The GWJ JRPG Club Version 2.5 HD Remaster: Now Voting for our Q2 2024 game!

Stepping on LastSurprise's toes here:

Complete list of nominations

Blue Reflection (PS4, PS Vita, Windows)
Infinite Space (DS)
Lost Odyssey (Xbox exclusive, womp womp)
Monster Hunter: World (PS4, Xbox One, Windows)
Ni No Kuni (PS4, Switch, Windows, PS3)
Phantasy Star IV (anything)
Phantom Brave (PS2, Wii, PSP, PC, Switch)
Rune Factory 4 (PS4, Windows, Xbox One, Switch, 3DS)
Xenoblade Chronicles (Switch, Wii, New Nintendo 3DS)

Edit: bobbywatson beat me to it!

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Just to confirm, what's the complete list of nominated titles?

LastSurprise has it a few posts up, here.

Edit: Way late to the party. That'll teach me to not click on the next page before posting.

LastSurprise wrote:

Edit: bobbywatson beat me to it!

Sorry!

No worries!

Didn't feel like nominating anything this time around but wanted to see what you all threw in the ring. Here are my picks:

Monster Hunter: World (PS4, Xbox One, Windows)
Ni No Kuni (PS4, Switch, Windows, PS3)
Phantasy Star IV (anything)
Xenoblade Chronicles (Switch, Wii, New Nintendo 3DS)

NNK I've played back on PS3 but definitely could finish up that platinum or start all over. MHW is a mainstay of mine, so happy to help on PS4 and join in on missions. The other two I own and haven't beat, so why not?

Tempted to vote but my track record on participation is so bad that I'd feel wrong swaying things. Curious to see what gets the nod this time around!

benign1 wrote:

Tempted to vote but my track record on participation is so bad that I'd feel wrong swaying things. Curious to see what gets the nod this time around!

That's about where I'm at. I'd be interested in giving Ni No Kuni or Phantasy Star IV a try, but I'd feel bad if I swayed the results and then bounced off five hours in.

You guys are welcome to vote, even if you think you might burn out! Playing part of the game and then not finishing is totally fine, and you can still be part of the conversation.

No need to feel guilty. These are long games, after all.

merphle wrote:
Mr GT Chris wrote:

Just to confirm, what's the complete list of nominated titles?

LastSurprise has it a few posts up, here.

Edit: Way late to the party. That'll teach me to not click on the next page before posting.

Phantasy Star IV wasn't on the list so I was just checking that. At the time it was on no one's pick 5 either so I was also getting the tissues ready *sob*.

Blue Reflection (PS4, PS Vita, Windows)
Infinite Space (DS)
Phantasy Star IV (anything)
Phantom Brave (PS2, Wii, PSP, PC, Switch)
Rune Factory 4 (PS4, Windows, Xbox One, Switch, 3DS)

Blue Reflection (PS4, PS Vita, Windows)
Lost Odyssey (Xbox exclusive, womp womp)
Ni No Kuni (PS4, Switch, Windows, PS3)
Phantasy Star IV (anything)
Xenoblade Chronicles (Switch, Wii, New Nintendo 3DS)

Lost Odyssey
Ni No Kuni
Rune Factory 4

Infinite Space
Blue Reflection
Lost Odyssey
Phantasy Star IV

As always, a bloody good list. Still unsure how much I'll play considering SMTV is consuming me, but I'd gladly put it down for a little while to double-dip on some of these great JRPGs.

LastSurprise wrote:

The Pick 5 round is now open! (Also note I had typos in my original post on dates, which I've corrected). Please choose up to 5 games that you're interested in playing. This round will remain open until Tuesday, Dec. 21. My votes are:

Blue Reflection
Ni No Kuni
Phantom Brave
Rune Factory 4
Xenoblade Chronicles

Okay so when I posted my picks, I had pulled from my earlier list and forgot about Phantasy Star IV. Whoops! Mr GT Chris was right to ask for the final list! Anyway, revised list here:

Blue Reflection
Ni No Kuni
Phantasy Star IV
Phantom Brave
Rune Factory 4

Xenoblade Chronicles drops out. It was close, because I have it on my backlog and want to play it, but don't quite want to start a Xenoblade-length JRPG in Jan. Yes, I know Ni No Kuni is just as long. If this error affected anyone else, feel free to revise your vote. Just post a new vote here and note that you're revising; don't edit your original post.

