, I feel. (Use spoilers if necessary)
Atelier games?
Uh. Hm.
Recettear?
Breath of Fire 4 basically. 5 definitely.
Metal Saga kinda unless you consider an angry AI as God. But worlds already hosed and you're basically just chilling.
I don't recall Rhapsody being about punching god but it has been a decade.
Dang this is a good question.
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IlpalaJust this guy, y'knowTexasRegistered Userregular
New Yakuza game.
Um. .hack?
The first 80% of a Persona game.
FF XIV - Qih'to Furishu (on Siren), Battle.Net - Ilpala#1975
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Fuck Joe Manchin
.hack is definitely in the world ending crisis camp. The virus in the game starts doing shit like knocking satellites out of orbit and tapping into military bases and shit.
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IlpalaJust this guy, y'knowTexasRegistered Userregular
Curses, falling off halfway through the second game has made a fool of me.
FF XIV - Qih'to Furishu (on Siren), Battle.Net - Ilpala#1975
Switch - SW-7373-3669-3011
Fuck Joe Manchin
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WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
BoF4 is a war of sorts, ain't it? Fou Lu belongs to a conquering empire, and Nina's looking for her lost sister who was in a diplomatic mission.
BoF4 is a war of sorts, ain't it? Fou Lu belongs to a conquering empire, and Nina's looking for her lost sister who was in a diplomatic mission.
Fou lu is a dude who was asleep for a very long time and now a prime minister wants him dead. But he doesn't actually care about the country or throne. Nina is just looking for her sister and it really has not much to do with the country. The resolution also has nothing to do with the country or God either.
I mean I guess countries exist but asking for a game where those don't exist at all is kinda hard too.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Is there a JRPG that's neither a war between countries, a looming world ending catastrophe, or a "punch God" situation? There's "mysterious conspiracy / agency", but usually that transforms to the latter two, I feel. (Use spoilers if necessary)
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. She's on an adventure to rescue her prince from an evil queen, that's it.
Also, I can't think of an anti-hero JRPG that sticks to its guns. Grandia 2 did it for a bit, then backpedaled real fast.
FFX... kinda?
No war.
There's catastrophe but it's basically locally bad, not global, so that it can be intentionally cyclic.
You kinda punch God, but it's really just very powerful asshole who's been faking it.
So i've played about 4 and half hours of Berseria, it's fairly decent, the combat feels bit clunky but i suspect that's mostly me not being good at it (also being outnumbered 2 to 5 is not helpfull), not sure i like the combo system, it's not bad, but it feels like i am expected to constantly go and redo my attack settings for specific enemies (also enemy block is OP).
Story
Has been a rollercoaster.
The starting cinematic was a strong start, only to be followed by a whiplash into quiet and fairly happy life in the village.
And then it went all to hell in a hand basket.
My opinions on character design have been variable but mostly good, and the characters themselves have been mostly great.
BoF4 is a war of sorts, ain't it? Fou Lu belongs to a conquering empire, and Nina's looking for her lost sister who was in a diplomatic mission.
Fou lu is a dude who was asleep for a very long time and now a prime minister wants him dead. But he doesn't actually care about the country or throne. Nina is just looking for her sister and it really has not much to do with the country. The resolution also has nothing to do with the country or God either.
I mean I guess countries exist but asking for a game where those don't exist at all is kinda hard too.
Ryu & Fou-lu
They're basically the Dragon God though, aren't they?
I mean so far BoF3 has been incredibly low stakes but also I'm still in the "we are literally children" stage of the game so really I can't say how much this will escalate.
I can't remember the ending so maybe it ends with shooting god and I just forgot but almost all of wild arms 3 is an incredibly personal story between the party and a small group of antagonists
Is there a JRPG that's neither a war between countries, a looming world ending catastrophe, or a "punch God" situation? There's "mysterious conspiracy / agency", but usually that transforms to the latter two, I feel. (Use spoilers if necessary)
I mean so far BoF3 has been incredibly low stakes but also I'm still in the "we are literally children" stage of the game so really I can't say how much this will escalate.
I can't remember the ending so maybe it ends with shooting god and I just forgot but almost all of wild arms 3 is an incredibly personal story between the party and a small group of antagonists
Most, if not all of the Atelier games end with you punching some flavor of god, or at the very least, some Brainiac kind of thing who's the local demigod. Shit, one of them has you crossing dimensions to undo time itself to do that in all possible alternate realities, which is a real fucking turn from a chapter or two prior where the main character learned the valuable lesson about life that she should find something she cares about, and care about it, by making a really nice pie.
