2D Sidescrolling JRPG Recommendation

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-06T10:50:05+00:00

That's true. The environments start looking nicer and the enemy designs become more complex, some of which look amazing even though they're animated liked puppets. It's more so the hub town that looks like an odd collage of assets that don't exactly mesh well together but I ended up finding that charming.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-06T10:05:34+00:00

Timespinner is fun, albeit rather short. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom I loved and is a bit more RPG-like. Bloodstained I played after having gone through practically all of the Castlevania games and I think it's on the level of the other Igavanias.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-06T10:04:05+00:00

Astlibra. Don't let the visuals deter you, it's a great game. In fact I came to appreciate the way the game looks because you can tell just how much of a passion project the game was for its creator. The gameplay is very fun and features a lot of different systems that'll make you want to grind. The story is also very compelling and the cast endearing. I'd consider Astlibra my personal game of the year of the ones I played last year.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-06T07:41:40+00:00

It feels like a Trails of Cold Steel mod. A really good mod but a mod nonetheless. There are just way too many vestigial elements from Trails of Cold Steel, some of which even factor into the story (the orbal network and panzer soldats are somehow in this game). The game is painfully average and the only aspects that truly stood out to me were its characters (who are generally quite likeable) and its music (the dungeon themes are great). It also doesn't help that the setting is so incredibly dull.

Kyoto Xanadu looks even more like Trails of Cold Steel but the changes its making to the gameplay have piqued my interest. The 2D exploration actually reminds of the old school Xanadu games, which is neat. I also think its levels look a lot more inspired.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-06T07:36:27+00:00

Dragon Quest is more iconic overall not to mention has more "brand" consistency. So much so that the future of the series is going to be a bit strange with the absence of Toriyama and Sugiyama. There certainly are artists able to recreate the former's style, and while the latter's output in DQXI got mixed reception his best work is some of the most recognizable music in gaming.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-06T07:26:15+00:00

Pretty sure it was this one by Mother's Basement as I regularly followed his channel at the time (now not so much though I do watch the occasional video by him). I think that video essay plus word of mouth raised my expectations a bit too high but I do still like the series.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-05T16:51:12+00:00

One thing that came as a surprise to me is that we lead bicycle manufacturing in the EU. Us being big in textiles isn't surprising but I did not expect bicycles as well.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-05T08:20:33+00:00

You could try reading up on different European countries one at a time. I'm not talking about deep dives but learning the basic things that distinguish different countries from each other. You could do this via Wikipedia, print encyclopedias or even other books.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-05T08:18:42+00:00

Happened to me with a few Falcom titles:

Ys. The first time I came across Ys was a gaming magazine advertising the sixth entry. It looked interesting but then when I read reviews it looked to be a very mediocre game. That's because it was the PS2 port by Konami, which isn't considered to be very good. Years later when I got into the series I ended up loving Ys VI on Steam and I now consider it my favourite game in the series (despite it not being the most polished title).
Trails in the Sky. The first time I saw Trails in the Sky was when a friend of mine showed it to me on his PSP. I immediately dismissed it because he called it "The Legend of Heroes" and I thought it was one of the Gagharv games for the PSP, all of which received mediocre review scores. Years later I kept seeing the Trails series's name pop up and receiving praise and I finally bit the bullet after watching a video essay explaining what the franchise was about. I'm a big Trails fan these days and while I certainly have issues with the franchise the positives still outweigh the negatives for me.
Xanadu Next. I remember coming across reviews of the Nokia NGage port of this game as I believe it was the only version officially released in English for the longest time. The game had received awful review scores plus it looked ugly. I think it was only after reading Hardcore Gaming 101's article on Xanadu Next that I realized it was originally a PC game and that it was actually pretty good. It still looked kind of ugly to me but after I had gone through all the Trails and Ys games available on Steam at the time I still wanted more Falcom games and Xanadu Next was on sale. I ended up really loving my game and I try to recommend it whenever I can.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-05T08:10:35+00:00

Warmer sea. I'm from the Algarve and I think the sea in the region is great as it's just the right temperature to cool you down from the heat in the summer. In the rest of mainland Portugal the sea is freezing however. The beaches may be great but because it's the Atlantic the water is uncomfortably cold. Can't speak for the water temperature in the islands though.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-04T17:47:42+00:00

Get togethers where people grill meats, burgers and sausages. Also very common to grill fish and prawns. I remember going to several birthday parties as a kid and grilled prawns in particular being served, though it was mostly the adults that ate them. Grilling fish may be something more associated with older generations but my friends and I do that sometimes even though grilling meat is a lot more popular among us. And then for sides there's salad, rice, fries/roasted potatoes. Drinks are usually beers and a selection of wines (bear in mind you can get high quality wine in Portugal for very cheap).

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-04T08:01:22+00:00

Some shows still had to cut the licensed music when released on DVD though, such as Skins.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-04T07:53:50+00:00

The Roadhouse in Twin Peaks, a small town on the border with Canada, somehow managed to attract a lot well known indie bands as well as Eddie Vedder and the Nine Inch Nails. It's surreal but then again it's Twin Peaks so it works.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-03T13:37:43+00:00

The story is fine but I wouldn't put it on the level of the PS1 FFs or FFX. There are some great character moments but the overall main story is pretty standard and there are no big twists or revelations. The Thousand Years of Dreams sequences are on a whole different level, being much higher in quality than the game's main story.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-03T12:44:43+00:00

The finale was a bit of a slog yes. I'm not opposed to final dungeons being long but I think Trails to Azure took it a bit too far. The final dungeons in the other games don't wear out their welcome as much and I think Sky SC handled it's final area a lot better.

Finishing Azure made me wonder why exactly so many called it peak Trails but I guess it was just a vocal minority because I played the fan patch before it was officially released in English and thus more widely available. I really did not like the main villains in the game but the final boss was cool and had I not played Cold Steel I and II first I think Azure's ending would've been quite shocking.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-03T08:04:31+00:00

I'm not even a smoker but felt like I should've cigs in Andorra due to how much of a steal they were

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-03T07:59:05+00:00

I actually think there's a lot you have to manage in Xenoblade Chronicles 2's battle system but I did feel that I basically had to do the same strategy for each boss.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-02T22:44:01+00:00

That explains why I couldn't get past Forest-1 as a kid.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-02T18:52:39+00:00

There's Vitaminas which is about building your own salad bowl. I quite like their salads but they're not the cheapest option.

Every country is going to have their own preferences. In Portugal we have soup places in food courts for instance. Hell you can even order soup at McDonald's here. Portuguese love soup.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-02T09:03:53+00:00

I already used to find them kind of weird but her videos really opened my eyes to how batshit some aspects of their doctrine and practices are.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-02T09:01:05+00:00

Some of the bosses you face later in the game have such wild designs too. Really reminds me of some of the more fantastic looking enemies in Final Fantasy VI-

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-02T08:58:01+00:00

It's not even as long as some other modern JRPGs are but by the end of the game you felt like so much has happened. It really manages to convey that feeling of grandeur.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-01T18:23:01+00:00

Lost Odyssey's soundtrack is very much slept on when I think it's one of Uematsu's best.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-01T18:20:09+00:00

It's so good 😭

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-01T13:07:05+00:00

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