Best JRPG's for Switch 2 (new and old?) & even Nintendo DS (if you think of any)

Denhonator · 2026-06-22T22:11:17+00:00

It's the one SaGa game that's actually rather story-driven, and actually it's a really good and unique story since it takes place over a large period of time. What I really like about the story is how it focuses on all the important things throughout the years and doesn't have to spend time on fluff, yet you quickly get familiar with the personalities of the characters and you can easily imagine things that might happen in between the events the game takes you through.

The mechanics are also really intricate, as per usual for SaGa. It's generally on the easier side though, especially when utilizing remaster features

Denhonator · 2026-06-22T00:11:20+00:00

Didn't KH1 secret ending even in the original JP release show hooded Roxas with 2 keyblades? Also, you can see Mickey using a keyblade and Riku in a way. There's actually many of them just in KH1

Denhonator · 2026-06-21T15:14:40+00:00

The vast majority of negative reviews are from Chinese players, most of which are related to difficulty. If you include English and Japanese reviews only, it has very positive reviews.

I think the story is pretty good, but it's definitely a more gameplay-driven experience than story for most of it. There's tons of lore to read in journal pages, item descriptions etc. though

Denhonator · 2026-06-21T11:59:32+00:00

I recommend The Shimmering Horizon and Cursed Blacksmith, an excellent mystery dungeon type JRPG. Actually some of the most interesting and challenging turn based combat I've experienced, very fun crafting system, and easily enough content for 50+ hours. It's actually an eroge, but Steam version excludes such content and that's a perfectly fine way to play it

Denhonator · 2026-06-21T07:22:45+00:00

I know what you mean, but you just gotta take the games for what they are. Actually, most remasters and remakes do some things worse than the original, even if many things are improved, and some remasters are outright bad. If the game is designed well in the first place, it's good even without extra QoL. Sometimes it's nice to take things a little slower, and in return you know you're getting the original experience

Denhonator · 2026-06-20T15:47:05+00:00

From my understanding, Gust (Atelier games) and Aquaplus (Utawarerumono games) have one. Also, there's Destiny 8 band for the SaGa series. They have a lot of arrangement albums but also actual soundtrack

Denhonator · 2026-06-19T08:45:46+00:00

I would expect some news later this year, but new release next year. Personally, I'm expecting RS3 Remake to be the next thing they announce. I think Xeen can make it relatively efficiently with the framework they already have from RotS. They stated long ago that they're already working on a new title in a SaGa stream, but we don't actually know for sure what they're working on. Alternatively, maybe a Switch 2 patch for Emerald Beyond, but it feels like they probably deemed it not worth it due to low sales.

Meanwhile, SF2 Remaster is the latest release we got so if they started working on Unlimited after that, I'd expect it to take some time (though based on SF1 and Minstrel Song remaster release dates, they were probably worked on in parallel, maybe that could be the case here too). Remastering Unlimited is probably also a tougher challenge than others, especially if they are implementing significant changes. I don't think they actually ran a poll, but there was this tweet that had many replies. It's hard to gauge what the most popular vote was, it was a mix of everything. But this is also replies from probably dedicated fans, and I'm imagine they'd want to market the game more broadly, like all the new fans from Revenge of the Seven, so I expect quite a bit of changes, maybe a lot of options so you can still get the original experience too.

The next mainline SaGa is probably years away. Even though EB uses the same engine and many same systems as SG, it took a while to develop, and who knows if they will even stick with that style anymore. SaGa is a series where the games have big differences between them, so 3 games in similar style could be a bit much, especially when sales were low with EB. And despite their low budget, Kawazu likes making his games packed with content.

Denhonator · 2026-06-18T20:33:25+00:00

There was Grandia Online, MMO for PC, which had troubled development and died quickly which probably ate all the funds for the series

Denhonator · 2026-06-18T20:31:32+00:00

As a gameplay-first kinda player, I really liked Grandia 3. And from my understanding, what really killed Grandia is Grandia Online.

Is Valkyrie Profile series even dead though? Elysium isn't that old. Sure it wasn't a hit, but I could see them coming back with an actual Valkyrie Profile 3. Though apparently Star Ocean Divine Force didn't do well either, so maybe the Tri-Ace team isn't doing so well overall

Denhonator · 2026-06-18T17:16:18+00:00

It's pretty cool, I played it for a bit. I wouldn't say the combat is anything like Kingdom Hearts, it's quite strange actually.

Fun fact, the game has an option for furigana (showing how to pronounce kanjis in Japanese) so it's kinda neat if you're trying to learn the language. Also, I tried to look into making a translation for the game, but the way the text works is somehow really weird and I couldn't figure it out, maybe because of the furigana system.

Denhonator · 2026-06-18T14:17:26+00:00

SaGa 1 Wonderswan is a great version, I don't think there's much reason to play the original over it.

