Favorite Non-Square JRPG

[TheMalign1]

I recently saw this video from ProJared and it got me thinking. I'm curious of what some people on here think. Even though its not really in the same essence as Square RPGs, I personally would have to go with Pokemon.

 

[Archeia]

I have a lot but some of the JRPGs that I really like:

• Dept. Heaven games
• Dragon's Dogma
• Drakengard and Nier
• Dragon Quest III
• Shin Megami Tensei
• Persona Series

 

[walkinthru]

Pokemon, The entirety of the Shin megami tensei series, Ys series, Fire emblem, and Breath of fire would have to be what stand out for me. Breath of fire had a big impact on narrative for me while Fire emblem and fire emblem like games (SRPG's) Tend to be a rather rare thing in game making. So it inspired me to work on a game like it.

 

[TheTitan99]

Mother 3. Combat refined so well from Earthbound (it's only slightly tweaked, but those subtle changes make it SO much better.) An incredible story, and a wondeful soundtrack.

 

[Trihan]

• Grandia II
• Grandia 2
• The second Grandia game
• Game number two in the Grandia series
• The game that came after Grandia
• That RPG where the main character is voiced by Leonardo from TMNT

 

[Vox Novus]

I have a few but if picking one, probably Tales of Symphonia. The question and topic title seemed more jrpg oriented but if including any rpg, its hard to leave out Skyrim.

Special mention goes to wild Arms 3 because it does a fantastic job of incorporating the setting of the game and makes for a very memorable game. Persona 4 does a great job with this as well to.

 

[Darkanine]

Phantasy Star 4 would be my pick. Great story, characters, setting and soundtrack. In terms of gameplay, I think the Epic battle Fantasy series is one of my favorites. For such a goofy series, the last few games have some of the most strategic and varied battle systems I've seen yet.

@Trihan Do you know the name of that last one you mentioned? I'm a pretty big Turtles fan so I'm pretty curious.

 

[Dalph]

I mostly prefer stuff from the PS and PS2 era.

• Grandia
• Legend of Legaia
• Suikoden 2 & 3
• Lunar & Lunar 2
  
• Wild Arms & Wild Arms 3
• Breath of Fire III & IV

Another J-RPG I really enjoyed was Xenoblade Chronicles (for Wii) and I'm currently looking forward to finally try Xenoblade Chronicles X as well.

 

[Kes]

[move]Video Games[/move]

 

[Reapergurl]

Non-Square?

Elder Scrolls series, especially Skyrim
Dragon Quest
Legend of Zelda (It may be an action game but has several RPG elements so it counts to me)
Ys series (one of the first I played on the SMS)

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (has a few RPG elements in it but not a full-fledged RPG)

I know of others, just can't think of them at the moment...

 

[Niten Ichi Ryu]

Tales of Vesperia
Legend of Dragoon
Suikoden

 

[mogwai]

Dragon Knight 3.
I wanted to play the rest of them, but they were never translated.

 

[boomy]

Golden Sun (The Lost Age) on Gameboy advance

 

[TheTsunaru]

The first Grandia game is actually my favorite game of all time, never mind genre specific.

Tales of Vesperia, Suikoden 2, Star Ocean 2 and Paper Mario TTYD are all up there in contention for second place, but Grandia takes the uncontested spot at number 1.

@Darkanine The main character of Grandia 2 is voiced by Cam Clarke, who also did the voices of Leonardo and Rocksteady in the 80s/90s TMNT cartoon.

 

[Alexander Amnell]

Jrpgs only...so no Fallout.

• Legend of Dragoon: a better game than most Final Fantasies, all if you cut out tactics. Shame it sunk into obscurity but let's be honest, if it had a sequel it probably would have been terrible.
  
• Golden Sun & Lost Age: See, the proper way to do sequels is to write the damn story with them already in mind from the beginning. **** Dark Dawn and it's crappy story though, cliffhanger endings don't work anymore when the story is terrible.
• Lost Odyssey: Maybe the only great xbox-exclusive rpg (or possibly the only one period.) unlike dragoon/legeia the battle system was nothing special but the main story and the bonus short-stories were all fascinating.
  
• Legend of Legeia: another great game with a crappy sequel

 

[tale]

I wouldn't call them favorite, probably memorable at least to me.

• Etrian Odyssey II-III [NDS], Level grinding can be satisfying as the party progresses to the next floor of the stratum along with defeating tough FOEs. Map exploration has a neat feature for pinpointing and organization. There's actually a storyline however it's not that noticeable sometimes.

• One Way Heroics [PC], The mechanics are interesting as well with a twist of against time. It's a Roguelike of managing priorities on the battle field. Terrain can be used to your advantage or against you. I used to play from time to time few years ago.

• Phantom Brave [PS2/Wii/PSP/Steam], Gameplay was relaxing and enjoyable. No grids! (unlike their counterpart Disgaea) Plenty of things to choose from in battle however limited in summoning, that's part of the challenge. Soundtrack and the presentation overall was wonderful. I couldn't find the time to finish it.

 

[Lantiz]

As I think of it, looks like I've never finished a jrpg that's not from SE '-'
Maybe I remember later but, I'll put some considerations instead.
Looks really hard for me.

Played BoF II, III and loved IV but sadly I could not finish any.
I was really hooked by Legend of Legaia, not sure why I didn't finish this one.
Lunar is another one that I didn't have but I started to play until I had to return it to a friend.
Tried so hard to get into Grandia, could not.
Begin to play Tales of Vesperia but stoped right at the begining, don't remember why.
Played Lost Odyssey but I had to sell my x360.
Had some fun with Persona 3 until I found out about the need for grind (started on hard :/ ).
Tried Tales of Zestiria, may get back to it sonner or later, I just got tired of the circle

Spoiler: Oh nooo, don't touch me!

Dungeon > Travel > New City > Repeat

The reason to run in circle was always the same...

Recently I started playing Xenoblade Chronicles but it was too boring for me, I guess the world could have more interesting stuff to do besides just look at and be amazed:

Spoiler: I don't like fingers go away

"oh look a nice lake down there, looks great from here... I won't go there, there's nothing there"

Maybe it's just the start I don't know...

I was really hooked by Xenoblade Chronicles X, but I had to stop to play the new Zelda.

Does Harvest Moon count? This would be my choice.

Also, I want to play Wild Arms before I die...

Spoiler: Don't touch this button

and a certain Xeno game, but it's from SE

EDIT: There's also To The Moon... such masterpiece!

 

[mogwai]

@Reapergurl I see you caught my game title and liked my post. I hope you didn't get the inside joke. Though I never played the JRPGs DK1,2 and 4 because they were never translated, I did see the *cough* English dubbed anime based on DK4. It was surprisingly clean and rather enjoyable; and it has a really good soundtrack.

 

[Reapergurl]

@mogwai My ex-girlfriend loved the Dragon Knight games.

Of course, it's a painful memory (R.I.P.)...

But I just caught the JRPG hook...I don't think any of my entries fall under the JRPG category...

 

[Outlaw-77]

Epic Battle Fantasy IV for me, it has charming cartoonish character, fourth-wall breaking, and amazing turn-based RPG combat which inspires a lot of how I design RPG's of my own.