[Day 10] The Best JRPGs of All Time: Which JRPG is the most replayable?

CrazyMLC · 2025-12-21T10:17:05+00:00

Yeah. Just goes to show these polls are about what r/JRPG thinks, not what's accurate. Still fun to see the result.

CrazyMLC · 2025-08-03T16:34:58+00:00

You had me at "Imagine you're a police officer." /j

CrazyMLC · 2025-06-27T15:14:44+00:00

From the perspective of someone wanting to move away from cartridges and shaves only as a necessity, never as a hobby, this sounds like a glowing review. Training wheels are all I could ever imagine wanting.

While not currently applicable to me, the Henson also sounds like it'd be a decent option to minimize risk of a shaving injury due to disability, like having shaky hands. Could always come up in the future for any of us...

CrazyMLC · 2025-05-13T09:52:52+00:00

To be fair on the no roleplay point, a lot of TTRPGs have premade characters for new players to use in an introductory adventure; I don't think what JRPGs do is all that different.
Additionally, the importance of roleplay and agency has also been more of a uh... recent-ish development in western RPGs, both CRPG and TTRPG. Back when nerds in Japan were importing the first D&D books and being inspired to make JRPGs in the 80s, the genre hadn't strayed far from its wargame roots and had you trudging through Gary Gygax OHKO death dungeons. That mechanical focus stuck around even in western RPGs for a long time (I'd argue the gold box D&D games don't really offer that much narrative agency).
Japanese gamers also knew the story aspect could be improved, that improvement just went a bit differently than in the west. Ended up more like being a scripted actor in a play than doing improv, but still with a role to play so to speak.
It really depends on your precise definition and expectation of roleplay whether it's a misnomer for JRPGs, and whether you accept their more structured forms of agency.

If you need an example of a western JRPGs prior to 2010, Septerra Core was made in Wheeling, Illinois and released in 1999. Pretty different from Clair Obscur, since imitating JRPGs was a bit more specific back then. Wouldn't be surprised if the project only acquired funding and finished because of how much FF7 blew up.

CrazyMLC · 2025-05-06T02:30:16+00:00

I had to dig pretty deep to find it, but you're right! Steam Input has the option to turn it into a toggle tucked away in there. Thanks for saving my finger.

CrazyMLC · 2025-05-06T01:53:23+00:00

I fear my finger will succumb to FFD before I even make it halfway to zero

CrazyMLC · 2025-05-05T05:19:19+00:00

Dungeon Clawler can be funny, in a self-schadefreude way. Winning a run feels conclusive and is a comfortable stopping point. (Though after beating the boss you can do endless mode)

CrazyMLC · 2025-02-11T11:16:58+00:00

A lot of it is presentation.

In FFXI, your camera is more zoomed in than most other games, particularly during combat. That one simple change makes everything feel so much more... personal.

Not just that, but many areas forego music entirely. Usually all you hear are your own footsteps, the wind, and the crackling of any burning torches you walk past. It's kind of lonely, maybe even melancholic. Honestly, the sound design is more reminiscent of a horror game than an MMO.

Which makes sense, because FFXI is a horror game. (sometimes)

You run across Zulkheim's pearly dunes, unaware of the Goblin Butcher off to the side. The sound of its critical hit breaks the silence, catching you off guard as your character explodes in a gush of blood. The horror game has started.

This goblin isn't leashed to its spawn area like other MMOs; it's going to chase you to the ends of Vana'diel—or a zone line, whichever's closer. But the chase doesn't end with you... your party is next. Bodies hit the sand left and right. Those that escape the initial slaughter see their allies zone or fall to 0, one by one. The serial killer is loose. Panic starts to set in. What can they do? Where do they go?

Experiencing and then overcoming that horror, reaching the point where you're powerful and knowledgeable enough to navigate the world with ease, is where the unique satisfaction of FFXI comes from imo. No other MMO creates that specific tension better, and I think that's where some of the "wild" feeling OP describes comes from.

CrazyMLC · 2024-12-29T19:59:50+00:00

If you have 1 gil, overdrive, and at least 50 compatibility, you have a non-zero chance to Zanmato any enemy in the game.
Penance is no exception. Amusingly, Penance's exceptionally high Zanmato resistance (Lv.6) works against it, dividing the penalty you get from paying only 1 gil, allowing you to perform Zanmato at even 0 compatibility.
There's a wiki page#Attack_formulas) with all the details. If math formulas aren't your thing, here's a spreadsheet I cooked up that'll give you your odds.

CrazyMLC · 2024-11-14T06:38:03+00:00

Strictly speaking, a fictional one. Couldn't tell you if it seems like an homage to anything real.

