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#jrpgs
prokopetz · 4 months
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So help me, I love JRPG bosses with stupid meta strategies that exploit some quirk of the mechanics to ruin your day. Like, yeah, cast a spell that changes my primary damage-dealer's damage type to an element the boss is healed by, and I can't even remove it because it's technically a buff and all of the condition-removing effects specifically don't remove buffs. Give me a boss whose passive aura grants spell reflection to the opposing party, which in practice prevents me from healing myself but doesn't hinder the boss at all because literally all of their attacks are physical type. Go on, make it weird.
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siemingly · 1 year
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I AM THOU / THOU ART I
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phone card for The Legend of Xanadu
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acquired-stardust · 4 months
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Legend of Dragoon Playstation 1999
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launch-cronch · 1 month
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literally a perfect game
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mat2modblog · 1 year
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The classic JPRG trope where you have a choice between “yes” and “no” but selecting “no” just sends you back to the choice box until you select “yes”.
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dynamite-derek · 5 months
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Sea of Stars: The best game you played as a child that released in 2023
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When I was in middle school, I have vivid memories of playing Chrono Trigger. I rented it from my local video store, a poor man's family video. It even had a tanning bed, as was the style at the time. I sat in front of my grandmother's mid-size CRT television and was amazed at just about everything I saw. The beautiful pixel art, the various set pieces, the story, the music. Everything. My inner monologue for about a month after experiencing Chrono Trigger for the first time was using "thees" and "thous" a lot like Frog did in that localization. He was the best character so the way he spoke was the best way to speak. Simple as that.
Often times games try to ape Chrono Trigger because my experience with it is hardly a unique one. Most of the time, I feel these games miss the mark or fall short of it. They tease you with the "Chrono Trigger" but it more hits on some highlights that Chrono Trigger had instead of making an actual good game that can stand on its own merits. The example that comes most prominently to mind is "I Am Setsuna," a game I once wrote about on this blog. It's a game that mindlessly tries to take what makes Chrono Trigger a good game and slaps it onto something else. A soulless product developed by a company with a soulless name (Tokyo RPG Factory.)
My brother has been pestering me to play Sea of Stars for months now. Yet the specter of products like "I Am Setsuna" prevented me from making the jump for a long time. Yes, aesthetically, it played the part...but if I were to go back in time and rent this game from the fake Hollywood Video and play this on the mid-size CRT at my grandmother's house, would it capture my imagination? Would it stand on its own?
Yes.
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On the surface, Sea of Stars looks like it's trying to be Chrono Trigger. They have the combo attacks, they have the wacky cast of characters from a variety of different backgrounds, the overworld and spritework looks pretty close and the music...well, the music can often feel like it was lifted straight from that very SNES game. But there's more to it than that. Quite literally. Sea of Stars doesn't just try to mimic the style of one beloved RPG, it lifts from several and becomes something of a Jack of all retro turn based trades.
The combat uses timed hits like Super Mario RPG - a system that's extremely easy to wrap your mind around but is extremely adept at keeping the player's attention. You can't just take your mind off of the game once you hit 'attack.' It also has the ability to change your characters in combat, which gives the game something of a Final Fantasy X (it's odd that a 20+ year old game is the 'newest' thing mentioned here) feeling. Sometimes a spot will call for a poison user, sometimes it will call for your warrior cook, sometimes it will call for your moon user. It's simple, but it makes each encounter feel unique and engaging. It also uses something akin to a limit break system, as seen in various Final Fantasy titles. Everybody gets an elaborate ultimate attack. When is the right time to use it? Even more variables tossed into a fairly easy-to-use system.
It's not just in the gameplay either. One of the big mistakes video game companies make when making 'new' retro games is that they cram too much story into the game. Don't get me wrong, stuff like Final Fantasy IV, Lunar Silver Star Story and Chrono Trigger have plenty of story, but go back and play those games and then go play Final Fantasy VII. The amount of dialogue and dedication to storytelling is next level compared to what you get in SNES games. Older RPGs have a smattering of world building and story but that is bolstered by the gameplay. Sea of Stars is similar in this regard. It does not have 'too much' story, it has about as much as you would see in an SNES RPG. It leaves something to the imagination. Not every last detail of the world is explained, you're left with a sense of wonder.
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When I first heard the term 'solstice warrior,' I grimaced. It sounded so lame, like something out of a kid's cartoon. And yet, it is tackled with sincerity. They don't go out of their way to tell you every aspect of what goes into making these warriors, they keep things very simple and straight forward. It just feels authentic. By the end of the game I wanted to learn more about this world and these characters, I did not feel like everything had been spelled out in game and there was something left to discover. Even a post-game twist felt like something a kid would tell you at school and you'd just roll your eyes and say 'yeah fucking right Ned, I'm sure collecting all 60 conch shells will do that.'
My discovery with this game is that in order to create a 'love letter' to a genre, you need to focus on more than one game. It needs to just focus on lots of things. I am Setsuna feels like a shallow clone of Chrono Trigger. Sea of Stars feels like a game that saw great elements from a lot of other great games and came to its own conclusions by throwing those things together. I fully believe a middle school aged Derek would have been glued to his Grandma's CRT for a month straight playing this game. It's the highest compliment that I can pay this game. It's not better than Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI or Earthbound. But it still stands on its own and it is fantastic.
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druvjelly · 7 months
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Video games with social mechanics which also gives you battle mechanics are so funny
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You learn about a characters horrific past, that is them losing their entire family and going through a self discovery journey by becoming a clown. And then you get
“You just unlocked Dancing For SP! Now when you destroy an enemy, there’s a chance you will do a little dance which will give your team infinite SP!”
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cluelesshero · 11 months
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#418 Suddenly Dumb
That´s an OP log
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amazedanny · 16 days
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warakami-vaporwave · 1 year
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Limit Break 7
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prokopetz · 10 months
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What a family is according to late 1990s JRPGs:
Guy with sword
Girl who wields immense destructive power and is super autistic about it
Person who's tried to kill you on multiple occasions, but it's cool because they're, like, really sad
Person who calls you "thou" even though literally nobody else in the setting talks like that
Some sort of robot and/or cave person
Talking cat
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flawedvictori · 7 months
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please reblog, I'm so curious
I know I left out a lot of good options but i didnt wanna crowd your dash.
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Lunar: Eternal Blue
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lunarphaseshift · 8 months
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The celestial bodies shine over where the worlds meet...
Happy 32nd anniversary to one of the games ever.
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cartridge4daculture · 11 months
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There's not a single day that goes by that I don't think about Yosuke Hanamura getting shoved back into the closet HARD by Atlus
Could you imagine, could you even goddamn imagine how different gaming as a culture would look if in 08/09 if Yu and Yosuke were the faces of lgbtq representation from Japan for the eight straight years P4 reigned as Atlus's golden goose
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