JRPGs that Aren't Final Fantasy Catch-All 2.0

Is there anything they didn't screw up last week?

The cinematic trailer/opening for Legend of Mana.

It's the only thing from that E3 presentation that's sitting at a 90+% like ratio on YouTube.

EDIT: Man, imagine how much more different the tone might have been if they played a trailer like this during E3 (though, be warned, looks like potential late-game spoilers for NEO: The World Ends With You? Japan is strange how they'll put scenes and clips from the final portions of a game right in their trailers, and this looks like it could be doing that very thing).

Last Neo: The World Ends With You Trailer just dropped, and it's a pretty long trailer at about 5 1/2 minutes. It's a gameplay trailer with very little of the combat shown. There's a lot of cutscene and dialog along with some shopping, the return of pig noise, and voices for what looks like a host of reapers and partners. Demo available on June 25th.

Possible story spoilers if you're paying attention and remember it all, but I'm also not certain on what's been revealed already.

EDIT: ccesarano beat me to it and with a similar 'possible spoilers' comment, too. I just posted the Nintendo YT channel trailer with the satisfying Switch intro snap instead of the SE channel version.

I'm torn on Neo: The World Ends With You... I want it to be as wonderful as I remember the original being, but I'm afraid it'll be another Chrono Cross.

Also I know the main character's chin mask will drive me nuts all game.

Mantid wrote:

Also I know the main character's chin mask will drive me nuts all game.

Speaking of irrational hating of things in games from this week's GWJ podcast. That's the thing right there. What an obnoxious choice.

It looks like EPIC games will get official Trails from Zero and Auzre.

Quote
It is official that we will get localization on them within the two years. Now this is just poggers.

Epic Game store you might just went a bit overboard on showing this early.

https://t.co/SJntQcv4Sl https://t.co/wpEy6AwizM

Just saw an article on RPGSite about those Trails games but it looks like JohnKillo already beat me to it. Would be nice to finally get a chance to play the Crossbell duology without having to go to fan translations. The article also mentions the 10th game in the series (Trails into Reverie) and a spin-off game.

Wow, NISA doing some heavy localization. I'm gobsmacked they're doing Azure and Zero.

LastSurprise wrote:

I saw that Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is 30% off on Steam for the next two weeks. I remember hearing Lara Crigger talk about it on the podcast at one point, and it sounded pretty good. Anyone played it?

Also... renewed interest in the game has me giving it a second look... does anybody know if there's a noticeable difference between the Playstation and Switch versions?

garion333 wrote:

Wow, NISA doing some heavy localization. I'm gobsmacked they're doing Azure and Zero.

I'm actually not too surprised. I'm working off of memory here, but when the EVO remakes to the Crossbell games were announced for the PS4 in Japan a couple of years ago, those were seen as the best opportunity for them to be localized at the time, since it would be on modern platforms AND it would bypass the licensing chaos that the originals were mired in. This was before the Geofront team came in and gave us a mostly professional looking fan translation of the originals, and provided a way to buy the games legally.

So if I want to be caught up on the Trails game, after I finish Azure, I just have until 2023 to get through all four Cold Steel games.......yeah, not sure that's going to happen, especially considering what else is coming out next year.

garion333 wrote:

Wow, NISA doing some heavy localization. I'm gobsmacked they're doing Azure and Zero.

They will be using the fan translations as their base. Which I think is super cool! The patches are understandably no longer available for download though.

As far as getting up to date, I think it's possible for me: I only have Sky 3rd, Azure, Cold Steel III and IV remaining. Reverie won't be out until 2023, so that's definitely feasible.

bobbywatson wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Wow, NISA doing some heavy localization. I'm gobsmacked they're doing Azure and Zero.

They will be using the fan translations as their base. Which I think is super cool! The patches are understandably no longer available for download though.

As far as getting up to date, I think it's possible for me: I only have Sky 3rd, Azure, Cold Steel III and IV remaining. Reverie won't be out until 2023, so that's definitely feasible.

Nice! I thought that was too good to be true so didn't even consider it a reality.

garion333 wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Wow, NISA doing some heavy localization. I'm gobsmacked they're doing Azure and Zero.

They will be using the fan translations as their base. Which I think is super cool! The patches are understandably no longer available for download though.

As far as getting up to date, I think it's possible for me: I only have Sky 3rd, Azure, Cold Steel III and IV remaining. Reverie won't be out until 2023, so that's definitely feasible.

Nice! I thought that was too good to be true so didn't even consider it a reality.