Tight list so far! With 11 votes in so far, here are the Pick Five standings -- featuring a six-way tie for second:

Ni No Kuni - 6
Blue Reflection - 5
Monster Hunter: World - 5
Phantom Brave - 5
Phantasy Star IV - 5
Rune Factory 4 - 5
Xenoblade Chronicles - 5
Infinite Space - 4
Lost Odyssey - 4

Xenoblade Chronicles
Monster Hunter World
Phantasy Star 4

Ni No Kuni
Xenoblade Chronicles

damn..... that voting
i hope Rune Factory picks up.. if not will give Phantasy Star IV a shot... i happen to have a PSP Genesis collection. I LOVED phantasy star 1 and 2 and 3

I've never played any Phantasy Star game (aside from a bit of PSO/PSO2). Is it reasonably safe to jump into PS4 without knowing anything about the others?

merphle wrote:

I've never played any Phantasy Star game (aside from a bit of PSO/PSO2). Is it reasonably safe to jump into PS4 without knowing anything about the others?

Good question... id also like to know

i have heard that is the the best in the series...

Darkhaund wrote:

damn..... that voting
i hope Rune Factory picks up.. if not will give Phantasy Star IV a shot... i happen to have a PSP Genesis collection. I LOVED phantasy star 1 and 2 and 3

Seriously?! Wow. I'm a huge PSIII fan just because that's what I had back in the day. Bought for sweet 140 Australian smackeroos, funded by selling my Atari Lynx collection (wipes tear). Saw every ending of that game, recorded parts of it onto VHS for posterity. And apparently PSIII is the dog of the series. But I loved it. I didn't play PSIV until one of the collections, feels like forever ago now, since PSIV never came out in PAL territories. Only got about half way before something else distracted me, regret having never beaten it.

PSIV was towards the end of the system's life cycle and, like Chrono Trigger on SNES, it's a technical marvel for the system. PSIII was developed in parallel with PSII with a lot of reuse so both those games seem fairly primitive by comparison.

Storywise, you can absolutely play any of the games out of order. There are fun references if you're following closely.

The only Phantasy Star game I've played is IV and, as Mr GT Chris has said, you don't need to play the other ones, it stands on its own just fine.

Also it's pretty short (my spreadsheet says it took me 20 hours back in 2017).

2 more votes, bringing our total to 13! Here's where the games stand:

Ni No Kuni - 7
Xenoblade Chronicles - 7
Monster Hunter: World - 6
Phantasy Star IV - 6
--
Blue Reflection - 5
Phantom Brave - 5
Rune Factory 4 - 5
Infinite Space - 4
Lost Odyssey - 4

If we ended right now, the games above the line would be our finalists.

Update: roughly 24 hours to go! If you haven't yet voted in our Pick 5 round, there's still time. It's a tight race and one vote can make a lot of difference in getting your preferred game to the finals!

Ni no kuni...that is all.

aww..might be too late...was gonna throw in MHW just to give me a reason to play the expansion

Ok, I guess I'll vote and do my best to participate further...

Ni No Kuni
Rune Factory 4
Xenoblade Chronicles

KozmoOchez wrote:

Ni no kuni...that is all.

aww..might be too late...was gonna throw in MHW just to give me a reason to play the expansion

It's not too late, voting's open until tomorrow. Do you also want to vote for MHW?

LastSurprise wrote:
KozmoOchez wrote:

Ni no kuni...that is all.

aww..might be too late...was gonna throw in MHW just to give me a reason to play the expansion

It's not too late, voting's open until tomorrow. Do you also want to vote for MHW?

yes

We're up to 15 votes! Barring any in the next 2 hours, here are the standings:

Ni No Kuni - 9
Xenoblade Chronicles - 8
Monster Hunter: World - 7
Phantasy Star IV - 6
Rune Factory 4 - 6
--
Blue Reflection - 5
Phantom Brave - 5
Infinite Space - 4
Lost Odyssey - 4

While it's always possible that our games pick up additional votes in the ranked choice round, it looks like Ni No Kuni and Xenoblade Chronicles are the games to beat. Right now, these games are the only ones that have a majority with voters.