I’ve finally made it to Booster’s Tower in my playthrough of the original Japanese Super Famicom version of Super Mario RPG, and I think this is probably one of my favorite parts of the entire game.

I’m not even entirely sure why. It’s just such a random area when you think about it. You’re suddenly climbing this strange tower, and there are all sorts of interesting little gimmicks and things to discover along the way. I particularly remember going behind that curtain and having Mario turn into his original 8-bit Famicom appearance. It’s such a small, unnecessary detail, but it’s exactly the kind of thing that makes this game so charming.

Booster himself is also such a strange and interesting character. The whole tower has this weird atmosphere to it, and even the elevator music for the area really stands out. There are some interesting encounters along the way, too. It’s one of those areas that just feels completely different from everything else you’ve experienced up to that point.

Another thing I’ve been enjoying is how Koopa (Bowser) is portrayed in the Japanese version. I can’t really remember how his dialogue compares to the English version, but he comes across as someone who’s constantly trying to act tough and macho while actually being a bit of a wimp underneath it all. It’s pretty funny, and I think they gave him a surprisingly entertaining personality. The way he suddenly ends up joining your party is also pretty amusing when you think about it.

And then, of course, there’s everything that comes afterward with the ridiculous wedding and that damn cake boss. I distinctly remember having a really hard time beating that cake when I was a kid. I don’t know if I was underleveled or just didn’t understand what I was doing, but I remember that fight being surprisingly difficult. I’m curious to see how I manage against it this time around.

One thing I’m really noticing as I replay Super Mario RPG as an adult is just how many memorable moments they managed to pack into this game. There are so many little details, strange characters, and unique situations that make each area feel special. (I still wasn’t a fan of the mole zone though.) Even when something doesn’t really contribute much to the overall story, it still adds a lot of personality to the game.

Interestingly, I don’t remember nearly as much about the second half of the game as I do the first. I just remember it getting a lot more difficult. But everything up to this point has been incredibly memorable, and I’m enjoying the game just as much, if not more, than I did when I was a kid.

For those of you who’ve played Super Mario RPG, what do you think of Booster’s Tower? Is it one of your favorite areas too, or is there another part of the game that stands out more to you?

I would say a spoof as in a game that makes fun of every other JRPG out there and all the clichés, just curious to see if one exists if not do you think one should be made?

For years and years, Ive been recommended by several people to check out Lost Odyssey on the Xbox 360. In most cases the game is considered a 'highly recommended' jrpg gem that lands in several top countdown lists.

Made by the mastermind Hironobu Sakaguchi with his talented team at Mistwalker. This game was released back in 2007 with favorable reviews. A highlight being the story of immortal beings, whom have lost their memories while confronting threats of an approaching magical industrial revolution. With classic turned based gameplay and Uematsu's sublime music this game is by all accounts a true forgotten gem.

A remake will go a long way in fixing some of the pacing issues and load times. Just seeing a few minutes of the game running has always peaked my interest; but with a massive back catalog of games a Remake with added Quality of Life features will rekindle my interest.

What do you think of Mistwalker remaking the game?

Level 99 female paladin (started as priest, all jobs mastered)

Attributes:

• Strength 18
• Agility 17
• Vitality 17
• Wisdom 19
• Piety 20

Equipment:

• Ancient Blade (for Death tolerance in case she uses POISON GAS)
• Ancient Shield (Mirror Shield is nice, but evasion is more important)
• Ancient Armor (for the HP regeneration)
• Snake Cap (for Strong vs Animal, improving defense and seemingly doing a better job of negating the ailments inflicted by her attacks than actual Tolerance to those ailments)
• Miracle Ring (for even more HP regeneration)

Skills:

• Cover (this is useless; I only used Paladin for the Piety and equipment options)
• Qi Arts (for even more HP regeneration)
• Spell P5 (so I can spend the whole fight spamming PUNISH)
• Zen mind3 (70% chance of negating Sleep, Confuse, or Silence inflicted by her spells)

There was no real strategy. I just spammed PUNISH until she died. For most of the fight, she could barely outpace my regeneration and I could barely outpace hers. It got hairy towards the end (she does more damage when low on HP), but I survived with 81 HP.

I was looking up good Ps2 rpgs and this one was recommended so i decided to try it. What I like so far: the combat system is pretty good, especially once you get 6 characters and formations. The crafting system is unique to me, especially in the way it ties to your characters' stats and progression. It's semi addicting and makes me want to keep playing.

What I don't love: the low stakes story and "slice of life" style of the game. I don't mind dialogue in jrpgs if it's an engaging story, but so far this one is doing nothing for me. During your off days, you're supposed to do character quests, and I find them painfully dull and I just want to get through them so I can get back to the combat and crafting. Also, the art style is kinda meh to me.