Some of the Rune Factories stay pretty firmly local-disaster only, although others have random apocalypse prophecy trees or some shit. Two of the three possible plot routes in Kamidori are fairly local-man/monster goes nuts, although the third is firmly in the war category. Also, it's technically smut.
Your best bet for something that fulfills the categories would probably be some random franchise cash-in game, like one of the multiple Dragon Ball or even the Ganbare Goemon Gaiden games.
Is there a JRPG that's neither a war between countries, a looming world ending catastrophe, or a "punch God" situation? There's "mysterious conspiracy / agency", but usually that transforms to the latter two, I feel. (Use spoilers if necessary)
I think The World Ends With You gets close.
The motivation for most of the main characters is the chance to get brought back to life.
It does get revealed that the character that was secretly god was planning on erasing Shibuya from existence, but it does get resolved without attacking god.
TWEWY
Eh, just because you end only punching out his chief minion doesn't really take it out of that category I think?
Breath of Fire V is the only pure example I can think of. It's literally just "escort a waif out of your subterranean society". I mean, sure there's a final boss, but it's not a god or anything.
Edit: God, BoF V's final fight/ending might be perfect? Gets me every time.
Delzhand on
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BaidolI will hold him offEscape while you canRegistered Userregular
Trails in the Sky FC might fit the category, but only because the end leads to the escalation in SC rather than going straight into it.
"Punch god" is a bit ambiguous I suppose, as a lot of games aren't literally punching out a god, evil god, etc. but are some ancient monster or the like (that isn't always a world-ending-catastrophe situation, either)
Not only do you punch out god.
You are that god you are punching out.
I kinda dislike BoF 4 ending.
It always felt like a downer, all the dragons just, going away.
I'm honestly not sure if theey had opinion on the matter either way, but it did feel like the world was poorer for it.
Not to mention
all that crap that happened during the game
It was a great game, but fucking hell
was it depressing in lot of places
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
edited April 2021
Yeah I think Yakuza is probably the best fit of that description.
They're an action brawler/rpg hybrid of course. So not a pure RPG but the sakes are generally self-contained.
That said very few RPG don't have some kind of escalation so that'll probably be pretty uncommon.
rhapsody a musical adventure has some really weird story bits for what its plot is
there is a part where you are with these frog people and a frog guy wants to marry the frog princess, so the frog king says okay I'll let you marry her if you kill this horrible beast. so you go and kill the horrible beast for him and the king goes oh that marriage thing? jk and has the frog executed.
then you recruit him later on as a puppet containing his dead soul
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Most of the Suikoden series is like... Just international disputes, outside of 3 which is why I think the story in that one is a bit weaker
Ni No Kuni 2 is the opposite of a story about a war between 2 countries.
It also seems written for five year olds but there's nothing wrong with that as long as you know ahead of time instead of discovering it over the length of a 70 hour rpg.
I'd characterize the original Suikoden and II as war stories, casting you as the semi-accidental leader of a ragtag group of mercenaries who become a full army and take on a far more powerful nation.
Does parasite eve count? Or is the “ultimate being” too close to a god even though it’s really just a goopy weird baby monster.
I mean, a lot of these rely on quibbling over what counts as "punching god." Plenty are about punching the ultimate evil and/or someone who ODed on magic mojo and declared themselves the ultimate being in a fit of delusional self-grandeur.
Ni No Kuni 2 is the opposite of a story about a war between 2 countries.
It also seems written for five year olds but there's nothing wrong with that as long as you know ahead of time instead of discovering it over the length of a 70 hour rpg.
That game.
Man, the opening where
everyone has swords and your magic ability is GUN was wild.
"A new take on the epic fantasy genre... Darkly comic, relatable characters... twisted storyline."
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
The problem is JRPGs like final bosses that are much larger you in both size and scope, so like even the grounded stories I can think of are all "we were chasing this asshole to stop him from summoning an old one, but got there too late and now have to shoot that godbaby"
The problem is JRPGs like final bosses that are much larger you in both size and scope, so like even the grounded stories I can think of are all "we were chasing this asshole to stop him from summoning an old one, but got there too late and now have to shoot that godbaby"
Oh, the spectacle is certainly part of it, but other tropes like finding out about the real villain and such also play into it, because that demands escalation.
