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

I already played a ton of Persona 4 which is why it was low on my list. Played to October on the original PS2 release, then beat the Golden version on Vita. I have thought about revisiting it at some point, but there were newer options I hadn't played that I intended to that took my higher votes.

I thought Persona 4 would do better as well. Maybe with the Xbox release coming up? P3P would be a good time too.

I played it before on a borrowed PS2, and I have it now on steam ready for a replay, but for me it would be up against Xenoblade 3 as the really big RPG that I'm going to play over the new few months. I'd still be down to play it if we had voted for it, but Radiant Historia and Fell Seal were much easier to fit in my gaming schedule. I think it'll be a strong contender going forward, though.

Same, I’d be happy to do it next time. I’m about to finish SMT V (“about” = near the end of Taito, so still probably a good bit of end game content), so I wasn’t super keen on the same battle system for this quarter’s game.

I swear I'm still gonna finish the FFVI pixel remaster (I'm nearing the mid-point of the game) but I didn't keep up with the quarterly group.

Funny enough, I started Fell Seal a couple months ago and have poked at it a few times since. Being the Q3 pick seems to be a bit of a kick in the pants, so maybe I'll do better with it for the next little while.

I'm keen to try Fell Seal, but not right now. Interested to hear everyone's impressions!

As for Persona 4, that's definitely one I want to play when it releases on current consoles. But I don't think that is scheduled until next year sometime.

Well, I started earlier today and the game's basic setting and story seems intriguing so far. It's nothing mind blowing, but it does seem to fit FFT's politically focused style. I've had three fights so far, have learned some new skills, and have recruited a 6th party/army member at the local guild.

No new thread yet, right? Will post further thoughts once I play more and the corresponding thread is up.

Yeah I guess we don't technically start until July 1. But I reread the game thread a little bit earlier and am itching to jump back in.

New thread is up!

LastSurprise wrote:

New thread is up!

Thank you, LastSurprise!

Fell Seal is on sale for $7.50 on Steam and other vendors for Steam key.

Also on sale for $10 on Switch.

PS4 version not part of summer sale right now.

I have somehow been a bit oblivious to these clubs in the past but I am looking at jumping in. I already have Fell Seal on PC (If only I had preordered my steam deck earlier as this would be a great "mobile" game.) but I am tempted to pick it up on Switch.

Well Fell Seal is free on Prime Gaming starting today July 1

ComfortZone wrote:

I'm keen to try Fell Seal, but not right now. Interested to hear everyone's impressions!

As for Persona 4, that's definitely one I want to play when it releases on current consoles. But I don't think that is scheduled until next year sometime.

A little how I feel! Between a few big games right now, so starting another 30+ hour RPG is a bit daunting. That plus work and study...I think you'd all leave me in the dust!

I do miss participating in JRPG club, so hopefully I can play with you all next quarter enjoy!

Updated the thread title and front page with links to our thread for Fell Seal!

Congratulations to hbi2k, our first finisher!

As I said, the theme of this quarter is Overtures. Nothing like a great title track to get you ready for adventure! And in the spirit of tactical role-playing games, we're going to kick things off with one of the greats:

Congratulations to Sorbicol and Sundown, the second and third finishers of Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark!

Sorbicol, don't know if you're reading this, because you don't typically play in the JRPG Club, but back when the Tokyo Olympics featured JRPG music during the opening ceremony, I started a little fanfare whenever club members finished a game. This month, our theme is overtures. And since you're more of a CRPG guy, I have one of my childhood favorites for you:

Sundown, congratulations to you as well! Enjoy the title theme of a big, meaty strategy RPG:

Oh dang there's music? Now I'm going to have to finish.

Congrats to Arkon, our fourth finisher in the cross-play extravaganza!

I think this is your first game with us, so I had to do a little sleuthing to pick an overture that would be a good fit for you. But I think I found a good one:

That is a great theme song, from a game I absolutely loved!