Geofront seems to be happy with the deal. I'm glad and will double dip with less sketchy chinese websites to buy keys.

Also it will be out for Switch too? Awesome.

Get me the Trails in the Sky Trilogy on Switch please?

bobbywatson wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Wow, NISA doing some heavy localization. I'm gobsmacked they're doing Azure and Zero.

They will be using the fan translations as their base. Which I think is super cool! The patches are understandably no longer available for download though.

Good for the Geofront team, they seem excited about it. Can't say I've ever heard of official localizers building off of fan translations before, but there's a first for everything I suppose.

Sundown wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Wow, NISA doing some heavy localization. I'm gobsmacked they're doing Azure and Zero.

They will be using the fan translations as their base. Which I think is super cool! The patches are understandably no longer available for download though.

Good for the Geofront team, they seem excited about it. Can't say I've ever heard of official localizers building off of fan translations before, but there's a first for everything I suppose.

The only other example I can think of is Xseed buying a fan translation of Ys: The Oath in Felghana a few years ago.

If I were NISA, I would absolutely use fan work. Less work and gives you more time to punch up the work? Yes please.

After putting may main gaming time into it, I’m now up to the final chapter of Trails to Azure. And I know it’s the final chapter since the title card literally said “FINALE” at the top.

So, there’s been this building tension in this game where you just know something big is going to happen. It’s what the Trails games do. I was only caught off guard with it in Sky FC, since it was the first one I played and I had no reason to think this slow paced, going-on-an-adventure-with-characterization-and-world-building game had a switch blade and some dynamite sitting in the back pocket. And that’s kind of why these games work so well to me; even with tons of anime tropes, they spend so much time in characterization and grounding the characters and events, that when it inevitably pops off, it feels like it means something. So I was watching the story of Azure go along, and interesting things had happened, but it wasn’t all the way wild yet.

Well, I'm happy to report that it got all the way wild. I’m going to drop some random thoughts and predictions that I had along the way in spoiler tags. This is heavy spoilers for basically the whole game up to this point, so bobbywatson, don’t read it until you get to this point. But I’d love to hear your impressions later.

The other thing I want to say is the music from Falcom’s composers is absolutely fantastic, and many songs are used to exactly the right effect to build moods. This is true for all of the games of theirs that I’ve played (both in the Trails series and in the Ys games), but it continues to be the case here, especially considering some emotional story and character beats scattered throughout the game. Now for the plot thoughts.

Spoiler:

Ch.2 and 3 notes
Getting back to music specifics, it was cool during the chase of the counterfeit dealer on top of the train was made so much better when they used the chase theme from the first game, when Lloyd/Randy vs. Wazy/Wald vs. Estelle/Joshua had that big event in downtown where they fought each other.

Also, with the fraudster on Day 2, how did we let him get away? Our car is faster than a train? Why not run him down or off the road? Anyway, I’m also proud to say I called Wald going bad and taking power to become a demon or something, but that doesn’t explain why he left us alone after we we lost to him. I guess it wasn’t time for Wazy to show whatever he has going on.

When Arianrhod was named when we first met her, that was sort of a meta-”oh crap” moment. I knew Arianrhod showed up in this game from random spoilers over the year, but didn’t know who or what they are. But I did know they are considered by the fan power levels to be the one of the strongest entities in the series. Like, if Cassius Bright with a sword is S, she is SS. So, I don’t know if we’re going to be able to beat her in this game.

Sad melancholy version of Getting Over the Barrier when Randy leaves, and when he’s being forgiven by the team? Pretty cool, really good mix.

Oof to the invasion of Crossbell. We’ll have to see how many named characters actually died (like Ilya or Fran), but it seems like a bad scene. (narrator: there were none) And stealing the bell in the center of town is conspicuous, especially considering how important they are in the towers. I bet that will bring all sorts of nasties in later.

Ch.4 – Day 2, aka The One Where it Goes Bad
As soon as Arios took Shizuku from the hospital in Ch. 4, I was like “it begins.” I know Crossbell gets invaded by Erebonia, and things are moving quickly towards that in Ch. 4. But that was the clue that he knew it was coming and took preemptive action.