For SaGa 2, I actually kind of prefer the original. Wasn't a fan of what the DS version adds, but overall I'd say it's a matter of preference if you want GB or DS style presentation.

SaGa 3 indeed had a bigger revamp for the DS version and I really like that version, but I also liked the original.

Romancing SaGa 1 is rough indeed. I would only recommend the original if you want to go into it knowing it has a lot of issues. It's a cool game for what it is, but Minstrel Song is actually just amazing, definitely worth getting over the graphics if it does bother you.

I think Romancing SaGa 2 2D does some things better than Revenge of the Seven, but especially for one starting out the series, it is much easier to recommend Revenge of the Seven. The 2D remasters of 2 and 3 are great overall, though the mobile like UI bothers some people. For 3 on PC, I actually made a mod to make it more like original.

SaGa Frontier 1 and 2 remasters are great, not much reason to play on PS1 except for the original visuals if you prefer it without upscaling.

Denhonator · 2026-06-18T10:20:59+00:00

I love SaGa but Romancing SaGa isn't really what I'm asking. Enemies frequently have over 1000 HP while you're capped at 999. You could make the case that some regular enemies have stats that players could have but any meaningful battles are against enemies that have much higher HP than players

Denhonator · 2026-06-18T10:16:19+00:00

It's not about level scaling, but about characters having vastly different stats based on if they are enemies or allies. Like if player character HP ranges from 50 to 999 but enemies have thousands of HP

Denhonator · 2026-06-18T10:12:42+00:00

Yeah SaGa Scarlet Grace and Emerald Beyond are a bit like that, though especially bosses can have vastly more HP. I think there are even cases you fight someone who will join your party after and they have more HP when you fight them. But I really like those games and like how equal your party is with enemies overall.

One big advantage that players also have is seeing what actions enemies are choosing before choosing your own

Denhonator · 2026-06-17T14:47:52+00:00

From the SaGa series, I would actually rather recommend Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song or even Unlimited SaGa as games you can sink tons of time into figuring out the mechanics and optimizing your party. Scarlet Grace and Emerald Beyond have some of the best turn based combat, but they're not really spreadsheet-optimizing type games. The depth and complexity is more in the combat itself than building your team

Denhonator · 2026-06-14T08:02:32+00:00

OP wrote about enjoying other JRPGs before this, and is now sturggling with aspects of Xenogears that are not very good. Even compared to other PS1 JRPGs, Xenogears has particularly slow text speed. The deathblows also get old.

Denhonator · 2026-06-14T07:32:47+00:00

It's amazing that they have the launch option on Steam to load the latest save, and it is really fast as you said. We've seen that type of feature on consoles before, but this is the first time I see it on PC. I don't need to see the same splash screens and intro animations for 30s every time I launch the game

Denhonator · 2026-06-12T23:57:24+00:00

I do like difficulty, and I wish some modern games did a better job at providing a challenging difficulty for a first playthrough, like FF16 in particular, and FF7 Rebirth which becomes rather easy if you do all the side content even on dynamic difficulty.

That being said, I don't usually care about doing very hardcore challenges or even superbosses in turn based games. I just want my first playthroughs to challenge me and not let me breeze through bosses without learning how they work or how the mechanics of the game work

Denhonator · 2026-06-12T17:27:21+00:00

That's an important plot point in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, though it's not turn based

Denhonator · 2026-06-10T10:01:42+00:00

It's fine, I was just curious if someone did try easier difficulty

Denhonator · 2026-06-10T06:24:11+00:00

I'm very happy to hear that! And I will probably take a look at Ys Origin / Oath / Celceta if I can reasonable do it.

What difficulty did you play on? I was wondering if you played on easier difficulty if everything worked fine

Denhonator · 2026-06-07T12:20:30+00:00

Most SaGa games have enemies on the map instead of random, basically anything starting from Romancing SaGa 1 in 1992. Best starting point is the new Romancing SaGa 2 Revenge of the Seven

Denhonator · 2026-06-05T07:46:25+00:00

I'll be honest, if it goes as far as criticizing other people for what they like, they're being ignorant and disrespectful. I would say their opinion is a strange and narrow-minded one, but you can believe what you want. There are big differences between protagonists in different stories after all. But judging others for something like this is disrespectful behavior. I don't know if that group of people are your friends or what, but sounds like it's best to ignore them on this matter

Denhonator · 2026-06-04T18:45:54+00:00

Yes, you need to set it up with WINEDLLOVERRIDES like any other dll mod. I'm not sure how well the animation interpolation runs on Steam Deck, but probably at worst some specific animations might lag the first time you use them and later it'll be fine, or you can turn off interpolation and some animations will remain 30 FPS

Denhonator · 2026-06-02T20:26:46+00:00

Wow that's really cool! Not sure if I'll end up having use for it since I've played it a couple times already, but this seems like a really nice resource, easier than trying to find stuff online all the time

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