Jarpig pride worldwide (Let's talk about JRPGs)

[Sumez]

It's kind of the same in Lost Odyssey, though.

You do eventually get to move around on the world map, but it's really late in the game, and it doesn't feel very fleshed out.
I'll admit the lack of it in FFX disappointed me as well, and I still think it's a regrettable omission - even if it's become pretty much standard for the genre ever since.

[Blinge]

the non linearity in FF even in the ps1 days was a bit of a lie though.

Well Sumez I think i'm gonna take your advice on DQ11 but god knows when.
I started that, Persona 2 and Shenmue 2. Not sure which to proceed on

[Blinge]

Still waiting on Sumez to try Romancing SaGa 1
no remakes, no guides!

[Sumez]

Man, I absolutely loved Romancing SaGa 2, but I haven't played the first.

I can't follow up on "no remakes" though. I bought Minstrel Song 10 years ago with the intention of playing that, but... jesus, time moves fast.

[Blinge]

Sumez plz
you could try it emulated then move to the copy you own once you've got the feel of the original.. enough to know why I'd suggest playing it

[Blinge]

My playing of DQ11 at night until I invariably fall asleep continues.

Might be the best localisation job i've ever seen on a game.

Although I'm not sure I agree with "you never need to grind" with tough monsters on. I've been taking about 4 battles per area then just running past everything. That includes the dungeon that ends with ol' Jarvis. Him + team put me to sleep and hammered me in about two turns. I can't control the lasses yet.

That being said.. I guess I could warp out and make sure erik's gear is +3'd. I tend to just stop forging if I don't have materials..
Although having to track them down is probably a bit more annoying than simply slamming out some quick battles.

[Sumez]

I don't think dying to a boss qualifies as needing to grind
Get used to dying to most bosses at least a few times before getting them down. You'd be surprised how far just a change in strategy will take you. That said, you're still early enough in the game that you're a little limited in what options you have. And of course, leveling up will help - fighting enemies on the way to a boss isn't "grinding" in my book, but I did also run past most of them.

There's a boss later on that you fight on a boat, which I couldn't beat at first, but had to come back when I was stronger. That's probably the closest to real grinding I did early on, but there were enough new places to go explore at the time that it still didn't feel much like it.
I did grind a bit for the final boss.

Definitely always try to keep your gear at +3 whenever it seems feasible.

Might be the best localisation job i've ever seen on a game.

Veronica's English VA is amazing

[Blinge]

Ha yeah, no random encounters is a weird one because i'm not sure I even like the choice.
Left to my own devices I either fight way too much, or too little.

Now i'll be playing with " sumez said tactics are the way to go." so i'll see it as a mark of dishonour if i fight a few times and get levels.
"No, I must win by strategy alone."

which is of course, unnecessary bollocks.

[Sumez]

lol whatever
maybe you should have enabled the grind-preventing draconian option after all the idea behind it is great, but the practical implementation is iffy.

Ha yeah, no random encounters is a weird one because i'm not sure I even like the choice.

Yeah it's one of the few things I don't like about the game. Maybe not foregoing random encounters as such - I can see why they'd do that - but enemies in an area posing absolutely no actual threat feels like it seriously detracts from the experience of exploring "dangerous" locations.

[Blinge]

Part of me wants to, maybe after a break once i'm finished..

.. do every draconian all at once. I thought yeah maybe i could stream it or make a video. But i assume it's already been done and the usual 'no one will care'
ha, i'll stick to what i'm good at.

[Sumez]

Too many of them work against eachother. I believe I've seen it been done, but man it must really suck.

[Blinge]

Had to use my only revive leaf to survive Jarvis but man...
i realised in my first attempt I'd made new armour for Erik and neglected to equip it

[Blinge]

I'm not so convinced anymore. Slayer of Sands just wipes one of my guys out if he decides to do his desperation attack. Which can be right at the beginning of the fight? Or if he does the sandstorm two turns in a row.

What would you define as 'feasible' for +3 gear? Cause if I want that for every character now i'd have to continually make bronze swords to get perfectionist pearls..
..which wouldn't be SO bad, but if I have to go back for more materials for shitty gear..

Edit: (christ alive there's a video of someone doing it with level 8 MC, and lvl 9 Erik)
https://youtu.be/jmaWnDlJcyk

Oh, the MC has gallopolis armour, looks like you get that from horse racing. and he takes fuck all damage in the video

[Sumez]

Slayer of Sands is one boss that I felt showed up a "little too early" compared to your character selection and abilities. You still don't have a lot of tactical choices at this point in the game, and the flow of the battle is almost as RNG evil as some of the later fights. Pretty sure when I finally beat it, it was mostly by luck.

[Blinge]

It's a relief to hear you say that!
turns out I missed a smithing book somewhere, or forgot that I've read it so there'll be some new accessories to craft for the girls.
So yeah I'm gonna do all that, get MC his armour and get at least one member pepped up before I try again.

Also, Pep is called being 'In the Zone' in the JP version? that's so much cooler. "Pepped up" sounds fucking lame

[Sumez]

Yeah, sounds like a 90s candy brand or something

[Blinge]

Oh I beat the thing some days ago, been chilling in Gondolia since. Would've been really nice to use Erik's poison + victimiser but I didn't grind him that extra level.
The faux-Italian voice acting is cringe as fuck. When a dude says " molto importante " and doesn't pronounce the R, i know you're English really!!

anyway, that's a nitpick.