And within short order, we have an imminent threat from the major powers from freezing assets, a power grab by Dieter to become president, the new Defense Force getting more aggressive and forceful, the train station being closed and foreigners being asked to leave, and crowds getting whipped into a nationalistic frenzy. Seems like a bad mix of things. And I went and talked to the people, and the general vibe was half excitement, and have heavy nervousness that something bad was going to happen soon. Surely Crois and Arios knew they were provoking a response with this. Plus Ries got called back to the home church, so the Church may be moving on Crossbell as well. Plus with the Society active in the city? Yeah, this promises to be a huge mess. I do wish the characters would tell us why they think the power grab is bad, though. Like, is it against what they think Crossbell stands for vs. maybe supporting it because it gives us a chance to try to throw off the shackles? Either way, would have like to heard more what the SSS thought about it other than it was shocking.

You know, I something think of this like a strategy game, like EU4. How does a rich city state prevent from being absorbed into a larger nation, since they aren’t large enough to fight larger armies since their population and industrial base is smaller? Hire mercenaries. I thought about this after the big speech as we were wandering around town, and though it would be incredibly weird if Crossbell hired the Red Constellation later, and we had to fight them/fight with them. But, I can’t put it past this series to pull a big twist like that. But hold that thought…...

After doing the Murder Case of Guy Bannings quest with the blind reporter, I was like Oh Crap, was it Arios? He is being set up as a suddenly suspicious figure, with becoming the new CiC and with the inferences to his ties to the Schwarz Auction. Too early to say, but if it had to be someone close to Guy, and if we’re going for the twists, it could be him. Like, maybe Arios and Crois had something going for years to strengthen Crossbell through grabbing power, and Guy opposed it. Oooh, is this going to go deep like Richard’s takeover of Liberl was?

I love Lechter. Like, every time he’s on screen, things are instantly better. This is specifically talking with him in the old Revanche compound. But remember what I said two paragraphs up about the Red Constellation being hired by Crossbell? Turns out I was right, but it happened sooner than I was thinking. And by that, it was Crois who hired them to attack Crossbell back in Ch.3, most likely to justify the power grab. Which would also explain how the banking functions were already backed up at Orcis tower. Awww, here we go, it’s time for the Trails series to do its thing.

So by the end of Ch.4, we know the Society was working with Crois to resurrect KeA. It was like all our villains (the Crois family, the Red Constellation, and the Society) were all on top of Orchis tower for the ending cutscene, but they were doing it in defense of Crossbell. Well, the jaegers were in it for money, the Crois were in it for power, and the Society was in it for whatever there were in it for. I actually found it hard to dislike them entirely at this point, since they were protecting the city and freeing them from oppression by the major powers, even though they did bait the Empire and the Republic into the attack and do other bad stuff to get to that point. And one of the characters said this earlier, but the society don’t seem actively malevolent this time, more mischievous. Maybe Weissman back in the Sky Arc was kind of on his own and acting bad? Plus, Arianrhod seems like a stand up character. Either way, I feel like the situation is way more complicated than I thought based on the Sky games.

Also, Arios copped to killing Guy, as I suspected earlier. And Noel was the one that wound up arresting us after we lost to Arios and watched the villains get everything they wanted, just to twist the knife a little more for the massive betrayal that was the entire end of Chapter 4.

You know what? I went into this game knowing that Erebonia invades Crossbell, and that the attack was ultimately repelled. Apparently I didn’t pick up on the part where Calvard did too, but also that it was done in a cutscene and didn’t really amount to anything, since they got repelled by mechs. I thought we would be bravely fighting them off underground or something. But Crois beat the invaders off with ease with the help of a man-made Sept-Terrian. And presumably he is now our final boss. Or something. Maybe KeA is? I don’t know. So even if I knew some spoilers, there was still so much going on that I didn’t have near the entire picture.

And I had no idea about the prison break or teaming up with Garcia, or that Zeit was a holy beast that was going to give us the lore dump of the last 1200 years of Crossbell, so from here on out I’m totally blind. We’ve fully on the crazy train, and I’ve got my ticket up in first class. Let’s do this thing.

But wait, really. How did Wazy get assigned to the SSS with Dieter’s recommendation? He couldn’t have been a spy for Dieter since the church sent him to monitor things, so why would Wazy be recommended in the first place? Although I assume part of his motivation would be to be close to KeA, but there's still a hole here.

Thanks for mentioning my name, I almost clicked that "show" link I'm close to the end of chapter 2, I'm hoping to wrap it up today, and maybe the intermission later this week.

I agree on the music. I downloaded the soundtrack from Apple Music, and I've been listening to it outside of the game regularly. Falcom's composers know what they're doing, and they are very good at it.