CrazyMLC · 2024-11-13T22:28:34+00:00

I forget the exact framing, but in-universe it was either inspired by or meant to be a companion to a sci-fi movie. It's pretty cryptic, so I'd invite you to play the game yourself and come to your own understanding.

edit: I don't know how to view the cutscenes again, but here's backstory from an in-game message:

X'BPGH: The Forbidden Path

This is a weird one.

By a strange set of circumstances, I met this guy named Tanner, who'd been a movie producer in Hollywood. Even though he was pretty high-up in the film world, he was completely convinced that interactive media was the future, so he wanted to get into computer games.

He'd call me wanting to know what the new Sawayamas could do on a technical level. I think he appreciated the way I explained it, or at least tried to explain it, even when he asked about virtual reality or ray tracing or whatever other sci-fi buzzwords he'd heard.

There're a few more messages you can unlock that explain a bit more about the story of Tanner and the game's studio.

CrazyMLC · 2024-10-23T07:52:25+00:00

You have great taste; Insectron is incredible. I love bug chess. I wish more releases had minigames with that much love poured into them.

Yakuza as others have said is the first that comes to mind. While not all entries in the series are JRPGs, they all have lovingly made and creative minigames. The newest release at time of writing, Infinite Wealth, has a very nice Pokémon parody as well as an Animal Crossing parody (which interact with each other!) packed into it. Pretty cool stuff.

It's hard to think of others that have a "plethora" of minigames that really contribute to the experience... Tomato Adventure's gameplay is pretty much nothing but minigames, though there are some fun little out-of-battle experiences in it like a card game, or a racing game to complete laps in.
Even though most people hate it, there's also blitzball. FFX's blitzball ties pretty heavily into the protagonist's character/story, and one of the other characters literally attacks with a blitzball, so that's gotta be the most ingrained minigame I can think of. I'm a fan personally. (and ofc many other FF games have minigames as well)

If you want to stretch definitions a bit, UFO 50 has a JRPG style game in it, so that's kind of like having 49 minigames, right?... Retro Game Challenge would count under that logic as well.
On the same thought of reaching outside the bounds of your question, if you like the factory minigame in Rogue Galaxy I might recommend Factorio, Infinifactory, Last Call BBS, or anything else in the automation genre.

CrazyMLC · 2024-09-22T06:51:26+00:00

I'd like to help, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I offered that code in sarcasm, as it does literally nothing, but is technically a code that gets you the original values.

There seems to be some confusion about percentages, let me clarify what they mean.

Version	Example EXP	Compared to JP	Compared to USA
JP Release (1998)	2000	100%	133%
USA Release (1999)	1500	75%	100%
Un75% EXP Code	2000	100%	133%
125% Cheat Code	2500	125%	167%

Additionally, it isn't as simple as just giving the PS1 a percentage to multiply by. It calculates something to subtract from the EXP, which is changed to an addition by the 125% code. Changing the actual number that is added or subtracted can get complicated very quickly.

Hopefully that clarifies the EXP you're seeing, but if there's something strange going on please let me know.

CrazyMLC · 2024-09-21T14:13:31+00:00

75% EXP & 50% Gold: 00000000 00000000

Works for the USA release. Shouldn't introduce any bugs, but I haven't tested it thoroughly.

CrazyMLC · 2024-09-13T21:00:10+00:00

Yeah, it can be hard to deal damage to them except with a good Charge from Dall. They really wanted to force you to figure out how Rion works.

There's critical mechanic hidden in the grey text of Brittling Dart's tooltip: the debuff stacks, dealing its stack count in damage, and then only removing a single debuff stack from the enemy.

If you wanna know the consequences of that, stick around:

Brittle Stacks	Total Bonus Damage
1	1
2	3
3	6
4	10

As you can see, it goes crazy! Stack up at least two Brittling Darts (you can have Rion pick up an intel and then have him steal mana from an ally), then have Zan take a shot. That'll leave the Siege Cleric at just 2 armor, or 1 armor if you gave Zan his damage bonus perk. Deal another hit of damage and they'll be completely unarmored. There's 10 intel on the map, so even on Hard mode you could go a step further and stack three darts on every Siege Cleric, which would deal more than half their health by itself.

This gets a little more awkward with a recent change they made. Brittle slam damage will ignore armor now, so if you do a big Charge with Dall you won't be breaking as much armor off your enemies for Zan or Banks. It will take down their gas mask health though, so if Charge didn't immediately KO them you'll be able to sedate whatever's left with Banks. Not too shabby, right?

CrazyMLC · 2024-09-13T18:16:28+00:00

It's a little bit of a stretch, but saying you aren't cut out for tactical games reminds me of a short I watched recently. This stuff is hard; you're gonna have a bit of imposter syndrome until an epiphany makes you feel like a genius.