Rolled credits, and I believe I am the fifth finisher. I'm going to share one of my favorite RPG overtures of all time, here. Up there are the Dragon Quest intro, the Final Fantasy prelude, and of course, Persona 5's amazing title track. But I think that very little hits me harder than this one:

I failed to sign in for a week and missed a few finishes. Congratulations to ubrakto, gewy, and Malkroth! I'll be back later today with some overtures.

EDIT: I'm back!

gewy and ubrakto, both of whom are more CRPG players than JRPG players, both seem to be into Bioware-style games. So what better overtures, for them, than two of the greats: KOTOR and KOTOR2? Both very different in their styles, the presentation of each mirrors the tone of the game's beginning, and the stakes when you jump in -- and, both immediately make you feel that you're in a Star Wars story.

And for Malkroth, a fellow JRPG enthusiast, what better overture than the grandparent of them all?

Math, congratulations on finishing! Knowing you are more of a CRPG player, I have for you an excellent title track from one of the genre's giants:

Thanks LastSurprise! I listened to that and it reminded me that there is an HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest 3 on the way and now I really want to play it.

I think you and I must be on the same wavelength. You mentioned the OG Ogre Battle in some other thread a couple weeks ago, and I have been wanting to replay it. Probably am going to nominate it for the club for this upcoming, final quarter of 2022. And I've Googled the release date for the DQ3 remake at least 3 times in the last 2 weeks. (And I've learned that Googling more often doesn't make it come out faster.)

Oh man, I love the Ogre Battle games and every time they come up I really want to play them but as far as I can turn up they aren't available on any modern hardware. I guess there is always emulation. With Nintendo doing so many SNES and N64 games on that Switch online thing, I was really hoping for either Ogre Battle or 64 to show up at some point.

I've only played Tactics Ogre (PSP remake). How do the earlier games compare? There are games on SNES, PS1/Saturn/N64, and a GBA game?

Ogre Battle (SNES) and Ogre Battle: Person of Lordly Caliber (N64) are much more like each other than Tactics Ogre. And it's hard to find a game that either of them compare to. They're kind of real time strategy games, kind of tactical turn-based games, and very few other games do what they do. The only thing I've seen that looks like them is the new indie Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga (released this year).

In the original, you build these units of up to 5 troops (monsters take 2 spots) out of a variety of character classes -- and those classes are all, or almost all, represented in Tactics Ogre. You can deploy up to 10 units on a map. Units move in real time, at different speed through different types of terrain, and when they encounter an enemy the game shifts to an isometric view battle. You have very little control over the battle itself, as the characters' moves are determined by their class and their position (front line or back). For instance, a Knight in the front row will always slash twice at a single enemy; a wizard in the back row will always cast a spell at a single enemy. Your decisions are more about unit composition in advance and how you direct the units before the battles start. But you can play with the AI that affects which enemies your units target, and you can also cut in with big single use spells in the form of tarot cards you collect during the game.

You're basically playing as a rebel army making war against an evil empire, and in every map your goal is to liberate cities and temples and, ultimately, oust the leader from its stronghold. The game has a really rich story that doesn't quite branch in the same way that Tactics Ogre does -- and the game doesn't show you a decision tree -- but there are lots of moral choices that will affect which other characters you recruit, and which will affect the ending you ultimately receive.

There are also a lot of characters from Ogre Battle that appear in Tactics Ogre (and Caliber). Lancelot (Lans) Hamilton is technically optional, but one of the very first characters you recruit in Ogre Battle: you get him by following the game's tutorial about finding hidden towns. Deneb is a boss, and a hated ruler of one of the the early maps: you can spare her life, and get some excellent units, but doing so is a major blow to the rebellion's reputation. Canopus is another optional, early recruit. Warren is the rebellion's advisor. Similarly, Caliber is basically an extension of Ogre Battle's best ending, the new protagonist there meets Destin (the rebel leader), and 4 or 5 others from the original game, and they're recruitable if you're on the right path.

They are, unfortunately, not ported. So for either one, we'd have to play it on an emulator.

Hm wrong thread

LastSurprise wrote:

They are, unfortunately, not ported. So for either one, we'd have to play it on an emulator.

They are both on the Wii U eShop if I remember correctly, for the 2 of us with a Wii U