Bunch of Mana-related news dropped on the 30th Anniv. stream, but the one that stuck out was a new Mana game in development. Nice. Pretty obvious all these remakes and re-releases was likely leading to this.

garion333 wrote:

Bunch of Mana-related news dropped on the 30th Anniv. stream, but the one that stuck out was a new Mana game in development. Nice. Pretty obvious all these remakes and re-releases was likely leading to this.

They should have had some sort of Mana series anniversary summary to upload to English YouTube, because the announcement of a Mana game on mobile did not sit well. Based on comments, a lot of folks didn't know there was a new console game announced (I know I didn't).

An anime was also announced, it seems. Neato!

Footage is still b-roll, but Jay does a good job covering the bases of why Arise is different than prior Tales games. They've clearly taken note of what Xeno games and DQXI do well.

Now if only they would find a way to get rid of the arena in combat, but then the game would almost be a Xeno game.

I'm actually very optimistic. I've played Tales of the Abyss to completion, but otherwise, always fall off these games early. This looks pretty fresh and interesting. The games I dropped off of always felt a bit too simple of button-mashy. I do have Tales of Berseria in my Steam library, and I've heard good things about it. I may try to play it while I wait for Arise to be cheap

Anyway, I finished up Dragon Quest IV (DS) the other day with mixed feelings. I'll keep it brief:

Cons

  • Random battles are just so frequent. Even with items that reduce encounter rate, it had me grinding my teeth more than the monsters.
  • Story can feel so aimless. You might get a hint from a NPC, you may not. Coupled with the encounter rate, this makes it hard to explore and find your way without using a guide.
  • Story dropped off after the excellent initial chapters
  • I got lost so many times...

Pros

  • A wonderfully charming beginning that introduced all of the characters seperately. Just incredible. It made revisiting certain areas really special.
  • The final boss was an absolute blast. It requires you to swap between different party members constantly to keep up with his changing forms
  • Every party member had their "thing" they were good at. You get way more people to use than I first thought, and multiple times throughout my playthrough I thought I had "cracked" the game and had the best team. I never did, and I had so much fun changing it up constantly.
  • Audio and visuals are S+ tier on DS

Overall, I liked it. It took me 2 years to finish because I kept dropping it and picking it up due to getting lost and confused. I didn't like having to follow a guide for 70% of my time with it, and I didn't like the frequency of random battles. Still, I'm keen to play more oldschool DQ but I'm hoping these things are fixed as the series modernizes. I'm planning on playing V or IX next!

The only heartburn I had with DQ4 (which was the first in the series I beat) was that apparently the party chat feature wasn't in the DS version, but was in the mobile version. Fleshing out the characters is what makes a lot of RPGs for me these days, so that's what kept me from rating it higher, but I still did like it.

DQ5 somehow managed to pull off one of my favorite stories in a video game. Highly recommend that one.

That party chat feature would have been nice. Those initial chapters set up the party to have so much heart, but after they introduced their backstories, you hear nothing from them for 20 hours. A shame.

Sundown wrote:

The only heartburn I had with DQ4 (which was the first in the series I beat) was that apparently the party chat feature wasn't in the DS version, but was in the mobile version. Fleshing out the characters is what makes a lot of RPGs for me these days, so that's what kept me from rating it higher, but I still did like it.

DQ5 somehow managed to pull off one of my favorite stories in a video game. Highly recommend that one.

There is a hack of the DQ4 DS Rom that shoves the party talk back into the game.
Square Enix!

I've put about 5 hours into Scarlet Nexus on the PS5. I've enjoyed it! The combat is a bit tougher than the demo, but the checkpointing and saving are generous. The game has a good flow. You go though a few missions in a "phase" then have some down time where you can do side missions and/or have cutscenes with your buddies to build up your relationships. It also incorporates a general PS% "activities" card which lets you know how far you are in the phase, and how much time is left (which is great for a busy person).

Big plus: all the cut scenes show the dialogue, but are fully voice acted and advance automatically.

Gust has an announcement on the sixth. The knee jerk assumption is Atelier, but the use of a blue sky image combined with the March announcement of a Blue Reflection sequel in the works means it could be that instead.

Need to play Blue Reflection. Game never discounts below $30.

I've continued playing Crimson Nexus. I think I'm about halfway through. Recently, the boss battles have been a bit too much for me, but fortunately you can change the difficulty at any time. The mystery is engaging enough and I want to see how it plays out.

Meanwhile I tried the Monster Hunter Stories 2 demo on the Switch. This is a tonal 180 from Scarlet Nexus, and it was quite refreshing.

NIS America will be raising the prices of some of their PC games soon.

That's... bold. And frustrating.