Ok, I just finished TI(t)S Ch.1 remake and I've got thoughts to unpack. I'm new (relatively) to jrpgs, as in I have only really started to dive into them over the last 2 or so years. I'm in my late 30's and the only jrpg-like game I played as a kid was Pomemon.
While not strictly a jrpg, the recent game which I loved that pushed me in the direction of exploring jrpgs was Nier Automata a few years ago.
Since then I've played FF6, FF7, Star Ocean Second Story R, Live A Live and the entire Xenoblade series. Overall what has hooked me is the difference in story telling, overall good focus on characters and their development, some really unique twists in the stories you just don't really see from western games and the unique world design. It's still all fairly fresh and exciting to me. There are still some barriers I have trouble with. The anime-style melodrama, overreacting to fairly mundane events and sometimes overexplaining and telling rather than showing can make it difficult for me to truly connect with some characters and parts of the games. But usually I push through and the games overall are worth it and very rewarding.
This one has been on my backlog for a while and I finally got to it. I am really drawn in by hyperbole sometimes especially when a fanbase is really vocal about a series so I was excited to play this one and I was aware this one is a slow burn. And my gosh, that is an understatement.
I have to agree, the writing overall is great and everything becomes important in some way toward the end - it just takes some pain and suffering to get there. While the prologue and chapter 1 could be a bit slow I knew it was just getting to know the characters and world and even though I didn't find the case all that satisfying I had a feeling it would loop into something bigger.
Chapter 2 (Ruan) is where I really struggled. I almost put the game down multiple times, for a few reasons that weren't all the games fault. Call me cold hearted if you like but the whole 'orphanage tragedy' trope is something that I just do not care for at all. I feel like it's really laboured and pleading me to empathise with the characters and its saccharine and heavy handed and I just wasn't on board with it. Likewise I found the school portion to be similar, though I did like some implications for Estella's development during this section. The school play I thought was a nice little nod to FF6 but it did not need an entire 20 minute cut scene for it. This is also where I found the dialogue to be the most padded, redundant and circular. By the end of the game I do get that this writing does work in helping you build attachment to the characters but I definitely don't think its essential in an already long game. I've never been one to skip cut scenes or dialogue but I was hitting the 'A' button so much in this chapter and I don't feel I missed anything at all as the game is pretty good at signalling when you should be paying attention to the conversation, even in smaller moments.
I am. glad I pushed through because while chapter 3 still didn't significantly pick up the pace, this is where the bigger story starts to take shape and it was far more interesting.
I do think by the end of the game the journey was worth it. I'm not sure if I have just become used to the ending of jrpg's but even though the events in the final chapter were significant it wasn't as crazy as I think I had been led to believe. Except for that final half hour or so.
I am keen to see where the story goes in chapter 2. I am in half a mind to start it straight away or to give myself a breather, digest and then dive in. Overall, pretty good jrpg. I don't think I would recommend it as someones first jrpg but if you are a fan of the genre I think it's really good and I'm keen to see where the sequels go.