FF12 started out like it might fit, just low stakes your group trying to stop other people from waging a battle in your country but now that I've gotten to The Ancient City it sure seems like it's going to jump the shark into classic FF nonsense.
FF12 started out like it might fit, just low stakes your group trying to stop other people from waging a battle in your country but now that I've gotten to The Ancient City it sure seems like it's going to jump the shark into classic FF nonsense.
It is an absolute rule that final fantasy will have world crisis god-punching escalation
FF12 started out like it might fit, just low stakes your group trying to stop other people from waging a battle in your country but now that I've gotten to The Ancient City it sure seems like it's going to jump the shark into classic FF nonsense.
It is an absolute rule that final fantasy will have world crisis god-punching escalation
Hmm, whats the lowest stakes mainline in that regard?
Posts
I think The World Ends With You gets close.
It does get revealed that the character that was secretly god was planning on erasing Shibuya from existence, but it does get resolved without attacking god.
Atelier games?
Uh. Hm.
Recettear?
Breath of Fire 4 basically. 5 definitely.
Metal Saga kinda unless you consider an angry AI as God. But worlds already hosed and you're basically just chilling.
I don't recall Rhapsody being about punching god but it has been a decade.
Dang this is a good question.
Um. .hack?
The first 80% of a Persona game.
Switch - SW-7373-3669-3011
Fuck Joe Manchin
.hack is definitely in the world ending crisis camp. The virus in the game starts doing shit like knocking satellites out of orbit and tapping into military bases and shit.
Switch - SW-7373-3669-3011
Fuck Joe Manchin
Fou lu is a dude who was asleep for a very long time and now a prime minister wants him dead. But he doesn't actually care about the country or throne. Nina is just looking for her sister and it really has not much to do with the country. The resolution also has nothing to do with the country or God either.
I mean I guess countries exist but asking for a game where those don't exist at all is kinda hard too.
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. She's on an adventure to rescue her prince from an evil queen, that's it.
Also, I can't think of an anti-hero JRPG that sticks to its guns. Grandia 2 did it for a bit, then backpedaled real fast.
No war.
There's catastrophe but it's basically locally bad, not global, so that it can be intentionally cyclic.
You kinda punch God, but it's really just very powerful asshole who's been faking it.
Story
The starting cinematic was a strong start, only to be followed by a whiplash into quiet and fairly happy life in the village.
And then it went all to hell in a hand basket.
Ryu & Fou-lu
I can't remember the ending so maybe it ends with shooting god and I just forgot but almost all of wild arms 3 is an incredibly personal story between the party and a small group of antagonists
To the Moon I guess?
bof3 ending
Some of the Rune Factories stay pretty firmly local-disaster only, although others have random apocalypse prophecy trees or some shit. Two of the three possible plot routes in Kamidori are fairly local-man/monster goes nuts, although the third is firmly in the war category. Also, it's technically smut.
Your best bet for something that fulfills the categories would probably be some random franchise cash-in game, like one of the multiple Dragon Ball or even the Ganbare Goemon Gaiden games.
TWEWY
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Edit: God, BoF V's final fight/ending might be perfect? Gets me every time.
Some real good looking clips of the combo system.
Oh boy it looks good.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
You are that god you are punching out.
I kinda dislike BoF 4 ending.
I'm honestly not sure if theey had opinion on the matter either way, but it did feel like the world was poorer for it.
They're an action brawler/rpg hybrid of course. So not a pure RPG but the sakes are generally self-contained.
That said very few RPG don't have some kind of escalation so that'll probably be pretty uncommon.
But yeah, 100% the Atelier series like previously mentioned.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
then you recruit him later on as a puppet containing his dead soul
It also seems written for five year olds but there's nothing wrong with that as long as you know ahead of time instead of discovering it over the length of a 70 hour rpg.
I mean, a lot of these rely on quibbling over what counts as "punching god." Plenty are about punching the ultimate evil and/or someone who ODed on magic mojo and declared themselves the ultimate being in a fit of delusional self-grandeur.
That game.
Man, the opening where
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
Oh, the spectacle is certainly part of it, but other tropes like finding out about the real villain and such also play into it, because that demands escalation.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Alright the game is quite pretty.
I'm really digging the perspective of the close camera too.
It is an absolute rule that final fantasy will have world crisis god-punching escalation
Hmm, whats the lowest stakes mainline in that regard?
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
You still punch god in 10 of course