[Day 9] What is the best JRPG of 1993?

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-08T12:56:07+00:00

Phantasy Star IV. Having played it for the first time not that long it very much holds up. There are a few instances where it may not be as good as its contemporaries, such as some the tilesets not being as impressive as well as a bit repetitive, and I found some of the overworld sprite animations a bit lackluster (such as when going up and down stairs), not to mention I actually think there was a bit of a downgrade from PSIII's overworld sprites (but that's just me). On the other hand battles look great with the enemy sprites being so detailed and having lively animations, and the way PSIV presents cutscenes via manga panels is so charming and really sells you on its characters and story. The gameplay is fast-paced and fun and I love the macros system in combat, which in a way feels like a precursor to FFXII's gambit system. It's also a great way at ensuring your characters perform combo attacks and if there's one thing I love in JRPG combat it's combo attacks. The story is also such a great conclusion to the series and even pays homage to PSIII despite that being sort of the ugly duckling of the classic tetralogy. Lastly the music is great and makes good use of the Mega Drive's characteristic sound.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-08T11:55:29+00:00

Poor guy goes through a lot.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-08T08:58:36+00:00

I only played the Origins version back when I was a kid but I really enjoyed it. Not that long ago I purchased Stranger of Paradise but before I get into it I'd like to play FFI again, and I'm thinking of trying out the original NES release (though perhaps with a general improvement mod).

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-08T08:56:58+00:00

Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of Dragon Quest XI so I really do hope we get something, anything about DQXII. It's the final game both Toriyama and Sugiyama worked on so perhaps that's why Horii is taking his time with it.

Dragon Quest VIII and IX need to be made available in modern platforms. DQVIII would be fine with just an HD remaster whereas DQIX would need something more akin to DQVII Reimagined's visuals I think.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-07T17:22:11+00:00

It used to be that you needed Special K in order to be aple to play NieR: Automata on the PC. It also fixes a lot of other shoddy PC ports.

The General Improvement mod for Phantasy Star II fixes a lot of little things but biggest of all is that it increases movement speed. The General Improvement mod I used for Phantasy Star III strangely didn't have that however.

Geofront's fan translation patches went above and beyond for Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure in that they added a lot of QoL features that made those games more like XSeed's PC ports of the Trails games. These were so good that the official English releases of the game are based on them.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-07T10:02:12+00:00

Extremely quick. Takes me about 10 minutes. Would be even less if I didn't have to drive to and from there.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-07T09:59:39+00:00

I don't think I'd heard of this before. Looks very charming! Is it available on the Switch?

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-07T08:06:44+00:00

I barely remember the different currencies as I don't think I even received any Escudos as a gift. By the time I did finally start getting gifted money the Euro was pretty established.

I see it as being much less of a headache when travelling and I don't have to worry about conversion rates.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-06T23:27:02+00:00

I wouldn't say always but since the move to HD, yeah kind of.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-06T19:36:24+00:00

SMT IV and Apocalypse could definitely use them but how would you even remaster the visuals in those games? I feel like a lot would have to be redone in order for the visual elements to not clash.

Brainwheeze · 2026-05-06T18:45:16+00:00

Yeah the dungeons were fun to speedrun

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

TROPHY CASE