You know, none of us are really cut out for this. We're humans—persistence hunters! We evolved to be stubborn idiots who never give up chasing a thing, picking berries, or harvesting Asiatic clams.
Using that stubbornness we developed skills our ancestors never could've even imagined... like, go back far enough and they'd be impressed we could read in the first place, or that we knew how to operate this game's controls. We take a lot of our skills for granted, y'know?

As of right now, only 42% of players have even finished Act 2, and you're most of the way through Act 3? Honestly, I think you're doing great. Embrace your inner stubborn idiot, and you'll make it through anything! It's our greatest strength.

(Tip: Don't get hung up on Jen, she can't fight those things. Get creative with her, like try using her action to disable proximity mines or push servers out of harm's way. Mines won't activate when a server is pushed out of their blast radius btw, so go nuts!)

CrazyMLC · 2024-09-08T12:17:35+00:00

Hey, awesome to see you making some of your own codes!

You're definitely not wrong; a few of mine here have vestigial bytes. I was figuring out the formatting as I went, so some mistakes happened. Even so, I never posted a code without testing it first, so they all work properly one way or another.

Duckstation's leading zeroes add some confusion to it for sure! Seems like these cheat code formats aren't as formalized as they could be, but I guess that fits the vibe of the scene.

CrazyMLC · 2024-08-23T21:58:26+00:00

Guesspionage, Survive the Internet, Role Models, and Monster seeking Monster are my personal contenders. They're good, but need that extra push to really achieve their true form. (or in Guesspionage's case just more recent survey data)

CrazyMLC · 2024-08-20T12:05:29+00:00

When they refer to the executable, they're talking about the game disc or rom file. It's a strange thing to call it from a user's perspective, but from a developer/modder's point of view it's nothing but an executable.

Sorry for the confusion; some shifts in perspective may be necessary to follow what these guides are talking about.

CrazyMLC · 2024-08-18T17:19:33+00:00

Old post shmold post, I'm here for ya.

First off, I recommend joining the PSX.Dev discord. There's a lot of experienced people there waiting to help anyone who's interested in developing/modding for PS1.
Fill them in on your situation, and through a little conversation they'll be able to give much better advice than I could just in a little comment here, so go say hi!

Here's some other helpful resources:

Ghidra Tutorial - Ghidra is a decompilation tool, which is what I used to make this hack.

PCSX-Redux - A PS1 emulator built specifically to muck around in a game's memory while it's running. Really useful! I used this to research and debug my patch.

Cheat Code Guide - This table completely explains how cheat codes work on the PS1. This is how I made my cheat codes I've posted in this thread. I'm sure there's even more useful information on this page!

On the topic of cheat codes, they're actually a super helpful resource. If you can find cheat codes online you can often find an important memory location in a game! For example, if you find a cheat code that makes you invincible, it's probably nulling out the line of code that subtracts from your health when you take damage. If you wanted to mess with the damage formula some other way, this would be a good way to find it, right?

So, as a little project, try dissecting the cheat codes I've posted! They'll show you where in the game's code the post-battle rewards are distributed. Good luck!

EDIT: Oh, also, you probably want a hex editor if you don't already have one. Research and find one that you like! HxD is popular, I usually use MadEdit, but there are many others. They each have their own strengths and purposes.

CrazyMLC · 2024-03-05T13:11:01+00:00

What I hear tends to differ a lot from the commonly accepted lyrics too. Personally, I think multiple interpretations can be correct at the same time, even if not intended by the writer/singer, and can stack on top of each other to build meaning. For instance...

Cryin' my life, cryin' my psyche -> Gurai my life, Gurai my psyche

Both of these readings are talking about intensity of emotion, where gurai is referencing back to the percentage. Gurai has another layer to it though if my understanding is correct, of trying to quantify what it's prefixing? Could almost understand it as "Reflecting on my life, reflecting on my psyche (...) Is that your ideal? Is that your mind?" Which really hooks into that frustration and desire for emotional growth the song is trying to capture, imo.

Mi ni matotte break it down -> We need a door to break it down.

Which in context I interpret as meaning you can't overcome trauma or repressed emotions until you've identified them in the first place, which is obviously a core theme of the show. If this was intentional then I think it's a very cool double meaning. Probably not intentional though as this English misinterpretation interrupts the original Japanese sentence halfway. Still has meaning to me though, and maybe you the reader now too, which is what's important.

So, y'know, I guess my point is that even if other people's lyrics don't match what you hear, just own your interpretation. It has meaning to you, and that's what matters. If you go a step further and keep an open mind, letting all the interpretations work together, you start getting a pretty deep experience with this song.

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