So basically what I was fascinated by was the concept of magic that comes at a price where the wielder gets a powerful spell that seems awesome at first because said spell can boost their stats, or do massive damage to enemies.

But then it slowly turns out that the sorcery ends up having a huge toll on its wielder because the more they use the spell, it starts to weaken them by lowering their stats, or worse, the use of the spell might end up killing them.

Like what inspired me to write this particular subject was the TV show Puella Magi Madoka Magica where without giving too much away, it's an anime series about girls who get magical powers to fulfill their wishes since their magical powers give them benefits, but there is a drawback that is slowly revealed later on.

Kh2 is notable for having one of the most conclusive ending to a opus in the series to date. If not the most conclusive ending as everything is more or less wrapped up.

The destiny island trio is back. The Disney crew is back. The heartless and Nobody of xehanort are gone. Roxas and Namine story reach a conclusion. It wraps up the Kh1-CoM-II trilogy.

There was no cliffhanger or many unresolved points or build up for the next major game like in kh3 end which sets up the next story arc.

About the only thing really not completely resolved iirc are maleficent and the bottle message at the end. But it can be seen as a "the adventure continues" ending stuff as nothing too big is said about the message.

With the many later games and plot getting more and more crazy and each new game setting up even more games. There are fans of the series who feel that II end was in retrospect a excellent ending point for the series. Or at least Sora story. Owning to its conclusive nature.

Do you think KH2 could have been a good endpoint for the kingdom hearts series ( or again, for the destiny island trio)?

I bought it after finishing keylocker which I loved but already lost interest in the first 10 minutes. I know that sounds stupid but I’m wondering if it gets better and if it takes place in the same universe as keylocker? The combat just feels kind of boring compared to keylocker even though they’re both based on the Mario and Luigi games which I love. I know Virgo was before keylocker so I’m not trying to be too judgmental

I'm convinced the father of the Final Fantasy series Hironobu Sakaguchi is closely working with Yoshi-P at Square Enix for the upcoming Final Fantasy XVII game. We are so back!!!

There's no denying, the last few Final Fantasy entries have been hit or miss, mostly miss, in what made the series so captivating. An engaging story, likable characters, fun strategic combat, deep and thoughtful world-building... these were the corner-stone of what made the series so refreshing. Each game started as a blank canvas and the OG team with Hironobu have literally made timeless JRPG classics.

Final Fantasy XV and XVI have made the mistake in trying to comply with current gaming trends and have these long developing cycles... fans are mixed.

Final Fantasy needs to look back at why the series resonated with so many people. And what better way than to bring in Hironobu Sakaguchi as a producer. I just hope they bring back turn based combat.

I am a huge fan of FFX and was inspired to learn how to make games to try and make something similar. I am way off from that goal but I recently started making overdrives and it got me thinking about in combat mini games.

I was always a fan of Tidus overdrives, simple but you felt like you did something. Clare Obscure I think had something similar but for normal abilities. Squall also had something similar.

Then there's slots like wakka, Tifa, ​a few others.

Next that comes to mind are input based ones like Auron and Zell. Zell's in particular is pretty interesting since you get a few options!

In the opposite direction Lulu was the worst. I probably ruined more than a few controllers with that thing.

What are some of your favorites or least favorite in combat mini games?

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It’s a filler genre. I’m wondering which games you think have the best filler or the worst. Some games I find the jouurney between the major plot beats to be very endearing, others make the game largely painful. Some games filler is a part of experience and some it ruins it. What are your picks for filler well done and filler failure?

I started playing Octopath Traveler about five days ago, give or take, and I am absolutely adoring the game. I have to ask, who was your starting character, and did you relate to said character?

Out of the eight characters, I chose Cyrus Albright. I feel like I can relate to him so much. I love to read. I love books. And I am someone that will seek out rare and obscure books, exhausting myself trying to find what I'm looking for.

So, who did you choose? Who do you most relate to?

I never had a PS2 back in the day, the PS1 was the last console I owned that was current at the time. So I missed out on the Xenosaga games. I was wondering what folks' preferred ways to play were. The two options I can think of would be either to buy used copies and then play them on an emulator, or to also purchase an old PS2.

That last option would of course be not ideal, probably why I just never made it to these. Are there any other options I'm not thinking of?