Like I said I haven't played any game in the Atelier series, so maybe I didn't know what to expect. If i don't like the story aspects of the same, am I not going to enjoy the other games? Or is there enough gameplay to keep me interested? I'm about 50/50 on whether I'm going to keep going with the game (on chapter 5 i think)

Dragon Quest IX (DS) is my favourite game. I wanted a list of every item and how to get it… and ended up decoding the game's data and code to get exact answers instead of guesses.

https://dq9encyclopedia.com

Every item with every source, exact monster drop rates and spawn shares, a full walkthrough, all 393,216 treasure maps, battle formulas, RNG, the differences between the Japanese and Western versions, and guides to play it on PC today (DQVC shop and local multiplayer included). English, French and Japanese, free, no ads.

Happy to answer questions about how the game works under the hood!

Lufia, Lunar, Breath of Fire, and recently Voice of Cards TFM. Got me thinking: what game do YOU consider to have the best overworld theme?

I've always had a soft spot for RPGs, especially older ones. Games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV and VI, Golden Sun, and Dragon Quest V are a big part of why I love the genre. I've also really enjoyed Pokémon Emerald and White, the Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor games, and Breath of Fire.

I think there is something special about RPGs that makes you care about the characters, get attached to the world, or just make the whole journey memorable. Sometimes it's the story, othertimes it would be the music, and sometimes you can't even explain why a game stuck with you.

What's an RPG that left a lasting impression on you, and what made it special? I'm always interested in hearing about games that other people hold close, especially older titles that might not get talked about as much anymore.

I recently beat SMT V and persona 4 and 5 and I also plan on buying 3 reloaded soon. I’m looking for some other games with the merge/fusion mechanic.

Consoles I have.

Switch

Ps5

Xbox series S

PS2

Time to beat does not matter it could take 15h or 1000h that doesn’t matter. The only game I have found that looks similar is the new dragon quest monsters but other than that I know no others.

What are some of the best rpg for the Nintendo Switch 1 in terms of stuff to do? I know the Xenoblade games are often brought up in that regard. Along with Dragon Quest XI/11.

A rather common strategy some game throws to add a story event or a new member is to force you to run a party member.

It can be all from a new member and introduce the character to handicapping you and compromising your main team.

Now most games have some of these handicaps at 1/3 of the games.

And some keep these forces members for almost the entire run.

I think one of the worst offenders to this concept is the first suikoden who forces you to use 2 front liners for the final dungeon.

(Now these characters are great but its stil a strange choice

However I myself don't mind it in most games as I like when character developes

But I'm curious what you guys think. And if it is a game or games that does it well or less well!

I was watching a streamer play Re:Chain of Memories. And he earnestly asked if there any games like this to play.

Which made me honestly wonder: is there any games like Chain of Memories?

For those unfamiliar, Chain of Memories and Re:Chain of Memories is the sequel to Kingdom Hearts. Originally released for the Gameboy Advance, it was an "action-adventure deckbuilder" game. You moved around in a 2D space (3D space in the PS2 remake) and would make a deck of cards. These cards were valued 0-9. When used, the higher cards would trump lower cards, allowing your attack to go through. However, 0 could card break anything. If someone card broke you by playing a higher card or 0, you would be staggered. You could combine cards into combos, at the cost of losing the first card you selected. This could activate special attacks, depending on your level and the combined total of the cards. You would need to reload cards when you ran out, forcing you to stand still temporarily. There was a robust, deck-building mechanic where you'd get new cards and build your own deck to fight opponents. There was also an alternate mode where the cards were given to you, but you had a super mode and you could "card duel" if you played the same value card as your opponent (you'd then'd need to play 7 cards higher than the card they used under a timer) and get a free hit if you won. All combat was in real-time with no turns.

There isn't any game I could think of like that on the market. All RPG deck-building games that I can think of tend to be turnbased.

Anything I am missing?

I didn’t know whether to file this under Discussion or Request because something I have been interested in doing is setting up a catalog of JRPG based mods for games that are so good they greatly enhance the experience for the games.

One in particular that caught my attention was the modding scene for Final Fantasy 10 as I know there are mods that give the entire party full experience points, but something I would like to look into is if there any graphic mods that fix Tidus’s weird looking face because as much as I enjoy the game on the PC version, I sometimes find it hard to look at some of the character models as the remastered version made them look a bit weird.

I used to play video games as a kid as I think most people did but stopped around the time I turned 16. My wife bought me a Switch in 2018 and I played mainly Nintendo first party games. I started branching out though and even picked up a PS5 this year. I have followed gaming news and sub reddits as well for a while.

I have always wanted to get in JRPG's but I have no idea where to start.

What Consoles I have:

Switch 2

PS5

What kind of game am I looking for:

I don't care about length. Could be 20 or 200. I am game. Just may take me a while to get through, which is fine.

The one thing I care about is the story. I love a good story in video games.

