The GWJ JRPG Club Version 2.5 HD Remaster: Announcing our Q2 2024 Game!

Seconding Xenoblade Chronicles.

Great list, everyone. Great list. Here are our nominees, all have been seconded:

Atelier Ryza
Fire Emblem Three Houses
Phantom Brave
Tales of Vesperia
Xenoblade Chronicles
Ys 8

Nominations close tomorrow at 9 AM US Eastern Time (GMT -4). So if you’re sitting on a nomination, now’s the time!

I’ve gotten quite a bit busier than I was in the past, both with work and with personal stuff. So I’m going to be slower posting in general—and specifically tomorrow, I’m not going to update the thread until evening. I’ll have to think about whether we should do a Pick round or just vote on these, as the list is short enough that a Pick round may not matter much. If you have input I’d love to hear it!

I'm 4/6 for ones I can play, we'll have to see what ones come out on top. I prefer Ys 8/Phantom Brave as games I haven't played before but I would also absolutely love a replay of Vesperia.

There's only one game on there that I won't play, the rest are all VERY appealing to me.

To be polite, I won't get on my rant about it.

Anyway, I should be finishing up on my current RPG (CrossCode) very soon so I'm keen as a bean to see what we'll all be playing!

I own 4/6 of that list, and would be more than happy to play any of those. I’m willing to give the other two a shot, although my voting will still give priority to what I already have.

I've got a lot of traveling coming up this quarter so I'll be watching from the sidelines this time around.

But to answer LastSurprise's question, I think if we end with these 6 as the nominations, we can probably go straight to the final round. I can see still doing the Pick round if we want to narrow down to 4 for the final vote from where we are now or something, or if we get another nomination or two.

A bit surprised we haven't seen Octopath nominated, since that was a strong contender for the last few quarters.

Yeah, that makes sense to me. The list is so short, and people do a good job only voting for the games they'd play, so I think we can skip straight to ranked-choice voting.

We've definitely seen fewer people nominating and seconding games this time around, so in case people are just slow to check the forums this month (as I've been), I'm going to leave ranked-choice voting open until Saturday morning at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time (GMT -4). Hopefully that will give everyone who wants to a chance to participate.

And here's the list:
Atelier Ryza
Fire Emblem Three Houses
Phantom Brave
Tales of Vesperia
Xenoblade Chronicles
Ys 8

Tales of Vesperia
Fire Emblem
Atelier
Phantom Brave

(Ys 8 is a must play btw. I probably won't join but I'd love to be a part of the thread if it does get picked.)

Xenoblade Chronicles
Fire Emblem
Atelier Ryza
Phantom Brave

(Agree with A_Unicycle on Ys 8, it's great, but I don't see myself playing again. Same for Tales)

Ys 8
Phantom Brave
Tales of Vesperia
Xenoblade Chronicles

Alright, let's do it

1. Ys 8
2. Fire Emblem Three Houses
3. Tales of Vesperia
4. Xenoblade Chronicles
5. Atelier Ryza
6. Phantom Brave

My vote:

Phantom Brave
Ys 8
Tales of Vesperia

Ys 8 let's go!

My votes:
1. Ys 8
2. Atelier Ryza
3. Phantom Brave
4. Fire Emblem Three Houses
5. Tales of Vesperia
6. Xenoblade Chronicles

Ys 8
Tales of Vesperia
Xenoblade Chronicles
Atelier Ryza

Oh wow, Ys 8 is really pulling ahead!

I know it's been nominated a few times previously, so maybe it's about time

1. Xenoblade Chronicles
2. Ys 8
3. Tales of Vesperia
4. Atelier Ryza
5. Phantom Brave

Hi!

My vote is for:

Phantom Brave
Tales of Vesperia
Ys 8

Ys 8
Phantom Brave

Coming in late with my not-quite-five:

Fire Emblem Three Houses
Xenoblade Chronicles
Ys 8

Halfway through our voting process, and here are the standings!

Ys 8 - 5
Phantom Brave - 2
Xenoblade - 2
Fire Emblem Three Houses - 1
Tales of Vesperia - 1
Atelier Ryza - 0

Ys 8 looks like it has a commanding lead; if voting stopped right now, it would be one vote away from a pure majority on the first ballot! There are still three days to get in your votes, everyone.

Tales of Vesperia
Atelier Ryza
Ys 8

Well, the votes are in, and I'm happy to announce our next club game:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/b4KDuT5.jpg)

With a total of five first-place votes to start, and 10 of 12 voters listing Ys VIII somewhere on their list, Ys VIII demonstrated the power of strong preferences combined with a broad appeal. Here's how the voting broke down:

Spoiler:

Round 1
Ys 8 - 5
Phantom Brave - 2
Tales of Vesperia - 2
Xenoblade - 2
Fire Emblem Three Houses - 1
Atelier Ryza - 0

Total votes: 12
Leader has majority: No

Eliminated: Atelier Ryza, Fire Emblem Three Houses

As Atelier Ryza had no first place votes, Fire Emblem could not pick up any first place votes, and so it couldn't pass any of the other games.

Round 2
Ys 8 - 5
Xenoblade - 3
Phantom Brave - 2 (5 second-place votes)
Tales of Vesperia - 2 (3 second-place votes)

Total votes: 12
Leader has majority: No

Eliminated: Tales of Vesperia

Coming out of this round, Ys VIII was guaranteed a win. It only needed one more vote to capture a majority, and had at least one second-place vote behind each of the other three games. So, no matter what game was eliminated, Ys would stand victorious.

Round 3 - Ys VIII Wins
Ys 8 - 6 (4 second-place votes)
Phantom Brave - 3 (4 second-place votes)
Xenoblade - 3 (2 second-place votes)

Total votes: 12
Leader has majority: Yes

But the real insider story of this round was, I think, Phantom Brave, which showed broad enough appeal on its first appearance in our club voting. Phantom Brave dominated repeat contenders Xenoblade and Tales of Vesperia to make it to a strong second place finish. Do we have a future winner on our hands?

And, for the finishers, this month's musical theme will be awesome "normal" battle music.

Edit: Here's the link to the new thread!

Cool. Have this sitting on the PS4. My son has played a little, but I'm yet to give it a go.

LastSurprise wrote:

But the real insider story of this round was, I think, Phantom Brave, which showed broad enough appeal on its first appearance in our club voting. Phantom Brave dominated repeat contenders Xenoblade and Tales of Vesperia to make it to a strong second place finish. Do we have a future winner on our hands?

Confession: I nominated this game thinking that it would not even be seconded. I am quite (happily) surprised to see the support for a fairly obscure and niche title like this...

I'd be all about Phantom Brave next time around! I've never played a Disgaea game, but like tactics RPGs, and suspect from the run-times that this would be a big more approachable, and shorter, than a main-line Disgaea.

Did someone say Tactics RPG? Ears pricked up.

There currently is an NIS America sale on Steam, and you can pick up some Disgaea titles and Phantom Brave for very, very cheap! (I'm only bringing this up because Phantom Brave did pretty well in the last round of voting, and thought some people might want to pick it up.)

Ha! Beat me to it. Was coming in to let y'all know.

Keen to add Phantom Brave to my pile

I'm currently playing Fantasian (Apple Arcade), out of scope for the club I know. I'm hitting it hard because I'm hoping to finish it up within my trial period. Highly recommended though, one of the best turn-based battle systems I've played, lots of Lost Odyssey vibes.