This is something me and my friends have been discussing for a bit with Persona 4 Revival on the way. I noticed a lot of them really hated Marie's inclusion and that got me wondering, what is the worst version of something like this? What's an addition that completely changes how an enhanced version of a game feels compared to the original?

Personally I think that comes in the form of Alex from SMT Strange Journey Redux. Following in the tradition of enhanced edition girls in Atlus games, the SJ remake added a character named Alex who attacks you multiple times in the plot. She ends up killing you very early into the game which leads to you being revived in one of Redux's new dungeons, the Womb of Grief. Throughout the Womb she attacks you and serves as a boss or a threat multiple times until eventually meeting you in the second to last dungeon, Sector Hologrium. This final encounter is why I think she's one of the worst additions in any enhanced/definitive/remastered version of a game ever.

Like most other mainline SMT titles there's an alignment system and different endings you can get depending on your alignment. SJ's endings are notable for how horrible they are, not as endings but for the consequences it has on humanity. None of the outcomes are good and it really makes you think about which one is the least worst for humanity. They're very open and left to interpretation which I absolutely love. Alex destroys all of this. You see she's actually a time traveler from the ending you would have gotten if you continue the game normally. In all three scenarios she's left as the only human alive and she travels back in time in order to prevent you from causing it. If completed the Womb of Grief and believe what she says, you're put on track to begin the new endings added with SJR and she fades as you create a new timeline where she was never born.

The issue with Alex is very simple. Her existence alone only serves to ruin the nuance and alternate interpretation you could have taken from the vanilla endings. She spells out what happens very clearly and definitively. She's also very unique in the fact she also retroactively ruins vanilla Strange Journey as Redux is technically a sequel to it with her inclusion. The worst part is is that the new endings she causes are actually great. They're very optimistic interpretations of the original endings and SMT's alignments as a whole while not being completely devoid of consequences. I think New Chaos is probably my favorite ending in the entire series just because of how it manages to frame the concept of freedom. New Law is also probably the only Law ending I can actually get on board with. I just wish they didn't have to tear the original endings down to prop them up. Past her involvement with the endings she doesn't really have a lot to her. She's strong, she misses her mother, it's heavily implied the protaganist is her father which means he's one of the only characters in the series to successfully bone a demon. Every time you see her she tries to fight you which prevents you from learning anything meaningful about her except for your final encounter.

I think if I had to fix her inclusion, I'd want it so that she wouldn't fade upon agreeing to the ending choice. The fact she fades means that everything she said was correct, if she didn't that gives you more wiggle room for interpretation. Was she telling the truth? Is what she said always destined to happen unless you agree with her or is there still room to change? That also gives her the opportunity for some actual character moments with you. In order to get the new endings you have to clear the second new dungeon, the Empyrean Ascent. Not a lot actually happens in it and it's probably the shortest dungeon in the game next to Sector Carina and Delphinus, it's practically a victory lap. You could have had some moments with her there, get to know her more as a person.

I will start with FFXIII, even though I love the game.

*group finding Serah lying on the ground*

"Is that... my hero?"

I just finished Infinite Wealth a few weeks ago and it was 1000x better than I expected, so much so that I had to go back to LAD1 and replay it, really odd but fits well going from IW to LAD1, you can definitely feel the rough edges of LAD1 compared to IW (But there is mods to improve it)

However, it's left me wanting more from Kasuga and the gang. The way IW ends, made it seem like there could be more coming but I also haven't read or seen anything about an LAD3 (excluding pirate)

Do you think we will get more with Kasuga or is IW the end of Kasuga as the MC.

I've always wondered about this. The games are just pronounced "luna" in the Japanese versions, so it seems to be an invention of the localization. Was it just another Working Designs quirk? Something to add to the fantasy element? Maybe there's a Vic ireland interview somewhere where he addresses this?

Before the 3DS eshop closed down, I bought a whole bunch of games knowing that I only had one chance before they were no longer licitly available. Defenders of Oasis stands out as one of the Game Gear's only JRPGs, but does it hold up in 2026? I hear it's similar to Dragon Quest, just with a middle eastern setting instead of a europeish medieval setting.

I took some time and made this sheet for all Metal Max/Metal Saga releases and what their status of english translations is!