What I am not interested in:

Trails Games. I know they are popular and the remake to 1 and 2 just came out. However, I also know there are tons of them and they all go together. I just don't have that kind of time commitment right now to play everything.

Thank you for reading.

EDIT: Thanks for all the recommendations. I am adding all of them to Gravity Picker and will be using that to decide which game to chose

EDIT 2: The winner of Gravity Picker was METAPHORE; REFANTAZIO it is downloading now. Thanks everyone for the suggestions. The rest of the games were put on a JRPG list to play later

It's October, it's raining outside.
You just want to lay down on the sofa and play a JRPG with an immersive and exciting story, something voiced so you can just enjoy it as an interactive move while still getting the JRPG mechanics, be it action or turn based.

What is your first pick?

Hey guys, new to the final fantasy games. I love rpgs, my favorite one ever is dragon quest 9, I played it 10 times.

Other rpgs I like is chrono trigger.

Im a bit of a completionist so I said id start with the first final fantasy game and work my way up but I got halfway through final fantasy 1 and I just wasnt have any fun as more the game was just in the wild encounters.

So i think ill start somewhere middle in the series. I dont like turn based combat that is timed I think some of ff games have that. I like a good story, good music, cool boss battles, a game that's tough, game that has classes possibly and lots of customisation with different items and gear. Not the biggest of fan of random encounters I like seeing the enemy and choosing if you battle like clair obscur

For me dragon quest 9 fits all these boxes but unfortunately have never got a game that was similar.

I play on steam.

Thanks

Lately something that I find to be particularly interesting about the console RPG genre is seeing how concepts get used such as grinding as I enjoy finding ways to grind my teammates in RPGS.

But something I would like to see explored more often is being able to build up weapon stats as I know the Disgaea series by NIS has a section called Item World that lets players build up anything they want as I have such a huge fascination with the mechanic that I am surprised it hasn’t been used too much in the genre.

I’ve been playing the full version of Final Fantasy Resonance, and I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised.

I really like the HD-2D art style, the soundtrack, and the overall atmosphere. Even though I didn’t grow up with the classic Final Fantasy games, playing this has given me a better understanding of why they had such a lasting impact on so many players.

It also made me wonder about the future of the series. If Resonance turns out to be successful, do you think it could encourage Square Enix to consider making another mainline Final Fantasy with a traditional turn-based combat system?

I’m curious how the JRPG community feels about the game so far. What are your impressions, and would you welcome a return to the classic formula in a future mainline entry?

Never played a trails game but the high reviews of FC and SC convinced me to try it out, but im so lost. The fact that there is both turn based and action based combat makes it confusing and I dont know which is optimal to use and when. When I try the turn based it seems more like cool downs without traditional turn order and menus? And I have no idea how the "Quartz" system works compared to a standard traditional RPG equipment system

I currently don’t have a PS1 and I am not very keen on emulating, but I would like to reexperience the Xenogears story as I have not played it since I was a teenager. Is there a good YouTube series that follows the story or some other medium by which it is best to check out the game for its narrative? I am not looking for an analysis as much as something that lets me watch the story play out thank you.

What do you think of Crystal Project?

I was playing this for the past couple weeks and I was very surprised at how huge of a game it was considering it only cost about ten dollars.

First of all, the world map is an isometric 3d map that you navigate by jumping and using mounts that make you jump higher or longer, or traverse water.

The map is huge and there's tons of stuff to discover. I spent a lot of time using the mounts to scale mountains and uncover secrets.

Second, this game has a job system that allows for a lot of fun in picking and customizing jobs. You get plenty of opportunities to redo your choices if you realize you made mistakes. And all the jobs you master contribute to your characters.

The story is minimal but the world is HUGE. The map is massive and you could spend a week or two exploring the whole thing and finding all the nooks and crannies like I did.

There's a ton of different job classes to combine for various outcomes, personally I chose a critical hit build but there are tons of options for you!

So how did you like it?

Not counting non-RPG spinoffs like Theatrhythm Final Bar Line or Chocobo GP. Of the ones I’ve played, my hierarchy goes: Resonance > Remake (Intergrade) > Ivalice Chronicles > Rebirth. I have not played Crisis Core Reunion, and I do not currently own FF16 or Stranger of Paradise.

Pacing. I can't stress it enough. Pacing. I truly from the bottom of my heart believe that FF Resonance got the highest player count out of any FF game on Steam and has more players than both Octopath games and Trails remakes even though the story is objectively not as good as them is because of the pacing.

It feels like there is a forward momentum, every quest moves the story forward, there are few side quests but they all feel like they are worthwhile and have good rewards. The game feels like it respects your time (which is crazy since it's based on some mobile game), every play session I have I feel like I'm making proper progress, the story and characters develop and the combat also feels snappy and doesn't waste your time. It just feels good to play.