The real problem with this game is the music. it fucking blows compared to any FF you might name. Why do all the towns have the same (bad) music, regardless of their theme Hotto was a glorious exception.

Gallopolis could've done with something like this:

https://vgmsite.com/soundtracks/ni-no-k ... wlipha.mp3

Al Mamoon from Ni No Kuni

[Sumez]

Hotto, ironically, reuses music from Dragon Quest 3. Most of the new music composed for 11 is incredibly lackluster, but the real problem is how awful the synthetic orchestrations sound compared to the orchestra that's meant to be performing these.

Later on in the game, you'll run into much more music reused from older titles (3 being especially prominent), and that fortunately improves the experinece a lot.

[BryanM]

Eh, Dragon Quest music these days sounds like "this is an RPG." Compared to stuff like Etrian Odyssey or Persona, that always have multiple songs that haunt you for life, there's just no contest.

Even simple stuff like this small twist on Dragon Quest 1's Overworld theme has more to say.

[Vanguard]

I read somewhere that the composer for Dragon Quest XI deliberately sabotaged the in-game soundtrack so that people would buy the CD.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

I don't believe there's any evidence for that; it sounds like just a reaction to DQ11's soundtrack being what it is (having that grating overworld theme and a small amount of music for its overall length) combined with online communities' growing distaste for the composer in recent years (which I don't think is unearned). The Dragon Quest games having excellent orchestral soundtracks released separately that far outstrip the quality of the synth audio used in-game is nothing new.

[Blinge]

I hear it's about reviving the dream of imperial japan

...it was because of his ambition

[Blinge]

I'm kinda let down, I struggled a couple times against the Coralossus duel boss, went back to forging.. eventually took them down.

I wanted to watch Signor Universo, but alas. Jasper.
Took a couple of attempts but I felt like a badass winning that second round. It's a bit of a shame that most of my damage comes from the Luminary, but eh, whatcha gonna do. I needed them buffs and debuffs.

There's something so very satisfying about finally hitting a lvl2 defense-debuffed enemy with your lvl 2 attack buffed character. The stars align.

[Sumez]

There's something so very satisfying about finally hitting a lvl2 defense-debuffed enemy with your lvl 2 attack buffed character. The stars align.

This is absolutely the core of the combat system right there
The most frequent balance of the boss fights involves keeping that buff/debuff equilibrium in check. On some fights, it's difficult to pull off, but on others it's almost necessary to even make a scratch. So having only one damage dealer with the rest of your team acting support or defense is a pretty solid approach most of the time.
But due to the absolute (lovable) BS nature of the game's RNG you'll always need to be prepared to switch around roles from one round to the next to avoid losing your footing, and that's where the battles start getting really interesting to me.

Are you paying attention to when a combat round ends and the next starts? It's not too well documented, but you can always tell by an outline around the character icons which people have had their turn yet for the current round. That information can be especially helpful when trying to predict whose turn is coming up (especially based on whether the enemy has acted this round yet, or not), or managing when to revive and/or replace characters in your party.

[Blinge]

There's something so very satisfying about finally hitting a lvl2 defense-debuffed enemy with your lvl 2 attack buffed character. The stars align.

This is absolutely the core of the combat system right there
The most frequent balance of the boss fights involves keeping that buff/debuff equilibrium in check.

So.... It's SMT ?

Thanks for the next turn comment dude! yeah I hadn't noticed that at all.

I'm in Octagonia now (genius), just won the MMA tournament and am now heading into the caves to look for my doping happy teammate and the karate hotty
That tournament was tough to get through without my team. Luminary's quite limited on his tactical options because I've gone down the Greatsword path so heavily. He's just a physical damage dealer!
Also he's still in Gallopolis Garb and most of my gear is sub-optimal because the forge, Sumez.... please don't make me do the forge any more.. I've had enough

[Sumez]

Yeah, I had trouble in the tournament too for the same reasons. Not a lot of tactical options in that segment. The next boss is gonna rock your socks though.

I'm sorry about the forge. There's no real way around it. But you'll find stuff you need to make forging much more simple and consistent by the time you really need it.

[Sengoku Strider]

I decided to put Cosmic Star Heroine on the list of games I'm going to try & finish before the end of summer, as I've heard it's not that long.

TBH despite being squarely in the target demo for this game, I found it pretty boring back when I first got it a year or so back. Characters, tone, plot, none of it was really working for me. But the main thing is that the battle system just seemed needlessly overcomplicated on account of it kind of is.

It wasn't until I bumped up the difficulty to heroine and got Clarke that I finally understood what the developers were trying to accomplish with all this. There are some truly original playstyles and really deep strategies you can carry out over the course of a lengthy battle. I'll probably try putting it up to super spy to see if it's not too onerous.

[Vanguard]

I've been doing back to back playthroughs of Helen's Mysterious Castle. It has that Contraesque eternally enjoyable quality where it just feels good to play even after you've already seen everything and know exactly what's going to happen.

[Blinge]

looks pretty as AF

[Necronopticous]

Super early look at a JRPG I have been developing with my wife over the last several months:

RPGirl - Summer 2021 Development Progress

Battle system finally coming together mechanically. Still a lot of work to be done.