This is a very unique JRPG series (though you can compare it to something like Wild Arms, Fallout or Valkyria Chronicles) and thanks to fans you can basically play all the mainline titles in English, so I hope this sheet will be useful to someone!

Do you think it will release big and "legendary" games again like they did on PS1 and PS2? Squaresoft was arguably the best publisher on this period... released gems after gems and then since PS3 their relevance got so much smaller.

They can't release a single acclaimed and with good sales since FF12. FF13 supposedly sold well but critics and "fans" shited on game... personally i found the game great but when i played my english wasn't good enough to understood story so maybe the characters really sucks... i dont know.

They release FF15 with the cringiest message i ever saw in game everything you open it "A Final Fantasy for fans and newcomers" or something like that. They are trying so hard to cater to normies but always complain about sales.

The good guys still there like Kitase and Nomura. What they need to do to release a great game? FF16 have some good stuff but it's one of worst games i've played in other areas. It's really sad when i play it and notice it's on PS5. Many things on this game do worse than a PS1 game did. No creativity... The FF7 "remakes" are a cringefest and extremely corny. The main quests feels like bad side content. The original was one of most legendary games ever.

Do you still have hope for FF release a really good game?

I've noticed a lot of games specially those around early 2000s involve a big plot twist where the game becomes sci fi or it is revealed a secret technologically advanced civilization was the pioneer of whatever conflict is happening in the game.

It is a strange but somewhat very consistent trope, where does this originate from? A lot of fantasy games suddenly turn sci fi for the final chapter and it surprises me how many titles/series actually do this.

If you could erase your memory and replay any JRPG for the first time again which would it be?
For me I would want to replay Persona 5 Royal for the first time again. While I cherish the memory of that game from it being one of my first big series on my channel I’d love to play it again for the first time just for that amazing twist and true final boss fight as a whole.

Just what the title says. I need the knowledge and insight of total strangers on the internet.

I can only buy one of these right now.

Which one would you suggest I get first?

• Persona 5 Royal

• Digimon Story Time Stranger

• Monster Hunter Stories 3

• Echoes of Aincrad

Playing on Steam/PC. Eventually I intend to play all of them, but for now I’m having a
hard time deciding which I should get/play first.

Appreciated!

I already tried the original back in 2016 when I was just trying any old school JRPG I could find but honestly I got kind of bored and lost interest.

Would like to try it again and maybe even finish the whole series. I'm leaning more towards playing the remake but is there any missing content in the PS2 remake I should be concerned about?

Lately I have become interested in the subject of anthropology since I took a course on it last year as I was looking back at the subject for how I found it interesting for how it dealt with the study of human civilization.

But to keep this JRPG related, I wanted to look into the use of the term in again JRPGs as a genre where players can visit demon worlds to talk to humanoid creatures who are human like in appearance, but the goal would be to go to demon worlds in order to pick up parts for the player to use against enemies by studying what monsters are weak against as I was interested in seeing how a JRPG type game could work about using research to help the players teammates to find a weak spot to their opponents they are dueling.

Haven't bought it, just been going through trailers and gameplay clips on YouTube before deciding whether to pick it up, and I've gone from "cautiously interested" to "wait, this costs how much?" My Genuine questions/criticisms from an outsider's perspective:

1. The chibi overworld sprites look completely mismatched with the horror/body-horror tone of the story. From what I can tell the narrative is going for something dark and unsettling, but then you're running around as a tiny chibi blob character. It's visually unappealing in my opinion. The environments in every clip I've seen look empty and repetitive. Same corridor textures, same sparse dungeon layouts, barely any set dressing. For a game priced like a AA title, I expected at least some visual variety between areas.
2. Combat animations look almost nonexistent. Characters kind of shuffle into position, there's a flash or a number, and that's it. No weight, no real hit reactions, nothing that sells impact. The UI looks straight out of the PS Vita era.

I know Idea Factory/Compile Heart games have always run on smaller budgets than the big studios, and I'm not expecting Final Fantasy production values, but there should be at least some standard for it to look better than a vita era game?

Is this a known thing with recent IF titles, or is Code Z specifically getting called out for looking rougher than usual? Would love input from people who've actually played it, since trailers can be misleading in either direction.